EZEKIEL 20


PROPHECIES IN 7TH YEAR OF CAPTIVITY-

590 BC-CHAPTERS 20-23



1 And it came to pass in the 7th year, in the 5 month, the 10 day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to enquire of Yahweh, and sat before me.

2 Then came the word of Yahweh unto me, saying,

3 Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith Adonai Yahweh; Are ye come to enquire of me? As I live, saith Adonai Yahweh, I will not be enquired of by you.


Chapter 20 catalogues Israel's long, continuous history of disobedience, right from the beginning; leading at last to this casting off of the Kingdom. In Jerusalem, Jeremiah was saying the same to them (32:30-31)-

"The children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before Me from their youth . . . This city hath been to Me as a provocation of Mine anger and fury from the day they built it even unto this day."

Ezekiel (vs. 33-38) adds important details of the final regathering we don't get elsewhere. God will gather the Jews out of the nations, but no rebels shall enter the land. Somewhere in between they are assembled and the wicked are purged out. Probably but a small remnant will actually reach the land. The purging process could take many years.

Bro Growcott - Prophecies in the captivity



14 But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.

That Yahweh in all things may be glorified


That God may be exalted; that He may be had in highest reverence; that His unsearchable greatness may be recognized; that His great power and goodness, and His underived and absolute prerogative, may be apparent to the sons of men in their deepest affections and profoundest adoration; that His great name may be magnified and extolled, is the great object of all His recorded dealings, including that widest and greatest of them all, His permission of sin to reign unto death.

...The Bible shows us all things for God, and for man only in so far as man fulfils his part toward God.

Bro Roberts, Seasons 1.33.



34 And I will bring you out from the people [peoples], and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand [yad chazakah], and with a stretched out arm [zero'a], and with fury [chemah] poured out.

The Man Of The One Spirit -- "His-Arms"


"Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to Yahweh? O, Yahweh Elohim of Hosts, who is a strong Yah like to Thee? Thou hast a mighty arm; strong is Thy hand, and high is Thy right hand" (Psalm 89). "Behold Adonai Yahweh with strong hand shall come, and His arm be ruler for him: behold his reward is with Him, and his work before Him" (Isa. 40:10).

"Yahweh has sworn by the arm of His strength : I will gather you, O Israel, with a stretched out arm, and fury poured out" (Ezek. 20:33-34). "There is none like the AlL of Yeshurum who rides upon the heavens in Thy help, and in His excellency upon the skies. The Mighty Ones of the East thy refuge, and underneath the arms of the Olahm; and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone" (Deut. 33:27).

From these passages and many others that might be produced, it is evident that "arms," in a symbolical use of the word, signifies power, forces, sovereign authority; and when outstretched, power in energetic and furious operation. "The arms of the Olahm," referred to by Moses in his song, and termed "the everlasting arms" in the English version, are in the highest sense, the armies of Israel, of which the Eternal Spirit our Messiah and his Brethren is, in that manifestation, Yahweh. Hence the name of that spirit-incorporated community, Yahweh Tz'vaoth: an enigmatical title, signifying HE SHALL BE COMMANDERS OF THE ARMIES of Israel.

These Spirit Commanders are each focalisations of the One Eternal Power. Hence the ungrammatical expression, HE the Commanders. These are the Arms of the Olahm -- the arms to be outstretched in "the Hour of Judgment"; and which are to break the Bow of Brass (Ps. 18:34). Moses styles these Arms in his song Elohai kedem, "Mighty Ones of the East," in the English version rendered "the Eternal God." But John, in Rev. 16:12, justifies our translation. He there styles them hal hasilelai hai apo anatolon heliou, "the Kings from risings of a Sun"; but in the English version "the Kings of the East." The kedem of Moses is the apo anatolon heliou, of John. John paraphrases Moses.

The Helios or Sun, is the "Sun of Righteousness" spoken of in Mal. 4:2, who is to heal, and afterwards to send forth the sparkling gems of the Eternal, to tread down the wicked as ashes under the soles of their feet, in the day that Yahweh shall do it. The Jewels of Malachi, and the Elohim of Moses are the Kings of John, and the Arms of Daniel's vision. Each individual King is a rising of the healing Sun, in the sense of being brought from the grave and quickened by his vitalising beams.

Collectively, the Kings of Power or of God, are the "risings of a Sun"; and that Sun is He who proclaimed himself "the Resurrection and the Life," even the Eternal Father, who raises up the dead by the anointed Son of Mary (2 Cor. 4:14); styled by her royal ancestor, "the Handmaid of Yahweh" (Ps. 86:16; 116:16); and so recognized by Gabriel, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna, all instructed and proficients in the law. When their mission is accomplished, they also will sing the song of Moses, "and of the Lamb," the prophet like to him (Exod. 15; Rev. 15).

These "Arms" of Daniel's vision, are represented by John in battle array in the train of their Commander-in-Chief, "the King of the Jews" (Rev. 19:14; Isaiah 55:4). John styles them "the forces of the heaven, following the Faithful and True One upon white horses, arrayed in fine linen, white and clean." Collectively, they are the Four Chariots of the heavens seen by Zechariah emerging from between the Two Mountains of Brass, which it is their mission to reduce to a molten furnace, glowing with intense heat. In the symbol of "the Lamb slain," the "Arms" are equivalent to the "Seven Horns," or Spirit Powers, which are as innumerable, but equal in number, whatever its amount may be to the "Seven Eyes."

PHANEROSIS



35 And I will bring you into the wilderness [ midbar ] of the people [peoples], and there will I plead [execute judgment] with you face to face.

Wilderness of the People


—You will find Dr. Thomas's location of this "wilderness of the people" (Ezek. 20:33–38), stated in Eureka I. Briefly stated, it is as follows:

—"The wilderness thus converted into a smelting furnace is that which John saw, 'the Great Harlot, sitting upon many waters,' which are interpreted to signify 'peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.'

The countries of Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Greece, Egypt, and, in short, all the Mediterranean and Euphratean countries, being the territories of the four beasts of Daniel, constitute the furnace in which the Nebuchadnezzar gold and silver and brass and iron and clay are made to glow with fervent heat of sevenfold intensity."

The Christadelphian, Mar 1889





While they are in this wilderness it is, that the Lord Jesus becomes "a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to the house of Israel," as he had before been to Judah; and the consequence is, that "the rebels among them" are excluded from the blessings of Shiloh's government, and eternal life and glory in the then world to come. Nothing can be plainer than Ezekiel's testimony.

If the reader know how the Lord pleaded with Israel face to face in the wilderness by the hand of Moses, he will well understand the ordeal that yet awaits the tribes to qualify them for admission into the Holy Land.

The Lord's power and the angel were with them in the wilderness of Arabia, but they saw not his person; so, I judge, will the Lord Jesus and some of the saints be with Israel in their second Exodus, seen perhaps by their leaders, as the Elohim were by Moses, Aaron, the elders, and by Joshua; but not visible to the multitude of the people, who must walk by faith and not by sight; for, though God is able to graft them in again, he can only do it upon a principle of faith; for the condition of their restoration laid down in his word is, "if they abide not in unbelief they shall be grafted in again."

Elpis Israel 3.6.




36 Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt [Just as I judged avoteichem in the midbar of the Eretz Mitzrayim], so will I plead [enter into judgment] with you, saith Adonai Yahweh.

So long as the tribes were in the wilderness, they were on the march to Canaan, and not yet beyond the geographical limits of Egypt.

Chronikon Hebraikon


It is clear from this testimony, that the restoration of the twelve tribes of Israel in our future is to be after the example of their ancient migration from Egypt under Moses; when

 "Yahweh led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, to make Himself an everlasting and a glorious name (Isa. 63:12-14). 

Ezekiel testifies to the same thing, and cites the Exodus from Egypt, as the similitude of the manner of their deliverance from the long dispersion of the past.

But, do the prophets testify to the how long, as well as to the manner, of Israel's second exodus, or returning from the lands of their enemies to their own possession? Let us see. The spirit of Christ in Micah caused him to place on record in ch. 7:14, the supplication following:

"Feed Thy people with Thy rod, the flock of Thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood (or forest of nations), in the midst of Carmel; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old". 

This is a petition praying, in effect, for the restoration of the kingdom to Israel; for their return from their present long dispersion in "the land of the enemy;" for their re-establishment as a powerful and independent nation in the holy land; for the subjugation of all kingdoms and nations to the laws and ordinances of their king.

To perform this great work will require considerable time, and a great manifestation of almighty power. It consumed forty years of days "in the days of old," or "a thousand six hundred furlongs" of time, from the institution of the Passover in Egypt to its celebration in the Valley of Achor under Joshua; which was its typical fulfillment in the kingdom of God (Josh. 5:6,10).

These were "the days of the coming out of the land of Egypt" into the land of Canaan; in which Yahweh fed His people with the rod, and purged out the rebels among them, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness - the days of the corning out, in which He made use of the twelve tribes as His soldiery in His wars against the Amalekites, Amorites, and so forth, as recorded in the earliest records of the nation.

Understanding these things, the reader will perceive the meaning of the words of the oracle delivered to the prophet in answer to his petition. The Eternal Spirit replied, saying to him as the petitioner for Israel,

"According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous things".

That is, as the coming out of Egypt consumed forty years; so, in causing Israel to feed in Bashan and Gilead, I will consume forty years in the marvelous works whereby it shall be effected. Thus it is that Micah testifies to the length of the period Apocalyptically represented by the sixteen hundred furlongs. These are the square of forty; and this is the number of years during which the saints will be executing the judgment written, as symbolized, not only in this fourteenth chapter, but also in the sixteenth, from the seventeenth verse to the end; in the whole of the eighteenth and nineteenth, and the twentieth to the fourth verse inclusive.

These forty years are included in Daniel's "Time of the End," which is the period of transformation and transition, styled by Jesus "the Regeneration" (Matt. 19:28); and by Peter, "the times of the Restitution of all things, which the Deity hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets ap' ajonos, from the aion"; or beginning of the course of things instituted through Moses (Acts 3:21). In these forty years the present constitution of the world is abolished.

At the end of them there will be no armies and navies. These destructive agents will cease to exist. The vintage will have cut them off, and disbanded them as useless and demoralizing encumbrances upon society. War will be studied no more; and a general disarmament, which is now impossible, will be enforced by the all-conquering "King of the Jews," then become "the Light of the Gentiles, and the salvation of the Father to the ends of the earth" (Isa. 49:6).

Babylon will have fallen with its Papacy and all the powers, temporal and spiritual, which now sustain it. They will all have "licked the dust like a serpent;" and the Deity will have performed the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham which he swore to the fathers from the days of old (Mic. 7:20).

Eureka 14.14.



37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:

This remarkable prophecy can only refer to the future; unless it can be shown that since the days of Ezekiel Yahweh hath assembled the tribes of Israel into a certain wilderness, and dealt with them there in the same manner as he dealt with them on their leaving Egypt under Moses. But this cannot be shown for there is no history to that effect extant. They have been scattered in the countries since their deportation by Shalmaneser in the sixth of Hezekiah, King of Judah, B. C. 725 and nine months.

This is their condition still; and not theirs only, but Judah's likewise. But the prophecy swears by the life of Yahweh, that the Israelites shall not continue always thus; but that the scattering of their power shall have an end (Dan xii. 7); and that when gathered into the people's wilderness, he will there bring them into "the bonds of the Covenant."

The margin reads,

"into a delivering of the Covenant,"

which Boothroyd renders "the discipline of the Covenant"-bemahsoreth havberith.

Masoreth signifies fetters, bonds from the root Ahsar, he tied or bound.

Boothroyd seems to have derived the word masoreth from mosar, discipline; from the root yehsar, chastised, corrected: the margin, however, assigns it to the root mahsar, to deliver from one to another anything in general; hence, to deliver instruction, or to teach.

But whatever the derivation of masoreth its sense in the passage is not materially affected. To be in bonds "is to be in discipline," and to be in either, is the result of "a delivering into" them. The delivering of the Covenant to Israel must precede their being bound or disciplined by it; and this delivering the prophecy shows is preceded by their being gathered out of the countries into the people's wilderness.

When there, the New Covenant will be "enjoined unto," (Heb ix.20) or "made with" (Ex xxiv. 8) them, that is, delivered unto them, as the Mosaic was to their fathers of old. The covenant will not be forced upon them against their will; for it is written,

"Thy people, Adon, shall be willing in the day of thy power." (Psa cx. 3)

The period we are considering is the day of David's son's power, whom he addresses as Adon or Lord. They are brought from the countries into the people's wilderness

"with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out"

upon the nations who oppress them and refuse to let them go. (Mic iv. 3,15; vii. 14-17) This wonderful deliverance from the power of the strong nations which occupy "the Great City spiritually called Sodom and Egypt" (Rev xi. 8); and the congregating of them safely in the people's wilderness, will superinduce a willingness on the part of Israel to enter into covenant with their Deliverer, the Horn of Salvation raised up for them in the House of David. (Lk i. 69).

This glorious victory over Israel's enemies, and all those that hate them, will consummate the Second Act of the extraordinary tragedy of their engraftment into their own olive again. The First Act closes in their being made willing to follow the Leader sent them by Yahweh, through whom he proposes to bring them into the wilderness. Being in the people's wilderness, then, rejoicing in Moses and the Lamb, the Lord God propounds for their acceptance the New Covenant dedicated by his own blood over eighteen hundred years before. They will accept it; for the prophecy saith,

"I will bring you into the bonds of the covenant,"

which implies their being in when so brought; and their language on the occasion, after "the representation of the truth in the law," will be,

"All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient."

They are brought to this confession of willingness to obey as the fruit of faith in "the Everlasting Gospel" preached to them (Rev xiv. 6; Isa lxvi. 19), by which they were first moved to entertain the idea of putting themselves under the command of the Leader sent, who was to bring them into the unseen presence of the Lord God in the people's wilderness.

Thus, believing the gospel of the kingdom then about to be established in the covenanted land, and confessing with their mouth the sovereignty of Jesus as their Lord and Christ, the nation by the act (whatever it may be) of entering the covenant, becomes through faith sprinkled with the blood thereof; for the sprinking in the Mosaic type follows after the confession (Ex xxiv. 3-8).

The typical order of the whole is first, the sprinkling of the Altar with the sacrificial blood; secondly, the reading of the covenant; thirdly, the confession of the people; and fourthly, the sprinkling of the covenant-blood upon them. The national antitype is in strict accordance with the type. Paul styles the body of Jesus "an altar," which was sprinkled with his own blood; secondly, the covenant is read eighteen centuries after in the wilderness of the people; thirdly, the people confess their willingness to do what it requires; and fourthly, they enter the covenant and are so sprinkled by its blood.

Mystery of the Covenant of the Holy Land Explained



38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am Yahweh.

The Second Generation will Possess the Land


The New Covenant having been made with the nation, the next thing presented to our minds by the prophet, is the probation of the tribes in the people's wilderness. This is expressed in the words

"I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me."

Like their fathers, though they promised to obey, they will rebel and transgress against their deliverer. Their provocations will become unpardonable; for though a promise will have been made to them in the gospel preached of a national settlement under Messiah in the covenant land, to be no more expelled forever, their faith will fail; it will not be made perfect by their works, but will have become dead; so that though a reconciliation be effected between Yahweh and the nation at the delivering of the covenant, and its past offences blotted out as a thick cloud, multitudes of Israelites harden their hearts and become rebellious, and fail of justification by works unto a participation in the national redemption and glory.

Concerning these rebels it is written,

"I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn."

But though brought out thence one of two things still remains to them, either to die in the wilderness of the peoples, or to enter the covenant land; for it by no means follows that, because they have escaped from "the Great City spiritually called Egypt," they will therefore enter the Holy Land. What then saith the testimony respecting the final punishment of these transgressors? The judgment written is,

"They shall not enter into the Land of Israel."

In answer to Micah's petition that God would "let Israel feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old, Yahweh saith to the nation,

"According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto Him marvellous things. The nations shall see, and be confounded at all their (Israel's) might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth; they shall be afraid of the Lord, Israel's God, and shall fear because of Thee. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy (covenanted) to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old." (Micah 7:14-20)

Now the days of coming out of Egypt under Moses were forty years. This is the typical period pointing to the exodus from "the Great City figuratively called Egypt." Israel's passing through the people's wilderness to the Covenant-Land will occupy forty years. During this time the Lord God pleads with them as he did with their fathers in the days of Moses; and with the same result. The carcases of the adult generation fall in the wilderness, as it is written, "And they shall not enter into the land of Israel;" which is equivalent to "They shall not enter into my rest" (Psa 95:11)-the Messianic Sabbatism in the Holy Land.

"The bonds" or "discipline of the Covenant" purges the rebels out and trains up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; so that the second generation of the emancipated nation takes possession of the promised land under the New Covenant. I find in the Mosaic representation of the truth that when Israel arrived in Moab, words were added to what was spoken in Horeb.

Moses assembled the second generation there just previous to their invasion of Canaan, and his handing them over to the command of Joshua, another type of Christ. On that occasion he said,

"Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; the captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, &c.-that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into His oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day: that he may establish thee to-day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." (Deut 29: 1,10-13)

The covenant with the nation in Horeb was regarded as having been really made with the second generation, not with those who perished in the wilderness. Hence Moses says to the people in the land of Moab,

"The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Yahweh made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day."

After the same representation, then, we are to understand, that when the nation shall hereafter be brought into "the bonds of the covenant," the covenant will be regarded as being made, not with the rebels who transgress, but with those who shall constitute the nation forty years afterwards, and shall actually enter into the land of Israel.

The terms of the New Covenant show that though made with the nation it is not made with the generation brought out of "the Great City figuratively called Egypt." The promise is,

"I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts."

This is equivalent to giving them

"such a heart that they would fear Yahweh, and keep all his commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever."

Such a heart as this the nation has never had, but has ever been "uncircumcised of heart and ears," as at this day. Moses prophesied, however, that a time would come when they should be brought back from their dispersion, that the Lord would circumcise their heart, and the heart of their seed, to love the Lord with all their heart, and with all their soul, that they might live.

This promise of heart-circumcision belongs especially to the New Covenant, and can only be affirmed in a national sense of the second generation of the coming exodus. A circumcised heart, the covenant-token in every man who inherits under Messiah, is a heart that cannot rebel and transgress wilfully against the Lord.

It is a heart renewed by the word of covenant-truth, an example of which is presented in Abraham, "the Friend of God." Forty years discipline will create this heart in the nation, and prepare it for the gift of the Holy Spirit, when

"their iniquity will be forgiven, and their sin remembered no more."

After that there will be no purging out of rebels; for they will all know Yahweh and his King from the least even to the greatest of them, and lovingly obey them.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Oct 1855