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How close are we to the Ezekiel 38 war?
God’s Promises For Israel’s Restoration
Text
Amos 9:11-15 New American Standard Bible (NASB 1995)
The Restoration of Israel
11“In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, And wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its
ruins And rebuild it as in the days of old; 12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom And all the nations who are called by My name,” Declares the Lord who does this. 13 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved. 14 “Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 “I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them,” Says the Lord your God.
Notes: MacArthur Study Bible (Everybody should own a MacArthur Study Bible)
Amos 9:11–15 Millennial blessings await the final faithful remnant, when Messiah personally reigns over all nations in Jerusalem upon the throne of David, and the Jews are never again pulled up from their divinely inherited land.
Text
Ezekiel 4 – New American Standard Bible (NASB 1977)
Siege of Jerusalem Predicted – Consider Israel and Judah
1 “Now you son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you, and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. 2 “Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, raise up a ramp, pitch camps, and place battering rams against it all around.
3 “Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.
4 “As for you, lie down on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. 5 “For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, three hundred and ninety days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 “When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year. 7 “Then you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it. 8 “Now behold, I will put ropes on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, until you have completed the days of your siege.
Defiled Bread
9 “But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt, put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days. 10 “And your food which you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. 11 “And the water you drink will be the sixth part of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. 12 “And you shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung.” 13 Then the LORD said, “Thus shall the sons of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I shall banish them.” 14 But I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I have never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any unclean meat ever entered my mouth.” 15 Then He said to me, “See, I shall give you cow’s dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread.” 16 Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and in horror, 17 because bread and water will be scarce; and they will be appalled with one another and waste away in their iniquity.
Notes: Ezekiel 4 – MacArthur Study Bible (Everybody should own a MacArthur Study Bible)
4:1—7:27 Here is the first series of prophecies given over a year’s time, of Jerusalem’s conquest by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.
4:1–3 portray…Jerusalem. Ezekiel’s object lesson was to use a soft tile to create a miniature city layout of Jerusalem with walls and siege objects to illustrate Babylon’s final coming siege of Jerusalem (588–586 B.C.).
4:4–6 Lie…on your left side…right side. Lying on his side, likely facing N, illustrated God’s applying judgment to Israel, and facing S pointed to judgment on Judah. It is not necessary to assume that Ezekiel was in the prone position all the time. It was doubtless part of each day, as his need for preparing food (v. 9) indicates.
4:4, 6 you shall bear their iniquity. Ezekiel’s action was not to represent the time of Israel’s sinning, but the time of its punishment.
4:5 three hundred and ninety. Each day symbolized a year (v. 6). Israel in the N was accountable during this span of time whose beginning and end is uncertain.
4:6 forty. Judah was also guilty, but the 40 cannot represent less guilt (cf. 23:11). It may extend the time beyond the 390 to 430 or they may run concurrently, but the exact timing is uncertain.
4:7 arm…uncovered. A symbol for being ready for action, as a soldier would do (cf. Is. 52:10).
4:8 I will restrain you. This was to symbolize the impossibility of the Jews being able to shake off their punishment.
4:9–13 make bread. Scarcity of food in the 18 month siege especially made necessary the mixing of all kinds of grain for bread. The “20 shekels” would be about 8 ounces, while “one-sixth of a hin” would be less than a quart. There would be minimums for daily rations. It must be noted that the command of v. 12 regarding “human waste” relates only to the fuel used to prepare the food. Bread was baked on hot stones (cf. 1 Kin. 19:6) heated by human waste because no other fuel was available. This was repulsive and polluting (cf. Deut. 23:12–14) and the Lord calls it “defiled bread” (v. 13).
4:14, 15 never defiled. Ezekiel, like Daniel, had convictions to be undefiled even in his food (cf. Dan. 1:8 and see note there). God permitted fuel of dried cow chips for cooking his food in gracious deference to His spokesman’s sensitivity (cf. 44:31).
4:16, 17 They were soon to have neither bread nor water in any amount, and they were to grieve over the famine and their iniquity (cf. Lev. 26:21–26).
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Biographies
Dr. John Ankerberg, founder and president of The John Ankerberg Show, the most-watched Christian worldview show in America
https://www.jashow.org/about-dr-john-ankerberg/
Signs of the Last Days – Dr. Jimmy DeYoung
Bio – http://jimmydeyoung.com/aboutdrd.shtml
Dr. Renald Showers
http://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?SpeakerOnly=true&currSection=sermonsspeaker&Keyword=Dr.%5ERenald%5EShowers
Dr. Renald Showers is an author and Bible teacher for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, Inc.
MacArthur Study Bible Notes
Bio – Dr. John MacArthur – https://www.gracechurch.org/Leader/MacArthur/John?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
Dr. John F. Walvoord, (1910-2012) long-time president of Dallas Theological Seminary, was one of the most prominent evangelical scholars of his generation. He is considered perhaps the world’s foremost interpreter of biblical prophecy.
Bio – https://bible.org/users/john-f-walvoord
Dr. Ed Hindson, http://thekingiscoming.com/about-dr-ed-hindson/
Dr. Ed Hindson is the Bible Teacher on The King Is Coming telecast. He is also the Assistant Chancellor, Distinguished Professor, and Dean of the Institute of Biblical Studies and the School of Religion at Liberty University in Virginia.
Hal Lindsey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Lindsey
Harold Lee Lindsey (born November 23, 1929) is an American evangelist and Christian writer. He is a Christian Zionist and dispensationalist author. He graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with a Master of Theology degree, majoring in the New Testament and early Greek literature.
Eternity 