Bible Study - Ezekiel 38

Join Darrell Franklin as he shares during our Wednesday Night Light Bible Study.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Summit Church Podcast. Thank you for joining us as we share weekly sermons and teachings from Summit Church in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Our prayer is that today's message encourages your faith and helps you grow in your relationship with Jesus. Check out our website at summitchurchtn.com. Thanks for listening, and we pray this message encourages you today.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

For our last session on Ezekiel, glory to God. And um did I say that out loud? I did. I was telling Nancy that Ezekiel's one of those books that when you're uh have gone through it, you're you're glad that you've read it because it reveals God's character and nature, and then you're also glad that you've read it. Um and so uh because it can be challenging at times. So um it's good that that you've you've been here throughout the process. And so um we uh going to be taking a look at Ezekiel chapter 38 and a little bit into 39. I'm not gonna cover both chapters in one session, that's just too much at one sitting, but they are a single piece um in the original uh text, and so they're they're two parts of the same piece. And and one of the things that that we're going to do is we're gonna kind of sum up and take a look at God's purpose in this uh series of chapters that we've taken a look at over the last several weeks. And so the um if you have have noticed the um challenge or the the the that what God is provoking in this all through these passages, is that so that the nations will know that I am God. It's about God and his identity and his character, and it's about God showing the world that he is real, that he exists, that he intervenes in the earth, on the earth, that he created it, that it belongs to him, that it's his to do with as he pleases, and to testify and to witness to people that God is real and that his power is real, and that his holiness is real. And so one of the things that we're going to take a look at in 38 and 39 is God demonstrating his power and God demonstrating his judgment is an outbreach, is a a part of his holiness, his purity, his identity, right? Because we talk about, right, those two ends of the clothesline, right? You've got one pole which is God is love, and then you've got one pole which is God is holy, right? And the the tension between the two is the clothesline, right? So if you have, if you get rid of one pole, what happens to the clothesline? Right? It drops to the ground and it becomes ineffective. And so if you have a perspective of God that's all holiness and all judgment and all wrath, right, then it's defective. And if you have, oh, God is love and he accepts me as I am, right? And I can go rob a bank and murder somebody, and Jesus is going to be cool with it. I've had people tell me that, by the way. I'm not making that stuff up. Um, and so the the thing is, is if you have that concept right, then so the balance is there when you study the whole counsel of the word of the Lord. And so we're also going to be um going through uh a couple of chapters which are really but much, there's a lot to debate in here. Um, a lot to debate. Uh, we're not going to debate it all tonight, uh A, because you want to get home before uh September. Um and um the um and the and the other thing is is that there are just some things where um we get to say uh these are really good conversations for when you're having coffee with your friends, but can we declare certainties on certain things? And the answer is no, okay, at least not in my opinion. Um, and so we're gonna be talking about some of those things as well. So let's go with chapter 38, beginning in the verse 1, and I'm reading out of the Lexum English Bible. And the word of Yahweh came to me, Elijah, saying, Son of man, set your face toward Gog in the land of Magog, the head of the leader of Meshah and Tuval, and prophesy against him. And you must say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, look, I am against you, Gog, the head leader of Meshaw and Tuval, and I will turn you around, and I will place hooks in your cheeks, and I will bring you out, and all of your horses and horsemen, fully armed, all of them, a great crowd, holding a shield, which is the body shield, and a small shield, and holding swords, all of them. Persia, Cush, and Put are with them, all of them with a small shield and helmet. Gomer and all of its troops, Beth to Garma, the remote areas of the north, and with all the troops and many peoples with them. Be ready and prepare yourselves, you and all of your assemblies, the assembling around you, and you must be for them a guard, and after many days you will be mustered in the last years. You will be cut you will come to a restored land from the sword, gathered from many peoples on the mountains of Israel, which were as permanent ruins, but from peoples it was brought out, and they will dwell in safely all of them, and you will advance like a storm, you will come, and you will be like a cloud covering the land, and all of your troops and many nations with you. That's a pretty complex passage, okay. So let's let's let's kind of break it down a little bit, okay. So um this is talking about something um in the future because it talks about, right, it's not now, it's going to be future. So this is a future event, okay, in the language of the text. And it uses language that's always future in prophetic text all the way through the the the Old Testament. And so one of the interesting things that we see in this first passage is there is going to be this leader of all of these assembled nations, Gog or Gog, and Gog is going to have with him a very diverse set of allies, right? So uh everybody from from Persia, which is modern-day Iran, right, to uh Ethiopia and Put, right, in Africa, to uh tribes in Turkey, right, Meshaw and Tuval, and even some Scythians, right, up into around uh uh a little bit north of that, and maybe even some European folks. So when you see what God is doing, he is saying, and there are seven nations listed, right, and seven is the number of completion. And so what he's saying here is that from every direction that you can pull these Gentile armies, they are going to come together to war against the children of Israel after I have fulfilled my promise and gathered them back in the land, and they're right, they're in, they're in peace and they're in prosperity, right? The interesting thing here is that he says in verse 3, I am against Gog, right? But he also said, I will place hooks in your cheek and I will bring you out. And again, he he talks about this later in the chapters as well. One of the things that that challenges a lot of people is God brings Gog and his assembled nations out and he draws them into this battle to come against Israel. Now, you're like, wait a minute, that's that's that that clashes with my theology. But if you go to Job chapter 1 and Satan's going to and fro and and he's accusing, and and and and God looks at Satan and goes, Have you considered my servant Job? Right? And then Satan says, Well, if you take everything he has, right, then he's going to deny you. And God said, Okay, well, let you take everything that he has except his life, including his family, right? Including his wealth, and we'll see if he stays faithful. And the book of Job is about this great testimony of faith where Job had everything taken away. But it started with God saying, Have you considered my servant Job? Right? And so the thing is, is that one of the things that sometimes I think we do too much in Christianity, uh, and in charismatic Christianity, is we'll take what God does like once and say, Oh, this is what God does all the time, every time. Right? So this is not a constant thing, okay? It's not God's going, have you considered my servant art? No, he's not doing that all the time. But the thing is, is there are times for specific purposes and specific plans that God will allow something that appears to be bad or negative or evil to rise up to demonstrate his power and his glory and demonstrate that he is God and his identity and his character. And so sometimes that's hard for people to kind of process, is that, you know, um, because I don't know about you, but but I really prefer the God that makes everything easy for me. Right? I prefer the God, right, that I don't never stub my toe, right? That I can that I can eat the donuts and I don't gain weight, right? And uh, and and they're good for me, right? Um, and um where Taco Bell actually tastes good. Um and so and so, did you know Taco Bell meat is 12% not meat, right? It's it's it's got oats in it. But um, so you get your vegetables. Anyway, never mind. And so I I I I it you know, if God had it my way, Taco Bell beef would actually be beef, you know, and so um the um, and so the the um many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord shall deliver them out of them all. All right, uh there's a verse for everything. So um we don't like a God, right, that in everything in our life was is paved smooth, right? That we don't face any hardships, that we don't face any trials, that we don't face any struggles. And but the the scripture is clear that God will allow those things at times to come into our life. And it is not a failure on our part or a failure on God's part, but it is God allowing these things in our lives that his glory and his power and his grace may be demonstrated and our testimonies may be made strong through the power and the grace of God. And one of the things that I run into a lot with what I do is when people go through a hard time, they go through an illness, they go through a challenge, they go through a struggle, they go through a crisis of faith, right? The question when you come down to it is who failed, me or God? But sometimes God allows us to go through those things that our faith may be purified, right? So again, you know, trial works, endurance, right? And as we go through an endurance, right, it it builds all of those things, right? That our faith and our hope will be perfected. And so the the the thing is is that in this case, God is allowing, and and again, is he allowing Gog to, is he encouraging Gog according to his natural proclivities? Was Gog wanting to do this anyway? Did God just kind of give him a nudge and harden his heart like he did Pharaoh? We don't know. But he said he's gonna draw them out, and there's gonna be this huge army, right? And when it goes through these lists of armaments in this chapter and the next one, he is saying that this army is as equipped as well as any army on the face of the planet when Ezekiel was riding, right? So when he talks about small shields and body shields, and and he talks about long lances and he talks about arrows and people, right, who could ride and shoot uh and be archers from the back of a horse, right? During this time, this was where uh the Scythians could, you know, ride on the back of a horse, shoot backwards, and hit a rabbit running behind them while their horse was at a full gallop. Okay, these guys were really, really talented. And so what Ezekiel is giving us a picture of is an army that has the very, very best of everything coming down. So it'd be like today, right, um, you know, if an army had, you know, F-35 fighters and F-22s, right, for air dominance and and M1A3 Abrams tanks and all those kind of things, right? And so um the he's he's showing us an army that's coming from every direction, including peoples that are not natural allies. And this is where we get tripped up some when we talk about Ezekiel and some of these prophecies, because some of your study Bibles and some will say, oh, this is all allegorical, this is all spiritualized, right? Because, right, Persia was not a power when Ezekiel wrote this, and right, and there's no way that Ethiopia and you know and Turkey are going to be allies and all of those kind of things. And so the the thing is is that we get captured in our um present-day mindedness a lot of times when we're evaluating this stuff. So, for example, um in chapter 39 it says that Israel, the Israelites will burn the weapons of war, will we use them for fuel uh when Goga's defeated. And so there were people, and I had this, does anybody remember chick tracks, right? Not not necessarily recommending them, right, but the little cartoon tracks. And in one of those tracks, right, he was he was saying that that there was a country that was making a tank out of pressed plywood. Okay, I don't know much about modern armaments, but I'm pretty sure that pressed plywood is not going to be effective against a modern anti-tank weapon. But they were trying to fit it into their understanding back in the 80s and the 70s of how could you burn weapons of war. So we've got to go find an example of a modern weapon that's made out of wood. Right? That's what I talk about being captured by our present-mindedness. When we read the examples in Ezekiel, we don't know what God in his sovereign power is going to cause to happen in the future. We don't know how those things are going to come to pass. And so, for example, if you had told somebody 30 years ago that Ukraine was going to take a position, an infantry position on the battlefield using only drones. No humans were exposed to fire, that robots and uh drone dogs actually took a position. Right? People would be like, oh, that's science fiction. No, that happened last week. And so the the thing is, is we have to be able to expand our imagination that when we read things like Ezekiel to say there are things that are going to come into being that are not yet in our experience, and so we can believe the word of God as it's written because it goes beyond that. And so when we we talk about Ezekiel 38, right, he's saying that there is going to be this grand alliance of peoples that come against Israel that God encourages to come. Okay. And it said, right, that it will be like a cloud covering the land. Right? So if you've ever had a big, huge storm, right, and and it covers up the sun, right, and you see where the darkness goes, that this army is going to be so numerous and so powerful that it's going to cover every square inch of the territory, right? And so, um, verse 10. Thus says the Lord Yahweh, and then on that day, and again when we talk about the language, on that day, that's end times language, and then on that day things will come up on your mind to Gog, and you will devise evil plants, and you will say, I will go against a land of open country, I will come to be, excuse me, I will come to the people being at rest in safety, all of them dwelling without a wall and crossbars and without doors, to loot loot, and to plunder, plunder, and to ensale in a sail inhabited runs, and a people gathered together from various peoples who are acquiring livestock and goods and dwelling at the center of the world. Sheba and Didan and traders of Tarshish and all of its strong lions, they will ask you, To loot, loot, are you coming? To plunder, plunder? Have you summoned your assembly to take away the silver and gold, to take the livestock and goods, to loot the great amount of loot? So what he's setting up here is God begins it, but then Gog begins to say, I'm going to go and take right people who are living in peace according to the will of God. And again, this is where you start to see the Antichrist spirit in Gog in here. Is that when people look upon people who are kind and generous and defenseless, right? And they say, Oh, I can take advantage of them. Right? That's what Gog is saying here. I'm looking at people who are living according to the blessing of God, and I'm taking people who are living according to the peace of God. And so they don't have walls, they don't have fortresses. They they've been promised peace by God. And somebody says, Gog says, I'm gonna go take advantage of their peaceful nature, and I'm gonna go take advantage of the fact that they're not behaving like the carnal, right, and they're living life as if people should be peaceful, and I'm gonna go and I'm gonna go plunder all that they've taken, and that's part of the Antichrist spirit is to try to destroy people's peace. And so that's the first thing that we see here is that I can take from someone because they have the fruit of the spirit, love and peace and joy and gentleness and goodness and kindness and self-control, right? That's the Antichrist spirit, is to try to destroy that. And so we see that spirit at work, even in our modern culture, where people will say, right, um, that if you fall for a scam, oh it's your fault, right? If you believe somebody who's lying to you, right, oh it's your fault. Has anybody ever been told that, right? You believe somebody who was lying to you and and and trying to scam you, and you said, Well, I believed it because you told me, and I believe you're telling the truth. Oh, well, that's your fault, because you know, you should have believed that. You know, you shouldn't have believed me. And and the thing is, is the Bible says to the pure all things are pure. To those who are walking in the Spirit, you have that assumption that other people are going to be doing what is right because the Spirit of God dwells in you. That's why there's a gifted discernment for Christians, because we have to have that discernment imparted into us. But the thing is, is the Antichrist spirit goes, I see people operating under the covenant blessings of God, and I want to take those things from them. And I want to take advantage of this of that Christian nature which we see in our society and our culture so much. And so the Gog is coming in and saying, I'm going to loot and I'm going to plunder, and these people have been brought from the four corners of the world, and they are accumulating incredible wealth, and now I'm going to take advantage of that. And this is again another part of the Antichrist spirit is wherever you see accumulations of wealth and power, the Antichrist spirit is going to be drawn to that. And this is part of where our discernment comes from in this is that again, the thing is that one of the things that a lot of times happens to like churches is you get a small church, right? 50 people can't pay their bills, right? Everything's going great, and then all of a sudden it explodes, and now all of a sudden they have millions of dollars worth of property and hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars in budgets, and you start getting a different group of people coming in. And people get, you know, what happened when we were small and we were poor, right? We got people that were hungry for God, and now that we're big and wealthy, we have people who are a mixed bag. Has anybody ever seen that happen? And so the the thing is, is that what happens is that the Antichrist spirit is, by being greedy and by being cruel, is attracted to wealth and power. So when we as Christians, we have to understand that that's where the enemy wants to come in and to it doesn't mean that we should get rid of wealth and power. It just means that the more wealth and the more power we have, the more discernment we've got to have, and the more we've got to depend on God to defend us. Does that make sense? And so the um, and so the um when we we take a look at some of this language in the in in this chapter, right? Um so like in verse 13, Sheba and Dedan and traitors of Tarshish and all of its strong lions. Does anybody really know what Ezekiel's talking about there when he says all of their strong lions? Not that I can find. If you know certain but with a certainty, tell me so I can know. Okay, but the the thing is is there's some of this poetic language that he uses that's embedded in that time period that we don't have access to.

unknown 23:24

Sir, uh I don't know if my amplified said villages.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

I'm sorry?

unknown 23:28

I have other informed or amplified, my amplified on me that said villages in parentheses.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

Yes, and and so that's one of the the alternative um uh views. So he said his amplified said villages in in parentheses, and that's one of the possible interpretations there. There's literal, and again, your Bible may have four different words there because there are four different words that can fit there. Okay, and so um, so when we talk about these things, the reason why I bring that up about once per session is there are a lot of people who will go through and say, oh, this definitely means this. In that case, I have yet to be able, because again, the thing is it depends on which translation, right, which textual uh uh tradition you look at and those kind of things. And so there are just some things that we're unsure about. So again, one of those things that I like to say is we don't want to ever build a doctrine on a translation that we're we're really unsure about, right? I loved what uh Benjamin Dietrich said, that if you want to build a doctrine, if you want to build a primary thing of the faith, you've got to have it at least four different places and four different times in Scripture. And I think that's a that's a great standard uh to uphold. And so, especially when it comes to Ezekiel and prophecy. So verse 14, therefore prophesy, son of man, and you must say to Gog, thus says the Lord Yahweh, will you not realize on that day when my people Israel are dwelling in safety? And so you will come from your place, from the remote areas of the north, you and many people with you, horsemen, all of them, a great crowd and a vast army, and you will advance against my people Israel like a cloud covering the land, and it will be in the last days, and I will bring you against my land, so that the nations know me when I show myself holy through you before their eyes, O Gog. Okay? And so here we see, right, that he's prophesying everything that's going to happen, and he's restating it. And he's saying, right, that, and I will bring you against my land so that the nations know me. And again, I know I've covered this a little bit, but I but because the text repeats, I'm gonna repeat. One of the things that God is telling us, right, sometimes we go through an illness so that we can testify about the healing. Right? Sometimes we can go through a hardship and a turmoil so we can testify to the peace that God gave us. Sometimes we can go through a spiritual war so that we can testify about the giants that God helped us slay. And so one of the things that that so that we can show that God is true and that he is holy in that he fights for his standards, he fights for his righteousness, and he fights for his name. And one of the things that we have to be aware of that God is going to do this and demonstrate this against this vast array of nations because they dared to plunder his land. It belongs to him. He is the deity of that land. And so God can send a judgment, and he can. Why? Because it's his land. But if anybody raises a hand against them, God is saying, you are profaning my name because you're trying to act in my house. You're trying to act in my land. And so one of the things that that we have to understand is that going back to the uh Abraham and Davidic covenants, right? God said, I will bless those that bless you, and I will curse those that curse you. And those covenants are still true because it is his people and his land. And so it's just like, you know, the thing is, is that there are people who will go out there and rob churches. That scares me to death. Right? There are people who go out and try to defraud churches. That terrifies me just to talk about it. Right? Because, and the the thing is, is that God will defend his people now, but God is connected to that. But there are people who are filled with that antichrist spirit who will target the people of God because they hate God and they can't get to God, so they'll target the people of God. And so what God is saying, I take that personally. When people come against you and they attack you because you name the name of Jesus Christ, whether it's friends or families or strangers, God says, I take that personally. He becomes the captain of the Lord's host to fight for you because you are his, and yes, he can discipline us. Yes, he can be the righteous judge over us. But when anybody else comes against us, God is saying, I will raise a standard and I will raise a banner because I take it personally when people come after what is mine. And so And there are times, by the way, that somebody God will allow somebody to come after you so that they can see God work on your behalf, so they can be witness to that God is working in the in the in humanity. And so sometimes God will let us go through challenges so that people around us can see the Jesus in us and be testified that God is real and able to sustain us in those times. Thus says the Lord Yahweh in verse 17 Are ye he of whom I spoke in the former days by the hands of my servants, the prophets of Israel, who were prophesying in those days for years that I would bring you against them. And so in that day, on the day of the coming of God against the land of Israel, declares the Lord Yahweh, my rage will come up in my anger, and in my passion and the fire of my wrath, I spoke that certainly on that day a great earth earthquake will be on the land of Israel, and the fish of the sea, and the birds of heaven, and the animals of the field, and all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all of the humans are on the surface of the earth, will shake at my presence, and the mountains will be demolished, and the steep mountainsides will fall, and every wall on the earth will fall, and I will call against him and all of my mountains a sword, declares the Lord Yahweh, and the sword of each person will be against his brother, and I will execute justice with him with a plague and with blood and with torrents of rain and hailstones, fire and sulfur will I cause to fall on him and on his troops, and on many people who are with him. And so I will exalt myself, I will show myself holy, and I will make myself known before the eyes of many nations, and they will know that I am Yahweh. When God gets mad, he gets mad. I thought I'd seen some folks mad before, but boy, no, no, not really. Okay. And so I think, and this is my opinion, I think one of the reasons why Ezekiel goes into such detail under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is so that we could see that this was a true act of the Most High God. So there are people who are saying that this happened historically. This this has never happened historically. And all the recorded, and they'll they'll try to say it was this battle or that battle, but there's nothing that comes close to this description. Right? So when we talk about sulfur, right, sulfur and fire, right, we're talking about like when a volcano erupts, right? With with fire falling from the sky. Or again, when some modern munitions, right? We have some modern munitions that are uh what is it? Uh the bombs that burn as they come down. Anyway, um I'm sorry? Napalm. Um and and so the the thing is is that this is, and again in verse 39, it not only falls on the army, but it falls on Magog, the place where the army came from. So God is not only being defensive, but he's being offensive in his retribution. And so one of the things that we see is that in verse 17 it says, Are you the one that I spoke about bringing the sword against my people Israel by my prophets? What he's saying is, is Gog is saying to himself, Oh, I'm the prophesied one, right? I'm the one that God is bringing, but he wasn't. Right? God named the people he was going to bring and the sword he was going to bring, and Gog said, No, I'm the he took he took that on himself. And so God said, You thought you were going to take a place of my judgment, and you thought you were going to take a place of my wrath, and you used my wrath to justify your wrath. And so now my anger and my passion is going to burn against you. And this is one of the themes of Ezekiel, right? Is that we see somebody going through a hard time and we go, I wonder if they're having problems with God. Right? See somebody struggling, I wonder how the prayer life is. Right? And so we take and we see with our eyes and we start to judge with our eyes and not from the discernment of Holy Spirit, and we start to look at things from the natural and say, oh, this must be what God is doing. Right? Have you ever heard somebody say, oh, this church must be doing it right because they've got a lot of people, they've got a lot of money, they've got a lot of fame, they've got a lot of media, right? We're judging in the natural. You know who also gets a lot of people once a week in the fall? The University of Alabama. And we know the grace of God is so great it goes all the way to Tuscaloosa. Anyway, um and we live through the Butch Jones year, so we know it's not that God's not at Nayland either. So that's uh um for those of you who are Tennessee fans. But um the the thing is is that we begin to view things in the natural and say, oh, this looks like this, so it must mean this. When we must go back to what the Word of God and what God declares and let Him give us the definitions of what's good and what's bad. We have to go for the discernment of Holy Spirit and let the conviction of Holy Spirit teach us. I just read a book by Watchman Knee, and he talks about having dealings with God where we learn the character and the nature and the discernment of God by how he corrects us. That the more that we get into the correction of Holy Spirit, the more we learn the nature and the character and what God, but we learn it because we allow ourselves to be put on the cross and we know him from the fellowship of the suffering on the cross of Christ by putting ourselves, allowing God to put us on the cross and crucify our flesh and convict us. Then we learn God in that process. And so a lot of times, though, we'll say, Oh, this looks like Brownsville, so it must be another Brownsville. Okay, are 250,000 people getting saved, right? And uh are they preaching sound doctrine, right? Are they following the will of God? Just because things look alike doesn't mean that we need to presume that they are alike. And it seems to be that the presumption of God, the presumption of Gog enrages God. He's like, no, I'm the one who gets to declare what's right. I'm the one who gets to declare what's just, I'm the one who gets to declare what's up and what's down, I'm the one who gets to declare what happens to my people. It is that presuming against God that seems to fire up God's wrath and passion to the degree that not only does he destroy the army, but he destroys the land that the army came from. Okay. So chapter 39, we're not going to read all of this. And he goes back and he talks about and it and it changes perspective a little bit, but again, it talks about in 39 1 through 8. It talks about God um destroying these armies by his own initiative and by his own hand. Because the children of Israel are built for peace, God fights on their behalf. And there's really important here. And again, I'm not saying that people don't need to defend themselves and all that kind of stuff. I'm not taking this to extreme. But when we write, abide and walk in the peace of God and turn the other cheek, God begins to fight on our behalf. When we begin to walk in the way of peace, God begins to fight on our behalf. And so one of the things that we see is that the children of Israel are being gathered in, they don't put crossbars on their doors, right? They're not living in forts, right? They don't have weapons in their homes, right? And they're trusting in the God that has brought them back as a matter of eschatology of his grace, right? This is a God movement. I'm not saying you shouldn't own a gun for protection, but this is a God movement, right? And they're living in the peace of God and walking in the peace of God because that's what God has called them to do. When these armies came, they didn't even have to fight. God poured out his wrath and fought on their behalf. And one of the things, and he said, right, that it's going to be such a great victory that even the people who just hear about you are going to know that I am God. So verse 7, I'm going to read in verse in chapter 39, though. And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let the name of my holiness be profaned anymore, and the nations will know I am Yahweh, the holy one of Israel. Okay? What's the second commandment? Don't take or use the name of the Lord in vain. Don't profane the name of God. And God is saying here in verse 7, part of the reason that I'm pouring out this great wrath is because Gog presumed and he profaned my name. And again, I'm not talking about saying Jesus, if you hit your thumb with a hammer, okay? We're not being religious. But again, I don't do that, but I'm not being religious about that. Um but the thing is, is that have you ever seen somebody use God's name to sell cars? To run for political office? Right? Now, if somebody says, I love the Lord and and I've got a prayer time and and and they love the Lord and they pay their tithes and they go to the church and they have a prayer time and they're just telling the truth about their Christian witness, that's not a problem. But we had a problem. We had somebody in Tennessee uh several years ago run for the Senate, and he did all of his commercials in the churches and how much he he loved God and how much he was a good Christian, and and then the of course the opponents came out with the fact that he was going to Playboy parties, you know, when he wasn't filming the commercials in the churches about how much he loved God and all those kind of things at the Playboy mansion. I don't know what people are thinking. There are cameras there. Um but um the the thing is that we can profane the name of God by using God and his name for our benefit instead of glorifying and blessing and magnifying his name. Profaning the name of God is using the name of God for my purpose and my plan and my agenda, and not using it for his purpose and his plan and his agenda. Because what it means profane really means earthly, it means carnal, it means human, it means something that's not holy and pure and sanctified for God. And so when we understand that God is going to pour out revival at summit in a way that we've never seen before, because he values his name. It's been prophesied in his name, and so he's going to do it for his namesake. He's going to fulfill his promises in your life for his namesake. He is going to say, but the thing is, is that when those things happen, do we take what he's done for his namesake and go, boy, I'm glad God did that for me. It's all about me. Or do we say, Let me tell you about the God who delivered me? Let me tell you about the God who healed me. Who is the star of our story when God moves? Who is the main character in our story when we tell about our salvation and our healing and our deliverance? Is it us? Look what happened to me, or is it look what the King of Glory has done in my life? Is God the primary actor or are we? And so when we talk about honoring God's name and glorifying God, right, God always has to be when it's spiritual, when he moves, when he works, he always has to be the main character, and we're always the supporting cast in the story. Does that make sense? You'll find, I believe, that if you pray saying, God do this for your namesake, according to his agenda, that you'll see God do miracles for his namesake. You'll do miracle, you'll see God intervene in people's lives who are rejecting God for his namesake, for his identity, for his character. Right? Because one of the the thing is that we see God acting and moving on on behalf of that. And so the the um I'm gonna go on. Um, and so verse 10 is where they talk about, by the way, where you're talking about, you know, they will not chop wood from the forest for the weapons they will light a fire, they will plunder those, plunder them, and they will plunder those plundering them, right? That and that sometimes, again, people get hung up on the details of things, right, that uh we don't know what they're gonna look like yet. It could be that there's fuel cells in those vehicles that that the Israelis go and use to heat their homes or whatever. We don't know that. But but the thing is, is that in verse 11, the important piece is, and then on that day I will give Gog a grave there in Israel, the valley of travelers east of the sea, and it will block the travelers, and Gog and all of his hordes, they will bury there, and they will call it the valley of Haman Gog. And the house of Israel will bury them for seven months seven months to cleanse the land. And verse thirteen all of the people of the land will bury them, and it will be an honor for them on the day when I appear, declares the Lord Yahweh. And they will set them apart, men continually to go through the land, burying the travelers, the ones left over on the surface of the land, to cleanse it for the whole of the Seven months, they will explore it. And so when you talk about the law of Moses, the law of the Torah, right? It was declared that every dead person would get buried. There would be a grave. And in I think it's Numbers 19, it talks about the purification and the cleansing for handling a corpse and burying somebody. I believe if I remember correctly, was seven days. Okay. So here we see at this great army that there is a seven-month, a week of months to cleanse and purify the land from those that came to oppose God's law, to clean up every carcass and every bone, right? To purify the land, to cleanse the land. And this is another theme that we've seen in Ezekiel. In modern Christianity, we get really hyper-focused on sin. But we don't focus as much on pollution. We don't focus as much on cleansing. Right? So, okay, sin separates us from God, right? We were going to heaven, we're not going to hell, everything's great. I can kick back and relax. But when you take a look at the temple, you take a look at the Old Testament, right? You had people who were in covenant relationship with God, but there was also a cleansing that took place, right? So we we wash in the water of baptism, we wash in the water of the word, we wash in the water of the Spirit. Those are the cleansing agents that God has given us to remove the dead things out of our life. So when we get saved, God calls us out of death into life, but there's very often a process of cleaning those dead things out of our life. And going, right? So they're going about through this land for seven months, and they've got teams of people that are going, the people to bury and people to search. And whenever they find a bone, what do they do? They put a flag there so we can make sure to come back to this thing and put it in the appropriate place and cleanse the land. It's a process. And so God is showing us here, first of all, what he's going to do literally to cleanse the land, but he's also showing us prophetically that sometimes after God wins great victories, he brings us out of death into life, then we have to go through a process of identifying all those dead things, all those things that are unclean and impure. Not things that are sins, but just things, right, that are leftovers from the way we used to be, the leftovers of the life that we used to live, the leftovers of the things where we weren't walking according to God's Spirit, and identify those things, and then take the time and the effort to go and make sure and get them out of our lives and let and cleanse from that so that we can be cleansed and purified before God, not only in a sin sense, but in a ritual cleansing and purification. And so we come to Jesus just as we are. He doesn't care, you know, what we look like, how we dress, right, all that stuff. He doesn't care what we've done, right? But if we're going to ascend to the hill of the Almighty, then we must have what? Clean hands and a pure heart. That's the word of God. The closer we get, and again, I go back to Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah was a prophet of God. He spoke Bible chapters into existence under the anointing of Holy Spirit. Wouldn't that be cool? God come on you and you start writing scripture, you know? I think he's probably got a pretty good relationship with God. Right? If to disobey him is, again, like it was for Old Testament prophets, not new, but to disobey him was to disobey God, I think he had a pretty good relationship with God. But in Isaiah chapter 6, he got close to the throne. And he said, Woe is me, for I'm a man of unclean lips and a people of unclean lips. This man who spoke Scripture through the power and the anointed of Holy Ghost into existence got closer to God and said, Oh man, I need to be purified. And so the thing is that we get focused on sin, but there are times that I spend time on X or social media because X is where you get the news three days before Facebook. It's true. It's it's three days before Facebook and 24 hours before TV. And so X is where the news is made. And so I'll be I'll spend some time and scroll through things and all the nonsense that goes on through there. But in doing that, I've absorbed all of those thought processes. I've absorbed the, oh, we're gonna own the cons, we're gonna own the libs, we're drinking lib tears, right? We're, you know, uh taco trump and all that kind of stuff, right? That mentality of putting people down and content. Now I've prayed about this. I think God wants me to be on there to be a watchman. But do I get off there and say, God cleanse my hands and my feet and my heart and my mind and my spirit and my soul that wash all of that ick, all of that worldly thinking out of me. Is it wrong to consume that stuff? No, but will it pollute you if you hang on to that stuff? If you put it in good soil and good seed. So the thing is, is that one of the things, again, that we we talk about this ritual impurity, it is not sinful for Israel to bury foreign invaders in wherever they can find a grave. That's acceptable. But God said, I want you to cleanse the land, to purify. And so one of the things that a lot of times God wants us to do, because sometimes we try to read the Bible and we can't because of all the other stuff in our mind. That's not a sin problem, that's a purification problem. Right? There are times where we we want to say the right thing, right? But, you know, you've got people in your ear going, well, I wouldn't let them get away with that. If they hit you, you've got to hit them back. Right? And then that gets in their heads, those brain worms get in our heads, right? There are some times that you try to worship God, and all you can think about are songs that aren't worshiping God. Right? That's not a sin issue, right? It's not a sin to listen to a song, the 457th song about tailgates and water towers on country radio. Did I say that out loud? I did. It's almost like water towers have become the new bell, right? It's it's it's a place to hold water, okay? Anyway, um, and so um, and and and anyway, no, I'm not gonna go on that rant. We've only uh you don't want to be here till September. So um the the thing is, is that sinful, no, but there's a place, right, to take all that worldly carnal thinking and pray, Holy Spirit, do a work in me and cleanse me of that. Get in the word of God and be washed by the water of the word to be cleansed away from all of that, right? Because I tell you, when you get into the into the word of God, it gives you an entirely different way to look, right? Because again, I was reading in 2 Peter, and he goes, you know what? You get into God, it gets into godliness. And then we think, oh, that's godliness, that's the highest level. And he goes, then that leads to brotherly love. And then when you get even higher, it leads to agape love. You mean love that's a choice, that's will, right? Is is the expression of, yes. You don't see that in the rest of the world. I'm gonna choose to love somebody. Brotherly love, phileo love, by the way, is the reciprocal love, right? You're good to me, so I'm good to you. You love me, so I love you, right? You you you don't throw eggs at my house and I don't throw eggs at yours, mostly. And so uh eggs are too expensive, I wouldn't do that. Anyway, um and so the the thing is that's phaleo love, right? It's that reciprocal thing, right? We're going to the same church headed in the same direction, and so, right, so and again, yeah, I'm gonna go here, sorry. Um the the thing is a lot of times we mistake phaleo brotherly love for agape love because we call phileo love agape love, especially in the church. Right? Now we do this in high school too, right? You're in high school, you're graduating with people, everybody, I don't know if we still do yearbooks, but back in the Stone Ages we did yearbooks, right? And everybody signed yearbooks, and we promised we were going to stay in touch. No, no, we didn't. We forgot each other existed, I don't know, in about 18 seconds when that final bell rang, right? We were going along, experiencing the same things, doing the same things. We were allies, we were partners, we were willing to help each other while we were in the same context. But, you know, I I I graduated in a class of 338, and if 336 called me up for a loan, the answer is going to be no. Um and so the the thing is that in the church, a lot of times we have what that is that brotherly love, right? I'm praying for you, you're praying for me. I'm encouraging you, you're encouraging me. And that's a good thing because you get to godliness and then you get to brotherly love. It's a godly thing. But a lot of times we we tell ourselves it's agape love, right? And then the the the thing is we we believe that we have agape love for somebody else, and so we kind of get satisfied, or maybe that's just me. Maybe that doesn't bother anybody else. But sometimes I think, oh, I've got brotherly love, I'm fine. But I don't get back on the cross and I go, God, but I don't have agape love. Correct me and change me until I walk in that agape love, so that if they go to a different church or they stop believing the way that I believe, or if they if they right, I can still love them like you love them, and I can still be to them like you are to them. And so that's right, that's the the process of cleansing and purifying is saying, you know, just take me up higher, take me up higher. It's not legalism, it's just saying, God help me to love better.

unknown 55:10

Right?

SPEAKER_02 55:10

It's God help me to love out as a choice of the will instead of just the people who do good things for me. If they scratch my back, I'm gonna scratch theirs. There's nothing wrong with that. It's good, it's godly, it's great. But the thing is, is that God is looking for people who walk in his agape love that choose to love one another even if they're not scratching our back. And so um, and that one's not in the text, that was free. I won't charge you anything else. So, and um the end of this in verse 25. Therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh, now restore the fortunes of Jacob, and I will have compassion on all of the house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name, and they will forget their disgrace and all of their infidelity that they displayed against me when they dwelt on their soil in safety, with nobody making them afraid. When I restore them from the nations and I gather them from the countries of their enemies, then I will show myself holy through them before the eyes of many nations, and they will know that I am Yahweh their God, because when I deported them into the nations and I reassembled them on their soil, and I will not let any of them remain any longer there any longer, and I will not hide my face again from them when I pour out my spirit over the house of Israel, declares the Lord Yahweh. So never before in history has a people been so scattered as the children of Israel. And never before in history have they been called from the north and the south and the east and the west and brought back together as the children of Israel. Never before has uh uh Benjamin Dietrich showed pictures of Israel before 1948, and it was just sand and desolation, right? And then some place it was swamps, but it was sand and desolation. And today Israel is the most prosperous country within a thousand miles. It is an abundant place, and it's going to get better for them. But he is saying, I have done all of this, this entire ark of Israel is to be a demonstration to the world that I am God, I am a covenant-keeping God, and that I intervene in the affairs of men. And that when people are in my covenant, right, the verse 29, and I will not hide my face again from them, when I pour out my spirit, God's covenant promise always ends up with more God for the people who are in covenant. Right? So when we get to the end of Revelation, new creation, new heaven and earth, God is dwelling in our midst. Right? When we got to the cross and the crucifixion and the resurrection and Pentecost, it was God pouring out his spirit to live inside of us. God's covenant promise is always more God for us and more blessing. All right, it's 7.44. I'm a minute early. So who has questions, comments, complaints? Thank you. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 58:57

And two days ago, uh Gump Stand Baptist Church was broken into by some lady. So it still it still happens.

SPEAKER_02 59:12

And and one of the things that we see, right, so in Nigeria, uh Christians are being killed by the thousands. And you're not seeing that in the press, right? So by the way, pray for our brothers and sisters in Nigeria because there's a real persecution going on there. But you also saw in Canada where they made up this lie in the last 10 or 15 years that Canadian churches oppressed and abused and destroyed uh First Peoples uh uh Native uh Canadians in an act of of and so countless churches were closed and vandalized and many churches were burned in Canada because of this lie. And then they're coming back and going, oh well, after we've done all this damage and passed all these laws, that really didn't happen the way that we said. And so you see the spirit of Antichrist, right? So again, there are people in Great Britain who are going to jail for qu for silently praying on the street. It is against the law in Great Britain and parts of Great Britain to silently pray against abortion in your own home if you are close enough to an abortion clinic. In your own living room to pray quietly against abortion is now against the law. And people are like, is that real? Yes, it's real, right? And so the the thing is in in Finland um uh uh one of the ministers of the government got kicked out because they had posted a Bible verse like five or seven years ago. Just for posting the Bible, right? And so the the thing is is the Antichrist spirit is present and it and it and it comes against, right, infants always, right, through abortion. It comes against churches, and it comes against people who um it again, it it's a always an active campaign to destroy peacefulness, to destroy innocence, and destroy purity. That's always what works. Okay, who else?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:27

You do because we're recording, so so when we come across thank you. When we come across the word Israel, um, and we'll just stick in the book of Ezekiel, or you could it could just in any like Old Testament book, is it referring to like the children of Israel and Israel as Jacob's descendants in like in the book of Genesis, or what exactly is it referring to when it says Israel, children of Israel, is it Jacob, Jacob's descendants, or can you elaborate on that, please?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:58

Sure. So there's actually several phrases. Um when you tend to see, like in Ezekiel, my people Israel, it's talking about the people. Uh, but there's several phrases in there that it's actually it's talking about ethnic Israel. So it's talking about the descendants of Jacob, exactly. So so there are there are times where it's my people Israel, which is the covenant people of God. There is the ethnic Israel, which is is uh, and again in Ezekiel 37 that's exactly used, where it's it's it the emphasis in the uh Hebrew is in ethnic Israel, right? The the true genealogical descendants of of uh uh Israel. And and the the other thing is, just as a quick side note, I study some folks who are not Christian, they're they're atheist or agnostic, right, who do DNA studies for ancient DNA. And the people who are in Israel as Israelis are the descendants of the people of Judah and the the dependent defend uh the descendants of the people of Levi. They can go back and compare the DNA from 2,000 or 3,000 years ago to modern DNA and tell you where they came from. So the people who are in Israel are ethnically the descendants of Jacob, and anybody who tells you differently is just ignoring the the evidence from DNA scientists who don't even believe in God, right? But the the thing is that there's words for both the descendants of Jacob ethnically, there's words for the land of Israel, and then there's words for the people of Israel. Does that answer your question?

unknown 1:03:36

Okay.