Storm Clouds Rising, Part 2

Storm Clouds Rising

Setting the Stage for the Rise of Antichrist and the End of the Age

A new look at Ezekiel 38-39

The Son of Man Prophesies

In 606 BC, Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Empire seized control of the nation of Judah, sealing the fate of a nation that had been in decline for a hundred years. The best of Jerusalem’s citizenry were taken as political captives back to Babylon, among them the young princes Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah who were incorporated into Nebuchadnezzar’s government. Nine years later, the Babylonians returned to quell the rebellion of Jehoiakim and Jeconiah, this time taking the young king and the rest of the royal family captive. They raided the temple for its treasures and carried them back to Babylon, along with many priests including Ezekiel the son of Buzi. Ezekiel became a prophet to his exiled people, but he provided no more encouragement for the captives than the prophet Jeremiah back home. Judah was now in the hands of God, and God was not happy at all.

Jeremiah and Ezekiel were messengers of God’s judgment upon His people for their disobedience, and while false prophets were trying to tell the Jews that God would soon come to their rescue, the true prophets of God had a different sermon to preach. Jeremiah wrote a letter instructing the Jews to build lives for themselves in Babylon because the years of their captivity would be 70 in number. Ezekiel continually spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem, and in 586 BC those prophecies were fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar’s armies captured Jerusalem and put it to the sword, killing its king and all his sons, burning the temple and completely destroying the City of David.

Ezekiel 33:21 records that when word of Jerusalem’s fall reached Ezekiel, the hand of the Lord came upon him and opened his mouth, for he was mute except when the Lord enabled him to prophesy. First Ezekiel explained why Jerusalem and Judah had been destroyed. Then he accused the people of being hearers of the Word and not doers, as well as having shepherds who did not take care of them as the flock of God. But he identified God as their true shepherd with the promise that He would one day return them to their land. Like Jeremiah and Obadiah, Ezekiel utters a prophecy against Edom, the brother nation of Israel, because they stood by while Babylon besieged Jerusalem, waiting for the day when they could take the Promised Land as their own.

Then in chapter 36, Ezekiel begins to foretell the restoration of the people of God. First he speaks to the mountains of Israel, then to the whole land including the hills, the rivers and the valleys. The land had been defiled by its inhabitants and was now dwelt in by strangers, but one day God would revisit the land and cause it to be tilled and planted, and bless it with a yield of fruit for His People Israel. And he would gather his people from their exile among many nations and restore them to the Land He had given them. The fulfillment of this can be seen in the establishment of Israel as a nation in 1948 and the return of the Jewish people to their homeland after nearly 2000 years of exile.

Chapter 37 is that great vision of the Valley of Dry Bones which any evangelist worth his salt has used to preach down an outpouring of the Spirit upon the church, but it is really a revelation of the restoration of God’s Chosen People to the Land of their inheritance. First He will bring them up out of the grave of their exile and give them new life, filling them with His Spirit. Then He will reunite the divided kingdoms of Judah and Ephraim into one nation of Israel, delivering and cleansing them from the filth of their sin and their captivity. This resurrection will culminate in the return of David as their king—which is really a prophecy about Christ—and the establishment of a covenantal peace that will last forever. “Indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Then come the thrilling and horrible passages of Ezekiel 38-39. In brief summary, in the “latter years”, the last days of Biblical prophecy, when the people of Israel have been restored to their land and are dwelling in relative safety, a massive international plot will result in an invasion of Israel. Many of Israel’s neighbors will unite to destroy them, led by one whom Ezekiel calls Gog, of the land of Magog, the Chief Prince of Meshech and Tubal. A study of the Biblical names and their historical counterparts reveal that this will be a Russian-Islamic force made up of nations and peoples who are sworn to destroy the nation and people of Israel. Israel’s own allies will fail to come to Israel’s aide, and when the Hordes of Gog cover the land like a cloud to begin a new holocaust, God will step onto the scene to save His People Israel.

Now with that brief summary of Ezekiel 38-39, let’s look into the meaning of the passage and how it relates to us today.