Flight EZE01 - Part C

All of this speaks of the New Covenant, beginning with Israel, but then to all nations. As John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

It's for everybody. So what that tells us is how did Jews get saved? Not by being a Jew. A Jew gets saved the same way a non-Jew gets saved. A Jew gets saved by believing in the Jewish Messiah Jesus Christ who shed his blood for us.

Because of their disobedience, the nation of Israel ended up in a bleak place in captivity. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip explores Ezekiel's prophecy that God would regather his chosen people and shares how God invites you to be a part of his family. But first, we want to share about where you can hear even more biblically solid teachings from Skip. My TV program, Connect with Skip Heitzig, is now airing on the Hell Song Channel on Saturdays at 4 30 p.m. Mountain Time. Watch there or tune in on TBN on Sundays at 5 30 a.m. Eastern.

Check your local listings. Now, we're in the book of Ezekiel as we dive into the teaching with Skip Heitzig. Verse 7 describes the siege, the slain shall fall in your midst and you shall know that I am the Lord. That is a dominant theme in this book. You shall know that I am the Lord, 60 times in this book, God is saying, I'm going to get this message through your thick, rebellious skulls. I am the Lord. That's the purpose of the captivity, to get them to know he is the Lord.

And it worked. When they returned from captivity, they never went into this blanket kind of idolatry ever again. But the visions continue in chapter 9 and 10.

That weird Merkava comes back. That four cherub power vehicle, the presence of God, the glory of God. But this time Ezekiel sees the vision of the glory of God moving eastward, moving east past the city of Jerusalem toward the Mount of Olives, and then eventually leaving.

The glory of God departs. God says, bye-bye, I'm leaving you now, allowing now the Babylonians to come in. Chapters 25 through 32 is that third section, the castigation of the peoples. There are nations around Israel. Seven nations are mentioned. Nations like Moab and Ammon and Philistia and Tyre and Sidon and a large section on the nation of Egypt.

Four of them are singled out because of their hatred for the Jews. I want to take you to one really briefly. Chapter 28 is the fall of the city of Tyre up in present-day Lebanon. And what's noteworthy about this is in chapter 28 there is a segue between the physical reality to a spiritual reality in the same chapter. That is, some of the language fits an earthly monarch. Some of the language in the chapter clearly does not fit an earthly monarch, but it does fit, interestingly, Satan as the power behind the power. So he's addressing an earthly monarch, but then he addresses what appears to be an earthly monarch, but the description cannot refer, must refer to Satan.

If you think this is wild or unprecedented, it is not. Jesus did it with Peter. When Peter said, we're not going to let you go to Jerusalem, we're going to take care of you, we're going to protect you, God. Jesus turned to Peter and said, get behind me. He called Peter Satan.

Well, it wasn't really saying you really are the devil as much as I'm talking to the power behind you who gave you that thought. So with that in mind, chapter 28 verse one, let's move quickly. The word of the Lord came to me again saying, son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, thus says the Lord God, because your heart is lifted up and you say, I am a God, I sit in the seat of gods in the midst of the seas, yet you are a man and not a God.

Though you set your heart as the heart of a God. You see the word prince that we just read? It's the Hebrew word nagid, and nagid means man at the top and the man at the top of this city of Tyre, according to Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian, was a man named Ito Baal II. If you're taking notes, that's I-T-T-O dash B-A-A-L, Roman numeral two.

Ito Baal II. He was the ruler of Tyre at the time. He was proud because he was wealthy. He was proud because he was powerful. He was proud because of his location. I told you before about the city of Tyre. It was an island. They thought they were impregnable and penetrable.

Alexander the Great finally took them over. Verse 11, moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, take up a lamentation for, not the prince, but the king of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord God, you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. He uses a different word, not nagid for prince, but the word melech for king, which in Hebrew is a common name for melech, or for king, melech. But what's interesting is Ezekiel never uses the word melech for any of the kings of Israel, except for one, and that's Jehoiachin.

He never uses that term. So all of that to say, what you now read following this cannot describe any earthly ruler. It reaches into the spiritual arena, to the source as it were. Look at verse 13, continuing on to the king of Tyre, you were in Eden, the garden of God. Oh, really? When was the king of Tyre ever in the garden of Eden?

Never. Every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, diamond, burl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, emerald with gold, the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes, those are musical instruments, was prepared for you on the day you were created, not born, this creature was created. Verse 14, you were the anointed, what? Cherub, singular, cherub, angelic being who covers. So you were an angelic guardian.

He saw Cherubim in that vision of the Merkabah. Now he's talking to the king of Tyre, you're the anointed cherub who covers. You were like the angelic guardian for the throne.

I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. Verse 15, you were perfect in your ways. The word perfect means blameless or undefiled. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity was found in you. That word until could be argued is the saddest word in human history, because what follows until iniquity was found in Lucifer, Satan, is what plummeted his fall, caused his fall, and plummeted the earth thereafter into the curse that we now experience. Now Jesus refers to this in the New Testament book of Luke chapter 10. He said, I saw the he said, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Whenever you read that passage, you should remember two Old Testament scriptures. Ezekiel 14, which says, how are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer son of the morning? And Ezekiel 28, you were the anointed cherub who covers until iniquity was found in you. So obviously a beautiful creature, not horns and a pitchfork and a little pointed tail, all that is coming from Greek and Roman mythology, the god Pan, Bacchus, all of that medieval picturesque stuff is not biblical stuff.

He's a very beautiful creature. The Bible says in Ezekiel, when we see him, we're going to say, you're the one that caused so much trouble? Okay, let's close the book. Chapters 33 to 48 is about the restoration of the land. It's the conciliation of all of God's purpose for Israel. In this section, it includes nine chapters that are devoted and detail that temple I told you about, the millennial temple during the millennial kingdom. The last section has three parts, the regathering of the Jews, the regeneration of Jewish hearts, and the reestablishment of the Jewish kingdom. All of that is in the last section. Why is it here? To get the people in captivity, you think it's all over hope. It ain't over till it's over. You're coming back to Israel, but there's going to be a kingdom set up where Israel will be at the center of the kingdom age on the earth.

So, three parts. Israel is to be regathered. Chapter 36 verse 24. For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, not just Babylon, all countries, and bring you into your own land. It's interesting if you go to Israel today, there are two immediately apparent things you discover. Number one, Jews are speaking a revived Hebrew language.

Number two, they're doing so in their ancient homeland, of which God promised they would one day be there and do what they're doing. That happened on May 14th, 1948. I can't resist reading to you a prediction or a citation from Encyclopedia Britannica. I've always loved them. I had a copy of my own for years. I saved up, found a use set, loved them, but I discovered a citation in Encyclopedia Britannica from the 1911 edition that said, an interesting comic, and I'm quoting, the possibility that we can ever again recover the correct pronunciation of ancient Hebrew is as remote a possibility that a Jewish empire will ever again be established in the Middle East. End quote.

That was 1911. 36 years later, May 14th, 1948, David Ben-Gurion said, we're back. He didn't say it that way. He didn't quite say that, but okay, Israel be regathered.

Israel will be regenerated. Go down to verse 25. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you. You will be clean. All of this is the language of the priesthood. Priest would sprinkle water on for a ritual purification. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh, give you a heart of flesh, the new nature to overcome the old nature. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk away from the new and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. Now that sprinkling that refers to Israel is widened out by the prophet Isaiah in his servant passage about the coming Messiah. Isaiah chapter 42, Isaiah 52, where he says, and he, Messiah, shall sprinkle many nations, not one nation, many nations. All of this speaks of the new covenant beginning with Israel, but then to all nations. As John the Baptist said, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

It's for everybody. So what that tells us is how did Jews get saved? Not by being a Jew. A Jew gets saved the same way a non-Jew gets saved. A Jew gets saved by believing in the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, who shed his blood for us. Everybody gets saved the same way. The only advantage, Paul will say in Romans, don't want to steal my thunder for upcoming Sunday messages, but the only advantage is God already deposited all of that revelation. So you should be aware of that in advance.

Anyway, put that on pause, save that for a few weeks. Chapter 37 is the illustration of chapter 36. And now we get to the vision of dry bones. Chapter 37 verse one, the hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley.

That word could be translated battlefield. And it was full of bones. He caused me to pass by them all around and behold, there were very there were very many in the open valley and indeed they were very dry.

They're dead, dead in their dispersion, dead in their disobedience, dead in their failed relationship with God, dead because of the destruction of the city by the Babylonians. And he said to me, son of man, can these bones live? God asks Ezekiel. So I answered, oh Lord God, you know. That's a safe answer.

That's a good answer. God asks you something, well, you know. Again he said, prophesy to these bones and say to them, oh dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, surely I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. The word breath is the Hebrew word ruvah, that's ruvah, breath. It's also the word spirit in Hebrew, also the word wind in Hebrew. The Hebrew word for holy spirit is ruach hakodesh, that is spirit or breath, the holy, the holy spirit.

So I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. That's chapter 37. It illustrates the coming together, the regathering. Chapter 38 describes an invasion of Israel and the defeat of the invader. Chapter 39 is the cleanup afterwards. These are events that occur after Israel gets restored back in the land. Okay, so they're there now.

36 and 37 are fulfilled. Chapter 38 describes a battle that will take place once Israel is in the land. The battle hasn't happened yet. It's a future battle. Some believe it's part of the battle of Armageddon. I happen to believe it is apart from the 70th week of Daniel or the great tribulation period, if you know your eschatology. Some see it melded into the seven years. I see it as apart from that but leading to it. Does that make sense?

If not, ask me about it afterwards. Chapter 38 verse one. Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, set your face against Gog, that means leader, of the land of Magog. Magog means modern day Turkey.

Keep that in mind. The prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him. All of these are labels that come to us out of Genesis 10, the table of nations. Josephus, Hesiod, Herodotus say that these depict Russia and allies, the allies of that area. Verse five, interesting ally, Persia. That's Iran. Ethiopia and Libya, that's North Africa with all of them with shield and helmet. Gomer, that is probably Armenia, hold that thought and all of its troops. The house of Tugarmah, that's eastern Turkey from the far north with all of its troops.

Many people are with you. When Ezekiel wrote this, there was absolutely no connection or coalition between these people. What is interesting is that today as I speak, there is already a coalition that is formed. Go look it up, not now, wait till later.

A strategic coalition of Russia, Iran, and Armenia in stuff that is going on in the Middle East. Chapter 39 shows God destroying the nations that attack Israel. It's the catalyst that returns them back to God. Chapter 48, or 40 to 48, is the rebuilt temple and the reorganization of a national life during the thousand years. I just want to look at, I don't have time. I want to look down at chapter 48, the very last verse.

The tribal allotments are given. The Dead Sea in Israel, it's predicted in chapter 47, get this, the Dead Sea. Six times saltier than the ocean. You don't want to get it in your eyes. You drink it, you'll throw up, you will.

You can float on it even if you cannot swim. The Dead Sea, it is predicted, will turn into fresh water. There will be a river from Jerusalem. Other prophets speak about this, and so the waters of the Dead Sea are healed, and fishermen spread their nets from En-Gedi to Qumran.

You say, where's that? When you come to Israel, I'll show you both of those places at the Dead Sea. So, last verse, chapter 48.

I'm finishing this book. Verse 35, all the way around shall be 18,000 cubits. Keep in mind, this is describing the environment of Jerusalem, expanded area of a holy area, and a huge temple unlike we've ever seen built historically. And the name of the city from that day shall be, the Lord is there. The Lord is there.

Okay, now I'm excited about this. The glory departed from Jerusalem, chapter 9 and 10. Ezekiel saw it, and probably those little hands going, bye-bye, from that little Merkabah. See ya. So, it departed.

He predicts it's coming back for good. And the name of the temple, the name of the place, will be the Lord is there. The Hebrew name for Jerusalem is the pronunciation. It's Jerusalem, but the Hebrew pronunciation is Yerushalayim.

Yerushalayim, the city of peace. The new name, it's in the Bible, but very few know this. You will know this after this. It'll come about in the future, in the millennial period. It'll come about in the future. It'll come about in the millennial kingdom, the thousand years. It won't be called Jerusalem.

It's going to be called, what's the name? The Hebrew name is similar to Yerushalayim, but it is Yahweh Shammah. Yahweh Shammah is the Lord is there. That's Hebrew. So not Yerushalayim, but Yahweh Shammah. Remember that. Get used to that because that'll be a name for a thousand years that that city will be called. Cool that you know it.

So you've got the inside scoop. Okay, I just want to close with this thought. I know I'm four minutes over time, but do you mind? Have one thought. Just give me one thought and please hug those teachers and kids for being so patient. I like teaching through the Bible and I like teaching end times eschatology. There is a tendency, especially among young preachers, especially among millennial young preachers, to avoid teaching eschatology. I don't teach it. I've been to churches where they're 12, 15 years old and I was going to bring an eschatological. Don't teach on that. My people don't have any idea what that is.

They go, really? You've had 15 years to tell them and you haven't? You'll just confuse them. We don't get, we don't get into end times when you don't.

Let me just phrase it to you in a question. Why would you ever rob God of that glory? It's God's glory in creation, but also God's glory in the future to rebuild what he said. So much of the Bible is eschatological. It's future.

Learn it, get good at it, be an expert at it and then teach it. That's Skip Heising with a message from the series, The Bible from 30,000 Feet. Now we want to share about an exciting resource that helps you understand why Jesus' resurrection is so vital for your faith. The aftermath of 2020 has left so many of us wrestling with questions about the future and wondering, what's next?

Here's Skip Heizig. That's a question, by the way, that people ask anytime there is a catastrophe, any kind of catastrophic event causes people to ask the question, what's next? If there's a car accident that happens, well, what's next? I'm going to be able to walk after this. If a disease strikes someone, what's next? Am I going to be cured? If somebody we love dies, we ask, what's next? Am I going to be able to go on? We want to help you live with confidence, no matter what the future holds, by sending you a powerful collection of Easter weekend messages from Skip Heizig on the hope of the resurrection.

Anything's possible. If the one who said he's going to die and rise again died and rose again, that means all of the promises Jesus ever made are possible and can come true. That's why it's called The Living Hope. The Morning That Changed Everything with Skip Heizig is a DVD collection of six life-changing Easter messages. And it's our thanks for your gift of $35 or more today to help connect more people to the living hope of Jesus Christ. To give online securely, visit connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888.

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Thank you. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heizig introduces you to the prophet Daniel and bolsters your faith by sharing how God moved in history. No matter what evil is around you and pushing in on you, though there are people and powers that mean it for evil, God always means it for your good.

God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the cross. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection. Connect with Skip Heizig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.