Ezekiel 36-37

Introduction

Questions, page eighty-nine and three. Why did God promise to make Mount Search that’s away?

Everlasting.

What had Edom said about the two nations and countries?

They will be mine. Did somebody say that? That’s part of it anyway. They will be mine. And they will inhabit. I will inhabit them. That’ll be mine, I’ll live there.

Three. What had Mount Sear done with its mouth?

In what mood had God spoken against the heathen in Amea?

Jealously. What would the mountains of Israel do for God’s people?

That’s a good answer.

Hey, Patty, good to see you out. I thank you. Oh my goodness, I’ve got a week up there.

What would God put within the series here? What would God cause them to do, number nine?

What would the desolate land become?

True fathers, number one, you shall know that I am the Lord was said five times about Search. Three times. Three times. I found over four. Oh, you do have a little dream. I can’t tell you where they are right now.

Edom would be a perpetual desolation because of his perpetual hatred against Israel. Israel had borne the shame of the heathen.

I heard I heard a false. I think it is true, but if somebody thinks it’s false, don’t you tell me why? I heard a false. I don’t know what the Lord uh number five, the Lord did this by grace for the sake of Israel alone. That would be false.

1. Edom to Be a Perpetual Desolation

Edom to be a perpetual desolation. Son of man set your face against Mount Seir and prophesy against it. And I say, Why we have answered that question. Because you have had everlasting and enmity and delivered the sons of Israel to the power of the sword. Now Obadiah prophesied about the 150 or 60 years prior to the time of Ezekiel. And here’s what he said in his day.

2. Israel Is to Be Restored with Blessings

You will be covered with shame, and you will be cut off forever. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head. Israel is to be restored with blessings. And this chapter 36, we’ll go through a few lines in a few verses, Son of Man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel. Because the enemy has spoken against you, aha. I mean, they rejoice. They rejoiced in your condition. They rejoice that you’re in captivity and your trials and your tribulations. And the everlasting heights have become their possession. Surely, in the fire of my jealousy, I’ve spoken against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, declares the Lord. You, O mountains of Israel, you will put forth your branches and bear fruit for the people Israel.

I will cause you to be inhabited as you were formerly and will treat you better than at first. I will cause men, my people Israel, to walk on you mountains. Why the Lord took Israel from the land.

3. Why the Lord Took Israel and Will Restore Israel

When the house of Israel was living in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. They shed blood on the land, they had defiled it with idols, and the Lord scattered them among the nations, and according to their ways and their deeds he judged them. When they came to the nations, when they went to the nations where they were sent for captivity, they profaned his holy name there, and that is part of the problem too. Why the Lord will restore Israel to vindicate the holiness of my great name which has been profaned among the nations. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord when I prove myself holy among you in their sight. Holy among you is the children of Israel.

I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness from all your idols. Note that I will is pointing to a date that has not yet come. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. On the day that that day in the future that I cleanse you from all your inequities, they will say, This desolate land has come like the Garden of Eden. And from Psalms 36, how precious is your loving kindness, O God? And the children of men take refuge in your wings. They drink their fill of the abundance of your house, and you give them drink of the river of your delights.

For with you is the fountain of life.

4. The Valley of Dry Bones

And chapter 37, verse 1 and part of verse 2 is up there. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and sent me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full of bones. Jerry.

Any discussion on that? Any disagreement. It’s not the way I read it.

Let’s see. When he gives a vision and then it explains it. It’s just a vision. And it can be without flesh and a vision. I will do my best to explain that to your satisfaction here in it here in two or three minutes if I’m capable. And I’m on the wrong page already. Verse 3. He said to me, Son of man, can these bones be up? And I answered, Oh Lord God, you know. Again he said to me, Prophesy over these bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord to these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. Thus says the Lord God to the wrong verse. Verse 6.

I will put sinews on you. I’ll put your bones back together. Make flesh grow back on you. Cover you with skin. Put breath in you that you may come alive, and you will know that I am the Lord. Verse 7. So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a great rattling. And the bones came together, bone to bone. And I looked and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, thus says the Lord God Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain that they come to life.

So I prophesied as he commanded me. And the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. This is how I explained this to myself, and maybe it’ll work for you, maybe it’ll work for others, but it may not. Think back to the beginning. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into the nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being, a flesh and blood man. A flesh and blood man. Not that man, but he became an Adam, a man. Because now, Genesis 3, 17 and 19. Adam and Eve. Because you, Adam and Eve, have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you.

Because from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Now Adam and Eve were not slain, and they were not bones in a valley. That is the point. That is the picture that I’m trying to draw here. I see. Okay. But there is an artist’s depiction of the valley of dry bones. And I thought this quite interesting. See, right there? Here we have this uh this poor fellow holding up what I suspect is the book of the law. Huh. Just one point. One of the commentaries I read said that they were not left in the position they would have been had they just died naturally. The bones were all scattered and uh which way. So when they did come back together, it was but I am of the opinion that what we have here is no literal language.

It is all symbolic at this point. What he’s what he’s doing is painting a symbolic picture of people who look like us here today. You mean with flesh and with with he was talking about Israel, the people Israel, the exiles and all the people Israel that had departed from the Lord. They were not under the Lord’s umbrella, therefore they were dead. They were spiritually dead, they were without God.

Disagreement.

But God certainly could have done it this way if you wanted to literally.

With what Isaiah, the picture that Isaiah and Jeremiah painted either. Is it called a vision though in the scriptures? Did the scriptures call it a vision? Did he say he’s in the spirit? Well here is go back, uh go back to chapter. Think about chapter one. He was by the river Kabar, and the Lord came to him in a vision and said, speak the words that I’m going to deliver to your mouth. And how he delivered them was with a scroll. Ezekiel ate it, and the words were sweet as honey in his mouth. You remember that? Yes. And then he said, Speak what I tell you, everything that I tell you to the exiles here. So he is speaking this to the exiles, and the exiles are children of Israel.

They are people who knew and should have known, knew or should have known the law. There are people who could have understood exactly what Ezekiel meant.

And from Psalms 88, 4 and 5, I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit. Israel was reckoned among those who go down to the pit. Forsaken among the dead, like the slain who line the grave, whom you, Lord, will remember no more. So you’re taking verse 11 then as a literal translation.

As far as not the bones, it’s the whole house of Israel, but their flesh and blood, bones. Right. I mean, their flesh and blood, they’re not bones. So 11 through 14. Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. How can bones talk, you see? Therefore prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God, behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves. My people and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord. When I have opened your graves and caused you to come out of the graves, my people.

Thank you. Now, verse 14, the first line where he says, I will put my spirit within you. It can also read how I will put my breath within you. And the Lord’s breath and the Lord’s spirit, of course, is the same thing.

Okay, a little history. Around 931 BC, the kingdom of Israel divided, the northern kingdom, Israel, also known as Samaria and Ephraim, existed until when? Think back on your history.

There’s the answer. 722 or 21. I use 721 in my teachings because that’s the way I learned it. Brother Hartwriter uses 722, I believe. That is Assyrian captivity.

And Second Kings 17. If we read the entire thing, it would probably take up 10 minutes of class time here. So this came about because the sons of Israel sinned against the Lord their God, and that list of sins goes through their sins in each of the verses in that chapter, including causing their sons and daughters to pass through the fire. And idol worship and all everything that Israel had done is listed in those verses.

Okay, uh 605 or 606 will work, but they’re uh there are the dates. And that was because, and we find this in 2 Chronicles 36, because King Zedekiah, all the officials of the priest, and the people were very unfaithful. They continually mocked the messengers of God. Now, these very unfaithful people I see as the valley of dry bones. And that was done to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, and he prophesied in.

Until until he did sin, until he ate of the fruit.

When you read the scripture, as in in total, when Abraham was called and believed in God, he was the one righteous man at that time. The scripture tells us in Joshua that Abraham’s parents did not serve the Lord. And then Abraham’s parents did not serve the Lord. Then we bring it forward, let’s say, to the present day, even though there’s some more references. What we have here is a promise. Jeremiah had prophesied that they would be taken. What we have now is a spiritual rebirth of a nation about to occur. If it doesn’t occur tonight, it will occur on Sunday. Will you perform wonders for the dead? Will the departed spirits rise and praise you? Another Psalm, Psalm 88, 10. Yes, yes, because the Lord knows our deeds, knew their deeds, that they, us, have a name, and that we are alive.

But those who are not in Christ, of Christ, or in God or believe in God, you are dead. Wake up and strengthen strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die. And that’s what he’s telling the dryballs.

And on their heart I will write it. Dry bones. For I will be merciful to their inequities, and I will remember their sins no more. And that’s from Hebrews.

5. Two Sticks Joined into One Stick

I need a reader for 15 through 23. Jerry, go ahead. The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, take a stick and write on it for Judah and the people of Israel associated with him. Then take another stick and write on it for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel associated with him, and join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. And when your people say to you, will you not tell us what you mean by these? Say to them, thus says the Lord, behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph that is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will join it with the stick of Judah and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand.

Is it as far as you want to? No, third 23. Okay. When the sticks on which you write are in your hand, before their eyes say to them, thus says the Lord God, behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king over them, and they shall be no longer two nations and no longer divided into two kingdoms. They shall not defile themselves anymore with the idols, with the testable things, or any of their transgressions. I will save them from all their backslidings in which they ascend and will cleanse them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

And Ohaba was wicked. But Oh was even more wicked, the one that represented Judah. Now, what the Lord is going to do is he’s going to take those two wicked. He’s going to take those two wicked nations, and he’s going to join them together as one. And that is what 15 through 23 is telling us. Take one stick and write on it. For Judah and the sons of Israel, his companions. Take another stick and write on it. For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions. The sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes. Now picture Jeremiah out on the river from Ar. He’s taken the stick, two sticks, put on both of them. He’s joined them together.

He’s shown them to the rebellious house. And then Jeremiah is saying, I will make them one nation in the land of the mountains of Israel. This is the promise not fulfilled yet, but they’re told, they’re going to go back. What year is it right now? We simply we do not know. It’s sometime after 585, but before for but before 572, it’s somewhere in that time period.

The exile’s message and ours is walk in unity, be one, be one with another. And this is from Ephesians 4, verses 4 through 6. For there is one body, one spirit, just as you were called, and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all is in all. Now, of course, there wasn’t baptism in Ezekiel’s day, but the message is the same. The Lord is going to unify Israel.

6. The New Covenant Promise

And the faithful will be his, the unrighteous will not be. And we will find that as we go through the rest of our studies here. The new covenant promise. When when you keep saying I will, future, you just mean future from them? Yeah, future from them. Now, some of these things, some things, when you follow the scripture, will be within a decade, ten to twenty years. Other things are might even be in the time of Jesus or even after Jesus. Some of some of the promises that he is alluding to here that Ezekiel alludes to is that far in the future. Some of them are uh some things that he writes are real time, but very few of them. Most of them have to do with something that is going to happen in the future, from a few years to many, many years.

Comments on that? Anyone see that different?

24 through 28. I believe we have time to read that. Uh Jonathan, you feel like reading that for me. 24 through 28. David, my servant, shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall also walk in my judgments and observe my statutes and do them. Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob, my servant, where your fathers dwelt, and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever. And my servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them. I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them.

Indeed, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. The nations also will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore. Thank you.

And they all have one. They will all have one shepherd. David, my servant, will be their prince forever. Now we know who he’s talking about here, don’t we? Who is David? Who is the prince? Who is he referring to? Christ, the Messiah that has been prophesied.

And they should know it. The exiles should know it, because it has been written, there has been prophecy from the beginning of time that this was going to occur. Isaiah 11, 1 through 13. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from its roots will bear fruit. Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and those who harass Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim. And this prophecy would have been somewhere around 150 to 170 years prior to Ezekiel’s time.

An everlasting covenant. Now behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers. And look at what the Hebrew writer wrote about this. When he said, a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Now, I don’t suspect or suppose that the exiles knew exactly what Ezekiel was talking about. But Ezekiel knew, Ezekiel knew that there was going to be a new covenant. He knew that the old one was going to be obsolete. And what Ezekiel, the picture that he’s painting to the exiles and to us, is that the law that you have lived by in the past is going to disappear. The temple that you have relied on so much, it is going to disappear.

All things are going to be new, all things are going to be different. But there’s still going to be one God, and it is the same God. And continuing with that, my dwelling place, the dwelling place is in the New American Standard Bible, Tabernacle is King James Version. My dwelling place also will be with them.

And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel. When my sanctuary is in their midst, forever. And then from the New Testament, Ephesians 1 22. He put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church. Now, I make a relationship here between dwelling place, sanctuary, and church. The dwelling place was the tabernacle at that day. The Lord’s sanctuary, the Lord’s sanctuary, is the church, because it is the fullness of God and the fullness of Christ. Questions, comments. And this is about Jesus. He came and preached peace to you who were far away, the Gentiles, which would have been the nations in Ezekiel’s day. And to peace to those who were near the Jews in Ezekiel’s day, the nation Israel.

For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. Isaiah 11, 10. Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse. Who is Jesse? David’s father. David’s father. The root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious. And we made it through.

On Sunday.