Resurrection Life of Jesus Church

A MEETING OF THE GODHEAD
After the destruction of Jerusalem, the Godhead paused the virtual time run to discuss what would take place next. The remnant of Jews taken to Babylon would be there for 70 years, which meant that the adults who had left Jerusalem would die before the 70 year period ended.

They examined the faithfulness of Ezekiel and how he had been given numerous prophecies against Judah, but also for a number of nations in the region. They reviewed that in time Jesus would be incarnated and start His earthly ministry, but that the Son of God would return in the future to reign and establish the 1000 years (millennial) kingdom. This is really just one day for the Godhead.¹

The descendants of the tribes of Israel would play a role at this future time and it was decided that the Godhead would provide Ezekiel with a prophecy about the time just before the Great White Throne Judgment. They knew that no one would understand the prophecy until after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, then a final revelation would be given to the apostle John in the future.

Jesus was commissioned to give the lengthy prophecy to Ezekiel.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Word of God cannot be broken, it is eternal. Once God says something, He does not change. I want to show through history how the curse of Deuteronomy chapter 28 has played out for thousands of years. Isaiah 55:10-11

About 970 years prior to Ezekiel in Babylon, Jesus gave Israel a choice:

1. They could walk in obedience and receive blessings. Deuteronomy 28:1-15

2. The other option was being cursed if they turned to idolatry; included was a guarantee that the Israelites would lose the Promised Land if they embraced idolatry. verses 64-68

The ten northern tribes of Israel were ejected from the land in 727 B.C. when the Assyrians conquered them. The remnant that survived was forcefully marched to Assyria and resettled in different places. They never returned as a group.

Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians in 597 B.C. and a large portion of the population of Judah was carried away to Babylon.

The Babylonians returned in 587 B.C. to destroy the temple and burn Jerusalem to the ground. The majority of the people in Judah were force marched to Babylon.

The twelve tribes of Israel openly scoffed at the warnings from God. They chose debauchery and depravity instead of holiness and this is why they lost the Promised Land.

The Jews from Babylon were allowed to return home in 517 B.C. to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, but they would never become an independent nation again.

The remnant that came home slowly built up their population and the Maccabean revolts took place from 200-150 B.C. The insurrections were crushed by the Romans and tens of thousands of Jewish men were killed during this time period.
There was civil war between different Jewish factions (Sadducees and Pharisees) from 104-76 B.C.

The Jewish leadership in Palestine successfully revolted against Rome in 66 A.D. and was able to drive out the hated occupiers from Jerusalem and Judea. The Romans returned four years later to conquer Jerusalem and destroy the temple. The destruction was so great that not one stone was left upon another with the exception for what is today called the Wailing Wall. According to the historian Josephus, 1.1 million civilians died in Jerusalem, 100,000 in Galilee, and 97,000 young men and women were taken to Egypt and sold into slavery. Some 50,000 soldiers were killed.

The Jewish population in Cyprus and Cyrene (province in Egypt) revolted in 115 A.D. while the Roman army was waging war against the Parthians in the eastern part of the empire. Christianity had grown mightily in Cyprus and Egypt and the Jewish hatred for Jesus and His followers saw some 460,000 gentiles slaughtered by the Jewish armed forces. The Roman army returned to Cyprus and Egypt two years later and some 200,000 Jews were killed with thousands sold on the Roman slave markets.

A Jewish political leader named Simon bar Kokhba led a strong revolt against Rome in 132 A.D. He recruited a large army and held the Romans at bay for the next four years. He declared Judah and Galilee as a Jewish state. The Romans massed legions and the Jews were defeated again 136 A.D. The losses were staggering as 400,000 Jewish soldiers and militia were killed. It is estimated that a total of 580,000 Jews were executed, 50 fortified towns were destroyed, and 985 villages razed.

The Roman government was furious! They had fought three wars with the rebellious Jews and the decision was made to remove all Jews from the land of Palestine. Young Jewish men and women were sold on the Romans slave markets and the older population were scattered throughout the Roman Empire. There were no Jews left in the Promised Land when the Romans were finished.

Jewish people were persecuted in Europe from 1935-1945 by Adolf Hitler’s soldiers. The official death toll was estimated at six million men, women and children and to date has been the most systematic persecution and killing since the Roman ethnic cleaning in 136 A.D.

WHAT GOD SAID
God promised to scatter the Israelites if they turned to idolatry.

And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:

And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:

In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.” (Deuteronomy 28:64-68)

It was not until around 1400 A.D. that small numbers of Jews filtered back and resettled in Jerusalem.

1,000 YEARS KINGDOM
Jesus brought the apostle John to heaven in 90 A.D. and gave him the most amazing revelation. Revelation 1:1-11

Jesus stated the Devil would be bound for a thousand years and believers in Christ would reign and rule with the Son of God. Revelation 20:1-6

Isaiah had seen glimpses of the millennial kingdom, but he was not provided any time reference. Isaiah 11:1-12

Then Jesus told John a strange thing. After the thousand years are expired, Lucifer will be loosed from the bottomless pit to entice those who were born during the millennium to rebel against God. The Devil will teach people to make weapons, raise an army, and take the fight to Israel and Jerusalem. The war will culminate when Jesus throws Lucifer into the Lake of Fire and kills the insurgents.

The details of this future war are not recorded in the Book of Revelation, but Ezekiel was given the details.

VALLEY OF DRY BONES
The valley of dry bones is a description of the resurrection of the Hebrews who walked with the Lord and exercised faith in the future Messiah. This was a new concept for most Jews alive at this time since there was no clear teaching on the resurrection of the dead in the five books of Moses. Ezekiel 37:1-14

This prophecy will be fulfilled after the second return of Jesus and the beginning of the millennial kingdom. The political State of Israel as it exists today is no different than all the previous attempts to re-establish Israel as a nation.

Enoch lived prior to Noah’s flood. He was taken to heaven and given wonderful revelations about the coming Redeemer that would come to the earth in the future to judge the ungodly. He recorded his experiences, but for some reason his writings never made it into the Old Testament. Enoch is mentioned twice in the Bible, each time in glowing terms. Genesis 5:18-24; Hebrews 11:5

We can conclude that Noah possessed the recorded history that dated back to Adam and Eve along with the books of Enoch and that he used the information therein to establish a genealogy from Adam to himself. Genesis 5:1-32

Job was a man of righteousness and he was severely attacked by Lucifer. He made a statement during his suffering showing that he knew his Redeemer was alive and one day he would be resurrected. Job was a contemporary of Abraham, but he lived in what is today Yemen. Thus, Job’s knowledge of the Redeemer must have come from the books of Enoch. Job 19:23-27

SUMMARY
This is an introduction to Ezekiel’s prophecies about the end times. It is a sad story of a stiff-necked people who were selected by God to be the custodians of the Word of God and the home for the future Messiah. They were given a strong initial warning that the Promised Land was only theirs if they walked with the Lord and did not serve any demon gods.

Some 900 years earlier, the tribes demanded to be like the other nations with a king. The bumbling of the fourth king, Rehoboam, saw the united kingdom of Israel fractured and the emergence of two kingdoms. All the subsequent northern kings were worthless with the exception of the Jehu. The southern kings were a mixed lot with four kings serving God completely, five served the Lord partially, and the rest gave their allegiance to Lucifer. Both kingdoms came to a shameful and humiliating end as the period of grace expired and God’s people were evicted from the Promised Land. Israel as a nation had ceased to exist.

God told Ezekiel that all was not lost. Someday in the future, there would be a resurrection of Hebrews who had walked with God and exercised faith in the coming Messiah. The Jews alive at the time of the prophecy would not see it fulfilled, but they were given a hope of a future resurrection and a return to the Promised Land.

People living today should pay attention. Jesus gave the Hebrews an incredibly long period of grace, then He used the Assyrians and Babylonians to punish and evict His wayward children. What is God going to do with a nation like the United States which is now 245 years old?

1. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8)

The revelation to the apostle Peter allows us to convert eternity time into earthly time. We can deduce God’s eternity time by dividing 1,000 years by 24 hours: One hour with God is 41.67 years for man. One minute with God is 8 months and 8 days for man. One second with God is 3 days and 22 hours for man.