Bible Study: September 4, 2024

Okay, so tonight we're going to continue in Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16 is just one of those very fascinating chapters, as every chapter in Ezekiel is. When you delve into it, you see and understand much of the stuff that God is trying to tell us. Last week, in Ezekiel 16, you remember, he kind of described the pain that he has toward us when we disobey him, when we depart from him, when we live our lives apart from him, especially after he has blessed us and we know him and we have entered into a covenant with him. So we talked last week about the adulterous wife. God talked about the covenant that he made with Israel, the covenant that he's made with us, and when we depart from him and we, you know, slide from his ways, and we take up other idols in the world, or we attach ourselves to other things that do not put God first in our lives.

It hurts him just as it would hurt one of us if our spouse handled us that way or treated us that way. So we could see God's hurt, and we can see the anger that he had in the verses we read last week as he punished Israel and Judah, Jerusalem, as it says in Ezekiel 16 here, for the sins that they committed. Now you remember too from last week that God talks about Jerusalem, and even though he talks about Jerusalem, and some commentaries will say that he's talking about actual Jerusalem as he talks about these things that are going to happen to them. But we can see, we can see as we have read through that, that it applies to Israel, it applies to any nation, it applies to us individually, it can apply to us in our days now. When we read these things in Ezekiel, it's written as much for us as it was for the people when Ezekiel wrote it. So we talked about that last week, and we went got through chapter verse 42 last week as God talked about all these things that would happen to an adulterous wife who betrayed him, who sinned against him, who set up idols, and who prostituted herself to anyone who would come their way.

And we ended in verse 42. But let me just, you know, in verse 40, just to read first and recall what we talked about last time, in verse 40, you know, God says, it's going to turn on you. You have all these, you have all these lovers, you have all these, all these people, all these nations, all these whatever it is that you think love you. But remember, let me go back a little bit before that, because he says you're even worse than a prostitute because a prostitute or a harlot receives money for what they're doing. But you are handing out money, you are giving things to people in order to prostitute yourself with them. So you're the opposite of what is normal. You are worse than that situation, God says. So in verse 40, he says, they're all going to turn against you. Do you think they love you? You think they're their friends, but when they have an opportunity, they will turn against you and destroy you. So in verse 40, he says, they will bring up an assembly against you, and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords. They'll burn your houses with fire. They'll execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. And I will make you cease playing the harlot, and you will no longer hire lovers. So God says it will all backfire on you. It will all turn against you, and it's going to mean your ruin what you're doing exactly as it should, because God says if you depart from me, ruin will be your destiny. So down in verse 42, then, he says, where we ended last week, that he'll later rest his fury. And what it means is he's just kind of abandoning them. There comes a time where we can be really, really angry, and we go through all the energy to express that anger, all the actions to express that anger, but after a while, it's just done, and it's quiet. And so in verse 42 there, he says, I'll later rest my fury toward you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I'll be quiet and be angry no more. Doesn't mean they're reconciled. It means God just doesn't care. Kind of a way marriages in the world end up. There could be anger. There can be all sorts of things. People go through divorce, and you've heard stories of how bitter divorce battles can be, but in the end, they don't even care about each other anymore. It's like the love that was there just doesn't even exist. So we'll pick it up here in verse 43, then, as we continue. And he says why this happens. It's a very sad state when love ends, because love shouldn't end. Agape love doesn't end. The love of God never fails. It's our love that fails, and that's what's happened in this situation here. In verse 43, then God says, because you didn't remember the days of your youth.

Remember, it was God who took them from nothing. We had the pictures of a child that was just abandoned, just laying in its blood, that would have died if it wasn't for God who rescued them, trained them, developed them, blessed them, clothed them, gave them everything they could possibly want, but then they turned against him. And he says it happened because you did not remember the days of your youth. Now we should always take the time to remember what God does done for us. And if we would just do that in times when we're tempted or wanting to do something else or finding ourselves doing that, it should make us realize, no, we love God more, and we appreciate what he's done for us more. Because you didn't remember the days of your youth, but agitated me with all these things, surely I, surely I, God says, will recompense your deeds on your own head. And you shall not, he says, commit lewdness in addition to all your abominations. He stops that at that point, and he just destroys, he just destroys the person, the nation, whoever it is that's doing, whoever is doing these things. Verse 44, he kind of talks about what the aftermath of all this is. I mean, you know, here's this woman, this person, this nation, this group that was beautiful, beautiful. The envy of other people. They looked up to her. She was royalty because God had adorned her with his ways, with his spirit, all the blessings that he gives. Indeed, everyone who quotes Proverbs will use this proverb against you, like mother, like daughter. So remember last week, talks about Jerusalem, and he says that Jerusalem was born from basically Gentiles. He talked about you were born from Amorites and Hittites, and indeed they were. That was a Gentile land that didn't know God, where Jerusalem was, and the Jebusites are thrown in there as well. And then out of that area, as Abraham came in and obeyed God, and as the people of God began to flourish in that nation, God said, I'm going to bring you back. This is going to be where your land is. And he created Israel, as we've talked about before, created them and put them in that land, and intended, wanted them to keep it. They lost it because they sinned against him. So he says, like mother, like daughter, you were born there, you were raised in that area. And he says then in verse 45, you are your mother's daughter, loathing husband and children, and you are the sister of your sisters who loat their husbands and children. All of one kind, God says, disloyal, not good people, not people who would be praised or looked up to.

You are the sister of your sisters who loathe their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. This is the stock you came from. This is the going nowhere, feudal existence. But God took you from birth, gave you new life when you turned to him and committed to him. And he turns you into a beautiful, beautiful person with a future, with a purpose in life, going somewhere that people can't even imagine. But he goes, but you returned back to your roots. You forgot all that, and you turned back to the roots that had no future, and that was evil and vile and completely no future in God's eyes.

And then he starts describing who the sister is, these cities that are right there in that area around Jerusalem. Your elder sister is Samaria. Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you. And your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is Sodom and her daughters. So we have these two cities. Samaria, remember, is the capital of Israel at the time that Ezekiel is writing Israel, the house of Israel, the northern ten tribes, have gone into captivity. But Judah is still in existence. Babylon is conquering them. You remember Ezekiel is in the second wave of exiles that are taken out of Jerusalem and into a place where Nebuchadnezzar wants them to be. So he is in the process of conquering Jerusalem, and they're in the process, Judah is, of losing their land as well. So he says, so Samaria is this northern capital, and we know they went into captivity. And they had a sin. They returned to the roots of their land as well. They turned away from God and started worshiping idols and all the things of the land that was around them, rather than remaining in the covenant they had with God. And they lost their land. When we look at the sin of Samaria, you remember the story about King Ahab, Queen Jezebel.

Queen Jezebel especially hated God, hated anything of the God of Israel. Elijah was the prophet at that time, and you remember the prophets of Baal and how Elijah said, you call on your God Baal to consume this fire, and we'll call on the real God, and we will see who the real God of Israel is. And you remember the story back in, I think it's his second king, might be first king, that the prophets of Baal, 450 of them, danced and chanted all day long, but of course Baal wasn't going to consume the sacrifice they had there with fire. But when when Elijah prayed, fire came down from heaven and consumed that sacrifice. And Elijah said, now you know. Now it's been proven who the God of Israel is. But Jezebel was having none of it, and she was out to kill. So there was a sin of idolatry, a sin of idolatry in Samaria, and it was vile. And they turned away from God, and they went into captivity. They lost their land. And then in verse 46, but he brings up Sodom. And Sodom is right there in that area as well. They were a product of the land of the Hittites and the Amorites and the Jebusites, if you recall. They were evil. And Sodom is well known today. People may not remember what the sin of Samaria is, but everyone knows of the sin of Sodom. Very, very well known. In fact, Sodom is throughout the Bible in the New Testament and the Old Testament. It is a symbol of what God does to a people that completely depart from him. So if we keep our fingers there in Ezekiel 16, go back to the book of Jude. Jude is the book right before the book of Revelation, so the second from the last book in the Bible. There, God reminds us what the sin of Sodom was. But if anyone ever asks, you will know exactly where the Bible says what the sin of Sodom is. It's also there in Genesis 18. We'll get back to Genesis 18 in a little bit, where the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is. But in Jude, just one chapter in Jude, verse 7, says, As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them a similar matter in these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh.

So what is sexual immorality, but not just man, male, and female sex. Not heterosexual sex, but all this weird stuff that was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah as well. Given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. And you remember that they were consumed. They were consumed by fire, as God took the one man in his family lot out of Sodom, had to drag him out because Sodom was a comfortable place to live, despite all the depravity and sin that was part of it.

And then fire and brimstone rained down on Sodom. In 2 Peter 2, 2 Peter 2, in verse 6, it talks about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. So just a few books back in the New Testament. 2 Peter 2 verse 6 says, basically, God turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly.

So we kind of set the standard. If a nation departs from me, if they live in the manner of Sodom, if they live in the manner of Sodom and Gomorrah, this is what their lot is. When a nation turns from me, an idolatry consumes them, and they turn away from God, they're destroyed as Samaria was, or they lose their land as Samaria did. Here Sodom and Gomorrah, land filled with idolatry, land filled with violence, land filled with unspeakable sexual immorality, and God consumed it and destroyed it with fire. It's an example of what God does when a papal turned against them because they become so vile. We go back just a few more books in the Old Testament, actually very close to the beginning of the New Testament, in Romans 1.

We see in Romans 1 and verse 28, we see the effect of people who turn away from God, like Samaria did, like Sodom did, like Gomorrah did, like we see America doing today and becoming more and more vile in everything they do. In verse 28 of Romans 1, verse 28, it says, even as they didn't like to retain God in their knowledge, Samaria didn't, Sodom and Gomorrah didn't, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, and unmerciful. Just look at all those terrible characteristics. That was part of what Samaria was like. That was what Sodom was like. That's what we're like today, the societies that we live in, whether we're in America, Canada, some here on from Australia, some I know listen from Britain and other areas as well.

So we are like that. We are turning more and more from God to become like those like those cities. So if those cities were destroyed and those people in those lands who were God's people, who he richly blessed, they lost all their land. Sodom lost everything. Everyone in it died except Lot who God took out and saved him and his family from the destruction that came.

What will be the future? A just God. A just God handles things in the same way. So as we're in Ezekiel, well, let's go back and just look at Sodom back in Genesis as well, as long as we're talking about Sodom. So let's go back to Genesis and just look a little bit about the story for those who might be newer. Maybe we haven't looked at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah for a while. In Genesis 13, we first become acquainted with Sodom. It's not long. It's not long that after God, chapter 12, has Abram get out of his country and come to the land of Canaan, and Abram does. In chapter 13, verse 13, it says, well, verse 12 of chapter 13, it says, Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot his nephew dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. And so we see here's this sinful city that God points out. Lot's living in it. There's this sinful city, but interestingly, when you get into chapter 14, you see God using Abraham to save the city of Sodom and its kingdom from people who were invading it. When we look at chapter 14, you can see all the kings who are aligned there. They're positioned for war. The king of Sodom with his allies are on one side. Chederlomer and his kings are on the other side. Chederlomer wins. Right? The war. In verse 11 of chapter 14, it says, the opposition, the ones who are aligned against Sodom, they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions and went their way. They also took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelled in Sodom, and his goods and departed. So we've got Lot caught up into this warfare. Sodom and Gomorrah lose the war. They're taken off captive. Verse 14, Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, so he armed his 318 trained servants who were born in his own house and went in pursuit as far as Dan. And God blessed Abram's mission there. They defeated those kings. Here is what I said before. When you see Abram in this situation with his servants, he's becoming the nation that God said he would be becoming, a man of power that God was blessing. And so he goes out to war, and he wins. Verse 16, he brought back all the goods and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people. And then verse 18, we see Melchizedek, king of Salem. This is the area of Jerusalem here. Melchizedek, who is the man that has no genealogy, no beginning and no end, the one who became Jesus Christ. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram of God Most High.

Our blessed said, blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And so God delivered Sodom. Was the sin of Sodom complete at that time? Did God deliver Sodom because their sin wasn't complete? Or did he deliver Sodom because Lot was taken captive in it? And Lot maybe should have known and seen what the wickedness of that city was. Interestingly, in verse 20, if you ever are in a conversation with someone that talks about tithing, it was only for the Jews and for Israel, there we say, long before the Jews in Israel, Abram gave a tithe. He knew what tithing was, and he offered to God the 10% of everything that he has. And God blessed him for that. In chapter 15, we see a principle of God. As he's giving Abram a vision of what the future of his people, his descendants, would be, we just look at verse 16. He says, In the fourth generation, your descendants, Abraham, will return here. For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. God allows people to go on until he sees there is absolutely no turning back. Their minds are so demented. Their hearts are so turned against God, hardened against God, will not listen to the Word of God, that at that point he knows that they will not continue. But at this point in time, the iniquity of the Amorites, the people of that land, was not complete. It would be complete later.

And God would bring Abram and his descendants back to the land. He promised them at that time.

So we won't take the time to read Genesis 18, but you can read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18 if you want to. Later, I think you're very familiar with that story. When two angels came into Sodom and the story ensued from there, they had to literally drag Lot and his wife out, and then the city was destroyed. So let's go back to Ezekiel 16.

And we have the backdrop here of Sodom, who God is comparing Jerusalem, Israel, Israel, Judah, you and I, perhaps, if we turn against God, societies that become like Sodom and Gomorrah, who have sin that is ever increasing, ever agitating God, especially nations that have been so richly blessed by God, as we will see in a minute, that Sodom and Gomorrah was.

So in verse 46, let's look at 47 in Ezekiel 16. He says to the people he's writing this to, Jerusalem, again, remembering, let's look at this land that we live. Let's look at ourselves in this day and age, because this is written as much for us in the 21st century as it was for the people when Ezekiel wrote it. You didn't walk in their ways, God said. You didn't walk in the ways of Sodom and Samaria. They were pretty bad. They were destroyed. They lost everything because of what they did and how they sinned against me. You didn't walk in their ways, nor act according to their abominations, but as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways.

More corrupt than them. Samaria, idolatry, Jezebel, who hated God, who wanted to put to death any prophet of God or any people of God. They were wicked under that king, and they lost their land. Sodom was worse, filled with idolatry, filled with violence, filled with sexual immorality. That transcended what the normal, if I can use the word normal, sexuality of man, sexual immorality of man is without God. They transcended that. They were worse. They all perished, and the city was burned to the ground. You didn't walk in their ways, but you're even worse than them, God says. As I live, verse 48 says the Lord God, neither your sister Sodom, nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done. So when we look at the things that we look at today, when we look at who we are and the type of people that we are, and how Sodom is, how Sodom was, and what it can be today. A couple of verses I didn't go to as I'm looking at my notes here. Let's go to Jeremiah 23, just a few votes back, because again, God talks about what the some of the sins of Jerusalem was that led to their demise as well. We don't think of Judah as sinful as Sodom. They're renowned for that, but what they did was pretty bad. In Jeremiah 23, verse 14, it says, I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem.

They commit adultery and they walk in lies. Sexuality, sexual immorality is marked by them. Lies lies as part of their society. They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evil doers so that no one turns back from those wickedness. Instead of looking down on those who do evil, they actually promote the evil. They actually congratulate the evil. They actually high five, hey, you're of this sexual deviancy? Good for you. Go ahead and live your life the way you are. Hey, in fact, you should encourage all people to live your way, apart from God, apart from natural sexuality, what that God had intended. In fact, even have your children sexualized and turn them into some ones who can never have a good future, never have an adult life. You don't even commit adultery. You walk in lies and you strengthen the hands of evil doers. Think about what's going on in our societies today. Not just America, but the English-speakings around the world. Strengthening the hands of evil doers so that no one turns back from his wickedness. No one in society, no one in government, no one in the leadership rules is saying, no, no, no. We can't do this anymore. Enforce the laws of the land. Not what they do today, and do away with the laws of the land. Let's take them all away. Let's recreate everything and have no laws. Everyone does what they want in their own eyes. They strengthen the hands of evil doers so that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to me and her inhabitants like Amorrah. One of the sins that God said he absolutely detested in ancient Judah was that under King Manasseh, they actually did child sacrifice. And you remember him talking about that. They even sacrificed their children to these pagan gods. And that's almost as if it's a last straw with God. How could you do this? The children that I bless you with, that you would sacrifice them to a man-made idol? And they lost it. In fact, when you read through Jeremiah and you see King Manasseh, who actually does repent, but God says Judah is going to pay the penalty anyway because they were so wicked. They did all these things. They will still pay the penalty. Even though you, King Manasseh, you repented. It's a penalty still. There's always consequences for our sin. And we look at America today, and what do we see in the last few years? Abortion has become almost a god to people. They almost worship abortion. And you look at some of the things and what you hear around here, oh, it's got to be abortion. And not only just six weeks or 15 weeks or six months, it's right to full term. It's a right. We have to have it. And we see political parties just espousing this and people who become rabid protesting on it, waving their hands. And how is abortion any different than child sacrifice in God's eyes? It's been going on in this country legally since 1972. But in the last few years, it has gone completely, completely off the charts.

As the way it is almost worshipped, praised, counted as a right, and held up as something that we cannot do without. So when you look at Jerusalem, right, and you look at Judah, and God says, you're worse than Sodom. I don't know if there was abortion going on in Sodom and Gomorrah. We know all the evils that were going on there. But we know child sacrifice was going on in Judah. And God said, and everything else that we read in Jeremiah 23, 14, all those things were going on. We see them in our land. We see them in our land today where we're living as well. So we go back to Ezekiel 16. Again, you see the progression of evil. Samaria, evil, they lost their land.

The city wasn't itself destroyed, but Sodom and Gomorrah was. And God says, you're you, people.

Even in the 21st century, you're worse than them. As I live, verse 48 of Ezekiel 16, as I live, says the Lord God, neither your sister Sodom, nor your daughters have done, as you and your daughters have done. And then he says in verse 49, look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride. She and her daughter had fullness of food. She and her daughter had abundance of idleness. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. He never says. He never says sexual immorality. They had it. He never says wickedness and violence and lies. They had it. But look was at the root of all those sins they committed that led to their demise. Pride, fullness of food, abundance of idleness, didn't strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. Now, again, when you look at our societies today, that's the definition of who we are today. There has never been societies in the history of man that have been as wealthy, fullness of food as the English-speaking nations of the world.

America, Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Canada. Never been one that has had as much abundance of idleness. We have all sorts of idle time with all the modern conveniences that we have, and how do people consume that time in beneficial efforts or in gaming, looking at the internet, looking at pornography, as we hear is kind of a pandemic all across the world with what's going on there. How do they use their time? We certainly have abundance of idleness. And do we really strengthen the hand of the poor and needy? Do we really? So when we look at 1st 49, we say, whoa, that's us. That's our land. That's the land we live in. It defines us. And we are doing the same thing and have gone the same way as Sodom when you see the effects of all those things on us. You know, one of the Deuteronomy 8, is today Deuteronomy 8? Yeah, today is Deuteronomy 8, the Deuteronomy reading program that we are that we're doing worldwide as a church. Deuteronomy 8, it talks about when you have wealth. Remember, it's God who gives you wealth. And when you have that wealth, don't forget that it's him who gives it to you. Never forget that it's God. Remember, we've just read, remember what your what remember what God has done for you. And I have to say pretty often, actually, when times of trial and tribulation were in pain and have all these things going on around us, it's very easy, and I use that term lightly, easy to turn to God, and we want to turn to God, and we seek Him. But it's in times when we have plenty, when we have plenty of food, a lot of idle time that we can fill. That's the time. That's the bigger test. Do we stay close to God during that time? Do we remember it's him who gives us all these things? Or do we get caught up in the lap of luxury, and we let ourselves fall asleep spiritually, and forget who He is, what He has called us to become, and who we are, and the responsibility that we have to Him to continue and to maintain and to grow in the covenant that we've made to Him at the time that we were baptized.

It's all right here in verse 49. Couldn't speak more of the end time and the people, the time they're in now than in any other time. So Ezekiel, going on in verse 50 then, and they saw them, we're naughty. Are we haughty today? Yeah, we're haughty. We're prideful. Who can beat America? America, all we will stay here. We are the greatest nation ever, and it's because of God's blessings, but we are, as a nation, are forgetting those very quickly. They were haughty, and they committed abomination before me. Therefore, I took them away as I saw fit.

Therefore, I took them away as I saw fit. Samaria, he says, the capital of Israel, they lost their land 100-some years before Judah fell. Should have been a witness, should have been a warning, an example to Judah, stay close to God, but they ignored it. They ignored it, and God says they became even worse than them. Yeah, Xavier, go ahead. Hi, Rachiby. In regards to that, verse 50, it shows exactly what our Lord says in Matthew 10 and 11. In 1, he says, they shall be more tolerable for the land of Solomon, Gomorrah, and the day of judgment. Then in chapter 11, verse 23, he says, if the miracles that he did in Kappana was done there, they would have remained till today. So, as you say, he took them away as he saw fit according to his judgment, and all he's going to save. Yeah, a very good point. God used them as an example. Jesus Christ did. You're right. But while we're at it, let's go ahead and look at Luke 17, too. Because in Christ's own words in the Olivet prophecy, he makes reference to Sodom as well as to the time of Noah. Noah saw the end of his age come because of the wickedness and depravity of that time before the flood, and Sodom saw the end of their city as a result as well. So, Luke 17...

in verse...let's start in verse 26. Luke 17, 26. This is Christ talking about what will be the signs of the end times. He's talking about the end times here in this chapter. Luke 17, 26, it says, As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Life just went on, but suddenly the end came. Verse 28, likewise, as it was also in the days of Lot, Lot, you know, lived in Sodom, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built, but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, the very day that God took him, the angels took him and dragged him out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. So God uses those examples to show, you know, what it's going to be like at the end time, as it was in the days of Noah, as it was in the days of Lot.

We're living in times that look very, very much like that time that those men, that those men lived in. Let me look at the... Yeah, let's go on. I think in a minute I'm gonna... Let me go through a few more verses here, and then I want to bring up something that has been recently found, I guess, in archaeology regarding Sodom. But let me, let me, want to make sure we get through the rest of this chapter, and then I'll bring that up here in a few minutes. Okay, so we're in verse 50. God says, I took them all away. Verse 51, He says, Samaria didn't commit half of your sins. I mean, by comparison, they were, they were better than you. The sin is still sin. It brings about death. Samaria didn't commit half of your sins. But you've multiplied your abominations more than they, and you've justified your sisters by all the abominations which you have done. You who judged your sisters, saying you look down on them, you would look at Samaria and say, look at those people. How foolish could they have been? They actually lost what God had given them. And what a sinful nation they are. But you didn't see it in yourselves. You didn't see that you were going the same way. People look down on Sodom. Wow, what a wicked, what a wicked city it was. But then look, look around, and we're doing the same thing. Saying you look down on them. You who judged your sisters bear your own shame also because the sins which you committed were more abominable than theirs. They are more righteous than you. Yes, be disgraced also and bear your own shame because you justified your sisters. You, you showed that you were worse. You were worse than them, God is saying. And so, as it is in the end time, when we look at what Christ says, and He talks about tribulation and such as that was not from the beginning of the world till the till that time and never again shall be, we look at the things and we see it just gets worse and worse and worse. I think it's in 2 Timothy 3. Think around verse 13 that it says evil imposters grow worse and worse and worse if they just get further and further and further away from God.

So He talks about that, and He talks about all this, and He pretty much, He's pretty much saying, look what the world is doing. Look at the world around you and see how it is operating.

I think I saw a yellow light. I don't see a hand up. Okay, so verse 53. When I bring back, you know, God talks about, Bud, Bud, did you have a comment?

Okay. No, no. Oh, okay, okay. Very good. You know, God talks about these things, and, and they're hard things to hear, but people bring it upon themselves by their actions. And so you read about destruction, and you read about God destroying this city and taking people captive and sending them into captivity, but there's always hope in God. But when that happens, it's always because of what we do. God never wanted to do any of that, but it is the just recompense and the just remuneration for what men do when they turn away from God. He sets the standard. He says, this, you do this, there will be blessings. I'll prolong your days in that land. I want to give you the blessings. I want life to be good, pleasant, joyful, abundance for everyone. But it's always man that turns against God and thinks he's going to do things his own way. And God says, if you don't, there's only one way that works. His way works. But he brings back. And so in verse 53, verse 53, he starts talking about that, that he will be bringing back these captives. Yes, Samaria and Israel was taken captive. They lost their land. Israel never returned to the Promised Land. And Sodom, for Sodom was destroyed. When I bring back their captives, he says, the captains of Sodom and her daughters, and the captives of Samaria and her daughters, then I will bring back the captives of your captivity among them. It won't be for a long time. The people of Sodom died. So they won't be resurrected until the Second Resurrection, as we read in Revelation 20. And the people of Samaria, the descendants of Israel, they will go into captivity. The Bible tells us, too, there is Jacob's trouble that we read about in Jeremiah 30. And they talk about, and we've read about it in Ezekiel 5, 6, and 7, that their people will be taken captive. They will die by the sword. They will die by famine. They will die by pestilence. And a remnant will be saved because God will not completely destroy Israel. He'll bring them back, as we read many times in the book of Isaiah, back to the Promised Land at the time Christ returns and the restoration of the earth begins. When I bring back their captives, I'll bring back the captives of your country among them, 54, verse 54, that you may bear your own shame.

Ah, you're going to recognize your shame. You're going to realize when you're in captivity and you've lost everything, kind of realize what you've done, how you did it to yourself. In Ezekiel 6, we'll read it again in Ezekiel 20, God says Israel will loathe themselves. And they will come to repentance, and they will realize they're the ones who did it. They will hoathe themselves because of what they did that brought it upon themselves. That you may bear your own shame and be disgraced by all that you did when you comforted them. When your sisters, verse 55, Sodom and her daughters returned to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters returned to their former state, then you and your daughters will return to your former state. That hasn't happened yet. That's for the future. So we know that these verses haven't been fulfilled. Judah is the only one who, after 70 years in captivity, that God opened the door for them to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple as we read in Ezra and then as we went through the book of Nehemiah.

That hasn't happened yet. So we know this is speaking about us, people that live at the end time who will go through these things we're reading in the book of Ezekiel, and then God will bring them back, those who remain alive. And then at the second resurrection, when the rest of the people have an opportunity to live again and understand the truth that God is teaching you and me today, they will have the opportunity to choose God as well and be returned to the states as God says here.

Verse 56, for your sister Sodom was not a byword in your mouth in the days of your pride, in the days when you were full of yourself and you were running around doing all the things, thinking you were incocorable and impenetrable and all these other things. It means that what that verse really means is that you held them in contempt.

You look down on Sodom. We look at Sodom and think, what a pathetic land, what a pathetic city that they could do that to themselves, and yes, God and yet God says you're worse than them. And when we look at our society realistically, we have to say, yes, they're worse than us. Did they really do the things in our society, their society, that we do today? I don't know, but I have to wonder. My guess is not as much when you look at how even our children and every part of the whole world is just so perverted.

Your sister Sodom was not a byword in your mouth. You held them in utter contempt when you were prideful and thinking you were riding the high hills of earth. In the days of your pride, before your wickedness was uncovered. Oh, Judah's wickedness was uncovered. Ours will be uncovered. It's there in glaring witness around us all today.

Half of the world or more doesn't really get it in the societies we live in. They think it's wonderful. They are out there, you know, championing it and thinking that all of the rest of us who have normalcy, even normalcy without God's Holy Spirit, normal morality, if we can call it that, think we're the kind of fools as they parade around and do all their things to try to make their way look so well. Before your wickedness was uncovered, God will reveal wickedness.

He always does. And it always comes. It has always repaid. Before your wickedness was uncovered. It was like the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, he says, and all those around her. You look down on them, evil pagan people, evil people, we're God's people, they're evil and pagan, and yet Israel looked at their gods, tried to adopt them, all these things, trusting in the world and not putting God first.

Reproach of the daughters of Syria and all those around her and of the daughters of the Philistines who despise you everywhere. Again, it says, those verses, if we put it into language we could understand better, it means now they look down on you. You reproach them, you look down on them as these poor, pathetic people, but now they look down on you. And you know, as we look at the world around us and we see nations that we don't respect, we don't respect Islam, we know it's a false religion, we don't respect the governments of Russia that even want, you know, in the Soviet Union time didn't want God, but they look down on us.

What is going on in America? We don't want anything to, we don't want to be anything like America. What they're talking about over there, what they're doing over there, and what they're turning into isn't anything. And they look, they look down on us, and when God executes His judgment on this land and things happen in the way the Bible says it will, they'll look down on us with utter contempt just as we might look down on them in utter contempt today.

You have said, you have paid, verse 58, for your lewdness and your abomination, says the eternal. For thus he says, I will deal with you as you have done who despised the oath by breaking the covenant. So God is saying again, you brought it upon yourself.

You did it! You entered into the agreement! I blessed you! I kept every part of the bargain that I entered into, but you broke it. You went off and followed other gods. You went off and followed your own way. You violated the covenant. You were the adulterous. You were the harlot. You were the one who positioned yourself or prostituted yourself to anyone who would see. You put other gods before me. And we have to remember, you know, that first commandment. No other gods besides God. That's who we trust. That's who we love. And we do things the way that he asks us to because we love him. We have that agape love for him that we must develop and that comes from his Holy Spirit. So God says, I'm going to deal with you. I'm going to deal with you as you've done. You did it! So now we're going to reap what you have sown. Nevertheless, verse 60, there's always the mercy in God. There's always the hope. There's always looking forward because he will not completely destroy man. Mankind, Satan, and Satan's spirit in mankind would bring the earth to the brink of destruction. His will is mankind would perish. God won't let that happen. Nevertheless, he says, verse 60, I'll remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. That will come at the time of Christ's return. That will come when Israel and people realize we've sinned against God. He is the true God. We've read so many times in Isaiah and Ezekiel, then they will know that I am the eternal. God says, then they will know that I am God. When we know that, when they know that, he'll establish that everlasting covenant with them. Then you will remember, verse 61, your ways and be ashamed. You're going to look back and say, how could we have been so silly? How did we ever let ourselves go down the path that we did to lose everything and then suffer the tremendous amounts of suffering that we've suffered and brought on other people because of our actions? Because we didn't remember and we didn't want God in our lives. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and your younger sisters. When they're there with you and they're being brought back from captivity, when they're remembering what they have done and realizing, wow, what idiots we were to live that way and not pay attention. There were prophets during that time as well. Remember Ezekiel is a prophet and he's prophesying to the people at that time. God tells him, Ezekiel, they're not going to listen to you. Their hearts are hard. They're not going to pay any attention. As we've gone through the book, God is not just having Ezekiel speak, but also act out these acts of him going into captivity, laying on his side. Maybe they'll get the attention. Maybe they'll listen in this way because God sends the prophets. He sends the warnings that the people might turn back.

He says, Ezekiel, they're not going to listen to you. Their hearts are too hardened. They're determined to go on the path that they've gone on. But he says, Ezekiel, and it's a message to us at the church today, do it anyway. Preach the gospel anyway. If none of them listen, you keep doing it. And even when Christ is returning, you find, let him find you so doing the commission that he gave you. Verse 61, you will remember, then you will remember your ways. You'll be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters, for I will give them to you for daughters, but not because of my covenant with you. I will, verse 62, establish my covenant with you. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. Then they will know, and once when they know, they won't turn back. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame. Once Israel turns back, we read about it in Isaiah, they will be loyal to God. They will recognize their sin, just as you and I do, and we, when God opens our minds, and we repent, and we realize that the way we lived our lives was contrary to him. And we turn to him with all our hearts, and we remember who we were, what our, what we were like, how we would have lived. We know what our weaknesses were. They need to remain buried, and they help, it helps to be for them to remain buried when we have the fear of God, and we remember who he is, what he has done for us, and how he has brought us into a life that has purpose and meaning and a future that trans anything this world could ever offer. If we would just remember that, all of us, and always choose to follow God, that you will remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame when I provide you an atonement for all you have done. God will forgive. He always forgives when we repent before him in genuine repentance and turn back to him.

Later on in Ezekiel, we'll be reading over and over again, turn to me, Israel. Turn back. Turn back. Why would you die? Turn back to God. And this is what he's saying here.

You will, when I provide an atonement for all you have done, says the Lord God. So, quite an interesting chapter, chapter 16, teaches us a lot about who we are. And the history, the history of mankind and how they rejected God and how his people that he created, as you remember, he created Israel through those miracle births of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and created the people that he was going to bless. And then they turned against him, never remembering those things. Before we've got a few minutes left, I do want to just bring up one thing for you to look at here.

We talked about Sodom and Gomorrah and the utter destruction that they have. God rained down fire and brimstone and the city was just instantly incinerated. And for decades, if not centuries, men have debated. Did that really happen? Where is there evidence that that really happened? And whatever. So, within the last few years, there have been some archaeological discoveries over in the Middle East where there has been remnants of what certainly appears, they say, an unusual occurrence that matches the biblical description of what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah almost exactly. So let me pull up something from an archaeological journal here.

And just kind of, you know, what this does is just show us, you know, we live in an age where we have these archaeological discoveries. And I'll have to say that I personally, you know, I find them interesting. But as I've looked at this, and then recently someone has brought another archaeological discovery of another significant in the Bible that we're looking at and may do a documentary on, this one about Sodom and Gomorrah is just interesting in these days when we see everything around us fading, that God is bringing to light that the Bible really is real. And so you read about this Sodom and Gomorrah and what the people are saying about that. I think the, I know that R Beyond Today magazine had a feature article on Sodom and Gomorrah as well. You may see one on some other things as well that God is showing, perhaps in this end time, the Bible is real. The Bible is true. All this doubt and all this skepticism that people have laid on it over the years, you know, that wasn't too many years ago that they discovered the Red Sea crossing. And as they, you know, that God delivering Israel from Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea really happened as they found ancient chariot wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea where Israel would have crossed. It's like, whoa, that really did happen. The Bible is really real. And here's Sodom and Gomorrah. Let me just read through a little bit of this. You can read it yourself as well. But, you know, they talk about the city, Teil el-Hammam. A once thriving city existed around 3600 years ago and was more significant in size and power than Jerusalem or Jericho. So it was a notable city, right? Sodom was a nice place to live. It had a lot of comfort, as we read, fullness of food. It had pride. It had all this leisure time. It was a physically a good place to live, like America. And the English-speaking nations are great places to live today. It was more significant in size and power than Jerusalem or Jericho. However, its sudden disappearance has puzzled archaeologists for years. Notably, there's a distinct absence of signs of military siege or conflict in the ruins, suggesting a different cataclysmic cause. So as archaeologists who are trained in this, to look and see what happened, it's like, well, this city didn't fall by the typical military siege. It just something just happened out of the blue that caused its demise. One of the key revelations was the discovery of extreme heating on skeletal remains and pottery fragments at the site.

This heat damage could potentially be attributed to an asteroid impact, similar to what is described in Genesis 19. Now, this is not the Beyond Today magazine. This is an independent archaeology secular magazine talking about this with the findings of archaeologists that they're quoting here. The heat damage could potentially be attributed to an asteroid impact, similar to what is described in Genesis 19 when God rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah, completely annihilating them. Pieces of pottery found at the site were covered in a substance known as trinotite, which is, quote, that glass layer that you get when you set off an atomic bomb in the desert and it melts the sand. You have to absorb that a little bit. This is what they're finding. It's like, this is what we're finding at this site. This is not even possible back 3,600 years ago. The presence of trinotite adds weight to the theory that a high-energy event, like an asteroid impact, occurred in the area. And then they go on. The article says human skeletons that they found there are complete, up until about halfway up the backbone. And then there's just a scorch mark and there's nothing on the top of the body. They found massive evidence that a huge heat blast from the sky at about 25—I'm guessing that's something above the horizon—incinerated these tweens, twin cities on the Jordanian side of the river. The event—they go on as they look at around there—the event also appears to have generated significant amounts of salt, much like the biblical account of Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt after the destruction of Sodom. And then they also, in that article, talk about, and perhaps that's where the Dead Sea that's so full of salt came from. Could that have been an after-effect of this biblical or this event? The discovery of the site had quite an effect on one of the lead archaeologists. After reviewing the site of the biblical narrative, he commented, it really changed my perspective on the Old Testament map, because what it pointed out to me is things that sounded too outlandish to be history is actually shown to be a historical event.

You become a believer when you see these things and realize there's no other explanation for it. So sometimes, you know, when you have these archaeological finds that prove the Bible, and we live in an age where this is possible. Wouldn't have been possible probably five, six hundred years ago. Today it is possible. And as God perhaps is leading these expeditions and these discoveries that is telling the world the Bible is real, pay attention to it. Read it. It is truth. It is life. It's where hope and the future lie.

Okay, let me stop there and open it up for any questions, comments, anything that anyone wants to talk about. Hey, Rick. Yes.

I gave a sermonette on Sodom Gomorrah. And the sulfur, there's there's sulfur that they found there, and it's only found in the cities destroyed by God. It's 96% sulfur. It's white. It's not yellow. It burns at 5000 degrees. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah made out of sandstone. They lose their integrity to about either 3200 or 4000 degrees. So basically it annihilated everything. Now, if you get to thinking about this, this came down and that stuff burns black. I mean, you can go out there to those sites and you can dig those little round things about the size of a golf ball. You can break them out of their crust and you can take a wooden match and you can light those things and they'll flame right up there in the open.

Wow. I mean, the only place you'll find this in the world is those cities God destroyed.

And they're there. And I think God presented this now is because he said, hey, I'm still in power here. This is what I did to the people that I was in. I was in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. Didn't believe me. And if you go into Revelation, here comes that brimstone again. And brimstone, all it is is sulfur. And when it comes out of the sky, it's on fire. So, okay, that's my two cents for a go. Excellent. Now, they're very good. I, yeah, I mean, you said it all. It is a powerful witness of that, of what God has done and the proof of the Bible. The proof of the Bible with so many does up today. Mr. Palmanka. Give me one second. I turn off our speaker. It's actually both of us, but mine's gonna be a bit shorter. I have some like really good news I wanted to share.

Because I know a lot of a lot of you have known what's been going on for the last eight, eight months. And this last summer has been a bit difficult with my, I'm happy to say my previous bus employer. They've been making things a bit harder for me. And not to make ill will, but they also try to sour my now new employment. I now work for a school district and I'm doing more of what I've been wanting to do. I'm doing more different types of bus routes. I'm driving, I'm doing sports trips. I'm happy I got a call today. It was like the second day of school started and I got a call from my transportation office and I'm doing two sports trips next week.

One is a high school soccer team game, which I'm like excited because that's my father's favorite sport and I do love it too. So it's like I'm very happy. It's like everything is going in a really slow but better direction and I wanted to share that with you. Yeah, well very good. Thank you. Thank you and we're glad it is. We're glad it is. I'm sure God will continue you on that path and we'll pray for that. Not for my turn. Yeah. I listened to a sermon by Mario Segni. You probably know where I'm going with this and he said he stayed over after the Council Belles meeting and it was somebody, the guy was a former Marine, a lawyer, and I don't know what part of archaeological things he does but they found Noah's Ark. Yeah. It's real. Well, we're still, that's the project we've been talking about. We're still asking questions and that, you know, we're working with Mario and this archaeologist on that to see where it is. So yes, yeah. So we'll just leave that there right now. We still have some work to do. Well, I find fascinating is Daris McNeely is organizing a trip to go to Turkey in the fall holidays. How far is it from where he wants to go to? Pretty far. He doesn't have that on his end. Actually, the Turkish government has guards around that site now. So you can't... Yeah, as Mario said, we mentioned that. It's a protected site and it's getting interesting. Yeah, it's getting interesting. Very good.

Hey, Mr Murray.

Well, greetings from Australia once again and thank you very much for an excellent Bible study, Mr Shaby. I really enjoy these Bible studies. I'm sure we all do. Yeah, it's wonderful to see that information coming out about Sodom and also to hear the comments there from one of our members here in regard to their sermonette coming up. It is wonderful to look at the prophecies of the Bible, which point to the proof of the Bible. I think there's over 333 prophecies of Christ's first coming and there's about 1500 prophecies of Christ's second coming in the Old Testament and about 300 prophecies of his second coming in the New Testament. So it's interesting how these prophecies and these events, historical events, do point to the proof of the Bible. Just quickly, I just wanted to highlight that verse 55 again. You brought out the point that Sodom will be returned to her former estate and this is yet again another one of those scriptures that point to a second resurrection. For Sodom to be returned to her second estate or to her previous estate, I should say, would mean that they would need to be given life again. It also illustrates too, incredibly, the mercy of God that he will actually even resurrect again to physical life these people who were really quite perverted in their ways and quite extremely apart from God's law. Yeah, God is ultimately merciful and he says I'm not willing that any should perish. He will provide those opportunities for us to turn to him.

Hey, Colin. Good evening, Pastor Shabbat. I just wanted to let you know that 25c, the c there, stands for celestial horizon. So if you imagine the ground underneath your feet at zero degrees, there they're referencing the blast angle from the aerial burst of the meteorite came down and had a 25 degree impact. The blast of the heat, that's the angle that hit the man.

Okay, I knew when I was about to read it, I thought I remember seeing that c when I pulled that off and I thought, oh, I forgot to look, but I knew it couldn't mean Celsius. But I thought I have no idea what it means. Thank you for filling in the blank on that. Bye, Clips.

Okay, anything else? Anyone?

Oh, okay. Yeah, Bill. Hi. Yes, hi, Mr. Shabbat, and thank you for your study. Very beautiful. Finishing Ezekiel 16, it reminded me of the story we're trying to understand, grace, God's grace, and we have a booklet on grace to help us understand that. And I think here's an illustration where we can, by looking at this chapter and looking at his response to this whole matter, that he extends this wonderful grace as well. We already mentioned the mercy, but also let's, I think, highlight his grace to allow Israel to get it right, after all.

Very good. Yeah. Okay, very good. Thank you. Bud, how are you tonight? Well, excellent, Bob. Starting in chapter 16 shows us, the more we feed up on the things of importance, without God's Spirit leading us, it shows us just how vile we can become. I think we can become. Very good. It tells us that we need to remind the 10 virgins, because we're getting close to the end, a nation of Israel is divided. I think we all know that. The nation is Israel is very divided now. We know that the nation that's divided cannot stand very long. Yeah. And so, we know that the Israel falls according to Hosea chapter 6 verse 6.

And we still believe this, that within a month, the UK, the United States falls along with them.

And we should, if we don't have a one-on-one relationship with God, we may be doing the things in our lives that we're not aware of, like, becoming part of what was in Ezekiel chapter 16. So, we need to stay very close to God. Absolutely. Absolutely. We all need to remember that. Every day. Every day, and then some. Okay. Okay. Anything else, anyone? Okay. Well, I'm going to go ahead and say good night. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. Great to be with you. Have a good rest of the week. A good Sabbath. We will see some of you. Well, in Cincinnati, I guess, the Sabbath will be there. And the rest of you, we look forward to seeing you next Wednesday night. Okay. Good night, everyone! Bye!