Ezekiel Bible Study: February 19, 2025

So tonight, we will be in Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36, and we're leading into some chapters here that are really quite exciting when you step back and look at them and see what God is doing. These are all prophetic scriptures and chapters since we've been in Ezekiel 33. They speak to the future. One of the things I've come to realize in the last few days is we've posted some of these things out for the world to see. The world really doesn't understand the book of Ezekiel. They don't understand that God is talking about the time in these chapters after Jesus Christ returns, and that is valuable knowledge for us to understand what are in these chapters.

Last week, you'll remember, we were in chapter 35. We also looked at Zechariah 11, but we were in we were in chapter 35 of Ezekiel, and I talked about it being kind of like a preparatory chapter for 36 and beyond. Because in chapter 35, we see God, the land over there, the promised land around Israel just becoming desolate. He rid the people of the people that were there, opened the land up again to give it back, as we will see, to the children of Israel, which he will bring back from captivity after the time of Christ's return.

So with that in mind, we go into chapter 36, and it's kind of a triumphant chapter, if you will. It's the story of a people who God created, Israel, the houses of Israel and Judah, all one at one time, to be joined back together again as one. When we get into chapter 37, we will see. And they, God gave them a law. If they had just followed it, they would have been able to stay forever in that land.

But they rejected him, they turned away from him, followed the ways of the nations around them, and they lost it all. But God never lost sight of them, and he will bring them back to the land he promised to Abraham way back in Genesis when we read it. So in chapter 36, coming out of chapter 35, where he has prepared the land for the return of his people to the land, he promised them way back millennia before, he says, and you, speaking to Ezekiel, and you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, O mountains of Israel, hear, hear the word of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord God, because the enemy has said of you, Aha, the ancient heights have become our possession. Now here God is saying, this is what's going to happen to Edom, and this is what happened to them as it that resulted in chapter 35, and God, you know, vacating the land of them.

It's because of this. It's this attitude that we have, we saw in Isaiah. It's the attitude that we've seen in these neighboring nations in Ezekiel, where when God takes, I don't want to use the word vengeance, judgment on Israel, and they're beginning to experience the consequences of their sins, the other nations around start rejoicing.

They start merrymaking. They think, oh good, this land is ours now. They're just sitting and waiting for the land to become theirs. And God says, Thus says the Lord God, because the enemy has said of you, Aha, the ancient heights have become our possession. Therefore, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord God, because they made you desolate and swallowed you up on every side, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations.

And you are taken by the lips of, and really when you look at the word talkers in the Hebrew, it's evil talkers, you are taken up by the lips of evil talkers and slandered by the people, because all this happened to you, this is what they did to you. Therefore, oh mountains of Israel, hear the word, O Lord God. Thus God says to the mountains, the hills, the rivers, the valleys, the desolate wastes, and the cities that have been forsaken, which became plunder and mockery, which became plunder and mockery to the rest of the nations all around.

You know, this is what he says. They all became, you know, this land became desolate, and they mocked you, they were happy to see your demise. They had no natural, no natural feeling for you at all. Therefore, thus says the Lord God. Verse 5, Surely I have spoken in my burning jealousy against, against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom. Remember that map? That map of those nations there? All of that area, Esau, the descendants of Abraham from his other wife, or not his other wife, the concubine from Hagar.

In my burning jealousy—well, Edom actually was Esau, the twin of Jacob—surely I have spoken in my burning jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave my land to themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and spiteful minds in order to plunder its open country.

They were joyous. They thought it was all about them. They thought that it was by their power, their might, that they were able to conquer Israel and have the death sheared from its land. But it really was God. It was really God. Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel.

Say to the mountains, the hills, the rivers and the valleys. Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and my fury, because you have borne the shame of the nations. Because you, Israel, you have borne the shame of the nations. It happened to Israel back then. When we look to the future, we know that the land of God's physical people today—Manasseh, Ephraim, United States, Britain, the English-speaking nations of the world—we've departed from God. We know the Bible shows us that these nations will fall in the end, and it'll be the same thing there.

The nations that are there at the time that America, Britain, Canada all fall, they will be gleeful. They will march in. They will want to take all the possessions. They'll be high-fiving each other. They'll be thinking they did it all, and they will just be very happy and joyful when they see the people of God's people, right? God's people, like physical people, conquered. It'll be the same thing that's there. They'll mock it, and they'll say, what's become of you?

Look what you've done. You've plundered everything that you had. It'll be the same type of thing that we did then. Israel back then was taken out of their land, and they were taken captive. And then Israel in the future—not the location of Israel, but the physical Israel today—they will be taken captive, the Bible says as well. Wherever country it is that God takes them, and then we'll see later in this chapter, He will bring all those descendants, the remnants back, that survive the time ahead of us.

So what happened before happens again. And this is also speaking of the time, of course, ahead of us. Yeah, Bill, comment.

Yes, thank you. Just a question. Notice in verse 5, where in the New King James it refers to Edom and against Edom. And I wonder if you can say something about, in the Old King James, you have Idumea. Oh, Idumea, okay. Something about Idumea, and what was the significance, maybe, of that name? Actually, yeah. Edom is the name of the Old Testament. I'm actually surprised they had the Idumea. Idumea is Edom. If you remember King Herod, he's an Idumean. He was from Edom. So when you see Idumea, it's the same as Edom. Just a different language. And for some reason, they use that in the Old King James. That's surprising a little bit. So.

Okay, let us go on. Where was I?

Yeah, you have borne the shame of the nations. Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have raised my hand in an oath, that surely the nations that are around you shall bear their own shame. I want to just pause, because in this section here, we've seen this before. You'll remember, in Assyria, God used them to conquer ancient Israel, and they took pride. They became very prideful in everything that they did, and they didn't realize it was God, or remember that it was God, or give him any acknowledgement at all. So I'm just going to read. We go back to Isaiah 10. I'm going to read verses 5 through 7, because it's really the same sentiment. It's one that we just need to remember when we see it happening to us.

This is what natural, carnal, human nature does. We need to remember the things that happen in life. God is in control. They happen because of him. Sometimes, when not good things happen to us, we might need to look at ourselves, too, and ask God, what is it that I'm doing? Did I have either some sin or wicked way in me that needs to be rooted out that you're trying to draw my attention to? But in verse 5 of Isaiah 10, under inspiration Isaiah records, woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger. God is saying there, the rod of my anger. I had a comment that I haven't responded to yet from the biblical worldview thing we released last week. The person made the comment that God never uses. He never uses anyone gentile. He only uses his people. And I thought, no, you're getting a response, buddy, because God does use other nations. And here's one of them. Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger, and the staff in whose hand is my indignation. I will send him against an ungodly nation. It's the people of my wrath. I will give him charge to seize the spoil, take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Yet he doesn't mean so, nor does his heart think so, but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off, not a few nations. So God is the one who used Assyria to punish Assyria, and then they were all gleeful. And look what we've done. Verse 12, God says, therefore it shall come to pass when the Lord has performed all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that he will say, I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his haughty looks. And it's the same thing we see. This is an aspect of human nature. It'll happen again, just like it had happened back then so many times. So this is what God is saying there. The first part of this chapter, this is why those nations had to be put away. But he's saying, Israel, your time of punishment is over. The time of your shame is over. I'm going to bring you back and give you the land that I had given to you before. God uses the word—well, let me go on here. We'll find that word. He uses the word oath in here. I think I just read the word oath here in a little bit. Yeah, okay. Well, we'll read it again a little bit later. Verse 8 then, if we're back in Ezekiel 36, he says, He says, But you, you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they are about to come.

So as he now here, he's going to begin speaking to the land. Here's this land that he promised to Abraham way, way, way long ago. He in an oath gave it to Abraham. It's God's land to give, and he made a promise to Abraham that all this land that you see, it is going to be your inheritance. And he still sees it as that. He is the one who has the right to give the land. And so he's talking to the land now. You're about to shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they're about to come. So we can see they're about to come back to the land God had put them on, and the land will blossom at that time.

For indeed, God says in verse 9, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. Well, he's talking about the people too, but we have this metaphor of the land as well that's going on here. They are going to be richly blessed. This is the land that God had given to his people. I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, all of it, and the cities shall be inhabited, and the ruins rebuilt. Remember all the desolation that took place. We read about in chapter 35 that we read about in other places. The land will be left desolate. It will be leveled. But it's going to be rebuilt, God says. We're going to the cities will again be inhabited. The ruins will be rebuilt. Verse 11, I will multiply upon you man and beast, and they shall increase. They shall increase and bear young. I will make you inhabited as in former times and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Well, you'll remember that when God gave Israel that land, he said that he would richly bless them. Let's just turn back to Genesis 49 and read that blessing of Israel that he gave them at the time when Jacob is about to die. It says in chapter 49 verse 1, this is what will befall those 12 sons in the latter days. Of course, right before chapter 48, Jacob had laid his hands on Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and said, let my name be upon them. So when we come to verse 22, chapter 49, we know these are Joseph's sons, and he has quite a blessing that he gives to Joseph.

Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Joseph is a fruitful bough. He's going to have plenty. His crops are going to be blessed. He himself will be blessed with much offspring. He's a fruitful bough by a well. You know how it is when you plant something right by the water and it's continually watered? The plant just flourishes. It just keeps growing and growing and growing and growing. He'll be a fruitful bough by a well. His branches run over the wall. And of course, we have, you know, the land was initially in the little island of England over there, and they did multiply and multiply and multiply. And as the people were richly blessed and multiplied, they spread out to America, to Canada, to Australia, to New Zealand, and all these places that God had preserved for them to go. And they went there, and they made those places that they inhabited very fruitful as well. They were bountiful places that God blessed as He kept those places and moved His people, a very blessed people, into those areas of the world. His branches run over the wall.

Talks about how people hate Him, verse 24, but as Baal remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. For there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. Talks about the blessings that they have by the God of your Father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breast and of the womb. Talks about all these blessings that come, and all the bounty when you recognize the nations. And I think I probably mentioned this Bible study before. I haven't used Chapp-GT, but someone did, and they said, you know, when you, and they told Chapp-GT, when you look at Genesis 49, when you look at what the God's blessing is, and just look at the Bible, talk to say, what, where, if this prophecy is fulfilled, where is it fulfilled in the world today of God bless us? And I was told, I didn't actually say it, that Chapp-GT came back and said, the only two nations that this could possibly apply to in the history of the world is Great Britain and the United States of America, because they have been so richly blessed above all the other nations ever. And then he says in verse 26, the blessings of your father have excelled, the blessings of my ancestors, up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers. You remember the story of how he was separate from his, from his brothers. So we have this blessing that God gave them. They lost it because of their disobedience, but now as he brings them back, Christ has returned, and he is going to bring his people back to the Promised Land. And again, he's telling them these blessings, reminding them, these are the blessings that you were given, if you would have obeyed God, and as you will obey God going forward, because we will see they will recognize what they have done, what they brought upon themselves.

So he says there, you know, I'll multiply in verse 11. We just read that. I will do better for you than at your beginnings, if you can imagine. I mean, we live in America and Canada, and most of us are in the English-speaking areas that are on here on this Bible study night.

We have been richly blessed in comparison to the rest of the world, and God says, I'll do better for you then than at your beginnings. Verse 12, speaking again about the land, yes, I will cause men to walk on you, my people, Israel. They shall take possession of you, and you shall be their inheritance. No more shall you bereave them of children. So God is saying, yeah, when I give them the land this time, it's going to be theirs for the rest of time. No one is going to take the land away from them anymore. They aren't going to lose it anymore.

It's going to go on and say there won't be any more wars on it anymore. There won't be any more battles on it anymore. The land is going to be at peace as Israel dwells on it. Verse 13, no more shall you bereave them of children, meaning talking about the wars that would occur on this land, the wars that have been fought over in that area of the world, down through history. And that is what we've just recently seen here with this war between Israel and Hamas.

Verse 13, it says to the Lord God, because they say to you, you devour men and bereave your nation of children. Therefore, you shall devour men no more. No more wars. No more of those things on the land that take people's lives. No one will be battling over it. It will be given. It's given by God, and it will be theirs. Therefore, you shall devour men no more, nor bereave your nation anymore, says the Lord God.

These are quite interesting blessings that God says as he goes down and talks about the way of man and how the permanence and the permanent peace that will come under his rule. Verse 15, nor will I let you bear the taunts of the nations anymore, nor bear the reproach of the peoples anymore, nor shall you cause your nation to stumble anymore, says the Lord God. Other nations aren't going to be taking potshots at you. They're not going to be looking to remove you from the land, and you won't be doing the things anymore that lead to your demise, because Israel did it, America is doing it, Canada is doing it, England is doing it, all the nations of the world are doing it and bringing the wrath of God on them or the consequences of turning from him.

Verse 16, let me make sure I'm not forgetting some things here I wanted to talk about. No, not yet. Okay. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, saying, so God has set the stage here. The other nations are gone.

I'm going to bring you back. I prepared the land, and now they're about to come back to the land. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, saying, son of man, son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it, own ways and deeds. Well, okay, I'm a little bit ahead of myself here. Here he's going to recount for Israel, this is what you did. This is why you lost the land in the first place. When the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds.

To me, their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity. So God is saying it was just an unclean land. They were an unclean people. They didn't do what I said. They didn't follow my principles at all. So I had to stay away from them. They weren't honoring my name. You know, God will come back down and later He'll say, you know, I did this for my name's sake. You know, it wasn't because Israel was good.

Yes, He loves them. Yes, He sees them as His people. But they didn't do the things, they didn't honor God's name by the way they behaved. And you know, I think last night, or not last night, last week, the question was asked, what does it mean in our name, right, or in God's name? It means that we walk in His ways. If we tell people that we are in the Church of God and that we believe in God and we keep His holy ways, His holy days, the Sabbath, we live by every word of the Bible, our lives need to demonstrate that.

So that when they see us, and they might question, wow, they really are honest. I can trust what they say. They don't twist the story. They're not looking to take advantage of me. They do what they say they're going to do. They're very pleasant. They're very caring. You know, the whole nine yards.

And they look at us and it's like, yeah, those are people who are following their God. We would like to be like them. They follow their God. And so the nation of Israel didn't. They didn't. God said it was like unclean. And if you remember the Old Testament, you know, the Old Testament rituals, during that period of uncleanness, husband stays away.

So God said, when you're unclean to me, Israel, I stay away. You're not you're not honoring. You're unclean. You're unclean to me.

So in verse 18, he says, because you were unclean, because you defiled the land that I gave you, therefore I poured out my fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land and for their idols with which they defiled it. Violence in the land, war on the land, fighting over the land, defiling the land, idols that they worshipped. And so as a result of all these things that they did, in contrast to what God wanted them to do, and in contrast to the way of life he gave them, and told them, if you live by it, it'll be good for you. In contrast to that, they did the opposite. In verse 19, they lost the land, so I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries, judged them according to their ways and their deeds. God is just.

God is just. They did it. They brought it upon themselves by disregarding God. If we suffer because we depart from God, he's a just God. He tells us what will happen. If we disobey him, he tells us what will happen if we stay true to him. Verse 20, when they came to the nations, when he scattered them out of their country into all the nations where he sent them to, when they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned my holy name. Even then, in captivity, even then, when they lost their land, they didn't turn back to God. They didn't repent. They didn't say, you know, we blew it. We had the little chapter of Lamentations after Jeremiah and Judah fell, and they are showing some signs of repentance, but they didn't really turn back to God either. But Israel never did. Israel never did. And even today, they don't recognize, in many cases, even who they are. They profaned my holy name when they said of them, these are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of his land.

They just never did it. The way they behaved, it wasn't of the way that God would have them have them to believe. You know, one of our prayers should be, and you know, we're told that we're supposed to become like God. Now, we go through some interesting situations in our lives, things that we may not have accounted for, and think, well, that's not fair, or that's not just, why is this happening to me? You know, our prayer should always be in those things.

It's just to ask God, teach us. You let us go through things. Teach us what you want us to know, because we are to become like you. How would you have us respond to this situation? What would Jesus Christ have done? What are the examples in the Bible we could look at and see how he handled a stressful situation, or a time when he was completely wronged, or whatever the case may be?

And we learn from that, and God will teach us how to become like him. If we will just pause and ask him, teach me what you want me to know. Teach me how to be like you, and what you want us to do in situations like this. And so, Israel didn't do that when they found themselves in a foreign land. You know, we might find ourselves in foreign circumstances, you know, in times ahead.

I don't mean necessarily in a foreign land, but in foreign circumstances, but we can go to God, and we can always ask him, what do you want us to do? How do you want us to behave?

How do you want us to handle this situation in the way that you would have us do that? So in verse 21, going on, he says, But I had concern for my holy name. This is God speaking. I had concern for my holy name. There was something that I had to uphold here. I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went. Let me stop there. Yeah, is that is that Jan? Yes. Hi, Jan. How are you? Right. Oh, fine. This section we're going over right now, 16 to 22 or so.

Is this prophecy dual as well? Yes, I believe it is. I believe it is, you know, because we will, I mean, God does say the nation is going, the peoples are going to be scattered and taken captive, right in Ezekiel. So yes, this is this is prophetic.

So it says that the nation, I scared talking about ancient Israel, so I scattered you among the nations. I'm trying to reconcile the fact that they were scattered, but yet they went to the various parts of the world, like America, Britain. So are we still scattered? I mean, there is still Israel, not all Israel is in the these easily speaking nations, right? We have them scattered still around the world. God did bring some of them back over to these nations.

But we will be scattered, right? I mean, if he's speaking of the nations that we have now, Israel, you know, it isn't, it's an interesting concept and kind of foreign for the world to hear that people are just transported out of their country to another place. That's what they did in ancient times. That's what they will do in the future. Yeah, but that's what it says. That's why he will bring them back when he brings them back.

He won't be bringing them back to America or Britain. He'll be bringing them back to the land. He promised to Abraham. Right. Yeah, right. Okay. Okay. I'm gonna have to study a little more. Yeah, just contemplate. Take some time to contemplate what God is doing, what he's doing. But, you know, we aren't in the promised land right now. America is kind of a promised land. God is blessed at richly, but this isn't the land that he promised Abraham, where he wanted his people was over there in that land, and that's where they'll be when Christ returns.

Okay. Okay. Hey, Tracy. Good evening, Mr. Shavey. Um, Simeon and Levi, weren't they scattered beyond recognition? Like, they didn't even get their own little place in the beginning because they're worthless, vile, and evilness. Yeah, no, Simeon and Levi. Levi, remember, that was the... Not Levi. I'm sorry. Um, oh, okay. Now, I can't remember who they were. Yeah. I don't remember much about Simeon. I have to look it up to see what the church has said about that in the past.

So... Yeah, there were two of them that were quite evil and bloodthirsty. That was what it was. I didn't get a trace of their own. It could be Dan, right? Yeah, because Dan isn't mentioned in Revelation. That may be who you're thinking of, so... No, Dan has... Dan has Ireland. Yeah, that's true. I don't know. Yeah. Okay, sorry. Okay. So, where was I? Verse 21. But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went.

Therefore, God says, say to the house of Israel, thus God says, I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations whenever, wherever you went. So, what he's saying is here, you know, I promised this land. I promised this land to Abraham that this would be your land. I'm true to my word.

You have profaned. You have violated the covenant. You have broken it, but I'm true to my word, and you will be brought back. You've profaned my name among the nations wherever you went, and I will sanctify my great name. I will set myself apart, God says, from every other God.

I do what I say I'm going to do, and, you know, Christ will return. Everything in the Bible that he says he's going to do, you read in Isaiah 45 and 55, if God says it, it's going to happen. I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. You know, we say, in God we trust, and is a motto here in America. Canada probably has one similar to that. Now, have we honored God's name by what he does?

By the way we live, I mean, America today is the exporter of evil and profanity. Well, it was more so maybe six months ago in all the crazy things that were going on then.

So, would people look at us and say, yeah, that's a great nation, right? Even the Islamic nations and the atheist nations thought, you know, this country is way off base. But God says, I'll sanctify my name, which you have profaned in their midst, and the nations shall know that I am the Lord when I am hallowed in you before their eyes. And that's a notable thing, when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.

God has never been hallowed in other nations' eyes like they will be when he brings them back, when he brings them back to their country, and when they begin obeying God in earnest at that time.

Verse 24, For I will take you from among the nations. Israel has never been brought back to its promised land. Judah had that 70-year exile, but they were welcomed back. But even then, only 10%, they say, of the Judah's population came back when they were able to go back to Jerusalem. Israel never has gone back. I will take you from among the nations. I will gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land. Clearly, clearly in the future. Hey, Xavier. Even, bro, Shaby, I think our sister, Theresa, is talking about Simeon and Levi. Simeon and Levi, yeah. Yeah, neither one got any inheritance. Right, because of their priesthood, right? Their violence. Yes, yeah. Okay. So, you gave Levi blood. Go kill animals. Just mix it with you. Excellent. Simeon and Levi. Very good. So, God clearly says, I'm going to bring you back into your own land. And then in verse 25, you know, he references this kind of red heifer ceremony thing, you know, that we read about in Israel. And recently, those red heifers have made the news, or made the rounds on YouTube again as they've seen them. And now another one is no longer eligible, and a couple are there. And, you know, this week we'll even be talking about that, on the thing we released on Friday, and the third temple that's being talked about on YouTube, and on Twitter as well. But he got his verse 25. He says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols.

So, here, you know, Israel has to fight itself. And just like when God calls us, and we return, or when we turn to him, we have to be baptized. We have to be completely immersed in water.

After having repented, and had a complete change of mind and heart, that we are no longer the same person, but that we know and recognize who we were, and who we need to be, washed clean in God's eyes, so that those sins and all those attitudes are buried, and come up as a new creation. And God says, I will do that to you. I want to take a minute here. Let me look at the time. Let's go back to Numbers 19, because I think this red heifer thing is going to be in the news here, you know, coming. These red heifers that are over there, they're down to two or three now, and there is an age limit, and that's coming up as well. And as this talk of the temple begins to increase over in Israel, and under this administration of the United States, it's probably going to be encouraged. I think it's just good for us to run through chapter 19 again and see what that thing is about. This purification of this water that God said has to happen in order for the priesthood, the priesthood, to serve in the temple. And that's what is being talked about over there in Israel now. They can't have the temple. They can't offer sacrifices until they have a purified priesthood, and this ceremony of the red heifer is key in that. So, Bill, let me go through 19, and let me get back to you. Chapter 19 of Numbers, it says, it's God speaking to Moses, saying, verse 2, This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer, without blemish, in which there is no defect, and on which a yoke has never come. So, when you see clips, as you know which clip we're using exactly of the ones that I asked the people to put in, it'll say that these red heifers have never been put to work at all. There's not a stray color on them. They are examined head to toe frequently, and as soon as there's even one white hair that's found on them, they are disqualified. Or, if there's any blemish on them, they're disqualified. God sets this for some reason with this red heifer, a rare breed that's there. No defect, no blemish, a yoke has never come upon them. And then he says, give it to the priest, that he may take it outside the camp, and it will be slaughtered before him. An eliezer, the priest, shall take some of his blood with his finger, sprinkle some of his blood seven times directly in the tabernacle of meeting. There isn't one of those there now, but they will be slaughtered, and the blood will be taken. Verse 5, And then the heifer shall be burned in his sight, its hide, its flesh, its blood, and its awful shall be burned, the entire thing. And the priest shall take cedarwood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast them into the midst of the fire, burning the heifer. And then he shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, etc., etc., verse 8. He'll be unclean until the evening, and then verse 8, the one who burns it shall wash his clothes, he'll be unclean until evening. Verse 9, Then then a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and store them outside the camp in a clean place, and they will be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel, for the water of purification it is for purifying from sin. And I know of the clips I've looked at, you know, one station is for it's for sin, but when you really when you look at it, remember that in the Old Testament, people were unclean if they even came close or if they were in contact with a dead body.

So it's to purify them from contact with death as we read on here in verse 10. The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, he'll be unclean until evening. It will be a statute forever to the children of Israel and to the stranger who dwells among them. He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day. Then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. You cannot go into the temple in an unclean state.

Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, that person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him. His uncleanness is still on him. This is the law. When a man dies in a tent, all who come into the tent and all who are in the tent will be unclean seven days. And every open vessel which has no cover fastened on it is unclean.

Whoever in the open field touches anyone or touches one who is slain by a sword or who has died or a bone of a man or a grave shall be unclean seven days. And for an unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the heifer burnt for purification from sin and running water shall be put on them in a vessel. So what they're saying in Israel is we have no idea what graves we have walked on. None of us know what's buried underneath us. And so every single person who would ever serve in that temple when it is built, if and when it's going to be built, or offer sacrifices to do any of the service in the temple has to go through this purification. They cannot. They cannot serve until this water is sprinkled on them as they look at this Old Testament ritual. That's why these red heifers are so interesting and why they're so valuable to them and why they're keeping such an eye on them. And that's why you see the talk of the temple being again because now that these red heifers are here and it's been, I forget what they say, 1,500 years or something like that since there's been one, only nine, only nine in the history of Israel that have ever been sacrificed in this, that the time is now. And so as you read the things and you look at the prophecies it's like this is an omentous time that these things are coming together but you can see why it's so important over in Israel when they put their stock fully in the Old Testament. I heard one person say, you know, we're looking for the second coming of Jesus Christ. They're looking for the first coming of Jesus Christ. When they see these events going on in the world, the Orthodox Jews, they think the first coming of Christ is near. And so they have to be ready for it and they have to have a temple for him to return to. We look for the second coming of Jesus Christ because we know who the Savior is and it's the temple of God that he's building in us. That's what he's returning to. So kind of same thing, right? The Orthodox Jews are looking for something different but they feel there has to be a temple there to do all those things. We know what the temple God is building today. But these verses are important to when you hear about these things. Why among the Jews over there in Israel this is such a key time. So we read, I think we were in verse 17. Yeah, let me read it again.

Okay, so you know, so when God, you know, look at what's being said there. The water of purification, the sprinkling that you go through to be clean. And then we were in Ezekiel 36 in verse 25. We see this. I'm going to sprinkle this clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Now we know how that happens today. You and I know how God purifies us today. It's through baptism. But for the Jews and the Orthodox of the world, this is the sprinkling that they're going through and whatever. And that's why this ritual that is going to be talked about probably more here in the near future is so important. Yeah, Bill, go ahead.

Well, do you think that when they get that sprinkling that things will happen that they don't expect? That there are idols possibly in such a way and there'll be a sudden realization of what they have done in the past? No, I don't think that. We see the realization here in Ezekiel 25 or Ezekiel 36. That's where the realization will be. They'll be thinking they're doing God.

What we'll put in their minds is, now we can build a temple. Now we can honor God, and God will come to us and the Messiah will come because we have prepared our way for Him. And that's what I think they're thinking over there. To them, it's the first coming, not the second coming. Well, then when will they realize that it is the second coming? I mean, like it talks about what in God tells them?

That's right. When Christ comes, their eyes will be opened. They will be taught what happened, and they will realize the mistakes they lived throughout their life.

We'll see that here in a minute. Because that's an important thing. God sprinkles, He opens their eyes, and knows what He says then. The same thing for us when we're baptized. When we're baptized, when we're immersed, we come up from those waters of baptism, and God sees us as a new creation. Our sins have been washed away. We are pure in His sight. And what He does when hands are laid on us then, He gives us His Holy Spirit. His Holy Spirit gives us the ability to—gives us the power, I guess, the power and determination to reject self and to live a life completely different than we did before dedicated to Him.

Verse 26, He says, I will give you, Israel, returning people who I am sprinkling and cleansing, I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.

All through Israel's history, even when in the Old Testament we know that God's Spirit was not in them, so they couldn't follow God. They were going to be—they were going to be prey to their own carnal desires, just like we are when we're apart from God's Holy Spirit. It's His Spirit that gives us the power to reject self. And so He says, you know, you've always had this heart of stone, but now I'm going to put my spirit in you, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I'll take that heart of stone that only was enmity against me, as it says in Romans 8-7.

The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to God, nor indeed, or neither indeed can be. Or in Jeremiah 17-9, where it says, the heart is desperately wicked above all things.

He'll take that heart out, and the people He brings back, He will, with His Holy Spirit in them, a heart of flesh that is teachable, and that recognizes God, and is capable of repentance, and turning away from self in our old ways to His way. I will put my spirit, verse 27, within you, and cause you, or the Spirit will cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments, and do them. They'll want to do them. God will open their eyes, just like He's opened our eyes. We will walk in His ways. We will see the wisdom of His commandments. We will desire to please Him by doing the things that we want, when that Holy Spirit is in us, that gives us the mind of Christ, who, through His entire life, wanted to please God, and did whatever His will was. Then, He says, you'll have my Holy Spirit. You'll have a heart of flesh that is teachable, that will want to be like God, that will turn to Him. And you will walk in my statutes. You will live my way of life, just as you and I are committed to living God's way of life. Then, then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people, and I will be your God. I'll give you that land back, and you will dwell. You will dwell in that land. I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you.

When we obey God, when we do His will, He provides all those blessings. Sounds very simple, but not simple at all. Not even when you have God's Spirit, is it simple? It is a constant life of where we choose right and reject the wrong, choose the good and reject the evil, refuse our thoughts, and ask God for His thoughts, and those things that we must do as we make those choices in life and use the Spirit that God gives us.

So, no famine, He says, you'll have plenty in your land. There will be no famine on you. Verse 30, and I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations.

This has never happened. Never happened before. This has never happened before to any nation.

So, clearly, this is the time that the people come back after Jesus Christ's return.

And then verse 31, the repentance, the genuine repentance that's there in Israel, that when we have that genuine repentance, that we turn and we recognize who we were, and we, as the Bible would say, abhor who we were, and abhor the natural nature that's in us, and turn to God, He says, then you will remember, just like we do. Even with the Holy Spirit, sometimes we can think of things back in our lives, maybe decades ago, and think, that was an awful thing I did. That was an awful thing I did. How could I have ever done that? And you stop and you ask God to forgive you for what you did as these things come to mind. And that's what Israel will do. The Holy Spirit tells us in John 14, it will call to remembrance the things of God that we have heard. It also recalls to remember the things we need to repent of. And as we get glimpses of ourselves and who we are, that we need to have God, you know, ask Him to kind of weed out of us with His Holy Spirit, take it out and replace it with the good that He is. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations.

When we loathe ourselves, we turn from those ways. And Israel, when they're brought back, when they're brought back to that land, and when God gives His Holy Spirit, and when there's the teaching going on that they will hear, they will loathe themselves. They will see the history, and they will think, what did we do? How could we have been so ignorant to turn from God and think that there was a better way than what God gave for us? Now, this is the third time. This is the third time we've read about Israel loathing themselves in the book of Ezekiel. So let's just go back and look at the other two times. In Ezekiel 20, in verse 42, no verse 43, it looks like.

Yeah, let's read verse 42. I have marked that down, too, because God is going to bring back, I've said a few times here, them to the land that He gave to Abraham. He gave it to Abraham as their inheritance. In verse 42 of Ezekiel 20, it says, then you shall know, and notice He says in verse 41, you're going to be hallowed, and God will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles. We talked about that word hallowed when we were back there. Then you shall know that I am the Lord when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I raised my hand in an oath to give to your fathers.

God swore on His own name, this is the land I give you. And Israel lost it, but He's bringing them back because when God makes a promise, it stands. So the people of Israel will go back to there. And there, verse 43, and there you shall remember your ways and all your doings with which you were defiled, and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight because of all the evils that you have committed. Then you will know that I am the Lord when I have dealt with you for my name's sake. So they'll loathe themselves. And we read that again in Ezekiel 6 as we go back further. It's a theme throughout the book as God talks about His people, what their history will be, the prophecy ahead of them as we've read about, with Jerusalem falling to Babylon, the prophecy concerning all the nations around them, and it's in one of the sections of the book here. And now, as He brings them back, back from captivity in this end time after they've been scattered again because of their evil way. In Ezekiel 6 and verse 9, yeah, we'll read verse 8 just to get the thing. It says, I will leave a remnant. You know, we know it as many, many will die, but God will not allow Israel to be completely destroyed. He promised that to him in Isaiah 6 too when he called Isaiah to be his prophet. Yet I will leave the remnant so that you may have some who escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered throughout the countries. Then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which just departed from me and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations and they shall know that I am the Lord.

So the same repentance that we go through, that we loathe, literally loathe ourselves, we don't want to go back ever to the way we were and not allow ourselves to be, you know, to even be lured back into those things. So Israel will do that. There will be genuine repentance and then that nation, God will be hallowed in their sight because they will cling to him and they will do his will and they will be a model nation. The model nation he always wanted them to be. They will follow his ways and they will be completely loyal to him. In verses, if we're back here in chapter 36 then, he says, you'll loathe yourselves always requires that to turn to God and to live his way of life. In verse 32 he says, not for your sake, not for your sake do I do this, says the Lord God, let it be known to you, be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. I do it because I said I would, because I am God, you are my people and I am honoring my commitment to you that I would give you that heart of flesh, that I would give you my Holy Spirit, that allows you to not be you anymore but be what I want you to become. Thus says the Lord God, on the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities and the ruin shall be rebuilt. So when we look at the world after Jesus Christ returns and it goes through this transformation of land, right, the land will become like Eden, it's going to say here, it doesn't say to this chapter, it says it in chapter 37, but the people will be transformed into the type of people that God wants. And then the building begins, just as Jesus Christ said in Luke 4 and just as it says in Isaiah 61, when you turn to me, when you do my will, then then you will rebuild the cities, then there will be, then the the ruins will be built, then the land will flourish in, well, will flourish. Verse 34, the desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. It'll be fertile, it'll produce the fruit that it needs, so they will say this land that was desolate has become like the garden, now there it is, has become like the Garden of Eden, and the wasted desolate and the ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited. What happened? It was completely in ruins, but now it's alive again, now it's beautiful again, now there's people thriving in this area. What happened? God's Spirit and turning to him, and when we turn to him, the blessings, the blessings flow. Then the nations, which are left all around you, you'll be the model, you'll be the example, they're going to look at you and say, oh, whoa, when you do things that got away, God says, he has the power to bless, or he has the power to withhold blessings, and they will begin to believe what he says. Then the nations, which are left all around you, shall know that I the Lord, I rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. You know, I read that verse, and I think of Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6, when it says, trust in God with all your heart, and in all your ways acknowledge him. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will establish your paths. And so God is saying here, yes, the people will be doing these things. They will be working. They will be tilling the land. It will be fruitful, but it's because of God. It's because God is blessing it. Just like in our lives today, when we acknowledge God, he blesses. We might, you know, find ourselves thinking, oh, aren't we wonderful? Aren't we this? Aren't we that?

Never think that. Always acknowledge God. He gives us whatever gifts he gives us, whatever talents he gives us, whatever spirit—well, certainly his spirit he gives us, or whatever it is that we have. If there's anything good, it's from God. Acknowledge him, and never take credit. And that's what God is saying here. You know, it was me. I've rebuilt the ruined places. He gave them the power. He gave them the talent. He gave them the skills. He assembled the people that it could be built, just like he will do in this end time. He will get his message out to the world in whatever way he wants.

We're just here to seek his will, do his will, and however he wants it done, to do it. So in verse 37, it says, The Lord God, I will also let the house of Israel inquire of me to do this for them. I will increase their men like a flock. There's going to be 90% of them, only a remnant left, but they will be multiplied. God will bless the fruit of their bodies. I will increase their men like a flock, God says, just like he did in Genesis 49, just like England became so full of people they had to go out to all these other lands that we know of and inhabit them.

I will increase their men like a flock. Verse 38, Like a flock offered as holy sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem on its feast days, where there were so many animals to be a sacrifice there, so shall the ruined cities be filled with flocks of men. They will be everywhere. The streets will be full again. God's blessing will ring throughout that area. You might even go back and read Isaiah 35 again that talks about that millennial time where the land blossoms and the sick are healed and everything comes to life again. This chapter closes as we close here tonight. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. They will know it is God who did it. It is God. We always need to remember it's God who does the good in our lives and watches over us and is preparing us for what He wants us to become in that millennium and then for eternity. Let's close there. The next chapter is really an exciting chapter, too, 37. We're very familiar with 37, but in it paints the picture even more clearly of what will be after Jesus Christ returns with Israel, how He will join for the first time since the house of Judah was separated from the house of Israel for the first time. He will bring them back together because God is a God of unity. He will bring them back together as one. David again, it repeats. We read that in 35, I think. David will be their king just like he was back then. Beautiful, hopeful, exciting chapter as well. We won't be doing that next Wednesday. We'll be doing that two weeks from today because next week the Council of Elders is in town, and we already have something I was told on Wednesday evening, so no Bible study next week, but there will be one. It will be in chapter 37 two weeks, two weeks from tonight.