Chapter 1
2024 - This verse:
1 In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. [Eze 1:1 ESV].  I think it is important to note that Ezekiel tells us straight out that he was seeing visions.  Contrast this with John in Revelation, who says "1 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." [Rev 4:1 ESV]".  John was physically, bodily there. Ezekiel has a vision - either distinctly and clearly, or, as visions often are, a representation of reality, possibly fully symbolic.  Here are some other verses where the same Hebrew word is used, to give us a better idea of what it means:
2 And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, "Jacob, Jacob." And he said, "Here I am." [Gen 46:2 ESV]
6 And he said, "Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. [Num 12:6 ESV]
3 He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. [Eze 8:3 ESV]
7 And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves. [Dan 10:7 ESV]
We should think of Ezekiel's visions along the same lines as we think of our dreams.  They are sort of like dreams directed by God.  In dreams, we often recognize the characters.  We know who it is we are seeing, but they rarely have enough detail for us to know, for instance, how old they are, what exactly they are wearing, and so on.  So we have a recognizable person, but not all the detail that actual sight would give us.  Not the detail that John has in Revelation.

A new book begins.  A major book.  Ezekiel.  MSB says Ezekiel began his ministry in 592/3 BC.  He was in captivity in Chebar.  So he would have been contemporary with Daniel - who was the same age and who Ezekiel mentions in his book.  Also with Jeremiah, who was 20 years older, and Zechariah.  Ezekiel prophesied 20 years, and is only mentioned in this one book.  No references in the NT.  The first 24 chapters are prophecies of the ruin of Jerusalem.  This dates Ezekiel's ministry.  The 5th year of the exile of King Jehoiachin.  Ezekiel sees visions.  So he is already in captivity himself when he has visions of Jerusalem's ruin.  These of the final destruction, in Zedekiah's reign.
Four living creatures described (as in Revelation).  At first, since they are coming from the north, I thought they might represent Babylon's attacking force, but in the rest of the context, it seems unlikely.  Four faces, 4 wings.  Description continues through vs 14.  Two of the wings of each creature extend out and touch the wings of the next creature (vs. 9).  Their wings touched each other's wings.  With the other two wings, they covered their bodies.  They went without turning.  Wherever the spirit willed.  They carry out God's "unturnable" will?
Each one had a wheel within a wheel.  The spirit of the creatures was in the wheels.  Wherever the creatures went, the wheels went.  The wheels rims were covered with eyes-God sees all, past present, and future.  He knows how the past is linked to the future.
Above the creatures an expanse.  Above that, a throne, like sapphire.  One looking like a human on the throne.  The appearance is the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

Everything below here was added in 2022.

Going off the track a little, but it is just too similar not to mention.  This verse:
4 As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. [Eze 1:4 ESV]
Is this not exactly precisely what we see in the movie "Independence Day" when the aliens show up?  

They surely copied this description from Ezekiel.  

2024 - These verses:
5 And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness, 6 but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. [Eze 1:5-6 ESV] So this would be a different sort of angel/messenger/creature than say, Gabriel.  The word used for likeness is the same word we see in Genesis when God made man in his "likeness".  These creatures have a human likeness.  Head, body, arms and legs I would say.  But also, they had four wings.  These are cherubim.  These are the angels that, made of gold, were in the Holy of Holies above the mercy seat.  These function in the presence of God.  Four faces, four wings, never turning.  Vs 8 seems to say they had four hands also.  They had four wings, and they never turned, they always went forward.  Four faces, all going forward only.  So...think of their bodies as having four sides, one in front of each face.  Forward, backward, left and right.  One wing draped down each "side".  If they wanted to go forward or backward, without turning, they would spread the wings on the left and right, and use them for flying forward or back.  To go left or right, the front and back wings would be spread, and the left and right wings would rest, and so "cover the body".  So always, only two wings at a time were in use for movement.  I think this is a good representation of them.
2024 - Continuing the description of the creatures...lion looking right, ox looking left.  The other two faces, front and back, were human and eagle.  Ezekiel does not call these front and back, because they are BOTH fronts.  Hmm...Here is another thought.  Perhaps they only have their wings touching when they are "at rest".  When sent out, they go singly.  So when at rest, they are in a square, each with two adjacent, not opposite, wings extended.  So the cherubim at back left would extend a wing to the right, towards the cherubim on the back right, and a wing to the "front" towards the cherubim on the "front" left.  The one on the back right would extend one of his wings to the left towards the extended wing of the back left, and another toward the cherubim on the front right.  Each could then be dispatched initially in two directions, but could then go in any other direction without turning.  So it finally makes sense to me how that would all work.  But....then there is this verse:
24 And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army. When they stood still, they let down their wings. [Eze 1:24 ESV].  This seems to say that when they were at rest, all four wings are down.  If that's what it means, then perhaps they must all move together, always, else their wings would never need to touch because they'd be down when all resting together.  But why send four every time, and this verse: 14 And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning. [Eze 1:14 ESV] surely implies that they move separately.  So.  It's a vision.  It worked for Ezekiel, it gives us an idea of a spectacular place with spectacular creatures and wheels, but it is not enough information to let us translate the vision into concrete understanding.  So I will let it lay.

This verse:
10 As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. [Eze 1:4, 10 ESV].  
Human, Lion, Ox, and Eagle.  What were Daniel's four beasts?  Lion, bear, leopard, beast.  So not much in common beyond the lion.  The creatures Ezekiel saw were carrying out God's commands, the four beasts in Daniel were serving Satan.  You wouldn't expect any overlap...so why the Lion represented in both?  One of the interpretations of the lion in Daniel 7 is that it is Nebuchadnezzar.  Surely the Bible is clear that Neb was chosen by, empowered by, and directed by God.  So this might be a corroboration of that in these visions.  Lions work both sides?

And this...
11 Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. 12 And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. [Eze 1:11-12 ESV]  The part about each having two wings that touch the wings of two others requires that they were in a circle.  Else the two on the ends would only be touching one other.  Which face looked in, the eagle or the human face?  The lion and the ox always face each other - left/right.  As described, I would say it was the eagle face that looked inward.  You can extrapolate that each human face looked in a different cardinal direction, and the fact that they are in a circle means that all four creatures go where any one creature goes.  The four act as one.  Four is the number of man.  The four carry God's commands from God to man.  

This.  I just cannot seem to get done quickly on my notes these days.  I guess Lamentations went pretty quickly, but I am really going slow on this today.  
14 And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning. [Eze 1:14 ESV].  In English, this could either mean the creatures moved like lightning independently, or all moved together as quickly as lightning.  If they must all touch, the second seems more likely to me.  Moving like lightning signifies the instantaneous execution of God's commands.  I went to the Interlinear to see whether the verbs in this verse were singular or plural, and it seems they are neither.  The interlinear is based on the KJV, which reads this way:
14 And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. [Eze 1:14 KJV].  So two verbs, ran, and returned.  Both are shown in the Interlinear as "infinitive absolutes".  As I read it, this is a very special case.  Most verbs are like ours, with a person and tense.  So I think these verbs just mean that the action is always and continuous - not past, present or future - and there is no gender, either masculine or feminine, and they are neither singular nor plural...perhaps because they refer to four moving and acting as a single entity.  It is a very very interesting verse.

Well...I've started it I might as well keep going.  This verse:
15 Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. [Eze 1:15 ESV].   This is pretty specific that each of the four creatures had this wheel on the earth.  But it is not "below" each one, it is "beside" them.  Interlinear expands on that and says it is a sort of beside and in the proximity of, but the idea of beside rather than under is always there.  So the wheels would seem unconnected to the creatures in any physical sense.

Wherever the creatures go, the wheels maintain their relative position.  Up, or in any direction.  It says the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.  I read this as the wheels being extensions of the creatures as differentiated from being controlled by the creatures.  The wheels need no direction because they are a part of the whole.  
When they stand still, they let down their wings.  They are independent creatures.  Not four in one, four acting as one.  Their wings go out straight when they are under the expanse.  Perhaps meaning that when they are "up", and not transacting God's business, the circle relaxes to a line, and they assume a rest position.

This verse:
26 And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. [Eze 1:26 ESV]
Earth, expanse, throne.  This indicates the third heaven I would say.  This throne is in heaven proper.  The appearance of the one on the throne, as best Ezekiel could record it, includes these images - A rainbow likeness, transparent metal encasing fire above the waist, fire itself below the waist, sitting on a sapphire blue throne.

Ezekiel falls to the ground in overwhelmed awe.  And a voice begins to speak....


Chapter 2
The Lord speaks to Ezekiel:
1 And he said to me, "Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you." [Eze 2:1 ESV]  
Ezekiel and Jesus use this title "Son of man".  Why these two?  Surely volumes are written speculating on this.  Or maybe not.  This verse:
3 And he said to me, "Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. [Eze 2:3 ESV]  Surely these were also Jesus' primary mission field.  The rebellious people of Israel.  Beyond that, it is hard to compare a people in Babylonian captivity with the Jews of Jesus day.  They were at least in Jerusalem, though under Roman rule.
So it comes back again with the comparison to Jesus:
5 And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them. [Eze 2:5 ESV]  Surely this was also true of Jesus.

2022 - Of Jesus, it was the confirmed miracles that showed he came from God, and that surely confirmed him as a prophet among them.  Did Ezekiel do miracles?  How many and how well know?   This might be a key link between Ezekiel and Jesus.  I don't think we have any record of either Isaiah or Jeremiah doing a miracle.  Nor the other contemporaries of Ezekiel - Daniel, and Zechariah.  So again, miracles would be a critical link between the two.
2023 - I think it was Elijah that did all those miracles, not Ezekiel...but I will be watching for that this year.

2022 - This verse:
1 And he said to me, "Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you." [Eze 2:1 ESV].  Who is speaking...If we go back to 1:26, there is a likeness with a human appearance.  Then 1:28b says this:
28 ...Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking. [Eze 1:28b ESV].  It would be difficult to argue that the voice is coming from anywhere other than this likeness of the glory of Jehovah.  Only the likeness of Jehovah could be seen, for no man sees God and lives.  That's likely why Ezekiel is so careful to say "the likeness of" in each case.  He recognized that he was seeing vision, not actuality.  

2022 - Then this:
2 And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. [Eze 2:2 ESV].  An Old Testament indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Perhaps a key to the miracles.  Isn't there a verse where the Spirit is said to be in Christ?  I need to put that verse here also.

The Spirit (upper case used in the ESV) enters Ezekiel and sets him on his feet.  God tells Ezekiel he is/will be a prophet to a rebellious house, and whether they listen or not, they will know a prophet has been among them.
A scroll in a hand is spread before Ezekiel, written front and back.  

Symbolically, the scroll contains the  message, the word, the prophecy that Ezekiel is to speak to the rebellious nation of Israel.  He must ingest it first, and then speak it back, as we shall see in the next chapter.

2024 - This verse:
10 And he spread it before me. And it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe. [Eze 2:10 ESV].  If we make the comparison above that Ezekiel and Jesus are both called "Son of Man" because they appeared in similar times to rebellious Israel, and because both would be confirmed as messengers of God (I am keeping an eye out for the confirmation of Ezekiel, and believe the miracles confirmed Christ), then we have to note that their messages are quite different.  Ezekiel's message is lamentation, morning, and woe, and Jesus' message is that the kingdom is nigh.  I see no way to make Ezekiel's message and Jesus' message the same.  Even the message of John the Baptist was to repent and be baptized because the kingdom was there.  I need to consider, as I go on with this book, that I may have the "connection" between Ezekiel and Jesus all wrong...though Chapter 2 here surely seems to confirm that I have it right...except for the content of their messages.  Those to whom they each appear have much in common.  Downtrodden, disillusioned people who have been/are being misled by their religions and civil leadership.  They have little hope in the world, and must look to God.  Ezekiel's audience was oppressed by Babylon, in actual captivity.  Jesus' audience was oppressed by Rome, captive in all but name.

Chapter 3
Ezekiel is told to eat the scroll, which tastes like honey.  (as the one John eats in Revelation!)  The commission continues through vs 15.  Ezekiel is not to fear this people with foreheads like flint, and stubborn hearts.  He sits in Tel-abib, by the Chebar canal, overwhelmed, for seven days.  (Wonder if this canal is the other branch of the Euphrates?  Checked online.  No one really knows, much speculation, from Syria to 50 miles SE of Babylon.

2022 - These verses:
4 And he said to me, "Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. 5 For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel-- 6 not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. [Eze 3:4-6 ESV]
There is no message to the Gentiles at this time in history.  So long as God is still working with Israel, the dogs don't get fed.  Even though God absolutely knows that if Ezekiel went to the Gentiles, they would believe and be saved.  But for God's own reasons, they are precluded.  This is not only spiritual election, but physically imposed election, by the direct word of God to a prophet able to preach.  

Ezekiel to be a watchman, and as such, warn the people of what he hears from God.  If he doesn't, those who perish are his responsibility.  But if he warns, and they don't change, they still die, but it is not held to Ezekiel's account.  These verses are, to me, the ultimate commission for witnessing the gospel to others.
vss 18-21, Another phrase - if a righteous turns from righteousness, his good deeds will be remembered no more.  (MSB has notes on this vs but they seem unsatisfactory to me.)
God sends Ezekiel to the valley to receive a message.  The message from God is that he is to go in his house.  There he will be bound, so he cannot go among the people, and he also wont' be able to speak.  For they are a rebellious house!

Chapter 4
Ezekiel is to engrave the city of Jerusalem on a brick, then build little symbolic siege works against it.  This was a sign for Israel.  Then he was to lie on his left side.  He was to stay like this 390 days, and take their punishment, one day for each year.  
MSB says this prophecy was actually between the first conquest by Babylon, and yet before that final siege of the city that would destroy it all.  MSB says we don't know the beginning and end of this 390 years.  Ahh...the 390 days was for Israel - long ago fallen - and then he was to lie on his right side for 40 days more.  We don't know if concurrent or in sequence.  They were in captivity 70 years.  So we just don't "get" these numbers.

2024 - I noticed this year that the 390 days is for Israel, and the 40 days are for Judah.  Doesn't help a lot but at least we can see now how the times might be concurrent.  

He is to prepare his meals in the people's  sight each day.  A combo of 4 grains, in a precise weight, and he is to drink a fixed amount of water each day.  It is to be cooked over a cow dung fire.  This symbolized the coming conditions in Jerusalem.  Water rationing, food rationing.  No fuel.  Siege conditions.  Human dung would be the only available fuel to cook over, but God let Ezekiel off on this one.  He was allowed to use cow dung instead.  Things were going to be horrible in Jerusalem.

Chapter 5
Ezekiel to cut his hair and beard.  Specific things for each third - burn one, strike one with a sword, scatter one to the wind.  Just a few to be bound into his robe.  
vs 7 starts with therefore and has 4 reasons for what is coming.  Vs 8 also begins w/ therefore.  "I, even I, am against you."  

2024 - I think it is clear in vss 1-5 that this prophecy is "near", that alone, at this point.  It may be that this whole chapter is about God's wrath that was directed at Judah and Jerusalem leading up to this final siege, and that is this specific prophecy that continues unabated even today.  

2022 - This is a little long, but there's a lot in it also:
7 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, 8 therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. [Eze 5:7-8 ESV]
The phrase that catches my attention is "...and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations..."  Jerusalem was so corrupt that instead of being a bright spot on a dark wall, they were in fact the darker spot.  God's own, with rules able to bring them to near perfection, have chosen instead to reject ALL of those, and to be even more morally corrupt than the pagan heathen pits that surround them.  Hard even to understand how this could happen.  The penalty for this is a sort of public demolition of their nation.  All will know that defying the God of Israel - even if it is Israel that is doing the defying - will have dire consequences.

vs 9 "...I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again."  So what is coming to Judah and Jerusalem is as unprecedented as Noah's flood, and like the flood, it will never be repeated.  vs 10: "Therefore, fathers shall eat their sons..., and sons shall eat their fathers."  Another therefore.  How many in this chapter?  vs 11 has another.   Then God explains the signs w/ the hair.  In Jerusalem, during and after the siege, 1/3 will die of pestilence and famine, 1/3 will die by the sword, and 1/3 will be scattered to the wind.

2024 - The listing of what is about to happen, that has never before happened, begins in the next verse.  It is so horrible that maybe it is the sum total of what has never been done.  Here is that verse:
10 Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. [Eze 5:10 ESV].  This speaks to the coming siege leading to full on starvation within the city of Jerusalem, and to the cannibalism that will characterize the residents.  I have read some commentaries on the Roman siege in 70 AD, and most say that cannibalism didn't happen...or if it did it was more in the form of isolated incidents than widespread.  We have seen a verse before - might have been in Jeremiah, where mother's were going to boil their babies.  Maybe the simplest answer to "what had never happened before nor will ever happen again" is this cannibalism.  Here is one from Lamentations:
20 Look, O LORD, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? [Lam 2:20 ESV];
Here is the verse where God told them, all the way back in Deuteronomy, that this would be one of the costs of disobedience.  They had been warned:
53 And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. 54 The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces, and to the last of the children whom he has left, 55 so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. 56 The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces, to her son and to her daughter, 57 her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns. [Deu 28:53-57 ESV]

2022 - Never done before, never again.  We know that the Jerusalem of 70 AD suffers almost exactly the same fate as the one of 586 BC.  So perhaps an aspect of God's wrath here is the double punishment.  He had never done that before.  There is no indication that it will ever happen again.  I would also add that the blinding and deafening of Israel that follows 70 AD (or just exactly when did this part start?) is another unique aspect of what God is doing.

2022 - This verse:
12 A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them. [Eze 5:12 ESV].
The very last phrase...unsheathe the sword after them.  Even the scattered Jews would not be allowed to get comfortable in their new location.  Even there they could expect the sword to come after them.  Look how this plays to Nazi Germany, to Russia after the fall of the Czars.  They have always been, and to this day are still, pursued with intent to kill.  This curse, pronounced in Ezekiel's day, is still in full force and effect.
2024 - That last phrase, from way back in 586 BC, I believe is the curse still in effect toward the Jews.  God is against them, so trouble follows after them where ever they go.

2022 - Last phrase of last verse of Chapter 5:
17 ...I am the LORD; I have spoken." [Eze 5:17 ESV].  I wonder what this looks like in Hebrew?  How many words are needed for the 7 required in English?
Well..it isn't really one for one as I'd thought it might be.  It is sort of just two words, "Jehovah dabar" is the transliteration.  It looks like this in Hebrew:   
יְהוָה           דִּבַּֽרְתִּי׃
This reads from right to left.  Word on the right is Jehovah.  
Wish I was "gifted and talented" in languages.  But I am not.  Moving on.

2024 - Here is that whole verse:
17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the LORD; I have spoken." [Eze 5:17 ESV].  So here we see all four named against Judah at this time.  I had noticed that the beasts were left out wrt Judah in both Isaiah and Jeremiah - at least the ones I caught - and that maybe that meant the ruin of Judah was not permanent like that of Israel.  Then I started seeing these references to Israel and Judah separately in the prophecies of restoration - as in Israel's fate is not permanent, and now I see the beasts in reference to the fall of Judah, making the differences between the demise of Israel and Judah pretty minimal.  It might be an interesting study to go back and actually itemize the references to beasts as a tool in God's destruction of nations.

Chapter 6
A new prophecy begins.  A prophecy to the hills, mountains, and ravines that the high places will be torn down.  This verse:
8 "Yet I will leave some of you alive..." [Eze 6:8a ESV]  God says He will "spend His fury on them..."  Speaks of all the bodies around the high places and altars.  The abominations.  All these idolatrous worship places will be wiped out, along with those who worship there.  They will not be spared, no matter where they are.  Pestilence, famine, and sword, at home or abroad in captivity.  They will die.
All this is about the idols and the things done in the name of those idols.  This punishment, this "spending of fury" this unprecedented venting of God's wrath that will never come again, is about the idols.  So in this country in 2020, as we prepare to elect as president a man who is openly promoting abortion up to the moment of birth, are we worse than Israel?  They were a favored country, God's own chosen, and we are most definitely not that.  Justice seems to say that He won't let us go as far as he let them go.  But we don't do idols...we do "ourselves" and our wealth and our convenience.  But they were surely doing all those too, and added on top of that the rebellion against God.  The whoring against God by worshiping other gods.  We don't do that.  We don't worship anything but ourselves.  Hard to know.  I ask these questions because I don't understand how God has not destroyed us already for our arrogance.   I don't understand why he waits.  Even knowing that if the country goes I go, especially at my age, I still don't know why he waits.
2024 - Note also that only three of the big four are named here.  Same thing in vs 11:
11 Thus says the Lord GOD: "Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say, Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. [Eze 6:11 ESV]

2022 - This one:
12 He who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who is left and is preserved shall die of famine. Thus I will spend my fury upon them. [Eze 6:12 ESV]
Now.  If you were Prime Minister, President, Czar, Kaiser, King, or Queen, and you knew this verse, would you want big concentrations of Jews in your country?  Would it be easy for you to blame things like the black plague and polio and covid on the Jews if you knew that first phrase?  Would you want them concentrated on your border, giving other nations an excuse to come in and kill them because of that second phrase?  Or if they were just generally scattered around your country, would it be easy to blame famine - and the drought that led to it - on the Jews within your country?  Think the worldwide tendency to anti-Semitism is just some kind of accident?  No.  It is by design, and the designer is God Himself.

Chapter 7
This chapter is titled "The Day of the Wrath of the Lord" in ESV.  This vs:
3 Now the end is upon you, and I will send my anger upon you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. [Eze 7:3 ESV]   The first four verses are kind of a final pronouncement.  Note that once God reaches this point, there is no more mercy, no sparing of anyone or anything.  Age, sex, race, none of that makes any difference.  All suffer - even the good among them, if there still were any - when Babylon lays siege to the walls.

2022 - Vss 1-4 seem to be definitely about Ezekiel's time.  I see nothing really near/far about it.  
2023 - Except...The use of "son of man" as a title for Ezekiel.  This phrase occurs 93 times in 93 verses in the ESV in the book of Ezekiel.  This is also a very common title for Jesus.  Why?  How are these two alike?  Perhaps in that the wrath of God on Jerusalem first, in Ezekiel's time, and on the world second, at the second coming of Christ, is associated with these two.  Ezekiel AND Jeremiah saw the final fall of Jerusalem, and perhaps some minor prophets did also - I think of Daniel as a third.  So there must be more to the sharing of this title between Ezekiel and Jesus than just this catastrophic event, but surely it is a very important one.  In Ezekiel, God says he won't ever do this again.  Revelation is the destruction of earth by fire, because God said he'd never do it again with water.  The time of tribulation will be the worst thing ever seen, and the worst thing that will ever be seen.  All that works...but Ezekiel wasn't the ONLY prophet alive during this time.  Look at this verse:  2 "And you, O son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. [Eze 7:2 ESV].  Very very similar to the events of Revelation.  The end has come.

Then this one:
7 Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come; the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting on the mountains. [Eze 7:7 ESV]
2022 - This verse seems to make it quite clear that we are talking about events in Ezekiel's lifetime.

2024 - Three of the four in this verse:
15 The sword is without; pestilence and famine are within. He who is in the field dies by the sword, and him who is in the city famine and pestilence devour. [Eze 7:15 ESV]

This is about judgement.  God has warned over and over, to no avail.  He is a just God, and eventually, to preserve His justice, He must judge, and sentence, and execute.  Without these, He would not be the God He is.  Ezekiel seems much more harsh in his writing, in the word pictures he paints.  He tells the naked truth of what is going to happen.  Surely, he leaves no excuse. Also, perhaps the language, the clarity of the message, the urgency increases as that "Day of Wrath" gets nearer and nearer.  This verse:
19 They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling block of their iniquity. [Eze 7:19 ESV]
Interesting that it says silver and gold - by extension greed I think - was the stumbling block.  Doesn't say it was the cause, doesn't say the punishment is because of their greed.  Their punishment is because of the idols, because they have turned against God and now worship created things.  They worship lesser gods.  But greed was the place they stumbled, the place they compromised, and from there, all else followed.  Or...it might mean that.  The MSB note covers all of 17-22, but says in part that their wealth provided nothing.  He does not mention that it was their stumbling block.  
2023 - So...lust for wealth was the stumbling block.  Compare with this verse:  23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, [1Co 1:23 ESV].  In this sense, the stumbling block is what diverts you from the path.  Israel was diverted by wealth, and with that as their goal instead of obedience, anything that might increase wealth was worthwhile - idols of all kinds.  Anything that was NOT about wealth, anything that said wealth is not the goal, not the way, not important even because it only has value in this transient place and is worthless in the world to come, they rejected.  When wrath came to Jerusalem, the gold and silver were dead weight.  They wouldn't buy bread - there was no bread - and you cannot eat metal.  It was truly made worthless.  Here is a good argument that the destruction of the Babylon of Revelation is about the worldwide economic system of that time.  Perhaps it is about rampant capitalism - about self-sufficiency based on wealth rather than on God.  About getting wealthy by "cheating" absolutely everyone instead of by loving everyone.  It brought down Zion, it can bring down the whole world. "Fall of Babylon".

Then this verse:
24 I will bring the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their holy places shall be profaned. [Eze 7:24 ESV]  Though Neb was doing as God commanded, never doubt that they were a terrible nation also.  Here they are called the "worst of the nations".  God sends the worst to punish those who thought of themselves as the best.  
Possible FB post.

This last part of the last verse in the chapter:
27 ...According to their way I will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, and they shall know that I am the LORD." [Eze 7:27 ESV]  How about "As they have aborted their children, I will abort them.  In bloody pieces I will pull them from their safe places.  
Possible FB post.

2022 - This is just a dire pronouncement, each verse building the imminence and the completeness of the disaster that is coming.  This is a truly fearful and depressing chapter.  Have to remember that Ezekiel is already in captivity, but at this time, Jerusalem still stands.

Chapter 8
Vs 1 gives a specific date.  Ezekiel has a vision, of the Holy of Holies I think, and the glory of Israel was there, as the glory he saw at Chebar, by the river.  
2022 - Ezekiel is so very careful to say that the things he is seeing are "forms", that is visions, and not the real things.  He is not claiming that he was taken physically to Jerusalem, but he has a vision of what was going on there.  Perhaps a real time vision.

2024 - Note that the vision that appeared had the form of a man, is very similar to the one on the sapphire throne in Chapter 1:26-28.  So close that it seems unnecessary to consider any other.  

He is still in Chebar when he sees this vision of the Temple in Jerusalem.  What is this "image of jealousy"?  (2020 MSB note says this image was the one that provoked God to jealousy.  Perhaps the "last straw" idol that was brought into His holy temple?  This was to the north.  Then, in the entrance of the court, he is shown engravings of all sorts of creeping things on the very walls of the Temple.  
2022 - This verse:
8 Then he said to me, "Son of man, dig in the wall." So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. ... 10 So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. [Eze 8:8, 10 ESV]
Per MSB, and pretty clearly once you've read it, the idea here is that these engravings of animals of all kinds were in a hidden place.  The "public" of Jerusalem did not realize just how corrupt their leadership had gotten.  MSB suggests a sort of secret society that gathered and worshiped gods remembered from Egypt, and they had gone back to them, just as the people did in the desert with the golden calves.  The idol of jealousy was bad enough, but at least all could see, and perhaps protest its presence. But through this hole in the wall to a secret enclave of idolatry, worse things were being worshiped.

In the vision, Ezekiel sees 70 elders of Israel are worshiping these.  
2022 - This is the same number as the Sanhedrin.  Could the whole of that group actually be worshiping idols?  Is this what brought down the double destruction of Jerusalem - the fact that they ALL rebelled?  Not one good elder in the whole of the Sanhedrin?  
2024 - I note that the number is clearly 70 at this point.  There are some NT places where they are not sure whether it is 70 or 72 that are in mind.  Remember that 70 people went down to Egypt when Joseph was in charge there.  Remember that there are 70 countries in the Table of Nations.  I'm going to go with 70 everywhere.

This terrible awful verse below:
This verse:
12 Then he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.'" [Eze 8:12 ESV]
2022 - In the dark.  Even with all 70 committed, they recognized that they were so far out of bounds that they had to hide in the darkness to do it.  Knowing, planned, purposeful rejection of the God of their Fathers.  And yet, "You will see still greater abominations that they commit."  How could this get worse?

Then the entrance to the north gate.  There are women weeping for Tammuz.  2022 - This is worded as if we are now outside the north gate entrance to the inner court.  

There is an MSB note about it.  It is a Babylonian god, sort of based on the cycle of vegetation:  birth, death, rebirth.  Note says basest immorality is associated with this god.  2022 - And then Ezekiel is told that it gets STILL WORSE.

Between porch and altar, 25 men.  Their backs are to the Temple, they face east, and they worship the rising sun.
2022 - They have turned their backs to the living God, and worship the sun that God created.

All this pagan worship is occurring in the very Temple that Solomon built.
2020-so in this chapter also we get sort of a checklist of the idolatry for which God is about to unleash His wrath on Judah.  It is not about there being just a few idols.  It is not corruption of the common man.  It is corruption through and through, and they are worshiping anything and everything EXCEPT the God of Israel who brought them out of Egypt.  It is hard to imagine this level of corruption, this level of rebellion.  It is no wonder the punishment is double.  It is no wonder it lasts so long.  It is no wonder all other peoples except Israel are made recipients of God's salvation for thousands of years, while the descendants of Israel herself are blinded and cut off almost - but not quite - entirely.  This is truly a punishment that is unique, without precedent, and that will never ever come again.
2022 - I believe Ezekiel is transported in vision to the court outside the entrance to the Holy Place.  This would be an "inner court", as opposed to the much larger and more public court outside, where Solomon's porch is located.  The main door faces East, so as you enter the inner court, the north door is on the right.  The laver - the big one - and the main altar would be ahead on your left and right.  I think this is where this was, not actually inside the Holy place.  Ah...vs 5 says he was told to look north, toward the altar gate...So that confirms what court we are talking about.  There is an idol of some kind there, that should never ever be there.  
2022 - This closing verse:
18 Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them." [Eze 8:18 ESV].  This is what happens when God's own patience runs out.  Wrath for those who are worshiping the sun, worshiping Tammuz, worshiping Egyptian gods, worshiping idols - and ALL of this is happening within a few yards of the Mercy seat where God Himself resides.  They are under His very nose, and spurning his presence as if it is inconsequential.  As if he cannot see outside the walls of the Holy of Holies.  Not only will the instigators be punished, but all who allow it, who don't scream about it, who don't take action to maintain the Temple as the place to worship Jehovah, and NO OTHER.  May not have been any in the city who still worshipped God alone, but if there were, they will be collateral damage.  At this stage, God will not spare the pure if it means any of the corrupt survive.  The pure have no "zone of protection" about them at this point.  They are as condemned as the most extremely corrupt elder.  National sin, national devastation.
2024 - We may see this chapter as God's "bill of indictment" against Israel, and he brings exhibits showing their guilt on each charge.  It is not just that they are worshiping other God's, and so flaunting the very first commandment, spoken directly to their fathers and not through Moses.  Worse, they are breaking this commandment in the very Temple that was constructed for the exclusive worship of Jehovah.  They have move in idols, they have desecrated the temple walls with idols, and they are worshiping the sunrise with the sunrise with their backs to the Holy of Holies.  
2024 - There were 70 elders, and now we see 25 men.  Is that significant?  It would seem so.  Did a search on "twenty-five" and it shows up 22 times.  Here is the first that popped up:
24 "This applies to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they shall come to do duty in the service of the tent of meeting. [Num 8:24 ESV].  It was the age at which the Levitical priest began their service.  Looking further, I see that a good number of the kings of Israel and Judah began their reigns at the age of 25.  I do not think all their predecessors just happened to die when the new king reached the age of 25.  So when we see this number, we ought to consider that the previous king might still have been alive, but is "passing the scepter" to the son they've chosen to follow them.  It would take some time to research all these - since some of them will surely be accounts of the same king coming to power, once in Kings and again in Chronicles.  Twenty-five also shows up many times as the dimensions of Ezekiel's temple are specified, such as here:  13 Then he measured the gate from the ceiling of the one side room to the ceiling of the other, a breadth of twenty-five cubits; the openings faced each other. [Eze 40:13 ESV].  Interestingly, it is listed as a dimension exactly seven times.  So here is another research project.  Did 25 show up a lot in the tabernacle or in Solomon's temple?  The answer is no.  Only in Ezekiel's Temple - a still future temple.  Why so different?  Maybe because it built by the "wrong" people, to human specifications.  Remember that this temple is already built when it is shown to Ezekiel.  He just tells us how big it was.  I believe the Temple that John measures in heaven is the same.  It was already there, in heaven.  Wouldn't Satan want to build his own temple on earth as he tries to set up his kingdom here in opposition to God at the end times?  Aren't the beast, the false prophet and the image sort of an unholy trinity devised to "look like" the true trinity?  This again fits pretty well with my theory that the SoP builds Ezekiel's Temple, and then half way through, he profanes it by declaring it his own temple and himself the object of worship there.  That is why it is not in Jerusalem, and won't fit there.

Chapter 9
The vision of chapter 8 continued.  6 men, executioners, come, along with a man in linen, with writing materials.  

2022 - Linen, per MSB, is a sign of high rank.  This one may have been the "Angel of the Lord" ( I need to do a search on that term and see what I find about him.  I believe this is the one who killed all the firstborn, and the one that was seen on the threshing floor in David's time.  Where else does he appear?  He is a mighty angel, carrying out the wrath of God when the time for mercy  has passed.)  MSB says this could also be the pre-incarnate Christ, but I don't see that.

2024 - Whoever this is, in this case it is not that he is to kill, but to write down the names of those who are NOT to be killed.  

The one in linen is told by God to go through the city and put a mark on the forehead of these who "truly groan" about the abominations in the city.  MSB says the one in linen was/could be the pre-incarnate Christ, marking the elect, so they could be preserved over/through what was coming.  Same reason they are marked in the Revelation.  Connection.  The rest were to be killed in the siege.  Much like Revelation also.
This total destruction of Jerusalem, the removal of all of God's protection over them, is like a preview of the last days.  Only the truly penitent are marked.  Then the other six are told to follow the 7th and kill all unmarked, sparing none.  Old, young, men, women, children.  They do so.

2022 - Well the above is not quite right.  In Revelation the marked have the mark of the beast.  It is connection with that evil one that is signified by the mark.  Perhaps he does that as a mirrored reflection of this scene in Ezekiel.  In Revelation, the one who wants to be worshiped as Christ marks all those truly loyal to him, as if this protects them from the wrath to come - by extension he is claiming he can protect them from hell.  But note that the mark has eternal, not current, implications.  At the Sheep and Goat, those with the mark go into hell.  It is the inarguable proof of their guilt.  I don't believe that what we are seeing in Ezekiel's vision here is about survivors of the coming siege and destruction.  Even those marked will mostly die.  But they will be assured of eternity with God because of their loyalty in the face of such corruption.  Perhaps that is how we should see our place in the middle of the upheaval, lies, misinformation, and  "man-worship" that now characterizes this country.  Our faith will not keep us safe from physical pain and even death, but it will assure a victorious eternity.  That is what we should strive for.  Just as I read in Hebrews this very morning - 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. [Heb 13:14 ESV].

2022 - Hmm...is the mirror-image idea as to Satan's actions in Revelation a key to understanding Revelation?  This might be a key insight.  Follow up on it!

2024 - The 144,000 in Revelation are also marked, and the mark makes them immune to the horrors of the end times.  Who marks them?  "We", used in Greek as a first person plural.  Like Elohim is a first person plural that we say is the trinity.  Three, and yet only one, so a first person plural.  Why would we not see that angel rising in the east in Revelation to seal the 144k as the very same as the one clothed here in linen?  If we say the one in linen is the pre-incarnate Christ, don't we almost have to say that this angel in Revelation 7 who holds the seal is also Christ?  And to me, we'll run into problems really quickly if we do that in Revelation.  Now, I don't think Eze 9 is about end times.  As I read this, it is about the coming siege by Babylon.  Further, the army of Babylon is not going to be honoring any "seals".  This seal, then as in Revelation, is about God's protection.  So...I don't think the sealed are killed by the enemy in either case.  Also, this verse:
2 And he said to the man clothed in linen, "Go in among the whirling wheels underneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city." And he went in before my eyes. [Eze 10:2 ESV].  This seems like a task for an angel, not for a pre-incarnate Christ...which explanation also fits better - in my opinion - with Revelation 7.

Chapter 10
The vision still continues.  

2022 - This verse:
1 Then I looked, and behold, on the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in appearance like a throne. [Eze 10:1 ESV].  God sits on a throne of sapphire.  It shows up over and over.  Look at how the thrones in the Sheep and Goat, and the GWT are described.  If they are not sapphire, then it is not God who sits on them, it is Christ!

The one in linen is told, from the sapphire throne, to go in among the whirling wheels, and throw burning coals on the city.  
2022 - I had forgotten that the wheels were mentioned again, and that again, they are under the throne.  Is it the Angel of the Lord that takes his place in the center of the execution of God's will, or is this a vision of the centrality of Christ in the plan of God?  You could make arguments either way.

The wheels described, pretty much as in the earlier chapter.  Many eyes, God sees all.  Go without turning - God's will cannot be turned.  Interesting that the wheels and the cherubim were connected.  Where ever the cherubim moved, so did the wheels.  Ezekiel confirms that these cherubim were the same as he saw previously.  The glory of the Lord was standing above them in this vision.

2022 - What are the coals about?  Coals from the altar, able to purify even the corruption of Jerusalem at this time.  Fire that will consume this world at the end so it can be created new and uncorrupted?  

2022 - These wheels are once again described in great detail by Ezekiel.  This time, the faces of the cherubs are a little different.  Before it was ox, human, eagle, lion.  Now it is cherub, human, eagle, lion.  Why would this be?  Was there an altar among the wheels in the first version?  Is the passing of the coals by an angel to the one in linen a reference to the angels aiding in passing the Law to Moses that we saw in Hebrews?  If the one in linen is Christ, is this passing of the coals able to purify all of Jerusalem symbolic of the New Covenant being passed to Christ, that he might bring all to repentance by his blood?  Come on!  How could mere men make all this up, and make it fit so spectacularly perfect in what will come later in the New Testament!

2022 - Ezekiel seems far more obsessed with describing the actions of the cherubim and the wheels than with God's actions at this time.  Why would that be his emphasis?  The picture of God leaving the Temple is also significant.  He leaves, with pomp and circumstance, and He never again fills the temple with smoke...does he?  Does that happen in Nehemiah?  This is an important thing to note.  Perhaps this all means that God himself has left off being present on earth, and from this point on, only these cherubim and the man in linen will dwell with men, interact with men, speak with men.  God's will carried out by messengers and His direct power will no longer be exercised on the earth.  OR...this is the passing of dominion over the kingdoms of the earth from God to Christ.  Those coals represent something.  Why not that?  Another seriously deep and symbolic book.  

Chapter 11
The vision still goes on?  Ezekiel taken to the east gate of the Temple.  There, the 25 men stand.  There were also 25, or "about" 25, in 8:16, in the inner court, (2022 - between the porch and the altar).  The sun worshipers.  The 25 in this chapter are (2022 - at the entrance of the East Gate, so I would say just outside the inner court, on the east side.  This is not "about" 25, it is 25 exactly.) the ones who "devise iniquity and who give wicked counsel.  God tells Ezekiel to prophesy against them.  (2022 - This previous interpretation is all wrong  - Ezekiel tells them that their belief that they are meat in the cauldron, and they will die in Jerusalem is all wrong.  They will be judged at the border of Israel, taken into captivity, and in this way they will know that it is the Lord doing all this.)  
2022 - These 25 men think they are the meat in the pot that is Jerusalem.  They are the nourishment, the sustainment, the best and most conspicuous delicacy in the soup that is Jerusalem.  They are "all that".  But Ezekiel says that is wrong.  The most conspicuous thing about Jerusalem is the heaped up dead in it, killed, murdered, ignored and disdained by the whole city.  The cauldron of Jerusalem is filled with the dead bodies of the wrongfully slain.  In God's eyes, they are not the meat, they don't even belong in the pot.  Rather than seasoning the pot they will be discarded at the border of Israel, and no part at all of what is in the cauldron.  They are going to be brought right down to the ground.
2024 - Here again is the number 25.  Are these the same 25 we saw before, or a different 25 from the sun worshipers?

It is because:
12 and you shall know that I am the LORD. For you have not walked in my statutes, nor obeyed my rules, but have acted according to the rules of the nations that are around you." [Eze 11:12 ESV]
Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, falls dead at the end of this prophecy.

2024 - This one:  17 Therefore say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.' [Eze 11:17 ESV].  We always see this.  God is angry enough to expel his people twice, and yet even in the middle of his wrath, when he will not hear their prayers, when he will not turn his face to them, he promises that his anger will end, and he will bring them home.  He will keep the promises he made all the way back to Abraham.

God tells Ezekiel, who feared that all Israel was about to be wiped out when Pelatiah fell dead, that He is preserving some, though they are scattered, that they will return, and clean up the Temple, and possess the land.  Near/far surely.  This vs:
19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, [Eze 11:19 ESV]
This almost has to be more about the pre-millennial return.  We use these vss:19, 20 to speak of the renewing of the Holy Spirit, His Spirit testifying with ours to know right and wrong, to understand Him beyond our own ability.  This is about supernatural in-dwelling.  With the church first, and at the end, when the Jews come home.  
2024 - I didn't realize that this promise of the New Covenant was also found in Ezekiel.  Had he read Jeremiah, or are these the same promise independently shown by God to two of his prophets?   Here are a couple verses from Jeremiah:
19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, [Eze 11:19 ESV]
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [Eze 36:26 ESV]
Interesting...them, and you...Might be a good idea to go back and compare the context of these two verses.

2022 - I see these verses now as about the Millennial itself.  This is a prophecy of the 1000 year reign.

Ezekiel sees God ascend, and then he is "transported" to the exiles in Chaldea, and he tells them all what he has seen in the vision.  
I'm thinking Ezekiel's book is like a lynch pin, that holds together the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem, the very similar conquest in 70 AD, and the ultimate restoration in the millennial of the Revelation.  This book is the Rosetta Stone that ties them together.  Needs hard, in-depth study to show this!!!

2023 -  These verses:
24 And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me. 25 And I told the exiles all the things that the LORD had shown me. [Eze 11:24-25 ESV].  So all that we have seen - all that we have heard - all that Ezekiel has prophesied - was done in a vision.  The vision started in Chapter 8 and runs through the end of 11.  This is all vision, so that Ezekiel knows what is really going on in Jerusalem.  It is as if God is presenting a case for judgment as to whether or not what is coming is justified.  We know that God needs no justification, so maybe it is the "proof", so that man - this time - understands why God's wrath is coming.  God had Noah preach for 120 years before the world was destroyed that time.  Now Jeremiah and Ezekiel have preached and preached - really it started all the way back with Isaiah - maybe 120 years before? - with warning after warning before the wrath is unleashed.  Wouldn't it be interesting if the last one, the tribulation, has about 120 years of prophetic warning, mostly doubted and ridiculed, leading up to the opening of the first seal.  Or will the seals take 120 years leading up to the sixth seal, the rapture, the "breaking" of the world, and the sealing of the 144,000.
To see it that way might also require 120 years leading up to AD 70 though.  But there were no prophets in 50 BC.  None until John.  If you start with John in say 30 AD to keep the numbers round, that would put us to 150 AD...Or is that time all suspended during the church age?  If not...what happened in AD 150?  Found this:
132 AD Bar Kochba Revolt- The Jews of Jerusalem rose up in rebellion in 132 after the Romans built a temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish Temple. The revolt was led by Simon Bar Kokhba and Rabbi Eleazar and achieved some successes early on. The Romans were forced out of Jerusalem and most of Judea. Three years later, Roman armies under the command of Julius Severus retake Jerusalem and sack it. Bar Kokhba is killed at the village of Bethel. Under the orders of Roman Emperor Hadrian, Jerusalem is completely leveled and Jews are forbidden to live there.
This was a pretty big deal.  As I recall, Jews were prohibited from even getting close enough to the site of Jerusalem that they could see it.  Also found this:
Aelia Capitolina, city founded in ad 135 by the Romans on the ruins of Jerusalem, which their forces, under Titus, had destroyed in AD 70. The name was given, after the Second Jewish Revolt (132–135), in honour of the emperor Hadrian (whose nomen, or clan name, was Aelius) as well as the deities of the Capitoline Triad (Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva). A sanctuary to Jupiter was built on the Temple Mount, and statues of Roman deities were erected in the city, in intentional violation of Old Testament law. The area was walled and a large foreign population imported; Jews were generally forbidden entrance to the city. The present walls of the Old City of Jerusalem follow the layout of the Roman walls. The name was used until Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century.
So there was a lot going on leading up to 150, and 150 is a +/- year anyway as we look at this.  But there is a decent case that there were 120 years of warning before the final leveling of Jerusalem.  An let's not forget that Simon was called a prophet...wasn't he?  And the woman in the temple, was she a prophetess?  Hmm...

Chapter 12
This verse:
2 "Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house. [Eze 12:2 ESV]  I think this is saying that even those already in exile are unrepentant and still don't see their status as God's wrath being poured out.  They are too far gone to realize that He has removed His hand from them.  (MSB confirms)
2022 - Even further, I think we see that even before God cursed Israel with blindness and deafness, they already had those maladies in great measure.  God perhaps didn't give them what they didn't already have so much as intensify the rebellion and the internalization that already characterized them.

Ezekiel is told to perform a symbolic going into exile, with baggage, and with his face covered, so that maybe they will finally believe this is a long term captivity.  In vss 8-12, God has Ezekiel interpret the symbolism, so they have no doubt about the prophesied end of Jerusalem.  This vs:
13 And I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare. And I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, yet he shall not see it, and he shall die there. [Eze 12:13 ESV]  He, the prince -King Zedekiah, will escape through the wall, be captured, taken to Babylon - BUT WILL NOT SEE IT!!!  Neb has Zedekiah blinded.  Such an exact, detailed prophecy!
The land will be desolate, the cities laid waste.  Those who remain will eat and drink in fear.  This vs:
25 For I am the LORD; I will speak the word that I will speak, and it will be performed. It will no longer be delayed, but in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and perform it, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 12:25 ESV]
The time was on them.  Now.  Prophecy is about to be fulfilled!  Again, this vs:
28 Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: None of my words will be delayed any longer, but the word that I speak will be performed, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 12:28 ESV]
This would also imply that Ezekiel is NOT talking about Revelation, but about right then, his time, his day.

2022 - I notice that in contrast to Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel seems to receive prophecy after prophecy, each with a specific precise message.  The others, for the most part, were long and encompassing prophecies.

Chapter 13
Ezekiel told to speak against the false prophets, like jackals among ruins, who say "declares the Lord" when they have seen nothing, and then they expect Him to fulfill their word.  (Why do these people do this?  They know God is not speaking, yet claim that He is.  What do they gain, how callous towards their audience are they?  Most importantly, how do we tell the difference???  Later - False teachers are still with is.  Many for financial gain.  Many think they have some special "influence" over what God will do.  They believe they can direct Him as to whom should be healed, made rich, and so on.  But these all expect payment.  And they often fail, they are often wrong.  That is how you tell.)  The chapter goes on to say that these false prophets are proclaiming peace - a short captivity - but Ezekiel says that is wrong.  The people will know they are false when their prophecy of peace is proved wrong.
2020 - Ezekiel's teaching is being undermined by these ear ticklers who tell the people what they want to know.  They make themselves popular, but what they do to the truth is even more insidious.  They keep people from learning the real truth, which precludes the changes that are required to preserve Jerusalem.  So they not only lie, but they obscure the saving truth.  That would seem to put blood on their  hands.  This is the danger of false prophets.

2024 - This verse:
9 My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord GOD. [Eze 13:9 ESV].  In Ezra, when the people start home, they check the register to verify that those headed back to Israel are truly Israel.  There is a group that they couldn't find in the record.  I wonder if it is these, the false prophets and descendants of the false prophets, who were that very group.  And this is why they were blocked out, because of their false prophecies.  That story is in Ezra 2:59...but this goes on to say that shall not enter the land of Israel.  So...maybe not the same ones.

This verse:
10 Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, 'Peace,' when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash, [Eze 13:10 ESV]  When the people do draw a line beyond which they will not go, these false prophets whitewash it, cover it over, try to obscure that this is really a wall.  The "foreboding" that one should properly feel about a wall is diminished by making it appear as something meant for a different purpose entirely.  It's not a wall against sin, it is a pretty decorative "false wall" put here to remind us of how silly our forefather's were.  For us, it is not really a wall, but a look back at our ignorant past.
Good one for FB.  It goes on to say that God is going to send rain, storm, and hail to not only wash off the wall but to also knock it down.  The idea is not as I was thinking above.  It seems that plastering over the wall hides the weaknesses in the wall and the vulnerability of the people if they don't maintain the wall.  When the wall falls, the enemy gets in.  The whitewash keeps them from seeing the sad, deteriorated state of the wall, and so they do not realize they are virtually without protection.  The wall is maintained by devotion to God, prayer, obedience to His commands and so on.  The false prophets are not "requiring" these things and t hey are saying these things are unnecessary.  That everything is just fine as it is currently practiced.  The wall is rotting away and they just add layers of whitewash.

vs 17 starts in on female prophets who make wrist bands and veils (and likely sell them!) in their "hunt for souls".  Not sure what this "hunting souls" might have been.  MSB says they hunted souls for their advantage, and likely practiced sorcery.  This seems to imply that they could capture souls because vss 20, 21, say God is going to free those souls they have taken.  Perhaps it just refers to those so deceived as to believe what the prophetesses tell them?  Like some people do tarot readers today.  Hard to tear some loose from them.  2020 - But it also says they save some not meant to be saved and they lose some not meant to be lost by their actions.  Not sure how this would work exactly.  This little passage needs more study.  And it is about what women are doing.  Perhaps there is some insight there...Or perhaps the answer is already here in so many words in this verse:
22 Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life, [Eze 13:22 ESV]  Maybe they have denigrated those who refuse to listen to their sorceries and predictions, while telling the wicked that they are going to do just fine.  They've made negative predictions about those who won't listen to them, and positive about those who support them.  Could be this...
Also, though, you must remember that Ezekiel is NOT in Jerusalem.  He is saying these things to those already in captivity.  So there are false prophets already in Babylon telling the captives they won't be there long, they'll be returning to Jerusalem any day now, and that sort of thing.  Perhaps they add that there is no reason to change their ways...but it throws the whole prophecy into a bit of a different light when you keep the geography firmly in mind.
2024 - So these were not just "preaching" falsely, they were selling charm bracelets to protect their followers from evil, or something like that.  Even now, I think we'd recognize that as false teaching, but apparently Israel so wanted to be "safe" that they'd do anything but turn from their wicked ways, and they'd believe what any self-proclaimed prophet or prophetess might say if it made them ok just like they were.  But the true prophets, few though they were, who were preaching repentance, were ignored.  These are things to watch for in our own time.

Chapter 14
Some elders come to consult with God through Ezekiel.  These elders have "taken idols into their hearts".  They truly worship the idols.  So God says they are impertinent to even ask while they worship idols.  So His message is for them to repent.  He does not answer their inquiries.  Further, God says any idol worshiper with the gall to try and consult God "will be cut off".  God knows their inquiries of Him are insincere, because in their hearts, their idols are at the top of the hierarchy.  Even if a prophet answers them, it will be because God deceived that prophet.  

2024 - This verse:  
5 that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols. [Eze 14:5 ESV].  It seems to me that this is the huge problem that had "isolated" first Israel and then Judah from God.  They were idolators.  To them God was just "another god", among all the idols that they were worshiping.  They did not consider that their idols couldn't breath or talk, they didn't read their Bibles and see that God did things in the world that were undeniably not the results of chance, and they didn't see that the things that they asked of their gold and silver idols were never fulfilled with anything more than could be accounted for by chance.  They were not willing to elevate God above all their other gods.  When they come back from Babylon, that will never be the case again.  Israel never again had an "idol worship" problem.  Not to this day.  And neither to we!  We do not have our own household gods, nor churches build with statues of Jupiter or Poseidon.  We don't do any of that anymore.  And I know there are places in the NT that say anything we put ahead of God is an idol, even today, but that is a metaphorical argument.  I do not believe that anyone today "prays" to their money, their boat, or their football team.  We may pray FOR these things, but we do not pray TO these things.  THAT IS A KEY DIFFERENCE!!!  God makes it clear that idolatry is something he just "removed" from Judah, and I think he removed it from mankind, during the 70 years in Babylonian captivity.  God chose to take that "competitor" out of the race.  It is a unique thing, done with respect to idolatry only, and it won't be seen again until the 70th week when the MoL sets up the statue to be worshiped.  And perhaps this right here is why that will happen.

2024 - Is "putting the stumbling block of your iniquity before your face" setting up an idol in your own house?  Is that what these elders had done, much like in the vision of the temple?

2022 - This verse:
8 And I will set my face against that man; I will make him a sign and a byword and cut him off from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the LORD. [Eze 14:8 ESV]
The point here, I think, is that if these hypocritical elders, carrying out their "obligation" to consult a prophet of God, do so while their loyalty is still to some idol, it won't be through the prophet that God responds.  He will turn on them Himself, he will destroy their reputations, their families and their prosperity.  This will show that it only God who is God, and it will surely show the hypocrisy of the one who sought out a prophet for advice.  Further, any prophet who pretends to give an answer from God to one of these evil men, will share in the fate of that hypocrite.

So, in light of the last thought above on chapter 13, we get this.  Even in captivity, the exiles have brought their idols, and they continue to worship these idols while being told their captivity will be short.  So there is this complete disconnect between why they are even there and what they need to do to get home.  They are holding on to the reasons for their exile in the first place.  How ridiculous a state they are in!  Does this also go back to the whitewashed wall?  The false prophets are telling them that idolatry - the crumbling wall - is not a problem, when in fact this wall is THE problem.  Really need to be careful if putting that on FB.  It turns out there is FAR MORE to that analogy than I initially though.

This verse:
10 And they shall bear their punishment--the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike-- [Eze 14:10 ESV]  The idea is that God is going to remove both those who inquire of false prophets while worshiping idols, and also the false prophets themselves who behave as if this is no problem at all to try and inquire of God while worshiping idols.  This is truly polytheistic.  Israel has reverted to polytheism!  Just like Egypt, where they came from, just like Ammon and Edom and so on, and all the nations that were driven out before them!  It is not "just" idolatry in putting some other god before God, it is that they are equating ALL of their gods as being on the same plane as the God, and trying to hedge all their bets!  And the false prophets are participating and encouraging this, which covers up the real root of the whole problem that Israel has.  This is why they had no problem worshiping creeping things, the heaves, and the sun right there in the temple itself.  They have gone so far into polytheism that they think this is almost a necessary thing, to make sure no gods are left unworshiped, lest it bring bad luck on all!!!  This was the ultimate in idolatry.  They were equating wood and stone and metal with the creator of wood and stone and metal.  They hadn't just turned against God, they had made all gods equal with him.

In vs 12 begins the mention of "...though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they could only save themselves..."  Once God's wrath is in full vent, even the most faithful of men cannot intervene for the rest.  They can only extricate themselves.  This is sort of an explanation of what happens when a nation crosses the line.  This is the difference between punishment for the sake of correction and the electric chair.  They have used up all their chances to be correction.  And not that v2 12 uses "a land" to describe this.  It does not say this is how it works with "a man".  What is in view is God's dealing with nations.

2020 - Here is an interesting inference:
13 "Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, [Eze 14:13 ESV]
This verse does not say "...when Israel sins...", but is a generalized statement of God's actions against ANY faithless nation.  ANY nation receives famine and isolation.  Further, EVERY PERSON in that nation - even the faithful few who remain - will be subject to God's outstretched hand.  In such a nation, the good will suffer right along with the wicked.  Here it is, in so many words, applicable to the United States of American, in 2022.  
Possible FB post?
It goes on with examples of what God could and might do to such a land.  Wild beasts, sword, pestilence.  All, equally, will suffer.

This verse:
21 "For thus says the Lord GOD: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast! [Eze 14:21 ESV]
Four acts of judgement - sword, famine, wild beasts, pestilence.  We should see all four of these in the Revelation also then.  A good study to find and categorize those judgements by this criteria.  
2022 - Four things to look for.
2023 Addendum - They do show up in Revelation.  Tagged same as here.

2024 - This is a really good description of the way God's "four disastrous acts of judgment will work".  Famine in vss 13-14, beasts are in 15-16, sword in 17-18, pestilence in 19-20.  Are they always in this order?  Are they therefore sent in this order, or is it more random.  All at once but building in intensity.  Have he any biblical example of the beasts running amuck.  In 15-16 we see that the beasts are "passing through", they ravage and make desolate, so that none can pass through because of the beasts.  This is how they operate.  Rabies comes to mind, or something like it.  Or a removal of the innate fear of man that was put into animals after the flood.  So they realized they were bigger than us, stronger, and with more acute senses, making us easy prey.  This reads as though a geographic area would be affected - in this case Judah and Jerusalem were in mind.  In Revelation, perhaps it is the whole world.  I just don't know that we have ever seen this part of the four disastrous acts.

The last several verses hold up those who will "survive" the fall of Jerusalem as examples that the exiles will want to follow.  These that come out of the wrath of God against Jerusalem will be those who had it right - the ones sealed earlier by the one with the writing pouch who gave the truly penitent a mark showing they were chosen for survival.  When these exiles arrive in Babylon, after the fall of Jerusalem, they will be the kind of people that God wants preserved.  They will have God alone in their hearts, and they they will worship only Him though they have seen the worst of His wrath poured out first hand.  This ties in with the 144,000 in Revelation possibly.  They too are sealed and they will go through Trib and Great Trib as witnesses, and they will be protected through all that is thrown against them, and on the other side, in the Millennial, it is these that we will look to as examples of what God wants in a people to call His own.  

This fall of Jerusalem is a microcosm of the wrath that will be visited on the whole world.  To try and interpret Revelation without looking at what is said here to the early exiles about what is still to come is going to come up really short of the truth.  I wouldn't want to take the interpretation too awfully far, but could the early exiles be those who come out of trib....no.  Because the early exiles in Ezekiel are still polytheistic.  They are not "survivors" of persecution.  They are too stiff necked to even see what the punishment is for.  This whole idea is sort of summed up in this last verse of 14:
23 They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 14:23 ESV]  The idea is that the reasons for God's wrath will be made apparent by the "quality" of those who live through it.  They will be the most faithful.  This also answers the question about whether good men sometimes suffer wrath right along with the wicked.  This says that they do.  The righteous marked for survival would have been just as frightened of dying and for their families safety as the wicked that end up actually dead.  They would have experienced the knock of the soldiers, they would have watched their homes looted, perhaps watched far worse things as the Babylonian's ransacked the city.  Their faith would have carried them through all this.  They would have felt God's hand on them, keeping them...or not...but their faith would have kept them moving forward.  In the same way, God will preserve a remnant of Israel through Trib and Great Trib, and they will be examples to the world of true, unwavering faith in the face of the greatest persecution the world has ever seen.

2024 - Well...are the two paragraphs above interpreted correctly?  Those that come out afterwards will have a consoling effect on those in Chebar.  Look at the wording in vs 23:
23 They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 14:23 ESV].  We could read this two very different ways.  First, the survivors could come out still behaving as all the people were BEFORE the four disastrous acts, and those who were taken as slaves and have repented of their wrongs while in captivity will see just how heinous were the inhabitants of Judah before God did this, and with this repentant perspective  understand why God did the things he did - as we in heaven will understand at that time why hell is deserved by those who are there .  OR, will it be those who remained to endure and survive the four disastrous acts who are the repentant ones and the change in them will be an example to those captured and taken away of the result God was looking for in his wrath?  I think - this year - that the first is far more likely.  Those who remain won't change, just as none change in Revelation during the final pouring out of God's wrath.  The second is unlikely because when God gets to wrath, he is no longer trying to reform anyone.  This is out and out punishment of those who had not, do not, and will never repent.  There is only one possibility for them, just as there is only one for those who take the mark in Revelation.  We can see a tie if the ones who bring consolation in Ezekiel correspond to the church members who survive trib up until the rapture.  Those who go through a time of tribulation that has never been before and never will be again (Matt 24), which I believe comes BEFORE the rapture.  The ones who survive that time and are still faithful will be great examples of faithfulness...but for whom?  I just don't think we can make things correlate if we look at the survivors as good examples, instead of as bad ones.  
2024 - Possible confirmation of the idea that these survivors will be seen for what they were - very bad people deserving everything they got - in  this verse:
6 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 7 And I will set my face against them. Though they escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them, and you will know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them. [Eze 15:6-7 ESV]  Those in Jerusalem were beyond any useful purpose.  All they were good for was the fire.  And even if they escape the fire, their final end is the same.  They are for the fire, and the fire is for them.

Chapter 15
vss 1-6 are about "the vine".  I believe about grapes.  It makes the point that the wood of the vine is, itself, useless.  Not even good for making a peg to hang clothes on.  The vine's wood is good only for burning.  God says He has given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem as fuel for the fire.  This verse gives the simple, unadorned reason for God's actions against Judah:
8 And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 15:8 ESV]
I believe also that this means a vine of itself is not much.  It is in the bearing of fruit that a vine is worthwhile.  If no fruit, it is just firewood.

2020-If we see God's chosen people Israel as the vine, we need to see that they aren't "equal" to other nations.  They are even less.  They aren't use for much of anything as they grow anyway, and when burned at "both ends" and charred in "the middle", they are worth even less than that.  Is this saying that it was God's purpose to choose deliberately a nation of people that "only a truly merciful God could ever even tolerate" much less bless, in order to show his infinite boundless love and mercy?  Did He pick out the most obstinate, hard headed, never will learn kind of nation that the planet has ever or will ever see and choose them out to be His for the sole purpose of showing how much mercy He is, how much love He is, and so on?  Is this why you just shake your head when you read the Bible and see that every time He rescued them they turned their backs on Him again the next generation?  They seem to have no memory of history at all.  And yet...they are God's holy people, and He will ultimately turn them into a faithful people who know Him and all that He stands for without having to be told.  He will ultimately be in their hearts.

Chapter 16
Per MSB, this is the longest chapter in Ezekiel and it indicts Israel for her immoral behavior and rebellion against God with no punches pulled.  As seems to be typical for Ezekiel.  MSB says some ancient rabbis wouldn't allow it to be read in public because it is such a sad story.  Verse 1 introduces this as a  new message from God to Ezekiel for the people of Jerusalem.  As it continues, God reminds Jerusalem of her origins.  Son of an Amorite father and a Hittite mother.  (2022 - So Abram was an Amorite, Sarai a Hittite?  Is this the only place we have that information?  I though Abram was from Ur of the Chaldees, and I guess in my reading, it seemed that Sarai came with him from there.  These could both be true, and what Ezekiel says be true, but does it indicate some history of which we have no other information?)  That is, a people from a land not theirs.  Says when born, the cord wasn't cut, no salt, no swaddling.  They were thrown into the field to die.  Israel, before God's blessing, was just an abandoned child, not considered useful enough to survive.  They would not have survived, they would have perished from the earth.  But God found them like this, and said "Live!", and they grew up...but were still "naked and bare".  It is important to note here that Israel is portrayed as female.  Vs 7 says this:
7 I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare. [Eze 16:7 ESV]
2022 - I think the naked and bare in this case speaks to the nomadic life of Abram and Sarai...and Isaac, and Jacob too, and then the long captivity.  They were a people with no homeland for how long?  

2024 -

By Attar-Aram syria - File:Near_East_topographic_map-blank.svg, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37505948
So this map shows that Ur of the Chaldees was in the Amorite state of Babylonia.   You can also see the Hittite Empire on this map.  Elam shows up a lot too.  I have no clue how a Hittite woman and a a man from Ur would have gotten together.  Could have been after the first move, from Ur to Haran.  I note from Genesis 11:31 that Sarai and Abraham were already married in Ur.  Harran is also on this map...but is spelled with two r's, so might not be the same place.   This information also puts a pretty big dent in my hypothesis for why Terah left Ur.  I thought it was because all his daughters had trouble getting pregnant....well...that may still be correct.  We know that Abram and Sarai were related...even though she was a Hittite.  Checked MSB since this just confuses things...MSB implies that the land of Canaan, which later becomes Israel, was inhabited by Hittites and Amorites when Abram migrated in there.  As in, this is about the people groups out of which Israel the nation arose, not about the lineages of Abram and Sarai.  So...not sure what it means, but looking at this map, it seems very extremely unlikely that Sarai was a Hittite girl who married a guy from Ur.
2024 - And of course, if you read just a little further about the cord not being cut and so on, it gets pretty obvious that we are talking about a nation, not about two people!  Duh.

As the nation matured, God covered their nakedness.  These verses:
8 "When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine. 9 Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. [Eze 16:8-10 ESV]
This speaks first of God's continued care and preservation of this nation, of giving it "clothes" that might appear in public sort of.
(2022 - the corner of his garment only, so maybe this speaks to God protecting them, and making special provision for them, and enriching them in the land where they sojourned...though it was still not their land.)  

God decides, first, to keep them, THEN He makes a covenant with them.  
(2022 - The covenant with Abram.  A very picturesque and memorable picture is being painted here.)

They did nothing to deserve it.  They didn't earn it.  He just chose them, because it is what He wanted to do.  The section on washing goes on to talk about clothing them.  I do not think then, in context, that this is an OT picture of baptism.  That's just not what is in view here.  This is about God's covenant with a nation, not with the individuals.  In my opinion.  Then this verse, a picture of a mature, God-blessed nation:
14 And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD. [Eze 16:14 ESV]
2020-I suspect that much of this is analogous to betrothal, courtship, and early marriage customs of the time.  First a young virgin chosen and made presentable.  Then a betrothal - a contract between the parties.  Gifts, adornments, special treatment lavished on the betrothed young woman.  And then perhaps we see marriage when the crown is placed on her head in vs. 12.  From here, in the care of, and the receiving the blessings of such a "husband", she flourishes, her beauty is enhanced, even magnified, so that all can see that she is loved, adored, and cared for by her husband.  This is a rags to riches story of an abandoned girl child in a day when unwanted girls were likely just thrown out into a field and left to die - as in the first verses of this chapter.  That is what this is about.
2022 - Well...maybe it is more about the advancement of God's chosen - after the covenant was put into place - from tent-dwelling nomads to the nation of Israel under Solomon - renowned worldwide for the riches of the nation and the wisdom of its King.

And in the next verse...they begin to fail:
15 "But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his. [Eze 16:15 ESV]
2022 - Idol worship, in rejection of the one that brung them.  

Israel is here painted as an unfaithful woman (2020-no woman, wife), too easy with her virtue.  It is as though she behaves like the unwanted girl-child, as the cast off and worthless thing she was.  She behaves with no self-esteem, she "sells herself" for any morsel, any favor, or even for nothing, because she was "abhorred on the day that you were born" (vs. 5).
vs 16 says Israel began to use it's own finery as an object of worship.  To devote the things God had blessed her with to the worship of other Gods.  This verse:
16 You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be. [Eze 16:16 ESV]  Israel is the only country God will ever bless as he blessed Israel.  No country has ever rejected God in the way that Israel rejected Him.  And neither of these things will ever happen again.

Then note the progression of the unfaithfulness.  First, in vs. 16, colorful shrines.  This could be about the high places that were built, the groves, the Asherim maybe.  Then in 17, they made idols for themselves of gold and silver.  She was unfaithful in nature, then went beyond that to "creating" her own "lovers" with whom she was unfaithful.  Once she's made these, she takes to blessings of God - abundant food and such - and offers these things as sacrifice to other gods.  She is frittering away the wealth and health lavished upon her by her Husband, and offering it to fakes, liars, charlatans, and to all things inanimate.  She returns the lavishness of her Husband with unfaithfulness of the basest sort.  The progression continues with this horror:
20 And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter 21 that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? [Eze 16:20-21 ESV]
The children were God's, the blessing of marriage is the children, the continuing generation, the passing on of wealth, knowledge, learning, growing is in the children blessed to the marriage.  And Israel took those children - that link to the future - and she sacrificed it to false gods.  What a travesty this is.  Truly the like has never been, nor ever shall be.

This verse:
27 Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. [Eze 16:27 ESV]
Even the Philistines were ashamed of how far Israel went?  What in indictment!  Note also that when God began to steer them back to Him, He did not go immediately to the nuclear option.  He diminished them.  He began to withdraw their blessings slowly, giving them a chance to recognize and correct their error.  Then this one more accusation.  A whore, but not for money:
31 ...Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.  32 Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! [Eze 16:31b, 32 ESV]
This perspective as to why Israel was different - worse! - than other nations.  She scorned payment in that these false gods could do nothing, did nothing, were no help to her at all, there was no payback no blessing for worshiping such things.  Israel knew this.  And yet she continued to worship them - to be unfaithful to God though there was no  "payment" for spurning her Husband.  2020 - So God divorced Israel, and the church became His bride instead of Israel.

This is what brought down full blown wrath upon them:
34 So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different. [Eze 16:34 ESV]

These preceding verses are the charges and the verdict.  Verse 35, beginning with"Therefore..." begins the sentence for the crime.  This verse gets specific:
37 therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. 38 And I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. [Eze 16:37-38 ESV]  And it goes on from there....

2022 - This is a bit of a summary verse of the horror that has gone on to this point, and of the justice - horrible justice - that is about to come down from God.  The justice still has a point, an objective, an end:
41 ...I will make you stop playing the whore, and you shall also give payment no more. [Eze 16:41b ESV]

Once all of the sentence has been carried out, there is this verse that I find absolutely amazing:
42 So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry. [Eze 16:42 ESV]
Once the price is paid, once the sentence that the ultimate judge pronounces is carried out, then the debt - even this debt unlike that of any other nation on the planet ever - is paid, then God's anger will be spent, and He will no longer punish.  And debt can be paid.  It would also seem that there is a price for any debt that will be equivalent to the crime.  All debts can be paid, and there is One who decides that payment.  In the NT, we will see that the price - the ultimate price, still higher than this price Israel paid, was the death of God's own Son.  That's all that would do it.  But that paid for all the debts, ever, throughout human history.

In the next verses, God says the proverb "Like mother, like daughter" will be said of Israel.  Her mother and her sisters are the nations around Israel, that God saved Israel out of, and set Israel apart from, to worship only Him as the One God.  The Lord our God, the Lord is One!!!  But she became like those nations around her, heathen idol worshipers, and in fact became worse than they are.
I have never seen this verse before - noticed it much before.  This is why judgement rained down on Sodom:  
49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it. [Eze 16:49-50 ESV]
God goes on to say Israel made Sodom appear righteous by comparison.  2020-It is interesting that their neglect of the poor, their gluttony, and their "ease" are mentioned first.  Only then, in their worry free arrogance and selfishness, did abomination develop.

But once God's judgement has been poured out - once justice for the crimes have been done, you get this from God:
55 As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, and you and your daughters shall return to your former state. [Eze 16:55 ESV]
When God deals with nations, crimes committed are paid for or repented of, and once sentence is served, those nations are restored.  Here is the biggest difference between God's dealing with nations and His dealing with men.  The sentence for man is eternal.  It is eternal death, or eternal life.  There is no purgatory.  There is no "working off" your sentence after you are dead.  For the ultimate sin - for rejecting Jesus Christ's sacrifice for us on that cross, eternal death, no pardon, no parole, no end is the sentence.  For accepting Christ, eternal life, perfection, and paradise without end.  THAT is the difference!!!  As God judges nations in history, so he restores them in history.  With man, judgment is in eternity, and the sentence - or the reward - is likewise.

After ultimate justice, God remembers - and ALWAYS KEEPS - the covenant that HE decided to make with Israel.  Make no mistake.  The covenant will be kept, but you cannot play the whore on your side of the bargain and expect to be treated as a covenant keeper!  God made the covenant, but eventually, ultimately, the nation will KEEP that covenant!  They - WE - will hold up our end.  So says this verse:
59 "For thus says the Lord GOD: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, 60 yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. [Eze 16:59-60 ESV]
This is a change of focus.  We are no longer talking about the original covenant God made being renewed, but about a new one - an everlasting one.  This is the NT covenant, made through Jesus death - payment in advance for sins to be committed - with each individual.  2020-No, probably this is talking about the Millennial.  The true, final, ultimate return of God's people to their God.  

62 I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, 63 that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 16:62-63 ESV]
Only in the consummation of the New Covenant of eternal life in heaven to those who believe will this be true.  We will never open our mouths again- no more sin, at all, ever, in that covenant.

2022 - The restorations of Sodom, Samaria and Israel are, I believe, Millennial references.  

Chapter 17
This chapter begins a new word from God to/through Ezekiel.  A riddle and a parable to be spoken.  An eagle plants a vine, in good soil near water.  The vine is thus well provided for.  But another eagle comes, as the vine is thriving, and the vine reaches for this new eagle, disdaining the good ground and water provided at the outset by the first eagle.  The question is posed:  
10 Behold, it is planted; will it thrive? Will it not utterly wither when the east wind strikes it--wither away on the bed where it sprouted?" [Eze 17:10 ESV]
Then the parable is explained.  The first eagle is Babylon, the second is Egypt.  The covenant was made with the first eagle when Babylon took the King of Judah captive, and left his heir in charge as a vassal.  The vassal king made a covenant with Babylon.  Then he broke it, and sought help and protection from the second eagle - Egypt.  Can one who breaks such a covenant expect to escape?  God says no.  The covenant breaker will in fact die in Babylon.  Zedekiah's fate foretold.  This verse:
19 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, surely it is my oath that he despised, and my covenant that he broke. I will return it upon his head. [Eze 17:19 ESV]
Nebuchadnezzar was chosen by God to carry out His will.  To dispense the judgement that God had decreed.  The prophets, especially from Jeremiah on, were telling the people that this was judgement from God, and NOT to be resisted.

In verses 22-24, God says He will be the eagle.  He will take some small part of the tree, and rather than plant it by the water, in good and fertile soil, he will plant it on a mountaintop.  A hard place for anything to grow.  He will do this to make it clear that something supernatural is involved.  To make it obvious to any who care to look that only by the hand of the God of the universe can this plant not only survive, but grow lush and bear fruit.  2020-This is what has been going on with Israel.  God has planted them on a mountaintop where they have been exposed for centuries to all the vile hatred, the antisemitism, the blame, the anger, Hitler's slaughter, and other slaughters over the years.  Is it not obvious that any "normal" nation subjected to such enduring and unrestrained persecution would have ceased to exist long ago?  Who would want to admit to being a Jew in the face of such long term abuse?  Yet, Israel reformed as a nation in 1948, and has won wars against vastly superior forces many times since then.  This is so we KNOW that a supernatural God sustains them to consummate His final purpose with them and through them in the last days.

This final verse:
24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the LORD; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it." [Eze 17:24 ESV]

2022 - I think there is much of prophecy that I am missing.  I have sprinted through these last several chapters of Ezekiel because I chose to read James first - and I stand by that.  Perhaps next time, I will change the order in Ezekiel, and read here first.  There just seem to be so many nuances in what is said, so many discernible prophecies that we might see being fulfilled as the time grows near...or maybe they are all Millennial prophecies.  That would be good to study out.

(2020-need to clean this one up.  There is a lot of redundancy here in my notes.  Repetition of the same learning stated in slightly different words.  Chapter 20 is just an amazing revelation of God's work with Israel, giving insight all the way until the present day.)Chapter 18
MSB says this chapter is a foundational principle of scripture.  That judgment is according to individual faith and conduct.  Even though this book is about a coming national punishment, they are each - individually - the cause.  The people are all at fault.
A new prophecy begins.  God asks why the saying "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on age" is so popular?  I didn't understand the saying.  Again, MSB says the people knew they were idolatrous and evil, but they blamed their parents for the state they were in.  The eating of sour grapes refers to the sin of their fathers.  The teeth set on edge means the children are getting the bitter taste - the consequences of that sin - visited on them.  They are blame shifting.  They shouldn't be punished because they are just going where their fathers led them.  God says this is not the case.  And then he says:
4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die. [Eze 18:4 ESV]

In vss 5-9 we have a list of the conduct of a truly righteous man.  I think it is impossible to do it all, but that is not the point in this context.  The point is to show in some detail how a righteous man would behave, and God says if one pulls it off, then "...he shall surely live."  Then vss 10-13 contrast the behavior of that man's son, his very son, as opposite the behavior of the righteous man.  Then the end of this verse:
13 ...He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself. [Eze 18:13 ESV]  How can this be anything but justice.  His father was a righteous man, but that buys the son no favors.  
Then, in case there is any uncertainty, vss 14-18 set up the opposite scenario.  A sinful father and a righteous son.  In this case, the father dies, the son lives.  The righteousness of the son is not retroactive to the father, nor is the father's sin condemning of the son.  God leaves no doubt here that it is what we each do, in our own lives, that determine if our souls live or die.  These principles are then summarized in vs 19, 20.  I like this verse:
20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. [Eze 18:20 ESV]  The principle could not be more unequivocally stated.
Such a chapter...
In vss 21-23 another scenario is laid out.  What if a wicked person changes his ways?  Then what happens?  This is the answer:
22 ...for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. [Eze 18:22 ESV]
And then, so we know why things are this way, God reveals to us His own thinking on this subject.  He tells us why He does things this way:
23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? [Eze 18:23 ESV]
God prefers righteousness.  That's why he tells us how to be righteous.  He does not enjoy sentencing the wicked to death.  That gives Him no pleasure.  Instead, He does this because His character - His innate justice, and His requirement of ultimate justice in the world that He has created - requires this behavior of Him.  He has bound Himself by His own rules.  (BUT, it remains true, from these verses and many others, that it is the state of your heart at the second of death that will be the determining factor.  The thief on the cross turned from unrighteousness, but he did no good works afterward.  But this also is addressed in this verse.  While the good things we do when we are bad people are not credited to us, because our hearts are against God, if we turn to Him in our hearts, then that previous good we did DOES get credited to us, however minuscule it might be.)  Again, to make sure no room is left for argument, the text goes on to say that no matter how many good things we do, if we turn bad, the good things are forgotten, and only the bad are remembered.  Possible FB post.
And then, back then just as now, look at the argument the people make:
25 "Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? [Eze 18:25 ESV]
God summarizes His system of justice.  He codifies it if you will.  He presents it clearly and with utter simplicity.  Then He challenges those who accuse Him of injustice.  It is a little long, but it is worth seeing word for word, as God laid it out.  It works like this:
26 When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. 27 Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. 28 Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. [Eze 18:26-28 ESV]
How can any injustice be dug up out of that?  The only attempt I've heard was on a YouTube video where a guy said that stealing a pencil one time does not make him a thief for life.  His argument was that a "lapse" should not count, only thievery as a way of life should make you accountable as a thief.  The preacher posed a question to him:  How do you think you'd come out by telling a judge in a courtroom that you've only committed one murder, and so therefore you are not a murderer.  Surely one murder does not earn the title murderer?  Any earthly judge would see through that.  How much more will God see through the stolen pencil argument.  If I steal, then under God's law, I am a thief.  I must turn from that sin.  Great one for FB if I can shorten it.  Perhaps a series to get the point across.
The universal invitation of God is in this OT verse:
31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? [Eze 18:31 ESV]
God's favor requires a new heart, a changed heart, not a "personal commitment to be a good person, or as close to one as I can get".  An internal heart change - so dramatic as to be recognizable as a NEW heart and a NEW soul - is required.  Submission to His will is what makes such a change possible.  And still another for FB.  And recall that all of this, all of this, comes after Chapter 16 where God disclosed the why of His dealing with nations, and we saw the differences in national justice and individual justice.  Here, we see that they are just superimposed on each other.  Nations are judged by the cumulative justice dispensed on individuals.  The only difference I see at this point, is that judgement of nations is not eternal, in the sense that the earth is not eternal.  Judgement of the souls of men IS eternal, based on the state of the heart at the moment of death.
This is all tied together.  16 and 18 are a set.

2023 - It occurs to me that the people living in Ezekiel's time were also saying that this wrath coming down on Israel was about what Manasseh had done SO many years before.  God had waited what, 500+ years before actually following through on His promises to punish Israel and Judah over the deeds of Manasseh?  So these people were saying, "Why us?  Why this generation?  Why now?"  Justice has been so long delayed that maybe it ought not to be carried out at all, after all, WE are NOT our FATHERS.  And God answers this accusation.  He says look at how YOU are living.  Do your deeds, your sinful way of life, not deserve this wrath AT LEAST as much as Manasseh deserved it?  Perhaps when Manasseh did his evil, there were still a lot of righteous-living people in the land.  But now, in Ezekiel's time?  Almost none.  Judah and Jerusalem are overwhelmingly evil and that "old-time" promise of wrath is not only applicable to a few, but to almost ALL those currently alive.  EACH one deserves this wrath as much as THAT one - that Manasseh - deserved it.  This is not unjust.  And this is not overdue, either.  God's timing says wrath is imminent because things are too awful ever to change back, and because the whole people of Judah deserve wrath.  THIS is how it works against nations.  As I said above, God's wrath here imposes what the nation deserves on top of what the people deserve.

Chapter 19
My TCR ESV labels this chapter "A Lament for the Princes of Israel"
vss 1-9 are a metaphor of Israel as a lion.  There are two parts it seems.  The first male cub raised up by Israel grows strong and then is perceived as a threat by the men that the young lion feeds upon.  So they capture this lion, and take it away to Egypt.  Is this Jacob and his family, and the 400 years in Egypt?  When the mother lion sees this, she raises another male cub.  This cub becomes even stronger, devouring widows and laying waste to cities and appalling the nations nearby.  This lion is attacked by the surrounding nations, all together against this lion.  This lion is brought to the king of Babylon, and his voice was heard no more.  MSB says this is about the collapse of the Davidic dynasty.  The first part is about not Jacob, but about Jehoahaz, and Jehoiachin in the first instance, and about Zedekiah in the second.  Hmm...I really don't see Zedekiah as a lion.  Much more in the MSB notes on this chapter.

vss 10-14 are a second metaphor:
Israel is compared to a vine that grew strong and tall and bore fruit.  But now it has been plucked up violently, dried out, and been burned in the fire.  It has no strength and is weak, and there is "...no strong stem, no scepter for ruling."
The MSB note is very good here.  Too good not to transcribe:
"19:14 The blame for the catastrophe that came to Judah is laid on one ruler, King Zedekiah who was responsible for the burning of Jerusalem because of his treachery (cf. Jer 38:20-23).  The house of David ended in shame and for nearly 2600 years since, Israel has had no king of David's line.  When Messiah came, they rejected Him and preferred Caesar.  Messiah still became their Savior and will return as their King.

Chapter 20
A very lengthy chapter.  Titled "Israel's Continuing Rebellion"
I have a good note, that is a sort of key to this chapter.  In the TCR footnotes, it says the phrase "I swore", or in Hebrew "I lifted my hand", appears twice in vs 5, and also then in vss 6, 15, 23, 28, and 42.  That is, seven times.  Worth noting them all.
First, Ezekiel dates the events of this chapter to the day.  The setting is that a group of elders has come to Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord.
God gives the same response He did the last time we had this same setting:
3 "Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD, Is it to inquire of me that you come? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you. [Eze 20:3 ESV]
They lack the proper attitude, they have not changed at all since the last time we saw them.
The key phrase is used twice here.  God swore to Jacob's descendants, saying "...I am the Lord your God."  It started here - the relationship between God and the nation of Israel.
In vs 6, the third use of the phrase, God swore to bring them out of Egypt, into a land flowing with milk and honey, the "...most glorious of all lands."  In return - conditionally - God required them to "cast away" the idols of Egypt.  But they did not do so.  Reading on, this seems to be focused on the time they were still in captivity.  These verses confirm:
8 But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me. None of them cast away the detestable things their eyes feasted on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. "Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. 9 But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt. [Eze 20:8-9 ESV]
I do not remember that God was about to destroy them while still in Egypt.  MSB has no note to remind me...
Though God could have justly destroyed them there, for the sake of His own name, He waited.  

2023 - For the sake of his own name, in vs 9.  Here is the answer to why God put up with Israel for so very long, and indeed still puts up with them though they reject his son.  God does it "for the sake of my name".  It is to convey how merciful, how patient, how longsuffering "hesed" He is with those whom He has chosen.  Does he not extend that same hessed to us, still, in this Age of the Gentiles?
Good FB post using Ez 20:9

He tries again.  In the wilderness, God does this:
11 I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live. [Eze 20:11 ESV]  A new covenant was proposed to them.  This covenant they accepted, asking God not to talk to them anymore because it scared them so, but to instead speak to them through Moses.  They had a choice here.  They consented to the covenant.  But they broke their bond.  Again they rebelled.  First in Egypt, then in the wilderness.  So again, God proposes to pour out His wrath on them, but He does not, for the sake of His name.  And I also believe Moses intervened for them at this point.
So in vs 15, the key phrase for the fourth time.  This time, God swears NOT to take them into the land.  This is about the 40 years of wandering, and the sad, useless, impotent end of the generation that God so powerfully delivered from Egypt in the sight of all the world.  They were pathetic, yet God did not destroy them.
(Aside:  In vs 12, God says "...I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them...".  In 13, God says "...my Sabbaths they greatly profaned."  In 20, God seeks to make the Sabbaths a sign between Him and the children of the rebellious.  I have not seen the Sabbaths referred to in this way.  Honoring the Sabbath is a sign between God and man.  Think of Chic-Fil-A.  Think of Blue Laws - now fallen by the way.  Once the law of this whole country.  My conviction yesterday when I pulled into Rudy's parking lot, and repented of it.  But I had lunch from Hideaway yesterday.  There is a New Covenant in the NT.  There the law is within us.  And our conscience is our guide.  And mine surely said that supporting businesses that buy and sell on Sunday is something I need to avoid.  How to do so with the kids coming over?

2024 - There is more to this "I gave them my Sabbaths".  What that really means is that God gave them one day in seven to rest, and not have to work.  In those days, if a farmer rested that much, his crop was a lot more likely to come up short.  But God said if Israel would worship him that day, thank him, study him that one day, then he would not let it "cost them" the time.  God said he'd do 1/7 of the work they would have been doing if they'd just use the time to reverence him.  And they would not do it.  Greed made them refuse to take the time.  Greed overcame the blue laws.  I will very likely eventually overcome Chic-Fil-A.
In vs 18, God proposes yet another covenant with the children of that lost generation.  He tells them not to do as their fathers did.  But this generation also rebelled.  And God considered pouring out His anger against them.  But He did not, for his own sake.
Then we get to 23, the fifth use of the key phrase.  Instead of His wrath, God swore to scatter them among the nations.  To disperse them.  This because they wouldn't obey the rules.  So this far back we see the scattering of the Assyrian conquest, and the the Babylonian conquest.  God already knew that they wouldn't have their own country, they'd be all over everywhere, and persecuted where ever they were!  What they experience today is part of what the nation "earned" way back then.

2024 - These verses:
10 So I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.
11 I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live.
12 Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.
13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned... [Eze 20:10-13a ESV]
It seems to me that we need to interpret "statutes and rules" and "Sabbaths" as the Ten Commandments only, and not the rest of the Mosaic Law.  I say that because of this:
25 Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, [Eze 20:25 ESV].  
Look at the stark contrast between the rules God gave them in 10-13 and what he says about statutes and rules in vs 25.  We are NOT talking about the same rules here.  I think the original 10 are all that would have been needed had Israel not risen up to play.  The 10 are far more like the New Covenant, when we strive to do God's will in the absence of direct commandments.  The Mosaic Law, on the other hand, sort of lays down the black and white for every situation.  Our brains don't even need to be engaged, we just read what it says.  That was never going to work.  That just proved we could NEVER EVER get it right!  The Law was to humble the people into realizing that God's own mercy was all that could save them, they could NEVER be good enough on their own.
But the main point is that the 10 are very distinct from the rest.  


Then this verse, that has previously escaped me:
25 Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, 26 and I defiled them through their very gifts in their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it that they might know that I am the LORD. [Eze 20:25-26 ESV]  What in the world does this mean?  The MSB note is very unsatisfactory.  Says God allowed them to live in their sin.  That like all nations, Israel's history is one long story of rebellion.  I think it says much more than just this.  It implies to me that though God did not choose to destroy them in a heartbeat, they had crossed the line that nations must not cross, and from this point on - before they even entered the promised land as a nation - God had determined that they would fall.  God knew from here, before there was a David, that David's line would end...for a time...until God himself renews it at the Millennial.  And because they had already earned this wrath - the wrath being poured out in Ezekiel's time - God gives them rules to follow which only serve to increase their guilt, and to make them ever more deserving of the wrath that is set to come.  The law was not sent to save them, but to condemn them!!!!  This is what this is about!!!!    We see God do this.  He made the Assyrians a horror, so that after they were used to take down Israel, God would be more than justified in wiping them out.  He repeats this with the Chaldean's, per Habakkuk.  Implication is that God already knew before Joshua's first battle that Israel was doomed.  Yet still, they had chances.  The offer to Solomon - which he broke.  The history of broken covenants, rebellious kings, and idolatrous people just confirms that they rejected God countless times, over and over, as God already knew that they would.  So...the Holocaust....in this context, was just a fulfillment of God's "swearing" to scatter them among the nations?!  Their rejection of Messiah was just fuel on this fire that started with the generation after the wandering.  All of it, one relational interconnected march of history according to God's own word.

Once they entered the promised land, this generation, they continued to bring the wrath upon themselves - not just through the rules God gave them to increase their sin, which I suspect they largely ignored anyway - but by worshiping and giving offerings on every "high hill" to false gods.  They just continued to openly and directly insult God.  This sixth use of "I swore", in verse 28, is just a reference back to verse 6.  This is not really a new promise from God.

All this is described as God's answer to the inquiring elders as to why He will not be inquired of by them.  They are detestable to God.  And their proposal to Ezekiel was apparently going to be a deal offered to God.  They would forego His promises to them if he would let them just be another nation, like all the others, worshiping wood and stone.  Of course, they wanted God to forgo the final destruction of Jerusalem in the bargain also.  Hmm...MSB does not talk about this.  I could be really wrong, but that's what it seems to me.

2020-So this whole idolatry thing that Israel fell into had started while they were in Egypt.  They had been there a long time and mostly forgotten God, and they had become like the Egyptians, worshiping multiple deities (polytheism again) and offering sacrifices up to and including children.  God tried to get them to turn away from those false gods while they were in Egypt, and possibly before Moses' time.  They refused.  Perhaps - certainly - a few turned to God, a remnant did, but mostly they did not.  God leads them out anyway.  Sinai happens.  New rules to establish a new relationship between God and Israel.  But even as He offers these rules, they rebel and rise up to play, and make new idols of their very own and worship them in the very shadow of the mountain of God.  And I believe now that God decided right then and there that Israel was going to suffer under his wrath for thousands of years.  God planned right then that the Davidic line would rise...and then stop with Babylon.  God continued to give them rules that He knew they could never keep, especially en masse.  Moses continued to get new rules for a long time after playtime.  Impossible rules.  These were to highlight the continued rebellion of a rebellious and cast off people.  Moses knew.  He knew.  

True to form, they continually rebelled in the desert.  Whiny, stiff-necked, yearning for their former wooden and metal gods who required so little of them in real life.  Because they were not real.  That's what was going on.  It wasn't really about the great food and healthy work they'd had in Egypt.  It was about less demanding gods!  These rebellions were all about the idols of Egypt.  So that first generation, raised as they were in Egypt and taught from childhood to worship Egypt's gods, were prevented from entering the promised land.  They failed miserably at the new start they were offered.  
I don't have a verse for this, but it might be a good FB post from Ez 20.  Why did ancient peoples worship idols?  Because idols were easy to serve!  Idols don't set the bar low, they don't set bars at all.  All the rebellion in the US right now is about not living up to the image of God in which we are created!

Then the second generation went in.  First thing that happened is that what's his name buried some of the idols of Jericho in his own tent, bringing condemnation immediately on this new generation that God gave yet another chance.  But they intermarried almost immediately, they brought home the gods of their new wives, and they turned back to the idolatry they'd learned in Egypt.  And the gods worshiped by the Canaanites were even worse than the gods of Egypt.  These gods wanted children sacrificed and the people did it.  Still the bond with idols that Israel suffered from was not broken, even in the face of this horror.

So the timeline continued, Israel rose and then she fell, and she is still fallen, she still suffers, she still misses out on the best things that God has to offer.  She is a vine on top of a mountain, hanging on supernaturally because God made promises that he will keep, but still suffering from His wrath for their sin and idolatry and rebellion.  As a nation, they suffer more and longer than any nation ever has, yet they are preserved for a better time.  A nation can "serve out their sentence" and be restored.  A person who dies in sin is done for eternity.

vs 33 moves on from these things, from the history of how Israel got here, and God says this:
33 "As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out I will be king over you. [Eze 20:33 ESV]
God's promises will be fulfilled with or without their cooperation.  As history shows, it has been almost exclusively without.  This is now a Millennial prophecy of Jesus coming reign as King from the line of David.   He will bring them home, as prophesied in so many places.

Through vs 38 seems to be a reference to the Millenial, when only faithful Jews will remain, and they will worship God as He has always wanted them to do.  God will bring this about, not man.

Vs 39 turns back to the present...no...I think we're still talking about the Millennial in these verses.  Well...I can't really tell.  He is talking to those elders that are sitting there, proposing their evil proposal for God to just leave them alone forever and let them worship their idols.  They say this even as they are captives in Babylon!   God tells them to worship as they will, but their choice will no longer accrue against God.  From here on, all nations will know that the fate of Israel is their own doing, their own bad choices.  They will not be "His" anymore, until the regathering in the Millennial.

Vs 43 has the seventh use of the key phrase.  It again refers to the land.  So three of the seven are references to the same promise.  That God will give Israel the land of promise.  Yet the nations that surround Israel today still believe they can annihilate the Jews from the planet.

The chapter finishes up with an address to the "forests of the Negeb".  Which...as I look at a current map...do not exist.  And indeed that's what God says.  He will burn that forest, and it will cease to exist, and this will be a sign that all the world recognizes as God's work.
Then the last line of the chapter is this, from Ezekiel:
49 Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! They are saying of me, 'Is he not a maker of parables?'" [Eze 20:49 ESV]
MSB says this last means the elders still refused to hear the clear message.  Instead, they chose to look at it as allegory.  Not at all as actual fact about to descend on them with a vengeance.

10/30/19 - I can't get this chapter out of my head.  This whole concept of God making a covenant - or offering a covenant - with Israel, while they were still captive in Egypt.  This is in vs 5:
5 and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day when I chose Israel, I swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob, making myself known to them in the land of Egypt; I swore to them, saying, I am the LORD your God. [Eze 20:5 ESV]
"on the day" certainly implies a specific, not a general covenant.  It was auspicious.  God CHOSE THEM on that day.  He promised to deliver them from bondage, and to give them Canaan.  And for their part, this verse:
7 And I said to them, Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the LORD your God. [Eze 20:7 ESV]
This is phrased as an order, a commandment, not as a negotiation, not as something they could accept or reject.  God chose them, and as a consequence, putting away idols was required.
They rebelled.  They did not submit to the requirement.  They continued to do things their own way.  This while they were STILL in Egypt.  So they earned this judgement:
8 "...Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. [Eze 20:8 ESV]  They had earned God's wrath at this point, already, in their history.  Likely before Moses was ever born.  But God determines not to proceed with this judgement, lest His own name be profaned in the sight of the surrounding nations.  Instead, He kept HIS part of the promise, and brought them out of Egypt.  

Once in the wilderness, God tries again with Israel.   These verses:
11 I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live. 12 Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them. [Eze 20:11-12 ESV]  I believe this ties to the time they spent at Mt. Sinai.  The Ten Commandments were part of this.  I do not know how much further it went.  But God gave them some rules to live by, and the purpose of those rules was so they would "live", and they would know their blessings were from God, and were because of their compliance.  I believe this was a choice they were given, at Sinai, where they said they would agree to do all that God commanded.  Perhaps this is the "modification" from the covenant while they were captives.  Slaves don't get a choice.  Free people do, and they chose to bind themselves in the Sinai covenant.  But for the second time, Israel fails to keep their part of the bargain.  The consequence comes again.  God was justified at this point in pouring out His full wrath, and making a complete end of Israel there in the wilderness.  Again, lest His own name be profaned by this action, God forbears the sentence.  However, God does refuse to give them the land of Canaan at this time.  He won't let them enter.  

God offers a covenant with their children.  The previous generation was denied entry to Canaan, and they all died in the 40 year wandering.  But God tries again, the third time, with the children of that generation.  This was His proposal:
18 "And I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols. 19 I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, 20 and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God. [Eze 20:18-20 ESV]  There doesn't seem to be a negotiation here.  This generation was given opportunity to make good on the covenant made by the previous generation.  They were "inheritors" of that covenant, broken by their parents, but God offers it to them if they will only follow the statutes and rules from Sinai.  This younger generation also rebels, and does not hold up their part of the covenant their fathers had agreed to.

Because of this, God again determines to pour out his wrath on them and to spend His anger against them there in the wilderness.  A third time, God refrains from doing so lest His name be profaned in the sight of the nations.  This time, something is added.  God tells them, while still in the wilderness and before Canaan was entered, that He will scatter them among the nations.  He will disperse them.  This for not obeying God's rules, and for profaning His sabbaths.  Then this remarkable verse:
25 Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, 26 and I defiled them through their very gifts in their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it that they might know that I am the LORD. [Eze 20:25-26 ESV]
Does this say there was a "second law"?  Isn't that what Deuteronomy means - second law?  Does it say God gave them laws more specific, more strict as to the holiness he required of them, knowing they could not keep these laws, and so would condemn themselves continually from that point on?  And He "defiled them through their very gifts in their offering up their firstborn."  Was it at this time that God said all the firstborn of man and beast were to be dedicated to Him?  Knowing they would not do it.  That even if they went through the motions they wouldn't mean it?  Or is this about them defiling themselves with false gods by offering their own children to idols?  

So ends this recounting of God's initial relationship with the descendants of Jacob, from Egypt to the second law? (((I think!  Not sure add'l laws were given to them in Deuteronomy.  In fact, MSB says this is not a literal "second law" but an account of Moses' words of explanation concerning the law.  Well...maybe.  But in light of Ezekiel 20?  Surely there is a second law somewhere.  Ahhh...The additional laws are in Leviticus.  MSB says that among other things before Israel camped at Mt. Sinai, there was no formal sacrificial system.  So...Moses brought down the 10.  He found the people already breaking this simple law that would let them live.  Moses went back up.  The Levitical law was given, the sacrificial system formalized, the duties of priests and people detailed.  This makes sense.  God wanted to wipe them all out when Moses came down with the 10, but He stopped short.  Then there was another 40 days on Sinai, and additional laws were given.  Maybe this is what it means.)))

I have one of Dad's books, called Ezekiel the Prophet, by H. A. Ironside.  It goes through Ezekiel chapter by chapter.  This is what it says about Chapter 20:
Ironside says that we often think of the Jewish slaves in Egypt living as a separate people up until Moses arises and leads them out.  This chapter of Ezekiel makes it more likely that they had mostly forgotten God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and had turned almost exclusively to the gods of the Egyptians.  Perhaps this is why Pharoah worked them so hard - it was God chastening them through Pharoah!  So when Moses showed up to lead them out, they were shocked and awed and saw this "I Am" Moses talked of as a god previously unknown to them!  Doesn't that answer a lot of questions!

At Sinai, per Ironside, God would again have destroyed them and built a new nation from Moses, but Moses intervened, and again, for His name's sake, did not destroy them.  But at this point, God determined they would not enter Canaan.  Not this generation.  
Ahhhh!!!!  Ironside says that it wasn't that God gave them a whole new set of laws to condemn them - they were already condemned.  But He gave them up to follow the laws and statutes of false gods, so pagan that they even required them to sacrifice their own children.  God let them degrade themselves in their worship of these gods, rather than just wipe them out and be done with it.  He let things progress naturally to barbaric horrible inhuman behavior which is always the end of the rejection of the Holy One of Israel.

So!  I was definitely on the right track, but was reading far more into it than was there.  I thought Ezekiel was telling us about things that no previous book had revealed.  This is not the case.  It is a succinct recounting of God's dealings with - and continuing mercy toward - the nation of Israel.  His anger, His justifiable readiness to pour out His wrath and wipe that nation from the earth multiple times, and just start over to keep His promises to Abraham, is reduced to simplest terms.  I thought this was brand new.  It is not. But this is a good version of the history of Israel, and it gets us to the place where we are in Ezekiel.  They just kept getting worse.  They turned further and further.  It got to the point - my words here - that NOT wiping them out profaned the name of God more than scattering, dispersing, and de-nationalizing them.

Chapter 21
A new message from God through Ezekiel.  He is to look toward Jerusalem and say that God has drawn His sword.  He isn't standing there, arms akimbo, with a scowl on His face.  That is passed.  He has drawn His sword.  This verse:
5 And all flesh shall know that I am the LORD. I have drawn my sword from its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again. [Eze 21:5 ESV]
Once drawn, the sword will be used before it is sheathed again.  

2024 - I would suggest this year that the sword is yet unsheathed against Israel. 

Jeremiah is to groan, and make no secret of it.  The fearful end is coming to Judah.
In vs 8,9, Jeremiah is to say the sword is sharpened for slaughter, and polished.  It will flash like lightning.  This will not be a test for Judah, to see if they will turn.  This is wrath.  This sword will kill.
Jeremiah is to take a sword himself, and to slash this way and that, saying that God has put a sword at every gate.  That God is swinging His sword and will do, and "...I will satisfy my fury."  God is so very angry.  And this people cannot even see it.  Won't listen.  Still believe that Jerusalem will recover, and that they will soon return there.
Vs 18 is God's word, again, to Ezekiel.  Ezekiel is to make a sign to go at the fork of the road Babylon will use to invade.  One fork goes to Jerusalem, the other to Rabbah, in Ammon.  The King of Babylon has reason to attack both.  He will stop at this fork, and use divination to determine his course.  He will look at a liver, consult his teraphim- household gods, and other sorts of "magic" to determine what he should do.  The result will be an attack on Jerusalem.  The people will know this is what he has decided.  Yet even then, they will believe it is a false divination, and that either he will turn back, or be very unsuccessful.  Even as Babylon marches to Jerusalem, they will not believe that the prophecies of both Jeremiah and Ezekiel are coming to pass before their eyes.  
This verse:
26 thus says the Lord GOD: Remove the turban and take off the crown. Things shall not remain as they are. Exalt that which is low, and bring low that which is exalted. [Eze 21:26 ESV]
One can tell this is an important verse, that much symbolism is here.  But I don't understand it.  Here is what MSB says, paraphrased.  The turban is about the priesthood, the crown about kingly succession.  Neither is really restored fully after Jerusalem falls.  Per MSB, this fall is the actual beginning of the Age of the Gentiles.  I had always believed that started when the Jews rejected Christ.  This view has it starting after the captivity, in about 500 BC.  This is tied to the phrase "Things shall not remain as they are."  The Jews have lost their place as God's unique people, at least until He restores them at the end.  Add to this the next verse:
27 A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it. This also shall not be, until he comes, the one to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to him. [Eze 21:27 ESV]
Ruin repeated three times for emphasis.  Israel, the Jews, will barely even be a nation again.  For a long time, it won't be. And then it struggles every day with the threat of immediate annihilation.  It will stay this way "until he comes:.  The Messiah - Jesus - who will combine the offices of priest and king...and I would add that He is also the perfect sacrifice - and so restore Jerusalem and Israel.
The last verses of the chapter are a prophesy against Ammon.  It too is going to fall, and receive punishment for it's own sins.  This last verse of the chapter sums it up:
32 You shall be fuel for the fire. Your blood shall be in the midst of the land. You shall be no more remembered, for I the LORD have spoken." [Eze 21:32 ESV]  Nothing here about Ammon being restored at the end, as is mentioned in connection with Moab.

Chapter 22
God details the reasons for what is coming to Jerusalem:
3 You shall say, Thus says the Lord GOD: A city that sheds blood in her midst, so that her time may come, and that makes idols to defile herself! 4 You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made, and you have brought your days near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. [Eze 22:3-4 ESV]
2023 - What is meant by sheds blood?  Note that in vs 3, both blood and idols are mentioned.  Is this about blood sacrifices to idols in a kind of "mockery" of the sacrificial system God set up for Himself?  Is God angry that blood that should have been shed for him is being shed on behalf of wood, stone, and metal?  Or is this really about human blood?  About rampant murder throughout the land?  If this last, how much unborn blood are we shedding in the US.  And look what it portends:  "...that her time may come..."!
This could be a reference to the blood of those sacrificed to idols.  It could be that the rich were getting away with murdering the poor.  MSB has much to say here.  "Judicial murder" is one he mentions.  They used a corrupt government to kill.  Child sacrifice is mentioned, and so is their rebellion against Babylon.  MSB goes on to say that vss 4-13 mention 17 specific kinds of sin, and then more are listed in vss 25-29.  The only restraint on the sins of Judah were its ability to get so much sinning done.  Murder seemed to be a very popular sin.  So I will read on...
vss 6-12 list some truly awful things that were apparently going on, yet did not revolt the population to the point of demanding action.  It is difficult to imagine a place where such things were not actionable.  Rape and incest seem to have been a daily thing, as was extortion of immigrants, neighbors, and so on.  This again sounds like the "switch" in Romans 1 has been flipped.  No sense of common decency remains in Jerusalem.  I note that homosexuality has not been mentioned at all to this point...
God asks if their courage can endure the wrath He is bringing on them.  He says they will be scattered to the nations, and that He will "...consume your uncleanness out of you..."  God says that by this, they will know that He is God.

2023 - "scattered to the nations".  That word "scattered" is used 14 times in Ezekiel in the sense of scattering the people of Israel/Judah among the nations, that is, pushed out to live in other nations than their own.  Lamentations uses it once.  It first shows up, as I read it, in Jeremiah 30.  I submit that it has not stopped.  Anti-semitism is alive and well in 2023, and Jews are oppressed, persecuted, and "deported" still.  They are being scattered from the places to which they had already been scattered.  This is what the holocaust was about.  Too many Jews concentrated in Germany, Poland, and Russia.  They could not be allowed to reach "critical mass" lest some claim that the return was upon us.  Now, though, AFTER WWII, Israel is a nation, and the constant immigration to that new country may well be the beginnings of the re-gathering promised in Ezekiel......wait wait wait....this continuing scattering would mean that the double punishment is still not over.  That while AD 70 was a bold punctuation it was not the end.  So when does  it end then?  At the sealing of the 144,000?  Or did the re-establishment of Israel technically end the double punishment, since at that time the return to Israel began?  How interesting...

Vs 17 starts a new section, a new prophecy.  Here, God says all Israel has become dross to him, as dross of silver.  He uses metaphor and says that He will gather the remainder of Israel into Jerusalem as if gathering tin, bronze, silver ore and so on into one place.  Then He will blow on them, fire as the refiner's fire, and melt them down.  By this, they will know that He is the Lord.  
vs 23 starts another section:
First the priests dereliction of their responsibility is detailed.  They make widows, they do not distinguish between clean and unclean, nor do they teach the people the difference.  They ignore the sabbaths, profaning God among them.  Also the princes -  Kings and leaders? - these destroy lives to get dishonest gain.  The prophets too have told lies and given false prophecies, saying it is from God when God has not spoken.  The people themselves practice extortion and take advantage of immigrants and sojourners.  
Amidst all this evil, all this debauchery, all this abandonment of any principles of common decency, God looked for a man to stand in the gap.  One to stand in the gap so God would be turned from destruction.  In vs 30b, "...but I found none."  

2022 - This verse:
30 And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. [Eze 22:30 ESV]
In vs 30, God looked for A man, just one, to build up the wall and stand in the breach on behalf of the land.  It would only have taken one.  Keep in mind that we are well into the waves of conquest and the three phases of taking captives to Babylon.  The city is already a vassal state under Zedekiah.  Even so, that final devastation and burning in 586 BC might still have been avoided, if one man could be found.  
There is a FB post here.  No matter how far we may think the US has fallen, no matter how ungodly we have become, one person can still halt the progression, perhaps even turn it back to more godly times.  Be that person!

Next verse, the last in the chapter, begins with "Therefore..."
31 Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 22:31]

Chapter 23
Per the MSB outline, today's chapters are the last two dealing with prophecies of the coming destruction of Jerusalem.  
Starts with a new word.  There were two women - Oholah and Oholibah...In verse 4 they are precisely identified.  Oholah, the older sister, is Samaria, and Oholibah is the younger.  In Egypt, they are not nice ladies.  They play the whore.  This continues the idea that while Jacob was in Egypt, God was dealing with them, and letting them know He wanted their worship exclusively, and did not want to share it with the false gods of Egypt.  Yet they still went after idols.

(((Idols...A great tool of Satan at that time to lure Israel away from God.  He twisted it - the natural bent of men to seek God - into a perverse thing that led to the shedding of innocent blood as children were sacrificed by their own parents to these false gods.  So no wonder there is that verse where God "excises" this temptation from Israel.  He just takes it away, so that Satan can no longer use it to corrupt them.  He says He did it "just this once".  We just don't see it much today.  This should be written up.  I've never heard it preached.)))

After Egypt, Oholah continues her whoring with Assyria.  She goes after the young strong warriors of that nation, and they spend their "whoring lusts" on her.  This word picture is adults only.  She is consumed with physical desire to worship their idols and endear herself to them.  As a result, God judges her, and Assyria conquers her, reduces her to a "byword" among her sisters.  She becomes as nothing.  The end result of infidelity - both physically and in the larger spiritual sense also - is emptiness, scorn from others, abandonment, desolation.

You would think this would serve as an example.  But this is the next verse:
11 "Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister. [Eze 23:11 ESV]  Oholibah, to me, seems to act contrary to common sense.  Denial runs in her veins, as she refuses to see the clear, apparent object lesson God presents before her very eyes.  It goes on to say that both sisters took the same way, lusting after the Assyrians.  

2023 - These verses:
14 But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, 15 wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. [Eze 23:14-15 ESV].  Is this God describing the Ishtar Gate of Babylon through Ezekiel's prophecy?  Sure, Ezekiel may have seen it, it was very famous, and what an appropriate symbol for this prophecy to use!  I went and found a pic of the current version of that gate.  It is blue, and has those Babylonian lions top to bottom in gold.  There are no "men portrayed on the wall" in the current version.  Wonder how they know what it looked like?  Hmm...I also found this, which seems to be a piece of the original gate, in a museum in Berlin.  Wonder if that orangey color was closer to "vermillion" in Ezekiel's day?  Those look like "turbans" to you?  and you see those belts hanging down?  Wow!


Vss 14-21 are most definitely rated R.  Oholibah lusts after the Assyrians, they come to her whoring in droves to discharge their lusts.  Bu she goes still further, turning also to the Chaldeans - to Babylon - and whores around with them also, indulging her lusts for the warriors, governors, men of Babylon.  After all this - perhaps after the fall of Assyria to Babylon, and then realizing that her whoring was gaining nothing, she turns from them both in disgust.  It does say from "them", so Judah was submitting to both Assyria and Babylon.  Two lovers, instead of her own God.  It is at the time that Judah turns from these two and embraces Egypt yet again that God turns from Judah.  This is the last straw, the one God knew was coming, but waited for Judah to play out, making her judgment as wholly justified as it could possibly ever be.  She had turned back to the idols and gods and polytheism of of the country God had brought her out from.  She has gone home to her first lover again.  She turns from them to the Egyptians, her previous lovers, and she gives herself to them.  The sexual "pictures" here are graphic in a way I didn't know was even in the Bible.  And the Egyptians readily participated in the whoring.  It is worse than what her sister did, and as God had turned from Oholah in disgust, so He turns from Oholibah.  
God turns the lovers against Oholibah.  They will attack her from every side.  The Chaldeans will come from the north and surround her.  And God does this:
24 ...and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments. [Eze 23:24 ESV]  God gives these barbaric, ruthless peoples free reign to treat Oholibah as they will.  God steps back, not protecting the innocent, not judging the guilty, but letting the Babylonians make the decisions.  That is, instead of God insuring justice and mercy to the faithful and the sword and pestilence to the "whores", He lets the random, man-made, "justice" of an evil nation the law of the land.  

That may well be what is going on in the US today.  We've been turned over to evil men, and they have been made our overseers, our judges, and so on.  We fair weather, quiet, non-witnessing Christians have been given all the time we are going to get, and now we will live and die by the judgement of evil, random, corrupt men.  
Next verse says they will deal with her in fury.  This will put an end to the whoring.  It says that God's justice for the infidelity will be for Oholibah to be disabused in the worst possible ways by those former lovers she has turned away from.  He will put the spurned in charge of the one who spurned them.  Can there be a more merciless scenario than this?  

2020-I have been thinking a lot lately about that "progression" of corrective steps God told Israel about.  I think it was while they were still at Sinai.  He told them what things would come, and the birth pangs analogy was used.  How can you look at what is going on in the US right now and not recognize our troubles as birth pangs.  More things are happening, and more often, and more serious, and more long term than ever before.  (Or maybe not...I've seen those stories about being born in like 1905 and going through two world wars and the Spanish flu.)  I need to find that passage though....It is in Leviticus 26:14-46.  I read through it again, and it seems more about invasion from without, by enemies that conquer and enslave, than it does about the things we are seeing...though maybe where the US is today is just a verse or two of Lev 26 and not the whole thing.  And also, these were covenant consequences to Israel, not to the US in 2020.  But God is consistent...

Also 2020...So much of God's anger with Israel and Judah has been about these idols.  We are seeing in Ezekiel that the idolatry really started in Egypt, as the descendants of Jacob for generations were taught to worship as their captors worshiped.  They were "corrupted" over to the polytheism of Egypt, even though God had brought Abraham out of Ur as a uniquely monotheistic man.  Abraham believed in one God, and was blessed for that, and promises were made because of that.  But in Egypt, his descendants went backward, and then continued to wallow in idolatry of all kinds even when God brought them out of that.  It is the continuing, cumulative, progressive idolatry of Samaria and Judah that is ultimately their undoing.  All the corruption and perversion and so on is a direct result of the idolatry they practice.  Surely Satan was the instigator, and promoter of all that and he did as much as he could to make them seem "real".  But God knew, and it was this idolatry that brought on the devastating punishment.  I never really saw this as the common thread of all that went on with Israel.  God demanded fidelity from them.  They constantly played the whore instead.  
This also makes it impossible to deny that the Bible is a wholly patriarchal book.  Males are in charge.  They are always in charge.  The graphic descriptions of the behavior of Israel and Judah make very clear that God is male.  So stop trying to make excuses for it - excuses like "well, the King's Mom's name is always mentioned".  "Well, those sisters were given an inheritance because no males were left, so God recognized females".  Those happened, but they are in here more likely as standard writing and not to show that God promotes equality for women.  He does, and the New Testament makes it clear that where salvation is concerned, gender, race, station, etc are completely inconsequential to God.  BUT, heaven will be patriarchal I think.  Because a male - God - will be in charge.

2023 - This:
27 Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your whoring begun in the land of Egypt, so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore. [Eze 23:27 ESV].  This reminds me of the passage in Chapter xx where God said he gave them the Law to make them more guilty.  Doesn't this tie right in with that, saying that God in fact had condemned Israel for embracing the idols of Egypt while they were still there?  And the Law was given to show them just how absolutely guilty before God they were, and to show how even when they had in writing what they should do, they still refused to be holy, and in fact ran the other way, hell bent on going to hell?  This verse says that the Babylonian captivity was going to be the end forever of idolatry in Israel.  And we know that it was.  AD 70 was still to come...but idolatry ended in Babylon.
2023 - I also must say that vss 18-21 are absolutely rated R, at least!  God leaves no doubt about the depths Israel is plumbing!

God pronounces His sentence on Judah as follows:
31 You have gone the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand. 32 Thus says the Lord GOD:
"You shall drink your sister's cup
that is deep and large;
you shall be laughed at and held in derision,
for it contains much;
33 you will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow.
A cup of horror and desolation,
the cup of your sister Samaria;
34 you shall drink it and drain it out,
and gnaw its shards,
and tear your breasts;
for I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD. [Eze 23:31-34 ESV]
I punctuated this as it is shown in ESV.  It must be some kind of "verse", or have some special emphasis in the original.  Perhaps it is italicized or underlined?

I want to show this, because it is at least the second time God has phrased it this way.  This is the best argument I have ever seen that Christians cannot support abortion and claim to be "ok" with God while doing it:
37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. With their idols they have committed adultery, and they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me. [Eze 23:37 ESV]
Children belong to God.  Before accountability, they are His.  They are not ours to "use", to offer to other gods, of any kind.  Babies in the womb are God's, and it is NEVER for us to decide whether they live or die.  NEVER!  (Find that other section that has the same thought.  It was earlier in Ezekiel I think...though it might have been Jeremiah.  Find it.)
Adding to their sin, showing a complete lack of regard for God, there is this:
39 For when they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. And behold, this is what they did in my house. [Eze 23:39 ESV]
You cannot sin on Saturday night, and come into God's house on Sunday morning unrepentant, and think you do not anger God.  This sin seems characterized as worse than other sins.  It profanes God's house.  Would you throw up in your neighbors kitchen?  Defecate in his living room?  This is what they were doing.
God intends a result for the wrath He will pour out on Oholah and Oholibah.  It is still more than just wrath, more than just justice.  Even in this, He intends to excise sin from them.  The chapter ends with these two verses:
48 Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done. 49 And they shall return your lewdness upon you, and you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry, and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD." [Eze 23:48-49 ESV]

2022 - Such depressing chapters.  So direct the message from God to Jerusalem through Ezekiel.  And they did not heed, did not fear, and so Judah and Jerusalem fell.

2024 - Just some summary thoughts from today's reading in Eze 22 and 23.  This metaphor of a prostitute is repeated over and over.  And there is also this verse right towards the end of the reading:
48 Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done. [Eze 23:48 ESV].  So...is this saying that the women in Judah - Oholibah - are to see this connection with what the nation itself has done and with the way they themselves have behaved?  Is this implying that the women of Judah are giving themselves to whomever will have them, that there is no faithfulness left in them at all?  They are about pleasure and personal gain and are using sex to get it, as if all the women of the nation behave as whores...or is this just a warning that when they see the consequences to the nation for behaving as a whore then they will be warned not to do the same?  To me, the first is much more likely because why would such a warning be thrown in here if it wasn't already a pretty big problem.  These two chapters are brutal in their accusation, and graphic in their portrayal of unforgivable and rampant immorality.  Judah has looked to foreigners, and bowed to the God's of foreigners, to gain materially.  They are consumed with gain, and will even sacrifice their own children for "food".  Were they eating their own children, is that what it means, or does it mean they sacrificed their children so they could live more cheaply?  Judah was willing to make limitless compromises when it came to "greasing the skids" of commerce by which they could be enriched.  And realizing they they were doing so, that they were turning their backs on the God of their fathers, they went as far as they possibly could in the other direction, that they might not feel guilty for their sins.  The worse your sins are this week, the less guilty you have to feel about last week's sins, because after all, they were nothing compared to this week.  
God is just truly, thoroughly done with Judah at this point.  These chapters are awful because God is making plain just how far they have gone in unfaithfulness, just how much they have hurt him, and made him a ridicule in the eyes of those who worship other gods, who are in fact far more loyal to those gods of wood and stone than Judah is to the living God.  He brought them out of Egypt to show the whole world, all nations, what kind of God he was - his power, his love of his people, his faithfulness to his own promises.  He did things idols can never ever do.  And they have still chosen to run off with the idols, with the bad boys.  As women lust after the bad boys, so nations.  Short term, momentary, self-pleasure overrides faithfulness and and eyes on the better prize.
That is a good "yardstick" with which to measure nations today.  Are they focused on me and right now, or are they focused on God and treasure in heaven.  Yes.  This is the contrast, and the US doesn't come out smelling any too good by this yardstick!

Chapter 24
This chapter is titled "The Siege of Jerusalem" in the ESV.
Has a time stamp.  
1 In the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day. [Eze 24:1-2 ESV]
Seems to be dated from the time of Ezekiel's captivity.  It says this day - 9th year, 10th month, 10th day.  The "very day" that the king of Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem.  Per MSB, this was January 15, 588 BC.  The siege would last 18 months.
A parable is presented, of a pot on a fire, with water and choice cuts of meat and bones thrown in.  A meal prepared.  A cooking pot.  This represents Jerusalem as the siege begins.  God has gathered them, confined them, and now the fire will be applied.  The phrase "Woe to the bloody city" shows up.  MSB has explanatory notes here.  This is a pronouncement against Israel's sin, her open sin that disregards God's presence.  The "soup" is going to be boiled away, and then the bones left in the dry pot will be charred to ash also.  This is the picture of the siege.  This verse:
12 She has wearied herself with toil; its abundant corrosion does not go out of it. Into the fire with its corrosion! 13 On account of your unclean lewdness, because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed from your uncleanness, you shall not be cleansed anymore till I have satisfied my fury upon you. 14 I am the LORD. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 24:12-14 ESV]
This is Jerusalem's judgement.  No quarter to be given.  All God's judgement will be poured out.  This happens again in 70 AD.  Perhaps it is what Hitler was about, and perhaps the judgement on Israel continues to the present time.  It will happen also at at the end of the world.  Instead of just a city, God's judgement will be poured out on the whole world.  Because of the "Age of the Gentiles", at the end, it won't just be Israel that is judged.  In fact, at that time, they will be brought home to the Holy City.  The Gentiles of the world will be judged at the end.  

2023 - Just look at vs 14:
14 I am the LORD. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 24:14 ESV].  If someone said this to you, would think they were just joking around, or as serious as cancer?  Naturally, he states his intent seven times to show that there is no changing.  This judgment is divine, this judgment is seven.

(((Oh my...Consistency.  Equal justice.  If Gentiles get to partake of the blessing, they are also subject to the wrath if they reject the one who offers the covenant.  
Revelation is about the wrath of God to Gentiles - or more accurately, to those not part of the church - concurrent with the restoration of Israel, since at that time, they will have served their full sentence!!!  They are still serving the sentence God pronounced on them 586 BC!  At the end of Revelation, both the faithful of Israel, and the faithful church will receive their rewards.  Israel will be seated as guests at the marriage supper of the Lamb, where Christ will wed His bride, the Church.  All together, all united, all looking to the Lamb of God as Savior!!!)))

2022 - I want to re-emphasize the building wrath of God in this verse:
14 I am the LORD. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 24:14 ESV]
I have spoken, I will do it, I will not turn back, I will not spare, I will not relent.  YOU WILL BE JUDGED!!!  His stated intention, His resolve to begin now, His commitment to completion, His impartiality in action, His immunity to the horror.
A possible FB post some day.

Vs 15 begins a new section titled "Ezekiel's wife dies".
It starts this way:
16 "Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. [Eze 24:16 ESV]  Ezekiel must have adored his wife.  Perhaps her love was a great comfort to him when he was unpopular with the elders of Israel.  And she will die, suddenly, without pain...and he is not to cry for her.  Now that is a hard order.
Ezekiel does as he is told.  The people don't understand why he is behaving this way, and they ask him to explain.  He says that his behavior is a foretelling of how they are to behave when Jerusalem falls.  The sanctuary - the pride of their power, the delight of their eyes, and also the sons and daughters they left behind in Jerusalem - will be profaned.  This verse:
23 Your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall rot away in your iniquities and groan to one another. [Eze 24:23 ESV]
The grief of individual lives lost - Ezekiel's wife, and the children of the exiles - pale to nothing in comparison to the "universal" grief at the fall of Jerusalem and the Temple of the God of Israel.  AND, the further significance is that Ezekiel is telling them what the future holds, so that when it happens that way, THEY WILL KNOW that God is the Lord!

2020-Also I see here that Ezekiel is not to mourn for his wife, nor the people for the sanctuary, because God is not going to mourn for Jerusalem.  She was "the delight of His eyes", as in vs. 16, but He will not mourn.  Never mourn God's justice.  It will always be preceded by inhuman patience, forgiveness, infinite chances...but ultimately, there will be justice.  To nations as wells as to me.

A messenger will come with the devastating news that Jerusalem has fallen.  From then until add'l captives arrive, Ezekiel would be silent.  No longer any need to speak of judgement of Jerusalem, because it would then be in the past.  This per MSB, and it says the silence lasted about two years..

Chapter 25
MSB outline says 25 starts the second major section of four in this book.  Chapters 25-32 comprise prophecies of retribution to the nations.  This is another section - as also found in Isaiah and Jeremiah - pronouncing judgement on Israel's neighbors.  It is not that God judged His people only.  They did not bring upon themselves differential chastisement because they had entered into a covenant with God.  What they got for their covenant was His constant warnings to them through the prophets, through the word, through nature as the land became less fertile, and through increasing incursions from their neighbors.  Their peace went away, the protection of God went away, and they were informed of what exactly was going on and why every step of the way.  The surrounding nations did not receive these benefits.  This care and preservation from God.  The fact that they ignored His attempts to bring them back into right relationship with Him is thus made all the sadder.  
Don't we do this?  We see "Moab" getting a promotion at work and think God is being unfair to us?  After all, we go to church don't we?  Yet, if we are honest, we know that God is dealing with us, trying to urge us to holiness, to think as He thinks, to obey Him in putting away things that we like but that do not honor Him.  We have sin, and should thank God for His intervention to steer us back onto the narrow way, but instead, we hang on, we rebel, and we make our situation progressively worse.

2024 - These two rather long verses:
6 For thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the malice within your soul against the land of Israel, 7 therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand against you, and will hand you over as plunder to the nations. And I will cut you off from the peoples and will make you perish out of the countries; I will destroy you. Then you will know that I am the LORD. [Eze 25:6-7 ESV].  As Jerusalem is under siege from Babylon, Ezekiel begins to prophesy about the surrounding nations.  Two things:  First, look at what God says he will do?  "I will destroy you".  Then look at why God is doing it...because they were happy about Israel's judgment.  We know that Israel's fate here is on her own head.  She's earned this siege and all the starvation, death, and horror with which it is coming.  But these verses leave no doubt that applauding the victory of Israel's enemy, supporting her enemies, cheering them on, will turn out poorly for you.  Second, consider the differences in the way God has warned Israel and the way he now warns Ammon.  It is not that God judges only His people, his chosen nation, and everyone else can do as they please.  Israel had a covenant with God and because of that they received His constant warnings to them through the prophets, through the word, through nature as the land became less fertile, and through increasing incursions from their neighbors.  For Israel, it was not that one day God just said ok, that's it, I'm sending Babylon to end you.  First, their peace went away, the protection of God went away, and they were informed of what exactly was going on and why every step of the way - SO THEY COULD SHAPE UP!  But the surrounding nations did not receive these benefits because they had no covenant and so no care and preservation from God.  For Ammon, it all came crashing down seemingly overnight and without warning.  We are Ammon, Moab, Edom and so on.  The US has no direct covenant with God, but as long as we follow his commands and support his people, we are free to go about our business.  But if we despise God, his ways, and his people, we ought to expect a sudden downfall.  We have no "get out of jail free card" any more than Ammon did.
FB - Two posts here.  First, and Second.  They must go together to make sense.  These seem pretty compelling to me.

First prophecy concerns the Ammonites.  Ezekiel was to address them directly, not just tell the exiles what was going to happen to the Ammonites.  Ammon was to be conquered and "in dwelt" by the people of the East.  Likely Babylon.  And the reason is here:
6 For thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the malice within your soul against the land of Israel, [Eze 25:6 ESV]
It is unwise to be happy when God's people are disciplined.  To gloat about it.  Especially if your own yard is pretty trashed up.  vs 7 ends with the words "I will destroy you" from God Himself.  Yet I believe an earlier prophecy says that in the latter days, they will be restored.

Next prophecy is about Moab.  Much the same fate as Ammon, Moab to be given to the people of the east.  Ammon will be remembered no more.  It is because Moab said that Israel was just like any other nation.  They did not recognize the Holy One of Israel.  Therefore, they will be conquered.

Edom is third on the list.  Their discipline is because they acted vengefully against Judah.  Quite a few details here.  Edom is to be cut off from man and beast.  I believe Edom is now called the Negev - a barely inhabited desert in southern Israel.  It also says that it will be Israel that God uses to execute this judgement on them.  So it must have been at some future time, after the return from exile.  2020-Not the Negev, technically, but south of it.  South of the desolation that is the Negev.  Charlie showed us a pic he took in the Negev.  It is worse than four corners.

Philistia is fourth.  The reason for their discipline is in this verse, and very specific:
15 "Thus says the Lord GOD: Because the Philistines acted revengefully and took vengeance with malice of soul to destroy in never-ending enmity, [Eze 25:15 ESV]

Chapter 26
Tyre is fifth.  This chapter starts with a time stamp: 11 year on the first day of the month.  Because Tyre plotted to take advantage of the land of Judah after it fell.  This verse:
3 therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. [Eze 26:3 ESV]  This implies that Tyre would be attacked again and again, from many directions and by many nations.  See explanation from the first time I read this...
7 "For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, and with horsemen and a host of many soldiers. [Eze 26:7 ESV]  So Nebuchadnezzar is predicted ahead of time to attack Tyre also.  He will be the first, but not the last.
14 I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the LORD; I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD. [Eze 26:14 ESV]
This prophecy goes into great detail, and many verses.  Far more than any of the previous prophecies.  Maybe because for a place like Tyre to fall was a full on demonstration of the power of the God of Israel.  Only fools would deny that God was involved in this fall.  Only fools would think this was just a natural normal thing for nations to do to each other.  This whole chapter is exclusively about Tyre.  It ends with this verse:
21 I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more. Though you be sought for, you will never be found again, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 26:21 ESV]  Unlike Babylon, which shows up again in Revelation, this is the end for Tyre.

Chapter 27
ESV titles this "A Lament for Tyre"
Beginning in vs 3 is the lament, set off in format as poetry I believe.  Tyre is spoken of metaphorically as a ship, and her success in world trade is highlighted according to where the materials of the ships construction are taken from.  This format goes through vs 9.  Verse 10 continues with the goods traded between Tyre and nations of the world, listing what each had to offer.  vs 26 takes up the poetry format again, and this goes on to the end of the chapter in vs 36.  this second part tells of the sinking of the ship constructed in the first part of the poem.  Vs 36 ends with this phrase:
"...you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever."
I was wondering why it was Babylon that falls in Revelation and not Tyre.  It seems to me that if any city symbolized the world of greed and trade and enriched Kings, and made and broke countries by her policies toward them, it would be Tyre.  But 36 says Tyre will not rise again.  So maybe the differences between Tyre and Babylon are important in determining which would fall in Revelation.  Tyre existed entirely by trade.  She needed no real army of her own because the city out on the rock was "impregnable".  She was strictly about power wielded through commerce.  Babylon, on the other hand, was made rich by plundering all others, by projecting military power all over the world.  Further, Babylon was wielded as God's hammer to discipline not only Israel but many other nations.  Perhaps the Babylon of Revelation will be like this also.  I cannot help but make a comparison to Rome - marching and conquering all over the world, to Alexander doing the same, and then came Hitler.  The only reason for Hitler not to be in Daniel is because Hitler comes during the age of the Gentiles, and Daniel prophesied about Israel's future.  
So many things are making sense...

2024 - I think we should contrast Tyre and Babylon, since only one of them is in Revelation, but we ought to also compare them.  Merchants mourning for Babylon figure prominently in Revelation.  Worldwide commerce, sourced and controlled by Babylon are a big deal in Revelation.  Tyre traded only by sea, but future Babylon controls all commerce.  So maybe the characteristics of Tyre are perfected and expanded to wield even greater power in Babylon?

Chapter 28
2023 - In 26, we see what God said to Tyre through Ezekiel the son of man.  In 27, Ezekiel speaks a lament for the city of Tyre.  Here in 28, the Prince of Tyre is addressed.  So three very distinct things are going on.  I wonder if this Prince is the man on earth, or the demon with dominion over Tyre?  Hmm...It states pretty quickly that the Prince is a man...who fancies himself a God.
Prophecy concerning Tyre continues into this third chapter.  The prince of Tyre is addressed.  A human ruler, or a prince in the sense of the one who restrained Gabriel in Daniel?  Hmm...MSB says this passage is similar to Isa.14:3-23 which addressed the King of Babylon.  MSB says some of both passages could best be applied to Satan.  MSB thinks both texts are primarily about the human king who is being used by Satan, as Peter when Jesus said to him "Satan, get behind me."  Maybe so...but I didn't notice 14 seeming to describe Satan.

Getting to the text, vs 2 seems to me to answer all questions:
2 "Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord GOD: "Because your heart is proud, and you have said, 'I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,' yet you are but a man, and no god, though you make your heart like the heart of a god-- [Eze 28:2 ESV]
The King of Tyre is a very proud, puffed up, self-important human being.  He elevates himself to a god in his own thoughts.  vs 3 says this king is wiser than Daniel, and no thought is hidden from him.  Odd that Babylon and Tyre would both have such powerful kings at the same time.  Has the earth known such a situation since then?  Certainly it has not in the Middle East.

2024 - I don't think we have anything in Revelation on the "Prince of Babylon".  But if we have the events of Revelation even remotely correct, the MoL will be in charge of world government and would surely have a residence at least, if not his capitol, in Babylon.  So he is there, and he too is a man, perhaps though in the same way that this Prince of Tyre is just a man.
2024 - Note also the use of son of man in reference to Ezekiel.  Same title Jesus took for himself.  The phrase is used 93 times in this book.  Surely there is a book that looks deeply at this?  Jesus and Ezekiel, though Ezekiel is quoted nowhere in the New Testament.  Ezekiel was in captivity when he wrote about the fall of Jerusalem...

Because this prince of Tyre has "become proud in his wealth" and "has made his heart like the heart of a god", the most ruthless of nations (Babylon) will come against him with the sword.  This penetrating question, that could be asked of all who consider themselves gods, such as the Emperors of Rome, the Pharaohs of Egypt, and so on:
9 Will you still say, 'I am a god,' in the presence of those who kill you, though you are but a man, and no god, in the hands of those who slay you? [Eze 28:9 ESV]  Those who intend to kill you are the best judges of your "god-ness"

2023 - It is very tempting to "transpose" these verses to address the principalities and powers over both Tyre and Babylon.  We might do the same to Assyria, and to a number of Pharoah's.  And in some sense, some indirect sense, this is accurate.  But I think staying true to what is written requires that we see this as an address to a MAN who has been elevated by the powers that rule to a position of such wealth, and such absolute power, that he he truly does have the position, the reach, the domain if you will, of a lesser god.  These chapters show us what the ultimate end of such arrogance, such self-importance brings, not only to the Prince, but to all in his domain.

2020-These first 10 verses seem very much to be about one man, one Prince, who is wise very much like Solomon was wise.  He was very unique in his perceptions of how things work and why they work that way.  He knows who values what, and so can trade merchandise in a way that allows him to make money at every step of the process.  He is wiser than Daniel.  We are not told that God gave this wisdom to the Prince of Tyre as a gift or for His purposes, but this prince was beyond wise.  So perhaps the wisdom, the insight, came from Satan.  Satan was beautiful, and surely wise, and one of the highest creatures ever created by God.  Satan, in fact, believed Himself equal to God and worthy of worship as God was.  This is what all that wisdom bestowed on the Prince of Tyre did to him also.  He was so much "in a class by himself" that he attributed that to being a god.  And so part of the point of vs 9 is that "false gods" can be killed.  The God cannot.  The ultimate test of being man, or angel, or God is whether you can be killed  The attitude - the "character" - of the prince of Tyre came from Satan.  He was above all the men of his time.  But when it came right down to it, he could be killed.  As I read the history of Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to the place for 13 years but never conquered it.  If it didn't really fall, did this particular prince of Tyre actually die at the hands of the foreigners?  The place didn't really fall until Alexander the Great took it down.  But I do not know the details of Neb's siege of the place.  Perhaps after all that time, Neb got in and killed the king and set up his own there.  Or maybe it was the "spirit of the King of Tyre" that ultimately died when Alexander sacked the place.  
Secondly, Nebuchadnezzar is also one who calls himself god.  He is mentioned as the ruler of the most brutal nation ever.  Two paths lead to delusions of godhood.  Amassing great wealth because you are wiser in the ways of trade than anyone else on the planet, or by military means, and unparalleled brutality and violence and knowledge of the ways of conflict and of bending other men's wills to you own.  Both of these things lead men to believe they are gods.  Both these things come from Satan's own characteristics.  Surely he does know what people want, and how to corrupt their very souls with the want of it or the acquisition of it.  And he also knows about making war, and about bending men to make war and inflict all the horror that comes with it.  He himself will gather the world to fight against Jerusalem even at the end of the Millennial when all will know, will just have to know objectively, that Jesus is Lord of all.  Yet Satan will convince men to fight against Him.  Satan also offered Jesus the wealth of the whole world in tempting Jesus to renounce the Father.  To offer this, Satan had to know how to get it.  So Satan's ambitions rest on his wisdom in wealth acquisition and his military prowess.  And from this passage we know that he can someone "bequeath" or "share" these things with mortal man, and in doing so, spread corruption and brutality to the whole world.

2022 - In light of this mornings judgment study where beasts - demons in the service of Satan - can have human counterparts in the same dominion, this might be a man in correspondence with the same kind of creature that becomes the beast from the sea who stands on the sand in Rev 13, and who, because of his surpassing powers, also empowered his human counterpart.  In the case of Tyre, the end was wealth, riches, and the admiration of men as if he were a god, and his own opinion of himself - that he must surely be a god if he could do all these things.  Satan's demon seduced him beyond measure for the purpose of corrupting as much and as many as he could get his hands one.  Greed was the theme, and association with one who could make you wealthy was the desire instilled in those who knew of him.  This relationship is a fitting example of what is in the Dan 7/Rev 13 scenario.

vs 11 begins "A Lament for the King of Tyre"
Format changes to that of previous laments, more a poetry or verse format than just narrative text.  Perhaps this also explains the hyperbole used to describe this king.  Surely of all the pretenders that ever were, Satan's pretense to being deserving of worship in his own right makes him the best example of what not to do.
vs 13 starts with "You were in Eden..."  The King of Tyre was not.  Hyperbole is  how I would describe this passage.  vs 14 calls him "an anointed guardian cherub".  vs 15, 16 though bring us back to Tyre.  They speak of skill at trading, and succumbing to unrighteousness.  Trade is mentioned several times.  Satan, so far as I can think, was not, and is not a trader in goods.  This King of Tyre must have gone past mere trade to extortion, unfairness, perhaps even theft, in order to increase his wealth.  He left skill alone and ventured into unrighteousness in his pride.  He made himself a god in the sense of not being subject to the laws of man.  This would be like Satan also.  vs 19 says he came to a dreadful end.  Satan is still with us.  2022  -  Exactly.  This is not Satan.  This is a different angel, in the service of Satan, likely persuaded by Satan of the same prideful self-admiration as Satan had.  But this is different.  And this one is dead...just like the one who's body is burned in Revelation 12.

2022 - See 2022 note on the Prince of Tyre.  Might be the titles are distinguished so we see that the prince was just a man - how many times does it emphasize that - and this King was an angel, created before Eden, a guardian cherub, who at some point rebelled to Satan's service, was given the dominion of Tyre, and through that prince, helped to bring untold corruption and dishonor upon the kingdoms of men.

2020-These verses seem to describe Satan himself, created with such beauty and splendor that precious stones also had to be created to adorn him.  A splendid cherub, an anointed guardian, placed in Eden and "on the mountain of God".  This is not about the Prince of Tyre literally.  This is about an angel.  A cherub, not an archangel.  Different than Michael and Gabriel.  Blameless until "free will" chose unrighteousness.  It looks for all the world like Lucifer was a trader even among angels and excelled at it.  But this success is what eventually so consumed him as to make him turn to unrighteous methods to increase his wealth still further.  It is this "spirit of greedy acquisition" that vs 19 speaks of when it says:
19 All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever." [Eze 28:19 ESV]  I suspect that Tyre was an "experiment" of Satan's in trying to make a mortal man so wealthy that all men would worship him instead of God.  Could this be?  And at the same time, in the same region of the world, there was Nebuchadnezzar, so powerful militarily that men might also worship him instead of God?  We know he required it of men.  But the Bible is clear that it was God controlling Neb's actions.  Was God taking a "gift" bestowed on Nebuchadnezzar to make him a military power, and turning it to His own use to destroy what Satan was trying to do in Tyre, AND to turn Israel away from the idols Satan kept them worshiping?  I wonder if idols in those days did very much seem to have some power of their own because Satan could bring about some things that some men "prayed" for from the idols?  Maybe Satan made them seem pretty real, as he will again in the end times.  And about the same time, Satan raised up the Prince of Tyre, and God raised up Neb to defeat him?  All that happens in this world is getting back to the battle between good and evil?  And just throw Israel into the mix with their idolatry to bring the world into a crucible of time when something had to give.  Satan orchestrated Israel's blinding fascination with idols in order to push them over to worshiping men as gods, and God instead raises up another man to stomp on Tyre, showing that the Prince there is no god at all, but just a man, and then using Neb to conquer Jerusalem, destroy the polluted temple, and usher in the age of the Gentiles as all these timelines knot up so tightly that only a God-ordained change of direction can keep things moving?  This is pretty interesting.  I wonder if it is at all on the right track?

2023 - As the prince was a man, maybe the King of Tyre is the principality and power over Tyre.  The one who has so "shared" his power with the Prince that the prince his risen to god-like status.  So here we have this reminder that the principalities too will fall, as their own leader Satan undeniably fell from heaven when he too rebelled against God, when he evaluated himself as equal with God.  What happens to the Prince of Tyre might be seen as a warning to Satan's own angels that the more powerful they are the more they make themselves targets of the only true power, the greatest power, the power of God.
...but then vs 19.  These three chapters need a lot more study than I have previously given them.

Three timelines - the unacceptable idolatry of Israel, the supernatural wealth of the Prince of Tyre, and the irresistible conquest of the King of Babylon all coming together in the same place at the same time.  How could this not be a critical point in the war between God and Satan?  Look at the indictments of Samaria and then Judah as God's wrath breaks loose and is withheld no longer.  Total corruption and evil as a means to accumulate wealth.  Even widows and orphans cheating each other for money.  And the idols on every roof, at the head of every street, and even in secret places in the temple itself.  And military force - violence - the only cure for them.  

2024 - These verses:    18 By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. 19 All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever." [Eze 28:18-19 ESV].  These verses tell us that whomever or whatever this King of Tyre might have been, he was turned to ashes never to rise again.  He was in Eden, and was a guarding Cherub.  He was an angel.  We saw a lot about Cherubs early in this book.  Perhaps God himself put an end to this cherub - an immortal angel died - and that resulted in the fall of the man through whom the cherub was working, just as we see that angel die in Revelation and bring all the subordinates into line quickly.  I have also had that theory about Satan trying different methodologies to gain power on earth as seen in the contrasts between the four beasts in Daniel.  Does this King of Tyre correspond to one of those, or is this a completely different attempt?  I think the MoL will have the power of the beast in Revelation.  It will "channel" right to him or that beast will have physical power in the world, which this Cherub in Tyre did not seem to have.  The cherub in Tyre could ONLY work through man.  The beast in Revelation can fully work in the earth because of the great changes that occur in the 70th week.

A break comes in vs 20, Tyre is left behind and the prophecy turns to Sidon.  This city is on the coast of modern day Lebanon, about halfway between old Tyre and modern Beirut.  It is a short prophecy, and mostly found in this verse:
23 for I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the slain shall fall in her midst, by the sword that is against her on every side. Then they will know that I am the LORD. [Eze 28:23 ESV]  This language indicates a siege, at least to me.  Did some reading here:  https://www.ancient.eu/sidon/  No mention of a siege.  They gave up to Persia - Darius - without a fight.  Plague got to them in the 300's AD.  They were conquered many times in their history, but none seems to have been very dramatic, perhaps explaining the minimal attention it gets in this chapter.  But what does this phrase mean?
22 ...I will manifest my glory in your midst... [Eze 28:22b ESV]

Then this whole series so far is summarized like this:
24 "And for the house of Israel there shall be no more a brier to prick or a thorn to hurt them among all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD. [Eze 28:24 ESV]  All those nations around Israel who had from time to time "picked on her", abused her, stolen from her, and probably constantly wished ill towards her, are brought low, and never again rise to the level of world power that they once had.  Israel doesn't either, but she is restored to some extent.  This might go back to God saying He is done with them, ushering in the age of the Gentiles.  Perhaps all that went on in the middle east up until this time was "about Israel".  In Daniel, there were four empires:  Babylon, Medo-Persia, Alexander, and...what?  Babylon only came to power to execute God's wrath against Jerusalem.  This was perhaps a turning point for all of history?
The last two verses of the chapter speak of the restoration of Israel to their land, and say they will dwell there in peace, unbothered, unworried.  God will put them there, and keep them safe there.  I believe this refers out to the Millennial.
2020-There is a near/far I think.  There have been many prophecies that tie this time period (586 BC =/-) to the downfall of many of Israel's antagonists.  Ammon, Philistia, Moab, and so on.  Neb and to some extent Egypt reduced those nations to rubble at the same time that Israel was reduced.  Now look at today.  Israel is a nation again, and so are many of her neighbors, but under different names than their were back then.  They are all growing in power and military might, and the neighbors are once again threats to the nation of Israel - especially if you go out as far as Iraq and Iran.  It's the same neighbors that are threatening.  Part of establishing the Millennial will be the crushing of all those neighbors yet again, but this time the establishment of a people of God in Israel will be the result, rather than decimation of the whole region.  The Jews will be brought home and protected, instead of God's wrath on them crushing them and scattering them to the nations - as happened in Ezekiel's time.  This sure seems plausible.  This makes good sense.
2024 - Beginning in vs 25 we are talking about Israel - the 10 lost tribes.  Ezekiel has been careful to distinguish between Israel and Judah up to this point, and I think he is being specific here, not all-inclusive.  He is talking about the return of those 10 from the nations to which they have been scattered.  Note that this gathering is still future, also.  There is still a Judah, though many are captive in Babylon.  It would be a good study to look at every use of Israel in Ezekiel and see if they are always scattered in prophecies about them, and then look at every use of "Judah", and see if they are always in Canaan, but not always obedient.  And if that could be established, what prophecies in other books would we interpret differently?  Jeremiah also used both terms - Israel and Judah - and I think Isaiah even did it a time or two.  Wouldn't take long to do the searches necessary.  Ahhh....Israel was still in a nation at the beginning of Isaiah...Have to start AFTER the fall of the 10.  Very worthwhile study here....

Chapter 29
2020-Spent a ton of time on 28.  Mostly just going to read 29 and 30 and focus on them next near - God willing.

Now we turn to prophecy about Egypt.  There is a time stamp, 10th year, 10th month, 12th day.  Presumably we are still dating from when Ezekiel went into captivity.  The prophecy begins in vs 3, and is in the poetry/verse format.  The prophecy addresses Pharaoh directly.  He is  called "the great dragon".  Again, the hyperbole, giving attributes of Satan to these kings who pretend to be more than mere men, who aspire to be gods themselves.  The prophecy says he that claims to own the Nile will be food for beasts in the wilderness.  I suppose the point is that he will die thirsty in the desert, far from his precious river.  Format changes back to narrative at vs 6.
The sin for which God punishes Egypt is different than for the previous nations.  Egypt's crime was in not succoring Israel when they needed succor, or perhaps in offering a refuge, but not following through and providing it.  Prophecy is specific.  Egypt to be desolate from Migdol to Syene as far as the border of Cush.  "It shall be uninhabited forty years".  MSB says it is uncertain when this was.  The Nubian desert is southern Egypt where it runs up against Kush.  Not much lives there, even today.  Migdol is the eastern frontier of Egypt, mentioned in the Exodus, just outside the eastern Nile delta and north of the Red Sea.  Syene is ...somewhere.  Ran out of time on a Friday morning.  Forty years is mentioned several times.  Israel wandered 40 years.  Perhaps this is the justice.  Egypt will be scattered among the nations for forty years, then brought back home, where they will be a lowly and poor nation among a host of poor nations.  They will never again be in a position to be "the reliance of the house of Israel".
2020-1st 6 verses - what is this about in light of the conclusions in vs 28?  Is this another strategy Satan was pushing at the same time, or is this a completely different thing?  It seems different because of this verse:
6 Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD. "Because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel, 7 when they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins to shake. [Eze 29:6-7 ESV]
Egypt is going down not because of what they did, but because of what they failed to do.

13 "For thus says the Lord GOD: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered, 14 and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. [Eze 29:13-14 ESV]
Egypt does rise again, but only to a lowly station.

vs 17 starts another prophecy.  Time stamped 27th year, first month, first day.  Speaks of Nebuchadnezzar's failed siege of Tyre.  Says for all the work and labor expended against Tyre, Babylon got nothing.  Neb gets Egypt as a consolation prize, and he receives its wealth.  God gave Nebuchadnezzar Egypt.
18 "Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare, yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against her. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. 20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, declares the Lord GOD. [Eze 29:18-20 ESV]
2024 - Extra-biblical history records that Neb laid siege to Tyre but couldn't take the island.  They held out.  Alexander is the one that finally brought down the island.  It would be interesting to confirm that Neb moved on from failure at Tyre to conquest in Egypt.  That ought to be a big enough deal to be verified.  And did Egypt then stay under his control for another 40  years?  Did he prohibit rebuilding for 40 years or some such thing?

And then, after what is said about Egypt being the spoils to Neb, it says this:
21 "On that day I will cause a horn to spring up for the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them. Then they will know that I am the LORD." [Eze 29:21 ESV]  Hard to know what this is about.  Obviously a horn is about a ruler or about national power.  But when is "that day"?  Is it when Egypt falls to Babylon, or is this one strictly a far prophecy?  MSB notes were not help.

Chapter 30
Another prophecy starts (2022-or maybe continues is a better word.  This is labeled a "lament" rather than a prophecy, about Egypt, but the command to Ezekiel specifically says "prophesy".).  This one not dated.  Goes into verse format.  "The day of the Lord is near".  Wail.  Here's the whole of the verse:
3 For the day is near, the day of the LORD is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations. [Eze 30:3 ESV]  John MacArthur mentioned this verse because it says a time of doom.  This is end times prophecy, invariably.  MSB says in this case, it is near/far prophecy.  All the land around Egypt, she and all her allies, will fall together.  Given that the last of 29 says God gave Egypt to Neb, then we see these prophecies in verse format about the fall of Egypt, it must be a near/far prophecy.  Egypt is not going to fare well in the latter days.  And it will be a poor country until then.  This verse:
10 "Thus says the Lord GOD: "I will put an end to the wealth of Egypt, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. [Eze 30:10 ESV]  vs 13 says there will be an end to Memphis and her idols.  There really is no Memphis these days.  The verse format goes through 19, and because of this judgement, they will know that God is Lord.  Pretty much all of these prophecies begin in this way.  As Judah fell, as God turned His back on His own Temple, He also judges all the nations surrounding Israel.  He demonstrates His power over all the nations of the world at that time.  All that He does just screams that He is the God of all.  He prophesies through Ezekiel about the fate of their "known world", and it all comes true as predicted.  The fulfillment of such detailed prophecy is the proof that God is the writer of history.

2024 - I don't see how vss 3-4 can be separated from each other as to time.  The day of the LORD, as of this writing, is always end times wrath.  Egypt, it seems, will not fare very well after Revelation 6.  I am fine with with the destruction of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, as "payment" for the effort he expended on Tyre without success, being a sort of "preview" of what is coming at the end.  Hmm....I wonder if that is how we ought to think of all those "near/far" prophecies?  Not as "fulfilled now, and fulfilled again later", but as "what we are about to see here in Egypt as God vents his wrath on Judah and all the nations surrounding Judah who have persecuted her, is just a preview of the utter destruction of the place that is coming at the end of the age.  What is about to happen is NOT about that future thing that will happen.  What is about to happen is at a lower intensity than what will happen.  But look at this, and understand in preview form, what is prophesied for Egypt...or Tyre, or Sidon...Then we see that what Neb did to Tyre was only the preview of what Alexander would do.  This "hermeneutics" has possibilities.  I need to start trying to apply this POV to prophesy.

2024 - If we read Eze 30 this way, then the implication is that Egypt will rise to a level where other nations are allied with her.  Think of the '67 war.  Think of today.  Egypt is not a world power, but she is certainly a local power.  If I look at prophecy as above, then I would predict that Egypt will get still more powerful as the last days near, that she will become a formidable enemy of Israel, which she is currently NOT, and will become the leader of a number of Middle Eastern and North Easter African countries.  That's what we'd predict here.

2024 - But look then at vss 10-19.  These are most definitely a prophecy about Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Egypt.  In this case, we have specific prophecies about Egypt both of Neb's "near" conquest and of the fall of Egypt at the Day of the LORD.  Most prophecies are not like this.  Most imply a near, and speak of a far, to which the proposed hermeneutic would apply.  But that doesn't work here since there are two different, easily distinguished prophecies.  Neb is mentioned by name in 10-19.  In fact, the "near" prophecy of Egypt goes all the way to through the end of the chapter, speaking of both Pharoah and Neb.  BUT, it is hard to separate the prophecy of 2b-4 from 6-26 in terms of the details of what will happen.  Perhaps there won't be a lot of difference in the details, and we depend upon the difference in "the day of the LORD is near" and "in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month..." to divide two specific prophecies from a preview and a prophecy.

2024 - This is an "experimental" way of looking at things.  It could be ludicrously wrong...or it could be right.  Time will tell.  

vs 20 backs up and is dated 11th year, first month, seventh day.  God says he has broken the arm of Pharaoh, and not bound it, so that it will never again hold the sword.  As God breaks the arms of Pharaoh, so that his arms fall, God will strengthen the arms of Babylon to conquer them.  So they will know that God is God.

Chapter 31
This chapter and the next continue the prophecy as to Egypt.  (2024 - I note for the first time that there are more chapters devoted to the fall of Egypt than to the fall of Babylon.  Now that is interesting!)  This chapter is time stamped 11th year, 3rd month, 1st day, since the King (Johoiakim?) was taken into captivity.  A prophecy addressed to Pharaoh directly and to "his multitude".  Changes to poetry/verse format, as if set off in some way in the original.  MSB has not pointed out the reasons for this format at any point I have noticed.  But it shows up there in NKJV, as it does in ESV.
Pharaoh is asked "Who are you like"? and then a comparison is made to Assyria.  Assyria is described as a cedar in Lebanon, an huge healthy thee giving homes to all who came to her, and reaching deep to the water that sustained it.  It says the cedars in the garden of God could not rival it.  In vs 9 God says He made Assyria beautiful:
9 I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of Eden envied it, that were in the garden of God. [Eze 31:9 ESV]  Twice in the first 9 it says the trees in Eden itself could not rival the "cedar" that was Assyria.  Seems like some metaphor mixing going on.  Assyria was a nation, a great nation.  I get that.  But to say it is a tree, and then compare the tree that symbolizes Assyria to trees that actually grew in Eden...Seems a bit of a strange way to do it.  It uses the word "beauty" to describe Assyria.  Perhaps they were an extraordinarily gifted people when it came to art and architecture and such things as that.  Maybe that is the cultural characteristic that is in view with these descriptions.  MSB says that Assyria was actually in the same geographic location as Eden, and this is the source of the analogy.  Well...maybe...

Found this at this site: http://www.privateerdragons.com/images/ninevehmap.jpg

Assyria was just before Babylon.  Tyre was already there.  So do I add the kingdom of Assyria with it's earthly accomplishments to the list of timelines that will hit critical mass in 586 BC, or is it a separate entity?  Maybe a description of the "sins of Assyria" will answer this question.  Assyria raised up to destroy Samaria maybe.  It was a powerful state, a world power, and it was used by God to devastate Samaria and the northern kingdom.  But then it was thrown down by Babylon, which was raised up to devastate Israel - and Tyre and Egypt and all Israel's neighbors in the bargain.  Assyria had to be thrown down, despite it's accomplishments and power, for what it did to God's own people.  Same then with Babylon.  Only a world power could be "allowed" to overcome God's people, and the price for being allowed to do that was the end of that nation also.  And Egypt fits into this scenario...how???  It was great before the Exodus, but not really since.  I guess it was pretty powerful since Assyria and Egypt were occasionally at war.  And looking at the map above, Assyria did invade and conquer the most productive parts of Egypt.  But the reason Egypt was given to Babylon was because they were a "false support" to Israel.  They did not succor them in their time of need.

So what would be extremely informative would be reading about Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon from about 1250 BC to the fall of Tyre to Alexander the Great in 332 BC.

Verse 10 starts with "Therefore...":
10 "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, 11 I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out. [Eze 31:10-11 ESV]  This beautiful tree that was Assyria, thought too much of itself, and elevated itself in its own opinion all the way into the clouds.  So God delivered it to another nation.  To Babylon in fact, the most ruthless of nations.  The tree is fallen, broken, no longer proud.  This is similar to what was said about the Prince of Tyre.  He was too consumed with how own greatness.  God does not like arrogance, does not like any one or any nation that begins to think it doesn't need Him.  But there seems to be so much more here in these chapters of Ezekiel.  A bigger purpose of God, showing that He alone can bring down the greatest nations, the most powerful rulers and their armies, His own chosen nation, and those who would not aid His nation, all in a fantastically compressed span of time.  There is just a lot here, enough to keep one busy reading history books for years and tying them to these prophecies.

This verse is interesting:
14 All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to towering height or set their tops among the clouds, and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height. For they are all given over to death, to the world below, among the children of man, with those who go down to the pit. [Eze 31:14 ESV]  A bit of a long verse, but it says that the things of this earth - nations, kingdoms, persons - are all given over to death.  None can last.  I believe this is so because this world has been utterly corrupted by Adam's sin.  Only in Christ can that sin be overcome, and in the case of earthly things, only complete destruction followed by re-creation can they be made right.  All that is on this earth is transient.  Everything.

2024 - But...could this also mean that up until Assyria, these powerful nations were in fact "heavenly" instead of earthly?  Presided over by principalities and powers instead of men only?  As we saw in Tyre, the King there was somehow connected directly with a cherub - I think a fallen cherub.  Maybe, in the world of that time, Assyria was also dominated by angelic forces.  But with the fall of Assyria - which needed God's own hand on Nebuchadnezzar, his chosen one, this practice was prohibited and will not come again until Babylon in Revelation?  I do not think Assyria was one of the beasts in Daniel...but I will check that.   Also, even without Assyria, I might be able to contrast the beasts before the fall of Assyria with those that will come after.  And remember that the Bible says that last beast, the eighth, in Revelation, will be unlike anything that came before, perhaps because the most successful combination of men and angels to dominate the world was prohibited after Assyria.

It continues with these verses, long but look at all that is here:
15 "Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day the cedar went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I closed the deep over it, and restrained its rivers, and many waters were stopped. I clothed Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it. 16 I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the world below. [Eze 31:15-16 ESV]
"the day" the cedar went down?  Hard to say.  Is that the day Alexander took it?  Or the day Nebuchadnezzar walked away after 13 years?  There were no rivers on the island, so is this a reference to nearby mainland or are we back to the tree analogy?  Tyre is in present day Lebanon. It goes on to say Eden's trees were comforted by this fall.  I don't get all this...especially in light of Tyre's history.  The King of Tyre when Alexander took it was allowed to live.  I don't know if Neb's siege even took captives.  Don't think they ever got into the city.  So that makes me think the Prince of Tyre is on the order of Daniel's Prince of Persia.  A high ranking demon who was purveying evil throughout the world by accumulating riches and arrogance in the city of Tyre.  Perhaps lesser demons were working with Assyria and Babylon...I don't know.  Too complex.  Moving on....

In 18, the words turn back to Egypt, and ask again "Who are you , then?" if this could happen to Assyria?  The chapter ends with:
18 "...This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 31:18 ESV]

Once again, too much time on the first chapter, nothing left for the last two.  Reading through these pretty quickly.

Chapter 32
2024 - And still ANOTHER chapter about Egypt.  I am getting a very strong suspicion that Egypt as a power is woefully underestimated.  Or at least the potential for what Egypt may become as we near the end is underestimated.

ESV titles this chapter "A Lament over Pharaoh and Egypt"
Time stamped year 12, month 12, day 1.  Again the format is poetry/verse.
The previous metaphor of Egypt as a fish pulled from the water and thrown onto dry ground for the birds and beasts to feed upon is used again here.  But then, there are these two verses:
7 When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. 8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and put darkness on your land, declares the Lord GOD. [Eze 32:7-8 ESV]
When things happen in the heavens, it is God at work.  Satan has no power to effect signs in the heavens.  Only God does.  Then as now.  These signs in the heavens indicate to me that we are talking at the least about a near/far here, but certainly about the far.  Or...MSB says this may have been about Pharaoh's death, and how all who "worshiped" him, saw him as the light, are plunged into darkness at his death.  My way of thinking has to mean that Egypt will be put down once and for all in the latter days, during end time events.  Babylon falls, but this says to me that Egypt does too in those days.  One and the same?  Egypt falls under the rule of the antichrist?

http://www.displaceddynasties.com/uploads/6/2/6/5/6265423/displaced_dynasties_chapter__1_-_nebuchadnezzars_wars.pdf
Found this "book" that says the accepted history of Egypt is wrong, and this guy, who didn't even give his name, has it all right.  Who knows.

http://www.sanityquestpublishing.com/essays/BabEgypt.html
This one says that anyone who insists that the Bible timeline is correct despite the overwhelming evidence that it is wrong isn't even worth talking to.  I sense some close-minded animosity towards those who disagree with him - which is sort of what he accuses his detractors of doing.  At any rate, I would say we have a pretty big fork in the road between the archeologically based history of Egypt and the Biblical prophecy of the time.  That is not entirely unusual or unexpected.  

2024 - So in vss 1-8 I think we are looking at what happens at the Day of the LORD.  I think so because of the signs in the heavens in vss 7-8.  This has not happened yet, so the fact that some obscure historian says the Bible has it all wrong is of no concern.  The similar prophecy back in Chapter 29.3-5 did not give us a "timestamp" as to when the events might occur.  Even so, the same metaphors used there are used here, and this on is identifiable as Day of the Lord. So the one in 29 is also.  Vs 11 returns to the immediate prophecy concerning the Babylonian conquest of Egypt.  I get very uncomfortable when the prophecies jump around like this.  However, I think this "double prophecy" about Egypt is pretty unique...at least I do until I go back through all this next year looking for doubles about other nations.  So...Remember the discomfort, because it could be telling me this is the wrong way to interpret it, and remember that this seems unique to Egypt - and could be explained by the role Egypt played in Israel's history - and so doesn't have to comply with the hermeneutics.

Vs 9 goes back to standard format.  It says many nations will tremble when Egypt falls, and then vs 10 says very specifically that Babylon will be the agent of Egypt's fall.  This most definitely happened back then, and maybe this means that in the end times, before Babylon's own fall in the latter days, she will once again take down Egypt.  If the fall of Judah is indeed a preview of the latter days and the fall of the whole earth, then it may well be possible that the prophetic visions of each of these nations has a partial fulfillment near term - in Ezekiel's time - but ultimate fulfillment in the latter days.  So Egypt uninhabited 40 years?  Well nearly uninhabited back then, but in the latter days, possibly scorched by nukes, and truly uninhabitable?  Things like this.  

We go into poetry format again.  And the poetry ends this way:
15 When I make the land of Egypt desolate, and when the land is desolate of all that fills it, when I strike down all who dwell in it, then they will know that I am the LORD. [Eze 32:15 ESV]
A completely empty Egypt as proof that He is the Lord.  Surely Babylon did not completely empty Egypt of man and beast.  This must still be future in some sense.  This is end times.

vs 17 is another time stamp - 12th year, month 12, day 15.  Two weeks after the beginning of the chapter.  We get one verse in the poetry format:
19 'Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be laid to rest with the uncircumcised.' [Eze 32:19 ESV]  Egypt is sent to the underworld.  Once in Sheol, in the grave that is, those already there will taunt Egypt, and deride her greatness and pride.  She, like all them, is taken down to Sheol.  Says that in the grave, there is still remembrance of life.  There is a continuation after death.  MSB also says this.  Several more nations are named, repetitiously, saying that they spread terror and fear while alive, but now in the grave, they lie with the uncircumcised (the un-chosen), and those slain by the sword, who bear their shame (rejection of the living God), together with all those others like them, who all are in the pit.  All these great and terrible nations that marched with pride about all the earth...they are all dead, all ashamed because they missed the whole point of the life they were given, who saw earth as the important thing, now lie forever still and useless in that pit.

2024 - Neb ended the "world power" of the Pharaohs once and for all.  They never came again.  The builders of pyramids, and the Sphinx never came anywhere near that level again, not after Neb. Egypt was never again a player - not against Babylon, nor the Medo-Persians, nor Alexander, nor Rome.  Never really a threat to be independent again, always a conquered nation.

2020- vss 22-32 are a recounting of the transience of man, and of the nations he builds.  None last.  No one has the wisdom.  The bigger they get the less they look to God, and so bring about their own destruction.  Israel was supposed to be different.  But it wasn't, because of the idolatry that they so regularly indulged - like an addiction.  All the uncircumcised nations went down to Sheol, and Israel now marks time until the Gentile Age is finished.

2022 - There seems to be a hierarchy in "the pit".  This pit is mentioned a number of times right through here - 30-32 certainly - and in each case those who are in the pit recognize the newcomers to the pit, they rank them, they mock them for thinking they were so powerful, and yet here they are, in the same pit with those they disdained as weak or foolish.  Is this a real place, or is it some sort of comparative prophetic message that earthly kingdoms - especially evil ones - are all destined for the same fate?  Defeat, dishonor, and death.

2020 - All these nations/cities/kings seem to have reached the absolute heights of civilization under the auspices of man.  Assyria, Tyre, Babylon, and Egypt were truly unique in the history of the earth, and it great measure it was because of the learning, the abilities, the insight, and so on of the their leaders.  The Pharaohs were great men.  Nebuchadnezzar was a great man.  As in the days of Noah man had reached a "height" in evil and corruption, these nations had reached a height in international trade or military might, or in Egypt's case, self-sufficiency in tune with the cycles of nature.  And this height too came crashing down because of the arrogance associated with it.  The ease associated with it.  There was no "need for God" in such places, and man looked only to himself.  But then they turned against each other.  Their own greed for greatness consumed them and they destroyed each other, and then the last was destroyed by God.  That may well be the sequence of events that will repeat at the end of time.  Nations will rise again, and Antichrist - a king like none before him - will unite the whole world under one banner, accomplishing what these great leaders in Ezekiel's time all failed to do - and then in his arrogance, he will go down before Christ, defeated in battle, out strategized, stopped at every inroad.  Adam to the fall, the fall to the flood, the flood to Israel's divorce, divorce to end times - Age of the Gentiles.  Then the end times.  Four.  The number of man.

2024 - In summary, these chapters may also be about the futility of war and conquest as the means of building and perpetuating nations.  None of these stand.  Hell is full of those who chose this strategy, and of those who followed them.  They all achieved the same end.  They "...have gone down in shame with the slain, for all the terror that they caused by their might; they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit".  They left God out of their ambitions, and without Him, there is only hell, and the lost, and the uncircumcised.

Chapter 33
2022 - Very much a reiteration of the principles of Chapter 18, at least through vs 20.

No time stamp, but clearly a new prophecy is starting.  MSB outline says 33 is a lone chapter with it's own main outline point.  This chapter will speak of provision for Israel's Repentance.
Starts with an analogy.  If the watchman sounds a warning, and no one heeds it, then those who ignore the warning die, and their blood is on them.  BUT, if the watchman sounds no warning, those same people still die, but now their blood is laid to the account of the watchman.  Preachers?  Teachers?  Each of us who knows the gospel, and knows about hell, and sounds no warning?  How much blood is laid to my account for a life lived in silence?

In vs 7, Ezekiel is made watchman for the house of Israel.  The following verses are pretty specific that Ezekiel will hear God's warnings, and that he is responsible for passing them on.  If he does not, then the blood of those who die is on him.  MSB refers this back to Eze 18, the chapter on personal accountability.  Hard to get what this really intends.  Is it just about Ezekiel, or is it a principle for all time?

2022 -These first 9 verses seem to lay out the rules for the "office" to which God is about to appoint Ezekiel.  It is indeed reminiscent of Chapter 18.  I note that it implies responsibility for specific individuals that God will make known to Ezekiel.  Here is the basis for that, in this verse:
8 If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. [Eze 33:8 ESV]
The phrase "...that wicked person" seems clearly to indicate that specific people are to be warned.  Unless the grammar of the Hebrews discounts that interpretation.  I just don't know how that works.  I note that vs 9 repeats that same "that person" phrase.

2024 - The verses:
4 then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. [Eze 33:4-5 ESV].  
How does this fit with Jesus speaking in parables?  Did he know that some were not to be saved, and he spoke the truth so the elect could be saved, so he gave the warning, but he gave it as a parable, so that those not elect would not have their blood on them?  This seems impossible...I think the level of punishment is what Jesus had in mind.  The less they understood, the less punishment they would receive.  Because looked at the other way, the blood of all those people would have been on Jesus for not blowing a trumpet but a flute instead.  They knew it meant something, but it was not a trumpet.  Understanding that NT passage is difficult anyone - I don't pretend to have it down, I just have a "way" that I can get my head around.  It seems quite wrong to say this means we ought to preach the gospel only indirectly, so that we do not make matters worse for the non-elect to whom we speak.  We know that is not so.  Given that it would be wrong to interpret the parables that way, is it right to interpret these verses in that way?  No...it's either right both places or wrong both places.  So we can - and I think should - say that this commission is only to Ezekiel, as a prophet in the same vein as Isaiah and Jeremiah.  He was chosen to take the word to Israel, to especially be the ONE that blew that trumpet.  Singled out as watchman.  As preachers are called today.  Perhaps we all are to some extent, but I don't believe all this falls on the shoulders of every Christian.  Vs 7 confirms it:
  7 "So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. [Eze 33:7 ESV].  This section is for those specially called to this service by God.

2024 - I need to work through what it means to have another's blood on your hands, and what it means to "deliver your soul".  Are these also confined only to those called especially for this service?  It would seem so...but it starts to sound like I'm just pushing all the hard parts off on the prophets and avoiding any responsibility myself.

Vs 11 is the first verse, at least in this chapter, that offers Israel hope:
11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? [Eze 33:11 ESV]
Very clear.  God's justice requires death to the wicked.  So turn back, don't be wicked, avoid that fate that MUST come if you don't.
2022 - This is almost word for word the same as Eze 18:23.  The extension, though, indicates that the nation is addressed here, a nation, rather than an individual.  

vs 12 seems convoluted, but has much truth.  Some that is hard to accept:
12 "And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. [Eze 33:12 ESV]
We can not be good enough, do enough, and so on to square our accounts with God.  No matter how good we are, we sin, and for sin we are held accountable.  It cannot be offset by good.  There is no scoresheet, updated daily.  For those who turn to God, though - for the saved - there will be no fall.  God saves us from that fall, and to make sure we get what is being said, the first part is repeated.  It is not the righteous part of our lives that saves us, it is always insufficient.  ONLY GOD can save us from our sin, and He requires that we repent and determine to follow Him, and to sin no more.  This is Lordship Salvation writ large in the OT.

13 Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die. [Eze 33:13 ESV]  Another verse to use as a proof text that the Mosaic law never ever saved anyone.  Dependence and trust in God Almighty is all that saved then, is all that saves now.  Belief in Jesus' name.  Does this recant "perseverance of the saints"?

2022 - Works can never save is what it really says.  Works in the midst of unjust behavior.  What it is saying is that this is not a balance, with our good on one side and our evil on the other, and that so long as the good side stays heavier - weighted with good deeds done not from the heart but from a desire to keep the good side heavier because we are counting on those deeds to keep us out of hell, even though we are doing as much evil as we think we can get away with without tipping the scales that way - we are fine.  This is "trusting" in works to stand by themselves, rather than as works as the spirit of faith.  It is the attitude that accompanies the works that imparts value to them in God's eyes.

This text goes on and reiterates this principle, and approaches it as both the verse and the inverse.  It is viewed from all possible angles, to make sure there can be no misunderstanding.  Just as personal responsibility was analyzed in depth against all arguments back in 18.
But people have such a hard time accepting this as a just way of doing things.  They rebel, because they want to be in control of their own destiny.  They don't want God deciding at the moment of their death, they want their cumulative score to be what matters.  They want grounds for argument!  But then these verses:
17 "Yet your people say, 'The way of the Lord is not just,' when it is their own way that is not just. 18 When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it. 19 And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by this. 20 Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways." [Eze 33:17-20 ESV]
Long, but infinitely important.  God says that no matter what we think about this system, He will apply it.  It is His to judge us, and He will set the standard, and has done so, and has explained it to us.
There is fuel here for those who say you can lose your salvation.  The same argument applies here as in the NT.  Those who go out from us were never of us.  Those who turn from righteous were not righteous.  They did good by force of will and not by intent of heart.  The other way to argue is that of the dispensationalist, who might say that the people Ezekiel was addressing labored under a different law than we do today.  I don't see this.  If the age of the Gentiles, and it's ultimate end, is analogous to the age of Israel, and its end in 586 BC, then God's part in it all will be the same.  As it was in Noah's day.  They were judged by their hearts, at the moment of their deaths.  Those in Noah's day, in the days of Ezekiel, and in the latter days.  It has always been about hearts!

vs 21 has a time stamp:  Year 12, month 10, day 5.  Backwards a couple of months?  Ezekiel now receives word that Jerusalem has fallen to Babylon.  There is an MSB note with much chronology here.  Ezekiel had been mute - by God's doing so that he could not have spoken for the last 36 months during the siege of Jerusalem even if he'd wanted to do so - but the night before this messenger arrives with this news, God restores Ezekiel's voice.  
God addresses and argument that the people make saying that they will keep this land.  They say Abraham was only one man, and the land was given to him, yet they are many, so shouldn't it be given to them?  Logic, right?  But God recounts their sins, and says because of that big difference between them and Abraham - a difference of heart - they have no chance of possessing the land.
The last few verses are sort of an outside looking in.  God tells Ezekiel that though the people come to him and enjoy listening to him, they see him as a performer on a stage, not as one who is relaying the objective truth of God.  They hear his words, and clap about how eloquent he is, but they don't do a thing he says.  How many in churches today are this same way?  What a great sermon today about how we shouldn't cuss!  And then on Monday...Put in your own "little sin" here.  This is one for FB.

2024 - In vs 21, Ezekiel's mouth is opened.  Yet in the previous chapter, Ezekiel is told that if he doesn't sound the trumpet when God tells him, then the blood of some will be on his hands.  If Ezekiel could not talk at that time, how was the trumpet to be sounded?  Or do we look at chapter 33 as a previous or later insertion, the conversation actually having taken place before or after this time?  I guess a trumpet can be blown without a voice...

Chapter 34
Per MSB outline, 34 begins the last major division of Ezekiel's book, and is called Prophecies of Israel's Restoration.  This is further divided into four sub-points.  The first, that 34 starts, is called A regathering of Israel to the Land.  It starts with the promise of a true shepherd in 34, punishment of the nations in 35, and Purposes of restoration in 36, and tomorrow in 37, The Valley of Dry bones, as a picture of restoration.  So to the text:
Starts with a new prophecy, addressed to the shepherds of Israel.  In fact it tells Ezekiel to "prophesy against the shepherds".  So the section on the restoration of Israel starts with a chastisement of their current shepherds.
The first 6 verses charge the shepherds with looking after themselves and neglecting their sheep.  They do not help the weak, search for those lost and bring them back, but they do rule harshly over the ones nearby.  So the sheep have been scattered.  They have scattered because the shepherds don't feed them.  There is nothing for them when they are with the shepherds, they go hungry when they are there, they are just taken advantage of when they are with the shepherds.  So they leave.  They scatter.  They are spread everywhere.  So if we see the sheep as the chosen, they have gone out.  It says they roam over every high hill, which seems a reference to all the high places where they worshiped. (No, in 2020 I don't think that's what this means.)  They are scattered and have no one to search for them.  

2022 - This verse:
5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; [Eze 34:5 ESV]
Because the shepherds neglected their duties, because they didn't help the oppressed but instead oppressed them, the sheep scattered.  That's what sheep do.  This makes clear that the shepherds bear additional responsibility for the disposition of the flock. There is a hierarchy, and in God's hierarchy, those nearer the top have more to answer for - not only for themselves but for what happened to those for whom they were managers.  This is not like our modern businesses where rank is only about privilege and responsibility actually declines with advancement.  In God's hierarchy, you might want to think long and hard about promotion.  It is sure to be a burden, over and above what you already bear.

Vs 7 starts with "Therefore...", and goes on that since the shepherds fed themselves and not the sheep, and let the sheep wander offer so that the sheep became prey, God will do this:
10 "...I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them." [Eze 34:10b ESV]  Looking ahead to the inter-testamentary period when there were no prophets from God at all?  Or a change in attitude among the people that strips the shepherds of any respect?  MSB implies that God wasn't talking necessarily about priests, and uses the fate of King Zedekiah as an example of the removal of the shepherds.  I am not seeing from the context so far that this would be correct.  Just seems bringing the sheep back to the flock has always been a job for prophets and priests.  But in Jesus' case, also Kings.  
2024 - Or perhaps this is about the dissolution of the priesthood.  It was the high priest and the rest of the priests in Jesus' time that plotted successfully to have the Romans kill him.  The good shepherd murdered by the bad.  And after 70 AD, no more priests - no more shepherds - at all, but instead the Holy Spirit abiding in every saved person.  That sure seems more to the point in this passage.
Maybe that's the deal.  Vs 11:
11 "For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. [Eze 34:11 ESV]
No more shepherds, whoever they are.  God Himself will seek His own sheep.  God Himself will bring back His sheep from all the places they have been scattered, back to the land of Israel, and He will be their shepherd, and make them lie down.  (2024 - That phrase in 12, "on a day of clouds and thick darkness", tells us where this is.  The Sixth seal, because once the church is raptured out, God's plan to restore Israel moves back to the top.  And yet...ir reads more like a Millennial prophecy.  I just don't know of any other verse confirming that there will be darkness to begin the Millennial?  Maybe...THIS is the verse that tells us that will be the case!)  This verse summarizes:
16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. [Eze 34:16 ESV]  God just does not like those who are without a care, healthy, happy, and whole.  He is the physician, and He seeks the sick.  
2020-This could be a foretelling of the end of the priesthood in 70 AD, and it has not returned and won't until the Millennial.  The priests are no longer there to make intercession and yearly sacrifices.  All that has been replaced by Jesus, our current and future High Priest.  God has done away with Kings following the Babylonian conquest - no king ever again ruled in Jerusalem, and after the second fall, in 70, there has been no priest either.  I think these verses in 34 are analogous to the verses where God puts away the Kings.
2022 - or, if we include this verse:
12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. [Eze 34:12 ESV]
Perhaps clouds and thick darkness refer to the rapture?  Is there a trumpet or a bowl where the whole world goes dark?  I think maybe this happens at the beginning of the pouring out of God's wrath.  If so, the seeking may be about the angel who gleans that day, and separates the wheat and the tares.  Thick darkness can certainly refer to the dwelling, the presence, the action of God.  When He takes it all over at the end, he will pull his people out first.  This needs to be in the end times study.   -Maybe not.  Vs 13 implies that the people referenced are Israel, and not those in Christ.  Maybe....
I think these next verses are Millennial in that they talk about the day of the Lord as shown by the phrase "a day of clouds and thick darkness" and it speaks to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem.  Surely this did not refer to the return from Babylon, nor to the return of 1948.  This is about the highways filled with returning Jews that will come in the Millennial.  
2023 - The time when there are no shepherds seems to me today to be the time after 70 AD.  Since that time, there has been no high priest in Israel, no Levitical priests, no Aaronic priests.  Since that time, (vs 11), the Father draws, the Spirit convicts, and Jesus advocates on behalf of those for whom he died.  Looked at in this way, these verses are about the church age - the Age of the Gentiles.  God has foregone an earthly priesthood - except as the church spreads the gospel - and does the shepherding all himself.   FURTHER, though, in vs 13 I see the re-gathering of the Jews from all over the world.  The 144,000, tgt, and the Millennial.  Surely that is also referenced here.
2023 - When is the day of "clouds and thick darkness"?  Besides the reference here in Ez 34:12, I found three more uses of the phrase:
2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. [Psa 97:2 ESV]
2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. [Joe 2:2 ESV]
15 A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, [Zep 1:15 ESV]
Joel 2:2 is in the same chapter as Peter referenced on the Day of Pentecost.  You old men will dream dreams and all that.  I think we will see this again as tgt grows near.  As for the Zep quote, that looks to me like Seventh Seal/First Trumpet time period.  I think that one corresponds to this one:
12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" [Rev 6:12-17 ESV].
A long quote, but in its entirety it seems pretty unmistakable.
And if this is what Zephaniah was referencing, then so was Joel, and so is Ezekiel.  Isn't it interesting that in Rev 7, the 144,000 are sealed, and they begin evangelizing the Jews, and bringing them home to Israel.  This is too much for mere coincidence.  This is God, this is inspired prophecy.  And just look at the verses - and the incredible time span - that is brought together in this phrase.

2023 - This verse:
15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. [Eze 34:15 ESV]
Now does that remind you of anything?  Like maybe this:
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. [Psa 23:2 ESV].
Gives me chills!  Whoever though of the 23rd Psalm as a prophecy about tgt!!!  Never have associated David with eschatology!

So then we get amplification of vs 16.  God says He intends to judge between sheep and sheep.  To me, the implication of this wording is that God will judge Israel, those who are brought home to the land.  Though God brings them home, there will still be judgement.  Those who try to assume authority, who shove their way to power over the weak and sick, God will judge.  

2023 - This would have to be the Pre-Millennial judgment.  Sheep and sheep is very much like a bema judgment, and indeed in vs 17 both sheep and goats are mentioned.  This seems a reach, but does it show that some of those deceived by the SoP will remain loyal to him, in their greed, after his true nature is recognized?  That these will advance themselves by ratting out their brothers?  And at the end of TGT, we will have the sheep and goat judgment and the disloyal will be thrown into hell, and the faithful will go into the Millennial?  I mean...written out, it doesn't even seem like that great a stretch.  

It sums up this way:
23 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken. [Eze 34:23-24 ESV]
Clear reference to the Millennial Kingdom.  Can't see it being about anything else.  He will be their shepherd- one shepherd.  No Levites, no Aaron's, no Catholic Priests, no mullahs, no caliphs.  Jesus will be the only priest, the only help, the only way.  Further implication is that they will remain scattered until this shepherd arrives.  Even then, because they will reject him the first time, the sheep remain scattered.  I don't think these prophecies will be truly fulfilled until the latter days.  It is that particular return that is in view.  MSB says this sheep and sheep are a progression.  After judging the shepherds, the sheep also will be judged, and the abusive sheep won't fare well.  MSB says this refers to Mt 25:31-46.

2022 - The sheep and goat judgment seems indicated here.  At the end of t/gt, pre-Millennial.  Not all who are brought home will enter.  This implies that not all Israel, gathered back to Zion, will believe.  I had previously thought this judgment was very much about saved Jews and unfaithful or faithful Gentiles.  But it seems to be a lot more involved than that.  Many Jews won't make it, even though God compels them to return to Zion.  This is Eze 34:17-24.

Under the new King, Jesus, they will be secure in their land even from beasts, rain will come in its season, the earth will yield its increase.  This verse:
27 And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. [Eze 34:27 ESV]  Implies that the Jews will be enslaved again in the future.  Not just scattered and living elsewhere, but enslaved.  Hitler's camps?  Something like that.  Perhaps the attack on the woman with the child who flees to the desert?  Antichrist will try and enslave all that he can find maybe?

2024 - This verse:  25 "I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. [Eze 34:25 ESV].  Think of how the world will have to change for this covenant to be necessary.  From where will all these wild beasts in Israel come?  The world will be a wilder, less organized, less civilized place when this happens.  Conditions will be much more like they were in Ezekiel's time than they are now.  The world is going to "fall apart" during tgt.  We will be knocked back to the stone age.  The whole sword, famine, beasts, and pestilence thing shows up too many times to be anything but literal.

The last few verses of this chapter speak not only to a return of the people, but a revitalization of the whole land of Israel.  It will bloom, it will produce for its people.  Israel as a nation will be prominent in the whole world, in a way that can only be attributed to the supernatural intervention of the God of Israel.  They are His human sheep, and He is their God.

2023 - This verse:
29 And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. [Eze 34:29 ESV].  Look at the last part of this verse.  Only here, at the end of tgt, will worldwide anti-Semitism finally go away!

MSB says this refers back to the new covenant promised Israel in Jer 31:31-34.  A new heart, an internal understanding that the Jews will have and that will bring them back to their homeland.  This is about Israel's ultimate restoration AFTER the age of the Gentiles - this is me, not MSB talking now.  This covenant with Israel will be the Millennial kingdom, ruled by Christ.  For 1000 years, this will be the case.  Peace, calm, an extraordinary time, and an extraordinary place is what will happen to Israel.  But I don't think Gentiles are part of this covenant.  Gentiles are under a different covenant.  We are the church, and the promises to the church are the promises to the Gentiles.  The church is the vehicle God has set up for the world during this intervening time between the casting off of Israel for their unfaithfulness, and then aggravated by their rejection of Christ, and the time at the end when God will bring about all His promises to them, in full, and restore them to their pre-eminent place among the peoples and nations.

Chapter 35
A new prophecy, this one against Mt. Seir.  This seems an odd place for such a thing, right after the prophecy of the restoration of Israel.  
Seir to be made a desolation and a waste.  Because they gloated over the final judgement of Israel/Judah, and nursed perpetual enmity against Israel, Seir will be wiped out.  They will die by the sword, cities laid waste.  They will be a perpetual desolation as their hatred of Israel was also perpetual.  It goes on to say that Seir planned to go in and "possess" the land of Israel - both Israel and Judah - once those two had fallen.  They were envious of that land and its blessings.  This would likely go all the way back to Esau, and his jealousy toward Jacob, though it was his own shallowness that led to Jacob's blessing.  God has no pity for Mt. Seir, for Edom, because He heard the things they said about Israel and Judah when they fell.  They were overjoyed by the downfall of God's chosen.

2024 - Edom, today, would be south and east of the Dead Sea.  That places it in Jordan.  The city of Bosra, Jordan is there.  They call it Basira now.  Petra is in this part of Jordan.  Most of Jordan's 11.6 million people are in the northwest - NOT a part of old Moab.  92% of the population is urban.  That, to me, makes this prophecy true:
4 I will lay your cities waste, and you shall become a desolation, and you shall know that I am the LORD. [Eze 35:4 ESV].

Chapter 36
A new prophecy, addressed to the mountains of Israel.  To the land itself.  Because the land of Israel has become a reproach, because Edom and others came in a possessed it, and made the land of Canaan their possession while knowing God had given it to Israel, and many other nations also took advantage, therefore all these nations around Israel "...shall themselves suffer reproach."  And what a mess they are today.  Constantly at war, constantly filled with internal upheaval, over run by nations still further away.  No one safe from men, soldiers, or war.  They are a mess.  This verse, though, to the mountains:
11 And I will multiply on you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be fruitful. And I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more good to you than ever before. Then you will know that I am the LORD. [Eze 36:11 ESV]  Israel is an amazing place today, prospering in the middle of the mess that characterizes the region, but I think the true, whole fulfillment of this passage is yet future.  This is the thousand year reign in view.  This is about the restoration of the land, polluted by the offering of children to idols and the shedding of innocent blood in the name of greed and corruption.  It is not just the people who had to be purged, the land itself must be cleansed and this is yet to come.  We see this as the chapter continues...

Starting in 16, a new prophecy.  God notes that He judged Israel for their deeds.  For the blood spilled in their own land and for the idols that they set up.  So God scattered them.  But when they went into exile, still they didn't turn back to him.  They still profaned the name of God, and though the exiles were recognized as God's own people, the nations noticed that they didn't worship God.  This concerned God because their neglect tarnished His name among the nations.  God says for the sake of His name, and most definitely not because they deserve anything good, that He will Himself act to vindicate His own name.  For the sake of His Holy Name, He will bring them back to the land He gave them.  These verses:
22 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. [Eze 36:22-23 ESV]

2023 - As in Jer 31, this is about the Millennial reign.  While the Jews returning to Israel today may be foundational, they are far and away apostate Jews, secular Jews, with no thought or loyalty to the Bible or to God.  They are unbelievers, still laboring under the blindness that God has put on them.  They don't come home with a new heart, with a new dedication, with recognition of the work of Christ, their Messiah, UNTIL during and after tgt.  This is NOT about the return from Babylon.  The New Covenant is still far, far in the future.  And while the NC is available to the Jews, I believe only a tiny remnant is elect.  Just a necessary few.  
2023 - And then 32 repeats for emphasis that this is not for Israel's sake, but so God may honor his own name.  They are his, and he promised them, and THAT ALONE is why they will be blessed.

The prophecy in Jer 31:31-34 is pretty much repeated word for word.  God will make a new covenant with Israel.  He will sprinkle water on them and they will be clean.  They will in essence be "reborn" as a nation, and they will have a special relationship with God because inside them they will have a new heart - a faithful heart - and they will have God's own Spirit within them, so that they know His will and do it.  This is not about baptism, but certainly this is the symbolism of baptism.  Once restored, we are washed, as a newborn into a new life, and we come up from the water as one resurrected from the dead.  Baptism is symbol, a very powerful symbol, and unmistakable identification with the the resurrected Jesus and a newly born infant in His kingdom.  These are a good core study for baptism.  It isn't about the water, but about something much larger.

Once restored to Israel, the land will support them.  They will never again suffer the "disgrace of famine".  What does this say about current famines - like the terrible ones in Ethiopia, or North Korea.  Are these famines also about disgrace because of God's enmity?  Are we to interpret famine this way always?  The last few verses of this chapter, 37 and 38, seem to me to imply a veritable explosion of population in Israel.  They will increase as a flock of sheep increases, as the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts.  Many will the Jews be.

So.  When God restores Israel, they will indeed worship Him as they were intended to worship.  Perhaps this explains the restoration of the sacrificial system.  While it will no long look forward to the coming Lamb of God, they will understand that it looks backward now to Jesus as the Son of David, the promised King, who is their shepherd, and who was sacrificed and died to save them.  The new heart, the indwelling Spirit of God, will "explain" all this to them, and they will understand, and truly worship in their hearts.

2024 - This:
33 "Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. 34 And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. [Eze 36:33-34 ESV].  This unmistakably tells us when all this things are going to happen. "On the day that I cleanse you...".  Well who could ever say that we are at that point?  I tried to find out what percentage of the Jews are "practicing" Jews, but didn't have much luck. CIA Factbook says 73.5% of population is Jewish, 18% Muslim, 1.9% Christian.  But I don't know if this is "everyone" or just the ones who first classify themselves as having a religion.

God will do this.  They are just too rebellious a house to ever change on their own.  Like we are.  We are so corrupt by our blood and by our intentions, that we can never come to God.  Perhaps the times of Noah, the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC and 70 AD, and the future judgement of the universe and remaking of all that is, shows that man is not capable of being his own god.  We cannot build ourselves up - we cannot evolve into something better than we are - but because God made us, He will perfect us.  He will perfect Israel with a new heart and spirit, He will also perfect His church, cleansing it with the blood of Christ, efficacious to the perfection of both Jew and Gentile.  He does it.  We do not.
To those who say God created an imperfect being, and then punished him for his imperfection, this is a further answer.  Man - flesh and blood - is not capable of divinity.  We are less than God, and all the pain, suffering and injustice in the world shows that we cannot create perfection.  Only God can.  And in the end, that is exactly what He will do.  He will perfect us despite our failure, despite our sin, despite our helplessness to become Holy as He is Holy, God will perfect us in the end.  Adam was made perfect.  Satan tempted Adam.  Adam failed.  So all mankind was shown incapable of perfection afterward.  Adam could have, but with a true free will given to him by God, he still chose poorly.  Because man is not God.  Man is not Holy.  Only God is Holy, and therefore only He can perfect us and make us Holy.

Chapter 37
2022 - Planning to just read straight through these chapters, as they got lots of time previously.

This chapter is about the valley of dry bones.  It is a much used reference.  I really can't remember what preachers preached about it.
The hand of the Lord is on Ezekiel, and in the Spirit, he is set down in this valley.  No certainty so far of where it might be.  God asks Ezekiel if these dry bones can live, and he answers "You know, Lord".  This seems a good answer.  John uses similar in Revelation several times.  God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to dry bones, and tell them they will have sinew and flesh and breath, and they will live.  Not that they can, but that they will.  He does so.  There is a rattling of bones as they reassemble in their proper places.  Sinew, flesh and skin grow on them...but not breath.  The breath is prophesied separately.  It comes from the four corners of the world, and they breathe, and stand there a great army.  It calls them "these slain".  So not just dead.  These were killed.  
Things are explained beginning in 11.  These bones are the "whole house of Israel".  They say they are dried up, and their hope is lost, and they are cut off.  But Ezekiel is to tell them he is bringing them back from their graves, back to the land of Israel, and put His Spirit in them.  They shall live in their own land.  This is post apocalyptic.  The phrase about putting his Spirit in them was in Jeremiah, and has been in Ezekiel twice now.  This is the third time.  So this is to happen when Israel is restored.  It is not about NT saints.  The Holy Spirit comes into us as the earnest of our salvation, but it will be put into Israel in a different way when they are restored.  With them, it is so God can fulfill His promise to them, and so they will be faithful to Him this time.  It is a different promise.  An OT promise to Israel.

2023 - This might also be a picture of the current state of Israel, blinded by God, cursed for their national and individual sins.  They are a spiritually dead nation, secular in most respects.  Yet even in this state, dead, bones dried, not a hint of moisture, yet God is going to revive and restore the people, the nation of Israel.
2024 - A dry, dead nation, become so due to their long abandonment of God, and the blindness from God that resulted.  Yet even this is not too much for God to overcome in order to make his promise good.

2022 - First spirit, if there is to be life (v 5), then sinew, flesh, and skin.  Last of all breath.  Is it not the same in the womb?  Or...weren't the bones there first?  Hmmm....There is significance in this order, but perhaps not a one for one analogy.

2020-It is interesting that this appears to be a resurrection.  A resurrection as the church will experience at the rapture.  Perhaps the church and Israel will be resurrected at the same time, the church resurrected and taken to heaven with Christ, and Israel resurrected on the earth and then these resurrected move toward Israel, on the highways made straight and flat by God himself to expedite their return - to their land and to their God.  There are all those verses in the last few chapters that talked about judging between sheep and sheep - which I took to mean that Israel would be judged when they get back to Israel.  And after this judging, they are to be changed and accept God as their God and they will be His people.  Perhaps that follows this resurrection.  If the judgement on Babylon, Assyria, Tyre, and Egypt is prequel to judgement on these same places during Trib and Great Trib and Millennial, then why wouldn't Israel have a future that is parallel to the future of the church?

2023 - MSB lumps 11-13 together, makes no comment on what this resurrection might be.  Here is his comment:  "This is the key to the interpretation of the vision.  It is the resurrection and salvation of Israel.  So...maybe he does comment.  He seems to be "spiritualizing" it to mean the whole nation of Israel and not individual Israelites at all.  Sure, individual Israelites will return to God, and to Zion, but that resurrection part, as I read MSB, is a nation rising from the dead.  I suppose you could make a case that this is exactly what occurred in 1948.  There was no nation.  It was gone from the earth, and then it was there again.  It did sort of resurrect as a nation from the dirt that was old Israel.  Hmm...

2022 -I note that the breath that fills these fleshed out dry bones comes not from God, as did the breath of Adam, but from the four winds.  This army is alive in the flesh but dead spiritually.  This is deaf and blind Israel, in the days before the t/gt return to the promised land.  Perhaps there will be some kind of awakening, and Jews all over the world will be called toward home.  They will rise from the abjectly secular state they are in, as most of Israel is today, and be drawn toward their God.  Yet even when they arrive, not all will receive spiritual life as evidenced by the indwelling Holy Spirit (vs 14).  They were fleshed out, they walked, the went home, but they are not truly alive until the Holy Spirit gives them true life.

Then there are the two sticks.  One represents those of Joseph, represented by Ephraim.  I believe this is about the northern kingdom. The other stick is Judah.  God will join the two sticks, bringing back the Jews from wherever they have been scattered.  Further he will change them, so that they give up their idols, and they give up their abominations and their backsliding ways.  They won't defile themselves anymore.  They will be one nation again.  This too corresponds to the 2020 notes.  Jews, not living and dead, will return to Jerusalem, and they will be the people they are supposed to be.  

2024 - This verse:
21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. [Eze 37:21 ESV].  How have I missed all these verses that leave no doubt that the Lost 10 are not in the least "lost".  God knows where they are, and what tribes they are from, and these will all be brought home to the land.  And in light of the discussion on the "resurrection" of the Jews, it might be both living and dead that come home.  

This vs:
23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. [Eze 37:23 ESV]
Look closely at the order here.  It is the order of NT salvation also.  God saves them, God cleanses them, and they enter into relationship with God.  But He does the work, He initiates.  Salvation is also before cleansing.  They are saved, then washed.  And this is talking about all Israel if we refer back to the valley.  God will keep his promise to them all.  He will raise those Jews who died in their sins, and put His Spirit in them, and will be their God.  (Is this right?  Dead and unsaved will be brought back to life, made new in God, and saved from hell?)  Or...is that valley an illustration that a cast off, really a cursed nation's survivors, where ever they may be at the end, will come back to their God and finally serve him.  As a whole nation.  They will be brought home, the kingdoms reunited for the first time since the days of Solomon, and God will put a King on the throne of David to rule over them.  This will be Jesus Christ, at the Millennial.  This is when these things will happen.  A covenant will be established, that will last forever.  A Temple will be established that will last forever.  David will be their King, and that also will be forever.  There will be no more falling away, ever, no rebellion.  This will be a time of permanent perfection, and perfect relationship between God and the Chosen People.

2020-When though?  If there is a resurrection of the Jews, will that be at the very beginning of tribulation?  Or will it occur after Antichrist comes to power?  Will it be that after he's made his dirty deal with them, they start coming home from everywhere and there are millions coming to worship God in Israel, and the Antichrist can't stand to see it, and that is when he breaks his covenant with them?  Will the church still be present as the resurrected Jews come home, and then be taken out when the Antichrist is incensed and breaks his deal?  The church will be out before the wrath.  Will the Jews resurrect before the wrath?  Hmm...I have never heard it preached or taught this way.  I am sure there are a lot of problems created by looking at it this way, and I don't even know what they are, what theological questions are generated by such a view.  It sure seems to tie things together though.  Maybe there is some truth to it.  Later...after reading 39, and reading the rest of my chapter notes, it would seem the resurrection of dead Jews would have to occur in Trib or Great Trib.  And they get back to Israel before the battle with Gog and Magog, which also makes it apparent that Gog is the Antichrist.  And then it all fits.  Sort of.

2022 - Umm...the 2020 paragraph seems all wrong to me know.  This was a vision, not a physical resurrection.  That is just not in the Bible, at least I don't think so today.  It is symbolic of the return during t/gt, but not a physical resurrection of "just the Jews".  
But...it says "I will open your graves".  How can it get comfortable saying that isn't what it means?  It says it both in vss 12, 13.  What happens AFTER this is done?  First, after the graves are opened, they are brought to the land of Israel, they shall know that God is the Lord, God's Spirit (capitalized in ESV) will be put into them, and they will (repeated for emphasis?) know that He is God.  That is all pretty sequential.  Heuristically, could this happen?  Absolutely.  God can raise the Jews of all ages - even the driest of the dry bones - and clothe them once again in flesh, and bring them home, and bless them with His indwelling Spirit.  Where else, though, do we get a hint of this taking place?  The pre-Millennial judgment is of the living...hmmm...which these resurrected Jews would be.  There is nothing in Ezekiel that says they are resurrected into spiritual bodies.  In fact, it is pretty clear that they are flesh.  Wow...Ok, I get that I am WAY out there at this point.  Jews of all history - all the descendants of Abraham to whom God made the geographical promises -  resurrected at some point in t/gt and literally traveling back to their promised land, and being blessed with salvation by grace and indwelling of the Holy Spirit in a very powerful way - beyond what we as Christians experience, and beginning their forever in that land.  It is these that the adversary will pursue with a vengeance into the desolate places.  It is these, pursued by the flood, that the earth will open and protect.  These likely will be murdered by the millions, and these are the spirits underneath the throne crying out for vengeance.  
I sure don't know...but I sure have a hard time thinking this rising from the grave is not a literal rising from the grave...

2022 - These verses:
24 "My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. ...
26 I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore.
27 My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
28 Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore." [Eze 37:24, 26-28 ESV]

David as King must refer to the Millennial reign.  Pretty sure on that score.  
The new covenant with Israel.  I don't think this is the NT New Covenant with the church, this is a covenant for the Millennial, and the church will be raptured out before this.  This new covenant here will include worship at the sanctuary that God is going to set in place for the Millennial.  That is a very different kind of covenant, a different kind of worship, than we have in the church age.
That sanctuary - I read it as the Millennial Temple - is mentioned three verses in a row, and is an icon to the world that THE GOD OF ALL is with Israel for a thousand years...and forevermore!
This is where it ties to the coming description a few chapters from now of Ezekiel's Temple.

I think this all fits far too well to assume that it isn't the correct interpretation, even if I have never heard it before.

2024, March 3 - Charlie referred to this chapter in Sunday School today and I pretty disagreed with every application of it that he made.  There are truly a lot of ways to look at the verse.  As I listened to Charlie and thought about this chapter, it occurred to me that the bones represent the current spiritual state of Israel.  Dead, dry, bone  unconnected from bone.  The "reanimation" of these bones is the lifting of the blindness in part that now infects Israel.  It will not be a sudden thing, but there will be a rattling of spiritual interest among the Jews of the world.  They will begin to assemble their ideas, their views, their place in God's plan.  This growth continue as symbolized by the sinews, the muscles and so on fleshing out the Jews in the world.  They will be right on the edge...and the the breath of life - spiritual life - will again be breathed into them.  When they happens it won't be a few here and  there coming home, it will be the whole nation, coming home to their promised land, their heritage, their place and purpose in the world.  They will come home in the millions on roads that do not curve, built over built up valleys and flattened mountains.  It will be a straight, easy shot to get home.  I believe, after today, that this is metaphor that applies to living breathing Jews in the last days.  Two verses will back me up:
24 "My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. ...
This is Jesus that will be their King,therefore this is about post-second coming.  Christ on earth in the Millennial.  He will be King of the living.  
26 I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. [Eze 37:24, 26 ESV].  And here, God says he will "multiply them".  Spirits do not multiply.  Resurrected dead people are flesh, but they are like the angels, and do not multiply.  So this vast army is resurrected not from physical death, but spiritual death, and as saved Jews, living in the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob they will teach no more any man his brother for they will ALL know me!  
So  yeah...I keep changing my mind, but today, this is how I see it.

Chapter 38
A new prophecy, of Gog and the land of Magog.  There is a note in MSB saying this prophecy will be the subject of all of chapters 38 and 39.  A northern confederacy.  MSB goes on to say that Gog is likely a proper name, the name of a prince.  MSB says this is the name of Antichrist.  So this prophecy would be about the last days.  It should tie to Daniel and to Revelation, and to other prophecy of the last days days.  The terms Gog and Magog also appear in Rev. 20:8.  There, they refer to the final world uprising against Jerusalem.  This would seem to be then about the battle when Satan is loosed for a short time after being locked up in the pit for the 1000 years of the Millennial.  He manages to put together a last conspiracy to fight against Israel, while Jesus is on earth ruling as their King.  He is the ultimate deceiver to pull that off in that time.  
MSB goes to considerable trouble to debunk the idea that Magog is Russia.  He concludes that it is most likely about Asia Minor, and names it as probably present day Turkey.  This is where Antichrist will come from, per MSB.  Wish I could cut and paste the whole note and send it to Paula.  Many other cities and places are named.  These can be looked at individually, but the idea is that the whole world outside Israel will come to fight Jesus and His people there.  They will lose.  God says it will be He who brings these other nations - the remaining lost in the world - to fight and lose against Christ's Millennial Kingdom.  He will manipulate them to do His will, to carry out His plan, as He also raised up the Assyrians against Israel and Babylon against Judah, and then against all those who had despised Judah and embraced it's fall.
This army that comes will be a horde, like a cloud covering the land.  They are coming against the people brought back from many nations.  Very little wiggle room on who we're talking about here.  This verse indicates the time we are talking about:
8 After many days you will be mustered. In the latter years you will go against the land that is restored from war, the land whose people were gathered from many peoples upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste. Its people were brought out from the peoples and now dwell securely, all of them. [Eze 38:8 ESV]
So it seems to be clear that this will be after the Jews return to Jerusalem.  If they are dwelling securely, I think we have to be in the Millennial.  They are certainly not secure today!

2022- So...
I think clearly this is about the post-Millennial battle, the last ever battle, that Jesus wins with only his breath.  Where did all these lost people come from?  A horde, a cloud covering the land, and at the end of the 1000 years.  What if...no, that won't fly.  Here is the problem I have...The Sheep and Goat/Pre-Millennial judgment "seems to be" a judgment of all the living at that time.  The church is rapture out, both living and dead, and are in spiritual bodies.  A great battle has taken place and Christ Himself has appeared to defeat that army, to confine Satan to the pit for a thousand years, and then to judge.  
Difficult...I am too tired to puzzle this all the way out, but here are just some possibilities here.  What if the sheep and goat judgment is only of Jews who've come home survived t/gt.  They are from all the nations, as they've been scattered for thousands of years.  What if it is only these that are judged worthy or unworthy to enter Israel - the land promised to them and them alone.  The rest of the world goes back to what they were doing, rejecting and neglecting God and his Son, for a thousand years.  They are subject to the rule of Israel, however, and so begin once again to resent the power of God and his people.  To hate from jealousy at the visibly undeniable blessings that accrue to Israel during this time.  It is these people, still unjudged, still lost, Gentiles in the main, who mass up into hordes and attack Israel after a thousand years.  All of them die by the fiery breath of Christ.  So THEN, at the GWT, ALL the dead are judged.  EXCEPT the Jews in Israel, who are no longer subject to the jeopardy of the second death.  
The beast from the sea would have been judged also at the Sheep and Goat, or at least concurrently, not for what he did to the world, but for his blasphemous attacks on the people of God.  
This is a bit scary to think about.  This seems to tie so many things together, to solve so many seeming contradictions.  

Gog will devise "an evil scheme" to conquer and plunder the "land of un-walled villages".  To conquer a people who dwell in peace and make no preparations for war.  They don't even have bars or gates.  

2022 - It says "thoughts will come into your head".  This whole thing will be irrational and crazy in light of the events of t/gt and the following thousand years.  This is orchestrated toward God's pre-written ending of everything.

Beginning in vs 14, this prophecy is addressed to Gog:
14 "Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely, will you not know it? 15 You will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great host, a mighty army. 16 You will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. [Eze 38:14-16 ESV]  Gog will be used to demonstrate not his own greatness and power, but to show the holiness of God.  (2020-Just had an interesting thought...maybe this army coming on horseback is literal.  Maybe Trib and Great Trib have so thoroughly devastated the planet - except for Israel - that people are back to living in the iron age or bronze age or some near equivalent.  Maybe cell phones are long gone, as is Petroleum to run the tanks and howitzers and nukes can no longer be maintained.  In Israel, they are raising crops on the now fertile land, and Israel has truly become the source of bread for the whole world. That's why all these world leaders come there to settle their disputes.  To do otherwise is to starve their own people.)

vss 17-23, the end of this chapter, say that when this army appears, God will fight the battle.  There will be a great earthquake, so that the whole earth fears.  The army of Gog will fight within itself.  They will kill each other.  There will be pestilence, torrential rain, hailstones, and sulfur.  God will turn the earth itself against this army.  They will be destroyed, and all will know that God is the Lord.
2022 - This seems to be adding detail to what we see in Revelation;  9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, [Rev 20:9 ESV]

2024 - After the next 2024.  The Chapter 39 notes are pretty well worked out.  This is the pre- or at-Millennial battle.  This is not the very end.
2024 - The 2022 note above would make this passage about the battle at the end of the Millennial, after the Jews have had peace for a thousand years.  This "prince" that will raise an army to attack Zion will have been waiting...and God will "pull" him to raise an army of all those remaining on the earth that oppose him, and muster them to attack, and they will all be wiped out by fire, earthquake, and by the earth itself attacking them.  
The other way we might look at this is at Armageddon.  Christ has come and assumed his throne on earth, and Satan, not yet bound, will try to throw Jesus off the throne.  Surely his forces at this time - as opposed to post-Millennial - will be massive.  The implication is that Jesus will be back on earth and have time to gather the Jews to himself and begin his kingdom before this attack from the north begins.  We would see that the defeat of this army is what makes 1000 years of peace and tranquility possible.  
I don't know which is right...But I bet we could figure it out with a comparison to Revelation.  Get the details of Armageddon, then get the few details of the final battle, and compare and contrast each with this account in Ezekiel.

I note also that Ezekiel keeps referring to the chief prince.   We ought to consider that this might refer to a dominion, one of the seven dominions.  Or not...because what spiritual demon could be in charge of this dominion?  The seven were removed from power BEFORE the Millennial started.  That sort of forces this to be a man, not a spirit.  It also seems more likely that God would bring a man against Israel, for why would a demon need any urging for that?  So God turns the King of Gog as He would turn a stream, and brings him in to complete the history of mankind.

Chapter 39
Another prophecy, or a repetition of a sort of things said in 38.  God repeats that He is against Gog.  This verse:
2 And I will turn you about and drive you forward, and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the mountains of Israel. [Eze 39:2 ESV]  This shows that though Gog is "leading", it will be God that is determining the course of events.  Gog is kidding himself that he is acting on his own will.  God will send fire, on Gog and those with him, and on those who dwell securely in the coast lands.  Other nations around Israel, maybe, who are protected by their proximity, though they are not following God?  He will know their hearts, and destroy them with the invading army.
Those of Israel will go out and plunder the dead.  They will use spears and weapons as fuel for 7 years there will be so many dead.  It will take this long to clean up the bodies.  They will all be buried in a place called Hamon-Gog.  It gets confusing for me here.  Now it is saying this is Armageddon, and that it will start at the end of the tribulation - the burial and clean up will start then - and that it will extend into the beginning of the Millennial reign.  I though earlier it was indicating that this happens at the END of the Millennial.  The last battle.    Seven years of fuel, seven months to bury the dead.  (2020-The verses strike me this year as the battle at the end of Great Trib, before the Millennial begins.  Last year, I though this battle was after the Millennial.  So...hmm....)
It goes on to say that the birds and beasts will be drunk with the blood of the dead.  Israel will see that God is holy, and will understand that His punishment of them was justified and necessary, and that now, He is bringing them to the land.  It will be forever this time.  ALL the Jews will be brought home.  None will be left out.  This summary verse, the last verse of this chapter:
29 And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 39:29 ESV]
This sounds like the Millennial.
I need to spend some more time on these two chapters - 38 and 39 - and read someone besides MSB...though I need to go back and read ALL the MSB notes.  I will also want to see what Ironside says about these chapters.  Hopefully, there will be time to do this today and I can supplement these notes.  This prophecy is so specific in its details of this battle that I have to believe it can be tied right into Revelation, as an expansion of the information there.  Like a map folding out.

*****
A little later in the day 11/4/19.  Looking at Ironside's book on Ezekiel, he holds that Chapters 38 and 39 are all one prophecy of "a vast confederation of nations from north of the Black and Caspian Seas, extending down to Persia on the east, and to North Africa on the southwest...."  This will take place in the latter days.  Ironside pins it down to the time toward the end of the great tribulation.  So the church will be long gone, Antichrist will be in power, and recognized by all, the covenant he makes  with Israel will have been broken.  This fits with John MacArthur's position in the MacArthur Study Bible (MSB)  that this battle will take place before, but very near the time when the Millennial Kingdom will be established by Jesus, possibly as a direct consequence of this great battle.  The "clean up" described in Chapter 39 will therefore run into the Millennial itself.  Ironside goes on to identify Rosh, Meshech and Tubal as Russia, all named in Eze 38:2.  MSB disagrees on this part, saying that perhaps some of southern Russia is involved, but primarily Turkey.  And remember, no matter who you listen to, the army will come from all around Israel, not just the north.  This interpretation says the battle in Eze 38 is the same one described in Rev 19:17-21.  Here, it tells the birds and beasts to get ready for a feast.  That army is defeated by the rider on the white horse, named "The Word of God".  This is Jesus coming at the head of his own army to establish the Millennial Kingdom.  Neither Gog nor Magog is named.  The combatants will be "the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled".  So some of the language of Eze 38 is found in 19, at the pre-millennial battle.  Gog and Magog are in chapter 20, at the post-millennial battle.

The other battle it could refer to is in Rev 20.  Gog and Magog are spoken of directly in Rev 20.  This battle is at the end of the Millennial, and is led by Satan himself.  Satan is imprisoned in the bottomless pit with the Beast and the Antichrist during the Millennial but is released at the end.  Once released, he raises an army - Gog and Magog - and attacks Jerusalem one last time.  He is defeated.  After this battle comes the White Throne Judgement.  This is the second death.  So...if all who just died in the battle are immediately resurrected for the White Throne Judgement, there'd be no need of a clean up.  Since both 19 and 20 reference the kings of the earth, we can include Gog and Magog in both, whether specifically mentioned or not.  Both battles will be the whole world against Christ.  

I think this battle will be used to put an end to those born during the Millennial who are not saved, who still rebel against God and His Kingdom in Israel, and following the Battle,  comes the second resurrection and the second death.  This interpretation depends almost entirely on the phrase "Gog and Magog" being used in Rev 20, but not in Rev 19.  In any case, there are two different battles, one in 19 and one in 20 of Revelation.  

These notes from reading Isaiah 9 on 11/25/21:
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [Isa 9:6 ESV]
In vs 7 is the phrase "...from this time forth and forevermore...".  So this is all the way  out to the new Jerusalem, this is post-Millennial I think...but maybe not.  Jesus' reign begins during Tribulation, and he is never unseated.
2021 - It seems definitely about one of those last two battles.  This is second advent stuff, and that probably makes this the end of Great Tribulation.  So this places this prophecy, and Ezekiel 39.  

2022 - If though, the defeat of this army wipes out all the lost remaining on earth, why, instead of going immediately to the GWT, do we have seven months of gathering and burying the bodes, of birds and beasts feasting on bodies and so on.  If for seven months they are all to be buried, then how long after that are ALL the dead resurrected to stand before the GWT?  How does that all work?  AHHH!!!!  Reading my own notes indicates that this battle is pre-Millennial and not the last battle.
I am too worn out to tackle it.  Many things fit well together if this is the post-Millennial battle...but different ends are left loose - like that 7 months of burying.  Might indeed be better to interpret this as the battle that occurs upon Christ's second coming.  But that leaves us once again with many questions as to where that final army post-millennial comes from
There's just a whole lot of stuff in the Bible, and it takes a lot of time even to begin assimilating it all.

2024 - So after reading all this today, I want to summarize what I'm thinking.  The Valley of Dry Bones tells us that Israel is to be restored.  This may well include the resurrection of the Jews who died from Ezekiel's time until the day of Dry Bones.   I think this will happen during tgt - but I can't say exactly where in there.  My best guess is that it will begin just after the rapture.  So the Jews will come home.  Then, as they are getting established, and as tgt ends, Christ will appear for the second time, descend to earth, and sit on the throne of David in Zion, and all the Jews, on all the planet, and perhaps from all time, will gather there in the land.  Satan, the beast, through the MoL, has had his way for some time, and when Christ appears, will seize it as a chance to confront him directly and depose him.  This will not go well for the beast.  Millions of dead will be food for the birds and beasts during the seven months it takes to bury the bodies of those slain.  This time period likely overlaps into the Millennial.  I think this makes pretty good sense of these three chapters. 

Chapter 40

(((2024 Note - added after reading through 44.  There is a 2024 note at the end of Chapter 43 that I think is a good "working theory" on what these chapters are all about.  I get that it is a very dispensational approach to the problem.  But it makes very good sense to me.  It is worth going and reading that note before plunging into Chapter 40.)))

2022 - In these notes, I had not previously even tried to separate the chapters, but treated all three as sort of a whole.  This year, I put the numbers in, but they should be taken as approximate divisions.

Time stamped in the 25th year of exile.  Also stamped the 14th year, 10th day after the city was struck down.  Interesting that God does not seem to make a big deal of anniversaries and such.  He speaks when it suits Him, in the 14th year, not a nice round 15th, and not on the first day of the month, or on 14 14 so you can remember.  God speaks in His own good time.  Could be any time.  Don't build expectations of God speaking on the days that you think He should, or days you expect to hear from Him.  Listen, always, every day.  Good for FB.

Ezekiel is taken to the city. Then we find he was on a high mountain in Israel and could see a structure like a city to the south.  It does not say this is Jerusalem, nor Mt. Zion.  Technically, it doesn't say city.  Something like a city, resembling a city.  MSB says it could have been the new temple specifically and a city generally.  Fact is, this is not at all specific as to location, and so far we don't know what Ezekiel is really seeing.  Recall that chapters 37-39 were all about restoration.  About the dry bones, the twigs, and then about Gog and Magog.  So if this new vision is chronologically attached to those, this structure would be found in the Millennial Kingdom, on earth.  It says he was brought to "the city" in ESV, but footnote says literally it wold be translated "brought me there".  
2022 - Ezekiel says he was on a very high mountain.  Well...generally speaking, there are no "very high" mountains anywhere in Israel.  So I think that means that whatever he is seeing is vision.  Vision representative to some extent of reality.  Perhaps the location is vision, but the precise measurements are precise measurements.

There, Ezekiel meets a man, appearing like bronze, with a measuring reed.  He is standing in a gateway of some sort.  He tells Ezekiel to pay attention, because Ezekiel has been brought there to be shown some things.  Ezekiel is to tell all Israel what he has seen here.  Note that it is the man that Ezekiel meets who does the measuring.  Ezekiel isn't given a yardstick.  In Rev. 11, John is given a rod and told to do the measuring himself.

And then the description begins.  

First thing Ezekiel sees is a wall around the temple area.  So still no mention of a city there at all.  It is a temple area, with a wall around it.  The measuring reed is not described as 6 long cubits, each a cubit and a hand breath.  MSB says that's 21" x 6.  10' 6".  MSB has many details. I prefer from here on to read it myself and put down my own words.  The wall is 1 reed high, 1 wide.  So a 10' fall 10' thick.  Probably looked really solid.  Many measurements of gates, vestibules, side rooms and jambs.  I cannot picture these.  I don't know how we can even be sure of what each term refers to.  I do note that it was the bronze appearing man who does the measuring.  Ezekiel wasn't given the yardstick.  In Revelation, I believe John does his own measuring.  I don't see how anyone reading this description would have any real clue as to what the area and building described might look like.  The measurements have switched over to cubits rather than reeds also.  I presume that is a correct translation.  

I think the major divisions are pretty clear, and are used as labels to break up this long chapter.  Labels like East Gate, outer court, North gate, and so on.  

(Ignore all this.  Not going to try and figure this out myself.  There is a diagram in the notes on 46-48 to look at.  There is also a diagram in MSB.  The two are quite similar, but they are not exactly alike.  The outer wall is a square, and the inner structure is offset toward the west wall.  Maybe attached.  Look at the diagram, not at my notes.)
These gates are in that outer wall, 10' high and thick.  Inside that though is another area.  The Holy place and Most Holy place would be a good guess as to the inner structure.  From the gates to the inner structure there seem to be steps/stairs leading up.  The inner structure is elevated.  Can't tell if the steps are as you go through the gate, so the inner area around the inner structure is all raised, or it is just that inner structure.  No idea what the vestibules are.  Nor the jambs.



This is from JW.org



From Warren County Free Methodist Church



From Philadelphia Church of God.


From "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ"

Obviously, there are many possible interpretations of this vision.  All are alike in the primary dimensions, but as to how it really looks...
One interesting thing to me...Note how they all form a cross with it's base at the south gate, the cross piece from east to west and centered on the altar, and the top at the Holy of Holies.  Did Solomon's Temple also look like this?  Or have we "seen in hindsight what was never really there?"  Doesn't seem to be in the renderings I found.

2022 - In the description of the inner court, in 40:28-43, it is obvious that this place is going to make animal sacrifices on a large scale.  Two basins to wash them, two tables to slaughter the animals...no, there are eight tables on which to slaughter.  There are hooks...perhaps to hang the slaughtered until their time to be offered on the altar.  This is set up for efficient processing of burnt offerings of animals.

Chapter 41
2022 - This verse:
4 And he measured the length of the room, twenty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits, across the nave. And he said to me, "This is the Most Holy Place." [Eze 41:4 ESV]
They are inside the Most Holy Place, where previously ONLY the High Priest could go.  There is no longer a veil there in this vision, and Ezekiel - NOT a priest - is allowed to see inside.

Chapter 42
The measurements continue until 42:13.  Beginning there, the "man" speaks to Ezekiel, and tells him something of how things are to be done respecting the holy chambers on the north and south.  Only the priests that approach the Lord are allowed there.  The clothes they wear in there are also holy, and they must lay them aside before going out to the people.  
There is a very large outer area around this temple area that is 500 cubits square.  A large court perhaps, where people can gather.  But still, it is only the priests who go into the inner sanctuary and offer sacrifices.  
(The man also explains in 41:22 that "This is the table that is before the Lord".

Since the Millennial is  the fulfillment of all God's promises to the Jews, and since they will have hearts to worship Him, we could look at this as the covenant between God and Israel performed in reality as it was meant to be performed at from Sinai on.  Maybe the people never really did that right (in fact we know they broke that covenant almost from the second it was made).  If the Millennial is God's specific performance of His part of the covenant, then surely it is not unusual to expect the Jews at last to also perform their part of the covenant in heart and soul and sacrifice to the Living, present God.

So this finally makes sense to me as to why it should be there, and why they would still offer sacrifices.  It looks back at the covenant agreed upon.  Jesus will be King at this time, and they will know who He is, that He is Messiah.  There will be no confusion as to why these sacrifices are being made.  

But...where is this temple, and who builds it?

2020 - The dimensions of Solomon's Temple were given to David in great detail.  David passed them on to Solomon, who built the temple according to those instructions.  God commissioned the building of that first temple, in all its details.  Nehemiah rebuilt that temple.  They didn't raze it all to the ground and start from scratch, but instead, rebuilt Solomon's Temple.  Somewhere along the line, there was Herod's temple.  I have always assumed that Herod's temple was also built according to those original instructions to David.  It was a remodel perhaps, but it was not a "new" temple.  At least I don't think so.  In 70 AD not one stone was left upon another.  Solomon's temple was completely destroyed.  So now we have Ezekiel's temple.  Note that there are no instructions on how to build it.  There is no veil.  There is no ark.  Since it does not say "build it like this", but instead says measure what has been built, then we might say that man conceived this design.  A very learned man familiar with the original temple.  In Revelation 11, John is given a rod to measure the Temple of God.  Ezekiel isn't told to measure, but to observe and report the measurements.  This verse:
4 And the man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you, for you were brought here in order that I might show it to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel." [Eze 40:4 ESV]  Measurements are given in great detail.
Compare to this verse:
1 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, "Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. [Rev 11:1-2 ESV]  But no measurements are given.  This happens during the sixth trumpet, and is done just before we are told about the two witnesses.  So this temple is on earth, before the Millennial.  And John is told to measure it.  
And then this one:
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. ... 15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. [Rev 21:10-11, 15-17 ESV]  So this city, measured by an angel and recorded by a man, comes down pre-built from heaven.  Note that there is a great high mountain, as in Ezekiel's vision.  Perhaps it was given to Ezekiel to see the temple of God that will descend from heaven, and it was given to John to see the city itself.
So...The temple that Ezekiel saw was not a temple for him to build, and the temple and the New Jerusalem that John saw were not for him to build.  An "angel" measured Ezekiel's temple, and an angel measured the New Jerusalem come down from heaven.  But John himself measured the Temple of God in Revelation.  
There is nothing in the Bible "by chance".  I think there is meaning in the similarities and differences in the way these things are measured.  One possible interpretation is that angels measure what God has made.  Men measure what man has made.  If so, then Ezekiel saw a temple made in heaven and come down, as John saw the Jerusalem made in heaven.  And the temple John measured is a man made temple on earth, that is present during the Tribulation period during the 6th trumpet.  This is way past the seals.

There have to be shelves and shelves of books written by very smart people and addressing the possible interpretations of this temple.  Need to see if I can find that Ironside book and see what it says about all this.

Chapter 43
They go to the East Gate.  The glory of the God of Israel was coming.  And the whole earth shone.  Ezekiel recognizes this because he'd seen the same "glory" twice before in 9:3-11, and 1:3-28.  Again, Ezekiel falls to the ground.  So he sees God coming - as a vision, not directly.  He never calls what he sees "God", but "the glory of God".  This had filled the tabernacle in Moses' time, and had filled Solomon's Temple.  I think it had filled the Temple again in another time...Hezekiah perhaps?  I don't think it filled Zerubabbel's version, and I don't think it filled Herod's.  But from previous visions and manifestations, Ezekiel had no trouble recognizing it.  I need to find out how many times this has happened.  (Found these:  Ex 16:10, the glory of the Lord appears in the cloud, and following, the glory dwells on Sinai, and Moses goes up into it.,  Next is Ex 40:34, when the Tabernacle is finished, the glory of the Lord fills the Tabernacle and none can enter.  Then 2Chr7:1 - this is the dedication of Solomon's Temple when the Ark of the Covenant was taken inside, and here, in Eze43:5, in a vision of the future temple.  I don't find any others.)
To know when this happens one has to decide what temple this is, when this temple is.  God has filled temples on earth previously, as detailed above.  So this could be the Millennial temple.  But my current understanding seems to be that this is the temple in the New Jerusalem, that comes down after the old heaven and earth pass away and all things become new.  This temple an angel measured, so this temple is made by God, and we don't see that until post-Millennial.  At least that is where I am in 2020.  This means I need to give up all those ideas about this temple being built by Antichrist during the Tribulation period and part of his bargain with the Jews to bring peace to the whole world, and bring the Jews home from where they are scattered.  But...I like that too...but I think it requires that the temple Antichrist builds would be on a different hill.


This verse:
7 and he said to me, "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoring and by the dead bodies of their kings at their high places,
9 Now let them put away their whoring and the dead bodies of their kings far from me, and I will dwell in their midst forever. [Eze 43:7, 9 ESV]
God says He will dwell there forever.  If this is the Millennial Temple, (2020 - "And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name..." is only going to be true from the Millennial on.  It has never yet been true.  This temple, and this occupancy of the temple by God, is in the Millennial, though the temple will already be built at that time.) it will pass away and be replaced by the new Jerusalem, and by the Temple from heaven.  So if forever, this would have to be the heavenly Temple.  But then in vs 9, we see that God's dwelling here is a conditional covenant.  Sin is still possible (which it is in the Millennial, but not in the New Heaven and New Earth) if they can rebel and turn to whoring and dead bodies of kings.  So that would not be "forever".  MSB comments on 7 that human, unressurrected people will worship at this actual, physical temple.  MSB note on 8, 9 say the future temple will be protected from harlotry and dead kings.  (First I've seen this phrase mentioned as a great sin.  MSB says Israel had allowed the defiling tombs of kings into the temple area.  MSB note is NOT about kings tombs.)  Vss 11, 12 also seem to constitute a covenant centered on this temple:

11 And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple, its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, that is, its whole design; and make known to them as well all its statutes and its whole design and all its laws, and write it down in their sight, so that they may observe all its laws and all its statutes and carry them out. 12 This is the law of the temple: the whole territory on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple. [Eze 43:11-12 ESV]
vs 11 requires repentance.  Later, the verse requires observance of temple laws and statutes.  It requires performance.  vs 12 says this Temple is on a mountain top.  And the whole thing is "most holy".  Not just anyone could go in there I would think.

Seems to me that we are back to the idea that this Temple is restoration, as promised after the destruction of first Israel and then Judah and Jerusalem.  Worship, as it should have been, will finally take place in this Temple.  There will be sacrifices, performed as they should have been, with hearts set on worship.  With the right attitude.  The whole area will worship as God requires.  This is the fruition of God's promises to the nation of Israel.  It is not about Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.  I believe this is about the covenant at Sinai, and the promise the people made to God and the promises He made to them.  This is where that national timeline is fulfilled.  After the Millennial, after that final battle with Satan, after he is thrown in the pit forever, the non-conditional covenant with Abraham will be fulfilled?

2020-It says this temple is about the whole territory on the top of the mountain.  It does NOT say Mt. Zion.  It does not name the mountain, as it did not name the city when Ezekiel was first transported there.  This too could be an indication that this temple is not in Jerusalem at all.  Not sure where all that stuff about location was, but isn't there a whole deal about how this temple is too big to fit in Jerusalem as we know it?  Or is it that the divisions of the land among the tribes won't fit?  And that shows the Prince's area and the temple.  Need to xref all this and see what goes together.  This would be an awesome project.  If I start trying to put all these things together then I will be able to identify what does not fit, and maybe figure out just what this is really about.  It has to all fit somewhere.  What I need to try and do is figure out which pieces belong in Ezekiel's time, which in Tribulation, which in the Millennial, and which are post-Millennial and/or post re-creation.


In vs 13, we get the measurements of the altar.  
(2020-Now wait a second here...look how this is phrased:
13 "These are the measurements of the altar by cubits (the cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth): its base shall be one cubit high and one cubit broad, with a rim of one span around its edge. And this shall be the height of the altar: [Eze 43:13 ESV]  This is phrased in an instructional way as opposed to a reported way.  One might read into this that while Ezekiel is seeing the temple "as built", the measurements are being taken down and reported so it "can be" built.  Refer back to vs 11...11 And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple, its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, that is, its whole design; and make known to them as well all its statutes and its whole design and all its laws, and write it down in their sight, so that they may observe all its laws and all its statutes and carry them out. [Eze 43:11 ESV]  Sure seems like these measurements, though taken by an angel, are for the express purpose of instructing someone in how to build this temple.  On this unnamed mountain near this unnamed city.  Wow.  I had not noticed this nuance when I read this the first four times!  The measurements are given so the Temple CAN BE built by man in the future.)

2022 - I believe this temple, wherever it is, is yet to be constructed.  God will fill this temple, as he did the tent of meeting and Solomon's Temple.  It may be that it gets build at the beginning of the Millennial, after God has defeated the opposition - Gog and Magog I think at this point - and judged the sheep and the goats.  First order of business may be to build this temple and carry out sacrifices and worship as it was always intended.  If that is so, we don't need a rebuilt temple PRIOR to the second coming, as we so often seem to think.  The landscape - physically - may look a whole lot different when t/gt is over, and the battle is over, and it takes 7 months to bury the dead.  That is likely enough time also to build a temple.  That is why it does not matter what the planet looks like now, God will re-arrange it to accommodate this design in the place where he wants the temple built.  Jesus himself may point to the spot and say "build it there".
It seems my "theory" of what and where this temple is changes every time I read through the Bible.  And each time, I like my latest theory better than those previous.  I think this is because the more you no, the more connections of which you are aware, the more refined the theory can be.  So much has opened up as a result of the judgment study.  
So I'm conjecturing here that Jesus will appear and send the armies of Satan packing.  He will judge the Jews who have come home to Israel, and he will keep only those who have shown themselves faithful.  These only will be citizens of the Millennial Israel.  These will construct the Millennial Temple, and since Jesus will be there to identify the Levites and the Aaronic priests, no human records of proof will be needed.  Temple worship and sacrifices will resume and continue for a thousand years.  This too, though, is a conditional arrangement.  Faithfulness is still required.

Then, beginning in vs 19 we find Levitical priests, descended from Zadok, appointed to minister.  First thing they do is begin purifying this new altar.  
2020 - Again this is instruction for the future purification of this altar.  It is not yet built, it is being measured by an angel, and Ezekiel is recording the instruction in how to build and the instruction in how to dedicate it.  

There is sin offering - like the annual sin offering of old - where the blood of a bull is sprinkled on the altar and then the bull taken outside the camp and burned.  For seven days, blood is shed, from bulls, goats, and rams.  At the end of this purification, then sacrifices made on this altar will be accepted.  The way it is worded is that "I will accept you".  This is difficult.  This is re-institution of the blood of bulls and goats that can never atone for sin, and so must be repeated.  How can we understand this?  Is all that's happened during the Age of the Gentiles irrelevant to this covenant with the nation of Israel?  Doesn't seem right.  That makes the cross of no effect for them.  Surely he died for them also.  If this is the Millennial, Christ will be right there, having paid for all these sins.  Did Christ die for all sins up to and including the establishment of the Millennial Kingdom, and then sacrifices are re-instituted for sins committed in that kingdom?  And how will these sins be finally purged if this is the case?

2024 - I note this verse:
24 You shall present them before the LORD, and the priests shall sprinkle salt on them and offer them up as a burnt offering to the LORD. [Eze 43:24 ESV].  This is again a covenant of salt, which we have seen other places and which I would really like to understand...but it may be too old.

2024 - This is the purification process of the temple prequel to making sacrifices to God.  To get a better handle on them, we would need to go back and see how the Tent of Meeting was cleansed and purified when it was put into service by Aaron.  I would particularly note anything missing here in Ezekiel that was present at the first.  Also, see what the procedures were when Solomon's Temple was opened.  To me, the specifics of the Tent and Solomon's Temple should be identical.  But these in Ezekiel should be different.  If they are NOT any different, then somehow, this Temple is also before Christ.  And maybe I'm already kidding myself that it is NOT before Christ, because it clearly says in vs 20 that blood is used for purifying and atonement.  There's a sin offering to be taken outside the camp.  Then there is a burnt offering in vs 24.  However...after the purification and atonement of the Temple furniture, beginning in vs 27, only burnt offerings and peace offerings are made and accepted.  These do not atone for sin.  These are not "repentance" offerings, these are relationship offerings.  Perhaps even punishment offerings.  But they do not seek atonement.  I notice also that the sons of Zadok have no purification ritual here before they can offer the sacrifices.  The priests don't have to be consecrated, as were Aaron and his sons, because they are no longer "between" God and man.  There was no veil in the Holy of Holies either.  Ok...I've convinced myself once again that this is a future temple.  The sacrifices here will connect the Jews of the Millennial with the Jews of the wandering.  They will connect ritual with ritual.  The old way foretold Christ, the new way remembers him.  

2020-God divorced Israel.  He can never "marry" her again.  The church is now his future bride.  So Israel is outside the "betrothal".  Perhaps this means Israel is NOT part of the New Covenant at all, but is still subject to the Mosaic Law - the Old Covenant.  For this reason then, Christ's sacrifice on the cross does not apply to them.  At least not yet.  Not during the time of this temple - and by the way, I am back to believing this temple will be built during Trib and Great Trib, though by returning Jews, not by Antichrist.  God's own people, now with hearts for Him as they always should have had, will build and dedicate this temple, and for that reason - to show absolutely that this is God's working - smoke will again fill the temple.  But the obvious question...Isn't re-instituting the Mosaic law a re-marriage, at least of sorts?

Ezekiel presents many many difficulties...

2024 - Well...in 43:27 the priest of Zadok who is made unclean by being near a dead body from his family must offer a sin offering.  The only other reason I can find for this is that these priests are unresurrected.  They still carry Adam's seed in themselves.  But if you do that, you still have shedding of blood to take away sin, and Jesus' own blood is not accounted to them at all.  That's what you have here.  

2024 - Think of the implications...Jesus's shed blood is the blood that takes away sin in the age of the Gentiles - in the church age.  Once the church is gone, we are back to the Old Covenant.  It is that covenant that the Jews must accurately keep so that God's conditional promises to them - to be their God and they his people - can be honored as the two-way contract it always was.  They must keep the commandments, statutes, and judgments, and he will give them the land.  Ultimately, as it relates to eternity, the blood of Jesus will cleanse them.  So the sacrifices are not really about cleansing at this time, but about honoring the Sinai Covenant.  They have to comply or he will not live among them.  We saw that in the desert when Moses would go to the tent outside the camp to talk with God.  This is pushing this to be a post-rapture until post-Millennial Temple.  After that, all will be changed - all previously unchanged - then the GWT, and then the new heaven, new earth, and heavenly temple coming down.  Stopping right there...because for now, that actually seems to work.

Chapter 44
Now, to start this chapter, it gets even more confusing.  Ezekiel is taken to the east gate, which has been shut.  Since God entered by this gate, it is shut and remains shut.  However, in vs 3, the prince can sit there in that area (the vestibule?) and eat before the Lord.  MSB note says this prince is not Jesus.  He does not say where Jesus is at this time.  But this prince, mentioned some 14 times in Chapters 44-47, is not Jesus.  Then MSB speculates on who he is and what his duties are.  This is the only place this prince is mentioned, so far as I know.  There is nothing like this in Revelation.  In vs 4-8, the glory of God is still in the temple, as viewed this time from the front of the temple.  God again lists Israel's abominations against him, including letting unclean, uncircumcised in body or heart, enter into the temple area.  In doing so, they broke covenant with God, and profaned the temple, with these foreigners.  They have also not taken care of the things of the temple dedicated to God.  They have done this wrong in the past, and it is to be corrected.  This is sounding like instruction for proper worship on the return from exile.  Which would make the prince whomever is ruling the returning exiles.  But this does not fit with "all the scattered", which would include Israel, being brought back.  
I just cannot make anything fit.  Continue reading.  Continue studying.  It will be clearer each time, and completely understood when it happens.
Through vs 14, God says the Levites must bear their punishment for leading Israel astray with their idols.  Somehow, they are to do all the ministering and sacrificing, but not actually come near God.  Perhaps this assigns all the menial work of the temple to Levites NOT descended from Zadok?  
Could be, since vs 15 starts this way:
15 "But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me. And they shall stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the Lord GOD. [Eze 44:15 ESV]  This reads as if the descendants of Zadok, whom God has kept true to Himself through all the history of Israel, will be the only ones who perform sacrificial duties.  Is there a clue to what these sacrifices are about in the story of Zadok and his descendants?  A good study.

Many rules, very similar to, if not exactly like, the original rules for Levites are renewed.  Must marry virgins only - so they will marry and presumably have children - they can't go near dead bodies, they are required to teach the people the difference between clean and unclean.  They must observe all the appointed feasts.  Just as in the days of Moses and Aaron, it seems.  I don't see how this can be the Millennial Kingdom.  It also cannot be heaven, or the new Jerusalem.  (2020-Right.  It just about has to be Trib and Great Trib).  I don't know what, or when this was all to take place.  But I just cannot see a way to fit it into the post tribulation time with all these rules.  I am back to thinking this vision was of a Temple offered at Jesus' first appearing, had he been accepted then.  If he had, there would not have been a crucifixion.  He would not have died.  So sacrifices would have to have continued, until whenever that ultimate sacrifice was made for all...or Jesus might not even have had to die, as God said in 43 that He would stay there forever, and accept these offerings.  If this is the case, it is no wonder at all that God's punishment of those who reject Christ is so severe.  He needn't have died...I hope this speculation is not blasphemous.  I am thinking this was a temple that could have been, but never was, and never will be.  It doesn't have to "fit".  It seems also to be for the exclusive use of the Jews.  Therefore, it would need to come before the Age of the Gentiles began, or we have to redefine exactly when that Age started.  In this scenario, it would have to start at the death of Christ. (2020-You know, these all seem like valid avenues to explore.  Valid possibilities.  A temple that never was and never will be, because the Jews rejected it.  A temple for Trib and Great trib so the covenant with Israel - separate from any other covenant - can finally be realized.  Or the New Temple, not made by human hands that has come down from heaven.  These three are all worth exploring and that whole "what fits here and what does not" approach might distill down into a pretty solid interpretation about this temple.

2022 - I may be getting out of order, but look at vs 9!
9 "Thus says the Lord GOD: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary. [Eze 44:9 ESV]
This temple is for the exclusive use of the Jews.  This covenant - the Millennial Covenant that is fulfillment of a previous covenant - Sinai?  Mosaic? - is exclusively between Christ and the Jews.  In ESV the connector is "and", but look here at the KJV:
9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that [is] among the children of Israel. [Eze 44:9 KJV]
Clearly an "or".  So.  If you are uncircumcised in flesh - that is, you are NOT a Jew, or not circumcised in heart, but you are AMONG the Jews.  Unsaved Gentiles,perhaps who have been circumcised, but unconverted.  
If this is what this means, then these living Gentiles were not judged at the Sheep and Goat!  Had they been judged and found unsaved, they would have been sent to the pit!  So these bypassed that judgment...BECAUSE they are not Jews!  ONLY Jews are judged at the Sheep and Goat judgment!
(or...one might argue that it just means no Gentiles or unsaved will be allowed to serve as priests in this temple.  But you still have to account for them being there.)
2024 - This is post rapture.  All the saved Gentiles are gone.  Those saved since are likely uncircumcised.  FURTHER, this clearly says that circumcision is back on the table!  You must have that sign in the flesh that you are a child of Abraham in order to enter this Temple.  There is no way to read that other than to say the Mosaic Law is back in full force and effect at this time, in this Temple.

2022 - Oh my!  This is quite interesting.  How did I never realize this?
17 And it shall come to pass, [that] when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. [Eze 44:17 KJV]
Why?  Linen is made from the fibers of the flax plant.  It does not come from an animal.
Wool, of course, is made from the hair of various kinds of sheep.
Aaron's clothing, back in Exodus, had to be linen.  
One minor reference in MSB note on vs 17 says that the wool would make the priests sweat, and sweat would be unclean...Is that the only reason?  Well...it is certainly the reason, all you have to do is read the next verse:
18 They shall have linen turbans on their heads, and linen undergarments around their waists. They shall not bind themselves with anything that causes sweat. [Eze 44:18 ESV]
Am I the only one who didn't know?

Chapter 45
ESV titles this section "The Holy District".
Land is set aside for the temple, for the ministering priests, and for the punished Levites.  They will live near the temple.  I wonder if some were on each side, such that foreigners could be prevented from entering that Holy section in the middle?  Then some land is assigned to the prince.  Again, this wouldn't seem to be about Christ, because he isn't going to need physical property on earth.  
2022 - What if we interpret "prince" and "princes" here to mean the angels whom God has used to exert his will, the blindness and deafness, the punishments and oppressions of Israel through the Millennia?  What if these are angels that are assigned this area.  Haven't we seen that they will come back with Christ, and possibly/probably remain on earth with him, serving him on earth as they did in heaven?  Won't they need somewhere to reside?  Won't they be about as effective as can be imagined as a barrier between those to whom access is prohibited and the new Holy of Holies?  Maybe this is how we are to understand this prince, rather than as a human counterpart to Christ the King?  Perhaps Michael, now that the beast he has spent eternity fighting is gone, will assume this position?

This verse:
9 "Thus says the Lord GOD: Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease your evictions of my people, declares the Lord GOD. [Eze 45:9 ESV]  There is no way Jesus would need these instructions.  There is therefore no way this prince is Jesus.  Jesus is not here.  This is not the Millennial Kingdom.  It was a vision, and the covenant that it required was conditional upon the returning exiles.  But they did not learn.  They did not repent.  Their worship was not true and from their hearts.  This never happened, and never will happen.
2022 - See 2022 note above.  This order certainly tends toward the interpretation of prince as angel.  Whom has God used to scatter the Jews to the nations?  Has to be angels!
Well....look at Chapter 46 though.  Why would God be using angels as priests?  That is what this interpretation requires.  Does not seem likely.  Whom exactly, though, did God say WOULD be offering the sacrifices?  Didn't he specifically exclude the Levites?  And the Aaronic is never mentioned is it?  Nope...that line falls also.  The Sons of Zadok, who are a subset of the Levitical priests, are allowed to come near and offer the sacrifices.  Hard to justify putting an angelic priest over them.  Totally wrong there, I believe.  Further - vs 46:16 says the prince can make a gift of inheritance to his sons.  This prince is certainly not an angel.  They don't marry, they don't have sons.

Duties are required of this prince also.  The people are required to give offerings to this prince, and he will provide offerings for the feasts and observances throughout the year from those offerings.  

There has never been anything like this.  If this is about the Millennial, John said nothing of it in Revelation, and it requires a complete overhaul of that book to have any understanding of what the Millennial will be.

2024 - Here it is again in this verse:
17 It shall be the prince's duty to furnish the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the feasts, the new moons, and the Sabbaths, all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel. [Eze 45:17 ESV].  This says the sacrifices are for making atonement.  This is the Law - the Old, not the New Covenant.  The prince...it seems as though prince and priest are combined in one  here.  But the injunction to put away violence and oppression back in vs 9 says it is not Jesus.  He would not need to be told that.  Who is this prince to whom offerings are given, and who then, from those offerings, supplies the Temple with sacrifices for atonement.  
2024 - Also, in the next chapter, 46:17-18, make it certain that the prince is a man, a human being, a person.  Else he would not die.

There is a worthwhile note in MSB for 45:18-25.  Turns out only three of the six Levitical Feasts will be celebrated in this temple - Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Booths or Tabernacles.  The three that won't be celebrated are Pentecost, Trumpets, and Atonement.  Quote "Most likely they are excluded because what they had looked forward to prophetically have been fulfilled and now serve no significant remembrance purpose such as Passover and Booths, or Tabernacles, will continue to provide.
So MSB is trying to make these sacrifices still legitimate despite the finished work of Christ and despite Hebrews saying Jesus sat down at God's right hand.  But...that was atonement...

The next note is on 45:18-20, atonement.  "The day of atonement is never mentioned, but God institutes a never-before-celebrated festival to start the "new year" with an emphasis on holiness in the temple...It indicates that there will be sin in the kingdom, committed by those who entered alive and their offspring."

45:21-24, "Passover and Unleavened Bread are combined as in the NT and focus on remembering God's deliverance of the nation from Egypt and Christ's death providing deliverance from sin. 

Chapter 46
Instructions concerning the sacrifices the prince would make on each Sabbath and on the new moons.  It tells where he was to enter, what was to be sacrificed, where he was to stand.  The gate he entered was to remain open until evening, but was closed the rest of the time.  Next, instructions for the people when they come for the appointed feasts.  They are to pass straight through - if they come in the north, they exit to the south and vice versa.  And the prince enters with them, and leaves with them.
In addition to these "set times", if the prince desires to make a free will peace offering or sin offering, that east gate to the inner area is to be opened for him, and then closed behind him when he leaves.  (From this direction, the altar would be right there in front of him as he enters, and the enclosure for the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies beyond it.  It would be an impressive sight, I'm sure.
A burnt offering is to be offered every single day, along with a grain offering, which includes wine to moisten it.  This burnt offering...I can't remember if the priests eat part of this or if the burnt offering is completely burnt.  It would seem to insure that the priests will have some meat and grain each day.  
2020-This Prince will have sons, and he will die apparently during the time this temple is in operation because we are given the rules about how and what his sons may inherit and what they may not.  It also talks about the year of liberty.  So this system will be in place, the honoring of sabbaths will be in place, and we must assume that the fallow years for the land will also be observed.  The re-institution of very much of Mosaic law seems to come back.  This again seems to point to Christ's death somehow not being applicable - at least until after this temple has served it's purpose - to Israel.  They still need to make sin offerings and guilt offerings, observe the feasts and the new moons...It is as if Christ's blood does not apply to them.  This seems so blasphemous, but also seems the only explanation for this temple.  Those passages in Isaiah and Jeremiah where God divorces Israel are very strong.  Perhaps a study of those wold shed light on this idea also.  They will return...but a divorced bride could not return, at least not if she knew another man in the mean time.  Israel has never fallen head over heels for another suitor.  After the captivity in Babylon, she has not worshiped idols nor any other Gods at all.  That was done with after the divorce.  So maybe that is how we see this.  Israel welcomed back as a returning wife, divorced because justice demanded it, not because the love was gone.

20 And he said to me, "This is the place where the priests shall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the grain offering, in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so transmit holiness to the people." [Eze 46:20 ESV]  This is the second time we've seen this admonition.  Don't wear the linen garments outside lest you transmit holiness to the people, and now don't bring these offerings out lest they transmit holiness.  Why this admonition?  Why is holiness to be hoarded by the priests and not shared with the people?  Because some of those people are Gentiles, and the age of Gentiles being past and Trib and Great Trib being aimed at earthly justice toward them, we don't want them getting "accidentally blessed"?  That doesn't make sense.
Then Ezekiel is shown a place well away from the "public" parts of the Temple, near the priests quarters, where the guilt offering would be boiled, and the  grain offering baked.  This was holy, and the holiness of it was to remain with the priests and with God, and not be "transmitted" to the people.  

2022 - So at this point, I have no opinion or theory as to whom this prince might be, where he came from, or what qualified for his position.  An earthly descendant of David besides Jesus?  Is it Jesus, and he is referred to as Prince...NO!!! Jesus won't have sons in the Millennial, he would need to be married!  No way!  So not Jesus.  A prince would be a son of David.  Some earthly representative to carry out the kingly duties.  Someone we don't know.  Someone never mentioned elsewhere in scripture.

Chapter 47
Ezekiel is shown a little "creek", which starts on the south side of the altar and then flows out the gate facing east.  This water was running out toward the east, though it originated south of the altar.  It "trickles out" of the east gate, on the south side.  So it is small, and it does not block the east gate.  I think this is the outer gate, and it was the inner east gate that was always shut...I think.  It seems that as this little trickle got further and further from the gate, going away, it got deeper and deeper, until it was too deep to cross.  
This river flows into the Dead Sea, and makes the sea fresh, and trees flourish on the banks of the river, and the river itself teems with life.  People will fish from this river and from the sea, and eat the fruit of the trees.  It will be good, and it will heal, because it originates in this Temple.  This prophecy says the Dead Sea will turn to fresh water, but the swamps and such that surround it will remain salty.  It says those fruit trees will bear fruit once a month.  I think this is also in Revelation about heaven.  Here is that verse:
2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. [Rev 22:2 ESV]  So in Revelation it is just this one tree, but in Ezekiel it is all the trees along the outside of this river.  Either not the same river, or not the same place along the river.  Does the river running out of the Temple that comes down from heaven run through the New Jerusalem?  And then on to the "new" Dead Sea?  Ezekiel is full of mysteries.

2022 - If it is only Jews who are allowed in Israel during the Millennial, then this food is also exclusively for them.  They will have fish and fruit in huge abundance.  There will be beef and lamb also, since those will be present for sacrifices, and not all will be perfect.  But these trees will not only have fruit, but their leaves will be medicinal, curative.  Perhaps this is why, in the Millennial Kingdom, people will live a very long time, and no children will die in infancy.  This will be true in Israel, but not in  the whole world.  Israel will be a land apart, the envy - including jealousy and hatred - of the whole world.  Perhaps this, too, is part of why the world will revolt against them at the end of the 1000 years.  Maybe this is to show that corrupt and sinful man, even when not stirred up, deceived, and tempted by Satan directly, will always choose the flesh over the spirit.  This is perhaps God's final proof that man belongs in hell, and cannot be made "good" except by God's grace.

Vs 13 begins with partitioning the land for the 12 tribes.  The overall outline of the land given to Israel is laid out.  

Chapter 48
Then each tribe, by name, is assigned an area within the outline laid out in 47.  6 tribes have their portions north of the middle, with Joseph receiving a double portion as Ephraim and Manasseh.  The Lord's portion is in the center, and contains the Temple area, and the prince's area, and the Levites are here - so 7.  Then there are five tribes to the south of the Temple area.

In the center area, a portion is also provided for the city.  To me, this implies that the Temple in the vision is not inside Jerusalem at all.  It is on another hill, outside the city.  No part of the city is in the allotment for the Temple area, which is surrounded by the area for the Zadokian priests.  The area provided for the city is 4500 cubits square.  That is 4500*21", or 7,875'.  Square.  Slightly under 1.5 miles square.  Not a really huge city.  How big is Jerusalem today?  But...the area outside this square, going east and west from the coast to the eastern border, is for common use - one of which uses is for dwellings.  So the central city - downtown if you will, is a mile and a half square.  Each wall of the city will have three gates, each named after a specific tribe of Israel.  My guess is they will be laid out as the plan of encampment was in the desert in Exodus.  
2020-These last verses are a description of the nearby city, not further description of the temple.  It describes gates, and gives the 12 gates names.  Jerusalem doesn't have this many gates.  And the gates of Jerusalem already have names.  This is sort of the final argument that the city is not Jerusalem of today, the mountain is not Zion, and the Temple is not a rebuilt temple but a new temple entirely.  The old temple was profoundly desecrated by the people of Israel with their paintings of animals, with the secret room they built to worship idols and with their sun worship.  The 70 AD temple was built by Herod, and I have always assumed it was on the same spot as the original, where the dome of the rock now stands.  One possible explanation of all this description in Ezekiel is that the Temple will be relocated to ground that has not been desecrated.  I kind of like the way this goes...

Then the last verse of the last chapter of Ezekiel:
35 The circumference of the city shall be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The LORD Is There." [Eze 48:35 ESV]  This would be Adonai Shamah, per the Jewish Study Bible.  This name is a far cry from Jerusalem, which means "In Awe of Peace" or "Teaching Peace".  A totally different name for a totally different place?

So...Isaiah, then Jeremiah and his Lamentations, and then Ezekiel.  All building, all talking about the fall of Israel and Judah, culmination with the fall of Jerusalem - or the "falls" of Jerusalem.  Ezekiel though goes much further into the future, and spends much time on the restoration.  However, these last 9 chapters of Ezekiel kind of "beat me to death".  It is difficult going through all those measurements.  Especially when you don't know what this Temple is about or when it might be, if ever.  Makes you glad to get to the end, after these huge books about Israel's history.

I think there might be some help in doing a study of the conditional covenant that God makes in Ezekiel.  This was in Chapter 43 - AFTER the description of the Temple was begun. 


First time, 11/7/18
More about the temple.  Sacrifices to be made every day.  Much about a Prince, but no mention of a king.  The land to be re-divided.  All 12 tribes represented, even the 10 taken by Assyria.

When is this temple to be?  Certainly the land was never divided this way so the temple would be still future.  If so, why the sacrifices?  Jesus paid for all so why are sacrifices needed?  (9/29/19 - Sacrificial system re-instituted by unsaved Jews, who are still waiting for Messiah?  If so, it is a false Temple.  God would not come and dwell in a false Temple.  This cannot be right.)

These are the last three chapters of Ezekiel and I am very confused about this temple.  The details of every aspect of it, the instructions to the priests about the sacrifices, about which door the prince is to use when he comes in...all these seem to demand a literal interpretation of the passage.  Yet how can a still future temple require animal sacrifices?

So I went to J. Sidlow Baxter.  He was no help really.  He says that the dimensions of the temple and its surroundings alone disqualify a literal interpretation, as there is not currently enough room between the Mediterranean and the Jordan to allow for a temple of this size.  Plus it is massively larger than present day Jerusalem - just the temple part - and the temple itself would not be in Jerusalem at all, nor on Zion, which contrasts seriously with all the other prophets who speak of a future Jerusalem.  (9/29/19, that great earthquake at the sixth seal could so re-arrange the planet as to make Israel large enough for this Temple.  Maybe...)

So Baxter says it must be interpreted as non-literal and that the key to doing that is to remember that it is a vision, not a narration, not direct prophecy.  (Then why the level of detail in the sacrifices?)  His argument is that the two earlier visions in this book were not to be interpreted literally.  The Cherubim, though real creatures, are presented in a highly symbolic manner.  He says this temple is a central, literal fact surrounded and expressed by symbolism.  The huge dimensions of the city given so specifically indicate the transcendental greatness of the temple and city.  The cube measurements represent the divine perfection of the city.  And the sacrifices described so very specifically actually are there to represent the absolute purity of the final worship that will be practiced there.  The gushing water represents fullness of life and worldwide blessing.  And so on.  








So this temple, its meaning and its explanation present a difficult problem even to those learned enough to write books about the entire Bible.  Found a quote from an Article in The Christian Research Journal from 2012 that says "Some have even described it as the most difficult passage in the Old Testament."  https://www.equip.org/article/making-sense-ezekiels-temple-vision/

I read some about where this book came from.  There were numerous copies of it in the Dead Sea Scrolls, very old indeed, that show almost no variations in the present version from the original.  Cannot attack its authenticity, so an explanation is, I think, required.  

God is certainly capable of re-arranging the planet so that all this fits where it is supposed to.  God can make water spring from the top of a mountain, and bring life to the Dead Sea.  In the Millennium, there will be those who still revolt against the perfect reign of Christ, so maybe they re-institute the sacrifice first to gain followers stuck in the past.  Maybe the prince is the antichrist, making sacrifices during tribulation and great tribulation.  We know there will be a temple at that time, and that temple is also still future.  I don't believe it is anywhere described in great detail.  The evil angel in Daniel is described as The Prince of Persia.  During the time of Antichrist, peace will reign.  Surely someone has tried to fit this into those descriptions.  It seems to me, at this point in my pitiful understanding, that the temple during tribulation is the best candidate for this.  The worship will all be correct and according to Mosaic law, and the people will be sacrificing to God - in their thinking - but will in reality still be blind and un-hearing until Christ comes and drops the scales from their eyes.  (But...the glory of God will fill this Temple, and the East Gate will be forever closed behind him.  Doesn't sound like the worship here is a mistake.  There can't be a better endorsement.)

Some explain the sacrifices as commemorative, like the Lord's Supper is today, of previous events.  The sacrifices are not intended to save from sin, but remind the people of what led up to Christ's death.  Again, kind of a stretch.

I need to follow up here.  Look at the specific language about the worshipers themselves if their are any.  Look for indications that they are saved, that their worship is acceptable to God.  Then look at the descriptions of worship during the time of Antichrist.  See if they can be resolved with what is described in Ezekiel.

Interesting observations I found at http://www.templemount.org/ezektmp.html :

Features Unique to Ezekiel's Temple

1. No wall of partition to exclude Gentiles (compare Ephesians 2:14) The Gentiles were previously welcome in the Outer Courts, but excluded from the inner courts on pain of death.
2. No Court of Women (compare Galatians 3:28 (Outer Court and Inner Court only)
  No Laver (see Ezekiel 36:24-27, John 15:3.  Baxter says this symbolized Spiritual Renewal in the tabernacle, by the Holy Spirit.
   
  No Table of Shewbread (see Micah 5:4, John 6:35) .  Represented Spiritual sustenance.  Christ, the bread of life, Holy Spirit the water of life.  Both will be present when this temple is built, no longer symbolic, so the Shewbread would be unnecessary.
   
  No Lampstand or Menorah (see Isaiah 49:6, John 8:12) .  Symbolized Spiritual Illumination.  Christ is the Light of the world, so again, no longer necessary.
   
  No Golden Altar of Incense (Zechariah 8:20-23, John 14:6) .  Represented acceptable supplication and Prayer in the name of Jesus.  Hmm...Maybe no prayer offered in this temple will be acceptable?
   
  No Veil (Isaiah 25:6-8, Matthew 27:51) .  The very presence of God was behind this veil, separating him from the people.  But with Jesus' sacrifice, the veil was removed.  So definitely future.
   
  No Ark of the Covenant (Jeremiah 3:16, John 10:30-3.  Represented access through the covenant relationship.  But now, access is through Christ, so this would no longer be needed.
    Note that the brazen altar will still be there, though accessed by stairs and not a ramp.  The altar represents atonement through Christ.  That is an ongoing thing, applicable past, present, and future.  So it should still be present.
    Hmmm...everything that referred directly to Jesus is missing.  Antichrist will be trying to insert himself into that role.


Baxter has a very good explanation of the symbology of each of these items, and how they typified the coming Messiah.  I inserted them above with my comments in some places.

Could the fact that this temple is not set up in Jerusalem at all be telling us that it isn't the real thing?  That it is a deception of some kind?  See above.  I think this idea has some real possibilities. I think it is the best answer right now.

The other interpretation that I think might work is of this as the temple offered to the captive Israelites, should they return to the teachings of Moses and worship God in the prescribed manner.  But they failed, so this temple never materialized.  There is a problem with this interpretation in that there was no veil, as would have been required at the time.

So the next step here is to read everything there is to read about Antichrist and the things he will do, and see if this temple would accommodate those plans.

The image in Daniel 2:
Head of gold.  Nebuchadnezzar, per Daniel himself.
Chest and arms of silver.  Medo-Persians per my book on Daniel.
Belly and thighs of brass.  Alexander the Great per my book.
Legs of iron.  Rome, per my book.
Feet part iron, part clay.  Everything after that - including present day.  Just a mess, constantly shifting alliances.  Very interesting description of the iron/clay mix in Daniel 2:

   41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
   42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
   43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

So...the seed of men are the miry clay.  Then the iron kingdoms are based on what seed?  Are they God's kingdoms?  Those he will use, while the rest are inconsequential?

Stone cut without hands obliterates it all.  The Millennial kingdom, or the new heaven and new earth?

I was reading Unlocking the Last Days, and on p. 217 it says Rev 16:16 is the only reference in Scripture to Armageddon.  This is about 60 miles north of Jerusalem.  I thought I had read someplace that Ezekiel's Temple, yet un-built, would be 70 miles north of Jerusalem.  I cannot find that reference, but I have today found several possibilities for the location of that Temple.  Some are north of Jerusalem, and some are east of it.  Many seem to try and "force fit" the Temple location to Mt. Zion, and end up having problems getting it all in.  But what if it is a fake, and is not on Zion at all?  What if it is at har Megiddo, and that is the reason the Kings of the East are headed there - to hook up with Anti-Christ for the final battle.  Maybe ancient Megiddo is where the Anti-Christ will build his Babylon.  Near the sea, defensible, location of many previous battles.  Certainly it would be large enough if part of the Anti-Christ's peace plan restores Israel's Biblical boundaries, going all the way to the Euphrates.  But is there any way to tell whether Ezekiel's Temple is north of Jerusalem that 70 miles?