Ezekiel (Session 16) Chapter 32

well we are exploring the last chapter in a section and serve a wrap-up chapter it's going to raise more questions than it answers but I'm looking forward this for a number of reasons that I'll explain as we get to through this session but to refresh your memory the first three chapter of Ezekiel where the call of his call as a prophet then the the the rest of the chat first two dozen chapters were all about God's judgment that was coming upon Jerusalem and heavy stuff that was all given before that final siege of Jerusalem where Ezekiel was burdened with trying to communicate to them what was coming that led them to the next major section which in which the judgment of God is being described as coming upon the nations that turns out they're all Muslim nations that are involved here from chapters 25 to 32 we shift from Jerusalem then to these passages about the Muslim nations and that was given during the siege essentially of Jerusalem in the next session we are going to begin than the rest of the book which is much more uplifting in many ways which deals with the restoration to Israel and that was given after the siege chapters 33 to 36 they returned to their land chapter 37 is that fame dry bones vision that you hear so much about chapters 38 and 39 are the two most talked about chapters in the Bible in recent months because of its apparent proximity on a horizon so we'll be dealing with that rather thoroughly when we get there that leads to the big climax chapters 40 to 48 the finish of the book which deals with the Millennial Kingdom and probably 9 churches out of 10 have no grasp at all of what that's really all about is the fulfill of the Davidic covenant and we'll hit that head-on when we get there and but we're finishing tonight the series that has to do with God's judgment on the Muslim nations and now we had gone through four of them in chapter 25 then tyre then Sidon and then Egypt those are the seven nations that are singled out for the in this judges series of judgments in chapter 25 dealt with the first four as you may recall and then tyre had three chapters portioning a major portion of three chapters about it but there was another portion of the less important major portion of chapter 28 we singled out because it's recognized by scholars as dealing with the power that was behind tyre namely Satan asset on Sidon then finished off that chapter that led us to Egypt which was treated with four chapters on the judgment of Egypt we took three of those last time we've left the the fourth one and sort of a wrap up here for this final conclusion of this section of the The Book of Ezekiel and we're in chapter 32 tonight and perhaps a little more than that when we got to chapter 29 that started this series on Egypt there were seven Oracle seven prophecies against Egypt and first one singled out Pharaoh to be cast out and devoured Egypt was going to be overtaken by Nebuchadnezzar as a recompense for the fact that he wasn't paid for half he taken over 13 years he siege tyre never succeeded exactly because tyre retreated to an island half a mile offshore was and because their powerful navy were able to replenish it so nebuchadnezzar the best he could do is seized the land part of it and after 13 years he washed his hands never got paid for that so that's why egypt was given to him as a recompense sounds strange but that's where it says and egypt will be overthrown together with our allies their wealth or princes and cities all that is in chapter 29 and 30 then the fourth of these seven the arms of egypt was broken by the arms the king of babylon again these are echoing pretty much a repeat of the same judgments there and then we have fare of the mighty cedar that the the the chapter 31 they shift the idioms being used they treat them as trees the mighty Cedars cut down the enters then he enters the underworld the Sheol if you will in disgrace and then and now word the last two of these seven will encounter tonight the lament over Pharaoh the crocodile of Egypt if he will he's destroyed by the king of Babylon there's not new information here's just a dirge of lament over these circumstances then the last from the last half of the chapter is a very strange wrap-up not just of Egypt but if the whole game will discover that there is a lament as they as Pharaoh is treated with a tour of Sheol and when he gets down there he sees all his buddies both his adversaries and his allies are there in chill now what is Sheol that's the Hebrew term that is essentially equivalent to Hades in the Greek and Hades is the conception of Hades is both good and bad there's a good side the bad side the good side has been cleaned out apparently after the crucifixion but without that's all in Luke 16 if you want to get into it but the point is the word Hades is the the domain of the departed spirits don't confuse that with the grave a body goes in the grave a person can own a grave it's a piece of real estate Hades or she is the domain where the departed spirits are waiting their destiny okay and that's the term you it's sometimes translated grave but that's technically misleading because the grave is physical shell is how should I say it deeper than that so okay so it's these last two that we're encountering in this wrap-up chapter and it'll it'll echo much of what we heard before I'm gonna back up a little bit and pick up a few of the verses that we encountered last time because they had an aspect of strangeness to them and back in chapter 30 it opened up the word of the Lord came again unto me saying son and prophesy and say thus saith the Lord God by the way notice all this is God speaking if this isn't we're not getting Ezekiel's opinions here he's the best injure forgot he says how old ye well worth the day for the day is near even the day of the Lord is near a cloudy day it shall be the time of the heathen the day of the Lord now that should to a diligent Bible student that triggers a whole series of verses in Joel and elsewhere that's an eschatological term it seems sort of out of place here because these judgments presumably are just on the relatively near horizon of Ezekiel and Nebuchadnezzar and then Pharaoh Khafra and all of that but here we have an echo that implies there may be something about this that goes a little further the day of wrath in Amos 5 at Zephaniah 1 and Isaiah 13 and Joel 1 and 2 and so forth and it's the it shall be the time of the heathen and and that really is a time of wailing and mourning for the nation's these may they're taking vengeance on them see the judgment that we're seeing focusing on Egypt seems to be at least in the mind of God and Ezekiel a broader brush here it's the beginning of a worldwide judgment on all the heathen enemies of God and we could go through dozens of passages that seem to be relevant to that I'll leave that to you to dig out from the notes on your own we'll keep moving here the next verse said of the sword shall come upon Egypt and the great pain shall be anon in Ethiopia when the slain shall fall in Egypt and they shall take away her multitude and her foundation shall be broken down that term great pain in the Hebrew literally means pangs with trembling as of a woman in childbirth now when you pick up that neuen subtly brew it catches your attention because that's exactly the term that's used in matthew chapter 24 verse 8 in mark 13 verse 8 when it speaks to the great tribulation and woman and child at the beginning of birth pangs the beginning of Sorrows to use a common phrase of that so we see in the language here at least hints that suggest a broader application in the local situation I don't want to overplay that I just want you to be aware of it as you go through this is steady her foundation shall be broken down meaning that the very foundations the political and social institutions in which Egypt's strength lay Egypt is the local metaphor but it may have broader implications of that then he goes on with ethiopia libya and lydia and all the mingled people see the allies of egypt were to be overthrown then we have this strange phrasing of the men of the land that is enly literally what that says the sons of the land of the covenant with them this implies there were jews that migrated to egypt and carried jeremiah with them and they're going to get part of that judgment even they shall not escape but there's another phrase here that the translators are still chewing on even this day they're not sure what it means the hebrew construction is very strange it says all the mingled people at first from translation well that's just a mix of people except the structure there seems to be a little more forced what are the mingled people one cop-out that some of the accommodations that they mean the mercenary troops of egypt from various lands mostly from the interior of Africa but that's a guess there isn't a Hebrew basis to justify that but there is another echo that comes to mind and that's the reference to the miry clay in Daniel 2 and that back in Daniel 2 verse 43 Daniels explaining the the gold silver brass the gold a silver brass iron and the iron mixed with clay and he's going through those empires when he gets to the miry clay he says something very strange he says where I was the sauced the iron mixed with miry clay they he changes to a personal pronoun they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men now but they shall not cleave in order for they to mingle themselves with men they have to be something other than the seed of men technically grammatically what have you and so that suggests several possibilities some people say it sounds like cloning others suggest that it may be Nephilim as per Genesis six those are all conjectures but they all tend to be we tend to be reminded of those conjectures as we get this mingle anyway continue I have made them fair by the multitude of his branches so that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied him boy that's a strange phrase the trees of Eden and is that maybe just a poetical phrase to make a rhetorical point possibly or is there something else underneath the text here and no one has picked up on that so I can't really find anyone that's really runs with that the the Hebrew in this area is very difficult and so but there is a subtle tone in many of these verses that's analogous to what we encountered back when we were in chapter 28 with Satan and where clearly God reaches through behind the king of Tyre and those idioms to speak of Satan himself though these same kind of hints in the text here I'm not a strong and Daniel 10 is also one of these examples where an angelic messenger the hints gives us a glimpse into this supernatural conflict going on invisibly behind the powers-that-be in the world and some of those hints seem to present this text that yes we have Egypt West we have these nations there but there's a tone behind the scenes that implies something much deeper and that same perspective seems to be behind the Pharaoh of Egypt as a as a spiritual person it's not just a physical one and for whom thou art thus likely in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden yet shalt thou be brought down to the trees of Eden on to the nether parts of the earth thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword this is pharaoh and all his multitude saith the Lord God so is that pharaoh literally probably is it something more than that Sibley thou shall be brought down with the trees of Eden into the nether parts of the earth whoo I don't know what that's about but I don't want to go there so we're in Chapter salt but that's a reminder of where we were the first few minutes here chapter 32 verse 1 it came to pass the 12th year in the 12th month of the first day of the month that the word of the Lord came unto me saying son of man take up a lamentation for Pharaoh the king of Egypt and say it am thou art like a young lion of the nations and thou art as a whale in the seas thou camest forth with I rivers and trubbish the waters with thy feet and follows their rivers thus saith the Lord God I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people and they shall bring the up in my net then will I leave the upon the land I will cast the forth upon the open field and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon thee and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee boy thanks a lot fella huh tough stuff see the monster the Pharaoh the crocodile of Egypt if you will will be slain and this carcass will be flung out to be devoured that's what the same thing we have sort of heard back in chapter 29 you may recall and I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains and fill the valleys with eye height I will water with thy blood the land wherein thou wentest even to the mountains and the rivers shall be full of thee no part of the whole tone here is that when Egypt Falls it's going to make a profound impression on the entire world and when I shall put the out I will cover the heathen make the stars thereof dark I will cover the Sun with a cloud and the moon shall not give her light all the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee and set darkness upon thy land saith the Lord God well you know these words are very similar to the words that will accompany the day of the Lord as described in Joel chapter 2 and 3 which are the classic references on this period of time called the day of Lord same kind of language that seems to suggest that what's going on here the language here goes far be and the judgments that have happened historically they would seem now the other possibility is that this is intended to remind us of the darkness in the ninth plague back in Exodus remember the series of plagues in Egypt and there's a darkness that could be felt that's a very strange kind of darkness maybe that's what it's alluding to here maybe not God contains I will also vex the hearts of many people but I still bring thy destruction among the nations into the countries which thou has not known oh that's interesting here's a clue that this judgment is going beyond the literal it's a broader sweep here this while bringing via destruction among the nations into countries which thou hast not known boy that's interesting day I will make many people amazed that they have their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee when I shall brandish my sword before them and they shall tremble at every moment every man for his own life in the day of thy fall for thus saith the Lord God the sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee by the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude of all the terrible of the nations all of them and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed this could very well refer to Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Egypt back then and in a literal sense that does it might have a double reference it might also include the king of Babylon in reference to the Antichrist who makes Babylon his capital and Egypt who precipitates the kings of the south and Daniel 11 and all of that those are conjectures continuing I will destroy also the beast thereof from beside the Great Waters neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more nor the hoofs of the beasts trouble them then will I make their waters deep and cause their rivers to run like what like oil saith the Lord God that's interesting rivers to run like oil when I shall make the land of Egypt desolate the country shall be destitute of that were of it was full when I shall smite all them that dwell therein then shall they know that I am the Lord 54 times he says that in this book this is the lamentation wherewith they shall enter the daughters of the nations Elementor they shall lament for her even for Egypt and for all her multitude saith the Lord God now it's from this verse on the remainder of this chapter you think it was strange up till now fasten your seat belts because the Pharaoh here is getting a tour of shell this is the seventh and final oracle against egypt and it contains the most graphic portrayal of the pit or she'll of the Old Testament it's the International abode of the Dead full of graves according to verse 22 and 33 it's peopled with the nation's that were once vital nations that are in a place of honor or dishonor both kinds their kings on their Thrones are surrounded by their subjects we see that also in Isaiah 14 all through that passage which you looked at that back in chapter 28 warriors are buried with their weapons under their heads the nations there are weak Egypt would be consigned among the uncircumcised now by the way let's just remind ourselves of some basic physics here when we're talking about shell we're not talking about a physical place we're talking about a spiritual place which means there's no time one of the reasons this all confuses us is because we have a tendency to see these things chronologically that's because we're in a physical universe which had and time thanks to Einstein's theory of relativity time is a physical property okay and so this is outside time which suddenly disconnects what we're seeing with history the people err could have been there for thousands of years there could be people that aren't there yet in terms of our time domain see we got to disconnect ourselves from the timeline follow me okay so let's try that maybe that'll help us as we go verse 17 it came to pass also in the twelfth year in the fifteenth day of the month that the word of the Lord came unto me saying son of man who wailed for the multitude of Egypt and cast them down even her and the daughters of the famous nations that must include everybody unto the nether parts of the earth with them that go down into the pit ooo there is a contradiction here in a sense because clearly the language implies that Sheol is the center of the earth it's geocentric that's particularly true when we get to the abuso which is the bottomless pit where is the bottomless pit the only place a pit can be bottomless is at the center of the earth because this point which all directions are up follow me and so on the one hand the concept of show is geocentric and yet it's not physical if you'll be with me on that we know spirit beings demons are spiritual beings not physical beings and yet they're territorial they're consigned a certain geography strangely so we infer that so so we're dealing in a strange domain here that we haven't read it laid a lot of background for but we'll jump in it we'll keep going here whom does thought past the beauty go down be valeted with the uncircumcised they shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword she is delivered to the sword draw her in all her multitudes the strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell or she'll with them that help him they are gone down they lie uncircumcised uncircumcised slain by the sword asher is there that's the word for assyria asher's there with all her company his graves are about him all of them slain fallen by the sword whose graves are sent in the sides of the pit and her company is round about her grave all of them slain fallen by the sword which caused terror in the land of the living asher is assyria now assyria had already been used back in chapter 31 as an object lesson so this is a reprieve if you will here is alone llamas Persia or Iran right there's Alam with all her multitude round about her grave all of them slain followed by the sword which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth which caused their terror in the land of the living yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit ooh you'd have to interpret this much that and to get chills down your back now Alam is mentioned only here in Ezekiel and it was located east of the Tigris River and north of the Persian Gulf it's mentioned again that shouldn't say it's only here because it's also mentioned chapter 13 the Elamites were non Semitic people they are not Arabs by the way they're Persians different be upset her Abed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude or graves are round about him all of them uncircumcised slain by the sword though their terror was caused in the land of living yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit he has put in the midst of them that be slain no we got a couple other characters we're going to encounter and later on in chapter 38 there is mashek to Baal and all her multitude her graves are round about him all of them uncircumcised slain by the sword though they caused their terror in the land of the living a lot of misinformation about Michigan to Baal there's not most guy on to balls I'm some of my very early tapes thirty years ago I fell on that same trap no there's no real substantial for that the Michigan to ball there really were on the northern fringe of what now is the eastern and central turkey dogs allies Ezekiel 38 and 39 we're going to run into them again aggressive people both the measuring tubal they had a long battle with the Assyrians for control of the area the the southern coast if you will of the Black Sea it's that port that's called its place called Anatolia which is the eastern two-thirds of what we call Turkey today and they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war and they have laid their swords under their heads but their iniquities shall be upon their bones though they though they were the the mighty in the land of the living yay thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised shall lie with them that are slain by the sword the main point of these patches of course is that just like these once powerful nations that were in the grave Pharaoh and his powerful army could expect the same fate it's really lumping all these diverse people in the same category they're all there in show in judgment now we go on to the worst of the bunch by the way there is Edom her kings and all our princes which were there might were laid by them that were slain by the sword they shall lie with the uncircumcised and with them that go down to the pit you'll see shortly while they're worse off in Egypt is else even though this is presumably all about Egypt here the invites were actual technically circumcised but they're to lie with those who were not let's continue verse 30 there be the princess of the north all of them all of the sidonians which are gone down with the slain with their terror they are ashamed of their might they lie and circumcised with them that be slain by the sword they bear their shame with them that go down to the pit I'm going to try to tie all this together here in a minute let's just get through this the rest of this here Pharaoh shall see them and shall be comforted over all his multitude even Pharaoh and all his armies slain by the sword saith the Lord God for I have caused my terror in the land of the living and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with a sword even Pharaoh and all his multitude saith the Lord God okay we've just gone through quite a list here we the primary target was Egypt but he also talked about Assyrian ghulam or Iran Mexican to Baal Edom the prince of the north and Sidonians the pharaoh of egypt now I want to shift I'm gonna pause all that I want you now to focus on a psalm that is so relevant to this that I want to pause and jump into some 83 ok let's just take the first eight verses as a piece here Psalm 83 starting at verse 1 keep not thou a silence Oh God hold not thy peace and be not still Oh God for lo thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lifted up the head they have taken crafty counsel against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones they've said come let us cut them off from being a nation that the name of Israel may know it may be no more in remembrance I'm not gonna take time I just want to call your attention who is who is this on behalf of Israel right there there's gonna be counsel and craft against Israel they have taken crafty counsel against thy people who's that that's Israel and consult against whom thy hidden ones now I know there's people that don't believe that the rapture is visible in the Old Testament but you might just mark that as a possible exception as other pieces fall into place let's go on for they have consulted together with one consent they are Confederate against thee the psalmist is speaking to God right they are Confederate against thee the Tabernacles of Edom and the Israelites of Moab and the hacker ins cabal Eman and Amalek the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre dasher also is joined with them they have hoping the children of lot Sayla who who are the children LOD Moab and Ammon Amon Amman and Ammon yeah the truth okay now who are these people what do they have in common they're not all Arabs because one of the night they're merchants what do they have in common they're all Muslim Oh interesting Muslim states Edom Ishmaelites Moab huh grains give all Eman I'm like Felicity's tyre and Assyria there they are Edom southern Jordan to us pray bhishma lights he's the father of the Arabs Moab central Jordan Hagar eens Egypt Gabala Lebanon Amman northern Jordan Emelec the Sinai Peninsula the Philistines we call it Gaza today tire again that's Lebanon today and the Syria is Iraq in parts of Syria if you put it geographically who are all these Muslims how interesting now it's interesting I'm indebted to arnold fruchtenbaum who's done quite a study of these he happened to be at the conference that we were just asked but he also has all of this in his book the footsteps of messiah these nations are being judged on the basis of their blood ties because some of them are relatives Israel and they rebelled against that and others were benefited by that and also the degree of hatred to Israel in their history anti-semitism and out of those two considerations come their destiny some of them convert to Judaism before the time you get to the Millennium some are occupied subjected to Israel and some of them are totally destroyed they have different destinies depending on their history well let's take the seesaw first of all he saw was the father of the right they are scheduled for total destruction they hated Esau hated Jacob from the beginning he when when Moses tried to get needed to go through their land they wouldn't let him go through the land he had to go all the way around them and when other enemies were laying siege to Jerusalem the were on the sidelines cheering the enemies of Israel on smashed their heads on the rocks of the kids take their infants and smash their heads on the rocks was the cry there are some Psalms where Israel's calling that for them but you don't it sounds awful until you realize they're just echoing there they're repeating the kind remarks that they were making against them during those attacks if any people misunderstand that anyway so we go through we we will go through this again in ezekiel 35 we're gonna touch upon that but i Jeremiah 49 the whole book of Obadiah is all about this and we had encountered back there in chapter 25 well okay we talked about Esau but let's talk about a lot remember Lots two daughters had incest with them and gave rise to moab and ammon and they're gonna end up becoming subservient to israel they're gonna survive jeremiah 48 deals with that for a mo a b and jeremiah 49 that touches on the future of Ammon and so those are all laid out for us Egypt that's what this was presumably all about they have a very strange history because they're going to have economic of evil they're going to discover a fear of the Lord in fact five of their cities according to Isaiah 19 verse 18 will speak Hebrew before it's over they're gonna convert they're gonna exchange Allah for your Dave Ave or Yahweh or Harbor they are gonna have forty years of conquest and dispersion but after forty years they'll be regathered and they'll spend the next nine hundred sixty years in the Millennium if you will is it subservient but but honored by God both Assyria and Egypt have a very strange final restoration of sorts and Zechariah 14 deals with that Lebanon of course is occupied as the zekiel 47 we'll deal with that we'll get there and when we get to that chapter well Iraq consists of two places in art in this vocabulary Assyria and Babylonia they have very different futures as Syria is going to end up being converted according as a in 1923 and 25 in fact God even refers to them as my people interesting phrase Assyria and Egypt are going to enjoy a special highway to the Millennial temple interestingly Babylon no way the two of all this whole series the two that are really despicable are Babylon and Edom both of them in the Millennium will be desolate the Millennium is going to have a major change in the planet Earth of fruitfulness it's a great it's a fabulous time there are two places that are singled out that are going to be the domain of the demons they'll be desolate dark desolate places and one of them is Edom and what other one is Babylon there's quite a history of Babylon yet coming so that's part of what's in view here and Saudi Arabia desolation and kadar and haze are in the idioms here that's detailed many places but Jeremiah 49 is perhaps your best reference there and then we have Iran Iran is not Arabic its Persian but they will convert and be and to be subservient to the Millennial King and Jeremiah 49 deals with that well now we got some problems here as we go through all this we've got honey how do you interpret this stuff well one way these were ethnic peoples back then are they traceable today many of them are not show me an ambulance you can find an Assyrian you can find an Egyptian but where do you find an ammonite where do you find an Amalekite got some problems there they're not traceable because they didn't get stayed distinct and many of them got wiped out well maybe they're gonna reappear possibly that's one possibility or maybe these terms are being used territorially geographically possibility and that has some merit in any case this last portion of the thing is divorced from any specific timeline because it is in the nether world it is in Cheryl so when they arrived is indeterminate from a physical point of view from a time point of view and that may help that's what starts to justify these allusions to Eden and all that sort of thing those are possibilities the other possibility is one I don't hold but it's one that is widely held by liberal scholars these are just metaphorical they're simply detailed to make some kind of moral point well maybe so I don't happen to I think there's more to it than that but I can't carry it much further than that but I want to tag this study with a little some insights about Islam there's so much misinformation about Islam even among Christians that I thought be worth touching on this one we were in Psalm 83 and we stopped at verse 8 I want I want to give you a taste of how pervasive Islam is is in the scripture and I'm indebted to my friend Walid Shoebat who really highlighted some of these things for me picking up Psalm 83 at the next verse where he left off verse 9 the song says doing of Emma's unto the Midianites as to Sisera passage amon under the brook of Keys on which perished at Endor they became as done for the earth who make their nobles like Orab and like zb-- yay all their princes as ziba and as zal munna well who are they and what's that all about well that's a room as if you will let's dig here and see if we learned something else a hint of something deeper hmm let's turn to judges chapter 8 verse 21 Gideon is opposed by zebah and zalmunna in verse 21 it says then zebah and zalmunna said rise now and fall upon us for as the man is so is the strength sounds like a dare doesn't it shouldn't have done that and Gideon arose and slew ziba and Zell Moda and took away the ornaments that were on their camels Nix now if you're reading the book of Judges that's okay fine the story goes on wait a minute let's take a little closer look at this they took away the ornaments that were on the camels necks why is that there I mean he's killed these guys they're done with the story goes on why does the holy spirit want you to note that they took away the ornaments that were on their camels necks well let's take a look at that word ornaments a little more closely it's a Hebrew word saharan it's a crescent moon as an insignia o the entire world in those days worship the moon God in Arabia he was called a Leela here in in in in khaldiya he was called sin but it was the moon god and his symbol was the crescent moon the same symbol that adorns every mosque to this day on the planet Earth well let's cut right through it let's let's fast-forward right down to the last book of the Bible take a quick look at the another aspect of this Revelation chapter 13 speaking of the Antichrist he causes the wall both small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads and that no man might buy or sell save he had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name that's pretty cool why is it his right hand and his forehead well one conjecture that's always appealed to me doesn't mean it's right the only physical description we have of the Antichrist is the last verse of Zechariah chapter 11 where Zechariah says woe to the idol Shepherd that leaveth the flock the sword shall be upon his arm and all in this right and upon his right eye his arm shall be cleaned right up and his right eye shall be utterly darkened book of Revelation we discover that he has a head wound apparently as killed brought back to life as a big miracle maybe one eye being encumbered and one arm encumbered might be vestiges of that head wound and that might become an identity item for him so that those that pledge their allegiance to him take on some kind of memorial on their on their forehead or their arm to identify them that's one conjecture it's just a conjecture who knows there's another possibility that's more interesting that was highlighted or suggested by Walid Shoebat there is an identity practice in Islam they called the Shahada 'then it's a declaration of allegiance to allah and muhammad that's worn by millions on the forehead or the right arm when you see a movie like the kingdom of heaven which features some islamic warfare notice the Warriors on their head a forehead they have a band that says in the name of Allah and on the right arm that is a standard practice within the Islamic heraldry of identity and the Greek Texas is on the right arm of the right side the Karaka the idea of a mark is a badge of servitude well what about this number of his name business that's another place you know they're people that know nothing about the Bible they all know about 666 right do you know that we might have been misled from the very beginning about that whole issue let's take a look at that yes the next verse revelation 13:18 here is wisdom let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man for his number is six hundred threescore and six that's essentially what you have in your Bible why do you hit well we've got to look at that a little bit there are three letters in the text and those three letters have values of 660 and six so those three letters are a way of designating in the Greek the 666 and they have names but that's not important the first and last of those three happen to be the first and last letters of the word Christos in the Greek if you take that little serpentine thing put it in between you've got those three letters 660 and 6 and that's a symbol apparently of the Antichrist or more precisely the psuedo Christ and a Cristo and the Greek means in the place of Christ yes he's against Christ but the word really means in his stead in his place but anyway okay in Greek Greek there are two languages Greek and Hebrew that have the peculiar characteristic that every member of their alphabet has a numerical value in the Greek you've got these three letters that add up to 60 and 600 so they threw those three letters would be a reprobate of representing 666 the problem is as a translator there's no justification necessarily for reflecting it that way because numbers are usually spelled out in the text this that must be true but maybe not necessarily applicable and whose number you know everybody look if it's a number you've seen all kinds of articles about insertable chips or RFID chips Radio Frequency Identification chips or barcodes for implementation bark not all some barcodes use a six as a separator in the Bible it's over there 666 so you must be talking about a barcode I was on the board of nano power I know about RFID chips I've been in that technology and it is interesting and it is an empowering technology for electronics trans for among other things that isn't what this is necessarily about because it's not your number that's the issue it's his number it's his number not yours so they're taking an identity with him is the point this is not a PIN number admittedly that technology may be an empowering technology politically that's not the point here well it's gamma tria well it turns out there's all kinds of geometry rules for applying numbers and it turns out there are at least seven classic ways of gamma tria and you can pick one to prove anything there's an expression in the computer industry I want to call your attention if you torture the data long enough it'll confess to anything let's re-examine this famous verse a little more carefully a little more critically here is wisdom that what's the word wisdom let's Sofia brought in full intelligence use of knowledge and very diverse matters let him that hath understanding count the number of the beasts the word is suffice Oh which means to count or reckon or decide by voting the others reckon the number okay so far close but a little different than we may have presumed the next word is number that word is in the Greek a RIF MOS a RIF most check any lexicon means one of two things it means a definite number or an indefinite number a definite number okay riff most a definite number there were seven people error or if most a definite number or that can mean an indefinite number a number of people came see even in the English we use the word number either way we use the word number as a precise number two is a number three's a number eighteen is a number right or it can be a multitude a number of people showed up yesterday legitimate English legitimate Greek you with me so far well the problem is this word appears three times in this verse it's the rhythm of the beast it's the rhythm of a man and it's there if most of whatever that is okay okay a man that's pretty easy anthropos it's a human being a human man it isn't a demon it's a a being human being apparently apparently but what about the 666 we have three if you look at a text like in the papyrus you'll discover at that place in the text there are these three Greek letters but that's in a copy that's in a copy the copyist presumed they were Greek letters and that's what he copied down but we may be guilty of his presumptions the three Greek letters okay let's take a look at codex Vaticanus and look more carefully what was written and why late Shabbat suggests the possibility that John wrote what he saw and what he saw was what he wrote now if that's Greek it goes from left right however all languages flow towards Jerusalem nations that are west of Jerusalem go from left to right English Latin Greek Cyrillic whatever okay nations that are east of Jerusalem go from right to left Hebrew Aramaic Arabic Sanskrit you listen you name it kind of interesting it turns out that those if that's Arabic it goes from right to left and in Arabic that says BISM Allah in the name of Allah Wow and after it what you and I mistake for a chi a Greek letter X if you will so to speak or actually to cross swords which is incidentally has always been the symbol of Islam on every letterhead on every symbolic representation Islamic there's always cross swords on the flag of the arabia saudi arabia among other places now if this is arabic it's a little awkward because that middle letter is written at sort of an odd angle is that allowed in arabic it is on the flag of iraq it's written at an angle there too so let's translate this another way that Walid Shoebat suggests is only it's a possible he's not an assisting on it he's just suggesting that we stand back and maybe take a fresh look at this here is wisdom let him that hath understanding decide reckon counted a vote as who the multitude of the beast is for it is the multitude of a man could that be Muhammad and his multitude are in the name of Allah who we does that maybe give us a little different complexion how interesting it is in this second coming of Jesus Christ that one of his first tasks apparently according to Ezekiel 25 through 32 is to wipe out a series of nations that are all Muslim that all are victims of a legacy of hate against Israel that's what characterized that like it there's no rationale the hate that they have a generational hatred of Israel when are they going to be embarrassed when they discover who the king is because he's a Jew and he's jealous for his people and there's an overdue judgment that's going to be dealt with well okay so we've just finished chapters 25 to 32 the judgment on the Muslim nations next time we start the next section which is the last section of the book chapters 33 to 48 in total we're going to specifically focus on the return of Israel to the land and that's chapters 33 through 36 and that will include of course climax in a sense chapter 37 the dry bones so for next time we're going to start exploring the prophecies of Israel's restoration I encourage you to read chapters 33 through might read all the way through 37 because I'm not sure how far we'll get it might go pretty it's going to be very different in style we've you've endured some really heavy stuff up till now heavy on behalf of Jerusalem and certainly heavy through the rest of the world the gears are going to shift rather dramatically as we get the uplifting promises that Ezekiel has for his people let's stand for a closing word of Prayer

Channel: Bible Study

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Length: 50min 57sec (3057 seconds)

Published: Sat May 02 2020