Israel and the End Times - Part 1 | Ezekiel 36-37 | Gary Hamrick

for today we're here in Ezekiel chapter 36 and I'm going to give a bit of an introduction to kind of set the stage for these chapters we're gonna be looking at today and then I will pray and then we'll we'll dig through chapters 36 and 37 but we start to move now into the latter sections of the Book of Ezekiel which deal primarily with prophetic events Ezekiel is writing you know in the mid 60 BC but God is showing him distant things and some of the things that Ezekiel writes about have been fulfilled if you're old enough in some of your lifetimes and there are some things that he writes about that have yet to be fulfilled in other words some of the things that Ezekiel prophesied 2,500 years ago concerning endtime events went unfulfilled until relatively recently and some things he writes about are still in our future now in order to understand the prophetic endtime events that Ezekiel writes about one must first understand the unique role that the nation of Israel has played in history and will play in prophecy helpful to us is the fact that Ezekiel in these latter chapters here when he's talking about endtime events he writes in chronological order so we can see things that are going to unfold and have unfolded if you're old enough in in some of your lifetimes and things that are yet to unfold so starting at the end of the book I'm gonna just lay out in in three main sections the remainder of the Book of Ezekiel so Ezekiel's endtime prophecies the last part of his book chapters 40 to 48 he writes about the kingdom age also known as the Millennial Kingdom it's the thousand year reign of Christ from Jerusalem after he returns to the earth how many of you know and are looking forward to the second coming of Christ right so he's coming again and the Bible says that when he comes again and he establishes his kingdom on earth it'll be for a thousand years then there's gonna be a new heaven and a new earth well Ezekiel details the Millennial temple that will be built and he also describes life during that thousand year when Christ reigns from Jerusalem on the earth but before that happens Ezekiel writes in chapters 38 and 39 about the climactic battle of the nations against Israel better known as the Battle of Armageddon so we'll talk about that when we get later into chapters 38 and 39 but before that happens the main topic of our study today has to deal with the restoration of the nation of Israel because ever since the Babylonians besieged and destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC and and this is the time in which Ezekiel is writing ever since the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC for the next 2,500 years for all intents and purposes the Israel as a nation no longer exists they are dominated by some other foreign power and the Jews have been dispersed really around the world from 586 BC until 1948 AD the Jewish people had no exclusive homeland no government not even a common language because when the Jews were taken captive into Babylon they would adopt the Aramaic language of their Babylonian captors when they would return from captivity they'd be speaking Aramaic not Ebru Jesus spoke Aramaic not Hebrew I'm gonna talk about how the Hebrew language was revived as part of the perfunctory prophetic events that unfold but they didn't even have a common language and so for 2,500 years what we read in Ezekiel kind of starts a clock of 2500 years during which time the Jewish people would be dispersed all over the world they would be oppressed all over the world they would be massacred all over the world and those who did manage to still live within the boundaries of ancient Israel would be dominated by some other foreign power the Babylonian Empire followed by the Persian Empire the Greek Empire the Roman Empire and then you have the Byzantine Empire that overtook that land and then following them you had the Arab Islamic empire and then you had the Catholic Crusaders and the mama Luke's and then following them you had the Ottoman Empire and finally the British Empire and all of that then changed in the 20th century only relatively recently as the course of the last 2,500 years radically miraculously changed for Israel and the Jewish people and it is the fulfillment of Ezekiel 36 and 37 which is what we're going to be looking at today which is the re-establishment of the State of Israel which happened in 1948 this is what Ezekiel predicted in the 6th century BC and it has come to pass in some of your lifetimes if you were born before 1948 so we're gonna close out the Book of Ezekiel I still have a little bit of trialing to do but but when I'm here we're gonna look at these three sections starting today with this first section in chapter 36 and 37 but it's basically going to end up being a three-part series to close out the Book of Ezekiel looking at prophecy and again you can't understand prophecy things that are gonna happen unless you first appreciate the unique role of Israel so the title of this three-part series today being part 1 is Israel and the end times Israel and the end times now this is gonna be I'm gonna kind of be you know asking you to drink out of a firehose today because I'm gonna be you know full volume full speed my Pastor Chuck Smith before he died he would always say sometimes a sermon is going to be inspirational and sometimes it'll be informational well today's informational okay I'm gonna give you a lot of information if you like history and if you like prophecy you're in the right place if not take a nap like usual but let's pray father thank you for this time together in your house as we open up your word we're just excited about the things that you lay out past present and future and lord give us eyes to see these things and ears to hear about these things and hearts that would receive it we love you and praise you together in Jesus name and everybody said amen Ezekiel chapter 36 I'm gonna read the first seven verses God says to Ezekiel and you son of man prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say o mountains of Israel hear the word of the Lord thus says the Lord God because the enemy has said of you aha the ancient heights have become our possession okay so notice foreign invading armies are coming taking the land of Israel verse 3 therefore prophesy and say thus says the Lord God because they made you desolate and swallowed you up on every side so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations and you are taken up by the lips of talkers and slandered by the people therefore o mountains of Israel hear the word of the Lord God thus says the Lord God to the mountains the hills the rivers the valleys the desolate walk away stand the cities that have been forsaken which became plunder and mockery the rest of the nations all around therefore thus says the Lord God surely I have spoken in my burning jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom who gave my land notice that to themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and spiteful minds in order to plunder its open country therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains the hills the rivers and the valleys thus says the Lord God behold I have spoken in my jealousy and my fury because you have borne the shame of the nations therefore thus says the Lord God I have raised my hand in an oath that surely the nations that are around you shall bear their own shame let's pause there your attention please this is a rebuke of the nations around Israel that have come to take the land for themselves point number one for you no takers as we talk about Israel in the times and specifically today about the re-establishment of the State of Israel number one God denounces the nation's that overtake the Land of Israel the Jewish people are the only people on earth who have been given title deed by God to certain real estate on the earth and when other people try to confiscate that land God will rise up in anger against those nations that's why he calls it my land there in verse five and he says that those who take it will incur verse six my jealousy and my fury now just so that we understand a little history here related to Israel as a nation and the Jewish people as a people God brought about the Jewish race out of nothing there were no Jews until God providentially decided that one Gentile by the name of Abraham Abram as he originally was named would be the source would be the genesis of a people that did not yet exist and God tapped him as this Gentile pagan worship or Abraham was living in the land of the Chaldeans which is ancient Mesopotamia which means the land between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates this guy's hanging out in Iraq he's a Gentile he worships pagan gods and God appears to him and God speaks to him and God promises him God makes a covenant with him that out of his seed will come a race of people that up to this point did not exist it was God's providential thing and by the way he selected someone that was way past his prime and and his wife Sarah who was way past her prime they were past childbearing age so that when they did have a child everybody would know this has to be a miracle because God is about establishing something clearly for his own glory so that there would be no mistake that these two people just happen to get together had a kid and a lot of them came a race of people know God's elect the people whose bodies the Bible said were otherwise dead biologically speaking unable to produce and out of them would come the child of a promise the child Isaac and God that birthed a nation the Jewish people through the line of Abraham through the seed of Abraham through Isaac through Jacob and then God determined that in order to provide a land for this race that he's created out of the seed of Abraham he then gave title deed to the real estate the area around the Mediterranean to Abraham and he called Abraham leave your country in Iraq and you make the thousand mile journey into this land that I promised you on oath and thus the Jewish people were born and the nation itself was established in terms of a boundary an area a geographical region now God gave the title deed of this land to Abraham and to the children of his promised descendants Isaac and Jacob I was having lunch with a Jewish rabbi in Washington DC about two years ago and he's very liberal in his theology and he believes despite the fact that he's Jewish he believes that the Jews are not entitled to a homeland in Israel and I said with all due respect rabbi God gave the title deed to the Jewish people to your people he says no he did night he said it's nowhere in the Bible I said it is in the Bible and I had to open his own scriptures and read to him when I'm gonna read to you this is Genesis 15 verse 18 on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said to your descendants of Isaac I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river the Euphrates now just so that we can get a perspective of what God is giving to the Jewish people entitled deed of the land this area shaded in white is roughly the area between the Nile River of Egypt and the Euphrates River of Iraq now some Bible scholars believe that it probably also included all of Saudi Arabia but just to even narrow it down to a smaller region of the region between the Nile and the Euphrates this is the territory that God originally deeded to Abraham Genesis 15:18 we're talking the Sinai Peninsula all of Jordan all of Israel Lebanon Syria part of Iraq part of Saudi Arabia okay at the least roughly 300,000 square miles that's what God originally intended the nation of Israel under the Kings never even got to claim this much territory under King David the territory of Israel took about this much area a lot of the Sinai all of Israel most of Jordan Syria Lebanon a little bit of Iraq this is the this is the farthest extent of the borders of Israel under King David and then of course you have what we're reading here in the Book of Ezekiel 586 BC the Babylonians come the Jews have dispersed their territory no longer exists and a little bit of land that they did live in was now occupied as far as governed by foreign empires until 1917 after World War one Britain defeated the Ottoman Empire the Ottoman Turks were allies of Nazi Germany and in 1917 Britain took back this territory from the Ottoman Turks and they declared the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to establish a homeland for the Jewish people which they had not had for up to this point about 2,400 years and when the Balfour Declaration was drawn here was the territory that was given as a Jewish homeland shaded there in the yellow in 1922 the Hussein family objected the Arabs said we want our homeland for ourselves and you're giving all of this area to the Jewish people which again by far was not at all the borders that God intended but in order to appease the Hussein family the British Parliament decided after Churchill took a map of the region and Churchill then in deference to the Hussein family into the Arab people he they reneged on the Balfour Declaration and Churchill took a crayon and he drew a line down the Jordan River and he separated West from east and he gave Jewish people this territory Israel and this territory to the Arab people that he called Transjordan the area across the Jordan River in 1946 the eastern side was officially renamed as it is today Jordan and the Hussein family still controls it King Abdullah of Jordan his official full name is king abdullah ii been out hussein and so therefore the jewish people after all of this renegotiation of borders and territory have basically been left with what you see shaded there in the orange again compared to what god's original intent was to what israel has today and even this that i've drawn all in orange some would say no some of that's disputed territory all right this is what god intended in the white this is where they are today in the orange the state of israel is smaller than the state of New Jersey God intended 300,000 square miles at a minimum 300,000 square miles for the Jewish people today they live in 8130 square miles now it's important to get perspective on all this because anytime we have a peace plan that involves land for peace if Israel will just give up more land than we'll give them peace I'm skeptical for two reasons number one land for peace has never worked number two giving up any more land than Israel already has is frankly unbiblical because they don't have a tenth of what God originally intended for them to have I'm just giving you the biblical perspective of all this in other words God says here it's my land on loan to the Jewish people and anyone else can live there Palestinians included Arabs included anyone else can live there work there play there but those who try to take possession of it he says here in zekiel 36 verse 6 will incur my jealousy and my fury point number two God defends Israel for his own name's sake look further in chapter 36 I'm gonna read verses 22 to 28 therefore say to the house of Israel thus says the Lord God I do not do this for your sake o house of Israel but for my holy name's sake which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went and I will sanctify my great name which has been profaned among the nations which you have profaned in their midst and the nations shall know that I am the Lord says the Lord God when I am hallowed in your in you before their eyes for I will take you from among the nations now notice he's talking about prophetically here I'm gonna gather all the exiles I'll gather you out of all the countries and bring you into your own land and then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean and I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them and then you shall dwell in the land that I give to your fathers you shall be my people and I will be your God in other words the reason I think this is important to note is that God is not doing something for Israel for their sake he's doing something for Israel for his sake he's doing something for Israel not for their name but for his name is the fact of the matter is the Israelites had blown their testimony that's why God says here in verse 22 that his own holy name has been profaned among the nations why because the Israelites first took the true and living God and started to worship the idols the pagans of the neighboring nations around them and in this way God says you've profaned to me before them you have exchanged the worship of the true and living God for the worship of idols just like your foreign neighbors despite that God says I love you I'm gonna bring you back in this land I'm gonna forgive you and I'm gonna restore you and this is an amazing thing that God does on a national scale for that for the nation of Israel because you know in a micro sense God does the same thing for us we we sin against him we rebel against him and what does God do he is patient with us he is long-suffering not wanting any to perish but all the kind of repentance and then he is waiting for us patiently and with open arms he receives us and forgives us and restores us that's the story of God that's the story of redemption God does it for us on a personal level God is doing it here for the nation of Israel on a national scale and he's showing himself this is a testimony of God before the nations that he is a forgiving God and that he is a restoring God which leads us to point number three God declares himself to all the nations through the reestablishment of Israel still here in chapter 36 look at verses 34 through 36 the desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who passed by so they will say this land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden and the wasted desolate ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited and then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I the LORD have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate I the LORD have spoken it and I will do it in other words here's what he's telling us that in the 2500 years from the time that Israel was dispersed in 586 BC and the temple was destroyed and and following 2500 years the Land of Israel became desolate and barren now some of Israel is desert by itself but even what was otherwise lush fields and vineyards and the mountains would not yield fruit or vegetation it would just become an arid wasteland because it was uninhabited and the land itself was dominated by foreign empires that didn't invest in it and so when the Jews are dispersed over 2,500 years the land just becomes just desolate and barren in 1867 Mark Twain made a visit to Israel and he would later write a description about what he saw listen to what he wrote quote a desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds a silent mournful expanse a desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life in action we never saw a human being on the whole route there was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere even the olive and the cactus those fast friends of the worthless soil had almost deserted the country and quote Mark Twain 1867 they later would write in his writings entitled the innocence abroad published in 1881 and yet God took this otherwise desolate wasteland and made it fruitful again when God brought the Jewish people back to this land in 1948 and since Israel has become one of the most prosperous and prolific nations on the planet in Isaiah chapter 27 verse 6 Isaiah prophesied in the days to come Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit did you know that Israel is today the number one exporter of fruit to Europe a nation smaller than the state of New Jersey could fit within Orange County California all right they're now the number-one exporters of fruit in Europe citrus fruits are currently Israel's major agricultural export Israel is one of the world's leading greenhouse food exporting countries Israel exports more than 1.3 billion dollars worth of agricultural products every year the Jews developed drip irrigation in case you didn't know where that came from they developed it and turned the desert into fertile fields and when you look at Jewish history the emergence of this nation out of just a desolate wasteland where not only the land itself was desolate but the people had been scattered oppressed and massacred all around the world when you look at Jewish history there is no other explanation for their preservation and the restoration of the Jewish people and the State of Israel as a nation except by the divine work of and of God consider the contributions and the juice of made to the world between 1901 and 2018 there have been a little more than 900 Nobel Prizes awarded in all the fields you know science and medicine and literature and peace okay a little more than 900 Nobel Prizes awarded between 2001 and 2008 een Jews have taken 203 of those prizes that represents 23 percent of all the Nobel Prizes awarded 23 percent have been awarded to Jews for their contributions to the world now check this out to put it in perspective the Jewish population today around the world about 14.5 million that's it because they've been massacred and slaughtered 14.5 million Jews in the world today they represent listen point one nine percent of the world's population Jewish people point one nine percent of the world's population but they've been awarded 23 percent of the Nobel Prizes yeah give God praise because that's something God did [Applause] now to put it in perspective a little bit the Muslim population which represents 23 percent of the world's population Jewish population 0.19% Muslim population 23 percent of the world's population in the same time period from 1901 to 2018 Muslims have been awarded 12 Nobel prizes I'm just quoting the facts I don't mean to be disparaging against Muslims I'm just saying you have to recognize that something out of such proportion where the Jews have been awarded such so many Nobel prizes it's a testimony of God working and God raising up a people that were otherwise nearly eradicated from the face of the earth but God's providential hand has preserved them all these years final point number four God demonstrates his power and faithfulness through the re-establishment of Israel I'm gonna read from chapter 37 the first 14 verses and chapter 37 here the fourth the first 14 verses I'm about to read is really the heart and soul of the Book of Ezekiel because this passage talks about the dry bones in the valley and in fact our graphic team in in designing the the template for our Bible study through Ezekiel you might have noticed that in the the main graphic there's just a bunch of bones lying in in the desert because it's taken here from Ezekiel 37 the dry bones that were about to read here refer to the fact that the nation of Israel was otherwise dead lifeless and the Jewish people scattered around the world Ezekiel 37 verses 1 through 14 the hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley and it was full of bones and then he caused me to pass by them all around and behold there were very many in the open Valley and indeed they were very dry and he said to me son of man can these bones live so I answered Oh Lord God you know again he said to me prophesied of these bones and say to them Oh dry bone hear the word of the Lord thus says the Lord God to these bones surely I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and then you shall know that I am the Lord so I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was a noise and suddenly a rattling and the bones came together bone to bone indeed as I looked the sinews and the flesh came upon them and the skin covered them over but there was no breath in them also he said to me prophesy to the breath prophesy Son of Man and say to the breath thus says the Lord God come from the four winds o breath and breathed on these slain that they may live so I prophesied as he commanded me and breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet an exceedingly great army and then he said to me son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel they indeed say our bones are dry our hope is lost and we ourselves are cut off therefore prophesy and say to them thus says the Lord God behold of my people I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel and that you shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves O my people and brought you up from your graves I will put my spirit in you and you shall live and I will place you in your own land and then you shall know that I the LORD have spoken it and performed it says the Lord in other words the zekiel sees these dry bones of the valley he realizes that this is a picture of the nation of Israel the Jewish people they are as good as dead so to speak they've been scattered they've been massacred they've been oppressed the Land of Israel itself is no longer their homeland for twenty five hundred years it's been under the domination of a foreign Empire but God showed Ezekiel something in the future that would end up being fulfilled in 1948 when God would once again regather the Jewish people from around the world they would make what is called in Hebrew Aliyah they would make the pilgrimage back to their homeland the exiles in Hebrew the O lien would end up returning to Israel God would begin to move in their hearts that they needed to go back to their original homeland and so there was this stirring this thing that began to happen by the Spirit of God despite the fact that country after country an empire after Empire tried to Massacre the Jewish people you look at history the Assyrians the Babylonians the Greeks the Romans even in Spain under the Spanish Inquisition in Russia under the under the czars throughout Europe of course with Nazi Germany but toward the end of the 19th century as God began to move in the hearts of Jewish people around the world something began to emerge called the Zionist movement there was a man in the 1800's his name was Theodore Herzl and he began to be the pioneer of the Zionist movement he was reading passages from the Book of Jeremiah and passages from Ezekiel like what we are reading today and his heart began to stir for his homeland and the Zionist movement was rebirth with this idea that we need to gather the Jews we need to begin to go back to our homeland and once again live where we used to live and God began to move in the hearts of people raising up if you will dead dry bones from them from the valley bed and bring about a nation of people that had been scattered oppressed and almost massacred and people began to return making Aliyah to Israel but they had no longer a common language and in order to have a common unity as a nation they needed a common language as a nation so at the same time that God was moving in the heart of Theodor Herzl in the early 1900s God started moving in the heart of Eliezer ben-yehuda Ben Yehuda Eliezer ben-yehuda began to be convicted that they once again needed to speak Hebrew because up into this point they were either speaking Aramaic or Yiddish Yiddish is just as european hebrew dialect so Eliezer ben-yehuda said in my household we're gonna learn the ancient Hebrew language again and nobody's gonna speak but only Hebrew in my home started teaching his son that other Jewish family said we're gonna jump on the bandwagon to do the same thing in their homes one by one little by God even rebirth the language in the hearts of people it was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Zephaniah 3 verse 9 4 then I will restore to the people's a pure language that they may all call on the name of the Lord to serve him with one Accord in the same time in the early 1900's Britain became sympathetic and supportive of the Zionist movement and then after they as I mentioned earlier defeated the Ottoman Empire kicked the Turks out of this area British Mandate started to take over the territory 1917 the the Balfour Declaration allowing for the formation of a Jewish homeland in 1947 to the chagrin of the Arab League of the Arab nations the UN announced a partition resolution allowing the Jews a permanent homeland and so another Zionist Jew from Poland by the name of David ben-gurion declared Israel's independence on May 14th 1948 and when he did when he declared that every neighboring nation launched an offensive attack against that territory of Israel Egypt Syria Jordan Iraq Saudi Arabia Yemen and Lebanon all attacked Israel Azam Pasha the Secretary General of the Arab League said quote this will be a war of extermination and a momentous Massacre boy was he wrong the Jews were outnumbered out skilled and out armed they were not supported by the United States verbally they were 11 minutes after David ben-gurion declared Israel's independence President Truman supported it but not with military armament they were all alone they had no support from the US no support from Britain they were forced to smuggle weapons the Jews were mainly from Czechoslovakia when Israel declared its independence in 1948 the Israeli army did not have a single cannon or tank it's air force consisted of nine obsolete planes they only had 19,000 soldiers who were fully mobilized and prepared for war against all these neighboring nations and yet against all odds after the dust had settled in 1948 this small fledgling group of people with a dream and with the lead of a providential mighty hand of God emerged as the Jewish state of Israel in fulfillment of Ezekiel 36 and 37 it's a remarkable story remarkable story [Music] friends listen God does the impossible and if nothing else today I want you to leave here with the confidence that God does what he says and God his faithful do all his promises and he does what otherwise looks impossible to us 2nd Corinthians 1:20 for all the promises of God in him or yes and amen and what God did for the nation of Israel is a harbinger of things still to come because on the timeline of events that Ezekiel writes about is a Battle of Armageddon and the Millennial Kingdom and so in this three-part series we'll look at those other two events in parts two and parts three but for today let's give thanks to the Lord that he's faithful to all this promises [Music] Father we we thank you Lord that what you prophesied came to pass and for some people here who have been born before 1948 in their lifetime they saw the fulfillment of Ezekiel 36 and 37 and here we are today at this particular time of this teaching the 71st anniversary of the re-establishment of the State of Israel it's nothing short of your providential hand Lord no human ingenuity skill or ability could have accomplished what you did and Lord may it be a testimony to us that the God who does what seems to be impossible to us is still the God who does what seems impossible to us and if some things have been fulfilled in terms of prophecy then we can rest assure that other prophetic things that have yet to be fulfilled will come to pass may we be ready Lord may we lift up our head and look up because our redemption is near may we take heart that as crazy as this world gets your coming again we think even about the shootings yesterday in El Paso the shootings this morning in Daytona are sorry Dayton Ohio and we we just stand again just shaking our heads at the darkness of our world will be thank you Jesus that you are the light of the world and you're coming again to rescue us from this present evil age to take us home to be with you forever and ever to establish your kingdom that where you are there we might be also so Lord encourage our hearts even in this day maybe not grow weary but may we cling to you always as our hope as our Lord as our Savior and it's in Jesus name that we pray and all God's people said amen and amen god bless you all

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

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Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, cornerstone chapel leesburg va, End times israel, Israel biblical prophecy, is christ coming again?, is Jesus coming again?, gary hamrick podcast, the book of ezekial, Ezekial 36-67, ezekiel chapter 36-67 explained, ezekial 36-67 explained, ezekial explained, ezekial explained youtube, gary hamrick pastor, Israel and the End Times – Part 1, the jewish nation state, ezekiel 37 sermon

Id: ZN79IDRAQf0

Length: 37min 38sec (2258 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 05 2019