This afternoon, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Ezekiel. And we want to continue where we left off last week. I want to finish up in Ezekiel chapter 37 this afternoon.
Ezekiel 37:21-28
21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: 22 and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: 23 neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. 24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. 25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.
Let’s just bow in prayer. Lord I pray that you just speak to us through your word this afternoon and help us as we recount.
And Ezekiel summarizes everything that you’re going to do in the nation of Israel. And Father that some of these things have already been done as we’ve talked and studied last week. But Lord, many of them are in the process or will be done in the future.
But we know they shall be done. Lord now speak to us through your word we pray in Jesus name, Amen.
As we mentioned on Wednesday evening, the nation of Israel was in captivity.
And it was in captivity as two nations, Judah and Israel. It had been two nations and it would really never become one nation again until we saw in 1948 that they came back into the land as one nation. However, Ezekiel emphasizes once again.
We spent quite a bit of time last week on Wednesday and also Sunday about the two sticks becoming one stick, which happened. And we see that God re-emphasizes all the things that He’s going to do in Israel. And part of it is going to be for the sake of the Gentile nations that they can see that He is God and that He hasn’t forgotten Israel.
We’ve been sharing as we’ve looked at this that there are many Christians today who used to be Bible-believing Christians. At least they said they were Bible-believing Christians, but yet they denied that Israel is going to be a nation that God has done with Israel. That He was finished with them in 70 AD, which is a lie.
And we see that from the lesson this afternoon. I’m going to just take a look at the summary and we’ll probably spend a lot of time expounding on these things, but it’s going to be more of a summary lesson and looking at all the things that God is still doing, has done, is doing and will do. And the whole point is to prove that He is God and Israel is who He called.
First of all, we saw in verse 21, the first thing He says, I will take Israel from amongst the heathen. That is what He did. He took them from amongst the heathen.
They were dispersed amongst the heathen. The final dispersion was 70 AD. That was the great dispersion.
There was hardly any of the Jews left in Israel at that time. There were still some, but not a great many. The Roman Empire was done with dealing with the Jews.
They were tired of the rebellious spirit. They were always trying to rise up and rebel against Rome. And so Rome, under Titus, destroyed the temple, destroyed much of Israel and drove them out of the land and dispersed them amongst the nations.
They were dispersed all over the Middle East and even up into Europe. And we see that that dispersion lasted until, like we said on Wednesday night, you begin to see the people come back in greater numbers starting in the late 1800s all through the 19th century. And ultimately today we’re seeing a great many Jewish people going back to the land.
And God used persecution against them by the heathen people to drive them back to Israel. And He brought them back to Israel. And then the second thing I want you to see is that He says they’re going to come back into the land on their own mountains.
In other words, they’re going to come back to the land of Israel that’s always been Israel’s land because it’s God’s land. He didn’t send them back, like we said on Sunday, He didn’t send them back to Africa, America, Europe, Asia, anywhere else, none of the islands and the oceans. He sent them back to the land that He had given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and which had been promised to the descendants of them and to their children and their children’s children.
And it was a promise that was given. It was an everlasting promise. Now, a lot of people, they want to erase everlasting out of their Bibles.
And if you see, there’s a number of times in this particular verse that Ezekiel is summarizing all the promises he’s given to God in these verses here in his message to the captives. He uses everlasting more than once. Everlasting, the last time I checked, means forever.
It doesn’t mean, everlasting doesn’t mean, well, it means for a few years or it means for a few months or it may mean for a century. No, everlasting means everlasting. There is no end.
So there will be no end to the land being Israel’s inheritance from the Lord because it’s the Lord’s land for everlasting. And again, verse 22, we saw that they came back as one nation, not two. And as they came back as one nation, they would always, from this time forward, be one nation.
God is not going to allow them to be divided into two nations again. They will be one people, the descendants of Israel. And if you go back all the way to the time that Jacob blessed his sons when they were in the land of Egypt before he died, he blessed them not as individual tribes that would go their different ways, but he blessed them.
If you look at the blessings, it deals with blessings that are as a group of people and how they will impact not only all the other descendants of Jacob, but also how their impact will be upon the world. And we see that he blessed all of his sons and the blessings were to be passed down to their children. And they were, again, applicable not just for that as long as those sons were alive, but those were the tribes and those would be the blessings and how Israel would bless each other as well as the world and God would work through them.
And so we see already back then, we saw they would be one nation. They came out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership as one nation and they will come back into the land as we saw in 1948 as one nation, remain one nation. And they will be just that.
There will be no more two kingdoms. Neither shall they defile themselves. Now this is something that hasn’t been completely done.
If you go to Israel today, and this is where some Christians get tripped up. They say, well, they’re not going to defile themselves. They’re going to be honoring the Lord.
They’re going to be worshiping God. They’re going to be not having false gods any longer. All the things that he’s saying that will happen in verse 23, those things haven’t happened completely yet.
We’re seeing some of that happen. As I mentioned on Wednesday night, one of the blessings that we’ve had in supporting One for Israel and Friends of Israel is they’ve taken our money and used it towards evangelism of the Jewish people. And both of them are saying they are seeing more Jewish and Arab people coming to faith in Jesus Christ than they’ve seen since they’ve started their ministries.
I think that you’re seeing the beginning of God working amongst the people, transforming their hearts, bringing them out of darkness into light, understanding Jesus is our Messiah, giving their hearts to him, and desiring to worship and live according to his statutes and his laws and not falling into the world’s philosophies and the world’s belief system. There are still many that are unbelievers. We know from the book of Revelation that all of this is not going to be fulfilled in this area specifically until Jesus returns with his 10,000 of saints at the end of the Great Tribulation.
And at that particular time, the whole world is going to be coming against Israel and two-thirds of the nation of Israel will be killed. One-third will remain but that one-third will fulfill all of this verse completely for they will look upon him whom they pierced and they will realize that he is the Messiah. So those that have not come to faith and that are not part of the church will at that time look upon Jesus when he comes to deliver them out of a completely helpless situation where they are one small nation against the whole world and the whole world is intent by the inspiration of Satan and the Antichrist to wipe them out and destroy them forever and God will deliver them.
And you’re going to see this verse completely fulfilled then. And for people to say that it’s not going to be fulfilled, they don’t believe in prophecy and they don’t believe that God can deliver on his word. Because God has already, as I mentioned, delivered on parts of these completely and he’s going to deliver on all of them completely by the end of the world as we know it.
Then in verse 24, we see David, my shepherd, shall be king over them. They’re going to have one king, only one king. During the time that there were two kingdoms, they had two kings.
The northern kingdom had a king and the southern kingdom had a king. We saw that the northern kingdom never had a good king the whole time it existed. Every one of them was ungodly.
Every one of them led the people into deeper rebellion against the Lord. And the majority of the northern kingdom, even though God said, I have a remnant, it was a small remnant. And the majority of the northern kingdom of Israel was in rebellion and had been led into rebellion because the shepherd they had leading them, the king they had leading them, took them there.
The southern kingdom, on the other hand, had some godly kings. They had godly kings that Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat, Josiah, they were godly kings. Asa, some of the other kings of the southern kingdom were godly kings.
Some of even those godly kings had issues of not walking completely with the Lord their whole life. But we see that they did not lead the nation into rebellion, but their children, which were ungodly, did have an impact on the people. The shepherd that’s coming, that’s going to lead the reunited nation of Israel and be the king that’s over them, is going to be a shepherd that will not lead them into unrighteousness, but shall lead them into righteousness.
David, my servant, shall be king over them. Now it’s interesting as he talks about David, my servant, shall be king. If you look back at the kings of the northern and southern tribes, when we did the study on the kings of Israel, one of the amazing things as you study the various kings, the king they’d always compare them against was David.
They’d either say that they walked after the ways of David their father, or they did not walk after their ways, and so the house of David was judged because of their wickedness. But they were always judged according to David. Now it’s interesting if you look at all the kings of Israel, why is David the standard bearer? Why does the Lord say that David was a man after his own heart? David was a sinner like you and I. David had his problems.
He had his problems where he lusted after Bathsheba. And had her husband killed. He had a problem where he counted the army, or the men of Israel, where he was told not to do it.
And God judged him for that as well. So we see that David didn’t never sin, but if you look at David, he never ever even thought about worshipping another god. He never thought about bringing idols into his house.
There was only one God that he worshipped. There was only one God that he sought. And when he sinned, he immediately went to the Lord and sought forgiveness.
And when he asked for forgiveness, and when he sinned even though he did these things which impacted other people, and he really sinned against them, and that he did wicked things that caused them sin, he’d always say, against thee and thee only have I sinned. Why did he say that? Because he understood his life impacted the people’s perception of God. And when he sinned, and the people were led astray by his sin, he was really sinning against God.
And he was not obeying God’s command for him to live his life, to reflect his righteousness and his character. And that’s why he said, against thee and thee only have I sinned. Because it all started, even though it was against earthly people, it was ultimately rebellion against God.
When he sinned with Bathsheba, he was saying, Lord, I’m not thankful for all the wives you’ve already given me. He already had more than one wife. And some of them, Abigail for one, was a godly woman.
And yet he set that aside and lusted after Bathsheba. And the thing is, it ultimately was a sin against God, because he wasn’t content and thankful for what God had provided and given him. And so David understood this.
And David understood the times that he sinned, he didn’t really trust in the Lord’s provision. And so consequently he viewed it as a sin against God. The new king is going to be David.
Now I mentioned just at the end of the message on Wednesday, that the scriptures say that the throne that’s going to be established in Jerusalem, that Jesus is going to sit upon it. And it’s going to be the throne of David. And so this is in all likelihood speaking of really Jesus that’s going to come at the end of the great tribulation, deliver the nation of Israel, establish his throne in Jerusalem, and he’ll rule the nation of Israel for a thousand years.
At the end of that thousand years, well a thousand years is a time period, it’s not forever. But we see at the end of that thousand years will come the great white throne judgment, will come the time of the second resurrection, and the dead in Christ shall be raised, and they shall be judged. And the thing is, the amazing thing is, the new heavens and the new earth will come after that, and it says that a new Jerusalem shall come down, there’ll be a new, the eternal temple shall come down, and the Lord shall rule and reign from the new Jerusalem.
And shall rule from his throne forever. And so the nation of Israel is going to have a special place in God’s eternal plan, just as he said they shall be his people forever, and forever means forever. And so the Jewish people are going to have a special place, those that come to faith in Christ and are part of the new kingdom.
And so we see that this is going to happen. Then he says in verse 25, And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant. Well today if you go to Israel, the nation of Israel is not what God gave to Jacob, and it’s not what he had promised Abraham, it’s not what he promised Isaac, it’s only a portion of the land that he had promised to them.
The closest that Israel has ever come to occupying all the land that God promised to them was under the ruling of David and Solomon, but we see that it’s to be from the Euphrates River all the way down to, and a lot of Bible scholars believe it’s all the way down to the Nile River, and that would incorporate all of the Sinai Peninsula, which is south of Gaza, that would all be Israel, and going over into a portion of what is Egypt even today, and all the way up into Syria, and up to where the Euphrates River is, which flows through Syria and down through Iraq, and that all of that is going to be the land of David, the land of the Jews. And that has never been fulfilled, but it will be fulfilled during the thousand year reign of Christ, and in the new heavens and new earth. They shall rule from all that God has promised them, and God has said how long shall they reign, and how long shall the land be theirs? Forever.
So when they keep trying to divide the land, that’s Satan trying to divide the land to keep this from happening, but we know that one day it will. And so we see that the land will be there, and they will dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their children’s children for how long? Forever. And my servant David shall be their prince forever, their leader.
And some people believe that also David could have, when he’s raised from the dead, could have a responsibility in ruling over the nation of Israel when he’s resurrected in the new kingdom, and when he’s speaking of that he could be their prince forever. And the other one is referred to their king forever. So, moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them.
Again an everlasting covenant of peace. Well where do we find an everlasting covenant of peace? If you look at the old covenant, the covenant that’s under the law, which was already given to the nation of Israel, the law was given in the first covenant, the covenant was given at the time of Moses, it wasn’t an everlasting covenant. It was conditional upon the people obeying the Lord.
And also Paul talks about the fact that the old covenant was a schoolmaster, the law was a schoolmaster, and his whole point was to point out the fact that nobody could keep it. The Jews couldn’t keep it, the Gentiles couldn’t keep it, no one could keep it because we’re all sinners and need to be saved by God’s grace. And the law could not save us, it could only reveal to us our need of a savior.
Well this is going to be an everlasting covenant. That wasn’t an everlasting covenant, that was a conditional covenant. This is an everlasting covenant, an everlasting covenant is a non-conditional covenant.
This morning during the Lord’s Supper, I mentioned the fact that Jesus, when he celebrated with his disciples, he said, Behold, this is the new covenant which is given in my blood. And so Jesus was talking to his disciples about this new covenant that was coming. And this covenant would be an everlasting covenant.
It wouldn’t be conditional upon their performance. It was conditional upon what he had done for them and would do for us at Calvary. And so this unconditional everlasting covenant would be made with the nation of Israel.
And it would be made with them when they see who he is and give their hearts and lives to him and acknowledge him as their Lord and Savior. And so he says, an everlasting covenant with them and I will place them and multiply them and will set them, my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore. And then we see again, the new heavens and new earth, he shall establish a new Jerusalem, which will be in the midst of the new promised land that has been given to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob forevermore.
My tabernacle also will be with them. Yea, I will be their God and they shall be my people. Now, when he says my tabernacle shall be with them, the Jewish people would know what the tabernacle meant.
They had the Feast of Tabernacles. And in the Feast of Tabernacles, they set up tents and it was to remind them of when they went through the desert and they were delivered from Egypt and God was bringing them to the promised land and they were to set up their tents during the Feast of Tabernacles, set up this tabernacle and that God would come and dwell in their midst. Well, the Lord is saying here, I’m going to set up my tabernacle in your midst amongst you.
So, in other words, he is going to come and he is going to be with his people. How long? Forever. It’s not going to be a temporary thing.
It’s not going to be like it was where he had Moses build the tabernacle in the desert and then the people rebelled and the glory of the Lord left the tabernacle for a time and went out. But then we see that the thing is the tabernacle he’s here is going to be forever and he’s going to be with his people forever. And again, this will come after the new heavens and the new earth.
These last things have not happened yet, but they will happen. Just as the first portion happened, the last will happen. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore.
And so the heathen people are going to understand as much as we claim that God was done with Israel, boy, he wasn’t done with Israel. And they’re going to acknowledge that the Lord set apart Israel for a specific purpose and they were to be his people and he was going to do some special things that would be evident to the whole world and through them he would show his power, his glory, his ability to forgive, his ability to deliver, and the fact that he is the God that he says he is, the God of truth, the God of love, the God of righteousness, and that he would dwell amongst them and that would be an evident proof to the whole nations. We know from the book of Revelation that during the thousand year reign of Christ that there’s going to be nations in the world.
I believe that part of the thing of the resurrected Christians that they come back with Jesus is to rule and reign with him during that period of time. And it says that there’s going to be some of these nations that will refuse to come up to Jerusalem like they’re supposed to as Jesus has told them they must do. And that when they refuse to come there will be consequences to their decision even during the millennial reign of Christ.
But there’s coming the eternal reign of Christ in the new heavens and the new earth and then we’ll walk all in obedience to the Lord. So it’s interesting to see here a couple things. Number one, just as there was two comings of Jesus and people got confused with the first and second coming of Jesus there’s also two workings of God in the nation of Israel.
Part of it’s being done already and part of it’s going to be completed during the new heavens and new earth or starting at the millennial reign and completed during the new heavens and new earth. And we need to understand that simply because we see God beginning to work doesn’t mean he’s completed and he hasn’t done everything that Ezekiel promised but it’s coming and it will come. Let’s just close in prayer.
Lord I pray that you just help us to understand these truths help us to apply these truths to our life help us to be filled with anticipation and Lord may we realize that you are the one that’s in control and you shall deliver upon your word and you shall rule and reign from Mount Zion in the midst of your people in the new sanctuary on Mount Zion during your eternal reign. Go with us now and help us to be able to share with others the hope we have in Jesus and the fact that we trust in the words that you have given to us in your prophetic word. This we pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen. In closing if you would turn with me to 523 523 O how he loves you and me O how he loves you and me He gave his life, what more could he give O how he loves you, O how he loves me O how he loves you and me Jesus to Calvary did go His life through unkind to show What did he there suffer from despair O how he loves you, O how he loves me O how he loves you and me Lord we thank you that you do love us you do care for us you do desire that we walk with you and come to you through Jesus Lord I pray now that everyone here that knows you as their Lord and Savior would have a blessed week ahead and give opportunity to share with others the hope that we have Lord we pray that you would be with those that were put on our prayer list that need to know you Lord work in their hearts open their eyes and may they give their lives to you we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.