TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY IN BIBLE PROPHECY
Lesson 11: Ezekiel's account of Christ's triumphal entry into
Jerusalem to establish His reign of peace.
I Ezekiel 39:1-8 restates the Russian-led invasion of Israel
prophecy and adds further detail.
1 "And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus
says the Lord God: "Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief
prince of Meshech and Tubal;
2 and I will turn you about and drive you forward, and bring
you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and lead you
against the mountains of Israel (Ezek. 39:1-2, RSV);
- "Uttermost parts of the north," stated for the third
time, emphasizes Russia's location--Moscow is the last
major city on earth due north of Israel.
3 then I will strike your bow from your left hand, and will
make your arrows drop out of your right hand.
4 You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all
your hordes, and the peoples that are with you; I will give
you to birds of prey of every sort and to the wild beasts
to be devoured.
5 You shall fall in the open field; for I have spoken, says
the Lord God (Ezek. 39:3-5, RSV).
6 "And I shall send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit
the coastlands in safety; and they will know that I am the
Lord (Ezek. 39:6, NASB).
A The war in Palestine will escalate into a nuclear war
that will quickly spread to the Russian heartland and to
those who "inhabit the coastlands [or continents beyond
the seas] in safety."
B For the foreseeable future, the U.S.-led Western Alliance
is the only group of nations capable of engaging Russia
in a major nuclear war.
7 And My holy name I shall make known in the midst of My
people Israel; and I shall not let my holy name be profaned
any more. And the nations will know that I am the Lord,
the holy one in Israel.
8 "Behold, it is coming and it shall be done," declares the
Lord God. "That is the day of which I have spoken
(Ezek. 39:7-8, NASB).
A After the war Israel will give God credit for saving the
nation.
B After the war the other nations will also find out that
God rescued Israel from certain destruction.
C (A later lesson will explain this subject further).
II Ezek. 39:9-16 describes the immediate aftermath of the war.
9 "Then those that inhabit the cities of Israel will go
out, and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both
shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, war clubs and spears
and for seven years they will make fires of them.
10 "And they will not take wood from the field or gather
firewood from the forests, for they will make fires with the
weapons; and they will take the spoil of those who despoiled
them, and seize the plunder of those who plundered them,"
declares the Lord God (Ezek. 39:9-10, NASB).
A The nations who will invade Israel are the nations that
robbed the Jewish people when they drove the Jews out of
their lands.
B Following the defeat of Russia and her allies, the
Israelis are going to "seize the plunder of those who
plundered them."
1 Ezekiel did not say the Russian weapons will be made of
wood, but rather that Israel will make fires with the
weapons for seven years.
2 Note that Ezekiel did not have words for gasoline,
diesel fuel, etc.
C The prophecy closes with the Israelis spending seven
months burying the dead soldiers "left on the surface of
the ground" after the war.
III The prophetic flow of the rest of Ezekiel's book.
A Ezekiel 39:17-29 covers Christ's physical Return to
Jerusalem following a second major invasion of Israel,
that will escalate into the world's second atomic war.
B The last nine chapters of Ezekiel detail Christ's Second
Coming and the establishment of His earthly kingdom.
1 These nine chapters greatly expand Ezekiel's concluding
remarks announcing Christ's Second Coming at the end of
his two-joined sticks prophecy in chapter 37.
2 They serve to reassure God's people that Christ will
return and establish His earthly kingdom in the days
following the massive Russian-led attempt to destroy
the renewed nation of Israel.
IV Ezekiel's description of Christ's entry through Jerusalem's
eastern gate at the time of His First Coming, A.D. 33, and
at the time of His Second Coming to establish His earthly
kingdom of peace.
1 Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that
looketh toward the east:
2 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the
way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many
waters: and the earth shined with his glory.
4 And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of
the gate whose prospect is toward the east (Ezek. 43:1,2,4).
A Jesus fulfilled this prophecy on Palm Sunday, a week
before his death, when He entered Jerusalem through the
city's Eastern Gate, riding on a colt.
B Luke recorded how the people rejoiced as Christ rode into
the city, "Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the
name of the Lord" (Luke 19: 38).
C Some of the Pharisees, however, rejected Christ as the
promised King of the Jews and asked Him to rebuke His
disciples.
D When Christ came near to the city He wept over it, and
foretold Jerusalem's utter destruction.
43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies
shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round,
and keep thee in on every side, (Luke 19:43).
1 The prophecy came to pass 37 years later, A.D. 70, when
the Roman general, Titus, invaded Judea and destroyed
Jerusalem.
2 In Christ's day the word "trench," as used here, meant
a pile of earth and stones thrown up to guard a camp
from the approach of an enemy.
3 The Jewish priest, Josephus, reported in his history of
the siege of Jerusalem, that Titus built a wall around
the entire circumference of the city.
4 The professed design of this wall was to "keep" the
city "in on every side" in order that the Romans might
compel the city to surrender by famine.
5 The Romans' wall, nearly five miles in length with
thirteen towers, was a striking fulfillment of
Christ's prophecy.
44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy
children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee
one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the
time of thy visitation (Luke 19:44).
1 Josephus reported that Jerusalem's wall was demolished
so completely even with the ground by those who dug it
up from the foundation, that there was nothing left to
convince a passerby that the place had ever been
inhabited.
2 Josephus noted further that the Temple stones were also
broken up and hauled away, even though it contained
several that were seventy feet in length, ten feet
wide, and eight feet high.
3 Another Jewish writer of the period, Maimonides,
recorded that Terentius Rufus, an officer in the army
of Titus, tore up the foundations of the Temple with a
ploughshare--which fulfilled the prophecies found in
Micah and the Psalms.
12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a
field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the
mountain of the house as the high places of the forest
(Micah 3:12).
3 The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their
furrows (Psalms 129:3).
4 Thus, because the Jews rejected Christ as their King
at the time of His "visitation" in A.D. 33, Jerusalem
lost its divine protection and was destroyed.
E Ezekiel followed this prophecy of Christ's first entry
through Jerusalem's Eastern Gate with a message to the
Jewish people to "be ashamed of their iniquities" (43:10)
and to "keep all the ordinances" (43:11) of God's house
and "do them."
1 Since Ezekiel received this prophecy in B.C. 574, after
the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem (B.C. 586), the
message exhorts the Jews of Ezekiel's time to repent of
their evil doings and return to God's instruction.
2 Note further that since the call to return to the
Lord's instruction follows Ezekiel's prophecy of the
Jews' rejection of Christ after His first entry into
Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate, the prophecy also
instructs the survivors of the A.D. 70 fall of the city
to return to God's instruction.
F Ezekiel then prophesied Christ's second entry into
Jerusalem through the city's Eastern Gate.
1 Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward
sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.
2 Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it
shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because
the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore
it shall be shut.
3 It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat
bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch
of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same
(Ezek. 44:1-3).
A What are the significant events to look for in the
prophecies fulfillment?
1 Sometime after Christ rode into Jerusalem on a colt,
A.D. 33, Jerusalem's Eastern Gate would be "shut" so
that "no man shall enter in by it."
2 Sometime after Jerusalem's Eastern Gate was "shut," it
would be opened when Christ returns and rides into the
city to establish His reign of peace on the earth.
B A natural question arises here: How could the Eastern Gate
of Jerusalem be shut after the Romans leveled the city in
A.D. 70?
1 The history of Jerusalem since A.D. 70 shows how the
first thing to look for in the prophecy's fulfillment,
the shutting of the Eastern Gate, has come to pass.
a In A.D. 131 the Roman emperor Hadrian rebuilt
Jerusalem.
b In A.D. 636 the Arabian caliph, Omar, conquered
Jerusalem, and rebuilt the walls the following year.
c Omar's walls were later destroyed when the Crusaders
took Jerusalem by storm in A.D. 1099.
d In A.D. 1187 Saladin recaptured the city from the
Crusaders and repaired the walls.
e In A.D. 1517 Jerusalem fell into the hands of the
Ottoman Turks, who took the city from the Egyptians.
f In A.D. 1537-1540 Suleiman I rebuilt Jerusalem's
walls which are still standing today.
g For some unknown reason Suleiman I ordered
Jerusalem's Eastern Gate bricked shut, and it
has remained shut to this day.
2 In order for the second thing to look for in the
prophecy's fulfillment to occur--the opening of the
eastern gate upon Christ's triumphant ride into Jerusalem
at the time of His Second Coming--the Eastern Gate must
remain shut during the final years leading up to
Christ's Return.
a Interestingly, one attempt by King Hussein of Jordan
to open Jerusalem's Eastern Gate in 1967, failed
completely.
b King Hussein ordered the gate opened to provide
access to a hotel he planned to build along the
Western Wall of the Temple site.
c On June 4, 1967, Jordanian workmen set up a crane
and jack-hammers in preparation for opening the
gate on the next day.
d At 8:00am the next morning, June 5, 1967, the
Arab-Israeli Six-Day War broke out, and prevented
the opening of the Eastern Gate.
C Why did the repetitive destruction and rebuilding of
Jerusalem's walls, after Titus destroyed the city in A.D.
70, have no special significance on the fulfillment of
this prophecy?
1 The shutting of Jerusalem's Eastern Gate was the
significant incident to look for before Christ's
Second Coming, not which wall was built when.
2 Once Suleiman I "shut" the Eastern Gate, however,
"no man shall enter in by it" or tear it down, until
Christ personally returns to ride through that gate.