Hi Friends. I hope you all are staying warm and comfortable through the cold season. We are experiencing the coldest part of year out here in Wyoming. Most of the wild birds have flown south, but every so often, we’ll see a wild turkey or two wandering through someone’s yard. The antelope have migrated south, but they’ll be back again in the springtime. The song “Home on the Range, where the deer and the antelope play” was probably written by someone who knew nothing about deer and antelope. They don’t play. They just eat and concentrate on the business of surviving. Some of the animals hibernate through the winter. But soon we will begin seeing them again, the geese and ducks and other birds will come back, and the days will begin to warm up. And before you know it, rodeo season will arrive. For those of you who enjoy reading about the west and life out here, check out my book Sunflower Love under adult books. There are a lot of western stories in that book that are woven into Bible thoughts.
Today’s Bible study on prophecy is about what will happen after the war I wrote about in my last post. It ties in with the Book of Revelation.
The Temple
By Sheri Schofield
Short review & history
Titus, the Roman conqueror, destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70. He burned the interior, which was paneled with wood and gold, saving the gold in containers as it rolled down the walls. He ordered his soldiers to tear the building down stone by stone. All that remains of the Temple is the part now known as the Wailing Wall, where Jews from all over the world come to pray and ask for restoration of the Temple.
Currently, the Dome of the Rock (Al-Aqsa) occupies the area where the Temple once stood. Inside the building is a large rock. Jews and Christians believe this could be the very place where Abraham once offered his son Isaac to the Lord, but the Lord provided a ram to take Isaac’s place. The Muslim’s teach that this is where Muhammad was taken up into heaven from there and met with the prophets, including Jesus, and God the Father who was surrounded by angels. All three religions revere this site, called the Temple Mount. It is where the great Temple of the Jews will one day be rebuilt, according to Ezekiel. But how will Israel rebuild its temple if the Dome of the Rock is already there? Wouldn’t the surrounding Muslim nations strenuously object? Wouldn’t it cause a war? Let’s take a look at what Ezekiel tells us.
In Ezekiel’s day, the Romans were not yet an empire. Babylon was the ruling empire. Babylon conquered the remaining two tribes of Israel, Judah and Levi, and carted them off to Babylon as captives. Ezekiel, a priest’s son, was taken to Babylon in about 597 BC by Nebuchadnezzar. A young man named Daniel was taken as well. Daniel was also given prophecies involving a future Temple. But today let’s look at what Ezekiel tells us.
In our last study, we looked at the great battle coming to Israel from allied nations, led by Gog and Magog, which most scholars think are the ruler of Russia and the Russian military. Their allies for the battle are Turkey, Iran, Libya, Ethiopia and many other nations in the region. These nations are Islamic. These nations have never been allies in the past. It is only recently that they have come into alliances with Russia. The prophecies of Ezekiel 38 & 39 could not have been fulfilled even fifty years ago. But now they can.
Ezekiel tells us God will wipe out Gog, Magog and other invaders when they approach the mountains of Israel, and they will be buried in the Valley of the Travelers, which is a pass above the Dead Sea. Ezekiel tells us it will take Israel seven months to bury all the bodies, and the burial ground will be so vast that it will shut off the Valley of the Travelers from future use. The weapons Israel will confiscate after the battle will provide fuel in Israel for seven years.
The Temple Prophecy
After that battle, Ezekiel tells us the Jews will rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem. Who could stop them? Their enemies will all be dead. Ezekiel 40-43 explains the plan for building the Temple. It’s a written blueprint. The Temple will be massive. The Temple’s surroundings will occupy the entire top of the mountain. Animal sacrifices will resume in the new Temple.
Ezekiel 43:1-4 (New Living Translation) tells us: “After this, the man (Ezekiel’s guide in the vision) brought me back around to the east gateway. Suddenly, the glory of the God of Israel appeared from the east. The sound of his coming was like the roar of rushing waters, and the whole landscape shone with his glory. This vision was just like the others I had seen, first by the Kebar River and then when he came in to destroy Jerusalem. I fell face down on the ground. And the glory of the Lord came into the Temple through the east gateway.”
Understanding prophetic scenes
The order in which prophecies are given are not always in chronological order. They are presented in dreams at different times. Not every prophecy gives a clear picture of timing or how long each segment will last. God gives the prophet and overview of what will happen. But not a time frame.
It’s like climbing a mountain. You reach the first high point, and you think you’ve reached the top. But no! There’s a valley, then another slope ahead which leads to another high point. This will happen several times before you finally reach the top of the mountain. In the same way, prophets are shown scenes, but those scenes are not end-to-end. There are valleys and future mountains ahead before the next part of the vision is revealed.
What we can say is this: These things will happen. Because so many of scenes from the prophecies of Ezekiel, Daniel, Matthew and Revelation are being fulfilled in our time, we suspect they may all be fulfilled in our lifetime or in our children’s lifetime. But we cannot know this with certainty. We can only keep track of what appear to be fulfillments and wait for the next prophecy of the end days to be fulfilled.
Connecting prophecies
The remainder of Ezekiel mostly tells us how the land will be divided, who will be in charge, and how the Temple will be used.
But there is one more feature of Ezekiel’s prophecy which resembles a prophecy in the Book of Revelation, the visions of the Apostle John. Let’s take a look.
Ezekiel 47 tells us that a stream will flow east from the Temple. It will flow through the desert and into the Dead Sea. The water from this river will make the salty waters fresh and pure. Fish will return to the sea. Wherever the waters flow, plants will flourish. Fruit trees will grow along the river, and their leaves will never turn brown. The fruit will be for food, and the leaves will be for healing.
Leading into the matching prophecy
This prophecy is very much like the ending chapters of the Book of Revelation. Revelation 21:2-7 (NLT) leads up to the part that matches Ezekiel 47. It tells us, “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.’ And the one sitting on the throne said, ‘Look, I am making all things new!’ And then he said to me, ‘Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.’ And he also said, ‘It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.’”
The match
Here’s the part that matches with Ezekiel 47—Revelation 22:1-5 (NLT) tells us, “Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.”
Because of how alike the verses in Ezekiel 47 and Revelation 21-22 are, it is very likely they are describing the same scene/event. They take us to the return of Jesus the Messiah to earth. Knowledge about Messiah was very limited during Ezekiel’s day. David wrote about the coming Messiah in some of the psalms. Isaiah describes the Messiah in Isaiah 53. But Ezekiel speaks only of God. Jesus is God the Son, who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” John 14:6 (New International Version). Understanding about Messiah was not well-developed in the Old Testament. There were clues. Isaiah 53, which speaks of Messiah’s suffering and dying for our sins, pointing toward Calvary, is now called “the forbidden chapter” in the Jewish readings, because they have rejected Jesus. They do not want to hear verses which speak of a suffering Messiah. But there will come a day when they will see Jesus returning to earth and will mourn because they rejected their true Messiah. (See Zechariah 12:10.)
Preview
Next time I write, I will share some prophecies found in the Book of Daniel. There is one passage that tells what a mighty angel-warrior looks like and what he tells Daniel. We’ll look in on the supernatural world, invisible to human eyes most of the time.