Hashkama: God is working His Purposes out.

God is working His purposes out.  We just have to trust.  The problem is, we have different ideas about what God’s purposes are, and they can’t all be right.  There will be great numbers that will disappear from our churches.  I don’t know when this will happen, but happen it will.  We are not going to be too concerned at what is happening in the world if we believe in the pre-tribulation rapture.  We can sit back in our armchairs and wait for Jesus to catch us up into the air.  What happens to this nation, or any other nation if it comes to that, is of no concern to us.  We’ve got our ticket to ride out of here.  In a way I would like the escapologists to be right – who on earth wants to go through the great tribulation?  On the other hand, the pre-tribulation is a diabolical lie of Satan, so I am glad there are many that have not fallen for it.  When Antichrist is revealed, and when the great tribulation hits, churches will largely empty.  The unbelievers will have run for it, and the ‘left behind’ will be the believing remnant.  Think about it.  If you promised your children a wonderful party, but when the time came, instead of a party, you tarred and feathered them and chucked them out naked, to survive the winter months on their own.  It’s not a great illustration because God hasn’t promised us a party, here or in the sky.  But those who believe He has will be terribly, horribly disappointed and will leave the household of God.  There is a great feast to come (Revelation 19:6-9), but that won’t be until after the Lord comes back; what is referred to as the Second Coming.

We are not quite so blasé about God’s purposes when it comes to the nation of Israel.  We count the rockets fired upon Israel, and watch all the news reports, and pray earnestly; but we miss the fiery darts being fired upon our own land and communities.  God is working His purposes out…

At one time there used to be lots of sermons and comments on “Sunday Christians”, those that left their religion in the church building.  I think most of us are Sunday Christians to one degree or another.  Perhaps those that meet on Saturdays, we should refer to as Saturday Christians.  A Seventh Day Adventist said the other day, something like, those who meet on Sundays are damned to hell.  I can’t remember the exact expression.  The Church has become a complete mixture of religious adherents, all taking cover under the umbrella of Christianity, but not Christ.  I am not talking about inter-faith events, but church groups, meetings and conferences.  There are Christadelphians, who among other things, believe Jesus did not exist before he was born to Mary; there are Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, and even some Muslims; all sorts of beliefs are mixed with truth.  To some degree we leave the purposes of God elsewhere.  So, we leave our religion in the church, and we don’t care what exactly His purpose is, or whether we fit into His purpose or not.  After all, it’s all in God’s hands.  Let’s take the scenario that we have been considering.  What do you believe about the rapture?  What difference does it make to you?  Many say they don’t care because they won’t be here for the big trouble; Jesus is going to come and take them out of it.  Have you thought about what you will say and do if your doctrine is wrong?  If what you understood to be God’s purposes are in fact not God’s purposes at all.  People have different ideas about what God’s purposes are, and how we fit in to those purposes.  Is His purpose to rapture believers before the great tribulation, or sometime mid-way through, or at His Second Coming?  Some conclude that there will not be a rapture of the Church.  Another point of division is that of Israel.  What are God’s purposes for Israel?  We all have the same Bible, but some see Israel as the apple of God’s eye, others believe Israel does not have the right to exist.  Both groups will say that God is working His purposes out, and both believe that what they hold to is the truth.  We might all like to see the Palestinian-Israeli issue resolved peacefully, but try talking to Christians about some of these doctrines that I have mentioned, and you can find yourself in a war-zone.  In the Church we preach Peace! Peace! But often peace alludes us.

God’s Purpose and God’s People

Sometimes people believe what they believe because it’s what they want to believe, even if it is contrary to the word of the Lord.  Ezekiel’s aim in his pre-destruction of the Temple prophecies was to impress upon the people the idea that God had departed from the Temple, and a new reality had begun.  The locals believed that as long as the Temple was standing, and despite the evidence of the exile, and all that was before their very eyes, nothing had changed.  They expected another miracle to save them in the final moments of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege.  They firmly believed that the Temple was indestructible.  Nebuchadnezzar went on to destroy the First Temple.  Today there are people that firmly believe that they will be raptured before the great tribulation hits.

Nebuchadnezzar had ambitions to rule the world, and he destroyed the Temple.  Antichrist will rule the world and a temple will be built in Jerusalem.

Different Perspectives

Two distinct groups were forming within the nation at the time of Ezekiel’s prophecy – “Men of your kindred” (Ezekiel 11:15) and “Those who live in these ruins.”  The book of Ezekiel abounds with discussions of the new reality of exile and the Temple destruction and the dilemmas it raises.  One of the questions is, what is the status of the covenant between the nation of Israel and God, now that it has been violated by the nation and the Temple is destroyed (especially Ezekiel chapters 20 and 36)?  For the prophetic response we go to Ch’s 34-39, and the vision of the future Temple (Ch. 40-48), and the prophecies to the nations (Ch.25-32).

Most of Ezekiel’s prophecies to the exiles of Jehoiachin relate to events in the land of Israel at the time.  It is the prophecies in the book that paint a picture of God’s view of the Babylonian exiles, that we will consider briefly.  In particular, how their identity is distinct from that of the inhabitants of Jerusalem during those same years.

Ezekiel Ch.11 states that “the inhabitants of Jerusalem,” who say that the exiles have distanced themselves from God and from His land, and that they are not counted among the inheritors and those close to God: “Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O mortal, [I will save] your brothers, your brothers, the men of your kindred, all of that very House of Israel to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem say, ‘They are far from the Lord; to us the land has been given as a possession.’” (Ezekiel 11:14-15).  Today, there are those who claim that God has finished with Israel, and that the promises of God now belong to God’s new people, the Church.

God’s response to the people in Ezekiel’s day, conveyed through the prophet, is that while those taken away in captivity are currently in exile, God is there with them, in a “small sanctuary:” “Say then: Thus said the Lord God: “I have indeed removed them far among the nations and have scattered them among the countries, and I have become to them a small sanctuary (mikdash me’at) in the countries whither they have gone.” (Ezekiel 11:16).  God has not finished with the Jews, then or now.  There are people in the Church who claim that God finished with the Jews from the time of the Crucifixion and destruction of the Second Temple, and replaced them with the Church.  The Church must get in line with Scripture on these issues.  Time is running out to do so.  It is up to each individual to search out the truth for themselves (Acts 17:11).  That Replacement Theology, the belief that the Church has replaced physical Israel (the Jewish people) in the plan of God, and has become the “spiritual Israel” is false, erroneous teaching.

Ezekiel’s prophetic message (similar to that of Jeremiah 29:1-9) is a new one; one that requires a change of historical perspective.  For the first time, the prophets affirm the Jewish identity of the exiles: They remain part of God’s nation.  The Judeans still living in their homeland saw it differently.  They maintained that God’s place is still in the Temple in their midst.  Their mindset was not focussed on God’s word; they believed what they wanted to believe.  Their minds were so fixed that they held this same view even after the destruction of the Temple: “The word of the Lord came to me: O mortal, those who live in these ruins in the land of Israel argue, ‘Abraham was but one man, yet he was granted possession of the land.  We are many; surely, the land has been given as a possession to us” (Ezekiel 33:23-24).  Those in Replacement Theology offer an argument that they possess all that was promised to Israel.  Their belief continues on even after the Temple is burned down, and Jerusalem is devastated, and the captives are taken into exile (II Kings 25).  By now there are only a few of the “poorest people in the land” (II Kings 24:14).  They remain in Jerusalem, maintaining that they are numerous in comparison with the solitary Abraham.  They continued their claim that those who remain in the land will inherit the land, and not those who have been taken into captivity to Babylon.  Remember, it is God’s land that we are talking about.  It was God that sent the people into exile, and it was God that brought them back into the land, land that He had given them – because it was His to give.  Likewise, under God’s hand, Israel is experiencing a hardening in part (Romans 11:25-26).  God did this to bring in the Gentiles, some of whom are claiming everything for themselves and give nothing to the Jews – completely missing what the prophets and the word of God says.  Those Gentiles that have been grafted into the tree can as easily be cut out again, so Paul warns us not to be arrogant against the Jews.  God’s plan for the Jews is far from over; He did not reject His people (Romans 11:1).  He is bringing them back just as He brought the captives back from exile centuries ago, and just as He has brought them back to the land of Israel in modern times.  It is imperative that you prayerfully study the word of God yourself.  Truth is neglected in both the world and the Church.  Take care lest you be deceived (Matthew 24:4; Deuteronomy 11:16-17).  Don’t read into God’s word what isn’t there.

The arrogance of the arrogant against Israel have not learned their lessons, just as those left in Jerusalem didn’t learn their lessons.  The prophet spoke to them – Therefore say to them: Thus said the Lord: “You eat with the blood, you raise your eyes to your fetishes, and you shed blood – yet you expect to possess the land! You have relied on your sword, you have committed abominations, you have defiled other men’s wives – yet you expect to possess the land! (Ezekiel 33:25-26).  Those in the land had not learned the lessons; likewise, many in the Church have not learned the lessons, thinking they will be raptured out of trouble, leaving the Jews to face the great tribulation.  I don’t think that is going to happen.  Study God’s word and learn the lesson.  God said: “As I live, those who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and those in the open I have allotted as food to the beasts, and those who are in the strongholds and caves will die by pestilence.  I will make the land a desolate waste… (Ezekiel 33:27-29).  It reminds me of passages in the book of Revelation, sword, beasts, caves, and pestilence.  I know there are many that I will not reach, but I have tried to touch the spirit of those that want God in their lives. Note well, O mortal: your fellow countrymen who converse about you by the walls and in the doorways of their houses and say to each other and propose to one another, “Come and hear what word issues from the Lord.  They will come to you in crowds and sit before you in throngs and hear your words, but they will not obey them… They hear your words, but will not obey them.  But when it comes – and come it will – they shall know that a prophet has been among you (Ezekiel 33:30-33).  God has sent many messengers.  He sent His Son, and He has given us His written word.  Hear the word of the Lord.

I will be taking a break for a while.  If God is willing, I will return sometime in the future.

Blessings and shalom

Malcolm [13.05.2021]