HashKama: Violence and corruption – Lawlessness
“Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live! (Ezekiel 18:30-32). That is the message for today’s world too, and perhaps for many in the Church.
Doom is upon you (Ezekiel 7:1-12)
The focus of Ch.7 concerns the greatest task Ezekiel faced, which was to convince the people that the destruction of the Temple was imminent. To convey his messages, Ezekiel enlists all possible means – the use of symbolic acts; the borrowing of expressions familiar from the Torah; and the key word of leitmotif aimed at emphasising the word of the prophecy as a whole. In these verses there is the repeated word “ketz” (“end” or “doom”):
You, O mortal, [say:] Thus said the Lord God to the Land of Israel: “Doom is coming upon the four corners of the land. Now doom is upon you! I will let loose My anger against you… A singular disaster; a disaster is coming. Doom is coming! It stirs against you; there it comes! The cycle has come round for you, O inhabitants of the land; the time has come; the day is near. There is panic on the mountains, not joy. Very soon I will poor out My wrath upon you and spend My anger on you… Here is the day! See, the cycle has come round; it has appeared. The rod has blossomed; arrogance has budded… The time has come, the day has arrived” (Ezekiel 7:2-12).
As we approach the end of this age, experiencing the rapid decline into lawlessness, one can better understand the time that Ezekiel speaks of, and the period before the destruction of the Temple. Ezekiel’s words speak to us today; they convict and challenge us – do our lives conform to the will of God any more than those we are reading about? And, do we have a right understanding of what God is about to do. God is speaking to us that the time is at hand; doom is coming on the world in the form of a man. God has highlighted a word; a word that speaks into our lives that lawlessness prevails, and that lawlessness will increase throughout the earth; and a sign that the revealing of the Man of Sin is already under way. He is waiting in the wings, as the world is being made ready to receive him.
During the course of Ezekiel’s prophesies, he addresses the two flawed assumptions held by the exiles that caused them to dismiss his warnings. First, many prophets over the generations had spoken of the Temple’s destruction. The people had become accustomed to hearing such prophecies. Even if they bothered to think about it seriously, it was perhaps regarded at most as something that was theoretically possible, but not for any time soon. Ezekiel addresses this assumption in Ch.7. Second, despite the nation’s sins, the Temple still stood. And how could it be otherwise, lest God’s name be desecrated in the eyes of the nations? They were confident that God would deliver them out of their trouble, and that the Temple would not be destroyed, because the nations would think that God was too weak to protect His people and His Temple. It is this view that is confronted at the end of Ezekiel’s prophecy in Ch.7, as well as in Ch’s 8–11. How does one challenge preconceived ideas, particularly concerning popular, but false doctrine?
Doom
In 7:2-12, the word “doom” stares you in the face. It is repeated six times, and it is accompanied by a verb – “comes” – which also appears six times. There are also the expressions, “the time has come,” “it is near,” and “the day has arrived,” all having the same general meaning. Imminent doom is the crux of the prophecy, and is the difference between what the people were accustomed to hearing from the prophets – threats and warnings about the destruction of the Temple – and Ezekiel’s revolutionary message telling them, that the destruction is already underway. Ezekiel deliberately alludes to the story of the Flood. He does this by using the word ketz in conjunction with the expression “full of lawlessness [ḥamas] (7:23), just as they occur in Genesis (Genesis 6:11-13). It looks very much as though the link to the deeds that brought about the Flood is intentional, and it emphasises the chapter’s prophetic message: The sins of the generation of the Flood – the violence and corruption – led to God declaring, “I have decided to put an end [ketz] to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness [ḥamas]” (Genesis 6:13]. This is the condition the world will be in before its final destruction under God’s hand. The fact that the name of a particular group of Middle-East terrorists has been prominent in recent months is not accidental. God is drawing our attention to “ḥamas” in our time. We are fast approaching the time of “ḥamas,” spoken of by the Lord, the prophets and the apostles. As we have seen, Ḥamas = Lawlessness; so we might say that the Man of Lawlessness is the Man of Ḥamas. The terrorist group, Ḥamas (along with other Muslim terrorist groups with different designations, but the same violent intent and purpose [and nations such as Iran]) has designs on Israel, and Jerusalem in particular, as well as the annihilation of the Jews; and so does the Man of Ḥamas. We also know from this, that lawlessness speaks of violence and corruption throughout the earth. As in the days of Noah, the earth is becoming full of violence and corruption. Ezekiel illustrates for the exiles the inhabitants of Jerusalem’s reaction to the impending end – scenes of buying and selling… Luke 17:26-27, speaks of the end of the age in similar terms – as in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man – “People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all; and verses 28-30 likens it to the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left, fire and sulphur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. “It will be like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed;” that is, the Second Coming of Jesus. It is not the rapture that is imminent, it is the revealing of the Man of Lawlessness that is drawing near.
2 Thessalonians speaks of a time when the “restrainer” is taken out of the way. 2:7-8 states, “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the splendour of His coming.” Lawlessness prevailed leading to the destruction of the Temple, and again with the destruction of all flesh at the time of Noah, and lawlessness will prevail before the return of Jesus. With lawlessness the Lawless one, the antichrist will be revealed. The Church will be on earth, not in heaven, as it will be too when the Great Tribulation comes upon the earth.
In Ezekiel’s pre-destruction of the Temple prophecies (between the 5th and 12th years of the exile of Jehoiachin), the glory of God has already departed from the Temple. The Divine Presence is no longer within the City of Jerusalem. During the first six years of Ezekiel’s prophecy – from the time he begins to prophesy until the destruction of the Temple – there is no call to the nation as a whole to mend its ways and to repent. There could still be individual repentance; and the time is coming when this Gospel of the kingdom, which has been preached for two-thousand years, will have been preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14). Repentance and the call to choose life was proclaimed to the people before the destruction of the Temple
God speaks to us in Lots of Ways…
But, don’t read into His word what is not there. Lot leaving on the day destruction fell does not refer to the Church being raptured before the great tribulation. Don’t let foolish preaching fool you. We can learn a lot from Lot, but not that. In the Lot story, the angels came to Lot urging him to take his wife and two daughters and flee the city. When he delayed needlessly, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and daughters and brought them out of the city. God rained down sulphurous fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying both cities and annihilating their inhabitants. You might have heard about Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, in Canadian and American folklore. It is an ape-like creature that is purported to inhabit the forests of North America. There are Big Footprints all over planet earth that are not folklore, but they are signs that they belong to antichrist, and that he will soon be revealed. But as in Ezekiel’s day, people have heard it all before. They consider that if it is true, it is some way off in the future; and there is the false conception that the Church won’t be here anyway. Oh sure, some preach, we will face a bit of persecution, but when the big one is about to hit the earth, we will be sky-high out of it. Lot, in Hebrew, means “Covering” – From the verb לוט (lut), to wrap closely, to envelop (some suggest the name means, ‘veil’). Lot could also be related to Akkadian lâṭu, “control, keep in check.” The examples given in Luke refer to the conditions immediately preceding the Second Coming of Jesus, not to a pre-tribulation rapture.
The origins of the pre-tribulation rapture are well documented in books on the subject by an investigator by the name of Dave MacPherson. “The Incredible Cover Up” – “The Great Rapture Hoax” – and “The unbelievable Pre-Trib Origin” are three of his books in which he shares the history of how this doctrine developed and spread. He, of course, was and is attacked because of his books, and so are most people that speak out against this false teaching. If you want to know the history, read the books. If you want to know the teaching, study God’s word. In a church in 1830, a woman named Margaret MacDonald gave a pre-tribulation prophecy. The church was part of the “Closed Brethren.” J N Darby was part of the movement and he popularized the teaching. However, the pre-tribulation doctrine is like Eve’s response to the fruit in the Garden. It is appealing to the eye, and many are they that swallow it. The word of God refutes the pre-trib doctrine; and one day we will see it worked out in practice.
Ezekiel 13:10-16
Concerning the false prophets [in Judah] – “Inasmuch as they have misled My people” (13:10). Ezekiel uses a parable of a wall to depict them leading the people astray. These prophets build a wall, as it were, and beautify it on the outside. But, in fact, the wall is built without foundation, and will therefore crumble in a storm. It was pleasing to the eye, but would not hold up to intense scrutiny. Because it has collapsed under pressure, those who seek the wall will not find it; and its builders will be buried under the ruins. This refers to those who create false expectations among the people of God. Ezekiel describes the punishment that awaits false prophets: “I will throw down the wall that you daubed with plaster, and I will raise it to the ground so that its foundation is exposed; and when it falls, you shall perish in its midst; then you shall know that I am the Lord” (v.14). Judging from Ezekiel’s rebuke in 13:3-9, it appears that these prophets could have helped in contending for the truth against the lies being spread among the people, but instead: “You did not enter the breaches and repair the walls for the House of Israel, that they might stand up in battle in the day of the Lord” (13:5). This is what will happen in the approaching Day of the Lord too. The prophets had the potential to proclaim true prophecy from God to the people; but instead, like many preachers today, they chose to appeal to the eye and itching ears (2 Timothy 4:3). “My hand will be against the prophets who prophesy falsehood and utter lying divinations. They shall not remain in the assembly of My people, they shall not be inscribed in the lists of the House of Israel, and they shall not come back to the Land of Israel. Thus shall you know that I am the Lord” (v.9).
It is interesting that Ezekiel is considered by many to be the most difficult book in the Old Testament to understand, and so it is somewhat neglected; and that the book of Revelation is considered by many to be the most difficult book of the New Testament, and so pastors and teachers prefer to do no more than make reference to it. There are a number of parallels between the two books.
Ezekiel and Revelation Parallels
1. The throne-vision (Ezekiel 1………………………Revelation 4)
2. The scroll (Ezekiel 2:9-3…………………………..Revelation 5)
3. The four plagues (Ezekiel 5………………………..Revelation 6:1-8)
4. The slain under the altar (Ezekiel 6………………….Revelation 6:9-11)
5. The wrath of God (Ezekiel 7……………………….Revelation 6:12-17)
6. The seal on the saint’s foreheads (Ezekiel 9……….Revelation 7)
7. The coals [fire] from the altar (Ezekiel 10…………Revelation 8:5)
8. No more delay (Ezekiel 12…………………………Revelation 10:1-7)
9. Eating the scroll (Ezekiel 2………………………… Revelation 10:8-11)
10. The measuring of the Temple (Ezekiel 40-43……..Rev 11:1-2)
11. Jerusalem and Sodom (Ezekiel 16…………………Revelation 11:8)
12. The cup of wrath (Ezekiel 23………………………Revelation 14)
13. The vine of the land (Ezekiel 15……………………..Revelation 14:18-20)
14. The great harlot (Ezekiel 16, 23……………………Revelation 17-18)
15. The lament over the city (Ezekiel 27………………Revelation 18)
16. The scavengers’ feast (Ezekiel 39…………………Revelation 19)
17. The first resurrection (Ezekiel 37………………….Revelation 20:4-6)
18. The battle with Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38-39…. Revelation 20:7-9)
19. The New Jerusalem (Ezezkiel 40-48………………Revelation 21)
20. The River of Life (Ezekiel 47………………………Revelation 22)
There is more to the word ‘Hamas’ in Ezekiel. God willing, we will look at that another time.
Blessings and shalom
Malcolm [01.06.2021]
Thank you Malcolm. I appreciated the Ezekiel references very much.