(Ezekiel 28:20-26) (Vs.20) The word of the Lord came to me: (Vs.21) ‘Son of man, set your face against Sidon; prophesy against her (Vs.22) and say: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘“I am against you, Sidon, and among you I will display my glory. You will know that I am the Lord, when I inflict punishment on you and within you am proved to be holy. (Vs.23) I will send a plague upon you and make blood flow in your streets. The slain will fall within you, with the sword against you on every side. Then you will know that I am the Lord. (Vs.24) ‘“No longer will the people of Israel have malicious neighbours who are painful briers and sharp thorns. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign Lord. (Vs.25) ‘“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: when I gather the people of Israel from the nations where they have been scattered, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of the nations. Then they will live in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. (Vs.26) They will live there in safety and will build houses and plant vineyards; they will live in safety when I inflict punishment on all their neighbours who maligned them. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.”’
Jezebel was a witch and a practitioner of the occult who controlled King Ahab, persecuted and killed the true prophets of the Lord and tried to kill Elijah who stood against her and against the power of the occult that drove her life. Jezebel had 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah who ate at her dinner table (1 Kings 18:19). Jezebel was a Sidonian and the Sidonians were Canaanites. There is no doubt that a wicked powerful entity or principality in the unseen spiritual realm was controlling Jezebel and it’s foul purpose was to spiritually derail God’s people and to get them to worship demonic powers through worshipping the idols she had been propagating in Israel.
Today ancient Sidon is located in Lebanon the home of the terrorist organization Hezbollah. The Canaanites in the time of Moses and Joshua were steeped in the occult and idolatry was common place. When Israel entered the Land of Canaan led by General Joshua the armies of Israel were commanded by God to destroy the wicked cities because of the occult power of idolatry. The whole land was under the power of fallen principalities and powers in the atmosphere that worked through the idols people made. When people bowed down to physical idols they were in fact worshipping demons that had for centuries held a stronghold over the people of Canaan. The Word of God clearly states that idol worship is the worship of demons (Deuteronomy 32:16-17) (1 Corinthians 10:20).
We know from God’s Word that there are specific wicked entities in the unseen spiritual realm or principalities that rule over certain nations and these nations are enclaves of satanic power. We see these principalities mentioned in the prophet Daniel that were behind the thrones of Persia and Greece (Daniel 10:13, 20). Persia today is Iran and Greece, which in the original Hebrew is “Yavan” or “Ionia,” today is Turkey. Ionia was part of the eastern leg of the empire of Alexander the Great. Behind Iran and Turkey today these entities of principalities are still at work behind the scenes and the thrust of their activities is to destroy Israel. All of Israel’s immediate neighbours in the Middle East have past roots in occult power through idolatry. There are principalities at work in the Arab nations today and also in Gaza, Iraq, Syria and wherever you find Islam entrenched.
Now let’s briefly look at this prophecy from Ezekiel Chapter 28:20-26 concerning Ancient Sidon or Lebanon today in relation to Israel, the home of Hezbollah and undoubtedly the home of the same principality that was at work through Jezebel centuries before.
(Vs.20-22) “The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, set your face against Sidon; prophesy against her and say: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘“I am against you, Sidon, and among you I will display my glory. You will know that I am the Lord, when I inflict punishment on you and within you am proved to be holy.”
Whenever we read in the Old Testament that the Word of the Lord came to a prophet, it was the pre-incarnate Messiah our Lord Jesus before He was incarnated as a man. This is the same one of whom the Apostle John writes; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning…The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (John 1:1-2, 14). When we look at Lebanon today it is under the judgement of God because the government has allowed Hezbollah to flourish there and store up thousands of rockets and other armaments to use against Israel.
Just over a year ago now a huge explosion in the port of Beirut in Lebanon caused havoc in Beirut and the devastation from the blast is still visible today. At least 200 people were killed, and more than 6,000 injured in the Beirut blast that devastated the port area on 4 August 2020. The explosion is believed to have been caused by an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse obviously stored there by Hezbollah. Away from the broken grain silos, and their rotting contents, Lebanon remains paralysed and anguished.
Hezbollah are supported by Iran fighting a proxy war through them against Israel. Added to this, with Turkish forces now in Syria, with Iranian operatives also there and the Assad regime still in power Hezbollah in Lebanon would have a strong support if it decided to rain down a barrage of rockets upon Israel, more powerful than the ones used by Hamas in Gaza . If Hezbollah could regain the Golan Heights then they would be able to assemble their rocket and missile launchers to send their rockets into the cities and towns of Israel. Even now if Hezbollah decided to send in many rockets all at once the Iron Dome would not be able to intercept and destroy them all.
Over the last month or so there have been ‘rumblings’ within the Congress concerning $1 Billion in funding for the Iron Dome’s ongoing maintenance and development. The Israeli leadership seems confident that the funding will materialise but the situation clearly reveals that in the end America under the Biden Administration may not turn out to be the ‘friend’ and ally Israel things it is. Hezbollah undoubtedly is under the power and control of the same wicked principality that was behind Jezebel and these principalities have been around for a very long time and know what they are doing especially in their obsession to wipe Israel off of the map.
Through Israel God will reveal His glory and His holiness to the Lebanese people through dealing decisively with Hezbollah when He destroys their enclaves and wipes the whole bunch of these terrorists off of the map! God himself calls Israel “My Glory!” As the Lord says through the prophet Isaiah; “I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, For Israel My glory” (Isaiah 46:13). Those who touch Israel, even when God permits it, will themselves be destroyed because those who touch Israel touch “the apple of His eye” (Zechariah 2:8). Now let’s continue…
(Vs.23-24) “I will send a plague upon you and make blood flow in your streets. The slain will fall within you, with the sword against you on every side. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ‘“No longer will the people of Israel have malicious neighbours who are painful briers and sharp thorns. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”
A terrible judgement is coming to Lebanon because of its toleration of Hezbollah. Plague and blood are destined for Hezbollah and for all those there who hate Israel. Lebanon will see violence erupt on every side and even within Lebanon itself the slain will fall. Hezbollah may send rockets into Israel but Israel will respond and the Israelis are very good at warfare. When you look at Israel’s victories in the 1948, 1967, 1973 wars fought against their implacable enemies on all sides, it was miraculous because God was fighting for Israel and even to this day He is still fighting for Israel (Isaiah 31:5). God calls all of Israel’s enemies surrounding them on all sides as “malicious neighbours” being Islamic countries and as “painful briars and sharp thorns” that are to this day goading and wounding the Israelis.
Those who are afflicting Israel will know first-hand that God is the Sovereign God and Lord over all He has made and the one whom we know can do all things and that none of His purposes can be thwarted by man (Job 42:2). The Time of the Big Trouble still lies ahead for Israel but the Jewish remnant chosen by God’s grace will be saved out of it and serve and worship the Messiah our Lord Jesus when He reigns from Jerusalem (Jeremiah 30:1-10). And then we read…
(Vs.25-26) “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: when I gather the people of Israel from the nations where they have been scattered, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of the nations. Then they will live in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. They will live there in safety and will build houses and plant vineyards; they will live in safety when I inflict punishment on all their neighbours who maligned them. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.”’
Another exile is coming for the people of Jerusalem after the city has been ransacked by the invading armies of the nations. The prophet Zechariah tells us that half of Jerusalem’s inhabitants will go into exile while the other half remain in the city. After three and a half years the Lord Jesus will return to rescue Israel and destroy all of their enemies (Zechariah 14:1-5) after this the Messianic Age will commence (Zechariah 14:6-21).
Today God is regathering his people to Israel while they are still in unbelief in the Messiah and their appointment ordained by God to meet the Messiah will happen at Jerusalem. Many are coming back to Israel from the nations to which they have been scattered. Sadly there are still many who do not want to come back because they are living well in other countries. However, things are rapidly changing in the western democracies. In Europe and the United States and in Great Britain anti-Semitism is rapidly on the rise and many more of the Jews will be forced to go back to Israel. God has a pre-ordained meeting arranged for them to encounter the Messiah (Zechariah 12:10-14). God is achieving this return through applied pressure on His people because He keeps His covenants and will keep the one He made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give to the Jewish people that Land of Israel to be for them “an everlasting possession” (Psalm 105:8-11) (Genesis 17:8).
Even in wider western Christendom Replacement theology is running rampant through all of the main line denominations. Even in Evangelical Churches a separation is occurring between those who support Israel with those who don’t. The division is a growing fissure but it is going to become a chasm! Through His people Israel God is going to show the nations that He is a Holy God who has a people set apart to himself for His exclusive use and that all who refuse His sovereignty will suffer the consequences. After the Messiah has returned He will rule the nations with a rod of iron, and the global government will be upon His shoulders (Psalm 2:9) (Isaiah 9:6a).
His law will be the only law and the generation that is born in the Messianic age will need to know His laws and Commandments and know what the Messiah did for their salvation in the previous age.
As it is written; “In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law (the Torah) will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:2-3). We are also told in God’s Word “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
After the Messiah our Lord Jesus has returned the Jewish people who have been exiled in Islamic nations will return to Israel and all of the surviving nations at this time will know the reality of God’s Holiness and separation from all that is evil and that He punishes those who seek to usurp His righteous and just sovereignty (Isaiah 43:5-7) (Zechariah 10:8-10). No longer will anyone ever make them afraid again. As the prophet Micah proclaims; “And each man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, with no one to frighten him. For the mouth of the LORD of Hosts has spoken” (Micah 4:4). God’s people Israel will thrive and prosper and live in safety under the reign of the Messiah and the people of Israel will see the punishment God afflicts on those nations that have maligned them that survived the Messiah’s Second Coming.
Right now Lebanon is an enclave of Hezbollah Terrorists controlled by a wicked principality in the unseen spiritual realm, and a conflict will come between Israel and its Islamic neighbours and Hezbollah will also be a part of that conflagration. However, when the dust of battle finally settles after the Messiah has returned and all of Israel’s enemies have been defeated and Hezbollah no longer exists and the principality removed, Lebanon itself will be restored as it is a part of the land that God gave to Israel from the Wadi of Egypt to the River Euphrates and everything in between (Genesis 15:17-19).
God’s Word tells us that “The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon leap like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox” (Psalm 29:5-6).
Once the Lord has cut down the towering Hezbollah ‘Cedars’ in Lebanon and incarcerated the wicked principality in hell, the people of Lebanon will be free at last from tyranny and oppression and spiritually renewed in the Messiah. They will skip with delight as a new calf that has just been birthed or like a young wild ox unfettered because of the goodness and bounty of the Lord their God and most of all the Messiah Himself, who has redeemed them from all of their sins and enabled them at last to rejoice in their inheritance in Him. This is the future of Lebanon!
