(Ezekiel 28:24-26) “‘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. “‘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.’”
Introduction:
In Ezekiel Chapter 28 in the Bible we see the port cities of Tyre and Sidon linked. Tyre we are told had a ruler and a king. The ruler was the leader of Tyre and the king of Tyre was the unseen spiritual entity of power behind the throne, an entity operating over that geographical region (Ezekiel Chapter 28:1-19).
Historically Tyre and Sidon were conquered by Egypt, then by Assyria, by Babylon and by the Greek empire and finally by the Roman Empire.
In Ezekiel Chapter 28 from the prophetic perspective we see two persons or personalities described and their demise. The first ruler in Tyre foreshadows the Antichrist (Vss.1-10). The second king in Tyre foreshadows Satan Himself who will be personally dwelling in the Antichrist, also known in scripture as the man of sin or lawlessness and the one doomed to destruction (Vss.11-19) See also (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) See also (Daniel 11:36-37).
This unseen spiritual entity was behind Tyre’s ruler and controlling his reign and his accumulation of wealth and power. The common feature of these two described is pride which brought about their downfall (Vss. 2-5, 17). All of the ancient pagan empires, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome that ruled over nations and that attacked Israel were controlled by Satan’s principalities in the unseen spiritual realm.
We also see this described in the Book of Daniel where we see a prince or unseen evil entity or principality seeking to stop Daniel’s prayer from being answered (Daniel 10:12-13). So we read that besides a principality controlling Persia another principality of evil will be controlling Greece which would come after Persia had been defeated by the Greeks (Daniel 10:20).
It is interesting to note that the word for “Greece” in Hebrew is the world “yavan” or “ionia” which was part of the Middle-Eastern leg of Alexander the Great’s Empire. Today “ionia” would be located in modern day Turkey which is significant in relation to Biblical prophecy and the end-times or the last days (Revelation 2:13) (Daniel 10:14).
While in Ezekiel chapter 28 verses 1-19 relate to Tyre, verses 20- 23 relate to Sidon. In these verses we are told that Ezekiel was to set his face towards Sidon and to prophesy against this city.
God would gain glory by sending His judgement on Sidon, which occurred with all of the successive ancient empires already mentioned, so that the inhabitants of Sidon would know that He was the sovereign God who would inflict punishment on her in order to show Himself holy within her.
He would send plague and make blood flow in the streets of the city. The slain would fall within her, and the sword against her on every side with no escape. God Himself declared; “Then they will know that I am the LORD (Vs.23b). The context of this prophecy against both Tyre and Sidon is directly connected to how the militant inhabitants of these coastal cities in Lebanon are afflicting Israel today.
Down through history since Israel was birthed by God to be a nation exclusively for Himself, the Jewish people have suffered terribly at the hands of their immediate hostile neighbours and from the armies of the nations that came against them over the centuries because the Israelites disobeyed the LORD.
The final judgement came in 70AD with the sack of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple ending Biblical Mosaic Judaism. Finally there was the Bar Kokhba revolt which was a large-scale armed rebellion by the Jews of Judaea against the Roman Empire, led by Simon bar Kokhba.
It was the third and final major escalation of the Jewish–Roman wars. The revolt began in 132 AD and lasted until 135 or early 136 AD, ending in the total defeat of the Jews, the exile of the survivors and the levelling of the city.
Aelia Capitolina, was the city founded in 135 AD by the Romans built on the ruins of Jerusalem, which their forces under Titus, had destroyed in 70 AD. The name Judea was changed, after the Second Jewish Revolt (132–135AD), in honour of the emperor Hadrian.
It was the Romans that renamed the province of Judea as “Syria Palaestina” to destroy the Jewish identity in the region, which later was simply called “Palaestina”, a name derived from the Philistines, Israel’s ancient enemies. Under the British mandate the name came to be known in the Gentile nations as “Palestine.”
Of course we know from the Word of God that the name of the Holy land was “Israel” from the time when the Patriarch of Israel Jacob wrestled with the pre-existent Messiah before His incarnation. God personally changed his name from Jacob to Israel (Genesis 33:24-30; 35:9-10).
The Bible nowhere calls Israel ‘Palestine.’
There have never been a Palestinian people as such or a Palestinian nation. The people in Gaza are misplaced Arabs. Gaza in fact is part of Israel, the land given to the Jewish people by God. Where Israel is concerned God is into real estate! (Deuteronomy 1:8).
God mapped out the geographical boundaries that Israel was to possess (Genesis 15:17-21). This geographical region included the Saini Peninsula, Gaza, Judea and Samaria (the West bank), the Golan Heights, Lebanon and a portion of Syria up to the River Euphrates. It was in fact from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River and everything in between. The land of Israel is to be for the Jewish people as “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:7-8).
We also know from scripture and history that the LORD brought foreign pagan armies against Israel not to destroy them, but to bring them back to Himself after they had turned away from Him. Once these armies had served God’s purposes for Israel and His people had returned to Him, He got rid of them big time! After 70AD the Romans remained Israel’s conquerors because the Jewish nation by and large had rejected the Messiah our Lord Jesus. However, God had not finished with Israel and in 1948, after almost 2,000 years of exile, Israel as a nation was reborn in a day! (Isaiah 66:7-9).
Also we need to keep in mind that Satan has always sought to destroy Israel because he knows that God’s prophetic purposes for the nations of the world depends on Israel’s survival. In fact Israel is God’s prophetic time clock for the Gentile nations.
Today Israel has hostile enemies on all sides and is fighting a war on seven fronts with their immediate Islamic neighbours living in the whole Middle-Eastern region. The Jewish people (Israelites as the Bible calls them) are back in the Land, however, their full national restoration, and their complete spiritual restoration as a nation is still to come in the future (Ezekiel 37:1-10) (Zechariah 12:10-13:1).
Satan also knows that the Messiah our Lord Jesus would come from Israel and bring about Satan’s eternal defeat at the cross, a defeat which Satan knew about, not knowing the exact details of it, but knowing his defeat was certain, even from the judgement pronounced upon him by God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:14-15).
Hence, Satan has tried to exterminate Israel because he knows that the Second Coming of Messiah as King of the Jews depends upon Israel’s survival. In his twisted, deluded mindset he thinks he will succeed but he is already a defeated foe and doomed to the lake of fire forever! (Revelation 20:10).
Today there remains two principalities over the cities of Tyre and Sidon both of which are located in Lebanon, the home of Hezbollah supported by Iran. As for Iran, originally ancient Persia, there is still that one and the same principality over Iran’s regime today that was over ancient Persia that Daniel writes about.
Having said this now let’s look at our text as it is prophetic in nature and directly related the end times in which we are living today. Even though Israel is being attacked and maligned by most of the Gentile nations their future is certain because God without fail always remembers His covenants cut with His people Israel including the New Covenant cut with Israel by the blood of Messiah (Psalm 105:7-11) (Jeremiah 31:31) (Matthew 26:28) (Mark 14:24) (Luke 22:20) (1 Corinthians 11:25) (Hebrews 8:6-13).
In the following portion of the scripture we will now look at we will see that God has not finished with Israel!
(Ezekiel 28:24-26)
Exposition:
“‘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. “‘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.’”
Let’s now look at this passage of scripture…
“‘No longer will the people of Israel have malicious neighbours who are painful briers and sharp thorns.”
Today Israel as a nation is being attacked by malicious neighbours. You have Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, Egyptian forces assembling in the Sinai Peninsula, The Houthis in Yemen, the Syrian rebels under the regime of the Sunni Muslim Abu Mohammad al-Julani the ‘respectful’ terrorist in a suit and tie, whose “bloody butchers” are now controlling Damascus, killing their fellow Shiite Muslims, killing Christians, and wanting to attack Israel, not to mention the other terrorist enclaves in Syria and Iraq also hell-bent on Israel’s extermination. Then you have the Hamas supporters and terrorists operating in Judea and Samaria wanting to kill Jews.
Then you have Turkey, primarily a Sunni nation, supporting Julani’s regime. Of course Turkey has its cross hairs on Israel and even though at present Erdogan is facing civilian riots, it will be Turkey that will lead the Ezekiel 38 invasion.
In Ezekiel Chapter 38 you have the nations specifically named that will attack Israel (Ezekiel 38:1-6). Out of the eight nations mentioned five are located in modern day Turkey. We see these named on ancient maps of the Middle-East marked on the geographical region which today is Turkey. It will be Islam that leads these armies against Jerusalem joined by the armies of other non-Muslim nations (Ezekiel 38:6b).
In the current Anti-Israel climate spreading like gangrene through many nations in the western democracies including the United nations, the European Union, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and even within Russia and China, it is clear that Israel is becoming the target of the political establishment of these countries mentioned. The only nation willing to defend Israel is the United States under President Trump.
When we see Israelis being knifed, rammed at bus stops, running to air raid shelters because of missiles being launched at them, Jewish civilians in their cars being machine gunned on the road, the towns and Kibbutzim just over the border with Israel and Gaza and just over the border with Israel and Lebanon empty of Israeli civilians, it is clear that these immediate malicious malevolent Islamic Jihad minded neighbours are “painful briers and sharp thorns” for the Jewish people.
However, the LORD is going to deal most severely with the Islamic armies and the other non-Islamic armies of the nations that will fall in wholesale lots on the mountains of Israel because they have maligned, harassed and killed God’s covenant people, “the apple of His eye!” And so we read…
“Then they (Israel) will know that I am the Sovereign LORD. “‘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.”
We are told in God’s Word that the LORD is going to destroy Islam and wipe it out. God has prepared a sacrifice and that the blood of Islamic armies will be ‘crushed’ in the winepress of His wrath and flow outside of the city of Jerusalem for a 180 miles and as high as a horses bridle. In fact all of the armies of the Gentile nations that have joined in the invasion of Israel will also end up in the winepress of God’s wrath (Isaiah 63:1-6) (Joel 3:1-312-16) (Isaiah 34:2-10) (Revelation 14:17-20) (Revelation 19:11-21).
Another partial exile for the Jewish people is going to occur and after the city of Jerusalem has been ravished by Antichrist and his armies half of the Jewish people in Jerusalem will be taken out of the city to be resettled in Islamic nations but the other half will remain in the city.
However, the Messiah will go out and fight against those nations and at His Second Coming with the armies of heaven and His faithful saints His feet will once again stand on the Mount of Olives splitting it from east to west forming a huge crevice into which the remnant of Israel will flee for protection.
He will then take the fight to the armies of Islam and the nations gathered against Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:1-5). We are also told that Judah will fight at Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:14).
After the battle is won the Millennial Kingdom of Messiah will commence (Zechariah 14:6-21). The description of the demise of these armies is akin to the effects of a nuclear detonation (Vss. 12-13). See also (2 Peter 3:10-12). In Peters second letter where we read of “the elements melting in the heat” it describes a nuclear reaction or something akin to the splitting of the atom in the atmosphere.
When Israel sees what the LORD does to their malicious neighbours, they will know He is the sovereign LORD. After this, the exiles will return from the Islamic nations, and those nations that survive the Second Coming of Messiah will indeed see the holiness of God manifested in a redeemed Israel!
The LORD will re-gather His exiled people for the last time and bring them home to Israel (Ezekiel 36:24-28; 37:15-27) (Isaiah 43:1-7). God will have His spiritually purified remnant (Zechariah 13:8-9) (Isaiah 10:21-22). This will be the remnant of Israel chosen by grace according to God’s foreknowledge of all things (Romans 9:27). In that day “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25-27). “God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable! “ (Romans 11:29). In that day every Jewish man, woman or child still alive on earth will be saved. Not one will be lost!
They will return from Assyria (parts of modern-day northern Iraq, south-eastern Turkey, western Iran, and north-eastern Syria), from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush (Ethiopia or Sudan), from Elam (Iran) from Babylonia (Iraq) and from Hamath (Syria) and from the Islands of the sea (the nations of the world (Isaiah 11:10-12). All of the specific nations mentioned by name are all Islamic nations today. See also (Jeremiah 31:1-14). Finally we read…
“Then they (the Jewish people) 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.’”
God never reneges on His covenant promises to Israel or to the Gentile New Covenant believers spiritually grafted into the Olive Tree being the Commonwealth of Israel. The New Everlasting Covenant Cut in the blood of Messiah was not made with a Gentile Church but with the House of Israel and with the House of Israel (Jeremiah 31:31).
Gentiles who believe in Messiah are spiritually grafted into Israel and share in the blessings promised to Abraham and to Israel. This was always God’s intention (Amos 9:11-12) (Acts 15:12-21) (Romans 4:16).
In the Messianic kingdom Israel will live in safety with no one to make them afraid. They will build their houses and Kibbutzim and plant vineyards and live in safety when God inflicts punishment on all of their malicious neighbours who have maligned them.
In that day children will play in the streets, women will dance with their tambourines, houses will be rebuilt, vineyards will be planted, Air raid shelters demolished, the desert wastelands will bloom with vegetation, the old people will talk together in the cafes and market places, crime and sickness will be rare, and people will live to a very old age. They will know comfort and joy under the reign of Messiah. No one will ever make them afraid again.
As we read also in the prophet Ezekiel…
“‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. I will make them and the places surrounding My hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.
The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid.
I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. Then they will know that I, the LORD their God am with them and that they, the Israelites, are My people, declares the Sovereign Lord. You are My sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’” (Ezekiel 34:25-31). See also (Jeremiah 33:6-26) (Isaiah 66:17-25).
In that day when Israel dwells in safety and security free from malevolent malicious neighbours God Himself says; “They will know that I am the LORD their God.” Selah.
