Does God ever say, “Enough!” Well, he does, and when he does, it is never pretty. Yet, let’s face it. His patience is far greater and more longsuffering than ours. Think about it. You love your kids, right? But still, there is that breaking point when the word “Enough” seems to rise from your toes from total frustration. It doesn’t change your love for your child, but it does change how you relate to them in that moment, right?

God helped Ezekiel see his breaking point. Jerusalem was where he had stated his Name would dwell (2Sa 7:13). Now, due to Judah’s disobedience and spiritual rebellion, God was going to remove his presence from their temple. I’m sure this upset Ezekiel greatly, so God showed him why he was doing this. God took him on a spiritual vision quest.

Someone in likeness to whom he had seen earlier when God revealed himself to Ezekiel the first time (Ek 1) took Ezekiel to the temple in Jerusalem. God showed him the “idol that provokes to jealousy” which stood at the North Gate of the Inner Court of the temple. This is likely the image that Manasseh had erected here (2Ki 21:7). This is somewhat of a play on words, as God stated one of his names was Jealousy (Ex 34:14): “Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Yet, this is not the type of jealousy we think of or exhibit. This is the type where God was protective of his people and only wanted the best for them. This idol was certainly not the best for them. Yet, don’t we as well have idols in our lives which takes us away from our devotion to God?

God then led Ezekiel through a hole in wall of the inner court where Ezekiel saw priests worshipping all sorts of idols, paying homage to them with censers filled with burning incense. These priests believed God could not see them where they were. Isn’t this ironic. They are in his house and feel he can’t see what they’re doing. Yet, doesn’t our actions sometimes reveal we feel the same way?

Next, he took Ezekiel to the North Gate of the Outer Courtyard. Here, women were mourning for the god Tammuz. This was a Babylonian god who supposedly dies every winter and then comes back to life each Spring. Doesn’t this strike you as odd? They are worshipping the God of the people who are trying to conquer them. Did they think they would save themselves by pacifying the god of their conquerors?

The worship of Tammuz appears to date back to the time of Nimrod and the tower of Babel (Gn 10-11). This act of worship became so prominent that Tammuz became the name of the fourth month of the Jewish calendar (June/July of our calendar).

God then took Ezekiel to the entrance of the temple where twenty-five men stood with their backs to the temple as they stood facing east. They bowed to the sun rising in the east. This also seems to be part of the Tammuz worship as Tammuz was considered a sun god. Each of these acts, God considered more corrupt than the previous and stated he would not look on these people any more with pity (Ek 8:18).

Ezekiel then saw God’s glory move from above the cherubim, where his vision had seen God, to the threshold of the temple (Ek 9:3). God was in the process of showing Ezekiel he would remove his glory and presence from the temple where his Name was to dwell. The temple would then be ripe for conquest by the Babylonians. Six angelic beings came forward with weapons in their hands and appeared on the north side of the temple. This is interesting because this is now where the bronze altar, the altar of judgment, now resided since Ahaz had it moved here and placed a bronze altar of his own design at its original position in front of the temple entrance facing east (2Ki 16:10-14).

With these six angelic beings was one dressed in white who had a writing implement in his hand. This one went throughout Jerusalem placing a mark on the foreheads of those who grieved and lamented on what they saw being done at the temple. The six angelic beings then went throughout the city killing those without the mark. Ezekiel wept for them, but God again stated his pity had passed (Ek 9:10). While this was not real at this time as it was a vision given to Ezekiel, the armies of Nebuchadnezzar literally slew thousands of Jews in 586 BC when he took the city, which became a literal fulfillment of this vision.

The one on the sapphire throne above the cherubim spoke to the one dressed in white to take coals and scatter them through the city (Ek 10:1-2). The coals on the altar of incense were for incense to burn, representing the prayers of the people. God is saying he will hear their prayers no longer. God’s Shekinah glory then filled the inner court. It rose and moved to the threshold of the temple and then returned back to his place above the cherubim. This entire chariot of God’s glory next moved to the entrance of the eastern gate (Ek 10:18-19). It then traveled to the Mount of Olives and ascended back into heaven (Ek 11:23). This represented God’s presence had left the present temple and would not return until the Millennial Temple would be built (Ek 43:4-6; Zc 14:4). Ezekiel was then taken back to Babylon where he shared what God had shown him (Ek 11:25).

Is there a lesson for us here? I think so. While we expect God to be forgiving and longsuffering, which he is, he will not be that way forever. Just as Ezekiel and other prophets had prophesied coming destruction and captivity to give the people time to repent and turn back to God to avoid the prophecy, God’s word prophesies another coming time of destruction and catastrophe. Are we heeding his words? It’s time to turn our hearts back to him. That is our only hope. Will you take the journey back to him, or wait until the catastrophe hits?

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

The book of Ezekiel has a lot to do with us understanding Biblical prophecy. Many think Biblical prophecy only refers to what is in Revelation, but, believe it or not, there is more in the Old Testament about future prophecy than is in the New Testament. Ezekiel is a key book to our understanding of our future.

But first, we need to understand the time in which Ezekiel lived. Both Jeremiah and Daniel were contemporary prophets to Ezekiel, although Ezekiel was the youngest of the three. Daniel was ten years younger than Jeremiah, and Ezekiel was 6 years younger than Daniel. Ezekiel was born during the time of King Josiah, who was the last good king of Judah. Josiah became king when he was only 8 years of age. Over the next 12 years, he started making many reforms and instituted the largest celebration of Passover since the time of the prophet Samuel (2Ch 35:18). When Josiah was about 25 years of age, he started making significant temple repairs and discovered the book of The Law in the temple remains (2Ch 34:8-21). This was the time in which Ezekiel was born.

Ezekiel was born into a time of revival in Judah and Jerusalem. Since he was the son of a priest (Ek 1:3), he likely grew up with a full knowledge of who God was and of God’s significance not only for Judah, but for him personally. He was likely trained to be a priest after his father. When Ezekiel was 13 years of age, king Josiah went to fight King Necho of Egypt (2Ch 35:20). The reason for him doing this is not clear. Yet, the Scythians had ruled Palestine during the time of Josiah and they had good relations and allowed Josiah’s reforms to spread all the way to north of Galilee in Naphtali (2Ch 34:6-7). Because some of the Scythians had plotted with Babylon against the Assyrians, Josiah may have wanted to prevent King Necho from reaching the Assyrians to provide aid. More than likely, Necho wanted the Assyrians and Babylonians to annihilate each other so he could regain control of the area.

Josiah headed off King Necho and his army at Megiddo, the pass through the Carmel mountains as one comes up the Way of the Sea (2Ch 35:22). Yet, Josiah was wounded with an arrow, was taken back to Jerusalem, and died (2Ch 35:23-24). King Necho and his Egyptian army headed to Carchemish where the battle between Assyria and Babylon commenced. While Babylon conquered Assyria, Necho pushed the Babylonians back. Likely to show his dominance, and probably for spite, King Necho took Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, to Egypt and put Josiah’s eldest son, Eliakim as king and changed his name to Jehoiakim (2Ch 36:1-4).

It seems King Necho went back to Carchemish and was this time defeated by the Babylonians, through the skill of Nebuchadnezzar, and pushed Necho all the way back to the Egyptian border. Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and captured Jehoiakim. Yet, he was called back to Babylon because of the death of his father Nabopolassar. He therefore left Jehoiakim in charge put imposed taxation (2Ch 36:5-7). He also took many prominent people captive at this time—one of them being Daniel, who was likely 23 years of age at the time.

A few years later, Egypt and Babylon fight in Gaza. Although Babylon wins, they encounter heavy losses by the hand of Egypt. Jehoiakim then decides he will no longer pay taxes to Babylon. Three years later, Nebuchadnezzar returns to Jerusalem to collect his taxes. Before he arrives, Jehoiakim is killed by a raiding party, being thrown over the city’s wall (2Ki 23:2; Jr 36:30-31). His son, Jehoiachin, is made king, but reigns for only three months before Nebuchadnezzar arrives, who deposes Jehoiachin and made Josiah’s other son, Mattaniah, king and changed his name to Zedekiah (2Ch 36:9-10). Jehoiachin is taken to Babylon with about 10,000 other captives—one of whom was Ezekiel, being 25 years of age. So, Ezekiel is taken away from the temple before he was able to become a priest. Priests must be 30 years of age to be a priest (Nu 4:23).

Ezekiel is taken to a Tel-Abib, a place just south of Babylon on the Chebar canal which is a tributary of the Euphrates River. After being in captivity for five years, God gives him a vision and charges him to be a prophet to both those Jews in Babylonian captivity and to those Jews back in Jerusalem.

It is interesting that God revealed himself to Ezekiel when Ezekiel turned thirty, the age he would have begun his priestly duties at the temple if he was still in Jerusalem. God gave him an even greater duty—to be a prophet to the people he was to have served as a priest. He was still going to be serving them and pointing them to God in a way he never would have as a priest.

The same can be true for us as well if we are willing. While we have plans that seem to fail, if we trust in what God has for us, we may find he has something even greater in store for us than we could ever have imagined. Are you looking for that opportunity? That is what God is looking for. Have the right attitude and the willing heart and God will use you mightily. I wish you much success in your walk with the Lord.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Year of Prophecy: ©689 BC (Isaiah 45:1)

Year of Fulfillment: 539 BC (2 Chronicles 36:20-23; Daniel 5:30-31)

Time until fulfillment: ~150 years

The prophecy that Cyrus would defeat Babylon is an example of fulfilled Biblical Prophecy. To show how the amount of time passing between prophecy and fulfillment doesn’t matter, we will cover ten of such prophecies. This is the seventh of ten.

Cyrus II (also known as Cyrus the Great) was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire that continued for two centuries until the time of Alexander the Great. He inherited the throne at his father’s death, Cambyses I, in 559 BC and soon managed to unify the Median and Persian kingdoms into a single nation. Then, in 539 BC, he went after the kingdom of Babylon. Over the previous 14 years, Babylon had not had strong leadership, for its king Nabonidus had not been in the city during this time and he had left his son, Belshazzar, in charge of affairs in Babylon (Dn 5). Nabonidus had also fallen into disfavor with the Babylonian priesthood. Cyrus attacked Opis on the Tigris River defeating the Babylonians and causing Nabonidus to flee and later return to Babylon.  This gave Cyrus control of Babylon’s vast canal system. According to Herodotus, Cyrus had the Euphrates River, upriver from Babylon, diverted enough to cause the water level flowing through Babylon to drop to the height of one’s thigh and enabled the Persian army to march through the riverbed into Babylon during the night and capture the city. Cyrus himself entered Babylon shortly thereafter and proclaimed himself “king of Babylon.”

The prophet Isaiah predicted this long before it ever occurred. Isaiah was a prophet during the reigns of the Judean kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Is 1:1). He began his ministry around 740 BC and may have lived into the first part of the reign of Manasseh.  Isaiah prophesied to both Israel and Judah. The main world influence during the time of Isaiah was the Assyrian Empire. The main subject of the first 12 chapters of the book of Isaiah is the prophecy of the demise of Israel by Assyria in three stages.  Although Isaiah warned, Israel did not heed. Then, starting in chapter 13, Isaiah turns to Judah and predicts the punishment of Judah for the same reasons God allowed the destruction of Israel by Assyria. The interesting thing about the prophecy against Judah is that Isaiah prophesied the overtaking of Judah by Babylon and the demise of Babylon long before Babylon was anything to write home about. It was another century before Babylon came onto the world scene as a nation with which to be reckoned. Not only did Isaiah predict the invasion of Judah by Babylon almost a century before it occurred, but he then predicted that Judah would return to their homeland and by whom it would occur. This definitely shows that God is in control of all situations. The prophet Jeremiah would later prophesy that Babylon would take Israel captive for 70 years under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar (Jr 25). However, Jeremiah was not very specific in what would happen to Israel at the end of this 70-year period. He states that Babylon will be punished and enslaved by other nations, but not specifically about Israel’s return. By Isaiah giving specific prophesy about Israel’s return and under whose reign it would happen, it gave the people hope and assured them that it would occur—especially to those who were keeping track of the years of captivity. This must have been very exciting to Daniel when he realized that he was living during the time of fulfillment of these prophesies by Jeremiah and Isaiah (Dn 9:1-2).

This should be exciting to us as well. Why? It means whatever God has recorded in His Scripture will come to pass and we can be sure of it. Do you know what promises you can claim? Maybe it’s time to read and find out.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Year of Prophecy: 606 BC (Jeremiah 29:10)

Year of Fulfillment: 536 BC (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4)

Time until fulfillment: 70 years

The prophecy that Babylonian captivity would last 70 years is an example of fulfilled Biblical Prophecy. To show how the amount of time passing between prophecy and fulfillment doesn’t matter, we will cover ten of such prophecies. This is the sixth of ten.

This prophecy of Jeremiah was actually made by him in 597 BC when he wrote a letter to the 10,000 captives that had been taken captive with Jehoiachin (2Ki 24:14) to tell them to plant gardens because they would be in Babylon a long time—70 years to be exact (Jr 29:10). However, 8 years earlier (605 BC), Nebuchadnezzar had fought with Necho, king of Egypt at the battle of Carchemish, and defeated him making Judah a Babylonian vassal state (2Ki 24:1) and took captives to Babylon (Dan 1:1-5). This was the beginning of captivity that Jeremiah used for his timetable. In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, Cyrus decreed that the Jews could return and build their temple in Jerusalem (2Ch 36:22-23; Er 1:1-4). This occurred in 537 BC. This difference in years from the battle of Carchemish to Cyrus’ decree is 68 years by simple subtraction. However, one must take into account the Jewish way of counting years. After leaving Egypt, Israel began having their year start in the spring (Ex 12:2; 13:3-4) but the practice of sabbatical years started in the fall (Lv 25:1-4) with the count starting from the Day of Atonement in the seventh month of the year (Lv 25:8-9). Most nations had their king’s years start in the spring and is how Jeremiah states that the battle of Carchemish occurred in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jr 46:2); however, Daniel states he was taken captive in the third year of Jehoiakim (Dn 1:1). Since both events occurred within the same year, this seems a discrepancy. Both would be correct if Jeremiah was counting the king’s year starting in the spring and Daniel from the Jewish perspective of the fall. It is highly likely that Daniel was counting the years according to the sabbatical year system since God had stated that Israel would be in Babylonian captivity a year for each sabbatical year not observed (2Ch 36:20). Therefore, the beginning of the year Daniel was taken captive would be in the fall of 606 BC. The Israelites settled back into Jerusalem after Cyrus’ decree in the seventh month (Er 3:1) and the official end seems to be the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles (Er 3:1-4). Since this feast is after the Day of Atonement, it would put them into the following year according to the sabbatical year counting system. Therefore, from the Israelite captivity by Nebuchadnezzar during the reign of Jehoiakim until the official consecration of being back into their homeland after Cyrus’ decree was indeed 70 years.

I think this helps us with two things. First, God is sure to keep his promises even when they seem impossible, or people forget about them. Second, “discrepancies” that are claimed to be in the Bible are actually not discrepancies at all when one understands all the details. We can rely upon God because he is indeed faithful (1Co 1:9).

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Year of Prophecy: © 701 BC (Isaiah 39)

Year of Fulfillment: 586 BC (2 Kings 25; 2 Chronicles 36:15-19)

Time until fulfillment: ~115 years

The prophecy of the captivity of Judah by Babylon is an example of fulfilled Biblical Prophecy. To show how the amount of time passing between prophecy and fulfillment doesn’t matter, we will cover ten of such prophecies. This is the fifth of ten.

As was noted in a previous post, even before this prophecy, Joel prophesied against Judah regarding the invasion by Assyria. Not long after the Assyrian conquest of Israel, the Assyrian general Sennacherib (the son of Sargon II) came to power in 705 BC and attempted the invasion of the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 701 BC (130 years after Joel’s warnings). King Hezekiah of Judah attempted to buy him off with approximately 11 tons of sliver and 1 ton of gold, even stripping off the gold from the doors of the temple to obtain it (2Ki 18:13-16). Instead, this just made the king of Assyria want more and within two years returned to Jerusalem knowing that Hezekiah was building an alliance with Egypt. The key to this Assyrian attempt being unsuccessful was Hezekiah turning the problem over to God. Hezekiah’s prayer for victory was so that “all the kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God” (2Ki 19:19). In response, God smote 185,000 of the Assyrian army causing Sennacherib and the remainder of his army to return to Nineveh (2Ki 19:35-37). In Sennacherib’s personal account, there is no mention of the capture of Jerusalem, just the ancillary conquests and tribute.  But, of course, no mention of the defeat. Therefore, by this act of Hezekiah, Judah and Jerusalem never succumbed to Assyria.

Not long thereafter, Hezekiah had a fatal illness (2Ki 20) and Hezekiah prayed that God would heal him. God sent word through the prophet Isaiah that Hezekiah’s request had been granted (Is 38:4-8). Then, Merodach-Baladan of Babylon sent an envoy to Hezekiah to wish him well after his recovery (2Ki 20:12). Hezekiah received them and showed them all he had. When Isaiah heard of this, he told Hezekiah that one day everything Hezekiah and his descendants had would be carried to Babylon (2Ki 20:16-18; Is 39).

The Chaldean (or Neo-Babylonian) empire grew in power and eventually overthrew the Assyrian empire in 612 BC as prophesied by the prophet Nahum. The main power came when Nabopolasser became king in 626 BC and brought Babylon to world renowned status regaining control over Mesopotamia. During this time of the conflict between Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt, the kingdom of Judah became the pawn. Josiah tried to take the opportunity to gain back territory taken from Judah, but was defeated in a battle with Necho, king of Egypt (2Ki 23:29-30; 2Ch 35:20-26). King Necho deposed Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, caring him off to Egypt where he died, and made his brother Eliakim a puppet king, changing his name to Johoiakim (2Ki 23:31-35). Judah thus became a tribute state to Egypt. In 605 BC, Nabopolassar’s son, Nebuchadnezzar, defeated Egypt and completed the Chaldean dominance of the known world, and Judah then became a tribute state to Babylon (2Ki 24:1). However, when the Babylonians suffered a defeat in 601 BC, Jehoiakim defected his alliance back to Egypt. Jehoiachin became king of Judah after his father died and at the same time Nebuchadnezzar mounted an offensive against Jerusalem. Jehoiachin surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC. Nebuchadnezzar plundered the city and temple, took Jehoiachin captive, and made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king, changing his name to Zedekiah (2Ki 24:17). Nine years later, Zedekiah rebelled, and Nebuchadnezzar returned in 588 BC, besieged the city for 2 years, and caused its utter defeat in 586 BC, burning and plundering the city (2Ki 25).

During this time, God made several attempts through various prophets to get the people to repent and turn back to him and not suffer the fate of this judgment; however, they would not listen (2Ch 36:15-17). King Zedekiah treated many of these prophets harshly and accused them of treason (Jr 37:9-21) and not being patriotic (Jr 38:4-6). It is never a question of if God will fulfill his promise, but when.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens