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And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.

Ezekiel 35:12

Even now many are asking questions about where we are in Bible prophecy.  Over the last few days I have personally been asked that numerous times by every available method of communication.  Ezekiel is one book that does give us a possible picture of where we are prophetically.  It seems that several chapters in the book are actually in a chronological order of sorts.  Let's look at chapters 35 through 40 as a an example.  However, we must also remember that some of these chapters do have dual fulfillment.  In Ezekiel's day Idumea, also known as Edom or the descendants of Esau, was celebrating the destruction of Israel and literally taking the land that was left desolate as their own.  As we shall see, this same scenario replayed itself in the reformation of the nation of Israel--God's prophetic stopwatch of prophetic events.

Chapter 35 of Ezekiel paints a desolate picture of the land of Israel.  The once great cities are gone.  The mountains are laid waste.  The land is utterly worthless.  This is actually the very scenario seen in the land just over a century ago.  Furthermore, "Esau's descendants" were in the abandoned land claiming it as their own.  Of the waste and empty land, Mark Twain wrote in Innocents Abroad, "...A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds… a silent mournful expanse…. a desolation…. we never saw a human being on the whole route…. hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.”

In Chapter 36 God speaks life back into the land of Israel "which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about (v.4)."  Small groups of Jewish people began to return, and since the land and the people are united in blessing, the land began to blossom in time.  Below is a picture of Tel Aviv taken in 1909.  Notice the desolation in the background.  Yet, there is Idumea again waiting to swallow up the land on every side.  This chapter was and is still being fulfilled.

The Jewish Settlers who founded Tel Aviv in 1909

It was the tragic events, the literal dried bones of the Holocaust victims mentioned in Ezekiel 37, that brought about the rebirth of the state of Israel.  The UN, in its first action as a body, gives the people of covenant the right of return. Notice that the order of Ezekiel's prophecy is what happened exactly. The land began to revive as a few Jews returned, then came the Holocaust and the nation (people) returned. Soon the land and the dead language of Hebrew was all resurrected. However, like chapter 36, this is still being fulfilled as the Spirit of God has not yet saved them wholly. The greatest portion of this prophecy is still future.  There will come a day when the Holy Spirit will breathe life into the people, but until then they are like a body without life in Christ.

Tel Aviv Today

Chapters 38-39 are the Battle of Gog/Magog. This has not yet happened but we can see it forming all around us. One main point--if you look carefully at the nations involved, you will notice that they do not border Israel. They are the second tier nations, nations that border the Psalm 83 nations mentioned in the last post. What happened to the neighbors? More than likely, they are already destroyed. All one has to do is listen to Persia's (Iran) leader as he spouts his venomous hatred for the people of Israel today at the UN.


Chapter 40 deals with the reconstruction of the Temple. This is the return of Christ and the building of Millennial Temple.  As Hosea prophesied, “After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight (Hosea 6:2).” The “two days” of the church age are just about finished.  It is now time for the LORD to return and build that temple in His Millennial Reign. In amazing detail these chapters are in order and being fulfilled before our eyes.  Are you ready--we are in the midst of great and glorious prophetic events?  You are here!  You are near the coming of the LORD Jesus Christ.  He is Soon2Come.