Dry Bones, Armageddon, Temple and Restoration
Ezekiel 11
14 Then this message came to me from the Lord:
15 “Son of man, the people still left in Jerusalem are talking about you and your relatives and all the people of Israel who are in exile. They are saying, ‘Those people are far away from the Lord, so now he has given their land to us!’
16 “Therefore, tell the exiles, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Although I have scattered you in the countries of the world, I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile.
17 I, the Sovereign Lord, will gather you back from the nations where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel once again.’
18 “When the people return to their homeland,
they will remove every trace of their vile images and detestable idols.
19 And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them.
I will take away their stony, stubborn heart
and give them a tender, responsive heart,
20 so they will obey my decrees and regulations.
Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God.
21 But as for those who long for vile images and detestable idols, I will repay them fully for their sins. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”
Ezekiel 38 - Are We There Yet?
- Gog, Magog, Armageddon, End Times, Man of Lawlessness / Antichrist
1 John 2.18
Dear children, the last hour is here … (Go home and read the rest of 1 John 2)
1 Peter 4.7
The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of a sober mind.
Matt. 24.14
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
2 Peter 3
This is my second letter to you, dear friends, and in both of them I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory.
2 I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles.
3 Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires.
4 They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
5 They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water.
6 Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood.
7 And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
8 But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
11 Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live,
12 looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.
13 But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
Luke 17.32-33
32 Remember what happened to Lot’s wife! 33 If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.
- Why did she look back?
- Why are we looking back and around at everything except God’s promise of renewal?
Eldredge:
“Good Lord, people, we see in the scriptural account that the culture of the place (Sodom) included the routine gang-rape of newcomers. How does someone get used to such evil, acclimate to it, grow numb to its presence to overlook it for all the wonderful things the city otherwise offers?
You know the answer. You’ve been doing it all your life with this world we now inhabit. I mean, folks, take a look around. We turn our gaze away for understandable reasons, but this is a very evil age.
Remember Lot’s wife.
This has to be one of the most cryptic, sobering, and honestly unnerving things Jesus ever said. Ever.
To be fair, I think Lot’s wife had a sort of trauma bond with the city of Sodom. A trauma bond is a tragic tie that forms between an abuser and their victim. It happens when evil gets its hooks in you from living too close to it. In spite of those ties, in spited of every pull this world gains over us, Jesus is urging us, Do not look back. No divided hearts; no divided allegiances.’”
2 Thessalonians 2 (AMPLIFIED)
Now in regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to meet Him, we ask you, brothers and sisters,
2 not to be quickly unsettled or alarmed either by a [so-called prophetic revelation of a] spirit or a message or a letter [alleged to be] from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has [already] come.
3 Let no one in any way deceive or entrap you, for that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first [that is, the great rebellion, the abandonment of the faith by professed Christians], and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction [the Antichrist, the one who is destined to be destroyed],
4 who opposes and exalts himself [so proudly and so insolently] above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he [actually enters and] takes his seat in the temple of God, publicly proclaiming that he himself is God.
- If the Temple of God is only the temple that occupied Temple Mount in Jerusalem, we’ve got a loooong time before we have to worry about the man of lawlessness exalting himself in the temple of God.
- What Does the Bible Say About The Temple of God?
1 Corinthians 3
16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
17 God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
1 Corinthians 6
19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,
20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
2 Corinthians 6:15-17
15 What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?
16 And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said:
“I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
17 Therefore, come out from among unbelievers,
and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.
Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.
Ephesians 2
20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.
21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.
1 Peter 2
4 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.
5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.
Revelation 3
11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown.
12 All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write on them the name of my God, and they will be citizens in the city of my God—the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And I will also write on them my new name.
13 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
Ezekiel 37
The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones.
2 He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out.
3 Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”
“O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”
4 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord!
5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again!
6 I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons.
8 Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”
10 So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.
11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’
12 Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel.
13 When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the Lord.
14 I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken!’”
