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There are some key issues and applications from the time I spent in Daniel and other parts of Bible prophecy since January 9th this year that I did not delve into, but will briefly do so beginning with this post and all to follow through April as a wrap up.1 As the Lord leads and yet another tyrant on the world stage seeks “dominion and territorial expansion through conquest” coinciding with what I wrote during a February post,2 I write to warn him (and all that will follow his course) that earthly kings are ruled over by Almighty God and answerable to Him! This was the lesson the king of Babylon had to be repeatedly taught by Daniel and his three companions until he apparently finally learned it.
King Nebuchadnezzar made the mistake of arrogant pride many kings and evil tyrants before and after him have made to believe just because he conquered Judah, captured its citizens and took property including religious “articles” back to Babylon where he put them in “the treasure house of his god,” that somehow he had also defeated Judah’s God (Daniel 1:1-2, NKJV). But nothing could be infinitely further from the truth as God gave him a dream he had to depend on Him through His vessel Daniel to interpret because neither he nor any of his staff of Babylonian “wise men” could. The dream showed God’s Kingdom is greater than all others of men (Daniel 2:1-28, NKJV)!
“Prostate before Daniel,” king Nebuchadnezzar confessed ‘“Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings…,’” (Daniel 2:46-47, NKJV). The king was humbled again when he exalted himself with an image and decreed that all of his subjects bow to and worship it. But the refusal of Daniel’s three friends to do so and God’s deliverance of them from the consequence elicited the following response from the king: ‘“Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s word…,’” (Daniel 3:28, NKJV). From what happens next, clearly the king still had not learned his lesson.
Chapter four of Daniel presents king Nebuchadnezzar’s own testimony of what happened to him after God gave him a dream about his great pride and the consequence Daniel plainly interprets to him, but which he ignores (Daniel 4:1-33). After living as a mad man convinced he was a beast that ate grass like an ox for a time as foretold, the king’s sanity was restored by God and he had a new attitude (Daniel 4:34-36)! Indeed, he testified: ‘“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down,’” (Daniel 4:37, NKJV). A later king learned the hard way too (Daniel 5).3
Since all of the foregoing is common Sunday School instruction throughout Christendom, it is certain Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, who professes to be a Christian is aware of how God, the King of Heaven brings down the pride of earth’s kings as testified to by the king of Babylon over 2,500 years ago. Therefore, in accord with this biblical instruction, I urge the Russian Orthodox Church leaders Mr. Putin respects to advise him to repent, cease his war of pride and conquest against Ukraine and withdraw. Nevertheless, such men filled with the spirit of conquest will continue4 to the end when the Antichrist who makes no pretense whatsoever of reverencing God, the King Heaven, will war against Him and be soundly defeated (Daniel 8:23-25, 9:27cd; Revelation 6:1-2, 19:11-21)!
1 See the posts that begin January 9 through March 6, 2022.
2 Read the February 13, 2022 part one of the two-part post, War Of The Ages End, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
3 Why are we men so filled with pride and stubborn about it to the point it takes repeated humiliating lessons for God to finally break us? Such is the power of sin in us! Get my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to learn the provisions God has made to help men overcome our stubborn pride through Christ Jesus. It is available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
4 Truly, Mr. Putin’s war of conquest and desolations upon Ukraine is a preview of things to come and sign professed Christians should take to heart and prepare! Or will you be as Israel’s religious leaders who refused to see the plain signs of Messiah displayed in Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 16:1-4)? Please also note in this preview no “rap- ture” has occurred to remove Ukrainian believers from what to them is surely great tribulation! This is because the Lord declares He comes right “after” the actual “great tribulation” to “gather together His elect,” (Daniel 11:40-45; Matthew 24:15-22, 29-31, NKJV).
The Lord led me to specifically mention the prophet Ezekiel as a contemporary of and fellow captive with Daniel in Babylon during the seven weeks I spent working through Daniel chapter nine beginning January 9th this year.1 Ezekiel was taken to Babylon in 597 B.C. eight years after Daniel during the second of three waves in which the Babylonians came and took Jews along with their king, Jehoiachin, from the kingdom of Judah captive (2 Kings 24:8-16; 2 Chronicles 36:9-10). Ezekiel was a priest preparing to serve when his life plans were dramatically altered by the captivity. He, like Daniel, became a slave of God for His cause and glory as has been my own experience.
By Ezekiel’s own dating statements in the text, in 593 B.C. during the fifth year after the king’s captivity and most likely his thirtieth year of life, while “among the captives by the River Chebar” the spiritual realm was suddenly opened up to him and he saw “visions of God,” (Ezekiel 1:1-3, NKJV).2 Until that moment, Ezekiel had his non-distinct place among all the other captives of Babylon that were living at the pleasure of its king. As I wrote in last week’s post examining Daniel and his three friends with a cushier existence in the “big house” of the king, Ezekiel too, with all others not so well off would have experienced the trauma and demoralization of their plight (Psalm 137).3
Evidently, gathering near waterways was a permitted and popular thing to do since both Ezekiel in the opening of his book and Daniel in his are among those that gather at them. Both men also have awesome encounters with God and angels as visions in their river settings (Ezekiel 1:4-28; Daniel 10:4-12). Whatever despair Ezekiel had from being a captive in Babylon was quickly eclipsed by the sudden and overpowering opening up of the unseen spiritual realm to him. It presented an abundance of unfamiliar sights and sounds, creatures as well as images of Heaven and God so vivid, he describes them in detail as best as any mortal human language can convey.
This all happened to a man awestruck beyond words who had previously only hoped to be a priest of the Lord at His Temple! However, he did not need to speak because the “One” who had given Ezekiel this great vision garnering his rapt attention now, spoke to him of His calling to serve Him as His slave in Babylon. Ezekiel would be the Lord’s prophet to his fellow captives He describes as ‘“a rebellious house’” to speak His words to them which they would not give heed (Ezekiel 2-3:15, NKJV). Moreover, the Lord returned seven days later and added ‘“watchman’” to Ezekiel’s calling in which he was to hear ‘“a word from’” God’s ‘“mouth’” and warn the people (Ezekiel 3:16-21, NKJV).
After this, the Lord sent his watchman/prophet ‘“into the plain’” to speak with him further about his ministry that would prove to be as challenging for him in the physical as processing everything he had seen in the spiritual realm. For God through the Spirit in him would command Ezekiel to do many strange and dramatic things as well as make him ‘“mute’” at times. This was all to cause his fellow captives to question his conduct and when God directed him, give them His answers (Ezekiel 3:22-27, NKJV). Much of the content of his dramatic portrayals, prophesying and warnings consisted of God’s reasons for the captivity as judgment and calls to repentance (Ezekiel 4-24, 33-34:10).
Interspersed with reasons for His judgment and calls to repentance, God also foretells His plans to restore Israel in the future (Ezekiel 11:14-25, 20:33-44, 34:11-31, 36-48). As well, He announced judgment on the surrounding Gentile nations who gloated over them and the evil spiritual mastermind behind those nations that was once His chief cherub, but fell (Ezekiel 25-32, 35). This was the incredible prophetic ministry of Ezekiel he records in his book after any hope of serving at the Temple in Jerusalem was fully dashed when it with the city was destroyed by his captors as later confirmed by a surviving escapee and foretold by God (Ezekiel 7:20-27, 21:1-7, 24:1-2, 15-27, 33:21-29).
Exemplary of Ezekiel as a slave of God was his obedience; only once objecting to a command from God on how to cook his food in the first of his dramatic portrayals. He objected honoring God’s already written Word he had obeyed from his youth (Ezekiel 4:9-17). He also remained obedient in the most difficult of human experiences, the death of a spouse which God told him of in advance; commanding that he not grieve for her and incorporate this into yet another dramatic portrayal to his fellow captives (Ezekiel 24:15-18). His obedience was like unto Christ as God’s slave (Philippians 2:5-8)!4 Like Him and Daniel too, Ezekiel was humble and content in his own service; showing no sign of jealousy when God exalted Daniel with other righteous men (Ezekiel 14:12-20).5
God repeated His calling of Ezekiel to be His watchman/prophet in Ezekiel 33:1-9. This passage has also served as the scriptural basis for my similar ministry from Him among rebellious professed Christians and their churches beginning formally in the spring of 1986.6 While the Lord has not had me act out any messages, through Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. He has used me to write, creatively produce and declare those He has given using many media tools such as printed materials, publications, radio, television, billboards, a play and the internet to blow His trumpet of warning. With His leadership, grace and strength I have endured in His causes to this hour seeking His glory; defining success by the example of Ezekiel’s faithful obedience as a slave of God!
1 See the two-part post that starts January16, 2022, Arriving At These Times, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Call To Repent.
2 The expression, “the heavens were opened” with a key emphasis on “opened,” powerfully communicates the ability of mortal men granted by God to see into and experience things in the otherwise cloaked, closed like a curtain or door unseen spiritual realm that surrounds and fully suffuses our physical universe. So, throughout the Bible mortal men are made to “see” as did for examples, the servant of Elisha after he prayed for the Lord to “open his eyes,” John the Baptist who “saw the Spirit descending from hea- ven” upon the Lord Jesus and the apostle John who was summoned up through “a door standing open in heaven,” (2 Kings 6:15-17; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:29-34; Revela- tion 4:1, NKJV). As with Ezekiel, their experiences were all amazingly real though, of the invisible spiritual realm!
3 Read the February 27, 2022 post, Daniel: Slave Of God, under the categories Biblical Worldview and Black History Month.
4 The obedience of Ezekiel (how fitting his name means “God strengthens”) perfectly seen in Jesus Christ is also to characterize the aspiring strong man of God in His image I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
5 Unlike the biblically forbidden divisions, envy, petty jealousies and competition among many Christian leaders today (1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 3-4, 12-13), Ezekiel surely es- teemed Daniel who had already become well known throughout Babylon for his righteousness and wisdom God had given to him before his arrival. These two godly men in the same circumstances of captivity were used similarly and mightily in the prophetic ministry by God, but among different audiences (Galatians 2:1-10). Though Ezekiel cried out and saw judgment from God upon his people, he still cared for them (Ezekiel 9:3-8). And though Daniel served kings, he did not forget where he had come from; the stock and people from which he had been cut and identified with until the end (Daniel 9:16-19). As with Daniel’s book, Ezekiel’s will also remain relevant through the re- turn of Christ to the very end of His millennium reign and this present age (Ezekiel 38; Revelation 20:7-10)!
6 Read the October 2, 2016, Gifted With A Prophet’s Heart, under the category, Call To Repent. Also, beginning November 13, 2016, the three-part post, Without Honor In The Churches, under the category, Glory To God! Finally, under the same category, read the April 30, 2017 post, God, His Prophets And Word.
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