Episode 9 - Transcript

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Black Swan Rising Podcast. I'm your host, Michael B. Rush. Well, I am doing this broadcast with a new microphone. It's one of those head-mounted ones that uh holds the microphone in a fixed position to my mouth, regardless of where I'm turning my head. So hopefully this resolves the issue that some of you have been complaining about in prior episodes. Well, let's jump right into it. By way of review, we've spent the last couple of episodes talking about the Antichrist, talking about the beast, and some of the incredible trials that they are going to bring about upon the world, and the deceptions and lies and miracles and things that will make those days so challenging. Yeah. Daniel, you'll recall in uh Daniel chapter 12, verse 1, says that these days will be more challenging than any time since there was a nation. Now, if half of the things that we've spoken of in the prior episodes are true, then you can certainly understand why Daniel would say something like that. Now, if the Lord is going to allow so many incredible challenges and deceptions and trials to come upon the saints in the last days, it stands to reason that he is also going to prepare a way for our deliverance. And that is what we are going to talk about today. And this is a big topic, so it's probably going to take more than one episode to get through it. Because outside of that understanding, you simply cannot comprehend what the Lord is about to do. Therefore, we need to talk about the house of Israel. So, as I mentioned on a prior episode, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the House of Israel is very relevant. Now, we believe that the House of Israel is comprised of three separate nation states. If you look back at the history of Israel, originally it started out as one kingdom. But after Solomon became a doofus and introduced the worship of the Queen of Heaven because he began, you know, marrying all of these women from surrounding kingdoms, the Lord told him that he was going to divide the kingdom. And that's what he did when Solomon died, his son Rehoboam remained king in Jerusalem, but the other tribes of Israel broke away and formed a separate nation known as the northern kingdom of Israel. And so you had two separate nation states at that point in time. And it continued that way until about seven twenty BC when Assyria came in and wiped out the northern kingdom of Israel. And since that period of time, they have become known as the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. But there are extensive promises and prophecies that speak of the day when the ten tribes will be restored. And according to the book of Jeremiah, when that restoration occurs, it will rival the exodus of Egypt in both wonder and power. Now that is a really impressive statement to make because you look throughout all the scriptures, you would be very, very hard-pressed to find a list of miracles that could rival those of the Egyptian Exodus. I mean, the Red Sea was divided in half, the house of Israel walked through on dry ground, then it closed back in upon the armies of Pharaoh. Fire fell from the sky, you had the fur, you know, all the firstborn of Egypt died, the Nile turned to blood, you know, there were all of these incredible plagues that you know were astonishing. So according to Jeremiah, and he says this multiple places in Jeremiah, that this restoration of the lost ten tribes will rival the exodus of Egypt. So that is very, very interesting. Well, around 600 BC, we believe, and when I say we, I mean the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, believes that there was a portion of the house of Israel, particularly from the tribe of Joseph, that was led by the hand of the Lord to come to the Americas. And over in the Americas, they created a separate nation state from, you know, that was that consisted of the tribe of Joseph. So that's where we get these three separate nation states. Furthermore, we believe that all three of these separate nation states had their own scriptural records. You have, you know, the Bible includes some of the prophecies that were had amongst the northern kingdom of Israel, but not all of them. And we believe that the day will come when the northern kingdom of Israel is restored in its entirety, that their scriptural record and the dealings of the Lord with them since seven hundred BC will be restored as well. And we believe that the tribe of Joseph over in America had their own scriptural record as well, and that scriptural record is the Book of Mormon. Now I say these things because I really believe that unless you understand the three separate nation states that have comprised Israel in antiquity and the promises that all three of those nation states would be restored in the reverse order in which they were destroyed, it will be very hard for you to understand fully the relevance of the house of Israel to the events of the last days. Now, a lot of what we have been talking about so far has come from the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is probably the most explicit book when it comes to talking about the Antichrist and the beast. But few people realize the extent in which the book of Revelation is based off and models the book of Ezekiel, particularly the first twelve chapters of Ezekiel. And I believe that if we are to understand what is about to happen in the last days, we need to understand the imagery that Ezekiel was using to describe what was going to happen to the Jewish nation state, because the book of Revelation draws upon that same imagery. And if we understand what actually happened in the book of Ezekiel in the first 12 chapters, we will be able to better understand what is about to happen on the earth in these last days. So I'd like to start out this episode by reviewing the first 12 chapters. I'm not going to go through and read all of these. That can be something that you do, and I highly recommend that you do. But starting out in Ezekiel chapter one, we have perhaps one of the oddest chapters in the Bible. It's this incredible vision, and Ezekiel has this vision twice. He has it once in chapter one, and then again in chapter ten, so where he's seen very similar things. And so this is very important. When things happen multiple times, you can bet your bottom dollar that there is significance to what is being seen. So what did Ezekiel see in Ezekiel chapter 1? Well, he saw the heavens apparently look as if they were ablaze with fire. And descending out of these clouds that looked like they were literally fire enfolding in upon itself, he sees these four burning wheels and he describes them as being wheels within a wheel. But they weren't rolling. He says that they were going about on their four sides, meaning, you know, if if you take a wagon wheel and instead of rolling it, you lie it on its side, you know, like kind of like a frisbee. He said that these wheels were moving on their four sides. So they were moving through the air like frisbees. And he said that he saw them descend from the heavens to the earth, and that out of these wheels came what he describes as being four living creatures. Now he stated that these living creatures had four faces: the face of a man, the face of an ox, the face of a lion, and the face of an eagle. And he explicitly stated that these creatures were filled with eyes and that they had wings. Now we need to stop and just talk about this a little bit because clearly these living creatures are symbolic. I do not believe that God would create a creature that had the face of a man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle on it, and then cover the whole thing with eyes and give it wings. I just don't think that that would fly. However, when you look at the history of the house of Israel, these things jump right off the page at you because according to Jewish tradition, the four faces of these living creatures correspond with the four camps of Israel's enzymes. Now, you may recall that when Moses was guiding the children of Israel through the Sinai wilderness, that he divided them into four camps, and these four camps encircled the tabernacle of the congregation. There was a camp, the camp of Judah was on the east side, and the camp of Joseph was on the west side, and Judah's enzyme was a lion, which is you know why in the book of Revelation it refers to Jesus Christ as the Lion of Judah. And then on the west side, Joseph's banner was an ox. And there's also some passages in the Old Testament that refer to Ephraim being an ox in reference to this enzyme. Now on the north and south of the tabernacle of the congregation, you had the camps of Dan and Reuben, and their enzymes were that of an eagle and the silhouette of a man's head. So when Ezekiel is seeing these living creatures that are coming out of these wheels, each of these living creatures has its own wheel, it's symbolic of the house of Israel coming out of these flying wheels. Now, Ezekiel says that these wheels were able to move as fast as lightning, and that he was terrified by how quickly they went from the earth up into the heavens. Here, I'm going to read you just a couple of verses that describe these wheels. Okay, this is Ezekiel chapter 1, verses 16 through 18. The appearance of the wheels and the their work was likened to the color of barrel, meaning they looked like fire. And they four had one likeness, and their appearance and their work were, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. And when they went, they went upon their four sides, meaning they weren't rolling through the heavens, they were flying like frisbees, and they turned not when they went. So again, they're not rolling. And then in verse 18, and as for their rings, meaning the outer perimeter of these crafts, they were so high that they were dreadful, and their rings were full of eyes round about them for. So this is Ezekiel's description of these wheels, that the rims of these wheels had lights embedded in them, and they could move super fast, and going up into the heavens from the earth was nothing for these, and it astounded Ezekiel to see it. But this isn't all. Ezekiel said that above these four wheels and the living creatures that occupied them, he saw a vision of the throne of God, and he saw God sitting upon the throne as a man that was engulfed as if by fire, but the fire represented his glory. And above his throne, there was a rainbow. And of course, the rainbow represents the covenant that the Lord has made with mankind. So this is chapter one. And in chapter two, God speaks from this throne. And when he speaks, Ezekiel describes it as being the sound of many waters. So it was this roar, this powerful, impressive voice that you know stopped Ezekiel in his tracks. Now this is very curious because when you go to the book of Revelation, you have in chapter four, you have John who sees these same four creatures with the face of a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle standing before the throne of God. And John sees God sitting upon the throne as if he's, you know, burning in flames of glory, and over the throne is a rainbow. And these four creatures with the face of a lion, an ox, an eagle, and a man are covered with eyes, and they have wings, just like Ezekiel explained. Now, in the scriptures, when you see symbols like this, things being covered in eyes, eyes are symbolic of great intelligence and wisdom. And wings are symbolic of being able to move in ways that normal people cannot move. So you have John the Revelator seeing these same creatures before the throne of God, except for the difference being John doesn't describe them being next to any kind of wheels within a wheel. The difference is instead of having four wings apiece, they have six wings in John's vision. And Ezekiel's vision, they only have four wings apiece, but they also each ride a wheel. I think that what you're seeing here, symbolic here, is that what Ezekiel is seeing and what John are seeing are happening in two distinct time periods. Both of these time periods are referring to the house of Israel. In Ezekiel's vision, the house of Israel comes to the earth with amazing technology. And when they come to the earth, they have advanced knowledge, which is indicative of the fact that these the living creatures that Ezekiel saw were covered in eyes. And of course, they can move in ways that normal people cannot move. They were literally moving in these wheels of fire that could move at the speed of lightning. In John's account, you don't have any reference to this kind of technology. Instead, these wing, these creatures have an extra wing apiece, which apparently signifies that they no longer need this technology to move. They have been magnified by the Lord to the degree that that technology is no longer required to assist them to do whatever it is that the Lord asks them to do. Okay. Then again, we see in both John and Ezekiel's account the throne of God, God sitting upon the throne, and John hears God speak, and he also describes it as being the sound of many waters. So both Ezekiel and John see this same description of God sitting upon a throne with a rainbow around the throne. And when he speaks, it sounds like the rushing of many waters. So you can clearly see the similarities here. And I believe that the similarities here are indicative of something pertaining to the house of Israel. Now, in the book of Ezekiel in chapter two, when God speaks, he is speaking to Ezekiel about the rebelliousness of the house of Israel and how they have disregarded his commandments. Now, from the perspective of Ezekiel, and my opening statements here, there were three nation states of Israel. Well, one of those nation states disappeared, the northern kingdom of Israel. So you only have two nation-states that are still in existence during the days of Ezekiel. That would be the nation-state of Joseph in America and the nation-state of Judah, that is in Ezekiel's day, currently in captivity in Babylon. So God is talking to Ezekiel about the fact that Judah has gone into captivity because of their rebellious nature. And then in verse or chapter three, God calls Ezekiel to be a watchman to Israel. And he gives Ezekiel a scroll and tells him that he needs to eat this scroll, and that when he eats it, it will be sweet as honey in his mouth. This is from Ezekiel chapter three. Now, curiously, John the Revelator has a very similar experience where he is also given a role. You read this in Revelation chapter 10, and he is told that this role will be sweet in his mouth like honey as well. However, the difference between John's role and Ezekiel's is that John's is described as being bitter in his belly. So sweet on his tongue, but bitter afterwards. Now clearly both of these roles represent missions that God gave both of these two men to administer to the house of Israel. But John's was sweet to begin with, but it's his after effects were bitter. Now don't go thinking that John got the short end of the stick because Ezekiel has to go on. Maybe he had a sweet scroll to eat, but he had to eat bread made out of cow poop for quite some time as a sign to the house of Israel. And we read about that in Ezekiel chapter four. And it's actually very interesting because the Lord tells Ezekiel, listen, I want you to go and get a tile, and I want you to draw the city of Jerusalem on this tile. And then I want you to build a mount in front of this tile. I want you to bring some battering rams in and build a fort. And I want you to siege Jerusalem and the house of Israel. And this will be a sign. And then I want you to lie on your left side for 390 days for Israel's sins. And then I want you to lie on your right side for 40 days for Judah's sins. So what does this mean? Well, clearly this is done in conjunction with this tile that is a depiction of the strongholds of Israel. Now, again, at this point in time, there are two separate nation states of Israel that still exist on the earth, which is why he's lying on his left side for a different period of time from his right side. Because one of these time periods represents one nation state, and the other time period represents the other. So what are we to make of these different time periods? Elsewhere, we're told that each of these days is given for a year. So that should be pretty easy to back, you know, track our way into it. If you take the destruction of Jerusalem, I'm talking about the ultimate destruction because the Lord goes on to tell Ezekiel that after this, Jerusalem will be scattered to all of the nations of the earth, and its cities will be desolate until the Lord remembers them and restores them to the lands of their inheritance. So the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem happened in 70 AD. So what happened 40 years prior to this that would have kicked all of this off? Well, 40 years prior to this, you have Jesus Christ's personal ministry to Israel. So it seems that this seems to be the kickoff for the timing of these events. Forty years after the Jews crucify Jesus Christ, they are destroyed and wiped off the face of the planet. What happens to this other nation state? Three hundred and ninety years, presumably from the same time period. Well, Christ was crucified around you know thirty you know thirty-ish years or some debate as to when the break between AD and B C should have actually occurred. So but if we we say just to keep the math simple around thirty AD, then 70 AD corresponds with 40 years after this period of time. Well, what would you know 30 years plus 390 years equals 420 years AD? Well, what happened to the nation state of Joseph in America in the year 420 AD? Well, according to the Book of Mormon, 420 years AD is when the Nephite nation had been destroyed, and Moroni, the last prophet in the Book of Mormon, hid up their record in to the ground in the hill Kimorrah, which would not be discovered until Moroni returned and showed Joseph Smith where that record was hidden. So it would seem that the Lord is forecasting the fall of these two, the last two nation states of Israel, because remember, the northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen hundreds of years prior to this point. So I believe that he's talking about the fall of Joseph and the fall of Judah. And indeed, this seems to be confirmed in several other places in Ezekiel's writings. For example, you have in probably one of the most famous indications of this is from Ezekiel chapter 37, where Ezekiel sees this vision of this valley of dry bones, and the Lord asks him, Ezekiel, can these bones live? And it's an indication of after Israel has been scattered and all three nation states have been destroyed, can Israel ever exist again? Or are they forever going to be destined to the cemeteries of the ancient world? Well, this is certainly not anything that man could have done on their own, just like man could not cause the bones to come together and then have flesh and muscle and skin come back onto those bones and have those bones stand up, according to Ezekiel, as a great army. Now that is very interesting, and you'll see why as the visions of Ezekiel that we are discussing progress. But after Ezekiel sees the house of Israel that was dead turn back into this massive army standing on their feet, the Lord shows Ezekiel two separate scriptural records, which he refers to as the stick of Judah and the stick of Joseph. And he says that those sticks will be able to be held by Israel in one hand, meaning you'll have the historic record of both those two nation states in your hand. And the the days will come, presumably, when we will be able to hold also the lost stripes of Israel's records in our hand. So you know that's that is uh you know an example of another prophecy where Ezekiel is talking about these separate nation states. And another example is given in Ezekiel chapter 17, wherein two eagles break off pieces of a tree representing the house of Israel, and Judah is planted in an area of great commerce, and then Joseph is broken off and taken to a choice plot of land across the Great Sea, and there they you know Joseph prospers and turns to the Lord, but then becomes corrupted, and they destroy, Joseph destroys itself, and that is spoken of in chapter 17 of Ezekiel. So I believe that this is the perspective that we're supposed to be understanding Ezekiel's words from. Now, the Lord tells Ezekiel that Jerusalem is going to, one third of Jerusalem will be burned with fire. And he says this in chapter five. And then he says that another third will be put to death by the sword, and that the last third will be carried captive and scattered amongst the nations, where the Lord will remember them and restore them. That's spoken of in chapter six, that the Lord will remember the scattered remnants of the Jews amongst all the nations. And then in chapter seven, the Lord tells Ezekiel that the lands of the Jews will have been swept clean after this event, and they will be unoccupied, desolate. And indeed, when you look back at what happened to Christ and the secret works of darkness that happened, that brought about his crucifixion and then the suppression of his resurrection and the persecution of the Christians afterwards, it's clear that you know this corruption was widespread that the Lord was showing Ezekiel in chapter eight. Now, in chapter nine of Ezekiel, things start to get really interesting because the Lord calls six servants to go to Jerusalem. And he tells those six servants to mark all of the righteous in Jerusalem in their foreheads. Now the Lord tells Ezekiel, well, Ezekiel hears the Lord tell these six servants that they will be able to identify the righteous in Jerusalem because they will be mourning for the sins of Israel. So those that could perceive that Jerusalem was in sin, they were the ones that were marked in their foreheads by these six servants. And then the Lord tells these six servants to go in. Each of the six servants have a weapon of destruction, and he tells them to go in and wipe out everyone else in Jerusalem, every man, woman, and child that is not marked in their forehead. And then in chapter ten, you have the return of these four wheels and these living creatures, except for this time they are departing from Jerusalem. They rise up and leave the city and go towards the east. And this is indicative of the favor of the Lord is no longer with Judah, and Judah will be left to destruction. And then in verse 11 and or in chapters eleven and twelve, it speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem and how the Lord will gather Israel after it's been scattered. So this is very interesting because if you go back and you look at the records of Josephus, you know, Flavius Josephus, who was a historian that accounted for the antiquities of the Jews and the wars of the Jews, he described what happened at the time of the same destruction of Israel in a very curious manner. And I think that you know we it we would do well to you know read this. Now I I'm going to take this verbatim out of Josephus' writings, which he was commissioned by the Romans to make. Now this is what this is what he said, speaking of this period of time. Now there was then a great number of false prophets, suborned by the tyrants to impose upon the people who denounced this to them, that they should wait for deliverance from God, and this was in order to keep them from deserting, that they might be buoyed up above fear and care by such hopes. In other words, Josephus is saying that the Jews hired out false prophets to speak lies to the Jews, saying how the Lord was going to deliver them from the Roman Romans, and that they didn't need to be concerned about it. Then Josephus continues. Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as beliled God himself, while they did not attend nor give credit to the signs that were so evident and did so plainfully foretell of their future destruction, but, like men infatuated, without either eyes to see or minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God had made to them. Thus there was a star resembling a sword which stood over the city, and a comet that continued a whole year. Now let's just stop and pause here for a second. Stars resembling swords do not appear over the city of Jerusalem and remain for a whole year. This has got to be something else. Same with a comet. A comet doesn't remain in the sky for an entire year. So the Jews are clearly seeing some strange things in the heavens that they're trying to find natural explanations for, but you know, really, there are no natural explanations for a sword-like object that hangs over the city of Jerusalem as if it were a sign from God that the sword of his justice was hanging over the city. Now it it continues. Thus also, before the Jews' rebellion and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread on the eighth day of the month of Nisan, and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone around the altar and the holy house that it appeared to be as bright as daytime, which light lasted for half an hour. This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskilful, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it. So these publicly declared that these signals foreshadowed the desolation that was coming upon them. Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the twenty-first day of the month of Artemis, a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared. I suppose that the account of it would seem to be a fable were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals. For before sunsetting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about amongst the clouds and surrounding of the cities. Moreover, at that feast which is called Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner court of the temple, as was their custom, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that in the first place they felt a quaking and heard a great noise, and after that they heard the sound as of a great multitude saying, Let us remove hence. This is from again Flavius Josephus' writings, The Jewish Wars, pages two hundred eighty three through three hundred. Now, Josephus wasn't the only Jewish historian to write about these events. Another Jewish historian that wrote about them is named Stepher Yoshipan. He wrote the following Moreover, in those days were seeing chariots of fire and horsemen, a great force flying across the sky near to the ground, coming against Jerusalem, and all of the land of Judah, and all of them horses of fire and riders of fire. When the holiday of Shavath came in those days, during the night the priests heard within the temple something like the sound of men going, and the sound of men marching in a multitude going into the temple, and a terrible and mighty voice was heard speaking, Let us go and leave this house. This is from Sephirotin in his Medieval History of Ancient Israel, in chapter 87, Burning of the Temple. Now the Jews weren't the only ones to record this either. You have Tassius, who was a Roman historian, that also wrote about this in his book Histories, book number five. He said the following Prodigies had occurred, which this nation, prone to superstition, but hating all religious rites, did not deem it lawful to expiate by offerings and sacrifice. There had been seen hosts joining battle in the skies, and fiery gleam of arms, the temple illuminated by a sudden radiance from the clouds, the doors of the inner shrine were suddenly thrown open. Now it's important to note that the inner shrine, those doors were made of solid brass, and they typically took multiple men just to be able to open. And you know, Tassius is saying that they flew open by some unseen force. And at the same instance, there was a mighty stir of departure. Some few put a fearful meaning on these events, but in the most there was a firm persuasion that in the ancient records of their priests was contained a prediction of how at this very time the East was to grow powerful and rulers coming from Judea were to acquire universal empire. So the Romans, in their histories, also claim to have seen chariots in the heavens and the gleam of armor shining from the sky. This is very curious in light of Ezekiel's explanation of these fiery burning wheels that were witness to the destruction of Jerusalem and that they left Jerusalem, presumably, to their Jerusalem's own defenses, which of course Jerusalem fell. Now there are more similarities when you look at the book of Revelation and you know what it talks about that you know further parallels the events from the first twelve chapters of the book of Ezekiel. For example, in chapters two and three of the book of Revelation, as I've mentioned before, John talks about the Nikolaitans, which were secret infiltrators that were striving to infiltrate the early Christian church and to usurp its governance. This is similar to the wickedness that Ezekiel saw happening amongst the leadership of the Jews. Then, you know, you have in chapter eight of the book of Revelation six servants that are sent to the earth, not just to Jerusalem, to with six separate implements of destruction, just like you had in Ezekiel. Now these servants are referred to as angels, and the first of these angels in chapter eight pours out fire and hail upon the earth. The second of these casts a great burning mountain into the sea, and this great burning mountain destroys one third of all marine life and also destroys one third of all ships. Then you have the introduction of a star-like object that descends from the heaven and poisons earth's fresh water. And this star is called wormwood. Now in the Old Testament, wormwood is associated with false prophets and false prophecy, because wormwood made waters bitter, and false prophecy caused the living waters of God to become poisoned. And I believe that this could very well be referring to the false prophets that are going to arise in the last days and poison the living waters on earth. Then the fourth angel causes one third of the lights of heaven to be dimmed. Then the fifth angel corresponds with another star like object that descends to the earth, and out of this object come swarms, innumerable swarms that John describes as innumerable as locusts, but that have the face of men, that are commanded to torment all of men that do not have the seal of God upon their foreheads. Now, this is very similar to what Ezekiel saw with his six servants that went and marked the foreheads of the righteous or those that mourned for the sins of the Jews. So presumably the righteous in the last days will be those that have eyes to see that the world is in sin and that society has gone astray, and that rather than participating in these sins, these people who receive the seal of God in their foreheads are lamenting the wickedness that is taking place around the world. And then the sixth angel releases any of the restraints of these former men that were plaguing humanity, and the numbers of these men are described as being two hundred million, and they go forth throughout the earth and kill one third of all mankind. Now you will recall that one third of Jerusalem was burned. Well, the first angel results in one third of the earth being burned. Then you will recall from Ezekiel that one third of the Jews were put to the sword in Jerusalem. And according to the book of Revelation, one third of the entire planet will be killed in the events of the last days. Now, in the book of Revelation, it says that despite all of these incredible things that are happening, mankind still does not repent. And as a result, the trials continue. And you know, I already mentioned that John ate a scroll that was sweet in his mouth but bitter in his belly, and the angel that gave him this scroll to eat told him that in the future he would be called to testify once again to many nations, people, and kings. So presumably this bitterness that John felt upon eating this scroll had to do with all of the destruction that would come upon the earth in the last days and his role in those terrible events. And then in chapter eleven, very similar to what happened in the book of Ezekiel, we read about Jerusalem being sieged for forty two months, which is three and a half years. And I have spoken of this in prior episodes. This is where the false prophet and the beast are able to prevail against the two prophets that the Lord sends to protect Jerusalem, but they are killed at the end of these three and a half years and lie in the streets for three and a half days. That's spoken of in Revelation chapter 12. And then you have in, or that was Revelation chapter 11, but in chapter 12, which we're going to talk about right now, you have a very, very curious cluster of symbolism. John sees a woman that is clothed with the sun and is standing on the moon and is wearing a crown of twelve stars on her head. The woman, I mean, if she's standing on the moon, she's she's not on the earth, she's in space. And this woman is pregnant. And we are told that the woman gives birth to the to a man that is destined to rule all nations, and that this man rises up to the very throne of God and sits upon God's throne. So clearly this man is Jesus Christ, which would make this woman the house of Israel, and the house of Israel is the Lord's covenant people. Now clearly, not all of the house of Israel could be depicted as being in space, but according to Ezekiel's vision in Ezekiel chapter one, he clearly saw that there were portions of the house of Israel that were coming to the earth from space in wheels, that you know, incredible wheels. They were coming here with technology. So it seems that John is seeing something very similar, that there at the time of the birth of Christ, there was a portion of Israel that was already living in space. I know that that sounds crazy, but there are numerous scriptures that talk about this. I mean, if you were to look in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verses 1 through 4, you're going to read about when Moses tells the house of Israel right before they go into the lands of Canaan, he warns them and says, Listen, if you go into the lands of Canaan and you reject the Lord, then he is going to scatter you amongst all the nations. But then Moses curiously states that if there were those that the Lord had cast to the utmost parts of heaven, That he would restore them from there in the last days. And also you have the prophet Nehemiah, who was lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem, and was praying to the Lord, and he said the following I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments. Let thine ear now be attentive, and thy eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, night and day for the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, both I and my father's house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments which thou commandest thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee the word that thou commanded thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad amongst the nations, but if ye return unto me and keep my commandments and do them, though there were of you cast to the uttermost parts of heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. That comes from Nehemiah chapter one. So you've got two separate accounts in the Old Testament referring to God, the King of the universe, restoring a portion of House of Israel from the uttermost parts of heaven. Now, I've been talking about Revelation chapter twelve, and it opens with this portion of the house of Israel standing upon the moon in the heaven, clothed with the sun, and wearing a crown of twelve stars. And then it kind of goes back into time and it talks about how before the world was, there was a war in heaven, and that Lucifer rebelled against God, and that he cast down one third of the hosts of heaven, they followed him, and Michael and his angels fought against them, and they were banished to the earth. And the way that they were going to exact their revenge was, according to this, to attack the woman that gave birth to the man child. And if you look at the history of Israel, the three nation states that I mentioned at the beginning of this, Satan has certainly made good on that. The northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed and disappeared from our recorded history around 720 BC. Then, as we have discussed throughout this episode, the kingdom of Judah was destroyed by 70 AD. And then you have the Nephite or the nation state of Joseph over here in America that was destroyed and fell completely silent by 420 AD. So he was able to overcome them. But in Revelation chapter 12, it does say something very curious. It says that the Lord gave the wings of a great eagle to this woman, and that she was able to escape from before the face of the dragon. Now the dragon was banished to earth, meaning earth had become this dragon's prison planet or Satan's prison planet. He is bound here, he cannot leave. Now later in the book of Revelation, we are told that he will be freed from his prison for a little season, but that is not the case now. And this woman received the wings of a great eagle so that she could flee from Satan's prison planet. This again suggests that a portion of the house of Israel was indeed removed from the earth and taken elsewhere. And then the book of Revelation says that she would remain in the wilderness until time and times and the dividing of time. And that is a curious reference that we will, you know, dive into more in a subsequent episode. But what I want to conclude this episode with is that when the dragon saw that this woman had been removed from his influence, he was furious, and he went to wage war against the remnants of Israel that retained the testimony of Jesus. Now there would have been two remnants that retained the testimony of Jesus at this time, and that would have been Judah and Joseph, those two nation states. Because the New Testament, friends, was given to us by the Jews. The gospel of Jesus Christ was carried to the nations by the original twelve apostles. So the Jews were highly influential in the spreading of the gospel. But Jerusalem fell by 70 AD, and the nation state of Jerusalem collapsed. And then, as I mentioned, a very similar thing happened with the nation-state of Joseph, which fell silent by 420 AD. So this is kind of the setup for the next episode, wherein we'll do a deep dive into the many covenants that the Lord has made to restore the house of Israel in miraculous ways, and how this restoration of Israel will serve as the answer to rebuff the Antichrist and the beast and to liberate the saints who will have been overcome. Okay, let's recap the takeaways from this episode. So today we have compared and contrasted the first twelve chapters of Ezekiel with the first twelve chapters of the book of Revelation. And in doing so, we have learned that both of these accounts describe objects descending from the heavens carrying living entities associated with the house of Israel. In the case of Ezekiel, he saw the four living creatures that descended from the heavens on wheels that went upon their four sides or moved like frisbees and could move with the speed of lightning. And the wheels had rims that were filled with lights, and that the four living creatures were covered in eyes and had wings, signifying that they were very intelligent and could move in ways that regular men simply could not move. In the book of Revelation, we have this account of these starlike objects that descend from the heavens to the earth, and out of the starlike objects flow innumerable hosts that are described as if they were as innumerable as plagues of locusts, but that they are men with the faces of men, and that initially they torment mankind and then they step it up. And we also learned that in the case of Ezekiel, these events had to do with the end of the civilization of the Jewish state as they knew it. And from the perspective of the book of Revelation, these things have to do with the end of Babylon or humanity as we know it. In both instances, one third of, in the case of Ezekiel, Jerusalem was burned, and one third of the Jews were put to the sword. And in the case of the book of Revelation, one third of the earth is burned, and one third of mankind is killed. And both of these are done by six servants. In the case of Ezekiel, these servants went out and marked the righteous in their foreheads. And also in the case of the book of Revelation, the six destroying angels were not to harm those that had received the seal of God in their foreheads. And the book of Ezekiel describes that those that received the seal were those that mourned for the sins of Judah. So therefore, we can assume that the righteous are identified by those who see the wickedness around them and are striving to separate themselves from the wickedness and are mourning for the state that the world has descended into. And in the book of Revelation, we have, of course, the false prophets, the incredible Antichrist that is coming, the beast that is coming, both of which will have incredible powers, demonic powers, that will enable them to cause the entire world, even some of the very elect will be deceived by them and be led away by their false promises of peace and deliverance. Now, both of these accounts are based in black swan type events. These are things that just were so far out of traditional mainstream thought that they were easily dismissed as being impossible. The Jewish people simply did not believe that God would permit his people to be destroyed. And in modern times, we simply do not believe that such an incredible destruction could happen, and particularly that it could happen through such supernatural means. Both of these accounts speak of crafts that were unbelievable. I mean, you have not only Ezekiel's account of the wheels within a wheel, but you have Josephus' account of the skies around Jerusalem being filled with chariots. And indeed, these heavenly chariots were flying close to the ground and symbolically sieging the cities of Jerusalem. And today we have an exponential increase in incredible accounts of unidentified aerial phenomenon that we are learning more and more about all the time. So the, and then of course, the fact that both of the account in Ezekiel and the account in Revelation have these creatures that represent the house of Israel associated with the throne of God and then the rainbow that represents God's covenant, meaning that in antiquity God destroyed Jerusalem, but he did so with his covenants in mind, that even though he was going to take Jerusalem and destroy it, he would scatter a remnant of the Jews amongst all the nations of the earth, but that he would remember that remnant and that he would restore it in the last days. And then we have, of course, in the book of Revelation, these same creatures representing the house of Israel before the throne of God with the rainbow above the throne, which of course is symbolic of these incredible events that are going to transpire in the last days when the earth is purged from its wickedness, will be done as the Lord remembers the covenants that he has made with his people, the house of Israel. So the takeaway here is that Israel could not be more relevant to the events of the last days. It is not some antiquated thing that belongs in the Old Testament and has no relevance to us. All twelve tribes of Israel will be restored in a manner that will rival the exodus of Egypt. Incredible things lay ahead of us. But we have to understand that the house of Israel lies front and center in the events that are going to transpire. It may not seem that way at first. You are going to have these incredible supernatural events that come before, just as in Ezekiel's accounts, you had these secret works of darkness, and you had the false prophets lulling the people into passivity before the destruction occurred. So in the last days, you will have the supernatural events, the Antichrist, the false prophets, the incredible miracles and deceptions that will precede the restoration of the house of Israel. So, friends, this is the lead up, this is the groundwork, just showing you the beginning of what's to come in future episodes, because both of these episodes, both Ezekiel and the book of Revelation, they both hint that there is a portion of the house of Israel that is not on the earth. In Ezekiel, we learned this in Ezekiel chapter 1 and Ezekiel chapter 10, with the four living creatures that descend from the heavens, representing the four standards of the camps of Israel upon these incredible wheels, wheels within a wheel. Then, of course, in the book of Revelation, you have these star-like objects that are descending from the heavens and coming to the earth. And then, of course, in Revelation chapter 12, you have the depiction of Israel in the heavens standing upon the moon, which, if you think about what the moon is, the moon is a former fragment of the earth. So you have in Revelation 12 the depiction of a remnant of the house of Israel standing upon a former fragment of the earth before Christ is born, meaning that a portion of the house of Israel was removed from the earth before that time. And indeed, in that revelation, you have a portion of the house of Israel that is given the wings of an eagle to flee from the face of Satan, which is bound to this, his prison planet. So these things are present in both of these narratives. The account of Ezekiel had to do with the scattering of the Jewish state and the destruction of the Jewish state. Of course, it also had to do, you know, Ezekiel touched upon the fact that the nation-state of Joseph was going to be destroyed as well within 420 years of the coming of Christ, and that the Jews would be destroyed within 40 years of the coming of Christ. And then you have, of course, in the book of Revelation, the restoration of the house of Israel in its entirety, not just the Jewish state, not just the nation-state of Joseph, which I equate with the United States of America, but also the missing ten tribes of Israel will also be restored. And in the next episode, we are going to go into much more detail into some of the biblical prophecies that speak of these things. But I wanted just to lay the groundwork for the coming episodes with this comparison between the first 12 chapters of Ezekiel with the first 12 chapters of the book of Revelation. Because whereas the first 12 chapters of the book of Ezekiel were meant to depict what was going to happen to the Jews in antiquity, the first 12 chapters of the book of Revelation are meant to foretell what will befall the world before the second coming of Jesus Christ. These are the things that will happen in our day. And they are almost, you know, carbon copies of each other. So we are meant, the what the imagery of the book of Revelation is meant to tell us is that we are going to see these same kinds of things today. So just as the Jews saw inexplicable things in their skies right before the destruction of Jerusalem, so we are going to see inexplicable things in our skies before the second coming of the Lord as part of the great and terrible day. And we should expect that the fact that we are now seeing these things, this isn't some strange out-of-sink phenomenon. It reconciles. It is what happened in the past and it will be what happens in the future. Okay, friends, I know that I've given you a lot to think about in this episode. I hope that you will go back and review these 12 chapters in Ezekiel and the book of Revelation for yourself. Look for the similarities. Clearly, the similarities between these two are in your face. I mean, you are meant to compare and contrast these two records accounts. So I hope that you will do so, and I hope that you will seek the Spirit of God to be with you to instruct you. Pray for the Lord's guidance, because through his son, he has promised us that those who seek will find. Until next time, friends, God bless.