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ISRAEL, GOD'S ORACLE PEOPLE

CHAPTER 4
EZEKIEL'S SIMILITUDE, CLUE TO THE 2520 YEARS OF PUNISHMENT

Understanding what God meant concerning His promises and punishments is going to require a GREAT QUANTITY more information. So, we should not be surprised when God gives Ezekiel a similitude to carry out that concerned the two different nations. This is found in chapter 4, verses 4-6. He is to lie on his side for 390 days for the House of Israel and her inequity. He is then to lie on the other side for 40 days for the House of Judah and her iniquity. Here they are being punished in separate acts of similar nature. The problem we have here is the 40 for Judah. We know that Judah was to be punished for 70 years, not 40. How do we reconcile this? We know from other scripture that God sometimes spoke of the entire body of Israel as Israel when it included Judah. But He never spoke of Judah alone as Israel.

From our knowledge of the populations of the whole land and the invasions by the Assyrians, many Judahites were taken away captive during the last days when Samaria fell including pagan priests and perhaps some fundamentalist priests caught up in the war. Many of the priests fled to Jerusalem during those campaigns to join their fellows in the Temple. So part of the captivity of the House of Israel involved some significant number of the House of Judah and thus the 390 days for the House of Israel must have included 30 days (or 30 years) as part of Judah's punishment and after the Jews completed the seventy years in Babylon they reduced the 390 years of the whole House of Israel that included Jews outside of Jerusalem by 30 years. If the entire punishment for Judah was to be seventy years, then thirty of the 390 years for the House of Israel belonged with the Babylonian captivity of Judah, leaving 360 years for Israel alone including the Jews that went with them into Assyrian bondage.

Included in the seventy years was punishment for not keeping the Sabbaths, apparently made a particular problem for Judah. Judah could return to the land after seventy years of captivity in Babylon. Of course it was necessary for Judah and a Temple to be in Jerusalem when Jesus came so that is reason enough for this part of the plan. The House of Israel was not given that option. They were to be divorced, a totally rejected (wife) and never to return to the land until end times. But was Judah through with her punishment after seventy years? Obviously not, for even though Judah returned about 50,000 people to the land, most (hundreds of thousands) stayed behind in Babylon, to be dispersed "among the heathen as before." There they would be oppressed as before and of course by 70 AD and certainly 135 AD after the Bar Kokhbah revolt, the Jews had been totally dispersed among the heathen. The Jew would have their share in the "360" years of punishment with some changes that will be explained later.

Even those who returned to the land of Israel were never fully free of foreign taskmasters. They never had a king again of the line of David. They were given governors by their taskmasters such as Greece and the Romans but never a king of their own. Herod was an Idumean, a descendant of Esau, and not even a descendant of Isaac. For a brief time after the Maccabean rebellion, they ruled themselves but no one ever was given the title of king. I think it is safe to say that Judah had more punishment coming after the seventy years. Judah was part of "my people Israel" and they all had worshipped idols and abandoned God and His prophets from the beginning at Mt. Sinai, during the time of the Judges, during Solomon's reign. It became intolerable to God with the reign of Manasseh. There was just one good king after him, Josiah, and he was perhaps the best king Judah ever had. His sons were all evil and return to idol worship and totally ignored God through His prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, and Joel. The number of years of punishment for this would be 360 years as Ezekiel stated a day was to be taken as a year in verse six where he was instructed to lie on his side.

So we know the punishment and we know how long now - but wait - it was to be repeated SEVEN times! Does that mean that seven 360-year periods of punishment were adjudged on Israel and Judah? That appears to be the case and if so, that is a total of 2520 years. We will find that that is a different number for the Jerusalem than for Israel. The tribes other than Judah and Benjamin were GENTILES and the 2520 years are 365+ day years or 920411 days and 2.4 hours, or to simplify, 920,411 days. Jerusalem, always, in prophecy including Revelation is spoken of in terms of 360-day years or 907,200 days. Jerusalem is special to God. In fact He claims that little city as HIS especially [I Kings 11:32, 38; II Kings 23:7]. At this point you may be beginning to get uneasy about this. The only, and I say ONLY, reason for God to enforce some period, perhaps a 2520 year period of punishment on ALL of Israel and Judah was to keep His word, not to make some kind of heroes of the Israelites or the Jews. This 2520 year punishment mantra is the stuff of British Israelite movements, even denominations of that name, and all sorts of kooks who bend and twist things to make whatever favorite point they like, but the facts and historical events strongly suggest that God did have this 2520 timeline in His plan and that it should have been very apparent to any serious student of prophecy when and where these timelines show up in history.

It has been stated wisely, in my opinion, that in most heresies lies a kernel of truth that Satan hates and will use unwise men to promote falsehoods surrounding a real truth so that the truth will be shunned by God-fearing men. The most damage was done in England by a heretic, Richard Brothers, who saw this prophecy and connected it to the English throne, declared himself to be the rightful owner of that throne, and wound up in an insane asylum. Other British "Israelites" picked up on this and carried it to such an extreme that the subject of a real Israel other than the Jew or the Church was forever since shunned as foolishness.

Our founding fathers were still aware of this subject but did not shun it as they could see so many fulfillments of prophecy occurring in their struggles to found a new nation in a new land. Little did they know that they had among them, actual descendents of several of the tribes of Israel. Little did they know that even their future independent nation would be first ruled by a descendant of David through the very complicated lines of Judah through the lines of the British royal family of which George Washington was a descendant. The Armstrongs and the Worldwide Church of God did some disservice to the issue because of their legalism, but not necessarily to the truth in the issue. My father used to listen to them back in the 50s and although he could not check them out on what they were saying historically as I can today, he knew the Bible had things to say about the issue which at times rang true to the positions that the Armstrongs took. My father was an avid student of the Book of Isaiah and saw things there that were much thought provoking beyond the holy of holies of the Old Testament, Isaiah 53.

It can safely be said that no issue other than the resurrection of Jesus Christ has been attacked with as much ferociousness as the subject of a real historic House of Israel that survives to this day in the world under God's protection. I think this is the case with God's dealings with the so-called "lost tribes" or the divorced wife, the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which carried with it all the national promises of God to be large numbers like the stars in the heavens, and sand in the sea. They were to possess the gates of their enemies and were never to be defeated by their enemies and no weapon would ever succeed against them. The Jew cannot claim ANY OF THESE PROMISES. The majority of Europe except England cannot make this claim. England did have to give the United States of America her independence but England was far from defeated when the Revolutionary War was ended at Yorktown. The more pressing matter of the rise of Napoleon forced England to cut her losses. The Church is not of this world; so worldly promises have little consequences to it other than that the gates of hell will not prevail against Her while She is here on earth. The Jew has been reviled, attacked, defeated, slaughtered, and enslaved everywhere they have gone. They barely hold to their small nation that they have reclaimed. The Church has gone through so much persecution that her numbers are seen in any significant way only in the West and even there she is attacked by atheists and agnostics who would destroy her except for the Constitution of the United States and particularly the First Amendment.

If this be the case, the where do we find God keeping His promises to Abraham of descendants who would number like the stars in the heavens and the sand in the sea? Where is that nation or nations ruled by kings descended from Abraham? The short period of rule of the kings of Israel or Judah is not the fulfillment of such a promise. It must mean more than that. Those kings of Israel were so evil that God had to destroy them. As for Judah, we are told of the evilness of Ahaz, Manasseh, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. If fact, God stated that the evilness of Manasseh was the main reason for God's anger at Judah that could not be assuaged without scattering the nation to Babylon and beyond. No, we must look beyond the Old Testament's Kings and Chronicles. The promised royal seed of Judah was uprooted by Jeremiah and transplanted or "built" elsewhere than in the Israel which we see uprooted in 722 BC and the Judah that we see uprooted in 587 BC.

The vast numbers of people or descendants of Abraham must be found elsewhere than what is called Palestine and Israel today. The nation of people who will never be destroyed by any weapon of war devised has to be found outside "Palestine." It could well apply to the modern nation of Israel today but then you don't have numbers like sand of the sea and stars of the heavens. The nation who will control the gates of its enemies must be found outside even the modern state of Israel. Israel lives at the mercies of God, controlling only a small nation that is nine miles wide at one section and overall smaller that the state of New Jersey. Without the help of the United States they could not continue without the miraculous intercession of God, which will be the case in the last days.

If the leader of the Northern Kingdom, Ephraim, was given these promises above, then we must look at the possibility that Ephraim survived the enslavement of the Assyrians in 722 BC and went on to become a great commonwealth of nations, the very meaning of Genesis 35:11.

Genesis 35:11: And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

The phrase "company of nations" has a meaning beyond some very temporary line of kings through David and Solomon in Judea. That was one nation. The scepter was with Judah until Zedekiah's death but that was one nation, not a company of nations. Yes, there were kings in the Northern Kingdom but they hardly qualify for they only lasted three centuries and the condition that they were allowed to rule under was that they obeyed God's laws. They failed the test from the beginning with Jeroboam. Jews and modern day Israel do not qualify even if the promise had gone to the Jew alone. They never had a king after Zedekiah. The word for company in Hebrew means assembly, company, congregation, convocation. This implies many, not just one or two at most that occurred during the reigns of the kings of Judah and Israel. This had to be a future time in other places. If Israel was promised a new home by Nathan in II Samuel 7, and David promised a continuing dynasty, then we must look outside the land of Judea or Samaria for the company of nations with kings reigning over them descended from David. An interesting passage which implies this is found in Micah.

Micah 2:12: I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.

The movement of the Jews from Babylon hardly made any noise as they went back to build the Temple and they certainly were hardly a multitude. There were less than 50,000 of them. This is speaking of the House of Jacob, the remnant of Israel, not a remnant of Jews from Babylon. Micah is speaking to the House of Israel in these first three chapters.

Micah 4:6-7: In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even forever.

Finally, they are told that their king would go before them and the LORD ahead of them. The LORD would be where they were going as well as their kings.

Micah 2:13: The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.

A promise of a company of nations went with Joseph and his sons, particularly Ephraim as Genesis 48 and I Chronicles 5 clearly state, but they would be ruled by descendants of Judah through David. Micah says their king will go before them. We will see how that happened later. Suffice it to say, the Jews did not have a king to go before them when they left Babylon. The only king they would have would be Herod, an Idumean appointed by Caesar.

We must find out where Ephraim went to in time. We get the picture of God's judgment and His mercy towards Ephraim in the Book of Hosea. Leviticus 26:18 had to be honored and kept and the first chapter of Hosea tells Ephraim of the coming judgment. If we stop reading before the end of the book we will not know that God in His mercies would forgive Ephraim and keep the promises of Abraham to Ephraim after the period of judgment. God speaks of Jeroboam here and the Northern Kingdom of Israel, represented by Ephraim.

Hosea 13:11-14: I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid. The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

It is clear that God is speaking to Ephraim in these places and it is also clear that although Ephraim will be punished, God will have mercy on him. Even the promise of the resurrection is made here. That then became our hope in Jesus Christ. (I suspect that Paul was knowingly quoting from this scripture in 1st Corinthians 15:55). But there was more to say:

Hosea 14:4-9 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

God has plans for Ephraim and in time he will carry out those national promises of God to Abraham through Ephraim and Manasseh will become a great nation. So I say again; we must find Ephraim in order to find out where God kept His word to Abraham along these national promises. There were also some descriptions of the other tribes as they would appear in the "latter days." Moses also gave promises to the various tribes that must have occurred somewhere in the history of those tribes such as "the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh" in Deuteronomy 33:17.

It is imperative that we find out where those promises were or are being kept.

To be continued: Chapter five: Misconceptions concerning promises to Abraham; Jesus, the Jew, and the Church; the first crossroads of prophetic fullfillment.