Morning Light – Ezekiel 31
Today: [Ezekiel 31] What is Coming Up Ahead? In Ez. 31 the prophet gives another of a flurry of prophecies that came forth just before the destruction of Jerusalem. Not just the southern nation of Judah but many nations are about to fall, and God has sent many prophetic words warning the peoples, given them an opportunity to repent. We can see then that rising prophetic voices, numerous in their presence can signify for us that something is coming. As it was in Ezekiel’s day so today there is a plethora of prophetic voices speaking that we would do well to heed if we are to be found intact at the onrush of societal change that looms ahead.
Streaming live daily at: http://bit.ly/2luPMYU
[Eze 31:1-18 KJV] 1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third [month], in the first [day] of the month, [that] the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness? 3 Behold, the Assyrian [was] a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. 4 The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field. 5 Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth. 6 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. 7 Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters. 8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. 9 I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that [were] in the garden of God, envied him. 10 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; 11 I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness. 12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. 13 Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches: 14 To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit. 15 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. 16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth. 17 They also went down into hell with him unto [them that be] slain with the sword; and [they that were] his arm, [that] dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen. 18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with [them that be] slain by the sword. This [is] Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.
In this chapter, the Father speaks through Ezekiel to confirm the word against Egypt, using Assyria as an example. The time of the prophecy is established in verse one which creates the circumstance by which the prophecy is validated as to taking place before Egypt is fully judged. Assyria and the king of Assyria are compared to a flourishing cedar, lifted up with pride and cast down into ruin as a result. The king of Egypt would be familiar with the history of Assyria’s fall and is warned in this chapter to consider Assyria’s fate lest Egypt be likewise destroyed.
The date given by Ezekiel in this prophesy is about 5 weeks before the destruction of Jerusalem according to some scholars. We can see from the various preceding chapters then a flurry of prophetic words before a great upheaval in the region affecting Lebanon, Judah, Ethiopia, Egypt, the Amorites and many other nations in the area. This is important to note: There is always an increase of the prophetic before massive change and upheaval among a people. Consider the first century. After 400 silent years between Malachi and Matthew (called the Intertestamental Period); John the Baptist appears and the entire region turns its attention to his message and his ministry. Why did God send John at this time? Yes, to herald the birth of Christ (which eclipses every other consideration) but also we make note that approximately 70 years later the entire region is overthrown, the city of Jerusalem destroyed, and the temple leveled by the Romans. It is important that while John the Baptist is validated by scripture and authenticated by his testimony however, there were many prophetic types that were making their voices heard, who rose up and made a noise only to be extinguished over time by scandal, death or some other misfortune. It was a prophetic time. Such seasons portend great shift and upheaval in the day they appear. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew:
[Mat 24:24 KJV] 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Now ask yourself when false prophets appear does that mean that there are no authentic prophets? There were many prophets in John’s day and none of them were validated by God until the establishment of the church. Eph. 4:11-12 reveals that Jesus Himself sent prophets along with the other 5-fold ministers into the earth. After John and many false prophets in his day came many true prophets such as Agabus, Philip’s 7 daughters, and the prophetic school at Antioch that launched the ministry of the apostle Paul. What about today? When you suggest prophets today, the majority of church leaders will quote Mat. 24:24 as a justification for dismissing the idea of prophets altogether. They suggest that Jesus said there would be many false prophets in the last day therefore in their opinion and implicit in their light regard for the prophetic they are conveying the thinly veiled opinion that any suggestion of prophetic ministry or prophets today (particularly those not already connected to them) are false. Is this true? Then what happened to the true prophets among those that Jesus sent into the earth along with pastors, evangelists, teachers and apostles? When did they cease? At what date in the early centuries of the church did they cease to be? No answer can be given because no answer authenticated by scripture can be laid out to support such a false claim.
The rise of the prophetic movement that began in the 1940’s with the ministry of William Branham and continues yet today cannot be dismissed as wholly false. It is a phenomenon that points to something that is coming, just as the flurry of prophetic words that came forth just before the fall of Judah, Egypt, Ethiopia and the many other nations in the region. Something is coming. We tend to think that things will stay as they are forever, but history begs to differ. Nations and empires that held fast and were established and flourishing for centuries, such as Rome, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Alexander the Great and others came to nothing, sometimes in cataclysmic and abrupt ways. God sent John, the apostles, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the city of Jerusalem because it was facing destruction and the Father would have spared her peoples if they had only listened to Peter’s message at Pentecost. Those that heeded scattered throughout the known world, and were spared. Those who resisted fell under the jackboot of Roman wrath when the city was destroyed.
Just before Armenia fell to the Communists, there was a young boy who stood up in a Pentecostal church and prophesied that the people should leave the nation because it was about to fall to totalitarianism. That young man was known in Romania as the “boy prophet” named Efim Klubnikin. His wording was implicit that an “unspeakable tragedy was about to fall in the nation of Armenia”. Those who heeded and fled the country were spared, those who mocked and didn’t take this young boy seriously died in the gulags. Among those who fled with the large Pentecostal diaspora to America was the family of Demos Shakarian who established the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International, a seminal influence in the Charismatic outpouring of the 1960’s and early 70’s. Thus, we see great outpouring and visitation of God alongside of tremendous upheaval and societal shift. The prophets are sent to us to bring the proceeding word that defines us in a time of instability and guides us through the pitfalls that we might be the light of God in a time of great darkness. Let him who hears the word of the Lord – hear and he would hears not, be prepared for the consequences. The prophetic is here by God’s plan to spare us and prepare and bring us out of what Rev. 14 and 18 call the Babylon system:
[Rev 18:4 KJV] 4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Every one of us must think of what this means to us personally as believers, because as this season approaches those who fail to withdraw from what the Bible calls Babylon will fall with her. Whatever this system is there are believers, millions of believers in her otherwise the prophet would not call us OUT of her. What is Babylon? There are many, many opinions about this – what we need to realize is that it does exist, we are no doubt in it and are being called out of it, for our own safety. There will come a time that answer these questions and acting upon them may be a matter of life or death as in the case of Armenia and the boy prophet not so many years ago.
As Assyria fell, so now Egypt will fall. What does all this ancient history mean to us? In the scripture Assyria represents the anti-Christ. Babylon, among other things is represented as a Great Whore, an apostate religious system, drunk with the blood of the Martyrs. Egypt is the world system, corrupt, diseased in spirit and utterly opposed to all things related to the kingdom of God. In the midst of all of this is the church, God’s heavenly Jerusalem, the Mother of us all – a world-wide, spiritual community of redeemed men and women positioned by God to represent His interested and proclaim His message of mercy in a time of Judgment. Verse 16 speaks of the hand of God shaking the nations and the systems of the world. We do not lament as those who have no hope and no savior, for we are a part of that which cannot be shaken, and there our fidelities lie and our security is sure, as we listen to and heed the voice of His prophets and His apostles in the earth who are speaking with one voice and one heart to the mighty body of Christ.
