Ephraim And The House of Judah: Part 4 of 9.

Part 4:  Prophetic of the 21st Century.

What becomes of Ephraim and Manasseh in the end times?  Let’s turn to the book of Ezekiel and look at chapters 34-38 and find out.

What you are seeing in these chapters are prophecies that are more than 2,500 years old, written long before Jesus walked this earth yet, incredibly, they speak of the 21st century.     

(The Jewish people return to the newly formed state of Israel.)

In parts 1-3 we talked about Joseph, his two sons, their significance to the Chuch, and the blessing of Abraham.  In part 4, we’ll see how this portion of scripture is prophetic of our day and age; of things that have already happened and things yet to come. 

 Ezekiel 34:11-15

11 “For thus says the Lord God: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day. 13 And **I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land; I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them in good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down,” says the Lord God. 16 “I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment.”  

**This prophecy was fulfilled in 1948!  No way this passage could be referring to the Babylonian captivity because they came back after 70 years from one location only:  Babylon.  It could not have been referring to the Assyrian captivity either because afterward they came back only from Assyria.  Even when Jesus walked on earth, they were still not all  back in their land.  They never came back…until today.  Only since 1948 that they have returned from EVERY NATION on earth where they were scattered.

Don’t get me wrong.  That doesn’t mean that every single Jewish person on the planet has returned to Israel.  There are still Jews in every nation today, but isn’t it cool that God did exactly as He said He would and gathered them from all the nations where He had scattered them?  They continue to return, and we are the generation that saw it begin to happen.

God also said He that would “destroy the fat and the strong,”  in Ezekiel 34.  He is referring here to evil leaders.  This has certainly proved to be true.  Every nation that has ever tried to come against God’s people, shed their blood and attempted to destroy them have themselves been destroyed.  They are not around anymore; but Israel is!  After 2,000 years and all they have gone through, they remain a people under God speaking the very same language they did in the Old Testament.  Ezekiel could literally walk into any restaurant in Israel today and read the menu.  He might not know what a Reuben sandwich is but he could read it nevertheless.God further says that He will “seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick.”  Who is this flock?

30 Thus they shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and they,the house of Israel, are My people,” says the Lord God.’

It’s clear that The Holy Spirit is not referring to the Church here but to Natural Israel.  God prophesied that Israel would ultimately come back into their own land.  

As I said, when Jesus walked on earth, the Israelites were not all back in their land.  They had, in fact, been scattered for generations.  At the time of His birth, they were still out there.  During His sojourn here it was predominantly the tribe of Judah living in the land.  Most natural Israel had settled among the peoples of the lands where they were taken during one of their many captivities.  The tribe of Judah, in a sense, is more guilty of the rejection of Jesus than the rest of natural Israel.  

(For more on that topic, follow this link:  http://emmausrevelations.blogspot.com/2014/06/it-doesn-add-up.html)

(Treasure hidden in a field.)

 Do you remember the parables of Matthew 13?  Jesus talked about the “treasure hidden in a field.”  If you read carefully, you’ll notice that it was hidden twice.  That’s how God protected His people.  He hid them among the nations long before Jesus walked on earth; and after He ascended back to heaven, in 70 A.D., when He allowed the Romans to destroy their temple, He hid them again, scattering them among the nations so that, in these last days, He could bring them back into their own land to be a nation once again.

(For more on that topic, follow this link:  http://emmausrevelations.blogspot.com/2014/11/part-5-of-16-rightly-dividing-word-of.html)

Even though all of them are still not back in their own land, the twelve tribes are not lost.  They’re all out there somewhere in the world.   God said, however, that when they came back that there would be enemies who would shed their blood.

Please continue to part 5 where we’ll be discussing that topic:  http://emmausrevelations.blogspot.com/2016/04/ephraim-and-house-of-judah-part-5-of-9.html