REVERENCE FOR GOD’S PROMISES JoLynn Gower 352-2458 cell 493-6151 jgower@guardingthetruth.org

EZEKIEL SEES FINAL DESTRUCTION The destroyer is terrible! Ezekiel 21:21 "For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he shakes the arrows, he consults the household idols, he looks at the liver.” Tyre (Lebanon) Amman (Jordan) and Jerusalem (Israel) rebelled in 588 BC God allowed Jerusalem to fall and the temple to be destroyed

ZEDEKIAH’S REBELLION Zedekiah had sworn allegiance to Babylon but rebelled But this was just the end of Judah’s rebellion; the most important rebellion was against God and had started years earlier Genesis 49:10 "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

WHAT IS BABYLON? The origination of Nimrod’s rebellion The origination of the Babylonian cult religion Revelation 17:1-5 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."

HABAKKUK’S LAMENT Habakkuk 3:16-18 I heard and my inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

BUT BABYLON IS SINFUL 2 Kings 25:8-11 Now on the seventh day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the Lord, the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire. So all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. Then the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the people, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away into exile.

FALSE PROPHETS Ezekiel 21:27-29 'A ruin, a ruin, a ruin, I will make it. This also will be no more until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it to Him.’ And you, son of man, prophesy and say, 'Thus says the Lord God concerning the sons of Ammon and concerning their reproach,' and say: 'A sword, a sword is drawn, polished for the slaughter, to cause it to consume, that it may be like lightning— while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies for you—to place you on the necks of the wicked who are slain, whose day has come, in the time of the punishment of the end. Amman betrayed Judah and rejoiced at the fall

DAVID’S LINEAGE The line of David wouldn’t be restored until Christ Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Matthew 21:9 The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!"

CONCLUSIONS God had set up the government of Israel The people wanted a king like everyone else The kings were mostly bad; some started good and finished bad False prophets gave the messages that the people wanted to hear But God had people standing watch who heard from Him God will use a sinful nation to judge one that knows about Him but won’t serve Him