A STUDY OF THE “DAY OF THE LORD” IN THE SCRIPTURES – ALL REFERENCES PART 2 – EZEKIEL, JOEL
We continue to the next set in this examination of The Day of the LORD.
NUMBER 3
[03]. {{Ezekiel 13:5-6 “You have not gone up into the breaches, nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of the LORD. They see falsehood and lying divination who are saying, ‘The LORD declares,’ when the LORD has not sent them yet they hope for the fulfillment of their word.”}}
((There was a terrible misrepresentation of God’s word and false prophets were everywhere declaring lies and making evil prophecies. Ezekiel could say of them, {{Ezekiel 13:7 “Did you not see a false vision and speak a lying divination when you said, ‘The LORD declares,’ but it is not I who have spoken?”}} These lying prophets held sway and their influence eroded the moral and spiritual values of Israel. In verse 4, the prophet called them “foxes among ruins”, sly and destructive. They denied events that were to come, and they prophesied of events that were never to happen. They openly lied and were demonically inspired.
The Day of the LORD will surely come, but Israel will not be prepared for they have not followed the Lord. In other words they have not healed the breaches of a spiritual relationship with Jehovah; nor have they built up the walls of decency and godliness. In the future, lying, false prophets will arise and mislead many. Jesus warned of this (and the setting is in the time of the Tribulation) – {{Matthew 24:4-5 Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you, for many will come in My name saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.”}} {{Matthew 24:11 “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.”}} During the Tribulation, when the world is in the Day of the LORD, Israel will be plagued by false prophets. These evil ones will do a destructive work. Jesus continued – {{Matthew 24:24 “for false christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect,”}} and the Lord then stated just one of these false claims that will be made – {{Matthew 24:26 “If therefore they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go forth, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them.”}}
We can say with great certainty that in the time of The Day of the LORD, Israel will see an infestation of false prophets and advisors and leaders and religious leaders, sneaking all over the place like foxes among ruins. It won’t be just Israel that will suffer the contagion of false prophets and the demonic delusionists. The whole world will be under the False Prophet, the beast that rises from the land of Revelation 13. Nearly all the world will be deluded into receiving the mark of the beast. This evil satanic man to come will be more evil and putrid than any false prophet who has ever lived on earth.
It is interesting that in my own nation (Australia) in very recent times, several of the States have mandated that if you have not had a double Covid injection, you are not allowed to work (teachers, police, construction workers, etc. etc). I can’t speak for other countries. Now be careful, Covid is NOT the mark of the beast but it is interesting that God is allowing us to see what it is like not to go along with the dictates of the State – if you don’t accept the State’s mandate, you won’t be able to work (in order that you can buy or sell.) In case you wonder what my position is on Covid vaccines, well I don’t oppose them (I am in a very high risk category with lung problems) BUT I absolutely oppose any compulsion placed on people, because it hints of what will come into the world after the Church has been translated.
It is not accidental that today we also see the rise of false teachers and false cults and false prophets, all of which have this focus on eschatological matters, who seem to plague the television and come door to door and worm their way into churches. Be aware of these people! Both now and in the Tribulation there are, and will be, deceitfulness and acceptance of falsehood, lies and delusion. In the first few hundred years of the Christian church you had the rise of the heresies as the weeds of the Parable of the Tares, but today you have another increase in deceitfulness and the spread of false doctrines and false prophets. Those who proclaim themselves as prophets are false to start with because there are no prophets in our age in the sense of spelling out new revelations from God.))
NUMBER 4
[04]. {{Ezekiel 30:1-5 The word of the LORD came again to me saying, “Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’ For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations. A sword will come upon Egypt and anguish will be in Ethiopia when the slain fall in Egypt. They take away her wealth and her foundations are torn down. Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all Arabia, Libya, and the people of the land that is in league will fall with them by the sword.”}}
((Chapter 30 has much to do with judgement against Egypt and this will be future because the things mentioned have not yet happened. In chapter 30 these prophecies about Egypt are all set in the Tribulation (the ones above), and in the Millennium (the ones under this). God is going to punish Egypt because of the opposition it has shown to Israel, but then He turns around to bless Egypt because it cared for Israel for those 400 years beginning with Jacob. So great will the blessing for Egypt be, that that nation, along with Assyria, will be the chief nations of earth with Israel in the Millennium. Here are the supporting verses in three sets – {{Isaiah 19:2 “I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians and they will each fight against his brother, and each against his neighbour, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.”}}
{{Isaiah 19:21-22 Thus the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD “in that day”. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering and will make a vow to the LORD and perform it. The LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to them and will heal them.}}
{{Isaiah 19:23-25 “In that day” there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. “In that day” Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”}}
Although I am not going to cover this point right now, it is interesting that three of the nations in Ezekiel 30:5 will be in the Gog/Magog war that I believe can only occur at the time of Armageddon and not before. I dismiss those people that say it is going to happen at any time.
Glance back at the Isaiah 19:23-25 passage and note the expression “In that day”. It is a critical expression in understanding prophecy and is used over and over again in all of the Old Testament prophets. There are a couple of derivatives such as “at that time” and “on that day” and sometimes, “that day”. The expression ALWAYS relates to the nation of Israel and nearly always it is connected with national blessing. That places it often in the Millennium or nearing the Second Coming. The three usages above are all in the Millennium which is normal for that expression (but not in every usage).
The Ezekiel passage clearly states that the Day of the LORD will be a day of gloom (clouds) for the nations and also a day of doom, all spelled out in Revelation. In the list of nations mentioned in the last verse (30:5) Ethiopia and Libya are listed but then it says, “and the people of the land that is in league,” which means others. As mentioned earlier, I think this is the Gog amalgamation of Ezekiel 38 and 39 for Ethiopia and Libya are two of those, and the others “in league” will be Iran and all the northern alliance extending up into Russia.
The great Tribulation will be a time of terror for all nations as God’s wrath is displayed against the world but it will also have elements of refinement leading to blessing as we see in the great future promise for Egypt and Assyria (territory of the modern Syria and Iraq).))
NUMBER 5
[05]. {{Joel 1:15-18 “Alas for the day, for the day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. Has not food been cut off before our eyes, gladness and joy from the house of our God? The seeds shrivel under their clods. The storehouses are desolate. The barns are torn down for the grain is dried up. How the beasts groan. The herds of cattle wander aimlessly because there is no pasture for them. Even the flocks of sheep suffer.”}}
[[PLEASE NOTE – the whole prophecy from Joel is one of the most important ones anywhere in scripture, and particularly important for The Day of the LORD. Chapters 1 (2nd half); 2 and 3 all go together in one prophecy. To understand it fully in context it should be read as one. To deal with all those references here in one posting would be much too long, so unfortunately, I have to split it. The start of Joel will be here in PART 2 and the rest in PART 3.]]
((This is the first time (the earliest one, for Joel dates to about 8-900 B.C.)) that the full expression “the Day of the LORD” (Yom Jehovah) is mentioned in scripture. Arno C Gabelein says this of the expression in Joel, [[“that phrase is used so frequently in all the prophetic books. The 15th verse (Joel 1:15) is an exclamation of the Prophet, as before his vision, that day appears. In the midst of the weird description of the calamity, present in Joel’s day [referring to the locust plagues), he beholds a greater judgment approaching. It is the same day he beholds which the other prophets mention; each time Joel uses this expression it means the coming day of the Lord, still approaching. It may be noticed that the five passages in Joel in which “the day of the Lord” is mentioned, are progressive.”
This passage is quite specific and its concentration is on Israel, for that nation had departed from the Lord as it did so frequently. Judgement had come from God upon the land because all Israel's blessings are in the land, and when God’s disfavour is against the nation, then the land shows that in drought and famine and plagues. The Jews are an earthly people, not a heavenly people. Their blessings are in the earth, whereas Christians have their blessings in the heavenlies. Those bad conditions were in operation when Joel wrote this prophecy but he said, “the day of the LORD is near” for it had not come as yet. Joel wrote approximately 870 BC and the destruction of Judah under Nebuchadnezzar was still way in the future. Therefore the conclusion is that the prophet points at the trials of the land, and links that with coming judgement in the Day of the LORD.
This passage is an example of the principle of double fulfillment, and in this case, a triple fulfillment. It is very legitimate to say that it had application to what happened under the Babylonians, but it must extend to a greater application in the future because of the very term itself, for in context, all references to it are in the Tribulation. Joel adds to this in a few verses’ time with the wider application when he develops the events that link with The Day of the LORD. “The Day of Jehovah” has one trunk but several arms. The trunk is the setting in the time after the Rapture, but the arms are the various interventions of God on a smaller scale such as in Joel’s time and under Nebuchadnezzar, and maybe Jerusalem’s destruction by the Romans.))
That ends Part 2. Part 3 will follow next.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
