"They Shall Know That I Am The Lord.”

Title: "They shall know that I am the LORD."

Specific purpose: to draw attention to a miracle the world will see

Scriptures: Ezekiel 36&37, followed by Ezekiel 38&39

In my years in the pulpit, never a month passed that someone in my flock did not ask a question concerning some Biblical prophecy. "Pastor, are we in the end times?" "What is the meaning of the seals, the trumpets, the bowls, and the Four Horsemen?" I am no prophet. I am simply an old country preacher; answering these questions is well beyond my religious education and personal study. However, there are prophesies that are rather plain save for the names of some countries listed. They are in the Book of Ezekiel. In today's world, one cannot watch the news without seeing the continuing effort to rid the world of Israel. Ezekiel's prophecies say that God will put a stop to this.

Anti-Semitism, "the longest hatred1" in history, has plagued Jews since Haman was an official in the Court of Persia. Even today, people chant "Death to Israel" against God's "chosen people.2" God Almighty will react to that hatred with a power greater than ever witnessed by humankind. Ezekiel's prophecies shine a "marvelous light3" on the actions that God will use to rid Israel of its evil enemies. Illuminating those prophecies is the objective of this sermon. I start with what Ezekiel prophesied in chapters 36-37 of his book, the return of the Jews to Israel. Then I will turn to chapters 38-39, the prophecies detailing the destruction of Israel's enemies.

Ezekiel 36 begins with "And you, O mortal, prophesy." Ezekiel 37 begins with "The hand of the LORD came upon me." God spoke these prophecies to Ezekiel who then transmitted exactly what he received for all to read and hear. God did not design Ezekiel's prophecies to be parts of a dark puzzle for bright scholars to interpret but to be a bright light for common travelers through a dark world. Ezekiel's words are plain and easy to understand.

When you read Ezekiel 36-37, note the words in Ezekiel 37:11-14 for they speak of the total recovery of Palestine by all of the tribes of Israel. "Then He said to me, 'O Mortal, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They say, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is gone; we are doomed." Prophesy, therefore, and say to them: Thus said the Lord God: I am going to open your graves and lift you out of the graves, O My people, and bring you to the land of Israel. You shall know, O My people, that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and lifted you out of your graves. I will put my breath into you, and you shall live again, and I will set you upon your own soil. Then you shall know that I the Lord and have spoken and have acted"—declares the Lord.'"

Ezekiel 37:21 speaks of God causing the physical resurrection of the Israelite nation, "Thus said the LORD: I am going to take the Israelite people from among the nations they have gone to, and gather them from every quarter, and bring them to their own land." God did not do this all at once. The movement began in Europe in the 1700s and 1800s when European Jews began to believe that the dream of returning to their ancestral home Palestine would happen. For centuries, Jews from all over the Diaspora had been "going up" to Jerusalem to visit their Land. A few came to live and die there. However, beginning in 1881, the return did not resemble any in more than two thousand years for it was organized repatriation. Inspired Jews began an essentially modern national movement and believed in "the act of going up" to Jerusalem as a possible rebirth of a Hebrew-speaking Jewish society. Jewish immigration to pre-state Israel occurred in successive waves of immigration shaping Jewish life there from 1881-1939. Theodor Herzi became a leader of the returning to Israel movement in 1897. Herzi, an Ausrtro-Hungarian Jewish journalist, lawyer, writer, playwright, and political activist, became the father of modern political Zionism. His organization promoted Jewish immigration to Palestine with the intent to form a Jewish state. Soon after the end of WWII, the Zionist goal became a reality.

God fulfilled the prophecy foretold in Ezekiel 36-37 on May 15, 1948, when Israel became a nation. Today, Israel is a thriving country and yet it is still facing many that want to annihilate it and all the Jewish people of the world. God will use the enemies of Israel to show that He is God. Just as the waters fill the ocean, it is God's will that all the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of Him.