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About Jesus - Steve Sweetman Revelation
11:8 states that the dead bodies of the two witnesses "will lie in
the public square of the great city - which is figuratively called Sodom
... (NIV)." Knowing this
great city is "This
is what the Sovereign Lord says
to
Jerusalem
: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your
father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. On the
day you were born your cord was not Canaanite
tribes who occupied the land that would become Jerusalem
saw no value in the property, so they left it undeveloped.
"Then
I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there
in your blood I said to you, 'Live!' I made you grow like a plant of
the field. You Leave
it to the Lord to take unwanted property, develop it into something
beautiful, and claim it as His own. "Later
I passed by and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough
for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your
naked body. I gave you my
solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you … I bathed you with
water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you.
I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put sandals of leather
on you … I adorned you with … silver and gold … your fame spread
among the nations on account of your beauty ..."
The
Lord not only rescued and developed the land that would become Jerusalem, He married Himself to that land. "But
you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute.
You lavished your favours on anyone who passed by and your beauty
became his. You took the …
gold and silver … I gave you … and you made for yourself male idols
and engaged in prostitution with them … You took your sons and daughters
who you bore to me and sacrificed them as food for idols … You
slaughtered my children … At every street corner you built your shrines
and degraded your beauty, spreading your legs with increasing promiscuity
to anyone who passed by … You engaged in prostitution with …
neighbours with large genitals."
In
other words, Jerusalem
gave
herself to any guy with a large penis. That's pretty vivid
language, don't you think? "You
adulterous wife! You prefer
strangers to your own husband. All
prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to your lovers, bribing them
to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favours."
Prostitutes
are normally paid for their services, but not so with Jerusalem. She was so enamoured with
her God given beauty that she paid men to enter into an adulterous
relationship with her.
This
is just a sample of Ezekiel 16. You
might want to read the whole chapter.
Jerusalem
is portrayed as a pitiful, discarded, baby who the Lord rescued and
eventually took for Himself in marriage.
He transformed her into a gorgeously attractive woman, but she took
her beauty and gave herself to her pagan neighbours.
For this reason Revelation 11:8 associates Ezekiel
predicted the day when God would punish All
of the Old Testament prophets predicted the day when God's wrath would be
poured out on
Jerusalem
. The nations to whom Jerusalem
gave herself in times past will become, and I suggest have already become,
her enemies. Although Jerusalem
has experienced God's anger in past centuries, she has yet to experience
His wrath as predicted by the Old Testament prophets.
Joel 3:2 will be fulfilled when all nations on earth invade Judah
and
Jerusalem
as an act of divine judgment. It's
known as the time of Jacob's trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).
Judgment
isn't the end of the Ezekiel
echoes all of the prophets when he predicted the restoration of
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