Before we go any further into examinations of specific
prophecies and how they relate to us today it is worthwhile to look at God's
principal of duality in prophecy. Many
scholars and theologians argue that the Bible is no longer current or of value
because so many of the prophecies contained therein have already been
fulfilled. Even the Book of Revelation
is claimed by some to be well and truly over and done with; that it was written
to the churches of the day regarding the ruling Roman empire. So it is worth asking the question - is this true?
In the Old Testament, for example, there are hundreds of
prophecies relating directly to the Israelite people. God's prophets spoke of Israel's imminent
destruction from nations such as Babylon and Assyria. All of those things did, in fact, come to
pass during Biblical times. So does this
mean that they have no further meaning and can therefore be ignored? The short answer to that is no and one of the
principal examples of why that is not true lies in the Book of Ezekiel.
While there are many other clues and examples that God's
prophecies follow a principal of duality Ezekiel is probably the most obvious
one for us to follow. Ezekiel called
himself a 'watchman' for all of Israel, yet historically, at the time of his
writing Israel was a lost and scattered nation.
We know that the people of Israel are the descendants of the twelve sons
of Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel.
Jacob was the son of Isaac, who was the promised son of Abraham whom God
said would be 'the father of many nations'.
Each of the Twelve tribes was the off-spring of one of
Israel's sons, the exception being that of his son Dan, who was excluded and
replaced by Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. The people of the nation of Israel today are
in fact only the tribes of Judah, Jacob and some of the tribe of Levi. After the death of Solomon the Kingdom of
Israel became split in two, the southern part of the Kingdom, centred around
Jerusalem and the northern part with it's capital of Samaria. The Levite or priestly tribe of Israel was split
in two parts with some going south and the rest going north.
Anyone who has read the Old Testament knows that both the
Kingdoms of Israel, south and north, were, at various times, conquered by their
neighbours. Sometimes they were taken
into captivity and other times they were left in their homeland but ruled by
foreign overlords. It is also fairly
well known that the northern Kingdom of Israel eventually was scattered to the
four ends of the earth, lost to history and that they eventually lost their own
identity and the truth of who they really were.
Yet virtually all of Ezekiel's prophecies are written for
the whole of Israel, not merely the southern tribes that remain and now make up
the state of Israel. This shows us
clearly that God operates on a principal of duality in prophecy. A prophecy is given firstly for the time and
place but almost all the time also deals with a time far into the
future. For example Ezekiel speaks of a
time when all of Israel will be returned to their homeland, yet this has not
happened. The dispossessed Jewish people
who were granted the state of Israel after the Second World War do not
represent all of Israel but only the southern Kingdom. The remaining ten tribes still remain lost,
unknowing of their true identity and scattered across the globe.
Stay close to God, read His Word and see for yourselves how
often a prophecy has a dual meaning and application.
In the love of God,
Tracey
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