Herbert W Armstrong

   It's often hard for people to realize that the world we see around us, the society that we've grown up in, the world that we know, is going to pass from the scene. But the world that you and I have known is not the permanent order of things. We're here celebrating the Feast of Trumpets, a time that the Bible describes when God will step into history, a time of God's future intervention.

   Now, that is described in Scripture, and there are many places we could go and that we could examine to see that. Many of you are familiar with these scriptures. You know, the Feast of Trumpets is going to signify different things for different people because for the saints of God, when that final trumpet blows, it's a time of joyous happiness and rejoicing.

   The dead in Christ rise first. Those of us that are alive and remain or caught up together with them, changed, made immortal in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The Scripture very plainly tells us this occurs at the time of the last trumpet, that final seventh trumpet.

   But you know, there are seven trumpets, and each of those trumpets represents a portion of God's intervention in the affairs of this world. And even that final seventh trumpet, while it's a time of joyous happiness and excitement as we anticipate what it will actually mean to enter the kingdom of God. What we have to understand is that for many in the world around, it will not be a joyous time.

   Just as the Scripture explains back in Revelation chapter 11, that there are different emotions and different things that people experience. We're told in Revelation 11:15, that when the seventh angel sounds, there were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. He shall reign forever and ever.

   We find it's also a time, verse 18 (Revelation 11:18), when the nations are angry. It's a time when God's wrath is come. It's a time of God's judgment.

   It's also a time of reward to the servants of God, and it's a time when ultimately those who have been a part of the destruction of this world and of humanity are going to face accountability for what they've done. Back in the book of Leviticus chapter 23, we're very familiar with this set of Scriptures because this is where we have the outline of God's festivals. Brethren, you and I are able to understand and to make sense of Bible prophecy in a way that virtually no one else is.

   Oh, there are a lot of people that are interested in Bible prophecy. There are books, as I'm sure you're well aware, the Left Behind series that Tim LaHaye wrote. That has sold millions and millions of copies.

   In fact, it's second only to the Harry Potter series as a publisher's goldmine. People are interested in prophecy, and they talk about prophecy, but you know the reality is, brethren, that most people, even those who talk about prophecy, don't really understand what all these things mean. And they don't because there are several vital keys that they don't have.

   And one of those keys is the understanding of God's plan laid out in the Holy Days. You and I have an understanding of what God is doing because he gives us that understanding, and it's laid out in the outline of the Holy Days given here in Leviticus chapter 23. We start out with the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, and coming on down through this time that we call Pentecost, or the Old Testament commonly uses the term the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Firstfruits.

   Then in Leviticus 23:23, we find that the Eternal spoke unto Moses, and he said, Speak unto the children of Israel and say, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a memorial of the blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. This is the beginning of the fall festival season. We're here celebrating a memorial of the blowing of trumpets.

   Now we understand the Day of Atonement will come nine days later, on the tenth day of the seventh month, and then five days after that the Feast of Tabernacles begins. We celebrate seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and then that final eighth day, that Last Great Day. But I want to concentrate our attention on the Feast of Trumpets, and on certain things from Bible prophecy that can help us understand what's going on.

   One of the things we need to understand, brethren, the world in which we live can drastically change in such a short time. You remember where you were on 911? I do. I remember being in a car.

   I was just pulling out of my driveway, getting ready to make a trip out to West Texas, to Abilene. I was about a 400-mile trip that lay in front of me, and just as I was pulling out into the street, I turned on the radio, wanting to catch the news, and I began to get the news of the destruction of the World Trade Tower, which, of course, at that time they didn't realize what had happened. They were talking about initially some sort of accident, and then as the minutes and the hours unfolded, more and more details, and our heads were reeling.

   We just were wondering, of course, how far this is going to go, what all does it mean. There were all of these things that were going on that were transpiring. And there was a very major shift in terms of our world and what's going on in it in the aftermath of that one event.

   Go back several years. Go back to the events in the fall of 1989. Remember the fall of 1989? That was, again, a very dramatic turning point in world history because what had seemingly been the permanent order of things after World War II, the post-World War II order of Europe, the Iron Curtain, all of the things that went with that, the divided Germany, the divided city of Berlin, the Berlin Wall.

   And yet you realize in a matter of days and weeks, the whole order of things that had been on the world scene for decades, for 40 years, absolutely changed. And the Iron Curtain very quickly crumbled. The Berlin Wall was taken down.

   The Brandenburg Gate was opened up. People streamed across. They were dancing in the shadow of the Berlin Wall.

   And the news commentators all the time were on television trying to explain, well, now, of course, this doesn't really mean that Germany will immediately come back together. In fact, that reunification, that may never occur. Or if it does, it's probably well into the future.

   I remember one particular expert that I watched being interviewed during that time. And he was trying to explain all the reasons why this would take a long time, if ever, and in reality, before a year had passed. It had already occurred.

   The point is, events in the world can take a drastic change. You and I can be going along from day to day. And seemingly the world is not changing that much, just little incremental things here and a little incident over there.

   And the easy pattern for people to fall into is the assumption that the world as we know it will continue on and on and on. Peter prophesied of that, recorded in the book of II Peter. He explained, he said, look, don't be ignorant concerning this.

   God has a time plan. He said, the Lord is not slack concerning His promises. No, God is on schedule.

   Peter also went on to explain how that there would come scoffers in the last days who would say, where is the promise of His coming? All things continue as they were since the fathers fell asleep. Everything just goes on and on and on. Our world is going to last forever.

   That's what they thought. That's what many think today. But of course that's not true.

   God's right on schedule. God is not slack concerning His promises. One day is with the Lord is a thousand years.

   God is right on schedule. Peter also went on to explain how that there are those in the world around us who are willingly ignorant. Willingly ignorant of God's intervention in times past.

   Willingly ignorant that the world, by the word of God, stood out of the water and in the water. In other words, speaking of creation, the time when the continents emerged. The fact that God intervened.

   The fact that the world that then was perished in the flood. Again, God's intervention, God's judgment. We're here celebrating a day.

   A memorial of the blowing of trumpets. In ancient times, the trumpet was the symbol. And the specific kind of trumpet that is being referred to is the shofar.

   A ram's horn. It made a long, shrill blast. It could be heard over a wide area.

   It was a blast of alarm, of warning. It was often sounded from atop the city walls. When an enemy would approach or similar things.

   Today, God's work is sounding an alarm. We're sounding a trumpet. God tells us to do that in the book of Isaiah.

   Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet. Show my people their sins. The house of Israel, their transgression, God says.

   That's what we're a part of, brethren. That's what you and I are a part of. A part of the work of God.

   Sounding forth that message of warning and alarm. Now, we are sounding forth our voice as a trumpet. Because the time is going to come when God is going to step into history.

   The trumpet blasts that are signaled back in the book of Revelation represent God stepping into history. You remember the story that John was taken in vision to heaven. And he saw one sitting on the throne who was God, God the Father.

   And he saw him holding a scroll. And that scroll was sealed with seven seals. And at first, the question was asked, who is worthy to open the scroll? Well, there was nobody in heaven, nobody on the earth, nobody who was dead and buried that was seemingly worthy to open the scroll.

   And then, the statement was made that there is one. The one who is described as the Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. You know, the purpose of sealing something in ancient times, it was a means by which genuineness was authenticated.

   If a king or a ruler sent a letter, generally written on a scroll, how did he ensure that everybody and anybody didn't open it up and read it and see what he was saying? That only the person to whom it was addressed would open it. Well, very simple. He would seal it with hot wax and would stamp the impression of his signet ring into that wax.

   The wax, of course, would quickly harden. And then, if you broke the seal, well, it was apparent. You could try to melt it back together, but you would smear the insignia of the ring.

   So, the messengers realized that if they showed up with the scroll and the seal was broken, there was a death penalty involved. That ensured, of course, that the message was not opened and read by someone other than the one who was authorized to do so. The seal was to authenticate genuineness.

   When John saw this scroll that laid out the future in advance, because the book of Revelation was written to reveal, to unveil, to show the future in advance. It was written to show the servants of God the things that would come to pass. Now, John saw Jesus Christ take this scroll and he began to open the scroll.

   And he opened seal by seal, and John saw various visions of what would happen when the first seal and the second seal, coming all the way down. And when the sixth seal was opened, he saw great, dramatic, heavenly signs. And then, the seventh seal was opened.

   Revelation chapter 8 tells us that John saw seven angels, given seven trumpets, standing there in this heavenly vision. These angels were handed trumpets, and the seventh seal was opened. And then the angels began to sound the trumpets one by one.

   You see the sixth seal, the day of the Lord, as we call it, that pictures the beginning of the intervention of God. This is sort of God's way of making the announcement, let me have your attention, please. The sun turns dark, the moon turns blood red, great comet and meteor showers, great dramatic signs in the heavens above, and people are frightened.

   And at that point, the angels began to blow the seven trumpets one by one. The final trumpet of the seven, the seventh trumpet, is the one that signals the resurrection. Now, brethren, there's a lot more prophecy in the Bible than most people ever begin to realize.

   Now, you've maybe heard that approximately 25-30% of the Bible is prophecy, and that's true. If you're looking at direct prophecy, you look at books like Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Daniel, the twelve minor prophets. You look at the book of Revelation, you look at the Olivet prophecy in Matthew 24, and we tend to focus on those.

   We realize that many of the Psalms have prophetic sections in them. But do you realize there's a lot more prophecy in the Bible than that? I want to show you a book that most people would never associate with prophecy, and yet it's filled with prophecy from beginning to end. Have you ever thought about the book of Leviticus being a prophetic book? I want to show you something here, just very briefly, because I want us to understand a little bit, not only the overview of what is going to end with the fulfillment of this day, but I want us to understand where we stand in Bible prophecy.

   I want us to understand some things about the future, and about the things that are going to open up in the times ahead of us. Now, let's start out in the book of Leviticus for a very brief tour. If you were to go through the first seven chapters in the book of Leviticus, you would read about various offerings.

   You would start out in chapter one with the burnt offering, and then the meal offering in chapter two, which is a grain or a cereal offering. The peace offering in chapter three. We get into chapters four and five, and six.

   Four and five, we read about the trespass offering, the sin offering, coming all the way down through chapter seven. We read of these various offerings. Now, have you ever thought about the fact that all those seven chapters are clearly prophetic? They are prophetic because the offerings themselves, and the details of those offerings, pointed toward Jesus Christ.

   They describe various aspects of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The burnt offering points to the fact that he offered himself entirely, completely, as a sacrifice for us. The grain offering represents the fact that he also offered himself as a living sacrifice day by day.

   The peace offering, the offering of access. Jesus Christ is the one who makes possible our having peace with God. The sin offering, as it describes in chapter four, are the trespass offerings.

   Again, point to the fact that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins. Now, you come a little further, and just as the first seven chapters through the offerings point to Jesus Christ and his role as the Lamb of God, chapter eight describes the setting apart of Aaron and his sons. Chapter eight and nine and ten focus on the priesthood, and how Aaron had certain garments, and how he was anointed with oil, and how he was set apart to serve as a priest, to serve as an intercessor between God and man.

   Well, those chapters, and the ceremonies that Aaron went through, pointed again to Jesus Christ, the resurrected Jesus Christ. After he had offered his sacrifice, Jesus Christ was resurrected, ascended on high to sit at the right hand of the Father, and you and I have access to God. Because Jesus Christ is our intercessor, he's our high priest.

   And so those chapters are very directly prophetic of Christ's ministry today. Now, beginning in chapter 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15, we come to chapters that many people sort of skip over, they don't seem to understand what this is talking about. You see, if God is in the process of reconciling us to himself, then it starts with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it continues on with the mediating priesthood of Jesus Christ, but chapters 11, 12, 13, and 14 talk very directly about what God expects of his people.

   You see, there are things that pollute us, there are things that separate us from God. And so these chapters deal with the subject of defilement. It starts out in chapter 11 with clean and unclean meats, and it proceeds on down through various things that are defiling.

   And many people who do understand a certain amount about this point to it, and say, well, these are laws of sanitation and hygiene, laws of health. They are. But even those physical laws point towards something.

   You see, in chapter 11, let's just illustrate. Chapter 11 goes through the laws of clean and unclean animals. Then, notice in verse 44 (Leviticus 11:44).

   For I am the Lord your God, and you shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy, for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourself with any manner of creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. I am the Eternal that brings you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God.

   You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of the living creatures that move in the waters, and every creature that creeps upon the earth, to make a difference between the unclean and the clean. God took something very basic, very physical, very mundane.

   Something every one of us do on a regular basis, and that is we eat. Now, animals are clean and unclean because God made some of them to be clean, He made others to be unclean. There are animals that were created to be eaten, and there are animals that were created for other purposes.

   God could have, had He chosen to do so, God certainly could have created every animal in such a way that it would be appropriate to be eaten. God made a distinction because He wanted us to get into the habit and the pattern of making a difference, as He says, to make a difference between the unclean and the clean. Every day, you and I make choices to reject certain things, to accept certain things.

   And so God has given us a reminder of every time we eat, that there are things that are to be rejected in life, and there are things that are to be accepted in life. It's a physical law, it relates certainly to health, and what is good for us in a physical sense. But that very physical law serves to illustrate a spiritual principle, that we need to make a distinction between what is to be rejected in life and what is to be accepted, because God wants us to be like Him.

   He says, you shall be holy for I am holy. Now, if you go on through in chapters 12 and 13 and 14 and 15, we read of various things along with this line, and it describes the process of cleanness. Individuals who had become unclean because they had touched something unsanitary, something, whether it involved death or disease.

   And notice the point that He makes in the end of this, in chapter 15, 31 (Leviticus 15:31), Thus shall you separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, that they die not in their uncleanness. You see, again, you and I must be separated from uncleanness. We must be washed.

   Well, doesn't that come right on down and have prophetic significance itself? It has to do with Christ's message for us. Now, when you and I wash with the water of God's Holy Spirit, the water and the word, the word of God, we are being cleansed on a regular basis. You know, it tells us in I John, the end of chapter 1, it says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth isn't in us.

   But if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We are cleaned from the defilement. Now, chapter 16 is prophetic of the events of the Day of Atonement, pictures the story of the two goats.

   As you get on into chapters 17 and 18 and 19 and 20, all of this whole section, 21, we begin to read about the way that God wants us to be in terms of our lives on a daily basis, our interaction with others. In chapter 23, we have the outline of the Holy Days, prophetic of the whole plan that God is working out. Now, chapter 25 shows that just as God's holiness demands certain actions from us as individuals, so it also demands actions from nations.

   These have to do with economic principles, the Land Sabbath, the Year of Release, the Jubilee. Then we come to chapter 26 (Leviticus 26:3-5, 14), and God's instructions are that we are, as He says in verse 3, to walk in His statutes and His commandments. And He makes the point in verse 4 that if we do that, our nation will be blessed with proper weather, the crops will produce well, there will be abundance and prosperity.

   And, as He says in the end of verse 5, you shall dwell in your land safely. I'll give peace in the land. You'll lie down and none shall make you afraid.

   Brethren, that's not the state of things that we find in our world today. We find a world that's gripped with terrorism. Because, you see, God went on to say in verse 14 of Leviticus 26, if you will not hearken unto Me, and you will not do all these commandments, if you despise My statutes, if your soul abhor My judgments.

   And that's the attitude we have. It's not just a matter that we've sort of slipped up and maybe not doing quite as well as we ought to, and we've made this mistake or that mistake. We have an attitude, a mindset in this nation, certainly much of the opinion molders, the leadership, the secular infrastructure of this country, in terms of everything from our courts to our media, the whole gamut of our society, an attitude of contempt for the law of God.

   You know, whether it's our soldiers acting out a porno movie in prison in Iraq, whether it's our judges who are ordering and performing homosexual unions and seeking to sanctify sodomy as though that were something that they could do. You see, we live in a nation that has turned upside down. We're not just talking about people slipping up or making a mistake.

   We're talking about a mindset of contempt that is expressed by so much of the leadership class of this country. Leadership is not only the political leadership, it's also the whole gamut of religious leadership and of the media, the main components of our society. Brethren, there's an attitude of contempt.

   God said, if you despise My statutes and abhor My judgments, verse 16 (Leviticus 26:16), this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to walk among you and I will appoint over you terror. Now, I want to show you something here as we go through Leviticus 26.

   You know, five is associated with the law. There are five books of the Torah. Genesis through Deuteronomy.

   The five books of the law are the five books of the Torah. The book of Leviticus emphasizes that right here because what we see, and I'm going to show you another book, a prophetic book, one of the major prophets, that is actually directly based upon and tied in with this book of Leviticus. But, we find that God says there are things that are going to come.

   And this is what you and I need to understand and to realize is going to unfold in our nations, in the United States, and in Canada, and in Britain, and in Australia, New Zealand, over the immediate years ahead of us. First thing he said is I'll appoint over you terror. And that's what we're seeing.

   He talked about various wasting and consumptive diseases. He said you'll sow your seed in vain because your enemies will reap it. They'll eat it.

   I'll set my face against you and you'll be slain before your enemies. They that hate you shall reign over you. You'll flee when none pursues you.

   That's descriptive of terrorism. People are frightened. We flee when none pursues.

   The terrorist attacks represent the beginning of this stage. Now, let's understand a little bit. Let's talk about what it means they that hate you shall rule over you.

   Do you realize in this country, in the United States, I don't know exactly what the debt is, but it's comparable in many of the other English speaking nations on a per capita basis. But in the United States, the national debt, the federal debt, is over $7 trillion. The national debt, the deficit for just this year, the year that we're currently in, is almost 1/2 trillion dollars.

   Just about 1/2 trillion dollars, approximately $500 billion. You and I can't even grasp what size numbers these are. Now, understand something further.

   Who is paying for all that? Well, the United States is busily selling federal bonds. The primary purchasers right now of this bonded indebtedness by the United States government is Japan and China. They're two of the very leading nations in purchasing this.

   What you have to understand is that we're setting the stage for something. You know, when you owe someone a lot of money, they are in a position to make demands. A lot of farmers have found that out.

   A lot of small business owners have found that out. They had run up debt with the bank. And when the time came that they were having trouble making their payments and they went to the banker and tried to get it straightened out and negotiate maybe some new terms, they've often found that the banker then, who had been very friendly in times past, happy to loan them the money, now he begins to dictate terms.

   And he says, now, all right, I will give you an extension and I'll do this and that, but you're going to have to make certain changes in your operation. You're going to have to start doing this, you're going to have to do that, you're going to have to make this change and that change. You see, as Proverbs says, the borrower is servant to the lender.

   A lot of third world countries have found this out who have gotten in great debt to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. They've had bankers show up and begin to dictate taxation policies, governmental spending policies, to set priorities. And if those in government tried to say, well, now wait a minute, we want to do this and we don't want to do that, what they found is the bankers said, look, the only way you're going to keep afloat is that we're going to help you and restructure your debt and we're going to provide financing, but we're only going to do it on our terms.

   Now, the United States has been in a position to dictate some of that in times past, but brethren, I'm telling you the time is coming when we in this country are going to find ourselves dictated too. We're going to find that a lot of what we think we're reaping in terms of our harvest is not being harvested by us. Foreigners are getting the benefit of it.

   We're going to find that those that hate us will reign over us. In other words, we as the borrower will be servant to the lenders. Now, let me call your attention to something.

   Verse 18 (Leviticus 26:18), If you will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I'm going to punish you seven times more for your sins. I'm going to ratchet up the level of punishment. And what we come to is, as we will notice in Leviticus 26, is there are five levels of punishment corresponding to each of the five books of the Torah.

   The final one being captivity and destruction. The first is terrorist activity and the consequences of a mammoth debt. The second is, verse 19 (Leviticus 26:19), I'm going to break the pride of your power.

   We are proud of our economic power. We're proud of our military power. We're stretched thin, but we're the world's super power.

   We're the only super power. We can dictate to the rest of the world, right? God says, I'm going to break the pride of your power. And I'm going to make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass.

   We're going to find drought set in. We're going to find that there will come a scarcity of food. Now, chapter 26, verse 21 (Leviticus 26:21), moves on to the third stage.

   And if you walk contrary unto me and will not hearken unto me, I'm going to bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins. So then he described wild beasts. This can include, you know, in the aftermath of drought, you have wild animals that begin to move into areas of human habitation because they're hungry and thirsty.

   It can also describe even disease epidemics that also spread in the aftermath of drought. It can include rabid animals. It talks about highways being desolate, which could even involve continuing skyrocketing prices of oil and gas.

   Notice verse 23 (Leviticus 26:23). Now this is the third level. If you will not be reformed by me for all these things, but will walk contrary to me, then I'm going to walk contrary to you and I'm going to punish you yet seven times for your sins.

   So it's going to increase. I'm going to send a sword among you. Now we're looking at invasion.

   They'll avenge the quarrel of my covenant. When you're gathered together in your cities, I'll send pestilence. I'm going to send disease epidemics.

   Verse 26 (Leviticus 26:26-27), I'm going to break the staff of bread. He describes great scarcity. You know, first you have drought.

   Now we've moved beyond the drought. We've moved to a time of scarcity. People are going to be rationing food.

   It'll be sold by weight. And you won't be satisfied. Won't be able to get enough.

   It'll be rationed out. Verse 27, if you will not yet for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary, then I'm going to walk contrary to you in my fury, and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. Now we move into the fifth.

   The fifth category. He describes people now who've moved from scarcity to starvation. Now we find people who have turned to cannibalism.

   Who are literally eating their children. Talks about the cities being made waste. The land, verse 32 (Leviticus 26:32-33), being brought into desolation.

   Probably involving even nuclear attack at this point. And then in verse 33, I'm going to scatter you among the nations. Talking about captivity.

   Now there's several things that we need to note. And then from here we're going to go back to the book of Ezekiel because Ezekiel was a priest. And Ezekiel's prophecies build on what God said in Leviticus 26 in a special way.

   Notice that in each of these cases we start out with terrorism. And then we reach a certain stage and God said if you won't hearken unto me for all this then I'll turn up the volume seven times. Then if you won't respond again I'll turn it up again.

   And then again, and then again. Brethren, how will the people of the United States and the British Commonwealth Nations because understand this is a prophecy directly to Israel. This is talking about the events that will lead up to the Great Tribulation.

   The events that are going to occur that are already beginning to occur because we're in that first stage right here terrorism. We're going to see some serious economic ramifications on the international scene. And we're going to then move on to the pride of our power being broken.

   These things are going to happen and they're going to move up by stages. But notice that what separates each stage is the statement if you will not yet for all this hearken. Brethren, how can people hearken? Somebody has to tell them not simply what's happening they'll be able to look around and see what's happening.

   They can turn on CNN or Fox News and find out what's happening. But they won't know why it's happening and they won't know what it means and where it's leading. Now with that in mind let's go back to the book of Ezekiel.

   I want to show you some things back here. Ezekiel chapter one, verse one. We find that Ezekiel is identified as a priest.

   Right here. Ezekiel 1:1 It came to pass in the thirtieth year in the fourth month in the fifth day of the month as I was among the captives by the river of Kabar. The heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.

   Now we know exactly when this was because we're told in verse two. In the fifth day of the month which was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity. Now I'm not going to go through the study of the chronology but if you want to go back to Kings and Chronicles you can put the story together yourself.

   We know exactly what this thirtieth year was. Because the thirtieth year that is identified in Ezekiel 1.1 is in verse two identified as being the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity. King Jehoiachin was the grandson of King Josiah.

   Many years earlier. In fact, thirty years earlier. Because if you put the story together you find Josiah came to the throne as a little boy.

   He was about eight years old. And when he was about sixteen he really began to seek God and wanted to learn about God. And when he was twenty and took over full authority in the kingdom he began to purge the land of everything that smacked of idolatry.

   And he began this process of revival and restoration. And then there came a point where he wanted to restore, repair, rebuild the temple. The temple was still standing but it needed serious repair because it had been neglected and there had been all sorts of pagan, idolatrous things brought into it.

   And in the process of repairing the temple the priests found the book of the law. They found the Torah. And they brought it to Josiah and they read to him from it.

   And part of what he read was Leviticus 26. And he realized the enormity of the punishments that were going to come on the nation. Now the response of Josiah was that he was absolutely heartbroken as he saw this.

   And he rent his clothes. He called for a time of fasting, a time of repentance. There was a great Passover celebration.

   He called the nation to repentance. And he sought to restore the truth in Judah. Well several years later Josiah died.

   He had a son that came to the throne and only stayed there about three months. And the Egyptians came and got him and hauled him off. And they put another son.

   Shalom was the first king and the Egyptians arrested him. They put his brother Jehoiakim on the throne. And he remained on the throne for a period of years.

   And during a Babylonian siege he died. And his son Jehoiakim mentioned here came to the throne. He was only on the throne for a short time himself.

   The Babylonians arrested him, hauled him off to Babylon and put his uncle, a third son of Josiah, Zedekiah, on the throne. He was the last king of Judah. Well if you trace the chronology down you'll find that the fifth year of Jehoiakim's captivity equals 30 years after this great revival, the great Passover of Josiah.

   Jewish tradition holds that the year of Josiah's great Passover was a jubilee. And so this would have been the 30th year of the next jubilee count. One that never occurred because of the captivity that came on instead.

   Whether it was the revival of Josiah coincided with the jubilee or not I don't know. That can be totally proven. But here is Ezekiel now.

   And he is seeing this vision and he dates it from the time of the revival. But you see, none of Josiah's sons and also his grandson, Jehoiakim, mentioned here, none of them responded to God's message in the way Josiah had. Now Ezekiel is writing and he is in Jewish captivity because the Babylonians invaded Judah actually three different times under King Nebuchadnezzar.

   They came in in 604 and made Judah a part of the Babylonian Empire. They came back several years later, about 11 years later they came back and established well, they took Jehoiakim into captivity himself and Ezekiel went into captivity at that time. Then they came back finally about 587 or 586 B.C. and destroyed Jerusalem and Judea.

   Ezekiel is writing about five or six years before the destruction of Judea and Jerusalem. But after a number of people have already been taken into captivity, he is in captivity. Now another thing to understand is that this is the house of Judah, the house of Israel, the northern ten tribes had been taken into captivity about 125 years before Ezekiel ever started writing.

   Ezekiel is now shown a vision. Ezekiel is identified here as a priest. In verse 3 (Ezekiel 1:3), Ezekiel the priest, the son of Bazaar.

   So here is a priest. Remember the book of Leviticus was written to the priesthood. It was prophetic and it was explanatory of what it means to be holy for God is holy.

   And that theme runs all the way through. The nation departed from God, departed from God's holiness and now Ezekiel is being given a message. One of the things we see as we go through the book of Ezekiel is that even though he was a Jewish captive living in a village of captives in the southern Euphrates River area, southern Mesopotamia, he was given a message that was directed not primarily toward the Jews but toward the house of Israel.

   That becomes apparent. Now if you go through Ezekiel chapter 1, you find that Ezekiel sees this great dramatic vision of God. He sees what appears to be a storm, a hurricane, or a tornado that is moving toward him.

   But the closer it gets, the more details he sees. He first sees flashes of light and finally as he gets closer, he sees this great crystalline expanse, this being on a throne sitting above this expanse. And we're told in verse 28 of chapter 1 (Ezekiel 1:28), latter part of the verse, this was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

   When Ezekiel saw it, he fell on his face. Then he was told to stand up. Chapter 2, verse 3 (Ezekiel 2:3), Son of man, I'm going to send you to the children of Israel.

   Ezekiel was sent with a message to the house of Israel. That's what we're told in chapter 3, verse 4 (Ezekiel 3:4), Son of man, go get you unto the house of Israel. Speak with my words unto them.

   Verse 17 (Ezekiel 3:17), Son of man, I've made you a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word at my mouth and give them warning from me. So Ezekiel is given a message of warning and it's directed at the house of Israel.

   But the house of Israel had been in Assyrian captivity, gone into captivity well over a century, about 125 years before Ezekiel spoke these words. Now in chapter 4, Ezekiel is told to do something that must have struck his fellow captives as a little bit strange. Ezekiel took a piece of ceramic tile and he constructed a little model city representing the city of Jerusalem.

   And there were little soldiers and fortifications and there were various things. He sat up around it and he was told, verse 3, last part of Ezekiel 4:3, This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. The siege of Jerusalem that resulted in its destruction about five years or six years beyond this time when Ezekiel was writing was a sign for the house of Israel.

   It was, in other words, prophetic of the tribulation itself that will see the destruction of the house of Israel. Now Ezekiel was told to lie on his left side in front of this little ceramic tile and this little toy city as it were. He was told to go out and lie on his left side for 390 days.

   Day after day after day after day. 390 days. Why, that's more than a year.

   You figure after a year, people thought they had Ezekiel pretty well figured out. They knew what was going to happen every day. Ezekiel was going to come out and lie on his left side.

   Then one day, he comes out and he doesn't lie on his left side. He lies on his right side and he does that for 40 days. Now Ezekiel knew the difference between Israel and Judah because he was told in verse 5 (Ezekiel 4:5), I've laid upon you the years of their iniquity according to the number of the days, 390 days, so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

   When you've accomplished that, lie on your right side and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days. I've appointed you each day for a year. Now, Brethren, Ezekiel clearly distinguished between Israel and Judah and he does that all through the book and he shows back in the latter part of Ezekiel that Israel and Judah will not be joined together as one nation again until the very end, until after the resurrection, until King David has been resurrected and Israel and Judah are gathered back together as one nation restored again.

   Israel and Judah separated into two separate nations after the death of King Solomon and they have never been one nation since that time. That is a period of almost 3,000 years. The return of the Jews to what is today the state of Israel is certainly a major prophetic event in terms of Bible prophecy but it is not the fulfillment of the regathering of all 12 tribes.

   Now, if we come down a little further in Ezekiel chapter 5, Ezekiel was told to take a razor and to shave his beard and to take it and divide it up into three categories and that we find that one-third was to be burned and one-third was to be smitten with the knife and one-third was to be scattered to the wind and a few were to be taken and bound up in the skirt of his garment. He was told that this was prophetic because verse 12, Ezekiel 5:12 a third of you shall die with the pestilence and with famine and they shall be consumed in the midst a third shall fall by the sword and I'll scatter a third to the winds. Now, if you go back to Leviticus chapter 26 and you begin to read about this pestilence and this famine and this destruction of warfare and this going into captivity you find the backdrop against what Ezekiel was describing.

   You see, Ezekiel was building on the book of Leviticus and on the prophecies there in Ezekiel 20 and Leviticus 26. Ezekiel was building on that. Now, again, while he was using Jerusalem as an illustration it was what? It was a message for the house of Israel.

   Ezekiel was a watchman to the house of Israel. Ezekiel never delivered any message to the ancient house of Israel. The ancient house of Israel was in captivity and so was Ezekiel in a totally different location.

   But Ezekiel wrote this down. The events that happened in his day were a type of a future time. A time that lies ahead of us.

   You and I have Ezekiel's message and we have a responsibility to share that message and to proclaim that message to a nation that needs it. Well, Ezekiel went on in Ezekiel 5:14. He said, I'll make you waste and reproach among the nations.

   Then he described in chapter 6 the fact that the cities, verse 6 (Ezekiel 6:6-9), would be laid waste. The destruction and the devastation that is going to come on our land, our nation. He said in verse 8, I'll leave a remnant.

   There are going to be some that survive and they will ultimately come to a point as it says here in chapter 9, they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations where they've been carried captive because I have broken with their whorish heart which has departed from me and with their eyes which go a-whoring after their idols. And they shall loathe themselves for the evils that they have committed and all their abominations. And they shall know that I am the Eternal and that I've not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.

   Oh yes, my brethren. You know, most people today think these words are in vain. They don't think that's going to happen to this country.

   They don't believe that this time is literally going to come. But I'm telling you, most of us are going to live to see the fulfillment of this. Now Ezekiel went on and he was told in Ezekiel chapter 8, we find a vision that Ezekiel had and he was transported in vision to the temple in Jerusalem.

   Brought in visions, verse 3 (Ezekiel 8:3-4), to visions of God to Jerusalem and he saw the temple and verse 4, behold the glory of the God of Israel was there. Just like he had seen it in that earlier vision. Do you remember the story that's given in scripture when the tabernacle of Moses was raised up in the wilderness and the glory of God filled it? Do you remember many years later, centuries later, when Solomon built the temple and when the temple was dedicated, the glory of God filled the temple? The priests couldn't even come into the inner courtyard.

   There was fire from heaven that came down and ignited the offering on the altar. Ezekiel now in his vision sees the temple. This is about five years before the destruction of the temple.

   He sees the temple in Jerusalem and he sees the glory of God. But as we come through in chapter 6, or chapter 9 rather, Ezekiel sees a vision of the altar, the altar of sacrifice that is described right here in the beginning of chapter 9. And he's standing there and he recognizes this. Again, he was a priest.

   He sees six men standing by the altar. Actually, these are angels. One of these six has a writer's ink horn.

   The other five have swords. Verse 3 (Ezekiel 9:3-9), the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub whereupon he was to the threshold of the house. And he called the man clothed with linen that had the writer's ink horn by his side.

   And he said, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst. And he said to the others, the other five, Go after him through the city and smite. And so we find that the city is described, verse 9, is full of perverseness.

   A prevailing idea seems to be that the Lord has forsaken the earth. The Lord doesn't see. God doesn't know.

   He's way off somewhere. Now, what we're going to find is we go right through the next chapter or two. The glory of God came into the temple back in the days of Solomon.

   There was a curtain that curtained off the holy of holies from the holy place. Only the high priest, once a year, was allowed to enter into the holy of holies. That was the dwelling place of God.

   There was, in the holy of holies, there was the ark of the covenant. And over top of the ark of the covenant was what was called the mercy seat. And there were two cherubim, and the glory of God was there, and it was symbolic of God's throne whereupon the glory of God was.

   What Ezekiel sees in his vision is the glory of God coming out of the holy of holies, moving here to the threshold of the house. Now it's looking out at the brazen altar, the altar of sacrifice, in the courtyard. And the instructions are given to these angelic beings.

   One, to go out and to set apart all of those that sigh and cry for the abominations of Israel. The next five, to go out and execute the judgment of God. You remember we saw back in Leviticus 26, there are five categories.

   Each more intense than the previous of the judgment of God, corresponding to the five books of the Torah. We find this same pattern described right here in Ezekiel. And this distinction made between those who are part and parcel of this society, who are a part of the abominations, who despise God's ways, and those who sigh and cry for the abominations of Israel.

   Now Ezekiel watches in chapter 10, and he sees this vision of God's throne and the crystalline expanse, and he sees these cherubim beneath it. Verse 4 of Ezekiel 10 (Ezekiel 10:4, 18), The glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, stood over the threshold of the house. And then in verse 18, The glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubim.

   The cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. Notice the end of the verse, and the glory of the God of Israel was over above them. God's glory departed from the temple of old, setting the stage for its destruction.

   Now it's interesting because the glory of God departed first moving out of the temple, out from the Holy of Holies to the threshold, directing these angelic beings. Then it moves out, comes over the city. Then we find, as you come a little further, in chapter 11, verse 23, or verse 22 says (Ezekiel 11:22-23), The cherubim lifted up their wings.

   The glory of the God of Israel was over them above. And the glory of the Eternal went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain which is upon the east side of the city. Now brethren, you know which mountain is east of Jerusalem? It's the Mount of Olives.

   The glory of God in ancient times ascended up, ascended out of the temple to the Mount of Olives and from the Mount of Olives it departed. You remember, centuries later, when Jesus Christ rose to heaven, when he ascended to heaven, he ascended from the Mount of Olives. We know where he's coming back.

   Zechariah 14 says, In that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives. The Mount's going to cleave in two. And that's exactly what is going to happen.

   What we find is this description. You know, God's glory is depicted here as departing from the Mount of Olives. Now, Ezekiel was given a message for this rebellious house of Israel.

   There are many places that we could go. I'm just going to touch on a couple of other places here in Ezekiel. Notice in Ezekiel chapter 16 (Ezekiel 16:1-2).

   Again the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. Remember, Jerusalem is used, we're told, all the way back in Ezekiel 4 as a sign to the house of Israel. Cause them to know their abominations.

   He went on and described some of these things. If you want a summary, notice beginning in verse 48 (Ezekiel 1:48). As I live, says the Lord God, Sodom your sister has not done she nor her daughters as you have done you and your daughters.

   Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. Pride and fullness of bread and an abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. They were haughty and committed abomination before me.

   You know, there's a progression here. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness. That was what set the stage for all of the perversions that came to characterize Sodom.

   Same thing that has set the stage for what is characterizing our nations today. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness. It's produced a self-centered attitude.

   An attitude that leads into all sorts of self-indulgence and perversion. Well, as the book of Ezekiel goes through and shows how these things unfold, eventually we come in the latter part of the book of Ezekiel to a time as it describes in the last portion of Ezekiel 37, when Israel and Judah will finally be joined back together as one nation and David will be king over them. Now, notice in Ezekiel chapter 40, Ezekiel is shown a vision of a future temple.

   A temple that will be after the return of Jesus Christ. Notice, as we're described here in Ezekiel 43:1, He brought me to the gate, even the gate that looks toward the east. That's toward the Mount of Olives.

   And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. And His voice was like the noise of many waters, and the earth shined with His glory. That's the returning Jesus Christ.

   In that day, Zacharias says, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. The Mount is going to cleave in two. You know, all nations are going to come up against Jerusalem.

   But God is going to go forth and He's going to deal with those nations. And now Ezekiel, who had earlier seen the glory of God departing from the nation, because the nation, through its sin, had defiled itself, and God does not dwell in the midst of abomination and defilement. The whole book of Leviticus dealt with that subject.

   We have to be holy for God is holy. We become holy not through what we can do on our own. The starting point of holiness involves the sacrifice of Christ.

   That's why the first seven chapters of Leviticus deal with that sacrifice and prophesy of various aspects. Then we move on beyond the sacrifice of Christ, who is ongoing priestly ministry, which is described prophetically in the next several chapters of Leviticus. Then we go on to the fact that we must keep ourselves separate from defilement.

   And when we become defiled, we've got to go and confess it and to be cleansed, to be washed. Ezekiel sees now the glory of the God of Israel coming from the way of the east from the Mount of Olives. He sees him in power and glory, just like he had seen him in vision described all the way back in Ezekiel 1:4, The glory of the Eternal came into the house by the way of the gate that faces toward the east, toward the Mount of Olives.

   And the Spirit took me and brought me into the inner court, and behold, the glory of the Eternal filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house, and the man stood by me, and he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. And my holy name shall the house of Israel no more defile.

   There's not going to be any more of that. This is talking about that time in the future. This temple that is described in Ezekiel is the place of God's throne.

   It's the place where Jesus Christ will exercise his government. That will be the very headquarters, the very capital of the world. The place of his throne, the place of the soles of his feet.

   He enters in from the east from the Mount of Olives. And so we find the glory of the God of Israel fills this house. You and I are celebrating a day that anticipates that.

   That outcome. Because we're celebrating a day that focuses our attention on the fact that the God of Heaven is going to step into history. He's going to directly, dramatically intervene.

   Things are not just going to continue on and on. Rather, the God of Heaven is going to intervene. Now, as a prelude to that, we looked at these statements in Leviticus and in Leviticus 26.

   Notice that after each level of punishment, the statement was made, and if they will not for this hearken unto all me, if they will not for this hearken unto me, then I will increase in severity seven times over the punishment that was going to come. Brethren, how will they hearken? Notice what the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 10. Romans 10:13, he says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

   Now, he doesn't just mean using God's name in some perfunctory way. He has to do with an individual crying out in profound belief and repentance. Notice, he's actually quoting from Joel chapter 2, speaking of the events of the day of the Lord and the fact that those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

   This is a quote from Joel 2:32. Notice what he goes on to say, Paul does in Romans 10:14. How shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? So this is talking about calling on God in faith.

   How shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? How shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, bring glad tidings of good things. Faith comes by hearing, verse 17 (Romans 10:17), and hearing by the word of God. There's a message to go out.

   People will be able to see what's happening, but they won't understand why it's happening. You know, the two witnesses take their place in Jerusalem and begin their ministry after the beginning or at the beginning of the tribulation itself. The first four of the five levels that come on Israel described in Leviticus 26 are prior to the onset of what we call the Great Tribulation and certainly the events that begin with the abomination of desolation being set up.

   There's a message that has to go out because as these levels of punishment increase, there will be an opportunity of people to hearken. But how can they hearken if they haven't heard? How can they hear except there's a work going forth? How can they hear without a preacher? How can they preach except they be sent? You and I have a part in that work. God has given us the privilege of being a part of sounding the trumpet, sounding the trumpet of alarm and warning that is a prelude to the time when the God of Heaven will have angelic beings sound forth the final trumpets that will culminate in the time when that seventh trumpet splits the air.

   The dead in Christ rise. Those of us that are alive and remain are caught up together with them. We meet Jesus Christ in power and glory.

   He that shall come will come and will not tarry. That day is coming, my brethren. You and I are living in the days that are the prelude to that.

   Let's never be lulled to sleep and take for granted the times in which we live because that reality is coming. What you and I are doing today has a part of setting the stage for those events because we're going to meet Jesus Christ in the air. We're going to return to this earth and ultimately we're going to come with him from that hill east of Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives.

   We're going to come in and we're going to be a part of that government that goes forth to all the earth.