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Welcome to the Cross References podcast on the Book of Ezekiel. In this study, you learn how every small piece of the Bible tells one big story- and most importantly, how they all connect to the cross and Christ.
Whether you’re a newbie Christian or a veteran Bible reader, my goal is that God’s Word will make more sense to you after every episode.
Host: Luke Taylor
Prophecies Against Seven Muslim Nations
Ezekiel 25:1-17
Ezekiel series
Introduction
Talk about God’s timing. I started into my Ezekiel series two years ago. If I had started working on this lesson a month ago, I would have had a totally different take on it. But with everything going on in the Middle East lately, I see this chapter in a whole new light.
So today, I’m going to start into Ezekiel 25, and these are his prophecies against the non-Jewish nations. Now, this was written to the ancient versions of these nations, but the contain a message that could be applied some of the geopolitics of modern times- and perhaps to yours and my life as well. If you listen to the end, you’ll gain a new perspective on what’s going on with these people called the Palestinians that you hear about so much in the news. So grab a Bible, turn to Ezekiel 25, and let’s hear all about it today on the CR podcast.
[theme music]
Welcome Back
Welcome to the Cross References podcast, where you learn how every small piece of the Bible tells one big story- and most importantly, how they all connect to the cross and Christ.
Whether you’re a new Christian or a veteran Bible reader, my goal is that God’s Word will make more sense to you after every episode.
My name is Luke Taylor, and I’m a gentile. That means I’m a non-Jew. And the first 24 chapters of Ezekiel was written TO the JEWS. But starting with chapter 25, God and Ezekiel shift their attention to the GENTILES. So this book is about to get more relevant than ever.
Thanks for being here. And a special thanks if you’ve been here since the start of this journey through Ezekiel. I started it two years ago on this podcast. This book is 48 chapters in length, so we just passed the halfway point. But also a turning point, as I mentioned before. Up until now, Ezekiel has been focused on the siege of the Babylonians and destruction against the city of Jerusalem. So I just spent the last two years of my life really digging into that one event. The focus is about to change so much that now, we’re practically starting a whole new book.
I took a few weeks off from this podcast to start another one, it’s called Weird Stuff in the Bible. Check it out if you like weird stuff, or the Bible, or me. I like you, too, and I’m glad you’re here. Let’s get into Ezekiel 25.
We’re about to begin the third major section in the book. The first section was chapters 1-11, the prophecies of Jerusalem’s destruction. Then the second section was chapters 12-24, the reasons why it was going to be destroyed. Could’ve called it 13 reasons why; it was 13 chapters about all the reasons that God had to wipe out His own city and temple. The third section is chapters 25 through 32, and this is the section the most focused on the Gentile nations. I might do some crossover episodes with my WSITB podcast in here because there’s some really strange stuff that we’re going to encounter in this section. In chapter 28, we’ll learn about the origin of Satan. In chapter 32, Pharaoh of Egypt gets a tour of hell. And then when we get done with this section, the rest of the book is going to be more focused on future prophecies; some things we see happening today and other things yet to come. So exciting things are ahead on this podcast; make sure you’re subscribed so you can follow along.
V1-7, The Prophecy Against Ammon
As you saw in the episode title, we’re getting into prophecies against seven Muslim nations. This prophecy that Ezekiel gives today was given around 500 or 600 BC. But the religion of Islam didn’t begin until around AD 800, so like 1400 years later. So why am I calling today’s lesson the prophecies against the Muslim nations? Well, God is going to select 7 nations to give notice to, and it’s interesting that all of these 7 nations are Muslim countries today. I’ll talk about that at the end because it may have some indications about some things going on in geopolitics today.
The prophecies against the 7 Muslim nations are going to take up chapters 25 through 32, this whole section, and we’re going to cover four of them today. Four of them are given their announcements of doom in chapter 25 here. So we’ll try to cover the whole chapter today.
And this chapter really gives similar vibes to the letters from Jesus to the 7 churches in Revelation. They’re short little one-paragraph letters in that book; we’re going to have something like that today. As I said, we’ll cover four, so think of this as four letters to the nations surrounding Israel. In Jesus’ letters to the churches in Revelation, they’re kind of repeptitive; there’s a pattern to them, and each one is unique, but it’s laid out in the same pattern. That’s what we’ll see with the first four letters today. The first one is the prophecy against Ammon, and I’ll read the first 7 verses of this chapter and talk about what God is writing to them.
Ezekiel 25:1-7
The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward the Ammonites and prophesy against them. 3 Say to the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God, Because you said, ‘Aha!’ over my sanctuary when it was profaned, and over the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and over the house of Judah when they went into exile, 4 therefore behold, I am handing you over to the people of the East for a possession, and they shall set their encampments among you and make their dwellings in your midst. They shall eat your fruit, and they shall drink your milk. 5 I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and Ammon a fold for flocks. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 6 For thus says the Lord God: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the malice within your soul against the land of Israel, 7 therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand against you, and will hand you over as plunder to the nations. And I will cut you off from the peoples and will make you perish out of the countries; I will destroy you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Each of these pronouncements or letters is going to include a few repeating elements: announcing which nation is being addressed, the thing they did wrong, and then what’s going to happen to them. So this time, Ammon was addressed, and the thing they did wrong was say “aha” over the destruction of Jerusalem. In other words, they mocked Israel and taunted them and were arrogant about it. They said, “serves you right, hahaha, what a bunch of losers.” God doesn’t like that.
This is called Schadenfreude. It’s a German word that means (according to the best source of information on the internet, Wikipedia): “the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another.” So you learned some German today: Schadenfreude.
So it means to dance around in joy because something bad happened to someone else. Now, we have to be careful about this. There is a place for expressing celebration when the enemies of God are defeated. There’s a way in which that can be acceptable. But there’s also a way that celebrating over a defeated enemy can be mean-spirited and cruel. Usually the difference is pretty obvious. But if you aren’t sure, I’d probably refrain from celebrating. Be careful about hearing that something bad happened to someone and then just kind of saying, “well serves them right.” Because that can make God mad at YOU, then. God knows your heart, so be careful when you smart off about someone.
That’s what the book of Obadiah was all about. It was directed against Edom, who will come up in this book, too. Edom excessively celebrated against Israel’s downfall at the hands of the Babylonians. So in the book of Obadiah, God is saying, “since you couldn’t contain your glee at seeing Israel destroyed, I’m going to make sure that the same thing happens to you.” And it did.
I once filled in for the Children’s Church teacher at the church where I used to serve. I did that several times, actually. And one time, I used the book of Obadiah for my lesson. Probably the only time in 2000 years of church history that someone used Obadiah for a Children’s Church lesson. But I did, and here’s why: we had a lot of siblings in the class. And I noticed a lot of rivalry between them. Sometimes a brother would get in trouble, and the sister was right there to mock him when it happened. Or lets say little Susie gets in trouble, and little Bobby is right there to say, “yeah Susie.” You know, you hear kids make these little comments to each other. So as their fill-in Children’s Church teacher, one time I decided, let’s talk about this. So they learned a little bit of Obadiah and a little bit of German, too.
But you know what? That’s not just a problem with kids. It’s a problem with adults. We can react too mean-spirited when we see something bad happen to someone we don’t like. When you see a political candidate that you didn’t like very much go down in humiliating fashion, or a public figure we disliked who passes away. Check your heart when that happens. Yes, there may be a Godly way to celebrate something like that. But there may also be a mean-spirited streak in us that wants to dance on their grave. And moments like that should also always humble us, because one day we may lose, one day we may die, and so we need to see our enemies fall with some soberness.
And that is not the way Ammon behaved toward Israel’s downfall. They had parties and parades, and even though Israel deserved it, God didn’t like that very much. So God says that their punishment would be to be conquered by the people of the East. And that is what happened; the Ammonites were defeated by the Qedemites to the east, a group of nomads who were barely a country themselves.
Now, is there any parallel between what the Ammonites did when they saw the Israelites destroyed here and what we’ve seen break out across the entire planet in the past month as we’ve seen lots of people literally celebrating the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas? I’d say so, and I will revisit that idea wrap up at the end. Let’s get into the next letter.
V8-11, The Prophecy Against Moab
Ezekiel 25:8-11
8 “Thus says the Lord God: Because Moab and Seir said, ‘Behold, the house of Judah is like all the other nations,’ 9 therefore I will lay open the flank of Moab from the cities, from its cities on its frontier, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim. 10 I will give it along with the Ammonites to the people of the East as a possession, that the Ammonites may be remembered no more among the nations, 11 and I will execute judgments upon Moab. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
This is against Moab, and their big problem is that they said Israel is just like all the other nations. Now, what did they mean by this? Probably this was kinda like the Shadenfraude thing; they were saying that there was nothing special about Israel, that their God couldn’t protect them any better than any of the other nations’ gods. That there was nothing special about Israel and its God.
Now, if you listened a couple episodes back, we talked about why Satan hates Israel, and I said that the Bible and every Jew-hater can agree about is that they believe there’s something different going on when it comes to Israel. There is something unique about Israel. And God doesn’t even like it when Israel is mocked and people try to say there’s nothing special about Israel. He says, “Moab, since you said Israel is like all the other nations because they got wiped out, I’m going to make you like all the other nations and wipe you out.” And Moab is also going to be wiped out by the Qedemites that I mentioned before.
Ammon and Moab are no more today. They, along with the region of Edom, have formed the country of Jordan, just east of Israel. And speaking of Edom, they will be the recipients of God’s next letter to these Muslim nations:
V12-14, The Prophecy Against Edom
Ezekiel 25:12-14
12 “Thus says the Lord God: Because Edom acted revengefully against the house of Judah and has grievously offended in taking vengeance on them, 13 therefore thus says the Lord God, I will stretch out my hand against Edom and cut off from it man and beast. And I will make it desolate; from Teman even to Dedan they shall fall by the sword. 14 And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath, and they shall know my vengeance, declares the Lord God.
Edom’s problem is that they acted revengefully, which I think is kind of a funny word, like something Batman would say. Now, how did Edom act revengefully against Israel. Let’s go into a little bit of background. The nations we’ve mentioned so far today have all been nations that had their origins in a story in Genesis. Ammon and Moab were the sons of Lot. Lot is famous for the Sodom and Gomorrah story. There’s a very gross story in Genesis 19 about Lot fathering two children, and I’m going to spare you the details here. Long story short, Lot was Abraham’s nephew. Abraham was the father of Israel, Lot was the Father of Ammon and Moab. So there’s kind of a family connection here.
Then Abraham had Isaac and Isaac had Jacob and Esau. Jacob was the father of the 12 tribes. Esau also created a nation of descendants, the Edomites. So there’s another family connection here. See Genesis 25 for more info on that.
Now, you have the Jews in Israel, and they have this family connection to Ammon, Edom and Moab. At one point, the Israelites are marching through the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. (Operating off memory here, don’t quote me) God says, “Don’t make any problems for Ammon, Edom and Moab. These guys are your distant relatives. You’ll be neighbors. Try to get along.” However, Ammon, Edom and Moab prove to be very inhospitable neighbors. They ban the Jews from marching through their territory. They get into little fights with the Jews during their wilderness wanderings. And the Edomites in particular prove to be a thorn in Israel’s side throughout its history.
Another Cross Reference for you: in Jeremiah 27, these nations get together and have a pow wow. They are noticing that this Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon is starting to be a major force, conquering nations left and right. They decide that they’re going to stand together against Nebuchadnezzar. Kinda like an ancient NATO. These nations say that if one of them is attacked, that they’ll all go to war together to defend each other. Then Jeremiah comes along; he says don’t stand against Babylon; God has already decreed that Babylon is going to steamroll through here. Don’t try to fight him or you’ll lose. Instead, when he shows up, surrender, do what he wants, and you’ll be fine. Don’t try to fight or run away. Submit to this person that God has decreed is going to be in charge for a while.
Well, the nations don’t listen to Jeremiah. They go ahead and make their alliance, against his advice. So these nations talked a big talk. But when the chips were down and Israel was finally attacked, they didn’t honor their alliance. Ammon laughed, Moab mocked, and Edom didn’t help. And now God is calling them out here and saying, “why didn’t you honor your agreement?” Now, it was not an agreement that God wanted them to make in the first place. They could’ve said that, perhaps. “God, you didn’t want us to make that agreement to start with, now you want us to honor it?” And God says yes; He says, “I didn’t want you to make it, but since you did, I expect you to keep your word.”
And they didn’t, so now God is telling Edom that everyone from Teman to Dedan is going to die. That’s another way of saying, “From Maine to California.” It means everybody. And there is one more nation that God calls out for the same thing: acting revengefully. And this last nation is the Philistines. Now perhaps you’re saying, “All I’m getting today is history lessons. What does this have to do with my life today?” And I actually have an answer for that. The Philistines occupy an area known today as the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas. So I’m going to take a short break, and I’ll talk about what God said to the Philistines and some of the things going on in modern times as we close down.
[musical interlude]
V15-17, The Prophecy Against Philistia
Ezekiel 25:15-17
15 “Thus says the Lord God: Because the Philistines acted revengefully and took vengeance with malice of soul to destroy in never-ending enmity, 16 therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the rest of the seacoast. 17 I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon them.”
That last verse right there was popularized many years ago by a film called Pulp Fiction, which I haven’t seen, but apparently one of the characters quotes Ezekiel 25:17 throughout the film.
So this is the judgement on the Philistines. Now, everybody and their grandma recognizes the word “Philistine.” One of the most famous Biblical villains. Kind of like the generic bad guys of ancient Israel.
An interesting thing about the land of the Philistines is that they occupied a territory in the Promised Land that God had wanted to give to Israel. The Book of Joshua is about taking the Promised Land, but unfortunately, Joshua didn’t take everything God wanted them to. They left a few pockets of people and failed to take everything God wanted them to. Consequently, they faced opposition from these pockets of people for literally hundreds of years, all because Joshua didn’t do a complete job.
One of the areas that Joshua failed to take was the Gaza Strip. It’s a little piece of land between Israel and Egypt, and it’s also on the border of the Mediterranean Sea. This was the region of the 5 Philistine cities, and there were giants in those cities. Closely connected with that was the fact that these were demonic strongholds. There were evil spirits in control of this territory, and since Joshua didn’t drive them all out, these evil spirits made sure that generation after generation, the people of the Gaza Strip would oppress Israel. And that continues all the way up until these verses right here in Ezekiel, when it’s said that they took vengeance with malice of soul. The people of Philistia had wicked, dark,evil hearts. And these spirits continue to operate up to today, when in the modern nation of Israel, they got a bunch of land as they formed this nation, and yet they have never taken this bit of land in the Gaza Strip. Is this a coincidence? Or are the same evil spirits doing what they can to keep Israel out of their territory?
Let’s do a little word study. The people occupying this piece of land are known as the Palestinians. They claim to be the rightful owners of the entire region of Israel; not just the Gaza Strip; they chant that they should be in possession of everything that the Jews currently have, “from the river to the sea.” That means everything. That means genocide against the Jewish people. When they claim to be the rightful owners, the real nation of that area, they claim that they have always existed as a nation called Palestine. That is not true. They never declared themselves a nation until after Israel was reformed in 1948. This is a piece of land that has swapped hands repeatedly over the centuries. Besides the Jews, it’s been under the control of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, the Islamic Caliphate and the Ottoman Empire. Then after WWII, the British had control of the land and the United Nations decided to restore it to the Jewish people. That makes them the rightful owners today. But despite how the territory swapped hands so many times, there was never a Palestinian nation right there until the Jews had it back, and suddenly the Muslims decided to try to rewrite history as if it was their homeland. 99% of the Middle East is occupied by Muslims, but they can’t stand that there’s this one tiny sliver called Israel that they don’t have.
Let’s continue to talk about the word’s Palestine and Palestinian. The Greeks got control of the land of Israel a few hundred years before Jesus was born. They wanted to thumb their noses at the Jewish people, so instead of referring to the land of Israel as Israel, they referred to it by the name of the enemies of the Jewish people: The Philistines. Their word for Philistine was Palestina. But it means the same thing. The word “Palestine” was invented to disparage the Jewish people and their claim of ownership over the land of Israel. And that is the only reason people pretend theres a Palestinian state today.
Closing Thoughts and Mailbag
And in closing today, I want to mention what’s been happening in our world over the past few weeks. On October 7, the nation of Israel was attacked by these modern-day Philistines in ways that are just as barbaric and savage as how the Philistines behaved thousands of years ago. You read these awful phrases of things that Israel’s neighbors did in Biblical times- raping the women, ripping open the pregnant women, attacking the Jews with agricultural tools, burning them- and yet we saw those exact same scenes play out in modern times.
The exact same things that happened to the Jews in the Bible, in the exact same way, happened on October 7 of this year. Why have the people surrounding Israel not changed over the past 3 or 4-thousand years? Because as I’ve been saying, there are evil spirits, demonic forces, who control these regions, and though generation after generation comes and goes, the same demons remain, and they want to do the same thing today that they wanted to do back then: disparage the Jewish people and their claim of ownership over the land of Israel. Because the land of Israel belongs to God, and He has set an angel over it named Michael. And there are territorial spirits assigned to these other nations around Israel- and I believe, in that Gaza Strip, which is why it’s a stronghold that the Israelites have never been able to take- and this is a spiritual war that has existed for centuries.
This is a subject that I’m getting into more and more on my other podcast, Weird Stuff in the Bible. So if you want to get the full story of what’s going on, make sure you’re subscribed to that one as well, because the things I talk about on that one will supplement some of the material that we cover here in Ezekiel.
And speaking of seeing things from ancient times play out today, recall what we read at the start of this chapter: the word against Ammon:
Thus says the Lord God, Because you said, ‘Aha!’ over my sanctuary when it was profaned, and over the land of Israel when it was made desolate…
See, God doesn’t like it when His people are attacked in His land and other people say “aha” over it. Laugh at Israel’s destruction. Mock the cruel mayhem happening to those innocent civilians. There has to be something particularly dark in the heart to look at those innocents being slaughtered and to not even just ignore it, but to joke about it or gloat about it.
I’ve seen it on the political Left, I’ve seen it on the Political Right- and I’ve even seen it in the church. I’ve seen some Christians on social media who decide that this is the time to reaffirm their stance in replacement theology. As if that’s really relevant when Jewish children are taken captive and babies are being beheaded. Is this the time for a theological debate? Why do you pick that moment of all moments to make your case that the Jews rejected Jesus 2,000 years ago so God is done with them and they’re just getting what they deserve.
99% of the time, I will have a respectful dialogue with you about Replacement Theology. I’ll talk to you about it as much as you want. I won’t attack your character or motives. I’ll have that conversation. But when you decide October 8 of 2023 is the day you want to talk Replacement Theology and make the case that God has abandoned the Jews and talk about how Ben Shapiro is actually going to hell because he rejects Jesus- when you do that, I don’t think you have good intentions. I think you’re just an antisemite.
There are certain topics that when you talk about them, they incite a lot of controversy even from Christians. Topics like spiritual gifts, or the rapture, or the devil. And another one of those topics is the Jewish people and whether God has a plan for them today. When I posted episode 99 a few weeks ago about why Satan hates Israel, man, that sure brought the antisemites out of the woodwork. Listen to some of these comments I got on that episode:
They (the Jews) work directly with Satan and demons through the practice of witchcraft and that's where they get their instructions.. They use your men and money to fight their wars..
they control governments and legal systems and are above the law
Its a centerpiece of end times events because lord rothschild issued the balfour declaration in 1917 and it took 2 world wars to pull it off.
That comment is entertaining because it gives billionaires from 100 years ago more authority over the world than God Himself. It’s like, God is the one calling the shots here buddy, especially in relation to end time Bible prophecy and His plan for the nation of Israel. If you have a biblical argument in response, give a biblical argument. Don’t tell me a conspiracy theory from a century ago. If God wanted to re-establish the nation of Israel, God will do it, whether God uses a guy named Rothschild, or the UN, or however God wants to do it. As far as I’m concerned, that backs up MY interpretation of the Bible, that God will make all these things happen.
And you know, it’s bad enough- speaking to people who call themselves Christians here- it’s bad enough to just write Israel off as being no different than any other nation. That God has as much to say about them as He does any other country. That’s bad enough. If you want to be like Moab and say: “the house of Judah is like all the other nations,” fine, you do you. And I won’t stand too close to you in a lightning storm. But when you pick the aftermath of a terror attack in Israel to say, “You know, the Jews rejected Jesus, so they’re actually enemies of God.” Well, the Hamas terrorists reject Jesus, too, so I don’t know why you aren’t taking a moment to say the same thing about them.
And actually, I do know. You’re an antisemite fueled by Satan.
Now, I had some good responses, too. One from someone who said:
Don't want to anger anyone in regards to Islam but the Koran literally promotes anti-Semitism. Speaking of Muslims going after the Jews causing them to hide behind the trees and rocks where even the said trees/rocks will call to the followers Muhammad that a jew hiding behind them and to come kill them now. Plenty info to be gleaned from their texts...tho i don't really recommend doing so for other than knowing the difference between the Koran and the Bible.
So we had good, helpful responses as well. But most was negative. And we know from end times prophecy that in the tribulation period, most nations are going to come against Jerusalem. I think based on the response to what happened in October in Israel, those sentiments are already there.
And based on the savagery we witnessed that day, all this proves to me more and more that the same spirits that Joshua failed to displace are still in operation today. Will modern Israel finally evict them? This is another opportunity to do that. We’ll watch and see.
One thing I find interesting is this Palestinian flag that they’re waving around. You’ve probably seen it, too. As these people march through the streets waving Palestinian flags to show their support of the Philistines over the Jews, look at the colors of that flag: white, black, red and green. The same colors of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Revelation.
Is that a coincidence? I don’t believe in coincidences here. I believe in the Bible. And I hope the Bible makes more sense to you after this episode. This has been Luke Taylor, and thanks for listening to the Cross References Podcast.