Ezekial 2

After the opening vision in Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel lies prostrate before the voice of God awaiting the Word that is to come to him. Ezekiel receives his commission from God at this time (vs. 1-5), that of being the designated prophet to minster to the rebellious people Israel. After hearing the words of God, Ezekiel then receives the sins and judgements of God on a scroll, eventually eating the scroll and then moving on to preach to the people Israel starting in chapter 3.

So we being, Chaper 2....

Inner Strength

Ezekiel lies face down in awe of God, in holy reverence to the granter of the sparkling vision of God and beauty of God's Spirit out of the whirlwind to being this book. Does God commend him for his humble adoration? No, but rather calls him to stand, not unlike his call to Moses upon Moses' experience at the Burning Bush. The call to standing up is a call to action, but the decision to stand and take in the commands of God is on our own doing. Matthew Henry's Commentary (MHC) points this out:

v. 2. God bade him stand up; but, because he had not strength of his own to
recover his feet nor courage to face the vision, the Spirit entered into him and
set him upon his feet. Note, God is graciously pleased to work that in us which
he requires of us and raises those whom he bids rise. We must stir up ourselves,
and then God will put strength into us; we must work out our salvation, and then God will work in us.

When the Spirit of God calls, our adoration cannot delay our response but rather quicken our feet to action. God calls us to pray, but God also calls us to listen closely to his Spirit and when the call to action is placed upon our lives, we must be ready to heed the call.

Boldness

Why is it that we often get this picture of God being some lovable Shepard with the little children smiling around him while forgetting that that same God is also a God of righteousness and justice? Is it that we want an excuse to continue justifying our own self-righteousness?

In verse 4, God calls out Israel saying, "For they are stiff-faced, hard-hearted and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God.'

MHC describes the true message of God in more depth saying, 'They are impudent children, brazen-faced, and cannot blush; they are still-hearted, self-willed, and cannot bend, cannot stoop, neither ashamed nor afraid to sin; they will not be wrought upon by the sense either of honour or duty.'

Oh how often we fall short and instead relish in our own rebellious ways. This is the reason God is sending Ezekiel to Israel as their self righteousness smoke has reached heaven's gate. God will not strive with, nor will he keep his anger from us forever.

Conscience as Witness

While man can try to explain away their naturally evil bent behaviors, nothing can explain away the feeling of guilt or sin upon the conscience. We all show the work of the law written on our hearts, with the conscience bearing witness to the truth and our thoughts accusing or excusing our behavior. Likewise, the conscience also responds to the Gospel in a similar manner.

Verse 5: He has authority to call those to an account to whom he
sends his ambassadors. Whether they will hear or whether they will forbear,
whether they will attend to the word or turn their backs upon it, they shall
know that there has been a prophet among them, shall know by experience.

The natural question that Ezekiel or anyone else in likewise predicament would be stating is, What difference will it make if I go or not if they won't even listen to the message? God states it clear in verse five that their response will not be involuntary and unaccounted for, their conscience will bear witness to the truth of the gospel being preached. MHC states, '
When men’s hearts are made to burn under the word, and their wills to bow to it, then they know and bear the witness in themselves that it is not the word of men, but of God.'

The quality of omniscience, the all-knowing characteristic of God's nature should put the fear of God in any one's heart. MHC states, 'God knew this concerning them, how inflexible, how incorrigible, they were. God is perfectly acquainted with every man’s true character, whatever his pretensions and professions may be. ' We can run, but we can't hide. Our character, our very being, is always on display before the God of the universe as if a secret video camera is on full display and filming every move you make.

Understanding

While God sees our natural bent toward evil and hard hearts, He is always wanting to bring us to the truth and do so in a way that involves our participation. Toward the end of the chapter, Ezekiel receives the scroll of the words of God for His people Israel and in verse ten, God 'spreads it out before Ezekiel.' God did not want Ezekiel to implicitly eat up the scroll without having any knowledge of what it contains. He rather wanted Ezekiel to understand what it was that God wanted to communicate to the people Israel and then make that message his own. He spreads out his word for Ezekiel to see and understand, and then he commands Ezekiel to eat it. MHC states, 'Be not rebellious, says Christ, but eat what I give thee'.

God's message of salvation is likewise free, ready to eaten up by an understanding heart.

Ezekiel 1

Exiled in Babylon following the siege of Jerusalem in 597BC, a priest and prophet named Ezekiel communicates the message of God for his people Israel through the usage of prophecies, parables, signs, and symbols. Preceding the exile into Babylon, it had been the main custom of Israel to worship God at the temple, but now that they were exiled in a distant land was it still possible to worship God? Ezekiel, whose name means "God strengthens" or "Strengthened by God", is indeed infused with strength through visions to reveal to the people of Israel that God is still with them in their captivity.

CHAPTER 1:

Ezekiel's inaugural vision of God is nothing out of the ordinary, a descriptive majestic drama outside of the normal realm of thought written down. He describes four living creatures with four faces and four wings, surrounded by two moving beryl (Neptune, sea blue) wheels and moving like the appearance of lightning and fire. Above these creatures is expanse of crystal of which sits the appearance of God on a throne like that of a cloud on a rainy day.

A terrific animated description can be found here, with the help of some animated graphics and the chapter being read in the background.

A key verse I found here is in verse 20:
"Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went; and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels."

The picture here is of God in his heavenly like chariot, although his chariot sounds like an army, coming in an orderly fashion and moving as the spirit directed. In a sense the wheels, of which one wheel is inside and controlled in the other wheel, is like God's providence and direction controlling the circumstances of events here on earth in precise, orderly fashion. From our perspective it seems like his chariot is moving disorderly; however, what we fail to see is that every action of the chariot is being controlled by Divine will and moves guided by the Spirit of God.

The outer wheel is God's perfect steady providence. Vs. 18 mentions that the rims of the wheels 'were awesome, and their rims were full of eyes, all around the four of them." God is an infinite, all knowing omniscient God who moves as his Spirit directs. Matthew Henry's commentary states," The issues of things are not determined by a blind fortune, but by those eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the earth, and are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." It is not by some blind ignorant act of God that evil occurs, although we often treat the judgement of God like death, a future event that will never happen to us. The passage also describes the crystal layer above the spinning wheels upon which God sits and directs. While it may appear as a cloud from below, to God it is a crystal structure like clear glass for which God can see right through.

God is not slow in keeping his promise, as some count slowness but is patient with, not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance.

Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill

Revelation 8:8-9

And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with
fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became
blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and
had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

The Scripture clearly refers here to a future cataclysmic catastrophe that will destroy the sea and all its inhabitants.

Vs. 8 refers to a great burning mountain cast into the sea.

Vs. 9 refers to a third of the sea turning into blood.

Does this disaster fit into prophecy? This may or may not be the exact fulfilment of this verse, but it certainly has to fit into the bigger prophetic picture and it gives us a great picture of what is to come.

A lot of speculation surrounds the true ability to stop this leak. The normal method to stop leaks has already been tried in the dubbed "top kill" operation. Now, BP is trying to do something that has never been done before--drill 2.5 miles under the ocean floor at the perfect angle in an effort to cut off the flow via relief wells. The mathematical precision required for this operation to succeed is enormous & if this fails, all signs point to a never ending flow of oil into the ocean for as long as the eye can see.

Reports also indicate that the seabed could very well be cracked and the pressure could cause an eruption worthy of a Tsunami. We are also venturing right into the middle of hurricane season which will delay the process of building the relief wells which need to be drilled ASAP to avoid further deterioration of the casings inside the leaking well. There are so many variables at the moment and all seem to point to further judgement and disaster. The original well could erode and implode causing rendering a fix of the leaky well impossible, the seabed could crack up due the pressure at any moment, a hurricane could bring the oil inland and wipe out our crops, and who knows what else lays in store.

One thing we know, we're in trouble. It's not ironic that this rig blew up on the same day as Israel's independance day, especially after the hard antagonistic anti-Israel rhetoric coming from this adminstration. Check out this video on the connection between Gen 12:2, Israel, & our disaster.

Yet with a million warnings signs telling us that a mega disastor loooms, the public remains ignorant and blinded by their own comfortable existance. What's worse is that we're now being controlled in an Orwellian nightmare where journalists have to fear for their lives if they should even take a picture of the carnage.

From Washington's Blog:

"BP is destroying the Gulf, because the government has supported BP without
regulating it in any meaningful way. BP is covering up its blunders by lowballing spill estimates, keeping reporters out of areas hardest hit by the oil (and see this, this, this and this) and threatening
to arrest them if they try to take pictures, hiding dead
birds and other sealife, telling cleanup workers they'll be fired if they use respirators, and using
dispersants to hide the amount of spilled oil (the dispersants are only worsening the damage caused by the spill). And the
government - despite some occasional tough talk - is letting BP do whatever it
wants. Indeed, some even speculate that BP has been given emergency powers
which supersede those of local police and other law
enforcement."

If this disaster is not the fulfillment of Rev 8:8-9, it is sure a good premonition of the big event.

IMF head calls for World Currency

From abcnews:

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, suggested Friday the organization might one day be called on to provide countries with a global reserve currency that would serve as an alternative to the U.S. dollar.

"That day has not yet come, but I think it is intellectually healthy to explore these kinds of ideas now," he said in a speech on the future mandate of the 186-nation Washington-based lending organization.

Strauss-Kahn said such an asset could be similar to but distinctly different from the IMF's special drawing rights, or SDRs, the accounting unit that countries use to hold funds within the IMF. It is based on a basket of major currencies.

He said having other alternatives to the dollar "would limit the extent to which the international monetary system as a whole depends on the policies and conditions of a single, albeit dominant, country."

Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister of France, said that during the recent global financial crisis, the dollar "played its role as a safe haven" asset, and the current international monetary system demonstrated resilience.

"The challenge ahead is to find ways to limit the tension arising from the high demand for precautionary reserves on the one hand and the narrow supply of reserves on the other," he said.

Several countries, including China and Russia, have called for an alternative to the dollar as a reserve currency and have suggested using the IMF's internal accounting unit.

Strauss-Kahn said the IMF also needs to do a better job of tracing how risk percolates through the global economy.

"Here it will be essential to improve our ability to monitor several dozen large complex financial institutions that make up the `plumbing' through which global capital flows," he said, while leaving national regulators the job of monitoring the solvency of individual institutions.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Hoppi Indian Blue Star Prophecy

A Very spectacular but strange phenomenon over Norway occured recently. A blue 'star' appeared suddenly over Norway at the same time president Obama was accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.


What is intriguing about this appearance is that apparently the Hoppi Indian Tribe from North America has been waiting for a blue star to appear in accord with their prophecies on the end of the world.

The prophecy is one of 9 that was predicted to happen before the world would cease to exist. The appearance of the Blue Star presages a coming time of world war and purification, leading to a devastation of most of mankind and then the coming of a new age.

You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.

It appears that according to researchers and those familiar with this type of event that a Russian missile is responsible for this blue star. However the case, it is noteworthy that this is the last part of the Hoppi prophecy yet to be fulfilled and this sign appeared over Norway at the same time the president of the free world happened to be there.

Antichrist

46 Prophecies the Anti-Christ will fulfill:

5. His 10 nation union will merge into a world government which he will dominate - Revelations 13:1-2

9. The world government over which he rules will be a red (communistic or socialistic) government - Revelations 17:14

The call for world government has increased in dramatic fashion as of recent. Nothing illustrated this to greater extent than the recent Copenhagen fiasco. In the documents that could have been signed by America's President, a new world environmental governing body would have been created with powers to regulate economies all over the world. This governmental body would have overseen the transfer of wealth from rich countries to third-world countries in order to repay the 'climate debt' that we have accumulated.

Lord Monckton covered this in depth, a speech of his can be heard here.

As the dollar declines in value, there have numerous calls for a new world currency. With global terrorism picking up over the last decade, a call for a global police force has been heard. The transformation of culture & society continues to move toward a more globalized political and economic systems.

How long till we see the 10 kings of Revelation 17 & 18? It may be soon.

America's Ignorance

From Lew Rockwell's Blog:

UPDATE: Ken Schouten writes:

I am Canadian, a regular visitor to LewRockell.com, and do not change my habits when I travel. I was in the Beijing airport the other day and there was a group of MBA students from University of Connecticut waiting for the same flight as me. These students were very well dressed for a group of people that has not produced anything of significance to date. I overheard them talk down about some of the clothes and styles of the Chinese, the food they eat, the dirtiness of the cities, etc. One comment stood out: “Beijing, the city that gets under your fingernails.” Nice to be able to talk about your lender that way. They truly do view Asia as a place where people just make stuff for them. I tried to engage one of them: I asked her about the economics courses that she took. She was “not really interested in economics because she was specializing in Marketing and International Business.” Pretty much representative of the rest of the crowd—judging by the comments and conversations that I overheard. On the airplane, I was seated next to a Chinese executive for a large American company; any one of the students could have spoken to this guy and really learned something about International Business and Marketing in China; they were oblivious. This Chinese executive (non-MBA) spoke to me about his concern about the future of the US currency (thinks it will collapse) and diversification plans for the Asian part of the business (do not include US), while the MBA students went on talking about which cars they were going to own after graduation.

If this is any indication of what is coming out of other schools, the future stewards of American business are clueless.

3 Government Reports Point to Fiscal Doomsday Ahead for US

From Money&Markets:

And, unfortunately, that’s precisely the situation we’re in today: Three recently released government reports now point to fiscal doomsday for America; and one of the reports, issued by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), says so explicitly:

• The CBO paints two future scenarios for the U.S. budget deficit and the national debt. But it plainly declares that fiscal disaster will strike in EITHER scenario. Furthermore …

• The CBO states that its fiscal disaster scenarios could cause severe economic declines for decades to come, including hyperinflation and destruction of retirement savings.

• The CBO then proceeds to admit that even its worse-case scenario could be understated by a wide margin due to panic in the financial markets or vicious cycles that are beyond control.

• Separately, in its Flow of Funds Report for the second quarter, the Federal Reserve provides irrefutable data that we are already beginning to witness the first of these consequences in the United States: an unprecedented cut-off of credit to businesses and consumers.

• Meanwhile, the Treasury Department shows that America’s fate remains, as before, in the hands of foreigners, with the U.S. still owing them $7.9 trillion!

• And despite all this, neither Congress nor the Obama Administration have proposed a plan or a timetable for averting these doomsday scenarios. Their sole solution is to issue more bonds, borrow more, and print more without restraint.

Roll Call Vote Results

Did your congressman vote for the health care package in the house?

Find out here: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll887.xml

If they did, vote them OUT.

From PajamaMedia:

Freedom, David Hume famously observed, is seldom lost all at once. More often, it leaks out slowly. The petty tyranny of good intentions colludes with the bureaucratic imperative to stymie individual initiative and barter liberty for the sake of central control.

Last night, it happened by a slender margin: 220 votes to 215. Thirty-nine Democrats voted against the 1900-page bill. One Republican — first- and (I suspect) last-term Anh Cao of Louisiana — voted for it. You can see the entire roster of votes at http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll887.xml. Did your congressman just vote to further impoverish the country, rob you of choice in managing your medical care, and arrogate to Washington decisions that should be left to the individual? Consult that list and remember next year and in 2012.

Comic Relief

From Despair.Com