Christian
Media
Communiqué
THE GREAT EXCHANGE
Part XXII
Our last chapter examined the late stages of Judaea and
Jerusalem, as Christ began His ministry to keep the Father’s promise to
redeem Israel.
Isaiah said the redeemer of Israel would
reverse many roles, as He indicated He would turn everything upside down.
“Surely your turning of things
upside down shall be esteemed….” (Isaiah 29:16).
The LORD repeatedly conveyed the idea of reversals of
fortune, as those who were chosen, were to be transformed into those not
chosen – and vice versa.
“In the place where it was said
unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the
sons of the living God” (Hosea 1:10).
These role reversals are found throughout the Scriptures. Those
who were slaves in Egypt, were translated from the lowest of positions, to the
lofty standing of a great nation.
“And God said unto Israel in the
visions of the night…I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down
into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation” (Genesis
46:2, 3)
After the Lord established Israel as a great
nation, and in their complacency they turned away from the LORD, the prophets
spoke about role reversals where those who had been blessed were
predicted to fall.
The shepherds who had grown fat by oppressing the sheep were
prophesied to exchange places with the lean sheep, who were not being fed by
the false shepherds.
“Woe be to the shepherds of Israel
that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?” (Ezekiel
34:2).
The prophets spoke of the circumstances when the LORD would
again favor what was left of His fallen people. In colorful terms, they
described how the people’s darkness would be exchanged for light,
and those who were deaf would hear the words of the Lord:
“The Lord openeth the eyes of the
blind…And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book” (Psalm
146:8; Isaiah 29:18).
The lame would walk, and the thirsty would exchange their
deprivation for an abundance of water:
“For I will pour water upon him
that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground” (Isaiah 44:3).
Those who were broken would see their injuries bound up and
healed, even as the sick would exchange their maladies for strength.
“I will seek that which was lost,
and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was
broken, and will strengthen that which was sick” (Ezekiel 34:16)
After the LORD had severely punished Israel for repeatedly
turning away from Him, God promised that since His people were without a
shepherd, He would decisively seek out, and find His lost sheep.
“As a shepherd seeketh out his
flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I
seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places in the
cloudy and dark day. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down,
saith the Lord God” (Ezekiel 34:12, 15).
The LORD elaborated on the coming redemption, and connected
it to the righteous reign of David, Israel’s greatest king.
“And I will set up one shepherd
over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them,
and he shall be their shepherd” (Ezekiel 34:23).
Centuries later, when Jesus showed up working
miracles in their midst, it was predictable the people would wonder if He was
the “shepherd” who was prophesied to be related to David.
“I am the good shepherd,
and know my sheep, and am known of mine” (John 10:14).
As the fame of Jesus spread, the people connected the
ancient prophecy that David would have a son, who would sit on the throne of
Israel.
“Then was brought unto him one
possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the
blind and dumb both spoke and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is
not this the son of David?” (Matthew 12:23).
When the LORD spoke through the prophet Ezekiel,
and said He would reverse the roles and “set up one shepherd” (Ezekiel
34:23) over Israel, He also referred to a “covenant” He would
make with them.
“And I will make with them a
covenant of peace…Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with
them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord
God” (Ezekiel 34:25, 30).
Ezekiel also said that when Israel’s
wicked “shepherds” were replaced by the “one shepherd”
the LORD would send, He would search for His sheep, and seek them out.
“And I will bring them out from the
people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own
land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the
inhabited places of the country” (Ezekiel 34:13).
The Scriptures vividly describe the conditions of the
“covenant of peace” the good shepherd would make with His people,
as a time when God would feed His sheep from “a high mountain,” and
they shall dwell in safety.
“I will feed them in a good
pasture…And I will make them and the places round about my hill a
blessing [and] there shall be showers of blessing” (Ezekiel
34:14, 26).
When the Lord rescues and feeds His flock, they will know
that God is with them. When the “good shepherd” arrives, He will
set His sheep free from the powers that had imprisoned them.
“And the tree of the field shall
yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe
in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the
bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that
served themselves of them” (Ezekiel 34:27).
Jesus repeatedly spoke of setting the “captives”
free.
“He hath sent me to proclaim
liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to
them that are bound” (Isaiah 61:1).
When the evil priests of Jerusalem heard Jesus says He would
set the captives free, the scribes and the Pharisees, who shepherded the Jews,
claimed they were not in bondage, but were already free.
“They answered him, We be
Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye
shall be made free?” (John 8:33).
Jesus told them anyone who commits sin
is the servant of sin. The Apostle Paul would later teach
the same thing.
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin
unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans
6:16)
In the Great Exchange, we’ve repeatedly
shown the mysterious twin terminals of evil are Death and Hell
– with Sin a similitude of the power of Hell, which
delivers its “captives” to Death.
It’s important to connect the two streams of thought
that Ezekiel brought out, when he prophesied that “when [God
has] broken the bands of their yoke” Israel would
“know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 34:27).
The “yoke” which the Good “Shepherd”
was prophesied to break was the Spiritual power that is described in the New
Testament as the captivity of sin:
“Stand fast therefore in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).
When Ezekiel prophesied at great length of how the LORD
would retrieve His “sheep that are scattered…and gather them from
the countries” (Ezekiel 34:12, 13), the Jewish people were in
literal bondage to Babylon.
The Northern Israelite kingdom of Samaria had already
been devastated, and carried off into slavery by the earlier empire of the
Assyrians, and Jerusalem had been recently conquered by Nebuchadnezzar.
The Babylonian despot had taken the royals of Judah (such as Daniel, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-Nego) captive.
Thus, when the Jews read the prophetic texts which spoke of
being set free, and delivered “out of all places where they have been
scattered” (Ezekiel 34:13) they assumed the predictions spoke of a
literal breaking of their bonds.
However, in the very next chapter of Ezekiel the
LORD says that when He gathers Israel “from among the heathen” (Ezekiel
36:24), He also says He will “cleanse” them from their sin.
“Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your
idols, will I cleanse you” (Ezekiel 36:25).
It is at this time the LORD again speaks of the
“covenant of peace” which He will make, through the “one
shepherd” (Ezekiel 34:23; 37:26) – and a part of this
forthcoming Great Exchange will involve trading in Israel’s
“stony heart,” for a replacement the LORD will provide.
“I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh [and] a new heart also will I give you” (Ezekiel
37:26).
Ezekiel’s extensive narrative in which
the LORD says He will “save you from all your uncleannesses” (Ezekiel
36:29), is immediately followed by the famous text describing a
“valley which was full of dry bones” (Ezekiel 37:1), where
the skeletal bones come together to form a large populace.
The LORD tells Ezekiel the bones are the whole house of Israel,
that God has resurrected.
“These bones are the whole
house of Israel” (Ezekiel 36:11).
God tells the prophet that He will raise Israel from the
dead, and put His Spirit within them. He has already stated that in that day,
He will “cleanse” Israel of their sins.
“And I will place them, and
multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for
evermore” (Ezekiel 37:26).
Although the false prophets of our time tell us the valley
of dry bones prophecy was fulfilled in modern times when the Christ
rejecting Jews re-gathered in their historic homeland in 1948, it is obvious
the rebirth of Israel occurred with the Death and Resurrection of JESUS CHRIST in His
time.
The prophet Ezekiel places the regathering and
resurrection of Israel shortly after the Babylonian dispersal (and
subsequent regathering of the Jews), and the time of Jesus.
To put it another way, this prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus
Christ brought about the rebirth of “Israel,” through His
amazing ministry at the time of the cross. Since “these bones are the
whole house of Israel” (Ezekiel 36:11), when we are Spiritually
born again in Christ (I Peter 1:23), it is self evident the Christians
are identified in the Scriptures as reborn Israel. But there is far more to the
Great Exchange which is still to be explored.
-- James
Lloyd
To Be Continued
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Christian Media has an eye-opening, on-demand video
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