Final study — verses 20-26
ANTICHRIST JUDGED — ISRAEL DELIVERED!
“Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it….
And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD. Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God,” verses 20-21, 24-26.
Tyrus, mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, and now Zidon, were ancient Phoenician cities, on the Mediterranean coast, north of Israel. They were shipping ports which gave access to the Mediterranean Sea for the commercial enterprises of ancient Babylon and will serve that purpose again for the final Antichrist.
Ezekiel was called upon to announce to Zidon the judgments that the Lord would heap upon her because of her sins. Those judgments were most terrible and the Lord will be ‘glorified’ and ‘sanctified’ by them.
Carnal man cannot understand how that could be so! But when the Lord displays His holy wrath against those who defy His laws and rule, He will be seen as faithful to His Word and will be seen, even by those being punished, as holy and just in His actions.
Scoff
Sinners may mock and scoff in the absence of judgment, but once it begins to fall, there will be an acknowledgment, amidst the horror, of the perfect righteousness of the justice of God.
As Paul states: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God,” Romans 3:19.
Not one sinner will challenge the justice of God but will relent, unable to offer one excuse for their sin or dispute one iota of the sentence the Lord passes upon them! Every mouth will be stopped, or put to silence as the phrase may be translated. All will become guilty and acknowledge it to be so!
Moving on . . .
The subject the prophet is next given to declare is that which is ever linked throughout the Bible to the judgments of God upon ancient and future Babylon’s wicked empire, that of the deliverance of the Jews, verses 24-26.
1. These two events are ever linked together in prophecy!
Here is but one example.
“And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. . . . “For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,” Isaiah 3:19, 14:1-3. This linking of the two events is a constant feature of prophecy!
Here Ezekiel is given the joyous privilege of announcing such glorious news to a troubled and sad people.
“Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob,” Ezekiel 28:25.
Ought not preachers today show an eagerness to proclaim the same truth to the poor Jew! And yet, few preachers convey such glad tidings to that persecuted people. Indeed, many ministers believe the nonsense of ‘A-Millennialism’, and would deny that there is such a message in the Bible!
Well, they are most definetly wrong!
2. Look at the suffering the enemy of the Jews seeks to inflict upon them.
“And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD,” Ezekiel 28:24.
The brier and the thorn are ever linked to the consequences of sin.
“And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” Genesis 3:17-19.
I can look out from my front door and see the evidence of that curse in the hedges and fields all around!
Few farmers ever think of the message of the thorns and the thistles as they are required regularly cut them down in order to control them!
Israel’s failures to obey God brought upon her the plague of human ‘thorns and thistles’ in the form of her enemies!
“But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell,” Numbers 33:55.
“Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you,” Joshua 23:13.
Even as I prepare this article, news is coming in of an attack upon a Jewish synagogue in Manchester, England. The attack was a Muslim who attempt to kill Jews by driving at them with his car and then getting out to stab them with a knife. He was stopped by Jewish worshippers from entering the synagogue. Sadly, it appears that two Jews were shot by the police in their attempts to stop the attack. As has been reported in one newspaper: ‘Armed police officers left one victim of a terrorist attack at a synagogue in Manchester dead and another injured, it emerged today. The victims had been standing behind the synagogue door at the time. It is believed both victims were trying to stop the Islamic terrorist from gaining entry.’
That is a most horrific outcome of this terrorist attack!
Final Deliverance
But as part of the final deliverance of Israel from all her woes and torments, the Lord is going to finally cut down ALL of the ‘thorns and the thistles’ that are presently tormenting her and which will continue to do so, until the Lord Jesus comes again!
3. In that day of final deliverance, Israel will be restored to a full uninterrupted occupation of ‘their’ land!
“Then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence,” verses 25-26.
The ownership of this land has been disputed ever since Israel entered it under Joshua. That dispute has become more strident following the seventy years exile back in the fifth century BC and even more so since the Jews began to drift back in the 18th and 19th centuries subsequent to their scattering amongst the nations of the world, after the overthrow of Jerusalem by the Roman army in 70AD.
The activities of the ‘thorns and thistles’ have been unceasing following the establishing once more of the nationhood of Israel in 1948. It has virtually been perpetual warfare to one degree or another ever since.
Today
There has rarely been a day in recent times when the news headlines, worldwide, have not been of conflict in Israel.
It will get worse as the dark day of Antichrist dawns and Israel will be subjected to that horror which the Saviour called the “Great Tribulation”! He went on to say of that time: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be,” Matthew 24:15-21.
That tribulation shall last three and a half years (Daniel 7:25; Revelation 11:3, 12:7).
However, this time of distress is but the means God uses to break down a people who since rejecting their Messiah and crucifying Him on the cross, have stubbornly persisted in their blind defiance of God!
“Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: but they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines. All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased. Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee. Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey. For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after. Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them. And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the LORD. And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God,” Jeremiah 30:6-22.
Preaching these things must have eased the pain of the ‘weeping prophet’!
The 28th chapter of Ezekiel ends with that oft repeated promise of the Lord to ‘His people’!
“_____They shall know that I am the LORD their God.”
May the Lord hasten that glorious day!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Monday 6th October 2025