America and the other nations that comprise modern day Israel–Britain and the Jewish nation–are in deep, deep trouble.  They have told God to sit down and shut up, that they have everything under control.  What they have is more trouble than they can handle, with more and worse on the way.  The question is, why? Why is God punishing the nations that call themselves His people?  Prophesying about Israel’s future, Isaiah provides the answer in the second chapter of his book: “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity (Lawlessness), a seed (descendants) of evildoers, children that are corrupters who have forsaken the Lord and provoked the holy One of Israel unto anger by going away (from Him) backwards (toward Satan).  Why will you be stricken (by Him) any more?  why do you revolt (against Him) any more?  The whole head (of Israel) is sick and the whole heart (mind) is sick” (1:2-5).”  The religious and political heads (leaders) of the nations of Israel are sick, their minds having been taken over by Satan.  Neither the leaders nor their followers have the will and the strength to go to the root of their personal and national problems–sin–and solve it by repenting, converting and obeying God’s Word.  In verses 6 and 7 Isaiah gets even more graphic: “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it (Israel), only (sin caused) wounds, bruises and putrifying sores which have not been treated.”  Prophesying about the current state of Israel, particularly the United States, Isaiah continues in verses 6 and 7: “Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour and overthrow your land in your presence.”  Ezekiel 5:3,12 provides the same message to the modern nations of Israel.  Read Who and Where is Israel Today?  Use “Israel” as your key word.  See the Introduction to the website for downloading instructions.

It is important to remember that the prophesies given by Ezekiel and Isaiah concerning Israel were directed to and preserved for God’s Israelite people living at the end of the age.  We are that terminal generation.  Many years ago I prayed to God that He would allow me to live long enough to see His Son’s return to earth.  I firmly believe that He will answer my prayer.

God gave Ezekiel some specific instructions that picture in symbolic form the fate of the end-time nations of Israel.  In this episode He tells the prophet, along with those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, exactly what He is going to do to them because of their rebellion against His Word: “And you, son of man, take a sharp razor and shave off your hair and your beard.  Then use a balance to weigh them after dividing them into three parts.  You will burn a third part in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are fulfilled.  Then you will take a third part and smite it repeatedly with a knife.  The final third you will scatter to the wind (5:1,2).  In this passage God is prophesying about the people of America, Britain and the Jewish nation today.  Ezekiel’s hair and beard represent the people of those nations.  God is warning the people of those nations that a third of their populations will be killed in inner city riots and fires brought on by hunger and poverty.  Such conditions produce disease epidemics which wreak havoc on their victims weakened bodies.  A third of Israel’s population will be killed in war as other nations, seeing their struggles,  attack them.  The remaining third of their populations will be sent throughout the world as slaves where they will be bought and sold as merchandise.  Through Ezekiel, God again speaks to end-time Israel: “Therefore the Lord God says; ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you and I will execute My judgments against you in the sight of the other nations … because of your many abominations'” (vss 8,9).  God says the same things in Matthew 24:21; Daniel 12:1 and Jeremiah 30:7.  The rest of the world will wonder and fear when they see what God has done to His own people because of their sins.  “Unto whom much is given, much is required.”  He has blessed Israel many times and in many ways.  However, she has refused to reciprocate by obeying His Word.  As He promises in the very Word they refuse to honor, punishment is His response.

But what about His true saints?  What will happen to them when He pours out His wrath on sinning mankind?  He tells us in Ezekiel 5:3.  There He tells His prophet to take a FEW of his hairs, wrap them in a cloth and hide them in a safe place.  Those few hairs represent the Very Elect of God whom He will take to a place of safety, known as “her place,” where they will be protected and provided for while the world around them explodes in destruction and death.  The only way to qualify for such protection is to follow God’s command found in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1.  Spiritual segregation and total obedience are commanded for true God seekers.  Read God is a Segregationist.  Use “Segregationist” as your key word.  The nations of Israel have sown the wind.  The whirlwind is on the way.  The COVID-19 pandemic is only the first breeze.   The Institutional Church does not have the answer for the nations’ many problems in that her heathen doctrines and customs are the cause of them.  There is no group salvation.  Only individually can we qualify for salvation by strictly obeying the Word of God.  Do not allow Satan’s false prophets to deceive you and draw you into his religious web.  GOD IS NOT IN THE CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT CHURCHES, which are false Christians’ golden calves.  Because of His rejection of professing Christendom He commands those inside her who truly seek Him to: “Come out of her and be  separate (from her), touch not that unclean thing” (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1).  L.J.