Indications of Prophecy for the End Times
I’ve recently been studying Ezekiel, and in part because of the war between Russia and Ukraine, I’ve noticed something very interesting. Before I get to that, though, I wanted to show you the chiastic structure of Ezekiel that I found:
A – Ezekiel 1-11 – God’s presence departs from His defiled Temple
B – Ezekiel 12-23 – Oracles of destruction
C – Ezekiel 24 – Jerusalem besieged
D – Ezekiel 25-32 – Oracles against foreign nations
C’ – Ezekiel 33 – Jerusalem destroyed
B’ – Ezekiel 34-39 – Oracles of restoration
A’ – Ezekiel 40-48 – God’s presence returns to His restored Temple
Now, there are some important elements in the “oracles of destruction” section that shed light on what will happen in the future:
Ezekiel 16 – Jerusalem as a whore
Ezekiel 23 – Jerusalem and Samaria as whores
Ezekiel 17 – Two Davidic kings which are taken into captivity
In Ezekiel 34-39, we see the return of specifically *the northern ten tribes*, along with a Davidic prince. AFTERWARDS, Ezekiel 38-39 describes a war that eventually leads to a siege against Jerusalem.
In my opinion, Ezekiel was drawing inspiration from the book of Isaiah, where we see a foreshadowing of northern Israel’s redemption. In Isaiah, we see a prophecy that northern Israel would be exiled (Isa. 7-8), not long before the Assyrian siege on Jerusalem. In Ezekiel 38-39, **history repeats itself** with Gog and its allies, in place of Assyria.
God protected Jerusalem because of the righteousness of King Hezekiah (Isa. 9:6-7; 2 Ki. 18:1-6; Isa. 37). Therefore, from a literary perspective, Ezekiel is predicting the return of a Davidic prince **before** history repeats itself with Gog laying siege to Jerusalem, because that Davidic prince will be righteous enough to merit Jerusalem’s protection.
In addition to that, other Scriptures (such as Isaiah 10:20-22 and 11:10-16) show that a righteous remnant of the ten tribes will return, and defend Judah in their hour of need.
We’re in the very beginning of this end-time war of Gog, right now. Within another year or two, they’ll reach Jerusalem and lay siege to it. The ten tribes will return before then.
Damon