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Thursday, December 31, 2020

Daniel (Susanna & Bel the Dragon included) (LXX) Notes.

Daniel - The Prophet Daniel is mentioned in Ezekiel only in the Old Testament. 

Ugarit was at its prime in 1200 BC and very close to the Hebraic language. 

Archaeology was important here for the Hebrew etymology to learn where the language came from.

Daniel's prophecy seems to have been collected at various times.

Daniel was written (Chapters 2-7) in Aramaic entirely. In these, they are separate stories and in Chapter 7 it begins doing apocalyptic language and goes that way to Chapter 12. 

Around 190 BC, someone probably cemented the collections of Daniel together into the versions we have today. 

Greek variants of Daniel have Susanna and Bel and the Dragon and one extension as well. 

The Hebrews' Masoretic texts don't seem to have it but as far as the oldest manuscripts go, they are the Greek manuscripts and they do have it (oldest is 200 BC that we know of and have). 

The Theodotian version of Daniel seems to predate the Hebrew version and the LXX version was done in 100 BC. 

Any text that we have found of Daniel past 250 AD do not have anything but the Theodotian variant. The Orthodox Church has all the variants but in printing canons chose the Theodotion as the most accurate translation and version to use. This is why it uses this one and always has. The Vulgate uses the Theodotion as well. Multiple versions of Daniel translations abound. The Protestants did not use the Theodotian because the refugees of Constantinople had very few Latin translations of Daniel that they could use and spare so the Protestants ended up using the Jews' bibles since they have Daniel in it. 

Daniel is probably 12 years old or a teen when he is taken in the 2nd Babylonian deportation. He goes through at least 4 different kings in his lifetime. Daniel and company could read and write. They are given pagan names. Daniel was taken to be a tutor for King Neb's son. A common theme can be said in Daniel that we are to choose God or Babylon/Gog. 

Susanna - 

[Chapter 0]

Jehoikam and Susanna. He was a wealthy man and she was beautiful and righteous. They are part of the deportee community. They have two elders but these two men are disgusting and they suck. Susanna would go for walks and they desired her because she was beautiful so they concoct a plan together to try and rape her. Susanna tries to bathe in the Garden and they try to make her have sex with them both and then they try to gaslight her as well. She is righteous but has no witnesses and this is two elder men versus her which puts her at risk for the death penalty and her chances are not good in this time period. She risks the death penalty however instead of being unrighteous and letting them rape her so they accuse her and the people believe them. 

0:45 - As she is being laid to be put to the death penalty, God speaks to Daniel and he calls out the elders and this lynch mob as a kid/teen/12 year old.

They didn't even examine the evidence so Daniel separates the judges and asks what tree she did her evil deeds (that she obviously didn't do). They give two different trees and Susanna is thus freed and the elders get the death penalty instead. The people love Daniel after this and honor him. God uses Daniel here to intercede and interact. He is an Ambassador of Yahweh for Babylon and the book of Daniel will show this to be the case time and time again. 

Daniel - 

606 BC 

[Chapter 1]

Daniel is taken with Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael who are all sons of Judah. 

Daniel is renamed Belteshazzar which means "Protect King's Life". 

Hananiah is renamed Shadrach which means "Marduk".

Azariah is renamed Abednego which means "Servant of Nebo".

Mishael is renamed Meschach which means "Ishtar".

They are all made eunuchs which means they are owned as slaves and become emasculated. 

The story starts really with them all being groomed into becoming proper for the King and what he wants from them and they are to eat the food given to them. The problem is though, these foods have all been sacrificed to idols. This was a common practice of pagan nations at this time and Babylon did it all the time in every meal having it be "blessed" by their gods. Daniel asks gutsily if he and his crew can be allowed to eat kosher. This is super gutsy because he could be killed for this. He is a slave and he goes as a little slave teen asking the eunuch chief if he can do this. 

The eunuch chief doesn't have to do this but Daniel finds favor with him. He is worried however that Daniel and them will fall behind in their upcoming tests if they do not eat properly because how will they do their duties if they are weak and malnourished? This would also be on the eunuch chief's head if he allows this because these boys are King Neb's property and slaves and this would be considered damaged goods. Daniel asks to be tested at first (negotiates) over 10 days with only eating vegetables. 

They end up not only passing the test but are found to be superior. These four youths get blessed by God and King Neb ends up liking them better. Daniel then works for King Neb. until Cyrus comes. 

Daniel is a bit like the New Joseph in a lot of ways in that he is able to interpret dreams and visions. 

[Chapter 2]

King Neb. has a dream. He tells his guys to interpret it. If they are phonies he will screw them over and have them killed so they smartly and wisely tell him that they can't interpret the dream for him. King Neb plans to have them killed for this, and this includes Daniel and his friends. 

Arioch tells him about it so Daniel says he will answer the dream interpretation. Daniel is not just trying to save himself and his friends here. He righteously intercedes for everyone, including the pagans he has to work with. Daniel is given by God the meaning of this dream. 

God revealed this dream to Daniel and he gives the meaning to King Neb. 

In it is a big idol/statue. It has a head that is made of gold, it has its hands, arms, and chest made of silver, its stomach and thighs are made of copper, and its legs are made of iron and its feet are made of clay. 

There is a boulder that comes and hits the statue and becomes a giant mountain which ultimately grows and covers the whole world. 

King Neb is the king of gold. Babylon is the 1st Kingdom in the dream. 

The rest are other kingdoms and the Mountain is Christ's Kingdom/the Kingdom of Yahweh's (2:44). 

Persia, Greece, and Rome are these other kingdoms... Rome is notably the one empire that gets mixed with weakness. 

The boulder is Christ because it made of no hands. It is Christ during the Roman Empire who overthrows it and His Kingdom grows and fills the entire world to be a Christian world. 

Why does God give this dream to King Neb so that he knows the future? To show/call him to repentance and to follow Yahweh, the True God, because God loves King Neb too. Not just Israel. As King, King Neb is whether he wants to be or not, a vassel for Yahweh and subject to Him and a vassel that will be used for God's Kingdom. 

King Neb ends up worshipping Daniel and gives him and company a lot of power. 

[Chapter 3]

Archaeology proves that Babylon did all the stuff mentioned. King Neb. makes an idol/statue of gold and all must worship his idol/image. He is declaring he is a god here. The entire statue he makes of gold. This is his bold attempt to counter Yahweh as he thinks he is the superior god here.

Daniel and company are forced to either worship King Neb and his image or be killed. They refuse. 

The furnace is used as Daniel and Company's punishment because they will not worship him or his gods. It was common in the cultures, that in order to be polite, you were to honor all the cultures' god/gods. The Hebrews don't and Christians also don't and so they are seen as rude. 

Shadrach, Abednego and Meshach go into the furnace. 

3:52 - Blessed is Your Name, the Temple of your glory.

From King Neb's perspective, he has destroyed a Jerusalem that appeared to be polytheistic and he thinks he is a god so he is baffled by their behavior. The three are thrown in the furnace to be burnt to a crisp. They survive though as one like a Son of God was with them in the furnace and appears there with them. They are protected and walking around this furnace unharmed. 

2 hymns come up next. The whole Creation worships the One True God. Everyone sees this and is baffled at what has happened here. King Neb sees this "son of a god", a divine being of some sort and recognizes that this being is "Most High". He is so impressed that they are to be respected now. 

God has joined them in the furnace. The furnace is typology for humanity being put in to face their death and being at their lowest point. Christ in that moment joins with them and joins with humanity and is with them. We can see Christus Victor here. Like the 3 in the furnace, God dies (Christ) too and being with us, we make it through death, unharmed. A perfect typology is found here. 

[Chapter 4]

A shift happens. King Neb is the speaker here. When he writes this, he has had another dream and only Daniel can answer it. He says the spirit of his god is with him, calls Daniel the prince of enchanters, and "spirits of the holy god". He seems to think, and this is a common belief of the pagans, that Daniel is being possessed by this god Yahweh. King Neb dreams of a great tree with animals. An angel chops it down and it is done and made by decree of "the watchers" (a Divine Council reference is made here). 

Daniel takes an hour to answer this and it troubles him, mostly because this is probably going to make King Neb upset. The dream means that currently King Neb is strong like that tree but he will be made low for seven years. This is a judgment of some sort. Later on, King Neb will get a voice from Yahweh and he will go crazy, live outside and act like an animal. 

People think this is crazy and a myth but there actually is a 7 year period in the Babylonian Chronicler where there is no one mentioned who serves as king for 7 years. Absolute silence. 

King Neb praises Yahweh and is humbled. He exalts Yahweh. God is in charge. It may very well be that King Neb is in heaven as he here exalted Yahweh but also seems to be historically accurate as the Chronicler of Babylon seems to suggest strongly.

[Chapter 5]

Belshazzar is king now of Babylon. King Neb's son. The one Daniel had tutored. He has a feast and decides to use the Temple vessels and plates and cups and drinks from them. By doing this, he profanes them by offering his feasts to the pagan gods. It is not just a feast though; it is a lot of paganism involved here. They all in the middle of this event see a disembodied hand writing on the wall. He calls Daniel eventually who is now a much older man. 

Daniel says to keep the job that Belshazzar tries to give him and tells him that he needs to be humbled like his dad was. King Belshazzar knows King Neb was humbled. He dishonors Yahweh and for that his kingdom shall fall and be given to Medo-Persia. 

The words written on the wall say "Mene, mene, tekel, upsharin. Darius the Mede conquers them that very night. 

[Chapter 6]

Darius the Mede was an ambitious general who said he was cousins with Cyrus. Daniel is appointed as a governor and a plot ensues. He is thrown into the den with lions and spared because of God's protection. This is clear typology here of Christ's descent into Hades and his resurrection. 

The Persians had a completely different culture than the Jews. They thought that the body was meaningless and a trap for the soul. They would leave the dead out to let animals eat them. Darius does favor and like Daniel though and the officials trap him in this devious plot versus Dainel. The lions are at peace though and there is a reference to Genesis Pre-Fall here with all the peace.

[Chapter 7]

Daniel has a prophetic dream in Belshazzar's 1st year as king. The great sea is the Meditterenean Sea. 

He sees 4 beasts: One is a lion with wings, a bear with 3 ribs, a leopard with 4 heads, and the 4th beast is something with iron teeth and 10 horns and a little horn develops on it that uproots 3 of its teeth almost like baby teeth. It is also arrogant. 

7:9 - Daniel sees the Ancient of Days. Thrones are put in place (judgment). Jesus refers to this and says the apostles will judge from thrones one day. The Ancient of Days is wise and from before anything was, because He is God. Eternal God of all ages. 

7:11 - The beast was destroyed. This kingdom. All 3 beasts have their time. This future beast is also destroyed. These 10 horns are 10 kings. One king will rise and humble 3 kings. Saints will be persecuted until God comes. 

The first beast: Babylon. 

The second: Medo-Persia.

The third: Alexander the Great and Macedonia. He dies early and leaves his kingdom to 4 generals who split it up. 

This 4th beast is a super-beast and the evil left behind by the other empires. 

"Time, time, and a half-time" (3 1/2 years). 

John says in his letters that there are many antichrists. This little blasphemous horn that pops up is all of those who are against God and war against His people. Gog in other words. 

[Chapter 8-12 are in Hebrew. When Ezra shared Torah he needed a translator because none knew Hebrew because of the Exile] [Chapters 8-12 deals with the future of the Jewish people]

[Chapter 8]

Ram and Goat. This ram with 2 horns is powerful and a goat with one horn wins and his horn shatters into four pieces. The Ram is Medo-Persia and the Goat is Greek. The 4 pieces are Alexander the Great's empire shattering and splitting into 4 different nations which happens when he died. One of these generals conquered almost all of the East area largely: Seleucids. This general would go on to father Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who took the title of a god. 

He is the strong horn (8:9). He loses war against part of Egypt and scapegoats the Jews for it because they would not sacrifice to his gods. He, mad, sacrifices a pig at the Temple and it is called later the Abomination of Desolation. He becomes an antichrist figure that truly represents evil and Gog. Daniel worries when he gets this vision but is told to "seal the vision" (8:26). 

[Chapter 9]

He realizes Jeremiah's prophecy is 70 years. He prays to God for Israel's sins because he sees Israel is not where they need to be or are supposed to be as His glory has not come/returned. Daniel is humble and assumes he too is a sinner though he is righteous. 

In prayer, the angel Gabriel comes and tells him that it is 70 weeks of years. Thus, this is actually 490 years. In the midst of the week, the abomination will occur, the Temple will be destroyed, the Gentiles will trample, and this Messiah promised to come will also be killed. Those in the NT all knew this time was approaching in the 1st CE. As a matter of fact, aside from Jesus' claim to Messiahship, the last try to have an uprising and claim to be Messiah happened with the Bar Kochba Rebellion. Jesus fulfills all this in 70 AD and then Bar Kochba happens later. Rome is the people of the prince that are mentioned. The real Temple (Christ) remains. 

What we see in Antiochius IV is he sacrifices to Zeus a pig on the Temple, defiles the Temple in the process. Then the Maccabean Revolt takes place and they re-dedicate the Temple after successfully fighting back. At the end of the 490 years, the Messiah comes, dies, and then the Temple falls (70 AD). 

[Chapter 10]

Daniel has another vision. He sees a person. Everyone runs away but him and he falls on his face. 

10:13-18 - Angels administer over the nations. Some are fallen angels/demons. The prince (angel) of Persia fought 21 days until Michael the archangel helped him. He knew Daniel was in need of answered prayers but had to fight the demon in charge of Persia first. 

10:15-16 - Theophany happens here with Christ. 

10:18-21 - God says I will be giving you a vision but first I must deal with Persia and then the Greeks after.

10:21 - Michael is your "prince" (angel). Israel's gaurdian angel is Michael. He is also because the Church is Israel, the Church's chief archangel gaurdian. 

[Chapter 11]

Xerxes gets mentioned and is the one who will fight the Greeks and lose at the end of his reign. Alexander the Great will rise up quickly and die quickly. After Alexander the Great, there is a King of the South to rise: General Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt. The Seleucids of the North and Ptolemy of the South will make war. 

11:14 - Even the Jews will be forced to be involved in these wars. 

11:16 - Antiochus III takes over Israel. 

11:17-30 - Ptolemy V and Cleopatra do not stay together. Antiochus IV then later goes openly against Yahweh and defiles the Temple that has been rebuilt. He offers a pig to Yahweh and deliberately does it to try and piss off Yahweh. 

11:31-45 - Antiochus IV will fall like the rest. God gives Daniel the bigger picture to show him that there will be a time the Jews will get out of Exile but it is going to get worse before it gets better. It is a corrective too for Daniel who is himself worried since he thought that the 70 years were up and nothing had come close to having happened yet. 

Antiochus IV will become seen as a type of antichrist to the Early Church and Titus under Nero, AD 70, and other events like the Bar Kochba Revolt where there was a literal false messiah that tried to reclaim the lands of Judah and failed which ended in Jerusalem's annihalation (something AD 70 did not do) that relate to this will also be seen as fulfillments of these verses in some way or form, though these are both and all imperfect figures. It is likely that all these events do not perfectly fit and that they are actually prefigurement figures of a final antichrist in the end of human history that has not yet come. God's people have dealt with times where this prophecy has seemingly been fulfilled many-a-time but yet, there has been no 2nd Coming nor the resurrection of the dead to take place. God is faithful to His promises so we know that there will come a time when this will take place. We must always remember there is some mystery to eschatology and to try and see the bigger picture which is for the faithful to remain faithful despite trials and perseuctions and tribulations. 

[Chapter 12]

12:1-3 - Archangel St. Michael watches over Israel for he is their gaurdian angel. There will be a time of tribulation to take place and then a resurrection of the dead is prophesied to happen. A resurrection of the dead that involves the just and the unjust takes place at some point. We don't have a resurrection of the dead that takes place in the Maccabean Revolt nor AD 70 obviously so this is not about Antiochus IV at the end of the day and to an event in the future. V.3 is an obvious reference to Abraham's promise that his people will be as numerous as the stars, an event that is fully fulfilled in the resurrection of the dead event. 

12:4 - Daniel is told to keep these words secret and to seal the book until the time of the end is ready to take place. When it is unsealed it will be a time when there will be a lot of people roaming about all over the world it seems and knowledge of things will be vastly improved. These people of this time will be intelligent and be able to travel many places perhaps but this is somewhat speculative. 

12:5 - Daniel looks and there is Michael the angel of Israel, and there are two men can be seen. One is on the bank of the river and there is another on the other side. 

12:6 - One man is dressed in linen and stands above the water of the river. He is asked by the man on the other end a question: How long until the end of these wondrous things?

12:7 - Then the man dressed in linen answers and raises both his hands toward heaven and swears to the one who lives eternally (this can only be Christ or God) that this will take what seems to be 3 and 1/2 year. Things will be completed when the power of the holy people are shattered. This cannot be referring to Antiochius IV or Judas Maccabeus because as St. Jerome says in his commentary of Daniel.

12:8-9 - Daniel hears what is said but does not understand this at all and inquires about it with God but he tells him he will not get this answer as "the words are secret and sealed until the time of the end" comes. 

12:10 - Whatever happens at this time, many will be purified, cleansed, and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand". 

12:11-12, this would "have been correct... if the book of Maccabees had recorded that the temple was polluted over a period of three and a half years instead of three years" according to St. Jerome.

12:13 - Daniel is told to go his way and rest for there are many days ahead til any of this happens. He is told at the end of the days he too will, because he is faithful, partake in his inheritance as one of God's people and be part of the resurrection of the dead. 

A disclaimer needs to be made though here... and I'll refer to a discourse I am summarizing with Fr. Stephen DeYoung on this issue. The texts of Daniel are notoriously difficult to interpret. There may be a different interpretation to take that is better but this is what I will go with for now in an idealist fashion because it aligns with Scripture and the bigger picture. Daniel 11-12 are very much in an eschatological sense having to do with Antiochius IV but on a bigger picture, we know it has to do with something deeper in that God will deal with all of his enemies. They will not stand to the Lord ultimately and we will all, if faithful in persecution and trials and tribulations, be part of His Kingdom at the 2nd Coming and the Resurrection of the dead.  

A daily sacrifice never ceased to happen except with Antiochius IV. It cannot be about Christ or something ending with Him and His worship because Christ is the Eucharist and that is an unceasing sacrifice, an eternal sacrifice. The Eucharist is Christ's sacrifice. 

As Fr. DeYoung said in a discourse with me asking him about Daniel 12: "The fathers all understood this and that is why they understand it as referring to the defilement of the temple by Antiochus, and that to be a type of the coming antichrist. It isn't even that God had left that temple long before it was destroyed. It's worse than that. He was never there. There was no manifestation of the Presence in the Second Temple and the Judeans of the time were painfully aware of it. It's part of how they knew they were still in exile. Also, now that we have a better grasp of the diversity of Judaisms in the first century, we know just how irrelevant that building was to huge swathes of the Judean people who had either actively rejected it (ala Qumran and other sects) or who were ambivalent toward it, largely because of the corruption of the Herodians and Sadducees, like the Pharisees"... "Daniel is talking mostly about Antiochus Epiphanes with these last chapters and he is a preliminary fulfillment of the Man of Lawlessness or Son of Belial that St. Paul will go on later in history in the NT to talk about. This is how 2nd Temple Judaism understood it too, that Antiochus was a type of the coming anti-Messiah". 

Fun notes: In 135 AD there will be a false messiah to come in the Bar Kochba Revolt who is far more significant than the events of 70 AD. 70 AD did not bring about the ultimate end of Judaism as we knew it. That was actually the Bar Kochba Revolt that triggered the complete split between Christianity and the creation of Rabbinic Judaism... Bar Kochva had an actual false Messiah who proclaimed a kingdom in Jerusalem that lasted for 3.5 years (this is summarized by me - Fr. Stephen DeYoung said it). 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bel & The Dragon -

They want Daniel to worship Bel and he says no. The king gets mad when Daniel tells him Bel is a false idol. The 70 priests of Bel have been eating the idol's food when no one is looking and have had a smart plan they've concocted (they are a representation of a false Divine Council by the way). Daniel sets a trap however with some ash and catches the priests, proving that Bel is a fake. 

Next, there is a literal serpent/dragon that they all worship. Daniel says he will worship Yahweh and slay it without using a weapon. He feeds the dragon serpent and it blows up with what he gives it. The King is impressed and worships Yahweh but now all the people/ think that the King is now fully become a Jew. A mob erupts. 

Daniel is taken by mob and thrown into a new lion's den but angels put peace with Daniel and the lions as happened when he was thrown another time into the lion's den previously in his life. 2nd time is not the charm for the enemies of God and Daniel because he survives yet again. 

A prophet named Habbakuk is cooking up a stew in Judea so God calls him and tells him to feed Daniel. He orders an angel to carry him to Daniel and feeds him. Then the angel takes Habbakuk back and Daniel is fed and vindicated yet again. Once this happens, all who have plotted his death are taken and executed, being put to death.

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Ezekiel (LXX) Notes

Ezekiel is one of the latter prophets in the Old Testament. He is one generation after Isaiah. 

622 BC, he was probably born around that time. 

He was 30 when he had his first vision in 592 BC. 

He is a Post-Exile Prophet and was part of the 2nd Deportation.

His father was a priest and this was seen as useful by the Babylonians because if you were a priest or son of a priest this meant you could be used for your literacy and being able to write.

Ezekiel is referenced a lot in the NT like Revelation. It is an apocalyptic work. It is not about the end of the world. 

It is an apocalypsis and is often showing us the bigger picture in a symbolic way (showing us the past, present, and the future). 

You can not take all these symbols literally. These are symbols which are used to communicate something to the people for the most part. The messages of Ezekiel will be for the Exiled people and mostly for Israel. He prophesies all this in the Babylonian Kingdom. 

He has 7 sets of visions. Some of these visions are shocking and graphic.

[Chapter 1]

Has first vision at 30 years old. He sees "4 living beings". These are angelic beings. They have a body like a man, 4 faces, 2 wings to fly, 2 wings to cover their private areas, and two to hide their arms and eyes. He also sees the lamp of fire which is the Presence of God and a symbol of God's Presence, like the Burning Bush (1-14). 

1:15-28 - In addition, there is a "wheel" with eyes that follows wherever they go. He sees something like the sky and sees a throne and the appearance of one who is like a man on a moving thing. Ezekiel struggles to describe exactly what he sees so he says it is "sort of" like this. "Likeness of the Lord's Glory". 

God is atop this dome he sees of the universe. This is God's Throne that he is seeing. Everytime we have seen the Throne it was always stationary, but Ezekiel shows that his throne is on wheels so that he is not stuck in the Temple but rather is mobile and big enough to encompass all of Creation as well, since He is atop the dome. 

This imagery shows us quite clearly that God has not abandoned the Jews. They are His people and He still loves them. 

The "living creatures" are cherubs or cherubim, a type of angelic being. 

Biblically, from the descriptions, they look more like sphinxes or persons with animal heads/features. 

These 4 beings are following God, the King, and are carrying Yahweh. They serve Yahweh. They are not gods but Babylon, which worshipped sphinxes would have tried actually worshipping angelic beings similar to them and we know they did from archaeology and knowing their mythos. Ezekiel clearly shows though that they are not gods and serve God. 

These angels are used (the 4 angels/messengers) as typology in the Church for the reason that we have 4 Gospels. The beings with 4 faces have 4 different perspectives and St. Iranaeus suggests that this is why they are the "four Gospels". We have only ONE Gospel technically speaking but 4 different perspectives to share it. 

God has come to see Ezekiel, his prophet. 

[Chapter 2]

Ezekiel falls to his face. The Lord says: Son of Man, Get up! 

Son of Man = Son of Adam. It is a term that also can mean to stay humble. 

When Jesus refers to himself as Son of Man they understand in his time that he is referring to himself as the Ancient of Days in Daniel who uses this term as well. 

Ezekiel cannot get up so the Spirit raises him up off the ground and picks him up literally. 

God gives him a scroll because he is being deliberately provoked. He tells Ezekiel that he sending him out in the midst of scorpions and that they have about 5 years to change their ways. The prophecy is a lot of curses. 

[Chapter 3]

Eat this scroll. He does and it tastes like honey. He eats the prophecy. It is first to him and then he will bring it to them. He is sending him to Israel, his own foolish people. He shall go to the captives and prophesy. 

3:12-21 - He spends 7 days with the captives. "I made you a watchman". He is now responsible for these people. On the Judgment Day, He will be asked about all these people he is held accountable for. He is not to let them do evil. He is to speak out and up against it or he is responsible. 

3:22-27 - I will make you my slave he says to Ezekiel. God's slave. 

[Chapter 4]

He is supposed to make a representation of Jerusalem and then sleep only on his left side and then change and sleep only on his right side. 

This is symbolism. The left side: Israel. The right side: Judah.

There are 380 days which equal 1 year each so 380 years since they existed. 40 days equal 1 year in this prophetic word each, so 40 years since Josiah that they have been wicked.

Ezekiel is told he has to eat poop-baked bread. This is symbolism for how all in Exile will ultimately be eating impure. Ezekiel is disgusted at first and protests so God lets him use cow dung instead. This prediction given is about Jerusalem starving.  

[Chapter 5]

Shave your head and shave off your beard. This is so he will become a slave to God. He tells him to keep his hair because he is going to have him use it for a prophesy of judgment. These are messages of death, famine, cannabilism, and etc. He will reference the other nations and Israel often for being like the pagans. 

[Chapter 6]

All of Israel will be judged. All shrines to pagans gone. Then they will know that He is Lord. They will know the curses of God. 

[Chapter 7]

To Israel: The Day of the Lord has come. All will be judged. This life is given for repentance. Do not waste it. The angels did not get to do this or get this gift Israel has received. 

[Chapter 8]

Jerusalem falls in 586 BC. This next vision is for those in the Exile. He sees a vision of the one in "likeness of a man" again. God picks him up and puts him in Jerusalem in this vision where he is shown an Asherah pole - this is Baal's wife. We know from archaeology that they tried making Yahweh have Asherah also as a wife and at one point had built a pole in God's Temple. Ezekiel is told to dig a hole and does. 

8:11 - There are 70 elders mentioned. This is an apostate version of the Divine Council. Wrath is coming. 

[Chapter 9]

These men are going East. This is bad symbolism going on here. North is also mentioned which means a conquering is to take place. The 6 men are to destroy all in their path but the remnant who are marked for protection. People like Jeremiah who follow God are spared. This is an obvious Pascha allusion given. They are protected like Moses and the faithful from the angel of death. 

[Chapter 10]

The same cherubim are seen in this vision. The Lord left with his posse from the Temple. 

The Lord's glory never went back to the Temple. They were in NT day and time, painfully aware of this as the Lord didn't return for Ezra-Nehemiah's time, nor what you see when the Maccabeans (1-4 Macc.) rededicate the Temple to God. They were still in Exile. This is also why in the NT the Pharisees are hellbent on being such strict people too with purity trying to get God to come back.

God's reign goes everywhere. He is everywhere. He is seated on the Throne. 

The Jews knew the Glory of God wasn't there but still sacrificed anyways in hope that He would return.

[Chapter 11]

11:14-25 - He will raise a remnant up and bring a new covenant. He is transported to Babylon and then tells the exiles what happened. 

[Chapter 12]

Baggage for capitivity. When King Neb comes back he will hurt Jerusalem and treat the Exiles worse. They are going to be moved. He speaks about Zedekiah a bit sneaking away like a coward and says this king will never "see" Babylon. He does get his eyes gouged out so this comes true.

12:17-26 - One day there will be no false prophecy. This is happening now. Babylon will take care of that.

[Chapter 13]

This "wall" is a metaphor. King Neb will destroy them and they are falsely claiming they will be fine. Building a bad wall that God will break down. 

13:20-23 - They do not prophesy from God. They do it from their own dark hearts. Not demons. 

[Chapter 14]

The exiled elders are asking Ezekiel about a word and to give them a word. They do not get a word that is good. They are told that they should return to God and repent.

14:14 - Even if Noah, Job, and Daniel were praying, he would still judge Israel. Here, he mentions Prophet Daniel. 

14:21-23 - There will be a remnant.

[Chapter 15]

What can you do with vines? Compares it to how worthless Jerusalem is. To be destroyed. 

[Chapter 16]

16:1-4 - He essentially says "your mother is a whore" and that they are not one of his people in all reality. Common practice was that the patriarch of the family had to accept the baby who was born. If they didn't accept it for whatever reason, they threw them outside and away essentially and abandoned them. God is saying that no one wants Israel. She is like an abandoned baby. No one wanted her but God did. God uses imagery here of him adopting this abandoned newborn bastard baby that he made to be like royalty and beautiful though she, Jerusalem, is an adopted daughter here in the image given. In return for all he, a loving father gave to her, she treats him wrongly and acts like a whore with everyone dishonoring him and his house. She is a prostitute. God essentially here is asking "why should I not just disown you"? referring to Judah. He compares them to Sodom and Gomorrah. The sexual depravity came as a result of their wealth and not thanking God for it. They even rape people who enter. They deserve their judgment and obliteration. Says Judah has done worse than them two. This is talking about a society that has unfortunately become so completely wrong and corrupt and it leaves us a good lesson. 

Lesson: We as a society do not know when we may be cut off by God from His mercy. We must prepare because we don't the day we die or when Christ returns either. We must individually and corporately strive for repentance every day. 

16:51-58 - Sodom and Samaria looks better than Judah right now. She looks worse than them. He points to the resurrection of the dead here. Even the punishment/Exile though is a chance to repent but they must before it is too late for them. 

16:59-63 - Because and out of love, God will make a new covenant with them which will change them and they will find repentance then. 

[Chapter 17]

Great eagle is shown snipping a cutting vine. It grows weakly. The weak vine instead of growing where it needs to, tries to get another eagle to help it grow. It will pull it up and kill it though ultimately. This vine is Israel. It thinks it is weak and to try and grow in power instead of trusting in the Great Eagle (God) who put them where they are supposed to and need to be, they trust in another eagle (false gods and evil nations) and let a predator mess with them and kill them. Jesus is a grapevine. Not this vine that Ezekiel talks about here. 

Israel/Judah will fall and the King Zedekiah will try to flee and fall. 

17:22-24 - Restoration language. A new planting. A new covenant. 

[Chapter 18]

The son suffers for the father's sins. The saying is that the children pay for the fathers' sins. Regardless of your sin and everyone else's, if you do what is right, God will save you and you will be a remnant, and part of it. You are His and your faith will be what saves you. If not, you will die unrighteously. Everyone pays for their own sins. They can be affected but they will not be judged by God for it. It doesn't matter what their family did or has done or is doing. Behaviors in 586 BC are still destructive today. God does not want or desire death on the evil. He wants repentance. We do not, Israel does not, get credit for Abraham's righteousness nor their father's unrighteousness. This is what they are mad about in this.

[Chapter 19]

Imagery of a lion and imagery of a rod and vine is given. Zedekiah and Jehoikam and the tribe of Judah in captivity.

[Chapter 20]

Some elders come to ask Ezekiel another question. God through Ezekiel gives them a history lesson about how they were all slaves. Then called them and said to be different. References Passover and the firstborn child. They keep failing to keep Sabbath. "I chose you and you Israel fail me". He is going to judge them in Exile and weed them out. Then a remnant will come about. Didn't happen with Ezra, nor in 1-4 Maccabees, etc. The Divine Glory didn't return. 

20:39-44 - The Mountain of God is symbolism/figurative language. This comes after the judgement which allows the Gentiles to come in the kingdom. 

20:45-48 - Forest fire will happen. It is a sign from God. Likewise, Jerusalem will burn because of God, not King Neb. 

[Chapter 21]

21:18-27 - Seige against Israel. King Neb will conquer by divination. God will control what Neb does. Not his gods. It will be Jerusalem is his target. God wanted to forget their sins but they made God remember because they won't repent. Now He has to do it. 

21:28-32 - Ammon is judged. Judah is judged. 

[Chapter 22]

Jerusalem is so dirty. Guilty of shedding innocent blood. He even goes so far as to say an animal will be judged for killing a righteous person. 

22:17-22 - Mixing impure things with the pure things. 

22:23-31 - Couldn't find one righteous man. Has to purify and smelt to get what he wants. Hyperbole here. 

[Chapter 23]

Oholah = Samaria.

Ohilibah = Jerusalem.

[586 BC and 70 AD were both destroyed in the same day]

Already in Egypt they were prostituting and living wrong. Israel let Assyria in and then Assyria destroyed them. Got raped/Samaria did. Now she is gone. 

Samaria's sister sees it and then whores (Jerusalem) even more. It is graphic but this imagery is all to show the evil and what Judah has become. They are gross and whores and sin is gross. It is beneath us being God's children. They will be slaves to Babylon like they were in Egypt. Judah is exiled to Babylon. 

We are all exiled from the Kingdom by sin. How do we get back? Through Jesus and repentance. The Exile is ending in the NT. 

[Chapter 24]

A parable is given. He makes a good stew and skim results. Jerusalem is the burning pot. Under the scum is blood. To get to the meat, he has to heat the pot and at least then the meat will be boiled and the scum and blood will be gone. The blood will be poured out on display for the world to see. 

24:15-24 - He will weep because Jerusalem is dead. He doesn't delight in it.

24:25-27 - Survivor will be given a report. Ezekiel will speak to them. 

God is waiting with the 2nd Coming because he is giving time to repent. There is a cut off time though.

Ezekiel's wife has died (like Jerusalem) and he is in mourning (like God). Ezekiel himself becomes the symbolic sign of grief and will not speak until Jerusalem falls. 

[Chapter 25]

Ammon is judged and will be conquered. This is Lot's descendants. They will be judged and acknowledge Yahweh is Lotd at some point. 

Moab, Edom, and Creatans and coastal lands too shall do the same. 

The sons of Kettim will take the land now. Nothing is special about the lands as God owns all of it in reality. 

Crete is also judged. Traders of the sea and land know what's going on. The Mycanean folk had attacked Egypt once in the 13th century BC (sea-people invasions). They settled on coastal lands and became known as the Phillistines we see in bible. So Phillistines are also Cretans. Paul will call Cretans liars and this is common wordage for anyone of Greco-Roman origin because the Greeks knew that they were the oldest of their history and hated them for it. This is why their old gods of the Greek pantheon suck and the new gods of the Grecian pantheon are so much better. God doesn't say however that he will destroy Crete but it is the coastal lands that will be judged too. 

[Chapter 26]

Tyre prophesy. Phoenician Empire. This nation is built on trade and shipping. Our earliest coinages are Phoenician coins. They set up cities/hubs. Their capitals eventually decline and Carthage becomes the capital which Rome will fight and conquer. Baal and Jezebel come from this location. They are on an island that is at their time completely unconquerable. They were also richer than Babylon and King Neb actually used funding from them to make his conquerings. The Tyre King is probably also the high priest-king of his pagan empire. Ezekiel gets a prophecy on this that Tyre will be judged. King Neb will go on to conquer all but Tyre itself. Thier trades suffered as a result. Tyre is also prophesied here to go to Hell (Hades) and will fall and this becomes fulfilled by Alexander the Great. 

[Chapter 27]

Talks about the global reach and wealth Tyre has. Carthage is in Africa. All nations knew of their greatness. Judah even often traded with them. Ships are destroyed. They have a huge navy and trade and it is taken down by God's judgment. Baal is used here in the plural because it means lord and there are many Baals. God declares himself the Master over Baals. The sea built them up and now they have been sunk. 

[Chapter 28]

To Tyre's King: He declares himself supreme god. Says he is divine. He is one of the Baals. They worship him there. Yahweh however says that "you are no God". He mentions Daniel in 28:3. 

He is only who/want/where he is because of God. He is prophesied to tear Tyre down because he is just a mortal man. 

28:11-19 - Prophesy and lamentation. Refers to him and compares him to Adam, mentioning the "orchard of God" (garden of Eden). He hangs out with angels and is sinless, on a holy mountain. Reference to Satan who fulfills this list. Pride did him in. He is the embodiment of Satan and will fall. The demons were seen as real and they are real. It was not a fictional god being dealt with. They felt they were communing with fallen angels masquerading as a god. Tyre is a representation of evil, Satan. Demons. Serves Satan. 

[We see this done in the NT too with Caesar, who is Jupiter, king and high priest of pagan pantheon. Embodiment of Satan on earth]

28:20-26 - Judgment against Sidon. Will be done. Israel will be restored one day. No ongoing grudge because God has dealt with it. 

[Chapter 29]

To Egypt: Egypt because of Babylon will from this time on be weakened as a superpower and never regain its strength. Pharoah is king and called a "dragon". Satan/serpent imagery is clear here as Pharoah thinks he is a god too. God says though that the rivers are His (Nile and Delta River). Egypt is still secure, fat, and even happy, even though they can't go outside their area. In reality, they are a little helpless fish and God will deal with Egypt for messing with Israel and Judah.

The borders of Ethiopia have a famine that is to come. A warm winter screws Egypt all up. They will be scattered among the nations too and then after 40 years return but never again be powerful like they once were. The same language used here is used of God with Israel. Egypt is not special for getting to come back in 70 years. He deals with all nations in a similar fashion. The only special thing that Judah has is that they will be who produces the Messiah. God cares about faith and not about biology. 

29:17-21 - King Neb attacks Tyre. Zionism is heresy. Egypt gets more mercy than Israel. King Neb doesn't beat Tyre so he seizes on Egypt and depletes them. 

29:21 - "a horn". A horn means it is a mature creature. Some nation or person will rise to power for Israel. This horn is Jesus. 

[Chapter 30]

Egypt did not like to list their losses. Memphis, Egypt's capital, falls, and she falls in power. Babylon will act as a plague to them. Libyans, Phoenicians, etc. are all affected on this day. Pharoah is judged with Egypt for misleading Judah into allying with them while God sent prophets to tell Judah to repent and not trust Egypt. Babylon's armies are a plague, like locusts. A tool for judgment of the nations. Pharoah's like an idol and his arm falls off figuratively.

[Chapter 31]

To Assyria: 31:9 - Pharoah thinks he is so smart and powerful and compares him to Assyria using imagery of a tree to show how great he once was and how Pharoah will end up. The Tree falls and is thrown down a mountain to Hades. Hades is where Assyria goes and where Egypt/Pharoah is headed because of his pride.

[Chapter 32]

Pharoah will fall and it will be expressed (poetically) by him dying. When Christ died, this same imagery happens. Darkness overtakes Jerusalem and Rome during the Crucifixion. The greatest king had died. 

32:17-22 - Pharoah will fal like every other nation has. Mescheck and Tubal (Tubal-Cain) (North and South). They were two cities/kingdoms who fell. They are dead and were dead when Ezekiel was prophesying this already. He is using them as an example. 

We forget that everyone was way more interconnected in this time then we think. Ezekiel's messages were sent to all these places and the proclamations were heard and read out loud. 

[Chapter 33]

Ezekiel is to be a watchman for Israel. The sword is judgment and the watchman is to warn sothey have heard and chosen to accept/reject the watchman. Jerusalem has fallen and they didn't take the warning. Now the exiles "get it". They are screwed. Ezekiel was right. Refugees are in the land and are scumbags. They trust in false thinking. These are the people who will kill the Governor of Israel for Babylon and then King Neb will punish for this.

[Chapter 34]

Israel/Judah are scattered because of their leaders. Their job as "shephards" was to help/protect them. God will ask for their sheep back and they will have none to give. Bad shephards. God will take care and fix the sheep and their problems. He will raise a shepherd like David (34:22-31). Messiah reference is here. He will raise a garden of peace for them.

Restoration to Eden language here. Has them all at Mt. Zion. A New Jerusalem (34:28). The remnant is saved and the beasts (Gentile nations) no longer eat and devour them.

Christ declares Himself the Good Shepherd. I am the Messiah because I lay my life down for the sheep. The shephards once exploited the sheep. Christ dies for them.

[Chapter 35]

Mt. Seir (Edom). This is an emblem for Edom. Edom is judged. If they had repented, they would not be judged. They will know Yahweh is Lord one way or another.

[Chapter 36]

A time will come when the nations judged will end and that the land will be restored to people of Israel. On a small-scale, in 70 years they do come back to the land. On a larger-scale though, God will "make the land your inheritance". Reference to God giving and creating the people of Israel. He became part of the tribe of Israel. From the beginning, you were Israel if you were with faith. Those are Abraham's real descendants. If Caleb has faith, he is Abraham's child. God will restore Israel because of His Holy Name. They had tainted the Land and so affected all of Creation due to their sins. The animals are at peace with saints. The Image of God restored will restore Creation. The way we live blesses or destroys Creation. It has effects. Israel has polluted the lands and it needs to becleansed. We are responsible for creation. It is so bad they desecrated even Yahweh's Name. They see His people and see what losers they were. Because of that, He will redeem them. To save His Name. 

36:25 - Baptism. 

36:26 - Pentacost.

36:27-37 - New Covenant. New people who he will make them holy and have a new Spirit in them (Holy Spirit; Acts).

[Chapter 37]

37:1-14 - Can these dry bones live? He is seeing the current plains of Jerusalem. They are long-dead people. Say to the bones as if they can hear you, to live. They come to life, the 4 winds blow into these corpses and they live. An assembly is here, an ekklesia, aka a really big church. I will open your tombs and you will be gathered. this is not just some metaphor being talked about. Israel is brought back to life by the Word of the Lord. Hear the Word of the Lord. The Word had the power of Life and death. He spoke it into existance. The Word = Christ.

Christ is the Word of the Lord Incarnate and has the power of life and death. He can bring eternal life even out of death. "The hour is coming when those in the tomb will hear the Lord and live" (John 5:28). 

37:15-28 - North and Southern Kingdoms are both gone but will be rejoined and back together. He uses two rods as the imagery. One ruler will rule these people. A servant/Messiah of David's lineage (Jesus). For all eternity in this new covenant of peace. A "sanctuary" will be placed. This is Jesus (37:28). Gentiles and etc. will know He is the Lord who sanctifies them, the sanctuary being with them in the center for all eternity. An image of the Divine Council at the end of the time being there too. Christ's flesh is eternally the Tabernacle and this is also found in Revelation. 

Again, this is apocalyptic. It is a reveal to 1) get people to repent, 2) the big picture and God's perspective on everything. 

God sends the prophets to usually show us the bigger pictures. The dark powers are already defeated. When you know this is coming, you can endure. Keep this in mind! 

[Chapter 38]

Gog is in the land of Magog which has 3 places: Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. Earlier he mentioned Rosh and Meshech who had been destroyed and judged already. Gog is in Amos as a locust king (Amos 7:1). Joel 2:20 army of locusts from the north as a plague om Israel. Ezekiel refers to King Neb earlier as a plague of locusts. 

Gog isn't one particular person. It represents one used by God for judgment. He can represent anyone. King Neb, Alexander the Great, etc.... 

A King who seeks to dominate; an archetype. In Ezekiel's time, this would be King Neb. Remember the bigger picture. It represents all empires and tyrants; enemies of God. These cities were already destroyed so that makes this clear that is Satanic forces represented here. It is a type, pattern, archetype. 

So Gog and Magog represent all enemies of God. It is not some coded message about one specific person or nation here. The message here is that people like this who are evil come and go, usually and they all fall to God. 

[Chapter 39]

These demonic forces shall be defeated and wiped out. Cursed too because in this they are unburied. A great dishonor. Israel takes all that Gog had seized for themselves. 

39:13 - "land cleansed after 7 months" (symbolism of completion). 

Babylon gave many people opportunities and rights whereas Rome didn't. 

What is the purpose of these visions: Babylon may look great but in the end, Gog will not inherit the earth. God and His faithful people will ultimately do this. The meek, not these powerful entities who work for Satan, will inherit. Gog is not Babylon but we havea Gog we deal with. 

The Cemetary of Gog. Many nations build monuments to their greatness. They fail. They fall. Every nation will be buried. God will reign supreme. God's people will be resurrected from dry bones. Gog won't. It will be buried. All nations will worship the Lord. We see this in Rev 20-22 go on too. Jesus has already won. We have been in the End Times since the Resurrection. God judged in the Cross. He has already defeated the enemies. Now the devil has a limited time before it is all over for him and his followers. It's a mop up basically. 

39:18-29 - Israel will drink the blood of the enemies? This new people are eating animals and humans? It is imagery of them being offered as a sacrifice. A sacrifice always involves a feast. Communion. God is saying fellowship has been broken for a long time so there must be a very big sacrifice. So he is going to offer all the evil and sacrifices and feast.

"He who knew no sin, became sin for us (itself)". Christ destroys sin. He hangs cursed on a tree outside the city of Jerusalem. He died and took the sin with him to Hades and left it there. Through the Cross, He judged all the wickedness in the world. Christ is this sacrifice. 

Last Supper makes sense with all this in context. The feast is the celebration. The Eucharist. 

The Cross is the sacrifice. The Eucharist is the Feast and Celebration. 

[Chapter 40]

Temple vision is here. It is not a prediction of an actual temple. Not Ezra's. Not Maccabeans. Not Herod's Temple. 

Sees a city and a man with a measuring rod. 

572 BC - Jerusalem has been gone a while. 

A big symetrical cube is shown and seen in Revelation as well. It is a standard Temple of beauty becaues it was hard to do this in stonemasonry at the time. Getting things to match was damn near impossible to do like this back then without absolute mastery.

There are a lot of symbolisms that are done with this Temple that you can read St. Gregory the Theologian talks about if interested.

3 Gates: North, East, and South. No West. Cube within cube. Perfection. If they are coming back from Exile, they are coming from the east and death is south. The enemies from north are now with God. The Exiled are now being Restored; East. God has conquered Death; the South (Hades). The Sea is West. Chaos. There is no West because there will be NO MORE CHAOS. All is His. Enemies of God are now made His people, death is conquered, the Exiled are Restored to Him, no more chaos. In Revelation, this is why there is no more sea. No West Gate means no more chaos. 

40:38-49 - Outside, inner, and altar. There is a place where the priests live. Zadok, Levites are promised to serve. Ezra has no episode where the glory of the Lord returned. Netiher did Maccabees or Herod's Temple. In the NT, they see this and have a Temple but it looks nothing like Ezekiel's Temple and doesn't have the glory of God. The Pharisees would argue about the Temple being legit even though they'd use it for sacrifices. The Saducees and High Priest would at the time claim to be Zadokites but were illegitimate and pretenders. 

Hebrews names Jesus as the True High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek. Levi is of the Old Covenant so what is this prophecy about and how is it to be fulfilled? 

[Chapter 41]

All of these areas have gone up on one level further and the priests are all able to enter the Holy of Holies whereas originally only the ordained priests could. This assumes that these priests have seen some change take place or that something is different with God. God does not change as we know so it has to be the people have changed. 

There is supposed to be side rooms and natural lighting. Along the walls are decorations of palm trees and cherubs. Babylonian sphinxes/cherubs are seen in this imagery. God is the true god and these are angelic beings that serve God in the imagery. 

Palm trees represent Eden in this imagery, an oasis, a river is also in 4 directions and combines... the image is a Cross. 

Lion mentioned here is Judah. The head of it is human. The King could not enter this temple because that is not his role but the Messiah for some reason can do so. This connects this Messiah as perhaps God, king, and a priest. We know Jesus fulfills this and that this is the case. It should be noted that this Temple has a lot of icons. 

41:21-26 - Table. A picture of an altar is shown. Wooden doors and a table... Last Supper is reflected here. 

[Chapter 42]

All of the Jews and Gentiles will come to this Temple. There's rooms because if the Gentiles are coming to Jerusalem, they will need a place to stay; a sign too of welcomeness. 

These Gentiles mentioned are with Jews so they are no longer unclean. There is a place for Jewish people too.

These measurements are perfectly symmetrical. 

[Chapter 43]

He sees the Lord return His glory to the Temple. He originally saw the Lord leave. He has come back and comes from the East, which means He was with them in Babylon and still their God in the Exile. 

The NT people knew and were very aware that the glory of the Lord had never returned to the Temple.

The Pharisees, since God wasn't there, felt that they needed to be strict so they could get God to return and focused entirely on purity and forgot to love and care for their people. They would actually try to get rid of sinners so God would return. Completely missing the point which Jesus would point out and call out later. 

There have been 3 temples built: Solomon's, Ezra's, Herod's. 

The Lord speaks to Ezekiel telling him (a man) this is My Throne. "No one can see God and live"... This god is a man. Jesus. He lived with them but was separated by sin. This wall will be gone (Galatians - Christ broke the wall of separation in his own flesh - refer to Ezekiel is made here).

43:18-27 - Lots of blood and sacrifice involved. Sin-offerings? On the 8th Day, God will accept them. For 7 days, they are offering. Reference to the 7 Creation Days. God is working in Creation. 7th Day of Rest, no more wandering. The Rest is coming. God is still working because we are not at that 7th Day. On the Cross though Christ says "it is finished". He rests on the Sabbath. 8th Day. 

To prepare this altar for the real sacrifice which is worship, they need to go for 7 days and the 8th day will be Rest/Sabbath. This real sacrifice will be Christ. 

[Chapter 44]

After God comes through the East Gate, it is shut. The Virgin Mary is the way which God returned to His people. This Temple is not built by human hands. Mary remains virgin. Christ is the real sacrifice. 

Christ says "Destroy this Temple and I will rebuild it in 3 days" because He is the Temple. The Temple is the Messiah through the person of Jesus Christ. 

He tells the people about this in order to contrast holiness to their current way of living. So far, we have not seen any lay people in this vision, only priests. The Sadducees kept claiming to be legitimate and of Zadok but we know that was a lie. All who are faithful will stay faithful and all who screwed up are also serving in this vision and forgiven. 

It is showing us in this vision that this Old Covenant will end and a new one will be happening. The inheritance of the Lord isn't the land for the New Covenant People. It is God Himself who will be in their midst. 

Dispensationalists often say the Jews will sacrifice to Jesus for 7 days but this is blasphemous. Why would the ultimate sacrifice done through Jesus, Himself, need sacrifices that are meaningless? It's bad reasoning. 

[Chapter 45]

The Old Covenant focus was on Laws and sacrifices to rectify the situation when they broke the Law. The center of worship in the New Covenant is Christ who offers the sacrifice and now thanksgiving is the center (Eucharist/communion). 

45:8 - "princes of Israel". In this New Covenant, there are princes. The King's sons. God is the King. Therefore, God will also be the Messiah and God Incarnate / David's house. The "prince" is Jesus, God the Son. 

This next part here is that there will be no more oppression and the scales of justice will be balanced. Measurements are perfect. No more getting cheated by rulers. Deals will be fair. In all things, remember that Ezekiel is telling this to his contemporaries too, revealing it to them. 

This prince offers the sacrifice on behalf of his people. In the Old Covenant, a prince would not be allowed to do this. In the New Covenant, he can do this because it is a new covenant and it is Christ doing it as High Priest-King. All of this points to the Eucharist in the New Covenant. It is the sin offering. Christ Himself. 

45:18-25 - Pascha. The prince offers sacrifice, the people give thanks. The apostles were celebrating Christ as Pascha, not for the Exodus. Ezekiel only mentions a New Pascha in the New Covenant here. It is the only spot.

[Chapter 46]

Last time someone tried to build a temple, disasters and eventually death of Julian the Apostate occurred. 

Christ offers Himself. He is the Temple. He is the Sacrifice. We offer bread (the grain offering that is mentioned). 

"The land of the earth". God's people permanently get the earth which has been redeeemed and restored as well. 

Servants under the Old Covenant got a piece of land temporarily but God's people in the New Covenant and servants of Christ will inherit the earth forever. 

46:19-24 - The Eucharist is a sacrifice. Sacrifice and a meal in the OT and NT are not separate. 

3 parts are here. 1) you kill animal, 2) sacrifice to God, 3) the remaining parts of the sacrifice are given to us as we feed and feast.

Christ continously offers Himself. We feast on Him. He is still a meal and we still feast with Christ and eat His flesh and drink His blood (John 6). We can eat together with God for the rift is gone. 

[Chapter 47-48]

River of Life flows from the Temple. Juxtaposed to the river of blood from sacrifices. Water that gives life. A river of blood (judgment) is now a river of Life. This water heals the sea and other waters which personify chaos and destruction. It transforms the destruction/chaos into life and order. We Orthodox Christians, when we bless anything or baptize, are transforming chaos into life. 

God blesses and sanctifies all for what it is supposed to be.

This inheritance of Land is symbolism for the whole world and all of Creation which all the Gentiles will also inherit. They inherit too like the natural-born of Israel; the faithful. 

[Ch. 48] The Temple is in the center of all; This is symbolism of Jesus the Christ who is the Temple.

Baruch (LXX) (Epistle of Jeremiah Ch. 6 Included) & Lamentations of Jeremiah (LXX) Notes.

 With the writing of Jeremiah, there were some chunks of writings that were put together that constitute what is called Jeremiah's Leftovers. Baruch is part of this, hence Jeremiah's Leftovers as they are often called. It is written in 586 BC. There are four "Baruch" written out there but some of them are pseudo-graphical works in 2nd Temple Judaism. Several people wrote about and as Baruch for whatever reason. This work is "1" Baruch being regular and of Jeremiah. The works of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Baruch are written much later and are pseudo-graphicals. Baruch is written in 2 pieces. We have included in this the 6th Chapter which is a letter by itself titled the Epistle of Jeremiah because they are often put together in biblical canon, much like Ezra and Nehemiah were once one book Ezra-Nehemiah. 

[Chapter 1]

It is written after the Exile and is a reflection about it by Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe. After the 2nd deportation, Jehoikam and Jeconiah are discussed. They have gotten some of the silver objects and are going to send them back to the location of the Temple (1:1-9).

1:10-13 - A prayer is offered for King Neb. This is to respect that God has put him there. The prayer for him and that they can be good to the Babylonians as long as it doesn't go against God.

1:14-21 - A confession of sn is to be read. It is a prayer of repentance for 70 years. 

[Chapter 2]

They confessed that they would not repent and were so disobedient that they cannibalized. They deserve all the judgments and give a prayer for deliverance and ask God to please bear with them because the world knows that they are His people and they seek to remind God that they, though evil and corrupt and morons, are still His people.

[Chapter 3]

Another prayer is given. 

3:3-4 - A Prayer is given for the departed of Israel. This work shifts and goes from prose to poetry now. A reference to Cain and Abel is made that his brother's blood cries out to me for justice. An account in the Law is made for all the blood spilt and this includes animals' blood too in the Torah. All human blood though must be accounted for. We see in Revelation that this is done as well about the blood spilt of humanity.

3:9 - There is now a shift that takes place again where it becomes like a sermon from Baruch. They looked at the Exile through the perspective of the Torah in the 1st part and now in the 2nd Part they will view it from a perspective much like the Wisdom perspective of literature does. 

They reflect on how foolosh leaders and the new generation are just as dumb. References to Genesis 6 are made and it is shown that they perished because they didn't follow God's wisdom (3:26). The stars do what they should while they go their own way and against God. 

[Chapter 4]

4:5-7 - Sacrificed to demons instead of God. They abandoned Wisdom but know what they need to do now instead of violating the Law. 

4:20-36 - Mercy will come to Jerusalem in Exile. The metaphor of Jerusalem as Mother and etc are given as allusions and metaphors and symbolism abounds here. Jerusalem's mourning is typologized as Jesus and Mary who is the Mother of New Israel. This is all fulfilled through Jesus Christ. 

Babylon took people from Israel (4:30-36) and she shall pay for it. This word is not solely about Persia either. 

[Chapter 5]

They will be returned and restored. This is about New Jerusalem.

--------------

Epistle of Jeremiah - Letter to Exiles - Chapter 6 of Baruch

[Chapter 6] 

They will spend 70 years in Exile. Up to 7 generations. 

6:6 - My angel is with you. Michael is the archangel and guardian angel of Israel. God still sees them. 

In Babylon, there will be a lot of idols. Do not worship them. Be different. Do not be idolatrous like the people before for this is how the Exile happened in the first place. If you do like you're supposed to the Restoration will take place.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lamentations of Jeremiah

[No one is claiming God to have come back. His presence has not returned to the Temple, even in Ezra-Nehemiah and 1 and 2 Maccabees it doesn't happen. They still await this even in Jesus' day.]

[Chapter 1]

It reads like the Psalms with how Jerusalem has fallen.

[Chapter 2]

Many prayers are given.

[Chapter 3]

You can find many comparisons to Christ here. Aman is here in focus.

[Chapter 4]

Blood is on their hands. A reckoning. 

[Chapter 5]

Prayer is given for mercy. 

5:19-22 - God/Messiah will return and is promised to return for Israel and her people. 


Jeremiah (LXX) Notes

Jeremiah is known as the Weeping Prophet. He lived a long, sad life of hardships following God. Jerusalem was destroyed in his lifetime. Baruch, Lamentations, and Epistle of Jeremiah all talk about it as well. 

There are two different versions of Jeremiah: The LXX and the Masoretic. We have found both in the Dead Sea Scrolls which are 1st CE dated. The LXX is agreed mostly to be older and that the MT added things. These notes are from the LXX. 

Jeremiah's calling is during Josiah's reign, king of Judah. 

In 612 BC, Assyria/Ninevah is destroyed by King Nebuchaddnezzar II. When referring to him I will be calling him King Neb for short. 

In 609 BC, Babylon begins attacking and in 605 BC Assuria begs Egypt for help to help them beat Babylon in exchange for Palestine. Pharoah Neko however gets completely owned in battle and Babylon won all these lands mostly, even parts of Egypt are overtaken until 522 BC when Persia shows up and wins against Babylon and takes over. 

Josiah gets a bad idea to ally with Assyria but then in 609 BC, tries to ambush Egypt to try and appeal to Babylon. He dies in this battle and then Judah becomes a vassel-state of Egypt. Then Babylon owns Egypt and Judah is conquered. Jehoahaz is King for 6 months. Jehoiakim then Zedekiah are kings and then Babylon destroys the Temple and Jerusalem and then Exile begins. 

Jeremiah's main message is gonna be that Judah has confused themselves as being the Kingdom of God that can't be destroyed. He shows it is not. Kind of like when St. Augustine had to write the City of God for Rome's fall. People thought it couldn't fall so St. Augustine wrote City of God to show otherwise. There are kingdoms of this earth and they are temporary and then there is the unbreakable and indestructable and eternal Kingdom of God. 

[Chapter 1] 

Jeremiah is of a priestly family. 

1:4-10 - He is young and God will put his words in his mouth. Isaiah gets freaked out with God while God, the Word of the Lord (a person) reaches out to talk to Jeremiah. We see the Pre-Incarnation here because the Word is shown. 

1:11-19 - Messiah gives him the word... a vision is given. He is making Jeremiah, a fortified city, and the enemies of God will not conquer him. Jerusalem is Jeremiah in this vision, apposed to earthly Jerusalem (The Trinity is already found in the O.T. Judaism scholars know it too...and we can see it here in the 1st Chapter alone). We see Jesus use similar language about the Temple too when he says tear this Temple down in 3 days and I will rebuild it... Because Jesus is the Temple, not Herod's. 

[Chapter 2]

Started in Israel (2:1-3). 

2:12-13 - God asks "where did I do you (Israel) wrong? What nation ever switched gods? I delievered you and you forsook me". "I'm life and you chose a broken cistern that could never hold water". 

2:16 - The Egyptians laugh at you for you are slaves again. 

They keep serving Baal and references to temple prostitution are made which consisted largely of homosexual and heterosexual acts where they also did sacrifices and worship that was destructive for all of God's creation and their soul. They deserve the judgment that they are going to get for this. 

2:35 God judges them because they refuse to repent.

[Chapter 3]

They act like prostitutes. God divorced the N. Kingdom figuratively speaking after he told her to come back. Judah saw it too and He calls for her repentance. They could be part of salvation but htey refuse. He still loves them but they follow after death and cause their own destruction instead.

[Chapter 4]

What happened to the North will happen to Judah. Jeremiah is troubled (4:19-22). Jeremiah is in anguish over this and weeps like God does for them. 

[Chapter 5]

5:1 - References to Abraham with Sodom and Gomorrah are made. Can I find a righteous person? If so, God will save them. Jeremiah tries to haggle some with God but ultimately falls short and finds none.

5:4 - Maybe they haven't figured it out Jeremiah reasons so he will try and reason with them and come to them.

5:5-9 - They purely rebel. They all reject the offer of salvation.

5:10-30 - Jeremiah finds them all to be corrupt from the top to the bottom rung of society.

There is always a remnant of faithfulness however.  

5:31 - False prophets who claim peace when chaos is coming abound. 

[Chapter 6]

It only takes 40 years for Israel/Jerusalem to fall apart under Jeremiah's prophetic period.

Judah, Levites, and Benjaminites were all that was left of the tribes now at his time. The rest were Assyrian led to exile. Samaritans were a product of the Assyrian Exile. They even have the Samaritan Pentatauch, a distorted Judaism of sorts and to this day Samaritans still exist and sacrifice on Mt. Garrison.

The city will be under seige. This army of the north is Babylon. It comes from the north because the army is following trade toutes and that is the way and direction from where Babylon came to invade Jerusalem. 

[Chapter 7]

God will save some but he will also discipline them. He'd have rather them not have been disobedient and repent but God honors our free will cho6)ice. 

Jesus and Jeremiah will have a lot of similarities. 

40 years is all it will take for the Temple to fall. Before the Temple was built it was in Shiloh, in the Northern Kingdom. God tells Jeremiah to look at it because it is now destroyed in Shiloh. Doesn't esist.

[Chapter 8] 

No repentance.

[Chapter 9]

The way we choose to live doesn't just affect us. It affects all of creation. In Jeremiah, it says Israel has polluted even the land.

They have places that they don't use because the pagans had profaned it like the Valley of Hinnon. There in Jerusalem, the bodies of their dead kings will be put out on display. The women are told to lament because their dreams will die. 

[Chapter 10]

God says their idols are worthless (10:1-16). This is not icons nor is it a Christmas tree. The point of it is to say that Baal is too dumb to worship. He can't even make his own idols or walk by himself. 

10:17-25 - Babylon will overthrow Judah and their leaders to show the problems they kept hiding. They are exposed. 

[Chapter 11]

They keep choosing Baal and other false gods so Judah will be destroyed. They will call out to them vs Yahweh when it falls. Yahweh won't help them because they have chosen their path to destruction and he is not going to listen to their prayers because they are neither sincere nor repentant.

Jeremiah gets a plot against him from the men of Anathoth. They try to kill him (11:17-22). His hometown wants to kill him and threatens him: "Prophesy by Yahweh and we'll kill you".

11:21 - The hometown will get destroyed. 

Jesus has the same things happen to him as Jeremiah. A prophet is dishonored in his hometown and the people are evil and just like Jeremiah people plot to kill Jesus too. 

[Chapter 12]

12:4-5 - Creation suffers for their wickedness.

12:7-13 - God's talking like "I cared for animals and then they became like an untamed animal and so I had to abandon it" when he refers to Judah here.

12:14-17 - Lord responds: Discipline, then remnant. They will return one day. 

[Chapter 13]

"linen girdle" this is the cloth used as your underwear or loincloth. He is told to hide this underwear (13:1-3). It is found later to be rotten and gross and unwearable after a time. In the same way, God will destroy Israel like this underwear. It also got itself dirty and worthless over time and needs to be thrown away because it has become useless.

[Chapter 14]

There is a drought taking place. God says it is because of their sin and to try and get them to repent while other prophets who are false prophets keep lying. They will be destroyed by sickness and famine and Babylon. The last part of chapter 14 is Jeremiah trying to repent for all of Israel but no one else can be found that will repent. 

[Chapter 15]

Even if Moses and Samuel interceded together, God says he wouldn't listen to it this time. These people are too far gone. Manasseh did evil and only did repent at the end of his life which Josiah tried to reverse but unlike Josiah, there is no more turning point for Israel that will take place. If they could have repented even at the 11th hour, God would have spared them but they would not and it is midnight. Jeremiah feels like a failure for this. 

[Chapter 16]

16:5 - Exile/restoration. Celibacy and purity are necessary because they are all disgusting. They don't even know how sinful they are now. God will restore Israel after a time.

16:19 - Restoration will take place 70 years later. They will return in 70 years but the Exile will not truly end (neither the Assyrian nor the Babylonian one in Israel's eyes). "They" (v. 19) the Gentiles mentioned will also serve God. 

v. 16 fishermen (Apostles fulfill this)

[Chapter 17]

The Sabbath is an emblem of their whole problem. Every Saturday they were to rest and there were also Sabbath years where they were to let the land rest. Then every 49 years, there was on the 50th, a Jubilee year where all land was reverted back to what it was originally. You had to give the land back to whoever used it originally. This helped keep people out of poverty and helped them start over. As we know though, Israel didn't do this at all and impoverished many people out of greed and did not follow through with what God wanted with this at all. The Day of Rest is important. You have to let God provide for you during this time. No God, no peace. They weren't even close to doing that. 

From David's reign to 586 BC that was 490 years worth of screwing up and not doing the Sabbath years 70 times. Because of this, they got 70 years of Exile. This allowed the Land to sit unworked for 70 years with the Exile and be restored.

[Chapter 18]

Israel will be scattered. Like this pot that is used as an illustration, God will smash nations when he has to. Even Babylon and Assyria. Not just Israel. 

18:18-23 - There is another plot hatched against Jeremiah. Everyone wants to trip him up and catch him saying something dumb or stupid. This is very similar to the Pharisees trying to do with Christ. Perfect typology right here.

[Chapter 19]

Elders and priests are taken out. The seige he says will be so bad that they will eat their own dead and be cannibals like the ones at the Valley of Hinnon. He smashes the pot like Israel will be smashed. 

[Chapter 20]

Pashur is the chief priest at this time. Jeremiah says to him his new name is "immigrant" because he is about to move to another land. Pashur needs to repent and lead the people to repent but he won't.

20:7-13 - Jeremiah complains and says he is being mocked to God. He then tries to stop prophesying and can't do it. 

20:14-18 - Jeremiah despises his own life. 

[Chapter 21]

Jeremiah's depressed. We tend to think God's call for us will be happy and joyfil but it isn't a lot of the time.

Word comes to Jeremiah under King Zedekiah's reign when the king sent Pashur to him. Pashhur wants him to answer a question. Is he going to take care of Babylon? Jeremiah responds: Zedekiah and Judah will lose and die. The people will also have a choice (he quotes Deuteronomy 32) to live or die by choosing Yahweh. Surrender to be slaves for Babylon will wipe out this land is the message. 

[Chapter 22]

Jeremiah is sent by God to the king. Exile is promised for not living under the Covenant. 

Shallum: 6 months he rules and is exiled to Egypt (King Jehoihaz).

Jehoiakim: he is the one who is installed by Egypt as a vassel-state king. He doesn't do justice and will be judged for it. He is a bad king and does a bad job. He will be buried like a donkey, not a king. 

Even if Jeconiah were to repent it is too late. He might save himself but God would still judge them and bring them into Exile at this point. No more kings. 

[Chapter 23]

Jeremiah was under 5 different Judah kings. One decent one was Josiah. 

23:1-4 - The leaders are like bad shephards. "I will raise shephards". Jesus uses this same language too to the Jewish leaders of Israel and the Temple falls too then due to apostasy and their being evil and corrupt to the point of no return. God will re-gather the lost sheep however and this will be of Jews and Gentiles. 

23:5-6 - A king from the East (Orient) from On High. Jesus is this king prophesied of David's descent. They are exiled to Babylon (in the East). Out of their shame he will bring salvation. 

[Adam and Eve it should be noted were exiled to the EAST of Eden] [we see patterns repeat themselves repeatedly in Scripture - Ezekiel we will see later in Ezekiel's notes does this a lot]. North is often symbolic for judgment too. Keep this always in mind when you read the scriptures.

23:15-40 - Blasts false prophets. Eternal reproach and dishonor. 

23:13 - Samaria was destroyed. Compares them to Israel. References to Sodom and Gomorrah are also made. 

[Chapter 24]

Prophecy of the figs. King Neb. takes useful people captive to Babylon. Deportation is when Jeremiah has his vision. God will take care of the good Judeans and they will repent even in a foreign land. The bad figs will be destroyed and cursed wherever they go. "Worry about the ones who are with you Jeremiah" he basically says. 

[Chapter 25]

God has been sending prophets to Israel but she hasn't listened. 

25:12 - Exile will be 70 years and then Babylon will be destroyed. He announces when, before time they will come back, thanks to Cyrus. God uses nations to enact justice and His will in the world whether they are aware of it or not. 

25:14-19 - Elam - One of the captured citgies. They will be accounted for.

[Chapter 26]

Egypt: Pharoah Neco was defeated by King Neb. of Babylon. Carcamesh's battle they get judged. Last time Egypt was judged was with Moses and the Exodus. They still thought Pharoah was a god. Babylon ruined Egypt as a superpower after this. From this point on, Egypt was never seen as a superpower nation again. Alexander the Great took them out next and they haven't been a superpower since. 

13:15 - Apis is mentioned. This is a bull god of Egypt and the same one that they worshipped when Moses came down off the Mountain. God will punish Israel but He will also give other nations time also to repent. Discipline will be right away for Israel though. 

[Chapter 27]

Babylon and King Neb. Bel and Merodach (Marduk) will be put down (these are Babylon's gods).

Two dragons are in the Babylon mythos: if you wish to read it google The Anuma Elish. 

Sky and Sea had a kid named Marduk. He killed his mom and dad and fought the Sea (chaos). Marduk is the personification of the King. King Neb. would have and did see himself as Marduk. Much like Rome's emperor saw himself as the god Jupiter personified. He too will fall. Israel will come out of exile. 

27:12 - The city of Babylon existed since 4000 BC and maybe longer than that. It had been there at least 3000+ years even when Jeremiah was prophesying and now it is a desert. It has one gate left today because Saddam Hussein tried to rebuild it and failed. Even Genesis has the Tower of Babel there because it is THAT old. It is an ancient city. 

Cyrus the Persian takes Babylon. It never came back and never has and never will. Babel (Babylon) and Ur (Gen 11:27). By Cyrus' time, Babylon was even more ancient but ultimately it is destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. This great city, once considered ancient and indestructible and in the NT time this becomes a symbol for the kings and etc. Of power and strength because it was always thought of as one of the 1st cities built by humanity. 

[Chapter 28]

Prophecy continues about Babylon. The Medes will handle Babylon. Flee from Babylon. She will fall. It is one of the oldest cities known (ancient). Even before 4000 BC it likely existed as Babel (aka the Tower of Babel (a ziggurat). They tried to build a mountain to be on an equal plain with God and with "the gods" and then it fell because their wickedness truly did basically reach to the heavens. 

The Medes (Persians) take Babylon out. 

28:13 - It was a walled city on the edge of the Euphrates at the time and the Medes smashed the walls and managed to flood the city first. 

28:15-24 - References to Babylon mythology are here where Yahweh shows Babylon's mythos is crap. 

28:25-58 - References the scattering of Babel when it was Babel. Babylon will be scattered like Babel was. 

God did the Flood in Genesis to them to deal with their depravity but the depravity continues with Babel so he has to sepearate languages to diminsh language. Genesis isn't all down for civilizations... as a matter fact, it is noteworthy that the first city-builder is Cain who is also the first murderer. Humanity seems to become civilizations and then the more powerful they become, the more wicked they become. Even leaders [Augustine. City of God] will call themselves God. So the One True God ultimately judges them eventually and they fall. 

A scroll is written about and for Babylon by Jeremiah. He is told this to Seriah. Throws it into the Euphrates. Another scroll is read aloud to Babylon as he is deported. 

[Chapter 29]

It is made evident that Babylon could have repented too. Jeremiah's scroll to Seriah is a chance for them to repent too. Daniel the Prophet deals with King Neb. too. 

Next: The Phillistines are mentioned and prophesied about. This Cretian coastal people will be judged. 

29:8 - Edom is judged. Where Pella is. Judah asked Edom to help but they helped Babylon instead. Eventually in AD 70's destruction of Jerusalem, the Christians will go to Pella (Edom) for refuge.

[Chapter 30]

Ammonites. Descendents of Lot through incest. They went into Gad for territory grabs when North Israel fell. They are to be judged for it. 

Kedar, queen of the temple court and a vassel for King Neb is to be judged. 

Damascus also a vassel state is to be judged as well. 

Themar and Arpod are gods and are said to have failed. 

King Hadad is mentioned and referenced. All that he has built is and will be gone.

[Chapter 31]

Moab and her cities and Chemosh (moon-god) will leave and go into captivity. Moab largely was spared from invasion but they won't be if they do not repent. Jeremiah prophesies to abandon Chemosh because trusting in the moon is dumb. The deportation folk were to be shaved and scattered and Moab does not recover. 

[Chapter 32]

Next vision. The Cup of the Lord. The LXX is the original with this. There are two different collections of Jeremiah as I said. The version the Early Church went with is the oldest. It mentions unmixed wine which is gross. It makes them vomit to take this. 

Drunk and insane. Wrath. End of his mercy starts (God's). He holds it back to let them repent but soon everyone will be judged. 

Judgment then begins in Jerusalem and only a small remnant survives it. 

[Chapter 33]

 At the beginning of King Jehoiakim is topological in the LXX while in the MT there is a more linear history given in its version. God says either way they will be judged like Shiloh which doesn't exist anymore in Jeremiah's time. Babylon is coming, Egypt has lost and if they don't repent, Jerusalem will surely fall. They take this message of Jeremiah's (Israel) to mean he is a traitor and so they put Jeremiah on trial (typology for Jesus who also is put on trial). Jeremiah is put on trial for prophesying against the Temple (same thing happened to Jesus with the Sanhedrin).

33:14-24 - He responds. The people gather and say not to kill Jeremiah so he gets off by Ahikam's aid and dodges the death sentence. 

[Chapter 34]

Make chains and send them to all kings around you, to tell them King Neb. will enslave them and be thier king. He warns King Zedekiah that this will be his fate too. He will be his slave. Submit and be a vassel or else. There is a parallel that is drawn between King Neb. and Adam. King Neb. will have all the power and dominion and be put to the test like Adam was. Daniel shows us more to this story in history. Jesus tells Caesar that he only has power because God gave it to him, not as a reward. The same is shown to King Neb. With this power, they will have the choice to choose God or not and choose death like Adam did.

Jeremiah speaks on false prophets too. The Temple has been looted and they are all destined to be killed or deported into exile. 

[Chapter 35]

Jeremiah confronts Hannanias a false prophet and says he will die soon. He does die in the 7th month for false prophesying. 

[Chapter 36]

Letter for the captives of Babylon is given. God promises he will release them in 70 years. There is even a prayer call for Babylon and King Neb. They are to be faithful even in the Exile. 

36:16-23 - Ahab and Zedekiah are judged. The false prophet Shemiah will die as well along with his entire family.

[Chapter 37]

Restoration is to come. He is told to write a record of what he has prophesied so they maybe won't do this all over again. This prophecy however is not written for 516 BC. They still won't have a king yet. There will be a Day of the Lord brough about by a Messiah that is to come. Christ will fulfill this and John the Forerunner will speak on this as well. This is about the last days. Not 516 BC here. 

[For dispensationalists, 1948 does not solve this prophecy either as all the judgments did not come on all the nations vs Israel. Dispensationalism is heresy and it is dumb].

A Day of the Lord was on the Cross. Judgment begins with Jews. He had left the Temple already and was not there in the 30s AD. When it was destroyed in 70 AD, God wasn't there in the Temple. He'd already left long ago. 

After that Restoration, Gentiles are supposed to come in and then the only thing left is the 2nd Coming.

[Ezekiel will prophesy later of a Temple that doesn't match Herod's or anyone after, etc. John the Apostle we will find gives us the whole picture later]. 

[Chapter 38]

38:1-15 - God will bring Jew and Gentile into this remnant. They are gathering on the Passover (Pascha). The Day of the Lord was on Passover. 

Lodge mentioned is the Tabernacle / Pentacost.

38:15-30 - Rachel weeps. How does she weep? The NT is just books interpreting and explaining the OT. Augustine even says that. Matthew quotes this when Jerod slaughters the innocent children. This passage is used in the NT though. They didn't have verses or chapters until recently. That is a modern innovation we use today. In the NT, they use shorthand and short-quotes. They way they quoted the OT, they would use the first sentence and then you were expected to go look and start there and read it then to get full context. If you wish to understand for example what is going on with Herod, this OT verse will help you get the context behind it. The babies murdered result in Christ who redeems His people. The suffering is because of our sin but joy comes in the mourning. 

38:31-40 - King Neb. has basically taken over by now. Two deporations have already happened. A 3rd is to come before slavery comes and it is imminent. It is over though basically. Jeremiah prophesies that in 70 years there will be a return and then goes further. Here is where he goes further and begins to talk about a new covenant that will take place.

Everything in the New Testament is the New Covenant promised in the Old Covenant. 

The whole OT is the Old Covenant but we find there to be many covenants in the Old Testament. 

Generally, they are talking about the covenant at Mt. Sinai (Deuteronomy). 

Usually after war a treaty would be made. After this war, God is giving them a new treaty to take.

There is the covenant God gave at Creation and we see King-Vassel go on here with God (King) and Adam (his vassel). He gave Adam one stipulation and Adam didn't keep it. Then we see Noah's Covenant where he makes a bow as his sign and promises not to destroy Creation with a Flood again.

God anticipated the Old Covenant of Sinai when he made a covenant with Abraham and "cut the covenant". 

The big covenant God uses in Exodus (at Sinai) is to fulfill the Abrahamic one. There is also the Davidic covenant that is made as well as one in Numbers with Phineas. 

Before Abraham, was the Tower of Babel. There is a rabbinical story (legend) that Abrham was saved out of Ur. Ur means fire in Ugarit. God saved him out of the fire perhaps. Saved from the Tower of Babel for refusing to be a part of it, the people plotted to kill him and so God delivedred him - this is Jewish legend. His family survives because they are not pagan like the rest and chose monotheism. God chose Abraham then to be a light to all nations and come to worship Him, Yahweh. 

Abraham cuts the covenant in Genesis 18 with God at the Oaks of Mamre. You usually cut a covenant and the vassel for the king assumes the penalty if broken. However, in this covenant, God is the one that goes in the middle of the cut animals, not Abraham, the vassel for the king. So if Abraham and his people screw up, the king suffers (God suffers the penalty of taking this oath with his vassel). This is unheard of in the ancient world. How will God suffer and be cut and die if Abraham breaks this covenant or his people do? Pretty obviously Jesus is God and does this. The whole of creation is involved in this too. All these covenants we know affect creation (Deut 30 and 32). 

38:31-40 - The current covenant has been broken. God will still be faithful by making a new covenant. Everything left has the New Covenant in the background with Jeremiah. He says it is going to be different. He mentions Egypt in a more intimate way. What is wrong with the Old Covenant? Nothing is. It is perfect as it is from God. God is giving a perfect one because we can't do it. God wants to part of the family and wants communion with humanity. To make this happen, he has to help us overcome ourselves and to do this Christ will have to purify us of our sins, so Christ will take it upon Himself, God-Incarnate, will fulfill the Old Covenant and succeed in all that we, humanity, have failed at all so he can make us His people. Christ moves us from the Old to the New Covenant. 

He is going to have a personal relationship with us. Not just people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc. or some select few. He will pour out Spirit on all flesh like Joel/Acts says. It is in future tense: They WILL be My People. He will make them holy and lead them into holiness.

38:35 - "family of Israel". Everything would have to be gone before He would leave His family.

38:38 - This is not a literal city (earthly) being discussed. It is huge, this new land.

Last Supper is when he makes covenant (Jesus). He cuts the covenant (inaugurates with His own body and blood). 

[Chapter 39]

10th year of Zedekiah. Babylon's cornered them. jeremiah gets locked up for prophesying. Jeremiah buys a field of land from his cousin during this seige. Weird to mention but he does this. Pays 100 lbs of silver for it which is a lot of money. 

He gives it to Baruch, his scribe to stash it in a cave to preserve it (much like the Dead Sea Scrolls) because one day people will own this land and be on it again. 70 years from now, they will get the land (Jeremiah's family). After they sealed the deed, Babylon took it. Idolatry caused this. Worship of Baal and Molech. Return is discussed in 39:36-44. 

[Chapter 40]

They do come back to the land but this mention of the presence of God returning to the Temple doesn't happen under Ezra or Nehamiah. It doesn't happen when the temple is rededicated by the Maccabeans either. This is a huge reason the Jews considered themselves still in Exile when Jesus came along. The only thing that truly fits for this is the New Covenant. 

40:7-8 - Judah returns from this exodus due to Babylon and begins rebuilding but are still technically in exile of some sort because the presence of God does not return to the Temple when rebuilt. 

[Of note: Daniel was in the 2nd deportation]

[Chapter 41]

Zedekiah (God is just) shall enter Babylon. He will lose the war but he won't be executed because God promised David that he would have a survivor of his lineage. Judah is now three walled cities being seiged. Zedekiah frees his slaves (indentured servitude) but they refuse to be freed. It has been 490 years that they have been actively NOT freeing the slaves as told to do for Jubilee and end of debt seasons. In other words, he tries to do the Torah but it is too late. 

The covenant Zedekiah makes is violated and they all go down.

[Chapter 42]

Days of Jehoiakim: 3 kings ago. Jeremiah gathers Rachabites. Shallum is to take care of the Temple. Tells them to drink wine and they remember their vow not to take wine and so because of Jonadab, they are rewarded by God. Sons of Racheb shall live. 

[Chapter 43]

Baruch is told to tell all people what needs to be done and they refuse to heed the warning. Jeremiah scribed this to Baruch. The people tell them to hide. All fail to listen. Jehoikam is going to die and be taken out for his judgment and for being an arrogant idiot. 

[Chapter 44]

Zedekiah won't repent. They are all given a chance to repent but they choose death. Zedekiah makes a deal with Egypt. God says you have to deal with Me now. The people do not like Jeremiah the Prophet and think he is just pro-King Neb. King Neb wipes out Judah because Zedekiah who was appointed vassel betrays him for Egypt. Jeremiah is put in prison for telling the truth to the people. He tells Zedekiah the truth and then gets thrown into a cistern after his prison-time. They do keep him fed though for a time and he is given a loaf of bread to eat. 

[Chapter 45]

These people hear Jeremiah's prophecy. Shephatiah says it to the king and so the king says to him, "Look he is in your hands now!" Similar to Caesar and Jesus, the king is scared of his people. 

[It is noteworthy that these people seem to think and act like the Word of Faith denomination people who think that they can just speak a good thing into existence... this is magic pagan thinking and vain]. 

[Pilate knew Christ was innocent and let Jesus die anyways an unjust death. At least the Jews had a reason and thought that Jesus was a false prophet]. 

Ebed-melech the Ethiopian calls Zedekiah out (a Gentile) and then the king says to get Jeremiah out of the cistern but Jeremiah then ends up back in the prison court. 

Jeremiah is called by the king again to a secret consultation. Jeremiah says basically that he is damned if I do, damned if i don't in answering him. So he tells him that he will live if he surrenders and to just do it. The king doesn't do it obviously out of pride and vanity. Jeremiah then just sits there and waits until Jerusalem has been captured. He has given up hope for them and just awaits the judgment. 

[Chapter 46]

Jerusalem falls. Ebed-melech the Ethiopian is to be spared. A Gentile has been saved by God (46:18). The seige took 1 and 1/2 years but is over now. 

[Chapter 47]

Jeremiah is taken as an exile to Babylon in handcuffs. Nebuzaradan is assigned to them and knows Jeremiah to be a prophet. He says Jeremiah can be in eile or run and spares him. 

Gedeliah is going to be the governor of Babylon. Some people that are left begin to start an assassination plot and some guy named Ishmael kills him. 

[Chapter 48]

Ishmael kills Gedeliah Governor of Babylon for Judah and then Ishmael keeps putting people in the cisterns. Kills a bunch of Samaritans who have come as religious pilgrims. This is unjust. 

[Chapter 49]

Those left put Ishmael down and kill him and then leave to Egypt because Ishmael has killed Governor Gedeliah and they know they will be executed for this having been done by King Neb. The people left follow Jeremiah and he tells them not to flee for Egypt. All of them will die if they go to Egypt. 

[Chapter 50]

They do not listen, call Jeremiah a liar and then choose to go to Egypt. They take him forcefully to Egypt and to Tahpankes. Egypt is prophesied to then get whacked and judged by Babylon and it does.

[Chapter 51]

They live like Egyptians in apostasy and serve Isis, a goddess (false god-demon). 

51:31-35 - Prophecy for Baruch is given, faithful scribe. He is told to not try and be important and to live humble and that if he does this he will be blessed by God. 

[Chapter 52]

Zedekiah was 21 years old and served 11 years as king. The Queen-Mother was Hamutal. There is typology here for Jesus as Messiah-King. Who is His mother? Mary. That makes her the Queen-Mother, the queen was the mother of the Davidic King. 

Jerusalem fell and King Neb slays Zedekiah's sons and then burned out his eyes and then threw him in prison to work the millstone until he dies. He pushes it until the very end of his life. This happened because Zedekiah, the prideful idiot who wouldn't just surrender and be spared, cowardly left Jerusalem before it fell and took the Temple treasures that were left with him too. He would push the millstone until he died. 

Babylon takes the Temple Treasures. 

Jehoikam under Evil-Merodach (Servant of Marduk is his name) shaves his head but ultimately treats him good as prophesied. He is released from prison and God still has a descend of David through Jehoikam. 

This ends Jeremiah. 

Gospel of Mark Notes - Inroduction - Chapters 1-4

 Introduction - The Gospel of Mark is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Who is Mark? He's not one of the 12 Apostles. He has a...