Changes in the promised land

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The Creation Concept


Is the river of Ezekiel 47 literal?

How Jerusalem is raised up

Mountains that skip like rams

The valley of the mountains

What is Isaiah's high mountain?

How the desert becomes fruitful

Changes in the land

W. Harris and the stream of blessing

Hengstenberg's comments on Ezekiel's river

John Gill's commentary on Ezekiel 47:1-12

William Kelly: mired in literalism

Charles Henry Wright on the topographic changes of Zechariah 14:8-11

Patrick Fairbairn on the temple waters

Patrick Fairbairn on principles of interpretation

Interpretations of the promised land

Andrew Jukes and the land promise

F. B. Meyer's interpretation of the land of promise

John Owen on the rest of Hebrews 4:1

John Owen and the rest in Hebrews 4:3

Ezekiel and Leviticus 26

Currey's points of contact between Ezekiel and Revelation

Gardiner's Preliminary note on Ezekiel 40-48

Measuring the temple

The inheritance of the priests and Levites in Ezekiel 48

Does Ezekiel describe a literal temple?

Mountains in Prophecy

Ezekiel and Leviticus 26

In the table below, points of contact between Leviticus 26 and Ezekiel’s prophecy are compared.

Points in common Leviticus 26 Ezekiel
blessings in the land Lev. 26:3-13 Ezek. 34:25-30
a sword “going through” the land Lev. 26:6
neither shall the sword go through your land
Ezek. 14:17
if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land
“I will turn unto you” Lev. 26:9
For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
Ezek. 36:9-10
For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown:
I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it
“I will be your God, and ye shall be my people” Lev. 26:11-12
And I set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
Ezek. 37:26-27
Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
“I will break the pride of your power” Lev. 26:19
And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
Ezek. 30:6
Thus saith the LORD; They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.

Ezek. 33:28
For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.
“I will also send wild beasts” Lev. 26:22
I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
Ezek. 5:17
So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee: and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.
sword, pestilence, hunger Lev. 26:25-26
And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
Ezek. 6:11
they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

Ezek. 6:12
He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them.

Ezek. 7:15
The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within:
“I will bring a sword” Lev. 26:25
And I will bring a sword upon you,
Ezek. 5:17
So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee: and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.

Ezek. 6:3
And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.

Ezek. 11:8
Ye have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you, saith the Lord GOD.

Ezek. 14:17
if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it

Ezek. 33:2
When I bring the sword upon a land
“I will break the staff of bread” Lev. 26:26
And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
Ezek. 4:16
Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:

Ezek. 5:16
When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:

Ezek. 14:13
and I will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it:
God will pour out his fury Lev. 26:28
Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
Ezek. 7:8-9
Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations.
And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the LORD that smiteth.
“ye shall eat the flesh of your sons” Lev. 26:29
And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters
Ezek. 5:10
The fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers
your idols will be broken Lev. 26:30
And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
Ezek. 6:6
In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.
the land will be desolate, and an astonishment Lev. 26:32
And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
Ezek. 12:18-20
Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness;
And say unto the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord GOD of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein.
And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
“I shall scatter you among the nations” Lev. 26:33
And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
Ezek. 12:14
I shall scatter them to every wind, and I shall draw the sword after them.

Ezek. 12:14-15
And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.
And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries.
the land devours its inhabitants Lev. 26:38
And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
Ezekiel 36:13-14
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations:
Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord GOD.
they will waste away in other lands Lev. 26:39
And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
Ezek. 4:17
That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.

Ezek. 24:23
And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward another.

Ezek. 33:10
Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?
a prospect of restoration Lev. 26:40, 42
If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, … Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob…
Ezek. 33:11
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
“lands of their enemies” Lev. 26:41
And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies…
Ezek. 39:27
When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations
circumcision of the heart Lev. 26:41
…if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
Ezek. 44:7, 9
ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house… Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.
the land lies desolate without its people Lev. 26:43
The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
Ezek. 36:5
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.
God remembers his covenant Lev. 26:42
Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

Lev. 26:45
But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.
Ezek. 16:60
Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.

Copyright © 2010, 2012 by Douglas E. Cox
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