Ezekiel 36: [4] Therefore, 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, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about;
[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.
[6] Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen:
"I love the way He starts out. You know, if you walk around talking to yourself, or talking to the trees or to the ground, somebody might think you're a little bit funny," says Richard Jordan.
"The Lord literally sends a message to the ground, to the mountains and to the country of Israel. You see, it's the literal, physical, visible, earthly land.
[8] But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.
[9] For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown:
"He's talking to the mountains, the fields and all the different parts of the land and says, 'You belong to me; I've got a plan for you.'
"He's going to bring the nation back and put them in that land. So, we're talking about a real situation; we're not talking about some spiritual things that come along later.
[16] Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
[17] Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.
[18] Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:
[19] And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.
[20] And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.
"Verses 16-20 is kind of like a flashback where He says, 'Here's what they did to you; they polluted you and I treated them like a removed woman. I'm going to cleanse you by taking them out, but then I'm going to cleanse them and bring them back, but I won't bring them back until their clean.'
"What happens in most of theology and most Bible teaching in most churches and religious systems is they ignore the literalness of this and they say, 'Well, it's not literal, it's a spiritual thing.'
[21] But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.
"The motivation behind all of this is God's glory; He's got some things He's accomplishing, some things He's going to do through Israel.
"The issue here is sanctification for a nation. He's setting apart the nation Israel in order to use them for the purpose of demonstrating to all the other nations of the world what it's like to have Him as their God.
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"The reason a violinist can make crystal glass break is because the instrument is able to duplicate the frequency the crystal vibrates at with an intensity that shatters it.
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