This week in the Jerusalem Post: "The powerful Old Testament image of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse has been repeatedly brought back into discussion when humanity has faced peril and war. Ezekiel and Zachariah have often been interpreted as describing the four horsemen as plague, war, famine and finally death."
Author Vas Chenoy continued, "When I woke up this past week on the morning of 120 days of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, it struck me that we were nearing death: Death of the old geopolitical system and of the world order that has kept repeating itself from the medieval ages.
"Despite much that has happened, Europe and Russia have risen as powers and then crumbled repeatedly. It seems, finally, that this cycle of plague, war and famine will be the last of Western hegemony and the birth of a new world order, a new world order which will probably bring back the balance of power to Asia and Africa, which were the centers of global wealth and power long before the industrial revolution . . .
"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him.” While we may be prepared for death, what we now need to understand is how we deal with the hell that follows."
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"God's word was fulfilled in that captivity and then Ezekiel can speak again to the nation. Now, all that weird stuff he went through was about judgment, destruction, defilement and the captivity of a rebellious people filled with unbelief who wouldn't believe God's Word. God uses these visual arts with Ezekiel to demonstrate it.
Ezekiel 37: [22] And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:
[23] Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.[24] And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.
"It's only going to be the Messiah who does that and all those false prophets that Israel had been believing and trusting and failed them, the last thing Ezekiel says is, 'God is going to restore the nation and put us back in the land; God's going to redeem us and cleanse us.' That's the message that Ezekiel has. Judgement and then God restores them.
"I don't know that I would have wanted to be a part of his visual arts team but he's a great illustration of what Paul says in I Corinthians 1: [25] Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
[26] For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:[27] But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
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