When God has drawn His sword, nothing will prevent its blade from cutting off all that lies in its path. Israel learned this the hard way. When Yahweh delivered His children out of Egypt, the most important lesson He wanted them to absorb was that He alone was God. He declared in Ezekiel 20:11-13:
“I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live. Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned.
“Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to make a full end of them.”
The Lord gave the Israelites the truth and the means by which they would find life. Rather than recognize God’s sovereignty over all of creation – including over the many gods of Egypt – His people turned away from Him in rebellion. For that disobedience, He promised they would know His wrath.
Ezekiel 20:9 shows us the key to this:
But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.
God will preserve His holy Name, whatever it takes. He withholds His hand of judgment as long as He can, but He reaches a point that inaction on His part is no longer viable. All nations must and will see that He is God above everything, and He will be obeyed regardless of the foolish notions of man (Ezekiel 20:22).
Despite their disobedience, God’s children had the absurd idea that they could inquire of the Lord to seek His Word of blessings. They had defiled themselves by sacrificing their children to Molech, i.e. to the fire, and they thought God would heed them. No, no, no, He said in Ezekiel 20:31: “ … shall I be inquired of you, O house of Israel? As I live … I will not be inquired of by you.”
They had these thoughts that they should be just like the pagan nations that surrounded them, that followed strange gods and practiced evil rituals. This wasn’t ever going to be allowed by God, as He stated in Ezekiel 20:32:
“What is in your mind shall never happen—the thought, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the tribes of the countries, and worship wood and stone.’”
This continual turning from God, for defiling His holy Name, for profaning His Sabbath, and for worshiping pagan idols, had a terrible cost. He says in Ezekiel 20:36-38:
“As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord God. I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. I will purge out the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against me. I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
God’s wrath would fall upon the Israelites until all who despised His mercy and grace were rooted out. None who scorned Him would survive.
And so, the Lord had Ezekiel prophesy about the sword that He would bring upon Jerusalem. The vision caused the prophet to groan with dismay because what he saw broke his heart (Ezekiel 21:6-7). God would deliver His people into the hand of the slayer (Ezekiel 21:11) who would wield the sword for the great slaughter (Ezekiel 21:14). Nothing would stay God’s mighty arm of vengeance, and He uttered this fateful promise in Ezekiel 21:25-26:
“And you, O profane wicked one, prince of Israel, whose day has come, the time of your final punishment, thus says the Lord God: Remove the turban and take off the crown. Things shall not remain as they are. Exalt that which is low, and bring low that which is exalted.”
We see two awful declarations here:
One is that for Israel it was the time of your final punishment.
Two is that things shall not remain as they are.
Once the final determination is made by God to act, He will do as He has declared. The sword will fall, and life as it had been will never be the same.
Have America and the world reached this stage? I believe so. The Lord has exercised immense patience with mankind, as He did with Israel. However, a time arrives when patience must come to an end. There are only so many warnings that God will bring until He sees that man has no intention of heeding them. As He says in Ezekiel 21:5:
“And all flesh shall know that I am the Lord. I have drawn my sword from its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again.”
The convergence of all prophesied signs of the end of the age are upon us. Not only has the pagan world completely rejected God, in fact is working overtime to replace Him in its transhumanist fervor, but His church has as well. If somehow through all this the people of God had remained faithful, that would probably stay His hand, but because the church has embraced and become the world, there is nothing left but judgment.
The Great Slaughter will take two forms. God will use the wicked in their depopulation schemes, i.e. their extinction protocols, to eliminate many upon this earth. At some point in this grievous process, He will remove those who love and obey Him. That will pave the way for the Lamb to open the Seals and begin raining down His wrath – the punishment mankind so richly deserves.
I believe the time is near for great death and destruction to begin. I also believe that the Bride of Christ will witness some of this as God shakes the world even more, winnowing out those who truly love Him and those – even in the church – who prefer life in this alien place.
The time for all men to choose is now. Will they follow God or Belial? Who is their Lord and Master?
Where is your heart? Whom will you follow?