True Christian Religion # 844
844. The Jews are especially notable for failing to know that they are in the spiritual world, believing themselves still to be in the natural world. The reason is that they are utterly external people, having no inward thoughts about religion. They therefore speak in the same way about the Messiah as they did previously. Some say that he will come with David and glittering with jewels will go before them, leading them into the land of Canaan, drying up rivers for them to cross by raising his rod. They say that the Christians, whom among themselves they actually call gentiles, will then catch hold of the skirts of their clothes, humbly begging to be allowed to accompany them; and they will accept the rich if they are well enough off, and these too will be their servants. They support this belief by what is said in Zechariah (8:23) and in Isaiah (66:20). On the coming of David to be their king and shepherd they quote Jeremiah (30:9) and Ezekiel (34:23-25; 37:23-26). They are utterly unwilling to be told that David there means our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Jews there mean those who are going to belong to His church.
Ezekiel 35
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Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
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Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it,
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and tell it, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and an astonishment.
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I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
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Because you have had a perpetual enmity, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end;
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therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you: since you have not hated blood, therefore blood shall pursue you.
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Thus will I make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation; and I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns.
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I will fill its mountains with its slain: in your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses shall they fall who are slain with the sword.
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I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
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Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas Yahweh was there:
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therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have shown out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I shall judge you.
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You shall know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they have been given us to devour.
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You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard it.
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Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate.
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As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do to you: you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
