Growing up in the church I have always heard that Yahshua was coming back “soon”. I’m now 46 and He’s not here yet. Just what did they mean by soon? I thought 46 years was bad until I read Rev 22:20 “He that bears witness of these matters says, “Yes, I am coming speedily.” Ahmein. Yes, come, Master Yahshua!” This was 2000 years ago!
The trend that I see in the church today is that because we have been told He is coming back “soon” and He hasn’t yet, that we and our children don’t believe it anymore. Or at least we don’t really talk about it anymore for fear of looking foolish in the world’s eyes. So instead of hearing sermons on repent, get your life right, seek the Kingdom, we hear sermons on how to get along with your spouse, your neighbor, and your world today. We hear sermons on loving each other and spreading this love to our fellowman. Now don’t get me wrong, these are important subjects as well, but we have shifted our focus to the extreme. I realize that I am speaking in generalities as I’m sure there are some churches who still speak of His return, however, as a former Pastor’s wife who was in full time ministry for 15 years, and in the church most of my 46 years, I have seen the shift and have experienced it.
Some would say, “Well why worry about when He’s coming back? When He comes I’ll be ready and that’s all there is to it.” Ah, my dear family member or friend, you should be very concerned!
One thing that we must know about Yahweh is that He is never late. He knows exactly when Yahshua will return, reunify the 2 Houses of Israel, and establish His Kingdom. I can’t tell you when but I can show you some things that need to happen before He returns. So let’s venture into Ezekiel and see what we can find. I’m sure this subject will end up being a series as well.
Do you remember singing a song in church that goes, “The Lord is building Jerusalem. The Lord is building Jerusalem. Gathering together the outcasts of Israel, healing broken hearts, binding up their wounds. The Lord is building, the Lord is building up Jerusalem!”
This comes from Psalms 147:2-3 “Yahweh builds up Yerushalayim, He gathers the outcasts of Yisra’el, He heals the broken-hearted And binds up their wounds.” Ephrayim has been under the punishment. The House of Israel has been divorced, called outcasts, and Lo-Ami meaning “Not My people”. From Ezekiel we gain an understanding of the duration of Ephraim’s punishment.
Through Yahweh’s Prophet Yehezqel (Ezekiel) we see that Yahweh had him lay on his side for 390 days to signify 390 years of punishment for the House of Ephraim. “And lie on your left side, and you shall put the crookedness of the house of Yisra’el on it. As many days as you lie on it, you shall bear their crookedness. “For I Myself have laid on you the years of their crookedness, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days. And you shall bear the crookedness of the house of Yisra’el.” Ezekiel 4:4-5. We know Yahweh is speaking to Ephraim, Yisra’el, because He also said, In verse 6 “And when you have completed them, you shall lie again on your right side and shall bear the crookedness of the house of Yahudah forty days, a day for a year. I have laid on you a day for a year.”
To understand this punishment we need to see that Ezekiel lived approximately 135 years after the Northern Kingdom of Yisra’el (Ephraim) had become “no more.” Yet, Yahweh had not forgotten them. And, through Ezekiel, He reveals the length of their punishment for their iniquity.
The people of the Northern ten tribes did not repent of their paganism. And, Yahweh was adamant that He is a jealous Elohim and that Yisra’el was to have “no other Elohims” before Him. Yet, He also was, “a compassionate Elohim; who would not fail them nor destroy them nor, and this is a key, He didn’t forget the covenant which He had sworn to their fathers” (Deut 4:31; 5:9).
So this is what He said in Jeremiah, 16:17-18 “For My eyes are on all their ways; they have not been hidden from My face, nor has their crookedness been hidden from My eyes. “And first I shall repay double for their crookedness and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the dead bodies of their disgusting matters, and have filled My inheritance with their abominations.”
Using the base of 390 years and doubling it we see that Ephraim now has 780 years of punishment to begin with. If we calculate from the beginning of their captivity 734 BCE we get the year 46 CE. Or if we calculate from the final fall of Samaria in the year 722 BCE we come up with the year 58 CE. What was happening around the time 46-58 CE? That is the time frame that Sha’ul (Paul) came on the scene to go to the gentiles (nations) looking for the lost sheep of the House of Yisra’el.
We realize the duration of Ephraim’s punishment by first looking at Yahudah’s punishment. For, Ezekiel was instructed to lie on his right side for 40 days, a day for a year. Thus, Yahudah was to receive 40 years of punishment. Unfortunately, these forty years are only part of Yahudah’s punishment. Because in the account of the two sisters in Ezekiel 23, Aholah (Samaria or Ephraim) and Aholibah (Yerushalayim or Yehudah), we see that they engaged in prostitution when they were young and still in Egypt (Ezekiel 23). Additionally, Aholah/Ephraim engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians. And, it was this harlotry with their Assyrian neighbors that led to Ephraim’s downfall.
During the century preceding the final destruction of the City of Samaria, the Northern Kingdom was integrated into the Assyrian Empire. Piece by piece various portions of the Northern Tribes became vassals of Assyria until they were entirely absorbed into the Assyrian Empire. When the City of Samaria fell in 722 B.C., it was just the last little bastion of the Northern Kingdom.
It did not take a war for most of Yisra’el to become Assyrian. This fact is confirmed by Yahweh’s statement: “I handed her over to her lovers, the Assyrians, for whom she had lusted” (Ezekiel 23:9). Re-calling the demise of Aholah/Ephraim, Yahweh said of Aholibah/Yehudah, ‘You have walked in the way of your sister, and I shall give her cup into your hand.’ Ezekiel 23:31-33. “Thus said the Master Yahweh, ‘Drink of your sister’s cup, the deep and wide one – you being laughed at and mocked at – for it holds much. ‘Be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, the cup of astonishment and ruin, the cup of your sister Shomeron.”
Yahudah sister’s cup contained 390 years of punishment! Therefore, we add 390 years of punishment to the 40 years that Yahudah initially received. And that gives us a total of 430 years of punishment for Yahudah. So when did Yahudah’s punishment start?
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, subdued Yahudah in 595 B.C.E. After this date, they no longer had political or religious control over their own territory, Yerushalayim, nor over their temple. Thus, if we take 596 B.C.E as the first year of their punishment, and if we move forward 430 years we come to 166 BCE the end of Yahudah’s punishment. What happened in 166 B.C.E? The Maccabean’s revolted against the Greeks. We come to the time of the Maccabean victory, and to the cleansing of the temple. Yahudah’s punishment was over. They had regained religious and political control over their temple and a portion of their territory.
Now let us go back to Ephraim. He was assigned 390 years of punishment. Correct? No. Unfortunately, Ephraim would receive far more than 390 years. We understand this through Yahweh’s fourfold declaration given in Leviticus 26. For this rule establishes unrepentant Ephraim’s fate:
Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28 “And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I shall punish you seven times more for your sins. ‘And if you walk contrary to Me, and refuse to obey Me, I shall bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins,... then I also shall walk contrary to you, and I Myself shall smite you seven times for your sins.....then I shall walk contrary to you in wrath. And I Myself shall punish you seven times for your sins”
Yahudah was punished for 430 years. And, when they went to Babylon (that being their punishment), they repented. To this day, the Jewish people (as a whole) do not have idols. And since they repented of their idolatries, their punishment lasted only 430 years. Unfortunately for Ephraim she never repented. So, the Northern Kingdom received a seven-fold punishment: 390 years times 7, for a total of 2,730 years of punishment. Exactly what was Ephraim’s punishment? Yahweh said the Ephraimites would be scattered among every nation, and that there, they would “lose their identity.” They would become, “Lo Ami,” meaning “Not a People” Hosea 1:9; 2:2, 23 “…for you are not My people, and I am not for you.” So Ephraim received a sentence of 2730 years--the punishment being, they would not be a recognizable as Yahweh’s people--they would lose their identity.
When Did Ephraim’s Punishment Start? In determining the date of Yahudah’s punishment, we do not pick the year 585 BC, which was when Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon’s temple. Rather, we start from the year 595 B.C.E, when Yahudah no longer had political and religious control over their territories. Therefore, we will apply this same measure to Ephraim.
When Assyrians completed their campaign against Bet-Omri the last king of Yisra’el, Yisra’el was mortally wounded, decimated by deportation, beaten back into a tiny corner of the Northern Kingdom. With the exception of Samaria, all its cities had been annexed, and the country had been divided into provinces over which Assyrian governors and officials exercised strict control. All that was left of Yisra’el was a dwarf state, a tiny pinpoint on the map: the mountain of Ephraim with the royal city of Samaria. While the city of Samaria was finally destroyed in 722 BCE, the majority of the Northern Kingdom had become a vassal state for the most part to Assyria from 734 BCE to 722 BCE. Confirmation of these facts is substantiated by the Cuneiform Text of Tiglath-Pileser 111, which chronicle his Gaza-Damascus Campaign in 734-722 B.C.E.
So, when will it end? When will Ephraim come to the end of his season of punishment?
Out of room! Stay tuned for next month’s article! Blessings, Saya
Most of this article comes from a teaching by Allen Dodge.
