Sept 6

Well this is one of those passages of scripture that if you did not truly believe that God inspired His word and prompted men to write it down and miraculously preserved it AND that it all somehow ties together- one would wonder what Ezekiel had been smoking.

I'm not going to pretend I understand it all or that even that parts that I do understand make sense. But I guess that is where faith comes in. I don't know if when all this happens we will be able remember to look back on these confusing moments and remember and say, "OH now I get it" or not. But if we will be able to- look me up and we'll chat about it :)

The first thing I got stuck on is- who the prince they are talking about? Some believe him to be David (http://www.bibletrack.org/cgi-bin/bible.pl?dy=5&mo=12) and most believe he cannot be Messiah/Jesus since he appears to have actual physical sons to give land to (although aren't we called his sons?) and he does not sit on the throne. The odd thing is that this 'prince' seems to perform as a priest which doesn't really bring David to my mind.

The next thing that struck me was that this temple that they are talking about has water flowing into the sea. (Ezekiel 47:1-12) I would have assumed this to the Med (people geographically smarter than me would probably not make this mistake). But then they talked about fishermen from En Gedi to En Eglaim they will there be places to spread out their nets (we'll be fishing in the Mellenium? My parents will be happy) En Gedi is over by the Dead Sea. I checked it out- sure enough they are refering to the Dead Sea. There is not one single living thing in the Dead Sea- not so much as a piece of sea weed. The Dead Sea is going to come to life!!!!????? (but the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt).  Fruit trees will grow on both sides of the river. Wow.

The third and most confusing to me is the sacrificing. Most commentators agree that it will be a type of memorial 'looking back' on Christ's ultimate sacrifice us. But I cannot wrap my head around animals being sacrificed after Christ's return.  (And my mother will be very upset- hopefully she will stay busy fishing :)

The only 'big picture' sense I can make out if it, is that God had a very specific plan for Israel and due to their sin, it was never fully realized. In the mellenium, it appears, we will be living in that plan as originally intended.