After setting some context and background for God’s upcoming punishment on today’s country of Israel in Part 1 of this series, I then began discussing more specific punishments that we can expect to see in these last days in Part 2 of this series.
In this current passage, I will continue and then conclude the discussion of these specific punishments administered via God’s weapons of wrath. Sections of this passage include:
- The country of Israel and its people humiliated
- God purges his people
- The country of Israel’s society crumbles from within
- Israel’s people and land are plundered
- The land of Israel is destroyed
The final topic above represents the culmination of God’s repeated waves of punishment against his people. It is the final outcome after all of his means of punishment are unleashed. Israel will become a desolate, virtually uninhabited land. This will be prior to a rebuilding ahead of the Millennial Kingdom.
Humiliation
I have described on this site the arrogance and pride of the country of Israel’s leaders and possibly some citizens in living like they are somehow automatically blessed and entitled by living in God’s land. Meanwhile, they have willfully followed foreign gods, worshiped idols, and believe that there are no consequences to the “detestable” acts in which they engage in secret.
The crux of their humiliation as a nation and as a people will be that their previously hidden sin and wickedness will be uncovered and exposed for all nations to see. Babylon’s kingdom of false gods and idols, which Israelis think is their secret friend, is actually its enemy. Israelis have been framed and set-up. The anti-Christ Chaldeans will have encouraged and then recorded and documented Israel’s and its citizens’ bad behavior.
So, the Chaldeans who have themselves aided, abetted and encouraged Israel for decades in practicing their own underhanded, criminal and immoral acts will play the role to “betray the betrayer” and “destroy the destroyer” as is written in scripture.
Suffering the scorn of the nations
I mentioned in my passage, The Last Days County of Israel According to Prophetic Scripture, how the country of Israel will be found to be worse than its surrounding neighbors, and then will end up bearing their scorn, ridicule and taunting. Scripture says that Israel will be defiled in the eyes of many nations (Ez. 22:16) and will be “an object of horror” to nations around her. Their detestable behaviors and practices, along with hard crimes committed (incl. those against other countries and other peoples), such as those I have described in prior passages will be exposed and revealed.
Overall, scripture indicates that the last days country of Israel and its people are going to be: “ashamed”; “disgraced”; “humbled”; “brought low”; and “defiled.” Consider the following:
They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads. (Ez. 7:18)
And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten. (Jer. 23:40)
As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets. (Jer. 2:26)
Notice that the last verse above shows how the country of Israel’s leaders’ corrupt, criminal activity will be uncovered. Through Isaiah we are told that, “the eyes of the arrogant will be humbled” (Is. 5:16). In a nutshell, Israel and its rulers and leaders will be found to have multitudes of unjust gain along with the innocent blood of many people on their hands.
God purges his people
Another facet of God’s punishment on his people will be a purging and refining process. This process itself will come in multiple waves as God “turns up the heat,” so to speak, on his people in a trial by fire to test their faith and see if they will come back to him. God refers to this process as “purging away dross” or as a “melting” process such as that used in refining metals and purging away impurities.
Last days Jerusalem itself is referred to as a “city of bloodshed” and as a “cooking pot” due to its rampant wickedness and sins. God talks about gathering his people to Jerusalem as they are gathered into a furnace to be “melted.” Both furnace and cooking pot analogies for God’s purging process are given in verses below:
As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. (Ez. 22:20-21)
Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned. Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass of it may be hot, and may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed. (Ez. 24:10-11)
God gives his people a chance to be cleansed of their rampant sins but it is clear in scripture that the purging/refining process will not entirely clean God’s people or cause them to return to him. God prophetically says to his people, “you would not be cleansed” (Ez. 24:13), and also says the following through his Prophet Amos:
I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. (Am. 4:11)
Israel’s continued stubbornness and rebellion and lack of an ability to recognize and turn back to their Lord is why multiple punishments across multiple waves come against them in the last days.
The country of Israel’s society crumbles from within
The following verse using an analogy of a sailboat probably best summarizes Israel’s last days’ society that has rejected their true God, is unable to recognize Jesus Christ, and therefore will be unable to withstand the “stormy seas” of God’s wrath:
Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread. Then an abundance of spoils will be divided and even the lame will carry off plunder. (Is. 33:23)
A chaotic society without leadership
To start, the country of Israel will find itself without leadership. I discussed earlier in this passage how Judah’s leaders will be found to be highly corrupt and unworthy. It is reasonable to assume that they will be captured or go into hiding at this time. This is likely the time period during which God asks, “Is there no king in you?” Israel will be in such a state of disarray with an “incurable wound” and with multiple disasters that the following verse foretells their vacuum of leadership:
When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand: In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people. (Is. 3:6-7)
Israel’s last days anti-Christ Chaldean-serving society will be in chaos and falling apart. God makes the point, “Youths oppress my people, women rule over them…your guides lead you astray” (Is. 5:11-12).
Israel will descend into a society that is full of lies, confusion and bewilderment. As the anti-Christ dialectic method takes hold, then there will be no truth. An “overflowing scourge” that passes by “morning by morning, by day and by night” (Is. 28:18), represents this, along with “rumor upon rumor.” Israelis will become a people who are “beaten down” and come under siege by the Chaldeans who “besiege without walls.” The country of Israel will become a society of internal strife and confusion and of “panic, not joy.” It will descend into a society “without gladness” and one where “no one is respected” (Is. 33:8).
A house divided
Because of the anti-Christ Chaldean’s highly unusual ‘balance of opposites’ doctrine and its system that infiltrates and deliberately causes confusion, strife, etc. by means of “set-ups” and traps Israeli family member will turn against family member, father against son, neighbor against neighbor, young against old, etc. Jesus said of this time:
You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. (Lk. 21:16-17)
Families will be destroyed. God will bereave parents of their children and widows will be increased “above the sand of the sea.” There will be no voice of the bride or bridegroom heard, which may also be a symbolic indication that God has completely hidden his face at this time, and furthermore, that the days like those of Lot or Noah have arrived.
The strife caused by these sins and the betrayal of others in the last days is going to be so bad that people’s own family members and friends will no longer go with them into the “house of feasting,” even just to sit and eat a meal with them. And furthermore, when their family and friends’ dead bodies lie refuse on the ground, these will not even be given proper burial, mourned, or lamented in the “house of mourning” (Ez. 16:5).
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I began this section above with a comparison of last days Israel’s society to that of an unsteady sailboat. Here is a fitting verse, spoken by Jesus, to conclude this section about its society’s and people’s last days destruction from within:
Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. (Matt. 12:25)
In the last days Israeli kingdom that is void of the Holy Spirit, its Satanic, anti-Christ-influenced society will fall apart. The answer to and meaning of Jesus’ question, “Can Satan cast out Satan?”, referring to a house divided, will be fully understood as the country of Israel’s society unravels.
God’s people and land are plundered
The last days plundering of the country of Israel is another example of a punishment that “returns the favor,” so to speak. God observes through the Prophet Habakkuk, “You have plundered many nations” (Hab. 2:8). Since Israel will be found to have plundered others, they will be plundered themselves. God says:
Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder, without charge, because of all your sins throughout your country. (Jer. 15:13)
And say to the people of the land, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread with anxiety, and drink their water with dread, so that her land may be emptied of all who are in it, because of the violence of all those who dwell in it.’ (Ez. 12:19)
An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled. (Am. 3:11)
This will be a case, just like in other ancient biblical wars, where the conqueror gets the spoil. Scripture says that the country of Israel will be “stripped of everything in it.” Through Jeremiah we learn, “The whole land is plundered” (Jer. 4:20). This is essentially a repeat of the original Babylonian invasion of Judah, which was plundered at that time.
Chaldeans take the spoil
In Part 1, I addressed how the Chaldeans will attack the country of Israel both from within and from without. Plundering activity is a clear marker of anti-Christ Chaldean activity. Their army routinely seizes property that is not theirs all over the world. While it may be punishment on Israel that is deserved in this case the spoil does not go into “clean” hands. Recall the prior picture of the anti-Christ Chaldeans as “locusts” and in scripture below God also calls them “strangers,” the “worst of the heathen,” and a “bitter and hasty nation.” The Chaldeans will sweep through the land of Israel to destroy and plunder. God speaks through his prophets as follows:
And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them. (Is. 33:4)
For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. (Hab. 1:6)
They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. (Joel 2:9)
This will be an easy asset grab for the various Chaldean armies. There will be no will to fight back in Israel’s society that has its own sins exposed, which will serve as a heavy burden. We are told that, “Brave men will cry aloud in the streets” (Is. 33:7-9).
Individual Israelis’ wealth is plundered
As I alluded to earlier, as in ancient days the (Chaldean) conqueror will take the spoil in this case. This will include the individual peoples’ and their families’ wealth- their land, their homes, and other fruits of their labor, to the point where they are left desolate and impoverished.
This will also be easy plunder for the Chaldeans. The people of Israel will be so covered with shame scripture says, “They will throw their silver in the streets…” (Ez. 7:19). They will not resist. The following verses show how they will be taken over and plundered:
In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away he hath divided our fields. (Mic. 2:4)
Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. (Zeph. 1:13)
And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword. (Jer. 5:17)
Holy places plundered
Just as that which happened at the time of the original Babylonian invasion, Israel’s kings’ treasures and the “precious” items of the holy places will also be plundered. This is fitting punishment since God’s people worship the ornamental, idolatrous artifacts and physical treasures of the holy places but do not know or obey the one true God himself. This reminds of Jesus’ scolding of the Pharisees in his day given later in this passage about worshiping the temple, altar and the gold therein but not God himself. Meanwhile, God describes as follows:
And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it. My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it. Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled. (Ez. 7:21-24)
O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders. (Jer. 17:3)
Along with all of this plundering and desecration, in a separate section below I show how Israel’s holy places will be destroyed.
The land of Israel is destroyed
While much anti-Christ Chaldean warfare is accomplished very quietly over time through plundering and methods other than those causing physical destruction there is also clear scriptural evidence of physical destruction that will come on Israel by force, via the “sword,” which I addressed in my last passage (Part 2).
Again, like plundering and other means of punishment that come against Israel in the last days, this is a payback for what it has done to others. God says, “You have destroyed lands and everyone in them” (Hab. 2:8). So, we learn that the land of Israel itself will become “desolate” in the last days period.
As you would expect, with last days Israel suffering calamity after calamity and “destruction upon destruction” its land and institutions will be in a state of near total physical ruin and “without inhabitant.” Destruction will be widespread. This will be a repeat and cyclical prophetic fulfillment of the kind of destruction that we saw in the original Babylonian invasion. The following verses will apply to the country of Israel of our last days time period:
A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. (Joel 2:3)
And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. (Ez. 12:20)
For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through. (Ez. 33:28)
This kind of destruction that is described in scripture is the reason we learn that cities in the land will need to be rebuilt for the Millennial Kingdom.
Fields laid desolate
Note from a couple of the verses above, also, that fields will be ravaged and ruined. The capabilities for food production within Israel will be severely limited. I described the resulting large-scale famine in the land as one weapon of God’s punishment in my last passage (Part 2). Meanwhile, destruction of the land itself is demonstrated in the following verses:
How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. (Joel 1:18)
I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness…At the presence of the Lord, By His fierce anger. (Jer. 4:26)
Holy places destroyed
Hand-in-hand with the country of Israel’s holy places being plundered by the Chaldeans (as we saw in the section above), they will be physically destroyed. The desolation of various physical structures and other highly symbolic, ornamental structures and holy sites will cause Judah’s people to mourn, when ironically, they have not served their true Messiah, Jesus Christ, in the first place. Recall Jesus’ own words:
Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath. (Matt. 23:16-18)
In fact, quite fittingly, a key sign of coming destruction and “desolation” in the land during the Day of the Lord will be when an anti-Christ figure will stand in the counterfeit temple and commit the “abomination that causes desolation” (Dan. 9:27), Jesus reminded his disciples about this last days event.
Of course, in addition to the counterfeit temple, you can be certain that a vast majority of so-called holy sites in the land in these last days will already have been desecrated and defiled by innumerable anti-Christ spirit idols and highly visible symbolism. So, destruction is warranted. God says that he will “cut off the remnant of Baal” at this time because his people have been led astray by false gods (Am. 2:5).
Additional verses about the coming physical destruction of Israel’s holy places include:
That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. (Am. 3:14)
Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. (Is. 64:11)
In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. (Ez. 6:6)
Other high places destroyed
As you might expect, given the scale of physical destruction that is described as coming upon the last days country of Israel other infrastructure will be demolished. In addition to holy places, “official” buildings and “high places” of rulers (i.e. “mountains”), leaders, captains of industry, etc. will be destroyed. The following verses support this:
And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. (Ez. 6:3)
And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. (Is. 30:25)
Personal houses and structures including “mansions” and “great houses” of those who are powerful and wealthy in the land will not escape destruction either.
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In conclusion of this passage, and this series, the final section above shows the end result of a society that has rebelled against its own God. That is, it is destroyed and becomes desolate without inhabitants. I discuss this coming event in detail in my book, Biblical End Times, Volume 2.
The ultimate desolation of Israel is a result of God’s people continuously refusing to return to him after being given numerous chances. Through Amos (Chapter 4), there are very good examples of God’s people not returning to him over and over again. After so many chances, God finally foretells of his coming judgment:
Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. (Am. 4:12)
Prepare to meet your God.
Grace & Peace,
Lion’s Lair (LL)
Lion's Lair 
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