Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.

Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

1:1 thirtieth year. Ezekiel had just been invested fully as a priest on his thirtieth birthday (see Numbers 4), the age at which priests could begin their ministry, when he began to receive God’s Word.

34:13 to their own land. The first seventy percent of Ezekiel’s book was devoted largely to warnings and prophecies of coming judgment. The latter portion is occupied largely with the restoration of Israel and its kingdom in the last days. It remained for our own day for this prophecy (and many others like it) to begin to be fulfilled.

40:1 Comfort ye. This verse begins the second part of Isaiah’s prophecy. By a remarkable providential arrangement, it is noteworthy that the two divisions of Isaiah (chapters 1–39 and 40–66) contain thirty-nine and twenty-seven chapters, respectively, providentially corresponding to the thirty-nine canonical books of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. Appropriately, Part I emphasizes law and judgment, while Part II stresses grace and salvation, as centered in the promised Messiah. The “New Testament” portion of Isaiah begins with the ministry of John the Baptist (Isaiah 40:1-5) and ends with the “new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17–66:24), along with the unquenchable fire that awaits the ungodly (Isaiah 66:24). It is also noteworthy that Isaiah 53, the greatest gospel chapter in the Bible, is the central chapter of the New Testament section of the book. And since this fifty-third chapter should really have been selected to begin with Isaiah 52:13, the central verse of this central chapter is Isaiah 53:5: “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.”

Introduction to Lamentations The short book of Lamentations is included among what many call the Major Prophets because it is actually sort of an appendix to the book of its author Jeremiah. Three of its five chapters begin with “How?” (Hebrew Eykah, which was the Hebrew title of the book). In context, the essential question is “why?” Jeremiah wrote his “lamentations” after he witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian armies. Though he had predicted it, it was a great sorrow to him to see his prophecies actually come to pass. Each chapter is composed as an acrostic poem, with twenty-two verses corresponding to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, each verse beginning with its successively appropriate letter of the alphabet. The middle chapter, however, has sixty-six verses, devoting three verses to each letter. Because of this unique structure and style, some authorities say that someone other than Jeremiah must have written it. Such a notion, however, is contrary to uniform Jewish tradition and opinion. Even though the book itself makes no mention of the name of its author, there is no good reason not to ascribe it to “the weeping prophet.” The book closes on a note of hope, with a prayer to the unchanging God somehow to bring about a spiritual revival of His people (Lamentations 5:19; 5:21).

9:27 midst of the week. The future seven-year period will be divided into two halves. The first 3½ years will see the ancient temple worship restored in Jerusalem, under the protection of “the prince that shall come,” who will have achieved sufficient power by this time to make such a treaty (see notes on Daniel 7:25; 8:23-25; etc.). The last half will begin when he breaks this treaty, and demands worship of himself and his Satanic master, setting up his own image in the holy place (Matthew 24:15-21; Daniel 8:9-12; II Thessalonians 2:3-4; etc.). Much of the book of Revelation is occupied with the details of this climactic seven-year period of world history.

12:4 run to and fro. The word “run” actually means “race.” That is, at the time of the end, the world will see “many”—evidently all over the world—racing back and forth, and this phenomenon would help students of God’s promises begin to “unseal the book,” and see that His return is near. It is significant that until the past two centuries, riding on a swift horse was the fastest way to travel. Today we have moved from horses to railroads to autos to airplanes to space ships.

1:15 day of the LORD. “The day of the LORD,” in contrast to “man’s day,” refers to a coming time of judgment. The Lord will take strong control of the world and its inhabitants in severe judgment, after a long time of patient forbearance. This will be followed by cleansing and blessing. Such prophecies often refer to a current situation, such as the plague of locusts, then leap over the centuries to the future end-time judgments, the former being a type of the latter. Sometimes it refers to the entire period of judgment, sometimes to the specific day on which that period will begin. In the prophets, it occurs first in Isaiah 2:12, last in Malachi 4:5. There are other phrases that are used synonymously—“the day of wrath,” “the day of God,” “that day,” etc.

11:8 one month. The suddenness of the “cutting off” of these false shepherds probably refers prophetically to the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem by the Romans, followed by the age-long dispersion of the Jewish people over all the world, climaxed in A.D. 135. There have been no Jewish prophets, priests or kings since (note Hosea 3:4). This evidently is also the dominant theme of the first six verses of this chapter. Even though the restoration of the temple had been completed and some were hoping the Messianic age was about to begin, Zechariah could foresee through divine inspiration that the true Shepherd of Israel would be rejected and His flock would be scattered (Zechariah 13:7).

13:52 out of his treasure. When we enter the kingdom and begin to understand its wonderful mysteries, we can continually find and share rich treasures of spiritual truth in God’s Word and kingdom.

1:80 in the deserts. Despite his priestly station, John (like Elijah) stayed in the desert in preparation for his brief but fruitful ministry just before Christ was to begin His.