“There are great truths that pitch their shining tents
Outside our walls, and though but dimly seen
In the gray dawn, they will be manifest
When the light widens into perfect day.”
Ezekiel 21—The Thrice-Doubled Sword
21:1, 2. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel.—The Lord has drawn the sword against Jerusalem and sharpened and pointed it in fury. (21:1-17.) The king of Babylon (Satan) uses divination as to the route by which to bring the sword against Jerusalem; the Jews deride such a method (21:18-24), but the Hebrew crown is to be overturned. (21:25-57.) The Ammonites (aggressive worldly believers), too, are to be given to the sword.—21:28-32.
21:3. And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.—Jehovah is against Christendom, has drawn against it both the literal weapons of war, in warfare and revolution, and the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. (Eph. 6:17.) He will cause both righteous and wicked to die in the Time of Trouble; and by His Word He will bring about conditions such that all wicked professing Christians will abandon all pretense of Christianity, and the righteous will “come out of her” (Rev. 18:4) and be gathered as wheat into the Divine garner—Heaven.