And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when
iniquity shall have an end, Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the
diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt
him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn,
overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose
right it is; and I will give it him (verses 25-27).
And now follows a most interesting utterance of the prophet which has a
future meaning. There can be no question that Zedekiah is first of all
in view as the profane wicked[15] prince of Israel. But the prophecy
looks far beyond Zedekiah. It is the coming wicked prince, the one who
comes in his own name, the final Antichrist, the false Messiah, or, as
he is also called in Revelation, the false prophet. That verse 25 refers
to the time of the end is seen by the words, "in the time of the
iniquity of the end" (correct translation). The same phrase appears in
Dan. xi:35-39, "the time of the end," and the person described in that
passage is the Antichrist, the wicked prince. It is the time of the
future great tribulation "when the transgressors are come to the full"
(Dan. viii:23). This false Christ will claim priestly and kingly honors.
He is the beast out of the earth (Rev. xiii) having two horns like a
lamb, but speaking as a dragon. The two horns represent the priesthood
and the kingship he assumes. And this we learn from verse 26 is the
character of the wicked prince of Israel of whom Ezekiel speaks. Again,
we must correct the faulty translation of the authorized version:
"Remove the mitre and take off the crown"; the word "diadem" is mitre,
the head-dress of the high-priest (Exod. xxviii:4). He wears the mitre of
the priest and the crown of the king. He is Satan's final counterfeit
(like the pope) of the Priest-King. In verse 27 the overturning times
are mentioned. Thrice it is stated, "I will overturn." Even so will it
be at the time of the end until He comes whose right it is. And the
coming One, who will exalt what is low and abase what is high, who will
remove the mitre and the crown from the Antichrist, destroying him by
the brightness of His coming (2 Thess. ii) is the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is interesting to see that there is in the Hebrew a word used which is
very suggestive. In Genesis xlix:10 we have Christ spoken of as Shiloh.
The word "until He come" in the Hebrew is almost the same as Shiloh; it
is Shelloh. And surely the overturning times are almost upon us, and
soon that profane wicked Prince may arise. However, we do not wait for
that wicked one; we wait for the Lord.
[15] Literal translation is, "O deadly wounded wicked one, the Prince of
Israel."