Luke 22 tells us of the arrest of Jesus in a detailed way. Perhaps some who came to arrest him later believed and joined the disciples after Pentecost. The gospel writers would have had their testimony corroborated by such individuals. John ends his Gospel by stating, “Now there were many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written”.

From an early age Jesus was conscious of the Old Testament records concerning himself. In the final hours before his arrest he tells his disciples, “I tell you this scripture must be fulfilled in me … for what is written about me must have its fulfilment” (verse 37). And so, tragically and wonderfully, it was fulfilled in his sacrifice for our sins. There are a great many Old Testament prophecies which speak of the last days, such as those we will soon come to in Ezekiel and we must put these alongside the last days predictions Jesus made in the Olivet prophecy.

In Ezekiel 25 there is a prophecy that has already been fulfilled. “Thus says the LORD: Because the Philistines acted revengefully and took vengeance with malice … I will execute great vengeance upon them …” (verses 16,17). These people have disappeared from history. There is no mention of them in the New Testament. Maybe we might conjecture that the Palestinians are the modern equivalent as they occupy the same territory. “Scripture must be fulfilled” – we are living in awesome days. Let us accept the challenge of Jesus to “search the Scriptures” (John 5:39), and not “refuse to come to me that you may have life” (verse 40).