Ezekiel
11:1-25
Welcome! I am thankful to
be able to share from God’s Word with you today. For more than three weeks I
was ill, fighting an infection in my throat, with fever and other symptoms,
including a partial loss of my voice. As a result, I had to keep swapping
messages with others, and it has actually now been two months since I last taught.
And so, I am very thankful to God for healing me and enabling me to speak to
you today.
Today we will explore
Chapter 11 of the book of Ezekiel. Chapter 11 marks the end of the first major
section of Ezekiel and ties the first 11 chapters together, so I think it is
appropriate to start with a brief review of the first 10 chapters.
Now, at the Kebar River, God
gives Ezekiel an amazing vision. He sees an immense cloud with flashing
lightning, and in the cloud, he sees four human-shaped creatures, each with
four wings in addition to their hands. Their wings are stretched out so that
one creature touches the wings of another, effectively making a square. They
each had four faces, one resembling a human face, one that of a lion, one that
of an ox, and one that of an eagle. There were something like wheels
intersecting wheels under them, and above them was a sparkling platform, or
vault, above this platform was a shining throne, and on the throne was a human Figure
glowing, and awesome, surrounded by brilliant, radiant light. Ezekiel falls
facedown before this figure.
In Chapter 2, the Figure tells
Ezekiel to stand and explains that He is sending Ezekiel to be a prophet to the
Israelites, calling them a rebellious nation. Ezekiel is to tell them what the
Figure tells him to say whether they listen or not. He is not to fear them, and
they will know that a prophet was among them. In the vision Ezekiel next sees a
scroll opened that contains words of lament and woe.
As Chapter 3 begins,
Ezekiel is told to eat the scroll, and he does so, finding that it tastes
sweet. He is again told to speak the Figure’s words, being warned that the
Israelites were hardened but also told that the Figure would make Ezekiel even
harder, even more resolute against them and their sinful ways. In the vision
Ezekiel is lifted up and brought to the Kebar River, where the vision ends.
After seven days, Ezekiel
has another vision. He is told that he will be a “watchman” for the people and is
to warn them about their unrepentant sin and its consequences. He is told to go
out to the plain and does so, and there he has another vision of the cloud, the
four creatures, the throne, and the glorious Figure upon the throne. Ezekiel is
told that he would be made mute until the Figure would have him speak and then
he is to speak what he is told to speak.
In Chapter 4, Ezekiel is
given his first prophetic task: to take a block of clay, to make an image of the
city of Jerusalem out of it, and then to lay siege to it, symbolizing
Jerusalem’s future. After doing this, he is given the prophetic task of lying
on one side for 390 days and the other for 40 days, symbolizing the years of
sin of Israel and Judah, respectively. He is to make a bread out of a rationed
amount of grains and beans, cooking it using excrement for fuel, and having it
with a rationed amount of water, symbolizing how hard it will be for the people
once they are driven out of Israel.
In Chapter 5, Ezekiel is
given another prophetic task. He is to shave his head and beard with a sword,
take a third of the hair and burn it within the city, take another third and
strike it with the sword around the city, and take the final third and scatter
it to the wind. He is to reserve a few hairs, of which some of these he is to
also burn. Ezekiel is then to speak the prophetic meaning of these actions,
which have to do with Israel’s punishment for its sin. This punishment includes
dying by the sword and by famine.
In Chapter 6, Ezekiel is
to speak another prophecy against Israel, explaining that the altars and idols
they worship will be destroyed, and many will be slain. But some will be
spared, ones who repent from their sin. Ezekiel is given another prophecy to
speak in Chapter 7, one in which he proclaims the end of all things that they
take for granted in Israel. Calamity will come, the training of priests will
stop, and the counsel of the elders will no longer take place. The prophecy concludes
by saying, “Then they will know that I (God) am the Lord.”
Ezekiel is given another
vision in Chapter 8. He sees a Figure like a man, who looks like fire from
waist down and like glowing metal from the waist up, a Figure quite similar in
description to the figure on the throne in the earlier visions. Ezekiel is
lifted up in the vision and taken to Jerusalem to the entrance of the north
gate. There he sees a large idol. After being told how detestable this is, he
is brought to the court entrance, digs into a wall as instructed, goes in a
door, and finds images of unclean animals on the walls and many idols on the
floor. He also sees the seventy elders of Israel committing idolatry in this
room. Ezekiel is told that the elders think that the Lord does not see them,
that they must beseech these idols so that the land will produce good crops. He
is brought back to the north gate, and there he sees women mourning the false
god Tammuz. Among Assyrians, Tammuz was associated with the growth of plants,
and was believed to “die” each summer when the land became dry; women had the
job of mourning Tammuz until he was “reborn” when the rains came. But this
practice was as abominable to God as the practices of the elders. Next, Ezekiel
was brough to the inner court at the entrance to the temple, where 25 priests
were bowing down to the morning sun in the east, turning their backs on the
temple, performing an idol-worshiping ritual that included putting sticks
alongside their noses.
The vision continues in
Chapter 9, where the Figure calls out to have the appointed men execute
judgment. Six men come, each with weapons, along with a man clothed in linen
who had materials for writing. The Figure told the latter man to go throughout
Jerusalem putting a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve over the sins of
Israel. The mark he is to use is the letter tav, the last letter in the Hebrew
alphabet, a mark that in early Hebrew looked exactly like a cross! The Figure
told the six others to follow the man in linen, slaughtering all who were not given
the mark, and this is exactly what happened in the vision. As they did so,
Ezekiel cried out to God, asking if He was going to destroy the entire remnant
of Israel. The answer was that those who were dying had brought this down on
their own heads. The man in linen returned, saying that he was done.
The vision continues
further in Chapter 10. The man in linen is given a new task – to take burning
coals from beneath the throne off the altar. The man goes in to do this, and at
the same time, a cloud fills the inner court (as had always been the case). But
then, ominously, the glory of the Lord rises and moves to the
threshold of the Temple. Meanwhile, the man in linen stands by one of the
wheels of the chariot throne, and one of the four creatures takes some of the
burning coals and puts them in this man’s hands. The man is told to take these
coals and scatter them around the city (so that the city would burn).
Then the creatures rose
upward, along with the wheels, and, in an act even more unthinkable than all
the terrible things that have gone before, the glory of the Lord departs
from over the threshold of the Temple and stops above the creatures. The result
is the arrangement like what we see in Chapter 1, but the glory of the Lord is
no longer in the Temple! If you remember my opening message in this series back
in early April, we started by going over the dedication of the Temple by
Solomon, who had had it built. At the end of this dedication, fire came down
from heaven and consumed the burnt offering that had been prepared, and then
the glory of the Lord filled the Temple (2 Chron. 7:1). The glory of the Lord
had remained there ever since, so this moment in Ezekiel’s vision was truly
terrible, unthinkable, apocalyptic.
At this point, the
creatures, wheels, and the glory of the Lord went as one to the entrance of the
east gate, where they stopped. And this takes us to the beginning of today’s
passage, Chapter 11.
Now, up to this point in
this vision that began in Chapter 8, Ezekiel has been only an observer. The
Lord has shown him wickedness after wickedness of the people, and he has seen
multiple judgments go out, including the deaths by sword, the fire, and the
departure of the glory of the Lord from the temple. But now, it is time in the
vision for Ezekiel to again be the Lord’s prophet.
Then the Spirit lifted
me up and brought me to the gate of the house of the Lord that faces east.
There at the entrance of the gate were twenty-five men, and I saw among them
Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people. The Lord
said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who are plotting evil and giving
wicked advice in this city. They say, ‘Haven’t our houses been recently
rebuilt? This city is a pot, and we are the meat in it.’ Therefore prophesy
against them; prophesy, son of man.” – Ezekiel 11:1-4
Are these the same
twenty-five men mentioned in Chapter 8, the ones who had their backs to the
temple and were worshiping the sun, the ones who also put the branch to their
nose? I don’t think so, as those were not named, and were also at the north
gate, whereas this is described as the east-facing gate. This group appear to
be the secular leaders of the city. (In the Hebrew, a word often translated as
princes is used). The particular men mentioned are not mentioned anywhere else
in Scripture, to my knowledge. The important thing is that these men plot evil
and give wicked advice.
Their saying “This city is
a pot, and we are the meat in it” is a bit of cynical gallows humor. It is
important to remember that, at this time, Israel is severely weakened, and
Jerusalem is surrounded by super powerful nations that could choose to destroy
them at any time. Now a pot protects meat from the direct flame, and so calling
Jerusalem a pot is a way of saying that they are protected. But the protection
of a pot under the flame is short-lived. Eventually the meat will cook! They
know their situation is tenuous, but rather than turning to God, they make
jokes about their situation. I am reminded of the saying “Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.” Paul mentions this popular saying in I Corinthians 15:32
when talking about what it would be like for if resurrection were impossible
and people could not rise from the dead. Interestingly, this phrase is also
used to describe what the people of Jerusalem say in a prophecy against
Jerusalem made by Isaiah in Isaiah 22. The situation in that prophecy is quite similar
in that the people know of their immediate danger yet, rather than “weeping and
wailing” and “putting on sackcloth”, there is “joy and revelry” and the people
say “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Then the Spirit of the
Lord came on me, and He told me to say: “This is what the Lord says: That is
what you are saying, you leaders in Israel, but I know what is going through
your mind. You have killed many people
in this city and filled its streets with the dead. – Ezekiel 11:5-6
Most likely, the 25
leaders did not kill these people themselves, but instead orchestrated these
actions in a way that they thought could not be traced to them. But you cannot
hide your actions from the Lord. The same is true today. There are many people
who commit evil actions against others that we know about, leaders like Kim
Jong-Un of North Korea, to name one, but there are countless others who smugly
think they have hidden their connections to the deeds they have orchestrated.
Sometimes the Lord reveals their connections in this life, but even if not, all
will be revealed at the great judgment in the future, when the books are opened
as we read about in Revelation. In the case of the leaders of Jerusalem in
Ezekiel’s vision, the time for judgment is now.
“Therefore this is what
the Sovereign Lord says: The bodies you have thrown there are the meat and this
city is the pot, but I will drive you out of it. You fear the sword, and the
sword is what I will bring against you, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will
drive you out of the city and deliver you into the hands of foreigners and
inflict punishment on you. You will fall by the sword, and I will execute
judgment on you at the borders of Israel. Then you will know that I am the
Lord. This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat in it; I
will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel. And you will know that I
am the Lord, for you have not followed My decrees or kept My laws but have
conformed to the standards of the nations around you.” – Ezekiel 11:7-12
So, the Lord powerfully
changes the meaning of the meat and the pot. The city is till the pot, but the
meat is now the dead bodies that these leaders are responsible for. God is a
god of justice. He hates injustice, no matter who is the perpetrator. As for
these leaders, the Lord will drive them out of the protection of their “pot”
and they will be defenseless.
I am personally struck by
the last verse. God condemns the people because they have conformed to the
standards of the nations around them. How this also applies for us. As
believers in Christ, we are called ambassadors for Him. When I think of
ambassadors, I think of high-level officials much like these 25 men who are
being condemned. As our society continues to move away from its underpinnings
that were at least partially based on Judeo-Christian principles, imperfect and
flawed through their applications were, our lives are going to necessarily look
more and more different from those of society around us, that is, this is how
they should look if we indeed are careful to not conform to the standards of
those around us. As it says in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of
this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be
able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect
will.”
The thing you need to know
about conforming is that you cannot notice that you are doing it apart from the
work of the Holy Spirit. Conforming is what happens when you go on autopilot.
To be transformed by the renewing of your mind requires that you spend time
with God in His Word, in prayer, and in fellowship with other believers. As it
says in Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens
another.” I love this proverb. Note that blades naturally become dull if you
use them. Becoming dull is the natural state of nature, just like conforming to
the world. Sharpening through fellowship requires that you find someone like
you, another believer, another “iron”. You do not sharpen iron with wood.
Let’s return to the
passage:
Now as I was
prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out
in a loud voice, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! Will you completely destroy the remnant
of Israel?” – Ezekiel 11:13
This is the second time in
this vision that Ezekiel has reacted against the judgment of God. The first
time was when the six went out to cut down all those who did not have the mark.
I am a little more surprised about Ezekiel’s reaction to Pelatiah, but I think
it is because Ezekiel perhaps feels partially responsible. Pelatiah dies
suddenly while Ezekiel is speaking the Lord’s words, probably in a manner
similar to someone having a heart attack. Ezekiel was told in his first vision
that he would become hard like flint, but it is clear that Ezekiel at his core
is still a gentle, compassionate person.
Now the Lord is also
compassionate, but the Lord’s compassion is directed appropriately with wisdom.
We are vulnerable to placing our compassion on those that the Lord would judge
and to judging those that the Lord would show compassion to. We are not the
Lord. We do not have His wisdom, far from it. The Lord has undoubtedly given
the leaders much time to repent, to return to seeking Him. But during that time,
they have only become more and more evil, causing others to suffer and even
die. There is a point that only the Lord knows, a point of no return. In this
vision, that time has come for Pelatiah and his co-conspirators. Compassion
should be our “default” setting, but there are times when we need to take
action to protect victims and prevent additional evil actions against them.
Knowing when to do what requires insight from the Lord. As for vengeance, that
is never our direct concern. “Vengeance is Mine,” says the Lord (Deut. 32:35
and Romans 12:19).
The word of the Lord
came to me: “Son of man, the people of Jerusalem have said of your fellow
exiles and all the other Israelites, ‘They are far away from the Lord; this
land was given to us as our possession.’ – Ezek. 11:14-15
Before I talk about the
main topic of these two verses, let me say something about how God repeatedly
calls Ezekiel “Son of man.” This title can be confusing because Jesus is also
called “Son of Man”. The phrase is used in Ezekiel more than 90 times. So, what
does it all mean?
Well, Jesus’ use of the
phrase is tied to a passage in Daniel 7:13-14: “In my vision at night I looked,
and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of
heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was
given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every
language worshiped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not
pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” The difference
between how Jesus uses the phrase and how it is used in Ezekiel is the use of
the word “the”. Daniel says “a” son of man will come, and Jesus says that he is
the Son of Man, meaning the one that Daniel referred to. In contrast,
Ezekiel is always simply called “Son of Man” without the definite article
“the”. Why is it used? I think it points out Ezekiel’s humanity. This is
important because Ezekiel is often the only human in the room when it is used.
In these visions, he is there alongside God Himself (the glowing Person on the
throne) and the four creatures. Calling him “son of man” gently reminds Ezekiel
that he is the lowly one here, the servant. And it likewise reminds us that we
are the same. Even though Scripture tells us we are made in His image, we are not
like God, not when it comes to His goodness, His wisdom, His power, and so on.
Everyone should worship Him; no-one should ever worship us, even a little.
Now, this passage is
showing yet more evilness in the ways of the people of Jerusalem. They do not
even care about the exiles from Jerusalem, let alone those who have been
previously carried off from the lands of the other tribes. Their attitude
appears to be “more for us”! In contrast to how Ezekiel worries about
Jerusalem, they show an utter lack of concern for those like Ezekiel who were taken
into captivity.
What comes next is a
beautiful promise from the Lord. Even though Ezekiel’s own people do not care
at all about him, the Lord does care, and He not only cares, but as we
will now see, He makes amazing promises to them and their future offspring.
“Therefore say: ‘This
is what the Sovereign Lord says: Although I sent them far away among the
nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have
been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’ Therefore
say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations
and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will
give you back the land of Israel again.’ – Ezekiel 11:16-17
This is a big surprise!
God is saying that the remnant is not those who live in Jerusalem; it is those
who have been exiled! It is the opposite of what the evil leaders of Jerusalem
think, those who have written off the exiles. Indeed, it is those in Jerusalem
that have been “written off”; the exiles will return and will have not only
Jerusalem, but the entire nation of Israel.
“They will return to it
and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an
undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their
heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow My decrees
and be careful to keep My laws. They will be My people, and I will be their
God. But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and
detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done,
declares the Sovereign Lord.” – Ezekiel 11:18-21
Again, a beautiful
promise. Indeed, the exiles did return; Jerusalem’s walls and the Temple were
eventually rebuilt. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah talk about these events.
Were they perfect? No. Did they eventually turn again from God? To a large
degree, yes. Even in Jesus’ time, many were far from God, including most of the
leadership.
In many ways, the
restoration, the return of the exiles, fell short. But all these events were
foreshadowing of Jesus Himself. The Old Testament in many ways was
foreshadowing of Jesus. Even the Temple was a foreshadowing of Jesus. Jesus
called Himself the Temple. When Jesus said, “Destroy this Temple and in
three days I will raise it up,” He was referring to Himself. And this new
Temple, the Temple of His resurrection, was where we see a greater fulfillment
of this promise in Ezekiel to be given an undivided heart and a new spirit. It
is here that we see a greater fulfillment of the promise to replace our hearts
of stone and be given hearts of flesh. But the ultimate, and final, fulfillment
of this promise will happen when we receive our own resurrected bodies, when
our hearts at last become truly undivided, where our spirits become at last
fully new, and where our hearts at last lose every last bit of stoniness and
are purely flesh. If you have given your life to Christ, you will personally
experience an eternity beyond imagining where these things are precious realities,
where our hearts are wholly devoted to Jesus, where we no longer battle our
worldly desires, where we experience a restoration greater than any that has
yet taken place.
Then the cherubim, with
the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel
was above them. The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped
above the mountain east of it. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the
exiles in Babylonia in the vision given by the Spirit of God. Then the vision I
had seen went up from me, and I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown
me. – Ezekiel 11:22-25
And so things come full
circle. The first vision of Ezekiel ties into this vision. In Chapter 1,
Ezekiel saw the creatures, wheels, and the glory of God above come to him at
the Kebar River. Now, Ezekiel himself is brought along. Yes, shocking though it
is, the visions show God’s Spirit, the glory of the Lord, leaving Jerusalem,
leaving the Temple, the location of the glory going all the way back to the time
of Solomon. Yes, the situation is beyond bleak for those who remain in
Jerusalem; even though they have brought it upon themselves, it was appropriate
to grieve for them. But now Ezekiel knows that these forlorn and forgotten
exiles with him at the Kebar River and elsewhere in the Babylonian territory
are not forgotten by God; far from it! They are God’s central plan for
preserving His promise to Abraham; it is through them and the other exiles that
the ultimate promise of a Savior will come.
I want to close with an
application. Ezekiel had lived through a tremendous series of changes. He been
forcefully moved a great distance to an entirely different culture, to a
location in which he could no longer do what he was trained for, and at a time
in which even his understanding of God’s “plan” had significantly been
challenged. We too have, in the past year, also lived through a significant,
historic series of challenges. Although “things” may be gradually going back to
“normal”, we need to be careful not to underestimate the degree to which these
things have affected us. These things have necessarily touched on our
relationship with God because all significant things do so. Some of us have
experienced significant fear for the first time, fear of becoming terribly sick
or dying, and perhaps some of us have been forced to realize that our faith and
trust in God is not as strong in this area as we thought. Perhaps others have
been forced to realize that we had misplaced faith in institutions and
individuals and have struggled to process failure, disappointment, and even
betrayal by these institutions and individuals. Others, not understanding that
stress and trauma affect our emotions on every level, are simply struggling to
feel close to God like they did before these events took place.
I feel certain that
Ezekiel felt each of these things. I am sure he felt fear as the invaders came,
killing those who resisted, and as they hauled Ezekiel away. Almost certainly
this was a shock to Ezekiel’s faith, as Ezekiel likely assumed that God would prevent
any traumatic things from happening to him. As for misplaced faith in
institutions and individuals, Ezekiel’s vision that we have explored the past
few weeks seems specifically designed to show Ezekiel how corrupt and wicked
his people really were, including his fellow priests. And, sitting with a few
of his people many hundreds of miles from his home, even if they were more or
less left alone, Ezekiel had to have struggled with his faith. But now God had
showed him that He was there with him, all these miles away from Jerusalem, and
that he and his people were God’s “Plan A” for reaching not only the rest of
his people, but all the nations with the news of who God is and what His plan
will be for them. And the same is true for us. It may be quite premature to say
that the USA is moving towards a post-pandemic culture, and it is certainly
very premature to say this of the world. But at some point, a post-pandemic
world will come, and it is essential for us to know that God’s nature and His
love for us has not changed. We misunderstood Him if we thought He had promised
us a trial- and worry-free life. And we had misplaced trust in people and
institutions if we thought that they would give us these things. And if we
struggle with feeling far from God, we need to understand that God has not
moved away from us; perhaps we have distanced ourselves from Him. God desires
us to be close to Him, and He has loving plans to use us, just as He has always
had, to reach a lost and broken world for Him, one person at a time.
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