Sister Sodom

Ezekiel 16:1-63
 

Today we will tackle one of the chapters in Ezekiel that is rarely preached on or even read publicly. It isn’t necessarily ignored, like the chapters of genealogies at the beginning of 1 Chronicles for example, but people avoid it if they consider it too scandalous for ordinary consumption, with its explicit sexual language and imagery. So it is appropriate for me to issue a disclaimer here at the beginning of this message that this chapter may make you feel uncomfortable and may be difficult to explain to younger children - along with chapter 23, coming up in a few weeks.
 
This particular prophecy from Ezekiel is meant to be shocking. He probably felt personally disturbed by it when God gave it to him to pass on to the Israelites around him. But he no doubt understood that God was trying to get the people’s attention by any means possible and reveal to them the depth of their corporate sin and depravity. At the same time he was repeatedly making the case, like a lawyer, for the justice of God’s judgment on his people. Their exile, the destruction of Jerusalem, indeed all their suffering and punishment was completely deserved. It didn’t happen by chance and it would not just disappear on its own.
 
Fred set the stage for this section last Sunday with chapters 14 and 15. Chapter 14, you may recall, begins with a meeting between Ezekiel and some of the elders of Israel who had come to him for advice:
 
Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?” – Ezekiel 14:1-3
 
You can almost see God shaking his head with frustration here. He had been giving his message through faithful Ezekiel, speaking repeatedly of sin and judgment, and yet these leaders were sitting there as though none of it applied to them. They were there to inquire of the Lord as though they deserved something good from him. They were not acknowledging the idols in their hearts. All this talk of judgment must be meant for someone else, some other bad people - not them.
 
We do this so easily as well. We read the warnings in scripture and think that they must be for someone else. We’ll be just fine. No one can see the idols in our hearts. But God is calling everyone to repentance! He wants to remind us just how bad our sin really is. Chapter 14 explains that he wants to “recapture the hearts of the people of Israel.” They have fallen in love with something other than him, but they think that it doesn’t really matter. God realizes that he needs to shock them to bring them up short and to get them to think, to make them consider their most basic affections and motivations, and to understand the dire consequences of abandoning their commitment to him.
 
He begins with the allegory of Jerusalem as a useless vine in chapter 15. The vine is disconnected from its root, dried up and partially burned. It is a mere shadow of the lush, fruitful vine that had come to represent Israel in the Old Testament. It is now good for nothing except fuel for the fire. In the same way, Jerusalem had not fulfilled her divine purpose and was now destined for complete destruction.
 
Chapter 16 today begins a new allegory. Jerusalem is now compared to an adulterous wife. God wanted the intimacy and exclusivity of a marriage relationship with his people, but they had been unfaithful by following after other gods and abandoning their love and commitment to the one true God. God wants to confront them with their sin in a way that will make a real difference.

Useless Vine

Ezekiel 14:1-15:8
 

Our series is titled Harder than Flint: Ezekiel
 
In Ezekiel 3:4-9 we learned where this title came from:
 
He then said to me: “Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel—not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. But the house of Israel is not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for the whole house of Israel is hardened and obstinate. But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house.” – Ezekiel 3:4-9
 
Now when flint is struck by steel the steel breaks of a tiny sliver causing a spark. (Note: The steel breaks off not the flint because it is harder than steel.)  That is the reason why flint stones were used to start fires and later to ignite gun powder in flint lock pistols and rifles. But God said He would make Ezekiel’s forehead like the hardest stone harder than flint.
 
Now before we pick up where we left off last week let’s pray and ask the Lord to speak to all of today through His message.

False Prophets

Ezekiel 13:1-23
 

God speaks.  He spoke to Adam and Eve in the garden, giving them purpose as well as a relationship with him.  He spoke to Abraham promising that he would be a blessing to the nations.  He spoke to Moses giving him a mission to lead the Israelites out of slavery.  God promised that He would be with Moses.  The Lord spoke to the prophet Samuel commissioning him to be a leader of Israel and a spokesman on God’s behalf.  By speaking to Samuel, God provided direction to his people.  God spoke to Solomon.  By speaking to Solomon we have received wisdom from God.  By speaking to Solomon it shows that God will speak to someone who made a lot of mistakes.  He spoke to the prophet Hosea.  Through that we learned that God is jealous about his relationship with His people.  He will love someone who, by human standards, is unloveable.  He spoke to Amos, who was just a farmer.  He spoke to the apostle Paul who had persecuted Christians.  He spoke to Peter and John even though they were just hard-laboring fishermen.  God spoke to the church giving the people an understanding of their new identity in Christ.  There are numerous messages of judgment through Ezekiel and Jeremiah.  But the reason for the judgment is not because God hated his people.  It was because He loved his people.  In Exodus 20:1 we see that God spoke about relationship before He spoke about rules.  This was before God gave any of the ten commandments or gave any commands for sacrifices, festivals, consecrations, or temple and tabernacle worship.  Before all that was talked about he said, “I am the Lord your God…”  People did not enter into relationship by obeying the rules.  They obeyed the rules because they were already in a relationship with the Almighty.
 
When we look in the book of Ezekiel we do see quite a bit about judgment.  But why?  It’s because the people were already in a relationship with Him.  He loved his people.  He wanted them to return.  He wanted them to be restored even though they had turned their backs on him.  I’ve warned my children about certain dangers because I love them not because I hate them.  “Max, get off the top of the truck.  Max, get down from the tree.  Max, don’t jump off that.”  I warn him because I love him.

Not Far Off

Ezekiel 12:1-28
 

Welcome! Today we continue our series on Ezekiel, looking at Chapter 12. Let me start with a quick reminder of the context of the book of Ezekiel. At the time of Ezekiel, most of the rest of Israel had long ago fallen to the nations around them, a consequence of their repeated sin and rebellion against God. The land of the tribe of Judah, and within it, the city of Jerusalem, had remained, but they too had more or less deserted God, and God had allowed the other nations to make excursions into their land to carry off people as exiles. Among the exiles was Ezekiel, a man who was supposed to be a priest, but now, living far away at the Kebar River within the land of the Babylonians, he had become a prophet, a spokesperson for God. In the first eleven chapters of the book of Ezekiel, we see a combination of prophetic visions given to Ezekiel and a number of commands God had given him to act out among the people intended to dramatize for them the coming judgement and urge their repentance. At the center of the visions and the dramatic acts was the message that Jerusalem, and with it, the Temple itself, would soon and would surely fall. The visions included a depiction of God’s presence through a cloud, four winged creatures each with four faces, intersecting wheels, a platform, a shining throne, and upon the throne a brilliantly glowing human figure. The visions culminate in seeing God’s Presence, after hundreds of years, leave the Temple made to God’s specifications by king Solomon, and depart Jerusalem on this throne to go to the Kebar River. This vision communicated that although God would allow a terrible tribulation to take place at Jerusalem, resulting in the complete fall of Israel, He was not done with His people, but would be with the exiles until a future time in which He would lead the exiles to return. God would remain faithful to His promises, including the most important promise of all, the promise that out of the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would come the Savior of the World, the Son of God, Jesus the Messiah. Although this message no doubt brought great hope and encouragement to Ezekiel, we are not yet told how Ezekiel’s people responded to being told these visions. For this, we continue on into today’s passage.

Promise of Return

 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.

Terrible Departure

Ezekiel 10:1-22
 

Now we continue our series in the book of Ezekiel titled Harder than Flint^.
Now in Ezekiel 8 we read of the people in Jerusalem were bowing down to idols and to the sun god.  As a result, God said they were driving His glory far from there.  In Ezekiel 9 we read of God telling the man with a writing instrument and a tablet to “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”
 
John showed us last week that the mark was a Tau or Tav the last letter of the Hebrew Alphabet and this letter in the ancient Hebrew was made in the shape of a cross and later changed to the shape of and x and still later changed to its present shape.
 
As we saw last week the word “Tav” is found in Ezekiel 9:4, where God put a mark (Tav) on the foreheads of the people who opposed the worship of idols. The death angels were told, “Do not come near anyone who has the mark (Tav).” This same idea is in Revelation 22:4, “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” Some believe that mark will be the Hebrew letters Aleph and Tav.

Have You Seen?

Ezekiel 8:1-9:11
 

Good morning, we are turning another corner in the book of Ezekiel.  First, Ezekiel had a vision of God.  Then, he was given certain sign acts to perform in front of the people.  After that, he was given messages to relay to the exiles most likely telling or speaking these things though he will also write them down.
 
In our passage today beginning with chapter 8, we start another vision journey that Ezekiel experienced.  It will continue in the next two weeks and through the end of chapter 11.
 
Tim noted that following “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” in chapter 1, Ezekiel was faced with a terrifying realization: “The glory of God is appearing to him in Babylon.”  From that revelation, several questions emerge:
 
What is the shekinah glory doing in this pagan land, when Ezekiel had always associated it with the Holy of Holies in the temple in Jerusalem? Ezekiel probably had some vague sense of the omnipresence of God. … But this specific expression of God’s presence would be very upsetting. Did it mean that the glory had left the temple? What was God up to? Ezekiel was no doubt hoping against hope that someday he would be able to return to Jerusalem and some “new normal” in terms of his life as a priest. Would God even be there when he got back? Ezekiel was having to face the fact that there would be no going back; his world was changing forever.
 
Beginning today and over the next couple of weeks, we will get more perspective and understanding of the departure of the divine glory from the thoroughly corrupted temple in Jerusalem as well as answers about “what God is up to.”
 
Let us take a moment and pray, and we will start with Ezekiel chapter 8.

High Places

 Ezekiel 6:1-7:27
 

Good morning!  We are continuing our study of the book of Ezekiel.  Today, we will cover chapters 6 and 7.  In the first 3 chapters, we read of Ezekiel’s vision and calling as a prophet of God.  Jonathan shared on chapters 4 and 5 last week where we saw Ezekiel’s testimony portrayed not through spoken or written word but rather as a series of sign acts, symbolic scenes, showing rather than telling, of God’s judgment against Israel.
 
Try to imagine for a moment being an observer of what Ezekiel does.  Since these scenes Ezekiel portrays are a visual prophecy, they must be done out in the open, likely outside his sun-dried mud-brick house in this refugee camp or swiftly built town of Israelite captives there near Babylon.  I did find one print that is at least a starting point.
 
First, Ezekiel demonstrates the coming siege against Jerusalem using a clay tablet and miniature machines and equipment of war.  Following this, Exekiel demonstrated the effects of the siege on the people in the city as well as the coming years of bondage for Israel and Judah.  This was the most notable of these sign acts as Ezekiel lies on his side tied up for over a year!  During that time, he would eat only a meager (8 oz) ration of a sort of vegetable bread each day.  He would only drink a quart of water each day.  It was only enough food and water to stay alive.  This was to represent the hardship the people of Jerusalem would face during the siege of the city.  In the end, God tells Ezekiel that the people of Jerusalem will be appalled at the sight of each other as they waste away.  No doubt Ezekiel’s appearance was alarming after these months.  He was gaunt and hollow with a head of long unruly hair and beard sprouting out untrimmed and unkempt, at least 6 inches growth of hair and beard.
 
After finishing this season of lying bound, at God’s instruction, Ezekiel was told to take a sword and shave off all that hair and beard.  Taking and dividing it by weight, he would indicate the kinds of deaths would overtake the people of Jerusalem.  A third of the hair was burned inside the city to indicate those who would die there by famine, disease, and other causes.  A third of the hair was to be struck around the city indicating those who would die when the siege overcame the city.  The last third was to be scattered to the wind indicating those who would escape but be pursued.
 
These symbolic acts by Ezekiel were done on one stage or set as it were.  Building up the model of the siege of the city, then preparing bread and water, then lying bound on one side and then the other next to this model, then cutting his hair and beard, then carrying out the symbolic judgments by burning, striking and scattering his hair in and around the model city.  It is one contiguous portrayal lasting a year and a half.  Can you imagine?  Even though there was not something new to see each day, people must have been aware of Ezekiel.  One of the reasons I think the picture of Ezekiel there is not right is the expressions of the observers.  For the most part, they probably did not look pious and reflective around Ezekiel.  Most people probably avoided being around him.  Mothers likely tried to avoid letting their children go past Ezekiel’s house.  When people were around Ezekiel, they probably clucked their tongues and talked about him sometimes insisting he must be crazy.
 
Finally, we reach the time when Ezekiel is going to speak.  We already know that the people are not going to listen, but God will not carry out His judgments without explaining them.  Perhaps just as there were a few hairs that God had Ezekiel tuck away in his garments to be saved, perhaps there were a few among the refugees who would listen to God. 

Sin Bearer

Ezekiel 4:1-5:17
 

Good morning and Happy Mother’s Day!  This week we turn a major corner in the book of Ezekiel.  The first 3 chapters of Ezekiel were focused on God’s calling and commissioning of Ezekiel the exiled priest turned prophet, while Chapters 4-21 focus on Israel’s sin and God’s coming judgment.
 
Since it has been several weeks since Carl’s introduction to Ezekiel, we need to review the historical context of Ezekiel, especially before we get into these next 21 chapters.  It will help us understand why God is about to judge Israel so harshly.  I also think that some context will help to take a little bit of the edge off of what we are about to study.  If we just dove into this and did not understand the context, we would not understand the meager rations of bread and water that Ezekiel is about to be restricted to, or the odd fuel he will be required to use to cook his food, or the awful conditions that we are about to see the people of Jerusalem be subjected to. I am going to give dates.  I am a history nerd, and I honestly think you need some dates to truly understand the timing of Ezekiel.  So please do not fall asleep on me.  Dates are also important to Ezekiel; he gives approximately 12 dates in his book.  The only other books to give that many dates are Kings and Chronicles.

Hardened

Ezekiel 3:4-27
 

Good morning!  We are continuing in our new series on the book of Ezekiel entitled “Harder than Flint.”  Today’s message is titled “Hardened.”  I get the privilege of sharing from the passage that the series title comes from.  As to where we are in the book ...
 
We are still with Ezekiel at the canal there in Babylon.
 
This is the place where the word of the Lord had first come to Ezekiel.
 
Ezekiel is seeing the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.  Winged creatures with multiple faces riding above wheels within wheels then above them a glowing figure on a dazzling throne.  This figure or person had the image or likeness of a man.
 
Though he had fallen facedown in the presence of this wondrous appearing, the Spirit raised Ezekiel to his feet so that he could hear the message.
 
Here are the points that Ezekiel was told.  God said:
 

1. I am sending you to the Israelites.
2. They are a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me.
3. In fact, they have been in rebellion for generations up to the present day.
4. These rebellious people are both obstinate (hard) and stubborn (firm).
5. Whether or not they listen, the people will know a prophet has been among them.  (God will make Ezekiel that prophet.)
6. Do not be afraid of them.  Not their words (or threats), not real dangers nor painful things in spite of the risks in the face of their rebellious attitude.
7. You are to speak My words to them.
8. You are to listen to what I (God) say to you.

 
Then, Ezekiel is given a scroll to eat.  The scroll is covered up with words of lament and mourning and woe on both sides.  Ezekiel is told that after he eats the scroll, he is to go and speak to the house of Israel.
 
Ezekiel eats the scroll and is surprised to find that the scroll tastes as sweet as honey.
 
That is all I would like to say as introduction because it brings us to today’s passage beginning in Ezekiel 3:4. Let’s pray now and then we can continue with Ezekiel’s experience before the Spirit of the Lord.
 
Father God, you are the God of mysteries.  Your ways are beyond our understanding.  And yet, You do not hide from us.  You reveal Yourself to us in many ways.  You reveal Yourself through Your word.  Speak to us from Your Word now we pray in Jesus’ Name.  Amen.