Sermon Book: Ezekiel

About this sermon

A Morning Instruction class on Ezekiel 4:9-5:4. Ezekiel’s signs are a wordless drama. He eats defiled bread baked over dung, a picture of Israel eating unclean food among the nations. Then he shaves his head and beard with a sword and divides the hair: a third burned in the city, a third struck with the sword, a third scattered to the wind, with a few strands bound in his robe and even some of those burned. The judgment is severe, yet God always saves a remnant.

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Sermon transcript

Moreover, he said to me, son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread into Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure, and drink of water. Their food and water will be scarce. They will be appalled and stunned. Then ye shall take one-third, and swipe it with a sword all around the city. Now one-third you shall scatter to the road, and our keys be short behind them.

Take also a few in number from them, and bind them in the edges of your robes. okay thank you very much everyone for your participation let me catch us up to where we were last week because we had to split this lesson in two uh ended up being a little bit bigger than i thought so we’re going to end here with 5-4, that’ll be the end of Ezekiel and until three quarters from now. We’ll pick it up right where we left off with 5-5.

Okay, what I’m proposing, I’m following a certain writer and I think he’s absolutely right that what Ezekiel is enduring and what he’s doing is he is putting on a drama and he’s putting on a play with no words. He is acting something out. Remember, he has this grand revelation of God, and then he waits a week, and he’s just silent. I think he continues to be silent. He’s silent probably for 13 months. Doesn’t say a word. He’s laying on his side, left side. Then laid 40 days, is it not, on the other side. Then he gets up, he begins to do something different. That is, he begins to do a three-act play.

Now the first act is the city under siege, four, one through eight, he grabs a brick and some other things that represent Jerusalem. And then what he does is he shows has God’s face before it, because Ezekiel is, in a sense, playing the part of God. He has set his face against the city, written on a brick. Think of a really large brick, represents the city, it’s scratched on there. He is the one who, in this play, is God. He is representative of God.

Then he begins an act Act one, scene two, he bears a sin, that’s when he’s on his side, demonstrating the sin of the people. Now moving along, he shows the suffering of the people, and then he begins to show what it will be like when the city is taken over. and these people are carted off. They’re going to be among the nations and they’re going to be hungry people. He takes some grains and he makes a little piece of bread and he has a very small amount of water. He’s not having very much.

I like to eat Ezekiel bread. Who likes Ezekiel bread? Everybody had Ezekiel bread? Good stuff, very healthy. It is grains that have been sprouted rather than eating dead grain, much better for you. This is not a good thing. It’s interesting. In context, we think, wow, he’s starving himself almost. His body’s wasting away. He is being a representative of the people. Now understand, he has switched. In one part, he’s representing God. In another part, he’s representing the people. He’s wasting away.

Now, we come to defilement among the nations. And that is where we were, I started, so that we remember where we are. Now, what do we have as the representation of him, of the people being defiled among the non-Hebrew nations? What does God propose? Who remembers? It’s one of the most, one of the vile things in the Bible. Yes. yes over human don’t i don’t want you to think uh… that’s just ancient people and they just have different sensibilities if that offends your sensibilities that’s good because it would have offended their sensibilities as well.

Now, what does Ezekiel say? He says, no, Lord, I could never do that. I have never defiled myself. What he says is, I’ve never eaten an animal that just was dead. What is he saying? He’s saying, I have obeyed the law as best as I can. I’ve never eaten anything defiled.

First talking about the animals and their death. Let me just read a couple of verses to you so we can understand that this man is, he is reading God’s word back to him, right? Isn’t that a wonderful way to pray to God? To bring the words that he gives to us.

Certainly there’s nothing better. Leviticus 22, eight, he shall not eat an animal which dies or is torn by beasts becoming unclean by it. You can’t eat something that has been torn. You can’t eat something that has died. You actually have to do the killing yourself in the Israelite theocracy. Leviticus 17, 15, when any person eats an animal which dies or is torn by beasts, whether he is a native or an alien, he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and remain unclean until evening.

Then he will become clean, thus says the Lord. Ezekiel’s reaction is somewhat like Peter. Remember what happens to Peter in Acts chapter 10? Jesus has purified all food during his earthly ministry, and God wants to show Peter that the Gentiles are clean if they believe in the gospel. And so in Acts chapter 10, he sees a sheet with formerly unclean animals, and they’re going up and down.

And God says, get up, Peter, kill, eat. He says, much like Ezekiel, I could never do that. I have never eaten something unclean. God says, what God has made clean, don’t call unclean. Well, that’s really nice for Peter because food has been made clean. That’s not the case in Ezekiel’s time. Because that’s not the judgment that God has given to the Israelite people.

Instead, he says, the people are going to be defiled among the nations. What are they going to do? They’re going to eat unclean food. They’re going to eat disgusting things. Jewish mind. They’re going to eat the things, they’re going to eat pig, and lobster, and all these creepy, crawly things.

All right? we ought to get to the dung part. It’s not just the case that it’s disgusting that God said, you’re going to eat it on dung as your fuel. He said, it’s not just disgusting, it is a defiling substance, especially in the Jewish mind. In Deuteronomy 23, 13, listen to what God says.

And you shall have a trowel with your tools. And when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. All right, some people might be thinking, wow, I got out of bed. and thought I was coming to morning instruction. And what are we talking about? Well, I stand by it, it’s the word of God.

Why is it that in the Jewish camp, Old Testament Jewish camp, they’re not allowed to have this defiling substance visible? You have to basically bring a shovel and dispose of it yourself. Isn’t that perfect? You just pulled that right out of my brain. Because God walks among them. That’s excellent.

God walks among them, and he cannot be one who walks with a defiling people and a defiled people. He must cleanse them, in a sense, and he must not, in a sense, step in. So, there it is. this defiling substance, but God has mercy on Ezekiel. No, Ezekiel says, I have never done so, if you would please not make me do that.

This is to say, I am willing to go really far with you on this, God. I’m gonna go really far, so far that I’ll be almost starving and almost without water for a long, long time and laying on my side for a very long… I’m going to go really far. As your representative, acting this out, and as the people’s representative, but don’t make me go that far. Because that would be so disgusting.

So God interestingly says, that’s okay. Go on, animal dung, instead. And it’s interesting, you almost You read it, it’s not there, but you almost get a sigh of relief. Implicitly in the text of Ezekiel. Okay, I don’t need to do it on human tongue. At least I’m able to do it on animal tongue, right? God still has mercy on Ezekiel.

But it is still the case that this is disgusting, all right? And it is a picture of the fact that the Hebrew people are going to be defiled among the nations because of their sins and because of their breaking covenant with water. With their sins, rather, with water.

I don’t know where that, came from. So eat your barley cake. Now it gets even more interesting. How can it get more interesting than that? We move to population reduction. This is a very sad thing that Ezekiel must act out. He does it anyway. What does he do? He… Let’s just read the first verse, 5-1. As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword. Take and use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take scales for weighing and divide the hair. That’s verse one.

Okay, gentlemen, who has had a beard? I have not had much more than this. Who’s had a full one? Yes, yes? Okay, a couple of men, right? Who has shaved it? Well, all three of you have. Because you don’t have any, much. It comes off really easy, doesn’t it? No, it doesn’t.

It hurts. It hurts. All right, when we read this, sometimes I think we read the Bible and we just go, okay, well that event happened and that event happened and that event happened and that event happened, not realizing that though this book is divine, it is very human as well. And these things really happened, and they didn’t happen as quickly as we read them. All right?

So, Ezekiel is going to cut off his beard and his hair. Now, would you say that it is more painful and takes longer, the longer your hair is? I mean, it’s gonna take a while. Now understand also, he does not have the cheater, which is an electric razor where we can just make it, cut it real short first, and then really go at it, right? This man has 13 months of growth. How much could we grow in 13 months? A fair amount. We’re not gonna be ZZ Top by that time, but we’re gonna have a lot. right? This would have been a horrible thing to witness.

Where did this man get a sword in the first place? They’re exiles. How did he get a sword? Did the Babylonian people let the exiles have a sword? I don’t know. It may be the case that Ezekiel went and got the sword from a Babylonian soldier. The Babylonian soldier!

I mean, he’s doing this drama in front of them too. They would have been seeing this as well, surely. And they might have thought, well, look at him. His body is wasting away. What’s he going to do? Ezekiel with his body is wasting away. There’s not much left of him. He’s skin and bones. Is he even going to be able to bring a rebellion against us? No. So he’s cutting, he’s cutting with a sword. Maybe it was a knife from his wife’s kitchen, just to represent his sword, we don’t know. Whatever the case, we don’t envy what he is doing.

This slow process, cutting off his hair, and surely he must have bled at this time. Now, we have to understand what it means. to have Ezekiel taking off his beard. First, we have to understand that this would have been a horrible thing to witness. Very ugly, bloody, painful, and slow, slow, painfully slow. But second, we have to say this.

Shaving is not as bad as what is meant by the shaving. Do you understand that shaving like he’s doing is prohibited by the priest? They are not allowed to do what he is doing. Leviticus 21 5, they shall not make any baldness on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their flesh. Remember, Ezekiel is of a priestly line. He probably would have been a priest on his 30th birthday if he had stayed in the land. But God seems to, on his 30th birthday, called him to a prophetic ministry instead.

But they’re not supposed to cut this off. They are not allowed. Deuteronomy. 14.1, you are the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves nor shave your forehead for the sake of the dead. That’s for the sake of the dead. The previous one, there’s one more thing I wanted to mention. You’re not to shave or cut your flesh.

Surely he must have done both when he was doing this. What we must understand is this is self-defilement. This is, in a sense, a defrocking of his public priestly ministry. He is denigrating his own priesthood by these actions. All right, yes, question or comment? which says, in that day the Lord will shave with a razor hard from the regions beyond the Euphrates, that is, with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair on the legs, and also will remove the beard.

Very good. You are ahead of me. That’s good. I like that. OK, what else does it mean? You’ve broached it. It is a defrocking, it’s shame. It is also associated with extreme grief and mourning like a military defeat. Sometimes people shave someone else just to make them look bad. Think of ancient Near Eastern hazing of a sort. Extreme grief and mourning. I’m glad you brought that one up there. I’m going to give a string of verses that just give us an idea of this extreme grief and mourning associated with shaving. Deuteronomy 21, 10.

When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand, and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pair her nails. This is a woman who is, her side loses, and now she’s going to be a part of the bounty of the war. What does she do? Shaves her head as a sign of shame.

Isaiah 15, 2. He has gone up to the temple and to Dabon, to the high places to weep over Nebo and over Mediba, Moab, Wales. On every head is baldness. Every beard is shorn. Amos 8.10, I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head. Mourning and military loss.

Micah 1.16, make yourselves bald and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Make yourselves as bald as the eagle for they shall go from you into exile.

And then Ezekiel 7.18, They put on sackcloth and horror covers them. Shame is on their faces and baldness on all their heads. It is a sign of extreme humiliation and that is worse than the pain and suffering and the long drawn out process. Extreme humiliation. Last one, 2 Samuel 10, four.

So Hanun took David’s servants and shaved off half the beard of each, and cut off their garments in the middle at their hips and sent them away. When it was told David, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return. Understand this story David sends some men out to talk to another King another leader of a sort man named Hanun He shaves off half the beard of these people and sends them away to shame them These men are so ashamed that they don’t want to be in public So David says go to this area for a time wait wait for for it to grow back Now I want to ask you this If you buy what I’ve been saying, and I hope you do, I want you to follow me with this.

If Ezekiel represents God, the face of God against the city, then he moves, and then he represents the people bearing the sin, and in, He represents the people who will be not having much food, and they’ll be suffering. And he does represent the people here in act two, scene two, as the people have defiling food among the nations. Then when he cuts off his beard and his hair, Who is he representing?

Trick question. Is it really a trick question if I tell you it’s a trick question? Who is he representing? Yes. The people of Israel who will be humiliated. Yes. You’re half right. Who else is he representing? God who does this. This is the time, you understand, he’s representing one and then the other. I know you have a question or a comment, I’ll come back to you in a moment, but I wanna go with this. When he begins to shave himself, he is representing the people who are shamed, humiliated, and lose their priestly role among the nations. but he’s also representing God’s hand who is bringing that shame upon the people. He is in a sense coming together in his genius, his prophetic genius is representing both of these at the same time.

It reminds me of someone else. someone else who bore the sin, and it was brought upon him by himself, in a sense. Obviously, the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Lord Jesus Christ was not putting on an act. He received that punishment, but it was God’s hand that brought it upon him as well. Kathy, question or comment? All these men had beards. How come modern men want to shave them off?

I don’t know why. I wonder if anybody knows the Greeks and how that got started. That would be a wonderful dissertation topic. I don’t know. I think that, let me say this. I don’t think all of ancient people had beards. You might be right. I think some of the Greeks, Also, I think a lot of the Egyptians had no beards.

I think that a long unkept beard, then and now, is still associated with uncleanliness. And I mean, if you read in the book of Genesis, the way that we’re given an insight into the way the Egyptians see the Hebrew people. And they really seem to see them as like, they won’t even eat with them because they’re dirty, smelly shepherds. And certainly a part of that must have been The Egyptians would have looked at the Hebrews as unclean because of their beards.

So I’m not sure why it’s caught on. I think we might be a little bit more type A and obsessed with cleanliness and especially antibacteria and all these things. That’s certainly a worthwhile question. But I think that for the Hebrews, it was normal for everyone to have a beard. I’m not sure for all the other nations. You have a follow-up question or comment?

Well, when I lived in the Texas hill country, there were some guys who would grow beards in the fall. They told me that they were going to Colorado to hunt the elk. And they said the beards would help keep their faces warm. It does do that in the winter.

OK. Let’s look, then. Was there a hand? OK, sorry. Because he’s doing the shaving and it’s God’s hand that is bringing the punishment upon the Hebrew people. Yes. I think you could follow that biblical theological thread and exhaust it for all it’s worth. I think it could be. At least a master’s thesis. Maybe. Interesting. I hadn’t thought of that. It’s just the Bible is layered. Peel away more layers. It is not a boring book. Not at all. But that’s possible.

You actually do though, Darla, hint at where we’re going because he’s, I mean, why is the hair being cut off? The hair is being cut off because the hair represents the people of Judah who are going to be sent away. What does he do? Really briefly, he uses fire, sword, and wind. He takes a third of it, a third of the hair from his beard, from his head, and he gets a scale and he weighs it out. Do you get the idea that Ezekiel’s really meticulous?

He’s obsessed with dates. And then one third of the hair. One third. One third. He’s a precisionist. Maybe a good engineer. He’s just that kind of a guy. It’s excellent. Okay. So he takes one third of it. Maybe using the scale from his wife’s kitchen. We’re not sure. He burns it in the fire. He takes a third and he strikes it with the sword. He takes a third and scatters it to the wind.

What must those people have been thinking? Remember, put ourselves in their mind. They’ve just been, well, by this time, it’s been at least 13 months. He has been, they have been exiled But back home, Jerusalem is still standing. And they think they’re going to go back home soon. And this is Ezekiel laying the bad news upon them and telling them, look, you’re not going to go home. The city is under siege.

You’re going to be starving and defiled among the nations. if you survive one third burned in the fire representing the people one third with the sword one third scattered to the wind but is it all of it there’s just a little bit that he holds on to just a few hairs that he seems to put i don’t know how his robe was at that time whether he would where he would be placing that in a place that you keep things that are dear to you. But even from that little remnant that he has, he takes some of that and discards that as well. Some will be burned, few are saved, but God always saves a remnant. And sometimes God uses fire that is literal. Jeremiah 29, 20 through 23 says this, speaking of the literal fire.

Hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab, the son of Coliah, and Zedekiah, the son of Maaseah, who are prophesying a lie to you in my name. Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall strike them down before your eyes. Because of them, this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon. Quote, the Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted on a fire. Sometimes it is a literal fire.

So how do we close out Ezekiel? Seems to be on a bad note. But Ezekiel is full of a lot of judgment. But he’s been acting. He’s been putting on this drama. You can imagine that there is no applause for this drama that he puts on. There is just silence. Silence except for maybe the crackling of the fire that burned the hair. Silence maybe except for the sobs of Ezekiel. Sobbing because of his shame and the cuts in his face and head that surely were there. But how much greater his sobs for the message that he had to preach. The smell of burning hair, and Ezekiel being silent for a year plus a month, and then some. So we have silence, but we’re going to have silence no more, because Ezekiel’s going to begin to speak. Let me just open, write one part of a verse, and then you have the final word.

5-5, after this drama, what does he say? Thus says the Lord. Now that I have your attention, people, all this that I have put on, God is going to speak to you. There is a place early on where he talks about prophesying, but I think the prophecy, I believe it’s in chapter three, 27, anyways, there’s a part, he says that, but I think the prophesying is the actions that he’s doing. He’s about to prophesy with his mouth, and the rest of the book will be his speaking. The acting is done, the silence is done, he is going to speak. And when God’s prophet speaks, we must listen. Well, this might not make much sense after you’ve given verse 5, but I want to get to it before verse 5.

Go ahead. But anyway. Another dissertation topic. I see people today, I don’t know if this has any connection, I see people today doing I think he would have seemed very weird. But you know what? He’s getting his point across. There is no doubt. You believe in perspicuity, you believe in the clarity of what God has to say. He’s not hiding it from them. Well, the way he moved from one position to another position and back again, and then representing both God and man, how it was all coming to something. People probably really were questioning whether he was our writer.

Possibly. All right, so what does Ezekiel say? We’ll just have to wait until nine months from now, unless you’ve already read it. Maybe you have. Anyway, well, let’s pray and get prepared for Ezekiel. for worship we have some visitors there’s Kathy very graciously has put together some things in the back so make your way in there after we pray let’s pray dear Lord we are thankful for all the things that you teach even though some of them are a hard pill to swallow and if they are a hard pill to swallow. Surely they were for those people as well.

But we ask, O Lord, that you would help us to endure the difficulty of reading such things as this. Help us to understand you more. We also ask that you would use what we have learned and what we have discussed as we prepare our hearts for worship. We ask that Christ would be exalted in this place, in these four walls and in this pulpit today. We ask that you would cause all of us to have ears that will readily hear what we need to hear today. And we ask that you would soften our hearts. And we ask that you would cause us to find joy in you. What good would it be not to have joy in Christ? Help us to know that we are in Christ, but to have joy unspeakable because of him. In his name we pray, amen. Thank you everyone. Apologetics next week.

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About this sermon

A Morning Instruction class on Ezekiel 4:1-5:4. Before he speaks a word of prophecy, Ezekiel acts out the siege of Jerusalem. He draws the city on a brick, builds siege works against it, and sets an iron griddle between himself and the city. He lies on his left side and then his right for the years of Israel’s and Judah’s iniquity, and eats rationed bread and water, picturing the famine to come. The prophet bears the people’s sin in signs, and his suffering points ahead to Christ, who bore it in reality.

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Sermon transcript

We are moving out of chapter three. We’re out of it, and this brings about a big change for where we are in the book of Ezekiel. First three chapters, I want you to think of that as call narrative. He’s called into prophetic ministry. Now, we begin his actual prophetic ministry. and he is going to begin to prophesy. But before he prophesies, he is going to act some things out.

This is very interesting and a little bit strange to us. If it is strange, that’s okay. Hopefully it will be a little bit clearer in the future, hopefully within the next hour. Why don’t we read this just so you remember what I’m talking about, refresh your minds. We’re going to read Ezekiel 4 all the way through 4 and then 5, 1 through These go together. I know that the chapter break begins before that, but it actually works better to take these as one. Let me read the first one, and then we’ll start on the left side of the room. Sorry, my left.

Now you, son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, raise up a ramp, pitch camps and place battering rams against it all around. And you, take an iron griddle and place it as an iron wall between you and the city. This is a sign for the House of Israel.

As for you lying down on your left side and laying the iniquity of the House of Israel on it, you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days. Thus you shall bear the iniquity of the House When it asks for you, take wheat, barley, beans, Put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself. You shall eat it according to the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days.

And your food which you eat shall by weight be by weight 20 shekels a day. From time to time, you shall eat it. The water you drink shall be the sixth part of 10 by measure. You shall drink from time to time. You shall eat it as a barley cake, having bathed it in their sight over you and done. Yes, please. Then I said, not so, Sovereign Lord.

I have never defiled myself from my mouth until now. I have never eaten anything from the dead or torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth. And he said to me, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it.

Moreover, he said to me, son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water unmeasured and in order. Because bread and water will be scarce, and they will be appalled with one another, and waste away in their iniquity.

John. As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword. Take and use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take scales for the ring and the binding there. The third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city. The days of the siege are completed. The third part you shall take and strike with a sword all around the city. And the third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unseat the sword at you. Take also a few of the number from them and bind them in the edges of your robes. And take again some of them and throw them into the fire.

And then we’ll stop there. Thank you all for your participation. So what is the mindset of the people who are in the Kabar Canal, these people who are exiled along with Ezekiel? You know from other parts of God’s Word, that many people thought this is just a minor bump in the road. We got taken over by Nebuchadnezzar, and we’re just gonna spend a little bit of time here, and then we’re going to be sent back. So this is no problem, right? If you read Jeremiah, people say the same thing, and he keeps having to say, that is not true.

You’re going to be here for a long time. You’re going to be here almost two generations. Generations, 40 years. You’re going to be here 70 years. Jeremiah’s words, you can almost hear them ringing in the background. plant vineyards, make gardens, build houses. You’re gonna be here a long time.

But they did not believe them. They did not believe them at all. Now understand the times in which they’re living. Jerusalem is still standing. Ezekiel is taken away, but he’s among the first waves of those who are taken away. These people still are trusting in their city. Their mindset is God’s going to take care of us because we have Jerusalem and Jerusalem cannot be defeated because it’s David’s city and the temple cannot be destroyed because that is what Solomon built.

Now, He’s going to be acting throughout this. He doesn’t really speak. There’s one verse that seems to imply that he might be speaking, but I’m not so sure about that. It seems as though four through five-four is all an act. He is putting on a play for the people. Pardon me. Didn’t look right. I before E except after C. Didn’t look right. Okay. So what do we see in 4, 1 through 8?

We see a city under siege. That’s what he’s going to perform for them. And with his miming sort of way. There are, let me just read to you what one writer writes, and I think he’s right. There are clearly three major acts in this drama, each with two or three internal scenes. The three acts are identified as the threefold initial command to take some object. In the first act, take. clay tablet. The second one, take wheat and barley. The third one, take a sharp sword.

So that’s kind of the introduction to each one of these plays. Take, take, take. And the three acts relate to the siege of Jerusalem, 1-8, the suffering of the people, 4 9 through 17 and final destruction of the city and its fate and its Population why don’t I to make things easier just write those down suffering of the people of Let’s do it like this. Suffering of the people. This will be more clear and effective. Okay. So Act I, City Under Siege, Act II, Suffering of the People, and that’s 4, 9 through 17. And then the last one is 5, 1 through 4. And he called that, let’s just call that popularization. Okay, so we have Ezekiel, the actor, the mime, who is going to act for us. He’s going to act for the people first. The city under siege. We have Jerusalem as a brick. Jerusalem as a brick. First thing he’s called to do is take a brick and he’s going to start scratching it or writing on it. Now when you think of a brick, what do you think of?

Right? About this big. I want you to think that. I want you to think big. Very big. Not so big you can’t lift it, but this is big. And he starts drawing on it. Now we know the end of the story. We have to kind of suspend for a moment, put yourself in the mind of these people. Ezekiel has a big brick and he’s just scratching away on it. And it’s probably one that hasn’t been put in the kiln. It’s a bit softer, able to be scratched and to have indentations on it. And people are watching him. This is a man who’s strange.

They just don’t know how to take him, right? And these people know their city. They love Jerusalem, right? Even the non-believer in Jews love Jerusalem. So what’s he doing? He’s scratching through this, on this brick, and it begins to be apparent to them. I see what he’s doing. He’s drawing a map of Jerusalem. This is good.

Now think about those who, they wanna hear that we’re going back, we’re going back very soon. They say, wow, he’s gonna prophesy good news about Jerusalem, and maybe we’re gonna go back soon. Or he might be just thinking, oh, that’s Zeke, right? He’s just a little bit nostalgic. He’s just thinking back to Jerusalem, that good old city, how wonderful it is.

That’s what he’s doing. He’s strong. Is he longing for home? Okay, well, they’re watching. Then he takes a griddle, and it seems as though he raises it upright. Then he takes a number of other objects, kind of like, almost like toys, you’d think, and he lays out what looks to the people when they finally get the hint that Jerusalem is being put under siege, that this place is going to be attacked.

Understand that when a city is really well walled in the ancient times, and it’s well guarded, You don’t just come up to the front door and take the battering ram and just knock it a few times and then go take it over. I mean, it is a long, long process. So they are laying siege, that is, they’re outside and they’re going to be seeking to get in, but it’s going to be a long time before they get there. But one of the strategies, ancient war strategy, is when you have people all up in a city like this and they’re walled and they’re not able to get in, one of the strategies that you do is make sure that all the places around it are cut off.

So no one can get in, no one can get out. So the Hebrew people who are there are there and they’re stuck. What’s that gonna do to the food supply? Slowly it is going to be rationed and eventually these people may desire to just come out and say, okay, we’d rather eat and be your slaves than be starving and be free, walled up in here.

So he’s got all these things and he’s making a picture of the fact that Jerusalem is under siege. This drawing of Jerusalem, this is not a good thing. Now, he’s then going to lie down on his side. He’s not gonna lay down, he’s gonna lie down. He would be laying something down, but he’s gonna lie down. and he’s going to lie down and he is going to, well, let me just back up, because I’m going to say in this part, this is, we’re in, we just finished act one, scene one, Jerusalem a brick. What do you think it means that he is, has his face toward it, right?

What does it say? Lay siege against it, build a wall, raise up a ramp, pitch camps and place battering rams against it. Then get yourself an iron plate and set it as an iron wall between you and the city and set your face toward it so that it is under siege. What do you think that means? Set your face toward it.

People who know your Old Testament, what does it mean when some main character in the Bible sets his face towards something or someone? Who’s the main character in the Bible? God. Okay, when he sets his face towards something, he’s bringing wrath against it, right? Who is Ezekiel playing In this part, he is a picture of God, because he’s put his face against it, because God’s face is against the city. So in this case, Ezekiel is the one who is laying siege against the city. Now we talked, I think it was a week ago, it might have been two, about the fact that who are the people who are laying siege against the city?

It’s the Babylonians. But whose side is God on? The Babylonians. He’s not on Israel’s side anymore because they’re going to be deported. So, I want you to see that. In the first act, and first of the first scene, He is playing the part of God with his face against the picture of the city. Because God is against it. Now, second part.

Bearing the sin of Israel. We’ll just shorten that to bearing sin. And so he lies down and He is going to not resent, represent, he may resent the people, but he is going to represent the people now. Bear the sins of the people. Let’s look at what the word says. As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. You shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. For I have assigned you a number of days.” And it goes on.

So he’s going to bear the sin. Now, when it says bear the sin here, I No, I hope that you’re well-trained Bible readers that when you think bearing the sin, you think, well, Jesus is our sin bearer. That’s good. Jesus is our sin bearer. So that means that Ezekiel’s going to bear our sin, right? No, okay, that’s not what he’s saying in bearing the sin here.

He is going to represent the people here. He switched sides in this act. Now he is the people of God, and he’s going to lie on one side 390 days, 40 days. Everybody with me? As the priest was to bear the sin, that is to represent the people, so would Ezekiel do because he was almost a priest.

Now, how long is 390 days? It’s a little over a year, about a year and a month or so. Now, then he’s going to be on his side for 40 days, his other side. Now a lot of scholars have ideas and theories about what this could be, because it doesn’t tell us what the 390 represents. We’re not exactly sure. The best guessers, I think, think that it is a round number from the time of the building of Solomon’s Temple until the destruction of that temple. That is about 390 years. Now the Bible gives specific year dates, 70 years of exile, but it was not 70 years on the calendar. It’s a rough number that just gives a picture.

So he’s going to be, 390 days on his side, and he is going to represent the sin of the people. Now, why would that be? Wasn’t the high point of the Israelite theocracy, David, I think it really was, he’s a man after God’s own heart. He was a sinner, he did many things. The Bible’s very, very honest about David’s sin, like it is about almost everybody’s sin. It’s very clear. There are lots of sinners in the Bible.

They don’t make themselves into heroes, right? After David, there is a time of Great prosperity and strength and unity. But Solomon never said that he’s a man after God’s own heart. It seems the decline begins right after that time. Right after David dies. It was never perfect, it was never ideal. The ideal Davidic throne is the Jerusalem above that is free, that is our mother, Galatians four. Here on earth, it is falling away, and it is a bad place. God’s holy city, but it’s not perfect.

Now, what about the 40 years? This one is not a tough one. The 40 years, it does say for Judah, but It seems as though it is testing, as we know that 40 people are tested in sets of 40 in the Bible, right? Lots of times that happens, the two predominant ones, 40 years in the desert. with the Hebrew people, which is 40 days in the desert for Jesus. And notice there, years compared to days, generations, excuse me, years for the community equal to days for the individual.

All right, I have a hand. Kathy, question, comment, joke or dilemma? No, this is about what you’re talking about. Okay. That could be a joke or another one. You’ve heard the saying, life begins at 40, Alabama in the 40s, all that stuff. Yeah, for them, 40 had a special magic significance. Very good. I want to say it’s significant. I’m not sure I want to use the word magic, And so far, as I’ve used the word magic, I want to say, magic, I mean, I want to make sure, nothing superstitious. That may have just been a figure of speech that you’re using. That’s fine, but 40 is a special number. 40 is a generation. I think it’s saying Judah is the main tribe that exists. There are people who, from most of the other tribes, but Judah is the main one that exists at this time. And they’re going to suffer for a generation.

He’s going to bear the sin on his right side. Now, in what way is he going to do this? Is he going to do the 40 days consecutively with the 390 or concurrently? There are scholars that say each one. Concurrently, that is, he would be 390 days, so I guess he would go 350 days on his left side, but he would spend a part of the day on his left and then a part of the day on his right side. Or the more natural reading of it is that it would be 390, and then turns and gets on his other side.

And the reason for that, I won’t give you the details, because it could be a very big hole we could find ourselves in. It’d be hard to get out. But some people want to say that because of the dating, some things that happened in chapter 8, there isn’t enough time for him to have 430 days. Because something is going to happen in chapter 8.

But I think the more natural reading is that it’s afterwards. I think it also speaks to the understanding of his vocation at this time. Because if he is spending a part of the day on the left side. Assume this is the ground. And then he’s going to switch in the middle of the day to the other side. And that kind of seems to imply that Ezekiel is just out there for a certain time, and he’s doing this show, and then he goes home and has a normal day with his wife, has dinner, and talks about current events. And then he goes back in the next day and, okay, now I’m representing the sin of the people and I’m suffering for them.

That seems kind of strange. I don’t think that he was taking evenings and weekends off. Right, I think he is spending all of his time, maybe gets up to go to the bathroom, but I mean, we’re gonna see in a minute, he’s not eating much, he’s not gonna be drinking, he’s not drinking much, he’s not gonna be going to the bathroom much. I think he’s there all day. Question.

When he lays on his right side and left side, what is that symbolic for specific sins? We’re not told. but I think that it’s all of the Ten Commandments. I mean, they break them all. Obviously, the predominant one, having other gods, and making images of those gods, being the first and second, but nothing specific. I guess, read the rest of your Old Testament from 2 Samuel on, and they just lay out which sins they’re doing, and they break them all, all right?

So, he’s burying their sin, in a sense, but not in a vicarious atonement sort of way. Now, siege rations. Siege rations. I could write in Jerusalem, but Jerusalem’s a long word. More space would be needed there. Now, this is his food and his drink for one year. I think this is all he’s having. Again, what I was saying, some people who kind of think he’s just kind of lying there and then he switches sides and then he goes home, has a normal day, talks to his wife. I don’t think so.

I think his wife must have been mortified by his behavior, right? But more so, what does a wife like to do? She likes to feed her husband, among other things, among many other things. She didn’t want to see her husband starving. That’s what she’s going to see though. His food and drink for a year plus, a month plus 40 days or so.

Okay. Take these grains and it’s a mixture of grains and it’s not much. And some of the grains that he uses are kind of poverty grains. They’re really poor stuff. Not all of it. And he’s going to make a loaf of bread that is going to amount to 8 ounces. Not much. That’s what he’s going to eat. A little piece of bread. And he’s going to have a little bit of water. How much? Don’t be thrown off by the Hebrew measuring system. I’ll just tell you. for water, 0.6 liters of water. What’s that? Less than a quart? He’s going to have just a little water. It’s going to be enough to get by.

But he’s going to be in bad shape because of this, if he’s staying out there all the time. He’s not getting his six to eight glasses, all right? What does his wife think of this? As her dear husband is getting more and more gaunt and more and more emaciated every single day. Well, I think he ate just that.

There was no onstage, offstage time. If he were having a normal life the rest of the time, I don’t think he’d be bearing the sins of the people. This man wants to show the suffering of the people, that they’re going to suffer big, as the city. Jerusalem is going to be starving and it’s going to be thirsty. And he is a sign that shows that to them.

Did he only have to do this a few hours a day? No, he did it all day. Why does God ask his prophet to do such terrible things? God asks his prophets to do a lot of terrible things. Right? Do you not think that Isaiah was told to walk around the city naked? He really was told to walk around the city naked, Isaiah chapter 20. Do you really not think that Hosea was told to marry a prostitute?

I think, I mean, there are people, oh, it’s just a metaphor. I mean, Bible-believing, Reformed people They think it’s just a picture. I don’t think it’s a picture. I mean, I think it’s a picture. I think it’s literal. Ezekiel is wasting away before your eyes, people. Do you understand?

You’re not going back to Jerusalem. I’m not convinced at this point that he’s speaking yet. Remember, in past weeks, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth, he’s being silent. I’m not convinced that he speaks until 5-5, which we’re gonna do next week.

Thus says the Lord. I’m saying this is all a mime act, I think, until finally he’s going to open up. That’s the way God reveals himself, in act, and then explanation of the act. It doesn’t matter what it is. He always gives the phenomenon and then the explanation of the phenomenon. Whether it’s Moses taking them out of Egypt, the explanation has to follow. Whether it’s Jesus dying on the cross and rising again, the explanation must follow. Well, same here. He’s acting. And then he’s going to speak.

God would not only take away from the bread its power to nourish so that they should eat and not be satisfied, which is the case. God said that there would become a time that if you disobey me, you will eat and not be satisfied. Leviticus 26, 26. but would also take away the bread itself. Isaiah 3, 1. For time, I’m just gonna tell you the references there. Leviticus tells us they’re not going to be satisfied. Isaiah says, I’m going to take the bread away.

Now, understand that there was a time when Jerusalem had the richest and best wheat and grain, I think, in the whole world because it was a supernatural land where things grew if they were obedient. Time was when Jerusalem was filled with the finest wheat. Psalm 147, 14. He makes peace in your borders. He satisfies you with the finest of wheat. But now it would be glad of the coarsest.

It would be the coarsest food that they’re going to have and they cannot have it. The fullness of bread as it was as, excuse me, the fullness of bread, as it was one of Jerusalem’s mercies, so it had become one of their sins. What I’m trying to tell you is this. That which they once had, which was a sign of their obedience, the lack thereof was going to be a sign of their disobedience. Okay, so they’re going to be rationing the food. And then, defiled among the nations. Defiled among the nations. We have the verse about a barley cake, which seems that he might be having a barley cake In addition to this, a very small barley cake, although the NAS doesn’t take it that way. And…

12, you shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung. That would imply that you shall eat the loaf of bread as a barley cake. which would just saying to eat it. Whereas the Hebrew, I think this is a little reading and a barley cake, you shall eat it. And on bits of human excrement, you shall bake it as they watch you. Okay, which would imply that there’s an additional thing that he’s able to eat, which is a barley cake, but that’s going to be cooked over human dung.

Not your ideal dinner. Okay. We are at three, 10.40. I thought we’d get a little further. I thought we’d get here. So that means we’ll close and I’ll just start this. This is where we are. I’ll have it in my notes where we are. But hang on for that, this strange conversation about you’re gonna make it, you’re gonna cook it on human dung. No, I can’t do that. I’ve never defiled myself with food. Okay, you can cook it on cow dung anyways instead, right? Sure glad I get to do that. Okay. Defilement among nations. Okay, let’s pray. and prepare our hearts a little bit more for worship and go get coffee and tea and things.

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About this sermon

A Morning Instruction class on Ezekiel 3:22-27, closing his call narrative. The Lord sends Ezekiel into the plain, where he again sees the glory of the Lord and falls on his face. The Spirit sets him on his feet and tells him to shut himself in his house; he will be bound with cords and made mute, speaking only when the Lord opens his mouth to say, “Thus says the Lord God.” His ministry begins not before kings or crowds but in an ordinary house among the exiles at Tel-abib.

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Sermon transcript

there I will speak with you. So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory which I saw upon the river Chebar, and I fell on my face. The Spirit then entered me and made me stand on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me, go, shut yourself up in your house. As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them. And make your tongue plain to the rich now, that you shall be feared, and not be one to rebuke them. For they are at every guy’s house. But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, Thus saith the Lord God. He who will hear, let him hear, and he who will Thank you, everyone, for Alright, as I said earlier, we are closing out this major section of Ezekiel.

This is the first three chapters. We kind of take these as a unit. This is his call narrative. He’s being told what he has to do, and he undergoes these stunning revelations of God. In the last number of weeks, we’ve talked about the fact that he’s called. to preach to a hard-hearted people. And last week we talked about the fact that he is a watchman. He is one who is to sound the alarm when danger comes. Now his ministry is just about to begin. It’s going to begin in chapter 4. That is next. But first we have this one little section.

I just want to say this, reaffirm things, my optimism, Originally, I talked to the elders when we talked about doing Ezekiel, and I thought I could do it in a year, you know, in a quarter, 13 weeks. Just really introductory. But now I’m, they say, well, why don’t you go a little slower? Okay. That’s what we’ve, that’s what we’ve done. Hope it hasn’t been too slow, but these first three chapters are extremely rich. There’s so much here. So We wanna talk about divine reinforcement. That is the first verse.

The hand of the Lord was on me, and he said to me, get up, go out to the plain, or some versions might say the valley, it’s of no consequence, and there I will speak to you. God seems to understand that Ezekiel needs a little bit of reinforcement. Understand that when we left him, he is a little bit angry and he has spent one week in silence, right? He needs a little bit of persuasion, a little bit of pressure from God. And it is understandable that he would. He needs God to goad him a little bit more, to tell him, listen, this is what I need you to do. I need you to do X, Y, and Z. Why?

Because he has a big role. He has a very big role, and it’s an unenviable one. That is because he is going to speak for God, and he is going to be a loner. I’m gonna talk about how he is going to be a loner. The hand of the Lord is on Ezekiel once again. God will not take no for an answer. Now, if you’ve been here in the last number of weeks, last two and a half months, or if you’ve read the first three chapters, there’s just a grand spectacle that’s laid before him, right? But guess what happens? In 23, isn’t this interesting?

Where he says, so I got up and went out to the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord was standing there like the glory which I saw by the river Kibar, and I fell on my face. It happened again. Now he spares us the details. We could have had Ezekiel have three more chapters, right? In this one verse, he’s telling you The same thing goes on. What you saw, those three chapters, so we’re talking about God sitting on the throne. I think this is what he’s telling us. The whole spectacle happens again. God’s sitting on the throne. You have four living creatures, each with four heads representing the different spheres of the earth. All this happens all over again, wheels within wheels.

He spares us because it would have been repetitive. And that’s fine. But why does he have to undergo this again? Anyone wonder? Why repeat it? You might notice when he mentions it here, there’s something missing that is present in the rest of the story.

Notice that he’s very sure what this is. This is like the glory which I saw by the river Kabar. That’s not exactly like that in the Hebrew. In the Hebrew, it’s a little bit more sure. Previously, he had said something like, and the appearance of the likeness of, that’s not present in the Hebrew. It’s a little bit interpretive for them to put it in here. Why repeat? Possibly to dispel the idea that this was just a 30th birthday hallucination. To reinforce that the Lord is with Ezekiel in Babylon. It’s not just his imagination, right?

You might hear someone who wants a revelation from God. Some people, young in their faith, It might be more oriented toward charismatic things. They say, if I could just see God or touch him or have a vision or a dream, you know, they want that kind of thing. But is that really going to satisfy their spiritual longings? No, because they’re going to just want another one of those, or they might doubt that that really took place, and they’ll want more. It’s better to trust God and trust Him in His word. But here, this guy is reaffirmed in this, and I think that’s to show him that I really spoke to you.

I spoke to you, Ezekiel, the would-be priest. and the would-rather-not-be prophet who had been angry for a week, he finds himself once again, constant theme in these first couple of chapters, flattened by God’s glory, and then he is hoisted up by God’s spirit once again.

So that entering in and that’s being set on his feet. 24, the spirit entered me and made me stand on my feet. And he spoke with me and said to me, go shut yourself up in your house. Now does this seem a little weird? Some people, I even had someone say, this seems a little bit absurd.

You just received this grand, revelation, and you’ve been told you’re going to go preach to your people. Now, go home. He’s sending him to the Israelites, but go to your house, that is to say. Sound the alarm. Be silent, go home. Such a A different thing, a little bit strange. When he does speak, the Lord is going to speak through him. That’s what’s going on. He’s going to go home, receive a little bit of time. We’re not told what he’s going to do there, but we do know that when he speaks, God’s going to speak for him.

Every word of Ezekiel is going to be a word from the Lord. I’m not even sure he has one word after this that’s not divinely inspired. Now, when we introduced Ezekiel, we talked about the fact that many people believe that he has major medical conditions, right? These are the things that I have. or there’s a book that lists what different types of psychologists have diagnosed Ezekiel with, with verse 25 in mind.

As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them. It’s not that clear that they will do it. It basically is in the third person, it will be done to you. All right, but lots of psychological disorders. And I actually had hoped I would have a minute to look up what all these are and tell you details, but I didn’t, I ran out of time.

Aphasia, anyone know what aphasia is? What’s that? Okay, catalepsy. Ever heard of that one? Okay, well let me finish this list. Epilepsy, paralysis, catatonic schizophrenia. What’s that one like? Anyone? Okay. Isn’t that interesting? We’re psychologizing prophets. This is something that a lot of people do. I mean, in a university context or in a liberal context. I mean, they’ll psychologize someone like Solomon. Solomon’s not immune from this, right? When he’s young, Song of Solomon, he’s energized. Right?

I’ll just… Later on in his reign, he’s wise. And that’s Proverbs, in the end of his life. We’ve got Ecclesiastes, when he’s just a frustrated older man. Right? And he’s just chasing after the wind. All things are meaningless. They psychologize him. Well, I don’t… Psychologizing, or…

Diagnosing people who are alive is difficult, but it’s very difficult, surely, to do someone who is dead. Kathy, I want to come back to you. I also had someone else had a hand, but Kathy, go ahead, you’re first. Well, I was wondering why you’re so interested in this, because to begin with, as you said, these psychologists, they show me they’re not very good doctors to begin with.

Well, ultimately we do dismiss it, but I think it’s good for us to know the way that different theological camps take things. So, the particular theological emphasis of this church is redemptive, historical, confessional, and those kinds of things. And we want to park on that. But we also want to talk about what other viewpoints have. We want to talk about the way that dispensationalists would understand a passage. And we do certainly want to understand the way that liberals understand a passage. Because if we don’t understand the way that liberals take a passage, our young people can be in danger of going into those things. I have, Darla was first and I see you, come back, go ahead. I heard motivational speech from one of the kids, he got up every morning and read his Bible, and then he read the newspaper to see what the other side was up to. No? Yes.

I think that there’s a danger, though, I mean, I understand what you’re saying with respect to, you have to know what the other side is saying, but I think that there’s a danger that we can’t just say, you know what, I don’t know psychologically what’s going on with Ezekiel. Ezekiel is a man of God, given these visions, even though he was going to be in so much pain and in so much distress, a great deal of suffering, God gave him that vision so he could hold on to it. So, I don’t care what you say about the psychological nonsense. And so, what’s wrong with our young people saying that, standing on the fact that, you know what, I’ve been brought up in the church, or I came to Christ later, but I know that this is the word of God, and whatever psychological garbage is out there, I’m not buying it.

That’s right. That’s where we want to end. handicap, if we can call it that, of his tongue, is God imposed. And we want to embrace that. We want to receive what God’s word says, and we want to take that and disregard anything that challenges that. Anything that looks for a naturalistic explanation of what God clearly tells us is supernaturalistic, We want nothing to do with that, but it’s good to know. Yes, Tim. That’s right. Yes, Linda.

I think it says here, that they shall put a band upon you. And this could be necessary to keep you off of something wrong with him, but they are going to prevent him from going out of this house. They’re going to keep him isolated. It isn’t necessarily that he’s sick. It’s just what they are going to do to you. Yes, you’re absolutely right. Now, that could be certainly for what’s coming with him being bound, which I’m glad you brought us to that, because that was the next thing I was going to say.

There’s also the matter of his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth. But first, on the bound, could be literal. Could be that his fellow Israelites are going to bind him because they want him to stop disturbing the peace. Other prophets suffered far worse than Jeremiah and other prophets were bound. Remember in Jeremiah, Jeremiah is bound. A yoke is put upon him or he is put in the stocks. So that could be that people bind him.

Could be metaphorical. Oftentimes the discussion of chords can be about oppression and subjection. So it could be metaphorical. You look at Psalm two, three, or Psalm 18, four through five, Psalm 116, three, or 129, four. We won’t look at those specifically, but chords are often understood as oppression or subjection.

So what do we think it is? Is it literal, or is it metaphorical, or could it be that it is voluntary? Could it be a voluntary sign to reinforce the sign of his muteness? Well, there are three options. John Calvin says, one is free to choose. Okay, if Calvin says, you’re free to choose, I’m not going to take a stand on that. He is bound. Yes, grace. I’m sorry, I thought I saw Grace’s hand. I’m sorry. Sarah? Some people believe that… Okay. What do I mean by the voluntary binding? Is that what you’re asking?

Let me say there are those who, it could be people who believe that, believe it is a voluntary sign to reinforce his muteness. And so is this a sign of what is the case with his tongue, that he is bound, like his body is bound by himself and his tongue is bound by himself.

I’m not taking a stand. There are some who believe that he’s binding himself and his tongue and his mouth. He could talk if he wanted to, but he won’t. His tongue and his body are bound by himself. Or it could be the case that God is doing that. These two things come as a unit, his body and his tongue. whether it is the case that he cannot speak other than God’s Word and he’s unable to move, those things come together.

Does that make sense? I hope I’m not confusing things, okay, or confusing people. Yes, Kathy? not a Western mind like we have. Now, have you been in the conferences of Voices of Martyrs, listened to their speakers, or been reading a lot of their newsletters? I do peruse their newsletter. Okay, they’ll have speakers that come over, Christians from the Orient or from other places. These people seem to have, even today, much more faith in dreams and visions than people of the Western mind I think these people pay more attention to dreams and stuff. I don’t pay attention to mine. I think they do.

However, I would say though that the time in which they were living and the place in which they were living and the fact that they did not have a completed Bible also played into that. So when I dream, I do not, and I refuse to believe that God is revealing himself to me in a prophetic sense. However, during that time before Christ comes and for a little time after Christ comes, dreams can be God revealing himself to a person. A dream can be God’s divine self-disclosure. So if people do believe that they’re having a revelatory, inspired dream, well, I mean, they can believe that if they want, Eastern or Western mind, I don’t believe that.

I think we have a closed canon. The Bible is closed. God has spoken. Nothing more needs to be added to it. And definitely we don’t need to take anything away. I believe that if I believed that my dreams were revelatory or yours were or someone else was, I think we would have a right to write that down and put that in the Bible. But since I don’t believe that those are real prophetic dreams, that’s not on par with scripture. But they may put more into their dreams though. That certainly may be the case.

Go ahead. of the Lord and how he was silent when you would expect someone to speak. I can’t stop what you’re doing. But his words could only be the word of God. It’s just making me think of this as being like a behind the scenes view. And his suffering. I think that’s very good. That’s insightful. Our last section 26-27.

Moreover, I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be mute and cannot be a man who rebukes them, for they are a rebellious house. But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and tell you, excuse me, and you will say to them, thus says the Lord God. He who hears, let him hear, and he who refuses, let him refuse. for they are a rebellious house.”

His tongue is going to stick to the roof of his mouth. I think it’s very clear. That’s a sign of silence, right? It’s as if his tongue is bound. Think of Psalm 139, excuse me, 137, where the psalmist is one who worshiped God in the sanctuary, and now he’s been exiled.

He’s not able to go there anymore. And he’s saying, if my hand forgets how to worship you, how to play an instrument, I don’t want my hand, essentially. Same thing, if my tongue May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy. The psalmist is saying, if I don’t remember Jerusalem, I don’t want to speak of anything else. Sounds a bit like Ezekiel, one who, outside of talking about God, is not able to speak He will only speak when God tells him to do so. And I think what we are seeing here is that he is God’s mouthpiece and he is God’s mouthpiece only.

He’s not going to be able to speak any other words it seems. Now understand he’s married. How’s that going to change things? You understand why he seems to be frustrated, why he seems to be mad for that week after this. Everything’s changing for him.

Now, I want us to see in the closing minutes, we’ve got about 10 minutes, the way that Ezekiel is a sign for the people. I want you to think of that. Ezekiel is a sign. Ezekiel 12, six. Load the baggage on your shoulder in their sight and carry it out in the dark. You shall cover your face so that you cannot see the land. For I have set you as a sign to the house of Israel. Where’s that word sign?

Ezekiel is a sign. Ezekiel 24, 27. On that day, your mouth will be opened to him who escaped, and you will speak and be mute no longer. Thus, you will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the Lord. He is a sign. Now, in what way is he a sign? In Ezekiel chapter three, He is housebound and his tongue is clinging. And I think that that is a sign to the Israelites of their condition.

And what are they? They are a bound people. Bound by the Babylonians. But that’s really God’s binding because God is the primary source of all things. Anything that a human does is secondary. He is mute. He is cut off from normal relations with all people.

God and Israel also are not on speaking terms at this point. Isn’t that the case? God really does not want to hear much of what they want to say, and he is rarely going to speak to them at that time. Oftentimes, prophets intercede for the people, right? He doesn’t intercede at all. This is not a normal relationship. This is a sign of Israel’s relationship with God.

Jeremiah was told to stop praying for the people. Think about that. Jeremiah’s told, don’t pray for them. Jeremiah 11, 14. Therefore, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I will not listen when they call to me because of their disaster. Ezekiel’s told not to pray, stop praying. Excuse me, Jeremiah is told not to pray, stop praying. Ezekiel never gets the chance to get started. He is going to preach judgment and judgment only.

We see Ezekiel as an actor. He is an actor in a drama. He’s going to be the main prompt. That’s what is about to happen in a number of passages that follow this one. Where’s he gonna be found though, this actor? Is he going to be like Amos in a public arena who addresses crowds? Or will he be like Isaiah who’s able to walk among kings and nobles Or will he be like Jeremiah who’s found among the worshiping community and finding a place to worship? No, this prophet is found in an unexceptional hut, in an unexceptional hut, in a tattered camp of exiles in a little unknown to us town called Tel Aviv. Gonna go and begin there.

There he’s going to act. He can’t speak to his wife. Seems like that he can’t, at least not till the very end, right before she dies. Possibly he is tied to a chair and he is possibly already racked with tremors. He may already be shaking. We know later on in the book, God talks about it, but it may already be the case. Ezekiel 12, 18 says, son of man, eat your bread with trembling and drink your water with quivering and anxiety. He may be one who is bound in that little room, in that little hut with the shakes.

He may be already groaning. which is what he does in Ezekiel 21.6. As for you, son of man, grown with breaking heart and bitter grief, grown in your sight. Understand the intensity of this man as he is bound, if he is bound there in that little hut. And he already, we do know, has the message of God in his heart, and he is not able to speak it yet.

Ezekiel 3.10, moreover, he said to me, son of man, take into your heart all my words which I will speak to you, and listen closely. The word is in his heart, and he is for a time going to keep it in, but there’s going to be a time when he cannot keep it in.

God is going to speak forth through this prophet. Similarly, in Jeremiah, we have Jeremiah who tried not to speak for God. He did not want to prophesy against the people. In Jeremiah 20, a very gripping text, Jeremiah says, the word is as a fire in my bones and I am weary from keeping it in. The Word of God is ready to birth forth from him because it’s in his heart and it’s prophecy.

He is about to get dramatic and that’s what the next chapter is going to be. His audience is very, very small. but in a small refugee camp, the one to whom he was called, everyone probably is going to know by nightfall what is going on in this little hut. And after that, they are going to know his message today and the next day, probably for the next year. Very intense the way things are about to get, especially if we try and put ourselves in the mind of Ezekiel in that time. Okay, we have just a moment for a question or a comment before we close things out. Okay, I don’t see any. Let’s pray. and prepare our hearts.

Our Heavenly Father, we understand that your prophets suffered, oftentimes at the hands of the wicked, sometimes at the hands of their own brothers, and even sometimes their suffering was brought about by the conditions of life that you brought upon them.

And surely we can identify with them For we have many difficulties as well. We ask, O Father, that we would see your glory in the groanings and in the prophecies of this great man, this man who was made great by you. And we ask, O Father, that you would be in our hearts as well, and that you would wash us, and that you would justify us, and that we would be those who are able to hear a difficult word when it comes from love. We ask, O Father, that you would use your law, and may it do its work upon our hearts, that we might see our need for Christ, We ask that you also would use your law and your judgments to help us to see the way in which we ought to live as those who are believers.

And we thank you for that grand hope that we see in Ezekiel, that temple which for him was future but for us now is present. We thank you for the wonder of being in Christ, being united to him. Help us to prepare our hearts with love as we prepare to worship you in our corporate worship. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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About this sermon

A Morning Instruction class on Ezekiel 3:16-21. The Lord makes Ezekiel a watchman for the house of Israel. If he warns the wicked and they do not turn, they die in their sin, but he has delivered his soul; if he does not warn them, their blood is on his hands. The same applies to warning the righteous against turning to sin. God sends the watchman to call his people to repent, even as he sends the Babylonians in judgment. Pastors today are called to sound that alarm, and the congregation to pray for them.

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Sermon transcript

Okay, let us open to Ezekiel chapter 3, and we’ll read 16 through 21. That’s our portion today. We might bring some people in to read. Would you be willing to read 16? And 17? And we’ll just go on back until we run out of verses. Ezekiel 3, starting verse 16. Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel.

Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, warn them from me. When I say to the wicked, you shall surely die. And if you give him no warning, you are speaking to warn the wicked from his wicked way. To save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity. For his blood I will require. Yet if you have borne wickedly, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity.

But you have delivered your son. Again, whereas by this man turns your way unrequitedly, there is a mercy which is the outspoken obstinacy for him. He who dies says, you have. No one in the future died there in the sense that it was in his days, which has to set up a commemoration by his flesh of his blood and his name. However, if you have warned the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely do. Thank you all, contributors. Okay, we are nearing the end of the third chapter. The end of the third chapter. We ought to see this. It’s broken up into smaller bits, but it is one big hole.

This is his call narrative. He is being called, probably on his 30th birthday, and he is going to be a prophet rather than a priest. Now, the way in which we left our hero Ezekiel was that he was in bitterness and in exhaustion he’s bitter and he is exhausted look at verse 14 we see the bitterness of Ezekiel so the spirit lifted me up and took me away and I went embittered in the rage of my spirit and in the hand of the Lord was strong upon me and then 15 Then I came to the exiles who lived beside the river Khabar at Tel Abib, and I sat there seven days where they were living, causing consternation among them.” This is a man who has eaten the scroll that had lamentation and woe on it. And it tasted sweet to him, but it is the bitterness of the call that he has to do, the call that he has to give. He has to preach the gospel to people who don’t want to hear it. He’s going to have no converts.

He is exhausted because he has had an amazing revelation of God that brought about his sight, his smell, his taste, All of his senses were a part of this revelation, and he just had to sit there. Now, it may be that he is telling us, being a priest, it took seven days, he may be letting us know that this is Sabbath to Sabbath. one Sabbath to the next. He starts off on the first Sabbath where he has this vision of God and he has to wait a full seven days till the next Sabbath just to get a week’s rest. Now when you think of Ezekiel, it’s good for you to think of the watchman. Because that is exactly what he is. That’s the picture that God gives of him. Now what is a watchman?

Imagine a day before electricity and before all the things that we have. Imagine a day where all the surrounding nations could possibly be bad nations that would give you reason to not trust them. Because at any time, they could attack you. But not only in other nations, but you could have rebels or marauders or people out there who just decide to attack your nation. You don’t know.

No internet, no post office, things that make things, information come to us so much faster. So you have to be, you have to have a watchman. Now imagine your city. Your city is walled but protected. Around the walls, anyone could come from another place. And you need a watchman, someone to stand guard. And that person, all he has to do is blow the horn or let people know. There’s an army right over there. staying up overnight.

Now, Ezekiel’s not the only watchman. The idea of someone being a watchman is found among a lot of the prophets because they are those who sound the alarm that vengeance is coming, that war is coming. Look at, if you will, Hosea 9, verse 8. The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God. The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God. We’ll look at a few verses in Hosea just to give you the idea of there being a watchman.

He’s going to sound the alarm, let people know. Danger’s coming. Hosea 5, 8. Blow the horn in Gebeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth Avon. We follow you, O Benjamin. So, the idea of trumpet blowing. Let everybody know, danger is coming. Hosea 8, 1. Set the trumpet to your lips.

One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law. Again, we can look at another prophet, Jeremiah 6. Turn to Jeremiah 6, if you like, to just give us an understanding that all the prophets are watchmen in a sense, but God’s much more explicit when he talks about Ezekiel. Jeremiah is one as well. Jeremiah 6, 17, And I set watchmen over you, saying, Listen to the sound of the trumpet.

And they said, We will not listen. Therefore, hear, O nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Here, O earth, behold, I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their plans, because they have not listened to my words. And as for my law, they have rejected it also. For what purpose does frankincense come to me from Sheba and the sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.

Therefore, thus says the Lord, behold, I am laying stumbling blocks before this people, and they will stumble against them, fathers and sons. Together, neighbor and friend will perish. So just to give us an idea, Jeremiah, you are a watchman. You are to warn them that danger is coming. They say, We’re not gonna listen to the watchman. We don’t care.

So God says, well, I’m gonna bring some destruction. I’m gonna make it so that you stumble and tragedy is going to happen because you did not listen to him. Also, the idea of a prophet being a watchman, find that Isaiah 56, but Isaiah 56 is a bit different because God’s not happy with the watchman there. Look what he says, 5610.

God says, his watchmen are blind. All of them know nothing. All of them are mute dogs, unable to bark, dreamers, lying down, who love to slumber. So it’s just kind of, a watchman you want to have? No, he’s saying the prophets are blind people. Think of the blind leading the blind. This would be the blind guarding the blind. And he seems to say they’re mute as well. So, I mean, these are useless people. God’s saying the prophets are useless, because they don’t speak in my name. So they ought to be warning you, but instead they tell you what you want to hear. Right? Woe unto them who say, peace, peace, when there is no peace. What was the job of the watchman or the sentry?

It’s very simple. He’s just to sound the alarm. He’s to blow the trumpet. Notice that you don’t need to be a good warrior to be a watchman. You don’t need to have any talent. You just have to be observant. You don’t even say, well, he’s a good watchman. He just does his job. To talk about a good watchman seems to me, it’s like saying, well, he’s good at watching TV. You just do it. You just sit there and you just wait.

All you have to do is be faithful to the job that you have. Now, if the watchman lets people know that danger is coming, then he’s innocent. If he does not let people know if he’s sleeping on the job, like in Isaiah 56, then he is going to be rebuked.

Why is it that God would make this picture? There are all kinds of metaphors that God can use for those who are ministers. A prophet is a sort of minister. All kinds of pictures that he could use. You can think of other ones that are used, have been used.

Shepherds of the flock. Prophets are shepherds of the flock, in a sense, are they not? They are elders of a community. They can be seen as parents in a family. They can be seen as teachers in a school. They can be seen as servants to a master. But why do you think God doesn’t use any of these pictures? I think it’s because none of those convey the amount of danger that is imminent to these people. You need a watchman. You need someone who is looking for you and having your best interests in mind.

Now if we look at 17, We see something that is very interesting and it begins our discussion and might cause us to stumble a bit because it can be difficult. 17, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, warn them from me. I just want you to keep your eye on that word from, because that is a good translation. Warn them from me. God is doing the warning, and he is saying, you need to watch out. Be careful. Tell these people that danger is coming.

But it’s interesting if the more we look at, Hebrew prepositions, that they’re not as clear as they maybe are in English. That is to say that some prepositions in Hebrew can convey more than one thing. So we ought to see that, yes, give them warning for me. But other possible renderings against me. Would that change the meaning? I don’t know. Warn them against me. You’re talking about Ezekiel 17 verse 1? Verse 1, yes. Where it says… Oh, did you say 1? 317, did I? 317. Okay, sorry if I confused you. 317, what would it mean if he says, whenever you hear a word from my mouth, warn them against me?

Maybe God is the one doing the warning, but also the one who is bringing the calamity, right? The same thing could be said Warn them about me. Kind of double meaning, double entendre or something like that. Maybe not specifically that, but warn them for me. Warn them about me.

The Babylonians are coming. But it’s not as though God is powerless against the Babylonians. God’s just as worried about the Babylonians as the people are. Why are the Babylonians coming? We read, yes? Yes, that’s exactly right. The Babylonians are bringing God’s judgment.

So God’s doing the warning. against the people who are not listening. He’s saying, hey, find safety, repent, turn from your wicked ways. But he’s also the one who is ascending them. The book of Habakkuk is just an amazing book, especially the first two chapters. It’s this idea you have, Poor little Habakkuk, what does he do?

He says, Lord, there is no justice in the world. Our whole nation is just really messed up. There’s no justice, there’s fighting, and there’s sin all over the place. And he complains to God. God says, I’m gonna show you something you never would have imagined. What I’m gonna show you is, I’m gonna bring a nation even more wicked than you against you. That’s what he says. And he tries to reason with God. He says, you can’t do that. He says, he tries to use, to argue with God using God’s holiness. You are too pure to look upon sin.

So how can you use them? You can’t dwell with them, but you’re gonna use them to strike our nation. And God says, yep, that’s what I’m gonna do. So what does Ezekiel do? He climbs up. the pillars of a castle, the palace, he doesn’t say exactly what it is, but he just stands watch, like a watchman. God’s the one who’s bringing it, but God is the one who is warning them about it. It gets to be a bit paradoxical. in a sense, does it not? Look with me at the dual purpose of the exile.

If we leave Ezekiel again, go to Jeremiah 21. Excuse me, I hope I’m not the one confusing. 29, Jeremiah 29. A worthwhile passage where Jeremiah sends a letter to the exiles. These people are down and out. He sends a letter that comforts them. In a sense, Jeremiah is pastoring them from afar. Look what he says in verse one, 29 one. Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile.

The priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. So who’s doing the work? Nebuchadnezzar. And then the body of the letter begins. and we pick it up at four. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Isn’t that interesting? In one verse, it says that the actor, the one who’s doing the activities, Nebuchadnezzar, he took them. And the next, God did it. Paradoxical, or apparently paradoxical. Back up just two chapters to Jeremiah 27. Notice God’s counterintuitive instructions to the people.

Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant. And I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him. So God says, I’ve given Nebuchadnezzar the land. He is my servant. Rush ahead to 10 and 11, talking about those who prophesy falsely. For they prophesy a lie to you in order to remove you far from the land, and I will drive you out and you will perish. But the nation which will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let remain on its land, declares the Lord. And they will till it and dwell in it.

Notice, he is saying that they are to wash their land, be taken over. counterintuitive instructions, there was one more verse that I was looking for, but basically, it’s the place where God says, don’t listen, okay, it’s nine, but as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, and your sorcerers, who speak to you saying, you will not serve the king of Babylon. So God is saying, don’t listen to the prophets. Obviously he’s not talking, don’t listen to any of the prophets because there are true prophets and there are false prophets. But imagine the difficulty of the people at that time. You have one party of prophets who’s saying one thing and another saying the other.

One is saying, hey, we’re gonna be safe. Or when they’re in the land, hey, we’re gonna be taken back. This is just a bump on the road. We’re going to be taken there. The others are saying, no, we’re going to be here 70 years. It’s going to be a long, long time. And Jeremiah says, build houses, make gardens, plant gardens, right? You’re gonna be here a long time.

The bearer of the bad news, in this case, is the one who is telling the truth. But how do you know? They’re both prophesying things that are not demonstrable right now. They’re both prophesying things that are into the future. Who are you to believe? I would say, Jesus, in other words, my sheep hear my voice. Go ahead. I was just looking at verse 14, chapter 27, and it says, so do not listen to the words of the prophet who speak to you, saying you shall not serve the king of Babylon, for they prophesy a lie to you. Yeah. Very good. I mean, imagine that.

Serve the wicked king whose God is false. God calls people to do things that are counterintuitive. He calls them to do things that are strange. And you think, why would he ever call someone to do that? Marry a prophet. Serve, marry a prostitute is what I meant to say. Pardon me.

It’s amazing, the things that God calls them to do. But back on, purpose, or many mysteries to a passage like this, warn them for me, or warn them about me. God posted the man who was to be the watchman, but in another sense, God is the one doing the invasion. He’s just using a different nation as his tool. What are we to do with a paradox like this? Or an apparent paradox? Or what some people might think, well this is a contradiction in the Bible. This is not a contradiction, it’s not a paradox for God, it might seem like one to us.

What are we memorizing, adults and morning instruction? If we had just had one verse more, we would have been right there. Why does God still blame us? Right, that’s where we end. Who are you, old man, to speak back to God? You read Romans chapter nine, and God is talking through Paul about the sovereignty of God. And he’s saying, hey, this set of twins, this one I chose, that one I didn’t. Another set of twins. I do what I want. Before they’ve even done anything righteous or wicked, I’ve chosen that one.

It gets us into those kinds of apparent paradoxes where we say, well, God predestined someone to eternal life and predestined someone to eternal death. Well, we can deny what the Bible says. That’s an option, but I don’t think that’s an option for us here. Or we can try and reconcile it, but these things I don’t think are things that we can reconcile, this side of eternity, and maybe this side of our preacherhood.

Understand that Paul is leading his opponent in Romans chapter nine, right down with the argument, right down the line, and he reaches a point. where the opponent, his interlocutor, the person that he’s anticipating his debate opponent in Romans chapter nine, eventually asks the question, if that’s the case, then why does God still blame people for being predestined to do X, Y, and Z?

And what does he do? He says, who are you, a man? Speak back to God. Was that a pop out? Was he, did he just chicken out for a minute, giving a real answer to a good philosophical question? I don’t think he did. I’ve seen commentators, they say, well, he just chickened out, or he just, I’ve heard people, I know a Bible department in a Christian university near Chicago, and there were a bunch of students that went to the church that I was interning at, They were majoring in theology, and they would say, the professor said, oh, well, Paul was just confused there. Okay. I’m not sure I wanna swim in your world, or your ocean at all, but Paul was confused, all right. I mean, I know that Paul didn’t have omniscience, he didn’t know all things, He was confused, he’s proclaiming what God has to say.

What are we to do to this? I think we just have to embrace it. We embrace what God says, period. When we get to this point. We can’t answer any more questions because once we enter into more questions, perhaps the one that Paul’s allowed to give us, or able to give us. I think we leave the area of creature, and we’re seeking to enter into God’s mind, and I don’t think that we can do that, because there is a clear and distinct difference between the creature and the creator, And some things, for us, will seem to be contradictory or paradoxical, though they are not, simply by virtue, not of our simple-ness, or not only because of that, but because of our finitude, because of how small we are and how great God is. I think that if we try and solve these kinds of mysteries, we will enter into something that we ought not to.

We essentially will become rationalists. We’re not rationalists. We are Bible believers. There is a parachurch ministry, ministry that says there are no apparent paradoxes in the Bible, so you just need further study. I don’t think those people deal with the issues fully.

I think we just need to embrace it. The teaching of God is that he predestines all things, but yet we do what we do freely. Jonathan Edwards says, God predestines the free acts of mankind. I think that’s good. Embrace the teaching of God. I mean, there are other things that I like that as well, think of the incarnation, that Jesus is fully God and fully man.

He’s one person, not two persons, that’s a heresy. He’s one person, but he’s simultaneously finite and infinite. He’s simultaneously all-knowing and all-knowing. still doesn’t know the day or the hour of his return. Only the Father knows that. Embrace the mystery, embrace the paradigms, otherwise you will find yourself with a God of your own making. Andrew.

So you’re saying we have limited free will, correct? That’s what Mason believes on? Yes, I’m saying that we must, insofar as we say, OK, we just, I don’t want anyone to think, oh, well, free will. Oh, we have free will. Or we don’t have free will. I want to say, anything with, with an asterisk by it, okay? Each thing that is said concerning these kinds of things needs qualification. We have, we could say we have free will, I’d be okay with that as long as we understand that God is not, you know, like a parent who is, their kid won’t brush their teeth, so they’re, grab the kid’s hand, And the kid is brushing his teeth, but he doesn’t want to and is forcing and fighting against it, right? But he is, it’s the parent who’s doing it.

God is not making us so that we’re robots, so that I’m saying, no, I don’t want my hand raised. I don’t, you know, I mean, we do everything we do freely. No one will say, that’s not what I wanted to do. No one will say, my hand was forced to repent, or I wanted to repent and I was not able to. We have freedom, we do what we want. But it’s all predestined, God planned it all. Embrace the mystery, embrace the paradox, the apparent paradox, which is not a paradox, because it’s not a paradox to God. But we have freedom in a sense. But we don’t have freedom, in a sense, because our options are not so much chocolate or vanilla ice cream. It’s this sin or that sin. It’s adultery or money lending. That’s more of a picture about wickedness.

And what we want to say is, with Ezekiel, These people, they’re doing what they want to do. They are worshiping other gods. They’re following the dictates of their own will, their own conscience. But these are the things that God has predestined. And then to layer it even more, we say God is warning them, but he’s also the one who is hoping that they will repent. God seriously desires all men everywhere to repent. He says so. Second Peter says so, and Ezekiel, and a number of places.

First Timothy, chapter two, says so, but yet he’s predestined certain other people to be, he’s predestined wherever one is going to go, we just must embrace, I think I saw a hand, Steve was saying, do you have a hand up? will and free will in terms of our relationship with Christ, in that when we’re not united to Christ in faith, then we are in bondage to sin, as Apostle Paul says.

So the unbeliever, his will is in bondage to sin. free to complete freedom. We are free from sin and its effects. And now we are putting a different bondage. So we have a freedom here. We have a free will, but a free will that desires to do that which God wants us to do. So in the sense of sin and that sort of thing, we speak of free will as having our will has been freed up to do that which is good. So it has to do with it. So I’ve been thinking, we speak in terms I would say absolutely, I agree fully with you.

I would add to that, just continuing with our apparent paradox, putting it in Ezekiel terms, that these people are in bondage to sin and in bondage to idolatry, but they’re doing it freely, they desire it. So there’s a sense in which they’re in bondage, there’s a sense in which they’re free. When we become believers, like you said, we become in bondage to Christ, but it’s a liberating bondage, which gives us liberty to follow him, to repent, to love him, and to worship him throughout eternity. But there’s each one, whether you’re not saved and you’re an unrepentant person, and then later on you become a believer, there’s a sense in which you’re free, there’s a sense in which you’re in bondage there, for the non-believer. There’s a sense in which the believer is free and is in bondage. They’re just, in what sense are you free? In what sense are you in bondage? You’re a bondservant of Christ, you’re free to serve him, and you’re free to seek whichever way to do that.

But it’s predestined how it’s going to happen. I just think that our views of free will and our views of liberty, we have to be very careful with that. Theology gets, we have to be very careful with our terms. There’s nothing wrong with saying there’s a sense in which. It’s actually very helpful. There’s a sense in which we’re free, there’s a sense in which we’re in bondage. And we wanna just say, well, in what sense, X? In what sense, Y?

What we want to embrace, ultimately, what we wanna never deny is God’s unbound free will. That is more important than anything else. God’s free will is unbound, in a sense. But it’s also bound. Guess why? It is bound by his promises. And it’s bound by his covenant. It’s bound by his love. So God is not willing to, he is not, in a sense, free to say, oh, this person, I’m gonna save that person and then change his mind. He has, made himself to be incumbent in a pact with himself and with his creatures. So, everybody got the paradox down? God’s the one sending the watchmen to tell them to repent. God is sending the Babylonians, the wicked Babylonians.

The focus in Ezekiel, though, is not on the fate of the respective parties. And it’s really not so much on the justice of God in Ezekiel chapter 3 as it is in Romans chapter 9. The focus in Ezekiel chapter 3 is on the role of the watchmen. They are to blame if they are guilty and they do not warn or they are asleep. and he is to blame for his failure if he fails to warn them. He is not judged guilty of the outcome, which is the people’s response. No matter what they do, he’s not guilty as long as he blows the trumpet and lets everybody know what is going on. Now obviously there are many analogies to evangelism in our passage here.

Best for us to wait until the very end to bring those up, but think of 2 Corinthians 5.20. Paul, possibly with the idea of being a watchman. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. This is what he’s saying the evangelist is, the preacher. Be reconciled to God. The preacher, the evangelist, is not culpable for what the people decide. He is culpable if he does not let the people know.

The bad news must come first. You might read Ezekiel or some other passages of the Bible and say, well, why is it so negative? Sometimes the Bible is an extremely negative book because the good news is not going to make any sense unless you have the bad news.

You are a sinner and you need a savior. The bad news is the soil of the budding and of the flowering of the good news. This was the case with John the Baptist and Jesus as well. We’re talking about two people who were very negative on sin, very positive on what God was going to do. But the people needed to hear the bad news. They needed to understand their sinfulness. They needed to be warned. The preacher must warn the righteous lest they fall into sin as well. We see that in Ezekiel. It is difficult to warn people to be effective and to be sensitive. Think about the day and age in which we live. We live in an age when people don’t want to hear it.

Now that’s been the case for a long time, but even more so because we live in a time of post-modernity. Everybody know what post-modernity is? Post-modernism. Modernism was about a generation ago when people thought that modern things, modern science and machines and technology would really help us a whole lot.

It would help us to, you know, I think speaking biblically, some people thought it would help us to reach godhood. Not literally, but they really did. That’s what many non-believers are seeking to do. Not literally, but they’re trying to cheat death and cheat a number of things.

But post-modernity is the idea that you have your truth and I have mine. Everybody hear that? If you say, well, that’s wrong. You don’t know what you’re talking about. The Bible doesn’t say that. What are they going to say? No, let me go to the Bible and show you that you’re wrong? No, they’re going to say, that’s your perspective.

I have my perspective. You have your perspective. And each one of us just needs a good back scratch. It needs to be confirmed. What you think is true. There, there. That’s the environment that we live in to a point of maybe dying. They are born in the university and die out in the university and usually the rest of the society catches up. Right? And I think it seems like it’s dying out in the university.

But, you know, I have my truth, you have your truth. You come and you are as Ezekiel, or if I come and I walk around the streets of Ambridge or Swickly and talk to people, a lot of people will just say, ah, that’s your truth. Not my truth. I’ve got my own.

They want to be affirmed? What do I need to do? Continue to preach to them. We don’t want to be rude, but just be the warning to them. Why? Because they need to hear. I need to tell them. I will be hopeful. When I first became a Christian, started looking through the Bible, dangerous. Always go flipping through the Old Testament in this part somewhere, because I found Ezekiel 33 and Ezekiel 3, companion passages, same idea, watch them. I understood that I was gonna be culpable if I didn’t tell people.

I don’t think that’s the case with all people. I don’t think all people are called to be evangelists or called to be in worship and believe the gospel, but I don’t believe in every member evangelism, What are we seeking to do? What am I seeking to do? In an age when people want to hide behind their perspectives, guess what?

They still have smoke detectors. They still have security systems. And they still have antivirus software. They still have something that’s going to let them know, that’s going to blare the alarm. I’m seeking to be that. Please pray for me as I do that. And pray for all pastors, because they are the ones, especially and primarily, who are those alarms that are to be sounding to the people, that they might turn and repent, hopefully. Let’s pray.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

A Morning Instruction class on Ezekiel 3:4-15. Ezekiel is sent not to a foreign people of strange speech but to the house of Israel, who will not listen because they are hard-hearted, and the Lord makes his face as hard as theirs. Among the first wave of exiles, he is carried by the Spirit to the exiles at Tel-abib by the river Chebar, where he sits overwhelmed for seven days, bitter in spirit. On what may have been his thirtieth birthday, when he would have begun as a priest, he is called to a hard prophetic ministry instead.

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Sermon transcript

Turn the recorder on. We must understand that Ezekiel is still overwhelmed by what he saw in chapter one. He has God speaking to him. He has a revelation of God sitting on a throne. He sees these four living creatures, which are a type of angel. He is overwhelmed by this. Remember that he actually just fell down on his face. earlier and God lifted him up by his spirit. He is one who is overwhelmed right now. What’s going on is he’s receiving his marching orders and he’s being told what he has to do. He is entering into prophethood. We also must remember he has just eaten a scroll. He ate a scroll that was full of lamentation and woe, written on both sides. God says to him, you must eat this. And so he eats the scroll, and it was sweet to him.

Now, we come to really the first section of the day, which is 4 through 11. as deafness, not literal deafness. These are people who are spiritually deaf and don’t want to hear what he’s going to tell them. Ah, another detail I should mention, one we ought to regularly remember.

He’s not in Israel. He is one of those who is taken over by the Babylonians. One of the first people who’s been taken over by the Babylonians, probably at the time between the massive taking over of all of the Judahite people, he’s one of the first exiles there. They come in waves. He’s probably part of the first wave. The next one, the big one, is going to come a little bit later. So he has to minister to people who are exiled and who are very angry.

And those are the deaf people that we’re going to read about. Being exiled because of their disobedience, it has not changed them, has not changed their hearts. They are spiritually deaf, and they are not going to respond. Now, it’s interesting that it is not that they are not able to respond, in a sense. It is that these people are not prepared to listen.

You may have noticed when we began to read that, you might have noticed something that you find a lot in your Bible is a comparison of the Israelite people or the Judahite people with the other nations. We see that often in the word. Is that ever flattering when the people of God are compared with the other nations? No, it’s never flattering. They are always on the bad end of the stick and deservedly.

I mean, understand this nation is to be a city on a hill. This nation is, and I’m talking about ancient Israel, not talking about America, I’m saying that the ancient Israelite nation was to be something that all the nations would look to and say, wow, what an amazing nation that is. And what a wonderful God they have. And look how holy and righteous they are. Instead, they end up worse than those other nations. It’s interesting when we look at Verse six, which starts in verse five. I ought then to look at verse five.

For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel. We’re gonna stop there just a moment. Okay, where’s he being sent? He’s going to be sent to his own people. But this verse six really is a dig at the Israelite people. nor to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language whose words you cannot understand. For I, but I have sent you to them who should listen to you.” I think the idea here is that these people will not listen. That’s what he’s being sent to.

If he were to go to another nation, there would be a language barrier, right? But at least those people would have the decency to listen. They would at least give him a hearing, even if they didn’t understand him. There seems to imply that they would be gracious enough to not be rude. His own people are not going to listen at all. Now, remember that there are times when God sends someone to another nation And they do hear. Think of your minor prophets. Most famous minor prophet. Think of Jonah, right? There’s a man who is sent to another people. Why did that happen?

To show that, again, the other nations will listen, but you will not. What we ought to understand here is that A language barrier can sometimes, well, a language barrier is always easier to overcome than the hardness of hearts. Nothing can overcome the hardness of a heart except for God’s grace. Now, we get the description of them in verse seven. of the Israelite people, yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you. See, at least those other nations would, since they are not willing to listen to me. Surely the whole house of Israel is stubborn and obstinate.

The literal reading of this, they are strong of forehead and hard of heart. might not read as strongly to us if it were just a literal translation, but that’s the most literal reading. Strong of forehead and hard of heart. Now we might think of those things and think, well, it makes sense, we can talk about someone being stiff-necked or hard forehead and have a hard heart, but what God is talking about here is how he expects the people to be. And he’s diagnosing them, comparing them with how they really are.

In Deuteronomy 6, 8, Moses writes, you shall bind them, that is the words of God, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. The forehead is a place that is to be a sign of someone’s submission. The forehead is a place that someone in ancient Israel would show that he loves God. Remember, they would take scripture verses and they would have them, they would wear them on their hands and on their forehead. That’s what they ought to have had, the word of God, on their forehead.

No, do not have the word of God. They have hardness, stubbornness, a strong forehead. Deuteronomy 11, 18, talking about this as well. You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul. And you shall bind them as a sign in your hand, on your hand rather, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. So, your forehead should show that you love God.

These people are showing their foreheads demonstrate that they hate God. They will not listen to him. They will not listen to his prophets. Isaiah 48, four says, because I know that you are obstinate and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead of bronze. These people are unblushingly brazen. Jeremiah 3, 3. Therefore, the showers have been withheld, and there has been no spring rain. Yet you had a harlot’s forehead. You refused to be ashamed. So, we’re going to put ourselves in Ezekiel’s mind at this time, and think, what’s going on in his mind?

Is he saying, I am so happy about my 30th birthday? Not really, this is probably his 30th birthday. He surely understands that these people are going to be against me. It probably feels like God is going to be against him. I mean, this is being called to something that’s not going to be fun.

Now, it’s interesting to think about missions at a time like this, and we can discuss It just in general, well, have you ever heard people say, well, why would anyone want to go to another nation to preach the gospel when there are people perishing here? You’ve heard someone say that. Say, well, there are people perishing all around us. Why are we spending all this money to send to another place.

Yes, Tim. Certainly. He did. There are some people who would be thinking economically, though, that it costs a lot less. We were called to everywhere. We ought to go here. We ought to go elsewhere. I think Some people are called to a ministry to stiff-necked people. And some are called to a ministry of fruitfulness. Now, obviously, ministry to a stiff-necked people. There’s fruit in his ministry. It just doesn’t look the same.

But each person is called to ministry each person who is called to preach God’s word, that is, and we need to seek to look at it, I think, with God’s eyes, that faithfulness is not necessarily found in numbers, and also, it’s not necessarily found in converts. I mean, imagine if, If God were to tell, God didn’t do this, but God were to tell a modern day preacher, I’m calling you to ministry, and you’re gonna have no converts. Imagine that, imagine, whatever you think of Billy Graham, but God were to come to him and say, I’m gonna make you, a preacher who’s gonna have no converts. You think, well, maybe I’d be better off fishing or at the plow.

No, you have to do this. Well, I’m not sure that he wants to do this. Now understand, Ezekiel, his personality, as we read Ezekiel, he is an obedient person and he’s not a complainer, right? He is not that emotional, Jeremiah. Very emotional, he’s weeping. He tells in chapter 20 about, he’s almost accusing God.

You’ve deceived me, God. I don’t want to preach, you make me preach. I don’t want to, you make it as if there’s a fire in my, a belly, a fire in my bones. So I go preach and what happens? Everybody’s against me, everybody’s mad at me. He complains to God.

There were times in Puritan history where people used to do Jeremiads. Anyone know what a Jeremiad is? It’s a type of prayer, just of lament. It’s named after Jeremiah, right? It’s not called an Ezekiel ayat or anything. I mean, it’s Jeremiah. He receives it. He takes it on the chin. He is affected by it, we’re gonna see in just a little bit, but no complaints.

We understand that sometimes someone is sent to a place and they see many people turn from their wicked ways, think of Jonah, but other times someone goes to their own house and they are not received there. Jesus says, a prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house. Let’s look at 12 then. 12 through 15. Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me.

Blessed be the glory of the Lord in his place. This is what he is hearing. He is lifted up. from this overwhelming, we could say, multimedia experience. He has experienced sights and sounds, smells, tastes, and touch that we will never, ever experience this side of eternity. The next side, when we are resurrected, yes, We will see these kinds of things, and I can’t wait. But aren’t you glad that you will see them without the frailty of this body and the sinfulness and unrighteousness of this body?

This is a man who sees them with all the frailties and is overwhelmed, the spirit lifts him up, just as the Spirit had set him on his feet before. Ezekiel 2, 2. Remember that this is the second time that God has done this. As he spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. So God is one who is picking him up. Now, he lifts him up and he takes him to Tel Aviv.

Now we don’t wanna mix this up. We don’t wanna confuse this with another town that sounds very similar, which is Tel Aviv, right? Now in Hebrew, they exactly, Andrew, they sound the same. They sound the same. In Hebrew, they’re even closer. Right, David? Because there’s a letter that The B and the V sound. It’s got to have a dot in it and a dot out of it.

It changes the sound, but they’re in Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, not in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is modern day Israel. Tel Aviv is a place where they are exiled. And Tel Aviv is the place that he is going to minister. This is probably in modern day Iraq is where he is exiled. Now, what is the meaning of Tel Aviv?

How about this for a name? It’s a good thing that it’s short, the name, because its meaning is very long. Think of small town left over from the flood. How do you like that? That’s where he’s gonna go. Small town left over from the flood. Right? It’s kind of like, it sounds like it’s just the remnants of a town.

Because they’re in slavery. The Babylonians come, take them. We are the top empire in the world now. We are the Babylonians. Hear us roar. And they make these people work in the hot sun. They’re not gonna give them a luxurious, nice house. They’re giving them small town left over from the flood. What flood? I don’t know, it doesn’t say, it doesn’t need to. It’s just the meaning of the name of the city.

Not an exhilarating place to go and do ministry, right? You know, when you listen to people who have grand dreams of ministry, sometimes when they are not really being realistic. I was in the charismatic movement for a while. Everybody wants to have just the most amazing ministry, and I’m gonna reach the whole world myself, and I’m gonna have Brett Malin ministry. It’s gonna be international, No, it’s not Ezekiel.

Just called to such humility and to such, so little, to a small town left over from the flood. Now, what’s his response to all of this? He’s been called, he has bitterness, and he is angry in spirit. He’s bitter and angry. He has God’s word in him. Well, let me just say this. Let me just back up. What does he mean by that? This is 14, pardon me, lost my place.

So the spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went embittered in the rage of my spirit, and the hand of the Lord was strong on me. What do you think he must mean? Well, I might point out, first of all, that this is one of the few times where we get how he’s feeling, very much unlike Jeremiah, right? He is embittered, he’s raged, he is mad, the Holy Spirit is taking him. What does it mean for him, or why is he angry and bitter? Well, could be. Some people would say that he’s bitter and angry because he has eaten God’s word.

Has he not remembered he eats the scroll and it’s full of lamentation and woe. When he eats it, it’s sweet to him. unlike John in Revelation who it’s bitter and then sweet. John gets both. We’re not told by Ezekiel that it’s bitter when he eats it. But it may be the case that Ezekiel is beginning to feel the bitterness of what he has eaten. That is to say, he is bitter and angry because the word of God has gotten into him. And it was sweet, but now he is beginning to feel God’s anger, right?

Because it’s an anger against these people. Some would propose that that is what it is. I think, but the majority of people that I see don’t believe that it’s bitterness from having the word of God in him, that lamentation and woe, taking those on, but instead that he is bitter at God for the unenviable task, that unenviable task before him where he may feel like God is against him and he will feel like man is against him, his people whom he loves. Now this word bitter, just to give you an idea of how he feels.

How do you feel, Ezekiel? It’s the same word that is used when Esau is robbed by his brother. That’s the kind of bitterness. Right? This is the same kind of bitterness, same word that is used to talk about the Israelites being enslaved, Exodus chapter one. They are in bitterness.

Or, remember what Naomi says in Ruth chapter one? She says, don’t call me bitter, or excuse me, don’t call me Naomi anymore. I want to have a new name. Anyone remember what her new name was? Mara. Yes. Well, guess what the word is? Mar. Mar is bitterness. That’s the agony of Job, is Mar. That’s Esau robbed. That’s the Israelites enslaved. With the feminine ending, ah, she’s saying, don’t call me Naomi. Call me bitter with a feminine ending. That’s my new name, all right?

His word about being angry, that’s about a word that can mean or is elsewhere used of boiling heat, boiling water. This is a bitter and angry man. We might put ourselves in his shoes once again. His 30th birthday, he had hopes of being a priest working in the temple. That dream is gone from him, it’s not going to happen. But here it is, it’s his 30th birthday, he’s an exiled man. Well, could he have still been in some sense a priest out in Tel Abib and by the River Kibar? He could have, in a sense, continued to work as a priest, he certainly would have had an easier life.

The people might have brought him thank offerings anyways. Imagine these people are displaced. They’re going to keep some of their customs. And they’re going to keep some of their habits. I would think that if he were to work as a priest outside of the land, they’re gonna bring things to him. Well, that’s Ezekiel, he’s a priest. We need to bring him something because we have X, Y, and Z to be thankful for, and we’re going to bring a thank offering to him.

Instead of having a little bit more casual life, working as a priest in a displaced land, he has to preach to these people. and they are going to hate him for it. It is bad enough to be exiled, but now he will be alienated from his people by preaching to them.

Understand, his alienation seems to come in steps. First, he’s alienated from the land, which is where God is, right? Well, God comes to him and says, I’m here. I am here with you in this exiled place. But he’s going to be alienated by the people to do strange things, to lie in the street and be just a, what a lot of people would think of almost a sideshow. This is what he’s being called to. This is a man who bears the cross before anyone ever said bearing the cross. He’s enduring that. Well, yes. Question, please.

I don’t think so. I think that different time period and a different culture, but I think we’re all people and we all have the image of God and we all think strange things are strange. I don’t think there was, I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that that wouldn’t, that that would have been normal behavior.

I mean, he’s trying to make a point. In a lot of ways, he’s a sign. of what God’s going to do. And so no, I don’t think so. I think that he’s called to be a weirdo. He really is. And I don’t say that, I guess that has a bad connotation to it. From God’s point of view, it ought not to. You do what God says, no matter how strange it is. Lie in the street, on your side for X number of days, and then after a number of days you turn over. Marry a prostitute. Hosea, same kinds of things. God asks us to do, or asks prophets to do strange things. and they have to obey, and it’s strange for them, strange for us, strange for their contemporaries. Tim. Yes.

Was Job on his side though? I don’t think Job was… I think Job was just sitting and looking down and his friends come to him after that. I mean this is… Yes. Yes. But he sits in bitterness. And here’s one who sits in bitterness as well. We ought not to end on a negative note. We ought to understand that the good days are coming. Ezekiel 40 through 48 are coming when God dwells with his people again and when the new temple comes. And the people are that temple. Okay, well, it’s 1040. We ought to…

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

About this sermon

A Morning Instruction class on Ezekiel 2:6-3:3. The Lord tells Ezekiel not to fear the rebellious house, though thorns and scorpions surround him, and to speak God’s words whether they listen or not. He is given a scroll written front and back with lamentation, mourning, and woe, and told to eat it; it is as sweet as honey in his mouth. The calling is both honor and hardship, and God’s word can be bitter to hear yet sweet to those who receive it, as believers learn to love even its hard sayings.

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Sermon transcript

push the record button too, why not? I do anticipate once we get through chapter three, I think we might be able to go a little bit faster. I don’t know if it’s going too slow for some, but there’s a lot in here in these first three chapters. There’s really a lot to milk out of just about every single verse.

Let’s prepare then, let’s read. If you would read 2-6, and we’ll just, 2-7, and go back and forth please. not be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious Verse 8. Now you, son of man, listen to what I am speaking to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house.

Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you. Then I go. Behold, a hand was extended to me, and love, a scroll, was in it. When he spread it out before me, it was written on a part of the back, and a letter upon it was annotated And he said to me, son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll. Go, speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that scroll. And he said to me, son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you.

We can stop there. Thank you very much for being willing to read. Thank you for being volunteers and for going along with that. So first verse, verse six, some interesting things here. You, son of man, neither fear them nor fear their words. The thistles and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions, neither fear their words, nor be dismayed of their presence, for they are a rebellious house.

And we want to remind ourselves, we also might want to remind people who haven’t been here, that Ezekiel is a man who has been exiled. He’s exiled with the people of God, and they are a down and out people, they are very sad, And God comes to him on the 30th year.

Most likely, that’s his birthday. He is of a priestly class. He would have been a priest. This would be the day probably near his ordination or the day of his ordination as a priest. Instead, God ordains him as a prophet. Now, do we want to be a prophet? A lot of people will, in our day, charismatic people will say, I’m a prophet. And they think that that’s a really good thing.

Well, in a sense, it is a good thing, but it’s not a glorious office. It is a glorious office, but is it really? It’s a humble, oftentimes humiliating office, and the people who are prophets have many, many hardships. They’re not people who have Lots of joy in their life, why?

Because they have a burden that is laid down on them that they cannot shake off of them. God in his grace has chosen Ezekiel and he has to bear great burdens. These are the burdens. Do not fear their words. Now, this is very important for someone who’s going to speak God’s Word, he cannot fear man. At the funeral of John Knox, this man, I’ve been meaning to ask Pastor Knox for a year if there’s any relation. John Knox, the Scottish Presbyterian. Yes. Or Grandpa John, which is it? Yes. Any relation? Distant even? Any relation? None, you should claim it anyways, not really. Of course, Presbyterianism is in my blood.

John Knox was a student of Calvin, a man who suffered a lot in life, but this is a man who did not fear anyone. It was even said at his funeral. This is a man who did not fear the face of man. We’re talking about a man who was in a work camp, the equivalent of a work camp. We’re talking about a man who many queens, well, not many queens, a certain queen was out to get him and would have gladly had him put to death. He wrote a book as a response called, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Blasphemous Regiment of Women. He did not fear anyone. He was not a misogynist. He wrote to his mother-in-law very kind things. But he was a man who did not fear the face of man. And he preached. And he preached with all of his heart.

It’s not only something that the minister ought to have, but all people ought to understand the plague that is the fear of man. I honestly do believe that when we get over our fear of man, we are strengthened in great ways. I know Ian Taylor has read a book that I’ve read called, When People are Big and God is Small. A book that I would recommend if anyone has fear of man issues, which many of us do and don’t even realize it. That book is amazing. It is a sanctifying experience to read that book and quite an aid to get over our fear of man.

Fear of man is a great sin. It causes us to do many things because we see people as bigger than God. But God will have nothing of that for Ezekiel. Do not fear what they’re going to do to you. Do not fear what they’re going to say to you. Even though they’re going to plot against him.

Matthew 21 15 Jesus, speaking many years later, he says, then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap him in what he said. The Pharisees are seeking to trap Jesus. Well, guess what? All the prophets sought to, they plotted to trap all of the prophets of old. Jesus goes after the Pharisees in Matthew 23 for this reason. It says, you’re just like those who persecuted the prophets.

Now, he is one who is going to dwell among thistles and thorns. Thistles and thorns. Is he talking about things on the ground? Is he talking about what the agriculture is like there now? He’s clearly talking about the people. God is calling the people among whom he dwells, thistles and thorns. They will be that which causes injury, harm, and hurt to him. Then he says, you’re going to sit on scorpions, or at least that’s what our Bible in the pews and a lot of current translations have. You’re going to sit on scorpions.

What could that mean? Maybe a figure of speech? sit on, that doesn’t seem like a good idea at all. Doesn’t seem productive. It doesn’t sound like a scorpion would be able to support anyone’s weight anyways. So it wouldn’t work out well for the scorpion. Some people would say that this scorpion, it might be a type of bush, maybe. Maybe not. I think that from consulting the Hebrew and also to my surprise some of the other older translations don’t have sit on scorpions.

They have something which is similar in Hebrew. which is dwell with scorpions or dwell among scorpions. The King James goes with that. The King James doesn’t have anything to do with sitting on scorpions, but the King James has to do with dwelling among them. And the same is the case with the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, same thing. There’s no sitting on scorpions there, it’s dwelling among them.

So what God is, I think clearly enough, saying is that you will dwell among scorpions. That’s what God is saying about these people. They are thistles, they are thorns, or they are briars, and they are scorpions. Do we have precedent for God using this kind of language in His Word? We certainly do.

What does Jesus say to some people who were criticizing Him? He says, you den of vipers. That’s not a compliment, all right, you den of vipers. of vipers. It seems as though those who will not have anything to do with God and those who torment God’s people, God is perfectly glad to make the analogy between certain types of reptiles or uh… other types of uh… animals not saying that a scorpion is a reptile uh… but anyways uh… the types of animals that just gross you out you don’t want them in your house Now why is it that God is in this type of name calling?

This is not childish name calling. He’s cutting to the heart. He’s getting to the heart of what these people are like because he is the one who searches the heart. He knows these people and Ezekiel is going to dwell among them. The life of a hermit is not open to Ezekiel, you’re going to be with these people, these exiled people who are hating you and hating me. God knows their works. Similarly, God says, Jesus Christ says to John in Revelation 2, 13, to one of the churches, I know your works and where you dwell. even where Satan’s seat is. I know your works and where you dwell, even where Satan’s seat is. He speaks to those who dwell among those who are against God.

Though these people have been exiled, they have not learned their lesson. These people are as bad as ever. You can understand someone saying, hey, why did we get thrown out of our land? We got thrown out of our land because the prophet said this was going to happen, that we were gonna be sent out for 70 years. This is not an accident. This is not a coincidence. And God is not just being mean to us. We broke the national covenant. We continued to worship other gods, so we’re sent out. We’re cast out.

They don’t, there’s no thought of, well maybe we need to repent, we need to rend our hearts, we need to rend our garments, and we need to put sackcloth on, we need to put dust or ashes upon our heads, and we need to worship God like we’ve never worshipped him before. That’s not the case, and we’re gonna see that through the few narratival sections of this book.

Verse seven, where he says, but you shall speak my words to them, whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious. What is laid down upon Ezekiel is a duty and an honor and a cross bearing hardship. Surely you can understand that He would have gone through the same temptations of any minister or anyone who desires to share the gospel with someone else. You’d much rather talk about baseball or the weather or any of those things. But when God lays it upon a pastor, or sometimes I think someone does desire to do that, to mention the gospel, invite someone to church, It is a burden, it is an honor, but it is something to be endured and ministers especially need to be obedient to that.

But notice that the outcome really doesn’t matter, does it? You need to do it, but you shall speak my words to them whether they listen or not. for they are rebellious. It is God’s plan, it is God’s design that the gospel would be preached to people, even to people who don’t want to hear it.

We don’t want to be those who simply speak the word to those who already know it, who already hear it, and we’re just reaffirming things that we already know. We don’t want that. We want to be growing ourselves and we need to hear it. Christians need the gospel week in and week out. We all need it. We need to be growing in it. But those who are outside of the church. They ought to hear it as well. And there is a burden laid down upon pastors. They have to let people know whether those people will hear it or not. It does not matter. God’s grand design is that people would hear it.

Now you, son of man, verse eight, listen to what I am speaking to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you. Now hold off on the eat what I am going, what I am giving to you. Why do you think it is that God has to remind Ezekiel saying, listen to what I am speaking to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house.

I think, don’t you think that kind of goes without saying? Why does God have to be repetitive? Well, I think he wants to make it clear to Ezekiel that if you are like them, if you don’t speak what I’m giving you, What I’m saying to you, then you will be just as disobedient as those disobedient people in that disobedient house. And how disobedient are those people?

Many passages in this book will let us know, but one in particular, turn with me to Ezekiel chapter eight. I’d like to read the whole chapter, but I won’t. We’ll just stick to one verse, just because it gets to the heart of what the whole chapter is about.

But Ezekiel chapter eight has abominations in Jerusalem. Really, that’s what the uninspired subtitle Really, this is abominations even in the temple. Now understand, Ezekiel is in, basically, he’s in Babylon, he’s in Iraq, right? But he’s getting a vision of what’s going on, Ezekiel chapter eight, in the temple of God in Israel, in Judah. And what they’re doing there is they’re worshiping false gods. Women are weeping for taboos, a false goddess, which is somewhat redundant. All goddesses are false, right? Ezekiel 8, 16, now listen to this.

Then he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, between the porch, pardon me, and the altar, were about 25 men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were prostrating themselves downward toward the sun, just to give us a picture of what’s going on there. Now understand, this is a holy place that the people have entered. In the Old Testament, there are holy places They ought not to be desecrated because they are consecrated for certain use. And there are big consequences to this, but God holds back his wrath against them. But this is what’s going on there. Worshipping of idols in the temple.

This is not good. Now, with that in mind, we think of what verse eight. Now, you son of man, listen to what I’m speaking to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Do not be like those who disobey me. Be different. Listen to what I say and speak what I say. Those that speak from God to others must be sure to hear from God themselves and be obedient to His voice.

And Ezekiel will eat the Word. He will eat the Word, as we read in chapter 3, and we’re going to get to that momentarily. In chapter 3, he eats a scroll. And it is sweet to his taste. Real briefly, verse nine. Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me, and lo, a scroll was in it. Now Ben would be glad to tell you. Where’s David, by the way? Is he all right? Is he? OK. OK. Just checking. I like to pick on my Hebrew guys.

Then I looked, and behold, Ben will let us know. A hand was extended to me, and lo, a scroll was in it. Literally, in Hebrew, I just like the way it speaks. If Ben had his Hebrew Bible, he could confirm this. I try to let them know, bring your Hebrew Bible to church. A hand was sent to me. That’s just the way that the Hebrew reads. A hand was sent to me, giving it. That’s actually the normal way that the Hebrew speaks of a hand coming. That would be a very good translation and interpretation. But just being literal, it’s just a figure of speech the way the Hebrew reads. A hand was sent out to me, or sent to me. Verse 10, when he spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back and written on it were lamentations, mourning and woe.

What could be more lamentable, more mournful? more woeful than to see a holy people sunk into such a state of sin and misery as it appears by the prophecy of this book the Jews were at this time. What a lament. You are a holy people who are not holy. And you are going to suffer the consequences of this. So sadness, mourning, lamentation, woe. This is a bitter pill to swallow. These are not happy thoughts. Not at all.

Serving God is not always fun, especially at the outset, but it must be done. Now, Understand, though, that this is going to be sweet to his taste when he eats it. But it’s bitter, and it’s something that is to be lamented. Is there a contradiction between these two? Certainly not. We can say that there’s a sense in which what he’s going to take in is going to be very bitter.

What he’s going to take in is also, in a sense, going to be very sweet to him. There are many things that we partake of that are bitter and that are sweet. Are there not? What are your thoughts when you partake of the Lord’s Supper? Is it all sadness and mourning? Or is it all joy? I don’t think it ought to be one or the other. I think it very clearly ought to be both and, right? You partake of the Lord’s Supper.

This is lamentation and woe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that we love so much. And it causes us to think of what he did, the amazing suffering that he endured for us. But God did not give the Lord’s Supper simply for us to have our heads hang low. God gave the Lord’s Supper that we might take joy in it. So there’s kind of an analogy between these things where it is bitter to us and it is sweet. We ought not to embrace one or the other, we’re humans, we’re prone to extremes, but I think accepting both, it is sweet and it is bitter. Bitter to our savior, bitter to us because we love him, but sweet because it proclaims his death And that is what we want to be proclaimed, that He died so that we can be forgiven, that we don’t need to endure God’s wrath.

He has endured it for us. Now, similarly, we have another passage where something happens almost the same. Revelation 10, verse nine. There are a lot of Ezekiel references in Revelation. You may have seen a few, we’ve talked about a few, but here’s one that’s really very direct. I mean, it happens to John, but it’s a similarity with what happens to Ezekiel. Revelation chapter 10, verse nine. So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book.

And he said to me, take it and seal it, It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth, it will be sweet as honey. First it’s bitter, or excuse me, not first, but stomach bitter, sweet in the mouth, a little different there. Now, Ezekiel doesn’t tell us that it was bitter to his taste, but it’s mourning and lamentation and woe, clearly, It was a bitter thing to swallow, but sweet. And then our last three verses, we’ll try and do these in one. Three, one through three.

Then he said to me, son of man, eat what you find, eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth and he fed me this scroll. He said to me, son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with the scroll which I am giving you. And I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.

Now we understand from our past lessons, our past discussions, that this is the Lord Jesus Christ. I think this is the Lord Jesus Christ who’s speaking to him. He has received. The revelation of these four angels, they’re standing as wheels within wheels, and they are of a different plane, of a different place. They represent all the realms of creation, the flying realm, the wild realm, the domestic realm, man who rules over them. There’s a big rainbow. The Son of Man, the other Son of Man, is speaking to the Son of Man. Jesus Christ is speaking to Ezekiel, and He says, Son of Man, eat this scroll.

Admit this revelation into your understanding. Take it. Take the meaning of it. Understand it aright. Admit it into your heart. Apply it. And be affected by it. Imprint it on your mind. ruminate, and chew the cud upon it, Take it as it is entire, and make no difficulty of it.

Nay, take pleasure in it, as thou dost in thy meat, and let your soul be nourished and strengthened by it. I am quoting Matthew Henry, because it’s very helpful here. Let it be meat and drink to you, and as your necessary food, be full of it. And you, as you are of the meat, you have eaten. Matthew Henry says, thus ministers should be in their studies and meditations, take in that word of God, which they are to preach to others. What we find in scripture, we must eat.

Now, when we read God’s word, there are many things. that can rub us the wrong way, rather than off. Does the Bible offend you when you read it? No, I think that there’s a sense in which, yes, not if you understand it, but sometimes on its head, you read it and you find things in there you say, ooh. Dashing children against rocks. Yes, save the virgin for yourself. You know, pregnant women being ripped open and things like, I mean, whoa, very difficult to read.

But God gives it to us for our sanctification, for us to even take those places as sweet. even to take bitter passages of his word and see them as sweet because they’re the word of our God and because they show us that he is righteous in all of his judgments, he is righteous in all that he does.

And so I would challenge you with this, that if we take those passages of God’s word which are bitter and we receive them as Sweet, we come to understand them, we chew the cut of them, put them in us and get the word of God into us. I think that all the more the sweet passages will become that much more sweet. Do you understand what I’m saying? If we embrace the bitter as sweet, thinking of God’s righteousness and his judgment, we will see the sweeter passages as all that much more sweet. Go ahead. Go ahead. against the rocks and things like that. That’s a bitter, tough passage. But I think, at least for me, and I would think for most women, you know, that command in scripture to live in submission to your husbands, that can be a really bitter passage for women.

And I know for me, you know, God reminds me of, that was my vow, to love, honor, and to live in submission to John. He didn’t vow that to me, I vowed that before God. But I’ve learned over the years, like when I fucked John, that’s when, like, And that’s not what God’s designed. Not because everything’s supposed to be happy and wealthy. But I’ve learned that even if I don’t understand what he’s saying or doing, and I don’t even agree with him, that that’s my calling. So that in that bitterness, that, oh, am I female, sinful, fallen nature? I don’t want to do that. But that’s because what God calls me to do, he makes it sweet.

And then my second thought was, In the first in James, I think it’s one very, count it all joy when you fall in the various trials. You first read that, and you’re like, wait, this is a dichotomy. Kind of like what you’re saying about Ezekiel. It’s a dichotomy. How can you count it all joy?

How can it be sweet in my mouth and like, John, bitter in my stomach? But God, we walk in it because it’s his truth. He shows us that eternal perspective, that it’s, you know, we want what’s sweet and around to be sweet in our stomachs because we live in a simple, fallen, earthly, temporal world. But God’s saying, no, I want you to see it long term. I want you to partake of me with that suffering. And so that counts with all joy when you fall into various trials.

It seems to, in my mind, overarch what’s happening in Ezekiel. Absolutely. I think that’s perfect. Your first comment about the way that that which is bitter, it seems as if you’re saying it’s become more sweet to you. I mean, I think many of us who have wrestled with God’s word, we come to understand the sweetness of it, even the bitter passages, but it takes time. Absolutely.

I mean, same thing. I mean, if I could name for you the amount of nights I spent up very late reading Romans 9, 10, and 11. You know why? Because I did not want it to say double predestination. That was a bitter pill to swallow, and I would not have it. But here I am, right? And you know what? It is sweet to me. It is.

I mean, and there are many people who will talk about predestination, the most offensive thing you ever heard. They come to embrace it and see God’s beauty in it, and God’s kindness and glory, that he didn’t just die for whomsoever will, Jesus not choosing his bride, but he died for you. Something to think about.

Well, may we chew upon God’s word and eat heartily of it, and understand that there are many passages, even for me still, maybe even for you, that are bitter and lamentation and woe. May we take those in, and chew upon those, and receive those, and may those become sweet to us. And may we taste the sweetness of Jesus all the more. Let us pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the glory of your word. We thank you for the power and the way that it speaks to us. We are grateful for all that you have done for this prophet and through this prophet. We ask that you would continue to teach us and continue to be with us as we have lack of faith and such small faith. But you, oh Lord, are Continuing that work that you began in us, you are showing your kindness and your grace.

We ask, O Father, that we would understand the bitter pill that the Lord Jesus Christ swallowed for us, that he was thirsty because he was in hell for us. What an amazing God of love you are. We give praise to you and praise to your son and praise to the spirit that illuminates the beauty and the grandeur and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.

I have a verse for you. Sure, shoot. Proverbs 29, 25. The fear of man bringeth sneer. But he who puts his trust in the Lord will be safe. I heard somebody give a talk on that and he was powerful too. I wish I could find that. I don’t know if I could look on YouTube or wherever but this guy was dying. cancer that was inoperable and he was dying. He’s saying, what do I have to fear?

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About this sermon

A Morning Instruction class on Ezekiel 2:1-5. After the vision of glory, the Lord tells Ezekiel, “Son of man, stand on your feet,” and the Spirit enters him and sets him on his feet. He is sent to a rebellious house, and whether they hear or refuse, they will know a prophet has been among them. “Son of man” marks Ezekiel as a frail man who suffers for his people, and points to Jesus, the Son of Man, in both his humiliation and his exaltation.

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Sermon transcript

of Israel to the rebellious people who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. I’ll speak my words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. Now you, son of man, listen to what I am speaking to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you. We can move to the front row. Thank you Thank you everyone for your reading. Okay, just to catch us up.

We spent a little bit of time in chapter 1 chapter 1 we see this grand vision and This grand vision is what Ezekiel sees. Remember, he sees these cherubim, these angels with four wings, four faces. And they are as those who are standing in wheels within a wheel. He sees them. He also sees this thing like an expanse. What I’m maintaining, just to remind us is, this is the creation on a smaller scale. This is all of what God has in creation. He has animals, there’s an eagle, one of the faces is an eagle.

For the cherubim, there’s a man, there’s a woman, there is an ox to show the lords of all of the different realms, the lords of the air, lords of the domestic realm, lords of the wild realm, and the lords of all the realms, which is man, which is what God has given.

Now, we also talked about what Ezekiel sees. He sees one who is as a man, sitting upon a throne, Sitting upon a throne, he has a rainbow by him, and I’m maintaining that the rainbow is not to think of a divine bow and arrow. In God’s word, if we just trace lightning, and if we just trace bows, we see what seems to indicate that God, who is a warrior, God is a warrior, He is one who rests his bow, but there are times when he takes his bow off and he shoots with the lightning, which is the arrow. Now, he comes to Ezekiel like this, and Ezekiel sees this. He sees the bow hanging. So we have to understand that Ezekiel, you are not going to be a recipient of wrath. God has put his bow aside. He has hung it up.

So we could say, in the same way that we say grace and peace to you, this is God saying, Ezekiel, grace and peace to you, not wrath and judgment be upon you. What would we think that we would do in a situation like this? May God have mercy upon us. Should we ever see something like this? We won’t see anything like this until the day of judgment and the time when we will have our new bodies will be resurrected at that time and we would see anything like this. We won’t be having any prophetic visions or anything like that. What does it see?

What does he do? Last verse, chapter one. He’s not standing, right? He is down. And God speaks to him. That’s where we pick up in our verse two, one. Then he said to me, son of man, stand on your feet that I may speak with you. He is prostrate, prostrate.

It seems as though you stand up to take orders from the Lord. It seems as if that would be a right position to be in. Is it a right position to be in on your face before the living God? Yes, it is. It’s also a right position to be standing up. We ought to be worshiping God on our face, surely. At least, metaphorically, we surely are. But we will be doing that, I think, a fair amount in heaven. But this is different. Now he’s going to order him. He’s going to receive the orders of what he is going to do. We can look elsewhere in God’s word. We see other times where God says to stand up. You’re about to receive orders from me. Acts chapter 26 verse 16. We have an example where Paul is seeing the Lord Jesus. He is recounting what happens in Acts chapter nine. He’s recounting his conversion when the Lord knocks him down and speaks to him. What does he say?

Acts chapter 26, 16, but get up and stand on your feet for this purpose. I have appeared to you to appoint you a minister and a witness, not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you. So God is saying, receive.

Do not receive them lying down. Not that there’s anything wrong with being prostrate. But it seems as though Ezekiel does not have strength to stand up. It’s understandable that he would not have strength to stand up. I mean, look through the drawing. have been overwhelming.

Do we believe that God supplies us with that which he requires of us? Yes, we do. He demands repentance of us. He also supplies faith and repentance. That’s why we understand that our faith and our repentance is God’s work, not our work. We’re not Arminians, that’s God working in us. He supplies what He requires. Well, God is going to need to supply what He is requiring of Ezekiel now. Look what happens. Verse 2, As He spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me. And he does not stand up by his own abilities. The Holy Spirit is the one who takes him from this prostrate position and puts him on his feet to receive the orders, the marching orders that he is about to receive.

But notice, we see that wonderful language. Anytime it talks about the Spirit, I get excited. And I hope you do, especially in your Old Testament. What happens in this verse? The Holy Spirit enters into him. Now, I want to ask you, why is it special that the Holy Spirit enters into him? It is special because God is entering into him. But I want to ask you this. If the Holy Spirit is able to enter into Ezekiel, all these centuries before Pentecost, then what’s so special about Pentecost? Okay, very simple. feel too.

The Holy Spirit is entering into him. But, here, in the fullness of time, this is the fullness of time, this is the eschaton, Christ is born, he dies on a cross, and then Pentecost comes. Everybody knows what happens at Pentecost? Pentecost tongues of fire fall on the people and they begin to be filled with the Holy Spirit, right? Well, it seems that Ezekiel, he’s filled with the Holy Spirit here. So, if he’s receiving, if the apostles at this time receive something that Ezekiel already had, then why did we need Pentecost?

It was already there, it’s already happening. Anyone wonder about that? God talks about the eschaton, the fullness of time. I see you, I’m gonna come to you. Wait, God talks about this time as the time when he’s gonna put the Spirit on the people. This is good. It’s already happening. Kathy has a question or comment. Amen, true. Darla. I like where you’re going.

I think though, he seems to be a down payment here though. in the New Testament, yes, of the second coming, and that’s out here. But you’re good, very good. Steve. Well, seeing that his coming from the Old Testament was occasional and only on a few, Yes. Very good.

At the same time, I would wonder, in the Old Testament, Kathy’s absolutely right. I don’t want to imply that Ezekiel’s the only one who received this. A couple of the judges received the Holy Spirit. Samson does, along with, I mean, even Saul. He hunts a prophet. Wicked King Saul. David has it. Believers have it, for sure, in a special way. What about this? I like all the answers, but I want to put this to you. We don’t have to think of the eschaton, the fullness of time, and it’s really coming in two installments, right?

Humiliation and exaltation of Christ. We ought to think about it in terms of the death and resurrection. We ought to think of it in his first and second advents, right? Now, we believe that Judgment Day is coming upon the wicked What happens in the Old Testament when God brings judgment upon someone? We have an understanding that God is bringing judgment day down to rain on a certain person. Think of the Canaanites. They’re supposed to be destroyed. They’re to be put to death, right?

Sometimes people die, especially in the Old Testament, It is to say that judgment day has intruded into this area. That’s a very helpful word. This time, when the spirit is active, this fullness of time, first, second coming, judgment day, eternal righteousness, all these things that we are in, first, second coming, but judgment day intrudes upon Choose your Old Testament person where the wrath falls. It’s intruding. Power, this present age, intrudes upon the passage. I think what we have is, for the believer in the Old Testament, the effects of Pentecost are intruding upon the Old Testament.

Right, the Old Testament saints are looking forward, anticipating this day. This is the day that they’re looking for. Abraham is looking for this day. This is, some people have it almost backwards. They live in this time that we live. And they’re thinking, I wish I could go see that stuff. I wish I could see these grand revelations.

Well, we can appreciate that, but I think we might be backwards, biblically thinking, especially when we think of that, those verses that are, I see you on, come back to, 1 Peter 1, 10 through 12, where the prophets, the angels, they’re looking forward to this time, because they don’t fully understand the prophecies that they’re making, in the same way that Judgment Day comes and intrudes upon people in the Old Testament, so do the glories of things like Pentecost seem to intrude upon something that’s really not for their time, in a sense. Pastor Knox. Yes, I may be leading this one ahead, but I’m looking at chapter three, verses four, five, and six, Certainly. I guess I would not disagree with you. but there certainly is a different, I mean, there’s a function, there’s a different function for different ages, and we wouldn’t dispute that, but I’m more speaking of the spirit coming upon someone in a special revelatory sort of way. I think the apostles also get a taste of this in John chapter 20, 22.

And there we see Jesus is raised, but he has not gone to the Father. And what does he say? And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. It’s as if there’s a miniature Pentecost for the apostles, for the disciples. As I said, God supplies what he requires of us. How do we know that? Because Ezekiel stands up and he’s about to receive these orders.

God’s comforting spirit comes to him. God comforts different prophets in different ways and God comforts different believers in different ways. In this case, he stands him up and he puts the spirit upon him. In Daniel chapter 10, 18, It says, then this one with human appearance touched me again and strengthened me. Here, this one touches him, Daniel. Revelation chapter one, 17 and 18.

John is comforted as well by God himself. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man and he placed his right hand on me, saying, do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the living one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Verse three, then he said to me, good, I’m saying that I believe, yes, there’s a sense in which it is a foreshadowing or a taste of it on a minor scale for the Old Testament believer. It ought not to be us looking back and envying the great things that they were able to see. It is them, in a sense, participating in the eschaton, in our time, yes. In the same way that those who the wrath falls, the wrath falls on them, they’re in a sense participating in our time, the fullness of time. The believer is also participating in, the believer in the Old Testament is participating in that. That’s what I’m saying. Thank you for that. Mark. Amen. Thank you for sharing.

That’s what I’m saying. Yes. is also given that title, son of man? That’s a very good question, and I’m glad you asked it. The term and the phrase of the word son of man has a, it does not have one fixed meaning. It has a couple. In one sense, it does mean son of man, the word for, Man in Hebrew is Adam, son of Adam. And so there’s a sense in which this is just saying man. And it is a humbling term because you’ve seen this grand vision and you’re just a man, son of man. This is grand and glorious. who are you, so it’s humbling in that sense.

Now, if you read the book of Daniel, Daniel talks about the son of man, he says, one like a son of man, and we know that that’s Jesus that he’s talking about, but the way that, because of the way that people think of the Daniel reference, The Daniel reference is people think son of man could mean divine one, right? Jesus picks that up and that’s the favorite term that he calls himself is son of man, right? And when Jesus says it, he’s probably referring to Daniel. So there’s kind of an interplay where in one sense, the word seems to mean humility and one who is small, but there’s a sense in which it seems to mean one who is highly exalted with Daniel.

And we ought to take it in both senses. when Jesus uses it. I mean, he is the humble one, but he is the exalted one that Daniel sees. So he’s both. Ezekiel, we don’t want to take it with both of those references. He’s just son of Adam, stand up. However, we understand that the prophets are people who are types of Christ. And what do we see in the book of Ezekiel? Ezekiel is a man who suffers greatly for the people. And in that sense, we want to say, here’s a man who is a prophet, son of man who suffers. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the son of man who suffers.

So I would want to say not either or, it’s both and. Take all of the nuances of Son of Man in all of His exalted glory and all of His low humiliation. Thank you for that question. Yes. Yes. Amen. In other hands. OK, we’ll go to his. To the orders that he is going to receive now. Verse three to three, then he said to me, son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people. who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this day. He is sent to the sons of Israel.

He’s not going to be sent to all of the other nations. Now, you might wonder, though, I’ve read the book of Ezekiel, I wonder why he’s sent just to Israel You may have read and seen that there are long passages about this nation and that nation and Egypt and Tyre and all of these. What do we call it when Ezekiel is prophesying and he’s prophesying against a nation, but the audience is not that nation? Everyone understand? He’s prophesying against Tyre, or against Egypt, but who are the people who are going to hear him? They are not the people in Egypt. Egypt is not hearing his prophecy. It is the people of Israel who are hearing what we have is the putative audience, the audience is And this this is where This is where he is getting his marching orders.

Why is it that he’s going to them? Because they are a stubborn people and because they are just like their fathers who are in the wilderness, who were in the wilderness. The sin of the fathers has been passed down from the beginning, from the wilderness all through the land. I see a hand, okay. Verse four, I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, thus says the Lord. And this is not an easy calling laid upon Ezekiel.

It would be so nice after this grand vision that he sees and he was overwhelmed by it. Even though it’s overwhelming, wouldn’t you just like to stay there and see God? You can imagine Peter seeing the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, wouldn’t it be great we can build one, what? temple for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. Wouldn’t that be great? We could just stay here forever.

No. You have to come down from the mountain to the place of humility, and in some cases, Ezekiel’s, humiliation, and you must bear the cross, the difficulty of preaching to these people who do not want to hear it. preaching to these people who do not care.

Verse 5, as for them, whether they listen or not, for they are a rebellious house, they will know that a prophet has been among them, whether they listen or not. How is it that they will know that he is a prophet whether they listen or not. They’ll know if they listen. I know that’s easy enough. But how are they going to know that Ezekiel is a prophet if they won’t listen? Anyone have a thought on how that could be? They’re not listening. Their hearts are hard.

Well, the reason is because They still have a conscience, and when He speaks, they hear it, and they understand it. And though they may deny it externally, their inner person Their subconscious, their conscious is testifying against them when Ezekiel preaches. And their conscience is trying to justify them when he preaches. You have that interplay with Paul where he’s talking about the people who are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, their consciences trying to, their conscience is accusing them, but their conscience is trying to justify them.

And that is, certainly these hard-hearted people are not stones, they’re not gargoyles. These are real flesh-and-blood people who, though they are hard-hearted, they still have God testifying to them when the Prophet speaks. They will know when the Prophet speaks to them, and they will know especially when what he has said comes to fruition, and then they will not be able to deny it anymore. They will not be able to try to justify themselves and vindicate themselves, then they will know that a prophet has been among them. I mentioned in morning instruction a guy named Ray, just an interesting story I can let you know about on these lines, and please pray for Ray. I’m never going to see him again.

Pastor Knox and myself and Pastor Hutchison went to Ohio yesterday and we went to the examination of Dr. and future Reverend David Braves. We were coming back and we stopped off at a restaurant in Ohio and this man comes up to us as we were leaving and he says, Can I have just some change?

I just need some change, because I need to get some gas. Well, Pastor Hutchinson, Hutchinson being the quick thinker he is, says, well, I’ll buy you a gallon of gas. Let’s go. So we start walking with Ray to go get a gallon of gas. And Ray says, well, I’m not going to lie. I just filled my tank. I’m OK. He says, can I get something to eat? OK. So we’re walking in, and we’re going to get Ray a burrito. And we had just left. We were all done. And we would have been home earlier if we hadn’t stopped to talk to Ray. But the more we talked to Ray, the more it became apparent that he’s lying to us. And you see, he’s just putting lie upon lie. Anyways, I broke it down to him. I told, I asked him about, have you kept this commandment? Have you kept that? Have you kept this? And you know, he’s admitting, oh, I’ve broken that, I’ve broken that, I’ve broken that.

And I said, well, if you die today, and I hope you don’t die today, you stand before God. I told him, by your own admission, you are a lying, thieving adulterer. And he was clearly affected by this. It was all over his face. And I said, if you stand before God, you walked up to three preachers and you start lying to us. And then he put lies on top of lies. Do you think that his conscience knew it? He’s a hard-hearted man. Ray was a hard-hearted man.

But his conscience is not stoned. Metaphorically, yeah? OK. But his conscience is not stoned. His own conscience was simultaneously seeking to vindicate him. Well, I’m not that bad. He said, I am Holy Spirit filled. No, Ezekiel’s Holy Spirit filled. He says, I am Holy Spirit-filled apostolic church.

And I said, when you go to that church, you’re worshiping a false god, because that’s a heresy of modalism, of oneness Pentecostalism, also called patriarchalism. That’s heresy, the church that you’re going to. And he said, oh, well, I’ll just, where should I go? I’ll go to Rod Parsley’s church. Anyone know who Rod Parsley is? Not, don’t watch Christian preachers on TV. Rod Parsley’s on TV.

No, I don’t recommend him, that’s all I can say. Anyway, his conscience is testifying against him, raises, and he’s trying to vindicate himself. And I’m telling him, you walked up to three preachers and you’re lying. You need to repent. You need to believe the gospel. And he was clearly affected. These people are clearly affected.

As for them, whether they listen or not, even if they don’t listen, even though they are a rebellious house, verse five, they will know that a prophet has been among them. Their consciences testify against them. to vindicate them, it was just back and forth.

The non-believer, I mean, it’s, for some of us as Christians, but there is no peace for the wicked, says our God. Right, why? Because his conscience will not let him go. Because he is trying to vindicate himself, and then his conscience is condemning him. That is what these people are going to go to.

But the point is, Ezekiel, it’s going to be hard. It is going to be difficult, but God supplies what we need and he supplies what he requires of us. He supplies what he requires of Ezekiel. Okay, it’s 1040. Let’s stop there and we’ll pick up there next week. Let’s pray.

Dear Lord in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity to talk about the glories of the Old Testament age. And we thank you that we can talk about the expanding glory, the brightening glory of the age in which we live, and the passing glory in which Ezekiel and all of the old covenant people lived. Help us to understand the ever-increasing glory upon glory in the age in which we live. We live in the fullness of time. the time of the Pentecost. We live in a time when the Spirit indwells the church, when the Spirit indwells the temple. And we thank you, O Lord, that as we bear the cross in this life, that you are with us, and that your hand is upon us, and that your Spirit lifts us up. In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

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About this sermon

A Morning Instruction class on Ezekiel 1:15-28. Beside the four living creatures Ezekiel sees wheels within wheels, full of eyes, moving wherever the Spirit goes, and above them a crystal expanse and a throne. On the throne is one with the appearance of a man, surrounded by fire and by brightness like a rainbow. The vision is a miniature of creation under God’s rule. The rainbow recalls the covenant with Noah, the bow hung up as a sign of peace, so the glory Ezekiel sees comes to proclaim grace.

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Sermon transcript

Coming to the end of the chapter, I’m confident that we might finish the chapter today, Ezekiel chapter 1. I might have volunteers, or actually let’s not do volunteers, let’s just go, just weave back and forth. We might start with Peter, if we may. If you would do 15, and then work our way there.

Now, as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. This was the appearance and structure of the wheels. They sparkled like crystalline, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. Whenever they moved, they moved in any of their four directions without turning as they moved. As for their limbs, they were locked in also. And the limbs of all four of them were full of thighs, round the back.

Whenever the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them. And whenever the living beings rose from there, the wheels rose also. Now over the heads of the living beings there was something like an expanse, like the awesome beams of crystals spread out over their heads. We’ll come to the front here.

And under the expanse, their wings were stretched out straight, one toward the other. Each one also had two wings covering their bodies on one side and on the other. I also heard the sound of their wings like the sound of abundant waters. And there came a voice from above the expanse that was over their heads. Whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings.

And above the firmament, over their heads, was the likeness of a throne, an appearance like a sapphire stone, and the likeness of a throne was the likeness of the appearance of a man high above them. Also from the appearance of the place of upward, I saw other words of the color of amber with the appearance As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking. That ends the reading of God’s word.

Well, can you see? Okay. Let’s get into this. Good stuff here. But before we do that, we ought to really briefly look at what we talked about last week, because we’re reading the continuation of this. Now, let’s see. First of all, we’re thinking of a type of being that has four wings and four animal faces on the head, or three animal faces and a human face. It seems to have a human face, a lion, an ox, and we’re not sure where the eagle is. Maybe the eagle is in the back. Right?

Now these things have these cherubim, which we’re not told until chapter 10 that these are cherubim. These cherubim have a split hoof to let us know that they are ceremonially clean animals, or they’re clean, at least according to the Mosaic law. Now, what did we talk about in the discussion about the four Faces. Everybody remember?

What do we think the lion must be? King of a certain realm? Which realm would that be? The wild? The ox? Seems to be the most useful animal within another realm. The domesticated realm. And then the eagle? Eagle’s head? Seems to be what realm? In the air. In the air. The heavenly. Yes.

We put our apologetics hats on and we talked about what the vast majority of people who know anything about Ezekiel, you talk to your average person on the street, they’ll say, well, the Bible’s contradictory, right? They’ll say, and Ezekiel saw aliens, right? How are we gonna answer those people who say that? Anyone have a thought?

Anyone? Answer? Go ahead. Exactly, there you go. Let me just paraphrase what you’re saying. Read in between the lines of what I think you’re saying. Let the text speak for itself, right? You know what you need to be to be a liberal Christian? You know what you have to think?

You have to think that the Bible writers were dumb. I mean, and I’m not saying that to throw stones at liberal Christians, but they really think that they know better than the writers of the Bible did. The gospel writers, they thought Jesus was walking on water, but I know better. He was walking on stones that were just an inch or so from the surface of the water. The same thing here. Ezekiel, he was dumb. He thought that it was God, but it wasn’t. But the answer is, let the text speak for itself.

We made note of the way that the wings come together and we talked about how the wings coming together and touching one another is a sign that they don’t use the wings to fly. These wings are not for their aeronautical reasons at all. one another, and they’re standing on something. That’s what we’re gonna go to today. Are they standing on something, or is there something that’s all around them?

We’re gonna get into that, but we ought to look at this, with their touching one another, and we ought to think of the Ark of the Covenant Now, the Ark of the Covenant is that piece of furniture that was a sign that God is with his people. And God being with his people in the Old Testament, especially in the long time, is represented by the Ark of the Covenant, which was basically a box with two, not bars, but two poles going through it, and there were these two cherubim here, and their wings are touching one another.

Now, what is Ezekiel’s situation? His situation is that he is among the exiles in Babylon, and they do not have the Ark of the Covenant, so that means that they don’t have God’s presence with them. Right? Well, they don’t have the Ark of the Covenant itself, but they have God’s presence here in this vision that Ezekiel is having, and how much better if you don’t have the Ark of the Covenant, but you have the reality. God is coming. even though they don’t have this sacramental piece of furniture, which is the Ark of the Covenant. So, everybody with us? All right. Remember this from last week. They have that.

Now, I did make a quick allusion to the grave of the Lord Jesus Christ, where is the angel? at least in one of the Gospels, where’s the angel or the angel? They’re sitting atop the grave to show that Christ is with his people, that God is with his people in Christ, which he very much is. And there are these subtle ways that God teaches us that he is with us and that he is with Ezekiel in the word. Now, we move today to what they are standing on or that which they are inhabiting, they are in what is called, what is said, wheels within wheels, which does not make a whole lot of sense to us. Wheels within wheels.

Anyone know what a gyroscope is? We got Doris Liz. Let me try and draw a gyroscope. Imagine this is a stand, and this is a ring. So we have a ring here, and then we have another ring going Imagine this is flat, but then we’ve got this going this way, right? And you can have even more in kind of in the center. What would you use a gyroscope for? Anyone? You can just, you kind of flip it and it can, You know, all these circles within circles can flip. I should have printed out a copy of it rather than trying to do it myself. Did I see another hand? There’s another hand. That’s right. Yes. Everybody with us there? Yes. Yes.

Leonardo, he’s got pictures of them, drawings in his notebook. You can just bump this. It moves in all sorts of ways, these rings going in and out. It’s really something to see. Well, more importantly and more something to see is it seems to be what these angels are in. They have wheels within wheels. All right. Remember, we’ve got four of them, four cherubim, or cherubs. And their wings are touching. wheels within wheels, or circles within circles.

These creatures do not obey the laws of physics of our realm. That’s what I think this is trying to portray for us clearly, and I think that it does they have a different sort of propulsion. Something else is moving them. What is that thing that is moving them?

Who has it open? Who has? The spirit. The spirit. Look at her. You’re on the ball. It is the spirit. I’m trying to figure out how you got the inside, the wheel. Because my mother said, as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth. I mean, that just might be the translation. Well, that could be. I think that takes more time. Well, I’ll admit to you this. All my years of reading this, I read it, I thought it was actually under for years. And so this week, when I started reading it a little bit deeper, I thought, Well, at least that makes sense out of the people who are trying to make them into flying saucers. Right? But it could be this.

I’m not actually sure. And I don’t think that Ezekiel wants us to get too deep into the details. Now, I’m not dodging it. I’m really not. I think that, I mean, he is an observer and he sees this, and you might have noticed in chapter one, looks like, seems like, appears to be these kinds of words. He’s not giving specifics. It’s not giving the specifics that you get with the temple or with the tabernacle. And why is that? Because he’s just having a vision. And he’s not able to look and examine all the details of it. It’s just happening before him. And he’s trying to describe it.

Now, it may be this. It may be this. It might be, let’s imagine what it could be if it’s wheels within wheels, not circles within circles. Let’s imagine we have the bird’s eye view, and we’re looking at the aft one. I’m wondering how we would have wheels within wheels. We have a wheel. I wonder if we would have, not that he had a bird’s eye view, but if the cherub is standing right here, I wonder if we would have then, you know, the spinning, going all different ways. the inner workings of a clock, wheels within wheels.

I’m not sure, unless we have five, I’m not sure how we would be able to, you know, it doesn’t seem to work with four unless, you know, where’s the chair of stamping? I’m not exactly sure, but this could be it. And this is how I imagined it as I read it.

Hebrew is, some difficult Hebrew, it’s not David will testify, it’s not a simple narrative where, and he said this, and he did that, it’s just, it’s strange. Remember, the mature thought of Ezekiel, or the mature thought of John Calvin, was I’m still not sure of some of the things that we’re reading about here. John Calvin did not finish Ezekiel. He got up to chapter 20, and then he died. So we were, I think, we have all things, we are sufficient with scripture, but we were robbed of what would it mean, you know, Calvin said, But we know what he said in some places.

I’m not sure. I’m kind of still mystified by some of the things that we see here. But whatever the case, whether it’s circle within a circle, or whether it’s wheels within wheels, Whatever it is, your first answer was spot on. That is, that it is the spirit that is moving them. Chapter 112 and 120. Does anyone have it? 112 and 120. Go ahead, Carl.

And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go without turning as they went. And 120, wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go in that direction. And the wheels rose close beside them, for the spirit of the living being was in the wheels.

Again, see? We have the spirit. Like a pneumatic propulsion, if we could say that. The spirit or the wind is what is moving them. These are creatures that are not from around here. And they demonstrate God’s creative handiwork. Yes? Isn’t it saying that Wheels are going this way, and wheels are going this way. And wherever they’re moving, this wheel doesn’t have to move this way for this chair to move this way. Yes. I think so. That’s what I’m pretty convinced. I’m pretty sure of that. Yes. And I think that, imagine this, whether they’re standing on it or they’re in it, either way, Their wings are touching, and they move as a unit, at least for a part of it.

They just move them out like this. And it’s understandable that he’s going to just fall on his face later, but fall on your face just from seeing these. We have 22. Now over the heads of the living beings, there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal spread out over their heads. What do we think of when we think of expanse? that might bring in some other Bible language that we might be used to and expand. Yes. There seems to be, how about this?

We’re too big here. Let’s condense this. We’ll try and keep the idea. OK, whether it’s this way, whether they’re standing on them, it kind of just says in the midst of, or whether these things are inhabiting these circles. Whichever it is, just shrink this down. So imagine an either or here.

But there’s an expanse. that is around them. There’s a firmament that is above their heads. Alright? Now, Carl had it exactly right, I think, because the same word used in Hebrew here is the same word that we read in Genesis chapter 1. Your King James firmament other versions, your expanse.

There’s like a blue canopy that is hovering over them. It’s hovering over them. And we want to think of God’s hovering presence in Genesis, Genesis chapter one. Think of Genesis one, two. What do we see? God hovering. This is not a place where that same word is used, but it’s the same idea. Genesis 1-2, the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. The Holy Spirit, the creating spirit is hovering over the globe, right?

Now, we move to 26, rather, no, to 1.6, I’m sorry, Genesis 1.6.

Then God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. There’s this idea when you read Genesis, that there’s this separating, it’s waters from waters. The word, it’s not really defined what this expanse is, this canopy. I mean, some people believe that when Moses, excuse me, when Noah was on the ark, this canopy, and that’s where the water comes from. Obviously, if you read Genesis, the water comes from the deep as well, but there are waters here. Some people think that the globe before the flood, in fancy language, the Antediluvian world, the pre-flood world, was a world that had a water canopy up here, so just water up here, and that there was really a greenhouse effect.

Some people would say that maybe that’s how dinosaurs lived, but man, could be, because they were made for that environment, and maybe they went on the ark, at least in small versions of them, and they came out, and this canopy, this expanse is gone, so the dinosaurs are not able to adapt to that. these are things that people would throw out, lots of things, but whatever the case, there’s this blue canopy, firmament, expanse, whichever you want to call it, it’s there.

Now, you’re starting to see the significance of the four faces. The four faces are like, these angels are, higher than man, higher than the lords of the air, the lords of the domestic realm, the lords of the wild realm. These are grand creatures that are in a miniature creation, it seems.

God is coming to show his creative handiwork to Ezekiel and say, this is who I am. I am the God of Moses, the God of your fathers. Similar language, especially, it’s retained in your King James. Psalm 19, verse 1, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.

Remember that? I memorized it. the firmament. Of course, that would mean that it still is there in a sense. We’re not sure. Some of these things are difficult for us. Psalm 150, praise ye the Lord, praise him in his sanctuary, praise him in the firmament of his power. Whatever the case, a miniature creation seems to be coming to Ezekiel. Now, we have then the throne of God. One, this is, I think I have a mistake here. Yes, oh, no, no. 126 and 27, God is coming now.

It’s like, if you thought all these other things were glory, more glorious. Wait till you see what God is like. And it doesn’t give an exhaustive demonstration or description of what He’s like. 26 rather. Now above the expanse that was over their heads, there was something resembling a throne like That’s all. That’s as close as I’m going to get. I’m going to write, I’m going to make a throne. Nothing on the throne. So it is above that. It’s above this expanse. And there seems to be one sitting on it.

It was a figure with the appearance of a man. Then I noticed from the appearance of his loins and upward, something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around with it, within it. And from the appearance of his loins and downward, I saw something like fire, and there was a radiance around him.

The glorious God sits enthroned above his creation, just like he does in the book of Genesis. that he is Lord over all creation, even this miniature revelatory creation that is demonstrated to Ezekiel. And he is, God is, at least this anthropomorphic vision or appearance of God is, is in the appearance of a man.

That should be interesting to us as well. How is man made? In the image of God. That’s in the Genesis narrative. Here, God comes in the appearance of man. There’s kind of a, back and forth interplay between these. And God is glorious with glowing metal that looked like fire all around, within, and from the appearance of his loins and downward I saw something like fire and there was a radiance.

You get the idea, our God is a consuming fire. Remember that, Hebrews? Remember last week we talked about what is aseity, God’s aseity, his independence, that he is a burning fire without the fuel, without wood or kindling or oil, our God, You can imagine the people thinking, where’s God? You know, people ask that, where’s God in all this? You can imagine there, the people around him saying the same thing, where’s God in all this? He’s still with us. He’s still with those who are trusting in Him.

It gets even more interesting, it seems to me, because we have a rainbow. Isn’t that interesting? As, 28, as the appearance of the rainbow or bow, it’s addressed NAS, did interpret it for us, a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day. So was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. So he’s telling us what this radiance that surrounds God, I would have put that a little bit higher, but I would have had it right in the air. So we have this radiance that surrounds the Lord. I would have you imagine it being above his head maybe, a little bit above it, because of other portions of God’s word, I think it’s justified to do that.

So what is this radiance like? It’s like a bow. in the Hebrew, or the N-A-S-V, like a rainbow. Now what do we think of when we think of a rainbow? What do we think of? Different colors. Different colors? Pots of gold, yes. Little green men, monkey charms? No, no. No, pots of gold, no. What do we think of? Put your Bible hat on. What’s that? The flood. God promising that he’s never going to. What’s that? Noah’s covenant. Yes, the covenant of Noah to put on last year’s ranks. The covenant of Noah. A universal covenant that God puts.

He puts the sacrament there to remind himself Not as if God’s going to forget. He doesn’t put the rainbow there for our benefit, he puts it there for his own benefit. To remind himself that he will not flood the earth with water. Not to say that he won’t flood it with fire, as later portions of God’s word let us know about.

But, It’s interesting as, well, we ought to read, real briefly, we ought to read the Genesis account of it. Genesis 9, 13 to 17, and I’ll read it for purpose of expediency. 13, there was evening and there was morning. Oops, that’s not right. Turn to the first chapter. We’ve been there today. Okay, 913.

And I set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. It shall come about when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow will be seen in the cloud and I will remember my covenant. Notice it’s for him, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.

And never again shall the water become But it’s interesting if you read a what the word bow, this same word, how else it’s used. What kinds of bows can you think of? Don’t think of Christmas bows and ribbons and things like that. Anyone can think of the word bow? Bow and arrow. Very good. Second Kings 13, 16. Second Kings 13, 16. And Amos 2, 15. Talking about humans using a bow. Second Kings 13, 16.

Then he said to the king of Israel, draw the bow. And he drew it. And Elisha laid his hands on the king’s hands. So he says, draw the bow. And he draws the bow. Amos 2, 15. He who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who rides the horse save his life. These are two passages that use the word bow, same word, but to talk about a bow and arrow. That’s Caffey. But I wonder if God has a bow. or a bow and arrow that he might use.

Psalm 114, excuse me, 144, for purposes of, we have about five minutes, I think I’m just gonna read these, write these down, if you’re writing things down, but I won’t wait for you to get there. Psalm 144, six. What does the psalmist say? Flash forth the lightning and scatter them. Send out your arrows and route them.

Now what we know about Hebrew poetry is usually they come in little couplets where it’s A and B, where the first verse says something and the second half, the first half of the verse says something and then the second part expounds upon it, right? Whenever you read the Psalms and a lot of Proverbs, you can say A, what’s more B? A, what’s more, B. One expounds on the other, the second expounds on the first. Flash, we could say, A, flash forth the lightning and scatter them, the psalmist says.

What’s more, send out your arrows and rout them. Zechariah 9 14 then the Lord will appear over them and his arrow Will go forth like lightning Is that interesting And there’s lightning all around this I revelation that Ezekiel is having. There’s lightning flashing, and things are flashing like lightning. 2 Samuel 22, 15, and he sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning and routed them. There is, there seems to be an idea within all of the Bible, if we just trace the ideas of lightning, and arrows, and bows. It’s almost as if God’s weapon, maybe in a metaphorical sense, is a bow and arrow with lightning, or a bow and lightning. That the Lord takes a bow, And he shoots lightning from it.

And how many colors are in a rainbow? How many? Seven. Isn’t that interesting? I’m just saying. The idea is, what I think is being shown to us here is that God is the God of God who is coming to Ezekiel is the God of peace. Why? Because his bow is hung up. And God reminds himself that when the bow is hung up, that he is the Lord of peace. He is the King of peace. It would be different if the bow were not hung up. That would be a sign of war upon Ezekiel, holy war. I’m not coming in peace, I’m coming in war.

But because of the fact that the bow is hung for all the world to see in the time of Noah, because it is for Ezekiel to see that God has in his grace come to proclaim peace, to Ezekiel and peace to those who are trusting in God. That is, I think, what he is trying to proclaim for us. Now, there certainly is a day in which God will, in a sense, take the bow off and bring final wrath and judgment upon all of mankind. Really briefly we have New Testament pictures of this God continuing to do, to reveal himself in these sort of ways with one sitting on a throne and with a rainbow. Revelation chapter 4 almost is a picture of this, it almost mirrors it.

And in that we have the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation 4.3 And he says, he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. So here we have the full understanding of it in the book of Revelation because there we have the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on the throne and proclaiming peace to those who are at peace with God that he is not. that war with them anymore. Revelation 10, 1.

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire. Again, we have an angel, ultimately, most likely the Lord Jesus Christ, coming down, wrapped in a cloud, wrapped in the glory spirit cloud, and he has a bow over him.

Interesting the way that is given to us. But I think there’s one more, you don’t need to go there with me on this, but I think there’s one more subtle thing that the bow is pointing to. Pun intended. What direction is the bow pointed? It’s pointed up with Noah.

God gives covenants where he binds himself, right? Think of the covenant with Abraham where he shows the sign of that covenant by the animals are cut, the carcasses are split, and he walks through it, and he does this that if he doesn’t obey the stipulations of the covenant, then the wrath will fall upon him. That seems to be what God is saying here. That if he brings water upon the earth in Noah’s time, then he will bear the wrath. Same thing seems to be implied here.

However, we know that God is the one who ultimately doesn’t break his covenants, but undergoes the wrath of the covenant as if he had broken it, which is what he does in Christ. And just our last comment. is his holy posture. He sees this, God comes, God is still with us, and he is proclaiming peace, at least to us who are trusting in him. And what does he do? He gets on his face. Now some people might say, well, this is not God himself. This is a representation, just an appearance. He’s on his face, and he’s not rebuked for it.

Remember what John was told? He gets on his face and starts worshiping an angel, and he is told, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. And he’s on his face, amazed by it. Certainly it would be wrong to worship these, but this God. The God who is with you, Ezekiel, the God who still cares for you, his people. He is the God of peace, and he is with you. Beautiful picture, the way that God lays these things out. He could have just said, God is with you. But instead, he gives this grand picture, this revelation. We should be amazed by this. What a joy this first chapter of Ezekiel is. I hope it’s a joy to you, to your mind, and to your heart.

Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great grace that you save sinners and that you proclaim peace. We ask, O Father, that you would proclaim peace this day, in this pulpit, and wherever your word is faithfully proclaimed, we ask that peace would come from you, that perfect peace that goes beyond our understanding. In Jesus’ name, amen.

So this would be beneath where this is. picture that I was trying to decide when I’m reading it. The second trip through, I already did the first and all the way through. So I’m going through the second time. I’ve got to get a little different picture. It’s starting to come to me a bit.

Is this the spirit of God? Or is this at this throne here? Or is this God himself? Maybe a pre-incarnate picture of a son of his spirit? I’m not sure. I’m just trying to get a… It’s like, you know, you think of Abraham when the two visitors come, and Abraham just cuts on his face. He worships God, right? Okay, there are two angels, but is there one member of the Trinity that is incarnate, at least for that portion? I don’t know. Well, the one thing that I’ve learned in reading this Ezekiel is that as you study

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About this sermon

A Morning Instruction class continuing the introduction to Ezekiel. The book divides into prophecies against Jerusalem in chapters 1-24, climaxing in the death of Ezekiel’s wife as a sign of Jerusalem’s fall, oracles against the nations, and promises of restoration. In Ezekiel 1 the heavens open and he sees the glory of the Lord in exile, away from the temple. The theme of God’s glory leaving and returning is fulfilled when the Spirit makes the church his temple, and finally in the new Jerusalem where God dwells with his people.

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Sermon transcript

Ezekiel. We’re still in introduction, and then we’re going to move into the actual book itself. Just review the man, the myth, the majesty, and just the outline. Remember, Ezekiel is a 6th century prophet, and he is of priestly lineage. He is about 30 years old, the beginning of the book, which is very important, and we want to remember that he is exilic prophet, prophet during the time of 70 years of exile for the Hebrew people, for the southern Hebrew people.

Now the myth, the myth is that we can do a Freudian psychoanalysis on him. I’m not joking. People have done this. Which is strange just on its head. Is it not? It’s hard enough to do a Freudian psychoanalysis on a living person. Insofar as Freudian psychoanalysis has any merit, right? Difficult to do on a living person. This is somebody who’s been dead for a long, long time. This is a strange man. But you have to wonder, if you saw the Lord like he did, would that change you like it did him? Simplest outline there are as many outlines as there are scholars. But basically just the simplest outline.

We have chapters 1 through 28. 1 through 28 are polemic against Jerusalem. They are prophecies where Ezekiel is prophesying against his own people. And the arch, the capstone of that is 24, where Ezekiel’s wife dies. Now this is not just autobiography for autobiography’s sake. This is, I mean, God’s wife is being put to death, which is Jerusalem. And God is drawing the analogy between them. So that’s chapters one through 24. Then we have a couple of chapters of Oracles Against the Nations, 25 through 32. And then we have Blessing for Judah. and Jerusalem. And this is future eschatological or end times blessing for the people of God.

He is a prophet who seeks to give the people hope. Though he preaches the law, preaches destruction and judgment and exile, he is one who is looking forward to the city whose maker is God. We talk about the majesty. And this is simply the glory of God. That’s what we want to think of. That’s what I want you to think of when you think of Ezekiel. One who saw God’s glory. Now, we ought to look at what is the big picture. The big picture of Ezekiel. We might ask, what is Ezekiel? all about.

Let’s turn to Exodus 40. This is the part where I was debating, should we go into it last week when we were already over time. So we decided not to do that. Turn to Exodus 40 to the end of it. 40, 34. Exodus 30, 44. Excuse me. Exodus 40. How about I just write it down? Exodus 40, 34 to 38. This is the time of Moses. Moses has, with the Israelites, built the tabernacle, which is a very large worship tent, okay? God has set certain men to do this, to assemble this tabernacle. Now, notice what happens.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of night because the cloud had settled on it. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, Then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire on it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel.

So what’s going on here? Exodus. God enters into the tabernacle. This is high point, this is major, this is a momentous part of God’s Word. Why is that? Well, the Israelites were a wilderness-wandering people at this time, and they were moving around.

They’re constantly on the go. And when they would stop, well, all of their journeying, there was a glory cloud. or a glory spirit, right? There was a cloud that covered them so that in the daytime, this cloud would block the hot desert sun from sunburning them, right? In the nighttime, they were able to see because this glorious cloud gave them fire so that they could see.

All right, so God is protecting the Israelite people. This glory cloud that hovered over them enters into the tabernacle. It enters in to show that God approves of what they have built. They have built it according to his specifications. They have done right, but it’s also to show that God is with his people in a very special way.

Let’s go to Ezekiel chapter 10. Can I say something? Please do. Why don’t you look at Matthew 17 that tells about the transfiguration? Absolutely. It’s almost like when you read the Bible with the idea of the spirit, cloud, the Bible just, you read it again for the first time. To quote that Raisin Bran commercial, right? Or whatever it was. You see the Bible anew when you see how often the cloud is the spirit, right? So absolutely, you are right on. And we could get to that, because we’re gonna get to Jesus in a moment.

What I want you to see, Ezekiel 10, is, let’s fast forward many, many years, right? At this point that we are at, we could stop at Solomon, but remember Solomon built the temple that was to replace the tabernacle. It replaces that tent. the temple that he builds, he prays and the glory spirit, the same one that was there with Peter and John and Jesus and all the rest, that same spirit essentially leaves the tabernacle and enters into the temple, right? Now, Ezekiel chapter 10, some of you might have gotten there already in your reading, This is very significant because God leaves the temple in Ezekiel 10. One of the big points in the whole entire book. I’ll just read a little bit.

Then I looked and behold in the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim, that is the statues that were like angels, something like a sapphire stone in appearance resembling a throne appeared above them. And he spoke to the man clothed in linen and said, enter between the whirling wheels under the cherubim and fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city.

And he entered in my sight. Now the cherubim were standing on the right side of the temple when the man entered and the cloud filled the inner court. Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple, and the temple was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord. See, the glory, the majesty of the Lord is there. Moreover, the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

It came about when he commanded the man clothed in linen saying, take fire from between the whirling wheels from between the cherubim. He entered and stood beside a wheel. Then the cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire which was between the cherubim, took some and put it into the hands of the one clothed in linen who took it and went out. The cherubim appeared to have the form of a man’s hand under their wings.

Then it looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim. One wheel beside each cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was like the gleam of a Tarshish stone. As for their appearance, all four of them had the same likeness as if one wheel were within another wheel.

When they moved, They went, and this is continuing to explain what’s going on in the first chapter, but he’s understanding it more for time purposes. We’ll just scoot ahead to 18. Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. When the cherubim departed, they lifted their wings and rose up from the earth in great sight, and the wheels beside them. And they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the Lord of Israel hovered over it.

So understand what’s going on. There are… There’s this revelation that he sees in Ezekiel chapter 10, revelation of these strange creatures, these cherubim, which is talking about chapter one. If you’ve read it, if you have not, I recommend it. They basically stand on wheels of fire, wheels within wheels. It’s very difficult to imagine what he’s talking about.

But the main point is the glory of the Lord leaves this temple It’s gone. Now, why does the Glory Spirit leave the temple? The reason is because the people have been disobedient. The people are to obey the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are to obey the laws. on a national scale. This is not really talking about one person or another person’s salvation. This is talking about the Israelites and their ability to stay in the land. They’re going to be cast out of the land if they disobey. They’re going to be allowed to stay if they live in the land according to God’s law.

Now, understand that in the ancient context, If my tribe goes to war against Carl’s tribe or my nation against Carl’s nation, that means that my gods are stronger than Carl’s gods, right? And I want by my war to demonstrate the supremacy of my gods. Because oftentimes they were thinking that in heaven, The same thing is going on that’s going down on earth, similarly. My gods are winning the fight against Carl’s gods. Therefore, in heaven, excuse me, on earth, I’m winning the war against Carl and his nation or tribe. Up in heaven, my gods are winning the war, right?

Does God want to be associated with these people when they are defeated? He does not. Judgment is coming. They’re going to be punished, and if God stays in the temple, it’s going to look as though he has been defeated. But the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, creator of all things, sustainer of all things, cannot be defeated. So, that is to say, he leaves, you’re on your own.

Everybody with me? Okay. Yes, question, good. Yes, I believe so this is literal Jerusalem I Don’t believe so yes, I believe that he’s seeing it. It’s really happening now keep in mind. Where is he? He’s in Babylon He’s already been taken so or it may not be the case. I mean it may it may be looking back into that and saying, you’ve ultimately been defeated. Because understand, he’s taken away, he’s exiled to Babylon, but they haven’t really taken everything away, right? I mean, they’re still in Israel. They’re still a Judah. At this time, there is a puppet king that has been put up by Nebuchadnezzar. But so he’s having this vision from Babylon.

So it may be retroactive. Absolutely. Okay, let’s go to the return of the spirit, the return of the glory spirit is Ezekiel 43. 1 through 12. I’ll try to read it somewhat quickly because of time. But you remember chapters 40 through 49 is a vision of a temple that he’s going to see, that he sees. And it’s a temple that has, as of yet, not been built, literally. Whether it will be, that’s up for debate. But here’s the point. God is going to enter back into his temple. He’s getting a tour of a spiritual temple, 43, one.

Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing toward the east, and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east, and his voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when he came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Kibar, and I fell on my face, And the glory of the Lord came into that house by the way of the gate facing toward the east. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court. And behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.

We’ll just stop right there for time reasons. Understand this? This grand vision, he’s seeing a temple, and the Spirit enters into that place. Now the question is, what is that place? Well, if we’re going to read this, comparing scripture with scripture, We’re not going to be looking for a temple that’s yet future, in which God’s going to literally fill the temple with the Spirit again. Many brothers and sisters, the majority of our brothers and sisters, at least in the West, do believe that. But, we’re gonna part ways with them, because, just ask, what is the temple of God in the New Testament? Was that the church? Yes, the people of God are the temple.

Any number of passages we could bring out that you are the temple. I mean, the part in Corinthians where it says, it’s talking about being sexual, active, immoral, sexually, and it says, you are the temple of the spirit, therefore don’t defile yourself, right? A lot of people think I’m a temple. You’re a temple, you’re a temple. Christian bodybuilders talk about strengthening the temple, right? I don’t think that’s what Paul’s saying there. He’s talking about a collective singular.

You are the temple of the spirit. You are the temple of God, right? The temple is, we’re not individual temples, it’s a very large temple which is the holy church of God, the kingdom of priests, the spiritual people, that’s the new nation. That is the temple of God.

Now, when we read Ezekiel in light of the New Testament, what ought we to think? Well, among other things, what we’ve just talked about. Let’s turn to John 1, 14. And keep these things, keep Ezekiel in your mind as we read John 14. You may have read John 14 a hundred times, but if you didn’t read it in the light of Old Testament and Ezekiel, you might read it again for the first time. Read it anew. Listen to this.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now, the Word becomes flesh, that’s Jesus. Second person of the Trinity takes on human flesh, right? In Greek, It does not say, per se, dwelt. It says, he tabernacled among us. Isn’t that beautiful? The word becomes flesh, and God comes, and he tabernacles among us. And we saw his glory. Glory as of the only begotten Son. The glory spirit enters into humanity by Christ and then ultimately enters into the church.

Go look at the last verse of Ezekiel. Last, last verse. which is really a summary of the whole book. Ezekiel 48, 35. The city shall be 18,000 cubits round about, and the name of the city from that day shall be The Lord is there. What do an exiled people need to hear? Exiled as Ezekiel is and all the rest of them. That the Lord is with you. That the Lord will be with you. That’s what Ezekiel is about. God’s leaving the covenant people because they’ve broken covenant with him, but he is going to be with his people ultimately.

And we see how that happens in the gospel. We see how he tabernacles among us, he temples among us as the spirit. But how ought we to read the Pentecost narrative? What happens in Pentecost? Acts chapter two, the glory spirit. comes upon the church, tongues of fire fall upon them, and what happens? They begin to speak in other tongues. 1 Corinthians 12, 13, Paul says, you have all been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Now if the church is the temple of God, what does it mean when when the spirit comes into the church. This is the fulfillment of Ezekiel 43. God is entering into the temple once again, and the temple is the living stone. So, beautiful the way that the Bible ties together like that. And then lastly, Revelation 21, three, What does John see in Revelation the very end? He sees new Jerusalem, new heaven, new earth. Revelation 21 through eight.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle, right, the dwelling of God is among men. and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them. This is speaking of eternity, saying, God is saying, you are my people, and I am your God. That’s what we ought to see in Ezekiel. That’s what the whole book is about, God being with you.

Okay, let’s now move out of introduction. Let’s go to the book itself. Might be a little bit of overlap here. I have a volunteer. Someone might read the first three verses of Ezekiel. I have a tie, honestly, and there’s no runner. Tim. Thank you very much. Perfect. Actually, I do have another passage if you’d be up for it in just one moment.

Okay, so what do we read? We read it’s the 30th year and we are going to believe that it is his 30th year. Now he is exiled, so he is among people who would be sad. These people have fallen on hard times. Does God love us? Is he angry with us? Think of the people who have obeyed God. Understand that some people, the nation disobeys, but a nation is full of people, some being obedient. and the majority of them being disobedient, so they’re cast out on the basis of national apostasy. But there are people who are faithful, you know, Daniel and Jeremiah and these kinds of people. They’re part of the faithful people of God. It is his 30th year, which means, according to Numbers chapter 4, that he would be eligible for temple service as a priest. Let’s go look at one of the most emotional psalms, Psalm 137. Psalm 137 is an exilic psalm, and it’s going to give us a picture of what Ezekiel is going through.

Who knows? Ezekiel may have written it, you never know, probably not, but there are, this is just going to give us a picture of what it was like for a priest, well, actually, certainly not, he could not have written it, now that I think about it, some of the things that go on in it, but you’re just, imagine that you’re just a Levite, you’re just a priest who worships the true God in the temple, and that’s taken away from you. You would just read this now. Understand the last verse is quite violent. That’s just to show us how difficult these circumstances are. This exilic psalm, 137. Go ahead, Carl. The whole psalm? Yes, why not?

By the river, Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows in the midst of it we hung our marks. There our captors demanded of us songs, and our tormentors mirthed, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may to the roof of my mouth. I do not remember you. I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Eden, the day of Jerusalem, who said, raise it, raise it, to its very foundation. O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, how blessed will be the one who repays you with the recompense with which you have repaid us. How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock. All right. How about that? What’s going on?

They’re by the rivers in Babylon. They’re probably working in the hot sun, and he’s thinking, I want to be working in Jerusalem, that’s where I want to be, because he’s one who is trained to play music for God in the temple. Instead, the Babylonians have come, they have destroyed everything, what do you have left? He just has memories, and these Babylonians mock them, and they say, why don’t you sing some songs to us? How can we sing Psalms outside of the temple? There’s a sense in which, at least in the Old Testament, the Psalms are tied to the temple. As New Testament believers, we read the Psalms eschatologically, but they didn’t have that as an option.

So he’s remembering what it was like, the Babylonians destroyed our nation, destroyed our temple, and they took us, they just hang up their hearts on the willow trees. We’ve got nothing. So angry is he, so frustrated that he would ask, he would say that that person is blessed who will take the Babylonian babies and bring judgment upon them. Right, this is, you get the emotion of what’s going on with Ezekiel here. Does God love us? Does he care? Does he care about me?

Now, Psalm 137 is from the point of view of someone who probably had worked in the temple. That’s why I correct myself. Ezekiel was not one who had worked in the temple. Yet, that’s what he was preparing for. And he was probably preparing his whole life. It’s not something that you walk into haphazardly. He’s looking forward to the day when he will be a priest before God, and that’s not going to happen.

So, surely his 30th birthday was a time of lament, working in the hot Babylonian or Iraqi sun, and he’s working among the exiles. They were probably toiling and working in the irrigation ditches, because they are at a major convergence of rivers. Now, those who really think they’ve got this narrowed down would have Ezekiel to have his 30th birthday July 31st, 593 AD, which is the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s exile. the day he would have been eligible for that temple service. What does God do to Ezekiel that day? You’re not going to be a priest. Today, you’re going to be a prophet. And that’s what the beginning of that He’s called, he’s ordained, but not to what he had thought that he was being called and ordained and installed to.

We see that there are four expressions that go on in these first three verses, right? The first one, the heavens were opened. The heavens were opened. This can describe a torrential rain. Genesis 7, 11 is that torrential rain. Think about the Noah’s flood. The heavens were opened and the waters come down. And it may be the case that he is talking about the heavens opening and rain coming down because verse four, he talks about a storm wind coming from the north and it may be the beginning of a storm and of major rain. But more often, this in the Bible gives us a picture of the parting of the invisible barrier between heaven and earth.

Heaven and Earth is opening for Ezekiel, and he’s able to see things that he would not be able to see otherwise. A couple of verses, at least, New Testament passages, we see this, Acts chapter 7, 56, We have Stephen, the heavens are open, heaven and earth, so that he can see in. As he’s being stoned, Stephen, in Acts chapter 7, he is able to look and see Jesus, right?

Same kind of picture, able to see in. Revelation 4, 1, John is called up into heaven and Heaven and Earth are essentially split. The sky is split. The heavens are opened. He sees visions of God. This is another phrase that we see here. Divine visions.

Ezekiel is at this point beginning to experience seeing the hidden realities of every day. Don’t think that what Ezekiel is about to see only goes on when there’s a human observer. These are the realities of heaven and of earth, but they are not revealed to us at this time.

He’s able to see into that. The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. This is part of the audiovisual experience that Ezekiel is having. All of Ezekiel’s being, his whole being, is brought into seeing this revelation. In Ezekiel 2, 9 through 3, 3, we see that he is to take a scroll and he is to eat it. God is bringing all of his senses into this. He’s seeing, he’s hearing, he’s touching this scroll, and he’s going to eat it. At least all of them. I don’t see smell, but And maybe he was smelling the scroll before. Not sure.

The hand of the Lord was upon me. God’s overpowering pressure, God’s overpowering compulsion is on Ezekiel at this time. And this is an expression that is used seven times in this book. And then we have a word which I think in this translation will be, nope, it’s not the last word, but after the semicolon on chapter, on verse three. And there the hand of the Lord came upon me. We would not think of the word there as having all that much significance. But it does in this passage.

The simple word there, which is basically two characters in Hebrew. One word expresses what is described and where all of these things are described. God is speaking to Ezekiel there. Where? in Babylon. The place of exile, the place of uncleanness, in the place of despair, God comes and speaks to his people. This all to show that God is not a God far off.

Why did we read Psalm 137? These people are thinking, if I forget Jerusalem, I would just want my hand to rot away. Jerusalem is so important to me. Why? Because God is there. But is God there? God’s spirit is left. So where is God? God is there. God is here with us in exile. He’s in Babylon. He is with me. All to show that God is not far away. God, Ezekiel is, he understands in a big way the power and the presence of God. And he seems to be witless and scared after this revelation.

Move over to 3.15. And we’ll close right after this. Then I came to the exiles who lived beside the river Kibar at Tel Aviv. And I sat there seven days where they were living, causing consternation among them. This is after he has just received this revelation, which we’re only looking at the introduction to today. He just has to sit there. We’re just, wow. I can’t believe what I have just seen. And I can’t believe that God is here. He is among us. He has not left us. He has not forsaken us. He has not forsaken those who are truly trusting in Him and believing in Him. Well, that’s the first portion. Let’s look.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.