About this sermon
A Morning Instruction class introducing Ezekiel, the start of a slow study through the book. Ezekiel was a priest carried into exile in Babylon, called to be a prophet on the day he would have begun priestly service. The book opens with visions of God’s glory and a call to preach, moves through prophecies against Jerusalem, oracles against the nations, and promises of restoration, and ends with the vision of a new temple. Literalist and psychological readings are weighed against a reading that sees Christ at the center.
Sermon transcript
I was afraid he was asking that too. That was my first thought, but I knew what you meant. The way we do morning instruction here, I love it. Old Testament for a quarter, 13 weeks. New Testament, well, flip that, but New Testament, Old Testament for a quarter, 13 weeks or so each. And then there’s a biblical theology quarter and a church history quarter. Looks like we’ll probably do apologetics next quarter though. Maybe for three years of that. But we’re gonna start Old Testament. Winter quarter, this is December through January, December through February. And we’re just going to closely look at Ezekiel. And in the same way that Dr. Gidley is just slow and steady, wins the race, right? The race of faith through Hebrews 11.
He just, he doesn’t know when he’s gonna end, and I think we’re gonna take the same approach here. Youthful optimism aside, I can confess that I thought, I’m gonna do it in one quarter. Eh, maybe not. Okay, I was ambitious, maybe super ambitious, but I took another look and council of elders said, maybe don’t bind yourself to go so fast. Okay, I’ll think about that. Okay, they won out, they were right.
Okay, so winter quarter, Ezekiel, Old Testament, could go for a couple of quarters, that is, a couple of years. Now, no book assigned. I know my last three times of study that I gave, there was a book assigned, but I noticed, interesting, that Dr. Gidley, no book assigned. And he’s just going slowly.
I mean, maybe you read through Hebrews during your quarter. I would encourage you to read through Ezekiel in this quarter, in these next three months. Now, I know that not everybody will be able to fully read every word, because I know many of you have a devotional life already, you have a devotional plan or a system. Who would be inclined to read at least a portion of Ezekiel with us?
Hands up, hands up. Okay, what you may notice, we’ve got it broken up into three separate plans. Very simple. There’s the intense plan. This may take the place of some of your devotional reading, but maybe this will be an addition to it. So, the intense plan. Read through Ezekiel. That’s plan number one, right? Plan number two. The dot-com plan. If you live in a dot-com world in which you’re not able to spend that much time…
I worked for a restaurant and the chef was told… Best restaurant in Pennsylvania. It really was. It was the only five-star restaurant in Pennsylvania. That one was down the street. That was not the one I worked at, but… I worked in the second-best restaurant in Pennsylvania. This was in Philadelphia. A chef named George Perrier, the restaurant was called Lebec Fin. The one that I worked at was called Brasserie Perrier. Great restaurants. The five star restaurant was one that you, it was $135 for six courses. It was like a two hour, you know, it’s an event, right?
And they told him, nobody wants to do that anymore. We live in a dot com world. where no one has time to sit that long and eat dinner. So he made some changes off of that. Not wise counsel. But if you live in a dot-com world, that is to say if you’re a really busy student or a really busy mom, whatever the case may be, I’ve broken it up. Reading plan number two. the dot com plan for really busy people. That is, this is going to give you the highlights. This is going to give you the real substance of it.
There are some things in Ezekiel that are difficult to read. They will offend our modern sensibilities. OK? Well, I don’t think it’s simply our modern sensibilities. I think they would have offended the ancient sensibilities, too. There’s a shock value in that. Plan number two doesn’t have a lot of that. Some of that is taken away. This is for people who want to get the highlights, right?
But if you’re super ambitious, then feel free to read part two first, get the big picture, and then work through the whole thing. Now, another reason why Ezekiel can be difficult to read is Some of the passages don’t make sense, which I hope that we can clear some of those up, but more than that, there are nine chapters of explanation of a temple that is for Ezekiel, a future temple. Nine chapters, chapters 40 through 48. And it’s kind of, I mean, it’s really long, long detail. of a temple that has not been built yet.
Or has it? That’s where the argument is going to be, right? There are those who believe that it has been built, in fact, you are it, and that those details of that temple are not really what matters, really, you don’t want to get lost in the, not see the forest for the trees, basically. there are those people, which would be the majority of you, of our time, which believes that this temple, in 40 through 48, is a literal temple that is yet to be built, and it will be built according to these, according to Ezekiel as the blueprint.
All right? So lots of things like that. You may notice that if you’re pressed for time, you just kind of skim major portions of that. Okay. Everyone on board? Let’s move forward then. Let’s just talk about a couple of things. Let’s just say this. We’ll say the man, the myth, I don’t have an M, the outline, and the majesty.
Did you not ask, was Ezekiel written after the exile? This is a good question. Was it written after the exile? That would depend on your view of authorship, which is something that we’ll get into in a moment. But we would say the events, the majority of the events take place during the exile, okay? Now, let’s look at this then.
The man, the myth, the outline, the majesty. Let’s look at who is the man, Ezekiel. Or, you might think of him like this. The other son of man. You know what I’m saying when I say this? The other son of man. There’s a son of man who is Jesus Christ. Jesus refers to himself often times as son of man or son of Adam. Ezekiel is the other son of man because he is constantly referred to by God, you’ll notice, as son of man. Say this, son of man, prophesy this way. Son of man, turn that way and prophesy to those people in this way. Say these sorts of things. Now he’s the other son of man, but who is this other son of man?
You want to think of him as 6th century B.C. Sixth century prophet. If you’re trying to be politically correct, B.C.E., right? Before common era. Whatever, what made it common though? But it’s B.C., sixth century B.C. He was probably born around 622, 623.
You might notice he’s a date man, he’s a date setter. That is, not to say, he probably was, he may have been an A-type personality to be setting dates for things that he was going to do, but he sets dates of when things happen. He marks things very particularly, much more than say, like a Jeremiah, right? He’s very meticulous in his dating.
Now, it was in the 30th year. It was in the 30th year. And you’re asking, of what? That’s a good question. Let’s open Ezekiel 1-1. Lest you think that I’m Misspeaking, I’m really trying to leave you hanging. Now it came about in the 30th year. What came about, Ezekiel? Okay, well that’s what’s going to happen. But in the 30th year of what? This is one of the only places where he kind of leaves it. a nondescript date, just, it was the 30th year. Well, the majority of scholarships, majority of scholarship and of Bible teachers would say it’s the 30th year of his life. This is when he is talking about, he is called into ministry in the 30th year.
He sees an amazing vision, which is chapter one, and sees just incredible things. Things that are difficult to describe. When you read Ezekiel chapter one, you get the idea that he’s describing something that is indescribable. Because he’s saying, it seemed like, it appeared like, it was as if, such and such. But it’s almost like he doesn’t have the words fully to describe the things that he’s talking about. Because he sees a vision of God. He is the son of a priest. He is Ezekiel, son of Buzi, 30 years old at this time. Now it’s important for us to see why he’s mentioning that he’s 30 years old.
Turn with me to Numbers chapter four, verse three. from 30 years and upwards, even to 50 years old, all who enter the service to do the work in the tent of meeting. That’s the second half of a sentence, obviously. We could have started with two, but you understand what he’s saying? Moses is saying, Numbers chapter four. When do you enter into temple service if you’re a Levite? 30 years old. So Ezekiel comes and says, it was in the 30th year that what?
That I saw this amazing vision. I, the son of man, saw him. He sees God in Ezekiel 1, 22 through 28. We can look at that a little bit later. But notice though, well let me just back up and say that who is Ezekiel the man? He is a man who was a prophet to, as Kathy asked, an exilic community. An exilic community.
Everyone put your biblical theological hat on for a moment and you think of the different time periods of God’s redemptive history. You think of Adam and Eve in the garden. You think of the pre-flood time, the post-flood time, and you can think, of the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You can think of the time period of the exodus, and then walking around in the desert, and then you can think of entering into the land.
There’s a time of judges, where judges rule the nation. Then there’s a time of a united kingdom, where there’s one king. Then the kingdom splits, And then after that, we have a time where the Northern Kingdom is taken away. And after that, the Southern Kingdom is taken away.
Ezekiel lives at the time of, he’s born at the time at the very end of the Southern Empire that is passing away. He lived during the time when God would have taken away the Hebrew people through Nebuchadnezzar. He’s born during the time of the end of the Judah monarchy. But his 30th year, the 30th year that this begins, he finds himself in a place called the Khabar Canal, for Hebrew, the Neharchabar, he rhymes it. And he is basically ministering in Babylon to an exilic community. Now, this is probably an upper class or upper middle class, insofar as we can say having that community, who they’re going to be sentenced to 70 years in Babylon.
But do they think they’re going to be there 70 years? Ed? No. How long do they think they’re going to be there? I don’t want to say. But it’s a short time. Because they have prophets who are saying, we’re here in Babylon. We’re going to be here a short time. And then we’re going to go right back. Prophets are saying this. Prophets, right? And there are other prophets who are saying, no. You’re going to be here a long time. Some of you are going to die here.
Now, probably at the time that Jeremiah is preaching in Judah to an exiled community. Now understand, not everyone is taken away. For a time, Jeremiah is in the exiled community that’s left over, and they’re thinking, well, everyone’s gonna come back and we’re gonna have our kingship. That’s happening in the land under Jeremiah.
Ezekiel, God’s other prophet, is doing this, He’s preaching and prophesying to the people in Babylon. Eventually, Jeremiah ends up in Babylon as well. So, he was born a year or so before Josiah’s reforms. Everyone know the story of Josiah? Josiah is the man who was king, was a young king, and they find the scroll written by Moses and they open it up and what is this? And they realize this is the law of God. And they say, well, we need to apply this. So they show it to the king and he repents and there’s national reform.
So he very much would have seen Josiah’s reforms from going from a pagan society to a society that honors Yahweh. He may have seen the decline of Assyria. Assyria was a major world threat, but they eventually weakened, and the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar, they get stronger. He was probably a teenager when he heard of Josiah’s death. Now understand Josiah, may have, as good as he was, he was an excellent king, he followed after the Lord, but he may have had a messiah complex, as many of the kings did, the good kings.
He may have thought, well, I’m going to bring him a kingdom. I’m going to bring him a kingdom of messiah. In fact, I may be that. And so he goes out to fight Pharaoh Necho. and dies fighting against Pharaoh Neco. He may have heard the preaching of Jeremiah, of Habakkuk, and of Zephaniah. These are all his contemporaries. Called to be a prophet 30 years old during the reign of Jehoiachin.
Now understand that there were certain political things going on. By political things, I mean this. Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t take all of the Judahite people in one shot. He conquers them, takes some of them, and he’s actually putting up puppet kings. And eventually, he just comes and wipes it out and takes the rest of the people. Well, not all the people, but more of the people.
And just now you don’t have a king. I mean, it’s one thing to have a king that is, at least in some sense, put there by God. It was very much a product of their rebellion that they had a king in the first place. But there was a sense in which the king was put there by God. But this one, these ones are put there by Nebuchadnezzar.
What else do we know about him? He is married, and that’s very significant, is married to 24. It’s probably one of the major hinges of the book is talking about his wife, chapter 24. And he’s a strange man. He’s very strange. Why do you think that, what happens to his wife? Somebody? She dies. And he’s able to tear his clothes and weep. What? He’s not allowed to show any physical mourning. No, no. Like, you think he says today? Tomorrow, I’m going to take away the delight of your eyes.
Ouch. That’s not simply biography or autobiography. That is a major, one of two major hinge points in this book that we’re going to see. So we have Ezekiel the man, his life and times, a little bit of his biography. but the myth. Some people think he’s crazy. He is one who proclaims and writes with great power and intensity. It may be the case that people he did not write it he prophesied it he might have had scribes we’re not sure Jeremiah certainly had a scribe who helped him to write things down maybe many of the prophets did certainly the prophet is inspired so is the scribe who writes down the things that they do he may have written these things himself why would people call him crazy? anyone? what’s he most famous for? chapter four he lies down for prolonged periods of time not eating anything, he doesn’t even move, he’s just on his side and then after a long time of that, I mean days, we’re talking days weeks, months he switches, he switches sides he goes to the other side he is mute for a long long time he has visionary transports by what I mean by visionary transports is he’s in one place, but he’s able to see what’s going on in their terms on the other side of the world, right? He’s in Babylon at the River Kabar, but he’s able to see in chapter eight things that are going on still in the temple of God. He’s seeing prostitution All kinds of things that ought not to be done, period, much less in God’s holy temple, right?
But this is what he’s claiming. Now imagine, we have hindsight. Hindsight is 20-20, we know. It’s a prophet inspired by God. He is the second son of man. But what do you do when you’re listening to him? That’s just Z. He’s, He’s claiming all kinds of things that are going on out there.
Well, he also reports extraordinary stories, visions of glory. and a call to preaching, chapters one through three, a great vision of God and of angels, a vision of wheels turning, like wheels of fire, it seems to be, and it seems like angels, four animals, but also angels, and the tips of their wings touch, the tips of their wings. I mean, it’s really strange. He’s a different animal, it seems, right? he talks about in verse sixteen this is one of those ones that the dot com people can fly through and not even read but chapter sixteen is uh… he talks about the faithless bride of God which is Israel but he talks about the fact that he saw Israel as a baby covered in blood with a with the umbilical cord attached, and God grows her up, raises her up, and marries her. I mean, what we’re witnessing in chapter 16 is, I hate to say it, to be perfectly blunt, a botched abortion that God cleans her up and raises her to the point where he marries her, which can be, you know, a little strange just on its own terms. I mean, these are the kinds of reasons why people say, This guy’s crazy. People do, what I’m leading to is people do Freudian psychoanalysis on Ezekiel.
I’m not joking, I’m gonna get to that, but I wanna just, you know, rather than keep you in suspense, I want you to see where I’m going. There is, in chapter 21, talk of a sword of disobedience, a violent chapter. I remember being a new Christian, First, you know, working my way through the New Testament, but doing something dangerous, which is to go flipping through the Old Testament and finding passages and just, well, I wonder what that, you know, I want to know what the New Testament is about, but I’m curious, so I’ll just go looking for passages and finding things. I remember the time I came to chapter 23 of Ezekiel, just because I was attracted to the name Ezekiel, seems really neat. we come to the story of Ohala and Ohaliba two sisters that represent two cities which are Samaria and Jerusalem and one of these sisters, basically these sisters are lustful sisters who like to look at the paintings of the Assyrians on the wall the sisters are lusting after the paintings of the Assyrians.
And we’re talking about some offensive things just on their head but these things are preserved for our good, for our sanctification. We’re going to look at all those things but you can understand this is why people think he’s just a little different. Chapter 34, very important chapter for someone who’s in the ministry.
It talks about the shepherd are no longer shepherding the sheep of Israel. In fact, the shepherds are so bad, they’re so wicked that they just begin to eat the sheep, the sheep that they’re supposed to be protecting. They’re eating them. Rough stuff. The very famous chapter 37, the Valley of Dry Bones. That is a valley full of dried bones.
And here he says, son of man, prophesy to these bones, and they rise, and they become a newly reconstituted people. And it’s a picture of the church. Are we not all those who are dead in trespasses and sins? But God, Ephesians 2, two very important words, but God. Three words in Greek, but God, being gracious and merciful, raised us up. It’s a picture of that,
37. For those who are dispensationalists, and if you don’t know what a dispensationalist is, that’s okay, we can talk about that later. Chapters 38 and 39 are very important for them. It is this mysterious prophecy of Gog and Magog. Well, who are Gog and Magog? We’re not sure. Maybe we could dig up something out of the sand, out of the dirt, out from the Middle East. What? Hasn’t happened yet, we’re not exactly sure. Not that we’re waiting for that, but Gog and Magog, and St. John in the Revelation, he picks up on that theme of Gog and Magog. He seems to understand the spirit of this passage, 38 and 39. What about 39? 39-9, go to Ezekiel 39-9.
These are just trying to whet your appetite, give you little previews of this book. I love this book, by the way. I hope that’s apparent if it’s not. I’ve loved this from the beginning. When I first became a Christian, once I got over being offended about the two lady sisters and other things.
39-9. 39 is a story of a war. A mysterious war. Who knows this chapter? You’re familiar with this chapter? Okay. Not anyone or many people. This is an amazing book, but strange chapter. 39 is a big war, and it gives details of the cleanup of the weapons on the battlefield. Okay,
39. Listen to what 39.9 says. And those who inhabit the cities of Israel will go out and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, war clubs and spears, and for seven years, they will make fires with them. Did it comment? Has anyone might have grown up in a dispensational home What’s going on here? Nuclear war. Burning the nuclear weapons. Right? Let’s just, before we, we’re not going to make fun of the dispensationalists. We’re going to be fair to them. Let’s put our dispensational hat on for a minute.
What kind of weapons, clubs and arrows and spears, take seven years to burn? It won’t even take seven hours to burn a club. If it’s just made of wood, made of really strong, sturdy wood, it might take a little bit longer to find them. Seven years this is going to take.
The dissensationalist is looking for a day when There’s gonna be a major war right before the building of a big temple, which is just the next chapter. And for those seven years, these nuclear weapons, all this radiation, this cleanup, it’s gonna take that long to clean it up, and it’s going to take that long for these things to burn. Okay, just, we have to be sympathetic to those who we disagree with and say, You can understand if you really want to be a literalist, read the Bible literally, that maybe there is nuclear war in Ezekiel 39. Dr. Gamble? Yes, absolutely. Okay, not so. Not to let you think you’ve been sabotaged. Details of the temple, 40 through 49. You can say, okay, maybe this guy’s kind of crazy, maybe he’s not. We’re not sure.
So, Freudian psychoanalysis of Ezekiel. Now, we’re not going to be as sympathetic to this as we were of the dispensationalist, but… a man named E.C. Broome in 1946 does a Freudian psychoanalysis. He’s not the only one and not the first, certainly not the last, who calls Ezekiel narcissistic, masochistic.
He is a narcissistic, masochistic man with conflict and attendant fantasies of castration, not sure, and unconscious sexual regression. You always know when it’s Freudian, when you hear that, right? He is a true psychotic. He has schizophrenic withdrawal, delusions of persecution and grandeur. Why do they pick on our good buddy, Zeke, in these kinds of ways, right? That too, but they’re not picking on Jeremiah the same way. No one seems to do a Freudian psychoanalysis of Jeremiah. Jeremiah, listen to what Jeremiah does.
27.2. Thus the Lord said to me, make yourself straps and yoke bars and put them on your neck. He makes this thing and he puts it around his neck. He keeps it there for a very long time. Seems a little crazy, right? Jeremiah 28 10 then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke bars from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke them It was so annoying and he’s trying to say you’re going into bondage Right, and I’m signifying that I’m giving a sign of this right here Well, we asked we understand from Ezekiel that prophets were props God uses they take the people’s fate to themselves and A scholar named Ikrod says, Ezekiel became a prophetic symbol of his people. Even in his bodily life, as it were, submerged in their dying, overwhelmed by the destructive power of the divine wrath which he himself proclaimed, anticipated the punishment of his fellow countrymen by willingly bearing their guilt. That’s what he’s saying that the prophets do. They, in a sense, bear the penalty that they preach.
Sounds like another son of man. about the outline for one minute, because our time is very short. But the outline, the simplest outline that I can give. I mean, I could have brought in 100 different outlines. You wouldn’t just break it down into three parts.
One through 24, Ezekiel has the Jewish people as his focus. It is very negative. It is prophecies of judgment. What happens at 24? What did we say? That hinge point? His wife dies. This is a man who bears in himself, but even in his wife. God says, the delight of your eyes, Ezekiel, your wife. For the Jewish people, the delight of your eyes, Jerusalem and your temple. It’s going to be taken away from you. God uses his wife, Ezekiel’s wife, to demonstrate the fall of Jerusalem.
Now, that’s the end of that point, like, that’s the end of this portion because the focus changes to the oracles against the other nations. That’s just 25 through 32. Now, dot com people, you’ll be able to just skim this because it’s prophecy against that nation and that nation and that nation and that nation.
Right, well, we have what we call putative audience. Basically this, he’s prophesying to that nation. But the audience isn’t that nation. The audience is the Israelite people. So you understand, I mean, it’s one thing to preach simply to the people of God, to the Israelites, but he’s preaching to that audience, but this is the real audience. Does that make sense? He’s talking about all these other nations.
And then 33 through 48. It seems as though Ezekiel is recommissioned, and this is what I mean by this, Chapter three, we have his calling to ministry. He’s called to be a watchman. Well, one through three. But chapter three, he’s called to ministry, he’s called to be a watchman. If the watchman sees danger and doesn’t alert the town, he’s in trouble, right? But if he sees danger and he alerts the town, then he gets off scot-free. He’s done his job, right? Chapter three, he’s commissioned to be a watchman on the walls to preach. He’s recommissioned in 33, really to preach of God’s grace and of his kindness and of his love.
And then we move to the majesty. And we are just a couple minutes over as it is. So we’ll just do the majesty. next week before we go into the next chapter. Because it could take a little while, because it’s good stuff. I was thinking I might get a little preachy, so we better stop before I get started. But anyway, that’s just a little bit of an introduction to Ezekiel. I hope you are excited about this, whichever reading plan you choose. Let’s pray.
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