This is Ezekiel. In the 30th year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Kibar Canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month, it was the fifth year of the exile of King Joachim, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Kibar Canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there. So I've been contemplating what to preach after going through Luke and Acts and spending so much time with Luke, and I was thinking about Proverbs, I thought about Jonah, I thought about, believe it or not, I thought about 1 Corinthians, telling you that I would never preach that book, but I've settled on Ezekiel, and I pray that the Lord will use this in the next year or however long it takes us to get through it. So I'm gonna begin by asking you a question. And I know it's true for some of you, probably everyone here at some point in time, which is have you ever felt far from God? Have you ever felt like an exile in a strange land? Look around the world today. Do you ever feel like you don't belong here? On a related point, we all yearn for a perfect home, don't we? A place of peace. So on both counts, enter the place called Eden, paradise, as it's translated in the Septuagint Old Testament. This is where God originally put the man that he had made from the dust of the earth. We learn in Genesis 2.8, and the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and there he put the man whom he had formed. Eden contained the prototypical garden. That garden was located at the base of a majestic mountain, it says in Ezekiel. It had walls and gates, according to Isaiah. There was a river that divided into four headwaters, originating from the high slopes to water the pristine step of the Eden. And there are two trees that are located at its center, trees that were to regulate all of mankind's life. Now when God made the man and he put him in the garden, he was given a job. This job was an extension of the dominion mandate that he originally created man and woman to share. Carrying out dominion, you see, is the chief function of an image bearer. Genesis 1.26, let us make man in our image after our likeness. and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Adam began to carry out his dominion before God created Eve. God brought every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens to the man and the man named them. And you say, well, how does that have anything to do with dominion? Well, when you name a thing, you show your power and authority over it. That's what the act of naming is. Earlier God had taken the man and he put him in the Garden of Eden, it says, much like Moses put the blood and put it on the washing basins of the tabernacle. or various items of the tabernacle were put in their commanded place by the priests after they were fashioned by their makers later on in the Torah. In fact, the verse continues by saying that God put the man in the garden to, and this is usually the way it's translated, work and to keep it. Now the surface context points to Adam there being assigned the task of a gardener, doesn't it? The two verbs though are actually identical to those given to the Levites to serve and to guard the tabernacle. Greg Beal says, when these two words occur together later in the Old Testament, without exception, they have this meaning, serve and guard. They refer either to the Israelites serving and guarding or obeying God's word, or more often to the priests who serve God in the temple and guard the temple from unclean things entering it. In other words, God is placing Adam in his creation temple to serve as his priest and to serve and to guard and otherwise maintain the sanctity of Eden. The Garden of Eden is a holy place, you say? In fact, yes it is. It's likened directly to the temple by Isaiah. Heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. What is the house that you would build for me and what is the place of my rest? Throughout the rest of the Bible the Garden of Eden becomes the model after which all other sanctuaries including the tabernacle and the temple are built. Now today we're going to have an introduction and a beginning reading of the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel is 48 chapters. It's 1,274 verses comprised of about 22,000 words. This makes it the fifth longest book of the Bible both by chapter and by word count. In other words, this book is a beast. But that isn't only true because of its size. This is a bewildering book to most people who read it. According to the Rikens, it is a visionary writing, another term for which is a fantasy. But that doesn't mean it's fake. Rather, it's fantastical in how it causes us to perceive our world. The book is also full of symbolic reality, prophecy, oracles of judgment and blessing. It has satire, it has apocalyptic eschatology, it has prose and poetry, all of which come to us in the form of individual units that are woven together into one great book, making it one of the most complex books in the Bible, as scholars say. and therefore daunting to understand and probably to preach. I guess we'll see how that goes. In order to begin to grasp what this book is ultimately about, I've given you an introduction about the beginning two chapters of the Bible. I've long said that the whole Bible is but a commentary on Genesis 1-3. And Ezekiel is one of the finest examples of this maxim, as you're about to see. So let's kind of just do a little base introduction of it, and then we'll do some reading. The book does not actually tell us that Ezekiel wrote it in so many words. However, it is so full of the first person commentary that it would either be Ezekiel who wrote it, or who commissioned it to be written by a scribe whom he oversaw, such as when Jeremiah commissioned Baruch to write his book. From the introduction, we learned that Ezekiel, whose name contains the element God, El, means strength of God. Ezekiel was a priest. That's our first connection to Eden. I'm gonna give you several more as we go along. Make no mistake, Ezekiel knew full well those connections. It says the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi in verse three. Ezekiel likely came from the priestly line of Zadok, but it's worth noting that buzi means contempt or despised, and because of this, and supposedly a genealogy where both men were descended from Joshua through his marriage with Rahab, some of the rabbis actually thought that he was the son of Jeremiah. It's all speculative, though. We learn later that Ezekiel was married Now, later Christian traditions that priests mustn't get married, they do not reflect biblical norms. The marriage idea clearly calls to mind Adam and Eve in their task in the garden. They were married by God. Ezekiel is called a watchman, guarding God's people like Adam was to guard the garden, calling them to repentance, to restore the covenant with God. Ezekiel lived in a house of his own, which became a gathering place for the elders. And he was, of course, a prophet. Ezekiel likely knew Daniel. And as we see throughout his book, through the book, his life was marked by personal hardship, including the death of his wife, which God said is going to be a sign to Israel. How would you like that? Where God actually forbids him to mourn publicly. as well as lots of physical afflictions that likewise became signs of Israel's impending judgment. The time frame Ezekiel lived and prophesied begins in the 30th year in the fourth month of the fifth day of the month. It was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin. So this puts us around 593 BC. The 30th year likely refers to Ezekiel's age. because that's the age priests began their ministry and thus this becomes his official prophetic call as we read in verse 3 when it says the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel and the hand of the Lord was upon him there. So he's being called both to be a priest and a prophet with these words. And notice it says that the word came and the hand was upon him. Word and hand are terms used by the Jews to refer to the second power in heaven, that is the second person of the Trinity, the God of Israel, the angel of the Lord. So if the 30th year refers to his age, then Ezekiel was born around 623 BC. Other dates are also given throughout the book that cause us to see that the range of his ministry is sometime between 593 and 571 BC, which means he prophesied for at least 22 years, having to go through all the things he did. Now the first deportation of the captives to Babylon occurred in 597 BC. So just a handful of years before the setting takes place. This was when Jehoiachin, the grandson of Josiah, surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar and he was taken captive along with the royal family and nobles and priests and artisans with about 10,000 people. This takes us to the provenance of the book, that is, where the book was written from as well as its setting, which is Babylon. Ezekiel tells us that the timing of his call was, quote, as I was among the exiles by the Kibar Canal in the land of the Chaldeans, that is, the Neo-Babylonian Empire in modern-day Iraq. The Kibar Canal flowing from the Euphrates in the land of exile strongly echoes the life-giving river of Eden, with two of its headwaters being the Tigris and the Euphrates, thus tying Ezekiel's opening setting to the primordial garden. Because of this setting of the exile, it also reminds us that Jerusalem's temple is far, far away, much like Adam, who was cast out of Eden, and yet God's presence there in Babylon foreshadows a return to paradise. In fact, God's glory will appear by the key bar at the end of chapter one, recalling his presence in Eden and revealing that even in exile, God has not abandoned his people. This connection serves to underscore the book's structure. Now, if you look at the Reformation Study Bible, it gives you a very common three-fold division of the book where you have basically judgment on Jerusalem for 24 chapters, and then judgment on foreign nations for another few chapters, and then finally the promises of restoration and mercy for the future, which end the book in the last 15 or so chapters. The ESV Study Bible gives us a five-point outline that just expands on that a little bit. Some scholars who have dedicated entire books to Ezekiel would rather see something like 13 distinct literary units that are set apart by chronological formulas, such as on that day. But in my opinion, none of these ways of viewing the book fully do justice to the idea summarized by Margaret O'Dell that Ezekiel shows a degree of literary coherence unmatched in the canon of biblical prophets. That's quite a statement to say. So to see this in a much more beautiful way, I'm intrigued by the idea proposed by several scholars that Ezekiel is arranged chiastically. For those who have not heard me discuss these before or still have a difficult time wrapping their minds around what a chiasm is, this is simply a repetition device. You can picture it in various ways. You can think of it like an arrowhead. evenly wide at the edges with a sharp point in the middle. You can think of it like climbing a mountain. You begin and end at the base camp or your car, while the top is the goal and the point of the climb. You can think of it like an hourglass, which narrows in the middle and through which all the sands must funnel. In the case of Ezekiel, it begins with the Lord coming to his temple as the cherubim accompany him, reminding us of Eden, and it ends with the Lord restoring his temple on a very high mountain after judging his people in a place where the river of life and the tree of life are all found, all reminding us of Eden. So it begins and ends in very similar ways, but the most fascinating part to me of this structure is that the judgment of the king of Tyre, In chapter 28, with its supernatural mirroring of Satan in the Garden of Eden, who's cast out for his sin, becomes the center of the entire book, structurally speaking. And that takes us again right back to Eden, but this time to the fall. And in this way, the story of the old serpent becomes the hinge or the tip or the funnel through which the entire book will move from judgment to restoration and return to something that's even better than Eden, which curiously is exactly how the book of Revelation ends, as it actually follows the order of the second half of Ezekiel's book, echoing and alluding to and even quoting this book. As it also ends us back in the garden and the tree of life, which belongs to any who repent of their sins and turn to Christ in faith. Just a couple of words on themes. The main themes of Ezekiel include holiness and transcendence of God. Whether through the prophet's action, or angelic messengers, or the very presence of God himself, this is the foundation of everything. Holiness is otherness, and that's what transcendence teaches us. God is not us, he is other than us. And his otherness is pure holiness. And as a result, Israel and the nations have not held up to God's holiness. They are full of sin, and it's sin that demands judgment. As such, we see major sections of the book taken up with God's anger at Israel and his anger at the nations for their sin as they violated the covenant. The job of a prophet is always difficult because they have to speak difficult truth to people who don't want to hear it. But then the grace and mercy of God also shine through this book. In fact, the whole point of the pivot with Satan is that God is going to surprisingly turn the judgment into mercy because he's a gracious God who has plans for good that far outstrip the judgment that is coming upon the world. This will take place primarily through the new covenant that comes with the Messiah. And this also reminds us of Eden with its covenants of works and grace, which are both found in the story. This in turn takes us to the massive theme of God's sovereignty. From scene to scene, God rules over the affairs of all nations. It's absolutely surprising that the glory of God, a picture of the Shekinah cloud that dwelt in Israel's temple, suddenly comes to Babylon. How can that possibly be? The gods of the nations have their own territory. They dare not go outside of it. but not the Lord. He's the God of gods and the Lord of lords and he will put his glory to rest upon anyone, anywhere that he chooses. Finally, like parallel tracks on a railroad, the book is also about individual responsibility that people have to repent of their sin and turn to faith in God. In fact, as the first scene will depict, they must turn to faith in the God who sits on the throne like a son of man, the God of Israel, the Word or the Angel of the Lord. But amazingly, be it a pauper or a prince of Israel, all of this is made possible because there is a coming future prince who will rule the world with justice, who will connect in a way superior to Ezekiel or Adam or any priest in heaven. God to his people. He will overthrow the cosmic princes like the cherub of Eden, or Gog and Magog, and in return he will set his people inside a new temple, one that will radiate with the very glory of God from the inside, something that we find throughout the New Testament as having already not yet fulfillment in Christ and his church. So as we've done for, I look back on this, nearly 10 years of books, that we have preached, we're going to read through Ezekiel together. This was a practice of both Jews and the early church to read large portions of scripture, sometimes even entire books. And why not? After all, does not Paul say, faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Now, as just mentioned, and as we will see, Ezekiel is all about Christ. Unfortunately, most readings of this book take three and a half hours. Therefore, though I wish, I really wish that we could do it all in one setting, you're gonna have to simply wait. For most of it, we're gonna go through the first 11 chapters today. So this is Ezekiel. In the 30th year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Kibar Canal, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month, it was the fifth year of the exile of King Joachim, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Kibar Canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there. As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were, gleaming metal. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures, and this was their appearance. They had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of the feet were like the soles of a calf's foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings, on their four sides, they had human hands. And the four had their faces with their wings, thus the wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward without turning as they went. And as for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left, the four had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces, and their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies, and each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went without turning as they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures darted to and fro like the appearance of a flash of lightning. 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. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction, their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of the four directions without turning as they went. And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them. When the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Whenever the spirit wanted to go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them. For the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went. When those stood, these stood. When those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them. For the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. over the heads of the living creatures, there was like a likeness of an expanse shining like awe-inspiring crystals spread out above their heads. And under the expanse, their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another. And each creature had two wings covering its body. And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army. And when they stood still, they let down their wings. And there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads. When they stood still, they let down their wings. And above the expanse over their heads, there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire. And seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. and upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw, as it were, gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around, and downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire and there was brightness around him, like the appearance of the bow that's in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and I heard the voice of one speaking. Chapter two. He said to me, son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak with you. And he spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet and I heard him speaking to me. And he said to me, son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants also are impudent and stubborn. I send you to them and you shall say to them, thus says the Lord God. And whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house, they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words. Though briars and thorns are with you, and you sit on scorpions, be not afraid of their words, nor dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house. But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you.' And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. And he spread it before me, and it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe." Chapter 3. And he said to me, son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth and he gave me this scroll to eat. And he said to me, son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey. And he said to me, son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them, for you are not being sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel, not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I sent you to such, they would listen to you, but the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me. Because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and stubborn heart. Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. Like Emery, harder than Flint, have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. Moreover, he said to me, Send a man all my words that I speak to you, receive in your heart and hear with your ears, and go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, whether they hear or refuse to hear. Then the Spirit lifted me up and I heard behind me the voice of a great earthquake. Blessed be the glory of the Lord from this place. It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, and the sound of a great earthquake. The Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went into bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me. And I came to the exiles at Tel Aviv, who were dwelling by the Kibar Canal, and I sat where they were dwelling, and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days. At the end of the seven days, the word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, you shall surely die, and you give them no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will be delivered in your soul. Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered. But his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul. And the hand of the Lord is upon me there. And he said to me, Arise, go out into the valley, and there I will speak with you. So I arose and went into the valley. And behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the Kibar Canal. And I fell on my face. But the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet. And he spoke with me and said to me, Go shut yourself within your house. And you, O son of man, behold, cords will be placed upon you, and you will be bound with them, so that you cannot go out among the people. And I will make your tongue clean to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house. But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, thus says the Lord God. He who will hear, let him hear. He who will refuse to hear, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house. Chapter four. And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem, and put siege works around it, and build a siege wall against it, and cap up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams all around. And you take an iron griddle and place it on as iron wall between you and the city and set your face toward it and let it be in a state of siege and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel. Then lie on your left side and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment. For I assigned to you the number of days, 390 days equal to the number of years of their punishment. So long you shall bear the punishment of the house of Israel. And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the punishment for the house of Judah. 40 days I assign you, a day for each year, and you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and you shall prophesy against the city. And behold, I will place cords upon you so that you cannot turn aside from one side to the other till you have completed the days of your siege. And you take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer, and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days, you shall eat it. And your food that you eat shall be by weight, 20 shekels a day. From day to day you shall eat it, and water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hen. From day to day you shall drink it, and you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung. And the Lord said, thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will drive them. Then I said, oh Lord God, behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now, I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts nor has tainted meat come into my mouth. Then he said to me, see, I assigned to you cow's dung instead of human dung on which you may prepare your bread. Moreover, he said to me, Son of man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weights and with anxiety and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. I will do this that they may lack bread and water and look at one another in dismay and rot away because their punishment. Chapter five. And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber's razor, and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and dividing the hair. A third part you shall burn the fire in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. And you shall take from these a small number of and bind them in the skirts of your robe. And these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there the fire will come out into all the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God, this is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations with countries all around her and she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations and against my statutes more than the countries all around her. For they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. Therefore, Thus says the Lord God, because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, I have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. And because of all your abominations, I will do with you what I have never yet done and the like of which I will never do again. Therefore, fathers shall eat their sons in your midst and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you and any of you who survive. I will scatter to all the winds. Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord God surely because you defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations. Therefore, I will withdraw. My eye will not spare and I will have no pity. A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst. A third part shall fall by the sword all around you and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them. Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they will know that I am the Lord, that I have spoken in my jealousy when I spend my fury upon them. Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations all around you. and in the sight of all who pass by, you shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations all around you when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury. And with furious rebukes, I am the Lord, I have spoken. And when I send against you the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you, breaking your supply of bread, I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord, I have spoken. Chapter six. The word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them and say, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys. Behold, I, even I will bring a sword upon you. I will destroy your high places. Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols, and I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around the altars. Wherever you dwell, the city shall be waste, and the high place is ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out, and the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Yet I will leave some of you alive when you have among the nations, some who escaped the sword and when you are scattered through the countries, then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive. How I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed for all their abominations and they will know that I am the Lord. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them. Thus says the Lord God, clap your hands and stamp your feet and say, alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by famine and by pestilence. He who is far off shall die of pestilence. He who is near shall fall by the sword. He who is left is preserved shall die of famine. Thus I will spend my fury upon them and you shall know that I am the Lord. when they're slain, lie among their idols around their altars on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, under every leafy oak, wherever they are offered pleasing aroma to all their idols. And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate and waste in all their dwelling places from the wilderness to Riblah. Then they will know that I am the Lord. Chapter seven. the word of the Lord came to me. And you, O son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel, an end, the end has come upon the four corners of the land. Now the end is upon you, and I will send my anger upon you. I will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. And my eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity, but I will punish you for your ways while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, disaster after disaster, behold it comes, an end has come, the end has come, it is awakened against you. Behold, it comes, your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come, the day is near, the day of tumult and not of joyful shouting on the mountains. Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon you and spend my anger against you and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. And I will not spare nor will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the Lord who strikes. Behold the day. Behold it comes. Your doom has come. The rod has blossomed. Pride has budded. Violence has grown up into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, nor their abundance, nor their wealth. Neither shall there be preeminence among them. The time has come. The day has arrived. Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn, for wrath is upon all their multitude. For the seller shall not return to what he has sold while they live for the vision concerns all their multitudes It shall not turn back because of his iniquity none can maintain his life They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready But none goes to battle for my wrath is upon all their multitude the sword is without pestilence and famine are within He who is in the field dies by the sword, and him who is in the city famine and pestilence devour. And if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains like doves to the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity. All hands are feeble. All knees turn to water. They put on sackcloth and horrors cover them. Shame is on all faces and baldness on their heads. They cast their silver into the streets and their gold is like the unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it is the stumbling block of their iniquity. His beautiful ornament they used for pride, and they made their abominable images and their detestable things of it. Therefore, I make it an unclean thing to them, and I will give it into the hands of foreigners for prey, and to the wicked of the earth for spoil, and they shall profane it, and will turn my face from them, and they shall profane my treasured place. Robbers shall enter and profane it. Forge a chain, and the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. I will bring the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their holy places shall be profaned. When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there shall be none. Disaster comes upon disaster. Rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the prophet, while the law perishes from the priest and counsel from the elders. The king mourns. The prince is wrapped in despair and the hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. According to their way, I will do to them and according to their judgments, I will judge them and they shall know that I am the Lord. Chapter eight. In the sixth year of the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, and the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal. he put out a form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north where the seat of the image of jealousy which provokes to jealousy and behold the glory of God of Israel was there like the vision that I saw in the valley Then he said to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now towards the north. So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate in the entrance was this image of jealousy. And he said to me, Son of man, do you see what they're doing? The great abominations that the house of Israel are committing there to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations. And he brought me to the entrance of the court. And when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. And he said to me, send a man, dig in the wall. So I dug in the wall. And behold, there was an entrance. And he said to me, go in and see the vile abominations that they are committing here. So I went in and saw. And there was engraved on the wall all around was every form of creeping thing and loathsome beasts and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood 70 men and the elders in the house of Israel. with Jezeniah the son of Shefan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. Then he said to me, son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house are doing in the dark in each room of his pictures? For they say, the Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land. He said also to me, you will see still greater abominations that they commit. Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. And he said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about 25 men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east. Then he said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing that the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore, I will act in my wrath. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them. Chapter 9, Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, Bring near the executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand. And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand, and with them was a man clothed in linen. with a writing case at his waist, and they went in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, on which it rested, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist, and the Lord said to him, Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it. And to the others, he said, in my hearing, pass through the city after them and strike. Your eye shall not spare. You shall show no pity. Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the elders who were before the house. Then he said to them, Defile the house and fill the courts with the slain. Go out. So they went out and struck the city. And while they were striking, and I was left alone, I fell upon my face and cried, O Lord God, will you destroy all the remnant of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem? And then he said to me, the guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood and the city full of injustice, for they say the Lord has forsaken the land. The Lord does not see. As for me, I will not spare nor will I have pity. I will bring their deeds upon their heads. And behold, the man clothed in linen with the writing case at his waist brought back word saying, I have done as you commanded me. Chapter 10. Then I looked, and behold, on the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim, there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in appearance like a throne. And he said to the man clothed in linen, Go in among the whirling wheels underneath the cherubim, fill your hands with burning coals from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. And he went in before my eyes. Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the house. When the man went in, a cloud filled the inner court. And the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house. And the house was filled with the cloud. And the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord. And 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. And when he commanded the man clothed in linen, take fire from between the whirling wheels from between the cherubim, he went in and stood beside the wheel. And a cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out. The cherubim appeared to have the form of a human hand under their wings. And I looked, and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one beside each cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was like a sparkling barrel. And as for their appearance, the four had the same likeness, as if a wheel were within a wheel. When they went, They went in any of the four directions without turning as they went. But in whatever direction the front wheel faced, the others followed without turning as they went. And their whole body, their rims, their spokes, their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around. And the wheels of the four of them had. And as for the wheels, They were calling in my hearing the whirling wheels, and everyone had four faces. The first face was the face of a cherub, the second face of a human, and the third face of a lion, and the fourth face of an eagle. And the cherubim mounted up. These were the living creatures that I saw by the Kibar Canal. And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them. And when the cherubim lifted up the wings to mount from the earth, the wheels did not turn from beside them. When they stood still, these stood still. And when they mounted up, these mounted up with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in them. Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubim and the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out with the wheels beside them and they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord and the glory of God of Israel was over them. These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the Kibar Canal, and I knew that they were cherubim. Each had four faces, and each four wings, and underneath their wings the likeness of human hands, and as for the likeness of their faces, they were the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the Kibar Canal. Each one of them went straight forward. Chapter 11. The Spirit of the Lord lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of the Lord, which faces east. And behold, at the entrance of the gate there were twenty-five men, and I saw among them Jezaniah the son of Azur, and Pelitiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. And he said to me, Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and who gave wicked counsel in this city, who say the time is not near to build houses. The city is the cauldron, and we are the meat. Therefore, prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man. And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and he said to me, say, thus says the Lord, so you think, O house of Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind. You have multiplied your slain in this city and have filled its streets with the slain. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, your slain, whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the meat, and this city is the cauldron, but you shall be brought out of the midst of it. You have feared the sword and I will bring the sword upon you, declares the Lord God, and I will bring you out of the midst of it and give you into the hands of foreigners and execute judgments upon you. You shall fall by the sword. I will judge you at the border of Israel and you should know that I am the Lord. This city shall not be your cauldron, nor shall you be the meat in the midst of it. I will judge you at the border of Israel and you shall know that I am the Lord. For you have not walked in my statues nor obeyed my rules, but have acted according to the rules of the nations that are around you. Let's pray together. Father, as I think about what we have just read, The first thing that comes into my mind is that this is not what your church is teaching these days. The second thing that came into my mind is that there's a reason why the people who came back from Babylon were so changed by the events that took place in the days of the captivity. it's impossible for us to understand the horror that was what happened to those people. And when we read in your holy word that you are the one who brought it to pass, you are the sovereign God who did these things because your people were doing horrible, evil things in your sight, violating your commandments, breaking your covenant, doing horrible things to one another. not understanding who you are, not listening to you, not believing you. You brought these things to pass after you told them you would do it and it changed them. Father, we need a word like this in our day in a very bad way because we don't understand the holiness of the God who we've come to worship. We don't understand your sovereignty over all the affairs of mankind. We listen to the pundits on the TV, we listen to the news, we become fearful, thinking that things are out of your control. Everything is exactly the way that you have ordained it to be. And it will be no matter what happens in our world in the future. Lord, these are words though that are striking not at the nations, they're striking at the heart of your chosen people. And I just cannot help but think about the sad, pitiable condition of your church in our day. So much of which, as it calls itself the church, is busy doing even worse abominations than Israel was doing. I would pray that you might be pleased through the preaching of Ezekiel through this church to cause repentance to take place in our hearts, to bring about some kind of revival in the lives of our church and of those that might hear these words, and that you might cause to spread your holiness and a re-understanding of who it is that we have come to worship. We desperately need to get rid of this idea that there are two different gods in the Bible. And that one is this nice Jesus and one is this horrible being that we've read about in these texts. No, it's the same God who shows mercy and who shows his justice. And it is up to us to conform ourselves to the image of your word, not the other way around. Please use these words for us. Sober our minds as we go through these chapters in the coming weeks. Help us to think properly and well, and may your spirit go before us. We would pray in Christ's name.