00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
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.
Ezekiel: An Introduction. Ezekiel 1:1-3
Series Ezekiel
| Sermon ID | 62225142353945 |
| Duration | 51:29 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Ezekiel 1:1-3 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.