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want you to picture a quiet farm
in Pennsylvania. A man named Graham Hess wakes
up to find a strange crop circles carved into his cornfield. At
first he thinks it's a prank. Kids are messing around. But
then his dogs go wild attacking his children. A baby monitor
picks up eerie clicks and whispers. A news report shows an alien
at a child's birthday party, green and scaly, slipping through
an alley. His little girl, Bo, leaves half-drunk
glasses of water everywhere, saying that it tastes funny.
His son Morgan struggles with asthma. His brother Merrill keeps
a baseball bat on the wall, a reminder of his failed career that could
have been something. Graham, a former pastor, sees
these as random annoyances. They're proof of a world that
is cruel and God is absent. He's lost his faith after becoming
bitter and angry at God after his wife's tragic death in a
car accident where she remained alive for a short while, impaled,
conscious, but about to die. Her dying words were jumbled,
garbled, incoherent babble. See, she said, and swing away,
Meryl. By the end of the movie Signs,
these signs, these circles, the water, the asthma, the bat, the
last words of a dying wife, come together to save his family from
aliens. What seemed like chaos was God's
predestined plan that eventually restored Graham's faith in God. Now, imagine Ezekiel. He's a
priest in ancient Israel called by God to do some very bizarre
things. He must lie on his side for 390
days, then flip over for 40 more, tied up, barely eating. He must
build a model of Jerusalem under siege like a child's war game,
but deadly serious. He's to cook bread over human
feces to show the filth of exile. He has to shave his head and
burn his hair, scattering it to the wind. To Israel, these
acts look crazy, pointless, and even disgusting. But they were
God's signs of predestined judgment while implicitly pleading for
their repentance. Like the crop circles in Graham's
field, Ezekiel's acts were strange, shocking, and deliberate. They
were God's way of saying, wake up, I'm still here for better
or for worse. Today we're gonna see how God
uses wild signs of his prophet to grab our attention and break
our stubbornness and point us to hope. So Ezekiel three, starting
verse 16, all the way through chapter five, verse 17. At this
rate, we might be through Ezekiel in a month. This is a long single
literary unit. It begins in verse 16. At the end of seven days, the
word of the Lord came to me. The next unit will likewise begin
the word of the Lord came to me in chapter six. It takes place
seven days after the massively important first three chapters
which saw Ezekiel being brought into the heavenly divine council
through a vision where he saw one like a human being who's
seated on his divine chariot throne being attended and guarded
by these bizarre cherubim creatures. Ezekiel has now, as Jeremiah
puts it, stood in the counsel of the Lord to see and to hear
his word. He's been greatly humbled by
his encounter. He's been set apart for a particularly daunting
task, and now it's about to unfold. Our passage takes place at the
beginning of a series of chapters dealing with judgment being proclaimed
upon Israel. The text itself seems to me to
best fit a simple outline. It's four parts. First, Ezekiel
is commissioned to be a watchman, and then he's bound and he becomes
mute. Then there are sign acts of Jerusalem's
siege and judgment. That's what we read earlier for
the law. And then finally, God's explanation of the judgment.
Now the sign acts are by far the most dominant feature of
this story. They've been discussed by a lot of scholars. Some suggest
that there are four of them. Others say five. Dr. Heiser thought that there were
nine of them, and I'm gonna go with this because of how it relates
to a prior series of signs in the book of Exodus at the very
end of our sermon. What is the function of these
signs? Well, there are five suggestions out there. First, sign acts are
efficacious in and of themselves. They create the reality that
they express by the power of God. Second, sign acts are prophetic
dramas which express reality. Third thing, sign acts are used
to legitimate and authenticate a prophet's status. Fourth, sign
acts are a form of a street theater, a way to attract attention through
vivid actions. And then finally, sign acts are
a type of nonverbal communication used to persuade an audience
of the prophet's message. Now, I see no reason why these
can't be complementary things. And for today's sermon, I'm gonna
be following a few portions of the only person I've ever heard
preach on these chapters, D.A. Carson, in his amazing sermon
that he's delivered on a number of occasions. I heard it at Denver
Seminary 25 years ago and couldn't believe that he preached it.
So we're gonna begin in verse 16 of chapter three. At the end
of the seven days, the word of the Lord came to me. Now this
follows the pattern that began back in chapter one, verse three,
where the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. The first time this
ever happens in the Bible, the word of the Lord comes to Abram
in a vision. The word then speaks, I am your
shield, your reward shall be very great. Abram immediately
calls the word Lord God. The word of God that comes to Ezekiel is a person. The word is God, that's what
John 1 says. The word speaks, 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. The Jewish Targum says, when you hear a word from my memra,
or literally, when you hear a word from my word, That's strange,
right? But it confirms that the Jews
themselves believed that the Word is God. Ezekiel's being
made a watchman over Israel, that is, over the totality of
the nation, wherever they happen to be at the moment, whether
it's in Israel or in exile. Daniel Bloch explains that the
noun derives from a common root meaning to look out, to spy,
or to keep watch. Persons chosen for sentry duty
were generally stationed on lookout towers, strategically placed
on walls of the city, the roofs of the gatehouse, or towers outside
the city. The watchman's charge involved
paying careful attention to the enemy's movements. In the face
of an imminent attack, he would blow his horn, his shofar, summoning
the soldiers to arms, then the civilians to take cover. In other
words, Ezekiel is being given a military commission by the
king, who apparently is about to go to war. So who is the enemy? Well, the enemy is Israel and
her sin. God has a warning for Ezekiel. He says, if I say to the wicked,
you shall surely die, and you give him 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. This is a great burden, and if
Ezekiel is representative of any of those in our own day who
are likewise given the calling of faithfully proclaiming God's
word, that is the holy scripture, to the people, woe to those who
refuse to speak the truth. God will hold them accountable.
But there is good news in verse 19. If you warn the wicked and
he does not turn from his wickedness or from the wicked way, he shall
die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
So if he tells the people what God says, their blood will not
be on his hands. However, this is such a serious
charge that the Lord basically repeats it in the next verse,
only this time, rather than go after the wicked, he goes after
the righteous, who turns from his righteousness and commits
injustice. God says he's going to, quote,
lay a stumbling block before him and he shall die. So we're
getting the first taste of an entire six-course meal of judgment
that is to come in the following chapters. And when we read these
first 11 chapters a few weeks ago, we all felt how overwhelming
it was. This is not the God we often
hear about in today's churches, but it is the God of the Bible.
He tells the prophet that because you have not warned him, he will
still die for his sin and even his righteous deeds will not
be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand.
However, 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. So this gives us one of the rare
glimpses of grace and the possibility of repentance that will only
be implicit as we move along. It's important to remember something
that we will come to in a later chapter, that God does not delight
in the death of the wicked, but that he should turn from his
evil ways and do good. If you do not have this as your
anchor, then you may not be able to handle the God that you are
about to see. We come to the second of our four main headings
in our text. In it, quote, the hand of the
Lord comes upon Ezekiel and he said, arise and go out into the
valley and there I will speak with you. Notice that the hand
speaks because it's the military hand of God, his right hand,
the divine warrior, the word of God. Ezekiel doesn't know
what's in store, so he rises and goes into the valley and
says, Now the tendency of the majority
of theologians, when they read a verse like this, is to anthropomorphize
the Lord standing here. Now that's a big word. What is
an anthropomorphism? Well, it's attributing human
characteristics, behaviors, or forms to God that describe him
in ways relatable to human experience. Now, it's quite true that God
in his essence does not have human attributes. God is spirit
and he's omnipresent. However, God has just manifested
himself to Ezekiel as one like a human being. This was God coming
to him as a person, particularly the second person, the son of
God who somehow appears to him like a human being. Human beings
are quite capable of standing. This is a real embodied presence
of Christ before Ezekiel. Not of the divine essence of
God, which would have incinerated Ezekiel on the spot. This is
God clothing himself for the prophet's sake. And yet the result
of seeing this is still that Ezekiel falls on his face. He knows whose presence he is
now in. But it's happened in chapter
two, verse one. It says next, the Spirit entered into me and
set me on my feet. This is the Holy Spirit, the
third person of the Trinity, now interceding for the prophet
who sees the living word of God. And the Spirit now speaks to
him. He says, go shut yourself within your house. So the Spirit
now speaks as if he is God, just as the second person did earlier.
People ask about the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. He's right
here, right in front of us. We'll see much more of him throughout
this book. Why must Ezekiel shut himself in his house? Well, it
prepares him, not only him, but also as a warning for Israel. The Spirit commands, behold,
cords will be placed upon you. and you shall be bound with them
so that you cannot go out among the people. And I will make your
tongue cling to the roof of your mouth so that you shall be mute
and unable to reprove them for they are a rebellious house.
This seems to contradict his watchman role to warn the people.
How can he warn if he's mute and bound, right? As the son
of man, Ezekiel embodies Israel's priestly intercessor. Remember, he's a priest in chapter
one. His cords symbolize the coming captivity in Babylon.
However, these cords also echo priestly garments that bear Israel's
tribes to the ephod and the breastplate back in the book of Exodus. As
a priest, Ezekiel's binding is thus tied directly to Israel. He is a living example of them. Furthermore, God ensures Ezekiel
that he can speak divine words. His muteness is only selective. Verse 27, 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
and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse for they are a
rebellious house. And thus the binding makes him
a living sign, proclaiming judgment non-verbally. His body, not his
voice, is going to warn the rebellious house, setting the stage for
the shocking sign acts that are coming in chapter four. Now this
rebellious house, I don't know if you noticed it, but it has
already appeared a lot. You cannot understate this phrase. This is the seventh time that
it appears up to this point in the book. One of the great burdens
of Ezekiel ministry was that Jerusalem and Judah were far
more wicked than anyone thought, D.A. Carson says. And thus God
has determined to destroy them. And Carson adds, can you imagine
what that message sounded like to the exiles? If Ezekiel was
right, they were not going home because pretty soon there was
not going to be a home to go to. And Ezekiel will say nothing
at all except the specific revelation God has given him. His silence
is speaking volumes. I will say nothing, no comment,
no salutations on the street, nothing until God gives me something
to say, and then I will say it. This will have the effect, you
see, of making these words astonishingly weighty. You know, some people
speak and speak and speak even more. Have you met them? They
can't help but talk. Frankly, it's rare to find someone
who will actually ask you questions and then listen to you. This
is the opposite. How much more to today's world
where everyone feels the need to speak about everything? This
is the definition of social media, as people unload absolutely anything
they can on anyone willing to read them. And in a world where
everything is important, well, then nothing actually is. But
God still has weighty things to say today. He's speaking them
right now. Are you listening? We're only
continuing to speak. Now we're coming to the sign
acts properly speaking in chapter four. These things probably take
place at or near his house. I imagine Ezekiel living in close
quarters with all the other exiles to Babylon. It was a small community,
around 10,000 at the time, and what he will do would surely
have garnered an ever-growing audience. The first sign is verses
one through two. Basically, Ezekiel's going to
play army men on his front porch. It says, 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 against it, and build a
siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it, set camps
also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around. Ezekiel
takes a large sun-baked clay tablet, and he draws the city
of Jerusalem on it. Now we actually have examples
of such a thing from the city of Uma in the ancient Near East.
He clearly makes it so that everyone watching knows what it is. Then he starts playing model
war. He makes siege ramps. If you've seen Lord of the Rings,
you have a pretty good idea of what this is. In a siege, people
inside a walled city are first starved out, if possible, by
cutting off the food supply. As you do this, you might build
siege ramps, such as the incredible ramp still preserved at the ancient
Jewish fortress of Masada, where 6,000 to 8,000 Roman soldiers
camping throughout the local desert took anywhere between
a month to a year building it just so that they could attack
the poor souls hiding out on top of the fortress. Imagine
Ezekiel, your neighbor in exile, saying absolutely nothing, starting
out with this dramatic scene, which he himself could have taken
weeks to build up. You've already been taken from
the land as an exile, but now your thoughts can't help but
think about all your loved ones still in Jerusalem. What is this
prophet trying to tell you? The second sign act begins in
verse three. Ezekiel is to take an iron griddle, something akin
to a wok. He then is to set his face toward
it, glaring at it as he holds the pan precariously over the
city, saying nothing. For how long? For how many days? For how long each day does he
do this? We have no idea. But the point is, a huge iron
pan over a city made of clay with siege works all around it
represents a massive, merciless force that is set to strike at
any moment, smashing the city to ruins. With but a word, Jerusalem
will be obliterated. Now verses four through eight
see a dramatic shift in the imagery composed of three things. The
first is that the prophet is to lie on his left side and so
place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. Now if you
are facing north, the direction of the incoming army, and of
the northern kingdom of Israel, now already in ruins from the
Assyrian captivity 100 and so years earlier, then his whole
body would have been facing Israel from Babylon from its front porch. He's to lay this way for 390
days. In the words of Fran Tarkenton
long ago, that's incredible. Did you guys ever watch that
show? I can remember the first time I read this, I was like,
he's supposed to do what? Again, for how long each day?
Well, we aren't told, but you can bet it was for a long time
each day. 390 is a number that no one understands. Some of you were asking me about
this a couple weeks ago. I said, I'll get to it. and I
found out nobody understands what this number means. Counting
backwards from Ezekiel's time, it comes close to the onset of
the Northern Rebellion under King Jeroboam in 931 BC, which
is perhaps the meaning of verse five when it says, I assign to
you a number of days, 390, equal to the number of the years of
their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the
house of Israel. But Israel wasn't actually being punished for that
long. The Septuagint actually reads 150 years, maybe tying
it to the floods 150 days that the waters prevailed. However,
it's possible that this is a kind of symbolic year gone wrong with
360 times 12 monthly cycles plus an extra 30 days maybe representing
a kind of final month of grace before the hammer falls. Whatever the case, in verse 6
it shifts. Now imagine this. You're an onlooker. Every day, walking by this guy's
house, wondering at what this strange prophet is doing, and
every day after work, you walk past his siege works, and now
he's laying on his side saying nothing. Day one, day two, day
seven, 10, 20, 50 days pass. Then 100, then 200, it's the
exact same thing. 300 days, then 350 days, 360, 380, 385, 86, 87, 88, 89, 390 days, nothing changes for over a year.
Suddenly, the next day, you discover the prophets change directions. And now he's lying on his right
side, likely facing south, and it says, and when you have completed
these, you shall lie a second time, but on your right side,
and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. 40 days I assign
you, a day for each year. He's to set his face towards
the siege of Jerusalem now, with his arm bared, and he shall prophesy
against the city. His bared arm is the second sign
of this section, and the fourth overall after laying on his sides.
Now again, 40 is a number that doesn't make a lot of sense.
70 is the number we might have expected because Jeremiah predicted
they would be in captivity for 70 years. However, we know that
40 is a number deeply tied to periods of testing and judgment. 40 days of Noah's Ark, 40 years
in the wilderness, 40 days of Jesus' temptation. The text says
that Ezekiel is to, quote, bear their iniquity. Now, unfortunately,
the Hebrew here is ambiguous, and we don't know if he's actually
bearing their sin or bearing their judgment. If Ezekiel were
bearing Israel's judgment, it would mean he symbolically endures
the consequences of their sin, such as exile and having to go
through with these signs. If he were bearing their sin,
it would mean he acts as a priestly mediator, ritually carrying their
guilt before God, akin to atonement rituals, to highlight their moral
culpability. Because he's a prophet, it could
mean the former. Because he's a priest, it might
mean the latter. The reality is these are not mutually exclusive
things. The fifth sign appears. God is placing cords upon Ezekiel
again, but so that he cannot turn from one side to the other
until he's completed the days of his siege. He appears to somehow
be bound up, suffering on his side, unable to move. Now clearly,
not 24 hours a day, because it would make eating and drinking
and personal hygiene impossible. Nevertheless, reading it, we
get the impression that this would have been a brutal siege
on Ezekiel. No wonder he had to have the
vision from chapter one to keep him pressing ahead. This likely
complements the chords of the previous chapter that identify
the priest with the people. Verse nine gives us a sixth sign
act. We will call it the Rations Act. At Masada, the story goes that
the night before the Romans finally penetrated the fortress, after
let's say a year of watching these guys build a ramp to come
up to your to where you're at, to kill you. The night before,
all but a handful of women and children committed suicide so
that the Romans could do nothing more to the poor people. Israel
won't be so lucky. Ezekiel now is commanded to take
wheat and barley, beans and lentil, millet and spelt, and put them
into a single vessel and make bread from them. This is where
the so-called Ezekiel bread comes from. More on that in a minute. He used to eat this nasty concoction
of disgusting quasi-flour vegetables dried together with grain to
represent the bare rations for every day that he lies on his
side. And you don't usually make bread
from more than half of this. It would have been disgusting.
And Ezekiel will not be allowed to eat much, only 20 shekels
a day along with just a sixth part of a hint of water. That
equates to eight ounces of bread a day, or just a small loaf,
and 16 ounces of water. You ever been to Iraq? Ever been to Iran? You know what
that place is like? This is barely enough to stay alive, and he
must do this for over a year while lying tied up on his side.
You see the symbolism when taken with the siege? If you still
don't, you will soon enough. So how is he to cook it? Here's
where things get the most memorable in the Seventh Sign Act. When
you're under siege, you eventually run out of firewood, so what
is left to use? Ezekiel's to bake it in their
sight so that they can see him do it on human dung. That's not
how they're making Ezekiel bread in the stores today. Now, I haven't done this in 23
years, but I'm gonna do it right now. To quote D.A. Carson, you
use shit. It's the same word for both cows
and human beings. We use excrement for one and
dung for the other because we're polite, but at point in fact,
you're using manure because it burns. Now, of course, that's
not a word we're supposed to use in a sermon. I'm sorry if
that offends you, but we need to be offended somehow by this
story. What Israel has done is much more offensive than this
word, which bothers you more, the word or their sin. People
need to feel this in their bones, as Israel would have when they
read verse 13. And the Lord said, thus shall
the people of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations,
where I will drive them. For Ezekiel the priest, this
is too much to bear. After all this, this is what's
too much to bear. He is kept utterly silent until now, but
this demands a word. He tells the Lord God, behold,
I have never defiled myself. From my youth up until now, I've
never eaten what died of itself or was torn a beast, nor has
tainted meat come into my mouth. He's referencing a passage like
Deuteronomy 23, verse 12 through 14, where human feces is considered
unclean in the law. Ezekiel has been a strict follower
of Mosaic law, as all priests were to be. And then, in my opinion,
one of the funnier lines, albeit darker humor, in the Bible comes
next, as the Lord concedes, fine, he says, I assign to you cow's
dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.
It's a concession to a priest so that he may still remain ritually
clean, but it's not much better, it's still poop. What's the point of all this?
The last two verses of the chapter tell us, moreover he said to
me, son of man behold, I will break the supply of bread in
Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight
and with anxiety and they shall drink water by measure and in
dismay and I will do this that they may lack bread and water
and look at one another in dismay and rot away because of their
punishment. Do you have a problem with worrying in your life? Try
that on for size. This is only the beginning. Summarizing
verses one to three drive home the inevitability of the siege
of Jerusalem under the judgment of God. Verses four to eight
drive home the duration of the banishment. Verses nine through
17 drive home the famine conditions of siege and exile. And we have
two more sign acts to go before finishing off with the larger
explanation for those Israelites too dull to figure out what pictures
are already in front of them. The eighth sign, the Son of Man
takes a sharp sword. Uh-oh, is he gonna strike somebody
down with it? No, he's to use it as a barber's
razor, passing over his head and his beard. He's shaving himself. In other places in the Bible,
this is a symbol of mourning, captivity, and punishment. But
this is shocking and awful symbolism for a priest's dignity, because
Leviticus 21.5 forbids priests from doing this. It thus exposes
him to public disgrace and mockery, all while he's not allowed to
say anything back in return. Remind you of anyone in the New
Testament? Like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he
opened not his mouth. It's Jesus. He's then to weigh
and divide his hair evenly and to put it into thirds. On the
day of his siege, when it's completed, he's to take a third and burn
it in the fire in the middle of his army man's city. He's
to take the next third and in the act that would make him look
like a wild lunatic, take his sword and start whacking the
pieces of hair as they fall to the ground throughout the model
city. Slicing and dicing, cutting, thrashing the hair until all
that's left are these little tiny pieces. The last third takes
us to the final sign act. He's to tuck away a small number
of remaining hairs into the skirts of his robe. He then waits for
a windy day where he throws most of that into the air, scattering
it to the wind, for God, quote, will unsheath the sword after
them. of those few hairs that remain,
he's to pull some out and cast them into the fire and burn them.
For, quote, a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.
And this leaves only a small handful of remnant hairs left. And this takes us to the fourth
section. It's at this point that we finally begin to learn what
all this memorable play-acting of signs in total silence from
a haggard, bald, half-starred prophet was for over a year and
a half after it all began. Thus says the Lord, this is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center
of the nations with countries all around her. This describes
Israel's station in the land of Canaan, surrounded by foreign
peoples, on a track of land that is central to all commerce between
Egypt and Babylon, What will in a century or two
also become known as Europe? This is the main route between
it all. Verse six, 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 not walked
in my statutes. Friend, God is not doing this
because he's capricious or vindictive. Rather, this is the hand of justice
coming down on people who utterly deserve it. Israel has become
worse than the nations around her, having not walked in God's
statutes or rules, nor even according to the rules of the nations around
her. This is truly evil. Those nations followed law codes
like Hammurabi's law code. given by treacherous gods, as
he himself says, permitting the worship of almost any god, no
laws against things like homosexuality or temple prostitution. They
gave pardons for adultery, lighter penalties for incest, mere fines
for some forms of rape and bestiality, and they neglected widows and
orphans, offering only narrow inheritance protections for them.
Israel's worse than that. And thus God tells him in no
uncertain terms, behold, I, even I, am against you and I will
execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.
God is against his own people? We are told today that Israel
is incapable of doing anything wrong, no matter what it is,
much less that they could ever be out of God's favor, much less
be on the receiving end of his wrath. God's chosen people, that's
what they are, and yet here it is, plain as day. God says, 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.
It's a warning that tells us that this is as bad as it can
get. So what exactly will happen?
Well, the truly unthinkable, they will become cannibals. Therefore,
fathers shall eat their sons in your midst and sons shall
eat their fathers. This is explicitly predicted,
by the way, in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy in the curses
of the covenant. It's been as few as 684, perhaps
as many as 860 years since those predictions were given. After
all that time, go back 800 years in our time and imagine what
you would think. People surely thought God had forgotten. Make
no mistake, God does not forget his promises, for judgment or
for grace. He says, and I will execute judgments
on you, and any of you who survive, I will scatter to all the winds.
So what have they done specifically? He tells us here only that they
have defiled God's sanctuary with all manner of detestable
things and with all their abominations. These refer to idolatrous practices
that they literally brought into the temple. Ezekiel will tell
us later of an example about, quote, an image of jealousy set
up at the northern gate of the temple. Could be an image of
Baal or Asherah or someone else. This is just one example and
we will see many more as we continue through the book. Jeremiah also
notes that they have even practiced human child sacrifice in the
temple precinct. But for now, this was the big
crime, now bringing the hammer down. Their time is nearing an
end. God continues with a very important
statement, therefore I will withdraw. This foreshadows the glory departing
the temple, something unthinkable to ancient Jews who believed
their status as the chosen people was absolutely unconditional
no matter what they did. They were sorely mistaken. And
the reason so many today continue to teach this nonsense is because
they refuse to read God's word. 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. A third
part I will scatter to the winds and will unsheath the sword after
them. So that explains the hair signs.
Thus shall my anger spend itself. I will vent my fury upon them
and satisfy myself and they shall know that I am the Lord, that
I have spoken in my jealousy when I spend my fury upon them. Now our confession of faith speaks
about God being, quote, without body, parts, or passions. This would seem to deny what's
before us because here God is angry, furious, and jealous,
but the confession speaks of God in his essence, in his nature. It says nothing about God and
his persons. Think about the son of God who wept and laughed
and mourned and got angry. As before, Jesus was not consumed
by these things nor controlled by them, but they were part of
him for he was fully human. This is why we must remember
that we are dealing here in Ezekiel not with the divine nature, whatever
that would even mean, but with the second person of the Trinity.
This is why exegesis is so vital. It's not God in his bare essence,
but the image of God to man, the word and the arm and the
glory of God. He perfectly embodies proper
emotional reactions then as he does in the New Testament, never
controlled by his passions, but nevertheless embodying them in
his person. A further word about God speaking in jealousy is important. For what is there to be jealous
of regarding offenses like idolatry if nothing is real on the other
side? Too many people have so de-supernaturalized
the Bible that they think that gods are not real. Is God really
getting jealous of the flying spaghetti monster? That's absurd. He's jealous because real created
heavenly fallen beings have led Israel astray and caused them
to commit spiritual adultery with the God who has taken them
to be his spouse in covenantal marriage. Adultery only works
if there's someone to commit it with and that's why God is
so jealous and full of wrath. His wife has been unfaithful
for 800 years and it only continues to get worse. He would go on
to promise that he will make them a desolation and an object
of reproach among the nations in the sight of all who pass
by. They will become a taunt and a warning and a horror to
all the nations around as he executes his judgment in anger
and fury. The nations will see their God
is real and they will wonder at what Israel has done to deserve
such a violent desolation, death, and captivity. Now verse 16 has a fascinating
reference to deadly arrows of famine and arrows of destruction,
for which God sends to break their food supply of bread and
starve his people. But as Heizer points out, this
is a strange metaphor. Certainly we associate arrows
with a siege and with death, but with famine? But an Israelite
would have understood, and it's ironic, given that they have
given themselves over to the worship of the gods. Enter someone
named Resheph. Though not a word used here,
the word is translated as plague in places like Deuteronomy 32
and Habakkuk 3. In Deuteronomy, it appears alongside
of the word keteb, bitter destruction, and ra'ab, hunger and famine. That's the word used here. The
thing is, Resheph is a deity, and possibly so is Keteb. He
could well have been among the abominations that they set in
the temple in the form of an idol. The thing specifically
about Resheph is that his symbol was the arrow. In Habakkuk, he
seems to come as part of God's heavenly entourage, his counsel,
a subordinate created entity that must carry out God's judgment
on those whom it has been decreed. So it would be truly ironic if
God used the very gods Israel worshiped to carry out judgment
against them. The next and last verse in our
passage takes it a step further. In Habakkuk 3.5, Resheph is accompanied
by Debor, pestilence, a kind of nocturnal demon that is also
found in the very supernatural, Psalm 91 verse six. And thus
it ends, I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they
will rob you of your children. Pestilence, Debor, and blood
shall pass through you and I will bring the sword upon you. I am
the Lord, I have spoken. Now obviously these signs and
their purpose are singularly targeted at God's people because
of the vile wickedness that they've been committing for so long.
The time of that rebellion is now over. God's patience has
run out. He would tolerate no more as
his own bride has now become worse than the nations around
them. Carson explains that It's a constant principle throughout
God's Word that to whom much is given, much shall be required. Jesus told Bethsaida and Capernaum,
woe to you. If the gospels and miracles performed
in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, the pagan cities up
the coast, they would have repented. If they had been preached in
Sodom and Gomorrah, they would still be here today. It is a
burdensome responsibility that comes to a people when the gospel
has been spread so widely through its civilization. Listen carefully. Beloved, this is precisely what
has happened more to Europe and America than anywhere else on
the face of the earth. And oh, the depths to which we
have fallen. Specifically, there is no other
language on earth that has been granted such good gifts of the
gospel and a Christian heritage than English. Nothing even comes
remotely close. The Puritans, the songs, the
commentaries, the churches. Where do you suppose the nation
like we have become will be that has risen to such heights through
the gospel, even having boldly dared enter into a covenant with
God as they crossed an ocean in order to start a new society
and a new world? A nation that laughs at justice,
that warps sexuality, that makes truth relative, whose leadership
is bribed and perverted and launders money, whose industry sells sex
and pharmakia and hedonism, whose churches look exactly like the
world in their worship, in their dress, in their speech, in their
conduct, and in their private lives. Yes, it is especially
to the church that such a warning as this must be heeded. For who
is the covenant community in the New Testament? It isn't America,
as much as the Puritans wanted it to be. It isn't Britain. It
isn't even the nation of Israel, much to the dismay of some. It
is the church. We are those now in covenant
with this God, same God. Israel's rebellion, like a festering
wound, had grown worse than the nations around her, and God's
patience was spent. As Carson notes, God's judgment
had four purposes. To vent his righteous anger against
sin, to make Israel know he is the Lord who acts, to humble
them as a reproach before the nations, and to destroy the unrepentant. And as we have seen, this includes
sometimes through created agents like Resheph. These synax, Ezekiel's
brick and griddle, bound body and shaved hair, they actually
echo the plagues of Egypt where God judged that rebellious nation. Just as Moses' staff brought
blood, frogs, and darkness, Ezekiel's silence suffering warns of famine,
pestilence, and exile. Like the blood on Egypt's doorposts
sparing a remnant, Ezekiel's few hairs tucked in his robe
whisper of hope, a promise of survival for those who repent. Death comes as judgment against
sin. It's why we all die. It's why
everyone died in the flood. This was the cumulative judgment
of God upon the entire world. It's why Sodom and Gomorrah were
destroyed. It's why Egypt was destroyed. Curiously, there's a virtual
parallel with Ezekiel's synax and the plagues of Egypt. Both
begin with the prophet's mouth. Moses stutters and Ezekiel's
not allowed to speak. And then come a series of nine
things which can be bunched into a three by three weave. The plague
ends in the death of the firstborn. Ezekiel's sign acts in the death
of the remnant, but with hope for survival. Listen to this
poetic vision of Ezekiel's call. In Babylon's dust, Ezekiel stands. A Moses reborn, his mouth sealed
by heaven's hand. His brick is Egypt's Nile, red
with shame. His griddle, a darkness no lamp
can tame. Arm bared, he lies bound as Israel's
sins weigh down, like boils on Egypt's prideful crown. His bread
defiled, his locust feast reversed. His hair scattered as hail's
curse. Yet his robe, a remnant, hides
like blood on doors where mercy bides. The firstborn fell, Egypt's
heart was rent. Israel's hope lives in hairs
God sent. Ezekiel weaves the plagues anew,
for Jerusalem's Egypt judged but true. His silence sings what
Moses spoke. God's voice will mend what rebellion
broke. And we could trace these kinds
of themes of dying and judgment all the way through the Old Testament
and on into the new, especially with Jesus in his Olivet Discourse
using a phrase that comes right from our passage when he says,
there will be distress unequaled from the beginning of the world
until now and never to be equaled again. In my understanding and
reading of that passage, this is apocalyptic and cyclical language
first found here. in Ezekiel, then in 70 AD, and
then throughout history as nations fall on up to the final short
season of Satan in the very end. The warnings to the churches
in Revelation 2 through 3 are part of this cyclical reading. But it's not to the second coming
and final judgment that our hearts must finally turn, but rather
to the first coming. like Graham Hessen's signs who
saw chaos in crop circles and strange water glasses and a dying
wife's words, you might miss God's plan in Ezekiel's shocking
acts. But just as those signs ultimately
were predestined to save Graham's family, Ezekiel's signs point
to a greater hope. Jesus, the ultimate son of man,
became the greatest sign act on the cross. That's what we
read in John 3 verses 14 through 15 when he is lifted up like
Moses' pole in the wilderness and a sign of his death and resurrection
like the sign of Jonah. Jesus bore our iniquity like
Ezekiel's cords and faced the sword of God's wrath like the
scattered hairs. He was smashed to pieces like
Jerusalem because of our sin. but his death satisfied justice,
sparing a remnant, us who trust in him. In 2025, as our world
and churches mirror Israel's rebellion, his people called
by his name must heed Ezekiel's warning. Repent and turn from
your sin and look to the cross and find restoration in the God
who judges and saves in Jesus Christ. Judgment and salvation. Wrath and grace kiss at the cross. God judges our sin and gives
grace to us because of what his son did. As Graham's faith was
restored, so can ours be through Christ, the sign that never fails. Let's pray together. Lord, I do ask that you would
put into our hearts deeply the words that we have read in Ezekiel
today. More is coming. But here we are
dealing with these signs and the silence of the prophet who
could only speak by doing these things in silence. And I pray,
Lord, that you would help us to see what he did and what you
did these things for, that we would know deep in our hearts
that we are sinners just like Israel and that sin must be judged. And Lord, your grace has shown
us that you judged sin once and for all, not in Israel's rebellion,
or in the fall of nations one after another, but in Christ.
That's where your wrath was poured out. And Jesus willingly took
that wrath while he was on the cross, and he willingly died. Taking your judgment the judgment
that we deserve upon his body. How could he have done such a
thing? And if we want to understand truly the hope that is there
with the remnant of hairs Everyone needs to look to Christ and I
pray that you because you alone able to do it would open hearts
and minds and make people recognize their own sin and the glory that
you went to and and the lengths that you went to to save us from
it, that if we would turn to Christ, as you tell us in John
3, we will have eternal life and be forgiven of all of our
sins, once and for all, justified, declared not guilty, even though
we are. I pray you would hear this prayer
in Jesus' name, amen.
Signs And the Sign to Which They Point. Ezekiel 3:16-5:17
Series Ezekiel
| Sermon ID | 713251454125464 |
| Duration | 49:41 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Ezekiel 3:16-5:17 |
| Language | English |
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