Ezekiel (Session 11) Chapters 23-24

okay we are in the Book of Ezekiel and we're going to explore chapters 23 and 24 and to give you a quick perspective the first three chapters of course with a call the Prophet deported that they the first senior Nebuchadnezzar took Daniel in a small group as hostages to the court set up a vessel king they rebelled again and there was a second siege during which Ezekiel and the group of others were taken hostage 300 miles east of Jerusalem Jerusalem was put under a different vessel King and a tzatziki he was 25 when he's when he was deported when he becomes 30 he was trained as a priest but that's when he's called as a prophet and so the first three chapters deal with the whole warm-up here but then we have chapters 4 through 24 in which God lays out his case as a prosecutor the the case against Jerusalem and the main point is not a call to repentance they've had that chance throughout their history he's mailing him here and it goes again and again using strange little skits all kinds of parables all kinds of ways again and again we've been going through those chapters these messages from 4 through 24 were given to the people Jeremiah's in Jerusalem preaching a similar kind of message Ezekiel is in Babylon not the city of Babylon but in the cat in a outlying agricultural commune in a sense Daniel is in court at the city of Babel and at this time but we don't have any directly although he's referenced we don't have any direct connection here we're going to discover at the end of chapter 24 that triggers the siege and he and that siege I can't figure out from the records whether it's six months or two years but it's not a quick thing and it's disastrous of course but the good news is chapter the chapters that follow from 25 and 32 are given during the siege but not but about subjects that will happen later they're popular true prophecy in that sense it's God's judgment on the nation's and you'll discover that they are the Muslim nations as we get into that from chapters 33 to the end of the book is the restoration that's the bright spot that's the upbeat of this whole symphony here and that's given after the siege okay and they're going to return to their land and we're gonna have the valley of his dry bones and all that business we're gonna we've seen that happen in our lifetime 38 and 39 of course the gog magog event is being talked about on all the radio shows because so much of current events are causing people to suspect that the gog magog thing may be on our very near horizon we'll explore that when we get there then chapters 40 through 48 will deal with the millennium itself and the shock to many students is the realization that it's the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant many people fail to understand that English even though gable can confirm it to Mary and Luke one and the peak event of Acts 15 the Council for Jerusalem James quotes Amos 911 again reconfirming it and of course the book of Revelation highlights it but most of what we know about it we learn from the Old Testament strangely enough so we'll get into all of that in the final eight chapters nine chapters of the book so we are in finishing up this heavy section of the God's judgment on Jerusalem so we're in chapter 23 and we're gonna talk about two sisters here and they are of course an allegory okay so the word of the Lord came unto me saying I want to emphasize that this is not Ezekiel's interpretation this is not an editorial by Ezekiel on shame on you guys whatever no this is the word of the Lord that that phrase is not a casual thing that's a heavy heavy thing word Lord came unto me saying said a man there were two women the daughters of one mother so these are sisters as Eagle didn't make this up God gave him this message the daughters of one man the one mothers the whole nation of Israel the two sisters will turn out to be two exemplary cities Samaria and Jerusalem referring to the northern kingdom in the southern kingdom after the Civil War under Raya Boehm and Jeroboam and all about okay are we together okay and they committed whoredoms in Egypt see their sins started even before the Exodus interesting they committed whoredoms in Egypt they committed hardiman's in their youth they were there were their breasts pressed sand there where they bruised the teats of their virginity now I should warn you this language in this chapter is going to be very graphic and it's referring to whoredoms in this sexual sense but perhaps even more relevant in the spiritual sand in the National sense if you can think of all three wrapped together as we go through these things now the role of this in Egypt can be found in the Genesis all through the the golden calf when they had the golden calf event after the Exodus they didn't invent that they were echoing back into techniques that they had learned back in Egypt the names of them were Ahola the elder the older one of the two and Halle baa her sister and they were mine and they bear sons and daughters thus were their names now so you don't have to guess it tells you who they represent Sumeria is a whole lot and Jerusalem is a whole of ah ok and there really it shouldn't be an A it should be a no it'd be pronounced below more care but that's the way the the King James has it ok a whole law means her own tent or tabernacle her own tent but the word tenten tabernacle are essentially sinners the other one a Halle ba means the tent or the tabernacle is in her the subtle difference in the Hebrew makes it just the opposite see a whole lot had her own tent not the Lord's tent she went into idolatry first remember in a Jeroboam and he set up the golden calves at Bethel and and and so on and a challah ba represents Judah the tent or tabernacle is in her what distinguished the two nations the house of Israel to the north the house of Judah to the south is the house of Judah had the temple that's why the Levites also migrated southward now you always talk about that you hear all these books talk about the ten tribes I'd love to know what ten tribes they have in mind because the southern tribe was Simeon and Judah put together where was Benjamin oh yeah he's there too well that's three already out of twelve right and then the Levites come down that's four so if there's some that are lost is only eight left and they're not lost they're distributed there's a big difference anyway I don't want start on my lap here at night but okay but we're gonna be talking a lot about Samaria which is a Samaria and if the tribe of Ephraim the city of Samaria are both used idiomatically to refer to the northern kingdom that went into idolatry went from bad to worse forgotten how many dynasts no I think nine dynasties till they finally got wiped out by the Assyrians the southern kingdom had one dynasty the Davidic dynasty but it also went from bad to worse with a couple of exceptions yet Hezekiah and Josiah a couple of good guys but not many it also is into judgment it would have been wiped out - except for a promise God made David do you understand how important the Davidic covenant is to every one of us not just the Jews okay God never recognized the worship that was set up under Jeroboam in the north so a whole I had her own tent a whole of ah the Tet the tabernacle was in her see the difference even the subtlety of the Hebrew words picks up those distinctions Ahola play the harlot when she was mine she doted on her lovers on the Assyrians her neighbor's which were clothed with blue captains and rulers all of them desirable young men horsemen riding upon horses she played the harlot she's being unfaithful in her religion in her political alliances and also sexually the lovers are the same as we encountered back in Ezekiel 16 the nation the lovers here are nations with which the kings of Israel were in alliance they weren't supposed to be doing that and of these the Assyrians are named they weren't the only ones but that the preeminent ones now you need to have a little perception here of Israel's relationships with this area there's a black obelisk in the in the British Museum we'll touch on here that's from Solomon easer the third that mentions Jehu the son of Omri and pictures him bowing down to the Assyrian monarch now this isn't mentioned in the Bible but it probably resulted from the Syrian threat to Israel Syria was expanding into Israel's land in the Transjordan area during Jay whose reign that's all in second Kings 10 and the black obelisk you can visit when you by the way when you go if you go to London take the time to go to the British Museum I'm not a big museum kind of guy but let me tell you it's full of fascinate you want to go there and see the cylinder of Cyrus of course for lots of reasons Hezekiah has a thing and the black obelisk which is the oldest record known physical record it's it's a bas-relief structure it's and it's a it's significant because it's the earliest ancient depiction of an Israelite goes back to 858 BC so it goes back to almost 3000 years um okay so to counter that threat Jay who allied himself light Israel with a serious submitted himself as a vassal and the obelisk of course pictures Jay who and his servants bringing tribute to the Assyrian King that's right so important historically here and a couple of later Kings also paid a tribute so they're paying a tribute to Assyria the Prophet Hosea about a century later rebukes Israel for her dependence on Assyria instead of depending on whom Lord you'll find this a recurring theme in the history of Israel you'll find it a recurring theme in our personal lives God wants us dependent on him not our balance sheet not our employer a lot of substitute things that we tend to to look to understandably on the one hand and yet be careful that doesn't get in the way of being dependent on him and him alone and so after Israel became a serious vassal she couldn't disentangle herself she finally tried to break away by forming a coalition with Syria and Egypt she's trying to break away so Syrian Egypt intrigued with him and when Syria found out who you can imagine like a jealous woman in a sense the very nation to which Samaria turned for assistance would end up destroying her so it was a Syria that ultimately wipes out the northern kingdom there's a lesson there we're gonna take a look at maybe moving back to where all the way to verse 7 we're doing ok here less she committed her whoredoms with them with all the them that were the chosen men of Assyria withal on whom she doted with all her idol she defiled herself now the next two verses will paint the consequence of the Alliance first with Assyria than with Egypt she adopted the religion of Assyria probably the were the worship of each star from which we still could label a region of us a calendar as the Queen of Heaven then some churches that look to the Queen of Heaven - but I won't get on that path here certainly having done all this the King's visuals sought to play one kingdom off the other that was their strategy there was a discovery of King Hosea stretch no prophet this is the King a treachery in this matter that led Xiamen easer to besieged Samaria and result of that siege is described in general in in verse 10 the city she this represented this event Samaria was slain with the sword her sons and daughters were taken into exile neither left she verse 8 left her whoredoms brought from Egypt and in her youth they lay with her they bruised the breasts of her virginity and poured their whoredom upon her where for I've delivered her in the hand of her lovers into the hand of the assyrians whom she upon whom she doted these discovered her nakedness they took her sons and her daughters they slew her with the sword and she became famous among the women infamous is the way we'd probably express it and for they had executed judgment upon her you see the commingling of the idioms here of harlotry and improper foreign alliances and so forth all we wove and together it was the Northern Kingdom while still under the Lord's authority that we find Chronicle that they went astray with the Assyrians it was specifically climaxed turn King J who and that's the obelisk thing who destroyed a jolla key point key question your final who destroyed her lovers did the people with whom she's having harlotry are the ones that wipe her out who destroys the harlot in revelation 17 and 18 the woman rides the Beast don't confuse the beast with the woman that rides the Beast who ends up consuming the harlot the nations that she's writing interesting point the nation she rides on are the ones that will consumer then back then and also forthcoming yeah moving on when her sister a holla but now we've shifted to the southern kingdom Judah okay Jerusalem specifically when her sister a Halawa saw this she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms in other words you would think the southern kingdom would have learned their lesson by watching the tragedy of the northern kingdom that's happened in 722 this is all to what we're taking place here is in the is 800 or 60 to be 600 BC 606 in that area the southern kingdom had over a hundred year advantage over the northern kingdom she saw them fall into idolatry and sin and foreign alliances with Assyria ending up being taken captive by the Assyrians themselves God judged them for their spiritual corruption did Judah learn from that example you know Hegel summarize it all he says history teaches us that man learns nothing from history George Santayana said the same thing a little differently he that doesn't know history is doomed to repeat it did Judah learn by their example the message here was the same thing that happened to the southern kingdom which I happen it's going to happen to the South kingdom that happened to the Northern Kingdom Israel and Syria had banded together to oppose Assyria they sought to bring Judah into the Alliance when a has refused they attacked Judah hoping to dethrone Ahaz and replace him with a king who would support their uprisings rather than trusting God for deliverance as Isaiah the prophet urged a has to do he has sent to Assyria to enlist her aid and protection and that passage in Isaiah 7 gives rise to a verse that you all know okay because the the rebuke to King Ahaz by his Isaiah is recorded in chapter 7 okay and with that anyway with that act of it became a Vesta because it has his failure to do this property he be he became a vassal to Syria for the next century there was a sign for the house of Israel this is what gave rise to that famous reverse in Isaiah's denunciation of a has with his league with Teleca blazer the Lord he asked for a sign he said well I wouldn't do that well the Lord Himself will give you a sign behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel was that a sign for a has no it was a sign for the house of Israel and indeed it was okay well the word in the Hebrew is alma that means young maiden whoever says that hasn't done their homework in the Greek it is pathetic it's it's clearly it's a virgin if it's just a young maiden as a child that is not much of a sign right so anyway I won't go down that path here so Judah did send her ambassadors to Chaldea the political alliance has led to religious defections you cannot separate religion from politics because Judah is turning to Chaldea and who's the one that eventually takes some the Babylonians the Chaldeans let's move on here in verse 12 she doted upon the Syrians her neighbors captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously horsemen riding upon horses all of them desirable young men and so King Ahaz you know he went down to Damascus to meet dick left blazer and he saw the neat I really need alter so he sent Uriah his priest to get the pattern to make one just like it cease adopting the religious patterns of the people he's courting politically then I saw that she was defiled and they took her disgust being of the Sun King that they took both one way that she increased her heart hymns for when she saw the men portrayed upon the wall the image of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion now the Vermilion that's a peculiar color by the way of the Syrians and that's mentioned several places by the way but who will make a big thing of it and so Jerusalem's respite from Assyria was short-lived king josiah established the the judah's independence but he was killed in a battle with pharaoh Necho and one of the mysteries that you need to solve is why was he going to battle against ferronickel Ferren echo was taking war against Assyria why would two Ziya go up take arms against Pharaoh Necho the answer I believe is to try to recover the Ark of the Covenant which had been taken down there under his protection during the days of Manasseh and if you want to get into that whole thing we have commentary materials on the whole issue of the the the whereabouts of the Ark of the Covenant moving on here so Judah became a vassal of Egypt seeking their protection for about four years it was probably during that time that Joachim contacted the Babylon to request her aid Babylon defeats the Egyptians at carchemish in 605 BC jaya kim quickly switched his allegiances and became Nebuchadnezzar's vassal for a while a verse 15 girded with girdles upon the loins exceeding and diet attire upon their heads all of them princes to look to after the manner of the Babylonians of kal via the land of their nativity and this just describes the the attire minh of the assyrians and how they depends on the rank anyway and as they as soon as she saw them with her eyes she doted upon them and sent messengers unto them unto Kalia visiting how God makes the our object of our sinful desire the very instrument of their punishment I remember hearing sermons about a guy that messes around outside his marriage one of God's punishments is to give them each other anyway joachim probably by the stipulation of tribute enlisted nebuchadnezzar against the pharaoh whose tributary previously had been and failing to keep his stipulation he brought himself to they because he brought too on himself Nebuchadnezzar's vengeance and the babiness came into her and the bed of love and they defiled her with their whoredom and she was polluted with them and her mind was ending from them she discovered her whoredoms and discovered her nakedness then my mind was alienated from her this is God speaking like as my mind was ill nated from her sister so the southern kingdom is going to wear the same kind of the judgment as her as the northern sister yet she multiplied her whoredoms and calling to remembrance the days of her youth when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt interesting word phrase here by the way do you realize the danger of recalling to remembrance and dwelling on the pleasure of past sins we know that sin is bad but it's interesting even reflecting on past sins is as a his agreements to God they were the disappointment failure didn't lead to repentance foreign alliances and within foreign idolatries were courted more eagerly than ever in a different direction the lovers were changed but the harlotry went on she doted upon the paramours whose fleshes is the flesh of asses and whose issue is like the issue of horses you know to show us an absolute disgust Ezekiel uses coarse language here not to be vulgar but to portray graphically the utter spiritual degra day - which Judah had fallen horses by the way is little different than you and I think of it on the Egyptian hieroglyphics were a symbol meaning a lustful person also asses and horses were used / verbally to speak of the lustful we see sometimes that emerge in some of our gutter language but anyway it's still here anyway in the last 14 years of Judah's history she attempt to elicit Egypt's help in her revolt against Babylon because Jehovah Kim rebelled against babbler than 600 BC after Egypt defendant Belen Judah eagerly grasped Egypt's hollow promises of aid the Zedekiah's final revolt from against Babylon and 588 came with Egypt's promise of assistance which of course was too weak and that that led to the dismal result that we've been talking about thus now call us to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth and bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy use therefore o Halawa thus saith the Lord God behold I will raise up thy lovers against thee from whom thy mind is alienated and I will bring them against the on every side the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans pay could show and koa and they by the way our tribes living east to the Tigris River we think there's some scholastic arguments about the details and it was part of all part of the Chaldean Empire anyway and all the Assyrians with them all of them desirable young men captains and rulers great Lords a renowned all of them riding up horses see they commingle these idioms of lewdness with foreign alliances there's a commingling of these ideas and they shall come against thee with chariots wagons and wheels and with the Assembly of people and they shall set against the buckler and shield and helmet roundabouts and I will set judgment before them and they shall judge thee according to their judgments now what is a buckler you and I don't use that in a common language shields and and wagons and wheels shall be as helmets we understand a buckler is a small shield carried on the arm you'll see that for what it's worth okay so and I will set my jealousy against the they shall deal curiously with thee they shall take away thy nose and nine ears and thy remnant shall fall by the sword they shall take thy sons and thy daughters and thy residue shall be devoured by fire it was very common - to abuse disfigure harlots so they would have no appeal subsequently Mesopotamia facial mutilation mutilation was a frequent punishment for adultery and that language is inserted here to fill us out in the same way Jerusalem would be rendered unattractive to any more potential lovers so if the analogy is complete they shall strip the out of thy clothes and take away thy fair jewels and thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee and thy whoredoms brought from the land of Egypt so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them nor remember Egypt anymore see when passions are sated there often is a loathing that follows well let's say that the Lord God behold I will deliver the end of the hand of them whom thou hatest in the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated and they shall deal with the hatefully and shall take away all thy labor and shall leave the naked and bare and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms you know as we go through this language what comes through of course is God is upset he's upset he is treating their conduct as harlotry and he's not passive about that God cares he's a jealous God I will do these things under thee because thou has gone a whoring after the heathen and because thou art polluted with their idols thou has walked in the way of thy sister therefore will I give her cup into thine hand here's this idiom of a cup we see that frequently in Scripture let's say the Lord God thou shall drink of thy sister's cup deep and large thou shalt be left to scorn and had in derision it contain as much now shalt be filled with drunken since our Oh with a cup of astonishment and desolation with a cup of thy sister's Masseria the cup of judgement that is a strange idiom for most of us the concept of imbibing a cup of judgment occurs all through the Bible through the Psalms and Isaiah Jeremiah the Prophet Seneca even in revelation it speaks of the cup of the Harland the Lord Himself is the ultimate example of this three times he prays in Yosemite take this cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be then three times he prays to get off the hook doesn't want to have to bare the cup of judgment but not my will but thine be done a lot of people think there's many paths to heaven if there is Christ's prayer wasn't answered if there's any other way let's take it is what he said the Father nevertheless not my will but thine be done because cemani is a bitter bitter focus on the fact that there is only one way to be reconciled to a righteous god and that's through the blood of his son and that's a tough tough thing to understand until you have the whole picture but you better get the whole picture thou shalt even drink it and suck it out and thou shalt break the shards thereof and pluck off thine own breasts for I have spoken and save the Lord God therefore thus saith the Lord God because thou has forgotten me and cast me behind thy back therefore bear thou also thy lewdness in thy whoredoms break the charge thereof that's really it's a way of rendering the the the Septuagint the the Messianic seems a noise charge the the Greek translation says in effect plucking out the hair it's a there's a number of places in here the Hebrew is difficult I'm sparing you the exegetical detours here now the next few verses 36 to 42 are the detailed indictment there's no comparable arraignment and scripture that is more incisive scathing or complete the Lord more said moreover to me son of man will thou judge Ahola in a hollow ha yea I declare unto them their abominations that they have committed adultery and blood is in their hands and with their idols have they committed adultery and have also caused their sons whom they bear unto me to pass for them through the fire to devour them moreover this they have done unto me they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day they have profaned my Sabbath's in other words they pass their children through the fire Molech the brass thing where they put their babies into offering their chip the child sacrifice the same day they go over the temple and offer offer they thought they didn't see the contradiction they profane the Sabbath for when they had slain their children to their idols then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it then lo thus have they done in the midst of my house God is jealous of his property and furthermore that ye have sent four men to come from far unto whom a messenger was sent and lo they came for whom now it's wash thy self penas thine eyes & DEC's thyself with ornaments and say to us upon a stately bed in the table prepared for it whereupon bow has set mine incense and my nile and a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her and with the men of the common sort were brought sabians from the wilderness which put bracelets upon their hands and beautiful crowns upon the earth the word sabians by the way can also be translated drunkards because it comes from a root meaning to imbibe or drink largely it's like a synonym for being a drunk whatever then said I honor her that was old in the dull Therese will they now commit whoredoms with her and she with him yet they went in at her as they go into a run to a woman that play at the harlot so went they in unto a Jolla and a holla bah the lewd women that's the way God saw Samaria and Jerusalem as then the righteous men they shall judge them after the manner of adult forces and after the manner of women that shed blood because they are adulterous and blood is in their hands thus saith the Lord God I will bring up a company upon them and will give them to be removed and spoiled and the company shall stone them with and dispatch them with their swords they shall slay their sons and their daughters and burn up their houses with fire boy by the way the punishment for adultery was stoning right okay and I will cause lewdness to see side of the land that all the women may taught not to and not to do after your lewdness and they shall recommend your lewdness upon you and ye shall bear the sins of your idols and you shall know that I am the Lord God so they were obviously stoned literally even though we're dealing an allegory here they were stoned literally the city of Jerusalem was stoned Jesus predicted it as he wrote that donkey into Jerusalem Gabriel taught him the exact day he would appear as Messiah they didn't recognize him said he said that very week he said not one stone will be left upon another because you did not recognize the day of your visitation Gabriel told Daniel the exact day you would write that donkey presenting himself as a king they didn't see it for that reason not one stone would be left upon another interesting is that stoning the whole temple the judgment and the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD had that very flavor in the book of Revelation one of the final judgments on the earth is hailstones a hail of where each one weighs a hundred pounds I'd call that stoning okay final swing here chapter 24 the parable of the boiling pot and this chapter also includes the strange circumstances surrounding the death of Ezekiel's wife parable of the boiling pot see on the day when the siege in the capture of Jerusalem began the Lord gave the prophet and allegory and acted and acted a parable to deliver concerning the siege and the ultimate capture of the city this is going to be acted out in the rural parts of Babylon on the very day that maybe commiserating Jerusalem how did the zekiel know that's 300 miles away because God told him he's to take a rusted cauldron a rusted old cauldron that represents Jerusalem by the way and puts it on the fire fill it with water throw pieces of flesh which represents the inhabitants of Jerusalem into it okay he was a pile fuel under it to make it boil furiously that represents the the the the the siege itself and all its severity 's then he would pull out pieces of flesh indiscriminately from the kettle and that's the that's the the refers to the diaspora the universal dispersion after the siege is over he next was a set the empty pot on cold so this rust and filth might be molten and consumed purifying judgments were to continue long after the destruction of the city that's why I think there's some ambiguity whether it was a six-month siege of two years there's different perceptions of them first few verses again in the ninth year of the 10th month and the tenth day of the month the word of the Lord came unto me saying this is the first time that it ezekiel himself is dated his message his message he did that for a very specific reason son of man right the in the name of the day even the same day the king of babylon set himself against jerusalem this same day this is the siege the third siege the final siege of three that never could had this very moment that he's doing this nebuchadnezzar was breaking through the wall on the siege of jerusalem january 15th of 588 bc and day of national calamity for jerusalem the king of babylon besieged Jerusalem on that very day this was the day that Ezekiel had been pointing to for over four years the date is so significant that it's mentioned by the writer of her second kings and by the Prophet Jeremiah so it's recorded many plays several places you continues in to utter a parable into the rebellious house and say to them thus saith the Lord God set on a pot set it on and pour also pour water into it gather the pieces thereof into it even every good piece the thigh and the shoulder fill it with the choice bones take the choice of the flock and burn so the bones under it they often use bones refer fuel by the way and they could boil well and let them see the bones of it in their in whoever thus saith the Lord God whoa - the bloody City there's that title again we picked that up from remember the last few times whoa - the bloody city - the pot who see the pot represents Jerusalem the bloody city whose scum is therein and whose scum has not gone out of it bring it out piece by piece and let no lot fall upon it often when they pick someone to kill they draw lots no there's no lot here just pick him indiscriminately and the pot is the City of Jerusalem the citizens citizens are in the pot their sin is the scum that's in the pot though that's that's the idiom that he's using here okay for her blood is in the midst of her she set up on the top of the rock she poured it not upon the ground to cover it with dust that it might cause fury to come up and take vengeance I have set her blood upon the top of the rock that it should not be covered and so in Leviticus 7th is the 17-13 blood was to be covered by dust any blood not covered by dust was supposed to be avenged this is is is not covered it's to be avenged okay and there's also dealing with the cleansing of jerusem very analogous to the cleansing of a leper Leviticus 14 there's a whole procedure to cleanse a house of leprosy they take the house to pieces scrape it after it's plastered the priest comes again to look and this was the same purging idea that is reflected in this language leprosy being a type or an idiom for sin and again there was a cleansing and we have the same intent here purging cleansing Jerusalem therefore thus saith the Lord God woke to the bloody city I will even make the pile for fire great heap on would Kindle the fire consume the flesh spice it well let the bones be burned I was reminded this by the bubble bubble of the witch's cauldron in Macbeth for those of you that know Shakespeare but we'll move on then set it empty upon the coals thereof that the brass of it may be hot and may burn that the filthiness of ya maybe molten in it that the scum of it may be consumed sheath weird itself with lies and her great scum went not forth out of her scum which shall be in the fire in thy filthiness is lewdness because I have purged thee and thou it was not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness anymore till I have caused my fury to rest upon me Wow I think God's angry I the LORD have spoken it will come back it shall come to pass and I will do it I will not go back neither will i spare neither will I repent according to thy ways according to thy doings shall they judge thee saith the Lord God heavy stuff also the word the Lord came unto me saying son of man behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with the stroke we don't know the background we know he loved his wife the desire of his eyes she had a quick stroke don't know if he's sick a long time or came suddenly don't know I take away from the desire of that eyes with the stroke yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep neither shall thy tears run down boy as we've gone through Ezekiel for a number of reasons we've gotten the impression that he had he it was tough to be a prophet he had the toughest role of any of it I know Daniel had quite a career but he was at court had some adventures yes Ezekiel has some really tough assignments and this is probably the the worst having to endure this grief and hide it not let anyone see it there's a reason for that but it can't be easy it had to be one of his toughest assignments neither shall thy tears run down C I imagine this was heartbreak to Ezekiel but he had to act out a part here to get a message to the people forbear to cry make no mourning for the dead buying the tyre of thine head upon thee and put on thy shoes upon my feet cover not thy lips eat not the bread of men to that morning Ezekiel told the people about his vision and that evening his wife died the next morning when his wife would have been buried he followed God's instructions and did not mourn openly I'm sure him mourn privately but not openly because the event had been explained to the people in advance they realized that the action had some national significance so they asked him to explain what it meant so I spake unto the people in the morning and then even my wife died and I did it in the morning as I was commanded the people said he will foul not tell us what these things are to us that that do is so this was perhaps even more profound than that because his equals not morning his wife suggests some what the relationship between yoni Vevey and Israel that's the thought perhaps see the death of his wife he symbolized the destruction of God's temple and the slaughter of the people of Jerusalem people that were loved bear might see Ezekiel's people are in exile they're not in the siege they were deported years before but they loved those people and then what they were enduring in the siege so that's the that's the the parallelism here Ezekiel and lost the delight of his eyes the exhales would lose Jerusalem the light of their eyes to the to the armies of Babylon the justices eql experienced a great personal tragedy so those also in captivity would feel the tragedy when they heard about Jerusalem's fall and the massacre of their loved ones then I answered them saying the word of the Lord came to me saying speak of the house of Israel that saith the Lord God behold I will profane my sanctuary the excellency of your strength the desire of your eyes and that which your soul pitieth and your sons and your daughters whom you have left shall fall by the sword boy see it makes no sense unless you realize that these are friends of yours that are getting slaughtered they're 300 miles to the west hey you do as ye shall do as I have done you shall not cover your lips nor eat of the bread of men your tire shall be upon your heads and your shoes upon your feet you shall not mourn nor weep but you shall pine away for your iniquities and mourn one toward another the tzatziki ilysm to you a sign according to all that he hath done shall ye do and when this cometh ye shall know that I am the Lord God verse 24 is regarded by many of the commentators the key to the whole Book of Ezekiel he shall know that I am the Lord God also the son of man shall not be in the day when I take from them their strength their joy of their glory the desire of their eyes and what in that whereupon they set their minds their sons and their daughters that he that escaped at them that day shall come unto thee and cause thee to hear it with nine ears there is going to be a guy that escapes the siege and comes the three hundred miles and gives them the word that it's fallen and is at that point Ezekiel can talk again in that they shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped and thou shalt speak and be no more dumb but thou shalt be a sign unto them and they shall know that I am the Lord you see back there in chapter three verse 26 it had been prophesied that he would be struck dumb and he was strict destructon dumb until the siege was completed when the word came then he could speak again so from the time Jerusalem fell until some maybe six months later we don't know when a fugitive has had escaped from the destruction was finally made his way down to Babel and verified to Ezekiel that this event of taking place that he then was allowed to speak he hadn't been allowed to speak until then now I don't what six six months or two years there's arguments about that anyway looking ahead at Ezekiel 33 there's a verse comes to mind here and came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity in the 10th month on the fiftieth month that one that escaped out of Jerusalem came to me saying this city is smitten this is a this this is a verse we haven't gotten to yet but it completes the thought here for us here the with this documentation he would then could open his mouth and prophesy against they shall know that i am the lord see jerusalem was god city the temple was his house they were to be God's witness to the world right when the people of Israel failed God said I will destroy even my own witness on the earth I want you to know the city is destroyed the rest of your people are being brought in the captivity but there's no you sweeping there's no use howling to me now I have done this I'm responsible for it that's God's words okay to each of the seven churches in the book of Revelation bloody says you'd better be careful of your witness the world or I will come and remove your lampstand right where are those lamp stands today I'm the physical ones there okay lamp stand of all seven have been removed not one of these churches are around today I'm not speaking of the idiom because those stamp stands will be in heaven after the rapture I understand that but it's interesting okay the call the Prophet we've had we've just this is the outline that we just reviewed but the we have just finished at last I think you share my own heaviness of coming going through these twenty chapters we next time we meet we get into the next section God's judgment on the nation's specifically the Muslim nations obviously these previous things were done before and up to the siege of Jerusalem these messages will be given that the next seven chapters will be Argus three chapters given during the siege itself after that siege is completed we're going to have a series of things that has to do with the restoration the rest of the book the rest of the book so that's great so we up till now we've reviewed everything we've talked about requires you to have a grasp of the history of Israel and its civil war with the northern kingdom of Samaria or Ephraim or of the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom call it Judah Jerusalem what have you it all leans on our understanding of that history it changes from this verse on from this chapter on from here on everything we're going to encounter is prophetic is yet future so I want you to start for next time study just one chapter 25 just that'll be if you're more ambitious you all the way to 32 that's the next major section but we're gonna be focusing on chapter 25 on the next session okay so let's stand for a closing word of Prayer

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Length: 47min 35sec (2855 seconds)

Published: Sat May 02 2020