Ezekiel (Session 2) Chapters 2-3

well okay we're continuing our exploration of the Book of Ezekiel and we're targeting chapters 2 and 3 this evening and just by a quick snapshot as you look at the history from Abraham on we're at the point of the Exile right after David comes the monarchy and then when he dies Solomon takes over when he dies there's a civil war and one nation goes from bad to worse and gets wiped out namely the northern kingdom the southern kingdom because of its of a commitment of God to David is not wiped out but simply goes into exile in Babylon and so that's what we're really looking at this period and of the the what's called the exile the Babylonian captivity and specifically the Babylonian captivity involves three deputations the first siege during which Daniel and this three friends among others are taken hostage Nebuchadnezzar takes over plants a vassal King but takes members of the royal family as hostages and Daniel is among them they rebel ultimately and so Nebuchadnezzar lays down a second siege and takes more hostages or more captives in which Ezekiel is among that second group and again there's a period of time before they when they rebelled won a third time by this time Nebuchadnezzar has a belly full of the whole operation levels Jerusalem Burke destroys the temple takes them all hostage that's the third siege three sieges you want to keep that in mind as we go through this book the first siege triggers a period of time that the scripture calls the servitude of the nation it is prophesied to be 70 years in duration and it is to the day by the way turns out it is to the day and it is it ends when Cyrus the Great conquers Babylon and he reads a letter that was written by two in Isaiah one hundred and fifty years earlier and he's so impressed if this names him by name describes his career he's so impressed he releases them to go home when that Persian Empire period starts a whole nother and I want you understand that these three sieges are well prophesied in advance in nazia 29 and Jeremiah 25 Daniel was taken captive as a teenager and as he's a captive he is reading from Jeremiah's writings and realizes that captivity was not far from an end when he's reading it and that's when he goes into prayer gets interrupted it's the interrupted prayer of the Old Testament that leads to Daniel chapter 9 and the fabled 70 week prophecy that a copy that is probably the most amazing passage in the Bible but in any case second chronicles covers up to that point and but there's another period of time that's also in the scripture it's also 70 years long called the desolations of Jerusalem and most commentators get those two confused they think they're synonymous we're indebted to Sir Robert Anderson who's a classic work in 1894 distinguishes that between those two and the desolations of Jews so they're both seventy years but they don't start at the same time they don't end at the same time the first siege starts the servitude of the nation the third stage is when Jerusalem is decimated and it that desolation also lasts for 70 years the book of Ezra deals with this difficult period of time afterwards they're released from Cyrus and yet they have trouble building their temple because they don't have authority to build their city protect themselves and so it's nehemiah that comes along who's a cup bearer to the venn king who gets permission to rebuild the city the city walls and that that that's all done by the decree of artaxerxes and that decree of course is what triggers the 70 week prophecy of Daniel so that perspective is basic for most of you especially we've gone through our learn in the Bible in 24 hours package but it's important because that's what we're gonna that's the background that's the tapestry behind which we're going to review a Book of Ezekiel because Jeremiah is an older man by now but he's contemporaneous with these events Daniel is a young man deported in the first in the first siege Ezekiel is a little older but he's still younger than Jeremiah older than Daniel but he is deported in the second siege Haggai Zechariah and Malachi are considered the post exile prophets because they're after the Exile in other words the Exile prophets our Jeremiah Daniel Ezekiel are we together Esther happens to predate the the nehemiah by about 30 years and it's a it's it if it wasn't for her there'd be no Jerusalem there'd be no Messiah strangely enough in other words it was the importance of the book of Esther is critical if you're following the whole thread of the history of Israel so the outline of the first three chapters of this book of course are the call of the prophets that from chapters for the next 20 chapters from 4 through 24 is going to focus on God's judgment on Jerusalem and that is those judge those prophecies that are given prior to the siege of Jerusalem get the picture the first season daniel has taken prisoner the second siege Ezekiel is taken prisoner but there's a period of time during which Ezekiel is telling them God through his God through Ezekiel is telling them that they are being judged for their lack of faithfulness the false prophets are telling them that they're going there destined to go back home it's all going to be ok God's in control and so there's a disparity between what both Jeremiah and Ezekiel are preaching and what the false prophets are telling the people and as Ezekiel is telling you if they don't respond that God is going to wipe out Jerusalem Jerusalem is a subject but it's still in place back 200 miles to the west but that when the seizures are ouessem takes place that's that that's the third siege of the three and so on when they after the siege of Jerusalem we have these we are actually during that siege we have a series of chapters 25 to 32 where God's judgment is on the nation's specifically the Muslim nations and that's going to be a surprise to realize how precise that whole area is and that those prophecies are given during the siege too well Jerusalem's falling from chapters 33 to the end the whole style of the book changes Ezekiel is innocent effect recommissioned and focuses on a positive message how the Jews who are destined to be restored and that's the part that's going to interest us because we're going to find it very timely for all of us those are the prophecies given after the siege of their prophecies of encouragement they include prophecies of the return to the land which we've seen fulfilled in our very day with a valley of the dry bones chapter 37 of course is a classic of the book 38 and 39 is this invasion the Gog and Magog invasion that we'll be talking about and 40 through 48 is the Millennial Kingdom the Millennial Kingdom is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant and and that's obviously a very overlooked area of Bible study even among those that are interested in eschatology often have a surprising lack of perspective regarding the Millennium as to what it really is and what's going on so we'll be dealing with that in this book but we're in the first three chapters and last time we took the first chapter which is the vision of the throne of God and this is the chariot that so many books talk about they all like to see it as a flying saucer or something like that this is a hyperdimensional event there's the the heaven is not a three-dimensional physical it's a physical place but not three-dimensional so this is not an aircraft or a UFO or anything like that let the text simply speak to each of us as you review that material we know today from particle physics that we live in four out of a total of ten dimensions and that we in the past talked about the hypercube which can be a four dimensional tube unraveled in three and all that's all in our learn the Bible 24-hour explore exploration but it's that kind of perspective should give us a humility as we try to understand the strange vision that we see not only a chapter one but it'll echo again in chapter 10 and they'll swear so just let the text speak to you don't try to impose some you know contrived theory on it let it just speak to you it does involve of course some what we'll cut I'll call super angels of several kinds the cherubim or Carrie a BIM technically the these are creatures that seem to have four wings among a lot of other characteristics we see them first in Genesis when they're guarding the Tree of Life we see them adoring the mercy seat and they're all about God's throne he God has identified as he that dwells between or among the cherubim when we get to Isaiah we'll discover there's another kind of creature that is there called a Seraphim slightly different Hebrew root very similar creatures except they have six wings not four apparently and they're also associated with the vision of the throne of God in Isaiah chapter six in the New Testament we find the same thing in the Greek the word is zone which means living creatures there again and I in Revelation chapters four and five these are six winged creatures now are all three of these things the same are they slightly different varieties no one really knows but they're all associated with the throne of God in each of in each context it's very possible if the creatures themselves may be polymorphic that is they may appear slightly differently in different roles who knows but the charity collars would regard the cherubim the Seraphim as essentially identical and either way being represented by this disease on in in chapter four and five revelation so we'll encounter these creatures as we go through this book but the cherubim had four faces the lion the ox the man and the eagle which immediately associates to be for the four camps of Israel the twelve tribes three three tribes per camp camped adjacent to each other and the Gospels also are represented by those four creatures and we would develop that last time but just by way of refreshment you may recall that in order to follow the Torah these tribes had to be east east south west or north not the southeast Southwest Northwest northeast would technically violate the Torah and so they they they they camped orthogonal if you will taking whatever length was available to them well Judah was the largest and Ephraim the smallest and the other two are roughly the same size and we do this to scale you discover fascinating me that they model across and and not only that but the it symbols of each of the arms the ox the man the eagle the lion are all those same symbols that are represented in the faces of the cherubim and the Seraphim and the zone of Revelation so that's something fundamental going on there when we look at that when we study the Gospels the New Testament we discovered that Matthew Mark Luke and John each have a distinctive style and organization Matthew presenting the Messiah mark Jesus as the suffering servant Lukas's his Christ in his humanity and John as the Son of God his deity and everything in those Gospels supports that particular thesis the genealogies and so on and what Jesus said did felt or was and who they were actually writing to and the first miracles and the how they end and they matthew ends as a jew would with the resurrection mark with the ascension luke sets up his sequel the book of acts by the promise of the Spirit and John does a similar thing with a promise of return setting up of course the book of Revelation and so this also corresponds to the same four patterns of the camps of Israel in terms each twist south north between Judah Ephraim Reuben and Dan and so we have these same four phases represented in the Gospels again the lie on the Ark's the man and the Eagle so these are structural things that maybe metaphor is nothing more and yet at the same time it's interesting to see the consistency of design what are you talking about the Old Testament or whether you're talking about the new or whether you're talking about the actual topography of the camp it's very interesting to me to see the fingerprints of the Holy Spirit on all of these accounts well in any case moving on to this time we're going to finish the first section by looking at chapters 2 and 3 the call of Ezekiel his preparation and his office as a watchman so let's start with a call of the Prophet which is in chapter 2 in chapter 2 verse 1 and he said unto me son of man stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto thee now the word son of man that's a phrase this actually says son of Adam and that's the son of the dust in a sense that occurs 93 times in this book Book of Ezekiel and it's really that phrase is really focusing on Ezekiel's frailty son of man son of dust though you are I'm calling you kind of thing don't mix that up with the term that Christ uses himself especially the Book of Luke he called the son of man and the word there's anthropos it speaks of his humanity and it's as being our representative man it's used in a very different sense it sounds the same in the English translation it's actually quite different but he's just got to stand upon my feet and see clearly Ezekiel from chapter 1 was overwhelmed by being confronted with a vision of the throne of God and I won't go through all that again we have you can just skim through the chapter 1 refresh yourself on that but clearly that left Ezekiel overwhelmed and then so but the Spirit of God entered into me he says when he spake unto me and sent me on my feet that I heard him that spake unto me so the Spirit in the Old Testament this Holy Spirit did not end well believers permanently but the indwelt on a selected persons for selected periods of time they came and went one of the reasons many of us don't really understand Paul's aw by the sealing of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is because as a Pharisee that was a shock and a surprise to him because he's familiar with the Old Testament presentation where the Holy Spirit came and went like the wind and in exodus 31 for samuel 10 psalm 51 is a good example and so on so he said unto me son of man i send thee to the children of israel to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me they and their fathers have transgressed against me even unto this very day god's upset the term rebellious nation that occurs seven times in the next ten verses 17 times in total in this book again and again again God refers to Israel as a rebellious nation okay and we can go through the cases but that's pretty straightforward he uses in other words yes nation the word nation there is going go M is normally the because used a term used of Gentiles in the Bible you have Israel and the nation's it's not like Israel is one of the nations there's Israel and all the nations and the word in the Greek would be ethnos but here it's go in the Hebrew it's a term not normally used of Israel itself but in this case they are no longer God's people temporarily the book of Hosea deals with that that they're low on me you're not my friends so they become low on me they're not the people of God in a direct protected sense is the concept in fact God's quite upset with them because they're rebelling against him and that's his focus why are they in captivity for 70 years breaky question second chronicles tells us why they were enslaved in Babylon exactly seventy years you'll find this in second chronicles 36 21 see they were supposed to keep a Sabbath for the land they're not to till the ground for more than six years on the seventh year the Sabbath of a land they were it was to lie fallow and they failed to keep that and so that's all that that command is in Leviticus 25 so after for 290 years God says you only 17 that sounds like we're playing games no God is very precise they were supposed to well to honor the land one year and seven for for in after for 290 years they were 70 years delinquent in doing that guess it's okay I'm going to take you out of the land for seven years and that's just they that should give us there are lots of lessons here first of all God means what he says and says what he means and it's not approximately it turns out to be exactly 70 years and so on you see so it's it's a God is serious we're gonna talk more about that when we get to chapter four there's some surprising discoveries if you peel that onion carefully and we'll try to do that next time in verse 4 for they are impudent children and if hearted we're gonna hear that phrase again and again and again in the Old Testament but especially in Ezekiel they're impudent children and stiff hearted I do send thee Ezekiel I do send thee unto them and thou shalt say to them thus saith the Lord God now do what I do send the here is where Ezekiel is being called he's a priest trained to be a priest he's 25 years old he's just come of age he's now 30 so he's gonna have a very unusual kind of priesthood not the usual kind but it certainly being a in the office of now of the Prophet rather than as a priest but when God calls he empowers where he's gonna God's gonna lay out what his job is gonna require of minutes tough stuff I would say he has the toughest job but I can think of in the Old Testament Daniel had a tough time but he also had the axis of the court he was treated pretty well became prime minister of the world twice in fact Ezekiel has a tough time and it says thus saith the Lord God the word Lord God that's interesting term because that's an unusual feature is the occurrence of this twofold name of the Lord God Adonai Yoav Ave this occurs 217 times and 103 of those are elsewhere than the Old Testament but the the hundred and what would that be a hundred and fourteen of them are here in this book in the Book of Ezekiel and thus saith the Lord that phrase exposes him to a death penalty when you say the Israel took that seriously you that exposes you to what's what we would call a capital crime because if you use that phrase it doesn't come about you are stoned and they took the even in the idolatry they took the concept of blasphemy seriously so if you've been pretending to speak on behalf of God you took your life into your own hands and if they put you to the test and you failed they stoned you in accordance with Daniel with Deuteronomy 18 so gear Ezequiel is being instructed to declare that what he's going to speak to the people will be the Word of God themselves not light that's not a light casual thing that's heavy stuff verse 5 and they whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for they are a rebellious house yet shall know that there have been a prophet among them interesting phrase because they're not going to believe him they're not going to take him seriously and yet as it smoke clears they're gonna know that there was a prophet speaking to them how is that gonna happen well we're watching see see the fulfillment is the ultimate test of a prophet he says something's gonna happen and happens that says he sees he's vindicated by that verse 6 and thou son of man be not afraid of them neither be afraid of their words though briars and thorns be with thee and though thou dust dwell among scorpions be not afraid of their words nor be dismayed at their looks though they be a rebellious house there's that phrase again again and again rebellion rebellion rebellion see God is here describing the job would you like to answer a job application like that you're gonna have briars and thorns you're gonna be dwelling among scorpions and they're gonna frown at you and you know so on and so forth and though thou shall speak my words unto them whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for they are most Barabbas but thou son of man hear what I say unto thee be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house open thy mouth and eat that I give thee and when I looked is eat you're talking when I look behold a hand Wow a hand was sent unto me and lo a roll of a book was therein and he spread it before me and it was written within and without and there was written therein lamentations and mourning and wool the kind of roll you had this morning for breakfast tough stuff it was written within and without that's a strange thing they normally wrote on one side of the parchment not on both there's an exception to that and that's when it's a title deed where there's terms and conditions on the outside before you unroll it and that occurs twice in the scripture it occurs here and in Revelation chapter five the hip seven sealed book written within and on the backside and many comedies write well it just means it's full no it means more than that then so it occurs only twice in the scripture one is given here is given is equal to actually eat strange phrase it is animal skin is that what you talk about no ice always talking about obviously talking about digesting what it says and the other one is the other the same thing occurs in the book of Revelation it's presented in Chapter five John is asked to eat it in chapter 10 and he describes that experience it's full of lamentations mourning and woe you know that those three words are a good summary of chapters four through 32 the first major section of this book after the call first each chapter is the call but then from four through thirty-two are the judgments and it's heavy stuff up to twenty-four it's the judgment of Israel and after from 25 to 32 it's the judgment of the Muslim nations and 33 the whole thing shifts to the future and upbeat kind of thing and so the the the these labels describe the first portion of the book not the latter part where his was restored and this probably explains why is it that why Ezekiel will be recommissioned in chapter 33 because the content of his message will substantially change as the message of war was fulfilled he will be finished for the lamentations morning enrolled by the time he gets two chapters finishes chapter 32 okay we got through chapter 2 so far we have one chapter left for the evening that's the preparation of the Prophet now let's get a little perspective here Jeremiah was prophesying long before this in fact I suspect that both Daniel and Ezekiel may well have sat at Jeremiah's feet in their younger years before they were deported and so on but Jeremiah was a very different kind of individual than Ezekiel he was profit of the broken heart he's known as the weeping prophet you visualize him with tears pouring out of his eyes weeping over the fall the Cline of his nation he really had that burden and he prophesized from Jerusalem and at that very critical moment God needed Jeremiah to let his people know that it was breaking his heart God's heart to send them into captivity God had to do it didn't mean he enjoyed it his heart broken for a while but now he's treating them now that they've gone into captivity they are bitter and rebellious but not broken and compliant they're bitter and and adamant so at this time Burma and the Temple had not yet been burned the city of Jerusalem had not yet been destroyed it was subject to Babylon but it wasn't destroyed that's going to happen but it hasn't happened yet it be seven years from now that that that after this is the particular delegation of captives that came with Ezekiel arrived in Babylon and when they say Babylon I mean the Empire they don't mean the city they're probably 200 miles from Babylon the city they're part of the Empire and that's not that's missed by many people therefore the false prophets were telling back in Jerusalem we're telling the people if they were God's people and they would go back home that was the belief they clung to this is just temporary God's in control we're going to be we're going to be restored and they said that to Ezekiel who do you think you are to tell us these things neither Jeremiah nor Ezekiel had popular message because they were telling him hey this is God's judgment yield to it and the false prophets saying no where's God's people we are we need to rebel against him God will see us through it we were God's people we're gonna go back to our land not so that was them that's what Jeremiah was telling him in Jerusalem that's what Ezekiel was trying to tell him in Babylon they said were you know we're not we're not going to be in captivity a long time wrong Jeremiah told me to be seventy years and dad reading Jeremiah's writings took advantage that near the end of seventy years he realizes it's almost over he goes to prayer about it and so on but God in contrast to that had told us he kiyul you tell them they are not going back they're going back they're going to be in captivity for 70 years just as Jeremiah said then the going to be in Babel in seven years and they're going to work hard there along the canals working in the fields and building building buildings for the Babylonians it's going to be hard for them that's just a paraphrased summary of the message the Ezekiel is carrying forward here moreover he said unto me son of man eat that thou find us to eat this roll and go speak of the house of Israel so I opened my mouth and he caused me to eat that roll eat this roll I mean physically eat it I don't think so there are similar passages that Jeremiah thy words were found and I did eat them that's what you and I are supposed to be doing when you get home tonight don't tear pages out of your Bible and start chewing on them that's what I'm talking about we are to digest and it's interesting how we have modeled the clean animals are clean animals that chew their cud they chew their cud to which you are cut or just bite it and swallow it and go on no they rum innate that's what the word really means as I opened my mouth and he caused me to eat that roll and I guess I'm gonna I just want you to think about isn't that what we are supposed to do to to digest one of the best examples is of the Psalms you can read through a psalm okay it's colorful it's nice good great though read it a few times dwell on it and it'll start to come alive to you digesting as Jeremiah said that words are found and I to eat them John said was told to do the same thing in Revelation 10 the seven sealed book he was to take it by then it had been by the chapter ten they had been totally unraveled he wanted to turn over you're going to prophesy again and it did digested the Lord Himself said similar things when he was confronted by Satan in Matthew four he Jesus himself said man does not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord if men live we - doesn't mean we chew and eat it in a physical sense it means we digest what it's saying and there are many levels of this by the way the first level we just talked about the idea of eating his word is part a that let's turn that coin over ya see the first thing is to digest what the Lord has said the other one is to examine our diet are we taking in stuff in our diet that we shouldn't have that are harmful are we indulging entertainments that are disruptive to our spiritual growth absolutely absolutely all of us do we need to minimize that you need to deal with it not just to digest the the Word of God but also to eliminate from our diet those things that do not edify those things that cause us to retrograde rather than advance forward spiritually what are we putting into our diets are we putting on the God's Word in our diet that's an issue to think about on the way home verse 3 and he said unto me son of man cause thy belly to eat and fill thy bowels with this role that I give thee then did I eat it and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness it's interesting that John's experience was symbol that would would say that's only the first reaction because in his mouth that was sweet and his belly it was bitter as he began to digest the realities of it I remember I happened to be in North Africa at the time I was alone on the desert I had the my Bible with me and also had brought with me a good what was at that time one of my favorite commentaries on revelation about Donnell gray Barnhouse and as I was drawing on this it hit me you know when you first get into the book of Revelation it's exciting man second coming and get very positive but then as you really begin to digest what God is saying you begin to realize the destiny of so many of those things we hold dear so many of those works of art that are works of man at best so many things in our culture so many of so many things of our heritage that were wide or watching wash away like a sandcastle and that's better we realize it's like a leaf that withers okay but it still that's better break your heart to realize so much that what we held dear is a vapor vanishing away but it has a honey for sweetness here and that's similar to the revelation passage do you love the Word of God you can never love him until you love his word that's step one and will you develop a love for the word of God the rest all follows because through that you will discover him and the more you discover about him the more you'll grow to love him key to any spiritual growth is your growth in the Word of God then he said only Son of Man go get the end of the house of Israel and speak with my words unto them for thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech or of a hard language but to the house of Israel sets in contrast to say Egypt or or Chaldea Chaldeans his calling is to the house of this strange term though did you catch that there's a strange term here that many people miss we've encountered it several times already in our study in the first few chapters and many people don't pick up on it get the unto whom who may who's supposed to go to the house of Israel well I'm confused I'm confused the Northern Kingdom passed away in 721 the Syrians wiped it out this is you know 600 maybe little less than five 90s a couple hundred years ago the Northern Kingdom the house of Israel is kaput people say it's the ten tribes that's naive they're not ten tribes that are missing yes first of all there's more than two tribes in the southern kingdom so you take more than two away from twelve and you go ten okay and what quarrel about Levi there's a couple other problems anyway no the point is I thought we're talking about the house of Judah here he's talking about the house of Israel what's he talking about here well gets a little more complicated the house division was captured by the Assyrians right and what they did was take them and ship them all over their empire and take other people from their empire and bring them there they deliberately co-mingled to avoid any nationalism very shrewd strategy on their part but that eliminates any identity if you will you with me see imagine if somebody took over United States and forced all of us to live in different states you're no longer a knight a whole one or a tech center or whatever you might always be a Texan I guess but anyway you get what I'm sorry I say well first of all Babel and conquered Assyria and in conquering Assyria who do they who did they capture the Assyrian slaves so some of these may and the people that are captives are from the northern house that may be part of the answer here but it's not about the house of Israel and what I'm really getting at is don't fall into these it's getting son of man we don't be confused with one with Christ we talked about that son of the dust speaks of his frailty we'll pick that up as we go here in a minute but I want you to be sensitive that what is this house of Israel this is confusing to me okay but God continues it he says not too many people of a strange speech of a heart language whose words thought cancer I understand surely it had I sent thee to them they would have hearkened unto thee but the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee for they will not hearken unto me that sound like God talking to Moses remember Moses same thing when they were at Kadish burning all that it's not you Moses that they'll reject their rejecting you because of rejecting me that was the same line about same attitude same deal same thing here they're not rejecting is it you know they're rejecting God they will not they will not hearken unto thee because they will not hearken unto me for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted house of Israel there it is again twice in this one verse what on earth is he talking about there's a hundred and one occurrences of this phrase in the Book of Ezekiel I thought the southern kingdom was the house of Judah remember the Civil War under a bomb and Jeroboam is that--how northern King was the how call themselves the house of Israel in contrast to the nation of Israel and the southern kingdom call themselves the house of Judah right that's why when I think of it I try to always call him northern or southern kingdom to avoid the confusion because first of all the house of Israel denotative Li can mean the northern kingdom connotative Li it can mean the whole package with me sons of Jacob in others okay now so you know the northern kingdom I thought I'd gotten wiped out I'm going to suggest to you this phrase here is pointing out that the entire nation is in view the main lesson here I think is don't fall into the trap of false denotative uses there are people that make a career of saying there's a difference between an Israelite and a Jew the word Jew is used universally of a Hebrew okay and if you say Israelite you generally mean someone who's a resident of the land okay if you mean Jew in contrast to an Israelite what are you talking about a lot of people think they know what they're talking about I think there's nothing but a sense of confusion and you can get into all kinds of fringe or bizarre doctrines by trying to press the notations that are not correct there are such things as illegitimate ativ transfers we're not talking about that here we're talking about a false or premature or myopic denotation Jew Israelite for our purposes and most times you'll be correct there Hebrews you can say well Jew really means someone of the tribe of Judah I don't think so I think they're Jews that are something that would trace their ancestry back if they could to Ephraim or Manasseh or even Dan whatever okay and so be careful of that not because here here it's not a problem because it's consistently used as the house of Israel is in view all the way through but you're gonna run along pamphlets and writers and so forth that will try to take that apart and then when they take it apart try to build some huge case about the Tribes of that tribes be careful that's that's that's that's that's very rough rough territory anyway God is saying if he the language were difficult or we're not that sort of impediment it would not be a problem in this case Ezekiel is being called to his own people not the Egyptians or not the Chaldeans whatever God tells him right up front they will not hear you because they will not hear me yeah that's a tough kind of assignment boss you tell me to go tell him this and you're telling me they're gonna listen right go tell him anyway why would God send Ezekiel if he knows that his people won't listen why bother Boise twice got doing this why is he doing this so that God might be just when he judges Wow Wow Ezekiel was the second deportation with the camp is in Babylon while Jerusalem remained a vassal city as long as Jerusalem had not fallen Ezekiel's message would be to his people admonishing them to flee idolatry and return to the Lord for the remnant who did hear him that was valuable to them but the period of grace will finally run out and God's judgment will fall on Jerusalem and the rest of the people were brought into captivity that is the people in Jerusalem they're still vassals of Babylon but there in Jerusalem living their lives they're gonna lose that privilege they're going to be taken captive when Jerusalem Falls and this is the point of time when Ezekiel message shifted now that's also when our attention is going to be picked up because he's going to talk about our current day here it will get contemporary the Zika The Book of Ezekiel is going to get very contemporary very quickly the Zika was first called to the house of Israel but then to you and me we're gonna discover as we go this book is more than just a biblical background it has something to say to you and me personally and we want to be tuned to that right all the way through then we rather than acknowledging God's judgment and confessing their sins the Jewish exile is viewed their time in Babylon is a temporary setback that would be alleviated by their soon return to Jerusalem they refuse to admit their sin or to believe the threat of impending judgment on their disobedient nation ouch does that sound like somebody you know it sounds like someone that I shave in the mirror every day we all have sins we fail to admit we need to deal with that we all tend to believe that these little downturn these little problems that we see them when you go to costco and you can't find any bulk brain and that that's just well they're just and yeah and whatever you know you see the signs of the horizon we're gonna think mister well that's just a aberration the markets gonna bounce back really maybe not it's all sounds like us painfully so moving on verse 8 9 behold I have made thy face strong against their faces and thy forehead strong against their foreheads made thy face strong Ezekiel's name in Hebrew means God strengthens this could be a play a word play in the Hebrew I have made thy face strong against their faces and thy forehead strong he just got through their their hard that you know the the hard forehead kind of idea as an adamant harder than flint have i made thy forehead fear them not neither be dismayed at their looks though they be a rebellious house there's that phrase again strong play on Ezekiel's name God strengthens I've made you just as hard-headed as they are as another way to paraphrase what he just said moreover he said unto me son of man all by all my words that I shall speak under they receive in thine heart and here with nine ears and go get thee to them at the captivity under the children of thy people and speaking to them and tell them thus saith the Lord God there's that phrase again whether they will hear or whether they will forbear as we hear all this let's ask ourselves do we hear you tend to Bible study and sort of nod an agreement sounds pretty good and if tomorrow life goes on as always then you might want to think about that your God says that you're gonna speak with my voice see thus the other lords exposed him to the death penalty if he's wrong blasphemer in Israel was a capital crime moving around verse 12 13 then the spirit took me up and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing saying blessed be the glory of the Lord from this place and I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another and the noise of the wheels over and against them at a noise of a great rushing now some of this is echoing chapter one the vision of the throne of God right there their wings and their wheels and all that but you notice all through this is the noise of the rushing what does that remind you of Acts chapter two a great rushing wind that's a phrase that should right away connect you with Acts chapter 2 verse 2 the voice of a great rushing the noise of a great rushing the rushing of the mighty wind of Acts chapter 2 verse 2 see from this verse and others that will you can draw the inference that what we what he saw in Chapter 1 was not an allegory it was not some kind of hallucination it was somehow Ezekiel's attempt to describe in conceptions of 2500 years ago what he actually saw when he was confronted with a strange bizarre presence so yes it's a vision and yet it's more than that it's tangible it's real he could hear it so it's a it's not just some kind of hallucination of an you know overzealous imagination or something now Ezekiel gives us a little glimpse into that dimension that these other living creatures operate in that live in the cherubim these things sound like academic answers no these are living sentient creatures incredibly powerful creatures how powerful are they well the head guy he's one of those that has a name there are three angels super angels that we know have names one of them is a guy by the name of Lucifer posset on the accuser yes he's a bad guy but realized he is incredibly powerful he's a created being who created him who created Lissa Lucifer Jesus Christ yes God indeed but specifically Jesus Christ that's interesting all things were made by him without him was not anything made that was me the other two of course the other two that have names of course Michael and Gabriel but anyway we get a glimpse here through Ezekiel of the strange world that they populate it is the super reality we're in a subset we're in a simulated reality moving on verse 14 so the spirit lifted me up and took me away and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me he was in God's grip boy don't we all covet that wouldn't you like to be I I like to sign my letters in his grip Chuck as I bask in that it's it's it's a I wish it was even more true than I regarded as being true but it's being the hand the Lord was strong upon me as ego says hand of the Lord that occurs a hundred and ninety times in the Old Testament how many times has it happened in our own lives so then I came to them at the captivity at Tel Aviv and by the way anyway the the the the V and the B in in somatic languages as equivalent depends what you die like this Sephardic or Ashkenazi but whatever but this is not the Tel Aviv of today obviously this is a Tel Aviv that's for a couple hundred miles to the east that dwelt by the river of key bar and I sat where they sat and remained there astonished among them seven days the word Tel Aviv and this is not the Tel Aviv that you and I know today but the name is the same by the river key bar this same is kabah Roja bar which is the northern kingdom had been transported by till gospel Azer and shaman desert second king seventeen first chronicles five it flows into the affray T's near the near Carchemish that's referring echo was defeated by it Nebuchadnezzar to establish the Babylonian Empire and it's about two hundred miles north of Babylon that's quite a ways up there and so even though Ezekiel is with the captives in the in the empire called Babylon don't assume he's in the capital city like Daniel is Daniel is in the court there's no reason to expect that they necessarily met with each other although Ezekiel will refer to Daniel three times he would because everybody knew Daniel he was you know a favorite of the king okay and he was astonished see the whole experience of what we saw in chapter one and then of course the Lord talking to him through these chapters as has has left him astonished blessed him physically overwhelmed for seven days the literal Hebrew there he was showing horror it's an inward Lee transitive verb showing horror for how long seven days why seven days not sure but one interesting observation seven days are appointed for the consecration of priests in Leviticus eight so he's a priest he's being consecrated seven days seems an appropriate time apparently for that phase of his launching here moving on came to pass at the end of seven days at the word Lord came unto me saying son man I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel these are his marching papers made via watchman unto the house of Israel therefore hear the word at my mouth and give them warning from me a watchman and that's a term used in Isaiah and then the Psalms now I'm going to suggest as we read this you put yourself in his position as being called to be a witness like he is let's take a look at this God says when I say unto the wicked thou shalt surely die and thou gave us him not warning nor speak us to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thine hand Wow that's a little heavy yet if I warn the wicked and he turned not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way he shall die in his iniquity but thou hast delivered thy soul again when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness and commits iniquity and I lay a stumbling block before him he shall die because though it's not given him warning he shall die in a sin and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered but his blood will I require at thine and I imagine Ezekiel's not getting too excited about this job description this blood will I require at thine hand you know that concept the blood accountability is established back in Genesis 9 verse 5 and 6 you wonder how much of God's judgment on our country will occur because we failed to bring capital punishment on capital crimes that that blood cries out from the ground therefore cases here they have Mitchell sinner who is not warned that was verse 18 the sinner who is warned but does not repent verse 19 the righteous man hooah pasta sizes but is not warned verse 20 the righteous man who is warned and remains righteous verse 21 there are the four cases that in front of us here Ezekiel is accountable for the faithful deliverance of God's message not or its success or a failure that's the point many people miss that but that's really the whole point here Ezekiel's accountability is for a faithful deliverance of God's message not for its excessive failure and I believe that's the substance of the third command the Ten Commandments thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless the take of his name in vain it's not talking about swearing or vocabulary it's talking about ambassadorship if you're gonna take the name of the king you better be prepared to represent him faithfully and competently Ezekiel is accountable for the faithful deliverance of his message not for its result that's the only spirits problem not yours more cases to die and live in verse 18 21 do not come up to the highest New Testament sense refer to respectively to perishing in the destruction of the state and being excluded from the restored kingdom of God on the one hand or being preserved and entering to the blessedness of the kingdom on the other that's really what's in in view here the term falling from grace you know this verse has been used to argue that a believer can fall from grace that's a teaching which is not found in either the old or the New Testament Galatians 5:4 is the only place where you will find the expression fallen from grace there it is not speaking of salvation but of those who have been saved by grace but have fallen down to the legal level and are attempting to live by the law instead of living by grace that's the whole thrust of the Epistle to the Galatians the great teaching of Galatians is that we are saved by grace but we're not only saved by grace but we are to live by grace that's the whole main argument if you're weird how were you saved by flesh to the spirit well by the spirit and why do you look to perfect it through the flesh that's just--that's this is before us there here in Ezekiel we have a man who is living under the time of the law his life is determined by righteous acts under normal circumstances the righteous acts he might perform might look very very good but on a time of stress and strain he might turn from God and he would be judged for it were not to construe that he was once say he will be tested at the end of his life as to whether he is a child of God or not that's God's problem not ours we are constituted righteous by faith in Jesus Christ we are saved through grace by grace through faith Romans five four or five but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted that is reckoned for righteousness the true believer today may fall on us in but he will not deliberately practice and live in us in why because you got a resource that the unbeliever does not have it's called the Holy Spirit you can call upon him he'll deliver you whosoever is born of God does not practice continuing sin if a believer falls into sin a gracious provision is made we have an advocate with the father and we can come to him with the confession of our sins remember the Christians bar of soap first John 1:9 we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness that's a fabulous promise remember that verse it's very handy I use it frequently the emphasis of Ezekiel is not so much upon the nonliving under the law but upon the responsibility of the watchman the watch minister warned the man who has turned from good works to living in a way that conforms to the standard of the enemy didn't want to do that nevertheless verse 21 nevertheless have vow warn the righteous man that the righteous sent not and he does not sin he shall surely live because he has warned also thou hast delivered thy soul there are other Watchmen passages you might put in your notes to check it out if you want to second Samuel 18 24 through 27 and second Kings 9 17 to 20 our equivalent mandates second Samuel 18 24 to 27 and second Kings 9 17 and 20 the main issue of the watchman was not to deliver results but to give warning what those warned to do with the warning is not your responsibility the role the watchman is an informational role not a trivial one but it's also limited in the scope here to remember that's not our objective to turn others around that's the job of the whole spirit our job is to be a witness not to be obnoxious to be a witness Ezekiel 33 will be a parallel packet passage when we get there and also remember acts 18 and 20 Paul had those passages in mind I think when he addressed some of these very same issues so there's a call to the nation comparing this passage to some of the other prophets we see that they saw that their mission had a national corporate versus purpose how about took to Jeremiah six as their 56 being examples were those prophets Rebecca Jeremiah Isaiah had a corporate purpose not so with Ezekiel see they were expected to get a reaction on the part of the nation Ezekiel's call is to the individuals very different that in itself is in a condemnation of the nation that the call goes not to the nation to the individuals compare this to the letter Laodicea of the seven letters that Jesus dictates in Revelation 2 and 3 in each one of those do there's something good and something bad about each one but when he gets to Laodicea when he reaches the place where you would expect a call to the church like in the other six letters when you get to that point you find a very strange you don't find a call to the church in fact you find this famous verse revelation 3:20 behold I stand at the door knock and If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and what's up with him and he with me that verse is a tremendous verse used by many evangelists as a personal call for an altar call let's use that very powerfully very often in that case but to do it you have to take it out of context because here it isn't a call to in an unbelieving context of the typical sense here it is a scathing indictment of the Laodicean Church whereas Jesus Christ outside knocking to get in well I hope that doesn't describe any churches you and I belong to behold I stand at the door and knock If any man not the bunch of you if just there's even one if there's any man hear my voice and open the door I will come into him up with him and he with me she the tone that comes across here is that the Laodicean Church was collectively speaking dead and that's the same flavor we're getting with Ezekiel here here Ezekiel the challenge was also to the individual and it again reinforces the concept that God predicted earlier that the nation would not repent despite all this preaching and all these things he was going through they were going to stay and idolatry as a nation and thus go further into judgment with Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians that's where their heavy verse 22 in the hand of the Lord was there upon me he said to me arise go forth unto the plain and I will speak that I will there talk with thee to get up and get out by yourself out into the valley the hand of the Lord was upon me Wow he was gripped again by the hand of God for seven days he sat among them that's a we just read a little ago overwhelmed by how far they have apostatized and turned from God now God calls him to separate himself from them so he can deal with him here is ego says I rose went forth under the plain and the old the glory of the Lord stood there as the glory which I saw by the river kemar and I fell on my face simple little phrase I don't suspect we have no grasp of what that really means the glory of the Lord stood there what on earth is that a cloud like the that let'em in the wilderness possibly the Chikara fire by night cloud by day possibly is it a repeat of the chariot that thing's in Chapter one possibly the plane of course is the valley for the glory of the Lord glory is something that produces a sensation in all five of our senses that's my premise here glory has size how big is it how big is God's glory is it long square around I think it has the size of the infinity of space you want to get a glimpse take a look through a telescope and try to comprehend God's glory that's what Psalm 19 says the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork opens up that way see the glory of God is seen in this tremendous universe whether you're looking through a telescope or whether you're looking through a microscope it also has Beauty Laurie has to be beautiful we read in the scripture that he was glorious in his apparel and Isaiah 63 and the second coming when Christ comes he's going to covered with the blood of his enemies but he will be glorious in his apparel he's really dressed up and lovely in the garb that he wears in contrast to those whose glorious beauty is as a fading flower in Ezekiel 20 in a isaiah 28 glory also has majesty Psalm 8 Oh Lord oh Lord how excellent is thy name and all the earth who has set thy glory above the heavens this is the majesty of God it is bright light precious and pure and finally of course it sets forth honor and dignity daniel said that even in every kind of about King the Most High God gave and Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom a majesty and glory and honor the very name of God suggests dignity his glory so Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord what was his impact that gave him a message at Tel Aviv it transported him we'll see in chapter 8 back to Jerusalem in Acton well he's an exile he's gonna go to the entrance of the Gateway of the inner Court of the temple he's gonna watch the the glory of God depart from the chariot him to the threshold of the temple chapter 9 it'll mount up from the threshold to the eastern gate of the temple he's gonna watch this glory of God leave the Temple of Solomon he's determined and it went up from the midst of the city to the Mount of Olives to the east side of the city so it's gone it did not return in the second temple it did not read was not in Herod's temple why because of Matthew 12 6 1 greater than 1 greater than Temple is among us but it will return when in Ezekiel 43 we'll see it it'll return to fill the new temple to cleanse the people that's the big stuff coming moving along here to wrap it up then the spirit entered into me and sent me up on my feet and spake with me and said unto me go shut thyself within thy house now this does not mean that he was never to leave the house he was just supposed to refrain from open fellowship with the people see often the leaders would come to him to his house to receive God's Word will see that in chapter 8 14 20 he was open his mouth only in his own house to those who consulted him privately as the point he's not he's not on the platform here this intermittent silence prevailed from the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem until the news of the fall of the city was brought to it prophet about two years later to rub out a two-year period he speaks only in private not openly publicly why see when he finally does speak the people are gonna realize that God had spoken through him continuing in verse 25 but that was not a man behold they shall put bands upon thee they shall bind thee with them thou shalt not go out among them no matter how hard they try in other words now some scholars feel that they were fettering a prophet that was demented here no this is God's restraining him to only two speakers when he bade him speak now it will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth and thou shalt be dumb and shalt not be to them a BRE prove ER for they are rebellious house in other words God is even removing from them the guy that's reproving them thou shalt be dumb ezekiel starting his ministry than in silence Saul also started his ministry as Paul in silence in Damascus for a while here Ezekiel is struck dumb except as when the Lord speaks through him he some scholars think there was a pathological element in all of this there was afflicted some kind of catalepsy or aphasia and that is that's why they bound him that's a conjecture by some malinka at all I think there's simply expression of restraint is figurative for to enforce a period of silence and inactivity on the part of the Prophet because he's now going to act his parables are rather than speaking them skits and metaphors you can call the rest of this coming she instead of speaking her great deal is going to act out parables in the strangest ways and I will watch that as it goes this is the first of them because he goes in his house and locks himself in why to show them that God has rejected his rebellious people he's VG Ezekiel is Rebekah rejecting them his gesture to show that God has rejected his rebellious people he's going to open his mouth only when they came to him privately and when got to him to speak and from the beginning of the siege until the fall of City about two years later but then he will speak freely and then the people will realize that a prophet is among them but when I when I speak to thee I will open thy mouth and thou shalt say to them thus saith the Lord God he that heareth let him hear he that forbear let him forbear for they are a rebellious house interesting phrase that echo in your ears he that hear the reason that sounds familiar - it's he who has ears let him hear curse seven times in the Gospels in addition to the seven times it refers it echoes in in each of the letters of Jesus Christ to the church so it's seven times in the church letters it's also seven times in addition to that he who has ears let him hear and so the visions and the Word of God in this slight use these three chapters gave Ezekiel the needed perspective and motivation for his task we really haven't got at the task yet this is just the warm-up briefing so Ezekiel now has its perspective and motivation do we have ours do we have the necessary perspective to go where God sends us and if not how will you get your assigned tasks how would us get you probably get the motivation and the perspective and then get your task is the question get our next session I want you to read chapters 4 & 5 try to determine when you study chapters 4 & 5 how the fourth and third years that you encounter fit into Israel's history see if you can figure that one out okay then be prepared for some surprises now that is the end of the lesson except there is a day tomorrow that may have been anticipated by our friend Ezekiel because we're going to encounter 430 years in Chapter four those are four hundred and thirty years of judgment is in the first eight verses well seventy of those years we got accounted for with Babylon right to take 430 the seven had been paid that gives you 360 try to fit them in to Israel's history and you'll discover something very awkward I'll show you all the conjectures next time but they don't fit anywhere that's a mystery and scholars frankly some admitted some sort of walk around it but they don't know what it stands for but if you go into the Book of Leviticus it was pointed out to me some thirty years ago you go to Leviticus 26 four times God says the following if he will not for all this hearken unto me then I will punish you seven times more for your sins and a writer back then got Bloomfield's I recall said gee I wonder if you if you multiply the 360 by 7 you get the approximate length of diaspora where they're in exile in the world right well I thought that's kind of an intriguing idea but I don't know I never used the word approximate and God in the same sentence if it fits it's going to fit more precisely by to the best of my knowledge no one has ever bothered to go through the math 360 years times seven is twenty five hundred and twenty years on a Hebrew calendar let's take a look at this it turns out that twenty five hundred and twenty years on a 360 year basis this is either 60 days per year basis turns out when you go through all the arithmetic to be 2,000 483 years nine months and 21 days because it's a Gregorian reform is 11 days moved there's a leap year things and so forth I won't go through all that here except what that really says twenty five hundred and twenty three hundred sixty day years is the nine hundred and seven thousand two hundred days which turns out to be two thousand four ninety three years nine months of twenty say well great Chuck what do I do with that well turns out as a member I we have these three sieges right and it's the first siege that's the servitude of the nation right okay and then the the desolations ruse and follow that if we take the twenty five hundred and twenty years from the servitude of the nation we get to May 14th of 1948 what's interesting about that particular day that's when Jerusalem was re-established see the seventy years are also three sixties so yes they're sexy twenty five hundred and twenty two hundred twenty five thousand two hundred days that's it that's two days less than sixty nine years on our counter tinkle from six oh six to six eighty goes to five thirty seven if July 23 at 5:37 was their release you go through the arithmetic there you come to May fourteenth of 1948 the nation of Israel was restored I think that's kind of interesting so you take a look at it as you study chapter four now I'll tell you we're not through with the surprises in the thing next time let's bow our hearts for a word of Prayer

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Published: Fri May 01 2020