Through the Bible (Ezekiel 19-20)

let's get to it why don't you turn with me to the book of ezekiel as we continue our study verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book we're in chapter 19 this evening as last wednesday we made it um into chapter and through chapter 18. ezekiel chapter 19 tonight this actually this little chapter of 14 verses is the completion of a series of chapters chapters 12 through 19. we began a few weeks back in chapter 12 and if you recall this was sort of the warnings given ezekiel was giving the warnings about what was coming to jerusalem to judea to the remaining jews that were left there remember ezekiel was in the second deportation daniel shadrach meshach and abednego were in the first deportation but the last one's coming under the reign of zedekiah ezekiel's given his prophecy from babylon but the word would get back to jerusalem about the warnings given by ezekiel the prophet so interesting stuff that ezekiel's been saying in this chapter is the final warning and then he's going to shift gears once we get into chapter 20. so let's finish up this series from 12 to 19 the various warnings given to judah jerusalem and one thing that you might also kind of put as a sub uh title to this area of the bible is the futility of you know misguided optimism uh or you could say the futility of false optimism that's something that the jews were doing they said that's going to be great it's going to be okay everything's going to work out but they were really contrary to what the lord was saying the lord is saying it's not going to work out oh don't be such a debbie downer don't be such a you know a nervous nelly uh like like come on these prophets would say ezekiel jeremiah isaiah you guys are a bunch of depressing dudes we don't like you and we don't want to hear what you have to say but they're still speaking the truth we have to worry a little bit about that today because it's popular today to to uh only talk about the fluffy stuff you know the stuff that's happy the stuff that's fun the stuff that makes me feel good but i believe that when you hear from the lord sometimes it does make you feel good and there's so much good about the lord it's not even funny but there's also righteousness and holiness and wrath and judgment these are things the bible talks about god and if you don't talk about those things you're not talking about the whole bible so that's why we have to kind of stick with it and hear out ezekiel and not not give in to this this problem that the people had in those days of you know this futility of false optimism um i always joke around and you know i tell you guys about my basketball team in high school the losing this team in america and they say this is the one you're going to win i'm like no it's not we were realists we were like nope nope we're going to lose again and again and uh finally we broke that three-year losing streak uh in basketball uh but i got cut from the team before uh we had the win so i got i got cut from the losing his team in basketball history in the united states but be that as it may i'm not a false optimist i knew that uh they kept saying you know brett don't don't go out to bat for basketball again this year you know they wanted me to wrestle but i didn't want to wrestle i didn't like the idea of mats and sweating out with a bunch of guys on that i just didn't like that idea um but um but all that to say the jews were saying nope uh things are gonna be wonderful uh you know and you know you're good and people like you and this whole kind of talk yourself into everything's awesome uh that's that's what i hear pastors you're going to be victorious victorious living uh and all this stuff and i always kind of crack up you know if you listen to joel stein all about his victorious living like jesus would have failed all those sermons jesus you know when i say failed i say that derogatorily because jesus did he live victorious well we know he did but he did it by losing all his friends being despised and rejected hated and left alone and crucified on a cross like like that's not that's not really what you know i hear these preachers preaching they're talking about you know material possessions and wealth uh healthy wealthy and wise you know and that's what you're gonna get sometimes that doesn't work out for people sometimes your corey ten boom who has to go into horrible things of the holocaust of world war ii and the concentration camps of germany that that's a believer in jesus who suffered horribly was she bad is that why she went through those things no no people suffer and people go through hard things and we need to have both sides sometimes people suffer sometimes people are popular and live victoriously but the lord's going to work it all out in the end that's the way we know it all works out so we'll see that here in ezekiel so kind of keep that tucked away as we go through this chapter he says moreover verse 1 chapter 19 take thou up a lamentation for the princes of israel um this by the way is the first of five laments that are coming here uh in these chapters these coming chapters so some some connect chapter 19 with the future chapters uh chapter 26 is a lament uh chapter 27 28 and 32. those are the five laments uh but this is a sort of a poem or a dirge as it's called and it even in the hebrew kind of has meter and rhyme uh which we miss in the english translation so you gotta understand that does make chapter 19 sort of pop out if you're reading the hebrew bible like oh this is kind of a sort of a poem dirge thing and it's meant to be sort of sad and depressing um so that's that's what this is all about so he says write a lamentation for the princes of israel who are the princes we've talked about this in previous studies it's the leaders and the kings of israel specifically if you recall ezekiel doesn't ever call any of them kings and i think it's because by this time these are all leaders that are sort of vassal kings of babylon and so ezekiel never really acknowledges like say zedekiah as a legitimate king he calls him one of the princes even though everybody else was calling him a king ezekiel seems to call these kings princes not really willing to give them that king delineation um so that's something you got to kind of note and this gets a little bit cryptic until you know some of the other bible passages but he's now going to talk about the the various kings during the times of babylonian invasion let's let's read verse 2. so we've got a lamentation for the for the kings or the princes of israel and say what is thy mother a lioness she lay down among lions she nourishes her whelps or cubs among young lions she brought up one of her whelps it became a young lion and it learned to catch the prey and it devoured men the nations also heard of him he was taken in their pit and they brought him with chains into the land of egypt okay now this is interesting remember the northern ten tribes have been long gone taken by who anybody the assyrians that's correct uh many many years earlier the assyrians took out the northern ten tribes now the southern tribe was called judah and does anybody remember the sign of the ensign the flag of the tribe of judah the lion do you know who's going to be the most famous that would sort of come from the tribe of judah jesus who's called the lion of the tribe of jude are you guys with me here so this idea of the lion the jews would have known right away what's being talked about here because of their familiarity but but we're kind of like oh what's this little lion and his whelp and all this stuff this is speaking of judah which is the remaining southern part of israel the assyrians took off the ten northern tribes but we got the tribe of judah or the southern two tribes now called judah and they're called the lion of judah and there's a there's a wealth a young lion that comes and brings forth one of her young lions and it's speaking of a specific king during this time period where the babylonians were you know besieging judah but we also know which one we're talking about because of what happened if you recall when we read about this in second kings 23 we read about this uh this actually what happened do you remember there was a king named jehoez and he was one of the young lions of the tribe of judah or from that region that's being referred to here because he was brutal and if you recall he went and was doing battle against other nations just like it says here he devoured men this cub of the tribe of judah but do you remember where jehoez decided to go to get some help he went down to egypt and that's what it says here they brought him down with chains into the land of egypt and that's what happened to joe ahoyas so we know that this is really in sort of a poetic form ezekiel saying okay judah you think you're all that great you've got these lion lions that are you know or lionesses that are giving cubs of princes or kings um your first king that we're going to talk about is this guy jehoiaz second kings 23 33 um is what we're kind of talking about there now all that to say the lion of the tribe of judah that was first brought up by the way in genesis 49 9 when jacob was passing out the blessings and curses to the 12 tribes of israel and judah got that delineation of the lion and that's why we know that we're talking about judah here and the king of judah jehoiaz so the first one is israel as a lioness and we're going to see two of her cubs the first cub jojo has and this is what would happen he would be taken in in the captivity by the egyptians just like it says here but the second cub is another king that would come and we read about him in verse five now when she saw that she had waited and her hope was lost then she took another of her whelps another cub and made him a young lion now we're talking about another king of judah and he went verse six up and down among the lions and he became a young lion and learned to catch a prey and devoured men and he knew their desolate palaces and he laid waste their cities and their land was desolate and the fullness were thereof by the noise of his roaring then the nation set against him on every side from the provinces and spread their net over him and he was taken in their pit and they put him in ward in chains and brought him to the king of babylon they brought him into the holds that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of israel the next king that we are talking about the cub of the lionesses uh is none of them jehoiah chin we've talked about him at length uh in previous studies and if you know the story of second kings you know the way this rolls it's exactly what happens jehoiachin mighty for sure second kings chapter 24 tells us the story but he would be dragged off with a with a with chains notice there's a couple things about this by the way um you've got in verse nine they put them in ward and in chains some of your margins reckon that word chain as hooks does anybody have that in your margin yeah a lot of you the reason why is the hebrew word is hooks and um in the king james in 1611 when they were translating to the english there they thought it'd probably be better to have chains because you get bound up in chains but we know historically that the both the assyrians and the babylonians were famous for chaining people together true but they would also put hooks in their noses like big fishing hooks and just shook and then they'd chain those together and they'd tie their hands behind their backs and they'd march people into captivity with a hook in their nose sometimes that word hook is also translated as snare in the bible and there's an image i'm not just trying to be gross by pointing this out but this is the way chin took it in the chin with a hook sorry or probably in the nose a hook in the nose that's that's a pretty gross image now why does the bible go into all that detail and talk about that because it does talk about that a lot if you've been with us through the bible what's the deal well the lord wants that imagery for you and me to see what sin does sin is a snare in fact the bible actually tells us what the specific sin is that leads to the hook and the nose would you keep your finger here in our text in ezekiel and go back with me to proverbs in proverbs chapter 29 there's an interesting word that's using the same word hebrew word for snare or hook in the nose um it's proverbs 29 verse 25. this might just be the most definitive verse about this whole hook in the nose thing it says here in proverbs 29 25 it says the fear of man bringeth a snare or hook in the nose but whoso putteth his trust in the lord shall be safe man that's something that i've got marked in my bible because times haven't changed all that much even though this was thousands of years ago what was the big deal with these people they were afraid of what men might think of them or what men might do to them instead of having a healthy fear of the lord what's the lord gonna do and what does the lord think about what i'm doing so when you are standing there at work and they're telling you to call bill who's now bethany and you're supposed to call her her when he's really a hymn right now you've got an interesting decision to make and that decision has become really foggy for christians today but but should we should we live a lie even though scientifically and biologically and biblically we know that the lord created the male and female did he create them god calls them male and female and i think we should go with what god calls them and for people to say yeah but he thinks he's a she and so you should accommodate that just be nice brett i i i think that christians are going to be required in these days we're living to either choose to live the lie and say things that just aren't true or you're going to say you know what as lovingly as i can as kind heart as i can you know really i can't do that i i'm a believer in what the bible says and god creates them male and female and i'm not going to play that game i know that's a hard thing and some of you especially young people have been indoctrinated by your teachers at school um you need to totally throw the stuff out out the window what they told you but go with what the bible says go with what god says and don't live the lie that's one of the things the lord's been showing me lately about as a pastor for a church in 2021 what do we need to be careful of not to live in the fear of men because the fear of men brings a hook in the nose it's a snare and you you think you're being kind you think you're being wise you think you're being you know neutral or whatever but actually the fear of man being afraid of what they might say about you or due to you but they might fire me they might call me a bigoted homophobic wacko or whatever or they might call me worse things of a trump supporter that would be horrible i can't do that bro that's the fear of man i'm not saying i'm not saying anything political you know i'm saying biblical here say the truth and speak the truth i'm telling you this because i think this fear of the of man is becoming a bigger snare and we're we're like fish in the in the you know in the river just looking at the little lure and chomping at the hook we're doing it we're being lured in and i don't think that the church even knows that it's a hook in the nose um the fear of man brings a snare but what is it that we are supposed to be according to proverbs 29 25 it says but he puts his trust in the lord jehovah shall be safe these people are the example of this back to our text what happens to this king jehoiachin joyce and he he's worried about what the babylonians are going to do and what the egyptians are gonna do and he's got the fear of man but what does it do it brings about a snare he's the object lesson to what proverbs 29 25 is saying but really the whole bible gives us this imagery of the hook and the nose to remind us not to be given to the fear of man i love peter you know peter was a guy who was totally afraid remember at the fire he was warming himself by the enemy when they were taking jesus and trying him and they said you're one of them i am not blankity blank remember that he was a little chicken i i don't want to be known as before he's saying i'll defend you lord i'll save you uh now he's running like a scared little kid and and peter this fearful guy and then what happens the holy ghost in acts chapter 2 comes upon peter and he's a whole different dude the same you know it says there in john 20 that the disciples were assembled for fear of the jews there they were shaken in their sandals up in the upper room thinking oh no the sanhedrin might kill us like they killed jesus and they were shaken in their tennies jesus shows up and breathes on them and says receive ye the holy ghost and then peter in acts chapter two they're waiting on the holy ghost to come upon them and when the holy ghost comes upon them in acts chapter 2 suddenly peter preaches this bold sermon and 3 000 people are saved in one day and then the sanhedrin the same people that go to kill jesus they killed jesus the same guys they came to peter and james and john said you guys have turned the world upside down stop speaking this name jesus don't speak this name anymore and now suddenly we see a very different peter he no longer is shaking in his sandals in the upper room but he says this to them in fact let me just read this to you this is acts chapter 5 it says the sanhedrin said did we not command you that you should not teach in the name of jesus and behold you have filled jerusalem with this teaching and intend to bring this man jesus his blood upon our heads and then this is peter and peter and the other apostles answered and said we ought to obey god rather than men the god of our fathers raised up jesus whom you slew and hang on hung on a tree him hath got exalted with his right hand to be the prince the savior to give repentance to israel and the forgiveness of sin you see a little different peter and he says you guys killed jesus the one who god sent to save israel and it's you're the ones and we ought to obey god rather than men could you just remember that little phrase have it tucked away in the back of your head when they tell you you should say this or act a certain way or embrace this worldview that is anti-biblical anti-god remember we ought to obey god rather than man things haven't changed today is a day where you got to do the right thing and and we've i i worry that we've been slipping on this little slippery slope the church of jesus christ and in modern days where we just kind of acquiesced over little things that almost don't even matter but as they've compiled and we as we slipped down the slippery slope we have started to accept things as the church that god calls an abomination in the bible how did that happen just a little slippery slope that started i'm going to say you know in the last 30 40 years the church has been slipping pretty radically i hope that we can without being legalistic or brutal because we still need to be gracious and loving but be gracious and loving and also say but we ought to obey god rather than man and not cave i think this is something you should be praying about that the lord will give you boldness the wicked flee when no one's chasing them the bible says but the righteous are what anybody bold as a lion i love that um well all that to say old uh chihuahua chin is the poster child of someone who was afraid of what men might do to him and so he did the opposite of what god told him to do and he ends up with a hook in the nose a snare because of the fear of men that's a pretty important uh analogy so in in this little dirge this poem he starts with the the imagery of two cubs and those two cubs are jehoiaz but now he's going to shift his analogy from cubs of lions to a vine once again and this vine that we're going to read about is is kind of similar in the sense that it's not going to do well but it's not joya chin it's not jehoiaz it's the final king does anybody remember the name of the final king before the 586 invasion anybody zedekiah that's right so this is about zed let's take a look here in verse 10 old zed verse 10 thy mother is like a vine in thy blood planted by the waters she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters and she had strong rods for the scepters of them that bear rule and her stature was exalted among the thick branches and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches but she was plucked up in fury she was cast down to the ground and the east wind does anybody remember what a the east wind is a type of or speaking of anybody yes the babylonian invasion coming from the east that's always what this phrase east wind means with ezekiel and isaiah and jeremiah so he says you know it's plucked down to the ground and the east wind the babylonians and nebuchadnezzar the east wind dried up her fruit her strong rods were broken and withered the fire consumed them and now she is planted in the wilderness in a dry and thirsty ground and fire has gone out of a rod of her branches which hath devoured her fruit so that she have no strong rod to be a scepter to rule this is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation um you know it's interesting because um say breath this is depressing great they're going to end up with lamentation upon lamentation and that's true um but this this this whole thing of these of judah with these three princes or kings zedekiah being the one that's going to be where they're going to actually without the scepter the word scepter there is a key part of this in verse 14. there's no strong rod to be a scepter to rule which means the jews will lose all power uh of governing themselves whatsoever they will be completely consumed by the babylonian empire by the time zed gets into power that's what this is saying so this would have been an extremely depressing end you got the cubs that get wiped out and now you got the vineyard that gets plucked up and fruitless and planted in a dry desert it's like a picture of vine planted in a cracked dry desert say good luck hope you can grow and that's the way they end this thing we're toast we're gonna die lamentation but one of the things when you find the bible full of lamentation you need to look for inspiration um is there any hope can you and i muster up any truth that we can dig out of the word of god to give us hope and i would say yes isn't it interesting that the last tribe to be wiped out is judah in this story but where does the hope come for the the future of israel from the lion of the tribe of judah uh the hope and the inspiration of course for the jews would always be jesus let me just read to you um from revelation chapter five i love this this is a great mention of that hope that they have it says here in revelation chapter 5 you kind of see this heavenly scene and the throne of god and all this stuff and it says in revelation 5 1 i saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within on the side sealed with seven seals now i'm not going to go into this in depth but this is the title deed to planet earth and who owns the earth who's able to open the seals if you're able to open the seals you can own the earth that's the idea so he says i saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof and no man in heaven nor in earth neither under the earth was able to open the book neither to look there on and so i wept much because no man was found worthy to open and read the book neither to look there on in other words the world's toast because the seals are sealed and the title deed is done and and the point is if you know your bible uh who does the title need to planet earth belong to right now at this current moment satan he's called the prince of this world he's called the god of this world and so when john hears this who's worthy to open the book no one steps up and so he starts to weep but then verse 5 and one of the elders said unto me weep not behold the lion of the tribe of judah the root of david hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof when you see lamentation in the bible you've got to look for the inspiration and the salvation that comes from jesus it's always there you can always see the the change or the difference and i think that's such an important thing i hope that you have a jesus world view because you know if if you keep your eyes stayed on the problem what you're going to find is just depression lamentation and and you'll end on lamentation if that's all you focus on but i i love that you and i have a a privilege and a chance to do something very different and that is um to remember there's always a but not but not should you say that in church yep just said it listen to this paul says in second corinthians 4 verse 8 he says we are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed always bearing about in the body the dying of the lord jesus that the life of jesus might be made known in our body for every christian there's a but not for every depression for every lamentation you got to remember there's always a but not are you perplexed i don't know what to do don't be perplexed say you might be perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken troubled on every side but not distressed there's always a but not for the believer i hope you remember that look for the but not look for jesus in everything so even though ezekiel 19 ends on lamentation we know salvation comes from the same tribe from the lion of the tribe of judah i love that well that brings us to chapter 20. uh in verse 1 of chapter 20. it um gives it starts for us here the history of israel's rebellion and they're gonna you know ezekiel by the word of the lord is going to go back to the israelis beginnings and kind of remember remind them of their rebellion so it says in verse one it came to pass in the seventh year in the fifth month the tenth day of the month that the certain of the elders of israel came to inquire of the lord and sat before me now can you imagine this um who were these elders of israel they were kind of the you know orthodox jews if you would they were the ones that probably had the fancy garb they were wearing the clothes of authority and they came to easy kilns they sat down ezekiel we want to inquire of the lord what do you think ezekiel's going to tell him these fancy dudes the religious guys um is ezekiel nervous what's god going to say to these guys well this is where it gets interesting the religious guys come and sit down ezekiel tells us a thing from god and verse 2 then came the word of the lord unto me ezekiel saying son of man speak unto the elders of israel and say unto them thus saith the lord god are you come to inquire of me as i live saith the lord god i will not be inquired of by you denied shut down that's amazing isn't it the elders of israel these guys no doubt looked pious and religious and um in fact i'm sure the people of the jews were probably thinking boy these guys are this close to god man but when they come to ezekiel they're like god's like nope i don't even want to talk to you and then the lord's going to talk to them but it's not going to be answering whatever their inquiry was going to be god's going to tell him a thing or two he's going to give him a piece of his mind and when god gives you a piece of his mind it's giant and it's huge and it's important that's why god's going to remind them of why he doesn't want to answer them of whatever question they might be bringing now keep this in mind christian i have found that often times in my own personal walk when i'm going to the lord and i have a question i'm asking lord why i wonder how many times the lord's like brett i'm not going to answer that stupid question you know when your teacher told there's no such thing as a stupid question well as it turns out the bible says there are dumb questions these guys they had a question and it was dumb and i'll tell you why because whatever the question we never learned what the question is by the way but the reason we never learn is because their question didn't matter because there were so many other problems with these people and these these elders of israel that whatever their question was it was a ridiculous point anyway so when you come with your lord i have an inquiry i've got a question i want to ask you lord is he saying i'm not going to answer your question um why would the lord do that well he's going to give us a reason here in a second and it usually has to do with just us rebelling against the lord it's like we're wondering why this isn't happening when the answer is the lord's saying yeah forget that you're rebelling against me and you're doing all kinds of sinful stuff and and the lord saying i want to answer your questions but but we got to deal with the real issue first uh you know if you're into you know counseling or sharing even on a non-professional level one of the things that a wise counselor will start to learn very very fast is people come with questions all the time but the question never has to do with the real issue wise is the counselor who will kind of say okay you want to talk to me about that okay but what's the real issue here what's really going on um and it's so funny to see how um people they already know a lot of times what the issue really is oh well i'm not doing this and i'm doing that and i'm doing that but i still want to know what the answers to this and and and sometimes you and i as counselors we need to be like the lord and say you know what before we answer any of your questions let's get to the real issue here and find out what the real problem is i remember uh this guy i was kind of discipling years and years ago and we'd meet once a week and i would open up the word and we got we had gone from you know uh you know defcon 5 to defcon 1. like it was really cool to see what the lord had done in this guy's life he was a drug addict and he was he was doing all kinds of sinful stuff and even was in trouble with the law and we had to get all that sorted out and straight and it took several years but um but it was really cool to see this guy but he he he came with one more meeting that that i remember like it was yesterday where he was saying brad i i just feel like the lord's not speaking to me and i've you know i've done all this stuff and i've made so much you know growth in my life and we were talking um but the lord just put it on my heart and this doesn't happen very often like you know i'm not acting like i'm mystical and you know i hear the lord audibly while i'm talking to you all the time but this was one of those moments lord said he's still got issues that he's hiding that's what the lord told me like he he looks squeaky clean but he's still got issues and so i said dude you know i just really feel pressed to ask you what are you hiding from the lord right now what are you still trying to pull off that that you think you're you know you've cleaned up your life you've gotten rid of this and that and the other and i said man i commend you for that but what is it that you're hanging on to from the old life that you're unwilling to give and he just started weeping and he said oh brett how'd you know and i'm like i just know these things no i didn't i didn't say that i didn't say that but as it turns out this you'll laugh at especially now since oregon has legalized everything but he had kept um his little safety emergency joint like he got rid of all of his drugs you know he was he was on all kinds of drugs but he kept an emergency joint and and he confessed i've kept the emergency joint on the mantle behind the vase you know on between the two books and i just keep it there just in case i i just needed it you know and and the lord had convinced him earlier that he needed to get rid of all drugs and and start clean and sober and make his life separate from that he knew that god made that really clear to him and what was even more amazing is the miraculous way god delivered him from everything from cocaine to uh smoking weed to smoking cigarettes the lord delivered him from all that stuff it was really kind of cool but he kept his little emergency joint on the mantle just in case and it was funny because does the lord really care about that as much uh the joint itself i'm not sure but i do know the lord cared about his heart holding back something that the lord had made clear that he was supposed to let it go and so i gave him the instruction go home get the emergency joint and flush it down the toilet and man i i know that seems like such a small thing to some of you especially you portlandia people um but but but he went home and did that and and sure enough that burden that he had in his heart was lifted and the lord did a really cool work in that thing um almost always when somebody comes i have a question for god and for you pastor brett what's the real question that's the question you have to ask lord what do you really want to show me sometimes we have to put our own questions aside and say lord we want to know what you want to talk to us about so these these elders of israel we have an inquiry and the lord says i don't care i will not be inquired of by you now verse 4 is a little hard on the translation it says verse 4 will thou judge them son of man will thou judge them cause them to know the abominations of their fathers the the idea here is the word judge there by the way literally means in the hebrew presenting his judicial case it's like the lord's rhetorically asked ezekiel will you will you present a case against these guys um about their history so that they can understand why i'm not going to answer their inquiry that's what that's me saying present a legal case against these dudes so the lord says here's what you're going to say verse 5 and say unto them thus saith the lord god in the day when i chose israel and lifted up mine hand unto the seat of the house of jacob and made myself known unto them in the land of egypt when i lifted up mine hand unto them saying i am the lord your god see here lord says in the day i chose you you're my chosen people you were chosen and you were chosen and blessed because of that even when you were slaves in egypt i chose you out of slavery you know um it's by the way it's we're in the same boat as christians did you know you as a church as as christian gentiles you're chosen you know the scriptures declare this and by the way in john 15 we read you know you have not chosen me but i have chosen you and he there in the scriptures the lord says and i have ordained you i've set you apart you know ordained you that you might bring forth much fruit so there's a link by the way between the chosen people of the jews and the chosen church but the lord says i chose you when you were down there in egypt you see the first part of their history that he's going to bring up is their they're trying to survive in the land of egypt and he goes on in verse 6 and he says in the day that i lift up my hand unto them to bring them forth of the land of egypt unto the land that i spied for them flowing with milk and honey which is the glory of all lands then said i into them cast you away every man the abominations of his eyes and defile not yourselves with the idols of egypt i am the lord your god or jehovah your god question did the jews throw away all their idols from egypt no they brought a bunch of them with them and not only that do you remember the story oh man this this this is kind of i think a reference here to that story in exodus chapter 32 remember where moses was up on mount sinai for a long time they thought he was dead so they said aaron the number two guy hey aaron make for us a golden calf like the ones we knew about in egypt and we will worship it and aaron feeling pressured for the people took all their gold that they took from egypt and they threw him in the f well aaron fashioned a golden gap when moses came said what did you do aaron anderson uh the people made me do it and i threw the gold of the fire and poof out came this calf [Music] read the story it's true he says i threw the fire out came this calf like it just no he made it it's funny how confession oftentimes is really really weak out came this calf and and then the and then the people said these be the gods that brought you up out of egypt the golden calf and they worshiped and danced nakedly around this golden calf and moses comes down the hill and sees them dancing and partying at this golden calf and and the lord said man the people i tried to get them out of egypt but i couldn't get each of egypt out of the people i wonder if that's true for us too you know the lord wants to get us out of the world you know we're not to be of this world we're in this world but not of this world the lord wants us to be not conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds he wants us to be different than the world are you different from the world or do you fit right in do people think you're a weirdo because you're a christian now i don't think that we should just act weird because we're christians i know christians who do that and they think we're just sanctified and different no you're just weird there's a lot of those i'm talking about being different because what the bible tells us to be you know like that sets you apart well all that to say the lord says i wanted to get my people out of egypt but egypt wouldn't come out of my people um and so he says man you did forsake these uh um verse verse six and that day i lift up my hand to them bring them forth out of the land of egypt and land that i had spied isn't it amazing lord scoped out the land flowing with milk and honey for them found a place for them how gracious and then cast away the abominations but they didn't do that verse verse 7 they continued to defile themselves but the lord says don't you know i am the lord your god and you're doing this and right in front of me is what he's saying i saw it verse 8 but they rebelled against me and would not hearken unto me and they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes neither did they forsake the idols of egypt then said i said i will pour out my fury upon them to accomplish mine anger against them in the midst of the land of egypt but i wrought for my name's sake that is he did something for his name sake the name of the lord is merciful and he cares about his name's reputation lord wants to be known in the world as merciful so for my name's sake the lord says verse 9 that it should not be polluted before the heathen among whom they were in whose side i made myself known unto them in bringing them forth out of the land of egypt isn't that amazing the lord didn't bring them out of egypt because they were awesome he brought them out of the land of egypt because his name is merciful and he didn't want the rest of the world to think of him as unmerciful as for his namesake that's interesting but then it shifts from the egyptian history to the wilderness wandering history right there in verse 10. wherefore i caused them to go forth out of the land of egypt and brought them into the wilderness and i gave them my statutes and showed them my judgments which if a man do he shall even live in them moreover i gave them my sabbath to be a sign between me and them that they might know that i am the lord that sanctify them but the house of israel rebelled against me in the wilderness they walked not in my statutes and they despised my judgments which if a man do he shall even live in them and my sabbaths they greatly polluted then i said i would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness to consume them but i wrought for my name's sake that it should not be polluted before the heathen in whose sight i brought them out yet also i lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness that i would not bring them into the land which i had given them flowing with milk and honey which is the glory of all lands because they despised my judgments walked not in my statutes but polluted my sabbaths for their heart went after their idols nevertheless mine i spared them from destroying them neither did i make an end of them in the wilderness wow it's amazing it's of the lord's mercies that were not consumed and this story is just reminding these elders you want to inquire let me remind you of who you are and these guys are hearing this history list of the jews and their rebellion um but then it shifts from the egypt story to the wilderness wandering story thirdly uh here in this chapter goes to the coming into the land part of the story verse 18. but i said unto their children in the wilderness walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers neither observe their judgments nor defile yourselves with their idols i am the lord your god walk in my statutes keep my judgments and do them and hallow my sabbaths and they shall be a sign between me and you that you may know that i am the lord your god notwithstanding the children rebelled against me they walked not in my statutes neither kept my judgments to do them which if a man do he shall even live in them they polluted my sabbath then i said i would pour out my fury upon them to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness nevertheless i withdrew my hand and wrought for my name's sake that it should be not be polluted in the sight of the heathen in whose sight i brought them forth i lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness that i would scatter them among the heathen and disperse them through the countries because they had not executed my judgments but had despised my statutes and had polluted my sabbaths and their eyes were after their father's idols wherefore i gave them also statutes that were not good and judgments whereby they should not live and i polluted them in their own gifts and that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb then i might make them desolate to the end that they might know that i am the lord interesting the lord he does something that might be a shocker and some people have a hard time with verses 25 and 26 where the lord saying you've done this and you've done that and because of that basically i'm going to pollute you i'm going to mess you up with your own sins and and you shouldn't be surprised at that because do you recall in romans chapter 1 the lord he's the same yesterday and today and forever in romans chapter one remember those people that neither were thankful or gave glory to god but were prideful in their own wise conceits and they did all kinds of abominations sins romans chapter one and it says so that god what did he do he would eventually do what he gave them over to their own lusts and their own abominable desires god is a god who will give you over if you really want that now some people think well god if he's love he'll save you no god is love i like to maybe this is not the best way to say it but i like to call god the perfect gentleman god does not force you to love him god does not force you to follow him he's given you and me and us something called free will and the jews had it we have it and the question is how do you use it but there's a point where god says you know what you're going to use that free will but my spirit will not always strive with man there's a point of no return and one of the things that we see throughout the bible is a point where god says you have got really what you want you've gone the way you desire and so i'm gonna give you over to that desire it's a little bit like we see happen in pharaoh pharaoh says he hardened his heart he hearted his art he's hard in his heart nine times in the exodus story says pharaoh hardened his heart against the lord but then if you read the narrative of exodus nine other times it says and so the lord hardened pharaoh's heart what happened there i think pharaoh hardened his heart against the lord well finally god says okay you want that way i'm going to give you over to your own desires your own lust he's a perfect gentleman he'll let you go the way you want to go um it reminds me of when joey was a little kid um you know he was always getting into you know crashes and stuff but even at like two i remember i don't know he's like maybe two and a half or something he could barely walk but he could ride the little three-wheeler on the back deck and the the deck was uh i remember sitting in the summer of our house there we had a deck and on the one side of the deck it was a big deck and on the one side of the deck there was this big like four foot drop off maybe five feet um and there was no hand rail or anything it was just the edge of a deck and uh and and on the other side i hadn't done my yard maintenance in that area it was not the side of the house there was some big chunks of bark dust you know those big old bark jumps but but there was also bull thistles growing through the bark dust so it was like a bunch of bowl thistles and bark dust and anyway i'm just sitting there sipping tea watching my son in his diaper he was a little toe head joey was so he's in a little diaper with his blonde hair flowing in the wind as he's just racing around in circles on the deck you know round and round but i noticed every lap he would just get closer and closer to that deck over there the edge and i'm like joey don't don't go over there if you get too close you're going to fall off the edge and he just kind of looked at me and just peddled harder and pretty soon he's just skidding around that little three-way remember the little big wheel three-wheeler thing so he's just ripping around around around and man i think he's just now taunting me he's like and like the back wheels just barely i'm like joey if you go over it's gonna hurt there's thistles and you don't wanna and he just kept it finally as a loving father debbie would never do this i thought you know what he's gonna have to learn the hard way he's gonna have to i've warned him like five times and he's just gonna have to learn so i just sat there and watched him he looked at me and he you know just just right and sure enough just as i had predicted as the loving father in heaven i sat there and i watched also he just disappeared it was gone and i saw this big puff of dust and i kind of you know listened you know that cry of a two and a half year old when they crash or hurt themselves i listened it was silent i looked over and then i kind of started to walk over and as soon as i get over i see joey stand up and go all right that's what he said i was like he had a blast he loved every minute of it as he's picking out thistles out of his skin he's like that was awesome um anyway um you know sometimes the lord will say okay okay you want to go off the deck i'm going to allow that i'm gonna give you over to your bull thistles and your bark dust um but i would warn you uh as the older you get the more painful those little falls become and the lord he tries to warn you in his word don't do that but these people the jews did that over and over and over again the lord warned them but they just kind of did their own thing well um all that said man he they said he said i'm gonna make you desolate uh where are we verse 27 therefore son of man speak unto the house of israel and say unto them thus saith the lord god yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me and that they have committed a trespass against me for when i had brought them into the land for the witch i lifted up my hand to give it to them then they saw every high hill and and all the thick trees and they offered their their sacrifices and there they presented the provocation of their offering there also they made their sweet savor and poured out their drink offerings then i said unto them what is the high place where unto you go and the name thereof is called bama unto this day huh what's going on here well we're talking about the high places if you remember the groves and the high places were the places in canaan or the promised land where the jews did like the canaanites and worship pagan deities at the high places but there's something we miss here and uh you kind of have to do sort of an in-depth study if you want on on the language light side of things because um if you look up the word bomba it means high places so in some ways you kind of look at the hebrew in verse 29 says i said to them what is the high place weren't you go and the name of it's called the high place and you say what does that have to do with thing well as it turns out the word bama kind of has a root and it's the lord saying it's it's a special name of a high place and the word as an implication linked to it means you're going nowhere it's an interesting thing that the hebrew text does it's a little bit of a play on words actually that ezekiel is employing here under the inspirational holy spirit but just circle the word bama and it means kind of high place but it also means you're going nowhere which is where false gods and goddesses will take you nowhere um so the lord calls them out on that uh verse 30 wherefore say unto the house of israel thus saith the lord god are are you polluted after the manner of your fathers and commit ye whoredom after their abominations for when you offer your gifts when you make your sons to pass through the fire you pollute yourselves with all idol all your idols even to this day and shall i be inquired of by you o house of israel as i live saith the lord god i will not be inquired of you see the lord ends this little thing about their inquiry whatever their inquiry was he says i'm not going to be inquired of you because you're you're playing this game of doing your idols and you're rebelling against me and then you're coming piously to the temple saying we want to inquire of the lord they're playing games with god they're doing all their sinful stuff on monday through friday and then on sunday and saturday they're they're coming piously in the temple does it does that sounds familiar it happens even in the modern day church where we sort of play these games and we think i'm going to inquire of the lord and we're holy joes on sunday but during the week we're partying down and doing sinful stuff and and doing things that we know are not pleasing the lord and and i wonder if there's a point where god says you know what i'm kind of done playing that game i'm going to give you over to your thing i don't know about you but that's probably one of the saddest things to see in the church of jesus christ and i've been around the church since i was a little kid and you see it where people play that game and sometimes they sort of pull it off for 10 years or 15 or 20 years but there's a point where you can't play that game and you can't cover it up as much anymore and pretty soon you're in no man's land you don't really fit in with the church but you also don't really fit in with the world and you're wondering why you're miserable um the answer is to repent break off your sins and follow the lord and do what the bible tells you not out of legalism it's not a got to it's a get to you get to do what the lord tells you to do and and it's like these people like i put you in the land flowing with milk and honey man you guys could have prospered you could have been blessed but because they said no we're gonna do it our way they ended up miserable with hooks in their noses and so the lord says i'm not even gonna be inquired of by you well um now he shifts gears from that you know all that discipline and you know saying i'm not going to be inquired of you but i'm going to re-gather you now this is where ezekiel's gaze goes past the local situation there and he starts talking about things that are true both in the local application but also it's a more of a global application that's what we looked at on sunday about the regathering of israel after they would be scattered the diaspora the the scattering in verse 23 is both talking about um the scattering that would happen them leaving jerusalem and being taken off to babylon and maybe even you could include assyria from the previous attacks but it also is where he starts to explain and you say brad i don't know there's a leap you're making here in chapter you know 20 that i'm a little uncomfortable with of going from this local prophecy of these elders in babylon to more of a global futuristic thing well trust me as we get further in ezekiel you're going to see him leave this situation altogether and pretty soon we're going to be talking about the kingdom and the temple that's going to be built in the kingdom and the millennial king like ezekiel's gaze is at this point starting to focus not on babylon and the jews in 586 but he's starting to say but the jews are going to be scattered all over the world and there's going to be a long time where they'll be scattered and lost but i'm gonna re-gather my people that's the discussion we started on sunday we'll continue that throughout the rest of the book of ezekiel so verse 32 he says and that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all what ye say we will be as the heathen as the families of the countries to serve wood and stone yet it says verse 33 as i live saith the lord god surely with a mighty hand with a stretched out arm and with fury poured out i will rule over you and i will bring you out from the people and will gather you out of the countries wherein you are scattered with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm with fury poured out and i will bring you into the wilderness of the people and there will i plead with you face to face like as i pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness so in the land of egypt so will i plead with you saith the lord god and i will cause you to pass under the rod and i will bring you into the bond of the covenant and i will purge out from among you the rebels and them that transgress against me i will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn and they shall not enter into the land of israel and you shall know that i am the lord as for you o house of israel thus saith the lord god go ye serve every one his idols and hereafter also if you will not hearken unto me but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts and with your idols the lord said yeah you want to go do this stuff go ahead go ahead knock yourselves out is what the lord's saying but stop playing this game where you're coming to give your gifts to me at the altar and temples in jerusalem when you're still worshiping other idols don't don't play that game isn't this kind of what the lord talked about the church at laodicea revelation chapter 3 verse 14 where they were neither hot nor cold the lord says go and worship your he'd rather you be hot or cold but lukewarm he says i'll spew you out of my mouth um these people were sort of mediocre they were worshiping idols but they were also sort of doing temple worship and they were trying to do this combo thing and the lord says i'm going to spew spew vomit literally is the translation he says knock that off so that's interesting because um sometimes i do believe there's a heart here too i don't want to miss this where the lord says go do it but it's also remember the purpose for the destruction of the flesh that you might be saved in the end sometimes i think the lord turns you over to say okay hopefully this this will bring you to a point of total brokenness um so that you will repent remember the guy in first corinthians five that were they were the church was supposed to deliver unto satan for the destruction of his flesh why so like let him go do all the sinful stuff so that hopefully he'll he'll learn it's what my dad did by the way to keep me from smoking cigarettes when i was five years old he's my dad at one of our family devotions said kids if you ever want to smoke cigarettes don't do it behind our backs i'll support you in that he said if you want to smoke cigarettes which back in when i was five years old everybody was smoking cigarettes it was cool although i've heard that smoking cigarettes is on the rise with covid and everything people are smoking a lot more again but um but uh but my dad said that to me and my sisters now my sisters were smart and they said pretend too don't take him up on that he doesn't mean that um but i thought it was cool i remember seeing guys in the movies and cowboys smoking i was like i want to smoke cigarettes my dad just said he'll help me out so i said dad i want to smoke he said okay next saturday um so i was all excited we got in the ford f-150 and we drove down to the little corner store and my dad went into the store and got a pack of camels and uh and he brings it out to the truck with a lighter and and i was like i can't believe it dad and i are gonna smoke cigarettes this is awesome and he literally pulled the truck off the side of the road and he said okay brett now here he lights it up and i think he even took a little puff and he said okay here you go and i and i did not have smoke so i put the cigarette in my mouth and i kind of blew out you know like i thought that's what you're supposed to do um but my dad was like no you don't blow out what you need to do is get all your air out of your lungs like this and then take this cigarette and you breathe in slowly as long as you can true story this is true um i did just that because i was so excited what i wanted to do is like you know clint eastwood when he had the two lines of smoke coming out of his nostrils i was like that's what i'm gonna do as soon as i have smoke i'm gonna go i thought this was going to be so great five years old you know so i take this huge drag on this cigarette and you guessed it i barfed all over my dad's truck i literally threw up there was no smoke coming out my nostrils it was it was something else but i kind of got my dad back because he had to clean up barf in his truck so but you know what's funny about that is i never touched another cigarette ever again after that day his plan worked uh he was delivering me unto satan for the destruction of my flesh so that i wouldn't want to smoke cigarettes as an adult uh to this day it makes me sick even thinking about it so that's what the lord said go and come and knock yourselves out go worship these idols see what they do for you and but don't be you know offering your gifts at the altar verse 40 for in mine holy mountain in the mountain of the height of israel saith the lord god there shall all the house of israel all of them in the land serve me there will i accept them there will i require your offerings and the first fruits of your oblations with all your holy things so in the last section of this we're talking about future blessings um and i believe this might just be his gaze looking at the millennial kingdom because we're never really going to see the jews in history do this what we're about to read in verses 40 to the end of the chapter but i believe this is going to be in its full fullness seen uh during the millennial kingdom when christ comes with the jews so let's let's he says i'll accept your offerings verse 41 i will accept with your uh you with your sweet savor when i bring you out from the people and gather you out of the countries wherein you have been scattered and i will be sanctified in you before the heathen and you shall know that i am the lord when i shall bring you in the land of israel in the country for which i have lifted mine at hand to give it to your fathers and there shall you remember your ways and all your doings wherein you shall have been defiled and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evils that you have committed when the jews see jesus they're going to say where did you get the wounds and jesus will say i receive these wounds in the house of my friends like the jews are going to be stunned at what they missed in the millennial kingdom and when they see jesus they're going to be shocked zachariah the prophet talks about that that's here what he's saying you'll loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the stuff you've done verse 44 and you shall know that i am the lord when i have wrought with you for my name's sake not according to your wicked ways nor according to your corrupt doings o house of israel saith lord god why am i going to bless you in the millennial kingdom because i'm merciful for my name's sake is what he's saying verse 45 moreover the word of the lord came unto me saying son of man set thy face toward the south and drop thy word toward the south and prophesy against the forest of the south field and say to the forest of the south hear the word of the lord thus saith the lord god behold i will kindle a fire in thee and it shall devour every green tree in thee and every dry tree the flaming flame shall not be quenched and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein by the way this is speaking of specifically the negev desert south of jerusalem and this is all part of um what his plan will be in judgment as jerusalem will be crushed but the negative desert will also be flamed and burned verse 48 and all the flesh shall see that i the lord have kindled it and it shall not be quenched then said i ah lord god they say of me does he not speak in parables do you remember what why why would ezekiel say oh lord god does anybody remember what that is about it's when he's totally bummed out remember or freaked out remember when god says i want you to eat some manure oh lord god that's what he always says every time ezekiel says that it's because he's kind of it's like an exclamation but what are you kidding so all the stuff that he's hearing and speaking to these elders of israel at the end of it he's like oh lord god and they're saying does he speak in parables like what's he talking about that's the idea so in chapter 21 we're going to see some other pictures specifically the picture of the sword and we'll pick that up next week let's close with prayer lord i pray that we'd have the same heart and the same mind as ezekiel who was just there to present your word even if it was difficult even when it was unappreciated or even ignored but he nonetheless spoke the truth lord i pray that we'd be people who are about your truth that we wouldn't be duped by this world's messages and ways lord i pray that we wouldn't try to double dip into the world and into your kingdom lord help us to be all about you whatever we do like colossians 3 23 may we do it heartily is unto you and not unto men help us lord not to move in the fear of man but but lord may we have that healthy fear of god that we so desperately need lord i pray that you'd convict us where we need to sharpen up and walk with you lord i pray that you'd confirm the things we're doing well and lord i pray that that our sins wouldn't separate us lord we're so thankful for the forgiveness of sin and the blood that was shed on the cross that we are declared righteous that no longer by keeping of sabbaths or making sacrifices and oblations do we have right relationship with you but through your your son jesus lord that redemptive work how thankful we've been restored lord to good standing with you because of your mercy and your grace so lord help us to just walk with you i pray your blessing among these are people who've taken this time on this wednesday night to study these scriptures bless them may bring good fruit in their lives we pray in jesus name amen

Channel: Athey Creek

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Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: zmhEBhy9eGo

Length: 66min 56sec (4016 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 03 2021