Dig Dug (Ezekiel 8:1-18)

I don’t feel any less masculine in telling you that I once binge-watched all six hours of the 1995 BBC version of Pride & Prejudice.

Jane Austin masterfully portrayed a noble, almost pure, form of jealousy. Mr. Darcy exhibits it towards Elizabeth Bennet, not in a possessive sense, but in a way that motivates him to protect her from unworthy suitors.

Do you ever think of God as being jealous?

In the Book of Exodus God told His people, “Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God)” (34:12-14).

God is so jealous for believers. He says it is His name.

His jealousy for His people is prominent in our text:

• In verse three He describes “the seat of the image of jealousy… which provokes [Him] to jealousy.”
• In verse five, “north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.”

We were created to worship Him, with eternity in our hearts. Nothing & no one else can ever satisfy us. Everything else we gravitate towards is a form of idolatry and will only, ultimately, destroy us.

Among the many names for God, don’t overlook “Jealous.” I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Jealous Is Determined In His Jealousy For You, and #2 Jealous Is Devoted In His Jealously For You.

#1 – Jealous Is Determined In His Jealousy For You (v1-16)

One of the commentators I read used this illustration:

God is jealous like a powerful and merciful king who takes a peasant girl from a life of shame, forgives her, marries her, and gives her not the chores of a slave, but the privileges of a wife. His jealousy does not rise from fear or weakness but from a holy indignation at having His honor and power and mercy scorned by the faithlessness of a fickle spouse.

Ezk 8:1  And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there.

Where were you on 9/11?

You remember precisely where you were on account of its national significance. The vision that spans the next several chapters had 9-11 national significance to Ezekiel. In it he would witness one of the most lamentable events in Jewish history. He was shown the departure of the glory of the LORD from the Temple.

The exiled Jews were not put to slave labor. Ezekiel had his own house. Don’t get me wrong: They were captives. But they were comfortable captives, so much so that when Persia liberated them to return home, most stayed put in Babylon.

The “elders of Judah” were the layman appointed to serve as the leaders among the exiles. It goes back to Moses being told to choose 70 elders to help govern the Jews in their Exodus.

I would like to think that they met often to discuss their situation.

Tomorrow when you go to work and someone asks, “How was your weekend?” I dare you to say, “I went to church and the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there.”

We struggle to express exactly how God ‘speaks’ to us because, after all, it is supernatural. It’s OK.

Ezk 8:2  Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire – from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color of amber.

We call this Person a Theophany. It is an OT appearance of the Second Person of the tri-une God. It is Jesus.

Why “fire” & “amber?” Don’t know. We can say that the Lord is always dressed for the part.

Ezk 8:3  He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem…

I want you to picture John the Baptist. As a life-long member of the Nazarite Vow club, his hair had never been cut.

Picture him again. Is it far-fetched to suggest that he braided his hair? Did he have dreadlocks?

Samson was a life-long Nazarite. He told Delilah, “weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom…” He came to her already with seven locks of braided hair that she wove together into one.

Ezekiel wasn’t grabbed by the hair & dragged up & off. This Person, for some reason, simply took hold of Ezekiel’s hair. Then the Holy Spirit “lifted him.” (Can we say he was hair-lifted to the Temple?).

It is unclear if Ezekiel was removed bodily, or if he saw all this in his mind. It was not uncommon for OT prophets to be removed bodily from one location to another.

Ezk 8:3  He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy.

There is no information about this “image.” It was an idol or statue or object of some kind that represented a pagan god or goddess. It was so-called because it’s presence in God’s house provoked Him.

Ezk 8:4  And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain.

At its dedication, the LORD put His presence in the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple. He was there as Shekinah – a shining cloud of glory.

How can a person see Shekinah, recall all the history & miracles related to it, but turn from it to worship a lifeless object made by his/her hands?

Here is a more pressing question: How can you and I, who have God the Holy Spirit indwelling us, sin as if He isn’t present?

Ezk 8:5  Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

The “altar gate” most likely refers to the aforementioned North Gate. It provided access to the area near the altar of burnt offering, where priests performed sacrifices.

Ezk 8:6  Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.”

Did you catch what He said? “To make Me go far away from My sanctuary?” This is a build-up to the LORD leaving the Holy of Holies for good. From the destruction of the Temple in 586BC until the arrival of Jesus on Earth in the 1^st century, the glory of the LORD departed from Earth. When the Lord Jesus departed, ascending to Heaven, His Church on Earth became the Temple. We have in us, indwelling us, God the Holy Spirit. We reveal the glory of God until He comes for us, to snatch us home to Heaven.

We are shown expressions of idolatry among three groups of Jews: Elders, women, and priests.

Ezk 8:7  So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall.

Ezk 8:8  Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.

Ezk 8:9  And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.”

Ezekiel was shown a hidden entrance to a secret room. You might say he “did a little digging” to discover it.

Ezk 8:10  So I went in and saw, and there – every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls.

Most commentators see this as Egyptian art. That makes sense because the political leaders in Jerusalem were making an alliance with Egypt to overthrow Babylon. It would fail, and was a reason why Nebuchadnezzar made a third siege on Jerusalem, destroying it.

Ezk 8:11  And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up.

There was no Sanhedrin at that time in Israel’s history. These 70 were lay-leaders, just like the guys at Ezekiel’s house in Babylon. In their case they were leading in abominations.

Shaphan was the scribe who read God’s Law to King Josiah when it was rediscovered in the Temple. It incited one of the greatest revivals in Israel’s history. Yet here Shaphan was, just a few years after, incensing-up with a secret room full of idolaters.

They were a secret society. Archaeologists have recently discovered their title – The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang.

Ezk 8:12  Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’ ”

Instead of understanding their plight as their own choosing, they Jerusalem Jews blamed God. For such destruction to occur must mean God had withdrawn from them.

What about you & I? Since we have received the promise of the permanent indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, we cannot ever be forsaken, and the Spirit is in us wherever we go, whatever we do.

One thing we do is reduce the Spirit to an influence or an ability. We know the doctrine – that He is a Person. But when we sin, we are not behaving according to our beliefs.

Think of it this way:

• If God the Holy Spirit is an influence and an ability, then I can draw from it anytime I want. When I want to sin, I simply ignore my ability to not sin.
• If God the Holy Spirit is a Person – which He is – I cannot sin without defying Him and grieving Him.

We really must have a more robust understanding of the Personhood of the Spirit;

• Pentecostals tend to treat the Spirit as a force.
• Cessationists tend to equate Him with the Bible. Their critics say they worship God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Bible.

One reformed theologian said this: “Do you know who the Holy Spirit is? Do you understand the Holy Spirit in terms of a personal relationship? Or does the Spirit remain for you a vague, misty, abstract concept or an illusive, amorphous force? Forces in and of themselves are impersonal. But the Holy Spirit is not simply an abstract force. He is a person.”

Ezk 8:13  And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.”

Ezk 8:14  So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the LORD’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

Tammuz spent part of the year in the underworld and part on earth. It ‘explained’ the seasonal cycle, with winter representing his death and spring his return to life.

In addition to idol worship, the Jewish women were in a part of the Temple God had made ‘off limits’ for them. Pagan gods afforded opportunity for women to ignore their biblical roles & responsibilities. It all seemed so modern, so progressive.

The roles & responsibilities of men & women in the home, in the church, in public, are set by God. The roles of women are subordinate to men. It doesn’t make women inferior. It establishes an order that best communicates the Gospel.

Ezk 8:15  Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.”

Ezk 8:16  So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.

These are the priests. They literally turned their backs on the LORD to worship the sun itself, or a sun god.

The Jews didn’t start with abominations everywhere. It crept in. The old illustration is this: If an airplane is off course by just 1° after an hour of flying it will be about 1 mile off course. The further it flies, the more that small error compounds. Over the span of a 60-mile journey, it would be a mile off course, but over thousands of miles, that minor deviation would lead the plane hundreds of miles away from its intended destination.

Stay on course…Or make the necessary course corrections.

#2 – Jealous Is Devoted In His Jealously For You (v17-18)

Sorry, but the word “devoted” in a romantic context takes me to the musical, Grease, and Sandy singing, Hopelessly Devoted to You.

OK; I’m over it!

Ezk 8:17  And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose.

Ezk 8:18  Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

They “returned” from the short-lived reforms under King Josiah. Revival is great; but often it proves fleeting. It must take root in a pursuit of holiness and, especially, the prominence of the Bible.

Are you wondering about the phrase, “they put the branch to their nose?” It is believed to be a derogatory gesture. They gave God the bird!

These last two verses make God out to be more of a destroyer than devoted. Take into mind the whole context of Ezekiel. Yes Jerusalem and the Temple were to be looted and leveled. Many Jews would die violent deaths. Their captivity would last for 70 years in Babylon. But all of this is in the context of bringing His people to repent, rebuilding their Temple, and returning to his steadfast love for them. Israel is the apple of God’s eye.

Despite their almost constant failure through history, Paul the apostle can declare, “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew… All Israel will be saved… They are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

God is every bit as jealous for you. He loves the church and gave Himself for us, that He might sanctify and cleanse us with the washing of water by the word, that He might present us to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that we should be holy and without blemish. He is able to keep us from stumbling, And to present us faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

I Hear The Chain A-comin, It’s Comin’ Means The End (Ezekiel 7:1-27)

“I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link and yard by yard.”

Recognize the quote? Sure you do. It’s Jacob Marley’s ghost answering his former partner, Ebenezer Scrooge, who asked it, “You are fettered. Tell me why?”

Charles Dickens based A Christmas Carol on the passage in the Gospel of Luke concerning the rich man & Lazarus. He was deeply influenced by Christian teachings, and biblical themes permeate much of his work.

I wonder if he came up with the idea of Marley’s chain from reading Ezekiel?

Look at verse twenty-three: “Make a chain, For the land is filled with crimes of blood, And the city is full of violence.”

Ezekiel went around dragging a chain to signify the inevitable Babylonian invasion of Judea & the captivity of the Jews.

Marley’s chain is described as being “made of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, and deeds.” These items are attached to the chain, rattling as it is dragged along.

The items symbolized Marley’s true love – mammon, the wealth of this world.

I suggest that Ezekiel’s chain was similarly “made” from things that were symbols of the nation’s sins. I think that because Ezekiel provides a list:

1. He mentions their “abominations” (v3, 4, 8, 9 & 20).
2. He mentions “a rod” that blossoms (v10).
3. He mentions their property (v12 & 13).
4. There’s a “trumpet” (v14).
5. “Sackcloth” (v18).
6. “Silver & gold” (v19). And,
7. “Ornaments” (v20).

As Ezekiel walked around dragging this chain with stuff attached to it, the Jews had a visual of the things marking their rebellion.

NT believers are once-for-all unchained by virtue of being in Christ. We may, however, still return to things that once held us captive:

• The apostle John wrote, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (First John 5:21).
• The apostle Paul wrote, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality” (First Thessalonians 4:3).

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1The Way You Live Can Show What It Is Like To Be Working For The Lord, and #2 The Way You Live Can Show What It Is Like To Be Waiting For The Lord.

#1 The Way That You Live Can Show What It Is Like To Be Working For The Lord (v1-23)

Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.

Working for the Lord isn’t work. It will be physically demanding, emotionally draining, spiritually oppressive. But even if I am chained in a Philippian dungeon, suffering from a thorn in my flesh, I can praise my Lord.

Ezekiel is God’s prophet to 6^th century Jews who were relocated and resettled in Babylon. He was taken there in the second of three sieges. He was tasked with announcing to the exiles that in the final invasion, Jerusalem and the Temple would be looted & leveled.

Two prominent declarations are made in this chapter:

1. God tells them it is “the end” six times, most forcefully in verse six, “An end has come, The end has come; It has dawned for you; Behold, it has come!” He furthermore says “it has come,” “doom has come,” “the time has come,” “a day of trouble is near,” “the day draws near,” and “destruction comes.”
2. Simultaneously God said 3x, “then you shall know that I am the LORD.” (We also heard this 4x in chapter six).

Ezk 7:1  Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Ezk 7:2  “And you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel: ‘An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.

Ezk 7:3  Now the end has come upon you, And I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways, And I will repay you for all your abominations.

Ezk 7:4  My eye will not spare you, Nor will I have pity; But I will repay your ways, And your abominations will be in your midst; Then you shall know that I am the LORD!’

God’s longsuffering with their sins was over. Their punishment was determined. Personal repentance was possible, but it was too late for the nation.

“I will repay.” That’s an unusual word choice. A debtor repays the lender. God is no debtor, so it can’t mean that. The word is also used, to square accounts. We say, “Are we square now?”

In the case of the Judean Jews, it meant that they were receiving precisely what they deserved at the hand of God – no more & no less. For example, their captivity would last 70yrs. That was the exact amount of years the Jews owed the LORD for their sin of not letting their land lie unplanted every 7^th year.

Twice God calls them out for their “abominations.” This was their worship of idols in which they participated in the Gentile rites involving perversions of all manner and child sacrifice.

One of our working definitions for idolatry is any person, place, or thing I substitute for the sufficiency of God in my life.

Their fall & their fettering was the discipline of a loving Father. It was severe, but loving. No discipline seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

They would know that He was the LORD on account of His faithfulness to discipline them. It was proof of His love. It would testify to them, and to the Gentile nations, a love so true.

God is either discipling you…or disciplining you.

Ezk 7:5  “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘A disaster, a singular disaster; Behold, it has come!

Ezk 7:6  An end has come, The end has come; It has dawned for you; Behold, it has come!

Ezk 7:7  Doom has come to you, you who dwell in the land; The time has come, A day of trouble is near, And not of rejoicing in the mountains.

Ezk 7:8  Now upon you I will soon pour out My fury, And spend My anger upon you; I will judge you according to your ways, And I will repay you for all your abominations.

Ezk 7:9  ‘My eye will not spare, Nor will I have pity; I will repay you according to your ways, And your abominations will be in your midst. Then you shall know that I am the LORD who strikes.

In the “mountains” you’d find them at shrines, worshipping the idols. Twice more the LORD mentions their “abominations.”

Ezk 7:10  ‘Behold, the day! Behold, it has come! Doom has gone out; The rod has blossomed, Pride has budded.

Ezk 7:11  Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness; None of them shall remain, None of their multitude, None of them; Nor shall there be wailing for them.

The “rod” represented “pride.” In Jerusalem, Jeremiah urged them to submit to Babylon. Had they submitted, they would have been spared. Instead, their pride incited the “violence” of the third invasion.

If you search the Internet for ‘how does pride manifest itself,’ you’ll see that there are seven ways, or 15 ways, or 30 ways. Do your own digging! Ask the Lord to show you how you manifest pride.

Ezk 7:12  The time has come, The day draws near. ‘Let not the buyer rejoice, Nor the seller mourn, For wrath is on their whole multitude.

Ezk 7:13  For the seller shall not return to what has been sold, Though he may still be alive; For the vision concerns the whole multitude, And it shall not turn back; No one will strengthen himself Who lives in iniquity.

“Sellers returning to what has been sold” is one of the things that occurred during the Jewish Year of Jubilee. Observed every 50th year, was a time when debts were forgiven, enslaved individuals were freed, and ancestral land was returned to its original owners. The captivity in Babylon would last 70yrs. They would miss at least one and possibly two Jubilee years.

Ezk 7:14  ‘They have blown the trumpet and made everyone ready, But no one goes to battle; For My wrath is on all their multitude.

Ezk 7:15  The sword is outside, And the pestilence and famine within. Whoever is in the field Will die by the sword; And whoever is in the city, Famine and pestilence will devour him.

The “trumpet” signified the LORD fighting for them. When Assyria came against them, the Angel of the LORD killed 185,000 Assyrian troops. Not this time.

Ezk 7:16  ‘Those who survive will escape and be on the mountains Like doves of the valleys, All of them mourning, Each for his iniquity.

Ezk 7:17  Every hand will be feeble, And every knee will be as weak as water.

Ezk 7:18  They will also be girded with sackcloth; Horror will cover them; Shame will be on every face, Baldness on all their heads.

“Sackcloth” and “baldness” communicated inner shame. These tenderhearted Jews were the remnant, the believing Jews. They could rejoice in their preservation. Nevertheless they were without homes and the prescribed place to worship.

Ezk 7:19  ‘They will throw their silver into the streets, And their gold will be like refuse; Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them In the day of the wrath of the LORD; They will not satisfy their souls, Nor fill their stomachs, Because it became their stumbling block of iniquity.

Ezk 7:20  ‘As for the beauty of his ornaments, He set it in majesty; But they made from it The images of their abominations – Their detestable things; Therefore I have made it Like refuse to them.

Ezk 7:21  I will give it as plunder Into the hands of strangers, And to the wicked of the earth as spoil; And they shall defile it.

Ever since I was a kid, television commercials have hammered me to buy gold. But if a bag of gold is necessary to buy a loaf of Ezekiel bread, am I really rich?

Ezk 7:22  I will turn My face from them, And they will defile My secret place; For robbers shall enter it and defile it.

We will watch in upcoming chapters as God’s glory, the Shekinah, exits the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple. Babylonians will enter, defiling it by their mere presence.

We’ve mentioned previously that the church in Ephesus was warned that they would lose their testimony unless they repented of leaving their first love.

Ezk 7:23  ‘Make a chain, For the land is filled with crimes of blood, And the city is full of violence.

Ezekiel lists items from which he ‘makes’ the chain. Maybe he added them each day to be dramatic. An idol… A budding rod… Maybe a deed to property that was unable to be redeemed… A military trumpet… Sackcloth… and Ornaments. Go through the chapter again & you can discover other items, e.g., a “sword” (v15), “doves” (v16), and “silver” & “gold” (v19).

1. If God told believers to make such a chain to represent what is going on in our country, what objects or items would be attached to it?
2. If God asked you (or I) to make a chain for ourselves, what would we be dragging along?

#2 – The Way You Live Can Show What It Is Like To Be Waiting For The Lord (v24-27)

In disaster movies there is usually a nod to someone holding a sign, Repent for the end is near!

This chapter reads as if God’s message was more urgent. You come away thinking, “The End is here!”

Imminence is living as if the thing the LORD has revealed could occur right now.

Scoffers mock us, and thereby God, saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?” It is being held back by a crazy little thing called love. Specifically the aspect of the Lord’s love He describes as longsuffering – His unwillingness that any should perish, but that they receive eternal life.

Ezk 7:24  Therefore I will bring the worst of the Gentiles, And they will possess their houses; I will cause the pomp of the strong to cease, And their holy places shall be defiled.

Ezk 7:25  Destruction comes; They will seek peace, but there shall be none.

Ezk 7:26  Disaster will come upon disaster, And rumor will be upon rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet; But the law will perish from the priest, And counsel from the elders.

Ezk 7:27  ‘The king will mourn, The prince will be clothed with desolation, And the hands of the common people will tremble. I will do to them according to their way, And according to what they deserve I will judge them; Then they shall know that I am the LORD!’ ”

“I will do to them according to their way” is an OT version of something we hear in the first chapter of Romans. There the apostle Paul says, 3x, “Therefore God also gave them up…” The LORD reacts to our choices and will give us what we want, to our detriment.

Some scholars see references to the End Times & the 7yr Great Tribulation. Ezekiel has plenty of future stuff… but not here. This is all about the Babylonian captivity.

I’ve mentioned over this past year a move among believers away from the pre-Tribulation resurrection & rapture of the church. Part of their argument is that imminence doesn’t mean any-moment. They argue from various texts that imminent means near, not right now.

It would seem Ezekiel agrees:

➽ He writes, “Behold, it has come! An end has come, The end has come; It has dawned for you; Behold, it has come! Doom has come to you, you who dwell in the land; The time has come.”

➽ But he also writes, “A day of trouble is near, And not of rejoicing in the mountains. Now upon you I will soon pour out My fury.”

How is the End both now & near?

The Lord is suggesting a new way of thinking.

The Lord could come right now… He didn’t, so His coming is what? Nearer than it was a moment ago.

This has a practical application. The apostle Paul taught the imminent resurrection & rapture of the church to the believers in Thessalonica. A problem arose. There were believers who figured, since the rapture could occur any moment, they should quit working and wait for the Lord. Over time, they became a burden on the church. Paul responded by saying, “No work, no eat!”

I believe it is the teaching of Scripture that the Lord could come any moment to snatch His church to Heaven. As we wait, we are to make plans, pressing forward with the Gospel, because His coming is nearer than before.

Now & nearer…Learn to wait in that dynamic.

Stamp! In The Name Of Love. Before They Break My Heart. (Ezekiel 6:1-14)

What are your thoughts on impassibility?

Impassibility is the teaching that God does not experience pain, suffering, or emotional changes as humans do. It asserts that God is not subject to external influences or feelings, maintaining His perfect, unchanging nature while still being loving and involved with His creation.

Can God experience pain and suffering due to our sin? Is He affected by our actions? Does He react to us?

We come across passages in the Bible that assume we do emotionally affect God… Like today.

The LORD illustrates His experience with the nation of Israel as that of a faithful Husband married to an unfaithful wife, playing the harlot, being whorish, committing spiritual adultery.

He says of Himself, “I was crushed.” 

Other Bible versions translate it, “I have been broken” (ESV), “I have been hurt” (NASB), “I have been grieved” (NIV), and “How broken I have been” (Complete Jewish Bible).

If the LORD cannot be affected by our behavior, this illustration has zero impact.

Israel is front & center. Nevertheless we can’t help thinking about ourselves because the Lord thinks of the Church as His bride. In his letter, James warns about spiritual adultery in the Church (James 4:4-5).

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1God Reacts To Your Unfaithfulness With Pressure, and #2 God Responds To Your Faithfulness With Protection.

#1 – God Reacts To Your Unfaithfulness With Pressure (v1-7&11-14)

On January 1^st 1970 California became the first state to recognize No-Fault Divorce.

When a couple divorces, they cite Irreconcilable Differences. God cannot check that box. He sees His people as reconcilable. He has made the way for reconciliation.

Ezk 6:1  Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying:

Ezk 6:2  “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

Ezk 6:3  and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: “Indeed I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

Ezk 6:4  Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken…

The “mountains,” “hills,” “ravines,” and “valleys” were the locations of the “high places,” “altars,” “incense altars,” and “idols.” Think of the high places as shrines where idols were housed having altars for both sacrifice and for incense.

The term “high places” isn’t about altitude. It refers to any places where foreign gods were worshipped. The Hebrew word gillulim, translated “idols,” literally means “dung-gods,” or “stink-gods.”

These structures were in the land when Israel crossed the Jordan to conquer it. They were the places the pagan Gentiles worshipped. The Jews never did fully eliminate them, or when they did, as in the days of King Josiah and King Hezekiah, they were swiftly rebuilt by their successors.

Bad, bad stuff happened at these sites:

• The fertility gods & goddesses required their patrons to commit all manner of perverted sex acts.
• Molech was worshipped with human sacrifice. Substitute “infant” for human.

The Israelites worshipped God in His Temple, and they messed around on the side with the gods & goddesses of the world.

If they wouldn’t eliminate the shrines, God said He would do it. His methods were extreme. He wouldn’t simply tear down the shrines. All their dwelling places in all their cities would be torn down along with the shrines.

When God deemed it the right time, He went scorched earth.

GOOGLE “high places” and you can find hundreds of sermons about removing the high places in your life. One way is for you to make it harder to sin by quite literally removing things, or removing yourself from things. Build in safeguards so you do not find yourself at a place, or with a person, where you can sin.

The Bible then encourages you to replace anything you eliminate or are trying to eliminate with that which is good. Putting away lying, ‘LET EACH ONE OF YOU SPEAK TRUTH WITH HIS NEIGHBOR,’ for we are members of one another. ‘BE ANGRY, AND DO NOT SIN:’ do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers (Ephesians 4:25-29).

Ezk 6:4  Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

Ezk 6:5  And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars.

Ezk 6:6  In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

Ezk 6:7  The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the LORD.

The nation of Israel was tasked by God to explain the righteousness of God. They miserably failed, instead becoming more like the unsaved, spiritually ignorant Gentiles.

Destroying the shrines was one thing. Laying the corpses of children before their idols… How could God do that?

First, this hadn’t yet happened. The LORD warned them it was the inevitable end of the rebel road they were choosing. When this destruction happened, it was their fault, not God’s.

Second, we think in terms of individuals whereas God was thinking nations. If you want to discipline a nation, you sometimes use another nation to overthrow it.

Third, there is something that we tend to forget. Jeremiah was prophet-ing in Jerusalem. “Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live’ ” (38:17).

Wow! They could surrender and the calamity would be lessened. God goes to incredible lengths to save.

Skip to verse eleven.

Ezk 6:11  ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Pound your fists and stamp your feet…

Ezekiel is getting the hang of physical prophecy. Pounding & stamping were symbolic of them not listening.

Ezk 6:11  … and say, ‘Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

Ezk 6:12  He who is far off shall die by the pestilence, he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine. Thus will I spend My fury upon them.

Ezk 6:13  Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols.

Ezk 6:14  So I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land desolate, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah, in all their dwelling places. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.” ’ ” ’

The punishments listed here… They blow our minds. They are, however, better than the alternative. It is appointed unto men once to die, and afterwards comes eternity. If you die in unbelief, there can be no mercy or second chance. There is only the Lake of Fire where you will suffer eternal conscious torment.

“They shall know that I am the LORD.” This occurs four times in this short message. How would they know? They would know because of the pressure being applied.

Seeing the “slain are among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols” is a final, radical, effort on God’s part to save them. On the surface His wrath seems cruel. It was the only means available for God to reach them before it became too late.

One of the commentators writes, “God’s chief desire is to bring people to Himself – or back to Himself. When mankind willfully refuses to turn to Him, God mercifully uses discipline and judgment to cause the people to recognize that He is the only true God, always faithful to what He has said in His word!”

If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it’s that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to eternal life.

You would likely study this passage in a Bible doctrines class. The Lord, however, isn’t explaining His impassibility.

Put yourself in Babylon, among the exiles to whom Ezekiel was addressing. You hear that God is “crushed,” “hurt,” “grieved, and “broken.” You are the one hurting Him. You are, in fact, an adulterer (and all the other things).

Ideally, you prostrate yourself before God, horrified that you have treated Him with such disdain.

#2  – God Responds To Your Faithfulness With Protection (v8-10)

Albert Barnes suggests that “sin leads to judgment, judgment to repentance, repentance to forgiveness, forgiveness to reconciliation, reconciliation to a knowledge of communion with God.”

That is always true of a small group of believing Jews throughout Israel’s history, called a “remnant.”

Ezk 6:8  “Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries.

A remnant is what is left of a community after it undergoes a catastrophe.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee commented,

Never throughout the long history of Israel did 100% of the nation worship God. Always only a remnant was faithful to Him. It was a remnant of those which came out of Egypt that entered the land. Practically the entire generation that came out of Egypt died in the wilderness. It was their children who entered the land. In Elijah’s day God had a faithful remnant. Elijah cried, “Lord, I only am left.” But God told him, “You aren’t the only one; I have seven thousand in these mountains who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” At the coming of Jesus, although the leaders of the nation rejected Him and had Him crucified, there was a remnant that received Him.

Ezk 6:9  Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulteress heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.

The remnant are those whose own hearts are broken realizing how they’ve hurt the Lord. It is described as “loath[ing] themselves.”

Ezk 6:10  And they shall know that I am the LORD; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”

The aim of God’s judgment is described four times: “Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

John L. MacKay says remnant “is a two-sided word. In the first instance it speaks of disaster and loss ahead. But there is promise in it too. It will not be a total catastrophe, for there will be a divinely preserved remnant.”

The LORD appointed Ezekiel to share His Word with the exiles. Some heard it with spiritual ears to hear. They were suddenly gripped with the fear of the LORD, His holiness, and their own sinfulness. They believed Him and He counted it s righteousness. They were saved.

Did they go on loathing themselves? Better yet, are we supposed to loathe ourselves?

Yes & No:

⤷ Yes, I loathe what is called the flesh. “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.”^[1]

The flesh, my propensity to sin, I loathe, and I will until I receive my eternal body at the resurrection or rapture.

⤷ No, I do not loathe myself, wallowing in self-pity and false humility. I am saved, and have the permanent indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. He enables me to obey God. I can do the things the Lord tells me to.

One commentator put it this way: “Don’t dwell on your corruption to the degree that it keeps you from joy, freedom, and love.”

Passibility is to be capable of feeling, especially suffering or to be susceptible to emotion. When theologians speak of God’s passibility versus His impassibility, they are referring to His freedom to respond emotionally versus a perceived lack of empathy for His creatures.

• The doctrine of the passibility of God does not teach that God is fickle, has mood swings, or cannot control His responses. God is never the victim of circumstance.
• The doctrine of passibility does teach that God is emotionally invested in His creation; He is involved because He cares.

Have you ever told a believer you were backslidden? Have you ever been told by a believer that you were backslidden?

How about telling or being told you were a prodigal?

As awful as those characterizations may be, they are mild when compared to being told you are an unfaithful spiritual adulterer or adulteress, a whoring harlot.

Warren Wiersbe likes to retell the story of man who came up to him after a sermon in which he had spoken about sin. He said, “Sin is different for Christians.” I said, “Yes, it is – it’s worse!”

Wiersbe was emphasizing that, for Christians who know the truth and have experienced God’s grace, sin is even more grievous because they are sinning against a greater light and understanding.

To Baldly Go Where No Prophet Has Gone Before (Ezekiel 5:1-17)

Christian Bale lost over 60 pounds for his performance in The Machinist, then bulked up by gaining 100 pounds to portray Batman.

It’s a thing in Hollywood for an actor to make drastic physical transformations. It’s nothing new. It was a thing among the Jewish exiles who lived in Babylon.

Ezekiel performed a one-man physical theater for 430 days. He took on the role of a Jewish citizen trying to survive behind the walls of the besieged city of Jerusalem. Starvation was a major theme of his performance. He daily ate a tiny ration of a kind of unhealthful bread cooked using cow dung for fire.

Is there any doubt that Ezekiel was emaciated, weak, and atrophied by the end?

The LORD likes to give us symbols and signs. Signs are never meant to to confuse, but rather to clarify. As a rule He normally explains His symbols & signs in the same chapter, or elsewhere in the Bible.

The LORD’s explanation for Ezekiel’s performance is verses five, six, and eight: “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.”

Twice the LORD mentions that Jerusalem is in the midst of “countries all around her.” How many times does He use the word “nations?” Seven; that’s a lot.

The LORD chose Jerusalem to be the spiritual center of the Earth. Every other country should be understood as placed around her in order that they, too, might believe and be saved.

They rebelled. Instead of teaching the Gentiles about the righteousness of God, they adopted the practices of the Gentile’s ‘gods.’ The LORD said, “ ‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘surely, because you have defiled My Sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you;” (v11).

Ezekiel embodied, physically & spiritually, what it meant to be diminished.

Can Christians ever be described as being “diminished” by God? The church in Ephesus would answer, “Yes, a church can be diminished.” Jesus revealed to them that they had left their first love. The Lord told them He would “remove their lampstand.” Albert Barnes writes, “The meaning is, that the Church gave light in Ephesus; and that what He would do in regard to that place would be like removing a lamp, and leaving a place in darkness.”   

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 You Have Roles To Play In The Drama Of Redemption, and #2 You Have Direction To Follow In The Drama Of Redemption.

#1 – You Have Roles To Play In The Drama Of Redemption (v1-4)

This book opened on Ezekiel’s 30^th birthday. It was the day he ought to have begun a twenty-year career as a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem. Instead he was one of the exiles removed from Jerusalem to Babylon in the second of three sieges. The message he received in a visit from the LORD was that the Temple, and Jerusalem, would be leveled & looted.

He is now more than a year into his new ministry as a prophetic performer. We don’t get a detailed description of his physical condition, but we don’t need one. Based on his diet & daily routine, and the fact he was portraying a people who would gradually starve to death, he was in starvation shape as he comes to his final performance in chapter five.

Can you think of a Bible character whose role did not involve suffering, sorrowing, grief, despair? I wonder in Heaven if they don’t try to one-up themselves?

Ezk 5:1 “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair.

Can you even imagine what shaving your head & beard would be like using a battle sword? The swords could be up to 40” long!

Shaving-off your hair and beard was symbolic of things like sorrow and judgment. For Ezekiel, who was a priest, it was a reproach.

The day he shaved had to be the final act of the final performance. The ‘run’ of his physical theater was 430 days of lying on his sides plus one day of shaving.

Ezk 5:2  You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after them.

Ezk 5:3  You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment.

Ezk 5:4  Then take some of them again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

He weighed his hair into three equal piles:

1. The first pile of hair was burned in a fire.
2. The second pile was chopped at by the sword.
3. The third and final portion was tossed up into the air to be carried by the wind.

Crawling on the ground, Ezekiel recovered a few of the hairs scattered by the wind and tucked them into the folds of his garment. He took some of the  rescued hair from his garment and threw it into the fire to be burned.

Ezekiel’s hair represented what would happen to the Jerusalem Jews:

1. The portion burned in the fire represented the citizens who would die in the hardship of the siege.
2. The hair chopped by the sword represented those who would die once the gates were breached.
3. And the final portion, scattered by the wind, represented those fleeing from the city in every direction after its fall.

Some who escaped would perish. Others, a small group, would survive. God always preserves a remnant.

Graham Scroggie wrote the masterful book, The Unfolding Drama of Redemption. The liner note reads, “Get your front row seats now for the greatest drama ever – God’s plan of salvation for humanity! Organized like a dramatic play, this classic traces the theme of redemption through each book of the Bible with careful scholarship and a thorough analysis of its content and history.”

I love that, but I would ask, “Are we not the actors?”

We are on stage, not spectators. All of us take on many roles – sometimes concurrently. We read in the Bible about the roles of wives, husbands, children, masters, bond servants, pastors, teachers, evangelists, elders, deacons, missionaries.

Our dialog for each role is improvised. Whenever we speak, however, we are to speak as the oracles of God, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, using our words for building up,  letting no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouths, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace into the hearers.^[1]

In movie credits you’ll read, Personal Assistant to Christian Bale. If your life was credited like that, it would name your assistant God the Holy Spirit.

Get into your roles; On with the show, this is it.

#2 – You Have Direction To Follow In The Drama Of Redemption (v5-17)

In case you hadn’t heard, James Earl Jones died this week at the age of 93. Before he was cast as the voice of Mufasa, Sean Connery was considered.

“The name’s Mufasa; King Mufasa.”

The LORD ‘cast’ Israel in the role of revealing His righteousness to the surrounding nations. We read in Deuteronomy 7:7-8, “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

There is something called, “Replacement Theology.” It is the belief that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s plan, and that the promises made to Israel in the Bible now apply to the Church.

To which we say, “WRONG!” Israel was and is perfectly cast by the Director.

Ezk 5:5  “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her.

The model of the city being besieged; the Trager dung-cooker/smoker; a nearly starved Ezekiel – all of it was “Jerusalem.”

According to Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “The term ‘in the midst’ in Hebrew means navel. Theologically, Jerusalem was considered by God to be the navel of the Earth. Jerusalem is the center while the other nations revolve around her. Her purpose, her calling, was to testify concerning the righteousness of God.”

Ezk 5:6  She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’

This is God saying that He held Israel to a higher standard than He did Gentiles. Makes sense; they had His Law, they knew His heart.

So also we ought to adhere to the higher standard set by our Director. “ ‘AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these’ ” (Mark 12:30-31).

Ezk 5:7  Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because you have multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes nor kept My judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you’ –

Ezk 5:8  therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.

It does seem, at times, that the LORD abandons Israel. The entire context of Scripture must be considered. When it is, we conclude along with the apostle Paul, “Has God cast away His people? Certainly not!… And so all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:1 & 26).

Bob LaForge writes, “It stands to reason that God would abandon us because of our constant sin, but if that was a reason for Him to leave us, then there never was a reason for Him to have been drawn to us… If He was attracted to us as enemies, how could He abandon those whom He now calls His children?”

Ezk 5:9  And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations.

Ezk 5:10  Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds.

Cannibalism would ensue. When a nation rebels against God, and He gives them over to their carnal desires, does not that nation devour itself with excess?

Ezk 5:11  ‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord GOD,

‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity.

Have you had the experience of visiting someone you’ve not seen in a while, who is being treated for terminal cancer? It’s hard not to be startled by their physical deterioration. They are diminished.

Ezk 5:12  One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

The commentators don’t see the End Times in these verses. Ezekiel isn’t looking that far ahead. The point here is to show what will happen to the current inhabitants of Jerusalem when it soon falls.

Ezk 5:13  ‘Thus shall My anger be spent, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be avenged; and they shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them.

Ezk 5:14  Moreover I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

Ezk 5:15  ‘So it shall be a reproach, a taunt, a lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken.

Ezk 5:16  When I send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread.

Ezk 5:17  So I will send against you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.’ ”

When you saw famine, pestilence, “blood” (plague), and wild beasts all at once – you could be sure it was a judgment from God.

We may not think we play a significant role. Nevertheless, your role, my role, can be equally or more difficult than that of the Bible characters. If not physically, mentally and spiritually. It’s why Hooper one-upped Quint when comparing scars. He pointed to his heart and said, “Mary Ellen Moffat. She broke my heart.”

Regardless the degree of suffering, the same Holy Spirit that entered Ezekiel resides permanently in you to come alongside and comfort you.

Let’s give an example. If you are married, you’re in the biblical roles of husband & wife. Each day God says, “Roll camera… Action.” He gives you direction in the Bible, and the enablement to follow His direction.

Is your household more Ozzie & Harriet… Or Ozzy Osbourne?

You are not looking to receive an Academy Award, or a Golden Globe, or a Peoples Choice Award.You don’t want to get a Razzi. Rewards from men & women mean nothing, and can prove to be harmful.

You will receive rewards and a Lifetime Achievement Award for your faithfulness when you appear at the Judgment Seat of Jesus after we are resurrected & raptured.

Jerry Bridges reminds us, “The promises of the Bible are nothing more than God’s covenant to be faithful to His people. It is His character that makes these promises valid.”

The Fantastic Fore-head (Ezekiel 3:1-21)

I’ve always been a skeptic when it comes to the head-butt as a fighting technique.

Seems it would hurt me as much as it would my opponent.

Turns out that’s not true – not if you perform the head-butt properly. Michael Rayburn, in a column for Police Magazine, wrote, “One only need look back at soccer’s World Cup series of 2006 and the devastating head butt delivered by French player Zinedine Zidane to Italy’s Marco Materazzi to realize how effective this tactic really is.” He head-butted him in the chest and Materazzi went down hard.^[1] He might still be down!

Don’t rock back and broadcast your head butt. Instead, compress and launch. Use the crown of your head and go for the bridge of the nose.

Hands down the best ever head-butter has got to be the prophet Ezekiel.

He was given a divine advantage. The LORD said to him, “Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead…” (3:8-9).

Ezekiel would butt heads with Israelites who were “impudent [brazen] and hard-hearted” (v7). They would “not listen to [Ezekiel], because they [would] not listen to [the LORD]” (v7).

Are the majority today listening to the Lord? They’re not listening to us, either. Brazen & hard-hearted would be an understatement.

We need to be more hard-headed…Hard-headed overcomes hard-hearted

I’ll organize my comments around two points:

#1 You Are A Hard-Headed Watchman

Who Hears & Receives God’s Word

#2 You Are A Hard-Headed Watchman

Who Hears & Repeats God’s Word

**********

#1 You Are A Hard-Headed Watchman

Who Hears & Receives God’s Word

(v1-15)

Before there was Logan, there was Perseus.

He was tasked with killing Medusa. One of the divine gifts he was given to kill her was an adamantine sword. It was made from a substance known as adamant. In modern comics, it’s the stuff that they added to Logan to make him Wolverine. Only they call it adamantium. I guess that makes Ezekiel the first X-Man. He was spiritually infused with adamant to perform his prophetic tasks.

Ezk 3:1  Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”

Ezk 3:2  So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll.

Ezk 3:3  And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.

Three of Godʼs prophets were commanded to eat Godʼs Word – Jeremiah, John, & Ezekiel. I am definitely in the minority, but I like to think they really ate the scrolls. If that’s a little too literal, I can live with it being a metaphor for our being fortified in the inner man by God’s Word.

H.A. Ironside is a Bible commentator you want to read. He has an interesting take on this. He says the phrasing indicates that Ezekiel took in the portion but didnʼt swallow at first. Ezekiel chewed on it.

There is value in reading large portions of Scripture, and in reading through the entire Bible in a period of time. Do not neglect waiting on the Lord over a shorter passage for Him to reveal its treasures to you. Read it over & over… Pray before, during, and after… Jot down notes… Consult a Bible reference book, like a Bible dictionary, for things you need defined.  Only then reach for a commentary.^[2]

Ezk 3:4  Then He said to me: “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them.

Ezk 3:5  For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel,

Ezk 3:6  not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you.

Ezk 3:7  But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.

Ezekiel is in exile, having been forcibly removed from Judah during the second siege by the invading Babylonians. The LORD has come to him in a whirlwind on His throne-chariot, borne by four mighty Cherubim. He is being ‘called’ – drafted – for his ministry among the captives.

How many times does the LORD say “the house of Israel?” Four. The title refers to the unified nation composed of the 12 tribes. After King Solomon died, the nation of Israel split in two. The Northern Kingdom was called Israel, and the Southern Kingdom was called Judah. The Northern Kingdom was conquered and its tribes dispersed about 200 years before Ezekiel prophesied to Judah.

In his conspicuous usage of “house of Israel,” Ezekiel is putting us on notice that there are no lost tribes. The LORD would regather all Jews from every tribe back home.

He did it, by the way; or at least it has begun.

Ezekiel would have a language barrier among his own people. We see this in our families & places of business. Go on a mission trip, and even with the language barrier you have greater success than you do at Thanksgiving.

Why send Ezekiel when the LORD could foresee their continued hardness? The LORD was playing the long game. Subsequent generations would see Him striving with their ancestors, out of love. His love manifests in giving us His light in order that we might receive His life.

Ezk 3:8  Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads.

Ezk 3:9  Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”

This reads like a superhero origins story. What do we want to call him? Ironhead… Skull Crusher… Steel Brow… Head Strong?

Ezk 3:10  Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears.

Ezk 3:11  And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.”

It’s time we zero-in on what we mean by hardheaded. It involves hearing, receiving, and speaking.

“Hear with your ears” sounds a lot like “he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says.”  We sometimes describe people as having an ‘ear’ for music. Having “an ear for something” suggests a heightened auditory perception or sensitivity.

There are over 120 million radio receivers in cars now. It’s a clunky illustration, but God the Holy Spirit indwelling you is a receiver for God’s Word, transmitting it to our hearts.

“Speaking” includes more than words. It is words and actions that reveal our affections and worldview.  Your worldview is the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual filter you use to experience, interpret, and respond to reality. Possessing a Biblical worldview implies that your ideas about all aspects of life and eternity derive from Scriptural principles and commands.

Hardheaded believers are tuned-in to God’s Word by the indwelling Holy Spirit. It sets the dial to a Christian worldview that doesn’t back-down from secular criticism. We have an answer for every man. We are in that way hard-heads… But tenderhearted.

Ezk 3:12  Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice: “Blessed is the glory of the LORD from His place!”

Ezk 3:13  I also heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, and a great thunderous noise.

The ISV and other translations read, “Then the Spirit lifted me up and I heard a great earthquake behind me and the glory of the LORD arose from his place.” The LORD’s chariot is take-your-muffler-off loud.

Ezk 3:14  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.

Ezekiel experiences a horizontal ‘rapture’ from one place to another. This was apparently quite common in the Old Testament among prophets. There are several passages that nonchalantly mention Elijah was a frequent flyer.

In the NT, Philip baptizes the Ethiopian official, and “the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away… [and] Philip was found at Azotus” (Acts 8:39-40).

The Word of the LORD can be described as “bitter” in that it reveals many hard truths about life, death, and life after death.

John Gill commented, “In the heat of my spirit [means] ‘in the indignation of my spirit;’ his spirit was hot and angry, he was froward and unwilling to go on the errand, to prophesy sad and dismal things to his people.”

Ezk 3:15  Then I came to the captives at Tel Abib, who dwelt by the River Chebar; and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

He wasn’t commiserating with them in their distress. “Appalled” is a better word than “astonished.” As we progress we will see the prideful, unrepentant attitude of the exiles.

I want to be described as a believer who ‘has an ear’ for God the Holy Spirit. I began in the Spirit; I want to continue with Him.

Don’t start Google-ing for “how to have an ear to hear.” You’ll discover thousands of websites & blogs, each with their own 3 or 5 or 10 steps.

We recommend immersion.

‘Immersion’ in language learning is a method where you learn a language by being surrounded by it in everyday situations, using it constantly to speak, listen, read, and write. You might move in with a family that speaks only the language you want to learn. You might even move to another country.

I don’t know what immersion in the Holy Spirit looks like for you. It will involve these four things: Prayer… Bible study… Fellowship in a local Church… Telling others about Jesus.^[3]

Immerse yourself in those things and over the course of your time on Earth, and you will develop your “ear to what the Spirit says.”

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#2 You Are A Hard-Headed Watchman

Who Hears & Repeats God’s Word

(v16-21)

Nothing mysterious about a “watchman.” He attentively looks out from his tower and sees to the safety of the people.

Ezk 3:16  Now it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Ezk 3:17  “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me:

Ezekiel showed-up suddenly. He uttered not a word for a full week. It’s an appropriate prequel to his often odd ministry.

Ezk 3:18  When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.

Ezk 3:19  Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

Ezk 3:20  “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.

Ezk 3:21  Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.”

Among the exiles were wicked & righteous individuals. We would say, unbelievers & believers:

1. The unbelievers go on in their sin despite God warning them.
2. The believers are tried and proven through trials, here called “stumbling blocks,” to exhibit their love for the LORD. (Think Job).

Upon first reading, there seems to be an urgency for Ezekiel to act as their watchman.

Urgency is not one of the lessons here.

1. First, we would note that Ezekiel said absolutely nothing for seven days.
2. Second, we are going to see that for the next two years his ministry will take place at his home. He only ministers to people who come to him.

While taking nothing away from the urgency of sharing God’s Word, we don’t need to be whipped up into a frenzy by something God is not telling Ezekiel to do.

Chuck Missler’s take on this – Ezekiel needs to be faithful to his calling. If that sounds watered-down, faithfulness is much harder than you think.

We are understandably concerned about the LORD telling Ezekiel if he fails in sharing God’s Word that “his blood I will require at your hand.”

There is a legal principle here that we don’t recognize, but a Jew would.

The Law of God deals with “blood-guiltiness.”

Blood-guilt is the accountability one bears for causing the death of another person, whether directly (murder) or indirectly (manslaughter). The one who sheds blood is held responsible and is considered guilty before God and the community.

Capital punishment was required for intentional murder. Fleeing to a city of refuge offered a merciful solution for manslaughter. A trial would be held, and if the death was ruled accidental, the perpetrator was not executed, but remained in exile in a city of refuge until the current High Priest died.

Ezekiel had not begun his ministry. This is still part of his calling. The LORD, therefore, was telling Ezekiel that his ministry of sharing the Word was a matter of life & death. He would be stained with blood-guiltiness should he refuse or later reject his calling.

Remember from verse fourteen that, “his spirit was hot and angry, he was froward and unwilling to go on the errand, to prophesy sad and dismal things to his people.” The LORD wasn’t giving Ezekiel a choice to volunteer. If Ezekiel refused, he would be considered a murderer or a man-slayer.

God can bring the hammer down on His prophets when He calls upon them. Think Jonah!

Our calling & commission is the Great Commission:

“All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on Earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

It is a serious calling. The apostle Paul remarked, “Woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel! … I have been entrusted with a stewardship” (First Corinthians 9:16 & 18).

What does the Bible say is required of stewards? To be faithful. You and I are to be faithful in our own callings.

Get this through your head: Be faithful in your calling.

Ezekiel 1:25-2:10 – Rebels, Rebels, Your Nation’s A Mess

Kevin was understandably devastated.

Cowboy Dan wasn’t coming to his birthday party after all. It was a pre-teen social embarrassment he would likely never recover from. “All the kids are gonna hate me,” he whined. “It’s gonna be just like little league.”

Cowboy Dan didn’t come… But Cowboy Gil did! AKA Steve Martin, he put on a hilarious performance in Parenthood.

Ezekiel got a surprise visit on his 30^th birthday!

The LORD came to him on His throne-chariot, in a whirlwind, borne by four magnificent Cherubim.

The LORD brought Ezekiel a gift.

“Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me…” (2:2).

If you are in-Christ, God the Holy Spirit entered you the moment you were born-again. We call it His indwelling – His permanent indwelling.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 You  Were Given The Gift of God The Holy Spirit On Your Born-Again Day, and #2 You Were Promised The Gifting(s) Of God The Holy Spirit On Your Born-again Day.

#1 – You  Were Given The Gift of God The Holy Spirit On Your Born-Again Day (1:25-28; 2:1-2)

Think for a moment: What is the best birthday gift you’ve ever received? It pales in comparison to God’s gift to you.

The Holy Spirit is called “the gift of God in several places.”^[1] He is given to you, He enters you, when you believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ. And we say, based on biblical texts, His entering you is permanent.

On his 30^th birthday, on the very day, the LORD surprised Ezekiel in a whirlwind, borne along on His cherried-out Cherubim chariot.

Ezk 1:25  A voice came from above the firmament that was over their heads; whenever they stood, they let down their wings.

Ezk 1:26  And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone…

What Ezekiel saw and experienced was the real. The thrones on Earth are the representations of the real that exists in the unseen, spiritual realm. When priests perform their tasks in the earthly Tabernacle & Temple, they “serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5).

If I told you I was looking at a custom car, and I said it had ‘sick flames on the hood’ would you speculate that it was a metaphor for the temporary nature of material things? “Don’t collect cars ‘cause they are only going to burn!” I guess you might if you’d never seen flames painted on a car. Chances are, however, you’d know exactly what I saw.

Ezk 1:26  And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it.

In the OT, when God is represented as a “man,” we say it is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. Angels appear to mankind, too. It can be a little confusing because Jesus is sometimes called the Angel of the Lord. When the Person allows or commands worship, you can be certain it is Jesus.

Ezk 1:27  Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around.

The presence of God is luminous, radiant. So much so that, in the future city, the New Jerusalem, “the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it.”

I learned this week that, in the NT, there are only three nouns that are used to describe God: love, life & light.^[2] Everything else is an adjective or an office. Any discussion of God must be subordinate to the understanding that God is love, God is life, God is light.

Ezk 1:28  Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking.

The rainbow is the sign of God’s promise never to order-up a global flood. In His wrath against sin, God remembers mercy. The same will be true in the future Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Though not directly mentioned here, the 7yrs of tribulation are suggested by the rainbow because the apostle John saw the LORD on His Throne in the Revelation, with a rainbow, just prior to judgment.

Ezekiel “fell on his face.” I was asked recently if the Pentecostal practice of being slain in the Spirit could ever be genuine. Proponents point to people in the Bible who “fell down” before God. Many individuals in the Bible experienced a powerful, overwhelming encounter with God or His angels that caused them to fall or bow down: Abraham, Moses & Aaron, Joshua, Daniel, Balaam, Manoah & Mrs. Manoah, the apostle John, the apostle Paul, and Peter, James & John at the Mount of Transfiguration.

Unless I am mistaken… These ALL “fell on their face” before God. They did not fall backward when someone touched their forehead, and their fall wasn’t broken by the ushers.

The example I found of falling backward is the mob that came to arrest Jesus. He identified Himself as “I AM,” and they fell backwards. No ushers!

Ezk 2:1  And He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.”

Ezk 2:2  Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me.

God the Holy Spirit did not indwell Ezekiel until this moment. In the Old Testament, there is no specific promise to believers that the Spirit of God would continually dwell in them. If God the Holy Spirit indwelt all OT believers, we wouldn’t need to be told that he entered Ezekiel. And we wouldn’t have any examples of His leaving a person; but we do.

Only after Jesus’ death and resurrection could the Holy Spirit be given permanently.

In fact, the permanent indwelling of God the Holy Spirit is part of the New Covenant. The nation of Israel rejected Jesus in His first coming. The nation is under discipline. Israel is not enjoying the New Covenant. We are!

The Church has not replaced Israel, but the spiritual blessings of the New Covenant made with Israel have been extended to the Church.  All believers today have the “law of God written on their hearts,” and all believers know the Lord’s presence in their lives.

#2 – You Were Promised Gifting(s) Of God The Holy Spirit On Your Born-Again Day (2:3-10)

The nation of Judah was made up of rebels without remorse.

“Rebellious,” or “rebelled” appear 7x in these few verses. The LORD also describes them as “transgressed,” “impudent,” and “stubborn.”

Despite their rejection of Him, God would not abandon them.

Ezk 2:3  And He said to me: “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day.

“Son of Adam” is the literal translation. In the plural it was a synonym for mankind. Daniel would elevate the title to refer to the Jewish Messiah. Jesus used it of Himself some 80x. He was the son of Adam who was the Messiah.

• When the LORD called Jeremiah, he tried to beg off, saying he was too young.
• Isaiah found himself in Heaven and volunteered.
• Ezekiel needed no time to think or react. He hit the ground running.

Each of us is unique. We are going to practice being Christians differently. It is OK as long as we agree upon the essential doctrines. It’s more than OK; it’s healthy.

Ezk 2:4  For they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD.”

Ezekiel was “sent,” but not far away. He stayed put and ministered within the captive community.

The prophets of the Bible mostly shared unpopular messages. They were messages of hope, of truth, of eternity. But in order to unlock those things there needed to be repentance.

Our message is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is glorious. But it is mostly unpopular when it is properly preached because it involves, you guessed it, a call for repentance.

“Thus says the Lord God.” A prophet was always under a death sentence. It was a capital crime to speak falsely for God.

Ezk 2:5  As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse – for they are a rebellious house – yet they will know that a prophet has been among them.

Every person who hears God’s Word has a personal responsibility to accept Him or to reject Him. God the Holy Spirit accompanies the Word in such a way that the sinners heart is able to respond.

I’m sorry, but if mankind does not have free will, God has already determined who will hear and who will refuse. Cornelius Van Til writes, “The moment a Christian theologian admits that anything happens in the whole course of history, whether by devil, or man, or power of nature, without the will of God, that moment the foundations of a Christian theology are shaken.” I might want to believe that… But then I remember God is love, life, and light. He therefore cannot be the cause of evil.

Those who do not have the written Word, never heard the name of Jesus, they have the witness of creation around them, and conscience within them. They are responsible to act upon what they know, not what they don’t know.

Ezk 2:6  “And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

Ezekiel’s ministry would take place in an urban setting. But the spiritual landscape would seem like a desert.

Are you familiar with the phrase mad-dogging? It’s that intense stare that someone full of rage has. Boxers & MMA fighters exhibit it at their weigh-ins.  Ezekiel could expect to be mad dogged!

Ezk 2:7  You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious.

For the third time, the Lord emphasizes personal responsibility. He was also encouraging Ezekiel that the success of his ministry would be measured in faithfulness, not by numbers.

Ezk 2:8  But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house…

Our lives and our ministries need constant evaluation. We often point out that of the seven letters to the seven churches in the book of the revelation only one of them is without correction or reproof. It’s the one to the church that is suffering intense persecution.

• We do not want to be rebellious like the churches in Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, & Laodicea.
• We do not want to be rebellious like the church in Corinth.

Ezk 2:8  But you, son of man… open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

The Word of God isn’t for others until it’s become part of you. Ezekiel must ‘digest’ God’s Word.

Do you think he ate it? Absolutely. It is going to be the least weird thing that Ezekiel does as he dramatizes God’s Word.

Ezk 2:9  Now when I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me; and behold, a scroll of a book was in it.

Ezk 2:10  Then He spread it before me; and there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe.

The majority of prophetic messages were delivered during times of disobedience, decline, or impending judgment. Makes sense because God truly loves His special nation. He would always go after them, never abandon them, and be faithful to discipline them.

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Mary Poppins’ travels with a carpet bag from which she can pull out a seemingly endless number of objects, no matter the size or quantity, that are just right for her need.

God the Holy Spirit is an ocean of resources. I’ll mention a few of His more well-known giftings:

➲ He is involved in your regeneration (your new birth).

➲ He is involved in your baptism into the body of Jesus, in your being sealed, in your being adopted, in your being filled.

➲ The spiritual fruit in your life is the Fruit of the Holy Spirit.

➲ He is your teacher, guide, and comforter. He intercedes for you. ‘

➲ He is the down payment guaranteeing God’s promises.

➲ God the Holy Spirit gives  you the assurance of salvation.

Jesus in His first coming is described as “being in the form of God, [He] did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).

Jesus was fully God and fully man. In His first coming, He set aside the independent use of deity. He lived as a man who was indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He didn’t sometimes take back His deity to answer a question, or to perform a healing. He lived as a Spirit-indwelt human.

A commentator paraphrased Jesus: “The Spirit I’m going to send to you… You’ve seen Him in Me. You’ve seen Him dwelling in My life these past three years. He has been with you in Me. And it’s that very same Spirit who has been with you in Me, on My life, indwelling Me these years, that is the Holy Spirit I’m going to ask the Father to send to you.”

With that in mind, listen to these words of the apostle Paul: “It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s! (Romans 8:11 MSG).

In the classic SyFy series, Quantum Leap, Sam has ‘jumped’ into the body of a woman who is being abducted. Al, who appears only to him as a hologram, reminds Sam he has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. With that realization, Sam subdues the attackers.

If you are a believer, God, the Holy Spirit permanently entered you. You need to be reminded. Otherwise your flesh will reassert itself and you find yourself walking in that energy rather than by the dynamic power & enabling of God.

Creature Features (Ezekiel 1:4-24)

The Batmobile is just the most well-known.

There are additionally the Bat-Cycle, the Batwing, the Bat-Boat, the Bat-Sub, the Bat-Ski, the Bat-Glider, the Bat-Truck, the Bat-Shuttle, the Bat-Trike, the Bat-Copter, and the Bat-Train.

There may be cooler comic rides, but the Batman has the deepest inventory.

The LORD has a sweet ride!

• Its “wheels” are mentioned 10x.
• Its “rims” are mentioned 2x.

It is conveyed by four supernatural chauffeurs called “living creatures.” Further on in the book, Ezekiel says, “I knew they were Cherubim” (10:20).

He knew because the Cherubim were associated with the presence of God in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. There were carved images of them, out of gold and olive wood; as well as images embroidered on curtains; and carvings.

The nation of Judah was a vassal of Babylon. No worries, thought the Jews. God’s presence was in Solomon’s Temple. Certainly God would not allow Babylon to prevail.

They were wrong to trust in the Temple; God allowed it to be leveled.

Before the Temple was destroyed, God would remove His presence from the Temple. Ezekiel was relocated in a refugee camp in a Babylonian city called Tel Abib, by the River Kebar. He would be God’s prophet to break the awful news to the captives in Babylon that God had left the building!

Aren’t you glad that can’t happen today? Not so fast! Jesus wrote a letter to the church in Ephesus warning them that He was about to “remove [their] lampstand from its place – unless [they] repent” (Revelation 2:5).

I’ll organize my comments around the two subjects we encounter: #1 @therealCherubim, and #2 @therealChariot.

#1 – @therealCherubim (v4-14)

Angels… or Aliens?

UFOlogists claim that Ezekiel was an ignorant man using primitive language to describe his encounters with extraterrestrial visitors, “Ancient Astronauts.”

• Ezekiel was no ignorant man. He was God’s prophet.
• His language is far from being primitive; it is marvelous.

Besides, we referenced earlier that he said he knew that were Cherubim – not Chewbacca.

We choose aliens over angels because mankind does not like to retain God in our knowledge. Weʼd rather believe some fantastic tale than the truth that we were created by, and then visited by, the loving and merciful and forgiving God of the Bible. We can fight ET, and win, on account of our indomitable human, Captain Kirk-like, spirit, that proclaims, “Never say die, never surrender.” If there really is a God then we need to face the fact we are sinners in need of His saving and our submission.

Ezk 1:4  Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

Whirlwind Ezekiel, magnitude off the charts, was bearing down on the man who would never be priest. The storm was supernatural, in the unseen realm. It was geo-political, involving God’s plan for the ages, for Israel and the nations.

Ezk 1:5  Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man.

Ezk 1:6  Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings.

Ezk 1:7  Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the soles of calves’ feet. They sparkled like the color of burnished bronze.

Ezk 1:8  The hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides; and each of the four had faces and wings.

When we encounter visions like this in the Bible, we immediately look for symbolism. Let me give you an example. In verse eighteen we are told that these living creatures “were full of eyes.”

• One commentator said, “The number of eyes, wherever they may be, speaks of multi-dimensional awareness. Our two eyes help us to perceive a three-dimensional reality. A multitude of eyes suggests a greater awareness than we know as human.”
• Another commentator explains the eyes, “We can hide nothing from God. He sees and knows everything.”

Symbolism is subjective. So what does Ezekiel mean? He means that they were full of eyes!

Another rather distinguishing physical trait is in verse seven. “Their legs were straight.” They don’t have knees!

Ezk 1:9  Their wings touched one another. The creatures did not turn when they went, but each one went straight forward.

Cherubim appear in a few other settings, associated with the presence of God, and especially His visible presence in the Tabernacle and the Temple.

In the Wilderness Tabernacle…

• Cherubim were woven into the the curtains of the Tabernacle (Exodus 26:1)
• Two golden figures of the Cherubim stretched their wings over the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:18-21).
• God said to Moses, “There I will meet with you, and from above the Mercy Seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the Ark of the [Covenant], I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel” (Exodus 25:22). In essence, it was God’s throne on Earth.

In Solomon’sTemple…

• There were four Cherubim in the Temple – the two gold ones on the Mercy Seat and two larger ones, carved out of olive wood, overshadowing the entire Ark (First Kings 6:23-28).
• The doors leading to the Holy Place were decorated with carvings of Cherubim (First Kings 6.31-32).

Notice the phrase, “their wings touched one another.” The Cherubim in the Temple were carved that way. Ezekiel saw the @therealCherubim which those in the Temple represented.

That place was where the presence of God visibly dwelt among His people.

This divine presence of God is called“Shekinah,” the “Shekinah glory,”  the “glory of the LORD,” “the cloud,” and “the fire.”

The Shekinah makes many appearances in the Hebrew Scriptures. In the Exodus from Egypt, for instance, the pillar of fire by day and the cloud by night were Shekinah.

When Solomon’s Temple was being dedicated, we read, “When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from Heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the Temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD’s house. When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD on the Temple, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshiped and praised the LORD, saying: “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever”(Second Chronicles 7:1-3).

God wants His creatures to dwell with Him. It’s not an easy thing to accomplish, because we are depraved sinners and He is infinitely holy.

God is up to the task. The last four English words of this book declare the future time when, “The LORD is there!”

As we journey through Ezekiel and the temples, we will see the LORD was there, then He wasn’t there, then He will be there.

Ezk 1:10  As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man; each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, each of the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and each of the four had the face of an eagle.

They were like the Mayor of Halloween Town in Nightmare Before Christmas.

Weird as this was, a Jew would instantly ‘recognize’ these four faces. They are lifted from Jewish history.

In the Book of Numbers God told the nation of Israel how they were to set up camp around the Tabernacle in the wilderness and where to put their tribal ensigns. Each of the four sides were to be encamped by three of the tribes:

1. The tribes of Judah, Issachar and Zebulon were to camp on the east and were collectively called the camp of Judah. The symbol on the ensign of Judah was a lion.
2. The tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin were to camp on the west side and were collectively called the camp of Ephraim. The symbol on the ensign of Ephraim was an ox.
3. The tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad were to camp on the south side and were collectively called the camp of Reuben. The symbol on the ensign of Reuben was a man.
4. The tribes of Dan, Naphtali, and Asher were to camp on the north side and were collectively called the camp of Dan. The symbol on the ensign of Dan was an eagle.

Israel camped about the Tabernacle as an earthly representation of the Cherubim surrounding Godʼs throne in Heaven.^[1]

Ezk 1:11  Thus were their faces. Their wings stretched upward; two wings of each one touched one another, and two covered their bodies.

In addition to Ezekiel’s description, Isaiah, Daniel, and the apostle John describe them from their own experiences. There are slight differences in each, but that is to be expected. No contradictions, just different emphases that can be reconciled.

Ezk 1:12  And each one went straight forward; they went wherever the spirit [mentioned 4 more times in the next set of verses] wanted to go, and they did not turn when they went.

Ezk 1:13  As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches going back and forth among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and out of the fire went lightning.

Ezk 1:14  And the living creatures ran back and forth, in appearance like a flash of lightning.

If, as a Christian, you have liberty to use AI, read this description into an artwork app and see what comes up.

We saw last time that this vision came to Ezekiel on his 30^th birthday. It was the day he would have begun his service in the Temple.

God remembered Ezekiel’s birthday and He crashed his non-party.

#2 – @therealChariot (v15-24)

The burning question I’m sure we all have is this: “What does God need with a starship?”

Ok, so maybe that’s from Star Trek V. God doesn’t need a starship to travel. He doesn’t require Cherubim to drive Him. He doesn’t need a prophet. He doesn’t need you & He doesn’t need me.

He has created us to have fellowship with Him & with one another as members of one another. It is the way of things. And we are to be in a local fellowship because we are a body & a building:

• If you are a stone for a building, you are useless alone.
• If you are a body part, you are useless alone. And gangrenous.

Ezk 1:15  Now as I looked at the living creatures, behold, a wheel was on the earth beside each living creature with its four faces.

Ezk 1:16  The appearance of the wheels and their workings was like the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance of their workings was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

Ezk 1:17  When they moved, they went toward any one of four directions; they did not turn aside when they went.

Ezk 1:18  As for their rims, they were so high they were awesome; and their rims were full of eyes, all around the four of them.

Ezk 1:19  When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.

I’ve seen what are called ‘Omni-Wheels’ on the Apple iCar prototype. They look like soccer balls & go in every direction. The car can go sideways.

Ezk 1:20  Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went; and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

Ezk 1:21  When those went, these went; when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

• The Cherubim had control of the wheels. When the Cherubim moved, the wheels moved.
• The Spirit of God had control of the Cherubim.

Ezk 1:22  The likeness of the firmament above the heads of the living creatures was like the color of an awesome crystal, stretched out over their heads.

There was a cover above the Cherubim, a platform. Light shone through it as light through a precious stone. The final verses of the chapter – we will look at them next time. There is a throne above the Cherubim & on the platform.

Ezk 1:23  And under the firmament their wings spread out straight, one toward another. Each one had two which covered one side, and each one had two which covered the other side of the body.

Ezk 1:24  When they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a tumult like the noise of an army; and when they stood still, they let down their wings.

The Ark and Mercy Seat were removed before Solomon’s Temple was destroyed. There are many theories as to where it went. Jeremiah may have hidden it. The Ethiopian Church claims that they have it.

It was never seen again after the First Temple was destroyed. In its place was a large stone slab onto which the High Priest sprinkled the blood on the Day of Atonement.

The Shekinah will return. There will be a Third Temple after the 7yr Time of Jacob’s Trouble – the Millennial Temple (43:1-5).

In Back to the Future there is a scene where Marty McFly is worried about whether Doc Brown will show up to help him get ‘back to the future.’ As tension builds, another character reassures Marty by saying, “Don’t worry, he’ll be here.” This line underscores the trust and belief in the hero’s timely arrival, despite the uncertainty of the moment.

Remember how Ezekiel ends – “The LORD will be there!”

God’s people were conquered and held captive. Shortly their trust in the Temple would be taken away. Looking back on centuries of intense persecution and suffering, it is easy to conclude that Israel has been abandoned by God.

Has God abandoned them? “Certainly not! … God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew” (Romans 11:1-2).

Meanwhile…The Lord is here!

• If you are “in” Him, then He is indwelling you. Your body is the Temple of God the Holy Spirit.
• He is present when we gather together. Collectively, we are His temple on Earth, being built together.

Ezekiel 1:1-3 – I Coulda Been A Kohanim

We recognize certain milestone birthdays and set them apart for special observation and celebration.

• 16  Driver’s license
• 18  Reaching adulthood
• 40  Midlife
• 65  Traditional retirement age
• 100 Less than 1% of the US population lives for a century

In Mexico and other Latin American cultures the 15^th birthday for young ladies is celebrated with a quinceañera.

In Judaism, a bar mitzvah (for boys at 13) and bat mitzvah (for girls at 12) mark their coming of age.

In Israel among the male descendants of Levi’s son, Aaron, birthdays at 25yrs,  30yrs, & 50yrs are significant.

• In Numbers 4:23 we are told, “From 30 years old and above, even to 50 years old [Levites] enter the service to do the work in the tabernacle of meeting.”

• A few chapters later we read this clarification. “This is what pertains to the Levites: From 25 years old and above one may enter to perform service in the work of the tabernacle of meetings” (23:24-26).

From age 25 until turning 30 the Levites apprenticed. At 30 they began their service. Retirement was mandatory at age 50.

We learn immediately that Ezekiel was a “priest” (1:3) entering his “30th year.”

What ought to have been a milestone was more like a crushing millstone.

Ezekiel did not write to us, but what he wrote is still for us. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (Second Timothy 3:16-17).

When the apostle Paul wrote those words, “all scripture” was the Hebrew Bible we call the OT. The NT was still being written.

I’ll organize my comments around two questions: #1 How Would You Describe What Jesus Is Doing In You & Through You?, and #2 How Would Others Describe What Jesus Is Doing In You & Through You?

#1 – How Would You Describe What Jesus Is Doing In You & Through You (v1)

It is not uncommon for an interviewer to ask you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

In Israel, if you were a descendant of Aaron, you were going to be a priest, a kohan (kohanim is plural).

Ezekiel knew what he was going to be as an adult. Only, when the time came, it was not possible:

• King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem in 606BC during the reign of Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim surrendered to him. Nebuchadnezzar took some of the Temple treasures and prisoners, among whom were Daniel and his three companions.
• Nebuchadnezzar returned in 597BC. King Jehoiakim had died and was followed by Jehoaichin, who reigned for only three months. He was taken captive to Babylon with the remainder of the Temple treasures and other prisoners, among whom was Ezekiel.
• The Babylonians returned to Jerusalem in 586BC and destroyed the Temple and the city.

Levites were not priests the way we think of them. Zachary Garris writes, “The Levites were not just priests – they were warrior-priests. Their priestly origin is based in righteous violence. But God put the violent nature of the Levites to good use. Not only would the priests among them slaughter animals on a regular basis for sacrifice, but also all the Levites would guard the Tabernacle & Temple and the cities of refuge. Yahweh ordained and scattered the Levites throughout Israel in order to guard His worship.”

What does he mean by “righteous violence?” When, for example, the Israelites worshipped the Golden Calf, Moses called for “every man [to] put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’ ” So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day” (Exodus 32:27-28).

NT believers are warrior-priests:

• The Church is called “priests” in Revelation 1:6.
• We are warriors, told to put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6) and to become skillful utilizing various spiritual weaponry (Second Corinthians 10:4).

How is the warfare for you? What fronts are you fighting on? Where are you behind enemy lines? Are there chinks in your armor? Are you wounded? Are you getting more proficient with spiritual weapons, or are you trusting in the methods of the world and the strength of the flesh?

Ezk 1:1  Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar…

Ezekiel was living in Babylon, down by the river.

Historians and Bible commentators are thankful for Ezekiel’s careful keeping track of time. But when somebody is that careful keeping track of days, it communicates a deep longing. Think of your kids counting how many ‘sleeps’ until you are taking them somewhere fun.

Ezekiel’s longing is captured in Psalm 137.

Psa 137:1  By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept When we remembered Zion.

Psa 137:2  We hung our harps Upon the willows in the midst of it.

Psa 137:3  For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, And those who plundered us requested mirth, Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

Psa 137:4  How shall we sing the LORD’s song In a foreign land?

Psa 137:5  If I forget you, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget its skill!

Psa 137:6  If I do not remember you, Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth – If I do not exalt Jerusalem Above my chief joy.

Psa 137:7  Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom The day of Jerusalem, Who said, “Raze it, raze it, To its very foundation!”

Psa 137:8  O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, Happy the one who repays you as you have served us!

Psa 137:9  Happy the one who takes and dashes Your little ones against the rock!

NT believers wait with a deep desire.

We “wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (First Thessalonians 1:10). Knowing I could be with Jesus right now, I am motivated to invest myself serving Him today.

The conditions of the Babylonian captivity weren’t severe. In fact, when it ended and they could return home, most Jews chose to stay and live under Persian rule.

Looking around… Things are getting severe. Do you say, “Even so, come Lord Jesus!” Or are we becoming too comfy-cozy?

Scholars have done the math. Ezekiel was taken captive at age 25, just when he would have begun his apprenticeship. The first vision came to him on the day of his 30^th birthday.

God did not need Ezekiel to priest in captivity, but rather to prophesy.

Ezk  1:1  Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.

How are we to understand the “visions?” A commentary I consulted said, “One of the unusual parts of Ezekiel’s experience seems to be that he was physically taken away by the Spirit of God while the hand of God was upon him, and that he was returned to his place among the exiles at the end of his vision. We conclude this from the reference in a later chapter that reads: “Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound. The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went with the strong hand of the Lord upon me.”

Ezekiel was the first believer to be caught up & away bodily.

Before moving on, I want to mention the modern-day kohanim. How can they be identified?

Geneticist Dr. David Goldstein says, “[As it turns out] almost 100% of all men with family tradition of priesthood do descend from kohanim. Generation after generation of Jewish women were faithful to their husbands and their tradition. What a proud record of fidelity. Geneticists describe these results as “the highest record of paternity-certainty ever recorded… Date calculation based on the variation of the mutations among kohanim today yields a time frame of 106 generations from the ancestral founder of the line, some 3,300 years ago.” This exactly supports the tradition of descent from Aaron, brother of Moses.”

Many modern Jews with the surname Cohen & Kahn are kohanim.

The Nezer HaKodesh Institute for Kohanic Studies is teaching Jewish priests to perform Temple service for the Third Temple.

#2 – How Would Others Describe What Jesus Is Doing In You & Through You? (v2-3)

Take time to source a claim before you Insta, FaceBook, or X. It will keep you from furthering false rumors, like “ABC Refused to Renew Whoopi Goldberg’s and Joy Behar’s Contracts for The View for being toxic.”

The next two verses read like an independent Fact Check, verifying what Ezekiel said in verse one.

Ezk 1:2  On the fifth day of the month, which was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,

In this third-person account Ezekiel is being vetted. It’s a spiritual background check so the reader can be comfortable the priest was indeed raised-up as God’s prophet.

Ezk 1:3  the word of the LORD came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.

The LSV (Literal Standard Version) of verse three reads, “the word of YHWH has certainly been to Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chebar, and there is on him there a hand of YHWH.

It’s the findings of his vetting. Ezekiel is a bonafide prophet operating in the sphere of God’s almighty power.

There are no prophets today.

There is the Gift of Prophesy. It is a gift from God the Holy Spirit for some (not all) believers. It is exercised to benefit & bless the Church as discussed at length in First Corinthians 14.

In our fellowship it mostly takes the form of God the Holy Spirit impressing on a person to call our attention to a particular Scripture. Often that Scripture, or several taken together, speak encouragement to the gathering – and to someone in particular.

We would also acknowledge dreams and waking dreams, i.e., visions, as forms of Church Age prophesy.

The person speaking needs to be vetted. What they’ve said needs to be judged by the written Word.

If ultimately the Gift of Prophecy is the application of the written, complete Bible, why do we exercise it?

• The Bible presents it as a gift that has not ceased. I do not have the freedom to ignore it simply because it is controversial.
• A large portion of First Corinthians is dedicated to the proper exercise of gifts, prophecy being an important one. Why so much instruction about the so-called Sign Gifts if they were to shortly cease?
• Nowhere can we honestly prove from Scripture that certain gifts, like prophesy, have ceased. Cessationists mostly criticize the very real abuses of the gifts. But this requires correction, not cessation.
• On a personal level, it is humbling and intimate for the Lord to speak to you using independent means. Sure, you can search out verses from Nave’s Topical Bible. But when the Word speaks to you in a live setting, it can be precious.

Jeremiah, in Jerusalem, had been prophesying for about 35 years to this point.  Daniel was just beginning his amazing ministry and was at the heart of the action in the very courts of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.

Ezekiel was stuck out along the River Chebar, a canal that was connected to the River Euphrates, in a Jewish settlement. He was out in the sticks, in Riverdale, a nobody, a priest who would never serve in the Temple.

Is “the hand of the Lord upon [us] here” in the sticks by the Kings River? 

One way to determine an answer is to read Jesus’ letters to seven churches in the opening chapters of the Revelation. It is our belief that each letter was written to every church. Yes, the letter to, say, the Church in Philadelphia was for that spiritual community, at that time. But the things the Lord says to them are applicable to any Church, any time they find themselves like Philadelphia.

One argument in favor of that is the fact they all end with Jesus saying, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (plural).

Another argument in favor of their being written to every church is that some of the rewards promised to a church are elsewhere promised to all believers.

We can read the letters asking, “How are we like or unlike each church?” Would Jesus commend us for certain things, or criticize us?

The heavens opened for Ezekiel. The heavens will open for us:

1Th 4:16  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

1Th 4:17  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

1Th 4:18  Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Secret rapture is a term frequently used as a pejorative by those who deny the idea that the rapture of the church is separate from the Second Coming of Christ. Do you think graves opening to release the dead in Christ will happen in secret? Christians alive at the time will be flying airplanes, driving cars. It won’t be very secret when the co-pilot announces over the comm, “Ladies & gentlemen, the Captain was just raptured, and I cannot raise LAX air traffic control. I suggest you buckle-up… And receive the Lord.”

• Maybe the Gideon’s could explore having a Bible in the storage compartment of airline seats?
• Or Franklin Graham can record a 90sec evangelism video to play?

Billy Graham once said, “Jesus wants to give you hope for the future. He wants you to learn what it means to walk with Him every day. When you come to Jesus, God gives you eternal life – which begins right now as you open your heart to Him.”