Lessons From Ezekiel – Lesson 3
Eze 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.
Eze 3:15 Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.
Ezekiel’s reaction to God’s call was he went in bitterness. This is not unusual. Many men thru the centuries have testified of something similar. But a few decades later they will say they are glad that they surrendered to the call and that God knew what He was doing.
God understands and makes sure that Ezekiel knew that He was with him and has patience and lets Ezekiel process it for 7 days.
Now while God has patience and while he does work with people, we also have to understand that God has a right to ask. You will never find anywhere in the Bible where God apologies for asking men to do hard things. He has a right to ask and He is worthy of service.
When God called Moses He was patient with Moses and even gave Moses Aaron as a spokesperson, but God did not say to Moses ok just forget it.
God sees the beginning and the ending and everything in between. God could look forward and see how much that Moses was going to grow. Moses could not see it coming, but God could see how excited Moses was going to get about doing God’s work.
God could see ahead how Moses would take that rod back from Aaron, how Moses would write a song and sing praises after they crossed the Red Sea. God could see Moses spending so much time with Him that his face shown.
God could look ahead and see all the Work that Moses was going to accomplish and so God in His perfect foreknowledge and in His perfect character will not change His mind and back down from the call to Moses.
It is the same thing here with Ezekiel. God deals with each man individually. With Moses it was a burning bush and then the watching of God work thru the plagues that got Moses on track.
Ezekiel is a different man and has different failings and experiences and needs something different to get on track.
So God comes and uses the illustration of a watchman. In those days towns had walls and watchtowers and they would put a man in the tower to watch and sound the alarm if needed. It was a very important job. The safety of everyone in the town depended upon the watchman doing his job.
Eze 3:16 And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 3:17 Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
This is one of the few portions of the book of Ezekiel that is commonly preached. I know that all of us has heard more than one sermon on it thru the years. So we are not going to spend a lot of time on it.
God is making the point to Ezekiel that He has made Ezekiel a watchman. The job has been assigned. It is a done deal. So much so that if you refuse to do the job you are going to be in trouble because I am going to require that you give an answer for it.
The results are not in your job description Ezekiel. If you warn and they reject the warning it is them that will get into trouble and not you Ezekiel. And while God gives Ezekiel this job description and warning for not doing it, God makes sure that Ezekiel feels His hand upon him.
Eze 3:22 And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee.
Where is Ezekiel when this conversation is taking place?
He is with all those rebellious people. And they are already watching him. Ezekiel shows up and sits with them for 7 days in astonishment. Anyone who walks by him is going to see it. Someone no doubt asked him are you ok. Or what is up with you.
Ezekiel would have to tell the truth and say I saw visions of God. These people don’t want to hear about God. They are hard hearted and stiff necked.
After 7 days God comes and starts talking to Ezekiel. Now we don’t know how close Ezekiel was to anyone and no one might have heard what God said.
Remember when Paul met God on the Damascus road. Only Paul heard God.
Act_22:9 And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.
It could have been that people could see Ezekiel looking up listening to God but only Ezekiel can hear it. That of course would have been an odd sight.
God is already talking with Ezekiel, but God says Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee.
So basically Ezekiel I have more to say to you but not here. Not in the midst of this rebellious people. So Ezekiel is obedient and gets walking.
Can’t you just imagine someone asking Hey where are you going Ezekiel. Ezekiel would have to say I am going into the plain to talk to God. And he does. They could watch him walk right out of the camp and out into the plain.
Can you imagine the talk. Ezekiel went out to talk to God. He has already said he has had visions of God and now He is going out into the plain to talk to God. I don’t want to hear what God has to say.
I have no doubt that they are talking about it because of what their reaction is when Ezekiel gets back.
So Ezekiel goes out alone to the plain. And God is going to show Ezekiel His glory again. I think this is something that Ezekiel needed. What is ahead of Ezekiel is going to be extremely hard. And it really helps his servants get thru the hard tasks if they have a clear impression and vision of who it is they are serving.
Eze 3:23 Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face.
Once again as soon as Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord he falls on his face in worship.
Eze 3:24 Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house.
Here starts the first object lesson that God is going to have Ezekiel act out, to display, to preform before these rebellious people.
Step one of the object lesson. Ezekiel go to your house and shut yourself in. Now this is the prophet of God. Isn’t he supposed to go to the people and tell them God’s word? Yes that is the job description.
But first under orders from Almighty God, refuse to give them God’s Word. They know you came out here to get a message from me. They watched you walk out here. Now they will watch you come back and you refuse to give them anything.
Go to your house and shut yourself in.
What is the reaction of these rebellious people? They go into his house and bind Ezekiel.
Eze 3:25 But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them:
There are only 3 in this story. God, Ezekiel, and the rebellious people. So that tells you who the they are. They see Ezekiel come back and they don’t want to hear what he has to say and then they watch him shut himself up without saying a word.
They have no provocation here. Ezekiel is minding his own business and he is being quiet.
They hate the word of God so much. It bothers them so bad. Even the thought that Ezekiel might come out tomorrow and start speaking God’s message; even the thought of that was more than they could stand.
So they had to do something to be proactive and take action to stop the word of God form coming to them again. This still happens today by the way. We got in the mail this last week the front of one of our envelopes mailed back to us with a note to not mail them again.
We only mail people once. There is no indication in our mailer that we might mail them again. And if we did they could just not open it since they would recognize our return address and throw it away.
But even the thought of God’s word getting that close to them is more than they can stand. They must stop it from ever coming again. Now they could email me but that brings the danger that the word of God might come to their email.
So they spent time to cut out the address from the envelope and write stop not interested and spent 70 cents for a stamp and envelope and mailed it to us.
They are afraid we have more to say about God and they can’t stand it. So much so that they must take action to stop it from ever coming again.
That is what the rebellious people did to Ezekiel. They go into his house and bind him. They are going to keep him from being able to tell them God’s word.
God then tells Ezekiel what he is going to do.
This is part two of the object lesson. And this is a huge over the top display to make a huge point.
Eze 3:26 And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.
God supernaturally made Ezekiel’s tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth. To cleave is to adhere to. And when God made his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth that tongue is not moving period.
It would have been a stronger adhesion than super glue.
So picture it, they are mad and taking action to stop Ezekiel from telling them the word of God. They bind him and say what do you think of that.
And all Ezekiel can do is make a little mumble noise. Ezekiel cannot talk at all. They wanted to shut up Ezekiel and God showed them. God did it. And in a huge unmistakable way that showed without any doubt that God did it.
God showed them that their effort and binding Ezekiel was meaningless. It also showed them that they are not in control of this. They are not in control of whether God’s word goes out or not. That is not up to them.
God is showing that whether His word goes out is up to God and not up to them. God is the one who has the power to stop His word from going out.
And it is God who has the power to get it to go out no matter what the people think about that. And that is the final point of the object lesson.
Eze 3:27 But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.
We don’t know how long this object lesson lasted. It could have been a whole day or even a few days. It lasted long enough to make the point.
And you do not see these people trying to bind Ezekiel to stop him from speaking God’s Word ever again. And when it was time God opened Ezekiel’s mouth and Ezekiel went out and said Thus saith the Lord God and the rebellious people had a choice to accept it or reject it.
But they did not have a choice about getting God’s Word.
Those people that mailed that note to us. If God is chasing them, they will not be able to stop God’s Word from coming to them. God will send others to give them some of His word, or maybe someone where they work, or they will see His word somewhere.
They will have the free will like those in Ezekiel’s day to hear it or reject it. But if God wants them exposed to His word then they cannot stop it.
And the people who Ezekiel was sent to were not going to be able to stop having God’s Word given to them. They had the free will to listen to it as in learn and let it affect them or they had the choice to reject it.
But they were not going to be able to stop it. God did not allow them to shut up Ezekiel.