Lessons From Ezekiel – Lesson 30
After the fall of Jerusalem and a quick warning to those who want to stay in the land, the tone of the book changes dramatically. Now will come promise after promise to those in captivity. Being taken out of the land in judgment was a hard thing and I can see how having to go thru that could really affect you.
It could cause a loss of hope, and purpose in your life, and even depression.
Spiritually the people were already in a bad way before the captivity. Almost all of them were into idol worship and many of them were trying to do both, worship God and then turn right around and worship some idol. The fact that it doesn’t work that way was lost on them.
So these people are a total mess. God has a lot of work to do in 70 years to get some of them spiritually ready to return to the land. A lot has to be done to build them up before they can build the temple.
And we learned last week that one of the main reasons the people were so messed up and the reason they wandered away from God to every high hill to worship idols is because of the preachers.
We learned that God said they were about feeding themselves.
EZE 34:2Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
EZE 34:3Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.
They also did not care for the people. And ruled them with cruelty.
EZE 34:4The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.
EZE 34:6My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.
So God told the preachers that God will cause them to cease from speaking to the people.
And God said He would deliver the people from the Bondage of the preachers. The people would no longer be a prey for the preachers.
EZE 34:22Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey;
And then came promise after promise including that there shall be showers of blessing.
EZE 34:26And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.
There is a principal here, one that I have seen several times and could give you examples of. When someone is in a cult or under some false teaching, you will not get very far with them as long as they are still listing to those false teachers.
Yes some get saved while still attending those places, but they have to quit listening. Why? Because what they teach is against God’s truth.
The listening to that influence needs to be removed. That is exactly what God did here. All of those that went into captivity where under the influence of two false sets of preachers.
One set was those promoting and teaching idol worship. God removed that influence by removing them from the land.
The second set of false messed up teachers were the bad preachers that were supposed to be caring for God’s people. God declared a woe upon them and delivered the people from them.
So now that both sets of bad influence and wrong teaching have been removed, the people can improve. And they can get God’s word and more of God’s word, and promise from God after promise from God and without the input of false teaching getting in the way.
Hearts and minds will start to open up and listen. People will start to grow. More and more people will chose faith. It takes time, but in 70 years there will be enough people with faith to return to a totally messed up Jerusalem.
And that took a lot of faith to do that. No economy there, nothing but rubble, enemies all around. And yes, we learned from Nehemiah and Ezra that they were not ready for revival yet but they had the faith to return.
And the first step to getting them to that point was to remove the bad false teaching influences.
And God starts off speaking to the people with promise after promise after promise.
Then God has a warning to those who think they can have the land because Israel has been taken away. It is basically nope. And God is going to judge you for it. Even that warning to those people would have increased the faith of those in captivity that God is going to let them return to the land.
EZE 35:13 Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.
EZE 35:14 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.
EZE 35:15 As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
There is reaping and sowing again. It is all thru the Bible. Because they rejoiced because Israel was made desolate, then they will be made desolate themselves.
And then it is back to giving those in captivity promise after promise. God is giving them hope in the future and purpose in life.
This is what they needed to hear, promises that give hope and direction and purpose.
EZE 36:8 But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.
EZE 36:9 For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown:
Before this God said the land will be made desolate. They have been watching that start to happen and will continue to see it get worse. And here is the promise that the desolation is temporary.
That God will make it fruitful once again. They will till the land again and get harvests.
EZE 36:10 And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:
Promise after promise.
EZE 36:11 And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
This will be miraculous. So much so that there will be no doubt that God did this.
EZE 36:12 Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men.
Now comes a reminder of why they got taken away into captivity.
EZE 36:16 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
EZE 36:17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.
EZE 36:18 Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:
EZE 36:19 And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.
EZE 36:20 And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.
And that is followed by a promise that they will return and a lesson in some humility. If you were not careful after getting promise after promise after promise, you could make the mistake that you are all that and a bag of chips.
After all since God is going to do all this miraculous things for us, then we must be pretty special. Some Jews had that kind of thinking in Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s day. And we know that some of them still had that kind of thinking when Jesus walked the earth and in Paul’s day.
And there are some Christians who are off a little on this as well. It can be a problem.
So now God is going to tell them what the reason is that He is doing all this, and it is for His glory. He is doing it for His names sake.
EZE 36:21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.
He is doing this for His holy Name.
EZE 36:22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.
God flat out says I do not do this for your sakes.
EZE 36:23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
EZE 36:24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
Of course when God did this it did benefit them. God does love them. God did want them to do well. Those are also reasons, but they are so far underneath the main reason which is God’s glory. They are not even in the same category.
EZE 36:25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
And history tells us this is true. They no longer worshiped idol statues anymore.
EZE 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
A partial fulfillment of this happened in the revival of Nehemiah’s day, and we will see this happen completely during the 1,000 year reign.
EZE 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
EZE 36:28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
And now comes more promises.
EZE 36:29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
EZE 36:30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.
And God will give them conviction of their sins. And that is a necessary good thing. It helps you do right, it helps you change. It is necessary so that you repent and draw closer to God.
EZE 36:31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.
And then a second time God tells them that the main reason He is doing this is not for their sakes.
EZE 36:32 Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.
And now more promises.
EZE 36:33 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.
EZE 36:34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.
EZE 36:35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.
And all of this shows forth that God is real, and God has all power, and that God is in control. And that He can be known. He is the God of the Israelites.
EZE 36:36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.
EZE 36:37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.
EZE 36:38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
You could not have listened to these first messages from Ezekiel after the fall of Jerusalem and not come away with several things.
God is very serious about this. He is not done with us. He is going to return us to the land. The land will be made fruitful again.
God does care about us. He is going to work on our behalf. God is giving us hope, and direction, and purpose.
However, we need to be humble. We did mess up. We are being taken away because of what we did. And the main reason God is going to fulfill all these promises to us is for His names sake.
This is also true for us today. God does love us. God does give us promises. God is faithful. He does work in our lives and for our best. He cares for us.
However, it is always good for us to remember that the number one reason He does it, is for His names sake.
It shows forth His faithfulness, it shows forth His love, and power. And He does it so that the heathen can see it. And when they do some of them will chose to believe and be rescued from an eternity in hell.