Lessons From Ezekiel – Lesson 5

What did you learn or was reminded of about our God and how He works so far in Ezekiel?

Recap:

  • He wants people to get His word so much that He will ask hard things of His servants.
  • God will enable and provide for and be involved in the process of those things that He asks His servants to do.
  • God is incredibly long suffering. It took 430 years of Israel’s iniquity before it came to judgment time.
  • Even in times of judgment God still wants to get His word out and God’s offer of mercy and grace is still offered and open to any who will choose to hear.
  • God is in control of if His word goes out. God can withhold his word.  There are times when God chooses to speak and times when He does not.  This was illustrated by the object lesson of God making Ezekiel’s tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth.  We see this many times in the Word of God.  One example is after the last prophet Malachi there is 400 years of silence before John the Baptist.  And we see this sometimes in our own lives.  There are times when we will hear that still small voice in our heart over and over and then there are times when there is silence.
  • God keeps His own close to Him even in times of judgment. This was illustrated by the object lesson of the hairs that were secured instead of being destroyed.  Ezekiel has been carried away into captivity.  He has lost Jerusalem and the ability to see and talk to those that he knew and cared about there.  Ezekiel is affected by the beginning of this judgment.  However, God is still using Ezekiel for His glory and God is still communicating with Ezekiel and God is showing Ezekiel His power and involvement in his life and work.  And somehow Ezekiel has a house to live in.
  • Ezekiel is God’s child and servant and even in the hardness of captivity Ezekiel still has some blessings.

God Himself and His character has not changed.  He still wants to get His word out, He still asks hard things sometimes of His children.  He is still longsuffering.  He still has a time for judgment.  He still offers mercy and grace.  He is still providing for and is involved in His work.  He still keeps His children secure and close.

There is a lot we can learn from the book of Ezekiel today.  And people were learning back then from Ezekiel.  They were watching him.  We will see that more and more as we progress.

One group that I think was watching him was the children.  Children are very curious.  When they went out to play they could see Ezekiel laying there on his side with His model of Jerusalem and his model battering rams and the iron pan.  Let’s say you take a group of children and you set them down and preach a sermon to them.  They might listen and they might learn something, but ask them next week about it and you will get a blank stare.

But do a good visual object lesson and often they will remember it.  I did object lessons when we did Children’s church.  Things like sticking a wire thru a blown up balloon and having it not pop.  I met one of those kids years later, and he remembered me doing things like that.

Those over the top type of visuals stick.  I have no doubt that the kids in that camp were watching.  Most of those kids will not be the ones going back in the restoration.  However, their kids will.

When the kids who are watching Ezekiel do all of these object lessons get older and Ezekiel’s writings become scripture.  And they have kids of their own they will teach this book of scripture to their kids.  And as they read and teach it they can say I was there.  I saw that happen.

I can see them as parents teaching it with faith and boldness and excitement, because they lived it, they saw it happen.  I cannot prove it, it just makes sense to me.

The adult crowd Ezekiel is dealing with is a very rebellious and a hard hearted crowd.  God said so.  And the children of the kids that are watching Ezekiel now will have enough faith and enough of a heart for God that they leave everything and move back to a totally wrecked Jerusalem.

I believe that God knows what He is doing.  I believe that when God tells Ezekiel to do these huge over the top object lessons that God is not only breaking thru to the hard hearted adults but that God is also working way ahead preparing for the faith of the grandchildren who will return.

It fits to me.  Over and over again in scripture we see God always working way ahead.

After Ezekiel finishes the over yearlong object lesson God tells him to go preach to the mountains.

Ezekiel 6:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Eze 6:2 Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

We are not going to read the entire thing.  Knowing what you know about what the people of Israel were doing, why would God tell Ezekiel to preach against the mountains?

Eze 6:3 And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.

Eze 6:4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

Eze 6:5 And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

All thru those mountains and hills they had set up altars and groves to their idols.  God is having Ezekiel preach against all of that and once again in a visible dramatic way.  One day the people see Ezekiel leave his house and walk out and position himself to face in the direction of the mountains around Jerusalem.

Most likely he did not preach facing some house or tent, but went to the edge of the camp so that it is clear he is preaching against those mountains far away.  And of course people are watching to see what the next thing Ezekiel is going to do.

So I have no doubt that at least some of the people in the camp hear Ezekiel preaching against the mountains.

And we will not read it all.  God is hot here and has Ezekiel plainly express that.  I want to bring notice to two things in verse 7 and 8.

Eze 6:7 And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

God wiping out all of the idols altars and groves in all those mountains and valleys shows plainly that all of those idols were nothing.  We are talking literally thousands of them.  It clearly will show them that idol worship does nothing for you.

God is trying to teach them to leave idols and know that I am the LORD.

Now the people of Israel will still have issues and still have sin.  Everyone has a sin nature and so everyone will.  But after the captivity you will never see Israel again have an issue with idol worship.

God cures them of that.

Look at verse 8.

Eze 6:8 Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.

You have heard me say it many times.  God always keeps a remnant who love Him and are faithful to Him.  We see that in the Bible over and over and we see that all thru History, and here we see God clearly say it.

No matter how dark society gets, no matter how evil, there is always a few who also love the Lord.  Even if you look out and can’t see anyone else, like the prophet did.  And God told him that He has reserved 7,000 who have not bowed their knee to Baal.

We are never alone.  God always keeps a remnant.

After the preaching to the mountains, God gives Ezekiel a message about the assurance of the coming judgment and gives many details about what is about to happen to Jerusalem.

One of the tests in the Bible given in Deuteronomy is that if a man is a true prophet of God then what he says will come to pass.  Why?  Because God cannot lie so if the man is speaking for God then what He say will happen and must happen.  If it does not then he is not a true prophet of God.

So in this message God gives Ezekiel many details about what is about to happen.  And it does happen several years from when Ezekiel gives the message.  This of course will validate even more that Ezekiel is God’s man.

It goes on a while, we are just going to look at the last 3 verses.

Eze 7:25 Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.

Eze 7:26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.

Eze 7:27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

You ever hear the saying they are getting their just deserts.  That comes from the Bible.

This happens when Jerusalem falls after a long siege.

And the preaching of this did get the attention of the leaders who were in the camp with Ezekiel.

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

Pay attention to the time stamps that God places in His word.  In the beginning of Ezekiel it was the 5th year.  Now it is the 6th year in the 6th month.  The one object lesson took a year and almost 3 months.  This tells us that it has been just one thing quickly following another.  All of this in less than a year and a half.

And we see the elders are not trying to bind up Ezekiel.  They might not have been the ones who did that early on, but they were at least indifferent to that being done.

And we see that now they are not ignoring Ezekiel.  They all came to Ezekiel’s house.

This is a civil meeting.  They went to Ezekiel, they did not drag Ezekiel to them.  They are sitting before Ezekiel, instead of Ezekiel sitting before them.  There is a distinction there.

The leaders are there now at least at some level in a respectful way.   And it is obvious that they are not just sitting there staring at each other.  You went to someone’s house and sat down to have some kind of conversation.

God has used all of these object lessons and the preaching to get the attention of the Elders, the leaders that are in the camp.

I see once again here that God knows exactly what He is doing.  He had Ezekiel do and say exactly what was needed to get them to this point.

God is always working to reach people even in times of judgment.

We will look at this meeting next time.

See more lessons from Ezekiel