God's Object Lessons Series

Ezekiel 4 - God’s Object Lessons - 3/4/18

We’ll be looking this morning at Ezekiel 4 & 5 - and we’ll actually begin in the last few verses of chapter 3. But before we get started, let’s pause for prayer.

Prayer: For God to speak to our hearts and get His message through in whatever means will work!

(After prayer - pause for 20 seconds - opening mouth without speaking - drop head and begin playing itunes file of Ezekiel 4)

[Begin at 15:58 and play until 21:52 - From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

STOP CD!

Board - GI Joes - Skillet

Lie on Left, Right - Shake Fist

Bread & Water

Hair - Fire, Chop, Throw - few remnants . . . From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the centre of the nations, with countries all around her. . . they will know that I the LORD have spoken in my zeal.

READ 5:5 - 5:13

As we have said before, Ezekiel was a crazy prophet. Not crazy in being out of his right mind, but crazy in the sense that he used whatever means God saw necessary to get the attention of the people of Israel. Remember we saw that Ezekiel is called as a prophet to the Jews who were exiled and taken captive out of Jerusalem and marched hundreds of miles away to resettlement camps in Babylon. God told Ezekiel in chapter 2 that he was being sent to a stubborn and rebellious people who would not listen.

So how do you get someone’s attention who is no longer listening? God uses object lessens. The way that God conveys His message through Ezekiel in this book is unique. The people have grown cold in their hearts to the things of God. They are no longer willing to listen to a message. So, God has Ezekiel act out his sermons.

God has already cause Ezekiel to become mute in Ezekiel 3:26. He is silent most of the time and doesn’t engage in casual conversation anymore with the people. So when Ezekiel DOES speak or take action, the people take notice! You can imagine that every day the people of Israel started coming by Ezekiel’s house to see what that crazy prophet was going to do next.

So here’s what we saw:

Ezekiel set up a clay tile - not a building brick, but more like a clay writing tablet - about the size of an ipad - and on it he draws a picture of Jerusalem, sets up a play army attacking, and put a big skillet in the way. He is showing that Jerusalem will be under seige, and God will NOT come to help them.

God is using Ezekiel to tell the people their beloved city will soon be destroyed because the people have not repented. And their sins have separated them like an iron wall between them and God. The false prophets were still saying that Jerusalem would never be destroyed - it was the city of God. These people are hoping to return to Jerusalem. That is their home. But this is God’s way of saying, “That return isn’t going to happen. In fact, right now Jerusalem is under siege by the Babylonians.” From history we know that the final siege of Jerusalem began in 589 B.C. and that the city fell in 586 B.C. Ezekiel is probably giving this warning during that last siege. God says their sins have put up a wall between them, and He is allowing judgment to fall! This really shouldn’t surprise us, because back in Ezekiel 1 we saw a whirlwind from the north - God who rules on His throne is coming to judge His people.

Next, he lies on his side - showing that the penalty of their sin is going to be laid on them. The 390 days are probably representative of the 390 years between the dedication of the temple under Solomon to the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem. During those 390 years, the nation of Israel tried the patience of God with their worship of false gods, often in the temple. The 40 years is probably representative of the years Israel will suffer from the time of the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem until they are restored again by God. But it would be a mistake to get caught up in the numbers as the central aspect of this action. The Jews were probably not counting the days on their calendar, putting an X there every day that Ezekiel lies on his side. Rather it is the length and continuity of Ezekiel’s actions that would make a huge impact on the audience. Only later in hindsight would the numbers become significant.