1. During the month of November, many of us are reading through the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was prophet during the Babylonian exile. He was taken captive to Babylon in 597 B.C. by King Nebuchadnezzar along with King Jehoiachin and 10,000 others, including political and military leaders and skilled craftsmen - he was married, lived in his own house in Babylon and had a relatively free life.Ezekiel’s call came in 593 B.C., 4 years after his exile and 7 years before Jerusalem fell. His messages were sent to those who still lived in Jerusalem before it fell. He continued to preach until at least 571 B.C.
2. From 593-587, he warned the people of the coming judgment on Judah and Jerusalem. From 587-571, his messages gave encouragement and hope for the future. Ezekiel was an unusual prophet. Some say he was neurotic, paranoid, psychotic, or schizophrenic because of his unusual behavior. Lying on one side for 390 days and on the other for 40 days, shaving off his hair, and his many visions - some which were very elaborate. But we know that anyone who conscientiously obeys God will be considered "strange" by some people. His prophesies were acted or lived out. I find it even interesting how his own wifeís death symbolized and was timed with the destruction of the temple.
3. Nothing God asked Ezekiel to do seemed too difficult for him. Only once was he reluctant to obey a command that would have made him ceremonially unclean. The entire book is written in the first person with the exception of 1:2-3.
4. It contains such a rich blend of symbolic actions, visions, figurative speech, and allegories to communicate God’s messages. There are at least 11 symbolic acts performed by Ezekiel. Visions form the content of 17 of the 48 chapters. Imaginative use of figurative language are often used. The watchman, a refining furnace, Tyre as a merchant ship, Pharaoh as a crocodile.
5. One symbol that I noticed was that of the wall. 65 times the word "wall" appears in the book. Of course the wall refers to the wall around the city of Jerusalem but the meaning is much deeper. In Isaiah 26:1, the wall is a symbol of salvation.
Isa 26:1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts.
In Zechariah 2, a wall is seen as of the protection of God. In a vision of the New Jerusalem we read:
Zech2: 4b-5 "Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it. And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the LORD, ’and I will be its glory within.
6. As we have seen before, especially in our study of Revelation, the city of Jerusalem is symbolic of the people of God. The New Jerusalem will be the heavenly city. The place were God will dwell forever with His people. A place where God lived. And so as we said, it represented His protection and His favour. And the walls of Jerusalem protected the people from their enemies. The walls of Jerusalem was what kept them safe and allowed them to at least think they were under Godís favour and nothing could harm them.
7. The wall of protection, the wall that would keep them safe, was really to be God Himself. But as the people, as we will see, created their own wall of protection. And by not relying on God they were in effect, causing God to put a wall between Him and them. We read this is Ezekiel 4:
Ezek 4:3 Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.
The pan symbolized a firm impregnable partition, which the prophet, as Godís messenger and representative, is to raise between himself and the city, including those who are in it. They were separating themselves from God by not trusting in Him. And in fact the siege against them, was the work of God.
8. In Ezekiel 8 God brings Ezekiel to the wall
Ezek 8:7-12 Then he brought me to the entrance to the court. I looked, and I saw a hole in the wall. He said to me, "Son of man, now dig into the wall." So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there. And he said to me, "Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here." So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel. In front of them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising. He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ’The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’"
9. This passage is symbolic. There is no indication elsewhere that such rooms existed in the walls. And the cells and recesses at the gate could not have been large enough to allow 71 men to worship idols.
10. But the scene is a horrible one. The seventy elders, as was the case in Numbers 11:16, represent the whole nation. And in Numbers they made covenant with God on behalf of the nation. What Ezekiel saw in the room was what the elders were doing throughout the land. And they were doing it in secret, behind or within walls.
11. On the walls were drawings of all kinds of things and detestable animals as well as many idols. They were worshipping the drawings of these idols. And to me, the fact that they were symbolically doing this in the wall, shows that they were placing their hope, their trust in these idols, rather than in God. And that is reinforced by the fact that the idols were drawn on the wall. Rather than relying on God they relied on these detestable idols. The wall of protection they built was these idols.
12. But the wall also consisted of alliances. When God had told them, through Jeremiah, to surrender to the Babylonians, they sought an alliance with Egypt. In Ezekiel 23:3, we read that they became prostitutes in Egypt.
13. And there was on other thing that there walls were built on. They did not treat others right.
Ezek 22:29 The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice.
They believed that the way to get ahead was to treat others badly and to steal from them. Especially because of the siege they would not share their food or resources with the poor.
14. In Ezekiel 13, God condemns the prophets. There were breaks in the wall. Physically they could be breaks from attacks by the enemy. But the real breaks were in the wall of Godís protection and His favour. And this was because of their refusal to let God be their wall.
15. Their wall was built on idolatry, relying on other nations, and on corruption and sin. And this wall would not be able to protect them from Babylon or from God. And it was becoming evident that the wall was weak.
16. And so the prophets covered the walls with whitewash. Or as some say they plastered the walls with lime. To try and give it some repair. But mostly by trying to make it look that everything was alright. And they did this by making false prophesies, supposedly from God, that all was well. They said peace, peace, when there was no peace. They were prophesying out of their own imagination.
17. But the wall was flimsy and it was going to fall. The wall would in fact be destroyed by God.
Ezek 13:13-14 "’Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury. I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the LORD.
18. God would not only destroy the wall, but the false prophets with it. Then their whitewash or plaster will do them little good. Then the people will not ask where is the whitewash because they will know that it did them no good.
19. Next Sunday evening we will take a look at what role the true prophets or people of God are to take in dealing with this flimsy wall.
20. But this evening let us consider if this kind of wall is being built today. By our nation or even worse by the church.
21. What the question really is "In what are we pacing our trust?" On what do we depend to meet our enemies and tribulations? Where is our hope placed in? The people in Jerusalem, as we said, depended on false gods, alliances, and corruption.
22. In our land today there are many false gods. This includes the rapid growth of cults and psychic hotlines. Many would rather have some charleton at the other end of the telephone line tell them how to live and to give them hope than God Himself. In fact I understand that witchcraft is the fastest growing religion. One of the more popular websites is the "Ontario consultants on religious tolerance" which tells all about witchcraft. And in the name of ecumenism many churches worship at special services along with Bhuddists and others from various religions. And this not to mention the biggest false religion. Worship of man, his achievements and worship of self.
23. The hope of the world is no longer in God, so our society says. Many build walls made of hope in everything but God. Seldom is God called upon to protect us. We talk about Mother Nature as if God had no role anymore today.
24. And many of todayís so-called Christian prophets whitewash these flimsy walls. They change the word of God to try and legitimize other religions, other ways to God. They sanction sins and say that these sins are acceptable. They make alliances with those who are not of God.
25. We may get discouraged. But as we read they will be destroyed along with the walls they have built and covered up.
26. But each one of us must also examine ourselves. What are our secret sins? What are we doing in the rooms of our lives that we want no one else to see? And do our lives throughout the week display worship of God or worship of the idols of todayís world.
27. We need to both examine ourselves and we need to expose the false gods of our current age. May we live as if God is our wall, our protection. May we trust that living in accordance with His word is the only way to live.
