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.
Then he shows that while the city is under siege - which lasted three years - the people in Jerusalem will have to eat whatever scraps they can pull together - a meager starvation diet, and limited water to drink. Food will be rationed, and they will defile themselves by the way they have to cook their food. To read of Ezekiel cooking his bread over a fire of human excrement is a disgusting picture - but we're meant to feel disgusted! Why? Because God is trying to communicate to His people the awful sinfulness of sin! It is disgusting! It makes us nauseous, because sin makes Almighty God sick! There is nothing pleasant about this drama. God is having Ezekiel act this out as a way of saying, “Are you sure this is the way, you want to go?” Sin has consequences, and the Jews are about to encounter the wrath of Almighty God.
Then God has Ezekiel divide up the hairs that he has cut off his head. Just as Ezekiel’s hairs are split, so will the Jews be split - A third of the people in Jerusalem will die in the midst of the siege. A third of the people will die in the battle for Jerusalem. A third of the people will be exiled. But even some of those people will die while going to exile. A few people, symbolized by the hairs tucked in the edge of Ezekiel’s robes in verse 3, will be saved as a remnant. But even some of that remnant will die.
In verse 11, He warns them that once it starts, He will not withdraw His judgment. He will have no pity.
God would rather see His land devastated, the city of Jerusalem ruined, His temple destroyed, and His people killed and exiled, than to have them give such a false witness to the Gentile nations. Judgment begins with the people of God.
So what is the lesson in all of this? God is showing His people, through Ezekiel, what happens when they fail to follow the instructions of their God!
We have a VW beetle that runs on diesel fuel. And when you fill it up, there is even a little sticker on the door of the tank that says Warning: Use diesel fuel only! But a few years ago shortly after we got it, I went to fill it up. Ronda had been driving it, so I was used to grabbing the Regular gas hose. I filled the bug up with regular gas and drove off. I got about 300 feet, and the car just stopped - the engine quit running. I had not been as careful as I should have been to follow the manufacturer’s instructions. In the same way, God shows the Jews that consequences come when we fail to follow our maker’s instructions!
So if God IS bringing this great judgment on the people, why does he have Ezekiel act out these messages to the Jews who are hundreds of miles away? What is God’s aim? I believe He is calling them have HOPE. Their hope is NOT in returning to their homeland - that is under siege and the people there will largely be destroyed. But God is calling them to a greater hope -- Himself. God is reminding them that even on the verge of judgment, God is a God of great forgiveness and mercy. He tells them that He will NOT relent of bringing judgment on the city of Jerusalem - but it is a warning for those exiles in Babylon to turn from their sin and return to the Lord their God.
Like these Jews in exile, we can put too much stock in earthly hope - we just hope that everything will work out OK. We hope this new job will work out better than the last one. We hope that this new husband treats us better that the last one. We hope this new medicine will cure our disease. But whether it is the job or the guy or the medicine, God says, “Don’t put your ultimate hope there. Put your ultimate hope in me.” It is a hard message. We all want to put our hope in something tangible, something we can see or touch. But those hopes will eventually fail us. Only God Himself brings true satisfaction. God Himself is the source of all hope. Throughout the scriptures we find verses that remind us that God is the source of our hope. One example from the Psalms - Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God.
So God is reminding His people of the consequences of their sins .
God is reminding His people where their source of hope truly lies.
And thirdly God is reminding His people of their witness to the nations. God took His people and placed them in the obscure region of Israel - which was away from the population centers of the Persian Gulf or the Italian peninsula or the Egyptian delta. But God placed them there because they were to be at the crossroads of the world. It was God’s intention for them to impact their world. Come out tonight and we’ll talk more about that idea.
But instead of impacting their world and being a light to the nations, their sin was so bad that it even disgusted these immoral pagan nations. Look down in 5:7 - You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you. God says “you are more wicked than the Philistines and Canaanites around you! Down in verse 10 God says the people in Jerusalem would even resort to cannibalism - eating their own family members during the siege. And this would disgust the pagans around them. Look a 5:14 - I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. You will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke. I the LORD have spoken.
Our day today - immoral as it is - still has some lines it will not cross. But it takes a good “Christian” to truly disgust our world. We all the time hear of people who slaughter their children and then say they heard the voice of God telling them to do it! And it makes the unsaved world around us sick at the thought of what it means to be a Christian.
The nations that Israel was meant to be a light unto were looking into Israel and saying: 'Look at the way they're living! They can't do anything right!’
God gives His people in exile a message: judgment is coming! Turn from your sin, remember where hope truly lies, maintain a true witness. God wants the Jews in exile to learn a lesson.
For the last several months, much of the headlines in the news has been about Larry Nassar and his about of untold children. And even right now there is a slate of new bills running through congress - not to do anything about Larry Nassar - but to make sure we learn from the past and do not make the same mistakes in the future.
When we read the stories of the Jews in the bible, God wants us to learn from the past - 1 Corinthians 10:11 - These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us. Romans 15:4 - For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
As we read of the judgment on the Jews, we want to make sure we follow our maker’s instructions and turn from sin and follow the Savior. In Him is our hope. And we want to live in such a way that others see our GOOD works and in turn glorify our God.
If you’ve ever seen the movie “Amazing Grace”, it tells the story of William Wilberforce. He was a great Christian philanthropist and vigorous opponent of the slave trade in England during the early 1800’s. As he surveyed the terrible moral and spiritual climate of his day, he did not lose hope. He wrote “My own solid hopes for the well-being of my country depend, not so much of her navies or armies, nor on the wisdom of her rulers, nor on the spirit of her people, as the persuasion that she still contains many who love and obey the gospel of Christ. I believe that their prayers will prevail.” Within a few years after he made this statement, the country he loved experienced one of the greatest revivals in modern times, bringing salvation to thousands and producing widespread social change.
As the people of God, we need to pray for our nation, and live in such a way that the blessing of God may be on us. Pray for revival to fall upon the people of God. Let’s pray.
