Ezekiel 22 - March 18, 2018
It is wonderful to be able to spend time together looking at the word of God. And that is where our focus is going to be today - I don’t want you to focus on my words, but on God’s words. So let’s start with prayer that God will open our eyes to his truth today. PRAY!
Turn with me this morning to Ezekiel chapter 22. In the middle of the OT, 7 books to the right of Psalms. Isaiah, Jer, Lam, Ezekiel, Daniel. We have been working our way through this book, looking at highlights of the life of Ezekiel. The setting is 600 BC as the Babylonian army has come down in three waves to conquer and exile the Jews living in the southern half of Israel called Judah. In the first wave, Daniel is taken, and he serves the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar at the capital. Come back and join us tonight as we look at Daniel chapter 2. In the second wave, Ezekiel is taken along with 10,000 other Jews and they are relocated to resettlement camps in the countryside in Babylon. In the third wave, the city of Jerusalem falls, the rest of the Jews are exiled, leaving only the poorest of the poor behind, who are accompanied by the prophet Jeremiah.
We have seen that Ezekiel was made “mute” by God - Ezekiel could only speak when God gave a message. The rest of the time he was silent. And so Ezekiel acted out a lot of his sermons. God had him undertake all kinds of crazy messages to get the attention of the people. We finished last week in chapters 8-10 looking at the various forms of perverted worship taking place by the Jews, and we had a reminder that we need to make sure our worship of the Lord is pure and right.
Today we are going to look in chapter 22. But let me just highlight some things we see in the intervening chapters.
• In chapter 12, Ezekiel fills his backpack, and at night burrows through a hole in the wall, pointing to the King of the Jews who tries to escape, but who is kidnapped and exiled with his people to Babylon.
• In chapter 13 the people build flimsy walls, showing they are not safe from God’s judgment
• In chapter 14, God says judgment is certain: even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were all alive in the city, He would not spare them.
• In chapter 15, God says the Jews are like a vine - you can’t make furniture out of a vine, it’s only good to burn - so the Jews only can look ahead to judgment
• In chapter 16, God describes Judah as a princess who becomes a whore - God says they much more sinful than Sodom, and we remember how that city ended!
• In chapter 17, God describes two eagles, Babylon and Egypt, who both come against the Jews
• In chapter 18, God lays the guilt on each person: they can’t blame their parents - they are responsible
• In chapter 19, God describes the Jews as a mother lion with fierce cubs
• In chapter 20, the elders inquire of God, but God will not answer them. They have rebelled and so will face judgment. They didn’t believe Ezekiel, they just thought he was giving them parables.
• In chapter 21, Ezekiel makes a fork in the road, to show the Babylonians coming in judgment for both the Jews as well as the Ammonites.
So there’s a lot of great visual examples in these chapters. Take the time to read through them, and allow God to touch your heart. Because the heart is what matters to God. God doesn’t care that you “came to church” this morning. God cares whether your heart is moved to worship. Sadly, many show up at church who NEVER allow their heart to respond to God.
But this morning we want to look at chapter 22. Read Ezekiel 22:1-12
Once again, Ezekiel is pointing out the sin of the Jews. In verse 2, God uses the word we saw last week: “detestable” - or as the KJV says “abomination” - it literally refers to a stench in the nostrils. Our sin makes God retch - it makes Him want to throw up, it is that disgusting! What were the sins of the Jews?
2 - violence - they were a city of bloodshed, and they even sacrificed their children, burning them alive in worship of the idol Molech. God HATED that! And in the same way, I believe God HATES abortion, the killing of innocent lives. Our country is doing just as detestable a sin in abortion as the Jews did in killing their children. Now if you are here this morning and you have had an abortion, remember that God loves you! His grace and forgiveness is great enough to cover any sin.
3 - idolatry - we looked at that last week. The Jews were to worship the Lord and ONLY the Lord, but instead they turned to all other types of idolatrous worship.
5 - we see that the Jews became an object of scorn to the other nations. The Jews claimed to follow God, but now they turned from God and were facing God’s judgment. In the same way, it shouldn’t surprise us that Christians in other nations look at the church in the USA as weak and sinful.
Ronda was talking to a friend who recently heard a speaker from India. He said “In America, you always pray for those of us in third world countries. But WE are praying for the USA! They fast and pray every Friday for the USA. They just can’t fathom a country where Christians HAVE the bible but don’t read it. These Christians face persecution day after day, and they cheerfully keep on following God.
6 - In verse 6, we see one of the problems the Jews faced was having abusive leaders - leaders who abused their power and mistreated the poor and needy. We want to make sure that we never abuse positions of power, but always work together as a team, working for the glory of God.
8 - Failure to prioritize a day of worship. For the Jews it was the Sabbath - they were to Remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy. The early church changed their day of worship to Sunday to celebrate the resurrection. But the principle is the same - regardless of what day you worship, we need to make worship a priority!
Sadly, there are many who let others things take priority on Sundays - whether it be sleeping in, or sporting events, or craft shows, or shopping, or going to the beach - we let all sorts of things keep us away from church.
9 - they were caught up in sexual immorality - and if there ever was a culture that was sexually obsessed, it is ours! You can find any time of deviant sexual behavior you want with just a few clicks of the mouse on the internet!
12 - Obsession on money - bribery, excessive interest, price gouging. It sounds like USA.
Whether it be Representative John Conyers wife going to jail for bribery, or Olympic bribery scandals, FIFA soccer corruption scandals - bribery is rampant. And price gouging - just let a storm come through and suddenly the price of gasoline jumps ¢50 a gallon. And do you realize that the average interest at those “convenient” payday loan shops - 400% interest!
Even in the church, we allow our money to control us. The offering plate is passed, and we reach in our pocket for a few loose coins. It reminds me of the family that was driving home from church and the dad was complaining about the pastor’s sermon; the mom was criticizing the music; little brother was complaining about the length of the service; little sister piped up and said, I thought it was a pretty good show for a buck!
When it comes time for the offering, do you give “cheerfully” as unto the Lord? If Jesus walked in the back doors and wanted to go home with you for lunch, would you make him eat the crusts of bread? Or would you take him out to the nicest restaurant around? Well, why is it that when it comes time for the offering we won’t honor God? If each Christian was faithful in honoring God with their finances, churches all across America would have all the money they needed!
But the key problem that all these issues are indicative of is seen in the end of verse 12: And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign LORD. What is the greatest commandment given to mankind? Remember once an expert in the the law came and asked Jesus, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Far too often when we look at the sins of others, we tend to look at the outward expression of sin, when the real problem is a HEART problem. When we love God with all our hearts, it will show in the way we live our lives. But the Jews had forgotten their God.
Remember the instructions of Solomon, the wise godly king: Remember your Creator in the days of your youth. And then in the summary of the book of Ecclesiastes, a book that declares all the things Solomon tried to find satisfaction in, Solomon gives us a final conclusion: Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. And the word “duty” is in italics in your bible, meaning that word is not in the original. So really we could say Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man. This is the entirety, the summary, all that makes up a man, is to fear God and obey Him! That’s it! Everything in a nutshell - Love God, Fear God, Respect God, and DO what He says! That’s what life is all about!
But unfortunately the Jews had forgotten their God. The chapter goes on, and in verse 15 God warns of coming judgment. In verse 25 and following, God tells of the false teaching coming from their leaders. And it is sad that today we still face that problem in the church: false teaching coming down from our leaders.
One United Methodist pastor of a very large church has written a book in which he states: every verse in the Bible that people found confusing or troubling fit into one of three “buckets.” The largest bucket was composed of verses which were metaphors, such as the Creation story - so in other words, creation didn’t really happen the way the bible said it did! The second largest bucket was verses that were relevant for a certain time and place, but no longer apply to Christians today, such as much of the Mosaic Law. But third, and most controversially, was the assertion that very few parts of the Bible “never ever reflected the heart and character of God.” So you end up “throwing out” all the verses that you don’t agree with. That’s what Thomas Jefferson did - he even went so far as to cut them out of his bible with a pocket knife. And thus, in the end, YOU become the absolute standard of truth.
What does the bible say? Let God be true, and every man a liar. It doesn’t matter what YOU think, it matters what GOD says! And we NEVER want to stray from the authority of the word of God.
But all of this - sins and impending judgment and false teaching - all leads to the main point we want to look at this morning. One key verse - verse 30: “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so that I would not have to destroy it, but I found . . . NONE!
The wall was the safety for the city of Jerusalem. As long as the wall was secure, the city was safe. But there were metaphorical “gaps” in the wall. God is not talking about the physical around the wall of Jerusalem, but the spiritual “wall of protection” about God’s people. In chapter 13, Ezekiel talks about people building flimsy walls and painting them so they look good. But God is more concerned with “integrity” than “appearances.” God was looking for someone to stand their ground, to take a stand and NOT back down. God wanted to see if there was one person who would make a difference. But he couldn’t find even one!
I love the movie Gettysburg, and there is a great scene showing the battle of Little Round Top. Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain has to take a stand.
Show clip: 2:06:28 - 2:07:22 - end with “see how professors fight” (salute)
For his heroic efforts, Chamberlain was actually awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
God is looking for someone to take a stand - and notice the words “on behalf of the land.” This is intercession! It’s what we see Moses doing when the Jews begin worshiping the golden calf: God wants to destroy them all, but Moses intercedes. Psalm 106 says So he said he would destroy them--had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.
Intercession is what we see Abraham doing when God is going to destroy Sodom. Abraham pleads with God - you wouldn’t destroy the whole city if you found 50 righteous people there, would you? Then 45, 40, 30, 20, 10. And Abraham stopped, because he knew Lot had 10 people in his family. Unfortunately they did not all follow the ways of God.
Taking a stand is what Joshua does as they enter the promised land. He takes a stand and calls the people to commitment. In Joshua 24 we see him saying, Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
We need that same courage of conviction today. Take a stand. Don’t worry what others will think. You know what the right thing is to do, so do it, regardless of who stands with you. Remember the words of the chorus, I have decided to follow Jesus…The cross before me the world behind me…Though no one join me, still I will follow…No turning back, no turning back!
God is looking for someone to stand in the gap for the land. Will YOU be that person? Let’s realize that God doesn’t NEED you - God has used angels, a burning bush, a talking donkey - and if God can use a talking ass there’s probably hope for us all - God has used ravens, and heathen kings, and God can even make the rocks cry out. God doesn’t NEED us, but He chooses to USE us.
And what God looks for is not ABILITY - because HE provides the ability - rather God is looking for AVAILABILITY. To say like Isaiah, Here I am, send me! Don’t give God excuses: God can uses ALL kinds of people: Abraham was old, Jacob was insecure, Leah was unattractive, Joseph was abused, Moses stuttered, Gideon was poor, Rahab was immoral, David had an affair and all kinds of family problems, Elijah was suicidal, Jeremiah was depressed, Jonah was reluctant, Naomi was a widow, Peter was impulsive and hot-tempered, Martha worried a lot, the Samaritan woman had several failed marriages, Zacchaeus was unpopular, Thomas had doubts, Paul had poor health, and Timothy was timid. That is quite a variety of misfits, but God used each of them in his service. And God can you USE when you are willing to stand in the gap.
Realize that intercessors truly DO make a difference. Let me give you five ways to intercede for others:
Five Ways To Intercede for Others
1. Pray for the Lost - pray that their eyes would be opened to see their lost condition. Let’s realize that while the world tells us there are “many ways to God” and you might be traveling on one road while another travels a different road. But the bible never gives us that option. The bible is clear: Acts 4:12 - Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” We know it is God’s will for all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim 2:4. Yet, there are only two paths for eternity. Mark 16:16 makes that clear: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. So we need to pray for those who have not placed their faith in Jesus Christ, because without saving faith, they are destined for an eternity separated from God.
2. Pray for other believers - for the Spirit to fill each believer. While those who have trusted Christ for salvation have their eternal destiny secure, they still need our prayers. Because no matter how much we love God, we will still struggle with the enticement of sin. So pray that other believers will “put to death” the sinful nature - that they will die to sin. Galatians 5 says, Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
So pray that other Christians will live by the Spirit on a daily basis.
3. Pray for the protection of other believers from attacks from the enemy. In 1 Peter 5:8 it says Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
If you think YOU are tempted, realize that your brothers and sisters are tempted and struggle as well. Let’s pray for one another to “stand strong”. 1 Cor. 16 says Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. So as you think about being an intercessor, pray for your brothers and sisters to stand strong and resist the devil. James 4 says Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Satan doesn’t want a fight - when he attacks, if you fight back, he will leave. So we need to pray for one another in times of testing. That what Jesus does for Peter in Luke 22 - Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. Let’s pray for one another to stand strong.
4. Pray for missionaries and those who share the Gospel - And really, that SHOULD be ALL of us - whether overseas or here in Owosso. We EACH are given opportunities to share with others the wonderful love of God. In Colossians 4 Paul asks the church at Colosse to pray for him: And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
So as we seek to intercede, we want to pray for the gospel to go forth in clarity. And pray specifically as it tells us in Matthew 9 - “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Pray that God encourages your brothers and sisters in sharing the gospel.
5. Pray for daily needs - In the model prayer in Matthew 6:11, Give us today our daily bread. This is where we often spend the bulk of our prayers. And even though it should not be our focus, it IS proper and right to pray for the needs that one another has. Each week take time to pray over the names on the prayer list in the bulletin. Pray for the needs that you are aware of. And pray that God would use YOU to help meet the needs of others.
So there are five quick ways that we can intercede for one another. Let’s realize that one person - YOU - can make a difference! In New York in the mid 19th Century, there was a man named Jeremiah Calvin Lamphier. He decided to have a prayer meeting for businessmen on the 23rd of September 1857. The meeting was to last one hour. For the first half- hour, he prayed alone. In the next half-hour another five people joined him. The next week there were 20 and the following week 40. Then they decided to have a daily prayer meeting. That soon went to a hundred and after three months to a 1000. This was the beginning of a great revival in America in which 2 million were saved. It began with the intercession of one man.
How different would our region be if ONE person decided that they would be the man or woman to stand in the gap? Will YOU make a decision today to BE that person? Let’s pray!
