Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture - Ezekiel 8-11
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: Good to see you, hope that you had a good weekend. This is our Journey Through Scripture. My name is Philip Thomas, pastor of Journey here in Elgin. And so we're going to be in the book of Ezekiel today. Our main reading will be from Ezekiel chapter eight through 11. But I want to read just a little bit in second Chronicles chapter 36. This is literally just three verses, 13 through 16. And if you remember, we spent a lot of time on Thursday talking about ⁓ Zedekiah, who was the king in Judah. He basically didn't listen to Jeremiah. ⁓ Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar, has put the city of Jerusalem under siege. He's supposed to just give up. That's what God desires. This is the punishment that is coming. But he's been... tough and trying to stand up and rebel, and it's just going worse and worse for him and the people. Historically, this siege is horrible, leads to the death of many innocent people. There's even reports of possible cannibalism, all kinds of things that happened during this time. And 2 Chronicles chapter 36, verse 13 to 16 talks about this king. And I'm going to read this. I think this is really interesting. says, he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had ⁓ made him swear an oath by God. This is talking about King Zedekiah. But he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God of Israel. Moreover, all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more according to all the abominations of the nations and defiled the house of the Lord which he had consecrated in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by his messengers, rising up early, sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy." ⁓ Again, so often we kind of have this stigma that there's the lovey-dovey God of the New Testament of Jesus and how He loves everyone and things like that. And then you read the words of Jesus and you're like, ⁓ wait, you're not always. You do hold people to account, but we kind of have this stereotype of how wonderful and loving the God of the New Testament is. And then the God of the Old Testament, we have this idea that He's this vengeful, wrathful God that is a... the disciplinarian and things like that. And the reason is because all of these things are ⁓ as warnings, either as warnings or they're written in the time where the punishment has come, right? But this is over literally decades where God is sending people, ⁓ sending prophets, trying to remind the people. ⁓ that they need to turn and follow Him. It was warning after warning after warning after warning, and the people continued to turn and go their own way and to worship other gods, and eventually that leads to collapse. And that is where we are. The nation is collapsing. The city is collapsing. And so we see ⁓ Ezekiel and some of the things that he writes. ⁓ is during this timeframe when things are starting to collapse. So chapters 8 through 11 with Ezekiel, remember Ezekiel is, he is actually in Babylon, but he's having visions about what is going to be taking place in Jerusalem. so chapter 8, this is ⁓ talking about kind of what's going on in the temple, the kind of the the title of this, is obviously not in Scripture, but it says, Abominations in the Temple. So this is describing how far the people have gone and how they have started worshiping their own idols and not worshiping God. says verse 3, chapter 8, it says, He stretched out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my hair and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy. And behold, the glory of God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain." So he's going to go to different gates. It's important to know that gates were more than just a gate. It was actually a room. It was a place that you went into, and then you could either proceed and go further in. or that was as far as you could go. So it's not just a simple gate that swings open. It's actually a whole area that is considered the gate. But this is to the door of the North Gate, the intercourt, where the seat of the image of jealousy was. We know that God is a jealous God in that He's not just one of many gods. He's the only true God. And so therefore, worship of any other gods is unacceptable. And so God is a jealous God. He expects worship of Him and Him alone. says verse 9, and He said to me, go in and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there. So I went in and saw, and there every sort of creeping thing, abominable beast, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed all around the walls. And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel. Each man had a censer in his hand and a thick cloud of incense went up. Then he said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark? Every man in the room of his idols? For they say, the Lord does not see us. The Lord has forsaken the land." And so he's talking about what the people are doing in the dark, what they're doing on their own, that they are worshiping other gods. are... trying to play the game of worshiping God, ⁓ but yet they are worshiping other gods as well. And their excuse is that the Lord doesn't see us, that He has forsaken the land. So, well, look, bad things are happening to us, so therefore God must not care. God doesn't see us, so therefore we're going to start worshiping other gods as well. But they were worshiping other gods beforehand, which is why they now feel like God has forsaken them. So this is, again, it's important as we read these things to look, how does this apply to us today? What can we learn from this today? you know, it is, even when we're at that place where it seems like God has forsaken us, one, He hasn't. Two, that doesn't give us the excuse to then say, well, I guess since I'm not getting my way, since things are going bad, I'm just going to start worshiping other gods. No, that is not. not how this works, if you want to be a person of faith, if you want to seek righteousness and follow God. ⁓ so it says, verse 13, and he said to me, turn again and you will see greater abominations that they are doing. So he brought me to the door of the North Gate of the Lord's house, and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz. Now Tammuz was an ancient goddess. There was a goddess that kind of went back and forth from the underworld. there was one day a year that you were supposed to weep for her. ⁓ But part of the worship of this goddess, there was lots of fertility things that went along with this. So more than likely, there was some of that going on. ⁓ So it was an abomination to see people in the temple actually worshiping this other goddess. Verse 15 goes, he talks about the men, talks about the abominations of violence that they have committed. ⁓ So it's just this brutal image of how the people throughout the years have brought abominations to the temple and that they are starting to follow their own idols, ⁓ own created gods rather than the one true God. In verse chapter 9, it talks about how the wicked are slain. Again, this is all a vision. He's having a vision and how there will be someone who will go and put a mark on those who weep for all of the abominations, but then for those who don't care, for those who will not turn to God, they... are destroyed." says ⁓ verse 9 of chapter 9, then he said to me, "'The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of bloodshed and the city full of perversity. For they say the Lord has forsaken the land and the Lord does not see. And as for me also, my eye will neither spare nor will I have pity, but I will recompense or compensate their deeds on their own head.'" So the people think that God isn't paying attention and actually, no, He is paying extreme attention. And He sees the abominations of worshipping other gods, the perversity, the evil that was going on in the city. God does care about that kind of stuff. ⁓ Chapter 10 talks about how the glory of the Lord departs from the temple. It describes again the cherubs that Ezekiel sees. Verse 18 says, "'Then the glory of the Lord departed the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim, and the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth at my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them, and they stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord's house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.'" So the glory of God was leaving the temple. So again, this is a vision of what is to come and what is in the process of happening. Jerusalem is under siege at this time. Then chapter 11 ⁓ talks about where Ezekiel is having this vision, ⁓ and he sees the leaders gathered in the East Gate, which ⁓ that was where the political leadership would have gathered. ⁓ And during that time, ⁓ while Ezekiel is... ⁓ seeing this, one of them actually is struck down and dies because, again, the leaders are not seeking God. They are trying to figure out how they can remedy their situation on their own. So you see that at the first part of chapter 11 and in verse 13, let's see, I'm going to go back, says verse 8 says, have feared the sword and I will bring a sword upon you, says the Lord God. And I will bring you out of its midst and deliver you into the hands of strangers, execute judgments on you. You shall fall by the sword. I will judge you at the border of Israel, then you shall know that I am the Lord. This city shall not be your cauldron, nor shall you be the meat in its midst. I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord, for you have not walked in my statutes, nor executed my judgments. but have done according to the customs of the Gentiles, which are all around you." And then says, now it happened while I was prophesying that ⁓ Pelatea, the son of Baniah, died. Then I fell on my face and cried with a loud voice and said, Lord God, will you make a complete end of the remnant of Israel? So even Ezekiel, kind of like Jeremiah, is like, is there ever going to be any hope? ⁓ And then starting in verse 14 of chapter 11, We do see the restoration of Israel, of God is always promising that He will restore. It says, "'Therefore say, thus says the Lord God,' this is verse 16, "'although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.'" So he said, yeah, my people are going to be spread out, but yet. I will be a sanctuary for them. I will gather you from the peoples, as assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they will go there and they will take away all its detestable things and all the abominations from there. Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them and take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, keep my judgments, and do them. and they shall be my people and I will be their God. But as for those whose hearts follow the desires of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense or compensate their deeds on their own heads, says the Lord." I love that ⁓ illustration there. Take the stony heart out of the flesh and give them a heart of flesh. Their hearts had become like stone. ⁓ in their relationship with God that they did not care to follow God or to worship God and That they just went through the motions. They did it on their own. They created their own gods They followed their own ⁓ Way rather than following God You know, it's easy for us to get a heart of stone and not to be sensitive to our relationship with God ⁓ and just start taking matters into our own hands. I encourage you to make sure to ask God to give you that heart of flesh to bring you closer to Him each and every day. All right. I'm gonna read Ezekiel's visions before the fall of Jerusalem. And so let's read 13 through 18 of Ezekiel. So 13 through 18, all right. We will see you. Have a great week.