Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture - Ezekiel 1-3, Jer 21-2 & 34
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: All right, it's good to see you today. Welcome to our journey through Scripture. My name is Philip Thomas, pastor of Journey here in Elgin, Texas, and we're continuing our walk through the Old Testament in chronological order. So we're kind of, we bounce all over the place. I know that can kind of be confusing sometimes, but it's just a different way of going through the Bible and trying to do it in a chronological manner. So today we're going to be reading in Ezekiel chapters one through three. Then we're going to be in Jeremiah 21 through 22 and Jeremiah 34. There's a couple other little places, but I'll just read them quickly. So we've been following along the history of the people. Now the northern kingdom, Israel was taken by Assyria years before. ⁓ Now we had the exile. And remember, we talked about Jeremiah chapter 29, where Jeremiah writes the letter to the exiles who are now in Babylon and telling them, you know, hey, get ready. It's going to be a while before you come back. So now we're in this in-between time. So King Nebuchadnezzar Babylon has come and taken ⁓ exiles from Judah. ⁓ But he has not completely destroyed Jerusalem. The city still remains. ⁓ King Zedekiah has been put into power, ⁓ and his basic job is don't rebel against Babylon, against Nebuchadnezzar. But what's he going to do? Of course, he's going to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. And that will eventually lead to the destruction completely of Jerusalem. So during this time, you have Jeremiah who is in Jerusalem trying to tell the kings at Achaia and the people there, hey, this is just the beginning of the payment for our sin that we've been talking about. Now we have a new prophet introduced. His name is Ezekiel. Ezekiel was actually one of… ⁓ within the priestly class, so he was a priest of some sort. He was one of the people who was taken into exile. So he is now in Babylon. So he is speaking to the people of ⁓ the Jewish people there in ⁓ Babylon, as well as to those back. And Ezekiel is an interesting book. It has lots of visions, things like that. We're not going to get… lost in the weeds there, it's fascinating. You can dive into a lot of that and we'll hit some of it, but we want to hit the main point. the first part of Ezekiel's book is he's talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. Then he's going to talk about the destruction of the other nations. And then at the end, he starts looking forward to the future of the reestablishment of Israel and everything being made right again. And it's done through a series of different types of visions that Ezekiel has. So this again, think of this as the in-between time between the beginning of the exile to the destruction of Jerusalem. So there's a period there where, you know, the people are in exile, but Jerusalem is still functioning. But that is not going to last too much longer. ⁓ So talking in Ezekiel chapter one through three, encourage you to read those. Chapter one has very much kind of a ⁓ vision type imagery here. You see there's a similarity in Isaiah chapter six. Remember whenever Isaiah sees the little winged he sees them there. There's some similarities there. You see the creatures that Ezekiel see. has four faces, kind of some interesting things. We're not going to get all into that. There's lots of symbolism here, you know, talking about the power of God, that God is all-seeing, He's all-knowing, He's over all of creation, everything is beneath Him, you know, so it's definitely elevating who God is. And interestingly, at the end of chapter 1, Verse 28, it says, the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so surely on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So it's trying to describe something that is indescribable. And Ezekiel knows that he is in the presence of God and what he is seeing is a reflection of God's glory. All right, so then you get into chapter two, and this is where God is going to tell Ezekiel what his ⁓ message is to be. So it starts off there at the chapter two, or I guess it's technically the end of chapter one. So, so when I saw it, I fell on my face and I heard a voice of the one speaking. He said to me, son of man, stand on your feet. I will speak to you. Then the spirit entered me when he spoke to me. and set me on my feet." Okay, so again, is, I mean, Ezekiel is being filled with what we would call the Holy Spirit. He's being filled with the presence of God, with the glory of God. It says, I am sending you, this is verse 3, I am sending you to the children of Israel to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. for they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them and shall say to them, thus says the Lord God, as for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are a rebellious house, yet they will know that a prophet has been among them." Now, this is interesting that God makes this clear and he kind of repeats himself here in these next couple of chapters. Okay, I'm sending you to give this message, but... Whether they hear or whether they refuse, it doesn't matter. You are supposed to share this message. The indication is kind of, yeah, they're probably not going to hear you. They're probably not going to listen. But that doesn't mean Ezekiel is to give up or to stop. He is supposed to continue to go and give that message because while the bulk of the people may not hear or repent, there will be some who will. So verse eight says, but you son of man, hear what I say to you, do not be rebellious like the rebellious house. Right? So that's important because Ezekiel is actually part of that priestly class. may, you know, he's probably, I'm sure he's heard of Jeremiah. He may have, it's interesting to think about, he may have disagreed with Jeremiah, right? He may not have liked Jeremiah's message, but now all of a sudden he's getting the same message. ⁓ And so God says, do not be rebellious like the rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you. And now when I looked up, there was a hand stretched out to me and behold, a scroll of the book was in it. And he spread it before me and there was writing on the inside and the outside and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe. Right? So it's the Word of God, the difficult Word of God, the tough Word of God, the complete Word of God. And chapter 3 said to me, "'Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll. Go and speak to the house of Israel.' So I opened my mouth and he caused me to eat that scroll." And essentially, again, this is imagery, this is what—and it's very symbolic of the Word of the Lord being instilled in Ezekiel, and now he is supposed to go and, in a sense, regurgitate that Word, right? He's supposed to share that Word. Now, and this is interesting. They were lamentations, mourning, and woe is what was written on the scroll. And he said to me, son of man, feed your belly, fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you. So I ate and it was in my mouth like honey and sweetness. So that's an interesting kind of juxtaposition there between this scroll being filled with lamentations and woe, but yet it tastes sweet as honey. because God's message ultimately is always designed to bring goodness, right? The reason that the people are going to suffer is because they have moved away from God and they have not been ⁓ moving ⁓ towards righteousness. They have been moving away from righteousness. If you move towards evil, you are going to experience woe and lamentation. If you move towards good, you will experience sweetness. That's kind of the image that we have here. So that even though God is delivering this and Ezekiel is delivering this message that is not going to be easy to hear and people are not going to like what he says, it is God's message and it's a message that tastes sweet to Ezekiel, even though it's a harsh and a hard message. So he goes on, says he's supposed to... preached to the house of Israel, not to people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, those whose words you cannot understand. So he says, I'm sending you to the people that are your people, right? They're gonna hear you, you're one of them, they're part of you. It's not ⁓ like I'm sending you to somewhere that doesn't understand you, doesn't speak your language. I'm sending you to your own people. But then, this is interesting, says, surely, This is verse 6, surely had I sent you to them, talking about the people who don't speak the language, so this would be like going to a foreign country or people who didn't know about God. So he's saying this to Ezekiel, had I sent you to them, they would understand and they would have listened to you. But the house of Israel will not listen to you because they will not listen to me for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, your forehead strong against their foreheads. Like adamant stone harder than flint, I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them nor be dismayed at their looks though they are a rebellious house." This is just really interesting. One thing my wife said whenever we were looking at coming to start a church, it was a daunting thought. And she was like, you know, I think it may be easier to go to Africa. and to share the Word of God there rather than go to a people who have heard the Word of God and who have chosen to go a different way. Right? And in many ways it is more difficult, and that's what Ezekiel and Jeremiah are being called to do. They're supposed to go to this group of people who know who God is, but basically have just kind of put Him aside. And I like the illustration there of Ezekiel. saying, it's going to be like you're going to be headbutting them, but I'm going to strengthen your forehead, right? Because it's just, sometimes it is like beating your head against the wall, trying to convince them, trying to convince the people that they need to turn back to God. Cause they'll come up with all kinds of excuses, right? Oh, well, we know that God loves us. We already know who God is. What do you mean we need to do this? The other nations live... you know, however they want and look how powerful they are, right? All of these things and they're taken for granted and they have forgotten who God truly is and what God has called them to do. And so Ezekiel, he knows his work is cut out for him. He continues on and... God, again, reminds him there's going to be people who listen, there are those who will not. Talking about Ezekiel as a watchman down in verse 17, it says, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, therefore hear a word from my mouth and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, you shall surely die, and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from the wicked way to save his life. That same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand." Yet if you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity. But you have delivered your soul." And then he says again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die because you did not give him warning. He shall die in his sin, but his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered. but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless, if you warn the righteous man and the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning. Also, you will have delivered your soul." So basically this is kind of a motivation to Ezekiel that you're going to, and I think it's probably because why do we need motivation? It's because when we're doing something difficult, when we're doing something that we're eventually not going to want to do. We need to be motivated to continue to do that. And God is telling Ezekiel, listen, I'm giving you this message. It is important that you share this message because for your soul, if you don't do what I say, if people die because they didn't hear this message because you're not giving it, well, you know what? You're kind of responsible for that. That's a pretty tough motivation. But this is again, a very specific time, very specific thing that Ezekiel was being called to do. And I think God was just making it very clear, Ezekiel, you have a job to do and you need to share this message with these people. And then if you share the message and they don't pay attention, well, you know what? It's on them. But you make sure you share the message I've given you. All right. So that... That's going to stop in Ezekiel for today. So now we are, again, we're in this in-between time between the exile has already begun, but Jerusalem has not been destroyed yet. So God is still speaking to the people. They have an opportunity to hear Him. Just real quick, 2 Kings 24 verse 20 kind of talks about this transition. It says, because of the anger of the Lord, this happened to Jerusalem, Judah, that he finally cast them out from his presence, talking about the exile. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. All right, so now Zedekiah, he is starting to rebel. It says, so the city, talking about Jerusalem, was besieged until the 11th year of King Zedekiah, and there was no food for the people in the land. Jeremiah 52, three through six, reiterates this. because the anger of the Lord has happened, then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon, ⁓ and then Jerusalem was ⁓ under siege." All right. So, this is the fall of Jerusalem is now beginning to happen. Jeremiah 21 and 22, ⁓ Jeremiah is talking and communication with King Zedekiah, trying to encourage him, hey, Jerusalem's going to fall. ⁓ you know, be smart about this, ⁓ says, Jeremiah, excuse me, Zedekiah in chapter 21 ⁓ sent for Jeremiah, and he says, perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful works that the king may go away from us. Right? So, King Zedekiah is hoping that God is going to intervene. Verse 8 says, Now you shall say this to the people. This is God's answer through Jeremiah. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, by pestilence. But he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans or the Babylonians who besieges you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him. For I have set my face against this city for adversity and not for good. says the Lord, it shall be given into the hands of the King of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire." Right? So the outcome is determined. God is going to continue this because the people have rebelled against him. And Zedekiah is, he's hoping that God would change his mind, but Jeremiah continues to say, no, it's too late. Chapter 22, the Lord says, Verse 3, thus says the Lord, execute judgment and righteousness and deliver the plunder out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place. For if you indeed do this thing, then shall enter the gates of this house, ⁓ riding on horses and chariots accompanied by servants and people, king who sits on the throne of David. But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation." I started a little bit too late. The very beginning of 22 says, thus says the Lord, go down to the house of the King of Judah and there speak this word, hear the word of the Lord, O King of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David, you and your servants, your people who enter these gates. So then he says all of that, that you should ⁓ deliver the plunder out of the hand of the oppressor, do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, the widow, or shed innocent blood. ⁓ So, he's telling the people, this is what you need to start doing. You need to start living ⁓ differently. But he knows that's not going to happen, and he knows that it's too late anyway for them to be saved from this. They are going to have to endure this defeat. Chapter 34 of Jeremiah, you have Jeremiah again continuing to speak with Zedekiah. It says, go and speak to Zedekiah king, this is verse two, king of Judah and tell him, thus says the Lord, behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon and he shall burn it with fire. You shall not escape from his hand, but surely shall be taken and delivered into his hand. Your eyes shall see the eyes of king of Babylon. He shall speak with you face to face. You shall go to Babylon. ⁓ So again, saying that you are going to... I endure this defeat. Jeremiah 34 verses 8 through 22 are very interesting. encourage you to really read those. It's kind of a little bit of a change of pace. All of a sudden, it's talking about slaves or indentured servants. As we read this, whenever you hear the word slave, don't think of slavery exactly the way that we normally would. Slavery was a little bit different there. It was still ugly. There was still places where it was very ugly. But what we're talking about here is more of an indentured servanthood where people have sold themselves into slavery many times, or it was a ⁓ result of criminal behavior. There's some different ways that that happened. But still, it was difficult, right? You were under the authority of someone else. But if you remember back in Exodus and during the time where God is giving the law, he had said the slave should be set free every seven years. Well, Zedekiah decides he's going to do that. He's trying anything he can. Well, maybe if we be righteous now, it'll let us off the hook. And this kind of has a little bit of one of the things Zedekiah tried, and he just made things worse. But it says in verse 8, this is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them, that every man should set free his male and female slaves, and Hebrew man or woman, that no one should keep a Jewish brother in bondage. Now when all the princes and the people had entered into the covenant, heard that everyone should set free his male and female slaves, that no one should keep them in bondage, they obeyed and they let them go. But then afterwards, they changed their minds, made the male and female slaves return. So they set him free for a while, and they were like, ah, this is too much trouble. We'll bring them all back. So this is God responding to Zedekiah doing that. It says, I made a covenant with your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying at the end of every seven years, set free the Hebrew brother who has been sold to him. And when he has served to you six years, you shall let him go free. but your fathers did not obey me nor incline their ear. Then you recently turned and did what was right in my sight, every man proclaiming liberty to his neighbor. And you made a covenant before me in the house, which is called by my name. And every one of you brought back his male and female slaves whom you had set liberty at their pleasure and brought them back into subjugation to be your male and female slaves. You have not obeyed me in proclaiming liberty, everyone to his brother and everyone to his neighbor." Behold, I proclaim liberty to you, to the sword, pestilence, and to famine. I will deliver you to trouble among the kingdoms of the earth." Right? And so I love this because it does talk about God's desire for liberty, that He had created a system to set people free, but the people refused to do that. Zedekiah tries to use that maybe to get on God's good side, but then they realize, we're not. we're not going to, it's not worth the hassle. But I love this because, you know, it's so easy just to say, ⁓ well, there was slavery in the Bible. Well, there was slavery before the Bible started to be written, right? That's been part of the human experience, unfortunately, from the beginning. The Bible is the reason that slavery is finally looked upon as something horrible, right? Because God is a God of liberty, and He is proclaiming liberty. to the slaves. And this is kind of just an interesting little section in here that just reminds us that we do serve a God of liberty. All right. encourage you to read Jeremiah 46. Also Jeremiah 37 and... well, Jeremiah 30 through 33 and Jeremiah 37 and 38. All right. So we will go through those passages. That's again, Jeremiah 46. Jeremiah 30-33 and Jeremiah 37-38. We'll see you then.