Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture - Ezekiel 20-24
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: Good to see you today. Welcome to our Journey Through Scripture. My name is Philip Thomas, pastor of Journey here in Elgin. And we are still in the book of Ezekiel. We're going to be looking at Ezekiel chapters 20 to 24 today, so 20 through 24 of Ezekiel. We're at that kind of in-between time. Ezekiel, remember, he is in exile in Babylon and he is continuing to prophesy to the... the people who are in exile to all the other Jews and the Jewish leaders who have been taken into Babylon. They're hoping that God is going to deliver them quickly from Babylon. This is the in-between time between the time that the exile has happened, but Jerusalem has not been destroyed yet, but it's about to happen. So Babylon, about 10 years after the exile begins and they... Babylon takes all of the people ⁓ from Jerusalem to Babylon, then he goes back and puts Jerusalem under siege and destroys Jerusalem. so ⁓ in chapter 20 of Ezekiel, we have the leaders, the elders of Israel who are in exile, they come to inquire. says, the elders of ⁓ Israel came to inquire of the Lord and set before me. It's talking about Ezekiel. It's important to understand what's going on here is Ezekiel wasn't hiding. He would be out giving his messages ⁓ and things like that. But now they're coming to inquire of him. That was seen in other cultures as well that you would kind of go and inquire of the holy person to try to get a blessing, you know, that you're hoping to hear something good. ⁓ So you kind of get the feeling that that's what's going on here. ⁓ And it says, Verse 3, Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, thus says the Lord God, have you come to inquire of me as I live, says the Lord, I will not be inquired of by you. Will you judge them, Son of man? Will you judge them and make known to them the abominations of their fathers? So it's kind of like God knows what they're desiring. And he's like, I've been telling you what is happening. I've been telling you why this is happening and still. You can't get it through your thick head. I will not be inquired of by you." And he says, Ezekiel, tell them again the abominations of their fathers. So if you read through chapter 20, it goes through and how the people were delivered from Egypt, but then they held on to their idols and they back into the patterns of their forefathers. getting to verse 18, but I said to the children in the wilderness, do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols. I am the Lord your God, walk in my statutes, keep my judgments and do them. Hallow my Sabbath and they will be a sign between me and you that you may know that I am the Lord your God. Right, so he, again, this idea of, we see it, throughout the Old Testament of how important it is that we are only following the one true God and that we follow His statutes, right? What He has laid out for us, how we should live. We follow His principles, ⁓ not worldly principles, not the principles of another ⁓ faith. We follow the principles of God and that we do not get seduced by the idols of the world. It continues to go on, ⁓ I thought this was ⁓ verse 23, also I raised my hand in an oath to those in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the Gentiles and disperse them throughout the countries because they had not executed my judgments but had despised my statutes, profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their father's idols. Therefore, I also gave them up to statutes that were not good. and judgments by which they could not live. And I pronounced them unclean because of their ritual gifts and they had caused all their firstborns to pass through the fire that I might make them desolate and that they might know that I am the Lord." It says, therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, say, thus says the Lord, and this too your fathers have blasphemed me by being unfaithful to me. So not only, you know, they had despised God by despising His statutes, by despising His judgments. verse 25 says, so I gave them up to statutes that were not good. So now they're following an under law that is not good, that will not be beneficial to them. And you know, that's the thing is, you know, people like to say, oh, we don't want to follow rules. don't, you know, the Bible is just full of rules and all of this stuff. Well, you are going to be under... some system of statutes. That is just a fact. It will eventually catch up to you if you try to live your life without following any principles. And there are principles that are good and there's principles that can work against God and can work against you. And so what God is saying there, And he's probably kind of referring to what has, what happened with many of the Kings and some of the things that they started doing that actually hurt the people because the people started to rely on the Kings. And so the King could then wield their power and it hurt the people. And now they are actually under the statutes of Babylon. Right? So that these statutes are not necessarily all for their good. So be careful whenever we decide. You know, I'm kind of done with this God guy. He seems to be placing too many rules on me. Well, you're going to then go under another rule system ⁓ and it may not be for your good. God's statutes are for your good. The statutes of the world are for the good of the world, not for your good. ⁓ Continue on. It always talks about that God will eventually restore. that he will bring Israel back. I thought this was starting in verse 33, it talks about that, of how he will bring the people back and plead his case and kind of give the people the option, okay, now you've experienced this separation, are you willing to serve me? And verse 39 is a powerful one. says, as for you, house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, go serve every one of you his idols and hereafter, if you will not obey me, but profane my holy name no more with your gifts and your idols." All right, see, so the people had been trying to do play both sides, right? Yeah, I'll worship God whenever that's appropriate, but when things don't go the way that I want to, then maybe I offer a sacrifice to Baal. You know, kind of, kind of, yeah, let's go ahead and make sure we appease. ⁓ multiple gods just to cover our bases. And what God is saying is no more. Either you go and you worship your other idols or you worship me. Don't come back here and pretend that you're going to worship me when you're also worshiping the God of Baal or whoever it may be. That's ⁓ a powerful statement and one that makes us a little uncomfortable because We kind of live in a time where we, like, ⁓ yeah, there's truth in all different religions and there's truth in all deities and gods and things like that. And while there can be elements of truth obviously found in all kinds of different religious practices and things like that, there's only one true God, or at least that is, I have made the decision that I'm following the one true God. And we have to be careful because our society doesn't really approve of that. It feels like that is being disrespectful to people who don't believe the same way. Well, you have every right not to believe the same way. But at some point we have to choose. If we're going to choose the God of the Bible, then it's the God of the Bible and only Him. don't mix Him in with others, right? I think that's very important for us to understand and to think about. ⁓ God isn't just the God of the Bible and how we worship God. He's not just one of many, many paths to God. No, He is the only one true God. ⁓ continue on, see chapter ⁓ 21. ⁓ talks about Babylon, how Babylon, the sword of Babylon is going to come against the people. thus says the Lord, behold, I am against you. I will draw my sword out from its sheath and cut off both righteous and wicked from you, because I will cut both the righteous and wicked from you. Therefore my sword shall go out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north, that all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn my sword out of its sheath and it shall not return anymore. sigh therefore, son of man, with the breath breaking heart and sigh with bitterness before your eyes. And it shall be when they say to you, why are you sighing? That you shall answer because of the news when it comes. Every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint and all knees will be weak as water. Behold it is coming and shall be brought to pass says the Lord God. All right, so, you know, the... The harshness of the situation and the reality is brutal. By the end of chapter 21, it talks about that God will also hold accountable other nations as well. Chapter 22 talks about the sins of Jerusalem. Again, verse 3, then says, thus says the Lord, the city sheds blood in her own midst, that her time may come and she makes idols within herself to defile herself. You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed and have defiled yourself with idols which you have made. You have caused your days to draw near and have come to the end of your years. Therefore, I have made you a reproach to the nations, a mockery to all the countries. Those near and those far, you will mock you as infamous and full of tumult." All right, so this is what ⁓ is coming for Jerusalem. In verse 17, you have kind of an illustration, a metaphor of Jerusalem being burned like in a furnace and that God is stoking those fires and heating up the furnace to... and it uses, you know, as men gather silver and bronze and iron in the midst of the furnace to blow fire on them and melt it. So I will gather you in my anger, right? So that all of that is being refined. So God, even whenever you melt all those elements in a furnace, what it's doing is it's refining, it's getting out all of the impurities. So God is getting rid of all the impurities. He's trying to refine them, but the process is going to be difficult and painful. Chapter 23 uses a metaphor of two harlot sisters talking about Samaria, so the northern kingdom, and Judah, Jerusalem, the southern kingdom. So you can read through there, it talks about just how each sister ⁓ became the harlot and left its first love. In verse 35, because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore you shall bear the penalty of your lewdness and your harlotry. And then it talks about Verse 37, for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to me, passing them through the fire to devour them. Moreover, they have done this to me. They have defiled my sanctuary and on the same day profaned my Sabbaths. For after they had slain their children for their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. And indeed thus they have done in the midst of my house." So again, a reminder that Many of these pagan idols included child sacrifice and it appears that the people had participated in that and would both sacrifice their child and then try to also come and worship the one true God. I mean, just, you know, pretty horrific stuff and God is, he's done with it. You can continue to read there. It just talks about, you know, how the sisters will be judged just as the Northern Kingdom has been judged and Jerusalem is about to be destroyed. Chapter 24 uses kind of a symbol of a cooking pot to again show what God is going to do, how He is going to bring about judgments. The last part of chapter 24 talks about how the people will mourn and it actually Ezekiel's wife dies ⁓ and God tells him not to mourn in the traditional way. It says, son of man, behold, I take away from you the desires of your eyes with one stroke, yet you shall neither mourn nor weep nor shall your tears run down. Sigh in silence, make no mourning for the dead, bind your turban on your head, put your sandals on your feet, do not cover your lips, do not eat man's bread of sorrow. ⁓ So he spoke, says, I spoke to the people in the morning and at the evening my wife died and the next morning I did as I was commanded. Will you not tell us what these things signify to us that you behave so, so the people are seeing how he is not mourning in the traditional way. ⁓ And he basically says that is how you shall mourn as Jerusalem is destroyed. It's kind of a tough one. I don't know exactly what is happening here. I think as Ezekiel's wife dies, God uses that to be able to kind of this lesson of telling the people, you're not going to have time to mourn. The people are in exile. ⁓ This is going to happen. Prepare yourself. ⁓ God has been trying to prepare the people for years and years and years and years that this was going to happen. And so it does say that you mourn privately, you're going to mourn in different ways. But you also know this is a result of your own sinfulness, of your own behavior. That the people don't act like you didn't see this coming, right, to the people ⁓ of Israel. God has been... warning about this. So it's kind of interesting and it's just very sad because this is a sad situation. There's not much to be cheerful about. And a lot of times we read this and we say, goodness, God, what is he doing? mean, why is he so harsh? But God has been giving years, decades of warning that the people's behavior is going to lead to this moment. that they had to change their behavior, change the statutes that they were following and follow Him and Him alone. And they just continued to refuse and continued to go their own way. And so now they are just in the sad situation. ⁓ you know what? Mourning is not going to help. Grieving is not going to bring you sympathy because now they are ⁓ feeling and experiencing the judgment of God. All right, let's ⁓ look at Ezekiel chapter three through seven. Let's do three through seven. And then probably three through seven and 29 through 31. So three through seven and 29 through 31. All right. I hope to see you all.