Judgment Displayed
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Intro:
Scripture Intro:
(ch. 1) Vision of the Glory of God
(ch. 2-3) Call of Ezekiel
Speak to my people...
if they listen or refuse to listen
Today, we will look at themes from Chapters 4-7.
We won’t look at all 4 chapters verse by verse.
Initially, we’ll read chapter 4 and half of 5.
What these verse portray for us...
are 4 very stark scenes to warn of the coming judgment of God.
But remember from the end of chapter 3...
And I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house.
Scripture Reading (“Please stand…”)
Scene 1
“And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem.
And put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.
And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.
Scene 2
“Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment.
For I assign to you a number of days, 390 days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel.
And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year.
And you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against the city.
And behold, I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed the days of your siege.
Scene 3
“And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer, and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days, you shall eat it.
And your food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from day to day you shall eat it. And water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from day to day you shall drink.
And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.” And the Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.”
Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth.”
Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.”
Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay.
I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment.
Scene 4
“And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber’s razor and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair.
A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them.
And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe.
And of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.
Pray...
Intro:
Intro:
Silence for 30 seconds.
It’s been said that “Silence is deafening.”
When there is quiet...
at a time when we expect sound,
it is quite unnerving.
That was 30 seconds of silence.
It felt like forever.
But imagine someone not speaking for months in a row...
When that person speaks,
you are going to pay attention.
Why? B/c if they haven’t uttered a word for that long,
what they say is going to be of utmost importance to them.
So, here’s Ezekiel and his is seeking to portray a message of judgment
The Message of Judgment
The Message of Judgment
Three scenes to tell the story:
Siege against the city of Jerusalem
Like playing army men when I was a kid.
Set up the soldiers and the stronghold (in this case the city).
But Ezekiel is a grown man...
a priest, a prophet...
and here he is playing with toys.
But he’s trying to convey a message of judgment against the people.
Lie on your left side for 390 days.
Then, on your right side for 40 days.
And to make matters worse for him,
he will be bound with cords
“so that you cannot turn from one side to the other.”
While lying there,
Ezekiel was to make bread for himself.
Rationed -
20 shekels of bread a day (weight)
about 8 ounces for the day.
1/6 of a hin (about a gallon) in water
21 ounces.
a little bit more than a bottle of water(16 ounces)
Bread baked over a fire fueled by human dung (excrement)
Ezekiel asks that he not have to defile himself.
God allows bread to be baked over cow’s dung.
Now, this is still quite offensive to us,
but using animal waste as fuel is quite common in ancient cultures
and in modern third world countries.
Shave your head.
Burn a third of it.
Cut a third of it with the sword
Scatters a third of it in the wind.
Most likely, chapter 4 opens in the year 593 B.C.
Five years have elapsed since Nebuchadnezzar’s forces first attacked Jerusalem in December of 598 B.C.
That siege lasted for three months and coincided with the reign of Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:8–12).
The Wrath of God
The Wrath of God
We don’t typically talk much about the wrath and judgment of God.
But it is very real.
therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.
“I am against you.”
In their sin and rebellion,
God’ s patience has run out.
This phrase shows up 11 more times throughout the book.
Derek Thomas,
“Those who find the emphasis upon the severity of God’s wrath difficult to take are those who have not seen sin as God sees it.” (Derek Thomas)
“Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy—when I spend my fury upon them.
Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. You shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations all around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and with furious rebukes—
I am the Lord; I have spoken— when I send against you the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply of bread.
I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.”
And this is not simply an Old Testament thing.
The judgment of God is all over the Bible.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
Everyone deserves the wrath of God (for all have sinned),
yet, how will anyone be delivered from the wrath of God?
… his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
What does God move against?
The Rebellion of the Human Heart
The Rebellion of the Human Heart
“Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.
And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes.
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you,
therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.
And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again.
Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds.
Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will withdraw. My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity.
A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.
Idolatry (verses 9 and 11)
From Chapters 6 and 7
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,
The word of the Lord came to me: “And you, O son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.
Chapter 6
and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.
Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.
And you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols.
Chapter 7
Now the end is upon you, and I will send my anger upon you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations.
PRide
I will bring the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their holy places shall be profaned.
Self-reliance
All hands are feeble, and all knees turn to water.
Trust in wealth
They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling block of their iniquity.
Everyone falls under judgment.
Disaster comes upon disaster; rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the prophet, while the law perishes from the priest and counsel from the elders. The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. According to their way I will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.”
Glimmers of Hope
Glimmers of Hope
Do you ever wonder why God made Ezekiel do this?
This seems so unfair.
Seems cruel.
“Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment.
Repeated in (4:6).
Christopher Wright,
The Message of Ezekiel: A New Heart and a New Spirit Scene 2: Bearing the Sin of Israel (4:4–8)
Ezekiel was told to put the sin of the house of Israel upon his side as he lay there, and thus to bear their sin.
The vocabulary recalls the Day of Atonement when the high priest ‘placed’ all the sins of the people on the head of the scapegoat, which then ‘carried’ them off into the wilderness.
However, Ezekiel does not carry Israel’s sin off somewhere.
He is simply to lie there bearing its weight, suffering under it.
His suffering is not expiatory or vicarious—that is, he will not suffer instead of or on behalf of the rest of the people, but rather it is a symbolic or representative identification with their sin.
Derek Kidner,
God Strengthens: Ezekiel Simply Explained 2. The Symbolism of Substitution
Isaiah had made clear that what all this typified was the coming of God’s suffering Servant
who would bear the sin of many (
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Close in Prayer
Close in Prayer
Closing Song:
Closing Song:
“Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me”
Benediction:
Benediction:
