God Has Left the Building
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Intro:
Scripture Intro:
I really appreciate all your care from last week:
I heard from many of you that you were really concerned about me when I stood up here silent.
One of you said that she almost ran up on stage b/c she thought I was really in trouble.
Sorry for the scare on that one.
Others wanted me to know that I would look just fine with a shaved head.
I don’t know about that...
We’ve got some guys at Grace Point that look pretty sharp with a shaved head.
I’m not sure I’m one that can pull it off.
Maybe I’ll be forced to try it some day.
Ezekiel Overview Outline
Judgment (ch. 1-32)
For Israel (ch. 1-24)
For the Nations (ch. 25-32)
Hope (ch. 33-48)
God’s People Restored (ch. 33-39)
God’s Worship Restored (ch. 40-48)
As we look at chapters 8-11,
we are right in the middle of the section of Judgment on Israel.
Ezekiel has a little more than a week remaining of lying on his right side.
The abominations committed by the people (ch. 8)
The judgment of God exacted upon them. (ch. 9)
Chapters 10-11 the glory of God leaves the temple.
So we will read the bookends of this section of Ezekiel.
Beginning in Chapter 8...
then jumping to the end of chapter 11.
** beginning and ending with “the Spirit lifted me up”
But don’t miss that this vision is specifically tied to the vision of God in chapter 1.
And it is a precursor of the end of the book, the vision of the temple restored.
Scripture Reading (“Please stand…”)
In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there.
Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal.
He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.
And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.
Jump to the end of chapter 11… the culmination of God’s response to their rejection of him
Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.
And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.
And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me. And I told the exiles all the things that the Lord had shown me.
Pray...
Intro:
Intro:
From 1948 to 1960,
a country music show was broadcast (first on radio, then on television)...
from the Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana.
The show, named Louisiana Hayride,
helped to launch the careers of some of the greatest names in American country and western music.
including a young up and comer named Elvis Presley.
One performance in December of 1956...
would be Elvis’ last appearance on Louisiana Hayride.
Due to the large crowd, the show was moved from its original location
to a brand-new Coliseum on the grounds of the Louisiana State Fair.
Presley was slotted in the middle of the night's lineup,
and when Elvis was done playing,
the crowd was hysterical for an encore.
No matter what show organizers tried to do,
the audience would not stop calling for Elvis to return to the stage.
Exasperated, the organizer said,
“All right, all right… Elvis has left the building...”
He has left the building.
He left the stage and went out the back with the policemen
and he is now gone from the building.
"Elvis has left the building" was also heard at the end of Presley's March 1961 Pearl Harbor Memorial benefit concert,
after he exits at the end of "Hound Dog"...
to get the crowd to disperse...
“Elvis has left the building.”
This phrase or variations of it have become common vernacular
to often explain some sort of dramatic exit.
Well, in these chapters we see that “God has left the building.”
His glory rises up from the temple.
And then, finally departs from the temple and the city altogether.
So the questions comes to us,
What would make God remove his presence
from the very place of worship that he established?
The Glory of God Desecrated
The Glory of God Desecrated
(Timer: 15 minutes left)
Chapter 8
Ezekiel is sitting with the elders,
God appears to Ezekiel (in the form of a man).
Reaches out his hand and takes Ezekiel by the hair...
Obviously, his shaved head has grown back.
“took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up.”
Took him “in visions” to the temple in Jerusalem.
And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.
God showed him four depictions of the abominations of the people of Israel.
Scene 1 (v. 3-6)
Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy.
“the image of jealousy”
... the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.
And this is talking about the jealousy of God.
He has been replaced by an image.
In other places, God calls this an idol.
An idol… anything that captures your heart and replaces the worship of God.
And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”
This is the effect of an idol...
“to drive me far from my sanctuary”
They are worshiping something/someone else.
App. What does idolatry look like today?
Not little carved images.
But possibly:
colors of a college sports team
a romantic relationship with a certain person
an American flag
a certain president or leader
None of those things are our hope...
but we certainly treat them as such.
Does a cable news station define your hope for your future?
Or does the Lord Most High?
Onto “still greater abominations”
Things that are “even more detestable”
Scene 2 (v. 7-13)
God has Ezekiel dig a hole in the wall.
And he said to me, “Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.”
So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel.
most likely, unclean according to Israel’s dietary laws.
To matters worse… notice who are ones who are worshiping these images.
And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up.
The elders of Israel...
the leaders of the people.
The ones who set the tone for the nation and lead them forward.
It’s the elders who have a “censer” in their hands and burning incense to these images.
One more thing to take note of...
they are doing this hidden from public view.
Remember that Ezekiel had to dig through a wall to her there.
Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ”
“in the darkness”
“the Lord does not see”
This is really the nature of so much of the rebellion of the human heart.
We think we are getting away with it.
Yet, in chapter 1, God is depicted as “full of eyes all around”.
As I have said before,
“Don’t mistake God’s patience for his permission.”
App. Things done in secret.
Things done hidden from view.
“in the dark, each in his room of pictures.”
If those phrases aren’t eerily similar to the struggle of many today,
I don’t what is.
The behaviors and actions are bad enough...
but it’s the hiding that make those things exponentially damaging.
Think of it this way...
If you are stuck in some pattern of things that God hates...
but it is known to you and to people...
It really does lose so much of its power over our lives.
That’s why confessing our sin to God...
and confessing our sin to people around us is so needed.
It robs sin of much of its hold on us.
The secretive nature of our sin fuels its domineering power over us.
If you are caught in sin and have tried everything on your own,
Speak it.
Bring it into the light.
Watch the resurrection power of Jesus restore you.
Onto “still greater abominations”
Scene 3 (v. 14-15)
Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
Tammuz was Sumerian-Babylonian god of plant-life
The death of this god was mourned every autumn when the leaves fell.
Don’t miss this...
they are weeping over the death of a Babylonian god.
The Babylonians are the ones who have attacked them and exiled their people.
And here they are, worshiping of the god of their oppressors
in the temple designed for worship of the one true God.
Onto “still greater abominations”
Scene 4 (v. 16-17)
Now God takes Ezekiel to the inner court.
And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east.
This is the part of the temple where only priest were permitted to go.
25 priests with their backs to the temple (the presence of God)...
facing and worshiping the sun.
This was the same place in the temple where Joel called the priests
to gather and weep before the LORD in repentance.
Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”
*** Rather than repenting (“turning to God”)...
the priests in Ezekiel 8 have turned their back on God.
App. This is a call to repentance.
A call to turn to God.
Either for the first time,
surrendering to his for salvation.
Or yet again, after God has saved you,
he is calling us back to him.
Great opportunity prior to communion to repent and confess.
Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their nose.
Generations of idolatry… turning away from God...
The imagery of the last phrase of verse 17 is obscure—
"put the branch to their nose”
Most scholars take this as “some kind of obscene gesture”
that conveys defiance or insult;
similar to our phrase, ‘thumbing their nose at me’
Or any of our other defiant gestures.
Quick summary of chapter 8 show us the people of Judah
doing idolatrous things in the temple and its inner courts.
Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”
So God says, “Therefore, I will act in wrath.”
The Glory of God Defended
The Glory of God Defended
(Timer: How much time left?)
chapter 9
What does the wrath of God look like?
In chapter 9, God sent the executioners of the city throughout the entire city
to bring the judgment of God onto the people of Jerusalem...
Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Bring near the executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.”
And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity.
Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house.
Divine Judgment
Justified
Comprehensive
Escapable
Justified - for sin
Comprehensive - all have sinned
This judgment on sin in Ezek 9...
is a foretaste of an even greater judgment...
coming at the return of Christ.
Escapable - God marked those who believed
At first, I thought “escapable” was a typo.
B/c I expected “inescapable”.
But the mark on the forehead was the marking of the true people of God...
the remnant.
True Israel.
And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.
To place a mark on someone or something could indicate ownership—
these were the only people who truly belonged to Yahweh.
Just like Passover...
they were covered by the blood of the lamb.
HEre, they are covered by the mark of God.
App. Is your heart broken and contrite over sin,
displayed by you crying out to God for mercy?
The Glory of God Departed
The Glory of God Departed
(Timer: How much time left?)
Chapters 10-11
The glory of God is on the move.
In chapter 8,
“the glory of the Lord was there.”
In chapter 9,
“the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the place on which it rested…
to the threshold of the house”
Chapter 10 elaborates on this a bit...
“the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord.”
“then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house”
“and they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord,
and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.”
And it culminates in chapter 11.
And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.
What needs to be grasped is that this is worse than any of his judgments thus far.
“For the judgment of God who is present, however terrible, is surely preferable to the absence of God.” (Peter Craigie)
“God’s presence is his most treasured gift. It is at the heart of what he promises, or covenants, to his people.”
All promises are fulfilled in the presence of God.
But yet, before the glory of God departs fully,
There is a glimpse of hope.
Ezekiel pleads for the people.
He submits to the righteous judgment,
but he cries out for those who are true Israel...
those who believe and trust in the Lord for their salvation.
This is the 2nd time that Ezekiel pleads for the people (also in 9:8)
And it came to pass, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face and cried out with a loud voice and said, “Ah, Lord God! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”
From 11:1 we see this guy, Pelatiah, is one of the princes of the people.
He is a high ranking official.
When he goes down, Ezekiel is worried everyone is going to be wiped out.
“Ah, Lord God”
“Ah” - “Alas” or “Not so”
So Ezekiel prays for the remnant (the faithful believers) of Israel.
God’s promise of hope
Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’
Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’
And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.
And the promise of what ends up being the culmination of the book of Ezekiel (ch. 36)...
And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them.
And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
“and the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles.
And I told the exiles all the things that the lord had shown me.”
** On Communion Sunday...
If after 10:30,
go straight to the Lord’s Supper.
Close in Prayer
Close in Prayer
Closing Song:
Closing Song:
“Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery”
Benediction:
Benediction:
