Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

My Wife Laura and I got married almost 10 years ago!

Although separate, once joined in the covenant of marriage we came together as one and have lived in peace, harmony and joy ever since!

Now we all know that marriage isn’t all smooth sailing, Laura and I have plenty of past and present problems, and all of our marriages represented here (past, present and future)have their problems, but we all know what and ideal marriage is when we see it right?

The husband and wife live together in love, enjoying one another and living self-sacrificially for the sake of building the other up.

We know what the ideal is, whether we are married, or not.

Now what if I said, “well I’m married to Laura, but I’m going to live in a different house by choice”?

You might start to think, “something is not right here....”

Then I might say: “oh yeah, I’m married to Laura, but I’m not really going to relate to her.

She can do her thing, and I’ll do mine.”

Then you would start to think, “something genuinely unhealthy is going there...”

Next I say: “Well, I’m married to Laura but’m going to chase other women on the side.

No big deal, she’ll still be my number 1 relationship, but I can’t be tied down you know...”

You could very rightly beat me over the head for that kind of talk!

It’s outrageous!

Not least because this kind of attitude actually undermines the whole basis for a marriage!

The idea that someone, who has entered into a relationship of love and joy, would then separate themselves from the other, live as if they were actually independent, take the other for granted, want the benefits without the restrictions of relationship and even pursue other replacement relationships on the side is utterly ridiculous!

It is actually in opposition the hole point of the relationship.

To live that way is to reject the other person, even if you have a certificate and a ring on your finger to say that you are connected.

In that kind of situation, we could rightly say that someone has broken their covenant, broken their promises, and that the other party is entitled to be freed from that relationship.

Depending on the circumstances, they would be under no obligation to stay and keep pouring out their love to someone who has rejected them.

Well, that’s how it was with God and Israel.

He said “I love you Israel, I’m going to rescue you out of Egypt, we’re going to have a big marriage ceremony at Mt Saini where I’ll lay down the basis of our relationship, who’s obligated to do what, how we relate to one another etc, then we will exchange vows, I’ll move in and then I’ll build you a beautiful house in the land of Canaan and we can travel up together and live happily every after.”

God Wants to Live with His people.

God Wants to Live with His people.

Today, we’re in the Book of Ezekiel, where the prophet Ezekiel deals heavily with this idea: that God and his people are meant to live together.

Yet, in Ezekiel’s day God’s people are living in a foreign country and God has apparently disappeared.

So, Why does this old story of Israel’s problems matter to us?

Well, because their problems are the same problems that we have today as the people of God, The Church.

God teaches and instructs us today through the example of Israel.

What happened to them serves as an example for us, and it reveals the character of God to us.

Join me as we fly over the book of Ezekiel and look at four key points that will help us answer the question “What will it take for God to live with his Church?”

1.

Our Temple Lost

The book of Ezekiel uses the Temple as the way to tell the story about God and Israel.

Ezekiel was from a family of Priests, and if everything went according to plan Ezekiel would have gone into the family business as a priest when he turned 30.

But instead of entering into his trained profession at the Temple in Jerusalem, Ezekiel is 1000 or so kilometers away in Babylon, exiled from his homeland.

They are displaced, they are dispossessed, they are driven out.

So here is Ezekiel, the priest with no temple to serve in, and God comes and commissions Ezekiel to speak to the exiled people of Israel to explain why they had been exiled from the land, and what God planned to do about it.

So this book is essentially a record of the messages that God gave to the people, but it’s not just a haphazard mishmash of prophetic ravings, it is an ordered account of oracles.

When you read the book as a whole you can see a definitive story arc that ties all the pieces together.

The primary theme that is used is that of God and Israel living together as shown in the Temple.

The temple is the place that God’s people met with him.

It was the permanent version of the Tabernacle tent structure that God’s presence would dwell in while the people of Israel traveled.

The temple is the place where God would live in the middle of the people of Israel and they would worship him, rejoice and meet with him.

And God promised to bless Israel and care for them and provide for them.

There was one issue though.

God is good.

God is perfect.

God is utterly holy.

But the people of Israel were not Good, Perfect and utterly Holy.

So we have a perfect pure God who desires to live with his imperfect impure people.

Then God says “what we’ll do I we will create a sacred space.

A holy area that is free from sin and corruption and everything evil and abominable. it will sere as a buffer zone between you and me.”

Then he proceeded to give instructions about it.

So, we’ll fence it off and separate it from everyday common usage and keep it only for God.

Then create a structure (tabernacle, then temple) where God’s presence can dwell (most holy place) with a buffer to sin and impurity and we’ll create a safe space where God’s appointed people can approach and meet God called the Holy Place.

Then outside we’ll have an altar where God’s people can come and meet him, worship and eat a meal with him (but not too close).”

That’s all laid out in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and others.

Now all of this elaborate set-up with sacred space and a temple was not because sin and impurity could impact or contaminate God, but, because the sinful people would not be able to withstand God’s holy presence.

In fact a few times when people were sinning right near God’s presence, fire came out and destroyed the people (see Nadab & Abihu).

So the temple provided a place where God’s presence could reside, where God and his people could live in blessing and protection.

God Wants to Live with His People.

Problem was, the system never really worked.

From earliest days with the Tabernacle there were problems, all of which could be traced back to the underlying problem that God’s presence was in the midst of an impure people.

God even threatened to Moses once:

SO fast forward a couple hundred years to the time of Ezekiel, and things aren’t much better.

Despite his threats, God had gone up with the people into the promised land, and they had built the temple and God dwelt there in Canaan with them but things didn’t improve.

They remained rebellious, “stiff-necked” as it were.

And God said as much when commissioned Ezekiel to be a prophet.

He said:

Israel’s sin against God was an ongoing problem.

God had held up his side of the covenant promises, but Israel was obsessed with other gods:

God even describes Israel as an unfaithful wife, whom he nurtured and clothed and blessed only to have her cheat on him with anyone who came along.

They would get into bed with foreign gods and nations whenever it felt right to them.

Eventually, God said enough is enough.

He wouldn’t put up with it anymore, so he left.

Ezekiel describes what happens:

So, God had had enough.

He had held back, but he would hold back no more.

His glory departed from the temple where he had dwelt with his people, and he put the city to the sword.

He had lived with their insolence, their rebellion and their abominations long enough.

The people were destroyed, the temple was torn down.

God left.

God had given them chance after chance after chance and they kept breaking their promises and living as if God wasn’t their God.

God was well within his rights to destroy them.

And he did, though thankfully, he preserved a remnant: exiles who would one day return.

Like a rose bush he cut them right back to the barest twigs, so they could burst forth in bloom, but only after winter passed.

Friends it may be hard to envisage this story because it is not a common experience for us to think about temples and God’s presence and God killing large numbers of people.

But I want you to know that the God of Ezekiel is the God we worship now.

He is a jealous God.

He is a righteous God.

He is a just God.

He will not put up with sin.

And yet he desires to live with us, his people.

As long as sin is in our lives we will not be able to share the fullness of a loving relationship with our heavenly father.

He is loving and kind, pouring out his blessings on people, being merciful and slow to anger.

But he will not hold back his wrath forever.

For those who want to live as though God doesn’t matter, he will be patient, but eventually he will treat them as they treat him: worthless.

We are all inflicted with sin and impurity, but God has plans that will sort out the problem of sin once and for all.

His plan for a new temple where God and people can meet will be better and grander than what had gone before.