Who's In Charge

WHO'S IN CHARGE Ezekiel 2:1-10 June 21, 2020 What if your boss called you into his office one morning and said, "Hey, we have this huge project coming up, and I want you to be in charge. We're going to build a bridge. This will be a massive bridge. It will be 8 lanes on each side. And, every morning and evening thousands of cars, carrying tens of thousands of passengers, will cross this bridge to and from work." But, I need to warn you ahead of time, the project will be a complete failure. First off the engineers are going to be sloppy when they make the weight calculations. They will just grab numbers from another bridge they built years and years ago. A bridge that can barely hold 10 cars at a time. And, as far as the engineers are concerned, that's close enough. The construction foremen are going to cheat us. They will charge us for high quality steel, but they're going to build the bridge from cheap leftover aluminum. They will keep the extra money for themselves. And, the actual workers, the guys pouring the concrete and hammering the metal, have never worked a construction project in their lives. They are all laid off basket weavers, who have a buddy in H.R. who hired them. So, our bridge is going to be a massive failure. On inauguration day, the mayor will cut the ribbon, and send a thousand cars across the bridge. The bridge will collapse, and ten thousand people will fall to their death. It will be the largest catastrophe our city, our state, and our nation has ever witnessed. And, I've chosen you to be the public face of the project. Now, get out there and build that bridge. Would you do it? If you knew the disaster waiting ahead, would you take on the project? Would you be willing to say, this is all going to end very badly, but I do whatever the boss tells me to do; just because he says so. If you are willing to do whatever the boss asks of you, no matter the cost, then welcome to Ezekiel's ministry. Ezekiel was taken to Babylon as a slave in the first wave of exiles; seven years before Daniel was taken. Ezekiel was a Temple priest, and all the priests were taken as slaves. He was taken along with the prince of Israel, Jehoiachin, who should have been king after his father was murdered. And, he was taken along with the sons and daughters of all Jewish royalty. These are the children of the wealthiest and most revered families. It's been five years since they became slaves. And, it's two years before the fall of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the Holy Temple. This first group of exiles is filled with an arrogance that can only come from living such privileged lives.1 From the moment they were born these people have had whatever they wanted, just handed to them. And, it is inconceivable to them that this situation can continue, or even get worse. They believe God loves the rich, and God loves the royal born, and any minute God is going to send them back to Israel to live lives of comfort and financial security. God owes this to them. False prophets have begun popping up in the city of Babylon.2 These men preach to the itching ears of the exiles. They tell them exactly what they want to hear. This exile is going to be over any week now. You will all live to see your homes, and your parents, again. You will live the rest of your days in fabulous wealth and luxury. God will never allow the city of Jerusalem to fall. And, the Holy Temple - where God lives - can never be conquered. Not gonna happen. The wealthy exiles reward these false prophets, for preaching the message they want to hear. I've got to tell you, that sounds a lot like America in 2020. People shop for churches these days. I don't have a problem with that. But, the reason they move from church to church is to find a message that rewards sinful behavior. People don't want to hear the truth. They want to hear that whatever they are doing is just fine with God. They want to hear that God's job is to reward them for whatever behavior they embrace. There is no such thing as sin. It's a myth. You don't need to be better; you are perfect just the way you are. And, if they don't hear that, they move on to another church. They want something for their itching ears. In year 5 of this exile, 30-year-old Ezekiel is suddenly struck with a vision from God. He sees a fantastic creature. He calls it the living creature. It's one thing; one creature. But, it has four sides to it. One side is a man, one side is a lion, one side is an ox, and one side is an eagle. It's able to move rapidly in any direction without turning. It glows with the brilliance of the Sun. And, lightning is shooting between the four sides. The creature is fantastic, and fearsome. When Ezekiel sees the creature he is overwhelmed, and he falls to the ground. Flat on his face.3 He is terrified. He's not entirely sure what's happening. He knows this is supernatural. And, he knows this is from God. But, it's too much to take, and he lays on the ground - face in the dirt - trembling. That's when the Holy Spirit enters his body, and jerks him to his feet. Don't think of it as he stood up. Think of it like something grabbed this prostrate man by the neck, and jerked him to his feet like a rag doll. Imagine a marionette if the strings were violently jerked upward. God speaks directly to Ezekiel, and he calls him 'son of man'. Actually, what he calls him is son of Adam.4 In both Hebrew and Aramaic at this time Adam literally meant - made of mud. I think the best translation into contemporary English is - puny human. God says, stand up puny human, I want to talk to you. Throughout the book this is the only way God will address Ezekiel. The name Ezekiel only appears twice in the entire book. And, both times, Ezekiel is using his own name to remind you who he is. On 92 separate occasions God will speak directly to Ezekiel, and each time he will call him - puny human; son of man.5 The idea, is to draw a strong contrast between people and God.6 We are puny humans. God is holy, and glorious, and perfect. God is Almighty. Only God is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. It will be critical to Ezekiel's message to stress to the exiles, that in comparison to God - we are nothing. We don't get to tell God what is right. Because, he is holy, and we are sinners. We don't get to tell God that he needs to be OK with our sin. Deal with it. That is not how this works. That's like telling the boss, we're not going to use actual data for the bridge, we're not going to use the correct materials, and we're not going to use skilled labor. We're going to do it our way instead. Doing it our way, instead of God's way, is a recipe for disaster. So, from the very beginning of their relationship, God impresses upon Ezekiel this is not a meeting of equals. I am God, and you are a puny human. Six hundred years later, Jesus will use the title Son of Man to describe himself. It is a completely different Son of Man. Daniel, the lucky prophet who comes along two years later and is treated like royalty, uses the phrase Son of Man in his vision of a Messiah coming at the end of time (7:13). Although it translates into English the same, it is a different phrase altogether. It means one who has the appearance of a human, but is something more. Ezekiel's 'son of man' emphasizes we are nothing more than made of mud. God tells Ezekiel to take this message to the royal exiles. You are not special. You are not worthy. You are not going home. You are sinners. You, and your cheap phony prophets, don't know me at all. You will die here in Babylon. And, you know what, you don't deserve anything better. God does not owe you anything. So, this crazy belief you have about going home? Better give that up. Then, God says to Ezekiel, but understand this - your message will fail. This job that I'm giving you is doomed to failure. They will not listen to you. They are so obsessed with the message they want to hear, they won't be receptive to the message I send with you. As a prophet, you are going to crash and burn. In fact, these people will be openly hostile to your message. Not only will they not believe you, they will treat you very badly for even trying to speak to them. But, God says, don't be afraid. In fact, he says three times in one sentence, don't be afraid.7 Yes, they will be hostile. They will be like nettles, and briers, and stinging scorpions. Nobody likes those do they? If you know there are nettles and thorns in a bush, you do not stick your hand in there. If you know the hole in the ground is a scorpion's den, you do not stick your hand in there. It would be unpleasant. But, none of those is fatal. It will be unpleasant, but it won't kill you. And, you will be pleasing the holy, glorious God, who is the Creator of all. So, even though you won't like this, and even though you will fail, go do it anyway. God says, now, in the face of their anger and rejection, you might be tempted to soften the message a little bit. Don't. Say exactly what I tell you to say. I am going to put my words in your mouth. My words will come out of you as if I wrote them down and made you eat them. You won't have any choice. You will say exactly what I tell you to say. And, God gives Ezekiel the message for these sons and daughters of Jewish royalty. He gives him a message for these arrogant, spoiled, and self-entitled children. He gives him a message for these priests who believed they could ignore God, but get rich working in his house. And, these are hard words. They are words of death, and sorrow, and doom. You are never going back home. You will die here in Babylon. You will die as slaves. If you marry and have children, your children will die in Babylon as slaves. For you, it will never get better. You have so corrupted the religion of Israel; you have so perverted your relationship with God, there is no saving you. You keep trying to tell God how things should be, instead of listening to what God says. So, your entire generation will die in a foreign land. God will start over with your grandchildren. He will teach them his ways. He will teach them his laws. But, more importantly, he will put his guidance and wisdom in their hearts. They will know from the beginning what is right and wrong. But, for you - only death. The original sin, which got us kicked out of the Garden of Eden, was not eating the apple. It was wanting to be like God. It was wanting to be God. And, to this day, every one of us wrestles with that sin. Who is in charge of your life? Is it God, or is it you? We live in a culture that says you have done something terrible if you give away the authority and purpose in your life to Jesus. If you make being a disciple of Jesus Christ your highest priority you have betrayed yourself. You have the right, the duty, and the obligation to be God of your life. Let me be real clear about this. It goes very, very badly for individuals, families, and nations who make themselves God. It ends in death, and sorrow, and doom. Following Jesus may be hard. Standing up for the words of Jesus in a community that wants to hear a completely different message may be unpleasant. It may be like sticking your hand in a scorpion den. But, it's not fatal. And, in fact, it is the only way to true life. 1 Jean-Philippe Delorme, "Ezekiel: Identity Construction and the Exilic Period," The Journal of Biblical Literature, 138 no 1 (January 2019), 121-141. 2 Raymond B. Dillard and Tremper Longman III. An Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 313. 3 R. C. Sproul, general editor. New Geneva Study Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1259. 4 Alinda Damsma, "From Son of Man to Son of Adam - the Prophet Ezekiel in Targum Jonathan," Aramaic Studies, 15 no 1 (January 2015), 23-43. 5 NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), 1336. 6 Dillard and Longman, 324. 7 Gordon Matties, The New Interpreter's Study Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 1158. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 2