Sermon on
Ezekiel, part 2
1. Incidentals
As
well as the broad sweep of Ezekiel, there are many just neat verses in it.
Look, for example at Ezekiel 14:14 (and 20); “And though these three men, Noah,
Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver only their own souls by their
righteousness, says the Lord Jehovah.”
Why
Noah, Daniel and Job? Because each of these survived the loss of everything yet
remained true to God. And God knows this, he knows their names, he knows what
they have been through, and he is so proud of them. Like in Job, where God
tells Satan, “Look at my servant Job, isn't he great!" Likewise, God knows
each of our names, he knows what we have been through, and he is proud of us. Not that this makes us proud!! God forbid!!
Job would object to being named here, "don't you know that I complained
for about 35 chapters straight?" Noah would say, "m preaching didn't
save a soul, and as soon as I was delivered by God, I went and got drunk".
And God would reply, my judgment stands, I know you are dust, I created you. I
also know you trusted me with all you had. I saw when the widow gave her two
small mites into the temple, and I know when, weak and frail as you are, you left
all to follow me (Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to
follow you!").
Don't tell me not to be proud 
of you! Don't tell me not to place a crown on your head!
Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:712, 2 and Corinthians 1:8-10 writes about being
troubled, perplexed, persecuted, despairing of life. But he also knows (in 2
Timothy 4:8) that God has prepared for him a crown of righteousness. Yes, we
will rightly cast our crowns before him, yet remember, it is he who has given
us those crowns. He knows what we have been through, he is proud of us, and he
knows our names. Revelation 2:17 tells of God giving us a name that no one else
knows. Indeed, ours is not to boast.
2) The effect on others
Returning
to the big picture, much of Ezekiel focuses on how what God is doing with the
exiles affects other groups around about. To look briefly at the three main
groups, firstly we have -
A.
those
still in Jerusalem, those who are not exiles;
11;
14-15. "Son of man, your brothers--your brothers who are
your blood relatives and the whole house of Israel--are those of whom the
people of Jerusalem have said, 'They are far away from the LORD; this land was
given to us as our possession.'” The
people living in Jerusalem claim that Ezekiel and the other Israelites who were
taken to Babylonia are too far away to worship God. They also claim that the
land of Israel now belongs only to them. 
33:24, “Ezekiel, son of man, the people living in the ruined
cities of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was just one man, and the LORD gave him
this whole land of Israel. There are many of us, and so this land must be ours.’”
Those
back home have written the exiles off. They think they are better than the
exiles, and that they will inherit what the exiles have lost. They despise the
exiles. One can imagine the 99 good sheep who didn't stray resenting the one
stupid sheep who went astray, and deprived them of the company of their
shepherd, just as the elder son resented his father's love for the returning
prodigal. The danger for those who are not in exile is that they will pray like
the Pharisee, "I thank you God that I am not like that sinner over
there", and that they will think that by praying this, they are somehow
pleasing to God!
When we see drunks, prostitutes and
drug addicts, people who don't generally hang about in churches, we can become proud,
selfish, greedy, and shallow Christians, and the danger is that we will despise
them, think, "gosh, I’m glad I’m not like one of them". God hates it
when we despise the exile, when we despise one of his sons or daughters who
have fallen. Yes, we hate their sin, but we
hate it because it hurts someone God loves. If you think Moslems are
stupid, or want homosexuals to go to Hell, don't expect God to be on your side!
The seriousness of this sin, its absolute importance to God, is seen in Ezekiel
where it is just after those in Jerusalem despise the exiles that the glory of
the Lord leaves the Temple (11:23).
B. The Edomites
The second group to look at are the
Edomites,
• Ezekiel 25:8 "This is what the Sovereign
LORD says: 'Because Moab and Seir said, "Look, the house of Judah has
become like all the other nations,"
• Ezekiel 35:5 " 'Because you harbored an
ancient hostility and delivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of
their calamity 10 " 'Because you have said, "These two
nations and countries will be ours and we will take possession of them,"
even though I the LORD was there,
• Ezekiel 35:12 Then you will know that I the LORD have heard all the contemptible
things you have said against the mountains of Israel. You said, "They have
been laid waste and have been given over to us to devour.”
• Ezekiel 36:2 This is what the Sovereign LORD
says: The enemy said of you, "Aha! The ancient heights have become our
possession."
• Ezekiel 36:5 this is what the Sovereign LORD
says: In my burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and
against all Edom, for with glee and with malice in their hearts they made my
land their own possession so that they might plunder its pastureland.'
Psalm 137:7 Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell. "Tear it down," they cried, "tear it
down to its foundations!"
(See also Obadiah
1:10-14)
Edom
are the descendants of Esau, who despised his birthright, and traded it to fill
his stomach. He valued a plate of stew more than the promise of God. He lived
for the flesh, not for the spirit, and he should be happy, because he got what
he wanted, yet he has always resented those self-righteous types who got the
birthright. He is delighted when God's people stumble! "because you have harboured
an ancient hostility". He mocks when they fall, he says "at last, the
everlasting heights are mine! I was right to choose my stomach over God, and
you others, you are no better than I am, I was right all along, welcome to the
human race!" Those who remember the unholy glee of some when a number of tele-evangelists
were caught in adultery will be familiar with this type of response. They celebrate
when the righteous fall.
What
defines humanity?
(This is a major theme throughout Ezekiel; why are they exiles in the first
place?) Edom says they, Edom define humanity. Edom = Adam (the same word-play
is used by James in Acts 15), but before this even happens, God has spoken to
Israel. In 34:31. God says to Israel. "you (not Edom)are Adam אָדָ֣ם אַתֶּ֑ם,
and I am your God". God rejects the claim that humanity is defined by its
desires of the flesh, and declares that it is Israel, those who struggle with
God, who define humanity.
Son
of Adam
34:31
is such an amazing verse! Not only does it hold out an incredible promise to
Israel, but it does this on such an extraordinary basis. You see, everywhere
else in the Book of Ezekiel, "Adam" is used by God as a term of
humiliation, almost an insult. From the start, God calls
Ezekiel "son of Adam".
Why? Because, as an exile, he has forfeited his right to be called
"priest" or "Israelite". He isn’t in Israel, he is not in
the Temple. Now, all he has claim to, all he can stand before God as, is his
simple, unadorned humanity. Like the prodigal who says, "I am no longer
worthy to be called your son". None of us like to stand naked before God,
we prize our fig leaves; I’ve got a degree, I’m a westerner, I’m a missionary
kid etc etc. I have some standing before God, I have something to offer — and
God cuts through the garbage, and calls us simply "son of Adam". And
yet now, in this verse, having lost all claims to privilege, somehow, in that
very fact, God holds out hope.
Son of Adam,
or, as it is usually translated, Son of Man. The very title that Jesus chose
for himself. Jesus, born in a stable, parents refugees in Egypt, despised and
rejected, no place to lay his head, did not come with a silver spoon in his
mouth, making claims to special privilege or treatment. Jesus took this simple
humanity, and through obedience and suffering transformed it into a glory we
still cannot comprehend. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
- In Jesus, simple, rock bottom humanity has been exalted, and in that very
humiliation and exaltation is our hope. His triumph was not just for priests,
or Israelites, or rich people or scholars, for in Him is the promise for us
all, to you, your children and to all who are a far off, and in Daniel we read
of the saviour from heaven, (13-14) “I saw in the night visions, and behold,
One like the Son of man came with the
clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near
before Him. And dominion and glory was given Him, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages, should
serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass
away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”
This
linkage between humiliation and universal rule is again found in Philippians 2:6-11;
“Who,
being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be
grasped,
7 but made himself nothing, taking
the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the
name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
It is because he descended to the
depths that he can save to the utmost! So ''you are Adam" a term of
humiliation in Ezekiel, becomes transformed into a term of exaltation. It is
only when we realize that we have forfeited all claims that the Father carries
us home and prepares a feast for us. The promise isn't just to those who have
never fallen, its to all who call upon the name of Jesus. And what a new
relationship this is, what a blessing, what a freedom! Because if we were still
back in the old Jerusalem, claiming some special privilege on the basis of some
chosen fig leaf, we would have no joy, and we would have no rest. But the new
promise is based on God's mercy, not our worthiness.
So,
Edom think they have won, that our humiliation means our doom, and that we are
all defined by our stomachs. But God overthrows this, declares that our
humiliation is rather a precondition for a new relationship based on his love,
not our merit, and that our true humanity is still to be found as we struggle
with God.
3.
The
nations around.
So, when the
Godly fall into exile, some are disgusted, some are delighted, but the majority
are more just interested bystanders. The theme of witness to the nations is
strong in Ezekiel. “This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the centre of the
nations." 3 times in chapter 20 alone, God addresses how his acts towards
Israel are perceived by the surrounding nations, and chapter after chapter
address the surrounding nations in oracles. Israel were called to be a nation
of priests, carrying God's name in the world. Likewise, God's love for Israel
has always been his chosen means for expressing his love to all humanity. The
missionary heart of God is very clear in Ezekiel.
The way home, New Life
If
the wages of sin are exile and death for the Israelites, the free, undeserved
gift is new all life.
Now,
in the prophet's original call, (2:3) God sends him to the Israelites, to
rebellious nations, who have "sinned to the bone". (Most
translations, on the basis of the Septuagint, leave out the plural, and also
loose the idiom — but their division is caused by their sin, and the idiom and
structure of his call are directly answered in chapter 37.)
God's answer to this initial situation
is given 35 chapters later, in Ezekiel 37. Here, our young priest is grabbed
and thrown into a valley full of dead men's bones. Now, as Ezekiel well knows,
and mentions 2 chapters later, priests were not allowed near human bones, but
here God has him crawling over them. He has tried to be clean, he has gone to
rivers to pray on the Sabbath, is hoping for the best, but here it is as if God
says, lets face facts, you are utterly filthy and contaminated, crawling with
uncleanliness (nothing but a son of man), and Israel is slaughtered on the
heights. God never makes light of our sin, and here forces the full reality and
despair of it on the prophet.
Israel
has sinned to the bone, and God does not give cosmetics to a leper. God's
prophet must realize the extent of Israel's condition before God can act. We do
not heal the wounds of God's people lightly, saying peace, peace when there is
no peace, rather, God's prophet is defiled, and the true depth of Israel's sin
is revealed. They had sinned to the bone, and from the bone, God will act.
What
is God' s answer when we have sinned to the bone, when all we can offer Him are
dead, lifeless bones?
Ezekiel 37:1-14!
“The hand of the
LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in
the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and
forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley,
bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these
bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." 4
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones,
hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to
these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6
I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with
skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know
that I am the LORD.' 7 So I prophesied
as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling
sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and
tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no
breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath;
prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may
live.' " 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered
them; they came to life and stood up on their feet--a vast army. 11
Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of
Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut
off.' 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the
Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you
up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then
you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring
you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live,
and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have
spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "
God's
answer is his life-giving Spirit!
Isaiah 32:15-17 until the Spirit be poured upon us
from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful
field be esteemed as a forest. Then justice shall dwell in the 
and righteousness
shall abide in the fruitful field.
And
the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness,
quietness and confidence for ever.
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of the One who
raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised up Christ from
the dead shall also make your mortal bodies alive by His Spirit who dwells in
you.
Ezekiel 36:24-28 For I will take you from among the
nations and gather you out of all lands, and will gather you into your own
land. And I will sprinkle clean waters on you, and you shall be clean. I will
cleanse you from all your filthiness and from your idols. And I will give you a
new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
And
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you
shall keep My judgments and do them. And you shall dwell in the land that I
gave to your fathers. And you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
(11:19, 18:31)
Chapter
37 continues, 37:22 “And I will make them one nation in the land on the
mountains of Israel, and one King shall be king to them all. And they shall not
still be two nations, nor shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at
all.” Having dealt with their sin, their divisions disappear. God fixes the
cause, and the symptoms go away.
In
Jeremiah 31:21 we read, "Set up waymarks, make sign posts for yourself.
Set your heart toward the highway, the way you went. Turn again, O virgin of
Israel, turn again to these your cities".
Remember how
you got in this fix - the children of Israel had gone into exile when they gave
up on the promises of God, valuing the lusts of the flesh above them. They had
then derided the ability of God to punish, and finally, the existence of God at
all. And so, you are indeed an exile, and a long way from God's temple. In
Ezekiel therefore, God first convicts of sin, then punishes that sin (two steps
we can, perhaps, appreciate), but then, having shown the worthlessness of their
own choices, he does something we had no right to expect, in grace unmerited
and unearnable, he reaffirms the value of his own promises. He rushes out to
embrace one no longer worthy to be called his son, and hugs him and blesses him
and carries him home.
This
links into our final theme in Ezekiel, what it is to know God
"then
you will know” (over 30x). Having doubted God's existence or relevance,
conviction of sin and punishment reveal God to the exile. "When I punish
you, when I drive you from my land, when I destroy your idols, Then you will
know that I am God." And this clearly is one level of knowledge, people
around us here may know God as an angry, distant judge, but how much more is it
to know God as loving father. There is a beautiful progression, and a real
triumph when God finally writes, and when I rescue you, and redeem you, and
bring you home, THEN you will know that I am God. And when you are restored, in
the temple worshiping, then you will know that I am God! Lord, your love at
last has conquered! Having begun in grace and promise, the book ends in grace
and fulfillment. Just as we are saved by grace and live by grace, and it is
grace that takes us home.
Now
is the time for worship
The
last chapters of Ezekiel not only bring the exile home, not only focus on the
New Jerusalem, but come to rest in the new temple. What else could the resurrected
exile do but worship, where else could he be but in the Temple (“did you not
know that I must be in my Father’s house?”). And so, Ezekiel ends in the new Temple.
Why new? Because we are not the same people we were before we became exiles and
experienced the undeserved grace of God. Maybe we thought religion was about
obeying rules or being good. Now we have both failed the old religion, and been
given a new life in union with Jesus — how could worship be the same as it was?
And so we
come to the last verse! 48:35 "and the name of the city from that day
shall be, ‘The LORD is there’" The book of Ezekiel again ends with
the focus on what others see — a 
missionary heart for
the lost to the end. And that is how others see us — God is there - this truly
is our crown and our treasure and what separates us from others — "Christ
in you, the hope of glory", But if others name the city "God is there",
how do we, the exiles who have been forgiven and restored, how do we the
redeemed, name it? Not "God is there", but rather, "God with
us!! Immanuel!"
In
the book of Ezekiel, God searches out the sheep that is lost, and brings him
home. And that name of that home is Jesus.
John
14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you
to Myself, so that where I am, you may be also.
Revelation
22:3-5 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb
shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face;
and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there;
and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them
light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Let
us pray...
No comments:
Post a Comment