Be God's Family
S3 E40. Ezekiel’s Dramatic & Symbolic Warnings
This is the Begods Light podcast with Ben Greenbaum and Mark Elsasser and here in 2024 we've been taking a long look at the Old Testament from the beginning of the year up to right now and We've just come through the time been when the the people of Judah the southern Kingdom Have been exiled and along with them the prophet Ezekiel was exiled to go live in Babylon and that's where He did His ministry, you know, it's a interesting thing. I've been thinking about this a little bit These are the prophets were at least on their home turf With their people he was still with his people, but definitely not on his home turf. He was Exiled taking his prisoner taken away yet still spoke out for God. So it kind of adds a different context to it and He relocated to a new spot. You know as a pastor sometimes we take new assignments at new churches and there's a there's a learning curve in there like the lay of the land and People and where they live and what they do and What's important to the community around them and all those kind of things? So Ezekiel had some figuring out to do I guess along the way as you've Started off at new places from time to time here or elsewhere How have you kind of navigated that learning? The new ways and new place the new street names the whatever with GPS a lot easier than back in back in the day I first started ministry, you know, they'd say well, you want to get to my house go down to the old Jones barn Of course, it isn't there anymore and then take a right and go two and a half miles southeast You know, it's a cloudy day. I don't know what Sally's so that was in the mid-80s There's a maybe a little benefit now, but as you've done that. How have you navigated that? Getting to know the new lay of the land Yeah, my first priority anytime I go to a new place is to do my best to learn the names of people Which oftentimes sadly is one of the more difficult things for me to do Only getting to see people once a week or a couple of times a month and then trying to put names to faces But you know back in the day when I went to a new church Every church that I was ever at had a pictorial Directory and I would get the church to send it to me ahead of time So I could attempt to learn everybody's name to study up the funny thing for whatever reason I know the car that everybody drives And so it's this this weird I Don't understand it how my mind works or why it works in these ways, and I'm not like a big car guy I don't really but I know I could tell you pretty much What everybody drives even if I can't tell you their name. Oh, so would they come in you know, Mr Mazda, right that would be easy if they wouldn't be offended by that, you know, but yeah, that's that's typically It's trying to learn names and yeah, I get the lay of the land figure out different cultural idiosyncrasies and in one place Versus where I had previously lived and so for me moving from Louisiana to Indiana To Texas and then back to Indiana There were some major adjustments. Yeah, that's here in there. Yeah, right. That's some big cultural things Well, I don't know if Ezekiel memorized that The donkey they rode but he probably had some figuring out to do because as People were exiled and living in this new place. They weren't on the same street Or whatever that they used to live in in and around Jerusalem So they were in a new place and captivity and in a new nation Speaking their language but surrounded by others who were the ones in power who spoke a different language than them So there had to be some Some figuring out how to how to navigate that for good old Ezekiel and even I think for Ezekiel dealing with the grief of what is happening in Jerusalem and In the knowledge that Jerusalem will fall, you know, he's taken from Jerusalem as a part of what we would call the second of three exiles and And so even like it's not just for him like moving to a new place but dealing with the the grief and bearing the the grief of what's happening to his people as a fairly young Person being called into this ministry to go and preach to what God qualifies and Characterizes as a stubborn people. It's one of the he was like 25 I think when he was taken and about 30 when he was called so he had some time to figure it out But he was a young guy Yeah, yeah, some people even date him as being younger than that younger than that. Yeah And so he was and I think there about 10,000 Exiles taken when he was taken so it was a it was a big crowd That was on the march. I mean headed away So how young did some people think he was some people read the opening of chapter one when it talks about the 13th year Some people actually read that as being relative to how old he was to his age Okay, so he was he was a young guy whether it's 13 or 25 or whatever. He was a fairly young guy and he was called to Speak the truth to his people there. Not the Here in Ezekiel 4 we're gonna take a look at Ezekiel 4 and maybe some of 5 today, but he's He's talking about Jerusalem so he's reminding them of where they had been and the problems with their life and what the results of that Were based upon their sin in their life that they had had and we're just gonna pick it up at Ezekiel chapter 4 verse 1 Now son of man take a block of clay Put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it That's pretty fun, you know get a little dictionary action going on there then lay siege to it erect siege works against it against the block of clay build a ramp up to it Set up camps against it and put batting battering Rams around it. So I mean he's got this whole Lincoln log out of clay set built up around him. It's got to be quite a sight Then take an iron pan place it as an iron wall between you and the city and Turn your face toward it. It will be under siege and you shall besiege it This will be a sign to the people of Israel. So as you hear this story What's going on what what is it? How's God using Ezekiel to communicate to the people with this? Elaborate children sermon. Yeah, there's this physical representation which we see a lot We see we saw God do this with Jeremiah in some strange ways and we see it now with Ezekiel where God is having Ezekiel physically demonstrate the siege that is coming in 587 BC that what is gonna last for a couple of years, but the siege that is coming to to Jerusalem and it's gonna be Brutal Yeah, horrific. I talked about this a little bit in the sermon Here recently when we looked at the clothes of Jeremiah in the fall of Jerusalem that The siege last two years and we looked briefly at lamentations in the sermon Where Jeremiah describes the conditions in Jerusalem where he says that I think it's in lamentations for but where he talks about how even compassionate women have cooked their own children and so Yeah, so starvation is a you know, not having any food coming into Jerusalem for a couple of years All the storehouses are used up starvation is setting in people are dying of starvation and you have again as a Jeremiah would describe compassionate women cooking their children who had starved to death and so it's a horrific horrific Conditions on the ground so the the conditions that were really going to happen were much worse than this demonstration though the demonstration is pretty Interesting in verse 4 is equal for verse 4 God says to the prophet then lie on your left side and put the sin of the people of Israel upon yourself That's an interesting phrase right there. You are to bear their sin for the number of days. You lie on your side. I Have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the people of Israel so this guy Has to as this big demonstration going a huge block of clay and it depicts Jerusalem in the siege And then he has to lie in front of it on his left side for over a year I don't you know, it's like Rockathons or something you get breaks. So I suppose I don't know if he had to stay on the Time have you done a lot of rocket thons in your life? No, you don't you don't seem like the rocket-thon person No, you know, I have not I've just Studied up on them. Not really They were kind of a thing back in the days people were doing things like something a thon It seems like all the time. Well, they did do a dance a thon for Riley Hospital. Do they still do those? Oh, yeah? Every high school college. They all do them. Yeah, a rocket thon. Okay, that's the biggest sure you weren't you didn't take part In some big rocket thon at some point. No, no, I didn't but I do like a good rocking chair You've been one rocking chair, you know, a rocking chair. Yeah, it's there and just rock back and forth, you know Do your grandchildren look up at you did you look great and some look up at you and he's like grandpa Tell me about the good old days as he sits on your lap. He really should but I don't even have a rocking chair So how do you like that? Well, we need to get your rocking chair. Maybe so this guy's lying on his side and I mean, you know First of all, there's that's the soreness. I don't know how many hours a day. He did this. Give me insight into that I mean looks like all day all night for a year plus that this guy is Just his left his left side. Let's have some bed tours. Yeah, some grounds towards I guess they'd be called right Yeah, this would be painful. No doubt. I mean My own mattress. I I can't even imagine lying on my side With all my back issues So the deal is like he's doing this day-for-day month after month over your 390 days What's the point? He is revealing to the people of Israel how bad the siege is gonna be and He again. God is using this this image is a means to testify Against the people as odd as it seems to us But the whole of it is Revealing to the people how horrific this is gonna be and obviously emblematic of the sin that has caused Cause this to happen, you know, so this isn't one of those thing I mean God has been so merciful and so patient with the people over hundreds of years Constantly calling them back to himself in the midst of disobedience even prior to going into the land having warned the people That if they do not obey God's commands They will be exiled from this nation that God is providing them that God is giving them and it's not that God wasn't offering Forgiveness, it's just that the people persistently chose Unrepentant rebellion and now we've got Ezekiel here imaging for them because of their sin what's gonna happen to him Yeah, and so he's he's doing this After the northern kingdom of Israel had already been exiled to Assyria And I don't know if the people of Judah that had been taken away in this second of three exiles to people the southern kingdom of Judah We're looking at him. It's like, yeah, that's about Israel But we get to the next verse verse six after you have finished this lie down again this time on your right side Which had to be a welcome switch and bear the sin of the people of Judah the southern kingdom I have assigned you 40 days. He had to wipe his brow on that like whoo that seems like nothing 40 days a day for each year turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem and With bard arm prophesy against her that is against Jerusalem I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other and to have finished the Days the 40 days of your siege. So it's again demonstrating this like okay people of Judah you're not the hook like We're all and we're all the people of God the northern kingdom of Israel southern kingdom of Judah. We're all facing this because of some of the things took place There's you know, there's a number of different ways that these these 390 and 40 days get represented and in a symbolic thing I've read several of them with what they are and what they stand for Along the way. Do you have a final authority on that and with these days that'd be super helpful to me I got a big bag of nothing on it I will say, you know, you put it here in your notes But the fourth thing that you mentioned about it being completely symbolic that the number 390 in Hebrew has the same Consonants is the phrase the days of the siege. Yeah, it's pretty powerful in it. It is. It's pretty powerful. Yeah Yeah, I mean the The language is used a lot in the Bible in ways that just gets lost in translation So that's it's pretty cool. So there's a symbolic language saying this siege is going to be real. It's going to be a thing the good news is While he's on the on his side for all these days and weeks and months He gets some food that he gets the the bad news is well, let's just read it take Wheat and barley beans and lentils millet and spelt put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself That's cool. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side Way out 20 shekels. It's about eight ounces of food to eat each day and eat it at set times Also measure out a sixth of a hen that's about two-thirds of a quart of water So he gets eight ounces of food Two-thirds of a quarter water each day and drink it at set times eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread Who's got to bake it? Here's where it gets interesting bake it in the side of the people using human excrement for fuel So there he is, you know, he's on his side and his body's Going to have bodily functions. I'm guessing and so God's saying demonstrate this whole thing It's going to be this siege is going to be horrible and You need to let the people know and just how bad it is and Use human excrement. I take it to be his own To cook the bread that he's going to eat So it's good news that he doesn't have to starve death but This is like over the top but God is really wanting him to demonstrate something to the people just how horrible their sin is and The the discipline that's coming is going to be brutal The Lord said in this way This is verse 13 of chapter 4 in this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food Among the nations where I will drive them of course and there's all the kinds of Food food laws in the Old Testament and they're going to break all of them Just to survive As you mentioned earlier, I mean people eating their children and to him eat to eat food cooked over human excrement That's just that's just rough times God gave him a little bit of a break he complains about it and says listen, I I've never done anything impure so so God's In verse 15 says, okay, I'll let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human excrement like like that's better I guess So it's it's a better thing What what do you think's happening here in this? This part of the demonstration where God sees you get some food a little bit and goes on to says you know list I'm gonna cut off the food supply water's gonna be scarce. That's what all this demonstrates, but Why not providing a few Dicks to cook his bread. I think it probably serves to display a couple of things one The sin of the people the people have already defiled themselves Through their sin through their unrepentant sin through their rebellion And and also recognizing that in the midst of all of this one of the things that had happened in Jerusalem and in Judah Which Jeremiah had gone to the people had gone To the kings and urged them to wave the white flag of surrender to Babylon And so we saw that with jahoyah kim we see that later with zetakiah zetakiah who refuses and because of zetakiah stubbornness The people lined up suffering because zetakiah and the people refused to heed jeremiah's warning Which god gave to them and urging them to surrender because they did not surrender to the exile that was coming They are forced then to obviously endure the sheer terror of The of the siege itself Um, whereas in verse and in chapter four verse 16 and 17 in zickel, you know as you just said He then said to me son of man I'm about to cut off the food supply in Jerusalem the people will eat ration food and in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair For food and water will become or will be scarce They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because Of their sin. So we see the obviously the extreme conditions that are going to happen in Jerusalem that Ezekiel is imaging And we also see the absolute I mean just the complete breakdown of care and concern For one another Because they look at their neighbor And they see them they're appalled by them ultimately because their neighbor is In essence like taking food that they themselves need And so I mean the absolute just I can't even fathom how horrible the conditions were in Jerusalem. I mean how It's just it's gut wrenching to think about and it's also gut wrenching to think about it was all preventable all of it all of it all of it that they're so stubborn So refusing to listen to the word of god And if hardened their hearts so much to the truth of god that this is the path they chose They chose this God constantly seeks to lead them out of it. And yet this is the the way they go. This is what they have chosen I was just recently on a trip to Greece and turkey and and part of that journeys of Paul it was amazing and part of that we were on this Foremass sailing ship there were 160 people that were part of the tour plus the crew though quite a few people on board and one of the things of course they had to do was Give us the safety thing we bring out, you know our Life vests in case the ship goes down and all these things And get on get on the lifeboats in the proper way and all of that thing And so I turned to my daughter Lynette and I said so like everybody on this boats a Christian So would would we all drown because we'd say no you go first no no no you get the boat first You get the bet she says no dad If the ship's going down we turn into savages We elbow each other out of the way and get on the lifeboat first and I and I laughed and I thought yeah, you're probably right I mean sadly because When push comes to shove we do forget Who we are and who's we are and that's kind of what you're describing Here that's these people who had lost their way. God had been with them. God had I mean Everything we've studied in the Old Testament so far continually been for them and said follow me and They just said no I'll follow myself. Well and and part of that too with As you describe them following, you know themselves following their own hearts one of the aspects of that within within uh this whole situation is that um Is that there's these false prophets and priests who are constantly telling the people everything's going to be okay Don't listen to Jeremiah. It's all going to work out. God is going to rescue us And so they are the the false prophets are affirming the sin of the people saying God's good with you And then as Jeremiah and others have stepped in to say Things are not going to end. Well, you need to repent these false prophets Persistently are rejecting Jeremiah's word rejecting God's word And in telling the people, you know peace peace everything's going to be okay. And so as they are sitting uh Behind the walls of Jerusalem wasting away There are still those speaking into the community that God is going to rescue them Even as jerema is there calling them to surrender And instead again, I mean that's again That's one of those pieces of the narrative that flows throughout this is that the people are constantly making a choice They are choosing the false prophets. They're choosing Falsehood they're choosing disobedience even as God is patiently Constantly trying to call the people back to himself The good news in this is that after Lying down on his left side and right side for well over a year now I mean for Ezekiel, you know his his hair and his beard grown and and God says hey You can get a haircut now and get a shave and haircut So it's in chapter five verse one now son of man take a sharp sword and use it as a barber's razor To shave your head and your beard now dude Getting a haircut with a sword See seems a little bit risky then take a set of scales And divide up the hair so he's got his Hair from his head his hair from his beard. He's going to divide it up And this is when the days of your siege come to an end burn a third of the hair inside this little makeshift city that he has Take a third end of the hair and strike it with the sword all around the city so he's chopping it up And scatter a third to the wind toss it up and let it blow away For I will pursue them with drawn sword But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment Again take a few of these and throw them into the fire and burn them up A fire will spread From there to all Israel so like this is more some symbolism of the destruction. It's coming And he gives the reason over the next several verses in Ezekiel chapter five Let me just hit the the highlights here in verse six Her wickedness and her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and rejected my laws Not followed my decrees in in verse seven of Ezekiel five That you have been more unruly than the nations around you That's quite a statement because they were completely idolatrous and pagan and said you've been worse than them In verse nine because of your detestable idols I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again Ezekiel five verse ten therefore in your midst parents will eat their children and children will eat their parents I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds Therefore as surely as I live declares the sovereign lord Because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your vile Images and detestable practices. I myself will shave you So now they are the heir that he's done a third to third to third I will not look on you with pity or spare you Verse 12 a third of your people will die by the plague Or perish by famine inside you a third will fall by the sword outside your walls A third I will scatter to the winds the exiles and pursue withdrawn swords It's the strong imagery and as you just described earlier, this was their own doing They they've been told time and time and time again. This is not a safe thing to do I don't know if it's like telling a child Don't touch that hot burner and the first thing they want to do is check it out Or stay off the road and the first thing I do is go play ball in the street or or something, but it's obviously much worse They'd been warned over and over One god only the true god And they pursued not just false gods, but all the Horrible practices of the idolatry Why won't we listen? I know we've talked about this before but we have to keep asking the same questions to degree Because here we are. I mean centuries into this and they're still Failing why It's a human nature question. I mean, why are we like this? Yeah, there's obviously the element of our own depravity I do think that too often we become a byproduct of our cultural context of our circumstances So wherever you go, it is there's an aspect of human nature that like if you are in um Within our own context there's certain things that we're going to struggle with there's certain things that we're going to want to accommodate for Is the same way like, you know, if we go to India or went to Africa There's going to be other issues that are going to be a part of that culture That there's going to be a tendency to try to accommodate scripture too In fact, you you shared a little bit of that In a message that you preached a few weeks ago When you talked about the the things that you experienced in Zambia and some of the the issues there culturally that that play on interpretation of the word And how then the Africans see the us And the things that we clearly struggle with that they don't struggle with but the areas that we are more accustomed to accommodating The word to that's where we have to allow the word of god to stand outside ourselves as individuals to stand outside our culture To reveal to us what is ultimately true? What is god's moral ethic the the the ethic by which he calls is redeemed to people to reflect and to live by And if we're not doing that what we're going to do is we are going to make Uh, we're going to provide ourselves a permission structure to abide In our own culture Rather than abiding in god's kingdom and god has called us to be his kingdom ambassadors and too often we are tempted to uh You know as we would call syncretism, but we're too often prone to taking god's kingdom ethic and trying to mold it to the world That we live and we allow our world to make sense of god's word rather than allow god's word to make sense of our world Yeah, jesus called it the narrow way, right? I mean, it's It's tough it's tough to do to live our lives in such a way that we are following god's desire for us 365 days a year It's it's a tough tough thing to do And yet we're called to follow him. I mean when jesus said deny yourself Take up your cross follow me that denial Is a big part of this my own desires my own passions what I want what I look what what shiny what what everybody else is doing Has nothing to do with being a follower of god It's about what does scripture say and We've seen the people struggle with this here in this old testament study last year in the new testament study We saw the same thing and we have it today as you mentioned in our own culture and in the nations around the world Well, we'll get next time. We're going to continue with our discussion on profit is equal We have three of these so this is number one and the second one is coming up Next week. So you hope we hope you tune in and listen to that if you want to jump in deeper Go to our church's website fishers umc.org or the church app and then click on the be gods like Link and that'll take you to all kinds of elements in our year-long study You can find daily bible readings and devotions and poems as well as weekly sermons And other episodes of this podcast if you want to stay up to date with the be gods like podcasts We encourage you to rate and follow wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for listening today and make god bless [MUSIC]
Mark Ellcessor and Ben Greenbaum begin a three-week exploration into the prophetic ministry of Ezekiel, who ministered to the Jews during the Babylonian exile.