Be God's Family
S3 E41. Ezekiel: Pack Your Bags
This is the Be Gods Light Podcast with Ben Greenbaum and Mark L. Cessar. Back in 2022, we spent an entire year looking at the life of Jesus from the Four Gospels. And in 2023, we explore the rest of the New Testament acts through Revelation. So if you want to pick up any of those, you can go find them. Here in 2024, we've been looking at the Old Testament since January 1, all the way up to now. And we are now at the Prophet Ezekiel, who is prophesying to the people in exile. The folks around Jerusalem were taken away to Babylon. I think modern day Iraq were the territory that they were taken. And they were being taken away. This Ezekiel was taken in the second round, a wave of exiles. We know that Daniel was taken in the first round, about 605 B.C. And then Ezekiel in the second wave, along with 10,000 other people and 597. And then 11 years later, or something like that, as 586 B.C. I think that the final conquest took place. And they just leveled everything, the temple, the walls, the city, and took the rest of the people away. So this was a really rough time parade, Ben, that was going on these 20 years of time. Right in the middle of that is when Ezekiel was called. And he had to be stunned. We talked last time a little bit about whether he was a boy at 13, or a young man at 25, or something else. And scholars try to figure those things out. Nonetheless, he was growing up when it was rough sledding to be in the homestead. I mean, he watched the first wave take place. Either as a little boy or as a young boy, young man. And then he's part of the second wave of exiles taken out. And it had to be devastating. I don't even have a context for it because I've never been in a war-torn country. Never lived in a place that's been through that. What did that do to his psyche? Do you imagine like he's growing up and is watching neighbors and homes and conquering armies and all these things. That's taking place right around him. It's wild to think that the entirety of his life, I mean, the whole of his life, he was either under threat. When he was living in Jerusalem, he was either under threat by the Assyrians or the Babylonians. And then to be carted off into exile into a foreign land with these rebellious people. It's hard to imagine what Ezekiel's life would have been like to have lived under constant threat. And to be, you know, raised as a priest. And to be amongst, it's not only that he was dealing with outward threat or outside threats from Assyrians or Babylonians. But the priesthood at this time is absolutely, I mean, it's just a bed of immorality. I mean, that's the most of the priests at this time. There are a few that are faithful. And one of the things that God chastised, we see in the prophets, God chastising the priest within Jerusalem for their lack of faithfulness. And so Ezekiel having to grow up in the midst of all of that can't fathom that. Yeah, and these priests and leaders, they thought a lot of themselves. In fact, they thought they were unconquerable because they were the priests of God's chosen people. And so therefore nothing bad could happen to them, even if they were bad. We see that in Ezekiel 11, let's take a look at some of Ezekiel 11 today. And verse one, it starts in, "Then the Spirit lifted me," this is Ezekiel speaking, "lifted me up and brought me to the gate of the house of the Lord that faces east." There at the entrance of the east gate were 25 men, and I saw among them, "Jazania," that's a pretty cool name, "Jazania." If you could have had a son what you've named him, "Jazania," that's a pretty cool name. Son of Ozor and a couple of other dudes. And they were leaders of the people. The Lord said to me, "Son of man, these are the men who are plotting evil and giving wicked advice." There are some of the leaders in the city. They say haven't our houses been recently rebuilt during the first wave of exiles? Things were kind of ruined. They had some time. They have handful of years to rebuild their houses apparently. And then they said, "This city is a pot, and we are the meat in it." When I first read that I thought, "These guys are really in touch with their sin. They're the meat inside the pot, and they're going to get cooked." But that's not what they meant, is it? They were thinking, "Where do the choice meet?" You throw away the scraps, you throw away the gristle, you throw away the little pieces of bone that might be in there, but the choice meet gets kept, and we are the meat. Is this how you read them, their view of themselves, and what they look at? Let me just jump to verse 7 and let you respond to it. Verse 7, "Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord said, "The bodies you have thrown there are the meat, and the city is the pot, but I'll drive you out." You guys are the gristle. You guys are the problem. You know what no one wants to eat. He goes down to verse 11, "This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat in it." It's a really interesting metaphor that's being used there with meat and a pot, and all these things that are inside of it. I think as I look at it, how I read it is they thought, "We're all that, and back to chips. We're something else." We're untouched, but we're the leaders of the city of God, and look the evidence. Our houses are being rebuilt. We're good. It's a dangerous way to think of themselves. How do you read what's going on here in this little pot of meat story? One of the things these leaders, they are representative of the people themselves, and one of the Jeremiah and Jeremiah 29 talking to the group that had been exiled earlier prior to the final exile. Jeremiah sends this word. God sends this word through Jeremiah to those exiles who are already in Babylon, and one of the things that he warns the exiles is basically, "Don't allow your leaders. Don't allow the false prophets. Don't allow these evil priests to tell you what you want to hear." What they want to hear is that everything is going to be okay. Our houses are being rebuilt, and we're all going to return home sooner than we think. We see it's amazing when you look at the whole of Scripture and how all of these pieces of these different books fit together in the overlap, especially when we look at these prophets who are contemporaries of one another. Even though they're dealing with different groups of people, ultimately, separated by hundreds of miles from one another, there are things that Jeremiah is prophesying and sending letters to the exile community, and Ezekiel is hearing this stuff firsthand. And so how the Scriptures all fit together is just amazing to me. It testifies to God's divine hand upon it. But this is exactly what Jeremiah warned against, was that the people want to hear that everything is going to be okay. We're going to be led back to Jerusalem sooner than we think. Our houses are being rebuilt. We're the choicest of all the meats because God exists for our good pleasure. He loves us no matter what, everything's going to be fine. He affirms us just as we are. There's going to be no more discipline God's going to call us home. It reminds me of a little story that was last summer that we were having our family over for a cookout, and Lisa accidentally bought vegetarian hot dogs, didn't notice it, and didn't read it on the label and just cooked them up, and then set them out there. And our son-in-law Robbie, he just started munching on it, and he ate it down. He was eating it, and a few moments later his wife, our daughter Paige, took a bite and she goes, "This is terrible. What is this? What have you given us?" And so Lisa gets up and looks at the package and says, "Oh my goodness, I didn't realize that there's no meat in these whatsoever. There's something else." And we said, Robbie, why did you eat the whole thing? Well, I didn't want to be rude. It was a great moment. We still laugh about it. Sometimes we can be fooled, right? There's no such thing as a hot dog with choice meat. Hey, be careful. Nathan's hot dogs, which are purely kosher, are pure beef hot dogs, and they are top-notch. This episode is brought to you by Nathan's hot dogs. That's right. We could get them as a sponsor. That would be awesome. It's an amazing thing. It might cut down on our Jewish listeners, but we might do well with that. The image that's used here is you might think you're that. You might think you're pretty amazing, but hold on. You're a vegetarian hot dog. You're a vegetarian hot dog. People are going to spit you out of their mouths. This episode is not brought to you by a vegetarian's United. There's another story here in Ezekiel 12. This guy is like, he lives out his messages. He's not a man of words. He's a man of action. He's just doing them time and time and time again. Let's take a look at that in Ezekiel 12. The word of the Lord came to me, Son of Man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see, but do not see, and ears to hear, but do not hear. But they are a rebellious people. Therefore, Son of Man, pack your belongings for exile, and in the daytime, as they watch, set out, and go from where you are to another place. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious people. During the daytime, while they watch, bring out your belongings packed for exile. Then in the evening, while they are watching, they're going to watch the sky all day, go out like those who go into exile. I slumped over. I don't know. While they watch, dig through the wall and take your belongings out through the hole you make. Put them on your shoulder as they are watching and carry them out at dusk. Cover your face so that you cannot see the land, for I have made you a sign to the Israelites. Another powerful image here in Ezekiel 12 of what God says is going to happen. The wall is not going to protect you. The wall is going to be breached, and you're going to walk right through the rubble as you are exiled into a foreign land. You know, I just looked at this bin, I think, story after story, episode after episode, all these things that Ezekiel and Jeremiah and all these other prophets have done and spoken throughout all the years. It ought to get somebody's attention, and I'm sure it did. I'm sure it got some people's attention, and some people repented, and some people turned to God in this, but it seemed on balance that the vast majority maybe laughed at him. I don't know. Like, this guy is crazy man that's out here doing all these little episodes. First he's lying on the side, and then he's cooking his food over dung, and now he's running around packing his bag. You know, like all these different stories that he's doing these weird, weird things, and maybe they just kind of looked at him like that, but it wasn't like he was the first person ever to do this. After a long line of other prophets that we've talked about this year, the folks still aren't listening, and I look at this. I think I'm just a bit, I'm sad, because I know that we still live in similar kinds of ways where we refuse to listen to the warnings that God gives us about being faithful to him, obedient to him, but to follow him with our lives. It seems to be an age-old story, so when people say, "Get the Old Testament there," and it's not really relevant to the New Testament or not really relevant to my life today, I don't know how you can come to that conclusion, because I look at this and say, "Sometimes a good warning is needed to call us to get right with God, to turn from our evil ways, to turn our pace toward God." And yet, most of them didn't, did they? No, no, they persisted in the rebellion, and again, one of the parts or pieces of this is it's not simply God promising that his discipline is coming, that he is going to allow the Babylonians to come in. With that message, there's this constant message from God where he is extending his mercy to them, where he's graciously, constantly pursuing them, extending his arms to them, basically saying, "Come and experience my embrace. Come and experience my forgiveness. Come and experience my love." But rather than enter into the loving embrace of God's arms, they have chosen the way of the world in rejecting him." And that's the part of this when you look at it, that's so grievous, the part of ministry that I'm often grieved by, when confronted by those moments when we're confronted by those who do, who ultimately decide, discern, that they are going to chase after the things of this world, rather than rest in God's embrace, rather than entrust themselves to the redemptive love of a God who will not fail them, who is going to love them for all of eternity, and rather than living out of that belovedness, rather than cherishing the preciousness of God's grace to them, they will take that grace for granted, they'll harden their heart against God's redemptive love, and choose to go their own way. Let me have you read this out of Ezekiel 11, the passage that's sandwiched in between these two episodes, the one episode that we began this discussion with where the pot of meat story, and then the pack your bag story, and then in the middle of that, it conveys the sentiment you're talking about, where God says, "Look, I'm not going to abandon you. Even through all of this, I'm going to be with you." And some of that passage there, some all of it, whatever you want to do, Ezekiel 11, the latter part of it, read out some of that forcing and give us your insight about what God is saying to these rebellious people. Yeah, if we just start at verse 10, I'll just kind of go from there, but he says, "You will fall by the sword and I'll execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel, then you will know that I am the Lord. God's intent in all of this is that they will know that He is the Lord." And then he says, "This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat in it. I will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord. For you have not followed my decrees or kept my laws, but have conformed to the standards of the nations around you. They have adapted God's law. They have what we might say contextualized God's law to the nations around them, where they have adapted the law to the nations. And yet God's point in all of this is that you will know that I am the Lord." And now he continues and he says, "Now as I was prophesied, a palatiah son of Beniah died, then I fell face down and cried out in a loud voice, a last sovereign Lord will you completely destroy the remnant of Israel." And one of the pieces with throughout all of the prophets, there is this promise of judgment if the people do not repent, but there's also this constant promise from God in the midst of judgment, in the presence of judgment, that He is going to redeem the people. And so even in Jeremiah 39, when they're being carted off into exile, there is this promise that God is going to bring them back. Earlier in that initial letter that we talked about a little while ago from Jeremiah 29, where He sends this letter to that initial round of exiles, at the end of that letter, there is the promise that God is going to bring them back, that the people will rent their hearts back to God. They will listen to God, they will hear His word, they will pray and cry out to Him, they will repent, and God will bring them back. And so God's pursuit of them is to draw them back into relationship with Himself, recognizing that true wholeness is found, bound up in our relationship with the Lord. And so God wants us near to Him that we would experience His belovedness, that we would know of His forgiveness, that we would yield ourselves to His will and desire, which is good, right, and whole, and that we would glorify Him. We are most complete in life, when we are living for God's glory, and so God is going to do everything out of love that He can as a father disciplines a child, so God will discipline His children, that we would come into deeper, more intimate relationship with Him. And so even in the presence of what we see is this horrific event with the siege in the fall of Jerusalem, where God has pretty much told the people, "Look, if you want the ways of the world, I am going to, I'm going to just remove my hands from it, and I'm going to allow the Babylonians to do what the Babylonians do, and the Babylonians have done this to all these other nations. You want to be like all the other nations, have at it, see how that works out for you. And then in the midst of that, God's intent is that as they see life truly without God, that they will repent and return to Him, which is what He has promised will happen. And He has guaranteed this redemptive presence. You can hear God's heart in this as He's speaking out of the people, because as Ezekiel 11 goes on, they get a little judgmental toward the ones that have been exiled, and maybe depressed and say, "Look, they're not even in the Promised Land anymore, they're not near the Temple." And God says in Ezekiel 11, verse 16, "For a little while, I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone. They're far from the land, the Promised Land, they're far from the Temple. God said, "I am their sanctuary." And then in verse 17, this is what the sovereign Lord says, "I will gather you from the nations, and I'll bring you back." That's a promise. That's a Jeremiah 29 promise as well, but that's a promise, right? That I will bring you back from the countries where you've been scattered, and I will give you back the Land of Israel again. It's going to be a generation or so. It's going to be a bit, but you're going to come back. And then I love this, and this is so great, and Ezekiel 11, verse 18, "They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols." I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them. I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh." It's a beautiful picture of, even though all of this has happened, and they are facing discipline, and they have been sinful. God said, "I'm not abandoning you. I'm going to bring you back." It may be the next generation down the road, but I'm going to restore the people, and then to give them a new spirit and to give them a heart of flesh, give them an undivided heart. It's God saying, "I'm going to do all this so that you can give me yourself. Be fully for me." And it's a picture of how God is with us, and how He lives His presence in our lives. I know people sometimes think, "I've failed so badly, and I've walked away from God, and I've ruined my life, and a ton of other things." Everyone needs to know that God has not left you. God has not abandoned you. God wants you. He desires you. And even in that, to know that God is pursuing you, He is coming after you. This is a beautiful picture, isn't it? That He has done that. We'll wrap this up in Ezekiel 11, verse 22. Then the cherubim with the wheels beside them, you've got to go back to Ezekiel chapter 1, all this to get all that. They spread their wings, these angels spread their wings, and the glory of God of Israel was above them. The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. It left Jerusalem. The glory of the Lord. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia, in the vision given by the Spirit of God. Then the vision I had seen went up from me, and I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown me. I look at this passage bandit, and I think, what's going on here? And earlier in the book of Ezekiel, the glory of the Lord left the temple. And it left Jerusalem. And so you think, okay, God has abandoned His people, right? Well, wait a minute. The people also had left the temple. The people had been exiled out of Jerusalem. They had been taken east toward Babylon. It looks to me like the glory of the Lord is going with them. And even in exile, God had not abandoned them. Did the image of the glory of God leave the temple in Jerusalem? Yes. Did that mean God left His people? No. He actually went with them, traveled with them, not contained inside of a building, which is why earlier we just said, God said, I'll be their sanctuary. And that's so reminiscent of the book of Revelation. In eternity, there's no temple. There's no need for light. God is our temple. God is the light. I mean, it's this beautiful image of God saying, no matter how deep the hole you think you've dug or how far back in the cave you think you are, I'm with you. For anybody out there today who thinks that somehow, someway, you have failed God to such a point, or you have sinned to such a point that God, that God's grace can no longer be extended to you. That's not how God works. And so his grace is on ending, his love is immeasurable, and know that he loves you, know that he is calling you back to him, that you would experience his forgiveness, that you would taste of his presence. And so he's got his arms extended. The only question is, is will you accept his embrace? Mm, beautifully said. Hey, brother, would you would you close this one in prayer, or anyone who might be ready to make that decision in their lives. Father, thank you for this time, and your book of Ezekiel, and I pray that you would redeem everything said in this podcast that would be for the sake of your glory and that you would communicate in ways that Mark and I couldn't begin to communicate. And so for anybody out there today that is wrestling in the relationship with the Lord who believes that they have failed him to such a degree that there is no grace remaining for them. I pray that the Spirit would come upon them that they would know, Lord God, the infinite depth of your gracious love to know that you are pursuing to know that you are calling them back to yourself to know that in you they will find forgiveness because their forgiveness is not bound up in their actions, but bound up in Jesus Christ. And so I pray that they would come to know Christ to know him intimately to know of your loving kindness to know of your forgiveness, or God to know father of your forgiveness. And so, and for all of us, and our moments of trials and tribulations and our moments when we ourselves have not been faithful when we have willingly exercised disobedience. I pray that rather than running from you, Lord God, we would run to you knowing that your arms are always extended to us, and you're always calling this back to yourself. and we pray. Amen.
Mark Ellcessor and Ben Greenbaum continue a discussion on the prophetic ministry of Ezekiel, who ministered to the Jews during the Babylonian exile.