One study Bible I scoured for Ezekiel chapter 7 facts suggested that the Prophet here uses 5 “word pictures” to depict God’s judging Hand on the people of Judah! Here they are:

From the world of nature, verses 10-11. Judah’s sins had blossomed and budded and now ripened … and “reaping” time had come!

From the business world, verses 12-13. The Festival of Jubilee, which evened things between buyers and sellers every 50th year, would be ignored, abrogated, rendered null and void!

From the military world, verses 14-15. Even when summoned, the Jewish army would have lost their “will” to fight, their moral resolve!

From the world of animals, verses 16-18. Particularly the birds, “doves,” specifically “mourning doves,” weeping for their own sins!

From the world of capitalism, a good form of government, verses 19-21. A man’s own hard-earned possession will be valueless to him, in fact, he will throw them into the streets!

Wow!

But the verse that most struck me in today’s chapter, another whole unit of Judgment, is verse 24. Where we are told, God Himself speaking: “Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.”

Did you read that?

God was willing to use a Nation (probably) even more sinful than Israel … to “whip” His erring little Nation! “The worst of the Heathen!”

If (when) God picks up a “rod” to chasten one of His children, He does not require that it be a particularly “perfect” rod! Apparently … even a “vile, crooked” one will do!

“The worst of the Heathen!”

This truth is illustrated in the Book of Habakkuk as well. Yes, in Habakkuk 1:13 that Prophet wondered why the Lord God stayed “quiet” while … “when the wicked (Babylon) devoureth the man (Judah) that is more righteous than he?”

Could God use a nation much more vile than America (if one exists) … I mean an atheistic or even (seemingly) demon-possessed army of people … to destroy the United States?

Looks like He could!

At least, He has acted in that manner in the past!

Let me close with God’s words in Ezekiel 7:4. “And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.”

Somber indeed.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Babylon, the “worst” of the heathen?

Worse than Assyria?

Than Egypt?

Yes!

Therefore here we see the sad but inevitable downward progression of sin as the years unfold … not only among individuals, but among nations!

God does on occasion “personify” the land, giving it traits of life!

Ezekiel is asked to do that, in a way.

“And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward the MOUNTAINS of Israel, and prophesy (preach) against them, and say, Ye MOUNTAINS of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the MOUNTAINS, and to the HILLS, to the RIVERS, and to the VALLEYS; Behold, I, even I, will ….” Ezekiel 6:1-3

Maybe one more example, of the dozens in Scripture, the land here being “sick” … “The land is defiled: therefore I (the Lord) do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself  VOMITETH OUT her inhabitants.” Leviticus 18:25

In both the above situations the land is being vested with life in order to respond to some element in that awful thing called sin. The Ezekiel 6 Text (the mountains, hills, rivers and valleys) … the sin of idol worship specifically!

Jerusalem is about to be destroyed, by an invasion from Babylon!

Again I ask … Why?

Let’s allow the Lord to answer.

“Mountains … Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. And your altars shall be desolate, and your IMAGES shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your IDOLS. And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their IDOLS; and I will scatter your bones round about your ALTARS. In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the HIGH PLACES shall be desolate; that your ALTARS may be laid waste and made desolate, and your IDOLS may be broken and cease, and your IMAGES may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” Ezekiel 6:3-7, idol worship! Vile and repulsive!

The land “suffering,” (mass destruction, death) because of the detestable sins of its people, its inhabitants!

Wow!

I’m now even wondering if extended draught, raging fires, earthquakes and volcanoes, tornados, hurricanes, floods and the like … might be further manifestations of God’s displeasure on a land, on the wrongdoing of its citizenry?

I don’t always KNOW this, just thinking out loud.

Sin does bring judgment, that I do know.

But, wait a second.

What’s God’s “goal” in this devastation?

The last clause in verse 7 above hints at the whole issue: “And ye shall know that I am the LORD.”  The people have forgotten!

In fact, this clause or ones nearly identical occur 4 times in here Ezekiel chapter 6!

In verses 7 and 10 and 13 and 14!

God, jealously (though righteously) defending His Name … against a plethora of false idols!  ” … and they shall know that I am the LORD.

This string of words occurs dozens and dozens of times in Ezekiel!

God has Ezekiel put “sound” to the movements of the coming destruction! “Thus saith the Lord GOD; SMITE with thine hand, and STAMP with thy foot, and SAY, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.” Verse 11

Ezekiel, stomp you feet, sounding like approaching footmen, infantrymen, archers … armies!

Ezekiel, clap your hands, mimicking the sound of clashing swords, cutting into human flesh, killing My people who have so turned against Me!

Ezekiel, loudly cry “Alas,” meaning … “It’s settled, woe is on the way! Nothing can stop it now!”

Untold numbers of dead bodies, slain at the very places where they so loved to sin. “Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.” Verse 13, quite graphic!

Numbers 32:23 in action: “Behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.”

What a sobering Lesson today!

Does it have any applicability to the other God-rejecting Nations of the world?

Like the United States of America?

I strongly suspect so.

Let’s today … worship our lovely Lord, spurn anything that detracts from Him, and pray for this wicked world in which we live.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Preaching to the mountains!

As a young boy, no more than eleven or twelve years of age, I remember “play” preaching to the June Apple Tree near Grandmother Green’s house! I yelled out the “plan of salvation” pleaded for the lost to be born again … railed against sin … under the “cover” of that huge beloved vegetation. I did!

Little (back then) did I know that Ezekiel had beat me to it … preaching to creation, to nature!

I am amazed.

 

It’s another of Ezekiel’s required “action sermons!”

An “dramatized” parable!

“And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber’s razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair. Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them. Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts. Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.” Ezekiel 5:1-5

A haircut, as a sermon?

Ezekiel was to virtually shave his head and beard!

Then weigh all the hair, every strand of it!

Divide the whole into thirds, except save a small tuft which the Prophet was to “tuck” into his robe!

Burn a third of it.

Then finely chop of third of it with a sharp knife.

The other third, cast into the wind, to be scattered everywhere.

And even the “little bit” remaining, throw some of it into the raging fire!

Presumably now retaining only a few hairs (called a remnant) in the Bible, with whom God can rebuild the Nation!

All this comprises a prophecy, against Jerusalem.

(By the way, notice that Verse 5 calls Jerusalem the “middle” of the earth, which she IS geographically! “This is Jerusalem: I have set it ‘in the midst’ of the nations and countries.” Wow!)

In the (then) soon coming “attack” by the Nation of Babylon, Jerusalem did lose 1/3 of her people to fire. And 1/3 to the Sword! And 1/3 were scattered! And even the “leftovers” were taken into heathen captivity, as slaves!

Very few (relatively speaking) survived!

What was to Ezekiel a series of “future” events … now to us are “historical” occurrences!

Ezekiel obeyed God, acted according to His Word.

And the Jews, some of them, understood the Message.

Now today (maybe more clearly than ever) we can “see” how God used Ezekiel His Prophet to “illustrate” Truth, powerfully!

(Ezekiel as a Priest would have cringed at shaving his head, often a symbol of disgrace in Israel. Yet he did precisely what God commanded him.)

That’s called “obedience,” another thing the Jews around the Prophet needed to see.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

The rest of chapter 5 contains as strong an indictment against sin that I have ever read.” Like “She (Judah) hath changed My judgments into wickedness MORE THAN THE NATIONS, and my statutes MORE THAN THE COUNTRIES that are round about her.” Worse than her ungodly neighbors!

And verse 8, God speaking: “Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee.”

God’s Holy Anger: “And I will do in thee THAT WHICH I HAVE NOT DONE, and whereunto I WILL NOT DO ANY MORE THE LIKE, because of all thine abominations.” Ezekiel 5:9

“Therefore the fathers shall EAT the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall EAT their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.” Cannibalism, eating dead flesh!

Here’s God interpreting Ezekiel’s “sermon” … “A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.” Verse 12

Folks, God judges sin, unconfessed sin.

 

Ezekiel chapter 4 begins the on-going record of the Prophet’s “action sermons,” to quote another source.

It seems the people of Israel no longer can effectively “listen” to merely verbal instructions and warnings! Everything now must be visual! (A “video” culture more than an “audio” culture! And that’s exactly the way America is going too, quickly!)

So God asks Ezekiel to “perform” certain deeds, sort of a “dramatic” parable, perhaps.

“Object lessons,” many would call them.

I believe there are somewhere around 12 such “sermons” in the Book of Ezekiel. The precise number depends on the “definition” given these events.

God, in chapter 4, asks His Prophet to take a clay “tablet” and draw on its soft surface an outline, a “map” of the City of Jerusalem. Then he is to “pretend” he is an army attacking the City! (Symbolizing an event that WOULD OCCUR in just a few short years! When the Babylonians would virtually destroy the city!)

Then Ezekiel was to take an iron pan, and place it between him and the city (the clay model) … as if it were a barrier between the Preacher and the people, a “sign” of God forsaking a sinful, rebellious people. A “wall” between God and His children, because of their stubbornness! (Listen to Isaiah here: “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:1-2)

Wow!

Presumably people pass this bizarre scenario and ask (or wonder) WHY is this man acting in such a manner? Then the Prophet could “preach” the coming judgment of God upon the Land of Judah! (Do remember that Ezekiel is in Babylon, but he’s talking about Jerusalem.)

Next God has Ezekiel lay on his side and eat a near “starvation” diet for a total of 430 days! Apparently typifying the number of years Israel and Judah have been in a state of rejection, of refusal to fully obey the Lord!

That’s a long “mock” siege of a city, suggesting that God “counts” (“numbers”) every day we live in sin!

And the “diet” he was to eat?

“Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof.” Ezekiel 4:9, not a tasty portion!

God even told him how much he could eat! Only about a half pound a day (8 ounces). Drinking water along with the concoction.

Can’t live that way for long, a human can’t.

A sermon demonstrated … a warning ignored … a judgment that came!

And Ezekiel did all this … obediently … without a word of complaint!

Well, maybe one slight objection.

Which God honored!

God wanted Ezekiel to cook the bread, using human dung as fuel for the fire! “And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with DUNG that cometh out of MAN, in their sight.” Ezekiel 4:12

Herein Ezekiel protests, asking God for an “amendment!”

He, being a priest, would have been “defiled” by such contact with human excrement.

And God, lovingly and graciously, relented!

“Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.” Ezekiel 4:14-15, the Lord allowing cow’s dung instead, a common fuel in the ancient Near East.

Wow, again!

The sermon is saying, to the people of Israel …

Judgment is coming, violent enemy attack!

God is not going to help you, this time!

You will “pay” for your sins, having rejected God’s forgiveness!

You will starve for food in the process, siege warfare!

You will become a further defiled people!

End of Sermon!

Ezekiel chapter 4, go read it, every single verse!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

In this chapter we have a unique blend of God’s severity and God’s goodness! Judgment and Grace! His wrath falls on sin … His kindness falls on Ezekiel, God changing the fire’s fuel … just for His Prophet’s sake!

 

I need someone today to “evaluate” this lesson. I need some “input” from a few of you readers. Text me at 770-844-7627. Share a “comment” of some kind.

In our study of the Book of Ezekiel, unlike other series on the Website, it’s almost a necessity for one to read the chapter being discussed … in order to follow my comments.

Chapter 3 consists of 27 verses, primarily showing Ezekiel experiencing the Glory of God … a second time! An Event that was first reported in chapter 1.

The Prophet has many “dark” days ahead in his ministry.

Rejection, personal tragedy, spiritual warfare as well.

So … I think to buttress his faith … God repetitively appears to the Prophet, building a foundation of assurance that the Lord is faithful, always keeping His Word, His Promises.

“Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, BEHOLD, THE GLORY OF THE LORD STOOD THERE, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face.” Ezekiel 3:23

If one is going to serve the Lord over a long period of time, it is a necessity that he be positive about the One He so loves, about the Character and Essence and Majesty of his Commander!

Moses once asked to see God’s Glory as well. “And Moses said, I beseech thee Lord, SHOW ME THY GLORY. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” Exodus 33:18-19

Paul, I believe, saw God’s Glory the very day he was saved, Acts 9, on his now famous trip to Damascus.

John did as well, from the Island of Patmos.

We all (who believe in Jesus, who have trusted Him as Saviour) will see that Glory some day!

And when we do … we shall be changed!

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, ARE CHANGED into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18

Amen.

By the way, nowadays God’s Glory can also be “seen” via the pages of His Word!

By faith.

We learn something of the “Wonder” of God by means of the “Word” of God.

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Other chapter “nuggets” …

In verse 5 God classifies Hebrew, the language, as “not strange speech!” And “not a hard language!” I am currently reading a book on the history of the Hebrew tongue. Maybe that’s why I find this verse so captivating. God to Ezekiel: “For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel; not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand.” Ezekiel 3:5-6 (Hebrew may well be the “perfect” language” of all time. It may be the language of Heaven, of the Millennium! Read Zephaniah 3:9.)

Then in verse 15 Ezekiel the Preacher says: “Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.” Notice the words “I SAT WHERE THEY SAT.” What a wise thing to do, thus identifing with the people in their hardships and suffering. (Remember … “People don’t care how much you KNOW … until they know how much you CARE!”)

Another Lesson tomorrow, the Lord willing.