God Himself speaks today, using a “riddle.” Spelled “chiydah” in Hebrew, the noun means “a difficult question.” God also calls the chapter, Ezekiel 17, a “parable,” with “mashal” often meaning a “proverb.” (A “saying” that should have impact on how one leads his life!) “Mashal” as a verb literally means “to rule, govern.”

Having labeled His Speech, His Sermon, God proceeds with the story of “Two Eagles!”

One of which represents King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. God’s chosen instrument to “chasten” sinful Judah. The other eagle is Pharaoh, ruler of Egypt. The man God refused to use as a corrector of Judah, clearly not God’s “rod” at this time.

Get ready now, pure history: “Thus saith the Lord GOD; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours (Nebuchadnezzar), came unto Lebanon (Israel, Judah), and took the highest branch of the cedar (King Zedekiah). He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick (business, commerce); he set it in a city of merchants (Babylon). He took also of the seed (the ‘best’ of Judah’s citizens) of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree. And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.” Verses 2-6, Judah (the ten thousand or so already in captivity, her “intelligentsia,” including Ezekiel) being this “willow tree” and this “vine.” God wanted to measurably “bless” Judah, even in captivity!

And Judah should have submitted to this situation. Yielding to the “discipline” of the Lord!

But Zedekiah (the unwise King of Judah) refused to “submit” to Babylon, even though already living there in some freedom, being allowed some dignity! He turned (against God’s counsel, both from Ezekiel and Jeremiah) toward a supposed “ally” of Judah, Egypt … her Pharaoh, the second “eagle” in the chapter.

Zedekiah apparently broke a treaty he had signed with Nebuchadnezzar, a pact to peacefully live in this (ordained of God) foreign land. For “70 years,” Jeremiah prophesied. (Jeremiah 25:11)

Our verses continue: “There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers (Pharaoh): and, behold, this vine (Zedekiah as leader of Judah) did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation.” Verse 7, outrageous disloyalty to Nebuchadnezzar.

Which unfaithful (lying, sneaking) act brought God’s Wrath upon Judah’s leadership … even more furiously than earlier! Not keeping one’s word! God explains this better than I can, this insurrection. ”

But he (Zedekiah) rebelled against him (Nebuchadnezzar) in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they (the Egyptians) might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? Shall he escape that doeth such things? Or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?” Verse 15

Therefore … “Shall it (Judah, the vine) prosper? Shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? It shall wither in the furrows where it grew.” God’s “whipping” obstinate Judah, her king anyway … even when Judah was already being “whipped!” Oh, how slowly we sometimes learn God’s lessons!

Yes, here God hates oath-breaking! “As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king (Nebuchadnezzar had placed Zedekiah on the throne, in the first place), whose oath he (Zedekiah) despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him IN THE MIDST OF BABYLON HE SHALL DIE. Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company make for him in the war (no help from Egypt, not a bit), by casting up mounts, and building forts, to cut off many persons: seeing he (Zedekiah) despised the oath by BREAKING THE COVENANT, when lo, he had given his hand (signed the treaty with Babylon), and hath done all these things, HE SHALL NOT ESCAPE.” Verses 17-18, and Zedekiah did ultimately die in Babylon!

God in politics!

Plus all this, one more assault on Jerusalem and Judah will yet occur, in 586 BC, where nearly all the remaining Jews will be deported to Babylon!

What a dark chapter!

The “wages” of sin!

Until … its last three verses!

And there we get a glimpse of brighter days ahead!

Of Jesus!

“Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar (Israel), and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one (the Messiah), and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent. In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it (He, Jesus) shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell (protection). And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it.” Verses 22-24, the Messiah Jesus!

Picturesque language!

Jesus, God’s “tender one.”

Jesus, the “low tree” exalted!

Jesus, the “flourishing tree” now!

Jesus, coming again!

Wow, after all those eagles and kings … Good News!

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Folks, I remember reading this chapter time and time again as a teenager, wondering “What does this all mean?” Well, today I think I finally have a better “grasp” on God’s “parable” of the two eagles! I have enjoyed you all studying with me this Saturday morning in June. 

 

Ezekiel 16:35-63 presents us with two “poles” of human existence! Two “opposites.”

A nation (Judah by name) being far from God, VERY FAR, verses 35-59.

And that same nation, suddenly, being made close to God, VERY CLOSE, verses 60-63.

Wow!

Alienated …  due to her sins, iniquities for which she has no desire to repent, and … for which she is to be judged!

And Ezekiel, wordsmith that he is, paints some precise pictures.

In the ancient Near East, when a man divorced his wife, he often took her out in public somewhere and stripped her of all her clothing! To expose her, shame her, illustrate that he no longer is her provider, no longer her protector! (Or so the “Manners and Customs” experts are telling me.)

Watch God toward Judah in versed 37: “Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover (“galah” in Hebrew = “to uncover”) thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.”

Wow!

Does this paragraph sound like “judgment” for sins? “And I (the Lord) will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy. And I will also give thee into their (Judah’s enemies) hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place (the Temple), and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare. They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords. And they shall burn thine houses with fire.” Ezekiel 16:38-41, attack!

And by verse 44 Ezekiel has “liberty” for sure! Now he uses a “proverb” current in that day. “Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying … AS IS THE MOTHER, SO IS THE DAUGHTER.”

Whereupon Ezekiel says Judah is living like (really WORSE than) her Mother, who was a rank heathen! A “Hittite” Ezekiel says, a reference to Abraham’s idolatrous background, his Father Terah’s anyway. Or to the disobedient intermarriage in Judah’s past that partly led to such blatant sins in the first place.

Then God introduces us to Judah’s two “sisters.” One is Israel, the ten tribes (or sons) of Jacob. Also called “Samaria, Ephraim,” the northern kingdom that was captured and scattered by the Assyrians in 721 BC. Due to their sin, I might add.

Judah is like her! No, “more sinful!” See verse 47. “Thou wast corrupted more than they (the 2 sisters) in all thy ways.”

And Judah’s second “Sister?”

Surprise!

It’s “Sodom,” says the Lord!

Judah is committing sins worse than Sodom!

“As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.” Verse 48, amazing, startling!

God then here lists the sins of Sodom, specifically. “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination (here is the homosexuality) before me, therefore I took them away as I saw good.” Verses 48-49

Severe judgment for sin! God talking again, to Judah: “I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.” Verse 59, sort of “chastening” Judah … until she “breaks,” until she comes to the point of repentance.

Yet …

God is (in his Grace) going to some day “forgive” these recalcitrant people!

“Nevertheless I will REMEMBER MY COVENANT with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee AN EVERLASTING COVENANT. Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters (even GRACE for Samaria and Sodom) thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant (rather, by God’s covenant). And I will establish MY COVENANT with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.” Verses 60-63, precious!

Then chapter 16’s last verse: God “pacified!” The verb is “kaphar,” meaning “atoned!” Better yet, “reconciled!” Or even “appeased!” Read it: “That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I AM PACIFIED toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.” The Bible truly is Book of Forgiveness!

Because God is gracious!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

The Lord willing, tomorrow we leave behind this longest chapter in Ezekiel (16) … and look at a story about an “eagle.” Chapter 17, of course.

 

Debbie and I drove home last night, arriving here at 4:00 AM or so. In order to get me on the road to tonight’s Revival (actually in Hoschton, Georgia) Meeting.

For that reason today’s Ezekiel Lesson will be posted tomorrow morning, the Lord willing.

The rest of today (Thursday) I will be driving to the motel an then preparing to preach this evening.

Hope ya’ll understand!

We love you in the Lord.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

By the way, Ezekiel’s 16th chapter ends (verses 35-59 of it, anyway) with the theme of “judgment” upon sin!

God judging the Jews?

What about the even more wicked Babylonians?

Or the heathen Egyptians?

Then I remembered!

God ALWAYS begins judgment among His Own (when they are erring, wayward, backslidden) people!

“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the HOUSE OF GOD: and if it first begin at US, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” 1st Peter 4:17

But WHY would the Lord chasten us?

Because He loves us!

Because He wants us to grow into more holiness!

Revelation 3:19 … “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”

Wow!

Maybe I did share a short Lesson, after all!

 

The first fourteen verses of Ezekiel chapter 16 tell an extremely lovely story! It is discussed in our previous lesson, in some detail. But … it’s the next nineteen verses that hold our attention now. Not a lovely story!

The Jewish Nation (technically Judah but called Israel occasionally as well), after being the recipient of all God’s lavish love and provision … TURNED against her Lord!

Forsook His tender care, rejected His Love … and rushed headlong into sin, idolatrous sin, adulterous sin!

Here are some facts …

The Beauty God gave her … she ungratefully claimed as her “own!” And used it to “lure” foreign lovers into her life! This refers to both false gods and goddesses … and the religious prostitution such debauchery included. “But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.” God talking in Ezekiel 16:15, where “renown” is the good reputation God had bestowed upon His people. Look at that clause: “His it was!”

Furthermore, Judah took the precious clothes God had showered upon her and used them in idol worship! “And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon.” Verse 16, sin gone rampant!

Everything God had shared with Judah … she prostituted to idol worship! Look at the list, of God’s composing: “Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them, and tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them. My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.” Verses 17-19, God keeping “score.” Everything from jewelry to fancy coats to olive oil and incense! Even her food, fine flour and such! All offered in idol worship!

Maybe verses 20 and 21 are even worse. Child sacrifice! “Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?” Babies, burnt alive to a heathen fiend! And Israel did this, Why? To be just like the other nations around her! Peer pressure? Note God Almighty just called them (the slain little ones) “My children.”

How soon Judah “forgot” God and His Kindness! (God knows when we do not remember Him!) “And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou HAST NOT REMEMBERED the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.” Verse 22, go back and read yesterday’s lesson if you are not familiar with the story. God saved Judah’s life, rescued her!

Scripture continues, Ezekiel right now merely being the recorder: “And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;) that thou hast also built unto thee an eminent (high, lifted up) place, and hast made thee an high place in EVERY STREET. Thou hast built thy high place at EVERY HEAD OF THE WAY.” Idol worship in every street, verses 23-25. Pervasive heathenism!

A “word picture” now, perhaps graphic, but true. “Thou (Judah) hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.” God knows all our doings!

Then God “lists” her lovers, the nations from whom Judah has imported her numerous gods and goddesses and vile practices. In verse 26 the “Egyptians.” In verse 27, the “Philistines.” God suggests that the Judahites were so filthy that “the Philistines are ashamed of thy lewd way.”

Wow!

Then the “Assyrians,” verse 28. “Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.” She could not stop from sinning! Reminds me of 2nd Peter 2:14, “Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls.”

In verse 29, Israel infamously sinning “from Canaan to Chaldea!” Hundreds of miles!

In verse 30 God calls her “bossy, controlling, assertive!” Read it: “How weak is thine heart (includes the mind and will), saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious (domineering) whorish woman.”

Wow!

Then in verses 31-34 God notices that Judah (who has so flagrantly played the harlot) does not even expect money for her fornications! (Like a “normal” harlot would do!) No … Israel pays her lovers to be wicked with her! Verse 33 is representative: “They give gifts to all whores: but THOU givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and HIREST them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.” Plain, but it’s God’s Vocabulary.

So sad … such dirty acts from one whom God so loved and protected through her early years of (national) life. Jehovah God’s “wife” behaving in such a way! See if you can hear God’s “broken heart” in this verse, 32. “But (Judah conducts herself) as a WIFE that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!”

But do not worry.

God will judge her for her sins. Remedially, at that!

That, in fact, is tomorrow’s lesson.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

I have through the years preached the first 14 verses of Ezekiel chapter 16, several times I recall. But today’s swath of that chapter, verses 15-34, never! So, I have learned this morning! (Well, I pre-studied it late last night after I had preached.) I speak merely for myself … this Ezekiel study is quite profitable in at least two ways. I am being challenged to live more godly … and I am simultaneously learning the Scriptures!

Let me hear from ya’ll occasionally, too!

 

 

Yes, in Ezekiel the shortest chapter (15) is juxtaposed to its longest chapter (16), an unusual situation. From an empty, fruitless vine … to a poor sinful woman! Yet both Units describe the horrors of sin!

And chapter 16 also tells a story, on top of the heavy theological freight it carries! Yes, it truly has a “plot.” A “trajectory,” revealing all the “ups” and “downs” in the life of the Nation of Judah, of Israel.

Today we can only discuss the first part of the chapter, essentially the first 14 verses. (Then things take a turn for the “worse!” To be studied tomorrow, Lord willing.)

A “word picture” reigns again! (I read one published preacher/teacher late last night who called Ezekiel the Prophet the “master of metaphor!”)

Verses 1 and 2 answer the basic questions; “Who, Where, Why,” etc.

“Again the word of the LORD came unto me, Ezekiel, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.” Wow, the word “abominations” (in the plural) occurs in our chapter 8 times! And in the singular (“abomination”) one more time! It means a “thing disgusting” to God! That makes the Lord “sick!” That God literally “hates!”

Now, we already know the “tone” of the chapter.

Yet it starts “sweetly,” and could have stayed that way … had Jerusalem only obeyed God.

Next, the Jews’ “background,” as a nation mind you. “And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.” Verse 3, referring to the lifestyle of Abraham’s clan prior to his meeting God, his salvation. He was a rank “heathen!” Think: “Ur” of the Chaldees.

Let me insert Joshua 24:2 here. “And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.” Wow, proof.

However, there are other Bible scholars who feel God may be using holy “sarcasm” here. As in: “Jerusalem, they way you’re living you must be a blasphemous Canaanite, without knowledge of God! Surely you have the worst lineage, most wicked, in all creation!”)

Either way, verses 4-5 continue with the biography. God to Judah: “And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.”

Talk about “no man cared for my soul!” (David’s lament in Psalm 142:1 … “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” So sad.)

No one loved Judah, as a baby. At her birth, no one cut her umbilical cord! Or bathed her messy little body! Nor salted (to remove wrinkles, they believed) and wrapped her little body, for warmth and security!

She was, in fact, thrown out into an open field, abandoned to die! (Many thousands of little girls were treated this way in antiquity! They wanted BOYS, back then.)

But … God entered the picture! “And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.” Verse 6, wonderful! And when God says, “LIVE,” mark it down … something comes alive! In fact, He says it twice in this single verse!

I am right now thankful for the day He said to my lost soul, “LIVE!” The day He saved me, the day I trusted Him to wash away my sin via the precious Blood of Jesus!

But God is not though … watch with me as this little “girl” grows to maturity, a picture of Jerusalem and her people. “I (the Lord) have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.” Verses 7-8, quite beautiful wording of a sensitive subject, I think.

God watched her grow into a (beautiful) young woman!

And when she reached the age of marriage, God proposed to her!

To spread a skirt (robe) over an eligible young lady meant to take her under your wings, protection, provision! (Think Boaz and Ruth here!) Gives new meaning to Psalm 91:4, in my heart. “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and UNDER HIS WINGS shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” The Lord, my Husband!

Wow!

Now in verses 8-16 God gives an overview. What He’s done for Jerusalem, even down to her wardrobe! “Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.”

Clean!

Anointed!

Shoes!

Quality clothes!

Splendid (royal) diet, food!

Pristine reputation!

Sheer beauty!

How GOOD God was to his people!

Folks, all this is a “picture” of what God did for us when he saved our lost souls!

I’m “Shouting,” at least down inside … as I sit at this keyboard this morning.

God’s Grace!

What an example!

The Lord willing, more tomorrow, Ezekiel 16. But the story “turns” next, you’ll soon see. Oh, how we ought to hate sin, its devastating effects.