Lessons from Ezekiel: Captivity to Restoration

1. Lesson 5 Captivity, Return & Years of Silence Ezekiel 4:1 – 11:25

2. 70 yrs Important Dates To Remember 612 B.C. 606 B.C. 586 B.C. 539 B.C. 536 B.C. 520 B.C. 516 B.C. 483 B.C. 458 B.C. 445 B.C. 430 B.C. Babylon defeats Assyria 1st captives taken (Daniel & 3 friends) Judah falls to Babylon; captivity begins Medo-Persia defeats Babylon – Zerubbabel (temple) Prophecies of Haggai & Zechariah Temple completed Story of Esther (between Ezra 6-7) – Ezra (spiritual infrastructure) – Nehemiah (city walls) Prophecy of Malachi Today’s lesson… RETURN #1 RETURN #2 RETURN #3

3. Jeremiah – Daniel – Ezekiel: Timeline (B.C.) 640 627 605 593 586 571 536 Jeremiah Daniel Ezekiel 586 B.C.; Judah falls, Jerusalem destroyed

4. Lessons from Ezekiel 612 520 430 593-571 • In 593/592 B.C., the prophet Ezekiel receives his call to be a prophet. • Outline of the book of Ezekiel: • Chapters 1-24; Judgments against Judah and Jerusalem • Chapters 25-32; Judgments against the nations. • Chapters 33-48; God’s announcements of restoration and salvation.

6. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 4 612 520 430 593-571 • The Siege of Jerusalem, portrayed by Ezekiel: • Ezekiel told to lay a brick with depiction of Jerusalem; lay siege against it…. “this will be a sign to the house of Israel.” • Lie down on his left side for assigned number of days according to the years of their iniquities, 390 days. Then lie down on right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah for 40 days.

9. Combining grains to show the time when there will not be sufficient wheat for bread. • How was he to cook the bread? • Human Dung • Ezekiel protests and God relents. • Cow dung • “They will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and horror…”

10. Dung had to be prepared for cooking purposes

11. Dung from Cattle being used to cook with

12. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 5 612 520 430 593-571 Jeremiah 15:1-2 Then the LORD said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Such as are for death, to death;And such as are for the sword, to the sword;And such as are for the famine, to the famine;And such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.”’ • A sword against Jerusalem: • Ezekiel is told to cut his hair and beard: “therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. • Burn with fire 1/3 in midst of the city. • Strike 1/3 with the sword. • Scatter 1/3 in the wind. • 1/3 will die by plague / famine • 1/3 will fall by the sword. • 1/3 will be scattered to the wind

13. Why? • vs. 5-6 Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’

14. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 6 612 520 430 593-571 • Judgment on Idolatrous Israel: • Ezekiel is told to set his face “toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.” • These prophecies are addressed to the whole land and the people of Israel and its idolatry. The mountains and valleys were the seats of idol worship. • God will destroy the high places. • He will cast down the slain men before their altars. • Dwelling places and cities would be laid waste. • Idols would be broken and made to cease; incense altars would be cut down and their works abolished.

15. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 6 612 520 430 593-571 • Judgment on Idolatrous Israel: • Ezekiel is told to set his face “toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.” • These prophecies are addressed to the whole land and the people of Israel and its idolatry. The mountains and valleys were the seats of idol worship. “They will know that I am the LORD” (vs. 7, 10, 13,14) • A remnant will remain, escape the sword, and be scattered through the countries. • Those who escape will remember God because God “was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me.” • God would make their land desolate.

16. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 7 612 520 430 3-4 years before Judah is destroyed 593-571 • Judgment on Israel is near : • “Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “And you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel: ‘An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. Now the end has come upon you, And I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways, And I will repay you for all your abominations. My eye will not spare you, Nor will I have pity; But I will repay your ways, And your abominations will be in your midst; Then you shall know that I am the LORD!’” (vs. 1-4)

17. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 7 612 520 430 593-571 • Judgment on Israel is near : • A disaster (calamity), a singular disaster (one of a kind calamity), is coming….doom has come to you. • The day is near; My wrath will be shortly poured out upon you and you will be judged according to your ways; I will not show pity and will repay you according to your ways while your abominations are in your midst; “then you shall know that I am the LORD who strikes.” • Behold, the day…Neither the seller nor the buyer will rejoice “for the vision concerns the whole multitude, and it shall not turn back.”

18. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 7 612 520 430 593-571 • Judgment on Israel is near : • The warning has been sent but no one goes to battle. • “The sword is outside, and the pestilence and famine within. Whoever is in the field will die by the sword; and whoever is in the city, famine and pestilence will devour him.” • “I will bring the worst of the Gentiles (nations) and they will possess their houses.” • The wealth that they have accumulated is worthless. • According to what they deserve I will judge them; then they will know that I am the LORD!”

19. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 8 612 520 430 (Reminder: Its been 1year & 2 months since Ezekiel’s first visions. Year ~591 B. C.) 593-571 • Abominations in the Temple: • Zedekiah’s 7th year as king in Jerusalem. • Constant pressure for Zedekiah to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. • The time is drawing near when Zedekiah will heed those who advise alliance with Egypt. He will rebel and Jerusalem will be utterly destroyed. • This vision is an explanation of why God will allow the city in which His presence dwells to be destroyed.

20. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 8 612 520 430 593-571 • Abominations in the Temple: • Ezekiel is sitting in his house with the elders of Judah when he is taken in a vision to Jerusalem and the “glory of the LORD was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain…” • …to the door of the north gate where the idol of jealousy (an image of a false god provoking God to “jealousy”) was located. • “Do you see what they are doing, the great abominations…but yet you will see greater abominations.”

21. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 8 612 520 430 593-571 • Abominations in the Temple: • Ezekiel is taken to the entrance of the court…to a hole in the wall and digs through to an entrance. • “Go in and see the wicked abominations that they are doing…” • Every form of creeping things, beasts, and detestable things carved on wall all around. • Seventy elders standing in front of them with incense saying, “the LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.” • “…turn again and you will see greater abominations that they are doing”

22. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 8 612 520 430 593-571 • Abominations in the Temple: • Ezekiel is taken to the door of the north gate of the temple. • Women were sitting and weeping for Tammuz. • Tammuz may be identified with the god Adonis, or with the Egyptian god Osiris. • Reference to a god being killed by and evil thing, carried to the underworld, and then is restored to life. • The death of the god coincided with winter and his restoration to life with the spring. • They turned away from the true God and chose to worship a figment of man’s imagination.

23. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 8 612 520 430 593-571 • Abominations in the Temple: How can God forsake His temple and His city? It was no longer His. • Ezekiel is then taken to the inner court of the temple. • Twenty five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces to the east; they were worshipping the sun. • “Do you see this, son of man?” “My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

24. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 9 • The wicked are slain: • God calls to the executioners of the city, each with a destroying weapon in their hand. • One among them is clothed in linen with a writing case at his side. • The glory of the LORD went up from the cherub on which it had been to the threshold of the temple. He tells the one with the writing instrument to go thru the city and mark those who sigh and groan over the abominations being committed in the city on their foreheads. • To the others: go through the city after him and strike…don’t have pity…but don’t touch those with the mark.

25. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 9 612 520 430 593-571 • The wicked are slain: • Ezekiel falls on his face and cries out, “Ah, Lord God! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?” • The LORD responds, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great…My eye will neither spare, nor will I have pity, but I will recompense their deeds on their own head.”

26. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 10 612 520 430 593-571 • The Glory departs from the temple: • Ezekiel saw once again the firmament above the heads of the cherubim which he had seen in his very first vision… • The LORD speaks to the man clothed in linen and tells him to “Go in among the wheels, under the cherub, fill your hands with coals of fire from among the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” He did it as Ezekiel watched.

27. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 10 612 520 430 593-571 • The Glory departs from the temple: • “Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and paused over the threshold of the temple; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory. And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even in the outer court, like the voice of Almighty God when He speaks.” (4-5) • Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. (18-19)

28. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 11 612 520 430 593-571 • A warning of judgment…: • Ezekiel is taken to the east gate of the LORD’s house and saw twenty-five leaders of the people. These were the men who devised iniquity and gave evil advice and Ezekiel is told to prophesy against them. • He states that since they feared the sword, the LORD would bring the sword upon them. They will be delivered to the hands of strangers and they will execute judgments against them. “I will judge you to the border of Israel; so you shall know that I am the LORD.”

29. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 11 612 520 430 593-571 • A warning of judgment…: • One of the men (Pelatiah son of Benaiah) dies as Ezekiel is prophesying and Ezekiel is distraught, “Ah, Lord God! Will You make a complete end of the remnant of Israel?”

30. Lessons from Ezekiel; Ch. 11 612 520 430 593-571 • …and a promise of mercy: • Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.”’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”’ (16-17)

31. …and a promise of mercy: • “Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.” (19-20) • “So the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was high above them. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain, which is on the east side of the city.” (22-23)

32. Lessons for Today 1900 2000 2016 • Do we have “abominations” in God’s temple? 1 Cor. 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your bodyand in your spirit, which are God’s.”

33. Lessons for Today 1900 2000 2016 • How does the world react when calamities come upon us? “The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.” (Ezk. 8:12; 9:9) “And as for Me also, My eye will neither spare, nor will I have pity, but I will recompense their deeds on their own head.” (Ezk. 9:10) “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” (Gal. 6:7)