Good morning! Let me open us in a word of prayer. Father, we’re grateful for just a new year, a fresh start. We’re reminded of your Scriptures which say, all things have become new and so I do pray that you would be with us, as a church and also be with us as individuals as we enter this new year. I pray that your purposes would be executed in all of our lives and in our church in this coming year and we don’t take what we have for granted. Many people thought that they would see this new year but have passed on but you’ve given us this fresh start and so help us to live for you in these last days in the year 2022. We’ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory we ask these things in Jesus name and God’s people said, Amen.
Alright! Well, happy New Year to you all! And since it’s a new year, I thought we start a new study. If you could take your Bible and open it to the book of Ezekiel chapter 1, and verse 3 (Ezek 1:3). So we’ve sort of completed, I think, seventy three lessons is enough, our study on the rapture or maybe it was seventy four lessons, I don’t recall; and I wanted to sort of pick something else to study to keep the emphasis on prophecy, because that’s the subject everybody has all these questions about right now, eschatology, the study of the end, that’s probably one of the hottest topics in Evangelical Christianity, especially in light of everything happening in our world. So what we’re going to do today is commence a study called “The Middle East Meltdown” and basically what we’re going to be doing is we’re going to be going through the book of Ezekiel, don’t panic, not the whole book. Although it wouldn’t be a bad idea. We’re going to be looking at Ezekiel chapters 36 through 39, because those are the chapters in Ezekiel’s visions that I think are in play right now. We don’t believe these prophecies are being fulfilled now, but if you want to see the hand of God aggressively setting the stage for the end time scenario, there’s no better place to look than Ezekiel, 36 through 39; and so what I’m going to do today is maybe we’ll get into Ezekiel, 36, or maybe not, cause what I wanted to do was I wanted to kind of give you an introduction really, to the book of Ezekiel and once you understand the background of the book of Ezekiel, you’ll know exactly what chapters 36 through 39 are doing there in his prophecies. 4:14
So when you look at Ezekiel chapter 1, verses 1 through 3 (Ezek 1:1-3), here’s what it says: It came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month… Notice the precision in terms of dating… while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God… And oh my goodness! Did he ever? Verse 2 (Ezek 1:2): On the fifth of the month in the fifth year of King of Jehoiachin’s exile, the word of the LORD came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there the hand of the LORD came upon him… So this verse here really gives you a nice background to the whole book of Ezekiel. You’ll notice the expression first of all, “Exiles”, so as I’ll explain in a minute, he was one of our two exilic prophets. You’ll notice this expression “Ezekiel, the priest”, verse 3 (Ezek 1:3) and when you understand that he was a priest, then all of a sudden, a lot of the things that he writes about and why he’s focused on them and why God would disclose certain things to him, start to make sense. Ezekiel chapters 40 through 46, gives us probably the most in depth treatment of the millennial temple that you have anywhere in the Bible. Ezekiel, 8 through 11 describes the first temple that Solomon had built sometime back and was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; and why would Ezekiel be so focused on the temple, well he’s focused on the temple because he is a priest; and that’s sort of the way Bible interpretation works. For example, Peter in his two letters (1st Peter and 2nd Peter) talks more about the flood than any other New Testament writer and that would make sense because Peter was a fisherman and he likes water. As you’re reading the book of Acts, you’ll see the scene there in Acts chapter 1, it talks about Judas’ suicide and how his body tumbled off a ravine and one of the sharp rocks tore Judas open and his intestines gushed out, says Acts, 1; and I’m reading that in Acts, 1, and I say, why does it talk to me about intestines? Well, it makes sense when you understand that the author of Acts was Luke, who was a physician. Oh! That’s why he’s talking about intestines. He’s a doctor, he likes talking about stuff like that. You have other examples of this kind of thing happening. Matthew, for example, talks more about monetary denominations than any other gospel writer. In fact, only in Matthew’s gospel do you discover a story where Jesus and Peter go fishing and they catch a fish and they open the fish’s mouth and inside the fish is a coin and Jesus said to Peter, use this to pay the temple tax. Why would only Matthew include that story? Well it makes sense if Matthew is a tax collector. So the more you understand who these people are as individuals, the more you understand why God tailored His work through them via different visions and things like that. He did it based on their occupation, because God is not just the author of the Scripture, He’s also the author of people’s individual temperaments, gifts, experiences and God uses all of these things in the Bible. 8:36
So this is what we call the dual authorship of Scripture. We believe God is the primary author of Scripture, He is the Author, capital “A”, but He is superintendent upon human authors, little “a”, and guided them as they wrote His words in the original manuscripts without error; and what you’ll discover with God is when He used these people to write His word, He didn’t override who they are. He used who they are in terms of their gifts, life experiences, skills, temperaments and so forth. So the fact that Ezekiel is called a priest, suddenly, you start to understand why he talks about the temple so much. So he’s one of the exiles and he saw visions and he was a priest and he saw these visions by a particular river in Babylon called the Chebar river.
So essentially, what happened to the nation of Israel at the time of Ezekiel is, Judah had been taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar and deported 350 miles to the east and it’s in that time of exile that God raises up two prophets. One is named Ezekiel, and does anybody know the name of the other? The other is Daniel. Daniel and Ezekiel, had their visions in the exile. Probably around the close of the… roughly around the 6th Century, I should say. One of the things… Oh! By the way, he mentions the Chebar river.
If you look at that map here, I think I got this from Gleason Archer, and your eyes are real good, you probably can’t make that out, but there’s the Chebar river in Babylon, where Ezekiel had these visions that we call the book of Ezekiel. One of the things about Ezekiel, and you probably saw this as we were reading verses 1 and 2, the chronology. Thirtieth year, fifth day of the fourth month. Verse 2, fifth month of the fifth year of the king. He is very detailed in giving you a chronology. He records with great accuracy, not only the visions that God gave him but he records with great accuracy, when he received those visions. So here is a chart that might be helpful because it takes all of Ezekiel’s visions and it puts them all into a chronological time frame; and we know this is the chronology because Ezekiel is very careful to give us all of the dates when he had major visions; and you’ll notice that the book of Ezekiel is basically chronological. It starts in 593 BC and ends in 573 BC and you’ll find that all of these dates that Ezekiel gives are in a chronology from beginning to end. The only ones, that are a little out of order, are the prophecies related to Egypt. But other than that, it’s pretty much an airtight chronology from start to finish. Ezekiel is explaining what happened to him. 12:11
So on the far left hand column, you can see the basic date. His first vision happened July, 31st 593 BC and his last vision took place April, 28th 573 BC. So he had a ministry that went about twenty years. Daniel’s ministry was much longer. Daniel’s ministry started around 605 BC and didn’t end till around 536 BC, so Daniel had a seventy year, roughly, ministry. Ezekiel’s ministry takes place in the same general time period as Daniel’s ministry but Ezekiel had a shorter ministry of about twenty years; and when Nebuchadnezzar came, finally, to take the remaining southern kingdom of Judah into the Babylonian captivity, Nebuchadnezzar didn’t come all at once. He accomplished the fall of Jerusalem in three waves; and if you don’t understand these three waves, then the book of Ezekiel will never make sense to you.
So I need to go over these three waves. The first time Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came and remember the children of Israel and Judah particularly, were warned over and over again, if you don’t change your ways and go back to the Mosaic Covenant, you’re going to be taken into the captivity; and of course they maligned the prophets, Judah did, and finally it was too late to repent and God sent Babylon, just like He said He would do, to take Judah into captivity; and so, the guy that’s doing it is Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and he comes against Judah not once, not twice but three times. 14:14
The first wave took place in 605 BC and you can read about that in 2nd Kings, 24, verse 1 (2 Kings 24:1), Daniel chapter 1, verse 1 (Dan 1:1) and the reigning king on the throne at that time was a man named Jehoiakim. So the last three kings over Judah, as this Babylonian captivity is taking place, are (1) Jehoiakim, (2) Jehoiachin. In fact, back here in Ezekiel chapter 1 and verse 2 (Ezek 1:2) you’ll see the word Jehoiachin. So that would be king number two. Jehoiakim, king number one. Jehoiachin, king number two; and then Zedekiah, king number three; and you say, well, how in the world can I keep my Jehoiakim’s and Jehoiachin’s clear in my mind? Well, there’s an easy way to remember that, just remember that ladies go first. So Kim is kind of a lady’s name. So Jehoiakim comes before Jehoiachin. Now, is that totally corny? Yes, it is, but the fact to the matter is, now even a year from now, you’ll be able to keep it straight because I told you that. So, wave number one is under Jehoiakim, 605 BC, and this is where Nebuchadnezzar comes and he doesn’t come for everybody in Judah, he just comes for Daniel and some of the princes and that’s where Daniel chapter, 1, kicks in. That’s when Daniel and his friends, we know them as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego; that’s where they come from, their Hebrew names are, let’s see, Hananiah, Azariah and what’s the last one? Mishael, thank you! And Daniel’s name was Daniel and king Nebuchadnezzar takes them and renames them. Daniel’s name becomes Belteshazzar and those three Hebrew youths become Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar comes and he gives them Babylonian names. Why does he do that? Because in the Bible, if you name something, you own it. That’s why Adam is given permission in Genesis, 2 to name the animals, because God is giving Adam jurisdiction over the animals; and so Nebuchadnezzar is basically saying to these three Hebrew youth and Daniel, I own you; and the rest of the book of Daniel, God will explain to Nebuchadnezzar, no, you don’t. But he thinks he owns them. So Nebuchadnezzar comes in wave number two and he comes for Daniel, the three Hebrew youths, there were probably others. They were mere teenagers and what is Nebuchadnezzar doing? It’s an ancient strategy. You come for the best and the brightest first. You come for the smartest first and then you brainwash them. That’s why there’s all this information in Daniel chapter 1, about, you know, educating them in the ways of the Chaldeans and so forth; and the reason Nebuchadnezzar is doing it this way, is he understands that if he gets the best and the brightest on his side, at the get go, so to speak, at the beginning, then they will talk the rest of the population of Judah into peaceably cooperating. So the brainwashing of the youth is not something that’s new to us. This is actually something that Nebuchadnezzar employed as a policy; and that’s why he’s coming after them as teenagers. He wants to brainwash them, he wants to get them on his side so that they will use their skills to talk the rest of the population into peaceably, you know, cooperating. 18:45
So Daniel and his three friends, as teenagers, have to stand for God in a pagan territory under a pagan king at risk to their own lives; and this then becomes a great chapter in the Bible for our own youth today in 2022, who are under the exact same pressure. The Bible is living and active, right? And what Nebuchadnezzar did then is basically what Satan is doing now. This is why Satan is trying to get control of the whole educational system, get control of the teacher’s colleges, because he’s trying to take an entire generation and get them to think the way he thinks; and then when they move into their positions of influence, into adult life as lawyers, scholars, politicians or whatever, then they will do Satan’s bidding, because Satan got hold of them when they were very, very young by separating them from their parents and putting them into a form of compulsory education. So as Solomon said, there’s really nothing new under the sun and so when your youth, your children and your grandchildren are in this position, you have to teach them Daniel chapter 1 because Daniel chapter 1, is an explanation of how these three Hebrew youths and Daniel stood for God as very young people. So Nebuchadnezzar came in wave number one in 605 BC under Jehoiakim and he took Daniel and some princes. Then in 597 BC Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem a second time. You can read about that in 2nd Kings, 24, verses 10 through 16 (2 King 24:10-16) and actually we just read about it in Ezekiel chapter 1, verses 1 and 2 (Ezek 1:1-2); and the reigning king of Judah in siege number two was not Jehoiakim but Jehoiachin, cause Kim comes before Chin, Amen? And that’s where Nebuchadnezzar came now for Ezekiel and the majority of the population. They were probably about ten thousand people that were deported from the land of Israel, 350 miles to the east in Babylon and so Ezekiel is taken in wave number two. Then, Nebuchadnezzar comes a third time in 586 BC, you can read about that in 2nd Kings, 25, verses 1 and 2 (2 Kings 25:1-2). You can read about it in Ezekiel, 33 verse 21 (Ezek 33:21) and the reigning king over Judah during siege number three was a man named Zedekiah and this is where Nebuchadnezzar came and he captured the remnant and he took the city of Jerusalem and the temple and totally destroyed it; and this is where you find fitting into biblical history, the book of Lamentations, which is a lament. Most people believe Lamentations was written by Jeremiah and he was so sad that the whole city had been destroyed and the temple had been taken apart. But right in the middle of the book, Jeremiah inserts the facts that God’s mercies are new what? Every morning. So if God was faithful in His prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, doesn’t it stand to reason that God is going to be faithful in His prophecies concerning the restoration of Jerusalem and the restoration of the temple. 22:46
So it’s in 586 finally, with Daniel already taken into captivity in 605, Ezekiel, already taken into captivity in 597, it’s finally in 586 BC that the city of Jerusalem and the temple are completely destroyed. So the thing to understand about the book of Ezekiel, and if you miss this point you kind of get lost in the whole book, but the key point to understand is, by the time Ezekiel starts receiving visions from God as one of our two exilic prophets, 605 had already happened; 597 obviously had already happened. But 586, siege number three hadn’t transpired yet; and the community that Ezekiel is prophesying to, they don’t think that 586 is going to take place, they think they’re just in Babylon for a short time and they’re going to be coming right back out of Babylon and they’re going to be going back into Jerusalem and they’re going to continue on with their daily lives. After all, we’re going to be back to normal soon. Boy, does that sound familiar? After all we just need two weeks to flatten the curve; and that’s kind of what Ezekiel is dealing with. He’s dealing with these people that really didn’t think the captivity was going to be that big of a deal; and Ezekiel starts to prophesy and he says, it is a big deal, you’re not going back anytime soon, you might as well get comfortable here in Babylon as a captive; and he has there in chapters 1 through 24, all of these visions, basically explaining the guilt of Judah, explaining why 586 is coming and in fact, they deserve it and he’s dealing with people that are kind of puffed up with a lot of optimism. They think there’s not going to be a long captivity and he’s saying, it’s going to get worse, cause 586 is going to happen and once 586 happens, you’re going to be very, very dejected. So, essentially what happens right around the middle of the book is Ezekiel, then gets word that Nebuchadnezzar has started the siege. 588 is basically the proper date and so the final siege has started and the moment Ezekiel gets word that the final siege under Nebuchadnezzar has started, it shifts his ministry. He’s no longer prophesying about deserved judgment on Jerusalem and the temple. It shifts his ministry where he begins to talk about judgment on the surrounding nations and he does that for about two years. Then, and this is around chapter 33, he finally receives word that Nebuchadnezzar has finished the job. 586 BC has happened, the city of Jerusalem is now totally destroyed, the temple is now totally destroyed; and now he’s dealing with an exilic community that’s no longer filled with false optimism. Hey! We’re going to just return very soon, he’s no longer dealing with that, he’s dealing with very, very dejected people. He’s dealing with people now that have lost all hope and so beginning in chapter 33 through chapter 48, that’s where his ministry shifts and he starts getting new content of visions from God explaining how God’s purpose in God’s timing is to restore the nation of Israel; and it’s interesting that Ezekiel, doesn’t start talking about that until the people are ready to hear it and they really weren’t ready to hear it as long as there was a functioning temple in Jerusalem, because they saw that as sort of a false hope that they were going to return very quickly from the captivity. But now that hope is decimated. Now that hope is gone. Jeremiah, you know, is writing the book of Lamentations at that point and the community is so down and they’re so discouraged and then Ezekiel in chapters 33 to 48 says, it’s not over yet, because God still has a future for the nation of Israel and he doesn’t get to that until chapters 33 through 48. 27:51
So the key thing to understand about the book of Ezekiel, is when Ezekiel starts to prophesy, number one has happened on the screen, number two has happened, but number three hasn’t happened. But once number three does happen, then Ezekiel begins to talk about restoration. So you can take the book of Ezekiel and you can divide it into thirds.
Source: Charles Dyer, Notes on Ezekiel
The first part of the book is chapters 1 through 24, God’s judgment on Judah and there Ezekiel is dealing with false optimism. The community thought they were just going to return very fast and Ezekiel says, you’re not coming back anytime soon, you deserve to be under God’s condemnation; and he spends 24 chapters through different visions talking about it. But then in 588 BC, he gets word that Nebuchadnezzar has started the siege and that shifts his whole ministry in chapters 25 through 32, where now Ezekiel is no longer prophesying concerning judgment on Judah, he’s prophesying about judgment on the surrounding nation. So that’s part two of the book, chapters 25 through 32; and then finally Ezekiel gets word that Nebuchadnezzar has finished the job in 586 BC, the temple and Jerusalem are destroyed, the whole community is dejected, he gets word of that in chapter 33 and so from chapter 33 to chapter 48, it shifts the whole tone of his ministry, where now he begins to talk about the restoration of the nation of Israel. The book of Ezekiel is laid out symmetrically and unless someone gives you this big picture, you’ll get into the book of Ezekiel and you’ll get lost in all kinds of interesting details very, very fast.
What happens at the beginning of the book of Ezekiel is repeated at the end. So chapters 1 through 24, judgment on Judah is symmetrically parallel with chapters 33 through 48 where Ezekiel is predicting blessing on Judah. So chapters 1 through 24, judgment on Judah, chapters 33 to 48, blessing upon Judah. Ezekiel is commissioned in chapters 1 through 3, to preach what? To preach judgment on Judah. Ezekiel, is recommissioned by God in chapter 33 to preach what? To preach restoration on Judah. Now, in chapters 1 through 33 his mouth is closed for he can’t talk and the only time he talks is when God touches his mouth and gives him permission to talk. Other than that, his mouth is completely closed; and that’s how the community can know, Gosh! When this guy opens his mouth we’d better pay attention. You know, it’s like that EF Hutton commercial, right? When EF Hutton talks people listen and when Ezekiel talks you’d better listen, because they’re probably thinking, this guy’s crazy, this stuff is never going to happen; and you know God is speaking through him when he’s prophesying in chapters 1 through 24 cause the man can’t talk unless God allows him to talk. So the fact that he’s talking is basically a divine occurrence and so you’d better pay attention to what he says. So his mouth is shut in that sense in chapters 1 through 24, but in chapters 33 to 48, God touches his mouth again and it’s opened. 32:13
So you’ll notice that what happens at the beginning of the book is sort of symmetrical to what happens at the end of the book. In chapters 1 through 24, the Shekinah glory of God leaves the temple. You remember, Solomon built the temple in about 966 BC and when he built it, the Shekinah glory of God entered it and so that temple has been functioning all of this time and then just before Nebuchadnezzar destroys it, the Shekinah glory of God Ezekiel sees from Babylon in a vision, he sees the Shekinah the glory of God leaving the Solomonic temple, just before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it; and you’ll see that happening in Ezekiel chapters 8 through 11, the Shekinah glory of God departs. But then, as you move to the far right hand side of the chart, when Ezekiel begins to describe the millennial temple, in his prophecies of restoration, he sees the Shekinah glory of God doing what? Reentering the temple. So again, what happens at the beginning of the book is repeated at the end. Shekinah glory of God leaves, chapters 8 through 11 and then you get to Ezekiel 40 through 46 and the Shekinah glory of God returns. So it’s a very, very interesting book in the sense that what happens at the beginning of the book is repeated at the end of the book. What happens in chapters 1 through 24 is sort of recapitulated but in the opposite sense in chapters 33 through 48; and the fulcrum, that balances the two, is chapters 25 through 32, which is his judgment on the nations. So that’s sort of what keeps the book in balance, that’s the fulcrum; and then the only other thing to understand is the things happening at the beginning of the book are repeated at the end of the book. Now, I have to be honest with you, until my professor Dr. Charles Dyer, who I was privileged to study prophets under, at Dallas theological seminary, until he came into class one day and put this chart up on the screen, I had no idea on how to understand the book of Ezekiel. I knew parts of it, but I didn’t understand how the whole thing fit together and so, this is why we say one of the things to understand before you dive into a book is to get the big picture down or else you spend your time studying the veins on the leaves of the tree, that you forget what the forest looks like; and that’s what I was doing for many, many years with the book of Ezekiel cause so much of it was interesting, but I really didn’t know how to put the whole picture together. So the section of material that we are looking at is not in section one. The section of material that we’re looking at in this study is not in part two. But the section of material that we are looking at is in part number three, chapters 33 through 48.
Source: Charles Dyer, Notes on Ezekiel
That’s the section of Ezekiel, particularly 36 through 39, that is in play, I believe right now. I believe God is aggressively setting the stage for the things that are being described in Ezekiel 36 through 39. But before we get into all that, I wanted you to understand how Ezekiel 36 through 39 fits into the big picture. It’s not part of the prophecies of judgment on Judah, it’s not part of the prophecies about judgment on the nations, but it is part of the prophecies that Ezekiel received when the exilic community was dejected because 586 BC under Nebuchadnezzar had happened; and the whole tone of Ezekiel’s ministry shifts where he begins to talk about future restoration. That’s where you have chapters 36 through 39, which we’re going to be studying. That’s why those chapters are in your Bible. 36:43
If you look just for a minute at Ezekiel, 14, and if you look at verse 14 (Ezek 14:14) for a minute, you learn that Ezekiel knew about Daniel, cause remember Daniel was taken as a teenager in 605 BC, Ezekiel was taken by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC. I mean, you would think that those two prophets would know each other, they are both exilic prophets and I don’t know if the two of them had some kind of one on one relationship, but I do know this much, Ezekiel was aware of Daniel and one of the reasons Ezekiel was aware of Daniel, is Daniel was a man of great reputation, because he kept putting the Lord first and the Lord kept supernaturally delivering him, as you read all the way through the book of Daniel. Ezekiel had some sort of awareness of who Daniel was, and if you look at verse 14, you’ll see him describing Daniel. He says: Even though these three men, Noah, Daniel… That’s our guy… and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only deliver themselves, declares the Lord… And here Ezekiel is saying that Judah has gone so far down the road of rebellion against me, that her judgment is inevitable, God says; and not even Noah or Job or Daniel, not even their prayers could stop what’s coming in 586. So notice that Ezekiel believed in Noah, believed that he is a historical figure, he believed that Job was a historical figure and then he also believed that Daniel, probably his contemporary, was a historical figure and he knew Daniel by way of reputation and actually incorporates Daniel’s name into his various visions. If you drop down to verse 20 (Ezek 14:20) you’ll see a second reference to Daniel, same chapter: Even though Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they could not deliver either their son or their daughter. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness… So there’s your second reference to Daniel in Ezekiel’s writings and if you go to Ezekiel chapter 28 and you look at verse 13, you’ll see a third reference to Daniel in Ezekiel’s writings, actually not verse 13, verse 3 (Ezek 28:3) and of course, as I turn there, Daniel’s not in that verse, is he? What is he in? All I hear is a ton of numbers… 28, verse 3, okay! there we go. Oh! Right in front of me. Alright! Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; There is no secret that is a match for you… So Ezekiel apparently had some sort of awareness of who Daniel was. One on one relationship? We don’t know, but he knew of his reputation and his reputation was just as sterling as Job’s reputation was all the way back in patriarchal times and Noah’s reputation was all the way back in pre flood times. 40:38
So I hope some of this background is helpful to us, as we’re starting to look at part three of the book, prophecies of Israel’s restoration and we’re not looking at everything in that section, we’re only going to be focused on chapters 36 through 39. So here is sort of a big picture message that I have for the book of Ezekiel and with any book of the Bible, if you can summarize in a sentence what the book is about, you’re so far ahead of the game. I mean, you should have or you can develop, I should say, this might be a good New Year’s resolution, a one sentence summary of the book of Romans, a one sentence summary of the book of Revelation, a one sentence summary of Ezekiel, and this is what we call… call it developing the message of each book of the Bible. So I think the dominant message of the book of Ezekiel is as follows:
Ezekiel’s Message
God’s prophecies of impending judgment and ultimate restoration afflict the comfortable through the removal of false sources of security (1–24) just as they also comfort the afflicted through reminders of the ultimate destruction of God’s enemies (25–32) as well as the glorious future of God’s people (33–48).
God’s prophecies of impending judgment and ultimate restoration afflict the… and look at that, I’ve got “afflict the” twice there, so pardon me for that repetition… God’s prophecies of impending judgment and ultimate restoration afflict the comfortable through the removal of false sources of security (chapters 1 through 24) just as they also comfort the afflicted through reminders of the ultimate destruction of God’s enemies (chapters 25 through 32) as well as the glorious future of God’s people (chapters 33 through 48). So it’s been said that the job of a preacher is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. In the first third of the book, part one and even into chapters 25 through 32, as the community is under a delusion that we’re just going to return very fast from Babylon and get back to business as usual, Ezekiel’s job is to afflict the comfortable and he keeps saying, it’s not going to get better, you’re not going back and in fact, in just a few years the whole city and temple are going to be destroyed. Then, everything Ezekiel says would happen, happened; and by the way, if Ezekiel’s short term prophecies happened with such precision, can you trust the rest of the book? I mean, the rest of the book is going to be fulfilled just as literally as well. So one of the reasons, I believe, that everything in chapters 33 through 48 will be fulfilled, is everything he said would happen in chapters 1 through 24 was literally fulfilled in their own lifetime. But once Nebuchadnezzar destroys the city and the sanctuary, now the community is totally down, they’re totally dejected and now Ezekiel’s job is not to afflict the comfortable but to comfort the afflicted; and it’s in that final section, that he begins to give all of these prophecies as the Lord is giving those to him concerning the restoration of the nation. So the material that we’re looking at in our study is in that third section where the afflicted are being comforted. 44:19
So let’s take section number three and let’s sort of divide it up into chapters to get a better understanding of it.
Ezekiel 33‒48
As you look at Ezekiel, 33, Ezekiel is recommissioned. Why is he recommissioned? He’s recommissioned because now he’s preaching restoration and he’s no longer preaching judgment; and look very carefully at Ezekiel, 33, look at verses 7 through 9 (Ezek 33:7-9) and if you understand verses 7 through 9, you will understand the philosophy of ministry at Sugar Land Bible Church. It says there in verses 7 through 9: Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them warning from Me. When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you will surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand… Verse 9: But if you on your part warn the wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your own life… God made Ezekiel, a watchman on the wall and he was told to proclaim exactly what God said and God says to this… says this to Ezekiel, if you do what I say and they don’t listen to you, then that’s their problem. On the other hand, if you don’t do what I say and you don’t reveal everything I’ve told you to reveal and they die in their sin, then God says to Ezekiel, I’m coming after you cause you’re the watchman on the wall. This is said not just once in the book of Ezekiel but it’s said twice. Go back to Ezekiel chapter 3 and look at verses 17 through 19 (Ezek 3:17-19). God says the exact same thing to Ezekiel earlier in the book when Ezekiel is told by God to preach judgment. Look at verses 17 to 19 Ezekiel 3, see the symmetry here? He’s commissioned twice, wants to preach judgment chapter 3, wants to preach restoration chapter 33. Verses 17 through 19 (Ezek 3:17-19): Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. When I say to the wicked, You will surely die, and you do not warn him or speak out to warn him… to warn the wicked of his wicked way that he may live, the wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand… Verse 19: Yet if you have warned the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself… God says the exact same thing to Ezekiel earlier in the book, you’d better say exactly what I told you to say and if you do and the people don’t listen, then that’s their problem. But if, on the other hand, you withhold information and they die in their sin because of ignorance, God says to Ezekiel, I’m coming after you. Now why would God say that? Because of the position Ezekiel held as the watchmen on the wall. 48:24
Now you start to understand James chapter 3, verse 1 (James 3:1) in the New Testament, which says: Let few of you presume to be teachers, knowing that the teacher will incur a stricter judgment… The moment you’re a teacher is the moment you are responsible for declaring everything that God has revealed and to the extent you don’t, is to the extent which God holds the teacher accountable. You say, well! Come on Andy, this is all just Old Testament stuff, we’re in the church age now, certainly these things don’t apply. Oh, really? Go with me to the book of Acts for a minute. Is Acts in the New Testament? I think so, last time I checked. Acts, 20, verses 26 and 27 (Acts 20:26-27)… Acts, 20, verses 26 and 27 look at what Paul says, when he summons the elders from the church at Ephesus at the end of his third missionary journey in a port city called Miletus, look at what Paul says: Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God… Paul says, because I gave you everything that God gave me to give to you, I am innocent of the blood of all men and that’s obvious language that’s going back to Ezekiel, 3 and Ezekiel, 33. Paul says, because I’ve declared to the whole counsel of God, the whole purpose of God, I am now innocent before God and what you do with it, that’s between you and the Lord but at least I’m off the hook, because I didn’t shrink back from declaring to you everything that God said. 50:30
Gee, Pastor Andy, why do you preach till 12:30? I mean, don’t you know that every other church in this area gets out at 5 till 12? I mean, don’t you know that we have lunch plans? I mean, why do you go on for a whole hour, sometimes more than an hour, why aren’t you like a normal pastor? Why don’t you have two services? And why don’t you do a half an hour message for each service? I mean, we could pack the place out if we did that and you could get a lot of rest because all you’d have to do is to preach two half hour messages and Sugar Land Bible Church is doing well financially. We can bring in the Hard Rock and the band and we could just max the place out. I mean, what’s wrong with you? Well, what’s wrong with me, is what God says concerning the teacher. You have to understand something, that you can listen to all these people complaining about this and that, but the truth to the matter is, I have to give an account and at the end of the day, I’m not giving it to you. I have to give it to the Lord. He’s going to ask me what in the world did you do with your ministry? And so when the sermons go a little long and maybe they’re a little bit more detailed than what you bargained for, you have to understand something, that I appreciate everybody’s opinion, I really do, but at the end of the day, I’m in this… for an audience for one, because I have to give an account and my defense I think is already worked out, because what I’m going to tell the Lord, is I taught the Bible verse by verse. There’s no better way to declare yourself innocent of the blood of all men by teaching the Bible verse by verse, because when you teach the Bible verse by verse, you by definition and by methodology, can’t skirt the tough issues. I mean, if you’re going through Matthew, there’s a big fat passage dealing with divorce and remarriage, I’ve got to deal with it. If I was just playing Bible bingo every Sunday and kind of just leafing through the Bible to figure out what I was going to talk about, to be honest with you, my personality is sort of a people pleasing type of personality, believe it or not. I would just avoid things that might step on people’s toes but the problem with that, is you make man happy but who’s unhappy? God is unhappy and God says I put you in that position, to reveal everything. So Sugar Land Bible church is a strange philosophy of ministry in the 21st Century evangelicalism, it doesn’t fit with all of the new church growth models, because it’s coming from Ezekiel, 3, Ezekiel, 33, Acts, 20 and James chapter 3, verse 1; and if you were to put yourself in my shoes and read those four sections of the Bible, Ezekiel, 33, Ezekiel, 3, Acts, 20 and James, 3, then you’ll completely understand everything that goes on at Sugar Land Bible Church under the teaching ministry here. 54:04
So with that being said, Ezekiel, 33 is about Ezekiel’s recommissioning now to preach restoration. Chapter 34, which we will cover at some point, but not in this series, is about the removal of false shepherds.
Ezekiel 33‒48
Shepherds that feed themselves and do not feed the flock; and there’s a reason why every time you walk in this building and you look to the right, when you walk in, above the name tag table, you’re going to see a reference there to Ezekiel, 34, which says: Should the shepherds not feed the flock?… In fact, when Geraldine was sort of organizing and decorating, I said, we need to have that up on our bulletin board, everybody needs to see it because they need to understand the philosophy of ministry here, that the shepherds at this church are not here to enrich themselves and feed themselves, they are not there to fleece the flock, they are there to feed the flock and that was not happening in Ezekiel’s day, there were a bunch of false shepherds and they cared only about God’s people to the extent to what they could get from God’s people, money, popularity, whatever and they had lost their calling from God to feed the flock and so God says, I’m going to remove all of these false shepherds and I’m going to install a shepherd after my own heart, the resurrected David in the millennium functioning under the worldwide authority of Jesus Christ. That’s what’s going on in Ezekiel, 34 and then you move into Ezekiel, 35 and you have the destruction of Edom. Where is Edom?
There’s where it is, in the Transjordan and you read that and you say, you know? That chapter is out of place, really doesn’t belong there in chapter 35, it really belongs in the middle section of the book, because chapters 25 through 32, Ezekiel is dealing with the surrounding nations.
Source: Charles Dyer, Notes on Ezekiel
So, why is the destruction of Edom in the final third of the book but not in the middle section of the book? It’s there for a very important reason. As you go through the book of Numbers, the book of Deuteronomy, what you’ll discover is that Edom was always in the way… the way of what? The way of God’s people into the promised land. They’re always an obstruction and what is happening in chapter 36 is a prophecy about the restoration of the nation of Israel to their land and so God says, since I’m going to bring them back into their land, I’m going to also give you, Ezekiel a prophecy about Edom, who was always an encumbrance to the pathway of Israel moving into the promised land. So you read chapter 35 and at first glance, it looks out of place but it’s not out of place. When you understand the overall context of these chapters. It’s dealing with the restoration to the land and so God says, here’s a prophecy about your perennial obstructionist to the land, Edom; and so chapter 35 is strategically placed there by the Holy Spirit. 58:05
Then you get into the next four chapters that we’re going to cover, chapter 36, 37, 38 and 39. 36, which we’ll be covering verse by verse, is a prophecy of Israel’s physical and spiritual restoration.
Ezekiel 33‒48
It’s one of the greatest prophecies that we have of how God is going to take Israel from worldwide dispersion and deposit them into their own land and He will regenerate them, to the point where every surviving Jew on planet earth will be a born again believer. Ezekiel, 36 is all about that. I’m of the persuasion that God is already moving heaven and earth to partially fulfill that prophecy. They are returning to their own land, it’s just they haven’t been regenerated yet and so we are kind of living in the midst of this prophecy happening before our very eyes. Then in chapter 37, God gives two illustrations. He moves from point to picture and God gives Ezekiel two illustrations of the content that He just described in chapter 36 and what are those two illustrations? The Valley of the Dry Bones verses 1 through 14 (Ezek 36:1-14), which we will be covering and number two, the vision of the two sticks coming together as one, that starts in about verse 15 of chapter 37 and goes to the end of the chapter (Ezek 37:15). Those are both illustrations of the restoration that is described in the prior chapter. In the prior chapter, Ezekiel, 36, describes the restoration in Ezekiel, 37, Ezekiel is given 2 illustrations of this restoration; and then, we move into chapter 38 where we have the means of the restoration. What is the tool? What is the mechanism that God is going to use to bring this restoration into existence? And that’s our prophecy of the Gog and Magog invasion. An alliance of nations that’s forming right now and they will invade Israel and Israel won’t have a friend in the world to help them, other than God; and when you have no one to help you other than God and you realize that, you’re in a really good place and God uses that to cause the nation of Israel in their darkest hour, to call upon him. When all of their allies have turned them down, including the Biden administration and they have nobody to help them and here comes this worldwide invasion spearheaded through Rus’ or Russia, Iran is involved in it, there’s about, I don’t know 9 countries that are named by name and Israel says, we don’t have anybody to help us and they call on God and God rescues them and that’s the tool that God uses to fulfill what He said He would do in chapter 36, illustrated in chapter 37. 1:01:40
Chapter 39 is the aftermath of the invasion.
Ezekiel 33‒48
What’s a restored Israel going to look like? So, as I’ll be explaining, I don’t think chapters 38 and 39 are simultaneous. They are near in proximity to each other prophetically but chapter 38 is the northern invasion, chapter 39 is the results of that northern invasion. So you can see what we’re doing in Ezekiel, 36, 37, 38 and 39, which we’re covering in this series. Let me just finish the list here before we take a break. What follows is Ezekiel, 40 through 46 which is a description of temple number four, the millennial temple.
ISRAEL’S FOUR TEMPLES
Ezekiel receives that in great detail, because now Israel is restored and the temple that the Shekinah glory of God left, has now returned. Ezekiel prophesied the destruction of temple one and now he is prophesying the destruction of temple four, not the destruction rather the restoration of temple number four, the millennial temple. Remember the book of Ezekiel is symmetrical. So if you’re going to tell me that temple number four is allegorical, to be consistent, you also have to believe that temple number one was allegorical. Yet nobody believes temple number one was allegorical, it was literal. So temple one was literal and the book is symmetrically structured then the millennial temple is also literal; and Ezekiel gives tremendous precision on what this millennial temple it’s going to look like, it’s going to be huge even in comparison to Solomon’s temple and Herod’s temple of the past; and then you move into chapters 47 through 48 were you get a description of how the land in the millennium is going to be apportioned amongst the twelve tribes.
In fact, didn’t Jesus say something like that in Matthew, 19, and verse 28 (Matt 19:28)?: And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel… And so what you have in Ezekiel, 47 is a description of how the land in the millennium is going to be apportioned amongst the twelve tribes and even beyond that, from the millennial temple is going to come a river, that river is going to flow into the Dead Sea and the Dead Sea will no longer be dead. It will team with biological life. Why do we call the Dead Sea the Dead Sea? Cause everything in the sea is dead. An agricultural miracle is going to take place in the millennium, where even the Dead Sea itself it’s going to come to life. In other words, Israel’s restoration is going to be so complete that it’s even going to alter the topography and geography of the nation of Israel and it’s going to reinvigorate a biological miracle, the restoration of the Dead Sea. 1:05:42
So, hopefully that helps you see where chapters 36 through 39 fit into the wider context of Ezekiel’s book and so with that foundation being laid, the next time I’m with you, which will be next Sunday, we’ll start moving into Ezekiel, 36 verse by verse and we’ll go all the way through chapter 39. So, does any of this help at all? Alright! Let me pray. Father, we are grateful for the book of Ezekiel. We sorrow because of the neglect of this book in so many churches but it’s actually happening right before our eyes and so help us to keep our eyes fixated and focused on you and help us to understand that we’re living literally in the time of Ezekiel, where many of the things that he predicted are happening right in our newspapers and help us to live 2022 out with that in mind, knowing that you are in control and your coming is at hand and so we’ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and God’s people said, Amen.
Happy mini intermission….