Ezekiel 7:27

‘The King will mourn,
The prince will be clothed with desolation,
And the hands of the common people will tremble.
I will do to them according to their way,
And according to what they deserve I will judge them;
Then they shall know that I am the LORD!’ (Ezekiel 7:27)

We notice that the seemingly terrible judgment being prophesied in this chapter (and the chapter preceding) is only ‘according to what they deserve’. God is a just God, not a violent and reckless punisher. This brings back to us the effect our sin has on God. God will only ever deal with us justly, but sin is a severely punishable thing. But we are made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ, the perfect One.

Secondly, we notice that yet again, God’s purpose for doing all this is so that they would know that He is the LORD! This reminds us yet again that He is King, Creator, Supreme Judge and Master of the universe. He is the end of all things. For us to know that is obviously utterly important in view of the scriptures. Let’s not forget it.

Ezekiel 6:10

‘And they shall know that I am the LORD; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.’ (Ezekiel 6:10)

I find it interesting that the one of the main reasons that the LORD would bring punishment upon the people of Israel was so that they would know that He is the LORD. His own glory is absolutely fundamental to our knowledge of Him. We need to recognise that HE IS THE LORD, and all the consequences of that.

Ezekiel 5:7-8

‘Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because you have multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes nor kept My judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you’ – 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.’ (Ezekiel 5:7-8)

I cannot help but think of the church when I read this passage. The point of the passage was that Israel, who should know better, was instead doing worse things than the nations all around them. They were given over to idolatry in a much higher sense because they knew the living God. And thus God says that He will be against them and will execute judgments in their midst in the sight of the nations. That is, He will ridicule them in front of everyone. It’s like a parent giving their child a smack not when they get home, but in front of all the child’s friends.

The judgment was to be a third fire (ie famine and pestilence), a third sword (ie. Killed by other nations) and a third scattered in the wind (ie. Taken captive or made refugees). However, some small remnant was to escape this judgment (vs. 3), of which even some of them would be subject to further judgment. Thus it was only a remnant of a remnant who would ‘escape’.

Getting back to my original point, I can’t help but think of the church when I read this passage. How much sin has the church let into itself? How much idolatry? Though we should know better. From incorrect and dangerous doctrine such as ‘Theistic evolution’ or ‘prosperity doctrine’ to habits and lifestyles suiting the children of darkness rather than the children of God, to complete abominations such as gay ministers/priests – how much sin has invaded the church? How much idolatry? And what will be/has been the price? How many ‘embarrassments’ has the church had? How many judgments upon it in view of the world? And truly, I believe that after the testing, only a remnant of a remnant of those who call themselves the church will remain. It’s sad, but it is a challenge as well. Because each of us personally has that choice – whether to be in that remnant of a remnant. It is not randomly chosen. Let’s get back to basics and trust what God has to say, with all our minds, but also with all of our hearts (ie. Our LIVES).

Ezekiel 4

Ezekiel is the prophet who did ‘strange’ things to give messages to the Israelites. And one of those strange things is in chapter 4. God asks him to build a model of the city of Jerusalem and to besiege it to show how Jerusalem would be besieged (which happened in 588-586BC). Then he asks Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days, symbolising the time of punishment for Israel, then an extra 40 days on his right side to symbolise the punishment of Judah. It explicitly states that these days represented one year per day. Also, during this time, he was to eat bread, exactly 20 shekels (228 grams) every day, and drink water, exactly 1/6 of a hin (which is less than a quart – I don’t know how large a quart is!) every day. The bread was to be made with lots of different seeds (not just wheat or barley), and was to be prepared over a fire which was fuelled by human waste (ew!). Ezekiel shared my own sentiments about the human waste, and told the LORD that nothing defiled had ever entered his mouth and so the Lord concedes to let him prepare it with cow dung as fuel. This food part was to show how the Israelites would be eating in the siege (and we find in Jeremiah and Lamentations that it would be even worse than this – they would eat their own children!).

Well, what can we take out of this? I have taken out of it the power of an object lesson. The people of Israel would have seen Ezekiel daily, lying on his side and eating stinky bread. They would have been curious and asked what he was doing, and he would have told them – ‘this is how you will eat if you do not repent’. I think the message hits harder when the consequences are laid out right before your eyes. When you can see the message in action, it makes so much more of an impact.

Today, our message is so much more hopeful, and we should indeed be living it as such. If people can’t see us living what we believe, if every moment is not a testament to His grace and love, then it is unlikely that our mere words will win them over. They need to be able to see right in front of them the consequences of their choices (which if they repent will be very good!). How much do you reflect the message that you have?

Ezekiel 3:18

‘When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.’ (Ezekiel 3:18)

What a motivation to spread the Good News!

Ezekiel 2: 2a, 4b, 6a, 7, 8b-10

Evangelism is a massive part of being a Christian. In Student Life, the university mission group that I am a part of in UQ, there are four main parts of the Christian Life, two which form our relationship with God (prayer and Bible study) and two which form our relationship with others (Christian community and evangelism). All these are encompassed by Spirit-filled living. Thus in this view, evangelism is a quarter of our walk with God (although of course, all must coexist together – you can’t evangelise without prayer!) Chapter 2 of Ezekiel has some directions for our evangelism I believe. We must remember that to the world these days we are like prophets, because we have the revelation of God in our hands, and they cannot see the Truth.

So the overall gist of the chapter is that after seeing all those wonderful things in chapter 1 (remember the living creatures and the massive wheels in wheel with eyes all over them?), Ezekiel hears God speaking to him and is filled with the Spirit. God tells him to go to the Israelites and tell them to repent of their wickedness. In it we find some good directives for our own evangelism, our own mission to the lost to get them to repent. I’ll structure it in points.

1. ‘Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet...’ (Ezekiel 2:2a)

To be persuaded and willing to go to the lost, we must first and foremost be in the Spirit. It is no good to go to the lost because we feel that it is the right thing to do, or because our parents or our pastor told us to. We must be in the Spirit, with the Spirit convicting us of their need. I like the imagery here: the Spirit sets Ezekiel on his feet. Without the Spirit, we have no legs to stand on when we face the challenges and questions from unbelievers.

2. ‘... and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’’ (Ezekiel 2:4b)

Notice that the LORD does not tell Ezekiel to go to the Israelites and persuade them by any means possible to repent. He does not give Ezekiel 5 dot points on what he should say to them or tell him to set up a course explaining exactly what repentance is in the context of contemporary society. He tells him to say simply ‘Thus says the Lord GOD’. Indeed, we should keep in mind in our own evangelism that complex is not always (or usually) the best. Simple tell people what God says. Give them the facts. God can work in their hearts much more efficiently than we can try to manipulate their hearts with our petty words. When Jesus is working, just let Him work!

3. ‘And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions...’ (Ezekiel 2:6a)

We are to be unafraid of the consequences of evangelism. History is packed full of examples of this, and yet there are far too many examples really. Every Christian should have the courage to stand before persecution and ridicule in order to save the souls of the persecutors. As Christians, we are ‘Christ Ones’, who follow His own example. And isn’t this His own example? To suffer persecution to the point of death to save the souls of those who killed Him? Though briers and thorns are with us, and though we live amongst scorpions, what does it matter? This earth is not our home. We’re only here for a while, striving with every moment to bring glory to God, and to bring as many people with us to go home to Him as possible. There is a Chinese proverb that says ‘Life is like a bridge, we cross over it, but we don’t build a house on it.’ This is absolutely true for a Christian, and it is this disconnection from ‘satisfaction’ given by the world that allows us to serve Him through trials and persecution. So be bold with the glorious message of the Gospel!

4. ‘You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious.’ (Ezekiel 2:7)

God’s mandate to us is to speak and live the Gospel to everyone, regardless of whether they listen or not. Regardless of whether they accept it or reject it. This is for two reasons: verse 5 says that at least they will know that a prophet has been among them. That is, then they have no excuse. There is no room for debate or argument. In the future, if they have rejected Him, then they cannot say that it was because no-one ever told them (although Romans makes it clear that we all know anyway). Secondly, we can never know whether our words will take root, and though initially rejected, at some later time they may flower and they might accept the message later on, by God’s grace. Thus, neither should we judge certain people ‘unnecessary’ to preach the gospel to. All can be saved, in whatever state, and the very ones you would have judged no chance of accepting the Gospel may be the ones to accept and come to Him.

5. ‘Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you...a hand stretched out to me...a scroll of a book was in it...written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe.’ (Ezekiel 2:8b – 10)

God commands Ezekiel to eat the scroll which chronicled the bitterness that Israel’s sin had brought upon them. What does this mean? God was asking Ezekiel to internalize the message he was bringing to the people. God wants him to know it for himself extremely well. He needs to be living and breathing the very message that he preaches to the people. The nature of the message he was bringing was lament and mourning, for that was the state in which the people were in. That was what he was telling them to repent to be free of. And yet he says in chapter 3 that the scroll tasted sweet like honey. All that bitterness, sweet like honey? It was because it was God’s word. Today, we must be exactly the same way. We must read and devour God’s word, but more than that, we must live it and breathe as our very own, before we attempt to convince others that they too should follow it. Moreover, we must internalise the suffering and pain that is theirs to be effective in reaching them. That is, we must have the burning feeling inside that we know where they’re going (ie. Hell), and we know how hard life must be for them without their Creator. If we can grasp these ‘lamentations and mourning’ then we can identify with people much better.

This is what I found in this chapter regarding evangelism. Of course, there is much more in the chapter about other things. Let’s all be challenged to go further in our evangelism!

Ezekiel 1:28

So, Ezekiel chapter one would have to be the most weird opening to a book anywhere in the world. Ezekiel briefly introduces himself as a priest who is 30 years old, and then suddenly says that God appears to him while he is by the river Chebar (which is in Babylon’s territory). The resulting description of what he sees is amazingly strange.

There are four living creatures (I take this to mean that the creatures are real, ie. Angels), who each have four wings, two stretched upwards, and two covering their bodies. Their colour is like burnished bronze, they have four faces each, one like a man, one like an ox, one like an eagle, and one like a lion. There was lightning shooting between them all, their legs were straight (ie. They had no knees), and they didn’t turn, but just flew ‘straight ahead’ to get wherever they wanted (they have faces on all four sides so they can go whichever way!). Furthermore, wherever they went, massive wheels followed them around. Ezekiel says the wheels are big enough to be called ‘awesome’. The working of the wheels is like wheels within wheels, and if you can imagine it, the wheels never turn on the ground, but just roll whichever way they angels are going. Like spheres. What’s more, the rims of the massive wheels (of which there are four – one for each living creature) have eyes all over them.

What an awesome picture! I don’t think Lewis Carroll could have imagined a more strange and awesome scene, and yet here we are, a true statement from the Book of Books. Although the meaning of the passage is difficult to grasp in its entirety (probably impossible), we should look at it slightly closer because, being the first chapter of the book of Ezekiel, it is bound to be the key to unlocking the rest of the book, or at least the lens through which we read the rest of the book.

In my opinion, the view he has of the LORD’s glory in this chapter is to do with the judgment of the LORD. The angels are symbols of his busyness in judgment...they go wherever He wants them to (v. 12), they fly swiftly with their wings, covering the four corners of the earth, turning the wheels of judgment which are full of eyes, watching the actions of men. It shows God’s might, His omniscience, His omnipresence, His meticulous detail in judgment (wheels within wheels!) and His holiness (all that lightning and fire!).

‘Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.’ (Ezekiel 1:28)

This is the last verse in the chapter. While the first parts of the chapter describe the perfection of the LORD in judgment, the last verse speaks of the reaction of Ezekiel to the glory he sees. What he feels is that what he sees is brightness and glory and goodness. The verse brings to me images of Moses, begging God to show him the hindparts of the aftershadow of His glory. All this awesome scene portrays is the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And it was like the rainbow coming out on a rainy day for Ezekiel. What a testimony!

Imagine having seen the likeness of the glory of God! What would it compel us to do? Well, I have news for you: we have a greater example of the glory of God than Ezekiel ever saw or experienced, for we know Jesus Christ, the epitome of the fullness of the glory of God. What has it compelled you to do?