June 14 Traditional Service

A LITTLE CRAZY Ezekiel 1:1-14 June 14, 2020 The book of Daniel is one of the most loved books in the Bible. And, why not? It has so many good stories. Daniel is taken to Babylon as a young boy; 12-14 years old. And, immediately he stands up to authority, and stands up for God. He refuses to eat the king's meals, and holds out for a healthy diet instead. He is so smart he's made a top-ranking administrator. And, his life is touched in a really, really good way by God. By the power of God, Daniel is able to interpret the king's dreams when his own magicians fail him. By the power of God, Daniel's friends are protected by an angel when they are thrown in the fiery furnace. As an old man Daniel is protected by God when he is thrown in the lion's den. There are so many great stories about Daniel he has his own Vacation Bible School program - which we have used twice. But, before there was Daniel, there was Ezekiel. Ezekiel is also taken to Babylon. Ezekiel is also a prophet. But, that's where the similarities end. Daniel and Ezekiel are polar opposites. If Daniel is Michael Jordan, Ezekiel is Dennis Rodman. If Daniel is Sir Lawrence Olivier, Ezekiel is Adam Sandler. If Daniel is Stephen Hawking, Ezekiel is the crazy scientist from 'Back to the Future'. If Daniel is Emit Smith, Ezekiel is Ezekiel Elliot. There's a little bit of crazy. Ezekiel's story begins 7 years before Daniel. Jehoiakim is the king of Israel. He is a weaselly little man. The Egyptians, and the Babylonians, are the major world powers. And, a little country like Israel must align themselves with one or the other for protection. Jehoiakim decides to play both sides. He gets ahold of Pharaoh Necco, and King Nebuchadnezzar, and tells each of them he will ally himself with them. Both sides think he's their man. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon wins the fight with Egypt. Then, he marches south to check out Jerusalem. Only, he's not a fool. He knows exactly what has happened. And, when he arrives in Jerusalem he makes some changes.1 He kills king Jehoiakim. He takes Jehoiakim's son - Jehoiakin - as a slave. And, he puts a new man - Mattaniah - on the thrown of Israel. He changes Mattaniah's name to Zedekiah. I'm not sure why. Then, Nebuchadnezzar takes thousands of slaves back to Babylon. He takes prince Jehoiakin. He takes all the generals of the Israeli armies. He takes all the sons and daughters of Jewish royalty. And, he takes all the priests from the Holy Temple. And, one of those priests is Ezekiel. Ezekiel is 25 years old, and he has the world by the horns. Anyone who could trace their lineage back to Moses' brother Aaron, could be a priest. In the year 600 BC that was a lot of men. So, most priests lived in their hometowns, and only came to the Temple twice a year, to work for one week. But, some of the men were very lucky. They lived in Jerusalem and worked full time at the Temple. And, that meant they were rich. If you worked at the Temple every day you didn't need to buy food for your family. The Temple provided your food. You were given a free house. And, every pilgrim to Jerusalem paid a Temple tax. Most of that money went to the priests. So, a permanent priest became fabulously wealthy. Ezekiel is the son of a permanent priest. And, when he is 25 his father gets him on full-time at the Temple. It is easy street for this kid. Because he has such a bright future, families are fighting to have him marry one of their daughters. Ezekiel essentially has his choice of the best available young women in Jerusalem. Ezekiel gets to meet the most important religious men of his day; Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah.2 Life just couldn't be any better. That's when Nebuchadnezzar arrives in town, and makes all the priests - and their families - slaves. Ezekiel and his new bride are marched across the desert to Babylon. When they finally arrive, they aren't even settled in the city itself. They are sent to a crummy/nasty city south of Babylon. It sits next to the river Kebar. Which isn't really a river. It's the sewage runoff from Babylon. Ezekiel and his wife are dumped here, and told to make a life for themselves. Five years later, Ezekiel receives his calling from God to be a prophet. But, it's not like Daniel's calling. Ezekiel's calling is hard. The name Ezekiel means - God makes you hard.3 And, from this point on his life will be hard. God tells Ezekiel to go north to Babylon and preach his prophecy. Ezekiel tells God that his wife is very, very sick. I need to nurse my sick wife. God says, I don't care about your wife. I care about my message. Get to work. Ezekiel spends the day prophesying to the people. Comes home that night, and sits with his wife while she dies. The next morning he gets up and goes back to work. God says, no mourning - no grieving for you. Get to work. That's hard. God shows Ezekiel a vision, something amazing.4 Ezekiel is excited to share this vision with everyone. So, he writes it down. Takes his time and gets every detail as correct as possible. He's just about to head to town when God says to him, I didn't tell you to write that down. I didn't tell you to share this. Tear your scroll into tiny strips, and eat it. You will talk when I tell you to talk. And, you will say what I tell you to say. After he eats the scroll, God strikes him mute. Speechless. I will give you back your voice when you can obey. That's hard. God tells Ezekiel, go to the center of town, the town square; drop your pants and go number two. Then, light that on fire. Use the fire to bake a loaf of bread. Then, in front of everyone in town, eat the bread. I don't care how they look at you and I don't care what they say about you. That's hard. He makes Ezekiel go to the town square and lay down on his left side, for 390 days - 13 months. Lecture the people about their sin. Their sin is why Jerusalem will be conquered. Not the king, them. After 390 days, roll over on your right side and lay there for another 40 days. Keep preaching about their sin, and the fall of Israel. And, I don't care what they think of you. That's hard. Pack a suitcase with clothes, like you're going on a trip. Set the suitcase out in front of your house. Then, go back inside the house, and begin digging your way through the wall. Don't use the door. Make a hole in your wall. When the hole is big enough, crawl through it, pick up your suitcase, and walk away like you're going on a trip. Tell the people this exile will last their entire lives. They will never go back home because they are sinners. And, I don't care what they think of you. That's hard. God tells Ezekiel, take a razor and shave your head and your beard. Keep the hair. In fact, weigh the hair so you know exactly how much there is. Divide your hair into three equal piles. Get a map of Israel. Put one hair pile on Jerusalem. Using mime, act out the siege and fall of Jerusalem. Then, burn that pile of hair. Scatter the second pile of hair all over the map. Use a sword to chop the hair into tiny bits. Take the third pile of hair and toss it up into the air. Let the wind blow it away, just like the exiles have been blown from their homeland. And, I don't care what they think of you. That's hard. The city officials don't know what to do with Ezekiel. He seems to be a man of God, but the things he does are just crazy. And, they don't like his message. Some other guys have popped up who claim to be prophets. They say this exile will be over soon. They say the city of Jerusalem will never fall. They say the Holy Temple will never be torn down. They say in the next few months God will rescue everyone and let them go home. And, they say this is all the king's fault. If we had a better king, this never would have happened. But, Ezekiel says this will go on for two more generations. And, Israel will be no more. Jerusalem will be destroyed in a fiery battle. The Holy Temple will be destroyed. And, God says, this is everyone's fault. If the nation is in trouble, it's because the people were just as bad as the king. If you don't like what's happening, look within. The city officials ask Ezekiel, maybe you could tone it down? Or say nothing at all?5 Maybe just be quiet? Instead, God kicks Ezekiel into overdrive. More prophecy. And, more and more fantastic visions. This time, God commands Ezekiel to write it down. Ezekiel is wonderful for dating everything that happens. We can tie Ezekiel's dates to the Babylonian records, and we know to the day when Ezekiel gave prophecy. He writes down some of the most fantastic prophecies in the entire Bible. He has this vision of God sitting on his throne. And, some kind of a device - a wheel, within a wheel, lifts up the throne and carries it away. Ezekiel sees the glory of God leave the Holy Temple. And, he understands, the glory of God will not return until the Messiah arrives.6 Ezekiel sees the valley of dry bones. Skeletons covering and entire battlefield. And, he sees God reanimate these bodies. The bones stand up. They become covered with muscles and flesh. They become living, breathing men. And, he prophesies that one day, God will rebuild Jerusalem. Even though the city is dead now, it will live again. Ezekiel sees the fantastic angels that guard the throne of God. Creatures with four sides; a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. The same creatures John sees when he writes Revelation. In fact, Ezekiel will be the most quoted prophet in the book of Revelation. Some day, crazy will seem visionary. And, Ezekiel, at God's command, will end his book with hope. The sin of the nation is the sin of the individuals. But, in the same way, the salvation of the nation comes with the salvation of individuals. Each time a soul is won for the Messiah, the nation comes closer and closer to permanent healing. God can be very hard. But, God loves us. And, God will literally die to redeem us. Poor Ezekiel is called to a hard life, and a harder ministry. He did some absolutely crazy things. But, he was obedient to God. And, in this case, crazy is just what was needed. America is going through some craziness of its own right now. We are still in the middle of the Corona pandemic. The financial viability of our companies and our individual households are in complete freefall. And now, racial anger and civil disobedience are threatening to unravel our society. Everyone wants to blame the government or the higher ups. No one wants to take personal responsibility. So, maybe crazy is just what we need. We will spend the summer in Ezekiel. And, I pray as we look deeper into both his actions and God's purposes behind those actions, you will find comfort and purpose in our current situation. 1 Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 66-70. 2 Raymond B. Dillard and Tremper Longman III, An Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 315. 3 R. C. Sproul, general editor. New Geneva Study Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1256. 4 Gordon Matties, New Interpreter's Study Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 20030, 1153. 5 David Forrest Mitchell, "Ezekiel's Presentation of Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility," The Reformed Theological Review, 76 no. 2 (August 2017), 73-100. 6 Sproul, 1257. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 2