Where is God?

Stephen Russell

Preaching Through the Bible • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Ezekiel 48:35

Introduction

Daniel was taken away to Babylon in the last few years of the 600s BC.

Now we come to the second wave of captivity starting in 597 BC and reported to us by Ezekiel (prophet and priest).

It can be divided up generally as:

1-24 God’s judgment on Judah

25-48 God’s judgment of everyone else and deliverance of the remnant.

Our focus this morning as we overview this book is to see God’s presence.

The Spectacle

“One of the greatest spiritual figures of all time in spite of his tendency to psychic abnormality.”

He has been diagnosed by commentators as paranoid, schyzophrenic, psychotic, pathological, and delusions of grandeur, the list goes on. They think he is crazy…and why not?

He saw fantastical visions (Ezek. 1:1-27).

He constantly fell on his face (Ezek. 1:28; 9:8; 11:13; 43:3; 44:4).

He engages in most peculiar behavior:

Building a model city and setting then lying by it to represent a siege (Ezek. 4:1-8).

Cooking with human excrement (Ezek. 4:12).

Cutting his hair with a sword and dividing it up to attack it in various ways (Ezek. 5:1-4).

So peculiar is this book that many Rabbis forbid it to be read by those under 30.

That we read without thinking too much of the peculiarity is good and bad.

Good that it suggests a familiarity with God’s word to take these sorts of things in stride.

Bad that we miss the impact of such behavior on the original audience and therefore, potentially miss the impact it should have on us.

Seeing God

Away from Jerusalem, the temple, and the king, God approaches (Ezek. 1:3).

The character of God and His servants is represented here (Ezek. 1:17-21; 26-27).

There is an expression here of God’s presence and concern for the whole world.

For all this spectacle, the result is words delivered to Ezekiel (Ezek. 1:28-2:1).

Leaving Jerusalem

God take Ezekiel back home to see what is happening there (Ezek. 8:6-7; 16:15-21; 20:13-17; 23:14-21).

He allows Ezekiel to witness the methodical destruction of Jerusalem (Ezek. 9:1; 24:1-2, 15-18).

Then the Lord walks through His house one more time before turning the lights out (Ezek. 11:23; Zech. 14:4; Acts 1:12).

But next time will be different (Ezek. 11:16-20).

This is not to say they did not make a show of loyalty toward God (Ezek. 33:30-33).

Paradise Regained

The picture of the new temple begins in chapter 40.

But how do we get there but by resurrection (Ezek. 37).

In the midst of all of these details is the report of the return of the glory of the Lord (Ezek. 43:1-4).

Indeed, the book concludes with this thought (Ezek. 48:35).

Our delight is not the primary concern but rather the result (Ezek. 36:22-23).

Conclusion

God had brought Israel from bondage, into the land of plenty. He fulfilled every promise to Abraham only for Israel to be distracted from His presence by the presence of His blessings.

Now God has stripped away all of those blessings and taken them back into bondage and there He revealed where their real blessing lay. He is there.

Elie Wiesel wrote about his horrors suffered as a Jewish child witnessing all of the atrocities of the Nazis toward his people.

In one particularly heinous scene, a child is described in a gruesome form of execution.

Someone cries out, where is God now?

Someone else answers, He is there.

What picture would you paint of paradise? If God is not at the center of it, it is not paradise.

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