Ezekiel 45:9 “Thus says the Lord God: Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease your evictions of my people, declares the Lord God. 10 “You shall have just balances, a just ephah, and a just bath.

The last issue addressed by God through Ezekiel was that of justice.  As the temple was to be rebuilt and reopened for worship, God was also re-establishing the people in the land, dividing it up as He had done when they originally entered the promised land.  One of the things that had gotten them into exile was their lack of justice towards others.  Oppression, dishonesty, and a lack of mercy had prevailed. This time there would be none of that. Their lifestyles were to match their worship, which was not to be neglected. 

The Lord Said: "Back to Stay"

Ezekiel 44:1 Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east. And it was shut. 2 And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut. 

Earlier in this book of prophesies, God had "left the building" during His judgment on Jerusalem, and He was spoken of as leaving by this eastern gate.  He has now returned and would not be leaving.  Ezekiel is then instructed to describe the other gates of the temple and those who go in and out.  Those who have a new heart are the true worshippers, and only those priests who have such a heart will be able to serve as the priests.  Things are going to be different now.  God is making all things new.  

The Lord Said: "I Will Accept You"

Ezekiel 43:18 And he said to me, “Son of man, thus says the Lord God: These are the ordinances for the altar: On the day when it is erected for offering burnt offerings upon it and for throwing blood against it, 19 you shall give to the Levitical priests of the family of Zadok, who draw near to me to minister to me, declares the Lord God, a bull from the herd for a sin offering... 26 Seven days shall they make atonement for the altar and cleanse it, and so consecrate it. 27 And when they have completed these days, then from the eighth day onward the priests shall offer on the altar your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, and I will accept you, declares the Lord God.”

Having promised their return to the land and restoration as His people, God then sends Ezekiel for a detailed tour of the new temple.  He takes three whole chapter to describe its greatness and glory, then the process of initiating the priests and the sacrifices. There would be seven days of offerings, and afterward, God pronounced: "I will accept you."  These were the words they longed to hear.  After years of suffering, exile, and rejection, it would truly be "coming home."  Like Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, there is this overwhelming sense of love and hope in God's presence.  God still accepts repentant sinners, and has now made the final sacrifice for our acceptance in His Son.

The Lord Said: "I Will Pour Out My Spirit"

 Ezekiel 39:25 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name. 26 They shall forget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid, 27 when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies' lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore. 29 And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”

Here God puts it all together. He was in it all: from the exile of Israel to their exultation.  They had gotten there because they had forgotten God and His covenant.  But under His new covenant they would remember Him and forget the shame of their rebellion and disobedience. How could they be sure that it would not just happen all over again?  He would pour out His Spirit to fill them with wisdom and life. As Jesus told Nicodemus, His Spirit is the sign of the new birth, the new hope, the new life we have in Him.  He helps us forget the shame.

The Lord Says: "Everyone Will Shake"

Ezekiel 38:17 “Thus says the Lord God: Are you he of whom I spoke in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel, who in those days prophesied for years that I would bring you against them? 18 But on that day, the day that Gog shall come against the land of Israel, declares the Lord God, my wrath will be roused in my anger. 19 For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people who are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence.

Ezekiel had been shown God's judgment against all nations and the subsequent rule of His Shepherd King over all the earth. Now he is shown even further to the final revolt against God and full-blown attack against Israel.  God will shake things up so bad that the invading armies will turn on each other. They will also be infected with pestilence, and He will send hail, fire and brimstone, just as described in more detail in the Revelation to John. No one will be unaffected. 

The Lord Said: "Everyone Will Know"

 Ezekiel 37:26 I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”

In these prophesies God had given to Ezekiel about the judgment and exile of His people, He had addressed everyone: Israel and Judah, the surrounding nations, the empires who had and would oppress them and be used as instruments of judgment.  But now He has also told them what lies further ahead: restoration of their nation, return of their king, and the rest and peace He has always promised for His own. This new covenant is unlike any which had been made before, exceeding even that made with David. God will be present in an even greater way than in the Ark of the Covenant. All will know that He is Lord. 

The Lord Said: "Brought Back from Backsliding"

Ezekiel 37:21 Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. 22 And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. 23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

I have to admit: I don't remember reading this word in verse 23 before, and it hasn't been that long since I read through this book.  But there it is: backslidings.  I remember growing up hearing the word: those Baptists who kept moving further and further back until they were out the door and going astray. But here it is, used to describe both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel, who had strayed so far from God they ended up in Exile. But God was going to bring them back, together, and make them His people again. What a message of hope for today: God still brings people back, cleanses them, and unites them into one.  Oh, to see "backsliders" returned today. 

The Lord Said: "New Life Is Coming!"

Ezekiel 37:3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

The further we get to the end of these prophesies of judgment, the closer we are to when Jerusalem fell. It was going to happen any day, so the illustrations become for vivid. The bones are good and dead - all dried out. They have been sitting in the sun, bleached out. Ezekiel had learned that "with God, all things are possible," and to wait and listen and watch.  God promised that the people of Israel would be brought back to life. The passage goes on to expand the details, with God's promise of resurrection.  As with many of these prophesies, there was a physical and spiritual fulfillment. Not only the breath of life, but the breath of the Spirit would come and fill His people. 

The Lord Said: "I Will Change You"

Ezekiel 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. God had promised to bring His people back as the sheep of His fold. 

As God had Ezekiel look into the future, he could see not only the restoration of the people to the land, but the hearts of the people to the Lord.  The passage above is referred to by Jesus and His apostles as a sign of the New Birth and New Covenant God would make with His people.  Their problems (and those of all mankind) have not just been sinful actions, but the heart attitude behind them. We need a heart for Him - to love Him, honor Him, and obey Him. God is in the business of changing people from the inside out. May He and His Spirit work in our hearts today. 

The Lord Said: "It's All about My Name"

 Ezekiel 36:22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

Having announced in detail what would happen to Jerusalem and Judea for their repeated disobedience, and to the nations for their world for arrogantly kicking them when they were down, God gets to the core reason for their judgment: the Holiness of His Name.  As His people, they had shamed His Name before the world, rebelling against Him, His word, and His ways.  They had violated their very purpose for existence: to glorify Him and draw all nations to Him.  There were many ways they had sinned, but it all boiled down to this: a lack of reverence for the name of the Lord. May we hold Him and His Name high. 

The Lord Said: The Good Shepherd Is Coming..."

 

Ezekiel 34: 20 “Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, 22 I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord; I have spoken.

Having taken the religious leaders to task for failure to shepherd His people, God now looks forward and addresses His sheep, His people.  After the fall of Jerusalem and exile, He will in the future regather His people, His sheep, and bind up those who are injured and give pasture and water to those who have been neglected.  He will divide sheep from sheep, just as Jesus talks in Matthew 24 about separating sheep from goats.  When He does, God's King will return to be their Shepherd. There will be justice and peace which long has been lacking.  

The Lord Said: Baaaad Shepherds

 

Ezekiel 34:7 “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.

Having addressed the evil of all the surrounding nations and arrogant empires of the day, God returns to again address the sins of Israel.  He now focuses in on the religious leaders, those who were responsible for the spiritual well-being of the nation. They had lived selfishly and sinfully, neglecting their duty, using the sheep for their own profit, while watching them roam away into spiritual danger. Here we find much of the imagery Jesus built on when He called the religious leaders of His day to task for their "using the system" and letting the sheep wander "as sheep without a shepherd." God would not let that continue.

The Lord Said: "Time to Dry Out"

Ezekiel 29:1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt; 3 speak, and say, Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams, that says, ‘My Nile is my own; I made it for myself.’
4 I will put hooks in your jaws, and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales; and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams, with all the fish of your streams that stick to your scales. 5 And I will cast you out into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your streams; you shall fall on the open field, and not be brought together or gathered. To the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the heavens I give you as food. 
6 Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord.
“Because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel, 7 when they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins to shake.

One of the great empires in the book of history - and the Bible - has been Egypt. Not only was Israel in bondage there; they kept wanting to go back there. This was one of the rare times that Egypt was greatly humbled by other empires.  Why the judgment on Egypt? First, they say themselves as self-created; the Pharoahs saw themselves as gods. They gloried in the Nile with all its branches, as if they had made it themselves.  Beyond that was the way that Egypt had dealt with Israel - using their land as a battlefield with other empires, but even more so in making promises to help Israel as they fought these empires, then leaving them high and dry.  God was now going to exile Egypt, leaving them high and dry away from their precious Nile.  

The Lord Spoke: "The Day Your Music Died"

Ezekiel 26:12 They will plunder your riches and loot your merchandise. They will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses. Your stones and timber and soil they will cast into the midst of the waters. 13 And I will stop the music of your songs, and the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more. 14 I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the Lord; I have spoken, declares the Lord God.

God's pronouncement of judgment on Tyre continues. As we saw yesterday, because they took delight in the fall of Jerusalem, their city would be totally destroyed. The stones of the city were used for a causeway out to a nearby island, becoming a fishing haven.  Also, their songs of rejoicing would stop. In fact, in the next chapter God gave Ezekiel a lament, a funeral dirge to be sung over their eternal loss. It would be the only sound of music heard in Tyre.

The Lord Said: "Watch Your Walls Come Tumblin' Down"

Ezekiel 26:1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gate of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste,’ 3 therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. 4 They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock.  

At one point, David and the king of Tyre had been very close friends. The cities of Jerusalem and Tyre worked together, as Tyre was an important port city.  But the relationship had turned sour, so when Judah and Jerusalem fell, Tyre rejoiced, seeing it as a plundering opportunity.  The key here is that the gates of Jerusalem were torn down.  Because of their joyfully celebrating Jerusalem's fall, it wouldn't just the gates, but the very walls of Tyre that would be done.  Every empire after walked through Tyre, and eventually the walls of the city were used to build a land bridge out to a nearby island.  Not only the gates, but the walls came tumbling down.  Again, we are warned to not celebrate others' hardships.  Envy always comes back to haunt you. 

The Lord Said: "Don't Rejoice over Their Fall"

 

Ezekiel 25:6 For thus says the Lord God: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the malice within your soul against the land of Israel, 7 therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand against you, and will hand you over as plunder to the nations. And I will cut you off from the peoples and will make you perish out of the countries; I will destroy you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

People love to rejoice over the misfortunes of others, often their neighbors.  In this chapter four of those "neighbors" are mentioned by name: the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Philistines - names we see often throughout the history of Israel.  They rejoiced to see Jerusalem and Judea fall, but the same thing was going to happen to them.  We note here that Ezekiel was viewing all of this from the distance, from Babylon.  Sometimes we are so close to a situation we are blinded to the bigger picture.  So was the case of these enemies of Israel: they were so focused on seeing Jerusalem fall they were oblivious to their own. May we not be so blinding to the failures of others (and excited over their failure) that we miss what is happening to us, inside and out.

The Lord Said: "It's Worse than This"

Ezekiel 24:15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 “Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. 17 Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your shoes on your feet; do not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.” 18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded.

God used Ezekiel's personal sorrow as an object lesson to show the people of Judah how bad things would be.  The temple and Holy City were their pride and joy - the most important thing they had as a nation. It would be taken away, but they would not be able to grieve and normal, because they would be dead or in exile.  God goes on to tell Ezekiel that when the exiles came to him in Babylon he would be able to show them this is what his message had meant, and then, as God often says to him, they shall know that I am the Lord GOD. What loss do we need to suffer, how bad does it need to get, before we start listening to God?

The Lord Said: A Scummy Pot.

Ezekiel 24:1 Thus says the Lord God: “Set on the pot, set it on; pour in water also; put in it the pieces of meat, all the good pieces, the thigh and the shoulder; fill it with choice bones.
5 Take the choicest one of the flock; pile the logs under it; boil it well; seethe also its bones in it. 6 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose corrosion is in it, and whose corrosion has not gone out of it! Take out of it piece after piece, without making any choice...10 Heap on the logs, kindle the fire, boil the meat well, mix in the spices, and let the bones be burned up. 11 Then set it empty upon the coals, that it may become hot, and its copper may burn, that its uncleanness may be melted in it, its corrosion consumed.

The Lord was going to turn up the heat. Historically, Jerusalem was now in its final siege. The meat was boiled till the bones fell off, and they were then added as fuel for the fire.  Then, the pot was allowed to burn dry, baking the scum onto the pot. There would be no water left; the final meal was gone; all that would be left was the scum on the pot. So would be the judgment on Jerusalem for her persistent sin.

The Lord Said: "You Should Have Learned from Your Sister."

Ezekiel 23:36 The Lord said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Declare to them their abominations. 37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. With their idols they have committed adultery, and they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me. 38 Moreover, this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and profaned my Sabbaths.

Ezekiel gives a full chapter to the illustration God gave him of two sisters, representing Israel and Judah, the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel after the split. The northern kingdom had separated early, creating their own form of worship and accepting the idols of their pagan neighbors. God had judged them through defeat and exile by the Assyrians. Having seen that, one would think that the second sister, Judah, would have learned her lesson, but instead, she went deeper into spiritual adultery and paganism, violating the Sabbath, and even sacrificing their children to idols.  They were now going to fall into judgment even more intense and humiliating than the sister had. Once again: Then you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

The Lord Has Spoken: A Thorough Cleansing.

 Ezekiel 22:13 “Behold, I strike my hand at the dishonest gain that you have made, and at the blood that has been in your midst. 14 Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. 15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness out of you. 16 And you shall be profaned by your own doing in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

Yet another picture of God's judgment on Jerusalem and Judah was that of cleaning house - especially His temple.  His cleansing was going to be complete: First, He would cleanse the palace and temple of their riches and gold. Next, He was going to throw out the bums who were on the throne, the false prophets, and the crooked religious leaders who "made a killing" by dishonest gain. Finally He would clean the Holy Hill of the temple itself and the city of its grandeur.  In this brief paragraph we have two of Ezekiel's key phrases: I the Lord have spoken and you shall know that I am the Lord.  May we listen to Him today and know Him AS Lord. 

The Lord Said: "My Sword Is out of The Sheath."

Ezekiel 21:1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel 3 and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against you and will draw my sword from its sheath and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked. 4 Because I will cut off from you both righteous and wicked, therefore my sword shall be drawn from its sheath against all flesh from south to north. 5 And all flesh shall know that I am the Lord. I have drawn my sword from its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again.

This prophesy was given about a year before the fall of Jerusalem.  God is the swordsman. His sword, His weapon of judgment in this case was Babylon.  It was one last warning when the king of Babylon sent his troops to settle unrest in the region.  Sadly, both righteous and wicked would be killed and exiled from the land.  The Babylonians would just complete this last surrounding of the city and then come back to finish their complete destruction. It's like they say with a gun in the holster: don't pull it out unless you intend to use it. 

The Lord Declares: "Here's My Heart; Where's Yours?"

 Ezekiel 18:30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”

Ezekiel is one constant flow of God revealing what was going to happen and why: judgment, destruction, and exile.  But the Lord also gave promises of hope.  What was He looking for? Hearts of repentance. Did He enjoy doing this? No.  Lest His repeated proclamations be misinterpreted, He wanted them to know His heart. He was not getting pleasure out of this; He wanted them to trust in Him and live life to the full. He doesn't ruin people; we ruin ourselves with our sin.  His call remains: turn your heart toward Him.

The Lord Said: "I Raise Up the Low and Bring the High Down"

Ezekiel 17:22 Thus says the Lord God: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. 23 On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. 24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

Once again, we see how many different pictures God uses for His sovereignty over Kings and nations. In this chapter alone He speaks of eagles and vines and trees.  God the Creator plants and replants. He takes nations and makes them great and also pulls them up and moves them where He wishes.  Thus He did with Israel - placing them in Canaan, later exiling them to Babylon, and yet later He would return them again, bringing back life to a desolate place. God takes down the proud and raises up the humble. Which are we?

The Lord Said: "I Am Against Fakes"

Ezekiel 13:3 Thus says the Lord God, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! 4 Your prophets have been like jackals among ruins, O Israel. 5 You have not gone up into the breaches, or built up a wall for the house of Israel, that it might stand in battle in the day of the Lord. 6 They have seen false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘Declares the Lord,’ when the Lord has not sent them, and yet they expect him to fulfill their word. 7 Have you not seen a false vision and uttered a lying divination, whenever you have said, ‘Declares the Lord,’ although I have not spoken?” 8 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore behold, I am against you, declares the Lord God.

Besides the hard-heartedness of the people, Ezekiel had to deal with all the false prophets of his day. They went around saying that everything was fine just the way it was, trying to gain a following of people who wanted them to say what they wanted to hear.  God held these false prophets doubly accountable. They were not only failing to support the words He gave to Ezekiel; they contradicted them and proclaimed that they were speaking for God. God was adamant: He had not spoken to or through them. Yet today we have those who proclaim things and blame God for them, expecting the power of their own words to bring them to pass.   They will not; God is against them. 

The Lord Said: "I Am Your Sanctuary"

 Ezekiel 11 (16) ‘Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’ 17 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’ 18 And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. 19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

The exile was coming; there was no way around it.  But God's true people were not to be without hope or purpose.  Just because the Temple would be leveled did not mean He was absent. He would be with them where they went, and He would return them to the Land He had given. When they did, He would also give them a heart of obedience and fellowship.  In this life God continues to offer us hope and restoration - to soften our stubborn and rebellious hearts and return to Him.  He wants us to be ready for the Great Return and ingathering. 

The Lord Said: "I Know What You're Thinking..."

Ezekiel 11:5 And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and he said to me, “Say, Thus says the Lord: So you think, O house of Israel. For I know the things that come into your mind. 6 You have multiplied your slain in this city and have filled its streets with the slain. 7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the meat, and this city is the cauldron, but you shall be brought out of the midst of it. 8 You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, declares the Lord God. 

God had been speaking through Ezekiel, giving picture after picture of the judgment that was awaiting Jerusalem and Judea for their idolatry, immorality, irreverence, and disobedience.  They continued stubbornly despite all the warnings He had given.  Like Jesus when He walked on earth, God knew what was in the heart of man. He knew what people were thinking, the ways they were conniving to figure out a way to do anything but repent.  Mankind has not changed. We are so prone to try to find ways other than God's way to do what is right and be right with Him.  God knows what we're thinking, and it's not right. 

The Lord Says: "Then You Will Know That I Am the Lord"

Ezekiel 7:5 “Thus says the Lord God: Disaster after disaster! Behold, it comes. 6 An end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold, it comes. 7 Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come; the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting on the mountains. 8 Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you, and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. 9 And my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the Lord, who strikes.

God had been listing reason after reason why He was bringing judgment on Jerusalem and Judea: idolatry, injustice, immorality, refusal to obey and repent, failure to worship Him as directed.  For all these reasons God was sending disaster after disaster. Because they would not respond to His call, they would be caught red-handed, sinning as a daily routine, when judgment came. Here we have another phrase common in Ezekiel: then you will know that I am the Lord; they would know Him because He acts; He strikes; He does. How many times do we need to see before we believe?

The Lord Said: "I Have Spoken..."

 Ezekiel 5:14 Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. 15 You shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations all around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and with furious rebukes—I am the Lord; I have spoken— 16 when I send against you the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply of bread. 17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.”

Having laid out his plan to punish Judah for their rebellion, God now focuses on the city of Jerusalem itself, the core of the issue.  Besides all of the idolatry and immorality on every hillside, there in the not-so-holy city there were all sorts of reasons for their fall. They were to be a picture for all the nations of the world looking on.  They had disobeyed His commands and not lived by His instruction.  The city sat high on the mountain and rather than shine with glory and blessing before the whole world, would now be the demonstration of desolation.  We find here the introduction of the phrase: "I am the Lord: I have spoken." There is a sense of both authority and finality in this phrase.  There was no turning back; the judgment of the Lord was coming. 

The Lord Said..."One Way or Another..."

Ezekiel 4:10 And your food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from day to day you shall eat it. 11 And water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from day to day you shall drink. 12 And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.” 13 And the Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” ...16 Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. 17 I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment.

We have already seen a graphic illustration of the war which plaque Judah up until the time of their Exile. God now gives Ezekiel an illustration to carry out for an extended time: limited food and water. There was going to be great drought and famine.  The more stubborn and rebellious they were, the more severe would be their punishment.  Those who resisted His chastising hand would fair worse than those taken in exile; they would see their bread and water completely vanish.  One way or another, His judgment would come.  

The Lord Said: "You Will Feel Helpless..."

 Ezekiel 3:22 And the hand of the Lord was upon me there. And he said to me, “Arise, go out into the valley, and there I will speak with you.” 23 So I arose and went out into the valley, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the Chebar canal, and I fell on my face. 24 But the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself within your house. 25 And you, O son of man, behold, cords will be placed upon you, and you shall be bound with them, so that you cannot go out among the people.

Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel would find himself speaking to a stubborn, rebellious people. He would be filled with the Spirit and the words of the Lord, but when he would speak, he would feel like his words felt empty, as ineffective as if his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth.  The Spirit went on to tell him he would speak, and there would be those who would listen, as few as they may be.  He was to simply say what he was instructed to and when, as he was given liberty.  So should we.

The Lord Said: "It's Gotta Be Said... and Submitted to"

Ezekiel 2:1 And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” 2 And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. 4 The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ 5 And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them... 8 “But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

The book of Ezekiel opens with God appearing to Ezekiel while in Exile in Babylon, giving him a demonstration of His glory from His perspective there. In this chapter God begins to speak to him, telling him what he is being called to do: speak to people who have rebelled against him, making sure that he does not respond in the same way.  Even though he will have some hard things to say, he must both receive them and repeat them to people who do not want to hear. The words will not necessarily taste good or settle well, but they must be spoken.