Of Kings and Prophets: Ezekiel’s
Example
August 23, 2015
BMC- Ezekiel 3:16-27& 11:14-21
Through the Bible in a Year
Introduction: The Rainstorm
On Tuesday
of this week, I had an Ohio Conference Credentialing Team Meeting up at Toledo
Mennonite. Andy Stoner, our former
Regional Pastor, has also joined the team recently in his semi-retirement. He is living in Springfield now and so he
offered to pick me up on the way and we carpooled together.
It was only
about a two hour drive from my house to the church and we were doing really
well until we hit I-75 north of Findlay.
If any of you have been on that stretch of road recently, you know that
there is A LOT of construction right now.
It looks like they are adding lanes and in the process are taking out
the median in the middle and replacing it with a high concrete wall.
Of course
construction’s never any fun, but it wasn’t too big of a deal since we were
able to drive at a reasonably normal speed.
That is until the rain started.
Up around Bowling Green, we hit a torrential down pour. With the concrete wall on our left and a
pick-up truck on our right, there was suddenly so much water on the windshield
that we couldn’t see in front of us for a couple of seconds, seconds that felt
like an eternity. Which brings me to
Ezekiel and our readings for this week.
Ezekiel: the call
We begin with the
prophet’s call and commission in Ezekiel 2.
The LORD said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will
speak to you.” As He spoke, the Spirit
came into [Ezekiel] and raised [him] to [his] feet, and [the prophet] heard him
speaking to [him].”
The LORD “said:
“Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that
has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against
me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate
and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what
the Sovereign Lord says.’ And whether they listen or fail to
listen—for they are a rebellious people—they will know that a prophet has been
among them.
“And
you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid,
though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do
not be afraid of what they say or be terrified by them, though they are a
rebellious people. You must speak my
words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. But
you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious
people; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”
“Then [Ezekiel]
looked, and [he] saw a hand stretched out to [him]. In it was a scroll, which
he unrolled before [Ezekiel]. On both sides of it were written words of lament
and mourning and woe. And he said to [Ezekiel],
“Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the
people of Israel.” So [the prophet] opened [his] mouth,
and he gave [him] the scroll to eat.
“Then he said to [Ezekiel],
“Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So
[he] ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in [his] mouth. He then said to [Ezekiel]: “Son of man, go
now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them. You are
not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange language, but to the
people of Israel— not to many peoples of obscure speech
and strange language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent
you to them, they would have listened to you. But the people
of Israel are not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to
listen to me, for all the Israelites are hardened and obstinate. But
I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. I will
make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid
of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people.”
“And he said to [Ezekiel],
“Son of man, listen carefully and take to heart all the words I speak to you.
Go now to your people in exile and speak to them. Say to them,
‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says,’
whether they listen or fail to listen.”
“Then the Spirit
lifted [Ezekiel] up, and [he] heard behind [him] a loud rumbling sound as the
glory of the Lord rose from the place where it was standing. It was the sound of the wings of the living
creatures brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them,
a loud rumbling sound. The Spirit then
lifted [him] up and took [him] away, and [Ezekiel] went in bitterness and in
the anger of [his] spirit, with the strong hand of the Lord on [him]. [He] came to the exiles who lived
at Tel Aviv near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, [he] sat among
them for seven days—deeply distressed.
Ezekiel: The Watchman
“At the end of seven days the word
of the Lord came to [Ezekiel]: “Son of man, I have made you a
watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them
warning from me. When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you
do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to
save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you
accountable for their blood. But if you
do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from
their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.
“Again, when a righteous person
turns from their righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block
before them, they will die. Since you did not warn them, they will die for
their sin. The righteous things that person did will not be remembered, and I
will hold you accountable for their blood.
But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin and they do not sin,
they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved
yourself.”
“The hand of the Lord was on me there, and he said to me, “Get up and go out to the
plain, and there I will speak to you.” So I got up and
went out to the plain. And the glory of the Lord was
standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell
facedown.
“Then the Spirit came into me and
raised me to my feet. He spoke to me and said: “Go, shut yourself inside your
house. And you, son of man, they will tie with ropes; you will
be bound so that you cannot go out among the people. I will make your tongue stick to the roof of
your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, for they are a
rebellious people. But when I speak to
you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the
Sovereign Lord says.’ Whoever will listen let them listen, and whoever will refuse
let them refuse; for they are a rebellious people.”
The Job To Speak
Within these words from Ezekiel, we
see a number of examples for us in what I believe we are called to in our faith
as well. The first is our job to speak. When Ezekiel received his call, he was told
to go to the rebellious people of Israel.
He was told to go to them and to speak the words of the Lord even though
they were rebellious and regardless of whether or not they listened. He was told to eat the scroll and then to
speak the words.
Ezekiel was called to be a watchmen
among the people. If the LORD gave
Ezekiel a word and he failed to declare it, Ezekiel would also be found
guilty. But if Ezekiel declared the
word, he would be innocent whether or not the people followed his
instructions. And it seems to me that we
serve as present day watchmen. We have
the job of speaking truth with gentleness and love into this fallen world
around us. He have the job of declaring
Jesus’ gospel message of salvation and reconciliation.
In high school, I was the one on
the soccer team who took my faith seriously.
Most of the time I did not make too big of a deal about it, but the guys
all knew that I went to church and believed in Jesus. They all knew that those realities affected
the choices of my daily life. At some of
our away games while I was on JV, this resulted in some pretty difficult
conversations as we sat and watched while the Varsity was playing.
My teammates would ask me questions
about the end times and what I would or would not do with a girl before I was
married. It was uncomfortable, and I
don’t know that I changed anyone’s mind; but I spoke what I believed to be true
with love and respect. I shared what I
believe to be my best understanding of what God had given me to say.
But our job to speak is much more
than that isn’t it? Ezekiel wasn’t
speaking to the pagans. He was speaking
to the chosen, a chosen people who had become rebellious. When we are honest with ourselves, we too
have our moments and our seasons of being rebellious don’t we? We choose to go our own way despite the words
of scripture and despite the LORD’s instructions. And we too scorn those that the LORD has sent
to speak to us.
But this is not just an Old
Testament reality, is it? While Jesus
did speak to those beyond Judaism, some of his harshest words were to the
religious elite. And in Matthew 18,
Jesus tells us that when someone in the church sins, that we should speak to
everyone else in the church about it rather than directly to them, right? Wrong.
Jesus says to go and speak directly with your brother or sister. It is only if that does not work that it
should go to the level of involving others.
We have the job of speaking into the lives of fellow believers and those
beyond our fellowship.
This weekend, you received
additional information about Missional Discipleship Groups. This is an initiative of Mennonite Mission
Network based on the Life Transformation Groups that I shared with you a couple
of weeks ago. We are partnering with
South Union and Oak Grove to form a cohort of groups that will commit to trying
this for 8 months.
The first part of the Missional
Discipleship Groups is accountability.
Each week, the group of three meets together to ask each other five
questions. This is primarily an exercise
in listening; but there will also be times in which we will be able to speak
into one another’s lives especially as we share the ways in which we experience
God speaking into our own lives.
There is a sign-up sheet in the
foyer for people who are interested in being facilitators and
participants. The facilitator role is
primarily the same as the participant role.
The only difference is that the facilitator sets the meeting time and
place and facilitates the choice of the scripture reading. There will be a training session for
facilitators on Wed. Sept 16th at 7PM. And the groups will launch on Oct. 11th.
The Job to Act
The first job is to speak. The second is our job to act. Ezekiel was called on to do some rather
strange things on behalf of God in sharing the message with the people of
Israel. Ezekiel was told to eat a scroll
with the LORD’s words on it. He was
called to lay on his left side for 390 days and then on his right side for 40
days all the while cooking his food over cow dung. He was called to use a sharp sword as a razor
to shave his head and beard. He was
called to clap his hands and stomp his feet and cry out “Alas!”
But then Jesus has called on us to
do some rather strange things as well hasn’t He? He raised anger with a brother to the level
of murder. He raised looking at a woman
lustfully to the level of adultery. He
told us not to swear oaths but to let your “yes” be “yes” and our “no” be
“no.” We are to turn the other cheek,
give our tunic as well, and go the second mile. We are to love our enemies and
pray for those who persecute us.
For me this typically begins with
the simple act of prayer. When someone
has wronged us and we pray for them, we begin to open our hearts to God’s
leading. But it usually needs to go
beyond prayer. It needs to move on to
affirming and praising the person to other people for their good qualities and
the things that they do well. While many
of us often take the passive aggressive opportunity of putting people down to
other people, we can instead use it as an opportunity to lift them up and to
continue the process of changing our own hearts. And ultimately, though it is important to
talk to the person that we have an issue with, we can begin from a place of
humility in which we own our own fault in the situation and offer affirmation
directly to the person that we are speaking with along with sharing our
feelings.
The Job to Dwell
The third is
our job to dwell. Ezekiel was called to
be in the midst of the people in all that he was saying and doing. He was not atop some far off mountain. He was not contained within the king’s court. He was in the midst of the people for
extended periods of time as a visible demonstration of God’s presence and God’s
message, like laying on his side for over a year.
Ezekiel
received the call of the LORD to speak.
He ate the scroll with the words of the LORD upon it. And then the LORD lifted him up and took him
to the exiles. Once he was there, he
dwelled in their presence for seven days.
He was with them for seven days before he spoke. This is the ministry of presence. This is the ministry that Job’s friends
offered him when they first arrived in the midst of his despair. They sat with Job for seven days and seven
nights before they began to speak.
And that
was the model that Jesus gave to us as well.
As John 1 tells us, God literally pitched his tent among us in Jesus
Christ. God became incarnate and lived
with humanity. He slept, He ate, He
drank, He walked, He taught, He dwelled with people. And when he sent out his seventy, he
instructed them to do likewise. They
were to go out and live with the people not moving from house to house, but
staying with the people they first stay with.
Each one of
us is incarnate right where we are as well.
Each of us is dwelling in this part of Ohio with all of the people that
are around us in our work, home and social life. Yet I wonder if we are practicing an
incarnational ministry of dwelling with these people? We are a neighborhood church and yet how well
do we know the neighborhood around us?
Oak Grove
has been discerning ways that they are called to do local outreach. One of the things that they have realized is
that their location is a liability in connecting with the people of West
Liberty. People are less likely to come
to them because they are out in the country.
So they have submitted a grant to Ohio Conference to establish a store
front presence in West Liberty and if they receive the grant, they have invited
us to partner with them in this effort.
They are taking intentional steps to establish an incarnational presence
within West Liberty.
Going with What You Know
And yet
even though it was Ezekiel’s job to speak, act and dwell, it is clear that
Ezekiel did not have the whole picture.
He only had what God gave him.
And even in what the Lord gave him, Ezekiel had questions about what it
all meant. This all brings me back to
that rainstorm on Tuesday in the midst of construction on I-75.
With the
concrete wall on our left and a pick-up truck on our right, there was suddenly
so much water on the windshield that we couldn’t see in front of us for a
couple of seconds that felt like an eternity.
Andy was driving and neither of us could see out of the windshield. At that moment, all that Andy could do was go
with what he had seen the second before our view disappeared and hold on until
the windshield cleared. He had to trust
in the LORD to pull us through.
That’s what
Ezekiel and the Israelites had to do.
And it seems to me that it is often what we have to do as well. We go with what we know: speaking, acting,
and dwelling. We trust in the Lord to
carry us up to and beyond those points that we can’t yet see, those points of
tension and uncertainty. And we hope for
light on the other side of the tunnel.
Conclusion: Word of Hope
In the
midst of all of the impending doom, the words of judgment, the acts of
displaying the Lord’s message, and the dwelling amidst all of the people,
Ezekiel also brought words of hope. He
could not tell the people that judgment was avoidable. It wasn’t.
But he could promise them that a time would come beyond that judgment, a
time of renewal, a time of resurrection.
In Ezekiel 11 we read, “The word of the Lord came to [the
prophet]: “Son of man, the people of Jerusalem have
said of your fellow exiles and all the other Israelites, ‘They are far away
from the Lord; this land was given to us as our possession.’ “Therefore say:
‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the
countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the
countries where they have gone.’
“Therefore say: ‘This is what the
Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from
the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land
of Israel again.’ “They will return to
it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a
new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them
a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be
careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.”
As we follow Ezekiel’s example of
speaking, acting and dwelling, may we too hold on to the hope of renewal to
come after the difficult times. May we
live not only into the incarnation of our Lord and savior, but also into His
resurrection power. Because as the band
Gungor reminds us, the Lord makes Beautiful Things.
Amen.
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