August 27, 2025 • 29 mins
What does it mean when the Creator of the universe grieves? In this profound exploration of Ezekiel chapter 19, we uncover a side of God rarely discussed—His deep sorrow over having to judge His beloved people.
Through two striking metaphors, a lioness with her cubs and a withered vine, Ezekiel conveys God's lamentation over Israel's fallen kings. These rulers, descendants of David's royal line, had become predatory and violent, "devouring men" rather than protecting them. Kings Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin, specifically mentioned in the historical record, were carried off to Egypt and Babylon respectively as divine judgment for their wickedness.
The episode reveals a crucial theological truth: God takes no pleasure in judgment yet cannot ignore sin without compromising His righteousness. This tension between justice and compassion permeates the entire biblical narrative and ultimately finds its resolution at the cross.
We also examine a fascinating moment at the beginning of chapter 20, when Israel's elders approach Ezekiel seeking divine guidance, only to be met with God's refusal: "I will not be inquired of by you." Instead, God recounts their centuries-long pattern of rebellion dating back to Egypt, where—astonishingly—they clung to Egyptian idols despite witnessing the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea among other miracles in their exodus from Egypt.
This ancient struggle with idolatry speaks directly to our modern experience. While few of us bow before physical statues, we often elevate money, relationships, careers, or even religious traditions above our devotion to God. Anything that captures our primary allegiance becomes an idol, potentially leading us down the same destructive path as ancient Israel.
Join us as we explore God's heart in judgment, the danger of taking divine patience for granted, and the crucial spiritual practice of remembering God's faithfulness throughout our lives.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible.
We do verse-by-verse Biblestudy and today we're in the
book of Ezekiel, chapter 19.
First question we have is doesGod ever lament over the things
he has to do?
We'll find the answer to thattoday because, if you've been
with us in the book of Ezekiel,god is pouring out His wrath and
(00:44):
His anger on a very disobedientpeople.
God had sent many messages andmany prophets to the people of
Jerusalem and they had ignoredit, disobeyed, took God for
granted, and now God has causedsome of them to be deported into
Assyria, some of them intoBabylon.
(01:06):
He's giving the message throughthe prophet Ezekiel to the
remainder in Babylon, tellingthem that he is going to destroy
Jerusalem.
It's a very horrible message.
God has been quite blunt andquite severe in his language.
Today we're going to see God'sheart in all of this.
(01:27):
God takes no pleasure in thedeath and destruction of people,
but as righteous judge he mustdeal with it.
So today we're going to seeGod's heart.
So if you have your copy of theBible, open to the book of
Ezekiel, chapter 19.
Steve, can you read the firstseven?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
verses.
As for you, take up alamentation for the princes of
Israel and say what was yourmother?
A lioness among lions.
She lay down among young lions.
She reared her cubs.
When she brought up one of hercubs, he became a lion and he
learned to tear his prey.
(02:07):
He devoured men.
Then nations heard about him.
He was captured in their pitand they brought him with hooks
to the land of Egypt.
When she saw, as she waited,that her hope was lost, she took
another of her cubs and madehim a young lion.
He walked about among the lions.
(02:29):
He became a young lion.
He learned to tear his prey.
He devoured men.
He destroyed their fortifiedtowers and laid waste to their
cities.
A land and its fullness wereappalled because of the sound of
his roaring.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
God is using the princes of Israel, the kings of
Israel, as lions.
We know that in verse 1.
So there's no doubt on who he'stalking about.
He's talking about the kinglyline of his people.
He says in the first couple ofverses there that your mother
was of good stock.
If you remember, all the wayback to King David, they had a
(03:11):
very wealthy nation.
David was a man after God's ownheart.
But, starting with Solomon, thecountry began to rot because
they brought in idols and beganto worship other gods.
But God had given them much.
He had given them the law ofMoses.
He had given them the prophets.
He had given them much guidance.
(03:32):
He had protected them.
They came from good stock, theycame from a good place.
Their ancestors had a lot ofblessings and benefits from God.
Nevertheless, they had, overtime, walked away from that.
Verse 4 speaks of one of thelions being captured and taken
to Egypt.
Well, king Jehoahaz wascaptured, indeed, and taken to
(03:57):
Egypt by Pharaoh, where he died.
You can hear that story in 2Kings, chapter 23, verses 31 to
34.
God is here lamenting becausehis people, the kingly line, had
started out well.
They had King David as anancestor, but because of
disobedience, then the rulersultimately had to be judged and
(04:24):
ultimately died.
Steve, here's the firstquestion.
Does God lament over sin anddestruction of people?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I do think he laments , glenn, because this is a sad
situation that the nation ofIsrael has gotten itself into.
Here they are.
They were a divided kingdom,northern, taken off into
captivity.
Now the southern kingdom ofJudah, through God's grace, has
held off other advances andattacks.
They're down to their last fewyears of being an independent
(04:56):
kingdom and God is lamentingover that.
He's lamenting that it has cometo this and the nation of Israel
itself is going to becompletely taken out for a few
years 70 years to be exact.
He's going to have people thatare in exile in Babylon and the
temple is going to be destroyedwhere he once dwelled.
(05:17):
Jerusalem is going to bedestroyed, the capital city.
So, yes, I think God doeslament over that.
As far as the people, but youknow, glenn, they have brought
it upon themselves.
It isn't something that Godenjoys doing.
I don't think that's why wehave this lamentation.
He's lamenting as to thesituation and why it's come down
(05:40):
to this now.
It's something, no, I don'tthink God takes pleasure in, but
yet there's going to beconsequences to sin.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
If you've been with us as we've gone through Ezekiel
, you've seen a long serieswhere God is pouring out his
wrath and his anger on hispeople.
He's quite clear, quite blunt,quite graphic, very emotional in
pouring out his anger and hiswrath because he had sent many
prophets and they had beenignored.
(06:08):
Here, if we ask the question,does God lament over this or is
he somehow taking pleasure inthe destruction of his people?
Well, by no means.
This is one of the chaptersthat show this.
God does not take pleasure inhaving to judge sin, but he must
judge sin or he wouldn't be arighteous God.
(06:30):
Critics always say well, howcome God allows evil?
Well, when he does deal withevil, they say why is God
punishing people?
Here in this chapter, god isvery sorrowful and he talks
about this lion, one of thesekings, being taken away.
Then, in verses 5 through 7, hespeaks of another prince that
(06:53):
became a young lion.
In verse 6, this king becameviolent and it says devoured men
.
The king there he's talkingabout was King Jehoiachin, who
ultimately was taken prisoner byBabylon in 2 Kings 24, verses 8
through 17.
What had this man done todeserve this punishment?
(07:15):
He was a murderer.
He callously used his positionas king to destroy people's
lives.
He devoured men.
Therefore, god judged him forit and used Babylon to come in
and be his weapon for dealingout justice.
That's the first half ofchapter 19.
(07:36):
I'm going to pick up in verse 8, and he has additional laments
for the rest of the chapterwhich says this, additional
laments for the rest of thechapter which says this Then
nations set against him on everyside from their provinces, and
they spread their net over him.
He was captured in their pit.
They put him in a cage withhooks and brought him to the
(07:57):
king of Babylon.
They brought him in huntingnets so that his voice would be
heard no more.
On the mountains of Israel, yourmother was like a vine in your
vineyard.
Planted by the waters, it wasfruitful and full of benches
because of abundant waters, andit had strong branches fit for
scepters of rulers.
And its height was raised abovethe clouds so that it was seen
(08:20):
in the height with the mass ofits branches.
But it was plucked up in fury.
It was cast down to the groundand the east wind dried up its
fruit.
Its strong branch was torn offso that it withered.
The fire consumed it and now itis planted in the wilderness,
in a dry and thirsty land, andfire has gone out from its
(08:42):
branch, it has consumed itsshoots and fruit, so that there
is not in it a strong branch, ascepter to rule.
This is a lamentation and hasbecome a lamentation.
Steve, what do you think ofwhen you hear these words.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
As I mentioned before , it's just a sad story as to
what the nation of Israel hascome to.
It's a sad ending If you alsoremember back to the book of
Judges it talked about every mandid what was right in his own
eyes and there was no king inIsrael.
The people clamored for a king.
God told them, said you reallydon't want a king because
(09:21):
they're going to lead you downthe wrong path in the wrong way.
Well, now we see where that hasled them.
That actually happened.
There were a few good kings inthere, but most of them were not
good kings, meaning that theydidn't uphold the ordinances and
statutes of God and led thepeople astray.
(09:42):
It's just a sad, sad story.
God is lamenting what hashappened to the nation of Israel
overall.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
God takes no pleasure in the destruction of his
people.
King Jehoiachin stayedimprisoned in Babylon and
ultimately died there.
It says at the end of verse 9,his voice would be heard no more
in the mountains of Israel.
Because of their sin, they weretaken away.
One of the messages that'srecurring through this is that
(10:12):
God was very long-suffering,very patient with his people.
He gave them rules at thebeginning and set up the
expectations and told them whatwould happen way back in
Deuteronomy.
Over time he sent prophets andreminded his people.
He was very long-suffering, butultimately the sin fills up the
(10:33):
cup and God will deal with it.
He pours out his wrath on hispeople and here he is mourning
because of it.
It says in verses 10 and 11, itspeaks of the heritage of
Israel coming from good stock.
They had good things formerly,but they had squandered it.
They had spread it anddiscarded the good things of God
(10:57):
and taken advantage.
Israel flourished under KingDavid and Solomon, but
ultimately a very long series ofdisobedient kings squandered
and ultimately the last kingswere killed, taken to Babylon
and the kingly line stopped withthe Babylonian captivity.
(11:18):
It says here in the verse 12, wejust read God plucked up and
destroyed Israel in fury becauseof her sin.
The message for us today isthat if we take advantage of God
, then we will meet the samefate.
Yes, he is long-suffering andhe generally doesn't send
lightning bolts at the hint ofthe first sin.
(11:38):
He is long-suffering, but, myfriend, if we think we can stay
in sin and get by with it, weare sadly mistaken.
His anger will be poured outultimately on all sinners,
unless we fall at his feet andclaim the blood of the Lord
Jesus.
That brings us to chapter 20.
In chapter 20, again, we justcontinue this wave after wave of
(12:03):
God's anger and wrath on hispeople.
There's times where weultimately, as Bible teachers,
get a little bit tired sometimesof dealing with this, but I can
only imagine how tired Godwould be in having to re-say it
as well.
Let's go ahead and look atchapter 20.
Steve, can you read the firsteight?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
verses.
Now, in the seventh year, inthe fifth month, on the tenth of
the month, certain of theelders of Israel came to inquire
of the Lord and sat before me.
The word of the Lord came to mesaying Son of man, speak to the
elders of Israel and say tothem, thus says the Lord God Do
(12:43):
you come to inquire of me as Ilive?
Declares the Lord God.
I will not be inquired of byyou.
Will you judge them?
Son of man?
Make them know the abominationsof their fathers and say to
them Thus says the Lord God Onthe day when I chose Israel and
(13:06):
swore to the descendants of thehouse of Jacob and made myself
known to them in the land ofEgypt, when I swore to them
saying I am the Lord, your God,on that day I swore to them to
bring them out from the land ofEgypt into a land that I had
selected for them, flowing withmilk and honey, which is the
(13:29):
glory of all lands.
I said to them Cast away each ofyou the detestable things of
his eyes and do not defileyourselves with the idols of
Egypt.
I am the Lord, your God.
But they rebelled against meand were not willing to listen
to me.
They did not cast away thedetestable things of their eyes,
(13:50):
nor did they forsake the idolsof Egypt.
Then I resolved to pour out mywrath on them, to accomplish my
anger against them in the midstof the land of Egypt.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
In this passage.
If we go back to the beginningand walk through what we just
read in verse 1, ezekiel saysit's the seventh year, fifth
month and the tenth day.
Now, as we've pointed outwhenever we bump into these,
ezekiel is again documenting thedate, the year, month and day
when he got this message fromthe Lord, god.
(14:27):
He is documenting a historicalfact.
This is not some sort ofreligious myth, it's not some
sort of hearsay.
It's a firsthand eyewitnessaccount that's been documented
down to the year, the month andthe day.
If we follow along in the bookof these days, the previous year
, month and date he gave was inEzekiel 8, verse 1.
(14:49):
This one, if we look at theyears, is about 11 months after
the previous date given inchapter 8.
The Bible is a historical fact.
It happened in history and it'snot a religious myth or some
kind of fabricated religiousstory.
This is a documented historicalfact.
What had happened here?
(15:10):
It says that the leaders of theJewish people they again go to
Ezekiel.
Ezekiel was known as theprophet, so they go to Ezekiel
to hear what God has to say tothem.
They must have had some sort ofa question or at least
listening for the word of God.
Ezekiel says here he is givinganother new word from God.
(15:33):
In verse 3, it says once again,god is telling them that he
will not give any new messages,whatever they were asking about.
God says I'm not going toanswer you because of your
disobedience and disbelief,which God will describe in the
rest of the chapter.
Get the picture they come tothe prophet to hear a word of
(15:56):
God and the word they hear I'mnot going to respond to you.
Hear a word of God and the wordthey hear.
I'm not going to respond to you.
Steve, does God?
Does he answer all thequestions from all people that
always get asked of him?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
No, he doesn't, Glenn , because he doesn't have to
answer the questions always frompeople.
When we really get an answerfrom him, it's really a gracious
thing that he does for us to dothat.
As you pointed out to us justhere.
Teaching through these chapters, it gets a little bit
repetitive here.
Well, how do you think God isthinking about the whole
situation, telling them over andover again, trying to get them
(16:34):
to understand that he is theirGod and to follow him, and that
they would get blessings fromthat, that he is their God and
to follow him and that theywould get blessings from that?
That's actually what he's doinghere in these verses that he's
mentioning here.
He's going all the way back toEgypt to tell them I'm not going
to entertain any more questionsfrom you because you're not
listening to me.
(16:54):
This is how far back you'relistening as a nation goes.
It goes all the way back towhen I took you out of Egypt,
and that was hundreds of yearsprior to where they are now.
No, he doesn't always answerevery type of question that
comes from people.
As I said before, it's graciousof him to give us answers many
(17:18):
times.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Again in verse 1, the elders of Israel came to
inquire of the Lord and satbefore me.
At the end of verse 3, god'sresponse was something that they
really probably didn't want tohear.
I will not be inquired of you.
They came with a question andthe answer from God was I'm not
going to answer your question.
(17:39):
What I am going to do is remindyou and he spends the rest of
the chapter God does, remindingthem of all of the good things
he had already given them in thepast and reminding them of
their response, which wasdisobedience.
That's what most of this chapteris.
Is God reminding them of all ofthe blessings that God had
(18:00):
given them in the past, andreminding them of all of the
blessings that God had giventhem in the past and reminding
them of all of the disobedienceand disbelief that they had
exerted in the past?
He reminds them of the tripthat they made to Egypt and how
God brought them out.
That's one of the themes here,and he talks about several
(18:21):
instances about bringing themout of Egypt.
Steve, why does God regularlybring up that he brought them
out of Egypt?
If we look at the timeline,this was quite a long time from
when he brought them out ofEgypt.
Why is he still talking aboutI'm the one that brought you out
of Egypt?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I think it's because all of the events that took
place, all of the miracles thathappened, with Moses talking
with Pharaoh, the 10 plaguesthat came along and then them
coming out, the parting of theRed Sea of God being a pillar of
cloud during the day and fireby night to cover them and to
(18:59):
comfort them, giving them mannaevery day while they are in the
wilderness, giving them meat toeat, quail whenever they
complain, water whenever theycomplain All of those miracles
that went with the exodus fromEgypt.
It's a story to be recountedover and over again as a
reminder of who he is, who Godis.
(19:21):
Of course, there's othermiracles that take place as they
go into the land, but Goddidn't forget them when they
were in Egypt and he broughtthem out whenever they were at a
period of slavery in Egypt.
I think that goes into it too.
He's telling them you're mypeople, I'm your God.
(19:42):
I'm not going to forget thepromises that I was made to your
forefathers, abraham, isaac andJacob.
He mentions Jacob specificallyin these verses that we just got
through reading.
It's a big deal.
I think that's why Godcontinues to bring it up
throughout Scripture.
It's something that they shouldremember and bring to mind, but
(20:05):
for some reason, which Ihaven't always figured out, they
just continue to go off andworship gods of the world rather
than worshiping the one trueGod and worship gods of the
world rather than worshiping theone true God.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
It seems that the Lord regularly brings up and
reminds Israel I am the one thatbrought you out of Egypt.
He does this repeatedly and Ithink part of the reason is
because the actions thathappened when he brought them
out of Egypt were ademonstration the superiority of
God, the falsity of idols, howhe was powerful and the other
(20:42):
gods weren't.
So it's a major demonstration.
It's also a major demonstrationof the heart of God.
He felt for his people thatwere in slavery and he wanted to
bring them out.
It's also a picture of oursalvation.
We are slaves to sin and Godhas to bring us out of that
(21:02):
slavery.
We can't get out of it byourselves.
The coming out of Egypt and thebringing out of Egypt through
the wilderness into the promisedland is a major, major, major
event in all of the Bible.
That's why he keeps bringing itup.
In verses 5 and 6 here inEzekiel 20, god repeats some key
(21:25):
ideas.
He says I chose Israel.
He's emphasizing who isactually doing the good actions.
He mentions I swore three times.
He says I made myself known tothem.
Once again.
He also, in those verses,mentions the land promise the
land is a major theme throughoutall of the Bible.
(21:47):
God is reminding Israel howmany times they rebelled and how
many times God delivered themand provided for them.
He reminds them of the thingsthat he promised to give them.
The promises were unilateral,made by God to Israel.
Even after all of thedisobedience, even after all of
(22:10):
the centuries, even after he'spouring out his wrath on his
children here at the time of theBabylonian captivity, he is
still reminding them.
I promised, I swore I broughtyou out of Egypt.
I was fulfilling my promises.
That's what he's doing, steve.
Can we take comfort in hearingthese words even today?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Absolutely, and the reason why is because we know
that God is a promise keeperThrough keeping his promises
that he made to Israel.
We can take comfort that he'sgoing to keep the promises that
were made to us as believers inJesus Christ, of eternal life.
All of that stuff.
With all the things that aregoing to happen in the future,
(22:53):
we can take pride and comfort inknowing that they're going to
happen, because God has revealedhimself not only to the nation
of Israel and what he's done andkeeping his promises, but he's
also revealing himself to us.
So, yes, we can take comfort inknowing that and be assured
that it's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
In verse 7, let me read that again.
It's something quite amazing.
Here I said to them cast awayeach of you the detestable
things of his eyes and do notdefile yourselves with the idols
of Egypt.
I am the Lord, your God.
But they rebelled against meand were not willing to listen
to me.
They did not cast away thedetestable things of their eyes,
(23:35):
nor did they forsake the idolsof Egypt.
I find this quite amazing.
After all of the 10 plagues,after all of the miracles, after
all of the water from a rockand manna from heaven and the
quail and all of the miraculousthings that God did, they hung
on to the idols of Egypt.
(23:56):
If you remember, if you werewith us when we went through
Joshua, joshua 24, verse 14 saysthat even after the 40 years of
wandering in the wilderness,after that another few decades
of conquering parts of the land,israel still had some of the
Egyptian idols that they hadbeen carrying around with them,
(24:18):
hanging on to All the way.
At the end of Joshua's lifethey still had idols from Egypt.
Idol worship plagued Israel formost of the Old Testament.
Steve, I just find that amazingthat they would have hung on to
those idols that long after Godhad warned them not to.
(24:39):
But you know what amazes meeven more than that Idol worship
still plagues us today, does itnot?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
It's a form of taking God for granted.
I think they were there.
They hold on to these idols,which is really a representation
of holding on to the world,holding on to worldly things and
worldly items.
I think we do the same thinghere in our day and age, in that
(25:08):
sometimes we take God forgranted.
Oh, we have salvation and wehave the freedom to pray
directly to God and all otherfreedoms that we have.
We can always go to God andconfess our sin, as it mentions
in 1 John.
I think possibly sometimes thatturns into an area where we get
(25:29):
a little bit comfortable withworldly ways and we do worldly
things and we kind of take Godfor granted in that form that we
can always go to him and askfor forgiveness.
Maybe we should spend more timetrying to make sure that we're
becoming more Christ-like andbecoming not part of the world.
We go back to Israel and Ithink that's what they're doing.
(25:52):
They're holding on to the oldways of Egypt, the old gods, the
old ways of the world.
In a way, they're really takingadvantage of God, becoming
maybe a little bit toocomfortable with him, thinking
that he's always going tooverlook their sins, but we see
that he's going to bringjudgment on them and he does
that several times throughouttheir history.
(26:13):
It's a little bit of a mystery.
But I think it's also a mysteryin our day and age why we
sometimes maybe take God alittle bit too for granted.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
The idols that plague them were statues that they
would either have in their homesor carry around with them or
have in a shrine or a temple.
I would hope that our audiencewouldn't have statues laying
around that you do religiousthings in front of.
But other things can be idolsas well.
It doesn't have to be aphysical object.
(26:41):
We can make lots of things intoan idol Money, sex, drugs,
pride, even hobbies can be idols.
Anything that gets in between usand God takes away our
attention from worshiping God.
That becomes an idol.
God's not a divine killjoy.
He's not asking us to get ridof anything that's fun.
(27:02):
What he is is asking us to getrid of anything that takes the
place of him, and whether that'ssomething that we find
innocuous or whether it's somereligious ritual, if it takes us
away from the Lord, it's anidol.
In this passage, steve, he alsoreminds them of all of the
things, as we said, of bringingthem out of Egypt, all of the
(27:24):
blessings.
Do we in our day, need to bereminded of God's blessing?
Is it helpful for us to go backand be reminded of the things
that God has done for us in thepast?
Speaker 2 (27:35):
I think that it's essential that we do that.
We cry out to God whenever weare in problems or trouble and
we seek His face, we seek Hisattention.
We want Him to be gracious andmerciful to us, depending upon
the situation that we findourselves in.
Then, when we maybe come out ofthose situations, maybe we give
(27:56):
a thanks to God.
Probably, most likely we'llgive a thanks.
Then we kind of pass on andthen we go back to our life and
our old ways until anothercrisis comes along and we never
go back and remember what Godhas done for us in the past.
So I think if we spent moretime remembering what God has
(28:16):
done for us in the past, in thatexercise, you're also
remembering what type ofsituation you were in when you
cried out to God and how heanswered it and how he brought
you through that particularsituation.
That helps us becomingembroiled in new situations,
because that helps us toremember we don't want to go
(28:37):
down that path again, eventhough God brought us out of it.
So I think remembering thingsthat God has done for us in the
past is an essential thing thatwe should do in order to help us
, as we move forward in our life, to not get into the situations
where we necessarily have tocry out to God for deliverance.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
We're at a spot here in Ezekiel where we're going to
see even more of this verygraphic language that's coming
up in the next sessions veryemotional language, very
descriptive language.
God is going to be againshowing his anger and wrath in a
very graphic way, again showinghis anger and wrath in a very
(29:19):
graphic way.
We trust that you'll be backhere next time as we continue to
reason through the book ofEzekiel.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you you.
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible.
We do verse-by-verse Biblestudy and today we're in the
book of Ezekiel, chapter 19.
First question we have is doesGod ever lament over the things
he has to do?
We'll find the answer to thattoday because, if you've been
with us in the book of Ezekiel,god is pouring out His wrath and
(00:44):
His anger on a very disobedientpeople.
God had sent many messages andmany prophets to the people of
Jerusalem and they had ignoredit, disobeyed, took God for
granted, and now God has causedsome of them to be deported into
Assyria, some of them intoBabylon.
(01:06):
He's giving the message throughthe prophet Ezekiel to the
remainder in Babylon, tellingthem that he is going to destroy
Jerusalem.
It's a very horrible message.
God has been quite blunt andquite severe in his language.
Today we're going to see God'sheart in all of this.
(01:27):
God takes no pleasure in thedeath and destruction of people,
but as righteous judge he mustdeal with it.
So today we're going to seeGod's heart.
So if you have your copy of theBible, open to the book of
Ezekiel, chapter 19.
Steve, can you read the firstseven?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
verses.
As for you, take up alamentation for the princes of
Israel and say what was yourmother?
A lioness among lions.
She lay down among young lions.
She reared her cubs.
When she brought up one of hercubs, he became a lion and he
learned to tear his prey.
(02:07):
He devoured men.
Then nations heard about him.
He was captured in their pitand they brought him with hooks
to the land of Egypt.
When she saw, as she waited,that her hope was lost, she took
another of her cubs and madehim a young lion.
He walked about among the lions.
(02:29):
He became a young lion.
He learned to tear his prey.
He devoured men.
He destroyed their fortifiedtowers and laid waste to their
cities.
A land and its fullness wereappalled because of the sound of
his roaring.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
God is using the princes of Israel, the kings of
Israel, as lions.
We know that in verse 1.
So there's no doubt on who he'stalking about.
He's talking about the kinglyline of his people.
He says in the first couple ofverses there that your mother
was of good stock.
If you remember, all the wayback to King David, they had a
(03:11):
very wealthy nation.
David was a man after God's ownheart.
But, starting with Solomon, thecountry began to rot because
they brought in idols and beganto worship other gods.
But God had given them much.
He had given them the law ofMoses.
He had given them the prophets.
He had given them much guidance.
(03:32):
He had protected them.
They came from good stock, theycame from a good place.
Their ancestors had a lot ofblessings and benefits from God.
Nevertheless, they had, overtime, walked away from that.
Verse 4 speaks of one of thelions being captured and taken
to Egypt.
Well, king Jehoahaz wascaptured, indeed, and taken to
(03:57):
Egypt by Pharaoh, where he died.
You can hear that story in 2Kings, chapter 23, verses 31 to
34.
God is here lamenting becausehis people, the kingly line, had
started out well.
They had King David as anancestor, but because of
disobedience, then the rulersultimately had to be judged and
(04:24):
ultimately died.
Steve, here's the firstquestion.
Does God lament over sin anddestruction of people?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I do think he laments , glenn, because this is a sad
situation that the nation ofIsrael has gotten itself into.
Here they are.
They were a divided kingdom,northern, taken off into
captivity.
Now the southern kingdom ofJudah, through God's grace, has
held off other advances andattacks.
They're down to their last fewyears of being an independent
(04:56):
kingdom and God is lamentingover that.
He's lamenting that it has cometo this and the nation of Israel
itself is going to becompletely taken out for a few
years 70 years to be exact.
He's going to have people thatare in exile in Babylon and the
temple is going to be destroyedwhere he once dwelled.
(05:17):
Jerusalem is going to bedestroyed, the capital city.
So, yes, I think God doeslament over that.
As far as the people, but youknow, glenn, they have brought
it upon themselves.
It isn't something that Godenjoys doing.
I don't think that's why wehave this lamentation.
He's lamenting as to thesituation and why it's come down
(05:40):
to this now.
It's something, no, I don'tthink God takes pleasure in, but
yet there's going to beconsequences to sin.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
If you've been with us as we've gone through Ezekiel
, you've seen a long serieswhere God is pouring out his
wrath and his anger on hispeople.
He's quite clear, quite blunt,quite graphic, very emotional in
pouring out his anger and hiswrath because he had sent many
prophets and they had beenignored.
(06:08):
Here, if we ask the question,does God lament over this or is
he somehow taking pleasure inthe destruction of his people?
Well, by no means.
This is one of the chaptersthat show this.
God does not take pleasure inhaving to judge sin, but he must
judge sin or he wouldn't be arighteous God.
(06:30):
Critics always say well, howcome God allows evil?
Well, when he does deal withevil, they say why is God
punishing people?
Here in this chapter, god isvery sorrowful and he talks
about this lion, one of thesekings, being taken away.
Then, in verses 5 through 7, hespeaks of another prince that
(06:53):
became a young lion.
In verse 6, this king becameviolent and it says devoured men
.
The king there he's talkingabout was King Jehoiachin, who
ultimately was taken prisoner byBabylon in 2 Kings 24, verses 8
through 17.
What had this man done todeserve this punishment?
(07:15):
He was a murderer.
He callously used his positionas king to destroy people's
lives.
He devoured men.
Therefore, god judged him forit and used Babylon to come in
and be his weapon for dealingout justice.
That's the first half ofchapter 19.
(07:36):
I'm going to pick up in verse 8, and he has additional laments
for the rest of the chapterwhich says this, additional
laments for the rest of thechapter which says this Then
nations set against him on everyside from their provinces, and
they spread their net over him.
He was captured in their pit.
They put him in a cage withhooks and brought him to the
(07:57):
king of Babylon.
They brought him in huntingnets so that his voice would be
heard no more.
On the mountains of Israel, yourmother was like a vine in your
vineyard.
Planted by the waters, it wasfruitful and full of benches
because of abundant waters, andit had strong branches fit for
scepters of rulers.
And its height was raised abovethe clouds so that it was seen
(08:20):
in the height with the mass ofits branches.
But it was plucked up in fury.
It was cast down to the groundand the east wind dried up its
fruit.
Its strong branch was torn offso that it withered.
The fire consumed it and now itis planted in the wilderness,
in a dry and thirsty land, andfire has gone out from its
(08:42):
branch, it has consumed itsshoots and fruit, so that there
is not in it a strong branch, ascepter to rule.
This is a lamentation and hasbecome a lamentation.
Steve, what do you think ofwhen you hear these words.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
As I mentioned before , it's just a sad story as to
what the nation of Israel hascome to.
It's a sad ending If you alsoremember back to the book of
Judges it talked about every mandid what was right in his own
eyes and there was no king inIsrael.
The people clamored for a king.
God told them, said you reallydon't want a king because
(09:21):
they're going to lead you downthe wrong path in the wrong way.
Well, now we see where that hasled them.
That actually happened.
There were a few good kings inthere, but most of them were not
good kings, meaning that theydidn't uphold the ordinances and
statutes of God and led thepeople astray.
(09:42):
It's just a sad, sad story.
God is lamenting what hashappened to the nation of Israel
overall.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
God takes no pleasure in the destruction of his
people.
King Jehoiachin stayedimprisoned in Babylon and
ultimately died there.
It says at the end of verse 9,his voice would be heard no more
in the mountains of Israel.
Because of their sin, they weretaken away.
One of the messages that'srecurring through this is that
(10:12):
God was very long-suffering,very patient with his people.
He gave them rules at thebeginning and set up the
expectations and told them whatwould happen way back in
Deuteronomy.
Over time he sent prophets andreminded his people.
He was very long-suffering, butultimately the sin fills up the
(10:33):
cup and God will deal with it.
He pours out his wrath on hispeople and here he is mourning
because of it.
It says in verses 10 and 11, itspeaks of the heritage of
Israel coming from good stock.
They had good things formerly,but they had squandered it.
They had spread it anddiscarded the good things of God
(10:57):
and taken advantage.
Israel flourished under KingDavid and Solomon, but
ultimately a very long series ofdisobedient kings squandered
and ultimately the last kingswere killed, taken to Babylon
and the kingly line stopped withthe Babylonian captivity.
(11:18):
It says here in the verse 12, wejust read God plucked up and
destroyed Israel in fury becauseof her sin.
The message for us today isthat if we take advantage of God
, then we will meet the samefate.
Yes, he is long-suffering andhe generally doesn't send
lightning bolts at the hint ofthe first sin.
(11:38):
He is long-suffering, but, myfriend, if we think we can stay
in sin and get by with it, weare sadly mistaken.
His anger will be poured outultimately on all sinners,
unless we fall at his feet andclaim the blood of the Lord
Jesus.
That brings us to chapter 20.
In chapter 20, again, we justcontinue this wave after wave of
(12:03):
God's anger and wrath on hispeople.
There's times where weultimately, as Bible teachers,
get a little bit tired sometimesof dealing with this, but I can
only imagine how tired Godwould be in having to re-say it
as well.
Let's go ahead and look atchapter 20.
Steve, can you read the firsteight?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
verses.
Now, in the seventh year, inthe fifth month, on the tenth of
the month, certain of theelders of Israel came to inquire
of the Lord and sat before me.
The word of the Lord came to mesaying Son of man, speak to the
elders of Israel and say tothem, thus says the Lord God Do
(12:43):
you come to inquire of me as Ilive?
Declares the Lord God.
I will not be inquired of byyou.
Will you judge them?
Son of man?
Make them know the abominationsof their fathers and say to
them Thus says the Lord God Onthe day when I chose Israel and
(13:06):
swore to the descendants of thehouse of Jacob and made myself
known to them in the land ofEgypt, when I swore to them
saying I am the Lord, your God,on that day I swore to them to
bring them out from the land ofEgypt into a land that I had
selected for them, flowing withmilk and honey, which is the
(13:29):
glory of all lands.
I said to them Cast away each ofyou the detestable things of
his eyes and do not defileyourselves with the idols of
Egypt.
I am the Lord, your God.
But they rebelled against meand were not willing to listen
to me.
They did not cast away thedetestable things of their eyes,
(13:50):
nor did they forsake the idolsof Egypt.
Then I resolved to pour out mywrath on them, to accomplish my
anger against them in the midstof the land of Egypt.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
In this passage.
If we go back to the beginningand walk through what we just
read in verse 1, ezekiel saysit's the seventh year, fifth
month and the tenth day.
Now, as we've pointed outwhenever we bump into these,
ezekiel is again documenting thedate, the year, month and day
when he got this message fromthe Lord, god.
(14:27):
He is documenting a historicalfact.
This is not some sort ofreligious myth, it's not some
sort of hearsay.
It's a firsthand eyewitnessaccount that's been documented
down to the year, the month andthe day.
If we follow along in the bookof these days, the previous year
, month and date he gave was inEzekiel 8, verse 1.
(14:49):
This one, if we look at theyears, is about 11 months after
the previous date given inchapter 8.
The Bible is a historical fact.
It happened in history and it'snot a religious myth or some
kind of fabricated religiousstory.
This is a documented historicalfact.
What had happened here?
(15:10):
It says that the leaders of theJewish people they again go to
Ezekiel.
Ezekiel was known as theprophet, so they go to Ezekiel
to hear what God has to say tothem.
They must have had some sort ofa question or at least
listening for the word of God.
Ezekiel says here he is givinganother new word from God.
(15:33):
In verse 3, it says once again,god is telling them that he
will not give any new messages,whatever they were asking about.
God says I'm not going toanswer you because of your
disobedience and disbelief,which God will describe in the
rest of the chapter.
Get the picture they come tothe prophet to hear a word of
(15:56):
God and the word they hear I'mnot going to respond to you.
Hear a word of God and the wordthey hear.
I'm not going to respond to you.
Steve, does God?
Does he answer all thequestions from all people that
always get asked of him?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
No, he doesn't, Glenn , because he doesn't have to
answer the questions always frompeople.
When we really get an answerfrom him, it's really a gracious
thing that he does for us to dothat.
As you pointed out to us justhere.
Teaching through these chapters, it gets a little bit
repetitive here.
Well, how do you think God isthinking about the whole
situation, telling them over andover again, trying to get them
(16:34):
to understand that he is theirGod and to follow him, and that
they would get blessings fromthat, that he is their God and
to follow him and that theywould get blessings from that?
That's actually what he's doinghere in these verses that he's
mentioning here.
He's going all the way back toEgypt to tell them I'm not going
to entertain any more questionsfrom you because you're not
listening to me.
(16:54):
This is how far back you'relistening as a nation goes.
It goes all the way back towhen I took you out of Egypt,
and that was hundreds of yearsprior to where they are now.
No, he doesn't always answerevery type of question that
comes from people.
As I said before, it's graciousof him to give us answers many
(17:18):
times.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Again in verse 1, the elders of Israel came to
inquire of the Lord and satbefore me.
At the end of verse 3, god'sresponse was something that they
really probably didn't want tohear.
I will not be inquired of you.
They came with a question andthe answer from God was I'm not
going to answer your question.
(17:39):
What I am going to do is remindyou and he spends the rest of
the chapter God does, remindingthem of all of the good things
he had already given them in thepast and reminding them of
their response, which wasdisobedience.
That's what most of this chapteris.
Is God reminding them of all ofthe blessings that God had
(18:00):
given them in the past, andreminding them of all of the
blessings that God had giventhem in the past and reminding
them of all of the disobedienceand disbelief that they had
exerted in the past?
He reminds them of the tripthat they made to Egypt and how
God brought them out.
That's one of the themes here,and he talks about several
(18:21):
instances about bringing themout of Egypt.
Steve, why does God regularlybring up that he brought them
out of Egypt?
If we look at the timeline,this was quite a long time from
when he brought them out ofEgypt.
Why is he still talking aboutI'm the one that brought you out
of Egypt?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I think it's because all of the events that took
place, all of the miracles thathappened, with Moses talking
with Pharaoh, the 10 plaguesthat came along and then them
coming out, the parting of theRed Sea of God being a pillar of
cloud during the day and fireby night to cover them and to
(18:59):
comfort them, giving them mannaevery day while they are in the
wilderness, giving them meat toeat, quail whenever they
complain, water whenever theycomplain All of those miracles
that went with the exodus fromEgypt.
It's a story to be recountedover and over again as a
reminder of who he is, who Godis.
(19:21):
Of course, there's othermiracles that take place as they
go into the land, but Goddidn't forget them when they
were in Egypt and he broughtthem out whenever they were at a
period of slavery in Egypt.
I think that goes into it too.
He's telling them you're mypeople, I'm your God.
(19:42):
I'm not going to forget thepromises that I was made to your
forefathers, abraham, isaac andJacob.
He mentions Jacob specificallyin these verses that we just got
through reading.
It's a big deal.
I think that's why Godcontinues to bring it up
throughout Scripture.
It's something that they shouldremember and bring to mind, but
(20:05):
for some reason, which Ihaven't always figured out, they
just continue to go off andworship gods of the world rather
than worshiping the one trueGod and worship gods of the
world rather than worshiping theone true God.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
It seems that the Lord regularly brings up and
reminds Israel I am the one thatbrought you out of Egypt.
He does this repeatedly and Ithink part of the reason is
because the actions thathappened when he brought them
out of Egypt were ademonstration the superiority of
God, the falsity of idols, howhe was powerful and the other
(20:42):
gods weren't.
So it's a major demonstration.
It's also a major demonstrationof the heart of God.
He felt for his people thatwere in slavery and he wanted to
bring them out.
It's also a picture of oursalvation.
We are slaves to sin and Godhas to bring us out of that
(21:02):
slavery.
We can't get out of it byourselves.
The coming out of Egypt and thebringing out of Egypt through
the wilderness into the promisedland is a major, major, major
event in all of the Bible.
That's why he keeps bringing itup.
In verses 5 and 6 here inEzekiel 20, god repeats some key
(21:25):
ideas.
He says I chose Israel.
He's emphasizing who isactually doing the good actions.
He mentions I swore three times.
He says I made myself known tothem.
Once again.
He also, in those verses,mentions the land promise the
land is a major theme throughoutall of the Bible.
(21:47):
God is reminding Israel howmany times they rebelled and how
many times God delivered themand provided for them.
He reminds them of the thingsthat he promised to give them.
The promises were unilateral,made by God to Israel.
Even after all of thedisobedience, even after all of
(22:10):
the centuries, even after he'spouring out his wrath on his
children here at the time of theBabylonian captivity, he is
still reminding them.
I promised, I swore I broughtyou out of Egypt.
I was fulfilling my promises.
That's what he's doing, steve.
Can we take comfort in hearingthese words even today?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Absolutely, and the reason why is because we know
that God is a promise keeperThrough keeping his promises
that he made to Israel.
We can take comfort that he'sgoing to keep the promises that
were made to us as believers inJesus Christ, of eternal life.
All of that stuff.
With all the things that aregoing to happen in the future,
(22:53):
we can take pride and comfort inknowing that they're going to
happen, because God has revealedhimself not only to the nation
of Israel and what he's done andkeeping his promises, but he's
also revealing himself to us.
So, yes, we can take comfort inknowing that and be assured
that it's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
In verse 7, let me read that again.
It's something quite amazing.
Here I said to them cast awayeach of you the detestable
things of his eyes and do notdefile yourselves with the idols
of Egypt.
I am the Lord, your God.
But they rebelled against meand were not willing to listen
to me.
They did not cast away thedetestable things of their eyes,
(23:35):
nor did they forsake the idolsof Egypt.
I find this quite amazing.
After all of the 10 plagues,after all of the miracles, after
all of the water from a rockand manna from heaven and the
quail and all of the miraculousthings that God did, they hung
on to the idols of Egypt.
(23:56):
If you remember, if you werewith us when we went through
Joshua, joshua 24, verse 14 saysthat even after the 40 years of
wandering in the wilderness,after that another few decades
of conquering parts of the land,israel still had some of the
Egyptian idols that they hadbeen carrying around with them,
(24:18):
hanging on to All the way.
At the end of Joshua's lifethey still had idols from Egypt.
Idol worship plagued Israel formost of the Old Testament.
Steve, I just find that amazingthat they would have hung on to
those idols that long after Godhad warned them not to.
(24:39):
But you know what amazes meeven more than that Idol worship
still plagues us today, does itnot?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
It's a form of taking God for granted.
I think they were there.
They hold on to these idols,which is really a representation
of holding on to the world,holding on to worldly things and
worldly items.
I think we do the same thinghere in our day and age, in that
(25:08):
sometimes we take God forgranted.
Oh, we have salvation and wehave the freedom to pray
directly to God and all otherfreedoms that we have.
We can always go to God andconfess our sin, as it mentions
in 1 John.
I think possibly sometimes thatturns into an area where we get
(25:29):
a little bit comfortable withworldly ways and we do worldly
things and we kind of take Godfor granted in that form that we
can always go to him and askfor forgiveness.
Maybe we should spend more timetrying to make sure that we're
becoming more Christ-like andbecoming not part of the world.
We go back to Israel and Ithink that's what they're doing.
(25:52):
They're holding on to the oldways of Egypt, the old gods, the
old ways of the world.
In a way, they're really takingadvantage of God, becoming
maybe a little bit toocomfortable with him, thinking
that he's always going tooverlook their sins, but we see
that he's going to bringjudgment on them and he does
that several times throughouttheir history.
(26:13):
It's a little bit of a mystery.
But I think it's also a mysteryin our day and age why we
sometimes maybe take God alittle bit too for granted.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
The idols that plague them were statues that they
would either have in their homesor carry around with them or
have in a shrine or a temple.
I would hope that our audiencewouldn't have statues laying
around that you do religiousthings in front of.
But other things can be idolsas well.
It doesn't have to be aphysical object.
(26:41):
We can make lots of things intoan idol Money, sex, drugs,
pride, even hobbies can be idols.
Anything that gets in between usand God takes away our
attention from worshiping God.
That becomes an idol.
God's not a divine killjoy.
He's not asking us to get ridof anything that's fun.
(27:02):
What he is is asking us to getrid of anything that takes the
place of him, and whether that'ssomething that we find
innocuous or whether it's somereligious ritual, if it takes us
away from the Lord, it's anidol.
In this passage, steve, he alsoreminds them of all of the
things, as we said, of bringingthem out of Egypt, all of the
(27:24):
blessings.
Do we in our day, need to bereminded of God's blessing?
Is it helpful for us to go backand be reminded of the things
that God has done for us in thepast?
Speaker 2 (27:35):
I think that it's essential that we do that.
We cry out to God whenever weare in problems or trouble and
we seek His face, we seek Hisattention.
We want Him to be gracious andmerciful to us, depending upon
the situation that we findourselves in.
Then, when we maybe come out ofthose situations, maybe we give
(27:56):
a thanks to God.
Probably, most likely we'llgive a thanks.
Then we kind of pass on andthen we go back to our life and
our old ways until anothercrisis comes along and we never
go back and remember what Godhas done for us in the past.
So I think if we spent moretime remembering what God has
(28:16):
done for us in the past, in thatexercise, you're also
remembering what type ofsituation you were in when you
cried out to God and how heanswered it and how he brought
you through that particularsituation.
That helps us becomingembroiled in new situations,
because that helps us toremember we don't want to go
(28:37):
down that path again, eventhough God brought us out of it.
So I think remembering thingsthat God has done for us in the
past is an essential thing thatwe should do in order to help us
, as we move forward in our life, to not get into the situations
where we necessarily have tocry out to God for deliverance.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
We're at a spot here in Ezekiel where we're going to
see even more of this verygraphic language that's coming
up in the next sessions veryemotional language, very
descriptive language.
God is going to be againshowing his anger and wrath in a
very graphic way, again showinghis anger and wrath in a very
(29:19):
graphic way.
We trust that you'll be backhere next time as we continue to
reason through the book ofEzekiel.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you you.
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