September 5, 2025 • 27 mins
The divine hammer falls on Jerusalem in Ezekiel 21, as God reveals His impending judgment through the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. We witness one of Scripture's most vivid contrasts - the world's most powerful ruler making life-or-death decisions through occult practices while fulfilling the sovereign plans of the one true God.
Nebuchadnezzar stands at a literal and figurative crossroads, throwing arrows, consulting idols, and examining animal entrails to determine his military path. Meanwhile, Jerusalem's inhabitants cling to false security, convinced God will protect them despite centuries of rebellion. This dangerous cocktail of presumption and unrepentance sets the stage for their devastating fall.
What makes this passage particularly striking is how it simultaneously delivers both crushing judgment and messianic hope. When God declares, "Remove the turban and take off the crown... A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it. This also will be no more until he comes whose right it is," He effectively ends the Davidic monarchy with Zedekiah while pointing forward to Jesus Christ - the rightful heir who would one day reclaim the throne.
For modern believers, this passage offers profound wisdom about guidance. While Nebuchadnezzar relied on superstition, we have Scripture as our foundation, the Holy Spirit as our guide, and the church community as our support system. This episode reminds us that presuming upon God's protection while living in disobedience is spiritual suicide, yet even amid His severest judgments, God weaves threads of redemption and restoration.
Listen as we navigate this challenging text that forces us to confront the reality of divine judgment while clinging to the promise that one day all wrongs will be made right when the rightful King takes His throne.
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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 (00:19):
Welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible.
My name is Glenn.
I'm here with Steve.
If you have your copy of theWord of God, turn to the book of
Ezekiel, chapter 21.
If you've been with us thenyou've seen the severe language
that the Lord, god, is givingthe prophet to tell the Jewish
people.
It's severe language because ofthe severe actions that God is
(00:42):
taking against his chosen people.
They had disobeyed for manycenturies, but now God is
dealing with them in punishment.
Today's lesson doesn't get anybetter.
God is going to get quitegraphic, quite blunt with what
is going to happen with theBabylonian army and the king
(01:03):
Nebuchadnezzar that goes upagainst Israel.
With this, let's go ahead anddive in.
Let's start at Ezekiel, chapter18, and read down to verse 23.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
The word of the Lord came to me saying as for you,
son of man, make two ways forthe sword of the king of Babylon
to come.
Both of them will go out of oneland and make a signpost.
Make it at the head of the wayto the city.
You shall mark a way for thesword to come to Rabbah of the
(01:36):
sons of Ammon and to Judah andto fortified Jerusalem.
For the king of Babylon standsat the parting of the way, at
the head of the two ways to usedivination.
He shakes the arrows, heconsults the household idols, he
looks at the liver.
Into his right hand came thedivination Jerusalem to set
(02:01):
battering rams to open the mouthfor slaughter.
To lift up the voice with abattle cry.
To set battering rams to openthe mouth for slaughter.
To lift up the voice with abattle cry.
To set battering rams againstthe gates, to cast up ramps, to
build a siege wall.
And it will be to them like afalse divination in their eyes.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
They have sworn Solomos, but he brings iniquity
to remembrance that they may beseized With this we have Babylon
, the strongest nation in theworld at the time, and the king
of that nation, nebuchadnezzar,who's the most powerful man in
the world, is taking his armyinto battle against the Jewish
(02:39):
people.
He had a choice of whichgeographic path to take in order
to attack the city, so he hasto make a military decision with
his army on which way to go,and the text here says that he
used occultic divination.
One of the ways he used was totake a quiver of arrows and
(03:02):
throw them and see which way thearrows landed would tell you
which way to go.
Another way was to consult thesmall household idols that they
were bringing with them, and athird way of deciding was to
look at the entrails of animals.
Now, what's amazing to me ishere we have again the most
(03:23):
powerful man in the world thathas thousands, or possibly
hundreds of thousands of livesat stake.
Before you go into a battle,you never really know who's
going to win, so conceivably, atleast logically possible, he
could have lost.
He didn't know he wasnecessarily going to win.
He's gambling not only thelives of thousands of people,
(03:45):
but gambling the future of hisnation, going into a major
military activity on occulticdivination, such as throwing
arrows down, consulting idolsand looking at the liver of
animals.
Steve, I hope that we, or ouraudience, are not using such
means today.
But what can we learn from thefact that this man was in such a
(04:10):
high position?
He was quite wealthy, quitepowerful, yet he's using these
very pagan practices.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, for number one, we're told that we shouldn't
use any type of divination, ofnecromancy or any of the ways
that were depicted here in orderto make decisions on what we
should do.
Us as Christians today.
We obviously have the HolySpirit that indwells us, but we
(04:37):
should look to the Scripture tofind out what we should do, to
learn God's ways, and we shouldalso seek guidance from the Holy
Spirit.
That's who we want to get ourinformation from.
That's who we want to get ourdirection from.
Is God.
We don't want to get ourdirection from some sort of
spirits that are out there orangels or anything else like
(05:02):
that.
We need to get the informationand direction of what we want to
do directly from God, and wecan do that in our day and age.
So I just want to mention here,as we continue for our
listeners is that once again,ezekiel is giving this
information.
God is giving it throughEzekzekiel, prior to this
(05:24):
actually happening.
So he's showing this to thepeople and he says depict this
decision that Nebuchadnezzar isgoing to have to make.
So I think one thing we can'tget out of this, glenn, is that
divination works all the timeand we should use divination to
make decisions.
We certainly should not getthat from it.
(05:45):
God already knows, as what he'sbeen explaining, that there's
going to be judgment onJerusalem and Judah and that
he's going to use Babylon andNebuchadnezzar to do it.
We certainly can't take out ofthis that divination is what
Nebuchadnezzar actually paid offfor him to make this decision.
(06:06):
This is already a decisionthat's made by God to use
Babylon to discipline Judah andJerusalem.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
If we ask the question, by what means should
the Christian use to determinewhat we should do about
decisions in our daily lives?
You rightly answered, steve.
The primary source is the Bible.
The Bible has quite a bit ofadvice on a lot of things in
life, including things like howwe should spend our finances,
(06:36):
what kind of people we shouldmarry, how we should work in our
jobs, and on and on.
It speaks to many areas of ourlife.
We also have, as you wellmentioned, the leading of the
Holy Spirit.
We should always check that,though, with what we find in the
Scriptures, simply because wecan deceive ourselves.
(06:59):
But I would also add that Godhas provided still another way,
which is the Church, and God hasset up the church so that we
have wise counselors, wiseleaders in the church that can
give us advice on how to liveour lives, and when we have
major decisions to make, thereare wise, godly people that can
(07:21):
help us make decisions.
So the church is a source ofguidance in our lives.
We have here again thisthoroughly pagan king using
thoroughly pagan means to makemajor decisions that impact the
lives of entire nations and manythousands of people In this
section that we've been readinghere in Ezekiel 21, god is
(07:45):
giving a detailed description ofall that will happen when
Babylon attacks Jerusalem.
He goes into quite a bit ofdetail.
Remember, the people at thetime did not think God would
allow a foreign nation to comein and take Jerusalem, destroy
(08:05):
the temple.
They had had some falseprophets that were telling them
that God would not allow that.
It had not happened for many,many centuries.
They had convinced themselvesthat their city and their region
was not going to be taken byforeign people.
But here God goes into a lot ofdetail when he gives the
(08:30):
prophet Ezekiel this message.
He talks about battering rams,siege machines, the shouting
that the soldiers would do andthe death they would inflict on
Jerusalem.
What this does in the immediatecontext is it gives the people
in the sound of Ezekiel's voice.
(08:50):
It gives them a way to sound ofEzekiel's voice.
It gives them a way to tellwhether Ezekiel was a true
prophet or a false prophet,because Ezekiel was telling
exactly what it would look likeand sound like and, as we're
going to see in coming versesand passages even when the
attack will happen, so that thepeople that were listening to
(09:12):
Ezekiel had evidence that wasfulfilled literally in their
hearing so they would know thisman was a true prophet.
Therefore, when Ezekielpredicted things that would
happen way in the future, theyknew that those were true as
well.
So if we look at this, we lookdown at verse 23, it says to
(09:34):
them it will seem like a falsedivination.
Here the Lord is saying that tothe Jews in Jerusalem.
Babylon's omens are going toseem false, up to the point
where the walls were actuallyfalling.
The Jews will not think thatBabylon will succeed.
The army will be coming, thearmy will surround the city, the
(09:58):
army will lay siege and theJewish people in Jerusalem will
think, oh, it's not going tohappen.
They will be deceived.
At the point the cities fall andthe sudden death of the people,
they're going to suddenlyremember their past sins and
their guilt.
It's really a horrible way todie, especially when all they
(10:21):
had to do was repent and turn tothe Lord At any point in their
history.
If they would have repented andturned to the Lord, then the
Lord would have supported them,would have driven out the
foreign gods and the foreignpeoples and would have defended
them, just like he did manytimes in Israel's past.
(10:42):
But here they were convincedthey could stay in their sin and
also have God protect them, andthat's a horrible way to die
sin and also have God protectthem, and that's a horrible way
to die, steve.
What would we tell about?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
the condition of these people at the time.
We can see, glenn, a little bitas to why they would think that
God is going to come throughone more time in the protection
of Jerusalem.
Earlier, when the Assyriansyears before, decades before,
had come up against Jerusalem,assyria had come down, they had
taken over the northern kingdomof Israel and they had come up
(11:20):
and laid siege around Jerusalem.
Sennacherib, the Assyrian king,had 185,000 men that had put a
siege around Jerusalem and weregoing to prepare to attack
Jerusalem.
God protected Jerusalem in amiraculous way, sent an angel
out overnight and killed thosesoldiers that were there.
(11:45):
Sennacherib then retreated backto Assyria and Jerusalem was
protected and the city was notsacked.
This is just one example of thepeople have a history.
Oh, god's going to come throughone more time and we're his
chosen people and he's not goingto allow his city and his
(12:05):
temple to fall.
But to answer your question isthat's background?
Even though they saw thismiraculous thing that had
happened, as the example I justgave with Assyria they didn't
turn from their evil ways.
They kept on worshiping theidols and doing all the sinful
(12:26):
things that we have beendescribing all throughout
Ezekiel here, and they didn'trepent.
They didn't go back and returnto God.
Now we're seeing it come tofruition that in their hearts
they're saying God's going tocome through for us one more
time.
Yet they haven't changed theirattitude towards God at all.
(12:48):
God has finally gotten to thepoint where he's not going to
come to their rescue anymore.
As we mentioned on our lastsession, he is resolute.
This is what's going to happen,and they're just having to face
the reality that this is goingto happen to them and their
country, their nation, theircity, their temple is going to
(13:09):
be sacked and taken away fromthem In this next section, god
has a direct message for theleader of Judah.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I'm reading, starting in verse 24.
Therefore, thus says the LordGod, because you have made your
iniquity to be remembered, inthat your transgressions are
uncovered, so that in all yourdeeds your sins appear, because
you have come to remembrance,you will be seized with the hand
and you, o slain, wicked one,the prince of Israel, whose day
(13:41):
has come in the time of thepunishment of the end.
Thus says the Lord God, removethe turban and take off the
crown.
This will no longer be the same.
Exalt that which is low andabase that which is high.
A ruin, a ruin, a ruin.
I will make it.
This also will be no more untilhe comes, whose right it is,
(14:06):
and I will give it to him.
And you, son of man, prophesyand say Thus says the Lord God,
concerning the sons of Ammon andconcerning their reproach, and
say A sword, a sword is drawn,polished for the slaughter, to
cause it to consume, that it maybe like lightning, while they
(14:26):
see for you false visions, whilethey divine lies for you, to
place you on the necks of thewicked, who are slain, whose day
has come in the time of thepunishment of the end.
Return it to its sheath in theplace where you were created, in
the land of your origin.
I will judge you, I will pourout my indignation on you, I
(14:48):
will blow on you with the fireof my wrath and I will give you
into the hand of brutal menskilled in destruction.
You will be fuel for the fire.
Your blood will be in the midstof the land.
You will not be remembered, forI, the Lord, have spoken.
Steve, what strikes you aboutthis message that God is giving
(15:09):
One of the things?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
that strikes me, glenn.
As you were reading, that is inverse 26.
Where he says remove the turbanand take off the crown.
This will no longer be the same.
This is a depiction of theturban, if you remember, was the
turban that the high priestwore, and it had a plate on the
(15:31):
front of it that said holy untothe Lord Yahweh, and the crown
is talking about the kings.
This is a depiction that, yes,the city's going to be destroyed
, the temple's going to bedestroyed and also the
priesthood is going to bedestroyed and the crown is going
to be destroyed as well.
(15:52):
It's a depiction that therulers are also going to be
judged in this sacking anddestruction of the temple and
everything else like that, andit's not going to be the same.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
It's not going to be the same, because God will judge
them.
He will change things.
He is now taking charge.
He is filled with his wrath andhe will not allow them to
continue in the path of sin anddisobedience.
He gives a message here in whatwe just read in that section, a
(16:28):
message of utter, completedestruction.
This is not a mild chastisement.
This is not a mild message ofoh, you need to correct, this
was utter, complete, totaldestruction.
If you look at verses 24 and 25,god says that directly, because
of the king's sin, that theking will be taken in hand.
(16:50):
It says Babylon will capturethe king of Judah because of his
sin and it says his day hascome.
He is profane and wicked.
God is very direct, very blunt.
The lesson for us is that Iwill not get away with my sin
and, my friend, you will not getaway with your sin.
(17:11):
The wonderful thing about ourday is that we have a God that
has sent us the Lord JesusChrist.
In the midst of all this wrathand judgment, he desires loving
repentance.
My sin is just as bad as thesins of the people in Jerusalem
(17:32):
and his wrath is just as strongagainst my sin and my friend,
wrath is just as strong againstyours.
But if we repent now and takeup the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, then he will allow us toreturn.
He has loving arms of love thatcome out to us because of the
(17:54):
forgiveness that he offersthrough Jesus Christ.
He sent Jesus to take away oursin so that we don't have to
experience the bad things likeJudah or even worse.
If we look at verses 26 and 27,these are very descriptive, very
emotional language.
The power and the emotiondescribed here should hold our
(18:17):
attention and keep us in awe.
He says there remove the turban, take off the crown, no longer
be the same.
This is strong language.
Ruin, ruin.
He says it three times Be nomore until he comes.
Well, steve, who's the?
He?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
there.
Yeah, the he I think depictedhere, Glenn, is Jesus and it's
talking about the second comingwhenever he's going to come to
establish the millennial kingdom.
Now we say that because we havein the past talked that there's
various verses, We've gonethrough Zechariah and through
(18:54):
the prophets, and even heretimes in Ezekiel, that there's
going to be a future kingdom,restoration of Israel that's
going to be set up and it's aphysical kingdom here on earth.
So I think this is referring tothat time.
Until he comes, who is right?
And I will give it to him.
This is Yahweh saying he'sgoing to give it to Jesus, the
(19:18):
Messiah.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
This is Yahweh saying he's going to give it to Jesus
the Messiah.
At the time of Ezekiel'sprophecy, king Zedekiah was
quickly to become the last kingin the line of the kings.
He was the last king untilJesus came.
Jesus came as king.
Jesus is the rightful heir tothe throne.
At the end of verse 27 here inEzekiel, god says I will give it
(19:42):
to him.
Well, the him is Jesus, the.
It is the throne, the scepter.
God says I'm cutting off thisline of kings and I'm going to
give the throne to my son, theLord Jesus, throne to my son,
(20:02):
the Lord Jesus.
God will give it to Jesus thesame throne, the same throne of
Israel that he took fromZedekiah.
He says it right here whichthrone is he going to give?
It's the throne of Israel, theone that he cut off from
Zedekiah.
Back here in Ezekiel, chapter 21.
My friend, it's as plain as thewords on the page.
Starting in verse 28, godspeaks about the Ammonites.
(20:24):
He uses more powerful languageto describe their destruction.
In verse 32, it says you shallbe fuel for the fire.
Your blood shall be in themidst of the land.
You shall be no more remembered.
Steve, does anybody rememberthe?
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Ammonites today?
I really don't, Glenn, and thebackdrop to this is that
Zedekiah was the last king, buthe wasn't the legitimate king.
The legitimate king wasJehoiakim.
He had been deposed byNebuchadnezzar and his son,
Jehoiachin, was the next in lineand Jehoiachin, I believe,
(21:05):
served about three months,something like that, and
Nebuchadnezzar deposes him.
Then Nebuchadnezzar putsJehoiakim's brother,
Jehoiachin's uncle, emplacedMattaniah, and changes his name
to Zedekiah.
So Zedekiah is serving as theking, but he's not the rightful
(21:26):
king number one.
Number two is he's sworn hisloyalty to Nebuchadnezzar but he
makes a decision to rebelagainst Nebuchadnezzar.
He makes a pact with thePharaoh from Egypt and the
Ammonites that were also servingunder Nebuchadnezzar to go and
fight Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar hears about this.
(21:47):
This is what brings him down asa final destruction for
Jerusalem and the temple andeverything else temple and
everything else.
God here in verse 28, is sayingthat the reproach of Ammon is
(22:07):
going to be dealt with.
What happened was the Ammonites.
They rejoiced wheneverNebuchadnezzar destroyed
Jerusalem and sacked the city.
God is saying here that he'sgoing to bring judgment on the
Ammonites for them celebratingJerusalem's and the nation of
Judah's final destruction.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
The final destruction was what literally fulfilled
these prophecies.
Then they were literallyfulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar
attacked the region in 587 BC.
When Nebuchadnezzar attackedthe region in 587 BC and, as we
said before, the people inEzekiel's day would know hey,
this prophet predicted somethingthat came true right before my
(22:47):
eyes.
Therefore, we're going to writedown everything he says.
We know that the futureprophecies are just as solid.
The prophets always providedevidence of the truthfulness of
their message.
That brings us to the end ofchapter 21.
The beginning of chapter 22continues with still more of
(23:08):
these condemnations of the sinsof the people.
When we read this, I'll behonest with you, we get almost
tired of hearing the wave afterwave of God's condemnation.
But remember, this was pent-upanger from many centuries of God
not taking action.
It also happened over about a22-year period in Ezekiel's life
(23:31):
.
Starting at Ezekiel, chapter 22, we're going to see more
condemnation of the people.
I'm reading in verse 1,.
Then the word of the Lord cameto me saying and you, son of man
, will you judge?
Will you judge the bloody city,then cause her to know all her
abominations?
You shall say Thus says theLord, god, a city shedding blood
(23:55):
in her midst, so that her timewill come and that makes idols,
contrary to her interest, fordefilement.
You have become guilty by theblood which you have shed and
defiled by your idols, which youhave made.
Thus, you have brought your daynear and have come to your
years.
Therefore, I have made you areproach to the nations and a
(24:17):
mocking to all the lands.
Those who are near and thosewho are far from you will mock
you, you of ill repute, full ofturmoil.
What do we see in those?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
verses, steve, by the description of the bloody city.
It's a depiction of what thecity.
There had been murder andbloodshed that was taking place
in the city, and God is givinghis justification for the city
to be sacked and for the templeto be taken down and for the
(24:49):
southern nation of Judah tofinally be a done away with.
Through Ezekiel, he's tellingthe people that are in exile,
who think that God is going tocome through for them once again
, as we've talked aboutpreviously in this session, that
no, here's a reason why yourcity, jerusalem, the capital
where the temple is, has becomea city full of murderous
(25:10):
bloodshed and therefore there'sgoing to be a discipline and
judgment on it.
Because of that, and that'sjust one thing that is depicted
of, what's happening in the cityis that the murderers and
bloodshed and the crime hadgotten so bad that God is going
to take and deal with the cityonce and for all.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
We're going to see some of that as we go into these
next chapters, because God isgoing to get quite direct, quite
blunt, quite detailed, withlisting off many of their sins.
But here again we have thisprophet, ezekiel, that is
claiming to be giving the verywords of God In verse 1, the
word of the Lord came to me, andwe have the same type of
(25:54):
language given over by thewriters in the New Testament.
Remember, the apostle Paul saidthe things I am writing to you
are a command of the Lord.
He said that in 1 Corinthians14.37.
And he also said the thingsthat God revealed to us, the
apostles, in 1 Corinthians 2.10.
(26:14):
So we have places where theprophets claim to be speaking
God's exact words.
And in here in Ezekiel, we havewave after wave of very direct,
very blunt language.
And again, as we said, I amquite tired.
I want to get over to the nicethings, the roses and the
(26:35):
sweetness and the light.
But the sin is quite ugly andit needs to be dealt with.
And we're not over yet because,again, god's going to detail
some of these sins.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
He is going to do that, and then he's also going
to detail some of the ways he'sgoing to deal with the Gentile
nations.
But then he's going to givesome hope in the latter chapters
of Ezekiel, and we're going toget to that at some point.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
We'll see that as we continue to reason through the
book of Ezekiel next time.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you.
Welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible.
My name is Glenn.
I'm here with Steve.
If you have your copy of theWord of God, turn to the book of
Ezekiel, chapter 21.
If you've been with us thenyou've seen the severe language
that the Lord, god, is givingthe prophet to tell the Jewish
people.
It's severe language because ofthe severe actions that God is
(00:42):
taking against his chosen people.
They had disobeyed for manycenturies, but now God is
dealing with them in punishment.
Today's lesson doesn't get anybetter.
God is going to get quitegraphic, quite blunt with what
is going to happen with theBabylonian army and the king
(01:03):
Nebuchadnezzar that goes upagainst Israel.
With this, let's go ahead anddive in.
Let's start at Ezekiel, chapter18, and read down to verse 23.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
The word of the Lord came to me saying as for you,
son of man, make two ways forthe sword of the king of Babylon
to come.
Both of them will go out of oneland and make a signpost.
Make it at the head of the wayto the city.
You shall mark a way for thesword to come to Rabbah of the
(01:36):
sons of Ammon and to Judah andto fortified Jerusalem.
For the king of Babylon standsat the parting of the way, at
the head of the two ways to usedivination.
He shakes the arrows, heconsults the household idols, he
looks at the liver.
Into his right hand came thedivination Jerusalem to set
(02:01):
battering rams to open the mouthfor slaughter.
To lift up the voice with abattle cry.
To set battering rams to openthe mouth for slaughter.
To lift up the voice with abattle cry.
To set battering rams againstthe gates, to cast up ramps, to
build a siege wall.
And it will be to them like afalse divination in their eyes.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
They have sworn Solomos, but he brings iniquity
to remembrance that they may beseized With this we have Babylon
, the strongest nation in theworld at the time, and the king
of that nation, nebuchadnezzar,who's the most powerful man in
the world, is taking his armyinto battle against the Jewish
(02:39):
people.
He had a choice of whichgeographic path to take in order
to attack the city, so he hasto make a military decision with
his army on which way to go,and the text here says that he
used occultic divination.
One of the ways he used was totake a quiver of arrows and
(03:02):
throw them and see which way thearrows landed would tell you
which way to go.
Another way was to consult thesmall household idols that they
were bringing with them, and athird way of deciding was to
look at the entrails of animals.
Now, what's amazing to me ishere we have again the most
(03:23):
powerful man in the world thathas thousands, or possibly
hundreds of thousands of livesat stake.
Before you go into a battle,you never really know who's
going to win, so conceivably, atleast logically possible, he
could have lost.
He didn't know he wasnecessarily going to win.
He's gambling not only thelives of thousands of people,
(03:45):
but gambling the future of hisnation, going into a major
military activity on occulticdivination, such as throwing
arrows down, consulting idolsand looking at the liver of
animals.
Steve, I hope that we, or ouraudience, are not using such
means today.
But what can we learn from thefact that this man was in such a
(04:10):
high position?
He was quite wealthy, quitepowerful, yet he's using these
very pagan practices.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, for number one, we're told that we shouldn't
use any type of divination, ofnecromancy or any of the ways
that were depicted here in orderto make decisions on what we
should do.
Us as Christians today.
We obviously have the HolySpirit that indwells us, but we
(04:37):
should look to the Scripture tofind out what we should do, to
learn God's ways, and we shouldalso seek guidance from the Holy
Spirit.
That's who we want to get ourinformation from.
That's who we want to get ourdirection from.
Is God.
We don't want to get ourdirection from some sort of
spirits that are out there orangels or anything else like
(05:02):
that.
We need to get the informationand direction of what we want to
do directly from God, and wecan do that in our day and age.
So I just want to mention here,as we continue for our
listeners is that once again,ezekiel is giving this
information.
God is giving it throughEzekzekiel, prior to this
(05:24):
actually happening.
So he's showing this to thepeople and he says depict this
decision that Nebuchadnezzar isgoing to have to make.
So I think one thing we can'tget out of this, glenn, is that
divination works all the timeand we should use divination to
make decisions.
We certainly should not getthat from it.
(05:45):
God already knows, as what he'sbeen explaining, that there's
going to be judgment onJerusalem and Judah and that
he's going to use Babylon andNebuchadnezzar to do it.
We certainly can't take out ofthis that divination is what
Nebuchadnezzar actually paid offfor him to make this decision.
(06:06):
This is already a decisionthat's made by God to use
Babylon to discipline Judah andJerusalem.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
If we ask the question, by what means should
the Christian use to determinewhat we should do about
decisions in our daily lives?
You rightly answered, steve.
The primary source is the Bible.
The Bible has quite a bit ofadvice on a lot of things in
life, including things like howwe should spend our finances,
(06:36):
what kind of people we shouldmarry, how we should work in our
jobs, and on and on.
It speaks to many areas of ourlife.
We also have, as you wellmentioned, the leading of the
Holy Spirit.
We should always check that,though, with what we find in the
Scriptures, simply because wecan deceive ourselves.
(06:59):
But I would also add that Godhas provided still another way,
which is the Church, and God hasset up the church so that we
have wise counselors, wiseleaders in the church that can
give us advice on how to liveour lives, and when we have
major decisions to make, thereare wise, godly people that can
(07:21):
help us make decisions.
So the church is a source ofguidance in our lives.
We have here again thisthoroughly pagan king using
thoroughly pagan means to makemajor decisions that impact the
lives of entire nations and manythousands of people In this
section that we've been readinghere in Ezekiel 21, god is
(07:45):
giving a detailed description ofall that will happen when
Babylon attacks Jerusalem.
He goes into quite a bit ofdetail.
Remember, the people at thetime did not think God would
allow a foreign nation to comein and take Jerusalem, destroy
(08:05):
the temple.
They had had some falseprophets that were telling them
that God would not allow that.
It had not happened for many,many centuries.
They had convinced themselvesthat their city and their region
was not going to be taken byforeign people.
But here God goes into a lot ofdetail when he gives the
(08:30):
prophet Ezekiel this message.
He talks about battering rams,siege machines, the shouting
that the soldiers would do andthe death they would inflict on
Jerusalem.
What this does in the immediatecontext is it gives the people
in the sound of Ezekiel's voice.
(08:50):
It gives them a way to sound ofEzekiel's voice.
It gives them a way to tellwhether Ezekiel was a true
prophet or a false prophet,because Ezekiel was telling
exactly what it would look likeand sound like and, as we're
going to see in coming versesand passages even when the
attack will happen, so that thepeople that were listening to
(09:12):
Ezekiel had evidence that wasfulfilled literally in their
hearing so they would know thisman was a true prophet.
Therefore, when Ezekielpredicted things that would
happen way in the future, theyknew that those were true as
well.
So if we look at this, we lookdown at verse 23, it says to
(09:34):
them it will seem like a falsedivination.
Here the Lord is saying that tothe Jews in Jerusalem.
Babylon's omens are going toseem false, up to the point
where the walls were actuallyfalling.
The Jews will not think thatBabylon will succeed.
The army will be coming, thearmy will surround the city, the
(09:58):
army will lay siege and theJewish people in Jerusalem will
think, oh, it's not going tohappen.
They will be deceived.
At the point the cities fall andthe sudden death of the people,
they're going to suddenlyremember their past sins and
their guilt.
It's really a horrible way todie, especially when all they
(10:21):
had to do was repent and turn tothe Lord At any point in their
history.
If they would have repented andturned to the Lord, then the
Lord would have supported them,would have driven out the
foreign gods and the foreignpeoples and would have defended
them, just like he did manytimes in Israel's past.
(10:42):
But here they were convincedthey could stay in their sin and
also have God protect them, andthat's a horrible way to die
sin and also have God protectthem, and that's a horrible way
to die, steve.
What would we tell about?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
the condition of these people at the time.
We can see, glenn, a little bitas to why they would think that
God is going to come throughone more time in the protection
of Jerusalem.
Earlier, when the Assyriansyears before, decades before,
had come up against Jerusalem,assyria had come down, they had
taken over the northern kingdomof Israel and they had come up
(11:20):
and laid siege around Jerusalem.
Sennacherib, the Assyrian king,had 185,000 men that had put a
siege around Jerusalem and weregoing to prepare to attack
Jerusalem.
God protected Jerusalem in amiraculous way, sent an angel
out overnight and killed thosesoldiers that were there.
(11:45):
Sennacherib then retreated backto Assyria and Jerusalem was
protected and the city was notsacked.
This is just one example of thepeople have a history.
Oh, god's going to come throughone more time and we're his
chosen people and he's not goingto allow his city and his
(12:05):
temple to fall.
But to answer your question isthat's background?
Even though they saw thismiraculous thing that had
happened, as the example I justgave with Assyria they didn't
turn from their evil ways.
They kept on worshiping theidols and doing all the sinful
(12:26):
things that we have beendescribing all throughout
Ezekiel here, and they didn'trepent.
They didn't go back and returnto God.
Now we're seeing it come tofruition that in their hearts
they're saying God's going tocome through for us one more
time.
Yet they haven't changed theirattitude towards God at all.
(12:48):
God has finally gotten to thepoint where he's not going to
come to their rescue anymore.
As we mentioned on our lastsession, he is resolute.
This is what's going to happen,and they're just having to face
the reality that this is goingto happen to them and their
country, their nation, theircity, their temple is going to
(13:09):
be sacked and taken away fromthem In this next section, god
has a direct message for theleader of Judah.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I'm reading, starting in verse 24.
Therefore, thus says the LordGod, because you have made your
iniquity to be remembered, inthat your transgressions are
uncovered, so that in all yourdeeds your sins appear, because
you have come to remembrance,you will be seized with the hand
and you, o slain, wicked one,the prince of Israel, whose day
(13:41):
has come in the time of thepunishment of the end.
Thus says the Lord God, removethe turban and take off the
crown.
This will no longer be the same.
Exalt that which is low andabase that which is high.
A ruin, a ruin, a ruin.
I will make it.
This also will be no more untilhe comes, whose right it is,
(14:06):
and I will give it to him.
And you, son of man, prophesyand say Thus says the Lord God,
concerning the sons of Ammon andconcerning their reproach, and
say A sword, a sword is drawn,polished for the slaughter, to
cause it to consume, that it maybe like lightning, while they
(14:26):
see for you false visions, whilethey divine lies for you, to
place you on the necks of thewicked, who are slain, whose day
has come in the time of thepunishment of the end.
Return it to its sheath in theplace where you were created, in
the land of your origin.
I will judge you, I will pourout my indignation on you, I
(14:48):
will blow on you with the fireof my wrath and I will give you
into the hand of brutal menskilled in destruction.
You will be fuel for the fire.
Your blood will be in the midstof the land.
You will not be remembered, forI, the Lord, have spoken.
Steve, what strikes you aboutthis message that God is giving
(15:09):
One of the things?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
that strikes me, glenn.
As you were reading, that is inverse 26.
Where he says remove the turbanand take off the crown.
This will no longer be the same.
This is a depiction of theturban, if you remember, was the
turban that the high priestwore, and it had a plate on the
(15:31):
front of it that said holy untothe Lord Yahweh, and the crown
is talking about the kings.
This is a depiction that, yes,the city's going to be destroyed
, the temple's going to bedestroyed and also the
priesthood is going to bedestroyed and the crown is going
to be destroyed as well.
(15:52):
It's a depiction that therulers are also going to be
judged in this sacking anddestruction of the temple and
everything else like that, andit's not going to be the same.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
It's not going to be the same, because God will judge
them.
He will change things.
He is now taking charge.
He is filled with his wrath andhe will not allow them to
continue in the path of sin anddisobedience.
He gives a message here in whatwe just read in that section, a
(16:28):
message of utter, completedestruction.
This is not a mild chastisement.
This is not a mild message ofoh, you need to correct, this
was utter, complete, totaldestruction.
If you look at verses 24 and 25,god says that directly, because
of the king's sin, that theking will be taken in hand.
(16:50):
It says Babylon will capturethe king of Judah because of his
sin and it says his day hascome.
He is profane and wicked.
God is very direct, very blunt.
The lesson for us is that Iwill not get away with my sin
and, my friend, you will not getaway with your sin.
(17:11):
The wonderful thing about ourday is that we have a God that
has sent us the Lord JesusChrist.
In the midst of all this wrathand judgment, he desires loving
repentance.
My sin is just as bad as thesins of the people in Jerusalem
(17:32):
and his wrath is just as strongagainst my sin and my friend,
wrath is just as strong againstyours.
But if we repent now and takeup the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, then he will allow us toreturn.
He has loving arms of love thatcome out to us because of the
(17:54):
forgiveness that he offersthrough Jesus Christ.
He sent Jesus to take away oursin so that we don't have to
experience the bad things likeJudah or even worse.
If we look at verses 26 and 27,these are very descriptive, very
emotional language.
The power and the emotiondescribed here should hold our
(18:17):
attention and keep us in awe.
He says there remove the turban, take off the crown, no longer
be the same.
This is strong language.
Ruin, ruin.
He says it three times Be nomore until he comes.
Well, steve, who's the?
He?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
there.
Yeah, the he I think depictedhere, Glenn, is Jesus and it's
talking about the second comingwhenever he's going to come to
establish the millennial kingdom.
Now we say that because we havein the past talked that there's
various verses, We've gonethrough Zechariah and through
(18:54):
the prophets, and even heretimes in Ezekiel, that there's
going to be a future kingdom,restoration of Israel that's
going to be set up and it's aphysical kingdom here on earth.
So I think this is referring tothat time.
Until he comes, who is right?
And I will give it to him.
This is Yahweh saying he'sgoing to give it to Jesus, the
(19:18):
Messiah.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
This is Yahweh saying he's going to give it to Jesus
the Messiah.
At the time of Ezekiel'sprophecy, king Zedekiah was
quickly to become the last kingin the line of the kings.
He was the last king untilJesus came.
Jesus came as king.
Jesus is the rightful heir tothe throne.
At the end of verse 27 here inEzekiel, god says I will give it
(19:42):
to him.
Well, the him is Jesus, the.
It is the throne, the scepter.
God says I'm cutting off thisline of kings and I'm going to
give the throne to my son, theLord Jesus, throne to my son,
(20:02):
the Lord Jesus.
God will give it to Jesus thesame throne, the same throne of
Israel that he took fromZedekiah.
He says it right here whichthrone is he going to give?
It's the throne of Israel, theone that he cut off from
Zedekiah.
Back here in Ezekiel, chapter 21.
My friend, it's as plain as thewords on the page.
Starting in verse 28, godspeaks about the Ammonites.
(20:24):
He uses more powerful languageto describe their destruction.
In verse 32, it says you shallbe fuel for the fire.
Your blood shall be in themidst of the land.
You shall be no more remembered.
Steve, does anybody rememberthe?
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Ammonites today?
I really don't, Glenn, and thebackdrop to this is that
Zedekiah was the last king, buthe wasn't the legitimate king.
The legitimate king wasJehoiakim.
He had been deposed byNebuchadnezzar and his son,
Jehoiachin, was the next in lineand Jehoiachin, I believe,
(21:05):
served about three months,something like that, and
Nebuchadnezzar deposes him.
Then Nebuchadnezzar putsJehoiakim's brother,
Jehoiachin's uncle, emplacedMattaniah, and changes his name
to Zedekiah.
So Zedekiah is serving as theking, but he's not the rightful
(21:26):
king number one.
Number two is he's sworn hisloyalty to Nebuchadnezzar but he
makes a decision to rebelagainst Nebuchadnezzar.
He makes a pact with thePharaoh from Egypt and the
Ammonites that were also servingunder Nebuchadnezzar to go and
fight Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar hears about this.
(21:47):
This is what brings him down asa final destruction for
Jerusalem and the temple andeverything else temple and
everything else.
God here in verse 28, is sayingthat the reproach of Ammon is
(22:07):
going to be dealt with.
What happened was the Ammonites.
They rejoiced wheneverNebuchadnezzar destroyed
Jerusalem and sacked the city.
God is saying here that he'sgoing to bring judgment on the
Ammonites for them celebratingJerusalem's and the nation of
Judah's final destruction.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
The final destruction was what literally fulfilled
these prophecies.
Then they were literallyfulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar
attacked the region in 587 BC.
When Nebuchadnezzar attackedthe region in 587 BC and, as we
said before, the people inEzekiel's day would know hey,
this prophet predicted somethingthat came true right before my
(22:47):
eyes.
Therefore, we're going to writedown everything he says.
We know that the futureprophecies are just as solid.
The prophets always providedevidence of the truthfulness of
their message.
That brings us to the end ofchapter 21.
The beginning of chapter 22continues with still more of
(23:08):
these condemnations of the sinsof the people.
When we read this, I'll behonest with you, we get almost
tired of hearing the wave afterwave of God's condemnation.
But remember, this was pent-upanger from many centuries of God
not taking action.
It also happened over about a22-year period in Ezekiel's life
(23:31):
.
Starting at Ezekiel, chapter 22, we're going to see more
condemnation of the people.
I'm reading in verse 1,.
Then the word of the Lord cameto me saying and you, son of man
, will you judge?
Will you judge the bloody city,then cause her to know all her
abominations?
You shall say Thus says theLord, god, a city shedding blood
(23:55):
in her midst, so that her timewill come and that makes idols,
contrary to her interest, fordefilement.
You have become guilty by theblood which you have shed and
defiled by your idols, which youhave made.
Thus, you have brought your daynear and have come to your
years.
Therefore, I have made you areproach to the nations and a
(24:17):
mocking to all the lands.
Those who are near and thosewho are far from you will mock
you, you of ill repute, full ofturmoil.
What do we see in those?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
verses, steve, by the description of the bloody city.
It's a depiction of what thecity.
There had been murder andbloodshed that was taking place
in the city, and God is givinghis justification for the city
to be sacked and for the templeto be taken down and for the
(24:49):
southern nation of Judah tofinally be a done away with.
Through Ezekiel, he's tellingthe people that are in exile,
who think that God is going tocome through for them once again
, as we've talked aboutpreviously in this session, that
no, here's a reason why yourcity, jerusalem, the capital
where the temple is, has becomea city full of murderous
(25:10):
bloodshed and therefore there'sgoing to be a discipline and
judgment on it.
Because of that, and that'sjust one thing that is depicted
of, what's happening in the cityis that the murderers and
bloodshed and the crime hadgotten so bad that God is going
to take and deal with the cityonce and for all.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
We're going to see some of that as we go into these
next chapters, because God isgoing to get quite direct, quite
blunt, quite detailed, withlisting off many of their sins.
But here again we have thisprophet, ezekiel, that is
claiming to be giving the verywords of God In verse 1, the
word of the Lord came to me, andwe have the same type of
(25:54):
language given over by thewriters in the New Testament.
Remember, the apostle Paul saidthe things I am writing to you
are a command of the Lord.
He said that in 1 Corinthians14.37.
And he also said the thingsthat God revealed to us, the
apostles, in 1 Corinthians 2.10.
(26:14):
So we have places where theprophets claim to be speaking
God's exact words.
And in here in Ezekiel, we havewave after wave of very direct,
very blunt language.
And again, as we said, I amquite tired.
I want to get over to the nicethings, the roses and the
(26:35):
sweetness and the light.
But the sin is quite ugly andit needs to be dealt with.
And we're not over yet because,again, god's going to detail
some of these sins.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
He is going to do that, and then he's also going
to detail some of the ways he'sgoing to deal with the Gentile
nations.
But then he's going to givesome hope in the latter chapters
of Ezekiel, and we're going toget to that at some point.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
We'll see that as we continue to reason through the
book of Ezekiel next time.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you.
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