September 17, 2025 • 29 mins
Ever wonder what happens when God steps into the kitchen? In Ezekiel chapter 24, we discover a divine cooking lesson with profound implications. God uses the vivid metaphor of a rusty cooking pot to illustrate Jerusalem's impending destruction—a powerful image that exposes the corruption permeating the holy city. The rust-encrusted pot symbolizes Jerusalem's spiritual pollution, so deeply entrenched that ordinary cleansing methods prove futile.
The message intensifies as God pronounces judgment with sobering finality: "I will act, I will not relent, I will not pity, and I will not be sorry." These words reveal a dimension of divine character often overlooked in contemporary theology—a God whose patience, while vast, has boundaries. After centuries of ignored warnings and continued idol worship, God's judgment arrives with devastating clarity.
The chapter takes a heartbreaking turn when God commands Ezekiel to become a living object lesson. God takes Ezekiel's wife suddenly and forbids the prophet from publicly mourning—an extraordinary departure from cultural norms that would have shocked witnesses. This painful demonstration serves a dual purpose: it mirrors how the exiles will lose their beloved temple and illustrates how the survivors of Jerusalem's fall will have no opportunity to properly mourn their losses before being marched into captivity.
Throughout this exploration of divine judgment, we confront the fundamental spiritual choice that remains as relevant today as it was in Ezekiel's time: Will we submit to God and receive His cleansing forgiveness, or persist in our ways and eventually face His cleansing wrath? The imagery may be ancient, but the spiritual principle transcends time.
Join us as we unpack this challenging passage that concludes God's messages against Jerusalem before He turns His prophetic attention to the surrounding nations. Whether you're a seasoned Bible student or just beginning to explore Scripture's depths, this episode offers profound insights into divine justice, human accountability, and the unwavering character of God.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Today on Reasoning Through the Bible, we're going
to see God give us a cookinglesson.
He's got his cookbook out andwe're going to take a peek into
his kitchen.
He's going to be preparingsomething.
Only this is what he's going toprepare is not something that
the people of Israel are goingto want to eat.
They're not going to want tosee it prepared either, because
(00:40):
this particular meal is going tobe a cooking of the people that
are in Jerusalem and it's goingto be quite ugly.
Today, on Reasoning Through theBible, we're going to be in
Ezekiel, chapter 24.
So, if you have your Bibleturned, there we are in this
chapter.
Ezekiel 24 is the last of thechapters where God is speaking
(01:02):
against Jerusalem.
He had sent Ezekiel to thecaptives that are in Babylon and
he's been speaking throughEzekiel to give messages to
these captives.
We saw last time that Godpredicted the very day that
Babylon would lay siege to thecity of Jerusalem.
(01:23):
Today we're going to get amessage from God where he talks
about the tragedy that's goingto happen in the city of
Jerusalem.
We'll start reading in Ezekiel,chapter 24, starting in verse 3,
says this Speak a parable tothe rebellious house and say to
them Thus says the Lord GodSpeak a parable to the
(01:45):
rebellious house and say to themThus says the Lord God Put on
the pot, put it on and also pourwater in it.
Put in it the pieces, everygood piece, the thigh and the
shoulder.
Fill it with choice bones.
Take the choicest of the flockand also pile wood under the pot
, make it boil vigorously andseethe bones in it.
So here God is using thisillustration of a cook pot and
(02:11):
taking a sheep and cutting it upand using the meat to make a
broth.
God is using the parable ofthis cook pot to illustrate
what's going to happen toJerusalem.
God gave a similar message backin chapter 11, if you remember
that Steamed Jerusalem is goingto be boiled like a piece of
meat, it's going to be put underpretty good stress and you can
(02:36):
just picture the boiling waterand the meat there as it boils.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Earlier God had said that it was going to be under a
crucible and he was going totake the dross off of it.
So we get this picture thatJerusalem is going to be under
great, great pressure and weknow from history that is what
happened.
It went under siege andNebuchadnezzar's army finally
(03:02):
reached the walls, went in andkilled hundreds of thousands of
people and destroyed the templeand destroyed the city itself.
And even before that, duringthe siege, the people were under
great, great stress.
So it's very much of adepiction picture that you get,
seeing this in your mind's eyethe boiling pot with the meat in
(03:27):
it.
It's a description to thepeople as far as what's going to
happen in Jerusalem.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
God has introduced this idea of a cookpot and
really he's describing what'sgoing to happen to Jerusalem.
So let's go ahead and read thenext section.
This next section has verydescriptive language here, so
it's going to tell us a greatdeal about the specifics of
what's happening in Jerusalem,and it's also going to be
language that is very blunt andto the point.
(03:54):
Steve, can you start at verse 6and read down through verse 14?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Therefore, thus says the Lord God, woe to the bloody
city, to the pot in which thereis rust and whose rust has not
gone out of it.
Take out of it piece afterpiece, without making a choice,
for her blood is in her midst.
She placed it on the bare rack.
She did not pour it on theground to cover it with dust
(04:20):
that it may cause wrath to comeup to take vengeance.
I have put her blood on thebare rock that it might not be
covered.
Therefore, thus says the LordGod, woe to the bloody city.
I also will make the pile greatheap on the wood, kindle the
fire, boil the flesh well andmix in the spices and let the
(04:43):
bones be burned, then set itempty on its coal so that it may
be hot and its bronze may glowand its filthiness may be melted
in it, its rust consumed.
She has wearied me with toil,yet her great rust has not gone
from her.
Let her rust be in the shoulder.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
The problem was that the pot was bad.
The pot was rusty and crustyand not clean, and of course, we
would never take good meal andcook it in a pot that was a
filthy, crusty old pot.
What ended up happening wasthat the meal ended up ruined.
(05:58):
It had a layer of scum in it.
God says in verse 6 that he'sgoing to take out piece after
piece, without choosing any forhimself.
All the meal is going to bewasted.
Several times in this passagewe just read, god is lamenting
the blood that is spilt inJerusalem.
He talks about how filthy thepot is and how it will be heated
(06:21):
on the coals and the meatpoured out and wasted.
Steve, this was just a verygraphic description of what God
is going to do with a filthy andpolluted people that live in
Jerusalem.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
It is a graphic description and he describes it
as being a rusty pot which youreally wouldn't want to cook
food in, and then he sets thepot back on the coals just to
get red hot.
And it's just a depiction ofonce again the cauldron, so to
speak, that Jerusalem is goingto go through the pressure and
(06:57):
the chaos and everything elsethat the city of Jerusalem is
going to go through.
In this judgment from God.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
He says in verse 12 that he is weary with what
Jerusalem is doing.
He's tired of all of the sinand lewdness that's there.
The next verse, verse 13,.
God says Jerusalem was filthyand lewd is the language that's
used there.
He says I would have cleansedyou, yet you are not clean,
(07:26):
steve.
What is it that makes usunclean today?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well, before we become Christians, before we
become believers in Jesus Christ, we're unclean because we have
sin in our lives and sin meansto miss the mark in its basic
form.
We miss what God wants us to be.
We miss what he would like forus to do to worship Him and to
(07:49):
rely on Him and to be in Hisways and walking with Him.
When we're not with Him, we'renot believers in Him, then we've
missed the mark.
We have this sin in our lives.
To us it might be described asthrough the Ten Commandments, we
have lied, we have stolen.
Jesus in the Sermon on theMount says if you look after
(08:09):
another and you've lusted afterthem, you've committed adultery.
If you've hated somebody,you've committed murder in your
heart, things like this.
Those are all descriptions ofmissing the mark, descriptions
of sinning.
So the sin separates us fromGod.
It makes us unclean from thatperspective.
But in order to get clean, wethen believe and trust on the
(08:30):
Lord Jesus Christ.
Then God looks at therighteousness that Christ has
and doesn't look at us as theuncleanliness.
So the way that we get cleantoday is to look upon Jesus
Christ and believe in him.
In their day, the way that Godwould have cleaned them up would
(08:51):
be for them to have trusted Godand had faith in God, follow
his ordinances, statutes, notfor salvation, but to live long
in the land we talked about thatat length at one of our earlier
sessions but to follow him andhave trust in him, and God would
have cleaned them up.
So the salvation of the Jewishpeople is the same as yesterday
(09:14):
as it is today Faith, faith inGod.
Jesus Christ is God that inRomans, chapter 3 talks about.
In that propitiation, thatsatisfactory sacrifice that God
gave through Jesus Christ, thathe overlooked the sins from
before and at the time of thecrucifixion and death, burial
and resurrection, those sinswere forgiven.
(09:35):
People prior to the cross lookforward to the cross.
Us in our time look backward tothe cross.
It's all one way for salvationthough faith in God and faith in
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
God looks at the people of Jerusalem in Ezekiel,
chapter 24, and calls themfilthy, calls them lewd and they
are in need of cleansing.
That same type of descriptionis used over in the New
Testament for the state of thelost person coming to salvation.
Used over in the New Testamentfor the state of the lost person
coming to salvation.
In the New Testament, sin andlostness, separation from God,
(10:11):
is described as being filthy, inneed of cleansing.
In 1 John 1, it specificallytells us that the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanses us from all sin.
In verse 7.
And then 1 John 1, 9, if weconfess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sinsand to cleanse us from all
(10:33):
unrighteousness.
That's the picture of cleansing.
We are polluted, we're filthyand we are in need of cleansing.
That only happens through faithin the blood of Jesus Christ
and trusting in him, god.
He says here in Ezekiel 24, Iwould have cleansed you.
The reason he didn't wasbecause they were holding on to
(10:54):
their sin.
They insisted on doing thingstheir way.
Instead of cleansing them fromhis forgiveness, he's going to
cleanse them with his wrath.
He says quote you will not becleansed from your filthiness
again until I have spent mywrath on you.
Unquote.
We have here.
They're going to be cleansed.
They're either going to becleansed by kneeling at the feet
(11:17):
of God and saying God forgiveme, and then obeying his
commands, or he's going tocleanse them with his wrath and
this particular people.
He had sent many centuriesworth of prophets there.
They refused to turn from theirsin.
Verse 14 gives us a picture ofGod that many modern churches
(11:38):
just don't hold and don't wantto believe in.
God says there in Ezekiel 24,14, I will act, I will not
relent and I will not, and Iwill not pity and I will not be
sorry.
According to your ways andaccording to your deeds, I will
judge you, declares the Lord God.
So we have here a God that isto the point, steve, where he's
(12:01):
just judging these people and hesays I'm not going to be sorry,
I'm not going to turn, thewrath is going to be poured out.
It is a terrible situation tobe in.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
It is a terrible situation to be in and I would
not want to be in it.
That's why I'm so thankful thathe provided a way for us to
have salvation.
He is the propitiation, thesatisfactory sacrifice, so that
God might be just and thejustifier Again.
Romans, chapter 3, verses 25through 26,.
(12:35):
Right in that area.
It's not a good position to bein, but the great news is the
good news.
The gospel is that we don'thave to be in that position.
Believe on the Lord JesusChrist and you shall be saved.
It's really in that position.
Believe on the Lord JesusChrist and you shall be saved.
It's really just that simple.
So remember.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Ezekiel is speaking to these captives in Babylon and
as such he is telling them.
Thus says the Lord, and becauseof that the people view Ezekiel
as the God figure.
He is speaking for God, he isGod's spokesman, so they view
him as a picture of what God issaying.
(13:13):
In the next section we're aboutto read Ezekiel gives a message
from God that he has to act out.
It's one more of these objectlessons that Ezekiel is going to
act out.
Only, this one is going to bequite painful.
His wife is going to die andhe's not going to be allowed to
mourn.
He has to keep a stoicappearance in front of the
(13:36):
people there.
So I'm going to start readingin verse 15, and we'll find out
a hard task that Ezekiel hasbefore him.
And the word of the Lord came tome saying Son of man, behold, I
am about to take from that.
Ezekiel has before him saidBind on your turban and put your
shoes on your feet and do notcover your mustache and do not
(14:10):
eat the bread of men.
So I spoke to the people in themorning, and in the evening my
wife died, and in the morning Idid as I was commanded.
The people said to me.
Will you not tell us what thesethings that you are doing mean
for us?
Then I said to them the word ofthe Lord came to me saying
Speak to the house of Israel.
(14:31):
Thus says the Lord.
God Behold, I am about toprofane my sanctuary.
The pride of your power, thedesire of your eyes and the
delight of your soul, and yoursons and your daughters, whom
you have left behind, will fallby the sword.
And your daughters, whom youhave left behind, will fall by
the sword.
You will do as I have done.
(14:51):
You will not cover yourmustache and you will not eat
the bread of men.
Your turbans will be on yourhead and your shoes on your feet
.
You will not mourn and you willnot weep, but you will rot away
in your iniquities and you willgroan to one another.
Thus, ezekiel will be assignedto you according to all that he
has done you will do.
When it comes, then you willknow that I am the Lord.
(15:15):
As for you, son of man, will itnot be on the day when I take
from them their stronghold, thejoy of their pride, the desire
(15:41):
of their life in one blow?
Know that I am the Lord?
God tells Ezekiel that he'sgoing to take away the desire of
his life in one blow.
He is not to mourn or cry.
Then, in verse 17, ezekiel isto put on his turban and his
sandals, which means he's readyto go somewhere.
And Ezekiel's not going to beallowed to sit around the house
(16:04):
and be sad that evening his wifedies.
God takes his wife.
God says in the early versesthere he says I am going to take
away the desire of your eyes.
In that culture, when someone'sspouse died, not mourning would
be very odd and catch a lot ofpeople's attention.
(16:26):
Would be very odd and catch alot of people's attention.
Steve, why would God do this?
What's the lesson?
Why would God take the life ofhis wife and then tell Ezekiel
not to cry?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Well, the connection between his wife is with the
sanctuary that God mentionsthere a few verses later.
So it's talking about thetemple.
The temple is going to bedestroyed when Nebuchadnezzar
comes in and destroys the city.
The temple was something thatwas precious to the people and
(16:57):
it was their pride.
They would look at it and saythis is where our God dwells,
this is where we worship our God.
Yet at the same time, glenn,we've seen in the previous
chapters that they weredisrespecting the temple.
They were worshiping other godson the temple complex.
They had a secret room that hadhieroglyphics of other gods on
(17:18):
the wall.
They were worshiping the sun byfacing the east, which means
they would show their backsideto the temple.
On one hand, it's a veryprecious thing to the people,
but on the other hand, they weredisrespecting it, and I think
God, through taking Ezekiel'swife, he is showing them and
(17:38):
telling them that not even thething that is very loving to
them and sacred to them is goingto be spared.
It's going to be taken as well.
Now I can tell you from myexperience I have lost a spouse,
and when my wife passed away,it's a pain that you can't
describe to anyone else.
(17:58):
There's nobody else that knowsthat pain, except for another
one who has lost a spouse.
It's like a part of you aregone and it's different than a
divorce, because when they'redivorced, one or the other party
are agreeing to go and thenthey're still living, you still
have contact with them, butwhenever they pass away you no
(18:19):
longer have contact with themand it's a very difficult time.
So I can tell you that, throughthis object lesson here with
Ezekiel, that it's, I think, away for God to drive home the
point through a little bit ofmaybe shock to the people that
(18:39):
Ezekiel, who has been shown tothem to do all of these
different object lessons and todo these various things that God
has told them, sometimes rightin their midst, right in front
of them, has been shown to themto do all of these different
object lessons and to do thesevarious things that God has told
them, sometimes right in theirmidst, right in front of them,
so that they can't miss thepoint that they're going to see
that Ezekiel's wife has passedaway and they're going to ask
why is it?
Why is it that this has beendone?
(19:01):
God has given Ezekiel a messageto give to them, but I think, in
its basic definition form, it'sa message to the people that
your most precious item, thetemple, the sanctuary where you
worship, is going to be takenfrom you.
It's going to be destroyed.
Unfortunately, ezekiel, as theprophet of God, is going to have
(19:22):
to suffer through this, yetsilently, through this period of
time and to add the last to it,just as we completed the few
verses before, god says I'm notgoing to relent, I'm not going
to pity and I will not be sorry.
He said that in verse 14.
So that's why I think he'stelling Ezekiel don't show
(19:43):
mourning outside to others,because this is something that's
happening to them.
It's going to happen, yet it'sa disciplinary move and it's
something that really once againthe extent that God is going to
in order to drive this finalidol worship problem that the
nation of Israel has had forhundreds of years going off and
(20:06):
worshiping other gods.
It's like the final act, thefinal loss of something that's
most precious and dear to them,in order to get that final
message to them that they haveto stop worshiping other gods.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Many centuries had gone by with the Jewish people
that were worshiping idols.
They were having sex worship,they were sacrificing their
children to these pagan idols.
They continued to go out andseek them.
They brought them into theirworship centers and their
sanctuaries and their homes andGod sent prophet after prophet
(20:45):
to get them to stop and theyrefused.
Here he's saying I'm going todeal with this and I'm going to
do it very stoically and again,ezekiel is the picture of God.
So we have Ezekiel having theloss of a loved one, but he has
to stay very unemotional aboutit.
That's the reason is this is anobject lesson.
(21:06):
God was about to allow Babylonto come in and take the lives of
the Jewish people and thepeople there that were listening
to Ezekiel.
In captivity, they had children, loved ones, perhaps parents,
still back in Jerusalem and theywere going to die.
It was all because of drivingout this horrible worship
(21:27):
service, of driving out thishorrible worship service and
also, when the Babylonian armydestroys Jerusalem, there would
be no time for the Jews to mournthe loss of their family
members.
Typically in that culture,there would be a specific period
(21:47):
of maybe 30 days or so wherepeople would go into mourning,
possibly even longer.
There would be no time theywould go through this with their
turban on their head and theirsandals on their feet, because
the survivors were going to haveto go into captivity themselves
.
That's why it is one moreobject lesson of God taking
action to drive out and dojustice for these horrible
(22:08):
practices that he had given muchtime for the Jewish people to
repent from.
So it also brings up a question,though.
Why would we look at God andsay well, here's God that takes
the life of this woman and hesays at the beginning of that
section I will take her.
It wasn't the case that he wasjust waiting until she died, and
(22:30):
God knew it.
No, god says he's going to takeher.
So how can we justify this?
How could a good God dosomething like that?
Well, first of all, we have torealize that God created life
and gave it as a gift.
Because of that, we abuse itAgain.
The people in that day weresacrificing their children, and
(22:50):
many of them deserve to diebecause of that.
God gave life and he has theright to take it back again.
The faithful believer in thatday and in our day does not lose
their life, in a sense ofending at annihilation, the
faithful believer gains thepresence of the Lord.
(23:10):
Ending at annihilation, thefaithful believer gains the
presence of the Lord.
If Ezekiel's wife was a truebeliever, she would be blessed
by going into the presence ofthe Lord.
Taking his children to himselfis a blessing.
We have to have an eternal viewon this.
God was also using Ezekiel'swife to teach a lesson, and God
has the right and theprerogative to do so Again.
(23:31):
He had sent and said words andthey didn't believe him.
They didn't follow the otherprophets, so now he's taking
action.
God allows us to suffer, butalways has greater gains that we
do not see.
Lastly, I would say who are weto question an all-powerful God?
Just look at the answer thatGod gave to Job when Job
(23:52):
questioned whether God was rightin doing what he did to Job's
family.
Then look at verse 22.
God gives the message that wasprophesied by the death of
Ezekiel's wife, namely that Godis about to cause the
destruction of his sanctuary,the temple and remember this was
the temple of Solomon, this wasthe temple, this was the one
(24:16):
that was very grand and verybeautiful, and the Jewish sons
and daughters would be killed inthe battle.
The question in front of us,steve, is are we willing to
submit to God and begforgiveness, and submit to his
ways and follow His ways, eventhough it might cut against my
(24:37):
flesh, or am I going to continuedoing what I think's best and
have to later deal with God'scleansing wrath?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
The obvious answer is that we admit our sins and we
submit to His forgiveness.
Is that we admit our sins and wesubmit to his forgiveness.
We acknowledge that we havethis problem and that we have
this separation from God, andthat he has provided a way for
us to be reconciled back to himonce again through belief and
trust on Jesus Christ.
(25:05):
But, glenn, just like thepeople in that day, the people
in our day today, many of themjustify what they're doing.
They don't see them as doingthings that are against God.
They don't see themselves asbeing separated from God.
Many of them don't even want tohave anything to do with God.
(25:27):
Those people that doacknowledge yeah, I don't have
any type of association orrelationship with God, but I
don't want to have one thenthose people are going to face
God's wrath at some point andhis judgment, whether it be in
this lifetime or in the nextlife, when they pass on to the
other side.
Those people will never submitto God because they have pride
(25:52):
and they're arrogant that theydon't feel that they need to
submit to God.
Of course, they're arrogant onthis side of death, but once
they cross over to the otherside, I think it'll be a
different story whenever theyface God's judgment, then Now,
some of the people that are, Ithink, might be lucky to face
(26:13):
God's wrath on this side whilethey're still alive, because
then they might come to therealization that they are
separated from God and they havea chance, while they haven't
passed away yet, in order tocome to a belief and trust in
Jesus Christ.
While that's a harsh lesson,it's at least one that gives
them an opportunity to bereconciled back to God, and I
(26:37):
think that is the final thoughtand lesson here in chapter 24 of
Ezekiel, as God finishes upthis section dealing with the
Jews and Israel and the temple.
What's going to happen withJerusalem is that the people are
facing God's wrath.
He says many times throughoutall of these sections and verses
(26:59):
then you will know that I amGod.
When these things come about,you will know that I am God.
That's really the bottom linefor them to know that he is God,
and at this time he's seriousabout driving this sin of
worshiping other gods out ofthem.
(27:19):
He's serious about discipliningthem.
He's reached the final strawwhere the final discipline is
going to happen and they'regoing to see God's final wrath.
The uplifting part, though, aswe've talked about through all
of these sessions so far.
Glenn, though, is that he doesgive them hope in a couple of
areas, that he's going torestore them and that they will
(27:41):
be restored at some point intime.
At this time, they have theability to acknowledge their sin
, acknowledge to get back rightwith God, and they also had the
hope, as a nation, to be able toget back to God as well, and
he's going to restore them.
We're going to see that in alater chapter of Ezekiel, but
that's the bottom line.
Your question is is it betterto submit to God and admit your
(28:05):
sins or face his wrath?
The obvious question, as Istated at the beginning, is to
submit to God.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Chapter 24 is the last of the section where God is
giving messages about Jerusalemand the Jewish people.
Starting in chapter 25, godbegins to direct his attention
towards the nations aroundIsrael, and we'll see next time
how he gets into dealing withthem.
Meanwhile, we'll direct you toour website.
(28:35):
If you have need for smallgroup Bible study materials or
learn to teach classes foryourself, we have all those
materials available to help you.
So please check out our website, reasoningthroughthebiblecom,
and we love your comments.
Send us feedback at info that'sI-N-F-O at
(28:58):
ReasoningThroughTheBiblecom, andwe trust that you'll be back
with us next time as we continueto reason through the.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Bible.
Thank you so much for watchingand listening.
May God bless you.
Today on Reasoning Through the Bible, we're going
to see God give us a cookinglesson.
He's got his cookbook out andwe're going to take a peek into
his kitchen.
He's going to be preparingsomething.
Only this is what he's going toprepare is not something that
the people of Israel are goingto want to eat.
They're not going to want tosee it prepared either, because
(00:40):
this particular meal is going tobe a cooking of the people that
are in Jerusalem and it's goingto be quite ugly.
Today, on Reasoning Through theBible, we're going to be in
Ezekiel, chapter 24.
So, if you have your Bibleturned, there we are in this
chapter.
Ezekiel 24 is the last of thechapters where God is speaking
(01:02):
against Jerusalem.
He had sent Ezekiel to thecaptives that are in Babylon and
he's been speaking throughEzekiel to give messages to
these captives.
We saw last time that Godpredicted the very day that
Babylon would lay siege to thecity of Jerusalem.
(01:23):
Today we're going to get amessage from God where he talks
about the tragedy that's goingto happen in the city of
Jerusalem.
We'll start reading in Ezekiel,chapter 24, starting in verse 3,
says this Speak a parable tothe rebellious house and say to
them Thus says the Lord GodSpeak a parable to the
(01:45):
rebellious house and say to themThus says the Lord God Put on
the pot, put it on and also pourwater in it.
Put in it the pieces, everygood piece, the thigh and the
shoulder.
Fill it with choice bones.
Take the choicest of the flockand also pile wood under the pot
, make it boil vigorously andseethe bones in it.
So here God is using thisillustration of a cook pot and
(02:11):
taking a sheep and cutting it upand using the meat to make a
broth.
God is using the parable ofthis cook pot to illustrate
what's going to happen toJerusalem.
God gave a similar message backin chapter 11, if you remember
that Steamed Jerusalem is goingto be boiled like a piece of
meat, it's going to be put underpretty good stress and you can
(02:36):
just picture the boiling waterand the meat there as it boils.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Earlier God had said that it was going to be under a
crucible and he was going totake the dross off of it.
So we get this picture thatJerusalem is going to be under
great, great pressure and weknow from history that is what
happened.
It went under siege andNebuchadnezzar's army finally
(03:02):
reached the walls, went in andkilled hundreds of thousands of
people and destroyed the templeand destroyed the city itself.
And even before that, duringthe siege, the people were under
great, great stress.
So it's very much of adepiction picture that you get,
seeing this in your mind's eyethe boiling pot with the meat in
(03:27):
it.
It's a description to thepeople as far as what's going to
happen in Jerusalem.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
God has introduced this idea of a cookpot and
really he's describing what'sgoing to happen to Jerusalem.
So let's go ahead and read thenext section.
This next section has verydescriptive language here, so
it's going to tell us a greatdeal about the specifics of
what's happening in Jerusalem,and it's also going to be
language that is very blunt andto the point.
(03:54):
Steve, can you start at verse 6and read down through verse 14?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Therefore, thus says the Lord God, woe to the bloody
city, to the pot in which thereis rust and whose rust has not
gone out of it.
Take out of it piece afterpiece, without making a choice,
for her blood is in her midst.
She placed it on the bare rack.
She did not pour it on theground to cover it with dust
(04:20):
that it may cause wrath to comeup to take vengeance.
I have put her blood on thebare rock that it might not be
covered.
Therefore, thus says the LordGod, woe to the bloody city.
I also will make the pile greatheap on the wood, kindle the
fire, boil the flesh well andmix in the spices and let the
(04:43):
bones be burned, then set itempty on its coal so that it may
be hot and its bronze may glowand its filthiness may be melted
in it, its rust consumed.
She has wearied me with toil,yet her great rust has not gone
from her.
Let her rust be in the shoulder.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
The problem was that the pot was bad.
The pot was rusty and crustyand not clean, and of course, we
would never take good meal andcook it in a pot that was a
filthy, crusty old pot.
What ended up happening wasthat the meal ended up ruined.
(05:58):
It had a layer of scum in it.
God says in verse 6 that he'sgoing to take out piece after
piece, without choosing any forhimself.
All the meal is going to bewasted.
Several times in this passagewe just read, god is lamenting
the blood that is spilt inJerusalem.
He talks about how filthy thepot is and how it will be heated
(06:21):
on the coals and the meatpoured out and wasted.
Steve, this was just a verygraphic description of what God
is going to do with a filthy andpolluted people that live in
Jerusalem.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
It is a graphic description and he describes it
as being a rusty pot which youreally wouldn't want to cook
food in, and then he sets thepot back on the coals just to
get red hot.
And it's just a depiction ofonce again the cauldron, so to
speak, that Jerusalem is goingto go through the pressure and
(06:57):
the chaos and everything elsethat the city of Jerusalem is
going to go through.
In this judgment from God.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
He says in verse 12 that he is weary with what
Jerusalem is doing.
He's tired of all of the sinand lewdness that's there.
The next verse, verse 13,.
God says Jerusalem was filthyand lewd is the language that's
used there.
He says I would have cleansedyou, yet you are not clean,
(07:26):
steve.
What is it that makes usunclean today?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well, before we become Christians, before we
become believers in Jesus Christ, we're unclean because we have
sin in our lives and sin meansto miss the mark in its basic
form.
We miss what God wants us to be.
We miss what he would like forus to do to worship Him and to
(07:49):
rely on Him and to be in Hisways and walking with Him.
When we're not with Him, we'renot believers in Him, then we've
missed the mark.
We have this sin in our lives.
To us it might be described asthrough the Ten Commandments, we
have lied, we have stolen.
Jesus in the Sermon on theMount says if you look after
(08:09):
another and you've lusted afterthem, you've committed adultery.
If you've hated somebody,you've committed murder in your
heart, things like this.
Those are all descriptions ofmissing the mark, descriptions
of sinning.
So the sin separates us fromGod.
It makes us unclean from thatperspective.
But in order to get clean, wethen believe and trust on the
(08:30):
Lord Jesus Christ.
Then God looks at therighteousness that Christ has
and doesn't look at us as theuncleanliness.
So the way that we get cleantoday is to look upon Jesus
Christ and believe in him.
In their day, the way that Godwould have cleaned them up would
(08:51):
be for them to have trusted Godand had faith in God, follow
his ordinances, statutes, notfor salvation, but to live long
in the land we talked about thatat length at one of our earlier
sessions but to follow him andhave trust in him, and God would
have cleaned them up.
So the salvation of the Jewishpeople is the same as yesterday
(09:14):
as it is today Faith, faith inGod.
Jesus Christ is God that inRomans, chapter 3 talks about.
In that propitiation, thatsatisfactory sacrifice that God
gave through Jesus Christ, thathe overlooked the sins from
before and at the time of thecrucifixion and death, burial
and resurrection, those sinswere forgiven.
(09:35):
People prior to the cross lookforward to the cross.
Us in our time look backward tothe cross.
It's all one way for salvationthough faith in God and faith in
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
God looks at the people of Jerusalem in Ezekiel,
chapter 24, and calls themfilthy, calls them lewd and they
are in need of cleansing.
That same type of descriptionis used over in the New
Testament for the state of thelost person coming to salvation.
Used over in the New Testamentfor the state of the lost person
coming to salvation.
In the New Testament, sin andlostness, separation from God,
(10:11):
is described as being filthy, inneed of cleansing.
In 1 John 1, it specificallytells us that the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanses us from all sin.
In verse 7.
And then 1 John 1, 9, if weconfess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sinsand to cleanse us from all
(10:33):
unrighteousness.
That's the picture of cleansing.
We are polluted, we're filthyand we are in need of cleansing.
That only happens through faithin the blood of Jesus Christ
and trusting in him, god.
He says here in Ezekiel 24, Iwould have cleansed you.
The reason he didn't wasbecause they were holding on to
(10:54):
their sin.
They insisted on doing thingstheir way.
Instead of cleansing them fromhis forgiveness, he's going to
cleanse them with his wrath.
He says quote you will not becleansed from your filthiness
again until I have spent mywrath on you.
Unquote.
We have here.
They're going to be cleansed.
They're either going to becleansed by kneeling at the feet
(11:17):
of God and saying God forgiveme, and then obeying his
commands, or he's going tocleanse them with his wrath and
this particular people.
He had sent many centuriesworth of prophets there.
They refused to turn from theirsin.
Verse 14 gives us a picture ofGod that many modern churches
(11:38):
just don't hold and don't wantto believe in.
God says there in Ezekiel 24,14, I will act, I will not
relent and I will not, and Iwill not pity and I will not be
sorry.
According to your ways andaccording to your deeds, I will
judge you, declares the Lord God.
So we have here a God that isto the point, steve, where he's
(12:01):
just judging these people and hesays I'm not going to be sorry,
I'm not going to turn, thewrath is going to be poured out.
It is a terrible situation tobe in.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
It is a terrible situation to be in and I would
not want to be in it.
That's why I'm so thankful thathe provided a way for us to
have salvation.
He is the propitiation, thesatisfactory sacrifice, so that
God might be just and thejustifier Again.
Romans, chapter 3, verses 25through 26,.
(12:35):
Right in that area.
It's not a good position to bein, but the great news is the
good news.
The gospel is that we don'thave to be in that position.
Believe on the Lord JesusChrist and you shall be saved.
It's really in that position.
Believe on the Lord JesusChrist and you shall be saved.
It's really just that simple.
So remember.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Ezekiel is speaking to these captives in Babylon and
as such he is telling them.
Thus says the Lord, and becauseof that the people view Ezekiel
as the God figure.
He is speaking for God, he isGod's spokesman, so they view
him as a picture of what God issaying.
(13:13):
In the next section we're aboutto read Ezekiel gives a message
from God that he has to act out.
It's one more of these objectlessons that Ezekiel is going to
act out.
Only, this one is going to bequite painful.
His wife is going to die andhe's not going to be allowed to
mourn.
He has to keep a stoicappearance in front of the
(13:36):
people there.
So I'm going to start readingin verse 15, and we'll find out
a hard task that Ezekiel hasbefore him.
And the word of the Lord came tome saying Son of man, behold, I
am about to take from that.
Ezekiel has before him saidBind on your turban and put your
shoes on your feet and do notcover your mustache and do not
(14:10):
eat the bread of men.
So I spoke to the people in themorning, and in the evening my
wife died, and in the morning Idid as I was commanded.
The people said to me.
Will you not tell us what thesethings that you are doing mean
for us?
Then I said to them the word ofthe Lord came to me saying
Speak to the house of Israel.
(14:31):
Thus says the Lord.
God Behold, I am about toprofane my sanctuary.
The pride of your power, thedesire of your eyes and the
delight of your soul, and yoursons and your daughters, whom
you have left behind, will fallby the sword.
And your daughters, whom youhave left behind, will fall by
the sword.
You will do as I have done.
(14:51):
You will not cover yourmustache and you will not eat
the bread of men.
Your turbans will be on yourhead and your shoes on your feet
.
You will not mourn and you willnot weep, but you will rot away
in your iniquities and you willgroan to one another.
Thus, ezekiel will be assignedto you according to all that he
has done you will do.
When it comes, then you willknow that I am the Lord.
(15:15):
As for you, son of man, will itnot be on the day when I take
from them their stronghold, thejoy of their pride, the desire
(15:41):
of their life in one blow?
Know that I am the Lord?
God tells Ezekiel that he'sgoing to take away the desire of
his life in one blow.
He is not to mourn or cry.
Then, in verse 17, ezekiel isto put on his turban and his
sandals, which means he's readyto go somewhere.
And Ezekiel's not going to beallowed to sit around the house
(16:04):
and be sad that evening his wifedies.
God takes his wife.
God says in the early versesthere he says I am going to take
away the desire of your eyes.
In that culture, when someone'sspouse died, not mourning would
be very odd and catch a lot ofpeople's attention.
(16:26):
Would be very odd and catch alot of people's attention.
Steve, why would God do this?
What's the lesson?
Why would God take the life ofhis wife and then tell Ezekiel
not to cry?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Well, the connection between his wife is with the
sanctuary that God mentionsthere a few verses later.
So it's talking about thetemple.
The temple is going to bedestroyed when Nebuchadnezzar
comes in and destroys the city.
The temple was something thatwas precious to the people and
(16:57):
it was their pride.
They would look at it and saythis is where our God dwells,
this is where we worship our God.
Yet at the same time, glenn,we've seen in the previous
chapters that they weredisrespecting the temple.
They were worshiping other godson the temple complex.
They had a secret room that hadhieroglyphics of other gods on
(17:18):
the wall.
They were worshiping the sun byfacing the east, which means
they would show their backsideto the temple.
On one hand, it's a veryprecious thing to the people,
but on the other hand, they weredisrespecting it, and I think
God, through taking Ezekiel'swife, he is showing them and
(17:38):
telling them that not even thething that is very loving to
them and sacred to them is goingto be spared.
It's going to be taken as well.
Now I can tell you from myexperience I have lost a spouse,
and when my wife passed away,it's a pain that you can't
describe to anyone else.
(17:58):
There's nobody else that knowsthat pain, except for another
one who has lost a spouse.
It's like a part of you aregone and it's different than a
divorce, because when they'redivorced, one or the other party
are agreeing to go and thenthey're still living, you still
have contact with them, butwhenever they pass away you no
(18:19):
longer have contact with themand it's a very difficult time.
So I can tell you that, throughthis object lesson here with
Ezekiel, that it's, I think, away for God to drive home the
point through a little bit ofmaybe shock to the people that
(18:39):
Ezekiel, who has been shown tothem to do all of these
different object lessons and todo these various things that God
has told them, sometimes rightin their midst, right in front
of them, has been shown to themto do all of these different
object lessons and to do thesevarious things that God has told
them, sometimes right in theirmidst, right in front of them,
so that they can't miss thepoint that they're going to see
that Ezekiel's wife has passedaway and they're going to ask
why is it?
Why is it that this has beendone?
(19:01):
God has given Ezekiel a messageto give to them, but I think, in
its basic definition form, it'sa message to the people that
your most precious item, thetemple, the sanctuary where you
worship, is going to be takenfrom you.
It's going to be destroyed.
Unfortunately, ezekiel, as theprophet of God, is going to have
(19:22):
to suffer through this, yetsilently, through this period of
time and to add the last to it,just as we completed the few
verses before, god says I'm notgoing to relent, I'm not going
to pity and I will not be sorry.
He said that in verse 14.
So that's why I think he'stelling Ezekiel don't show
(19:43):
mourning outside to others,because this is something that's
happening to them.
It's going to happen, yet it'sa disciplinary move and it's
something that really once againthe extent that God is going to
in order to drive this finalidol worship problem that the
nation of Israel has had forhundreds of years going off and
(20:06):
worshiping other gods.
It's like the final act, thefinal loss of something that's
most precious and dear to them,in order to get that final
message to them that they haveto stop worshiping other gods.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Many centuries had gone by with the Jewish people
that were worshiping idols.
They were having sex worship,they were sacrificing their
children to these pagan idols.
They continued to go out andseek them.
They brought them into theirworship centers and their
sanctuaries and their homes andGod sent prophet after prophet
(20:45):
to get them to stop and theyrefused.
Here he's saying I'm going todeal with this and I'm going to
do it very stoically and again,ezekiel is the picture of God.
So we have Ezekiel having theloss of a loved one, but he has
to stay very unemotional aboutit.
That's the reason is this is anobject lesson.
(21:06):
God was about to allow Babylonto come in and take the lives of
the Jewish people and thepeople there that were listening
to Ezekiel.
In captivity, they had children, loved ones, perhaps parents,
still back in Jerusalem and theywere going to die.
It was all because of drivingout this horrible worship
(21:27):
service, of driving out thishorrible worship service and
also, when the Babylonian armydestroys Jerusalem, there would
be no time for the Jews to mournthe loss of their family
members.
Typically in that culture,there would be a specific period
(21:47):
of maybe 30 days or so wherepeople would go into mourning,
possibly even longer.
There would be no time theywould go through this with their
turban on their head and theirsandals on their feet, because
the survivors were going to haveto go into captivity themselves
.
That's why it is one moreobject lesson of God taking
action to drive out and dojustice for these horrible
(22:08):
practices that he had given muchtime for the Jewish people to
repent from.
So it also brings up a question,though.
Why would we look at God andsay well, here's God that takes
the life of this woman and hesays at the beginning of that
section I will take her.
It wasn't the case that he wasjust waiting until she died, and
(22:30):
God knew it.
No, god says he's going to takeher.
So how can we justify this?
How could a good God dosomething like that?
Well, first of all, we have torealize that God created life
and gave it as a gift.
Because of that, we abuse itAgain.
The people in that day weresacrificing their children, and
(22:50):
many of them deserve to diebecause of that.
God gave life and he has theright to take it back again.
The faithful believer in thatday and in our day does not lose
their life, in a sense ofending at annihilation, the
faithful believer gains thepresence of the Lord.
(23:10):
Ending at annihilation, thefaithful believer gains the
presence of the Lord.
If Ezekiel's wife was a truebeliever, she would be blessed
by going into the presence ofthe Lord.
Taking his children to himselfis a blessing.
We have to have an eternal viewon this.
God was also using Ezekiel'swife to teach a lesson, and God
has the right and theprerogative to do so Again.
(23:31):
He had sent and said words andthey didn't believe him.
They didn't follow the otherprophets, so now he's taking
action.
God allows us to suffer, butalways has greater gains that we
do not see.
Lastly, I would say who are weto question an all-powerful God?
Just look at the answer thatGod gave to Job when Job
(23:52):
questioned whether God was rightin doing what he did to Job's
family.
Then look at verse 22.
God gives the message that wasprophesied by the death of
Ezekiel's wife, namely that Godis about to cause the
destruction of his sanctuary,the temple and remember this was
the temple of Solomon, this wasthe temple, this was the one
(24:16):
that was very grand and verybeautiful, and the Jewish sons
and daughters would be killed inthe battle.
The question in front of us,steve, is are we willing to
submit to God and begforgiveness, and submit to his
ways and follow His ways, eventhough it might cut against my
(24:37):
flesh, or am I going to continuedoing what I think's best and
have to later deal with God'scleansing wrath?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
The obvious answer is that we admit our sins and we
submit to His forgiveness.
Is that we admit our sins and wesubmit to his forgiveness.
We acknowledge that we havethis problem and that we have
this separation from God, andthat he has provided a way for
us to be reconciled back to himonce again through belief and
trust on Jesus Christ.
(25:05):
But, glenn, just like thepeople in that day, the people
in our day today, many of themjustify what they're doing.
They don't see them as doingthings that are against God.
They don't see themselves asbeing separated from God.
Many of them don't even want tohave anything to do with God.
(25:27):
Those people that doacknowledge yeah, I don't have
any type of association orrelationship with God, but I
don't want to have one thenthose people are going to face
God's wrath at some point andhis judgment, whether it be in
this lifetime or in the nextlife, when they pass on to the
other side.
Those people will never submitto God because they have pride
(25:52):
and they're arrogant that theydon't feel that they need to
submit to God.
Of course, they're arrogant onthis side of death, but once
they cross over to the otherside, I think it'll be a
different story whenever theyface God's judgment, then Now,
some of the people that are, Ithink, might be lucky to face
(26:13):
God's wrath on this side whilethey're still alive, because
then they might come to therealization that they are
separated from God and they havea chance, while they haven't
passed away yet, in order tocome to a belief and trust in
Jesus Christ.
While that's a harsh lesson,it's at least one that gives
them an opportunity to bereconciled back to God, and I
(26:37):
think that is the final thoughtand lesson here in chapter 24 of
Ezekiel, as God finishes upthis section dealing with the
Jews and Israel and the temple.
What's going to happen withJerusalem is that the people are
facing God's wrath.
He says many times throughoutall of these sections and verses
(26:59):
then you will know that I amGod.
When these things come about,you will know that I am God.
That's really the bottom linefor them to know that he is God,
and at this time he's seriousabout driving this sin of
worshiping other gods out ofthem.
(27:19):
He's serious about discipliningthem.
He's reached the final strawwhere the final discipline is
going to happen and they'regoing to see God's final wrath.
The uplifting part, though, aswe've talked about through all
of these sessions so far.
Glenn, though, is that he doesgive them hope in a couple of
areas, that he's going torestore them and that they will
(27:41):
be restored at some point intime.
At this time, they have theability to acknowledge their sin
, acknowledge to get back rightwith God, and they also had the
hope, as a nation, to be able toget back to God as well, and
he's going to restore them.
We're going to see that in alater chapter of Ezekiel, but
that's the bottom line.
Your question is is it betterto submit to God and admit your
(28:05):
sins or face his wrath?
The obvious question, as Istated at the beginning, is to
submit to God.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Chapter 24 is the last of the section where God is
giving messages about Jerusalemand the Jewish people.
Starting in chapter 25, godbegins to direct his attention
towards the nations aroundIsrael, and we'll see next time
how he gets into dealing withthem.
Meanwhile, we'll direct you toour website.
(28:35):
If you have need for smallgroup Bible study materials or
learn to teach classes foryourself, we have all those
materials available to help you.
So please check out our website, reasoningthroughthebiblecom,
and we love your comments.
Send us feedback at info that'sI-N-F-O at
(28:58):
ReasoningThroughTheBiblecom, andwe trust that you'll be back
with us next time as we continueto reason through the.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Bible.
Thank you so much for watchingand listening.
May God bless you.
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