Ezekiel 12
Most people are born into this world with eyes that see and with ears that hear. Despite possessing the organs of sight and hearing, we have hearts that are unwilling to see and hear the truth about God. Our problem is not our physical inability. It is our moral and spiritual inability. We do not want to listen to God. Idols may have eyes and ears painted on wood or chiseled into stone, but of course that idol could never see or hear. God tells us that those who worship such objects become like them. This is their moral inability. They will not submit to God.
God’s people were rebellious. They seemed to lack spiritual sight and spiritual hearing. The Lord had warned them for many generations through many prophets. Now the time had come for exile. The Lord is slow to exile His people, but it eventually happens after many years of hardened resistance to the call for godly repentance. Ezekiel, at the Lord’s instruction, now acts out the part of one going into exile. This is not a superior method of communicating the message of God. It is very inferior to the clarity of simple preaching. But what can be done when people refuse to hear? No more words are left. The exile is really going to happen.
The prophet’s play-acting showed that not everyone was going to cooperate with this exile. Ezekiel digs through the wall to show what some will do to attempt to run from God and his appointed agents of discipline. Their efforts will not be successful, but they will make their attempts.
Would the people receive this message? Would they ask the prophet, “What are you doing?” If people are determined not to hear, they may be very careful not to ask questions. They may have an unavoidable understanding of what it is all about, but they may wish to do what they can to evade the message. A caption is now given to add to the parable that was lived out before them. What Ezekiel has done is a sign. It is about the remaining leaders and the people who are still in
This will not only be the fate of a select few. Almost everyone around the ruling group who come to their aid will also die. A few will survive to give testimony to the sin of God’s people. God is the Lord, and He will be known even in His righteous discipline of His own people. This was a significant message, since there were others who were claiming something very different than this. They were suggesting that any difficulties would soon be over, and that those who had been taken away to
The rejection of the truth among God’s people had become proverbial at this point in the history of the Lord’s covenant people. They seemed to be so confident that the warnings of true prophets were false that they had a saying with which they comforted themselves. “The days grow long, and every vision comes to nothing.” The point of the proverb was this: Prophets talk with their dire warnings, but nothing actually happens. Everything continues on as it always has.
It is amazing that such a saying could be spoken at this point in their lives as a nation. Disaster is all around them. Some people have already been taken away. Could they really believe that every true vision of judgment would really come to nothing?
It is still the case, after the coming of Christ, that some people reject the message of His return in judgment. They do not see the cross for what it is. The cross is the greatest display of both judgment and mercy ever known to man. God’s wrath came upon our innocent Substitute that we might dwell eternally in righteousness and safety. Still there are scoffers who continue to follow their sinful desires and who proudly mock saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?” They overlook the fact of the flood. They ignore the truth of the destruction of
No one should presume that the Lord will not keep His promises. The message for us is well stated in God’s words through Ezekiel. “The word that I speak will be performed.” The Savior who died for us in mercy and who satisfied the demands of God’s justice for all who turn to Him and call upon His name, will Himself return to judge the living and the dead. In the words of Psalm 2, “Kiss the Son His wrath to turn, lest ye perish in the way, for His anger soon will burn. Blessed are those that on Him stay.” He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM
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