Bible Briefs: Ezekiel

Series Introduction: Bible Briefs are a short introduction and summary of the overview of a book of the Bible, with a view to helping people take up their Bible and knowing what it's about.

The book of the prophet Ezekiel has always struck me as particularly odd. Perhaps it’s the opening chapter with the amazing vision given to the prophet with its details of the living creatures and the wheels within wheels which is hard to picture, and hard to understand. Having made it through chapter one, the reader is then faced with 23 chapters of doom, as the judgement and desolation of Jerusalem and Judah is declared.

As if the words weren’t enough, Ezekiel is commanded to act out the judgement by besieging a model of the city (4); by cutting his hair with a sharp sword (5); packing his bags and digging through the wall (12); and most horrific of all, by not mourning when his wife passes away (24).

The weight of the chapters lies heavy on the reader. The message is unmistakeable - sinners will not stand in the judgement of a holy God. That message is amplified as Ezekiel turns to the nations and addresses the same word to them (25-32). It seems as if there is no hope at all.

The people of God have neglected their God; the promises of God to Abraham look as if they will fail. What will happen? In the midst of the gloom, suddenly comes the promise of a new covenant - for the sake of God’s holy name - a new promise of a new heart and a new spirit leading to covenant faithfulness (36).

Ezekiel is taken to that most famous of his chapters, the valley of dry bones (37). Israel is dead and dried up, but these dry bones come together and live by the breath of the Spirit. New life is given in the place of death; leading to the vision of the restored (and greatly expanded) temple and city, the name of which closes the book: ‘The LORD Is There’ (48:35).

We find that the message of Ezekiel is not weird at all - it’s the story of the good news as it points to the salvation we have in the Lord Jesus. We, under the judgement of God, ‘dead in our trespasses and sins’ (Eph 2:1), like those dry, dusty bones, are made alive in Christ and being built into the spiritual temple (1 Pet 2:5) where we will dwell forever with God. You could almost say that it’s the Gospel According to Ezekiel - thanks be to God!

Sermon Audio: Ezekiel 37:1-14

On the evening of Pentecost I was preaching in the Brooke Memorial Hall from Ezekiel 37, where the prophet Ezekiel is brought to the valley of dry bones. What will it take to raise the dead? Is our hope completely perished? Here we find a promise of the Holy Spirit for the people of God.

Sermon: Ezekiel 37: 1-14 The Valley of Dry Bones

It sounds like a scene from a horror movie. The prophet Ezekiel is airlifted by the Lord into a valley - but it is no ordinary valley. It’s a place of death and destruction. The scene of a heavy defeat, full of confusion and disorder. Ezekiel is in the valley of dry bones. In fact, they’re not just dry, but, as Ezekiel is given a guided tour, he notices that they are ‘very dry’ (2).

It’s here that the LORD asks Ezekiel a very important question: ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ (3) Is it possible to find life in the place of death? Could the valley of dry bones be the scene of victory?

Before we go any further, it might be helpful for us to get our bearings. You see, just as Ezekiel has been airlifted into strange surroundings, so we too have landed in the middle of very strange surroundings. We’re in the Old Testament, in the middle of a book, so we need to work out what’s going on before we can understand what God is saying in this chapter.

It’s always helpful to try and figure out where the passage you’re reading fits into the big picture of the Bible, as well as the structure of the Bible book. In this case, the prophet Ezekiel is in the land of Babylon during the time of the exile - when the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians and some of the people were taken into exile.

For the first 24 chapters of Ezekiel, he has declared God’s just judgement on the people. Judah has forsaken God and turned to idols. It’s not easy reading, as God exposes their sin and brings about punishment. If you can imagine turning the brightness button and the contrast button down on your TV remote, so that everything is just grey, this is the effect of Ezekiel 1-24.

Did you hear of the snooker commentator who once said that for the benefit of those watching in black and white, the pink ball was next to the green? Well it’s a bit like that here in Ezekiel’s day. There’s no hope, no reprieve, just doom and gloom. After chapter 24, Ezekiel speaks to the surrounding nations, and declares God’s judgement on them too. But then in chapter 33, there’s a hint of brightness, a glimmer of hope, like the first promise of dawn. Jerusalem has fallen, but could there yet be some hope for the people of God?

Can these bones live? Even though the people of Judah are in exile, far away from the land God had promised them, scattered among the nations under the judgement of God, can these bones live?

It’s a question we continue to ask to this day? We see the weakness of the church in the face of a confident secular state, with the government seeking to move forward with same sex marriage. Can these bones live?

We see ministers who deny the cross and the resurrection; who spend their time in the pulpit talking about a poem or something they read in a magazine; the mood seems to be that we’re in decline; things aren’t what they used to be. Can these bones live?

And Ezekiel gives the only right answer. ‘O Lord GOD, you know.’ (4) Humanly speaking, the bones are beyond hope. But if we are depending on ourselves and our own strength and resources, then we are above all men to be pitied. O Lord God, you know.

It’s when Ezekiel submits to God, that God demonstrates that he is the one who can give life to the dead (Heb 11:19) as he gives the instructions to Ezekiel. He commands Ezekiel to prophesy over the bones, so that they may live.

And so we see in verse 7, Ezekiel does it, and the bones do it. Do you know the wee song: ‘The foot bone’s connected to the leg bone, the leg bone’s connected to the knee bone’ and so on... The bones rattle together, then the sinews, then the flesh. The bodies lie on the ground, whole, but there’s still something missing.

You remember when God created Adam from the dust and breathed into his nostrils (Gen 2:7)? This is what the re-formed bone bodies are lacking. ‘There was no breath in them’ (8). So Ezekiel prophesies again, to bring the breath on them, to bring them to life. Look at verse 10: ‘and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.’

Now what is this all about? In verse 11, God gives the explanation of this strange event. Here we have the key to understanding the whole thing. ‘these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’

The people of Israel (both Israel and Judah) had lost all hope. They were picturing themselves as the dry bones. They had given up. But God gives them a message that he will raise the people up; that he is the God who raises the dead. No one else can do this. No other god could do anything like it. And he does it so that they will know that ‘I am the LORD’. (6, 13, 14).

Whenever we see that word LORD in capital letters, it’s the covenant name of God. And the LORD is saying here that they will know he is the covenant keeping God when he keeps his covenant with his people, and raises them from death, and gives them his Spirit.

The work of raising the dead is something only God can do, and so it’s something that we must pray to him, that he would do it. When we look at the village around us, or this county, or this country, or indeed the world, we see everywhere men and women, boys and girls who are dead spiritually. As Paul writes to the Ephesians, ‘And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked... by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.’ (Eph 2:1-3).

No one can make themselves alive to spiritual things. It would be like expecting the dry bones of the valley to perform CPR on themselves. No, by nature, by ourselves, we are dead in our sins.

We need the power of God, the covenant LORD, to give us life, and to breathe his Spirit into us. Just as Jesus died and was raised to new life, so we need to be born anew, raised to new life in Jesus, the sentence of death that we deserved having been paid by him.

On this day of Pentecost, we remember that God kept the promise he made to bring new life by the giving of his Spirit, as the Spirit was given to the church, and 3000 were added on that day. As we long to see people saved, as we earnestly desire people to be brought from darkness to light; so we recognise that it must be a work of God - we cannot bring life. Won’t you pray with me, that God will mightily move in our land, that many will be raised to life as they trust in Jesus and receive the Spirit of God; a great miracle that only God can do. Can these bones live? O Lord GOD, you know.

This sermon was preached in the Brooke Memorial Hall on Sunday 19th May 2013.

The Promise of His Coming (17)

The prophet Ezekiel continues to proclaim the promises of the Lord's coming, and today's focuses on the unity of God's people through their coming king.

Anyone with even a casual acquaintance with the Old Testament will realise that the people of God were divided and separated shortly after the monarchy had been established. Following Saul's death, the house of Judah crowned David as their king, while the house of Israel (at least for a short period) had Ish-bosheth. David eventually was crowned king of all Israel, but due to the folly of Rehoboam, Solomon's son, the two parts of the people were permanently separated. Judah's kings continued to be the sons of David, while Israel had a mishmash of dynasties, with more coups than a dairy farm. (Sorry...)

Both Israel and Judah have been in exile, but now Ezekiel declares that a new day is coming, and in his prophetic action, a new unity is being promised:

The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, take a stick and write on it, 'For Judah and the people of Israel associated with him'; then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him'. And join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand." (Ezekiel 37:15-17)

Two sticks become one stick, as the scattered people are brought together. The stick is a bit like a staff, the equipment of a shepherd, the symbol of a ruler, and so again we find that bound up with this unity comes the one prince, the one king over God's people:

My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Ezekiel 37:24-27)

Again, there's this promise of David - not actual David, but the son of David, great David's greater son, who will reign over his united people - so that God dwells in their midst. As John would say (in the Message translation): 'The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.' What was true of when Jesus walked among us is even more so when Jesus will return, and heaven comes to earth forever. Come, O uniting shepherd king.

The Promise of His Coming (16)

Do you remember the parable Jesus tells about the lost sheep, and the searching shepherd? You might hear that and think that it's a nice wee story - but actually, it appears that Jesus' parable is one way of describing what Jesus was doing when he came into the world. In fact, you can go further, and discover that it's one of the promises made by God in the Old Testament, hundreds of years before Jesus comes, pointing forward to this good shepherd who is coming into the world:

For thus says the LORD God: 'Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out... I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the LORD GOD... And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken. (Ezekiel 33:11, 15, 23-24)

The chapter begins with the judgment and condemnation of the false shepherds of Israel - the rulers of the people, the teachers, the elders, who should have been leading the flock, but were instead lining their own pockets and feasting on the lambs. The false shepherds will be punished, and then God gives this promise of himself coming to shepherd his people, to seek out the lost, to bring them to the pasture of Israel from the nations.

The good shepherd will give his life for his sheep, and save them by his blood, so that we can be white as wool. Come, good shepherd.

Jesus the Shepherd. A sermon preached in Ballyward & Rathfriland on 13th April 2008. John 10:1-10

I’m pretty sure that you have heard these words of Jesus before – ‘I am the gate for the sheep’ and (in verse 11) ‘I am the good shepherd.’ Some of you will even know sheep a lot better than me – and it’s at this point that I should probably confess that I’m a townie. So what can we really learn from our passage today? Jesus says that he is the gate and the shepherd. These words may immediately trigger pleasant thoughts and comfort, from knowing the shepherd, but I hope that you won’t stop listening because you think you know what the passage is all about already.

Or perhaps at the outset, you’re a bit confused as to what Jesus is saying. Don’t be discouraged – verse 6 tells us that his first hearers didn’t understand either.

Before we look at the passage itself, it’s vital to look at the context – to see where it fits in the Gospel of John. If you’ll look at verse 1, you’ll see that Jesus is continuing on what he’s saying from the previous chapter, so we need to remember what has happened there.

In John chapter 9, Jesus healed a man who had been born blind. There was a huge uproar among the Pharisees at this, because they didn’t know how Jesus had done it. But there was also fear and a closing of wagons – 9:22 says that the Jews had decided that those who acknowledged Jesus as the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.

After all this has happened, the man Jesus had healed finds him again, and worships him as his Lord. Jesus then says that he has come into the world for judgement – to turn things upside down so that the blind see, and those who see will become blind. Some Pharisees who hear him challenge him, and it is in Jesus’ response that today’s reading comes.

Jesus has already called the Pharisees blind, and here, it is clear that he also regards them as the thief and the robber of verse 1. Remember that these words of Jesus were not spoken to believers, but were rather spoken in judgement against the false ‘shepherds’ and leaders of God’s people. As we listen in to Jesus confronting the Pharisees, we will hear what a wonderful comfort they are to those of us who know him.

As we consider the passage, therefore, let us remember three words throughout. Shepherd, gate, and life.

In verses 2 – 5, Jesus shows that he is the shepherd of the sheep, in contrast to the thief and the robber, who climb in by some other way. Here, Jesus is using a extended metaphor, to help us to see some spiritual truth, and as he does so, uses a scriptural point of reference.

You see, in Ezekiel 34, God speaks out against the shepherds of Israel. These were the leaders of the people, but rather than pastoring the flock and caring for the weak sheep, the shepherds had only taken care of themselves, making sure they were well fed and clothed. But as the chapter develops, God goes on to say that he will raise up a new shepherd to guide them. ‘I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd.’ (Ez 34:23).

Jesus, in John’s Gospel, is saying, in effect, that’s me. In contrast to the thief and the robber, the Jewish leaders who were blind guides, Jesus is the true shepherd of God’s flock, God’s people.

If Jesus is the true shepherd, then, what does this actually look like? Well, look at the passage with me. Verse 3: ‘The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls out his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.’

The image is that of a sheep pen, where there would be several flocks of sheep. But when the shepherd comes and calls, his own sheep know his voice and follow him out. More than that, though, the shepherd knows his sheep, and calls them by name. Jesus is speaking about the personal relationship, that special bond between the shepherd and his sheep, so that they will listen and obey his call. Have you heard the voice of Jesus call on your life? Have you obeyed the call?

Having left the sheep pen, the shepherd and sheep are going on a journey – to the next pen, perhaps, or for better pasture. So how does the shepherd take them where they are going? Does he climb onboard a 4by4 and get the dogs out to chase the sheep along? No, in contrast to how farmers do it today, the Middle Eastern shepherd walked in front of his sheep, and they followed him. And why is it they follow him, according to Jesus? It’s because they know his voice.

Having heard the voice of the shepherd to come out of the sheep pen, the sheep must then continue to hear and follow his voice as they travel together. It’s not that you just need to listen at the start of the journey, and then sit back and relax – the voice of the shepherd continues to call the sheep, and guide them along the way.

This is on contrast to the strangers. No matter how long or hard they call out to the sheep, the sheep won’t follow, because they don’t recognise the voice. The sheep only have ears for the Master. How about you?

Do you only have ears for the Lord? You see, sometimes it’s so easy to miss the Lord because we’re deafened by the world around us. It’s so easy to hear the voices of the strangers, which seem so friendly, calling on us to turn aside from following Jesus, to think about ourselves, or to enjoy a little forbidden pleasure along the way.

That’s why we need to always take time to hear the shepherd’s voice. It will help us stay on course, and keep us close to him. As the hymn, ‘O Jesus I have promised’ says:

O let me hear Thee speaking in accents clear and still,
Above the storms of passion, the murmurs of self will.
O speak to reassure me, to hasten or control;
O speak, and make me listen, Thou Guardian of my soul.

Jesus then goes on to ‘mix his metaphors’ to an extent, by then describing himself as the gate for the sheep. You might think this an odd thing, for Jesus to describe himself as a gate, but we’ll see what he means as he says this.

Imagine, if you can, a sheep pen, which is a circle, but the walls don’t join up. There’s a gap in the wall, obviously where the sheep can come in and out. But there’s no gate on the wall. Rather, when the sheep are inside at night, the shepherd himself lies in the gap of the wall, and becomes the gate of the sheep. He keeps the sheep in, and the predators and thieves out.

But more than that, in order for the sheep to be safe within the sheep pen, they have to enter by the gate. The shepherd therefore makes sure that his sheep are saved and protected from harm.

So I want to ask you today – have you entered by the gate? There is no other way to be saved than by coming through Jesus. As he says himself in John 14: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ (John 14:6). And as Peter declared, ‘Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.’ (Acts 4:12).

You might be thinking, though, why you would bother being saved. What benefit is there? What’s it all about? Jesus says that ‘He will come in and go out, and find pasture.’ Pasture for the sheep is everything that the sheep needs – grass, water, rest. This is all available to the sheep who enter by the shepherd. Jesus makes it even more clear in verse 10, again stating a contrast. ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’

As we thought earlier about the false shepherds of Israel, we saw how they only wanted to look after themselves. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were still doing that, throwing people out of the synagogue for following Jesus. Their results were negative and oppressive.

Jesus, in contrast, offers life, and life to the full. Or, as another version puts it, ‘abundant life.’ Jesus knows what you need, and is the shepherd for your journey, if you will just follow him. That’s what Jesus is declaring here, and it’s also why John records it here. This is clear from the ‘mission statement’ of John’s Gospel – the very reason he wrote his Gospel: ‘These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’ (John 20:31).

That’s the offer of the gospel in a nutshell. Jesus offers life and peace to all who will hear his voice, believe in him, and follow him. Will you hear and follow today?