PROMISES WEEK 37:
EZEKIEL 17-34
…delighting in Him and His Word…Psalm 37:4
Ezekiel 18:2 (Jeremiah 31:29) Heredity vs Individuality. Important of having a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father (individually)…responsibility and promise.
Ezekiel 18:4"For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son - both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die."
Ezekiel 20:7 What do we see? Set Your eyes on things above.
Ezekiel 20:8 “For My Name Sake”. For His glory…
Ezekiel 22:30 Build Up The Wall…Stand In the Gap. We should pray to stand in the gap…
Ezekiel 20:43 Regathered in Unbelief. Before their natural conversion – severe judgment is to overtake them.
Ezekiel 25 to 32. Prophecies Against: Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon and Egypt…then they will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.
Ezekiel 28:12-14 "'You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones."
Ezekiel 33:11. The Watchman. We as Christians have accountability to the lost: "Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'" First to the Jew (Romans 1:16) let’s remember our Jewish friends.
Ezekiel 34:25 to 31. Covenant of Peace, PROMISE of Provision and Favor. The Lord as our Shepherd…the Lord PROMISES to provide us security in places of potentially greatest exposure through the wilderness and woods. His people will know that He is Lord, their God, and they are His people, We are His sheep and He is our Lord – declares the Sovereign Lord.
Ezekiel 36:20 – 23. The Lord chose one nation and through it all nations maybe blessed.
Ezekiel 36:24-27 Restored to Favor. The Jews will become wholly the Lord’s and the PROMISED blessing will be realized. Jerusalem is divinely appointed and preserved.
Ezekiel 36:37. Promise, Prayer, Performance. Promise, Prayer and Performance cover our path to an enriched spiritual life. Promise and the performance of the PROMISE come from the Lord. Prayer comes for us.
PROMISE is ineffectual – Performance – inoperative without Prayer.
Ezekiel 37:15-32 Reunited in Love.
Ezekiel 48:35. Jehoval-Shammah. "And the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE." For the church and Christian – the Lord’s presence is assured.
Brief Summary: How can you cope with a world gone astray? Ezekiel, destined to begin his life's ministry as a priest at age thirty, was uprooted from his homeland and marched off to Babylon at age of twenty-five. For five years he languished in despair. At age thirty a majestic vision of Yahweh's glory captivated his being in Babylon. The priest/prophet discovered God was not confined to the narrow strictures of Ezekiel's native land. Instead, He is a universal God who commands and controls persons and nations. In Babylon, God imparted to Ezekiel His Word for the people. His call experience transformed Ezekiel. He became avidly devoted to God's Word. He realized he had nothing personally to assist the captives in their bitter situation, but he was convinced God's Word spoke to their condition and could give them victory in it. Ezekiel used various methods to convey God's Word to his people. He used art in drawing a depiction of Jerusalem, symbolic actions and unusual conduct to secure attention. He cut his hair and beard to demonstrate what God would do to Jerusalem and its inhabitants.
Foreshadowings: Ezekiel 34 is the chapter wherein God denounces the leaders of Israel as false shepherds for their poor care of His people. Instead of caring for the sheep of Israel, they cared for themselves. They ate well, were well-clothed and well-cared for by the very people they had been placed over (Ezekiel 34:1-3). By contrast, Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep and who protects them from the wolves who would destroy the flock (John 10:11-12). Verse 4 of chapter 34 describes people whom the shepherds failed to minister to as weak, sick, injured and lost. Jesus is the Great Physician who heals our spiritual wounds (Isaiah 53:5) by His death on the cross. He is the one who seeks and saves that which is lost (Luke 19:10).
Practical Application: The Book of Ezekiel calls us to join in a fresh and living encounter with the God of Abraham, Moses and the prophets. We must be overcomers or we will be overcome. Ezekiel challenged us to experience a life changing vision of God's power, knowledge, eternal presence and holiness; to let God direct us; to comprehend the depth of and commitment to evil that lodges in each human heart; to recognize that God holds His servants responsible for warning wicked men of their peril; to experience a living relationship with Jesus Christ, who said that the new covenant is to be found in His blood.
Ezekiel, means "May God strengthen him", "God will strengthen" is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible.
Theological Significance
Other prophets deal largely with Israel’s idolatry, with her moral corruption in public and private affairs, and with her international intrigues and alliances on which she relied instead of the Lord. They announce God’s impending judgment on his rebellious nation but speak also of a future redemption: a new exodus, a new covenant, a restored Jerusalem, a revived Davidic dynasty, a worldwide recognition of the Lord and his Messiah and a paradise-like peace.
The contours and sweep of Ezekiel’s message are similar, but he focuses uniquely on Israel as the holy people of the holy temple, the holy city and the holy land. By defiling her worship, Israel had rendered herself unclean and had defiled temple, city and land. From such defilement God could only withdraw and judge his people with national destruction.
But God’s faithfulness to his covenant and his desire to save were so great that he would revive his people once more, shepherd them with compassion, cleanse them of all their defilement, reconstitute them as a perfect expression of his kingdom under the hand of “David” (Ezekiel 34:23–24), overwhelm all the forces and powers arrayed against them, display his glory among the nations and restore the glory of his presence to the holy city.
Ezekiel powerfully depicts the grandeur and glory of God’s sovereign rule (see Themes) and his holiness, which he jealously safeguards. The book’s theological center is the unfolding of God’s saving purposes in the history of the world—from the time in which he must withdraw from the defilement of his covenant people to the culmination of his grand design of redemption. The message of Ezekiel, which is ultimately eschatological, anticipates—even demands—God’s future works in history proclaimed by the NT.
Literary Features
The three major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) and Zephaniah all have the same basic sequence of messages: (1) oracles against Israel, (2) oracles against the nations, (3) consolation for Israel. In no other book is this pattern clearer than in Ezekiel (see Outline).
Week 38: Book of Daniel