Friday, October 24, 2014

BOOK BY BOOK BIBLE STUDY
Larrydalexanderbiblestudies.blogspot.com

BIBLE STUDY LESSON
For the week beginning Sunday October 26, 2014

THE LORD’S GLORY LEAVES THE TEMPLE
(Judgment on Israel’s leaders)
Ezekiel 10-11

In Ezekiel 10, after the righteous had received GOD’s “mark of protection”, and those who embraced evil had been slain by the executioners of the LORD, GOD now removes HIS glory from the defiled temple at Jerusalem. Each person’s destiny had been determined by his or her own character, and now, here this chapter, GOD is sending a clear message that HE will not share a temple with other gods.
The Israelites, who had polluted the sanctuary with idolatry, had left GOD no other choice but to depart from the midst of Jerusalem, as HE had done in symbolic fashion at Shiloh, when HE stripped HIS chosen people of the “Ark of the Covenant” that they trusted in so superstitiously, instead of trusting in HIM (1 Samuel 4 & Jeremiah 7:14-15).
In the opening verses of chapter 10, Ezekiel once again describes some of the same images that he saw in his vision in chapter 1, of the “Throne Chariot of GOD”, the crystal-like sky, the whirling wheels, and the angelic beings. Also here in this passage, the LORD gives the man in linen clothing another assignment, this time telling him to “Go between the “whirling wheels” beneath the cherubim, and take a handful of glowing coals and scatter them over the city” (v.2).
These burning coals had also been seen by Ezekiel in his earlier vision, and they symbolize GOD’s wrath. This time GOD was going to use the coals to purge HIS once-holy city of her sins. The cherubim were standing at the south end of the temple when the man in linen walked in, and the “cloud of glory” filled the inner courtyard, which signified GOD’s presence at the threshold of the sanctuary. At that time the glory of the LORD rose up from above the cherubim and went over to the door of the temple. The temple was then filled with the cloud of glory, and the temple courtyard glowed brightly also, with the brilliance of the glory of the LORD (Vs.3-4).
In verse 5, the moving wings of the cherubim made a loud and powerful sound, like the voice of GOD, and could be heard very clearly, even in the outer courtyard. The LORD now says to the man in linen, “Go between the cherubim and take some of the burning coals from between the wheels” (v.6). Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand and took some of the live coals and put them in the hands of the man in linen clothing. Then the man took the coals and left the temple (Vs. 7-8).
Thereafter, the glory of the LORD moved from the door of the temple, and then, left the temple completely and hovered over HIS cherubim. And as Ezekiel watched, the cherubim flew to the east gate of the temple. This signified that the LORD had now withdrawn HIS protection from the temple and left it to the mercy of the ruthless Babylonians, as it would later come to pass.
In Ezekiel chapter 11, once again we see GOD’s announcement of judgment on the community leaders of Israel. Here the HOLY SPIRIT brings Ezekiel to the east gateway of the temple, where he saw 25 prominent men of Jerusalem standing. These were not the same 25 men who were worshiping the sun in chapter 8. Among these men were Jaazaniah, son of Azzur, and Pelatiah, son of Benaiah, and it was this distinguished group of men, whom, GOD held primarily responsible for all of the wicked council that was being given to the people of Judah.
The east gate was commonly the place where the elders of the city sat to administer justice, give advice, and oversee various legal matters, not unlike in a courthouse. These men had counseled against the prophecies of Jeremiah, telling the people of Judah to forget about his predictions of a coming Babylonian invasion. They urged the people of Judah, instead, to build houses (a sign of security and peace), for they were absolutely as safe in Jerusalem, as “meat in a cooking pot”.
In the Old Testament times, meat was seldom included in the daily diets of the Israelites. It was a precious commodity that, when available, was protected in a “cooking pot”. The analogy of the “meat” and the “cooking pot” reflects the view that the Israelites (the meat) who were precious to GOD, and, the walled city of Jerusalem (the cooking pot), were guaranteed to be protected by GOD from the Babylonians.
In verses 6-12, these secure images are somewhat shattered by Ezekiel’s, now famous, “prophesy of the meat in the pot”. The city elders had caused many people to die by advising them to ignore the prophet Jeremiah, and now the blood of those people was on their hands.
In verse 7, Ezekiel tells them that, “this city may be an iron pot, but the meat within are the victims of your injustice”, only they, will be protected. Therefore, for them (the elders), the city would not be an iron pot of protection, and in fact, they themselves, would be far from being safe at all, in Jerusalem. GOD would drag them all out of the city and slaughter them all along the way to Babylon. And even while Ezekiel was still speaking, Peletiah suddenly fell dead.
In verses 14-21 we see that, instead of learning from what had just happened to Jaazaniah, Pelatiah and the others, those still left in Jerusalem, saw the fate of their fellow citizens as a boon for them (v.15). Therefore, the LORD sent a rather encouraging message to the surviving exiles, who, were already in Babylon. HE tells them that, despite what they had been hearing from the people left in Jerusalem, HE had not abandoned them, and would, to the contrary, be a sanctuary to them while they were in exile.
GOD promises also, that HE would one day return the exiles again to their homeland, and, at that time, a repentant Israel would remove every trace of the detestable idols that were being worshipped in Judah. GOD promised to put a new spirit, or attitude of worship, in them, so that they would, once again, be HIS people, and HE, would be their GOD (Vs.18-21).
However, as for now, the LORD was content just to withdraw HIS glory completely from the city and the nation that HE loved, so that their sins may its course, and humility, repentance, and truth of consequences, could be realized under GOD. And so the cherubim rose up beneath the glory of the LORD, and they all came to rest above a mountain east of Jerusalem. Afterwards, the HOLY SPIRIT carried Ezekiel back to Babylon, and so ended his vision and visit to Jerusalem. After arriving back in Babylon, he shared this divine experience with the other exiles (Vs.22-25).

A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander





                                 
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website




    


Friday, October 10, 2014

BOOK BY BOOK BIBLE STUDY
larrydalexanderbiblestudies.blogspot.com

BIBLE STUDY LESSON
For the week beginning Sunday October 12, 2014
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IDOLATRY IN THE TEMPLE
(The slaughter of idolatry)
Ezekiel 8-9

During the sixth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity in Babylon, while the leaders of Judah were meeting with Ezekiel in his home, the LORD took a hold of Ezekiel and began to show him a vision. It is no accident that this visionary experience occurs while the church leaders of Israel are present, as it is fully intended to explain to them, just why there is no hope for their homeland.
Ezekiel chapter 8 serves as the background for the phenomenal events of chapters 9-11, which depicts the withdrawal of GOD’s presence from the temple at Jerusalem. The first thing the LORD shows Ezekiel is a vision that appeared in the shape of a man, who, from the waist down, looked like a burning flame, and, from the waist up, looked like a gleaming amber (Vs.1-2). This man-like figure extended his hand and took Ezekiel by the hair, and the HOLY SPIRIT lifted him up into the sky, and transported him, in his vision, all the way back to Jerusalem.
Upon his arrival at Jerusalem Ezekiel was taken to the north gate of the inner courtyard of the temple, where a large idol had been placed there, that made the LORD very angry. Suddenly the glory of the GOD of Israel appeared to Ezekiel, as HE had appeared to him before, in the valley, down at the Kebar River a year earlier.
Ezekiel had been practically raised in the temple, but he had never before noticed the large idol that stood at the door of the church house. When we think about it, we should not be surprised, because many professed Christian Churches today, that have been defiled and profaned by our presence, and our unholy activities, actually does have “invisible demonic forces and idol gods”, that we’ve invited in, working and standing inside and outside on its grounds. However, we can’t see them unless we have “spiritual discernment from GOD”, which HE only provides to those who have a personal, experiential relationship with HIM. This vision, and all visions that GOD shares with the faithful, represent nothing more than GOD bestowing upon them, a “spiritual discernment” from on high, that allows us to clearly see those spiritually demonic forces that are at work all around us.
In verse 6, the LORD asks Ezekiel if he could now see what was going on outside, on the church house grounds, meaning HE had yet to show him what was going on inside the church. Here HE asks Ezekiel, “Do you see the great sins the people of Israel are doing (around the temple) to drive ME away? But come (follow ME), and you will see greater sins than these”. The closer we follow GOD, the more our sinful behavior is brought to our attention.
GOD then takes Ezekiel to the door of the Church courtyard where he could see an opening in the wall (v.7). HE instructed Ezekiel to dig into the wall where he uncovered a door to a hidden room. “Go in”, the LORD said, and see the unspeakable things going on in the church involving the leadership. Ezekiel went in and saw the walls engraved with symbols of all kinds of snakes, lizards, and hideous creatures (voodoo and witchcraft), and he also saw the various idols that were worshipped by the Church leaders and most of the people of Israel.
Instead of seeing walls that were engraved with images of cherubim and palm trees, which represented GOD’s guardians, and GOD’s fruitfulness and blessings, as GOD had instructed them to do in the plans for the temple (Ezekiel 41:25), Ezekiel saw that the walls  were engraved with Idols and symbols from Egypt (represented today most prominently in freemasonry and fraternities), idols and symbols from Canaan (represented today in Ishtar, avatar, and the cartoon figure “shaman King), and idols and symbols from Babylon (still represented in Tammuz, astrology, Ishtar). All these detestable idols were, and still are being worshiped in the temple of GOD.
All seventy elders were standing inside the secret room holding incense burners, with Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan, their leader, standing in the middle. Every man was burning incense to these hidden idols when Ezekiel entered. This incense was also used by the elders in a misguided, twisted, and obviously useless attempt to shield their worship of these idols from the presence of GOD. In other words, using GOD’s idea of incense burning in worship (Leviticus 16:12-13), to try to conceal from HIM, the things they were doing against HIM (LOL).
GOD, WHO knew the hearts of these wicked men (and indeed all men), explains to Ezekiel that the elders actually believed that HE could not see them, and that HE had already abandoned Judah and left them at the mercy of the Babylonians (v.12). And so, under duress from their enemies, they had chosen to do the wrong thing, which was to take up further worshipping of other gods for their protection, secretly, because they did not trust the GOD of their forefathers. While facing the brunt of GOD’s anger for their open idol worship, this wayward group of churchmen simply moved their idol worship underground, forming a “secret fraternity”, if you will, against an all-seeing, all-knowing GOD. And sadly, this too, was not the full extent of Israel’s wickedness (v.13).
Ezekiel is then taken to the north gate of the temple by GOD (v.14), where he sees some Israelite women there sitting on the ground, and weeping (a form of worship) for the idol god, Tammuz. “Tammuz” is the Hebrew name for the Sumerian god, Dumuzi, who is the “god of spring vegetation”, and is also a pagan fertility god. They were praying and weeping to this idol god, in the LORD’s temple, in hopes that she would help end the drought in Judah that had been brought upon them by GOD, the CREATOR.
The LORD then takes Ezekiel into the inner courtyard of the temple, where at the entrance, between the foyer and the bronze altar, about 25 men were standing with their backs to the LORD’s temple, facing eastward, worshipping the sun (Osiris, or Ra, the sun god of Egypt).
The people of Judah had become so accustomed to mixing the profaneness of idol god worship with the purity of GOD’s Temple, that, it was now like second nature to them (v.17). The idol worship that had started with the church leadership in secret, had now spread, throughout the whole land of Judah, and had in fact, become commonplace, even in the church house! That is why GOD was so angry at HIS people in Judah, then, and that is why GOD is also angry with HIS professed Christian Church in this day and age.
Today’s Christian Churches still engage in such witchcraft practices as “miming”, mixing of gospel and secular music in worship services, self-promoting, using and wearing demonic symbols on our clothing in church, such as the so-called “peace sign” (Nero’s cross - which symbolizes “the destruction of Christianity”) and other anti-CHRIST symbols through fraternities and freemasonry. We continue to insult GOD on a regular basis by entertaining ourselves in worship services, literally “playing church” and fooling ourselves, really believing that what we are doing is “true worship”, because our spirituality is so “out-of-calibration”.
In Ezekiel chapter 9, in the second part of Ezekiel’s vision, the stage is now set for GOD’s judgment upon Judah. Here, with a thundering voice, GOD calls on HIS appointed slaughterers to rid the nation of its idolaters. Six men appeared, each armed with a battle club in his hand. One, however, who was dressed in linen, also carried a “writer’s case”, that was strapped to his side. They all went into the temple courtyard and stood beside the bronze altar, awaiting further instructions from the LORD (Vs.1-2).
At that time, the glory of the LORD arose from between the cherubim, and moved to the entrance of the temple. The LORD called the man dressed in linen and carrying the writer’s case, and instructed him to go throughout Jerusalem and mark the foreheads of all those whose heart were broken by the sin that flourished around them. This lets us know that, even though “true believers” will always be outnumbered in this life, the true believer is indeed, never alone. These marked individuals would become “the remnant” who would be saved from the destruction that was about to unfold in Jerusalem (Vs.3-4).
Then GOD instructed all the other men to follow the man in linen, and kill everyone whom he did not mark on the forehead, men, women, and children, and they were to start by killing the seventy elders that were there in the temple. The courtyard was littered with the bodies of the idolaters, and Ezekiel stood all alone and witnessed the carnage. He fell face down in the dust and cried out to the LORD for mercy, but no pity was shown upon the unfaithful (Vs.5-8).
The LORD told Ezekiel that the sins of Israel were too great, and they were not willing to repent. The entire land of Judah had been ravished by sin, and the people no longer believed that the LORD had a presence in the land (v.9). They viewed their nation-wide troubles as a sign that GOD had forsaken them. However, their troubles were, in reality, a product of their own ungodly behavior. We have to come to realize that we are not supposed to see GOD in our sins, but rather, in our obedience to HIM.
And so, it must not go unnoticed that the man dressed in linen apparently finished his task a lot sooner than the executioners did, as there were obviously many more idolaters than there were people who were faithful to the LORD, a condition that has held true in each generation since then, and still holds true in this day and age. Idolatry, witchcraft, and all sorts of profaneness are still just as prevalent in the Christian Church today as it has ever been, and perhaps, dare I say, even more so.

A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander  





                                 
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website