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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday November 9, 2014
SIGNS OF THE
COMING EXILE
(Judgment
against false prophets)
Ezekiel 12-13
In Ezekiel chapter 12, the LORD
calls on Ezekiel to demonstrate with his own body, a message, or “sign” of the
coming Babylonian Invasion and Exile in Jerusalem. Here (chapter 12) begins a
series of messages that continue on through Ezekiel 19, that are initiated with
the phrase, “The Word of the LORD came to me”.
Despite all of the
recent setbacks in Judah surrounding the first two invasions by King
Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonians forces (605 & 597 B.C.), the Israelites
still held out hope that their exile would be short-lived, and not so painful.
However, in this coming series of messages, GOD, through Ezekiel, would
systematically destroy all foundations of their false hope, and, quite
literally, shake HIS rebellious people back into a state of reality that the
prophet Jeremiah was not able to achieve in them.
In the Hebrew, the word
most often used for “truth”, in the bible, is “emeth” (eh-meth), and, it is “that
which is sure, established, right, and faithful”. In the biblical Greek, the
word most often used for “truth” is “aletheia” (al-ay-thi-a), and it is “that
which is in harmony with reality”.
In verse 2, GOD tells
Ezekiel that, “Son of man, you live among
rebels who could see the truth if they wanted to, but they don’t want to. They
could hear ME if they would listen, but they won’t listen because they are
rebellious” (NLT).
Grasping spiritual truth
is a matter of attitude, rather than intelligence. To have eyes to see, and
ears to hear, speaks of one’s capacity to process information based on his or
her attitude toward GOD. Only a mind and heart that is open to the HOLY SPIRIT
can grasp and respond favorably to the things of GOD. A person who has a
selfish and rebellious spirit has cut themselves off from a spiritual line of
communication with GOD.
Therefore, GOD has HIS
prophet Ezekiel to demonstrate “physically” with his own body, the fate that awaited
Judah in the very near future. In verse 3 HE tells Ezekiel to “put on a
demonstration” to show the people of Judah what it will be like to go off into
exile. Here HE instructs HIS prophet to pack whatever he can carry on his back
and leave his home to go on a journey. These preparations were to be made in
broad daylight so that everyone could see him, and perhaps then, they would
consider what it means, even though they remained in a rebellious state up
until that point.
Ezekiel did what he was
told, and the next morning, the LORD gives him another message concerning King
Zedekiah and the entire nation of Israel (Vs.8-13); “Son of man, these rebels, the people of Israel, have asked you what all
this means. Say to them, “This is what the sovereign LORD says: These actions
contain a message for Zedekiah in Jerusalem and for all the people of Israel.
Then explain that your actions are a demonstration of what will soon happen to
them, for they will be driven from their homes and sent away in exile. Even
Zedekiah will leave Jerusalem at night through a hole in the wall, taking only
what he can carry with him. He will cover his face, and his eyes will never see
his homeland again. Then I will spread out MY net and capture him in MY snare.
I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Babylonians, though he will never
see it, and he will die there (NLT).
And so we see that
Ezekiel was actually acting out the future fate of King Zedekiah in his
demonstration a day earlier, and now history tells us that that is exactly what
happened to Zedekiah in 586 B.C. (2 Kings 25:1-7). Nebuchadnezzar and his
entire army built siege ramps against the walls of Jerusalem, and kept it under
siege for two years, before finally destroying the city and the temple. They
killed all of Zedekiah’s sons, and then gorged out his eyes and carried him off
to Babylon, just as the LORD had spoken, through HIS servant Ezekiel.
In verses 21-28 we find
the fourth and fifth messages of this chapter from the LORD, to HIS prophet
Ezekiel. The fourth message is one regarding a proverb that the people of
Israel had been quoting for quite some time. The proverb disrespectfully stated
that “Time passes making a liar of every prophet”. Here in this passage GOD
sends a message that HE will put an end to this foolish saying. In fact, HE
gives the prophet Ezekiel a new proverb to replace the one being quoted by
Israel, it says simply, “The time has come for every prophecy to be fulfilled”.
The Israelites proverb
expressed a point of view that the messages delivered by such prophets as
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were not true. Their underlying argument was
that, basically, “if it hasn’t happened yet, it’s not going to happen”. And
this, of course, proved in time to be a gravely wrong notion. GOD’s delay in
HIS judgment speaks to the evidence of HIS grace, and should not ever be
considered as a sign that no judgment is forthcoming.
The final message given
to Ezekiel in this chapter shows GOD’s dismay over another saying, which
states, “HIS visions won’t come true for a long, long time”. And so GOD lets
the Israelites in on HIS plan to immediately destroy the city of Jerusalem and
punish all the sinners and idolaters in, this, their lifetime.
In Ezekiel 13 we see
GOD detail HIS judgment against, both, male and female false (foolish)
prophets, those who, of course, invent their own prophecies, or, as I like to
say, “make stuff up”. Here GOD says that destruction will be certain for those
who are following their own imaginations (human ingenuity), and who have, in
reality, seen nothing, or received nothing from HIM. Nothing at all!
In the Hebrew the word
used here to describe these false prophets is “nabal”, which means “foolish”.
It is a spiritual trait, rather than an intellectual one. It is a trait used by
those who are both “arrogant and irreligious”. It embodies one who is not just
wrong, but he or she, who is “willfully wrong”.
And so, being willfully
wrong, they have to “whitewash”, or, try to cover up the “spiritual cracks” in
their “church house” walls, which are caused by their mixing of the holy with
the profane, and their overall general deceiving of the congregation, or “the
people of GOD”.
A true prophet will
point out the cracks in the moral and spiritual walls of the church, and serve
as reliable protection for the people within who listen. And so, while the
false prophet is busy trying to whitewash things over, and make pretty on the
outside, those spiritual flaws that are really killing themselves, and the people
inside, the true prophet is busy demonstrating with his own body and behavior,
just how those flaws are going to eventually cause those walls to collapse and
fall on them, due to GOD’s judgment (Vs.1-12).
And so we find in
verses 13-15, GOD’s solution to the foolishness of the false prophet; here GOD
says, “I will sweep away your whitewashed
walls with a storm of indignation, with a great flood of anger, and with
hailstones of fury. I will break down your walls right to the foundation, and
when it falls, it will crush you. Then you will know that I am the LORD! At
last MY anger against the walls and those who covered them with whitewash will
be satisfied. Then I will say to you: The wall and those who whitewashed it are
both gone. They were lying prophets who claimed peace would come to Jerusalem
when there was no peace. I, the sovereign LORD, have spoken!” (NLT)
Taking up at verse 17
the LORD tells Ezekiel to also speak out against the false women prophets. Here
HE warns that, “Destruction is certain
for you women who are ensnaring the souls of MY people, both young and old
alike. You tie magic charms on their wrists and furnish them with magic veils.
Do you think you can trap others without bringing destruction on yourselves?
You turn MY people away from ME for a few handfuls of barley or a piece of
bread. By lying to MY people who love to listen to lies, you kill those who
should not die, and you promise life to those who should not live (Vs.17-19
– NLT).
In biblical times, the
Israelites indulged in a form of “Mesopotamian witchcraft and sorcery” that
they learned from the Hittites and Syrians, through these false women prophets.
“Barley bread” was used by these women sorcerers in divination, as an element
of sacrificial rituals. The intrinsic evil of these occult practices had a
devastating impact on the lives of those who participated. These women
disheartened those who were once righteousness seekers, and instead, caused
them to seek after wicked solutions to their life’s problems. This made the
LORD very angry, and so, as a result, the LORD would come down heavy on these
evil female sorcerers, who fashioned themselves as prophets (Vs.20-23).
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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