Good Tuesday July eighteenth as we continue to study from this amazing prophecy
Ezekiel speaks to all nations-
The temple of God- although the temple leaders and the people had fallen to being offenders of the holiness of their callings, still the temple represented God’s holiness and obedience. Ezekiel’s wife suddenly dying was the sign of the death of the sanctuary. Having idols, the temple instead of the place where the people would come to meet with their God was as a wooden or brass idol, it was a rabbits foot in a sense their security idol that is how low their respect of God had come. If we have learned anything as believers in the Christian church age, our God is not an idol He is a living active God in us. We are temples of God, let this sink in, just as Solomon stood the day when the temple was dedicated he and the priests welcomed the presence of God in the temple. But through time the temple had become an idol and a false source of hope for both Jerusalem and Judah. Because the temple stood, the people believed they had security, but where were their hearts? They were seeking the things of other nations, their idols. What ended up happening is they rejected God and choose to live without being obedient to as holy God. Parents please listen to what Ezekiel wrote from God, ‘your sons and daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword.’ Then in Ezekiel’s life God took his wife’s life, it said suddenly, and Ezekiel was told not to mourn for her in front of the people. All this so the people would see that God was the only true God who was worthy of their worship. Now let us read together from Ezekiel 24:25-27 “.And you, son of man will it not be in the day when I take from them their stronghold, their joy and their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that on which they set their minds, their sons and their daughters: 26 on that day one who escapes will come to you to let you hear it with your ears; 27 on that day your mouth will be opened to him who has escaped; you shall speak and no longer be mute. Thus you will be a sign to them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” As we entered this twenty-fourth chapter, it began the siege by Nebuchadnezzar over Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar’s armies would destroy everything including the temple. After Ezekiel’s wife was taken Ezekiel did not speak any words until God opened his mouth here. It seems Jerusalem had to first fall before any more instruction would come. We are reading Ezekiel’s last prophecies to Israel until the thirty third chapters. At this time God has Ezekiel prophesying to the nations that surround both Judah and Jerusalem. Just as God had silenced Ezekiel when his wife died, he was silent to the people, but did speak to warnings and lamentations to the people outside of Judah until he again would speak when Jerusalem would finally fall in total defeat. Judah and Jerusalem had come to defeat by the Babylonians; his work now would be as shepherd and to be a watchman over the exiled. Now as a good shepherd Ezekiel would bring words of comfort, words of encouragement no longer negative words. “Thus you will be a sign to them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.” All mourning would seize as Jerusalem had fallen. This marks a day of significance, Ezekiel is vindicated as a true servant of God, Are we sharing the truth? Remnant
