Ichabod: When Elvis Is Not the Only One to Leave the Building

Ichabod: When Elvis Is Not the Only One to Leave the Building

Ezekiel 8:1–11:25

Main Idea: To be in the midst of discipline with the Lord is better than being in the middle of disobedience without Him.

I believe one of the saddest verses in the Bible is Judges 16:20. There’s much in the verse that could produce grief, such as Samson’s constant following of his cravings and his ill-advised trust in a deceitful woman. But the saddest component of the verse is when Samson awakes to fight the Philistines once again, but “he did not know that the Lord had left him.” He was somehow unaware of the departure of the Lord’s presence.

Moses so treasured the Lord’s presence that he did not want to move forward with the Israelites if God would not go with them. Moses understood that the Lord’s presence made His people distinct among all others. Moses pleaded,

If Your presence does not go, . . . don’t make us go up from here. How will it be known that I and Your people have found favor in Your sight unless You go with us? I and Your people will be distinguished by this from all the other people on the face of the earth. (Exod 33:15-16)

When Eli’s pregnant daughter-in-law heard that the ark of the covenant had been captured by the Philistines, she was so grieved by the news that she went into labor and gave birth. She named her son, “Ichabod,” meaning, “where is the glory?” since she perceived that God’s glory had departed from Israel (1 Sam 4:19-22). God’s people are identified by God’s presence (Wiersbe, Be Reverent, 49).

Ezekiel 8–11 is a single vision Ezekiel receives about 14 months after his first vision of the Lord. He either has just completed his assignments from Ezekiel 4–6 or is just about to do so. The Lord gives Ezekiel and the elders in exile a vision of Jerusalem, and it’s not good. There is rampant disobedience, debauchery, and defilement that will ultimately lead to the people’s destruction and the Lord’s departure. By the end of the vision, the real wonder is not that God’s glory departs the temple, but why He let it remain for so long.

What about us? How much do we value the Lord’s presence (Matt 28:20)? Does His presence make us distinct in our cities and in our worship gatherings? If God were to remove His presence, would we be devastated? Would we even notice? Are we like Asaph and desire God above all things (Ps 73:25)? Are we like David and earnestly seek the Lord because His love is better than life (Ps 63:1,3)? The worst part of hell will not be the fire but the forsakenness. The departure in Ezekiel 8–11 of the Lord’s presence will not happen to Christians because it happened to Christ on the cross. God forsook His Son so that He would never depart from us. On this side of the cross and Pentecost, however, are we any more appreciative of the Lord’s dwelling with us than the Israelites were in Ezekiel 8–11? I pray we are.

Both in Public and in Private, God Knows Whether We Treasure His Presence

Ezekiel 8:1-18

God’s Vision

If you have watched a college or pro football game in the past few seasons, you might have seen a player wave his hand back and forth in front of his face after making a big play. The motion has been adapted from pop culture and carries the meaning of, “You can’t see me.” In a sense a player is saying, “You can’t stop me because you can’t see me.” The Israelites were making the same accusations of God.

As they practiced their idolatry in the temple, the elders in Jerusalem were saying, “The Lord does not see us” (8:12), and they were acting as if He was not going to stop them. Thinking the Lord cannot see you is one thing, but not caring if He does is another. The people in Jerusalem were wrong. Dead wrong. The Lord could see all they were doing, and He was going to stop them. David once declared, “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night’—even the darkness is not dark to You. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to You” (Ps 139:11-12). As chapter 8 unfolds, it becomes apparent that God sees clearly, and He wants Ezekiel and the exilic elders to see what is happening in Jerusalem as well.

In the sixth year (of the exile), in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, while the elders of Judah were sitting in front of Ezekiel in his house, he received another vision from the Lord. In this vision God’s Spirit lifted Ezekiel and carried him to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the inner gate that faces north. Ezekiel saw the glory of the God of Israel there, like the vision he had seen in the plain. But that’s not all he would see.

The Lord said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, look toward the north.” When he looked to the north, Ezekiel saw an offensive statue north of the altar gate, at the entrance. The Lord asked Ezekiel, “Do you see what they are doing here?” and then told him, “You will see even more detestable things.” As the vision in Ezekiel 8 unfolds, the Lord takes Ezekiel from outside the temple gates to inside the temple itself (8:5,7,14,16). As he is drawn closer and closer to the most holy place, Ezekiel is shown detestable acts that increase in wickedness (vv. 6,13,15). Worship is being offered by men and women, leaders and laypeople, but none of it to Yahweh. Who would have ever thought the people of God in the place of God would worship every other god but their own?

Duguid offers a helpful summary:

In four brief scenes, then, Ezekiel has been shown the comprehensive nature of the sins of Jerusalem. Their sin extends from outside the city gate to the inner courtyard of the temple itself. It involves both men and women, even the seventy elders, symbolic of the leadership of the whole people. It includes idolatry imported from all sorts of surrounding nations (Canaan, Egypt, and Babylon) and involving all kinds of gods (male and female human figures, animal figures, and stellar bodies). This is a unified, universalized religion, the ultimate multifaith worship service. From the Lord’s perspective, however, the picture is one of abomination piled on abomination. (Duguid, Ezekiel, 133)

One would think seeing a large number of your population carried away to another land would have a profound impact on those who were left behind. Hopefully, remaining would lead to repentance. It did not. For those not taken to Babylon, their understanding was, “The Lord has abandoned the land” (8:12; 9:9). So those in Jerusalem sought protection from other gods (8:3,5), they offered incense to every god they could draw or think of (vv. 9-11), they mourned the nondeath of a nongod (v. 14), and they turned their backs to the Lord’s temple and their faces to the east and bowed down to worship the sun (v. 16). On top of all this, they even filled the land with violence (v. 17). The people in Jerusalem did as they pleased with no fear of the Lord or of consequences.

The vision shared from Jerusalem had to be devastating to Ezekiel and the leaders in exile with him. Particularly disappointing would be hearing what the 70 elders and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan were doing. Instead of leading the people to repentance and restoration with God, they were leading the people away from Him. Instead of questioning their own faithfulness, they questioned God’s. Jaazaniah was part of a great family (2 Kgs 22:3; Jer 26:24), but familial obedience does not always guarantee individual obedience.

God’s Verdict

God not only shared His vision of Jerusalem with Ezekiel but also His verdict on their actions. He confessed that His people’s sin repeatedly provoked Him to anger (8:17) and jealousy (v. 3). Therefore, the Lord would respond with wrath (v. 18). He would not show pity or spare His people in Jerusalem. Though they cry out to Him with a loud voice, He will not listen to them (v. 18). He is going to depart from His sanctuary (v. 6).

God’s verdict would have been devastating to David. He once prayed, “Do not banish me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps 51:11). What is ironic is that no matter how many times we go away from God, we do not want Him to go away from us. We expect Him to suffer our turning our backs toward Him and our faces from Him but never want Him to respond in like manner.

Sometimes those closest to us can wound us the deepest. It would be understandable for those who did not know God to repeatedly provoke Him to anger with their sinful actions. But it is unfathomable that God’s people who dwelled in God’s place with God’s presence would repeatedly crush His heart (6:9). All this leads to an important question: What does it really mean to be the people of God? For Israel it meant God’s presence, protection, and provision. Based on Ezekiel 8, however, those in Jerusalem seem to be His people in name only and not in function. There was no appreciation for their privileged position. They look more like the pagans around them than the God who formed them. And God had had enough. The time for repentance had passed, and the time for judgment had come.

What About Us?

Before moving to the next chapter, we should pause and ask a few questions: Are we living as if God cannot see us or, worse, not caring whether He does? Is there anything in our lives that would provoke God to jealousy? If the real story of our worship was revealed as it was for those in Jerusalem, what would others see? Have we added to or taken away from true reliance on Him? Are we leading others toward God or away from Him? Are we seeking security in God alone, or are we looking for other places of refuge? Is God’s presence precious to us? Is it evident we are His people who know Him or do our lives look more like pagans who do not?

God Disciplines Those Who Practice What Is Detestable, but He Delivers Those Who Protest It

Ezekiel 9:1-11

God’s Discipline

Many years after Ezekiel’s time Paul would write, “For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction” (Rom 15:4). He would also write, “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). Ezekiel 9 is a passage that combines the essence of both of Paul’s statements. What Ezekiel is allowed to see and hear is a word for every generation that the cost of sin is death.

The worst punishment anyone can receive from God is eternal wrath. The cry from the cross, “It is finished,” will never be shouted in hell. The cost of forsaking God in this life will be an eternity of being forsaken by God in the next one. God’s judgment of those outside of Christ will be awful and eternal but also deserved.

For God’s children the severest discipline He enacts is physical death. Lest we think this judgment is only a precross discipline, we might want to review Acts 5:1-11. When word spread throughout the first church of the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, Luke records that “great fear came on the whole church” (Acts 5:11). You think?

A passage like Ezekiel 9 is probably not among the most popular in sermon podcast downloads, but there is much to be gleaned from this type of lesson. First, God can use Ezekiel 9 to bring us back to the beginning of knowledge, which is fear of Him (Prov 1:9). In the era of “Jesus is my homeboy” theology, familiarity with God has been to the detriment of fear of God. The most calloused heart cannot see the judgment of God in Ezekiel 9 and fail to experience at least the slightest of quivers. Second, God can use Ezekiel 9 to move us to gratitude for and proclamation of the gospel. When we see the severity of His discipline, we are moved to gratitude for “Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Thess 1:10) and want to proclaim His name that all might run to Him for refuge. Third, God can use Ezekiel 9 to mature us as we are forced to deal with a difficult passage that includes elderly women and little children being put to death. Even these details have been recorded for our good and God’s glory.

The prophet is not left wondering how God will discipline His people in Jerusalem. He hears God call in a loud voice, “Come near, executioners of the city, each of you with a destructive weapon in his hand” (9:1). The prophet then sees six men coming from the direction of the Upper Gate, which faces north, each with a war club in his hand. They came and stood beside the bronze altar. God instructed the men to “pass through the city . . . and start killing; do not show pity or spare them! Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, as well as the older women and little children.” They were to begin at His sanctuary and with the elders who were in front of the temple. The Lord told the executioners to “defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go!” So they went out killing people in the city.

In Ezekiel 9 we are taught afresh that God will not let sin go unpunished forever. Most likely what Ezekiel saw in the vision as “six men” would be invading countries in reality—Babylon in particular. God disciplines those who do what is detestable in His sight. But we are left wondering, what about the older women and little children? And the answer is that God never punishes an innocent person. Jerusalem was not full of victims but sinners (12:19).

God informed Ezekiel,

The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity. For they say, “The Lord has abandoned the land; He does not see.” But as for Me, I will not show pity or spare them. I will bring their actions down on their own heads. (9:9-10)

God is not doing something strange. He is doing what He told them He would do (Lev 26:14-33). He is punishing sin. It is a sad day when God’s judgment is more surprising than His grace. God is exercising His sovereign right to withhold mercy and instead to repay His people’s rebellion with His wrath.

All of God’s enemies will ultimately be destroyed (Phil 3:19; Matt 7:13; Rev 20:13-15). When we think of the Devil and death, then we rejoice in their destruction and the Lord’s triumph. We affirm the repayment of their wrongs. But when we think of our loved ones, our friends, our neighbors, and our coworkers who have never yielded their lives to Christ, then celebrating the judgment of God is a little more difficult. When we think of people groups who have never heard the gospel, we know they will be without excuse before the Father, but we are broken that many of them are perishing without ever hearing of Christ. Neither ignorance nor innocence will be an acceptable plea before the Lord’s throne. All will receive what is fair—the punishment of their sin.

It would be a mistake to consider God’s judgment in this passage and think we deserve any less. Even more tragic would be to see the events of the chapter and to sit silent with the gospel. The wonder in this passage is not that so many are being disciplined but that any would be delivered. Yet God will have His remnant.

God’s Deliverance

In his day Moses once stood at the entrance of the camp of God’s people and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me,” and we are told that all the Levites gathered around him (Exod 32:26). Based on all that has been revealed so far in Ezekiel 1–9, if Ezekiel stood at the gates of Jerusalem and asked the same question, we might doubt any would gather around the prophet. But we would be wrong.

God’s judgment is so severe in Jerusalem that Ezekiel is left wondering, “Oh, Lord God! Are You going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel when You pour out Your wrath on Jerusalem?” (9:8). But the Lord knows those who are His (2 Tim 2:19). When God called the executioners of the city, there was another man among them, clothed in linen, with writing equipment at his side. God told this man to “pass throughout the city of Jerusalem . . . and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the detestable practices committed in it.” He also told the executioners, “Do not come near anyone who has the mark.” The man clothed in linen with the writing equipment at his side reported back, “I have done as You commanded me.”

Apparently all is not lost in Jerusalem. Or more correctly, apparently all are not lost in Jerusalem. Despite rampant idolatry and depravity, God still had those who shone like stars in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation (Phil 2:15). There were some who, rather than joining the sin that surrounded them, grieved it. Perhaps some of these were the Levitical priests descended from Zadok (44:15). Ezekiel is not told the exact number in the group that will be preserved, only that the man clothed in linen with the writing equipment at his side had done his job. If the events of Ezekiel 9 were to take place today, how many of us would be in the group that was sighing, and how many of us would be in the group that was sinning? Are we grieved when those around us go away from God or act as if He does not see them? Or are we joining them?

As God’s children, we should never be content with sin in our lives or the lives of those around us. We should not lead others to sin, nor should we sit silent, like Adam, when they head toward it themselves. Doing and saying nothing while others engage in rebellion toward God is never a loving action. The best way, of course, to feel the same way God does toward sin is to ask Him. We should pray and ask God to put distaste for sin in our lives and to break our hearts for what breaks His.2 I pray it will be clear in our cities that we are on the side of our Savior and not the side of sin.

Though we may not have a physical sign on our forehead, as God’s children we too have been marked. We who are in Christ have been “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory” (Eph 1:13-14). We are both preserved and persevere because of His presence in our lives. As He leads us to obey, one of the clearest ways we can identify as being on the Lord’s side is with our baptism. If the Spirit is our seal, then baptism is our sign. We profess to all that we are no longer our own but have been purchased by Christ. Our lives are now yielded to His purposes and no longer to just our cravings.

God’s Departure

Though more dramatic moves of the glory of the Lord will be revealed in the next two chapters, one can already see the beginning of the Lord’s departure from Jerusalem in Ezekiel 9. Ezekiel saw the glory of the God of Israel rise from above the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. As severe as the Lord’s discipline is, nothing is more tragic than His departure. In Ezekiel 9 the Lord begins to move His glory away from those who had moved away from Him.

Our God Is a Consuming Fire

Ezekiel 10:1-22

The Removal of His Glory (10:18-22)

If a contemporary idiom were used to describe God’s actions in Ezekiel 10, it would be “going out in a blaze of glory.” God is clearly on the move. This is why Ezekiel is given another vision of God’s throne chariot (10:1). The prophet will see God’s glory fill the temple and the court (v. 4) and then move from the threshold of the temple to the entrance to the eastern gate of the Lord’s house (vv. 18-20). Ultimately God’s glory will leave the city (11:23).

God’s presence is a blessing. Stuart notes, “The presence of God is a sign of His favor (Deut 4:29,31) whereas the absence of God is a sign of His rejection (Deut 31:17,18)” (Stuart, Preacher’s Commentary, 92). God has been patient with those in Jerusalem; yet they never wavered in their rebellion. His patience has run out, and His punishment is beginning with the most severe consequence—not their death but His departure.

The Refining of His Glory (10:1-8)

Before leaving town, God has one more assignment for the man clothed in linen. In the previous chapter he passed through Jerusalem and marked those who sighed and groaned over all the detestable practices committed in it (9:4). His next assignment from the Lord is to go inside the wheelwork beneath the cherubim, fill his hands with hot coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city. While Ezekiel watched, the man went in and stood beside a wheel. A cherub reached out his hand to the fire that was among the cherubim. He took some, and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out.

With hands full of coals that originated from the blazing glory of God, the man will rain down God’s punishment on Jerusalem. As much as the residents of Jerusalem might have hoped for an experience like Isaiah had with God’s coals (Isa 6:6-7), they were going to get an experience more consistent with Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:1-29). With their destruction and God’s departure, the people of Jerusalem will know firsthand what it means for God to be a consuming fire (Heb 12:29).

The Reminder of His Glory (10:9-17)

Why is Ezekiel given the privilege of seeing God’s throne chariot for a second time? I believe one reason is so he will be humbled again by God’s glory. Who can see what Ezekiel saw and not be led to humility, worship, and appreciation for how awesome the Lord’s presence is? I think a second reason Ezekiel is shown the wheelwork again is to be reminded God is free to go wherever He wants to go. The temple is not a prison for God but a protection for His people so He can dwell with them and not destroy them. He is done with His people in Jerusalem, but He is not done with His people in exile. Though they cannot come to His sanctuary, He will go to them and be theirs (11:16).

To Be in the Midst of Discipline with the Lord Is Better Than Being in the Middle of Disobedience Without Him

Ezekiel 11:1-25

God’s Declaration to the Deceitful (11:1-13)

To be self-deceived is one thing; to spread those delusions and contribute to the destruction and death of others is another. On His way out of town, God stops at the eastern gate of the Lord’s house. Lifted by the Spirit, Ezekiel joins Him there and sees 25 men, among whom are Jaazaniah son of Azzur (not the same man from 8:11) and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people. We do not know anything about these men except they had risen to a position of influence over others in Jerusalem.

Considering that the best and brightest leaders of God’s people had already been carried to Babylon, those who remained in Jerusalem should have been careful whom they chose to be their leaders. Tragically, they picked men who planned evil and gave wicked advice in Jerusalem. Jaazaniah and Pelatiah would say to the people, “Isn’t the time near to build houses? The city is the pot, and we are the meat.” In case you do not use this phrase too often, the leaders were saying, “We are the chosen ones, and just like the meat goes in the pot and the entrails are discarded, we’ve been kept in the city and the others taken away.” They were encouraging the people to build houses because they believed the land had been given to them as a possession (11:15). Their inflated view of themselves had to be based on their location because it was certainly not based on their sanctification. “We are in Jerusalem. We have the temple. Nothing is going to harm us. Let’s settle down again and build homes. We are safe.” Sadly, nothing could have been further from the truth.

After seeing the leaders and hearing what they were saying, Ezekiel is informed that he is to prophesy against them. The Spirit of the Lord came on the prophet and he told them, I know the thoughts that arise in your mind. You have multiplied your slain in this city, filling its streets with the dead. Their distorted thinking led to disobedient living. They failed to follow Yahweh’s statutes and practice His ordinances, choosing instead to act according to the nations around them (11:12). God would not tolerate their evil leadership anymore; instead He would bring their actions down on their own heads (v. 21).

Humbling those with inflated egos has never been a problem for God (Dan 4:28-33; Luke 12:13-21; Acts 12:20-25). Since the leaders in Jerusalem lacked proper perspective, God would provide it for them through His prophet. Ezekiel was told to say,

The slain you have put within it are the meat, and the city is the pot, but I will remove you from it. You fear the sword, so I will bring the sword against you. . . . I will bring you out of the city and hand you over to foreigners; I will execute judgments against you. You will fall by the sword, and I will judge you at the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. (11:7-11)

The myth of their favored position came crashing down quickly, especially when Pelatiah son of Benaiah died while Ezekiel was prophesying.

Were it not for God’s grace, we would be no different than Jaazaniah and Pelatiah. We would be full of ourselves, full of confidence, and full of sin. We would make wrong assessments based on our own wisdom and all the while spew religious speech from our mouths. We would not only be self-deceived but also lead others in our deceit. Thankfully, God rescues us from ourselves. In seeing Him rightly we see everything else more clearly, including ourselves.

We should not move beyond the first part of Ezekiel 11 without considering those we follow. Who has influence over us? Are they giving us a true message from the Lord or just a message from themselves? Are they considering our circumstances through the Lord’s lens or their own? The best way to know if we can trust those who lead us is how they handle God’s Word and how they live it (Heb 13:7). Do they practice what they preach, and are they progressing in Christ (1 Tim 4:15)? Do those we follow look more like Jesus this year than they did last year, and are they helping us do the same? If so, then they are worthy of our trust.

God’s Deliverance of the Deported (11:15-25)

As overwhelmed as the exilic leaders in Babylon must have been due to all the Lord had revealed to them, I believe the final portion of the vision surprised them the most. Up to this point in Ezekiel 8–11, God’s actions were driven by His holiness, but what comes next is entirely because He is gracious. Ezekiel was told to speak for the Lord and say,

Though I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone. (11:16)

As unlikely as they thought it was, even in Babylon God was Jehovah-Shammah (“Yahweh is there”; 48:35). God left His temple to be their sanctuary.

They had not been deported because God was asleep or because He was weak. God had not been overpowered by another god and proven incapable of protecting His people. In fact, the opposite was true. He sent and He scattered, but He will also be the One who sustains. Those with Ezekiel will come to understand being in the midst of discipline with the Lord is better than being in the middle of disobedience without Him.

The Lord had more good news to share through Ezekiel. He would not leave His people in foreign lands forever but would gather them and give them the land of Israel. For God’s people exile is always an opportunity for exodus. Because of His mercy the time of discipline would come to an end, and He would deliver His people again.

Once home God’s people will remove all the detestable things and practices from it. The punishment will not be without purpose. Those who were sent away will one day return to Jerusalem and put away all that previously led them away from the Lord. For those of us in Christ, are we doing the same? Are we putting sin to death by the power of the Spirit (Rom 8:13)? Are we putting away what belonged to our worldly nature (Col 3:5)? Israel could never seem to remove fully the detestable things from their land. What will be different this time? Will it be because God’s people make strong resolutions and commitments within themselves to live differently? No, they will change their homeland because God will change their hearts.

God is going to give them one heart and put a new spirit within them. He will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh. The result will be that God’s people will follow His statutes and keep His ordinances. He will not only empower them to do His will but also to desire it (Phil 2:13). After all this occurs, God says, “Then they will be My people, and I will be their God” (11:20). This, of course, was the whole point of the first exodus.

As glorious as the news was for the exiles in Babylon, we have received even greater blessings. For us God is not only Jehovah-Shammah but also Emmanuel. Jesus is God dwelling with us. In Christ, God lived among His people like never before. But in the gift of His Spirit, He is now the God who dwells in us. What both Ezekiel and Jeremiah prophesied (Jer 31:31-34) we know in reality. Instead of going to the sanctuary, we have become it (1 Cor 6:19; Eph 2:18-22).

Even in exile God’s people were incapable of cleansing themselves or changing their ways. If God had waited on His people to realize the gravity of their rebellion on their own, they would have never repented. Even though they had gone away from Him, God chose still to pursue them and meet them in their worst state. He did all that was necessary to forever change them and us (Eph 2:1-10). The gospel is not a message of cleaning yourself up and doing something to get God’s attention. The gospel is not about working our way to heaven. The gospel is the news that Christ left heaven to live among, atone for, and rescue the exiles. All that God expects from us, He provides for us in Christ. This was great news for those sitting with Ezekiel in Chaldea and for wherever you are sitting today.

Reflect and Discuss

1. On this side of the cross and Pentecost, do you think we are any more appreciative of the Lord’s dwelling with us than the Israelites were in Ezekiel 8–11? How can we demonstrate our appreciation?
2. How does God’s presence make His people distinct? In what ways can people in your city see that God dwells with your faith family?
3. Is there anything in your life that would provoke God to jealousy? Is there anything you are looking to for satisfaction and security more than Him?
4. If the real story of our worship was revealed like it was for those in Jerusalem, what would others see?
5. In what ways are you leading others toward God, and in what ways are you leading people away from Him?
6. If God were to discipline someone in your church like He did Ananias and Sapphira, how do you think your faith family would react? How would you react?
7. How has familiarity with God in some ways been to the detriment of the fear of God?
8. In what ways are you burdened by the sins of others around you? What are you doing about it?
9. What are some consequences that occur when God’s people have evil leaders? How can we recognize godly leaders today?
10. What truths from Ezekiel 8–11 have impacted you the most?