Our Response to God and His Word

Our Response to God and His Word

Ezekiel 12:1–13:23

Main Idea: Some may disbelieve, deny, disregard, or distort God’s Word, but we should deliver His message and desire to obey Him no matter the cost.

On several occasions I have had the privilege to visit the Bugiri Baptist Church in Uganda. Once when I was there, a man stood up and began to tell the congregation, “As petro is for the car, so God’s Word is fuel for us. As food is for the stomach, so the Word is necessary for us.” While I was rejoicing in and affirming his declarations, the missionary I was with leaned over and said, “The Word has not always been a priority in this man’s life.” He went on to tell me how this man became a student at the Uganda Baptist Seminary and while there had become convinced of the importance of God’s Word for life and ministry. Now everywhere this student goes he wants everyone to treasure and follow God’s Word.

God is a communicator. In fact, He is the original communicator. By speaking, He brought all things into existence. His word is effectual. Though we do not know or understand everything about Him, what we do know is because He has chosen to make Himself known. Everything He has revealed about Himself is a grace to us.

What we know specifically about God is recorded in His Word. The contents of the Bible are not all there is to know about God but all He wants us to know now. To have the Word in our language and to have His Spirit to illuminate it are two of the greatest gifts God can give His children.

But just because God communicates does not mean that all are eager to hear and receive His Word. Some respond to God’s Word like the rich, young ruler did, by rejecting it and walking away (Mark 10:17-22). Other responses to what God says are similar to Felix, who did not want to deal with what he heard and assumed he would have another opportunity to respond (Acts 24:24-26). Ideally our response to God and His Word would be in belief and acceptance like Mary, when she said, “May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

In Ezekiel 12–13 the word of the Lord will come to His prophet six times. The responses to the message of the Lord will include disbelief, denial, disregard, and distortion. Ezekiel, however, will faithfully deliver the message that is entrusted to him. How we respond to God and His word is eternally significant. Rejection of His message is ultimately rejection of God, and obedience to His Word is obedience to Him.

Let us consider Ezekiel 12–13 by asking how we are responding to God’s Word. Can others see that God’s Word is a priority in our lives? Is our joyful submission to what He says evident? Are there any ways we are denying, disregarding, distorting, or even disbelieving His Word? May the Lord grant every desire in us to obey His message and in particular to delight in the greatest Word He has spoken to us—Christ.

Will We Disbelieve and Deny God and His Word?

Ezekiel 12:1-25

If a soundtrack were set to Ezekiel 12, the opening lines would be, “All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go”—except the people in Jerusalem would not be leaving on a jet plane, nor would they want to go. Ezekiel is asked by the Lord to perform two more sign acts. In the first one he will symbolize the coming exile of Jerusalem (12:3-7). In the second act he will symbolize the anxiety that will come on the residents of Jerusalem (12:17-20). Ezekiel faithfully portrays both.

In obedience to the Lord, Ezekiel brought out his bags like an exile’s bags. In the evening he dug through the wall by hand. After pushing his bags through the hole in the wall, he carried them on his shoulder in the sight of the people. Eventually some who were watching asked him, “What are you doing?” The response the Lord told him to give to the people was,

This oracle is about the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are living there. . . . Just as I have done, so it will be done to them; they will go into exile, into captivity. (12:10-11)

The Lord had a specific message for Zedekiah, the “prince” in Jerusalem. Along with the others he would lift his bags to his shoulder in the dark and go out. They will dig through the wall to bring him out through it. He will cover his face so he cannot see the land with his eyes. But the Lord is going to spread His net over him, and he will be caught in the Lord’s snare. Zedekiah will be brought to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, but he will not see it. His deportation will lead to his death.

Zedekiah’s attendants and troops that surround him will not fare any better. God is going to scatter them to every direction of the wind, and He will draw a sword to chase after them. Just as with previous visions, the purpose remains the same, those who are dispersed and scattered among the nations will know that He is Yahweh. A few, however, will be spared from the sword, famine, and plague so they can tell about all their detestable practices among the nations where they will go. Both the nations and Zedekiah’s entourage will know He is Yahweh.

Ezekiel’s sign act moves beyond Zedekiah and his supporters to the other residents of Jerusalem in the land of Israel. The prophet is told to eat his bread with trembling and drink his water with shaking and anxiety. This will be a sign to Jerusalem’s residents that they will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in dread, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who live there. The inhabited cities will be destroyed, and the land will become a desolation. Then, like Zedekiah and his crew, the residents of Jerusalem will know God is Yahweh.

So how do you think Ezekiel’s audience received his messages? For the first time in the book, we actually get to hear some of the responses of Ezekiel’s peers, and they were not great (12:22,27). Of course, this should have come as no surprise to Ezekiel because the Lord told him, “Son of man, you are living among a rebellious house. They have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house” (12:2).

Despite Ezekiel’s faithfulness to proclaim and portray every message the Lord gave him, his audience did not believe what they saw and heard. As a matter of fact, they had a proverb about the land of Israel, which said, “The days keep passing by, and every vision fails.” They did not believe what Ezekiel was saying because up to that point they had seen no evidence to validate his claims. Much like Thomas, they needed proof before they would believe (John 20:24-29). They rejected Ezekiel’s messages as the crazy talk of a deranged man who acted weird in public. Of course, not believing God’s message through His messenger is the same as not believing God.

Zedekiah in Jerusalem was no different from those who were with Ezekiel in Babylon. He didn’t believe the word of the Lord given through Jeremiah (Jer 27:1-22; 38:14-28). If he had trusted the word of the Lord instead of listening to false prophets, then his life would have been spared, the city would not have been burned, and those who were in Jerusalem could have remained there and worked their own land (Jer 27:11; 38:17). But Zedekiah refused to believe the word of the Lord, and it would be at his own peril and the destruction of many others.

God had suffered the disbelief of His people for long enough. God told Ezekiel He will put a stop to the exiles’ proverb and the people will never use it again in Israel. The time has come. The days are drawing near, as well as the fulfillment of every vision. There will no longer be any false vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel. Whatever message Yahweh speaks will be done. It will no longer be delayed. To Ezekiel’s peers the Lord declares, “For in your days, rebellious house, I will speak a message and bring it to pass.” And He did.

The Lord brought everything to pass just as He said it would happen (2 Kgs 25:1-21). Zedekiah’s army was scattered and he was seized. The last thing he would see before he was blinded was the slaughtering of his sons. He would be taken to Babylon, but he would never see it, just as Ezekiel foretold (Ezek 12:13). Judah would indeed go “into exile from its land” (2 Kgs 25:21). Sadly it could have all been avoided. If Zedekiah and the others had simply believed the word of the Lord, then they would have been spared. Disbelief cost them everything, even their lives.

Ultimately, every denial and disbelief of God’s word can trace its roots back to one source. The first denial of the Lord’s word was in the garden of Eden. There the serpent hissed to Eve, “No! You will not die” (Gen 3:4). We never look more like the Devil than when we deny and disbelieve God.

True folly is thinking things will turn out differently from what the Lord declares. Do we think He does not know what He is talking about? Is He not trustworthy? Has His Word not been proven right time and time again? Of course, God does not just know what is going to happen, but He is also decreeing and accomplishing it.

True folly is also not believing that God’s plan is best. I’m sure some of the exiles in Babylon were thinking, “Why am I here and not in Jerusalem? I bet Jerusalem is so awesome right now.” Of course, they were wrong. God’s discipline of His people was a plan both to preserve and to purify them, and it was for their best. As a matter of fact, the Lord would lead Jeremiah to send a letter from Jerusalem to the elders of the exiles in Babylon (Jer 29:1-29). In the letter Jeremiah assured the exiles that God’s plan was best and that He had plans to give them “a future and a hope” (Jer 29:11). Seeing those words in their proper context is even more powerful knowing it was spoken to a people He was disciplining but not destroying.

Just because God seems delayed to us does not mean He is. When Habakkuk was in a period of waiting, he received this response from the Lord: “The vision is yet for the appointed time; it testifies about the end and will not lie. Though it delays, wait for it, since it will certainly come and not be late” (Hab 2:3). For years Israel waited for their Messiah, but He was sent “when the time came to completion” (Gal 4:4). In our own generation there will be those who say, “Where is the promise of His coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation” (2 Pet 3:4). But “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” (2 Pet 3:8). What seems like “delay” to us is not and should never be used to fuel disbelief. The Lord is on time every time and keeps every promise He makes.

If we choose to disbelieve God and refuse every offer of His grace, then His discipline should not take us by surprise. God did not have to warn Zedekiah, but in His graciousness He did. Repeatedly, Zedekiah refused to heed the word of the Lord; and, as was noted previously, his disbelief led to his death and the destruction of Jerusalem. All of this should lead us now to pause and ask, Is there any word of the Lord that we do not believe? Is there something He has said that we are struggling to receive? Is there anyone who is being impacted by our disbelief? Hopefully, others are being blessed by our belief and not burdened by our disbelief.

Will We Disregard and Delay Responding to God and His Word?

Ezekiel 12:26-28

In a sermon on Ezekiel 12 Spurgeon said,

Men display great ingenuity in making excuses for rejecting the message of God’s love. They display marvelous skill, not in seeking salvation, but in fashioning reasons for refusing it. They are dexterous in avoiding Divine Grace and in securing their own ruin. They hold up first this shield and then the other to ward off the gracious arrows of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which are only meant to slay the deadly sins which lurk in their bosoms. The evil argument which is mentioned in the text has been used from Ezekiel’s day right down to the present moment, and it has served Satan’s turn in tens of thousands of cases. By its means men have delayed themselves into Hell. (“A Sermon for Young Men and Women”)

For some, disbelief of God’s Word is not their primary struggle but disregarding it and delaying their obedience. In Ezekiel’s day some in the house of Israel were saying, “The vision that he sees concerns many years from now; he prophesies about distant times.” The Lord’s response to them is, “None of My words will be delayed any longer. The message I speak will be fulfilled.”

The act of delaying our obedience indicates we believe we will have additional time and opportunities to obey whatever the Lord is telling us. Nobody can be certain of further occasions for obedience, nor are they deserved. James exhorts his readers,

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. (Jas 4:13-14)

One of the worst examples of being a day late in obedience is recorded in Numbers 14. God was ready to take His people into the promised land, but they doubted His protection and provision, so they refused to enter Canaan. After God judged them for their disobedience and disbelief and informed them they would die in the wilderness, the Israelites decided they would enter the land. It was a disaster! Neither Moses nor the Lord went with them, and they were routed. Their obedience was a day late. Had they not disregarded His instructions and not delayed their obedience, then they would not have died in discipline.

What can we learn? First of all, God does not just have a word for yesterday or tomorrow but for today. The psalmist has warned us, “Today if you hear His voice: Do not harden your hearts” (Ps 95:7-8). Citing this psalm, the author of Hebrews tells us to “encourage each other daily . . . so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception” (Heb 3:13). Delayed obedience is disobedience. One of the best ways we can serve others in our faith family is by encouraging them to obey the Lord the first time they are called to obedience and every time they are so called.

Second, we must be careful not to be quick to discern a word for others and miss the word for us. Ezekiel’s audience claimed his message was for people years down the road and in essence did not have anything to do with them. God does not just have a word for others but for us. If you find yourself thinking often about how someone you know needs to hear the sermon you are listening to, then you might just be the “someone.” When we hear a word from the Lord, there is a reason we have been given the opportunity. It may indeed be that the Lord wants us to pass the message on to others, but that should only be after it has done its work in our own lives.

Like Moses, we should pray, “Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts” (Ps 90:12). All of our days were written in the Lord’s book and “planned before a single one of them began,” but only the Lord knows their total and where we are in the count (Ps 139:16). So many worry if these are the “last days,” and in one sense the answer to this is yes (Heb 1:2). I encourage the people I shepherd, however, not to think of them as the last days but as our only days. Now is the time for obedience. Any delay or disregard of the Lord’s Word on our part is an arrogant presumption and a waste of time. At what point has delaying obedience ever been for our best or for the best of those around us? Our delay and disregard reveal that someone else’s word (perhaps our own) is more important to us than the Lord’s.

Will We Distort God’s Word?

Ezekiel 13:1-23

When I was a student in seminary, I would often eat in the French Quarter in New Orleans. When I was leaving a parking area one night, I saw a woman who seemed to have a problem with her car. I stopped and asked if I could help. It turned out it was just a car battery that needed to be jumped, so my limited auto skills could be used. What was funny to me is the woman was a fortune-teller. She and others like her would set their tables and chairs up in Jackson Square and claim to know everyone’s future. I could not help but laugh when I asked her, “You didn’t see this coming, huh?”

In Ezekiel’s day there were not only those who disbelieved or disregarded God’s word, but tragically, there were also those who distorted it. Nothing is worse than someone who claims to have a word from the Lord but really speaks for himself. In Ezekiel’s day false prophets and false prophetesses alike were offering divinations, deceit, and distortions. The Lord, however, had a true word for both groups.

Ezekiel was told to prophesy against the prophets of Israel. The Lord was angry with this group because they prophesied out of their own imagination and followed their own spirit since they had seen nothing and they were like jackals among ruins. If we learned anything about jackals from the movie The Lion King (1994), they are selfish and opportunistic, seeking only their own good.

The false prophets did not go up to the gaps or restore the wall around the house of Israel so that it might stand in battle on the day of the Lord. They had seen false visions and spoken a lying divination when they proclaimed, “This is the Lord’s declaration,” even though He had not spoken. Finally, the false prophets led God’s people astray when they said, “Peace,” when there was no peace. They were like those who plaster a wall with whitewash.

The prophetesses were no better. Like the men the women prophesied out of their own imagination. They had sewn magic bands on the wrist of every hand and made veils for the heads of people of every height in order to ensnare lives. The prophetesses had disheartened the righteous person with lies, even though Yahweh had not caused him grief. They also encouraged the wicked person not to turn from his evil way to save his life. With their lies the women killed those who should not die and spared those who should not live. And they had done all of these things merely for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread.

God’s people were already struggling to believe and obey His true messages, and the proliferation of false messages did nothing to help the situation. God would no longer tolerate the false prophets and prophetesses. He would put them out of business. They had given His people false hope, so God would give these dispensers of deceit no hope. Because the false prophets and prophetesses spoke falsely and had lying visions, God was against them (13:8).

The punishment for their pretense was severe. The false teachers would not be present in the fellowship of His people or be recorded in the register of the house of Israel. They would also not be allowed to enter the land of Israel. The false prophets would be destroyed with their whitewashed wall in the city (cf. Jer 28:1-17). For the women God was going to tear the magic bands from their arms and tear the veils from their heads. He would free the people the women ensnared in their lies, and He would deliver His people from the predators’ hands. He would also stop false visions (13:23) and flattering divination within the house of Israel (12:24). Why would He do all of this? For the same reason repeated throughout the book—so they will know He is the Lord Yahweh (13:9).

What can we learn from the presence and then the punishment of the false prophets and prophetesses in Ezekiel 13? First of all, not everyone who claims to speak for the Lord really does. Competing voices are not new. So how can we recognize who is giving us God’s message today? Duguid is helpful here: “The contrast in our day between ‘true prophet’ and ‘false prophet’ is not so much as to who has really received the word of God, but rather who is rightly handling the Word of God”(Duguid, Ezekiel, 177). To know the difference, we should be like the Bereans who “examined the Scriptures daily to see if” what Paul and Silas shared with them was based in God’s Word (Acts 17:11).

My mentor, Jim Shaddix, exhorted us young pastors to make sure the biblical text was not just a diving board for our oral presentation but the pool in which our sermon swam (Vines and Shaddix, Power in the Pulpit, 204). He would tell us our job as preachers is not to present good stuff but to present God stuff, which is done best by biblical exposition. I once listened to a preacher reference the text where Jesus says, “Among those born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has appeared” (Matt 11:11). The preacher then proceeded to give us five ways we could be great and six ways not to be great. After listening for a little while, I closed my Bible. Apparently it was a bit dramatic because my wife elbowed me. I turned to her and said, “He’s not preaching from here anymore, so I don’t need to leave it open.”

Like the prophets and prophetesses in Ezekiel 13, those who call themselves into ministry often bring their own message with them. We should be cautious of those, in particular, who tell us what we want to hear rather than what we need to hear. What could be more dangerous than telling those people not to worry who in reality have much to fear? “We must speak clearly of the tragic and dangerous state of men and women without Christ. They are sinners under the wrath of God, at risk of eternal lostness” (Duguid, Ezekiel, 165).

Second, there are times when preaching against other preachers is necessary. Prophesying against the prophets will probably not lead to Ezekiel’s winning a popularity contest. But then again, “popularity is not a test of truth” (Wiersbe, Be Reverent, 73). Generalities will not suffice when specificity is needed. We may not just be able to say, “Here are some general characteristics of false teachers,” but may at times need to name names. When this occurs, Thomas offers some wisdom: “Preaching against preachers must never be done out of envy or spite, but always and only out of regard for the truth of God’s Word” (Thomas, God Strengthens, 96).

Third, we should avoid being jackals in the ruins or those who whitewash walls and give people false confidences. We are like jackals when all we care about is ourselves. If we intentionally withhold truth from those who are perishing because we want them to like us, then our real concern is only for ourselves. We whitewash walls when we allow people to feel safe even though they hold convictions contrary to God’s Word. We’re like those who say, “Peace,” when there is no peace. Let us run to the gaps and restore the walls by not being afraid to speak God’s Word to those around us.

Fourth, if we are going to be put to death for proclaiming a message, it better be the right one. The false prophets and prophetesses paid a real price for a false message. We who carry the gospel, however, know we have already died to self, and any cost that is necessary to proclaim Christ’s good news will be worth it.

Will We Deliver God’s Word and Desire to Obey Him

No Matter the Cost?

Ezekiel 12:7

I’m not sure any preacher has been asked to proclaim God’s Word in more peculiar ways than Ezekiel. From all we saw in Ezekiel 4, digging through walls, carrying baggage at night, and eating and drinking while trembling has now been added. Do you ever wonder what Ezekiel’s wife thought about all of this? We know his thoughts: I did just as I was commanded.

The prophet’s obedience is a challenge to my soul. Whatever he needed to do to proclaim the word of the Lord, he was willing to do. What about us? Are we willing to deliver His message in whatever way He asks us? Like Ezekiel, we’ve been asked to deliver God’s Word to those who are hostile and doing evil (Col 1:21). We are Christ’s witnesses (Acts 1:9) and living letters (2 Cor 3:3). He will strengthen us just as He did Ezekiel.

The need to deliver God’s Word is just as great in our day as it was in Ezekiel’s. While creation and conscience will leave everyone without excuse before the Lord, it takes a lot to get from a pinecone to propitiation without someone filling in the details. We have been given a message. We do not have to be cute or creative with it but faithful. How many will perish today because no one has delivered the message of Christ yet to their people group?

Will We Delight in the Greatest Word God Has

Spoken to Us—Christ?

Hebrews 1:2

As we consider God’s word, the prophets who deliver it, and our responses to it, we would be remiss if we did not consider Christ. The author of Hebrews informs us, “Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son” (Heb 1:1-2). Despite all of Ezekiel’s faithfulness, no one has ever done more to deliver the word of God than Christ, who is the Word made flesh (John 1:14). No one has ever given up more or paid a higher price to communicate God’s message than the One who left heaven ultimately to be nailed to a cross.

Jesus is God’s perfect prophet because He revealed God to us and spoke His word like no one else could ever do. He did not just deliver a message given to Him but was also the message’s source and fulfillment. Unlike the false prophets who were jackals in the ruins, Christ came to recover what had been ruined at the cost of His own body and blood.

As His ambassadors (2 Cor 5:20), we act in a prophetic way whenever we proclaim His gospel to a dying world. When we teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, it should be because the message of the Messiah dwells richly in us (Col 3:16). Like Paul, “We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Col 1:28). But even on our best days, we are imperfect. Fortunately, a day is coming when we will speak perfectly of God because we will know Him and He will dwell with us like never before. Until that day arrives, let us be diligent to present ourselves approved to God, workers who do not need to be ashamed but who correctly teach the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15).

Reflect and Discuss

1. Has the Lord’s “delay” ever caused you to struggle with disbelief? How did you get past it?
2. Why are we tempted at times not to believe God’s plans are best?
3. What, if any, consequences have you or others around you experienced because they did not believe some portion of God’s Word?
4. Why do we at times delay our obedience to the Lord? Why is this presumptuous?
5. In what ways are you currently delaying obedience, and how do you think this is impacting others?
6. If you were asked to prophesy against false prophets, what, if any, hesitations would you have?
7. How can we know if someone is truly speaking for the Lord today?
8. Is there anywhere or with anyone you would be hesitant to deliver God’s Word? Why? How can you overcome this hesitation?
9. In what ways have you been challenged by Ezekiel’s obedience to deliver the message he was given?
10. What makes Jesus the greatest One to fill the office of prophet? In what ways can we fulfill a prophetic role today?