Ezekiel 3

Bible Study with Dr. Chuck Missler

BRIEF BACKGROUND

Even though Ezekiel has been captured, Jerusalem hasn't fallen. Until Jerusalem falls, Ezekiel’s message will be to his people, to urge them to flee idolatry and return to the Lord. They won’t do that, and thus, God will judge them, level Jerusalem, and bring them all into captivity.

Once Jerusalem falls, Ezekiel’s message shifts to the very distant future, our future (Ezekiel 34 and on).


EZEKIEL 3: THE PREPARTION OF THE PROPHET

Background
Jeremiah was a different type of individual from Ezekiel. Jeremiah was the prophet of the broken heart, with tears often streaming from his eyes. At that crucial moment in history God needed Jeremiah to let His people know that it was breaking His heart to send them into captivity. Yet, now the people have gone into captivity, and they are bitter and rebellious. Furthermore, at this time: the temple had not yet been burned, nor the city of Jerusalem destroyed. (It would not be until seven years after this delegation of captives arrived in Babylon that that destruction would occur.) Therefore, the false prophets were still telling the people that they were God’s people, and they would go back home. They said to Ezekiel, "Who do you think you are to tell us these things? We are God’s people, and we are going back to our land. We will not be in captivity a long time." But God had told Ezekiel, "You tell them they are not going back. They are going to be in captivity for seventy years just as Jeremiah said. They are going to be in Babylon seventy years, and they are going to work hard there along the canals, working in the fields and building buildings. It is going to be a hard lot for them."

"… eat this scroll" (Ezekiel 3:1-2)
Similar passages are found in Jeremiah 15:16; Deuteronomy 8:3; Psalms 19:10; 119:103; Revelation 10:8-11.

We should also eat and digest the Word of God.

Missler: "No man ought to preach the Word whose heart is not in it and who doesn't believe every word he says. The pulpit is the place to declare the Word of God."

The concept of "eating the words" may sound a bit strange. Jeremiah said, "Thy words were found and I did eat them" (Jeremiah 15:16). John was also so instructed (Revelation 10:8-11). The Lord Himself, when He was confronted by Satan in the temptations (Matthew 4:4) quoted: "Man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live" (Deuteronomy 8:3).

By "eating His Word," we are to fully digest what the Lord has said; to examine our own daily spiritual diet.

The Word of God is as sweet as honey (Ezekiel 3:3)
When we digest God’s Word, when we apply it to our lives, we will find His Way fully satisfying (Cf. Rev 10:8-11). Until we learn to love God’s Word, we will never be able to truly love God.

"… son of man…" (Ezekiel 3:4)
Do not confuse it with the title of Jesus Christ. Here, it means “son of the dust,” to speak of Ezekiel’s frailty.

Ezekiel will meet great resistance from his own people (Ezekiel 3:6-7)
In this passage, God is telling Ezekiel that the road ahead is a tough one. Being sent to a foreign country speaking a foreign language would have been an easier task! However, Ezekiel is being called to his own people. God tells Ezekiel up front, "They will not hear you, because they would not hear me."

Why would God send Ezekiel if He knew the people won’t listen? So that God might be just when He judges.

Ezekiel was in the second deportation and with the captives in Babylon while Jerusalem remained a vassal city. As long as Jerusalem had not fallen, Ezekiel’s message would be to his people, admonishing them to flee idolatry and return to the Lord. For the remnant who did hear him, that was valuable. However, the period of grace finally ran out, and God’s judgment fell on the city of Jerusalem, and the rest of the people were brought into captivity.

Once the Israelites were brought into captivity, Ezekiel’s message shifted—to the future, our future. Ezekiel was first called to the House of Israel, and then to us, today! This book is more than just Biblical background: it has something to say to us personally. Rather than acknowledging God’s judgment and confessing their sins, the Jewish exiles viewed their time in Babylon as a temporary setback that would be alleviated by their soon return to Jerusalem. They refused to admit their sin or to believe the threat of impending judgment on their disobedient nation.

God prepares Ezekiel for the road ahead (Ezekiel 3:8)
Do we hear God’s Word? Or do we fail to hear?

The living creatures are real, not a type of allegory or hallucination (Ezekiel 3:12-15)
From this verse, we can infer that what Ezekiel saw in Ezekiel 1 was not allegorical, not an hallucination. We see here that Ezekiel continues to try to describe the strange presence he was confronted. This verse gives us the insight of the dimension in which these other living creatures operate.

"...the hand of the LORD" (Ezekiel 3:14)
Cf: Ezekiel 1:3; 3:22; 8:1; 33:22; 37:1

This phrase is used 190 times in the Old Testament.

"I sat among them for seven days—deeply distressed" (Ezekiel 3:15)
With what he witnessed in Ezekiel 1, and the Lord talking to him through Ezekiel 2-3, Ezekiel was physically overwhelmed for seven days. For seven days he has sat among them overwhelmed by how far they have apostatized and turned from God; God now calls him to separate himself.

Why seven days? Perhaps because seven days were appointed for the consecration of the priests (Cf. Leviticus 8:33).

Ezekiel is called to be a watchman for his people (Ezekiel 3:16-21; 33:1-20)
(Cf. 2 Samuel 18:24-27; 2 Kings 9:17-20)

Isaiah 62:6
I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night.

Psalm 127:1
Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Ezekiel 3:18
When I say to a wicked person, "You will surely die," and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.
Cf. Blood accountability (Genesis 9:5-6).


"Die" (Ezekiel 3:18)
To perish in the destruction of the state and being excluded from the restored kingdom of God

"Live" (Ezekiel 3:21)
To being preserved and entering into the blessedness of the kingdom


Four Types of Man
1. The habitual sinner who is not warned (Ezekiel 3:18).
2. The sinner who is warned but does not repent (Ezekiel 3:19).
3. The righteous man who apostatizes but is not warned (Ezekiel 3:20).
4. The righteous man who is warned and remains righteous (Ezekiel 3:21).

Ezekiel is accountable for the faithful deliverance of God’s message, not for its success or failure (Ezekiel 3:17-19)—That is the Holy Spirit’s role!


Under Grace
We are constituted righteous by faith in Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace through faith.

Romans 4:5
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted [reckoned] for righteousness.

The true believer today may fall into sin, but he will not deliberately practice and live in sin:

1 John 3:9
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit [practice] sin.
If a believer falls into sin, a gracious provision is made—we have an Advocate with the Father, and we can come to Him in confession of our sins.

The emphasis in Ezekiel is not so much upon this man living under law but upon the responsibility of the watchman. The watchman is to warn the man who has turned from good works to living in a way that conforms to the standard of the enemy.

The main issue of a watchman was not to deliver results, but to give warning. What the people do with the info, that no longer the watchman’s responsibility. Hence, the role of the watchman is an informational role. It is not our objective to turn others around; that is the job of the Holy Spirit. Our job is to be a witness (Ezekiel 33:1-2 is a parallel passage).


The Call to the Nation
Comparing this passage to some of the other prophets we see that they saw that their mission had a national or corporate purpose (Habakkuk 2, Jeremiah 6, and Isaiah 56). They were to expect a reaction on the part of the Nation.

The Call to Individuals
Ezekiel’s call was to the individual. Compare this with the Letter to Laodicea: In all the letters to the Churches, Jesus was saying something good and also something critical (Revelation 2-3). When He addressed Laodicea and reached the place in the letter where one expects a call to the Church, there is no call to the Church. Instead He says…

Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.


In the letter to Laodicea, where the call to the Church was expected, there was no such corporal call. Instead, the call was PERSONAL. In all the other letters, this part was a promise to the Church, but instead, we see a promise to the individual. This is suggesting that the Church as a whole was dead, but to the individuals that continue to invite Jesus in, there is His promise.

Similarly, Ezekiel here is called to the individual, again, stressing that the people as a whole at the time were dead—but there is still hope for the individual who repents.


It also reinforces the concept of what God said earlier—that the Nation would not repent. Despite all his preaching and all the things he was going to go through, they were going to stay in idolatry as a nation, and thus, go into further judgment with Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.


GLORY?

The subject of the glory of God will appear again and again in the Book of Ezekiel. Some will say that glory is something you cannot see, that it is intangible. However, Missler is one of those who believe that glory produces a sensation on all five of our senses.

Below are Missler's notes
Source: McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, 1981.

1) Glory has size
How big is it? Is it long or square or round? Glory has the size beyond the infinity of space. The Word of God tells us, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). The glory of God is seen in this tremendous universe that you and I live in.

2) Glory also has a beauty to it: Glory is beautiful.
We read in Scripture that He was "… glorious in his apparel …" (Isaiah 63:1). He is really dressed up and lovely in the garb that he wears vs. those "…whose glorious beauty is a fading flower …" (Isaiah 28:1).

3) There is a majesty about glory
"O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens" (Psalm 8:1). This is the majesty of God; it is bright and light, precious and pure.

4) Finally, glory also sets forth honor and dignity
Daniel said, "O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor" (Daniel 5:18). The very name of God suggests His dignity, His glory. Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord.

The Glory’s Impact on Ezekiel
• It gave him a message at Telaviv (Ezekiel 3:12, 22).
• It transported him from his home in the exile to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court of the Temple in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8:4,5). 

• It departed from the cherubim in the Temple to the threshold of the Temple (Ezekiel 9:3; 10:4).

• It mounted up from the threshold to the eastern gate of the
Temple’s outer court (Ezekiel 10:15,16,18,19).
• It went up from the midst of the city to the Mount of Olives on the east side of the city (Ezekiel 11:22, 23).
• It will return to fill the new Temple and cleanse the people (Ezekiel 43:2-7; 44:4).



"Go, shut yourself inside your house" (Ezekiel 3:24)
This does not imply that Ezekiel was never to leave his house (Cf. Ezekiel 5:2; 12:3). Instead he was to refrain from open fellowship with the people. Often, the leaders came to Ezekiel at his house to receive God’s word (Cf. Ezekiel 8:1; 14:1; 20:1).
[Pfeiffer, Charles F.: The Wycliffe Bible Commentary : Old Testament. Chicago : Moody Press, 1962, S. Ezek 3:22.]

Ezekiel started his ministry in silence. Ezekiel was struck dumb except as the Lord elects to speak through him.

The Prophet’s Restraint (Ezekiel 3:22-27)
Some scholars understand this section to indicate a pathological element in Ezekiel: that he was afflicted with catalepsy and aphasia and that his countrymen had to bind him with cords after he became demented figurative for an enforced period of silence and inactivity on the part of the prophet.

In reality, however, Ezekiel will act out various parables.

Instead of speaking a great deal, Ezekiel is going to act out the parables that God gives to him. This is one of them: he goes into his house and locks himself in. Why? To show that God has rejected this rebellious people.

He was to open his mouth only in his own house to those who consulted him privately (Ezekiel 3:24; 26:8). This intermittent silence prevailed from the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem until news of the fall of the city was brought to the prophet by a fugitive about two years later (Ezekiel 24:1, 27). Then, when Ezekiel spoke freely, the people were able to realize that God had spoken.