EZEKIEL 24 THE DEATH OF JERUSALEM2010 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Ezekiel 24 The Death Of Jerusalem

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2010. Here we are in Ezekiel chapter 24. We pick it up in verse 1. It says,

Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, write down the name of the day, this very day, the king of Babylon started his siege against Jerusalem, this very day.

Here is Ezekiel is there in Babylon. He's captive, which with much of the other Jews who were in Jerusalem, they were taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar and brought from Jerusalem to Babylon. And Ezekiel has been ministering to those who are in captivity for some time now.

And as he's been ministering to those who are in captivity, back in Jerusalem, there was a remnant that was left. Nebuchadnezzar did not take everyone away, but he left a group. He set up Zedekiah as king, and they were continuing to exist and to live there in Jerusalem for about nine years after Ezekiel and the rest had been taken captive over to Babylon.

And so as Ezekiel has been ministering to the people that are there in Babylon in captivity, he's been really trying to defeat the work of the false prophets who were declaring that God was going to set them free and that they were going to be going back to Babylon any day now, or back to Jerusalem rather, any day now, that Jerusalem was not going to be conquered and the message of the false prophets was what the people were believing.

And so God has Ezekiel there in Babylon countering that false teaching and sharing the truth that the judgment is going to take place because the people in Jerusalem and the Jewish people in Babylon have continued to rebel against God, to disregard his word and to live according to their own thoughts and their own ways, according to what they wanted to do.

And so now as Ezekiel has been involved in this ministry, he's been proclaiming that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. Now God gives him, on a very specific day, God gives him a message and tells Ezekiel, Hey, take note of this day. Mark it in your calendar. Pay attention to this date because this is the date of the siege. This is the date when Nebuchadnezzar has begun to lay siege to the city of Jerusalem.

And so it's the ninth year of King Zedekiah's reign in the tenth month on the tenth day of the month. According to scholars, according to historians, this is January 15th, 588 BC that Nebuchadnezzar lays siege to the city of Jerusalem.

It's during the reign of Zedekiah who's been reigning for nine years and he says the siege has begun today, this day at this particular time. Now that's very interesting and that's significant because Ezekiel is not in Jerusalem. Ezekiel is in Babylon which as the bird flies a straight line from Jerusalem to Babylon is about 500 miles away.

Now, if you were to send a messenger from Jerusalem or Babylon, he couldn't take a straight line. He would have to go usually up the Euphrates and then back down. And that makes it about a thousand mile trip to head all the way over and to get to Babylon where Ezekiel was.

And so they're a great distance away. That's the point. At least 500 miles away. They don't have satellite. They don't have cell phones. There's no email. There's no text messaging. There's nothing like that. And yet God supernaturally gives him the insight that today, 500 miles away, Jerusalem is under siege. That it's beginning right now. Today is the day.

Now this is significant because all of the prophecies that we've been reading thus far into Ezekiel are now going to be fulfilled. All of those things were, you know, yet future as Ezekiel is prophesying them about the judgment that was going to come on Jerusalem and now they are beginning. This is the day that all those things that we've been studying will now be fulfilled as God pours out judgment upon Jerusalem.

And there was four specific things that God had declared were coming as judgment upon Jerusalem. In a

In Ezekiel chapter 4 verse 21, he outlines them for us. The first is the sword was going to come upon Jerusalem. The second was famine. The third is wild beasts. And then the fourth is pestilence. And all of these things are a result of the siege of Babylon, the attack of Babylon on the city of Jerusalem, and then the destruction of Jerusalem itself.

and the rest of the people being put to death or scattered or taken away captive. And so these things are now going to be fulfilled. All the things that we've been studying up to this point are now going to happen. So mark this day, Ezekiel, because now it's going to be fulfilled. Verse 3, he says, And utter a parable to the rebellious house and say to them, Thus says the Lord God.

Put on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it. Gather pieces of meat in it, every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder, fill it with choice cuts. Take the choice of the flock, also pile fuel bones under it, make it boil well, and let the cuts simmer in it.

Now as you look at this, understand this isn't something that you should start to think, hey, maybe I should go try this. It sounds like a good recipe, maybe a good dinner one day. What God is doing is He's giving Ezekiel a parable, something visual for the nation of Israel

well, the Jewish people that are in Babylon to look at, to picture, to understand. And of course, cooking meat in a pot would be something that they would understand. And just like you and I can understand that today. I love how many of the pictures and the things that God uses to illustrate His message throughout the scriptures, they're timeless. They're things that we still use today. And so He gives this idea of taking a pot...

Putting water in it, putting meat in it, and now it's going to be boiled. The meat is going to be cooked there within the pot. God is using this as an illustration, as a visual for a message that he's going to have Ezekiel preach. So you got the visual, you got the pot, you got the water, you got the meat inside, setting it on top of a fire, letting it boil, letting it simmer. Now with that visual in mind, look at the message in verse 6.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is in it, and whose scum is not gone from it. Bring it out piece by piece, on which no lot has fallen. For her blood is in her midst. She set it on top of a rock. She did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust, that it may raise up fury and take vengeance. I have set her blood on top of a rock, that it may not be covered."

Here God begins to declare the message that goes along with this pot of boiling meat or this pot of boiling water that's cooking the meat. And as he's delivering this message, he says, It's a pronouncement of judgment, a pronouncement of sorrow. He says,

Now Jerusalem was a bloody city because there was much injustice that was going on. There was a lot of things that were wrong as they oppressed the poor. There was blood as a result. There was blood that was spilled as people were killed unjustly and punished severely when it was not right, when it was not due to them.

Also, one of the things that we've seen over and over in Ezekiel is that the people were sacrificing their children, their firstborn, their babies, in the worship of the God of Molech. And they would burn them in the fire in the worship of this God. And so there was these kinds of things going on. People were being killed. There was injustice. The babies were being sacrificed. And so he says, "...woe to the bloody city."

A big part of the reason that this judgment was coming was because of all of this blood that is being spilled, the innocent people that are being put to death and that are dying as a result of the things that are going on.

And so he says, woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is in it. And so the pot in this illustration that he's giving is a reference to this city, to the city of Jerusalem. And then the scum that is in it, don't misunderstand, it's not the people. God's not saying those people are scum and that's why I'm boiling them. What he's saying is there's all this filth.

There's all this sin. There's all this iniquity that is going on and it's within the city and that's what's happening within this pot. And so he says, whose scum has not gone from it. The scum has not been brought out. What he's been seeking to do through Jeremiah, through Ezekiel, is to cause the people to turn from their sin, to cast away sin.

their sin, to remove the scum from their city, to turn and to get right with God. But they have not done that. And so he says, her blood is in her midst because they've not cast off their wickedness. They've not cast off their rebellion against God. He even says in verse 7 that she set it on top of a rock and she didn't pour it on the ground to cover it with dust. Now that was a practice that they would do when they would worship

kill an animal, they would pour out the blood, but then they would cover it with the dust. But the idea here, what he's saying is that the blood is all over on top of a rock, that it's open for all to see, that they're unrepentant, that they're not concerned about the consequences of their rebellion against God in the murdering that is taking place, in the sacrificing of their children, in the injustice.

It's open for all to see as they persist in sin regardless of what it's going to cost them. And so this scum that he's referring to is this sin. This blood is the innocent that have been put to death and killed as a result of their rebellion against God. His message continues in verse 9. He says, Therefore thus says the Lord God, Woe to the bloody city!

Verse 13. Verse 13.

And according to your deeds.

Here as God continues this message, He makes it very clear what is going on. He makes it very clear that this is some serious stuff that is happening.

He says in verse 9, again, woe to the bloody city. He says, I will make the pyre great. Now, pyre is a pile of combustibles. And so he's saying, look, I'm going to add in wood underneath this pot. I'm going to make it hot. I'm going to kindle the fire. I'm going to cook the meat well, not just kind of medium or rare, you know. I'm going to cook it well. It's going to be well done. That is that the people are going to experience the judgment of God as the heat is going to come on them.

is turned up within the city. And he says, let the cuts be burned up. That meat is going to be burned up. The meat is going to be judged. The people are going to be judged as Nebuchadnezzar has laid siege to the city. Now the heat is turning on. It's going to get hot. The people are going to, as God said, be turned over to the sword, to famine, to wild beasts, and to pestilence.

Many of them are going to be put to death. A few of them will be scattered. Some of them will be taken captive. But the majority will experience death as a result of this rebellion that has been going on within the city.

And so he says they're going to be burned up. And then in verse 11, he says, now, after the meat's all cooked, he said, then I'm going to take the pot that's empty and I'm going to set it on the coals and I'm going to continue to heat up the fire. It's going to be hot. And the reason is so that the filthiness may be melted within it and that its scum may be consumed.

Again, God's judgment is to deal with the sin that is going on. And so when Jerusalem conquered, with the people spread out, now he's dealing with, he's getting rid of that scum, that iniquity, that sin and rebellion of the people. And so that's pictured by this pot being empty, but put on the coals to continue to be hot and to continue to burn.

in order to deal with the scum. I kind of picture it, maybe you could relate a little bit, like a self-cleaning oven. You know how that works, right? You hit the clean button on your oven and what does it do? It just heats it up to like 4,000 degrees and just burns, you know? It doesn't come out with sponges and scrubs and you'll go and scrub your oven. What it does is it just burns it all to a crisp in order to clean it, to cleanse it. And that's the idea of what's happening with the pot and that's what's

what's happening with Jerusalem, that it's just being completely burned to a crisp with God's judgment in order to get rid of the scum, in order to get rid of the sin of the people.

He says in verse 13, because I have cleansed you and you were not cleansed. The reason for this judgment and the severity of it is God has been working with them, calling them to repentance. He's been cleansing them. He's been scrubbing. He's been sending the prophets, calling them back to repentance, calling their attention to their rebellion, showing them how they're disobeying him.

He's been even allowing areas of their life and areas of their nation to be conquered and destroyed and all the while proclaiming to them to turn and to get right. He's been seeking to cleanse them. But he says, you were not cleansed. They refused. They refused to let go of their sin. They refused to let go of their rebellion.

Again, the idea is God says, look, I tried warm water, I tried a sponge, I got out the Windex and then the 409 when that didn't work and when the 409 didn't work out, then I got the bleach and I got some steel wool and I was scrubbing, trying to get rid of the scum, trying to clean up the city, to clean up that pot.

But you would not be clean. You ever have that happen? You know, there's something and you're trying to clean it and no matter what you do, you just can't get it clean. That's the idea here. That's the picture that God is giving. That's the visual. And so now what He's going to do is He's going to turn up the heat.

I've done that before. When there's stuff, you know, maybe in a pot or in a pan and I've cooked it too long and I've burnt it and, you know, got it stuck really good to the skillet, then what I do is I just put some water in it and I turn up the heat and I let it boil and then I scrub it right after. I pour out the hot water after it's boiled and, you know, then it cleans up real nicely. That's what God's doing here. He's saying, look, I'm bringing this severe judgment in order to deal with the scum, in order to deal with the sin.

In verse 14, he says, look, it's going to happen. I've spoken it. I'm the Lord. It will come to pass. I will do it. This is going to happen. He says, I will not hold back. I will not relent. According to your ways and according to your doings. God says, this judgment is going to happen as a result of your disobedience. There's no getting around it now. There's no getting out of it. I've tried to cleanse you, but you refused to be cleansed. Verse 15.

He moves on into a new direction here in verse 15. He says, Also the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes with one stroke. Yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears run down. Sigh in silence. Make no mourning for the dead. Bind your turban on your head and put your sandals on your feet. Do not cover your lips and do not eat man's bread of sorrow.

So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died, and the next morning I did as I was commanded.

Here as we go to the last half of chapter 24, it gets a little bit heavy. It gets pretty serious, as if the first part wasn't serious and heavy enough, considering the judgment that God is bringing upon Jerusalem. God is now giving another visual. First he gave the boiling pot of meat as an example to the people, but

But now he's giving another example to the people that they would understand his message, that it would be clear to them what God is saying as an illustration that it might be clear where they stand with the Lord and what is going on. And what is this second illustration? Well, it's a heavy one. He tells Ezekiel, Ezekiel, I'm going to take away from you the desire of your eyes with one stroke. What does that mean?

Well, he explains it very clearly there in verse 18. He says, I spoke to the people in the morning. Now, that's probably the things that God told him in the first part of chapter 24. That's probably what he spoke to them in the morning. And then that evening, he said, my wife died. And the next morning I did as I was commanded. God says, Ezekiel, I'm going to take away the desire of your eyes. In other words, Ezekiel, your wife is going to die. She's going to die tonight.

I'm going to take her away from you, Ezekiel. Let that sink in for just a moment. Put yourself in Ezekiel's shoes. You're Ezekiel. You've got this hard ministry. You've been proclaiming the message. This is not a judgment for Ezekiel's sin. This is not a judgment for Ezekiel's wife's sin. It's not for sin. It's for a sign to be an illustration to the message that God is bringing to this people.

He says, Ezekiel, your wife is going to die. Not only is your wife going to die, as if that weren't enough. He says, Ezekiel, when your wife dies, you are not to mourn for her. You shall not mourn, neither shall you weep, nor shall your tears run down. Can you visualize that? Can you put yourself in Ezekiel's shoes? Can you understand that this command would be incredibly difficult?

That what God is proclaiming to Ezekiel right now is probably the most difficult thing of all of his ministry. And yet notice the end of verse 18. He says, And that evening my wife died, and the next morning I did as I was commanded. We always use the phrase, God's calling is his enabling. As God commands Ezekiel, and this is the most difficult thing. As God commands Ezekiel and Ezekiel,

You could, putting yourself in his shoes, think that's not possible. How could I lose my wife and not weep, not mourn, not let my tears run down? How is that possible? When God commands us to do something, he enables us to complete it. And that's something we need to understand because there's a lot of things that we look at in the scriptures and we think, yeah, I know I'm supposed to do that. Yeah, I know that's a command, but I can't do that.

The reality is we have what we need to obey God's commands if we will rely upon Him instead of ourselves for our strength. I did as I was commanded. Amazing. Now as I was considering this and visualizing this, I began to put it into our generation. I began to wonder, what would we think and what would we say about Ezekiel

If he was in our generation, if we were watching this happen, what would we think of Ezekiel? His wife dies. The next morning, he buries his wife. We're there looking on. We're there watching. He's not weeping. What would you think about him? What judgments would we come to? What would we consider about his life or about this man? What would the media say?

What would our Christian society say if you could call it that? What would, you know, Christianity Today and the radio talk show hosts and all of these people with all of their opinions, what would the Christian journalists say about Ezekiel? What would we consider about Ezekiel? What would we believe about him? How could he not weep at his own wife's funeral? That's terrible. He must be cold-hearted.

Maybe we would even venture out to say, there must be another woman on the side that he's glad his wife's out of the way. Now he can see this other woman. As you consider this picture, as you make it real in your mind, Ezekiel not weeping for his wife. Imagine what the people thought. Imagine what we would think. Now, you and I, we have this problem where we think that we are the experts in what other people are supposed to do.

And so looking on, very likely we'd have some very strong opinions. I think it would be good for us to consider and remember Romans chapter 14 verse 4, where Paul tells us, You know, there's a lot of things that we don't know anything about. And looking on the outward, we would look at Ezekiel and we would have our opinions and we would have our judgments.

We would come to our own conclusions not knowing all the facts. We don't know. As we look at other people and their situations and what they're doing and what they're going through, you know, it's so often, it's all over the place. I hear all kinds of opinions and thoughts about what other people are doing and how that's wrong or how it's not right or how we wouldn't do it that way. Listen.

It's not our place. Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. We don't know the whole picture. And we don't know that God hasn't told those people to do those things that we are so against or that we think is so wrong. Because sometimes God even tells a prophet, Hey, your wife is going to die and I don't want you to weep. Don't let your tears run down. Don't mourn. That's not what God tells everybody. But to this prophet, to Ezekiel,

That's what he tells him. And what does it say? I did as I was commanded. Ezekiel was obedient to the Lord. Would you be obedient to the Lord to this extent? Will you obey God even if he asks this of you? Consider some of the things that the prophets were commanded by God to do. Isaiah, as we went through him, he was commanded by God to name his children some funky and crazy names in order to be assigned to the people.

Some of you are going to be having children in the near future. Would you be willing to obey God and name your child some weird crazy name that says, you know, the Lord's going to judge you? Oh, he's such a beautiful little boy. What's his name? The Lord's going to judge you. Would you be willing? Would you be obedient if God instructed you? Would you obey God to that extent? Hosea. Some of you single people, listen to this one. Hosea was commanded by God to go and find a prostitute and marry her.

And then when she was unfaithful and she goes and she goes back into prostitution, he was commanded by God to go and get her out of prostitution to buy her back and bring her back home as his wife. Would you obey God to that extent?

Are you willing to lay down your life enough to obey God regardless of the cost and regardless of the emotions and regardless of the feelings and the society and the opinions and the friends and everything else? Are you willing to obey God at all costs? Jeremiah was commanded not to marry. Better listen to that one, single people. Are you willing to obey God if he says, I don't want you to get married? Are you willing to obey God if he says, your spouse is going to die and I don't want you to weep? I don't want you to mourn.

And so you say, well, I'm glad I'm not Ezekiel or Isaiah or Jeremiah, but understand, this is what Jesus said. Look, if anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. This is not what God requires only of the super special elite, but this is what God requires of us all. Not that he commands every one of us to do exactly these things, but he calls us to be willing to obey him at all costs, regardless of the command. Some of the commands that God gives us, they're difficult, they're impossible without him, but with him,

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. I want to encourage you this evening. As we consider this, there's more to come here as we look at this account here of Ezekiel's wife dying. We need to be willing to obey God in the same way that Ezekiel was, regardless of the cost, regardless of if it's painful or hurtful or hard or difficult. We need to obey God. In verse 19 says,

It says, And the people said to me, Will you not tell us what these things signify to us that you behave so?

Then I answered them, the word of the Lord came to me saying, speak to the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God, behold, I will profane my sanctuary, your arrogant boast, the desire of your eyes, the delight of your soul, and your sons and daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword. And you shall do as I have done, and you shall not cover your lips nor eat man's bread of sorrow.

Verse 24, Here the people now come up to Ezekiel. His wife has died. In the morning he buries her.

He's not mourning. He's not weeping. He's being obedient to God and the people know something is up. They say, what does this mean? How can you be acting this way? How is it that you are not mourning for your wife? I was talking about this with Pastor Sisko earlier. So, your wife has died. God commands you not to mourn. Not only that, he says, I want you to teach at the service tomorrow. Tough job Ezekiel has here.

That's tough. The people come to him and say, what does this mean? And now, Ezekiel, you're on. Here's time to preach the message that I've given to you. And Ezekiel is sold out to the Lord. He's fully surrendered to the Lord. This is what we need. And as he is approached by the people saying, what does this mean? He gives them the message that God has given to him. God says, I'm going to profane my sanctuary.

Back in Jerusalem, the temple, it's going to be profaned. It's going to be destroyed. Now, the sanctuary, the temple, was the desire of their eyes. It was what they longed for. It was what they took pride in. It's the reason why they thought Jerusalem will never be conquered because they said, and the false prophet said, God won't allow His temple to be profaned. But God says, that's exactly what I'm going to do.

I'm going to take away the desire of your eyes. Just like I took away the desire of Ezekiel's eyes and his wife, you're longingly and lovingly looking at the temple. I'm going to take it away, God says. It's going to be destroyed. The delight of your soul. And not only that, your sons and your daughters whom you left behind, they're going to fall by the sword. And so he's speaking to some of the parents of the people who are back in Jerusalem and he says they're going to die by the sword.

And how are the people going to respond? In verse 22, God says, You shall do as I have done. You shall not cover your lips nor eat man's bread of sorrow. Your turbans will be on your heads. All of these things that he's referring to are the customary rituals of mourning for their culture, for their generation. They would have these loud wailings and weepings. They would dress a certain way. They would eat a certain kind of food. Ezekiel is participating in none of those customary things.

And he says, you're not going to do that either. When you find out that your sons and daughters have been put to death and the temple is destroyed. Instead, he said, you shall pine away with your iniquities and mourn with one another. Now in verse 23, he uses the word mourn twice. It's two different words. He says, you shall neither mourn nor weep. And that means to wail loudly or to weep loudly. That's the idea of the mourning there.

Then he says, instead you're going to pine away in your iniquities and mourn with one another. That idea of mourning is the idea of groaning or growling, grumbling. It's a quiet mourning as opposed to the other one which is a loud and open wailing. That was common for their sorrow or their funerals, that they would have these loud wailings.

And so what God is saying is that not that they won't mourn, not that they won't weep, but they won't have the loud and elaborate shows of mourning. They will pine away in their iniquities. They're going to waste away in their iniquities and they're just going to groan with one another. So devastated by...

The announcement that their children have been put to death and that the temple is gone. That they won't follow their customary traditions. Instead, that they are going to mourn and to growl, to groan together over the tragedy. And he says in verse 24, Thus Ezekiel is assigned to you. And so again, God is giving Ezekiel and his wife and the death of his wife and the command not to mourn as an illustration to this message.

As an illustration that this is how you are going to behave when I bring the judgment that I've been promising because today the siege began and now it's all coming to pass. And he says at that time, at the end of verse 24, you shall know that I am the Lord God. This is something that will stand out in their minds. This will be clear in their minds so that when they hear about it, when they hear the final news that Jerusalem has fallen, they'll look back and they'll remember. Just like what happened to Ezekiel.

This is what the people are doing. And at that time, God says, then you will know that I am the Lord. And what a difficult thing. God was going to use this difficult thing that Ezekiel was going to go through to speak a loud and profound message to the people who were there captive in Babylon. And it was going to have an impact because later on, there is a group of people. When the command is given, hey Jews, you can go back to Jerusalem.

When Cyrus sets them free, there's a group of people that turn and that go back to Jerusalem, that rebuild the temple, that rebuild the city, that turn back to God. And so, in the end, it's worth it. From Ezekiel's perspective, he would say it's worth it because there were the people of Israel who knew that he was the Lord as a result of my obeying his command.

as a result of my obedience to the Lord, even through great difficulty and turmoil. Verse 25.

He says,

And so another sign that God was giving to them was the opening of Ezekiel's mouth, that he would not be mute any longer. He says, "...on that day there's going to be a messenger who comes."

Now we will get to that in Ezekiel chapter 33 verses 21 and 22. This messenger comes with the declaration that Jerusalem has fallen, that the city has been conquered and leveled and the temple has been destroyed. And so that's going to come to pass. We'll see it in a few chapters when we get there. But he says, On that day...

When you hear it, he says, you will no longer be mute. Now, back in Ezekiel chapter 3, when God was commissioning Ezekiel and calling him to this ministry, in chapter 3, verse 26 and 27, God tells Ezekiel that your tongue is going to cling to the roof of your mouth and you're going to be mute, that you won't be able to speak except you're

In chapter 3, verse 27 of Ezekiel, he says, But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord. And so God had Ezekiel in a very specific position, that he could only speak when God spoke to him. Wouldn't that be nice? I think I would like that. He couldn't just talk, he couldn't just chat, he couldn't just ramble, he could only speak, Thus says the Lord. This is what God has said. Other than that, he was mute.

So he was only able to speak what God was declaring through him. Well, God says, when Jerusalem has fallen, because remember, he's been proclaiming all of these judgments about the fall of Jerusalem. And now when that's fulfilled, when the messenger comes and declares to the people, then your tongue will be loosed and you'll be able to have normal conversations. And that's going to be a sign to the people. And then they're going to know that I am the Lord. When they see this miraculous thing take place, when for...

A long period of time, Ezekiel only spoke, thus saith the Lord. And then now, he's been set free. He's been loosed. So that he can have regular conversations as a sign to the people that it's God who is doing these things. That they need to turn to Him. That they need to be submitted to Him. Then they will know, he says, that I am the Lord. Then they're going to recognize me as the Lord. Then they'll turn. Then they'll repent. And again, it worked. God got their attention.

And later there would be those who would go back, who turned back to God, who went back to Jerusalem, who rebuilt the temple, who involved themselves in the worship of God. And so God used Ezekiel and he took him through some very difficult things. But it was so that others might be saved, that others might turn to the Lord. As we consider these things here in chapter 24, there's a lot going on here, a lot of heaviness that we could consider. But as we

consider these things, I kind of narrow it down to, when will you know that he is the Lord? You see, Ezekiel knew that he was the Lord. And that's why he was able to do as he was commanded. Because he was surrendered to God. He was completely sold out. He didn't hold nothing back. He was willing to do whatever God wanted him to do. That's what it means for him to be our Lord.

The people did not know that he was the Lord because they were in rebellion against him. And so even though God was speaking to them, they refused to obey. Even though they would declare him Lord, their lives demonstrated that they did not know that he is the Lord. In the same way, as we look at our own hearts this evening, when will you know that he is the Lord? What will it take? Will it take judgment? Like the people of Israel,

Israel had to go through, the people of Judah. Will it take that kind of judgment, that type of cleansing, in order for you to finally know that He is the Lord? Or can you and I be like Ezekiel, where right now we submit to Him our whole hearts and our whole lives, and without reservation we throw ourselves into His arms and say, Lord, You have Your will, and I will obey You regardless of the cost, no matter what it takes.

No matter how much it hurts, I will obey you because you are Lord. You are the master. I am the servant. God has been having us go through all of these passages on Wednesday evenings because He is seeking to cleanse us. Will you be cleansed? Or will you hold on to the gunk so that He has to set that empty pot on the fire? Don't bring yourself to a meltdown by just persisting in rebellion and disobedience.

Don't put God in that position where He has to take your life because He loves you too much to leave you the way that you are and to leave you the way that He found you. And so He's working on that gunk and that scum in our lives. He's cleaning us up. And we can submit to it and surrender to Him or we can fight it and endure the fire. When will you know that He is the Lord? We can submit to Him now and be cleansed and allow Him to do that work in our lives and be obedient to Him in all things.

at all costs. Where's your commitment with the Lord this evening? The worship team is going to come up and lead us in a song and I would ask you to consider that. Where is your commitment with the Lord? Do you know that He is the Lord? Are you fully surrendered to Him this evening? Is your life and your commitment to the Lord anything like the prophet Ezekiel's? Because that's the commitment that God requires from every one of His followers.

It's not that Ezekiel was this super incredible guy. He was a normal person just like you and I, fully sold out to the Lord like God expects from every one of us. Does your life, does your heart look anything like Ezekiel's? Let's take this time to examine our hearts, to recommit ourselves to the Lord, to fully surrender to Him, to allow Him to have full reign in our lives so that we say, Lord,

Your wish is my command. I will obey you no matter what. Let's let that be our commitment to the Lord this evening. Let's recognize Him as Lord and fully submit to Him as we worship Him together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.