From deception to Ezekiel's weird, wacky ways

"Ezekiel is a fascinating prophet with fascinating prophecies. Just as a prophet, he's a great illustration of a guy who's a stern kind of a character. When you compare him to Jeremiah, Jeremiah's a man filled with passion who would weep and cry out. Ezekiel is more of a staid business-suit kind of a guy who's real serious about things.

"When you see the Lord take this guy and do some real weird and wacky things with him, it's really strange.

"In the Bible, more often than not the meaning of a person's name has some spiritual significance about why it's used that way and the name Ezekiel means 'strengthened by God.'

"Ezekiel was part of the Babylonian captivity. Ezekiel 1:1: [1] Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

Ezekiel 3:15: [15] Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

"Tel-abib was a community established by the Babylonians for the captives to live in. It's an Israeli colony just north of Babylon and that's where Ezekiel actually resides.

"Ezekiel is to prophesy and preach to people who have been taken from Jerusalem and Israel into Babylonian captivity. They were in deception because they had been believing the lies the false prophets had prophesied.

"First they said, 'God isn't going to let us go into captivity,' and then after they went into captivity they said, 'He isn't going to leave us here; we're going to be able to go back. I mean, we're Israel! We're the chosen nation of God in the earth. These crummy Gentiles can't do anything to us.'

"What they were saying was, 'Nebuchadnezzar is not going to come and destroy us.' But Jeremiah had told them, 'Yeah, he is. The captivity is coming; the fifth course of judgment is coming on you,' and Jeremiah plead with them in the land.

Ezekiel 3: [24] Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house.

[25] But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them:
[26] And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.
[27] But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

"God's saying, 'You're going to be a sign unto them and what they see you do is what they're going to do.'

"Involved in the prophecy Ezekiel does, he gives them a group of signs because they're not ready to hear what he's saying to them. Actually, there's about 12-15 of them, but there are 8 or 9 of them that are just weird.

"Stupid things, crazy, that when you look at them you say, 'This guy Ezekiel, he had to have had some kind of . . . ' At least the Lord had a sense of humor for the really strange things He put him through.

Verses 22-23: [22] And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee.

[23] Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face.

"A plain is a low place. When we studied Luke 6 there was also a sermon in the plain; the counterpart of the Sermon on the Mount. The message is you're in a low place you have to get to through many obstacles and it's a picture of the captivity, the tribulation.

"Ezekiel is going to have vision after vision where's he transported from the river Chebar back to Jerusalem and other places.

"The first thing God tells Ezekiel to do is, 'Go shut yourself up in your house and when you do, Israel's going to come and they're going to bind you up so you can't get out, but I don't want you to get out; I want you to lock yourself in your house.'

"Now, if he's got a message for them and he's locked in the house, who's going to hear it? They're going to have to go to his house to get the message, so immediately God's going to limit the message Ezekiel's going to be able to give to those who are willing to hear.

"The rest of the people, they don't want to listen to Ezekiel. They are a rebellious people and when Ezekiel goes out among them they bind him up. Their unbelief binds him so he can't speak and is as good as dumb to them, so God makes him dumb.

"Here you've got a prophet where the first thing God tells him he's got to do is, 'Lock yourself in your house, padlock the door, don't give anybody the code. Go sit in the basement, turn out the lights, don't let anybody know you're there.'

"That's not exactly what you think the prophet of Israel ought to be doing and beside that, 'When they come and try to hear I'm going to make you dumb where you can't talk.' "

(to be continued)