Flight EZE01 - Part B

There's a principle here. Anyone who speaks for God effectively must first internalize the truth of God for themselves. The preacher must preach first to the preacher and then to everybody else. Jeremiah 15 said, your words were found and I did eat them and they were to me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart. God calls the church to proclaim his word but we must remember to follow his word with our lives. Today on Connect with Skip Heising, Skip shares a vital lesson about living by and sharing God's truth. Right now we want to tell you about a special resource that reveals how Jesus' resurrection brings you hope even now. It's pretty obvious that this world is filled with imperfect people and that's on purpose. God is into restoring human beings.

You know he could make perfect people and then populate heaven with perfect people but he doesn't do that. He takes people who are dinged up, who've been beat up, bruised by time, damaged by sin and he does a full resto job on them. Complete restoration. Celebrate the joy and beauty of redemption with the morning that changed everything with Skip Heising. This DVD collection of six hope-filled Easter weekend messages is our thanks to you when you give $35 or more today to help connect more people to God's word and the redeeming love of Jesus Christ. Restoration is based on redemption and redemption is tied to resurrection.

To give, call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now we're in the book of Ezekiel as we get into the message with Skip Heising. Now the Hebrew term for this vision and you see it's a vision of the glory of God of the throne of God. It's called the Merkabah. Some of you are familiar with the Merkabah or the Merkabah. It is the chariot, the divine chariot, the throne car of God. I bring it up merely to state if you ever delve into Talmudic interpretations, especially the mystical writings or a really weird subset of Judaism called the Kabbalah, Kabbalistic Judaism. It's very mystical and it's all centered around what this is. It's all about this vision in Ezekiel chapter 1 and 10 and there's weird interpretations.

No need, no desire to even get into it just to touch on it. Verse 10, as for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man, each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, each had the of the four had the face of an ox on the left side, each of the four had the face of an eagle. Now he's got our attention.

Now it's sounding more familiar but let's read on. Thus were their faces, their wings stretched upward, two wings of each one touched one another and the two covered their bodies and each one went straight forward. They went wherever the spirit wanted to go and they did not turn when they went.

Okay, pause. Think back to our study in the encampment of the children of Israel in the wilderness. In the wilderness there was the center of the camp, the tabernacle, and on all four sides the 12 tribes of Israel were divided into four main camps. Three tribes on the south, north, east, and west. And those three tribes on each side were under the banner of a single tribe. So on one side they were under the banner of the tribe of Judah whose insignia happened to be a lion. On another side they were under the banner of the tribe of Ephraim whose banner happened to be an ox. On the other side they were under the banner of the tribe of Reuben whose banner happened to be a man.

And on the final side they were under the banner of Dan whose banner happened to be an eagle. Fascinating so far, right? All of that gives to us at least an indication that maybe there's something to this. Is there more?

Yes there is. It seems that what we saw in the tabernacle, representing here by these cherubim, is a picture of the throne of God. And the tabernacle was a model, crude albeit, but a model of the throne of God.

Because when we fast forward to the book of Revelation we also have these four living creatures and the throne and the throne of God depicted in the book of Revelation. But what's beautiful is looking at the four gospels alongside all of that. Four gospels, not three, not five, four. The gospel of Matthew is the gospel of the kingdom. The kingdom is referred to more than any other book.

That's the lion. Then we have the gospel of Mark. The word immediately pops up a lot in that book and we see Jesus moving from place to place rapidly like a servant would.

And the animal of servitude was the ox. Then we come to the gospel of Luke written by a gentile doctor, especially with the Greeks in mind who idealized humanity and they were looking for the ideal man. And so the term son of man is used frequently by Luke. And then the most majestic, I believe, of all the gospels soaring above the other is the gospel of John who depicts Jesus as God the Son, God and human flesh, the divine, the deity of Christ.

And the end of that book says that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So again, I believe depicted in the gospels, seen in the tabernacle and in the book of Revelation and seen here in this vision form the presence of God, the full orb glory of God in these creatures. Verse 15, now as I looked at the living creatures, it gets weirder.

It gets really cool weird. Behold a wheel was on the earth beside each living creature with its four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their workings was like the color of beryl, kind of a goldish yellow, and all the four had that same likeness.

The appearance of their workings was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel, like a wheel going in one direction and a wheel going in another direction. Now this is a wild vision and I have to give you full disclosure. Some have looked at this and believe this is proof positive of the existence of UFOs. I just wanted you, maybe some of you are looking at me puzzled, maybe you're among those who believe this is UFOs.

Don't know. I do know that 14% of Americans believe in the existence of UFOs. But I also know that 14% of Americans believe that they've seen Elvis before as well. So I don't think this is UFOs for a couple of reasons. Number one, Ezekiel has no problem identifying what this is in chapter 10. These are cherubim. These are angels that are around the throne of God and this is a picture of kind of a mobile throne of God, the presence of God dwelling with man. So it's not alien power, it's not horsepower, it's four cherub power, better than 400 horsepower.

I mean this thing is a magnificent designed entity. Verse 18, this is cool, as for the rims, come on, rims? God has mags? They were so high, they were awesome. And their rims were full of eyes. None of you have rims like that on your chariot. When the living creatures, verse 19, went, the wheels went beside them. When the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went because there the spirit went and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. So it speaks of sight, intelligence, the omniscience of God, I see in that. Okay, till now, Ezekiel has been just sort of looking at the body, the chassis, under the hood a little bit. Verse 28 tells us it's the appearance of the glory of God.

It's the appearance of the glory of God. Look at chapter 2, verse 1. And he said to me, son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak to you.

This is all that personal section. Chapter 1, God's hand is on him. Chapter 2, God speaks to him.

And chapter 3 as well. Then after that, chapter 4, he's going to speak through him. Son of man, he said to me, stand on your feet and I will speak to you. Now that term, son of man, I want to explain. It has a couple of different usages in the Bible.

I don't want you to get confused. Generally it means, and I say generally, especially in Ezekiel, because it pops up over 100 times in the book of Ezekiel. Son of man is a Hebraism, a Hebrew way of saying human being. You're just the son of Adam. The son of a human being, thus a human being. It's God's way of saying, I'm God, you're not. I'm God, you're a son of Adam. I'm God, you're a son of Adam.

He's just simply calling him out as a human being in generic terms. When we get to the book of Daniel, however, the term son of man will be used in chapter 7 in a very different manner. I'm just giving you a preview.

This is now the trailer at the beginning of the show. In chapter 7, Daniel sees a vision of the Ancient of Days, that is God Almighty, and the Son of Man comes to him. And God Almighty gives to the Son of Man in Daniel a kingdom, a dominion, a power that is everlasting. That is the kind of Son of Man that we read about when Jesus is called the Son of Man in the New Testament.

And you need to know that. When you read Son of Man in the New Testament, it's a reference to Daniel chapter 7. How do I know that?

Because when he said he was the Son of Man and he was called the Son of Man, the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him for assuming that title. If that just meant I'm a human being, they wouldn't. But if it meant I am saying that I am the fulfillment of Daniel 7, to whom the Ancient of Days will give an everlasting kingdom, that's different. So now you know the distinction, right? Now we can move on. Verse 2, then the Spirit entered me. This is all important. The Spirit, God's Spirit entered me when he spoke to me and set me on my feet. And I heard him who spoke to me and he said to me, Son of Man, I am sending you to the children of Israel.

Now hold that thought. If you think your calling in ministry is hard, maybe you have a home group that is just driving you nuts. I don't know if you are head of connect group and everybody hates you in that connect group.

I doubt that. But if you have a really tough group you're dealing with or Sunday school class you work with, oh these kids are driving. It's a hard calling. Or you're a visiting pastor and you think your church is like, you know, sent from not heaven.

Listen to this crowd. Son of Man, I'm sending you to the children of Israel to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. So Ezekiel is sent to those captives by the canal between the Tigris and Euphrates River. Chapter 3 is his commissioning. But it says the Spirit entered me in chapter 2 verse 2. Several times in this book it says the Spirit of God entered me.

This explains how Ezekiel was able to do what he did. How do you deal with this group of people? How do you put up with with this difficult ministry?

How do you lay on your side for a few hundred days and lay on your other side for a few hundred days? How do you say what he said? How do you withstand the taunts of these people?

You can't unless the Spirit of God enters you and enables you. Something else, I just I can't resist this. Look at verse 3. I'm sending you to the children of who? Children of Israel to a rebellious what?

Nation. Do you know what a goy is? Have you ever heard the term goy?

So some of you have. If you have Jewish friends or you've lived in Jewish communities, a goy is a Jewish word for a non-Jew, a Gentile. Goyim is the plural for lots of Gentiles or Gentile nations, right? What's interesting is I'm sending you to the children of Israel to a rebellious goyim. He uses the term for Israel that Israel used for rebellious nations, i.e. the Gentiles. God says, to me, you are like they are to you, rebellious against your God.

When God spoke of pagans, he spoke of ha-goyim, the nations. Okay, chapter 3 verse 1. Moreover, he said to me, son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel. You wouldn't expect parchment to taste very good.

If you've ever eaten a piece of paper, not good. Verse 2, so I opened my mouth and he caused me to eat that scroll and it goes on to say it was sweet to his taste. But there's a principle here. Anyone who speaks for God effectively must first internalize the truth of God for themselves. The preacher must preach first to the preacher and then to everybody else. Jeremiah 15 said, your words were found and I did eat them and they were to me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart. So he takes this message, internalizes it as seen in this vision of the scroll. Verse 17 of chapter 3, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel.

Therefore, hear a word from my mouth and give them warning from me. In ancient times, a watchman was an important person in any city. A city in those days was not large. It was quite small.

A city was a few acres with a wall around it and watchtowers in it and watchmen would stand in the watchtower and they would watch. That was their job. They'd look out.

It's not easy to do that. You know, we stop for a few moments. We take out our phone because we can't stand the boredom. We have to look at a screen.

Imagine just watching, watching, watching, watching, watching, watching, watching, no watches. To watch, just watching out there. To look for enemies.

To sound the alarm. They were called watchmen. In vineyards, there was a little watchtower and they got in the watchtower and they watched from the watchtower.

That's what they did. Their job was to watch, to see, and to speak if there was a problem. So the term watchman is a really good description of what a prophet did. In ancient times, prophets weren't called prophets. They were called seers in the early part of the Old Testament. A seer. Somebody who sees into the future and sees what the issue is with the people. Roa is the Hebrew word for see.

Seers. And then they were called prophets. The Hebrew word nabi, one who proclaims for God.

But you put both those roles together. Somebody who watches, sees, and somebody who speaks if there's danger and you have the term watchman. That's his job as a prophet. A watchman for the house of Israel. And as a watchman, he predicts in chapters 4 through 24 the fall of Jerusalem.

Very graphically. So we come to the second section in chapter 4, the correction of the problem. This is where the watchman tells the people in captivity, hey, you think we have it bad? It's going to get worse. The city of Jerusalem, you're not going back anytime soon. As Jeremiah has written you a letter already saying you're going to be here 70 years. He's right. You're going to be here a long time.

You're not going back. In fact, the city of Jerusalem is going to be destroyed. So chapter 4 verse 1, you also son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you and portray on it or draw a picture on this wet clay a city. Which city?

Jerusalem. Lay siege against it. Build a siege wall against it. And heap up a mound against it. Set camps against it also.

And place a battering ram or battering rams against it all around. A man, do you remember, as kids playing with army men? Anybody do that?

Okay. I'm not ashamed to do it. It was one of the best days of my life. Playing in the front yard, building little mounds, and playing with army men. Ezekiel got to do that. That was part of his calling.

It's kind of a cool job, right? What's my next sermon? You're going to play army. You're going to build a little model of a city and you're going to build battering rams and you're going to make all those noises and portray for the people what is really going to happen over in the city of Jerusalem.

You got to play war. Verse 4, lie also on your left side, lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it according to the number of the days that you lie on it. You shall bear their iniquity. For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity according to the number of the days, 390 days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. When you have completed them, lie again on your right side and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, 40 days.

I have laid on you a day for each year. So I'm guessing that he lay on one side facing north to depict the northern kingdom and next on his other side facing south to depict the southern kingdom of Judah. The question I get asked whenever I go through the book of Ezekiel teaching through it is, did he lay there 24 hours a day?

Probably not. He could have and then God would have had to supernaturally kept him from getting the cubitus sores that any patient lying in one position for a long time would get. But probably just during the daylight hours, the busiest part of the day, he laid on the side.

Then he got up and went home, did it again for a number of days and then switched sides. My guess, verse 12, and you shall eat, you shall eat it. This is a concoction he has to make. Eat it as barley cakes and bake it using fuel. So he has to make this meal of cakes using fuel of human waste. I don't want to be a prophet.

I'm declaring a non-profit organization, right? This is it. Well, Ezekiel is going to feel the same way. The Lord said, so shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the gentiles.

In other words, it's going to get so bad in Jerusalem and where I drive them in captivity later on. So I said, ah, Lord God. Indeed, I have never defiled myself from my youth till now. I've never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beast or has abominable flesh ever come into my mouth.

This sounds a lot like Peter. When he saw those unkosher things in that vision he saw, four-footed beast coming down on a sheet, and the Lord said, rise, Peter, kill and eat. And he, being obedient and acquiesced, said, not so, Lord. I've never done that.

What Ezekiel is saying is understandable. Look, I'm a priest. I'm kosher. I don't do human dung. I've never eaten like this.

I've never eaten food like this. Not so, Lord. Now, what is going on? God is portraying what life is going to be like when Jerusalem is under siege. Verse 15, then he said to me, see, I'm giving you cow dung. Isn't the Bible great? You who thought the Bible never has fun stuff in it.

This is pretty cool. God is saying, I'm giving you cow dung. Just mark that. Instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it. So what is God doing? He's making a gracious, gracious concession that he can cook on cow chips, cow dung.

It was a very gracious move, or I should say a gracious move, right, for that to happen. Some of these things you can't resist. By the way, in the Middle East today, some of the Arab tribes still cook over animal dung because of the scarcity of wood.

It dries out, and they use it for fires. This all to say the siege will be difficult. Chapter 6, the verse 7 describes the siege. The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

That is a dominant theme in this book. You shall know that I am the Lord. 60 times in this book, God is saying, I'm going to get this message through your thick, rebellious skulls. I am the Lord. That's the purpose of the captivity, to get them to know he is the Lord.

And it worked. When they returned from captivity, they never went into this blanket kind of idolatry ever again. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series The Bible from 30,000 Feet. Now we want to share about an exciting way you can help encourage others by keeping teachings like today's broadcasts going strong. Do you want to see lost souls brought out of the darkness of this world to encounter the light of Jesus?

Because that's what you'll make possible through your support today. Your gift helps bring thousands closer to Christ as you help them grow in God's word so they can experience new life in him. Give a gift now to share the good news of Jesus with more friends like you. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you. Come back tomorrow as Skip Heitzig explores Ezekiel's prophecy that God would regather his chosen people and shares how God invites you to be a part of his family. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.