Sermon Tone Analysis

Ezekiel 14

*Introduction*

Last week we were encouraged from Ezekiel that God is a sovereign God, that He is the Lord of all the earth, the Lord of nations and the Lord of our lives.

One of the implications of that understanding is that we believe that God acts.

Remember last week when we mentioned that God promised and then carried through on His promise to punish Tyre for their wickedness?

One of the difficult things about the understanding that God is sovereign and acts is that we don’t always understand how God works.

I don’t know about your experience, but sometimes the acts of God confuse me.

For example, I don’t understand why I and my children did not have a grandfather.

I do not know why did two generations of men in my family died young?

I don’t understand why some relationships with people go so very wrong.

Why couldn’t God help those people get together and work things out?

I don’t understand why we have had two bad farming years in a row.

It seems that in farming there are always challenges, but I don’t understand why God allowed the crop failure of last year on top of a poor year previous to that.

When God acts, are you confused or consoled?

The questions are many and I have to admit that sometimes I am confused about what God is doing in the world and even in my life.

I can understand that there is a sense in which that is OK because God is bigger than we are.

Isaiah 55:9 says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I can accept that there is mystery about who God is, but sometimes the mystery is just too much and God’s actions don’t seem to make sense.

What do we do when we find God confusing?

How do we respond?

Ezekiel 14:23 says, “You will be consoled, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause.”

This statement of consolation was made at a time when God’s actions were very confusing and so this passage gives us some direction for such times.

*I.* *Confusion and Consolation*

There are two stories in Ezekiel 14.

They both have something to say about God’s confusing actions and about His consolation.

*A.* *The Story of Ezekiel 14:1-11*

*1.* *Confusion*

We had previously noted that there are times when the elders of the exiles in Babylon came to Ezekiel to listen to him and to see what the word of God was for them.

If you turn back to Ezekiel 8, you will see one occasion on which the elders came to him and you will notice that God spoke to them about what was going on in Jerusalem.

In Ezekiel 14:1 we read that these elders came to Ezekiel again, but this time the word of the Lord to these elders was quite different.

It was very disturbing.

God told Ezekiel that he was not going to talk to these men.

Since God had previously spoken to them, this seems to be a rather confusing response and we don’t quite understand what God is doing.

But immediately God explains His actions to Ezekiel.

He indicates that these very elders who have come to listen to a word from God have a serious spiritual problem.

As verse 3 says, “they have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces.”

It wasn’t that they had set up Asherah poles or carved Baal gods.

The idols were in their hearts.

One writer says, “their idolatry is a matter of their inner commitment rather than of cultic practice in worshipping idols.”

Although they came to Ezekiel for a word from God, they were hypocrites because in their hearts they were not interested in God, they were not worshipping God above all.

When God then warns that he will answer them in keeping with their great idolatry, which means that the word of God will be a word of judgement, we understand that.

We can accept that God is not going to speak instruction or comfort to those whose heart is not wholly directed toward Him.

We can understand that God judges those who are hypocrites.

The word of judgement is repeated in verses 7-8 and is even more explicit.

What will God do to a person who has sin in his heart and yet goes to a prophet of God to inquire of him?

God says, “I will set my face against that man and make him an example and a byword.

I will cut him off from my people.”

God will not tolerate such wickedness and hypocrisy.

We understand such actions of God, but the actions of God spoken about in the next section are much more difficult to understand.

We read in verses 9, 10 that if such a person goes to a prophet, God is going to speak false words through that prophet and then punish both the prophet and the person who listened to the prophet.

Now that is confusing!

Does it really mean that God is going to send a lying prophet and still hold the prophet and the inquirer guilty?

That is exactly what it says and we have to admit that we don’t understand that.

What is God doing?

This seems so out of character!

God does not lie and does not tempt people, but here it seems that this is exactly what he is doing!

How do we understand this?

We have to admit that here God’s actions are confusing.

*2.* *Consolation*

In spite of this confusing action, there is something important that is communicated throughout this whole passage.

In all of these actions, whether we understand them or not, God has a purpose.

Please take note of the purpose statements throughout this passage.

In verse 5 we read, “I will do this to…” That is a statement of purpose.

It tells us that God acts for a reason.

In verse 6 we read, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says…” Once again we see purpose.

Even the word “then” in verses 8 and 11 indicate that God has a purpose.

What is that purpose?

The purpose of God indicated in all of these verses is that God is doing these things so that the people who have idols in their heart, the people who are filled with sin will repent.

Verse 5 says, “I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people.”

God wants to draw people back to himself and his silence is intended to get people to realize what they are missing and long to come back to God.

Verse 6 gives God’s invitation to “Repent!

Turn from your idols…” God wants people to come back to him.

In verse 8 the purpose of God’s judgement is so that the people will know that God is the Sovereign Lord.

Even the confusing matter of God using lying prophets in verses 9,10 has the purpose of bringing them back to Him.

In verse 11 God says, “Then the people of Israel will no longer stray from me…they will be my people…”

So even though we are confused by the actions of God in this passage, yet we are consoled when we see that God has a purpose in all of His actions.

We are consoled when we see how deeply the heart of God longs for His people to return.

We are comforted when we understand that God will allow His people to go through some hard stuff if it will only bring them back to Him.

We see the compassion of God for His people.

Confusion exists, but consolation is not far behind as we understand the purposes of God.

*B.* *The Story of Ezekiel 14:12-23*

*1.* *Confusion*

The second story in Ezekiel 14 follows closely upon the first because it also speaks of God’s judgement on evil, which is, of course, the context of the whole first 33 chapters of Ezekiel.

In verses 12-20, Ezekiel states a general principle.

There is a literary rhythm in this passage.

There are four paragraphs in this section.

In the first one and in the last one the names of Noah, Daniel and Job are specifically mentioned.

In each paragraph, a new kind of judgement is mentioned.

In the first one it is famine, in the second wild beasts, in the third a sword and in the fourth a plague.

The four disasters are a common list in the ancient near east.

These literary variations, reinforce the same point throughout.

The word of warning is that if people sin and are unfaithful against God and God acts to bring judgement against them, even the prayers of righteous men will not prevent the judgement of God.

The connection with the previous section is that once again we are talking about the silence of God.

In the first place, God would not speak to those who were sinning.

In the second section, we find that God will not listen to the prayers of the righteous because of the wickedness of the people.

This is a little confusing in light of the story of Abraham in Genesis where he prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah.

He prayed that the righteousness of a few people – ten people – would allow God to spare the city and God listened to the prayer of righteous Abraham and agreed that for the sake of 10 righteous people he would spare the city.

Now he is saying something quite different.

God will not listen to the prayers of righteous men in order to spare the people.

That is confusing but only a little because we know that God is just to destroy the wicked.