Sermon Tone Analysis

*A Living Illustration*

(of God's love and secondary virginity)

*Hosea                            December 8, 2002*

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*Scripture Reading:*

 

*Introduction:*

 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

They say this because with one glance you can observe what it takes a thousand words to fully describe.

There is great economy in the communication that a picture provides.

We use pictures this way all the time.

When you have guests over you often will show them pictures of family events.

You can go on for quite some time describing your children or grandchildren – about how cute they are with their chubby little cheeks, little bow legs, and looks that seem to say there is a lot more going on in their little minds than they let on.

Showing the pictures is really the graceful way out of what might be much more boring if you were to describe it all to your guests.

Not that they aren't truly interested, but economy is important here if you really want to keep your friends.

It is the same at Christmas or a birthday party when your child opens that special gift and you catch that "one time in a million look" forever on a picture.

Some of these are actually indescribable.

Or how about that vacation you took out West with the indescribable scenery of mountains and deserts and forests?

Who can really describe the true color and majesty of God's creation?

Or, let's switch the template around a little, and talk about pictures of AIDS stricken babies in Africa, or bodies strewn in the streets of the war-torn city of Man in the Ivory Coast, or the carnage of a bus bombing in Jerusalem.

The horror of these events defies description, let alone our imagination.

Now God shows us pictures too.

Only God doesn't use a camera.

He creates pictures with words written in the Bible.

It is like a reverse technology.

God is able to multiply the impact of his instruction (a teaching moment) by the use of a few words to describe a living illustration.

He allows us to picture this living illustration in our minds.

He uses illustrations from life that we can all identify with – and learn from.

Since they are familiar to us, he can use an economy of words to describe them.

God used all his prophets especially and particularly in this way.

In the book of Ezekiel alone there are 12 symbolic acts that speak the truth of God's judgment against the idolatry and rebellion of his people more loudly than the words necessary to tell us about them.

Because of their rebellion the people would be taken into captivity by Babylon.

3:22-26       Ezekiel would be bound in his house so he couldn't go out among the people to rebuke them, and he would be also physically unable to speak because of their rebellion.

He would not be allowed to speak freely until after the fall of Jerusalem (24:27; 33:22).

God would open loosen his tongue after that time so he would be able to tell the people, "Whoever will listen, let him listen, and whoever will refuse, let him refuse; for you are a rebellious house."

For now he would be unable to speak without a direct word from God.

This enforced silence underscored Israel's stubborn refusal to take God's word seriously – but God would speak anyway, and when he spoke it would be serious.

For now, the primary way God would speak would be through the enactment of prophecy by Ezekiel without words.

The people would have to figure it out for themselves since they wouldn't listen to words.

4:1-3           He was to take a clay tablet and make a map of the city of Jerusalem and make model siege works, ramps, camps, and battering rams against it.

Then he was to put an iron pan between him and the city as an iron wall to symbolize the unbreakable strength of the siege as he turned his own face toward the siege to show that it was God himself who was laying the siege against it.

It was God's unbreakable iron will besieging the city because of the people's unrelenting rebellion.

4:4-8           He was to lie on his left side (facing the northern kingdom) for 390 days to symbolically take the sin of Israel upon himself for the years of their rebellion (from Solomon to the fall of Jerusalem), and he was to lie on his right side for 40 days to symbolically take the sin of Judah upon himself for the years of their rebellion (the years of Manasseh's wickedness until his repentance).

Taken together, the 430 years were the years the nation was under foreign dominion from the Babylonian exile of 597 B.C. (Jehoiachin's deportation) to the Maccabean rebellion of 167 B.C.

He was to turn his face toward the siege of Jerusalem and prophesy against her with bared arm without words while being tied down so he could not turn until the days of siege were completed.

4:9-11         He was to take various grains and seeds in a storage jar to make bread to eat while he was lying on his side, weighing out very meager portions to eat at set times, as well as water from a jar, to show the meager provisions of a besieged city.

Their supply of food and water would be cut off, the people would ration what was left, and they would be appalled at the sight of each other as they wasted away because of their sin.

4:12-14       He was told by God to use human excrement for fuel to bake his bread to show the people they would eat defiled food among the nations where they would be driven.

But at Ezekiel's protest against his own defilement, God allowed him to use cow manure instead.

5:1-3           He was to take a sharp sword to use as a barber's razor to shave his head and beard, then weigh the hair to divide it in thirds.

When the siege would come to an end he was to burn a third of the hair in the city, strike a third with a sword around the city, and scatter a third to the wind.

But a few strands he was to tuck inside his garment.

This was a pagan ritual for the dead, a sign of mourning, humiliation and disgrace, forbidden by the law, and a sign of unholy defilement.

This would show the defilement and humiliation of Judah and their death as a nation.

Nothing was left to do but mourn.

One third of the people would be burned along with Jerusalem and one third killed with the sword.

Out of the last third taken into captivity, one third of that would die by fire and a third by the sword in captivity, but a remnant of the remnant would come through by the grace of God.

 

          12:1-16       He was to dig through the wall of his house with his belongings packed as one being deported into exile.

He was to cover his face as one who would no longer see the land.

These things symbolized what would take place with King Zedekiah who tried to escape through a hole in the wall, was caught, and had his eyes put out.

It would be a sign to the people that they would be taken into captivity.

12:17-20     He was to tremble as he ate his food and shudder in fear as he drank his water as a sign that the people would be in anxiety as they ate and in despair as they drank because the land would be stripped of everything and laid waste unto desolation.

21:6-7         He was to groan before the people with a bitter heart of grief because of the news that would come before which every heart will melt, every hand go limp, every spirit become faint, and every knee become weak.

This news was the coming slaughter of Jerusalem by the sword of Babylon.

21:18-24     He was to mark out two roads for options that Babylon would consider; whether to go conquer the Ammonites or to go conquer Jerusalem.

The king of Babylon would cast an omen at the juncture of the two roads with the lot going to Jerusalem for her capture, although the people would believe it to be a false omen.

Things in Jerusalem as the people knew them would be reversed: the lowly would be exalted and the exalted brought low.

Everything would become a ruin until the coming of the Messiah – him to whom it rightfully belongs.

24:15-24     He was to lose his wife, the delight of his eyes, with the blow of sudden death.

He was not to grieve or weep, but only groan quietly, not mourning the dead.

He was not to cover his face or eat the food of mourners or show grief by any customary action so that the people would understand God was about to deal the death blow to the stronghold of their pride, the delight of their eyes, the object of their affection.

Their sanctuary would be desecrated and their children killed.

The people would only be able to weep silently among themselves and waste away in grief because of the knowledge of their sins.

After this, when the first of the fugitives would arrive from Jerusalem to Babylon, Ezekiel would have his mouth opened as a further sign so the people would know that the Lord, He is God.

37:15-28     He was to take two sticks of wood and write Judah on one and Ephraim (Israel) on the other.

Then he was to join them together as one stick as a sign that God would re-gather the exiles and rejoin the divided nation in their own land with one king over them, never again to be divided or defiled.

God would save them from their sin and cleanse them as his people and be their God with his servant David as king over them.

They would have one shepherd over them forever in everlasting covenant.

The dwelling of God would be among them forever so the nations would know that he is the God that makes Israel holy.

As if these 12 living illustrations were not enough word from God on the subject, Ezekiel also contains 4 visions and 5 parables as additional opportunity for conviction.

But you get the picture.

Ezekiel shows us God's judgment of sin as well as his eventual act of grace.

Even through it all, God's love never leaves.

God must act against sin, but he desires to restore.

And he will and he does.

There is another living illustration I want to bring to you this morning.

It is in the book of Hosea.

It shows, perhaps more than any other living illustration in the OT, the persistence of God's love up until the time he must act against sin if he still be God.

This takes place before the events of Ezekiel.

Hosea prophesies to the northern kingdom of Israel before they are taken into captivity by Assyria because of idolatry.

God has been persistent in this matter all along with both the divided kingdoms.

Here we see sin characterized as adultery in our relationship with God.

God's people live with him and relate to him in a covenant relationship best characterized as a marriage relationship.

In the NT we are in a new covenant relationship with God through the blood of Jesus Christ where we, the church, are his bride, and he is our bridegroom.

“ You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’

The bride belongs to the bridegroom.

The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.

That joy is mine, and it is now complete.

He must become greater; I must become less.

"The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth.

The one who comes from heaven is above all.”

(John 3:28-31 NIVUS)