Sermon Tone Analysis
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INTRODUCTION
says...
One of my teachers would make us write each of our spelling words 25 times.
At least one one occasion, I tried to shortcut the process by writing each letter, one at a time, down the page.
Then I would come back with the next letter in the word and write it down the page.
So if the word was “repeat,” I would write the “r” 25 times and then do the “e” 25 times, then the “p,” etc.
The problem with that approach was that it was “d - u - m”!
My teacher explained to me that writing the letters 25 times individually didn’t teach me to spell the whole word correctly.
In his commentary of the book of Ezekiel, Daniel Block has written, “Repetition is often the key to effective communication.
Block, D. I. (1997–).
The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 25–48 (p.
174).
Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.
B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
The people of Judah had something better than advice.
They had words from God sent through his prophets - prophets like Jeremiah in Jerusalem and Ezekiel in Babylon.
At the time the word of the Lord that we will look at tonight came to Ezekiel, Jerusalem had not yet fallen to Babylon, but it wouldn’t be long.
King Nebuchadnezzar had laid siege to the city, but Judah had received false hope in the form of Egyptian assistance.
Jeremiah warned Judah’s King Zedekiah that Babylon’s apparent retreat would be brief.
The Babylonian army would quickly return to conquer Jerusalem.
says...
The message from God through his prophet couldn’t have been more clear.
Jerusalem was going to fall to Babylon and Egypt was just false hope.
But King Zedekiah and the other leaders in Judah were fools.
Because they were wise in their own eyes, they trusted in Egypt and rejected the divine words of Jeremiah.
News of Egyptian help would have also given false hope to the exiles in Babylon with Ezekiel - exiles who were, so to speak, watching these events unfold from hundreds of miles away.
They no doubt hoped that Egypt would defeat Babylon and they would be able to return to their homeland.
But like Jeremiah in Jerusalem, Ezekiel told the exiles in Babylon that hope in Egypt was false hope.
Let’s read ...
It’s not easy to watch people we love learn a lesson the hard way, but sometimes the hard way makes people learn the lesson.
God had tried to teach his people that their only hope was him, but they refused to learn that lesson the easy way.
The easy way would have been just to trust God and obey him.
Instead they kept foolishly believing that their was a “better hope"out there.
Sometimes they thought the “better hope” was a king or a false god or a country like Egypt.
But every time that “better hope” proved to be a false hope.
If they will receive it, God is driving this lesson into the hearts and minds of his people with these words in concerning Egypt.
[CIT] In clear terms, God told his people that he was their only certain hope; and not soon-to-be broken, powerless, and scattered Egypt.
[Prop] If we are wise, we will listen to the prophets.
We will learn that all other hopes outside of God are false hopes.
He is the only sure hope we have.
[Inter] How does God drive this point into hearts and minds with this passage?
[TS] He does it by repeating four THEMES throughout these verses...
MAJOR IDEAS
Theme #1: The Arms of Pharoah Broken (vv.
21-22)
ezekiel 3
[Exp] There is an Egyptian drawing of one of Egypt’s Pharaohs, Aminhotep II, which is not the one referred to here in .
But the drawing shows one of his arms extended, grasping the hair on the heads of his enemies, his other arm flexed with weapon drawn, ready to strike.
[Exp] There is an Egyptian drawing of one of their Pharaoh’s, Aminhotep II,
In Egypt and throughout the OT, the “arm” was that part of the body through which strength was displayed.
Not just Aminhotep II, but many of the Pharaohs were depicted in Egyptian art with their arms flexed displaying their power.
No wonder then that God chose the picture of Pharaoh’s arms being broken to communicate to his people what he would do to their false hope.
Egypt would come and momentarily make the Babylonians step back from Jerusalem, but then the Egyptian army would be broken by the Babylonians and return to Egypt.
They would not return to Egypt to heal up and regroup so as to mount another attack.
No, as God said, that arm would not be bound up to heal and be made strong so that it could bear the sword again.
Furthermore, not only would the Babylonians send the Egyptians back to Egypt, the Babylonians would come to Egypt and take that land for themselves as well.
Thus, in a manner of speaking, both of Egypt’s arms would be broken and the sword would drop for his hand.
[Illus] When I was a boy I loved to watch the World Wrestling Federation and of course, as a child of the 1980s, my favorite wrestler was Hulk Hogan.
He was patriotic!
He encouraged me to take my vitamins!
He told me to say my prayers!
He was no doubt on steroids!
He would pat and flex his biceps and brag about his 24-inch pythons, but they didn’t seem that big or strong when compared to Andre the Giant.
[App] Because God loves us and has chosen us as his people, he will make sure that we understand that our idols - our false hopes - are useless.
They are powerless before him.
I watch one night as Andre tossed Hulk Hogan around and then pinned him.
Hulk Hogan’s arms looked strong but they were no match for Andre the Giant.
Pharaoh’s arms were no match for King Nebuchadnezzar’s because God strengthened Nebuchadnezzar’s arms.
Like Hulk Hogan’s show muscle versus Andre the Giant’s natural strength, Pharaoh Hophra would be exposed for the fraud he really was.
And God’s people in Jerusalem and in Judah would see it.
loves us and has chosen us as his people, he will make sure that we understand that our idols - our false hopes - are useless.
They are powerless before him.
[App] God loves us and has chosen us as his people, he will make sure that we understand that our idols - our false hopes - are useless.
They are powerless before him.
They have no strength in their arms.
God will teach us that our only true hope; the only real power is in him.
We need the frailty of our idols exposed so that we will no longer admire them and look to them for help and hope.
Because we belong to God through faith in Christ, he graciously does that for us… but will we learn?
Or will we, like the people of Judah keep returning to those false hopes?
[TS] That’s the first theme...
Theme #2: The Egyptians Scattered and Dispersed (vv.
23, 26)
[Exp] Why is being scattered and dispersed such a big deal?
Why is this mentioned as a punishment?
Why would it be feared?
Why did God tell his people who had been scattered and dispersed to Babylon about the Egyptians being scattered and dispersed to other countries?
The language of scattering and dispersing was familiar to God’s people.
In the covenant, they had been warned that a punishment for rebelling against God would be being scattered and dispersed from the Promised Land.
For example, says...
says...
And also , which says...
It’ll help us, however, to look at the first occurence of this sort of language in the Bible.
We find it in , a story we know as The Tower of Babel.
It’ll help us, however, to look at the first occurence of this sort of language in the Bible.
We find it in , a story we know as The Tower of Babel.
The reason given by the inhabitants of Babel for building their tower was that they feared being scattered.
They said in ...
… field notes
When they said “let us make a name for ourselves” they were referring to a prideful, vain-glory.
This can go by different names today.
Prideful, vain-glory is what some people mean when they refer to their identity or culture.
It’s sometimes what people mean when they say, “This is who I am...” or “This is who we are…” or “This is what we’re known for!”
culture,
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