Bible Survey - Ezekiel

Today we're going to take a look at Ezekiel. I have to say that I'm disappointed in myself for the things that I didn't remember about Ezekiel from studying it the last time I went through Ezekiel. As I went through it this time, I was like, It's 48 chapters in our modern numbering system, but it is just substantial. There's a lot of material in Ezekiel.

We'll try to cover some highlights. In the past, I've tried to do outlines, but I'll be honest with you, it's just not going to be a good approach for this. So we're just going to hit some high points and hopefully that'll work for folks. Feel free to ask questions and interject. and we'll do our best to answer those questions.

First thing is that Ezekiel was writing in about 593 BC. I always love that we have BC time because the people at the time weren't looking forward in a negative calendar. Oh man, we're counting down to Jesus like they had a date. They didn't know. They were just now. We're in this guy's reign. That's when we are. It is now. This is the years. So we call it 593 BC.

He gives us his time coordinates as during the time of the exile of Jehoiachin. Jehoiachin was a really important ruler in the fact that he was the reigning king over Israel, sort of. He was just the only reigning king of Israel for three months, and then he got exiled.

But we actually have a lot of archaeological information that coincides with all of that, so it's not like there's lots of suspect skepticism. Even the skeptics can't be too skeptical about that, so that's good. But don't worry because we're going to talk about the Heavenly Throne Room in just a second and that's where the skeptics get to get all weirded out. We'll keep moving past that though.

Ezekiel is unfortunately known for a bread in today's modern... I don't know if you've heard of Ezekiel 4.9 bread or whatever but it's... terrible. They didn't pay me to say that. I don't prefer it. I'll just say it that way. But there's a lot more in Ezekiel than a bread recipe.

So we have that. We'll take a look at that in a little bit. He received a vision of heaven, which we'll take a look at. He took messages from God about wrath, which will be super exciting to talk about. and also got a vision of the Temple in the Millennial Kingdom. Lots of material, and we don't have very much time to cover it all, but we'll try to get started. The book starts out with a vision of four living beings.

In 1.5, he says, there's this light coming, and he says, within it there were figures resembling four living beings, and this was their appearance.

They had human form. Each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight, and their feet were like a calf's hoof, and they gleamed like burnished bronze. Under their wings, on their four sides, were human hands. As for the faces and wings of the four of them, their wings touched one another. Their faces did not turn when they moved. Each went straight forward. As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man, all four had the face of a lion on the right, and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle." That's pretty much not like any other animal on the earth, right? It is distinct and unique in its description. He goes on to describe them.

I tried to look up artistic renditions and I have to say it just looked like most of the drawings were mythical. It just looked like the mythical descriptions like they were trying to blend in some good Greek and Roman mythology. That's the way I saw it each time. I didn't use PowerPoint because I don't have anything useful to show you there.

Maybe if I had the graphics collection my dad had, I'd probably have more of those things. But needless to say, that would be pretty daunting, right there, just seeing four four-headed creatures moving around with intensity at wheels. But even more daunting than that, at the end of the chapter here, we see that there is a vision of Christ.

So now over the heads of the living beings, I'm in 22, there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal spread out over their heads. Under the expanse, their wings were stretched out. In 25, there came a voice from above the expanse that was over their heads. Whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings. In 26, high up was a figure with the appearance of a man.

Then I noticed from the appearance of his loins and upwards something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it. And from the appearance of his loins and downward I saw something like fire and there was a radiance around him. As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord, and when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking." I just love that the rainbow is the radiant essence of God's being. He describes it as being like just rainbows of light and color coming out of the Lord. It's pretty tremendous. four creatures with four heads, and that pales in comparison to the image of God or Christ in this heavenly place.

Not too bad a start for a book, you know? So we see this. Now it's interesting. There are other places that actually reference the four-headed creatures in the Old Testament, and we don't have time to go through all of those, but Ezekiel isn't the only one to describe these creatures. And Ezekiel is going to describe them twice, and then other places do have them. It's also recorded in Revelation, as well as Isaiah chapter 6. These creatures are pretty awesome. Now, the problem is that we ended with Christ on this throne speaking, but then we didn't say what he spoke. Unfortunately, what he's going to speak next is pretty hefty. So Ezekiel fell on his face, right?

As you would do if God showed up. You would probably want to do that. I would think that would be a natural, reverent response. And the voice said to him, Son of man, stand on your feet that I may speak with you. Now that is going to be a humbling situation there, as it is. And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and sat me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

Now, this is interpretive on my part, but I think it would require the Spirit to lift you and stand you, because your human form would be overwhelmed. You know, this is the God of the universe talking to you. How about that? I think all of my muscular control will be pretty well wiped out and overwhelmed. So the spirit enters him and stands him up.

Son of man, I'm sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. I'm sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, thus says the Lord." And then he's going to go on to tell him more specifically how he's going to interact. But these are a stubborn and obstinate people.

And you're going to go talk to them and you're going to say, thus says the Lord. How do you feel about the idea of taking on that role as messenger? Pretend that you, for a second, get to put yourself in Ezekiel's trembling and overwhelmed body, here in this heavenly vision. I'm going to send you as a messenger. You know, it would seem, the Lord's told them, these are stubborn and obstinate people.

If you're going to carry my message, that would be rather huge to take on. These people don't want to hear what you're going to have to tell them. Youngton reminds you though of things that he said to other prophets, both before and later. As he says here, the house of Israel will not listen to you because they will not listen to me.

The house of Israel of impudent and hard-hearted, behold I have made your face strong against their faces. Your forehead is strong against their forehead. It sounds like an elk during the running season, bashing each other's forehead. It's kind of like saying they're going to go against you. He goes on in chapter 2, verse 9, like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead.

Do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed of their looks. It's not saying the same words, but you make me think of Joshua, fearing to go into the promised land, and God saying, I'm not going to lead you or forsake you. Be strong and be of good courage. What God calls you to do, He equips you to do.

Yeah, he tells them in 3.9 that he's going to make them as hard as them. But with a different message. The thing that I think is tremendous in 2.5 is he says, As for them, whether they listen or not, for they are a rebellious house, they will know that a prophet has been among them. And I think that's really, really important, because when we get into chapter 4 here, we're going to get into the part where if they didn't know that a prophet was among them, they would just think he was crazy.

What he has to do next in chapter 4, and we'll skip ahead there just to continue on with this concept here, Chapter four, now you son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, raise up a ramp, pitch camps, and place battering rams against it all around. That's like kids playing with toys. Make yourself a little clay inscription of this on the brick. Make little tiny toy battering rams. Verse 3, the last sentence. This is a sign to the house of Israel.

As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. You shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, three hundred and ninety days. Thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel." Is he going to literally bear the iniquity of the house of Israel like Christ would bear the iniquities of all mankind? So how is he bearing the iniquity? We need to answer that. It's very important that we understand what that represents or what that is. So it's a visual representation. He's taking it on in visual form.

He's not actually taking it on like Christ would take it on. Something like the figurative use, when God judges, He doesn't wipe out the whole nation. There's always a remnant that's left behind. So bearing the iniquities is sort of like saying, God is going to judge for this period of time. He's not going to judge forever. He's not casting you out forever. Because your sin is great, so your judgment is great. So he's going to be a physical representation of God's pouring out on the iniquities of Israel.

In verse 6, he says, when you have completed these, the 390 days, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, I have assigned it to you for 40 days, a day for each year. So 430 days, he gets to do this really awesome, chiropractically recommended task of laying on his side, and then laying on his other side. But for uneven amounts of time, so that's going to cause muscular atrophy in interesting ways, right? But then in verse 8, God says, Now behold, I will put ropes on you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Okay, like I said, if Israel did not know that he was a prophet, this would be crazy stuff, right? These are not the behaviors of, you know, hey, that's a normal guy laying down there. But just in case, we get to verse 9, he says, But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, put them in one vessel, and make them into bread for yourself. You shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days. but just in case that wasn't also unique verse 12 he says you shall eat it as a barley cake having baked it in their sight over human dung okay so every time somebody says Ezekiel 9 bread they're not really talking about Ezekiel 9 bread because they're probably against uh... food and drug administration code to actually cook the Ezekiel 9 bread over human dung still gross uh... it's siege rations yeah yeah it's it's it's terrible yeah yeah in verse 15 he gives him cow dung yeah because he but he says Lord please I have not defiled myself and God says okay use cow dung you win right but so So, God has him lay down and be this example of the siege and this example of taking on the iniquity, and then gives him prophecy of this desolation that's going to come.

This is a hefty thing to have to do in a hard-hearted nation. We want to continue on taking in the weight of what's going on here. As I was reading through this, I had a hard time getting past just these first five chapters. Because I could only think of the way that our nation has come. That people had turned their way away from God. We don't serve God. We don't love Israel. We don't do all of the things that made our nation great in the past. We're atheistic and we know better. Right? We know better than God. Fools. So this felt, sadly, as he was describing the hard-hearted nation, this felt awfully familiar. It took me a while to just get past the first five chapters, but I had to, so we will continue moving forward. Morgan, do you have a question?

He was an example of their iniquity, that they were bound up in their iniquity. He wasn't taking it on like Christ took it on. He was a representation of the iniquity. before them a physical you know today we have street performers that do weird modern art stuff and sometimes it's cool modern art stuff but sometimes it's weird modern art stuff but he was out publicly out in front of the people as a sign of their iniquity to them think about you're walking down 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver and there's Ezekiel he of course we know he wasn't in Denver verse one tells us he was he was a I'm sorry Chapter 1 verse 1 says he was by the river Chabar among the exiles. So he wasn't in Denver.

We know that. I'm not teaching heresy. So in moving forward here, we have this really crummy food and this crummy cake. We're going to move forward to chapter 8 because we're going to see that God is going to take Ezekiel through a tour of the abominations of the nation of Israel. We see Christ showing up again. So it's 8.1.

It came about in the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell on me there. Then I looked, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of a man. From his loins and downward there was the appearance of fire, and from his loins and upward the appearance of brightness, like the appearance of glowing metal. So a similar description to what we had before. Verse four, and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the appearance which I saw in the plain.

And he said to me, son of man, raise your eyes now toward the north. So I raised my eyes toward the north and behold, to the north of the altar gate was this idol of jealousy at the entrance. And he said to me, son of man, do you see what they are doing?

The great abominations which the house of Israel are committing here so that I would be far from my sanctuary. But yet you will see still greater abominations. So they've set God far away from the sanctuary. They've filled it with jealousy. Of what? Jealousy of other idols.

Then he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. He said to me, Son of man, now dig through the wall. So I dug through the wall, and behold, an entrance. And he said to me, go in and see the wicked abominations that they are committing here.

So I entered and looked, and behold, every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things, with all the idols of the house of Israel, were carved on the wall all around. Standing in front of them were seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jazania, I'll pronounce that in an exciting way. The son of Stephan standing among them, each man with his censer in his hand and fragrance of the cloud of incense rising. Then he said to me, son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark?

Each man in the room of his carved images, for they say, the Lord does not see us. The Lord has forsaken the land. God isn't doing what we want, so we will go into our dark rooms and we will offer up incense to the idols, just in case that might help.

And then in 15, still greater abominations than these. The knee brought me to the inner courts. court of the Lord's house and behold in the entrance to the temple of the Lord between the porch and the altar were about 25 men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east and they were prostrating themselves towards the sun. I'm sorry I skipped 14 where there were women who were weeping for Tammuz. Now Tammuz was a Babylonian god of food and agriculture. So each one of these, they've replaced God with idols over and over again. But there's a sense of the famine. They're under siege, they're under famine, they're in exile.

These are all different things. But who do they turn to? They don't turn to God. They turn everywhere else. So, then the last part there, they're prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun. Okay, we'll worship the sun, maybe that will do something. Again, abandoning their worship of God as was prescribed through Moses. So God is angry about those things. And in 18, therefore I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity, nor will I spare. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them. So God's wrath is coming. And that has got to be a heavy message for any prophet to bring. Hey, these are my brothers and sisters in the nation. Even if they're not walking in faith, that's a hard message to carry.

Let's skip forward to chapter 13, because if there's anything we're going to do during this lesson this morning, it's skip a lot of content, and I apologize, but it's the way we get to go. We're going to hit some highlights here. In chapter 13, 1 through 3, Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel with prophecy. And I'm glad I don't have to read that three times fast. And say to those who prophesy, from their own inspiration. Listen to the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing.

Now, in the Old Testament law, what is the nation of Israel supposed to do with a prophet who is a false prophet? Or a person who is a false prophet, because we can't call them a prophet who is a false prophet. What do they do? Stone them. which Israel didn't do because, well, pick an excuse, right? Oh, it's uncomfortable. I don't wanna. How do we know they're false? Any number of excuses. They were not obeying the law. They were not obeying God. But what happens when you surround yourself with false prophets and just keep them around?

You start to follow the false prophets and you start to think Yeah, you're replacing error for truth. That's a great way to say that. You accommodate it. You take it in. So, that's obviously not a great place for things to be. Stan? Today they call that being politically correct. Yeah, they call it being politically correct.

So then God promises His wrath. That's His response in verse 15 and 16. Because we're going to keep skipping forward, let's jump forward to chapter 20. The elders of Israel actually finally come and sat before him. And they decide they're going to wait before the Lord and wait for Ezekiel, finally. And then God chastises the elders of Israel. You want to wait on me? Uh-oh. Now God is going to bring about this chastisement. But let's skip forward to 2044 real quick and read an important verse as God is chastising them. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have dealt with you for My name's sake, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord." So why was God interacting with Israel at all?

They were His people. And why were they His people? He chose them. Who did He choose them through? Abraham. God made a covenant with Abraham and said there's going to be people that are going to be innumerable, more than the sand of the sea. And so here's these people. And God has told them he's going to bring wrath. He's told them they're walking in sin. but he's interacting with them for his namesake because he promised and his character stands despite the flawed and terrible character of the Israelites. Stan?

I can say that the whole book of Ezekiel and a lot of the prophets is very much like Amos 3.7 where God says that he reveals his plans through his prophets. He always reveals his plans through his prophets. Not necessarily a really fun message to have to deliver, but it's the message he's revealing, the way that he's going to interact with them. Christ, when he came and talked about that to the religious authorities of his day, he talked about the fact that they had the focus, they had the distinction about who was new to their message.

Yeah. I've been telling them for centuries. Yeah. It wasn't news. Resisting the word of the Lord, but accommodating all prophets of his, just completely backwards. Yeah. Yeah. So God promises that He's going to deal with the nation of Israel. The leaders have come before Him.

Let's step forward to Ezekiel 33.11. We're actually going to slow down towards the latter part of Ezekiel here. We've been jumping at great pace here.

But 33.11. Ezekiel says, say to them, as I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways.

Why then will you die, O house of Israel? Stan? I'm just going to say, I think that's the answer to a lot of the Psalms where they say, you know, Why don't you take care of the wicked? What's going to happen to the wicked? Why do you allow the wicked to continue? They will die, but God is gracious and patient. Even with His wrath coming, He's still patient and He's waiting. He wants them to turn from their wickedness.

Yeah, I guess if you had skipped over that in 18, I was going to bring it up later, but it goes back in chapter 18. It says the same sort of thing, if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he's committed, keeps all my statutes and does what is lawful and right, Do we have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die and not that they should turn from the waves and live?

The message is in there. It is a thread through us. Respond to God who is seeking relationship. The relationship principle is still heavily in play here. So which characteristics of God are shown by his desire for all to turn to him? There's a number, there's a handful of them, but let's talk about that for a second, because I think it's important, as God reveals His character, that we meditate on it, that we contemplate those things. So, feel free, you don't have to raise your hand, just whisper them out. Love, grace, mercy, and patience. All good? Okay. Forgiveness? Okay. What about righteousness? Justice. Those are all things. Compassion.

God's character is complex through this. It's consistent, but it's complex. With the pagan gods, they wanted to appease the pagan gods because the pagan gods had a formula. The priests of the pagan gods came and said, here's the formula. You do the formula, you get these results. Of course, did they get the results? Not really. It was an easy formula. God wanted relationship and that was complicated. God had character and complexity as a deity that was so much more complex than the pagan gods.

You've got his holiness, his uniqueness, his sovereignty, the fact that he can say judgment is coming and he can make an end. Yeah, and deliver on the promise. So we have here this characteristic of God that He wants the people of Israel, in this case, to repent. But later on in the New Testament, we still see the repeated principle that God doesn't want anyone to perish. God doesn't want anyone to go to hell. He wants all to come to Him, because He's a loving God.

Alright, now we're going to skip forward to 34. So 34 is a prophecy against the shepherds. And what's funny is that my dad taught me through this passage years ago, I don't know how many years ago it was now, when we were talking about eldership, biblical eldership. And this is a passage for the shepherds of Israel. We shouldn't confuse it with a biblical requirement for eldership, okay?

1 Timothy 3 is a good place to start out in discussing biblical eldership. But with discernment, look at the parallel and the considerations of what an elder is required to do and how the shepherds are expected to behave. There is similarity there. So let's take that in consideration.

So 34.1, Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, Thus says the Lord God.

Woe shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool. You slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. Those who are sickly you have not strengthened. The diseased you have not healed. The broken you have not bound up. The scattered you have not brought back. Nor have you sought for the lost. But with force and with severity you have dominated them.

Now, obviously, those are not the requirements of the shepherd, right? Those are the opposite statements of what the shepherd should be doing. They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill. My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them.

Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my flock has become a prey, my flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and my shepherds did not search for my flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand my sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep. So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I will deliver my flock from their mouth so that they will not be food for them." God doesn't want the abuse of his people.

It's beautiful as he goes on in verse 11. For thus says the Lord God, indeed I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out. As the shepherd, and then he goes through the pasture. I will bring them up from the people that gather them, bring them to their own land. I will feed them in good pastures. He talks about elephants.

I will seek what was lost, bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken, strengthen what was sick. So, you have that strong contrast there between what the false government were telling the people and doing to the people. And God says, I will do it. He will take them, yeah. John chapter 10 fits right in there. Yeah. So yeah, he continues on in delivering a message there for the people that God is going to take care of them.

And the shepherds have basically not only been rebuked, but they've been removed from authority. That's a pretty hefty thing. Now, who were the shepherds? Who would these people have been at this point in time, under the law in Israel? the very people that had been set in place by God earlier to maintain them, God's removing their authority from them.

Where will that ultimately get played out? Well, there's a short-term and a long-term answer. Who will come in and really disrupt that? Jesus. And then we're going to see in a little bit in the Millennial Kingdom, the New Covenant will come into play and we'll talk about that in just a minute. Did you have a question? Yes.

Particularly the ones that were actively shepherding, because not everybody had the same duties of shepherding. There were lots of mundane tasks that had to be done to deal with keeping the temple running, but the people who were supposed to be the visible leaders of Israel were failing entirely at their jobs.

So this is a more metaphorical... Oh, it's very literal. It's literal, but he's definitely saying, like, shepherd and flock. It's not having to do with the actual occupation of a shepherd. No, no, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. It's the figurative use of shepherd describing a literal people, the Levites. Okay, yes. So that's definitely there.

And we can see that the requirements of an elder are to do very much the same thing, to be shepherding over the body in the New Testament context. Obviously, we're not offering sacrifices, which is pretty radically different, because the ultimate sacrifice, Christ, came. But the shepherds are constantly doing counseling and coming and engaging in trying to heal the sheep. and so that, and shepherd the sheep, and take care of the sheep, and make sure that everything is well and healthy. We're going to jump forward now to chapter 36, and in chapter 36, starting in 22, but going all the way to the end of chapter 37, we see the New Covenant. And the New Covenant is really important to understand and is also a passage that people from different church backgrounds approach very differently.

So we're going to approach it from what's called the dispensational approach and that means that we're going to understand that Ezekiel was talking to Israel. If you've heard of the Reformed Church or Covenant Church, Traditions those people take it figuratively and say the church is the fulfillment, but we're Definitely not holding to that. This is we're going to take this as as for Israel because as Egil is speaking to Israel So starting in in verse 22 We won't read all the way to the end of 37, but we'll take in pieces of this.

Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, again, it's not for the people's sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst.

Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I prove myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers, so that you will be my people, and I will be your God." And he keeps going, but we'll stop there. at least for a moment.

What in the Old Testament covenant with Moses, the land covenant, what did God promise as part of the covenants if they were righteous? Stan? Okay, physical blessing and they would get to keep the land. They would be in the land and they would take over the land that God had promised Abraham. But what was the negative side of that covenant if they didn't obey? Okay, there's curses. But would they lose the land? Yeah, they would lose the land.

And so God is saying here is a second covenant or a new covenant that God is promising to the nation of Israel. It's unilateral, okay, so there's not a second party. It's God promising to Israel as a benefit, but not where Israel has to fulfill anything. You've got the distinction between law and grace immediately. You gave them the law and the requirements of keeping it, and let them prove to themselves that they couldn't live up to it.

So we have we have here this this nation that's going to be gathered back together now as I think During the main service for the first hour last week, you mentioned that Israel was gathered back in the 40s. Yeah, and so Israel is back in the land. And where are the people coming from? All over. People are moving back to Israel despite the turmoil in the Middle East. People are continuing to move back there.

And so this covenant comes, and the Spirit will fill the hearts of the people. They'll get new hearts, and the Spirit will fill them. And what will they do? Will they be good Christians? No, they're going to be really awesome Jews that follow the law, by the power of the Spirit. And that's pretty tremendous.

So we have this new covenant coming into play here. And this will be during the Millennial Kingdom, just so that we have a chronological understanding of when that should be fulfilled. Then in chapters 40 through 42, if we skip ahead, and we're not going to read this out loud because it's, well, frankly it's not tremendous reading, but A messenger from God, it doesn't appear to be the same characteristics of Christ earlier, so I say a messenger of God, has a measuring rod, and he measures a temple that Ezekiel has been brought to, and he measures it out in great detail. But in 43.9, God tells him why he measures it out in great detail.

So Ezekiel 43.9, he says, Now let them put away their harlotry and the corpses of their kings far from me, and I will dwell among them forever. The purpose of the temple is to be able to, he puts out in front of them this eternal hope that they should have.

And he says, now as a response to that, let them put away the garbage that they're doing. Let them put away the idolatry. Let them put away the following of the secular pagan ideas. And instead, follow me. Sadly, we know how the rest of the story goes. They didn't quite listen. Their foreheads were hard. their faces were hardened, their hearts were hardened, but they were there.

The next section that we've got in the handout here is just two examples of Christ in Ezekiel. The first one is at the literal presence of God in Ezekiel. I have mistakenly marked chapter 3 there, but it's chapter 1 and chapter 8, where we see Christ physically in the visions. So that's an easy one. That's the low-hanging fruit, right? So we do find Christ very literally and real in Ezekiel, but we also see the principle of a bearing iniquity.

Christ would literally bear iniquity, and the nation of Israel would recognize their need for someone to bear their iniquity. They themselves could not do it. The sacrifices through the temple system over and over again didn't deal with the sin in an eternal way. Christ would have to come and do that.

What questions, what things do we have about it, Ezekiel? Anything, things you wish I had said, things you wish I hadn't said? Like you said, there is a lot in there. One that caught my attention in chapter 33, the last several verses there, where God chose Ezekiel.

As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you, and speak to one another, saying, come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord. So they come to you, as people do. They sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them. For their mouth, they show much love. Their hearts pursue their own being.

That could come right out of James in the New Testament. The Old Testament hasn't got anything about grace or love or a lot of things. I'm taking the time to look carefully at the parallel message that runs all through. By works of righteousness, no one will be saved in Titus.

That's what you get when you return. Not by works of righteousness, but by belief in God. Abraham, what? Believed God and it counted. So to say that the Old Testament isn't worth looking at because that's all passé and gone is kind of like saying that it's not worthwhile looking at just your human history to try not to repeat the same thing.

It's a bit naive. Which reminds me of a question I meant to ask. How are all saints through all time saved? What do we need to be saved? By God's grace through faith, right? Always through faith. It's not by works. We're never righteous enough. It's by His righteousness that's attributed to us through faith. Always, always. It's never by works. Alright. Anything else?

We can close in prayer minutes before, or seconds before Brian pushes the bell for the second close. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you for the amazing revelation that we get to study and read through. We pray that you would return at any moment here. Come, Lord Jesus, come. We ask that as we walk on this earth in the time that you give us left over, that we would be lights for you and that you would draw people to us that we may share the gospel and share about the hope that we have in you and We thank you for the remnant that you have always put on the earth As your people we thank you in Jesus name. Amen