Ezekiel 6
Go Tell it to the Mountains!
Read…
Ezek. 6:1 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Ezek. 6:2 “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,
Pray
Intro
√ Go tell it to the mountains
Last week we looked at chapter 5 and how God used a sword as a sign to communicate the impending judgment upon the people of Jerusalem…
The sign of the sword
The reason for the sword
The meaning of the sword
In chapter 6 we find that God raises the Sword of His judgment against the rest of the nation and tells Ezekiel to…
…go tell it on the mountains!
That is, while His initial judgment was directed at the capital of the nation because the leaders (the kings, priests and elders) had embraced every false god and goddess…
…the people throughout the entire nation had followed them into idolatry and therefore God would bring His Sword against them too!
So, chapter 6 contains a sermon (a word instead of a sign) of the coming judgment upon the entire nation of Israel!
I’ll bring a sword (vs. 1-7)
Ezek. 6:1 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Ezek. 6:2 “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,
Ezek. 6:3 and say, “O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: ‘Indeed I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.
Ezek. 6:4 Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.
Ezek. 6:5 And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars.
Ezek. 6:6 In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.
Ezek. 6:7 The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the LORD.
√ I’ll bring a sword
The first thing we want to notice is the change of direction of Ezekiel’s face!
“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them…” ~ vs. 2
Previously God had told him to set his face against Jerusalem (ref. chapter 4:3 & 7).
The phrase is significant because it denotes movement toward something.
That is, to “set your face toward” is used in the Bible to mean…
“headed for” ~ Gen. 31:21
“turned to” ~ 2 Kings 12:17
“have hostile intentions toward” ~ as Ezekiel uses it 14 times!
In a sense, as Ezekiel uses the phrase to “set your face toward” we would say…
“Get a target lock” or “target acquired”
So, what God is communicating here is that once He is through pouring out His judgment on Jerusalem…
…He’s got His sights locked on the rest of the nation!
√ Why the sword?
In vs. 3 God reveals why He is bringing judgment upon the rest of the nation…
Ezek. 6:3 and say, “O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: ‘Indeed I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.
This verse doesn’t make sense unless you understand that Canaanite religious practices that the Jewish people had adopted.
First, we understand that the Jews were supposed to worship only the God of heaven…
…in His Temple in Jerusalem.
But, the Jewish people had adopted the religious practices of the Canaanites who worshipped a pantheon of gods and goddesses each of whom ruled a different geographic area. So instead of worshipping the God of Heaven they worshipped the gods of the…
Mountains
Valleys
Rivers
Wadi’s
So, they set up alters literally all over the land of Israel where they worshiped these false gods by…
Sacrificing animals and people
Burning incense
Immoral acts
…thereby polluting the beautiful land that the God of Heaven gave the Jewish people!
Ex. Tel Dan (Jeroboam) & Caesarea Philippi
God’s word through Ezekiel is that He is taking up a sword against the entire nation of Israel to destroy every…
Altar
Idol
Person
Place
City
…so that the Jewish people would know that there is only One God and the false gods cannot protect them!
√ A root of disobedience
One might wonder how the Jewish people ever came to worship the false gods of the pagans…
…in a word, disobedience!
Deut. 12:2 You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.
Deut. 12:3 And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place.
And…
Deut. 12:30 take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’
God’s instructions were very clear destroy everything and anything to do with the worship of false gods…
Their altars
Their priests
Their temples
Their gardens
…lest, the people become “ensnared” by the false gods and drawn into sin.
Unfortunately the people never totally obeyed God and destroyed the Canaanites or their places of worship so that as soon as Joshua and his generation died…
…the people began worshipping false gods!
Ex. The Book of Judges
The entire book is one long sad history of the nations infatuation with false gods and goddess.
The people turn away from God to false gods.
God turns the nation over to her enemies.
The people cry out for deliverance
God sends a judge and the people repent.
God knew they couldn’t resist the temptation of sin, so He told them to destroy it all!
Ap. Cut it off!
Like the people of Israel we’ve been delivered from spiritual “Egypt” and brought into the “promised land” of the Christian experience.
But, like the children of Israel we’re prone to return to our sin if we don’t deal harshly with it.
Cut it off, burn it, destroy it so that you won’t be tempted to go back to it!
Ex. The ex-alcoholic
Toss the booze, but also the collection of drinking glasses and beer stein’s lest he/she begin to reminisce on the “good ole days” and stumble back into bondage.
Be careful! If you want to live free of sin then get serious about dealing with temptation.
So, Ezekiel tells the people that since they have not cut off their sin that God says…
…I’ll bring a sword to deal with their sin!
I’ll leave a remnant (vs. 8-10)
Ezek. 6:8 “Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries.
Ezek. 6:9 Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.
Ezek. 6:10 And they shall know that I am the LORD; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”
√ I’ll leave a remnant
Our silver lining! Or, as I mentioned last week…
…our “hairy” lining!
“You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment.” ~ Ezekiel 5:3
That is, part of the sign that God gave to the captives in Babylon was that He would preserve a small group of His people through His judgment…
…the remnant!
So, here we find the specific promise of God’s Word to do just that…
…to keep a remnant alive!
The purpose of keeping them alive was to bring them to a point of repentance so that God could once more pour out His blessings upon them and fulfill the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David!
Ex. Repentance
By way of application and instruction I think it’s interesting to note the progression of repentance…
Remember God in the land of captivity ~ vs. 9
Loathe themselves for their sins ~ vs. 9
Know that God’s word is true ~ vs. 10
…sounds a lot like the Prodigal Son!
Ex. The means employed to bring us to repentance
God will first use His goodness in an attempt to bring us to repentance…
Rom. 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
Ex. Grand daughter singing to her grand dad
If that fails then He will employ other means to bring a godly sorrow into our lives that will produce repentance.
2Cor. 7:10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
Ex. Greg ~ beam
The unfortunate truth of human nature is that we often don’t repent until our sin hurts us!
While some are grieved by a wounded conscience, most of us have to get hurt pretty badly before we’re willing to give up our sin!
Like the rebellious Jewish people we have to lose everything, or suffer some serious consequence (like jail time, loss of health, etc.)…
…before we’re ready to repent.
We find ourselves captive to sin.
We remember God’s love and how we’ve hurt Him.
We learn to hate our sin and what’s it’s done to us and others.
We acknowledge that God’s Word is true.
In the case of the Jewish people, idolatry was so deeply rooted in their lives that God had to cut it out like a surgeon would remove a cancer.
And, just as a surgeon’s goal is to bring health back to the body, not kill the person…
…so is God’s plan, to cut out the bad so that the body will live!
In Israel’s case almost everything had to be cut away before they would finally repent!
Ex. Repentance
Following the Jews return to Jerusalem after their captivity in Babylon we never again find the nation running after false gods!
God’s judgment worked.
The good new is that Ezekiel tells the people that God says…
…I’ll leave a remnant so that I can keep my promises!
I’ll spend my fury (vs. 11-14)
Ezek. 6:11 “Thus says the Lord GOD: “Pound your fists and stamp your feet, and say, ‘Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.
Ezek. 6:12 He who is far off shall die by the pestilence, he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine. Thus will I spend My fury upon them.
√ I’ll spend my fury
Remember, Ezekiel has an audience so when God says…
“Pound your fists and stamp your feet…” ~ vs. 11
…and Ezekiel does it, he’s going to get everyone’s attention!
That of course is the idea!
The people hadn’t been listening so God has had Ezekiel do some strange stuff to make sure that he’s got their attention that they might hear God’s word!
Pounding his fists and stamping his feet would be understood as a sign of derision ~ or contempt.
That is, Ezekiel’s actions are like an explanation point to the word of judgment that he is speaking.
Ex. Spiritual WWF
The “wrestlers” never just wrestle, most of what they do is point their fingers at each other and boast about what they’re going to do to each other.
The difference here is that God isn’t play acting through Ezekiel…
…He really is going to “post” Israel and put the “smack down” on them!
Because the people of Israel had turned God’s blessings into opportunities to sin.
Ex. The lush forests of Israel
God brought the people to the Promised Land so that they might enjoy the beauty and bounty of the land.
It was a land filled with orchards and forests where the people could enjoy God’s creation and worship Him.
Instead, they corrupted His gifts by using the blessings He gave them (the forests, the trees, the mountain tops, etc.)…
…as the places for their immoral worship of false gods!
Ezek. 6:13 Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols.
Therefore, God would spend His fury upon the nation and turn the lush land into a desert!
Ezek. 6:14 So I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land desolate, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah, in all their dwelling places. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.’ ” ’ ”
Ex. God’s judgment
A long line of invaders…
Babylonians
Romans
Muslims
Ottomans
…left Israel a desolation! In fact, it wasn’t until the Zionist began to redeem the land in the 19th Century that the land of Israel began to come back to life.
Ap. God’s blessings
God longs to bless His people! The problem is that almost every time He does His people turn away from Him!
Ex. Prosperity and the Church
Church history is clear that the Church always grows under persecution…
…and falls into sin and apathy during times of prosperity!
Generation after generation gets caught up in the blessings of God and begins to pursue the gift
Close
√ Go tell it on the mountain
God says…
I’ll bring a sword
I’ll leave a remnant
I’ll spend my fury
…that He might cure His people of their sin.
Ap. Guard your heart against sin
Don’t entertain sin, cut it off!
Use the blessings that God gives you for His glory, not for the pursuit of sin!