Sunday School Ezekiel Part 12

So, let's pray and then we will get into our study. Lord Jesus, as we open your word and consider the true prophecies of Ezekiel, who legitimately heard your voice and whose words did not fall to the ground.

May we take heed in the warning of Ezekiel against the false prophets as well, and recognize that it is a grievous sin to to carry your name into worthlessness and to make your words inconsequential by lying and saying that you have spoken when you haven't.

May we always keep this in mind as we walk and sojourn in this life, that we may keep your name holy and that we would not drag your name into worthlessness. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.

Okay.

Ezekiel’s True Prophecy and the Sign of Exile

Chapters 12 and 13 of Ezekiel. I'm going to use these to basically juxtapose them. In chapter 12 of Ezekiel, if you remember when we last talked about Ezekiel a couple weeks ago. Oh good, the thing is working so I can I can turn this around now so that you guys don't have to see all the ugliness of my face up close.

That's good news. All right. All right, but the idea then is that we've seen the glory of the Lord depart from the temple because of the idolatry that's been taking place in the temple. Not for one or two days, but for a long, long time.

And the secret worship of idols and images that were taking place. And so the glory of the Lord leaves the temple and God has promised that that there's going to be another wave of attacks from Nebuchadnezzar and this is going to result in more captives.

And that when the captives get to Babylon, they are going to be there for 70 years. Ezekiel is prophesying at the same time that Jeremiah is. It's just that Ezekiel is in exile, Jeremiah isn't. And the same wingnut, wackerdoodle prophets that had set up their their YouTube channels at the time of Jeremiah, they are operating at the time of Ezekiel as well.

And some of them have made their way to Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom in Babylon and into exile. And what they have done is they have set up a shingle similar to the way the astrologers set up shingles and they're giving words from God that God has not given them.

And their basic message is do not unpack. Keep your baggage filled. We're going to experience a suddenly and we're all going to go back to Jerusalem. And it's just going to be any day now. This is their message.

And so God is going to do two things in Ezekiel 12 and 13. One, he's going to give a true prophecy by Ezekiel. And this is another one of those action prophecies where Ezekiel gets to act things out. If there was ever an Academy Award for prophetic activations and things like this, Ezekiel would be the guy.

He legitimately, out of all of the prophets of the Old Testament, is the one that has these prophecies where it involves his physicality that is involved. And so let's take a look at chapter 12 and then we'll also then consider the commandment that says you will not take the name of the Lord your God in vain and why it is so vital in properly understanding both 12 and 13.

So the word of Yahweh came to me. Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house who have eyes to see but see not, who have ears to hear but hear not, for they are a rebellious house. Now this we learned from how Christ uses this text and how Isaiah uses a similar concept.

This is a recurring theme in Scripture, is that we are talking about people hard-hearted in sin. And so when the Word of God comes to them and the Word of God says the sky is blue, they rebelliously say, oh you mean purple.

No, blue. Ah, black. No, blue. Green. They can't get the right color to save their life. Okay, they have ears, they hear these words and like a BB off of a brick wall, it just ricochets. The Word of God ricochets and goes, pew, and there's, it never penetrates.

It doesn't even leave a mark. It doesn't go inward. They do not hear it right. They do not heed it. They will only hear people who will tell them what they want to hear. Tell me that that I'm gonna have fertility, prosperity, and influence, and affluence, and power, and things like this.

Oh, those people will be paid richly for those messages, but real words from God they will not hear. And so God is describing them as a rebellious house. And you'll note then, we all have this same tendency within us.

And in fact, I might be understating it by saying it's a tendency. Because how many of us, when we hear the clear words of God, we just sit there and it's like the birds flying overhead. It's like, well, what was that?

You know, it's, you know, no sooner do you leave church than, you know, you're doing the very things that the sermon said not to do. Right? This is how we are. So you'll note this rebelliousness is still in all of us.

And thankfully by the work of the Holy Spirit, we are able to mortify our sinful flesh and to live in daily repentance. But he says, God says to Ezekiel, as for you, son of man, prepare yourself an exile's baggage and go into exile by day in their sight.

You shall go like an exile from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will understand. So they won't listen to the words of God. So God has resorted to theatrics, if you would. And so Ezekiel is going to literally, in the presence of everybody, pack his exile trunk and pack his luggage and go schlepping it in the place where he is at.

Which is kind of crazy. So everyone's gonna be going, what's Ezekiel up to today? Why are you schlepping baggage? And here's the thing, in the context of the false prophets that are prophesying that they will return,.

See.

Jeremiah chapter, what, 31? Is it 28? I forget that. I know the plans I have for you, declares always in that chapter. God has sent that prophecy through Jeremiah for the purpose of saying, you ain't going nowhere.

You're gonna be there for 70 years. So here Ezekiel, he packs up his bags, and you can see by this action, based upon the false prophecies that are prevalent at this time in exile, that everyone's going,.

We're going home.

Oh no, we're not. Okay, so that, you can see that that would be the case. Anyone listening to these false prophets would think that's,.

Oh,.

Finally Ezekiel's gotten on the bandwagon. Okay, but he says, perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house, you shall bring out your baggage by day in their sight as baggage for exile, and you shall go out yourself at evening in their sight as those who must go into exile in their sight, dig through the wall, and bring your baggage out through it.

This is called vandalism. You know, the poor Ezekiel would be arrested today if he did this, right? Why are you digging through this wall? Because God told me to. Right? So he's got all of his baggage.

He comes to a wall, and he digs through it. And what does he do? He pulls himself and his baggage through the wall. Jeremiah, the door is right there. Why don't you just go around, go through the door?

Well, all of this is supposed to be prophetic of something, and I'll show you. So in their sight, you shall lift the baggage on your shoulder, carry it at dusk, you shall cover your face, so that you may not see the land, for I have made you a sign for the house of Israel, as I did as I was commanded.

I brought out my baggage by day as baggage for exile. I mean, if you put a bumper sticker on it, you know, like, you know, here's his baggage for exile, right? And in the evening, I dug through the wall with my own hands, which had to hurt.

I brought out my baggage at dusk, carrying it on my shoulder in their sight. In the morning, the word of Yahweh came to me, Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, what are you doing?

Say to them, thus says Lord Yahweh, this oracle concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are in it. Say, I am a sign for you, as I have done, so shall it be done to them. They shall go into exile, into captivity, and the prince who is among them shall lift his baggage upon his shoulder at dusk and shall go out.

They shall dig through the wall to bring him out through it. He shall cover his face so that he may not see the land with his eyes, and I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, yet he shall not see it.

He shall die there. So God's gonna bring him to the land of the Chaldeans, to Babylon, but he will not visibly see Babylon, and he will die in Babylon. That's the prophecy. No, the specificity, all right?

And then I will scatter toward every wind all who are around him, his helpers and all of his troops, and I will unsheathe the sword after them, and they shall know that I am Yahweh when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them among the countries, all right?

Now watch this phrase, and they shall know I am Yahweh. Here's the important bit, okay? The fulfillment of this prophecy was a sign to everybody that Yahweh knows what he's doing. When he says something's gonna happen, it happens, and there is a very important reason for this, and it has to do with how we Lutherans look at what we call the second commandment.

Now, I understand that the way the Reformed and Evangelicals, the way they number the commandments is different than we do. I would note they're wrong, we're right. You know, we follow the the ordering of the commandments that it goes all the way back to the Church Fathers, okay?

And they sit there, well, Rome does it the same way that you guys do. Rome isn't wrong here, okay? But you'll note in that second commandment, it says in Exodus chapter 20, verse 7, you shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Here's the idea. In fact, let me see if I can pull this up over here. Give me a second here. I'm gonna go to Exodus. I need, there we go, Exodus. Exodus 20, verse 7, you shall not take. So the Hebrew word nesah here, that can mean to take or to carry, okay?

Okay, lo, lo nesah, you shall not, you shall not carry eth shem Yahweh, the name of Yahweh, elehenu, your God, to shah. What is shah? Well, I happen to do a little bit of word study here. So you, the word that we get translated in the ESV as vain, you shall not take the name of Lord your God in vain.

So the idea, you will not carry the name of Yahweh your God into, listen to all the potential ways of translating this. Worthlessness, futility, you will not make it inconsequential, false, destructive, worthless, futile,.

Right?

So the idea here is, is that we have a command from God that you will not take his name and drag it to worthlessness, to bring it to falsehood, to make his words inconsequential, right? So here we've got this very specific prophecy and one has to sit there and wonder and go, all right, so you're saying that the King of Judah, who's presently in Judah, is going to escape through a wall in the Jerusalem.

He's going to be captured, drug to Babylon, but he will never see Babylon, but he will die there. Almost sounds like a riddle, right? But the, but Christ, the Yahweh is in the details and note when he says, when these things take place, then you will know that I am Yahweh.

So God, when he speaks, he does not allow his words to go unfulfilled. This is why it's impossible for somebody to be a true prophet and give false prophecies, because what have they done? They've broken the second commandment.

They have taken God's name and they have dragged it to complete and utter worthlessness,.

Right?

So let's take a look and see if we can figure out what the, what the fulfillment of all of this is. And by the way, standard for a true prophet, Deuteronomy 18, Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.

It is to him you shall listen. Just as you desired of Yahweh your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God, or see this great fire any more, lest I die.

And Yahweh said to me, they are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I have commanded him.

This is a prophecy regarding Christ. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. When, when God the Father sends Jesus, you are required to hear him.

And if you don't listen to him, God's going to hold you personally responsible. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, and that is exactly the nonsense that we got going on right now.

One of the things I'm currently working on, and it is not a labor of love, is I am working my way back through some of the notable prophecies for 2023 that were given in January of this year. As we get closer and closer to the end of the year, I thought it would be a good idea to pull those things back up and and just say, all right, 2023 is at an end.

How'd this prophecy hold up? How'd this one? How'd this one? And you're gonna, I know you're gonna find this shocking. Not a single one of them prophesied the, the war in Israel. Not a single one of them.

And the, the words that are spoken by these people is complete nonsense. Give me a second here. I'm gonna do something I normally don't do here, and that is we are going to go to you, no, no, the generals .org.

Hang on right here. Generals .org. All right, and my least favorite prophet is a woman by the name of Cindy Jacobs. Okay, and let's go back in time, shall we? Hang on a second here. That's 323. Oh, here it is.

Note, note, note the name of this. The Word of the Lord for 2023. The Word, the Word of the Lord for 2023. Now, hang on a second here. I'm gonna, and I'm not sure how I'm gonna be able to share this. Hang on a second here.

I'm gonna share my computer sound. Turn that off so I don't get an echo. Hold on. And let's see if I can make this audible.

No.

Echo, echo. Yeah, it's not gonna work. Yeah, God's gonna show you your Goshen. It's just, it's absolute, just total nonsense. Hang on a second. Let me mute that again. This is an example of the nonsense.

The Word of the Lord for 2023 is that there's gonna be people with certain generosity anointings. The Lord's gonna reveal Himself as our Good Shepherd, and He's gonna reveal to us our Goshens. It's just complete nut word salad.

I mean, you know, I mean seriously, you know, that the mixed nut jar that we have in our, you know, in our kitchen has less nuts than rolling around in this prophecy. This is just garbage, right? But people legitimately hang on the words of this woman, and she sits as the chair of something called the the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders, and she gathers so-called prophets from all over the world.

Every year, they come to Texas to spend some time with her, and they ask, what is the Word of the Lord for the upcoming year? They've already met this year, by the way, and they just haven't received, released the Word of the Lord for 2024.

But this is complete nuttery. This is nutbaggery, if you would. This is weird stuff. But you'll note, she's carrying God's name into complete futility, making His Word inconsequential. Every time we play Prophecy Bingo, the whole point of Prophecy Bingo is that we put these Prophecy Bingo cards together years ago.

Years ago. I started listening to these prophets and said, they're all saying the same buzzwords. I bet we can play bingo with them if I found a bingo card generator. So we put them into an actual bingo card generator, a list of 120 words, and every time we play, people get bingos.

Right? These are not words from God. They have carried God's name to worthlessness, to vanity, to falsehood, to complete emptiness. And here, the synonyms actually work for every bit of it, and you are forbidden by God to do this.

But you'll note that that is not.

What.

Ezekiel is doing. And here's the thing. So God goes on to say to Moses, the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.

And if you say in your heart, how may we know the word that Yahweh has not spoken? I want you to just, this is kind of just straight up. All right? How can we know if Yahweh hasn't spoken? If you're going to hold us accountable to this one that's going to come, and we have to listen to his words, we need a way of, like, discerning between the voice of God and other voices that are not of God.

And so God gives one of the tests of testing to see if somebody legitimately is speaking words from God. And so the thing is, we need to determine, is this God's voice speaking? So God says, when a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that Yahweh has not spoken.

And I kid you not, I have quoted this to people in the charismatic movement, and they say, that's the Old Testament standard.

All right?

So, in recent history, do you guys remember the election of 2020? All of the charismatic NAR prophets were every single one of them saying, Trump is going to win re-election. Did that happen?

No.

Okay, so you pull this text out, and you sit there and go, they said he was going to win, and he didn't win. Biden is in office. He's almost completed his first term. So when when Jeremiah Johnson prophesied that Trump was going to win the election in 2020, was that a word that God spoke?

Yes or no? Answer. Here's their answer. He misinterpreted what God said. No, he did not. Because God is capable of coherent speech. God didn't say, in the 2020 election, Jeremiah Johnson, I want you to know who's going to win.

It's going to be.

Trubiden.

Trubiden.

Okay, it's not Trubiden. This is not how God operates.

Right?

So we can determine that Jeremiah Johnson did not hear the word of God. God did not say that Trump was going to win. That was not God speaking to Jeremiah Johnson, which then calls into question every single prophecy that Jeremiah Johnson speaks.

Right? And all of the Trump prophets, all the people claiming, oh, I feel the word of the Lord telling me right now, that you've got this thing happening, all this kind of, this is nonsense. These are not words from God.

So here we've got Ezekiel. He's given a prophecy, and the prophecy includes details that sound on the surface like they don't make any sense, because how is it possible? How is it possible that the current king of Judah is going to escape Jerusalem, be caught, drag to Babylon, not see Babylon, and then die there?

How is that possible? Okay, let's take a look at the fulfillment of it. Okay. Second Kings 25. In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came with all of his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it, just like Ezekiel prophesied.

Remember that when Ezekiel had to lay on his side for 360 days and 40 on the other side, and over Lego Jerusalem, you know, and depicting the siege of Jerusalem? And so they built siege works all around it.

So the city was besieged till the 11th year of King Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. Then a breach was made in the city.

What's a breach? That would be a hole in the wall, right? And all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king's garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city.

And they went in the direction of the Arabah, but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. And which means he did not get very far. Okay, he did not get very far.

And they captured the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah. And they passed sentence on him. They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and then bound him in chains and took him to Babylon.

That's a pretty good prophecy. So Zedekiah, the king of Judah at the time, and not the rightful heir of the throne, by the way, a puppet king who rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, he, just like God prophesied through Ezekiel, would go through a breach.

In the wall,.

Be captured, he would be drugged to Babylon, he would never see Babylon with his own eyes, because Nebuchadnezzar slaughtered his sons, made him watch his sons being slaughtered by him, and then gouged his eyes out so that he wasn't going to see for the rest of his days, drug his carcass to Babylon, and he died there just like Yahweh said.

When God talks and says something's going to happen, it happens. Because how do we know the word that Yahweh hasn't spoken? Had Ezekiel said these things were going to happen and then they didn't happen, Ezekiel would be a false prophet like Cindy Jacobs, like Jeremiah Johnson, like today's crop of so-called prophets.

But he nailed it.

How?

Because God knows the end from the beginning. God doesn't stutter. When God gives details, they come to pass, and you'll note that the whole point of this, then they shall know that I am Yahweh. They will know.

They go, that was God who spoke this. And you know how the liberals explain this? You want to know how they explain it? Who don't believe in miracles, who deny the inerrancy of God's word, deny that it's actually inspired by God?

They say, well, Ezekiel actually wrote this after the fact. This prophecy was created when he heard the report. He got wind of the report before everybody else. And so he was able to do this prophecy to make it look like God was speaking to him.

And by so doing, they say, well, yeah, he got it right. It's just that this was a magic trick, not actually a prophecy.

Baloney.

And here's the thing. The people in exile would have smelled a rat because it takes months for news to travel from Jerusalem to Babylon at this time, right? They will know that I am Yahweh when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them among the countries, but I will let a few of them escape from the sword, from famine and pestilence, so that they may declare all their abominations among the nations where they go, and they may know that I am Yahweh.

And the word of Yahweh came to me, son of man, eat your bread with quaking, drink your water with trembling and with anxiety. So another one of these prophecies, right? These action prophecies. Say to the people of the land, thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the land of Israel, they shall eat their bread with anxiety, drink water in dismay.

In this way their land will be stripped of all it contains on account of the violence of all those who dwell in it, and the inhabitants in the inhabited cities shall be laid waste, and the land shall become a desolation, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

Now,.

This prophecy runs the exact opposite direction of all the prophecies of the wingnut, wackerdoodle, YouTube prophets that are in exile at this time. And so his prophecies really stand out, and his are the ones that came true, just like Jeremiah.

So the word of Yahweh came to me, son of man, what is this proverb that you have about the land of Israel saying, the days grow long and every vision comes to nothing? Why is that? Why are the days growing long and every vision comes to nothing?

Because the visions that are being spoken of are not true visions. Okay, let me, this is, this is probably the place to go back and take a look at Jeremiah.

29 by way of reminder.

At the same time, these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exile, to the priests and to the prophets and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother and the eunuchs and the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem. So this is before Zedekiah.

The letter was sent by the hand of Elisa, the son of Shaphan and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, the king of Judah, sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. And it said, thus says the Lord of hosts, the Lord of army, Yahweh, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses, live in them, plant gardens, eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives through your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply there, do not decrease.

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to Yahweh in its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets or your diviners who are among you deceive you.

Do not listen to the dreams they dream. It's a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name. I did not send them, declares Yahweh. For thus says Yahweh, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill my promise and bring you back to this place.

70 years. So the wingnut wackerdoodles are saying we're going home soon. And now what's happened is you have all these people in exile and they are legitimately saying, the days grow long, they keep these, and every vision comes to nothing.

They keep saying we're going to go back, but we never go back. So, and you know who they're blaming this on?

God.

You keep saying the Yahweh says we're going home soon and that never happens. The days grow long and these visions come to absolutely nothing. Isn't it funny that what is not on their mind at this point is, why don't we stone those guys?

Like the Torah says. Because they are obviously speaking falsehood. So rather than, because they don't know their Bible, they legitimately don't know their Bible. So rather than doing what the Torah says and stoning those false prophets and getting them out of their midst, they're listening to them and going, yay, Yahweh says we're going home next week.

Next week comes, I guess we're not going home. Yahweh says we're going home the week after that, and we're not going home the week after that. Yahweh says we're doing this, and nothing happens. And now they're just sitting there going, listen, the days are going long and every vision comes to nothing.

It's nothing. How far away are we from this right now? Where we see a large exodus of people from these Pentecostal, New Apostolic Reformation churches, and they all just sit there and go, Jesus is a counterfeit.

Christianity is a crock. All these prophets speaking in the name of God, they say these things that never take place. In fact, they say things that don't even make any sense. All these visions come to nothing.

That's where we're heading. We're almost there, because these guys have been around for a while. So God says, tell them therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh, I will put an end to this proverb, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel.

But say to them, the days are near and the fulfillment of every vision, for there shall be no more any false vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel. And by the time they get back to Jerusalem 70 years later, this came true.

There were no false prophets like that among them at that time. For I am Yahweh, I will speak the word that I will speak, and it will be performed. It will no longer be delayed. But in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and perform it, declares the Lord Yahweh.

And the word of Yahweh came to me. Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say the vision that sees is for many days from now, and he prophesies of times that are far off. Therefore say to them, thus says the Lord Yahweh, none of my words will be delayed any longer, but the word that I speak will be performed, declares the Lord Yahweh.

So, you know, God in his mercy, and by the way, this was, what was at stake was our own salvation. Because when you have an apostate group like this, where the Messiah is supposed to come from, just, you know, God at this point is making a judgment between the false prophets and those who are speaking his words correctly, and basically bringing about quickly their fulfillment for the purpose of discrediting the false prophets.

And this was a mercy on his part so that he got rid of them. But chapter 13 then stands in juxtaposition to what we just read in 12, but watch how the two chapters work together. The word of Yahweh came to me.

Judgment on False Prophets and the Second Commandment

Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are prophesying, and say to those who prophesy from their own hearts, hear the word of Yahweh. Thus says the Lord Yahweh, woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen.

Nothing.

This ought to give every single wingnut, wackerdoodle, YouTube prophet pause. And cause them to shake in their boots, or their sandals, or their Birkenstocks, whatever they're wearing. Because God does not take this lightly.

Hear the word of Yahweh. Thus says the Lord, woe to the foolish prophets who prophesy, following their own spirit and have seen nothing. Your prophets have been like jackals among ruins, O Israel. You have not gone up into the breeches or built up a wall for the house of Israel that it might stand in the battle in the day of Yahweh.

They have seen false visions and lying divinations. They say, declares Yahweh, when Yahweh has not sent them. And yet they expect him, they expect Yahweh, to fulfill their word. Have you not seen a false vision and uttered a lying divination?

Whenever you have said, declares Yahweh, although I have not spoken. Therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh, because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions. Therefore behold, I am against you, declares the Lord Yahweh.

My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel.

Now, this gives a little bit of light.