Ezekiel Part 2

Okay, grab a Bible, something to write. With those of you online, I apologize that your fellowship time is at an end, but it's at the end for everybody. My request is that you mute yourself. Otherwise, I will be muting you accordingly.

There we go. We are gonna pray, and then we're gonna get started. Lord Jesus, as we open your word, your word is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path. And there are certain portions of scripture that are intentionally difficult for us.

They teach us that your ways are not our ways, and your thoughts are not our thoughts, and that there's so much more to this life and reality than what we can possibly imagine. Our eyes do not nearly give us enough information, and therefore, we rely heavily upon your word to fill in the rest so that we may properly believe, confess, and do according to your holy word.

We ask in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Ezekiel’s Vision of the Four Living Creatures and Christ’s Throne

Okay, so last week, we began our study of the book of Ezekiel. And we talked about the four creatures, and we noted that the church historically has read this Christologically. And there's something I wanna show you, and that is that this particularly fuzzy, not greatly scanned image of Ezekiel's vision is helpful for us because, out of all the different artistic visions, artistic depictions of what we're dealing with here, it's really legitimately hard to figure out kind of what's going on.

And so, in this particular image, you can see there's Ezekiel, overwhelmed, if you would, by the vision that he has seen. And what is it that he is looking at? You have this really large, you have the four living creatures, one on each side with four faces, each facing a different direction, face of a man, face of a lion, face of a cow, face of a, sorry, bull, face of a bull, and then face of an eagle.

And then on top of it, you've got the four wheels, and then you've got the wheel within a wheel, and then on the, and this is, if the best way I could put it is that on top of all of this, this is the apparatus that Christ's throne sits.

That's what he's looking at. He's looking at the throne of Christ, looking up into the firmament, into the archaea there, and seeing the glory of God, and this is the throne of Christ. And every little detail has kind of prophetic significance, significance relating to an aspect of who Christ is, and what he is all about.

It's about him, it's not about you, it's not about me, and it's definitely not about aliens, okay? So if you've ever heard one of these stupid programs on History Channel 2, talking about the vision of Ezekiel having to do with the Anunnaki, okay, just turn the channel off.

Just hit the pause button, and go find something wholesome to watch, okay? Because this stuff is just stupid, okay? This has nothing to do with space aliens, this has everything to do with Christ. And so what I wanted to do was actually kind of go back and take a look at some of the details of the vision itself, and then kind of use this, out of any of the artistic depictions, as fuzzy and old school as this is, I think it is profound because it's not impacted by the alien approach, okay?

Whoever drew this is safely in their grave, right? That's the one thing I could say about the saints who've departed, they are safely in their grave, and they don't have to deal with the nonsense that we're dealing with right now.

Yeah, I think I made a point in one of the men's or women's Bible study that, holy smokes, it seems like that Western civilization is just gonna die under the complete weight of stupidity, you know? We're being overrun by dumb, and it's just bizarre, which kind of shows you that the old, is it any wonder that the Proverbs describe kind of the difference between those who fear God and seek His ways, they are the wise, those who deny God, deny His existence, they are utterly foolish, you know?

And I think we're seeing a great amount of foolishness growing exponentially. So, all of that being said, let's take a look. So, as I looked, so we're going back to a little bit. Behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud with brightness around it, fire flashing forth continually, in the midst of the fire, as it were, gleaming metal.

And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. So, as this vision unfolds, he hasn't looked up completely to see the throne of Christ, which is the glory of God, you'll see this.

Instead, he's kind of noting, so this is a multi-leveled vision, and he's starting at the bottom level, the bottom level which is gonna be closest to the ground, and then work his way upward in how he's looking.

Their appearance, this was their appearance, they had a human likeness, but each had four faces. Each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, the soles of their feet were like the soles of a calf's foot, and they sparkled like burnished bronze.

And their wings on their four sides, they had human hands, and the four had their faces and their wings thus, their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward without turning as they went.

So, everything moves in a straight line, which I think symbolically, and some of the church fathers agree, is talking about this concept then that with God there is no turning to the right or to the left, his ways are always straight.

You'll note the theme in scripture, he takes the crooked path and he makes it straight. Thank God, because my path is a mess. I got loop-de-loops and switchbacks, and it's, how do they say it, is the crow flies?

It's really bad. But, so this talking about God moving in a straight direction, because you have to note here, this vision is meant for you to read it and go, what? And then go back and reread it and start to put pieces together and start to kind of sort out what's going on here.

As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, four had the face of an ox on the left, the four had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces and their wings were spread out above.

Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while the two covered their bodies. And this kind of hearkens, if you would, to the Ark of the Covenant. Now, when you read Ezekiel, when you get to chapter 10, there's going to be a revisit of this vision and its details.

And by chapter 10, Ezekiel's going to go, ah, I figured out what these living creatures are. They are cherubim. But here in the first chapter, you're just kind of sitting there, having your brain, the wheels spinning, but nothing is engaged.

You're just wondering what it is that you're looking at. So we know from chapter 10, and there's an aha moment in chapter 10 where Ezekiel figures this out, that what we're dealing with here are actually cherubim.

Yeah?

Oh, is that on? Okay, sure. So we're dealing with cherubim. Each went straight forward, wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures.

And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. You'll note that fire and coals, these are also part of the vision of Jeremiah and the vision of Isaiah. In fact, let me show you, there's some interesting connections when you consider all this.

So in Isaiah 6, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, Adonai, sitting upon a throne high and lifted up. Okay, listen to what's going on here. Sitting upon a throne, what? High and lifted up.

Okay, Ezekiel's vision is the same, but he's not describing, he's not describing merely the Lord, he's describing the actual thing that's keeping Christ up high and lifted up. So we see these details are, they actually dovetail with each other.

And you'll note that each prophet kind of has a different thing that they're emphasizing, but they're looking at the exact same thing. And the train of his robe filled the temple, above him stood the seraphim.

Now, note in Ezekiel's prophecy, we're looking at the cherubim. That's on the lower level. Seraphim is even above Christ's throne. So we're high and lifted up, there's Christ, and above him, there are the seraphim.

And again, if you're not sure what a seraphim is, this is an interesting thing. Seraph in Hebrew is a word that often is associated with snakes, okay? And snakes with feet, they are called what?

Dragons.

Snakes with feet and wings are called dragons. And so is it any wonder that Satan is called the great what? Dragon. And so it's from these little details that the church historically has come to believe that Satan himself was one of the seraphim.

And so when you get to the Garden of Eden, you get the serpent was crafter, and he had feet. Remember, he had feet. So that being the case, who did Eve talk to? I would say a dragon, okay? So above him were the seraphim, each had six wings.

With two, he covered his face. You can't even see the glory of God. You gotta cover your face. With two, he covered his face. With two, he covered his feet. And with two, he flew. And one called to another and said, kadosh, kadosh, kadoth, Yahweh, savaoth, right?

The whole earth, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Beautiful vision, and of course, the triple holy, holy, holy, holy invokes the Trinity itself, okay? And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

And I said, woe is me. I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. My eyes have seen the king, Yahweh, Yahweh, savaoth, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies, and he's just absolutely terrified.

Oop, oop.

Which, by the way, is standard operational procedure for the unholy being in the presence of the holy. And then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand, watch this, a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

Isn't it interesting? So you got this motif of fire and altar and charcoal and all this kind of stuff, and then he touched my mouth, and he said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away.

Your sin atoned for. And everybody gave the liturgical response from Napoleon Dynamite.

Yes.

That's the right liturgical response. So, beautiful text, beautiful thing. And I would note, I love it when I hear pastors who make the connection between this burning coal that touches the mouth and the lips of Isaiah and says that your guilt is taken away, your sin is atoned for, and they connect that straight to the Lord's Supper.

I could almost say at the end of the Lord's Supper liturgy, behold, Christ's body and blood has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, your sin is atoned for. It would be an appropriate end, right?

You know, it actually legitimately fits. Beautiful stuff. And so, all these connections are there for us to make if we'll take the time to work our way through the text. So, coming back here then, so you can see these flashes, this fire, all this kind of stuff.

Now, as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. So, coming back to our image, so you can see here, we've got four of these, we got these four wheels.

And he's gonna describe them as a wheel within a wheel, which we'll talk about one of the other details here in a minute. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction, their appearance was like the gleaming of Beryl.

All right, what does Beryl look like? Okay, time to Google, okay? I kid you not, B-E-Y-R-L, Beryl, okay? And let's see, I think that's what I meant, B-E-Y-R-L, and it gives me the chemical compound.

That's too nerdy. All right, so what is Beryl? You can Google it after class. One person wanted to hear the chemical compound. I couldn't even read it correctly if I tried anyway. So Beryl is this greenish thing, okay?

So oddly enough, it behooves us. It actually is a smart thing for us when we see these types of little descriptions, these details, it's useful for us to Google it so that at least we can begin to mentally form a picture in our own mind of what this vision, the details, look like.

These details are not given just willy-nilly. They're given for us to ponder and to think about. So here we've got this green gem of a thing here. And so this is, and it's a light green. There are some dark versions of it, but you get the idea, all right?

So it's coming back here. All right, so the appearance of the wheels and their construction. Their appearance was like the gleaming of Beryl, all right? You're gonna note here then we've got a problem with our thing here because how do the artists depict the wheels?

Yellow, okay, golden. They're not, okay? So these wheels are a green Beryl color, gleaming Beryl color. So you'll know artists struggle with these visions as much as you and I do. But all that, I didn't, he did.

Yeah, this guy took artistic license. Whoever did this. But that's the thing. That's the perils you run into, right? All right, and the four had the same likeness. Their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel.

So when you come back here, a wheel within a wheel, and it's going to talk about how there's four different directions it can go. It can go one direction, straight, forward and back, and go the other direction, side to side.

There is no turning with this. It just goes straight in whichever direction it can go. And the church fathers see this mobility here kind of depicting, if you were symbolically, the omniscience and omnipower of Christ.

He sees everything in all directions. He can go wherever he is, wherever he wants to be. In any of the four directions, he goes straight to it, with just that flash. So that's how they picture these things.

And let's see, okay, and so wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went. Their rims were tall and awesome.

Oh, that's helpful.

Awesome, okay, thank you for the word awesome. That is super helpful. And if you want to know what the Hebrew word, it's yirah, and it means awesome. Right, yeah, if this was done in the late 70s, 80s, it would be radical, okay, but it's not.

So now the rims of all the four were full of eyes all around. Now this is where it gets interesting. So whatever these wheels are, they're alive. They're not mere mechanisms. Full of eyes all around basically says, this is one of God's creations.

God didn't just take a hunk of dead metal and then put this together, or even stone barrel and put it together. These wheels are living creatures created by Christ. And you sit there and go, do I even have something I can compare this to?

Answer, yes, there is actually something that can make sense here, okay? Think back with me. How many of you guys watched, it was more than a decade ago now, Battlestar Galactica, that remake that they made that lasted several seasons, right?

The Cylon technology had advanced. They were no longer walking toasters, okay? And there was one particular episode where Starbuck was in a dogfight with a Cylon ship, right? And the whole ship itself was alive.

It wasn't a piece of inanimate metal with a pilot in it. The ship was alive, and it was its own pilot. So you kind of have to think in those terms. Talk about God. Are there other things that he's created that we have no concept of?

Yes, absolutely. I think we've only seen the tiny, tiny little speck of a spear, of the iceberg of all of God's creation. And one of God's creation includes these wheels within wheels that have eyes all around, and they're alive.

Yeah? So you're saying it's alien.

Oh, Stephen.

The question was, so you're saying that this is alien to us.

You can't deny it.

You're not wrong. You're not wrong.

You're not right.

It might be extraterrestrial.

Yeah.

Okay. Ugh!

It's aliens. The History Channel was correct, I repent. The History Channel's wrong, because they're thinking of it in terms of how we think of E .T. When they say aliens, they mean E .T. von Homme.

Ouch.

This is what they're talking about. But yes, you're right. These are alien to us, and they are truly extraterrestrial, but these are creatures of heaven, right? And so it's a beautiful picture that Christ's throne itself is alive.

And that's just mind-boggling. His throne itself is alive. And so you'll note then, as we consider these things, this gives us a fuller picture of who Christ is, how he operates, and so much more about Jesus than meets the eye.

But if you don't interpret this correctly, and you just go down the Hollywood version of alien's interpretation, you'd miss all of these beautiful aspects of who Christ is.

So, all right.

So the rims were tall and awesome. The rims of all four were full of eyes all around. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them. And when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose.

Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went and the wheels rose along with them. Now, here we have an invocation of the spirit, and in Hebrew, ha-ruach. And so here the Holy Spirit is referenced, but not in full detail, which basically says, the Spirit is, the Holy Spirit's part of this vision, but it's kind of still kind of in the background.

You know, that's the motivation. That's the thing that drives them. Wherever the Spirit wanted to go, they went. The Spirit wants to go this way, they go that way. So the Holy Spirit is the one deciding where the throne itself goes.

It's a fascinating implication. And the wheels rose along with them, for the Spirit, ha-ruach, of the living creatures was in the wheels. And when those went, these went. When those stood, these stood.

And when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them, for the Spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. Over the head of the living creatures, and here you're gonna note, so Isaiah's picture, near the King Uzziah that died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up.

So now we're looking up. We're looking up like Ezekiel. Over the heads of the living creatures, there was the likeness of an expanse. There we go, there, that Hebrew word, rakia. Okay, so you got some kind of an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal spread out above their heads.

So here you've got a crystal sky, a crystal expanse, not sure what to make of that. Under the expanse, their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another, and each creature had two wings covering its body.

And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of tumult, like the sound of an army. Think helicopters, I don't know, it's just some kind of loud sound that is associated with their flying, right?

These are not static wings. They are moving, they're making sound, they're pushing air. And when they stood still, they let down their wings, and then there came a voice from above the expanse, over their heads.

When they stood still, they let down their wings. And above the expanse, over their heads, there was the likeness of a throne in appearance like sapphire. All right, now, here's our issue, okay? The Hebrew doesn't say sapphire.

It says something else. And let me explain, okay?

We need another Google search.

We're gonna look for lapis lazuli. The Hebrew says lapis lazuli. Now, it doesn't say it, it's not pronounced that way in Hebrew, but that's what it actually gets translated as. So I want you to look at this.

So it gets translated as sapphire, but instead, we're actually talking about lapis lazuli, which is this dark blue stone that has kind of gold streaks through it, okay? So if you kind of picture what's going on here, lapis lazuli, it makes me wonder if the reason why they chose sapphire is because the book of Revelation uses a word that is closer to sapphire than lapis lazuli, okay?

But the idea here is it's this beautiful, beautiful, gorgeous, dark, hyper-saturated, color blue stone. It's just absolutely just startling when you consider what's going on here. So in appearance like, I'm sorry, the ESV actually notes, or lapis lazuli, I think lapis lazuli is the right translation here.

Like lapis lazuli, and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance.

Hmm.

Okay, didn't God have like a human appearance in the Garden of Eden?

Yeah.

And here we have one sitting on the throne. This can't be other than God himself, right? And he has a what? Likeness like a human appearance. Hmm, makes you wonder. I mean, did Jesus, was it always the intention of the Trinity that the Son of God would be incarnate?

Right?

Always and again, the Old Testament is preparing us for the incarnation of Christ. Preparing us over and again. And you would think it would be blasphemous to sit there and say, one like the appearance of a man, but man was created in the image of God.

And God was walking in the cool of the day of the Garden. And here we've got one like the appearance of a man. And all of this stuff is screaming at us, incarnation, think the incarnation, right? That's the point, right?

No holes are mentioned here. This is pre-incarnation, okay? Now, let me show you a cross-reference here. And let's see if I can do this right. We want Revelation chapter four, okay? Okay, note that the title of this portion of Revelation is called the Throne in Heaven.

Now, here's my question for you, okay? If we have a common author of all the scriptures, the Holy Spirit, this is centuries after Ezekiel. Centuries. Should we expect there to be consistency between the two?

Watch this.

So after this I looked. So this is after his first vision and then writing the letters. And behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here.

And I will show you what must take place after this. Side note, I know I noted this when we went through the book of Revelation. That when you ask certain dispensationalists, hey, how come there are no biblical texts that teach the rapture?

Show me a biblical text that teaches the rapture. They'll say Revelation 4 .1. Come up here. That's not the rapture, okay? You know, it's like, I'm sorry, all right. At once I was in the spirit. Behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne.

And he who had sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. Now we need a little bit of work here. What is jasper, okay? Hang on a second here.

We're doing some work.

Jasper stone, okay? So let's see if we can figure that out. Okay, so jasper kind of has this orange-red, you know, kind of strata look to it. And the other one is carnelian. And I'm gonna spell this wrong.

So I'm gonna copy it. Carnelian, hang on, carnelian stone. Let's take a look at that. Okay, similar, okay? So we got this fiery red and orange thingy kind of look going on here. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian.

And around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were 24 elders. I'm sorry, were 24 thrones. And seated on the thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads.

From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder. That's the same, right? And before the throne were burning seven torches of fire which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal.

That's a little bit, that detail's not mentioned in the Old Testament. And around the throne on each side of the throne are four living creatures. Full of eyes in front and behind. Huh, the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.

Are you seeing some data points that connect here? And the reality is this, it's kind of sad. A lot of Christians never make this connection. They never take the time to really let the scriptures cross-reference it, to meditate on it, and to start making these connections.

The four living creatures, each of them had six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.

Wow, okay? This is so consistent. And I'm sorry, but human authors disconnected by centuries cannot be describing the same thing unless they're experiencing the same thing, right? You know, I'm on a high horse, I need to come down.

Okay.

All right.

Upward from what had the appearance of his waist, I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. Interesting. So basically from his waist down, gleaming metal appearance of fire all around, that would be the same color as your jasper and carnelian, that bright red-orange flavor.

Downward from what had the appearance of his waist, I saw that there was the appearance of fire, there was the brightness around him, like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud. Oh, look at that, the rainbow's even referenced.

It's referenced there in Revelation, too, that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance, watch this, the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh.

So for Ezekiel, he just basically chalks the whole thing up,.

It's the glory of Yahweh, right?

And as soon as he puts all the pieces together in his mind, this, this, this, oh, I know what this is, he falls on his face. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking. So you'll note then, I think I made this kind of parting comment last Sunday, and that is that this vision was designed on purpose to overwhelm.

So Ezekiel falls on his face, Isaiah sees the same thing, and oh, I'm undone, woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips, right? And you'll note that the standard operating procedure is that when you see finally what's really going on, who God is, who Christ is, all of his glory, and all of this kind of stuff, it undoes a person, just legitimately undoes them.

Ezekiel’s Prophetic Commission and the Holy Spirit

So now God has to comfort his undone prophet that he's about to call, and he said to me, son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you. Now, this is gonna be a common phrase throughout Ezekiel, okay, ben adam, son of man.

What's also interesting here, and I'll point this out here, because the ESV doesn't, this is one of my major pet peeves with the ESV, is that throughout Ezekiel's prophecy, he's going to refer to God as Adonai Yahweh, as the Lord Yahweh.

It gets translated in the ESV as the Lord God, and that is just wrong, okay? And there's a play on words going on here. Son of man, looking down, and the Lord Yahweh. It's not just Yahweh, it's the Lord Yahweh, okay?

You kind of have to think that this is dealing with God in all of his authority, all of his power, all of his glory, all of his might, and then you've got son of man, right here, and the juxtaposition between the two throughout Ezekiel is an important part of the theology.

Over and again, God is going to refer to him as son of man, reminding him of his lowly status, and he's going to respond back to God, you are Adonai Yahweh, you are the Lord Yahweh. We're talking about God in his top, top, top status.

This is part of this theology. And remember, this is a prophet raised up to help wean the people of Judah off of the false prophets that they've been listening to on YouTube, okay? That's, this is all part of this.

And so the temple hasn't been destroyed yet, that's happening later in the book. The temple hasn't been destroyed yet. The first round of exiles are in Babylon, and swept up in the mix were some of the false prophets.

And they're there saying, don't unpack your bags, we're gonna go home quickly, it's gonna be a suddenly,.

We're gonna have a breakthrough,.

And all this kind of nonsense, right? These are the things that are going on. But part of this, part of Ezekiel's vision is designed on purpose to basically say, those guys are idiots. They have no idea who they're really dealing with, who they're messing with, who they are blaspheming by their false words.

So the greatness of God and the smallness of man is super emphasized in this book. And it's part of the drama. So when you see the Lord God in the book of Ezekiel, just scratch it out and put Lord Yahweh, okay?

It's one of those weird times when, I don't know why the ESV translators went with this. I just don't get it. I legitimately don't understand why we're practicing the superstition of the Pharisees in our Bible translation.

I don't get it, okay? So let's take a look now. So chapter two, he said to me, son of man, stand on your feet, I'll speak with you.

Yes, sir.

And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, okay? So you're gonna note, he receives the Holy Spirit as part of his prophetic activation. Sorry, I had to say it like that.

This is actually his prophetic calling, okay? And how many years, how many courses on how to fine tune his prophetic skills did Ezekiel take? Not a one, not a one. You know, this happened, this was a suddenly, okay?

He went from being priest to being prophet and you'll note that the Holy Spirit enters into him. So he is indwelled by the Holy Spirit for his prophetic work, all right? So the Spirit entered into me, set me on my feet.

So even if he didn't wanna stand up, I'm too scared. Well, the Holy Spirit says, you're standing up and I heard him speak to me. And he said to me, son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels who have rebelled against me.

Notice it says, nations, goyim. So his primary audience are the exiles in Babylon. They are rebels against him. But he's also sent to the nations at large and we are all rebels against God, okay? Rebels, love that word, marad, all right?

We are rebels against God. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. The whole lot is corrupt. The descendants also are impudent and stubborn. My mom says yes, okay? I said to them, you shall say to them, thus says Adonai Yahweh, the Lord God.

Huge title. And whether they hear or refuse to hear for they are a rebellious house, they will know that a prophet has been among them. So one of the wonderful things about Ezekiel is that although he's going to be prophesying to a rebellious house, at the end, everyone's gonna go, yeah, he was a prophet, everybody.

Jeremiah, they just fought against him and they didn't listen to him at all, okay? Poor fellow. Ezekiel, at least he has this consolation. When you've finished your prophetic course, at least they'll sit there and go, yeah, Ezekiel was a prophet, okay?

That's a bonus, I guess, okay? And you, son of man, be not afraid of them nor be afraid of their words. And here's where I have to kind of chime in and talk about the pastoral office, okay? Because I've been in the pastoral office now for nine plus years.

It'll be 10 next June. And I can legitimately tell you, I understand what pastors fear.

Why?

Because I've experienced those fears myself, okay? I understand how difficult the job of a pastor is. And I can tell you that every pastor, including me, is a worthless, ungodly sinner. And we are tempted in all kinds of ways.

And I can tell you this, that most people are conflict-averse. They do not like getting in a fight with other people, especially if they can avoid it, right? And they loathe going to Thanksgiving dinner.

With their family, because it's gonna turn into a fight about Trump. They just can't stand this kind of stuff, right? So as a result of that, the constant pressure on pastors is to not preach the word of God straight.

Every pastor has learned that if they just give people what they want to hear, they will have a ministry marked by lack of conflict. So what is said to Ezekiel here applies to pastors, and it's not a coinkydink that this is the text that oftentimes will be preached at pastor's ordinations.

This is a very common text to be preached during the ordination of a man into the pastoral office. Now, let me give you a cross-reference, one that I go to almost all the time on fighting for the faith.

Paul’s Warning About the Last Days and the Sufficiency of Scripture

But if you go to 2 Timothy, and starting at chapter three, listen to how this starts, and watch then the absolute connection. Understand this. In the last days, there will come times of difficulty. People will be lovers of self.

Well, people have loved themselves from the beginning of time. How is this any different? What Paul is describing by the Holy Spirit is the state of affairs in the church at the end of time. It is no news that pagan unbelievers love themselves.