Hope and Restoration in Exile: Lessons from Ezekiel

SPROUL: "How do you sing the Lord's song in a strange and foreign land?" That was the question that plagued the Jewish people who were carried away into the Babylonian captivity. I remember back in the Civil Rights era, during that struggle, that Martin Luther King made this observation: that America, in its foundational development was considered a melting pot where people from all over the world fled various kinds of persecution to seek freedom on the shores of this country; but there was one group, and only one group, that came to this country in chains. [00:00:12]

But in the ancient world, that type of thing -- of stealing people from one country and deporting them and enslaving them in the conquering nation was somewhat commonplace. And after the Babylonians conquered the Jewish nation, they took the cream of the crop from the Jewish people and brought them to serve in this foreign land. And these people who had known their covenant God and had known their traditions, their histories, and the promises were now left to ask the question: How could God allow this to happen? [00:01:39]

And so it's important when we look at the books of Ezekiel and of Daniel that we understand that these books are written at a time when the people of God were in captivity, and they were struggling with the question of the presence of God -- has God abandoned us? And one of the things that it is said about the book of Ezekiel, that in large measure the book functions as a theodicy. [00:02:16]

We have a tendency to make a sharp distinction in the Old Testament between the priests and the prophets; and the priests were those who interceded in behalf of the people to God. They were those intermediaries who, in a sense, ministered to the people, where the prophets were spokesmen for God, and so often, their mission was to rebuke the people, to admonish the people, to chasten the people, and call them to repentance, which was anything but an enviable task. [00:03:40]

Now, the theodicy of Ezekiel really begins in the second chapter of the book that bears his name. "And He said to me" -- that is God -- "'Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.' And then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me. And He said, 'Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. [00:04:59]

You remember in the Old Testament that when the people of Israel were on the move, the Ark of the Lord went before them. It was carried, and people walked on foot carrying these poles that were inserted through the loops on the outer edges of the ark, and that signified the throne of God and God's leadership going before the people; but remember that all of the symbolism of what was going on on the earth, in the tabernacle, later in the temple, was to call attention beyond itself to the transcendent reality, to the heavenly reality of the inner chamber and inner sanctum of God, where God's glory was above the heavens, and God was exalted and was the King of all of the earth. [00:07:54]

And this is what Ezekiel saw. He saw the outward vision of the heavenly throne of God as it whirled and moved rapidly about, came down from the heaven, filled with the glory of the presence of God. And Ezekiel said, "When I saw it I fell on my face." And it is God who speaks to him out of this vision of the judgment throne, and the message is a message of judgment. And He addresses Ezekiel with the phrase "son of man," which is a title, of course, that is later on given to Jesus. [00:09:08]

Now notice what God is saying. He said, "I don't want you to just chew on My Word. I want you to swallow it. I want it in your stomach. I want it to be digested so that it permeates your whole body." This is not just a casual nip at the Word of God, but he is to consume the Word of God that it becomes a part of his bloodstream. But remember that the words that he is called to eat are words of woe and mourning and of lamentation. [00:12:39]

But Ezekiel does what God commands him to do and we read these words, "So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness." And you see the jarring irony of this. How could these words that were filled with such negative meaning taste to the prophet as sweet as honey? Well I think this is what really explains the psychology of the prophet in Israel. Even though the message that the prophet was called to deliver was often dire and was anything but palatable, nevertheless there was something about it that caused it to be sweet. [00:13:19]

But the final explanation that he gives for why all of this is taking place is found in this phrase that is repeated in the book of Ezekiel: "That they may know that I am the Lord." Sixty times in the book of Ezekiel that phrase is announced by the prophet, coming from God. "I'm doing this that they may know I am the Lord." It reminds you of the statement in the Psalms where the psalmist writes, "Be still and know that I am God." [00:15:57]

In chapter thirty-seven we read these words, "The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. And then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. And then God said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?'" [00:17:45]

So that the end of the book of Ezekiel comes with the glorious promise that God is not going to leave His people in exile. He looks forward to new life, new breath, a new response to His Word, the end of captivity, and the regeneration of His people. [00:21:10]