Please turn to Ezekiel 24. I am amazed at how fast the time goes. I did this study here about five years ago. I am convinced that it is still faithful and that everything still remains the same, and so we will look at this again. We read in Ezekiel 24:15-27:
Also the word of JEHOVAH came unto me, saying, Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men. So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded. And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so? Then I answered them, The word of JEHOVAH came unto me, saying, Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left shall fall by the sword. And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men. And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward another. Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord JEHOVAH. Also, thou son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters, That he that escapeth in that day shall come unto thee, to cause thee to hear it with thine ears? In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb: and thou shalt be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am JEHOVAH.
If we turn back to Ezekiel 1:1-2, we read right in the beginning of the opening verses:
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity,
This was before the destruction of the temple in 587 B.C. Ezekiel is already in captivity. He was taken with King Jehoiachin. King Jehoiachin reigned from 608 to 597 B.C. until the king of Babylon came up and took him.
Ezekiel says in Ezekiel 1:2:
In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity,
So if he was taken into captivity in 597 B.C., this would be 592-593 B.C. I am not exactly sure of the year.
If we now go to Ezekiel 3:22-27, we read:
And the hand of JEHOVAH was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee. Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of JEHOVAH stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face. Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house. But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them: And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house. But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.
The Lord God struck Ezekiel dumb. He was not able to speak. Ezekiel is a sign in all of this.
We read again in Ezekiel 3:27:
But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; He that heareth, let him hear…
In other words, Ezekiel was dumb; but when the Lord had something for him to say to the Israelites in this time that he was dumb, then he could speak.
Let us go back now to Ezekiel 24. We read in Ezekiel 24:15-17:
Also the word of JEHOVAH came unto me, saying, Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.
He is telling them what He is going to do to them. He then tells them that when this happens, they are not to mourn. They are just to continue to live life as usual.
Again, He says in Ezekiel 24:17:
Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee…
I believe that one of the signs of mourning back then was to go bareheaded. It continues:
…put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.
In other words, they were to just go on with life as usual.
Then in Ezekiel 24:18, we read:
So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.
God took his wife.
God put some of these prophets through some terrible things. For instance, we read about how Jeremiah was persecuted and beaten. We read about Zacharias who was killed between the temple and the altar.
So God put His prophets through some awful things and now He is taking Ezekiel’s wife. She dies and He is making Ezekiel a sign to the people.
He says in Ezekiel 24:16:
Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes…
God is going to take his wife.
Look now at Ezekiel 24:21:
Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes…
As a prophet, Ezekiel is a picture of Christ and he is also a picture of the true believers. We are finding this out about Jonah now. But here, God is taking his wife. She is going to die and He is likening this to profaning the temple or to the destruction of the temple.
In other words, the wife—supposedly of Christ—should be the body of believers. Corporately, in a sense, the nation of Israel was the wife of God. But now, He is putting them away; He is destroying them.
Let us read Ezekiel 24:21 again so that we can see how God makes this similitude or this comparison:
Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes…
In other words, this sanctuary would be the desire of these Israelites who loved the Lord God, and He is telling Ezekiel that He is taking away his wife, the desire of his eyes:
…and that which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left shall fall by the sword.
The words “have left” actually mean “have forsaken.” He is speaking about their sons and their daughters who are still in Jerusalem. These people whom Ezekiel is speaking to are in captivity.
Again, Ezekiel is a sign to them and to what God is doing to them, but this temple, at this point, still exists, although the death of Josiah in 609 B.C., who was the last good king of Israel (Judah), was the beginning of their tribulation period. From 609 to 587 B.C., it was a period of 23 years inclusive. From 609 B.C. to when this temple was destroyed, this prefigured the first part of our Great Tribulation period. In 1988, the Great Tribulation period began. There was a period of 2300 days until September of 1994 when the Holy Spirit was poured out again. From 1994 to the end is the second part of the Great Tribulation; but this is what we are seeing here.
This word “desire” is referring to the people of God in relation to the temple, which should be the desire of the true believers. He says in Ezekiel 24:16:
…behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke…
In other places, this word “stroke” is translated “plague” or “slaughter.” In other words, this is a slaughter like in Ezekiel 9, another horrible passage where we read about “every man a slaughter weapon in his hand” going through Jerusalem and killing. So again, this is a picture of God separating Himself and killing the unbelievers in that corporate body.
But He tells him in Ezekiel 24:17:
Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead…
In other words, God is telling Ezekiel, “Do not mourn; have no pity.” Why is this?
This has to do with God’s longsuffering and how He has put up with this and put up with this. Again, this is looking at the corporate church of our day.
He had gone on and on and on and He had let these people go on and on and on with their false teachings and their apostasies, and yet He had not brought judgment on them. But now, there is going to be no mercy, as He tells Ezekiel:
Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee…
He is telling Ezekiel not to mourn and to keep his tire on his head. The “tire” was a round thing that they wore on their heads. He also tells him:
…cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.
Turn back to Ezekiel 7 and we will also see this in other places. Finally, there is going to be no pity from God towards these people, and yet He has been so longsuffering with them. In Ezekiel 7:1-6, we read:
Moreover the word of JEHOVAH came unto me, saying, Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land. Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations. And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am JEHOVAH. Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come. An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come.
Then in Ezekiel 7:9, He says:
And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am JEHOVAH that smiteth.
He did this in 587 B.C. when the Babylonians came into the temple and there was no hope left for the Israelites.
We will see this again on May 21st of 2011 when salvation ends. It is particularly the people in the church who are living today who are going to see this in the worst way when they come to understand that they are really under the wrath of God and that they are not saved.
Let me read Ezekiel 7:14-15 now:
They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof. The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
Then Ezekiel 7:16 says:
But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
We just read this in Ezekiel 24:23:
And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward another.
These are those who have escaped the wrath of God, and we are going to read of those who escaped out of the city when the destruction came. Those who escaped are a picture of the true believers who have escaped, and yet they are pining away for their own iniquities and mourning one toward another.
I believe the sense of this is like what we read in Ezekiel 36:31. Many of us are familiar with Ezekiel 36 where God explains how salvation works. In Ezekiel 36:31, God says:
Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.
This is characteristic of any true believer. When he is brought to truth and sees his own rebellion and his sinful nature, he mourns and he actually loathes himself in his own sight for the sin that he has committed.
Let us turn to Ezekiel 8:17 where we read:
Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here?…
He has just shown Ezekiel in a vision particular things that these priests are doing that are just horrible and in rebellion against God.
Let me start now from the middle of Ezekiel 8:17:
…Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence…
When we read about “violence” in the Bible as it pertains to the Israelites, it is speaking of the violence that they have done to the Scriptures.
We see this also in Zephaniah 3. This is speaking of the prophets and the priests of Israel, and we read in Zephaniah 3:4:
Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.
Returning back to Ezekiel 8:17-18, we read:
…Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land…
We just spoke about “the land” in Psalm 85 in the earlier study from today (put link here when it gets posted).
…for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity…
He repeats over and over that He is not going to have pity. It continues:
…and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
We know that the apostasy of Israel back then as God brought judgment upon them prefigured the apostasy of the New Testament church. They were doing the same thing, as it were. They were perverting the Word of God by bringing in their own salvation plan, which really consisted of man’s work as they twisted the Scriptures.
Today they are ordaining homosexuals when God makes it perfectly clear that homosexuality is a sin. God relates the Gospel to the birth of a baby, and yet the church is now ordaining homosexuals. It was the same thing back then in that they were doing these abominations and God was going to bring judgment on them and show them no pity.
In Ezekiel 9, we were just speaking about this. This is the account of the six men coming through Jerusalem with slaughter weapons. It speaks of “one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn.” This certainly would represent the Lord Jesus. This is speaking of the judgment on the people of God. We read in Ezekiel 9:2:
And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar.
One more passage where we see this is in Jeremiah 16. We read in Jeremiah 16:1-2:
The word of JEHOVAH came also unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.
God is speaking to Jeremiah and telling him not to take a wife from Jerusalem.
Then we read in Jeremiah 16:3-9:
For thus saith JEHOVAH concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land; They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. For thus saith JEHOVAH, Enter not into the house of mourning…
God is commanding Jeremiah the same thing that He commanded Ezekiel. He is not to mourn:
…Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith JEHOVAH, even lovingkindness and mercies. Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
Remember that they were to keep their tires upon their heads. It continues:
Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink. For thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
The “voice of the bridegroom” is the true Gospel. This is speaking of God’s judgment on the corporate body that is repeating again in our day.
So let us go back to Ezekiel 24. He says in Ezekiel 24:24:
Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign…
Again, God made some of these prophets walking parables or walking signs. He did this with Hosea. He commanded Hosea to marry a harlot. He was actually making Hosea a picture of Himself as He was corporately married to the Israelites.
So we read in Ezekiel 24:24-26:
Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord JEHOVAH. Also, thou son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters, That he that escapeth in that day shall come unto thee, to cause thee to hear it with thine ears?
In other words, there were going to be a few who would escape this destruction that was in Jerusalem in 587 B.C.
Then He says in Ezekiel 24:27:
In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb: and thou shalt be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am JEHOVAH.
Turn to Ezekiel 33. We read in Ezekiel 33:21:
And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity…
I think that this would now be 586 B.C. because Ezekiel is going to receive the news here that the temple has been destroyed. It was destroyed in 587 B.C. However, we can prove from the Bible that he did not get this word until a year later, but we are not going to look at that for now.
So we read in Ezekiel 33:21-22:
And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.
In other words, Jerusalem has been destroyed. It continues:
Now the hand of JEHOVAH was upon me in the evening, afore he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb.
At the point that Ezekiel finds out that the temple has been destroyed, he is no longer dumb. God opens his mouth again.
Can we relate this spiritually to today? I believe that this certainly relates spiritually to the latter rain. For the period of the 2300 days, which was the first part of the Great Tribulation that went from 1988 to 1994, we found out that hardly anyone or maybe no one at all was saved. The Gospel was going out back then. There were even Family Radio tract trips, but very few, if any, were saved.
This also parallels the ministry of Christ. God, the perfect teacher, was on earth for three and a half years, and yet very few were saved. However, when He went back to Heaven and the Holy Spirit was poured out, then the Gospel went out into the world and we read that three thousand were saved on the day of Pentecost. Later on, another five thousand were saved.
I believe that this parallels our time because Ezekiel’s mouth was open after the destruction of the temple in 587 B.C. There were still some 40+ years of tribulation left; but here, Ezekiel, as a figure of the Lord Jesus and as a figure of the true believers, is no more dumb. When God struck him dumb, he could not speak. I believe that this relates to the years that the corporate church has been deaf, as it were, to the Gospel.
Remember what He said back in Ezekiel 3 when He struck him dumb. In Ezekiel 3:26, He said to Ezekiel:
And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.
To reprove is to correct, and so they are not going to hear. He is dumb; therefore, he is not going to be bringing the Word of God to correct them.
Look at Psalm 38. This is clearly a Messianic Psalm. This is a Psalm of David, as most of the Messianic Psalms are. We read in Psalm 38:5-7:
My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
Let us go to verse 11, Psalm 38:11:
My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
Christ had to suffer alone.
We read next in Psalm 38:12-13:
They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long. But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
Did you notice this? It says in Psalm 38:13-14:
But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs [or corrections].
He told Ezekiel in Ezekiel 3:26:
…thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.
I am convicted that what we are to see in Ezekiel is this time of tribulation when God is judging His church and there is a famine, as it were, of hearing the Word. They are not hearing. Even though the Word could go out faithfully, there is no hearing. There is no correction from the Word of God.
Let us return to Ezekiel 24. Again, I just want to emphasize Ezekiel 24:24:
Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord JEHOVAH.
Again, we have learned that God has made some of these prophets signs or walking parables, as it were. We read that even what Christ did when He came in 33 A.D. was a sign unto them, as He told them, “There shall no sign be given…but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” This was a sign and not actually what happened. It was a sign of what had happened before.
But in Ezekiel 3:17-18, God says to Ezekiel:
Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
He goes on to tell Ezekiel that he is a watchman, which applies to all believers.
But then if we turn to Ezekiel 33, He says this same thing to him again about being a watchman. Ezekiel 33 starts out with the principle of how Ezekiel is a watchman, which applies to all believers. We are the watchman. We can see the sword coming as God opens our eyes to the Scriptures, and the sword that is coming is the judgment of God. Ezekiel 33:1-4 says:
Again the word of JEHOVAH came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
He goes on to say that if we do not sound this trumpet, then the blood is on our head. This is a long passage, but I believe most of us are familiar with this. It is just laying down the principle that believers are to be watchman.
We just looked at Ezekiel 33:21 and how Ezekiel was given the news that Jerusalem was now smitten, how God had destroyed that corporate body. Then in Ezekiel 33:22, we read that his mouth was open and he was no more dumb. I am convicted that this applies now to the latter rain period when the Holy Spirit again was poured out.
Then He says in Ezekiel 33:25-27:
Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?
He is continuing now to admonish Israel.
Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour’s wife: and shall ye possess the land? Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.
If we believe that we are a child of God and if we understand what the Lord is telling us in the Bible, this is the message that we as watchmen are to bring. We are at the end. We have one year left in this 23-year tribulation period.
So we continue to bring this message and it does admonish those who are still in the church of their error, their apostasy, their worship of idols, their false teachings. As we read in Zephaniah, “They have done violence to the law,” and yet we are continuing to bring this message of imminent judgment to the world as watchmen.
Shall we pray.