THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Ezekiel: Effective Ministry To The Spiritually Rebellious

Part VIII: The Vision Of Judah's Wicked Princes Behind God's Departure

(Ezekiel 11:1-25)

I. Introduction

A. When God decides to punish people severely due to sin, He always has a reason for doing so, and He explains through His messengers why He performs such discipline.

B. In the case of God's departure from His temple, a great loss with enormous implications for Judah, the Lord clarified in Ezekiel 11:1-25 the wickedness primarily of Judah's leaders that would lead to this departure.

C. We view this passage for insight and application in our era (as follows):

II. The Vision Of Judah's Wicked Princes Behind God's Departure, Ezekiel 11:1-25 ESV.

A. In Ezekiel 10:18, the glory of the Lord as God rode in His angelic chariot moved from the south side of the temple and hovered over the eastern gate, and in Ezekiel 11:22, that angelic chariot began to leave the city.

B. However, couched between these two verses is a final vision in this series of visions that God gave Ezekiel, helping to explain what most motivated the Lord to leave His temple, Ezek. 11:1-21; B. K. C., O. T., p. 1247.

C. The Spirit of the Lord again lifted Ezekiel up and took him to the Eastern Gate where the Lord's chariot hovered, and there Ezekiel saw 25 men, princes of the people, among whom were Jaazaniah the son of Azzur and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, Ezekiel 11:1. If Azzur is the man named in Jeremiah 28:1, Jaazaniah in Ezekiel 11:1 was the brother of Hananiah the false prophet who gave the people a false message of hope, Ibid.

D. These 25 princes were plotting evil and giving wicked advice, claiming the people would soon be able to build houses since the city was a protective cooking pot and the people were the meat inside the pot safe from the Babylonian army, Ezekiel 11:2-3; Ibid. They were teaching what Hananiah as a false prophet had taught, that the people should ignore the predictions of God's true prophets that the city was about to be defeated.

E. Accordingly, the Spirit of the Lord fell upon Ezekiel, directing him to prophesy that the Lord knew what thoughts came into the mind of the people, that those they had murdered in the city were the meat and the city the cooking pot, but that the Lord would bring those still living outside the city and bring the Babylonian sword upon them in judgment for their sins, and they would realize He was the Lord, Ez. 11:4-12a. Ezekiel said God would punish them for not obeyed His Word, but following the beliefs of the Gentiles, Ez. 11:12b.

F. When Ezekiel gave this message, as a sign of what would occur to the rest of the 25 men, Ezekiel saw Pelatiah the son of Benaiah suddenly fall over dead, and Ezekiel reacted by exclaiming in a loud voice, "Ah, Lord God! Will You make a full end of the remnant of Israel?" (Ezekiel 11:13 ESV)

G. The Lord replied that Ezekiel with his fellow exiles in Babylon were now being viewed by Jerusalem's people as those who were far from God, that the Hebrews still in the land were those close to the Lord as the true heirs of the Promised Land, Ezek. 11:14-15. Judah's people had adopted a pagan view of the Lord, thinking He was just a local deity like any other pagan god, that the exiles who had been removed from Judah were thus far from God and lacked His protection and blessing! (Ibid., p. 1248)

H. In contrast to this errant view, God told Ezekiel that though He had removed the exiles from the land of Judah, scattering them among the nations, He was still their Sanctuary in the nations to which they had gone, that He would gather them once again from the nations, bringing them back to the land of Judah, Ezekiel 11:16-17.

I. When the people did return, they would have learned to abandon their false idols, they would remove all the detestable cultic objects from the land and God would give them a new heart to heed the Lord so that He would again be their God and they would be His people, Ezekiel 11:18-20.

J. However, for the rebellious Hebrews in Jerusalem, God would punish them for their sins, Ezekiel 11:21.

K. After this, the Lord's glorious chariot lifted up and left the city and stood on the Mount of Olives east of the city of Jerusalem, and the Spirit of God returned Ezekiel to his body in Babylon where he reported all of these visions the Lord had given him to the elders who were around his body in Babylon, Ezekiel 11:22-25 with 8:1.

Lesson: In a final vision before His departure, the Lord revealed a key wickedness that occurred in Jerusalem was the apostasy of the nation's leaders who compromised with errant pagan views and opposed the ministry of the word of God's true prophets. For such sin by the nation's leaders, God's judgment would inevitably have to fall.

Application: May we leaders of God's people be sure that we avoid compromising with errant beliefs and rebelling against God's Word, for doing otherwise leads God's people to sin to where He must greatly punishes us and them.