Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S20 || God Takes No Joy in Judgment || Ezekiel 19:1 - 20:8 || Session 20
What does it mean when the Creator of the universe grieves? In this profound exploration of Ezekiel chapter 19, we uncover a side of God rarely discussed—His deep sorrow over having to judge His beloved people.
Through two striking metaphors, a lioness with her cubs and a withered vine, Ezekiel conveys God's lamentation over Israel's fallen kings. These rulers, descendants of David's royal line, had become predatory and violent, "devouring men" rather than protecting them. Kings Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin, specifically mentioned in the historical record, were carried off to Egypt and Babylon respectively as divine judgment for their wickedness.
The episode reveals a crucial theological truth: God takes no pleasure in judgment yet cannot ignore sin without compromising His righteousness. This tension between justice and compassion permeates the entire biblical narrative and ultimately finds its resolution at the cross.
We also examine a fascinating moment at the beginning of chapter 20, when Israel's elders approach Ezekiel seeking divine guidance, only to be met with God's refusal: "I will not be inquired of by you." Instead, God recounts their centuries-long pattern of rebellion dating back to Egypt, where—astonishingly—they clung to Egyptian idols despite witnessing the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea among other miracles in their exodus from Egypt.
This ancient struggle with idolatry speaks directly to our modern experience. While few of us bow before physical statues, we often elevate money, relationships, careers, or even religious traditions above our devotion to God. Anything that captures our primary allegiance becomes an idol, potentially leading us down the same destructive path as ancient Israel.
Join us as we explore God's heart in judgment, the danger of taking divine patience for granted, and the crucial spiritual practice of remembering God's faithfulness throughout our lives.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. We do verse-by-verse Bible study and today we're in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 19. First question we have is does God ever lament over the things he has to do? We'll find the answer to that today because, if you've been with us in the book of Ezekiel, god is pouring out His wrath and His anger on a very disobedient people.
Speaker 1:God had sent many messages and many prophets to the people of Jerusalem and they had ignored it, disobeyed, took God for granted, and now God has caused some of them to be deported into Assyria, some of them into Babylon. He's giving the message through the prophet Ezekiel to the remainder in Babylon, telling them that he is going to destroy Jerusalem. It's a very horrible message. God has been quite blunt and quite severe in his language. Today we're going to see God's heart in all of this. God takes no pleasure in the death and destruction of people, but as righteous judge he must deal with it. So today we're going to see God's heart. So if you have your copy of the Bible, open to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 19. Steve, can you read the first seven?
Speaker 2:verses. As for you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel and say what was your mother? A lioness among lions. She lay down among young lions. She reared her cubs. When she brought up one of her cubs, he became a lion and he learned to tear his prey. He devoured men. Then nations heard about him. He was captured in their pit and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt. When she saw, as she waited, that her hope was lost, she took another of her cubs and made him a young lion. He walked about among the lions. He became a young lion. He learned to tear his prey. He devoured men. He destroyed their fortified towers and laid waste to their cities. A land and its fullness were appalled because of the sound of his roaring.
Speaker 1:God is using the princes of Israel, the kings of Israel, as lions. We know that in verse 1. So there's no doubt on who he's talking about. He's talking about the kingly line of his people. He says in the first couple of verses there that your mother was of good stock. If you remember, all the way back to King David, they had a very wealthy nation. David was a man after God's own heart.
Speaker 1:But, starting with Solomon, the country began to rot because they brought in idols and began to worship other gods. But God had given them much. He had given them the law of Moses. He had given them the prophets. He had given them much guidance. He had protected them. They came from good stock, they came from a good place. Their ancestors had a lot of blessings and benefits from God. Nevertheless, they had, over time, walked away from that. Verse 4 speaks of one of the lions being captured and taken to Egypt. Well, king Jehoahaz was captured, indeed, and taken to Egypt by Pharaoh, where he died. You can hear that story in 2 Kings, chapter 23, verses 31 to 34. God is here lamenting because his people, the kingly line, had started out well. They had King David as an ancestor, but because of disobedience, then the rulers ultimately had to be judged and ultimately died. Steve, here's the first question. Does God lament over sin and destruction of people?
Speaker 2:I do think he laments, glenn, because this is a sad situation that the nation of Israel has gotten itself into. Here they are. They were a divided kingdom, northern, taken off into captivity. Now the southern kingdom of Judah, through God's grace, has held off other advances and attacks. They're down to their last few years of being an independent kingdom and God is lamenting over that.
Speaker 2:He's lamenting that it has come to this and the nation of Israel itself is going to be completely taken out for a few years 70 years to be exact. He's going to have people that are in exile in Babylon and the temple is going to be destroyed where he once dwelled. Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, the capital city. So, yes, I think God does lament over that. As far as the people, but you know, glenn, they have brought it upon themselves. It isn't something that God enjoys doing. I don't think that's why we have this lamentation. He's lamenting as to the situation and why it's come down to this now. It's something, no, I don't think God takes pleasure in, but yet there's going to be consequences to sin.
Speaker 1:If you've been with us as we've gone through Ezekiel, you've seen a long series where God is pouring out his wrath and his anger on his people. He's quite clear, quite blunt, quite graphic, very emotional in pouring out his anger and his wrath because he had sent many prophets and they had been ignored. Here, if we ask the question, does God lament over this or is he somehow taking pleasure in the destruction of his people? Well, by no means. This is one of the chapters that show this. God does not take pleasure in having to judge sin, but he must judge sin or he wouldn't be a righteous God. Critics always say well, how come God allows evil? Well, when he does deal with evil, they say why is God punishing people? Here in this chapter, god is very sorrowful and he talks about this lion, one of these kings, being taken away. Then, in verses 5 through 7, he speaks of another prince that became a young lion. In verse 6, this king became violent and it says devoured men. The king there he's talking about was King Jehoiachin, who ultimately was taken prisoner by Babylon in 2 Kings 24, verses 8 through 17. What had this man done to deserve this punishment? He was a murderer. He callously used his position as king to destroy people's lives. He devoured men. Therefore, god judged him for it and used Babylon to come in and be his weapon for dealing out justice. That's the first half of chapter 19. I'm going to pick up in verse 8, and he has additional laments for the rest of the chapter which says this, additional laments for the rest of the chapter which says this Then nations set against him on every side from their provinces, and they spread their net over him. He was captured in their pit. They put him in a cage with hooks and brought him to the king of Babylon. They brought him in hunting nets so that his voice would be heard no more.
Speaker 1:On the mountains of Israel, your mother was like a vine in your vineyard. Planted by the waters, it was fruitful and full of benches because of abundant waters, and it had strong branches fit for scepters of rulers. And its height was raised above the clouds so that it was seen in the height with the mass of its branches. But it was plucked up in fury. It was cast down to the ground and the east wind dried up its fruit. Its strong branch was torn off so that it withered. The fire consumed it and now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land, and fire has gone out from its branch, it has consumed its shoots and fruit, so that there is not in it a strong branch, a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation and has become a lamentation. Steve, what do you think of when you hear these words.
Speaker 2:As I mentioned before, it's just a sad story as to what the nation of Israel has come to. It's a sad ending If you also remember back to the book of Judges it talked about every man did what was right in his own eyes and there was no king in Israel. The people clamored for a king. God told them, said you really don't want a king because they're going to lead you down the wrong path in the wrong way. Well, now we see where that has led them. That actually happened. There were a few good kings in there, but most of them were not good kings, meaning that they didn't uphold the ordinances and statutes of God and led the people astray. It's just a sad, sad story. God is lamenting what has happened to the nation of Israel overall.
Speaker 1:God takes no pleasure in the destruction of his people. King Jehoiachin stayed imprisoned in Babylon and ultimately died there. It says at the end of verse 9, his voice would be heard no more in the mountains of Israel. Because of their sin, they were taken away.
Speaker 1:One of the messages that's recurring through this is that God was very long-suffering, very patient with his people. He gave them rules at the beginning and set up the expectations and told them what would happen way back in Deuteronomy. Over time he sent prophets and reminded his people. He was very long-suffering, but ultimately the sin fills up the cup and God will deal with it. He pours out his wrath on his people and here he is mourning because of it. It says in verses 10 and 11, it speaks of the heritage of Israel coming from good stock. They had good things formerly, but they had squandered it. They had spread it and discarded the good things of God and taken advantage. Israel flourished under King David and Solomon, but ultimately a very long series of disobedient kings squandered and ultimately the last kings were killed, taken to Babylon and the kingly line stopped with the Babylonian captivity.
Speaker 1:It says here in the verse 12, we just read God plucked up and destroyed Israel in fury because of her sin. The message for us today is that if we take advantage of God, then we will meet the same fate. Yes, he is long-suffering and he generally doesn't send lightning bolts at the hint of the first sin. He is long-suffering, but, my friend, if we think we can stay in sin and get by with it, we are sadly mistaken. His anger will be poured out ultimately on all sinners, unless we fall at his feet and claim the blood of the Lord Jesus. That brings us to chapter 20. In chapter 20, again, we just continue this wave after wave of God's anger and wrath on his people. There's times where we ultimately, as Bible teachers, get a little bit tired sometimes of dealing with this, but I can only imagine how tired God would be in having to re-say it as well. Let's go ahead and look at chapter 20. Steve, can you read the first eight?
Speaker 2:verses. Now, in the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord and sat before me. The word of the Lord came to me saying Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, thus says the Lord God Do you come to inquire of me as I live? Declares the Lord God. I will not be inquired of by you. Will you judge them? Son of man? Make them know the abominations of their fathers and say to them Thus says the Lord God On the day when I chose Israel and swore to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore to them saying I am the Lord, your God, on that day I swore to them to bring them out from the land of Egypt into a land that I had selected for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.
Speaker 2:I said to them Cast away each of you the detestable things of his eyes and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God. But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me. They did not cast away the detestable things of their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I resolved to pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.
Speaker 1:In this passage. If we go back to the beginning and walk through what we just read in verse 1, ezekiel says it's the seventh year, fifth month and the tenth day. Now, as we've pointed out whenever we bump into these, ezekiel is again documenting the date, the year, month and day when he got this message from the Lord, god. He is documenting a historical fact. This is not some sort of religious myth, it's not some sort of hearsay. It's a firsthand eyewitness account that's been documented down to the year, the month and the day. If we follow along in the book of these days, the previous year, month and date he gave was in Ezekiel 8, verse 1. This one, if we look at the years, is about 11 months after the previous date given in chapter 8. The Bible is a historical fact. It happened in history and it's not a religious myth or some kind of fabricated religious story. This is a documented historical fact. What had happened here?
Speaker 1:It says that the leaders of the Jewish people they again go to Ezekiel. Ezekiel was known as the prophet, so they go to Ezekiel to hear what God has to say to them. They must have had some sort of a question or at least listening for the word of God. Ezekiel says here he is giving another new word from God. In verse 3, it says once again, god is telling them that he will not give any new messages, whatever they were asking about. God says I'm not going to answer you because of your disobedience and disbelief, which God will describe in the rest of the chapter. Get the picture they come to the prophet to hear a word of God and the word they hear I'm not going to respond to you. Hear a word of God and the word they hear. I'm not going to respond to you. Steve, does God? Does he answer all the questions from all people that always get asked of him?
Speaker 2:No, he doesn't, Glenn, because he doesn't have to answer the questions always from people. When we really get an answer from him, it's really a gracious thing that he does for us to do that. As you pointed out to us just here. Teaching through these chapters, it gets a little bit repetitive here.
Speaker 2:Well, how do you think God is thinking about the whole situation, telling them over and over again, trying to get them to understand that he is their God and to follow him, and that they would get blessings from that, that he is their God and to follow him and that they would get blessings from that? That's actually what he's doing here in these verses that he's mentioning here. He's going all the way back to Egypt to tell them I'm not going to entertain any more questions from you because you're not listening to me. This is how far back you're listening as a nation goes. It goes all the way back to when I took you out of Egypt, and that was hundreds of years prior to where they are now. No, he doesn't always answer every type of question that comes from people. As I said before, it's gracious of him to give us answers many times.
Speaker 1:Again in verse 1, the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord and sat before me. At the end of verse 3, god's response was something that they really probably didn't want to hear. I will not be inquired of you. They came with a question and the answer from God was I'm not going to answer your question. What I am going to do is remind you and he spends the rest of the chapter God does, reminding them of all of the good things he had already given them in the past and reminding them of their response, which was disobedience.
Speaker 1:That's what most of this chapter is. Is God reminding them of all of the blessings that God had given them in the past, and reminding them of all of the blessings that God had given them in the past and reminding them of all of the disobedience and disbelief that they had exerted in the past? He reminds them of the trip that they made to Egypt and how God brought them out. That's one of the themes here, and he talks about several instances about bringing them out of Egypt. Steve, why does God regularly bring up that he brought them out of Egypt? If we look at the timeline, this was quite a long time from when he brought them out of Egypt. Why is he still talking about I'm the one that brought you out of Egypt?
Speaker 2:I think it's because all of the events that took place, all of the miracles that happened, with Moses talking with Pharaoh, the 10 plagues that came along and then them coming out, the parting of the Red Sea of God being a pillar of cloud during the day and fire by night to cover them and to comfort them, giving them manna every day while they are in the wilderness, giving them meat to eat, quail whenever they complain, water whenever they complain All of those miracles that went with the exodus from Egypt. It's a story to be recounted over and over again as a reminder of who he is, who God is. Of course, there's other miracles that take place as they go into the land, but God didn't forget them when they were in Egypt and he brought them out whenever they were at a period of slavery in Egypt. I think that goes into it too. He's telling them you're my people, I'm your God. I'm not going to forget the promises that I was made to your forefathers, abraham, isaac and Jacob.
Speaker 2:He mentions Jacob specifically in these verses that we just got through reading. It's a big deal. I think that's why God continues to bring it up throughout Scripture. It's something that they should remember and bring to mind, but for some reason, which I haven't always figured out, they just continue to go off and worship gods of the world rather than worshiping the one true God and worship gods of the world rather than worshiping the one true God.
Speaker 1:It seems that the Lord regularly brings up and reminds Israel I am the one that brought you out of Egypt. He does this repeatedly and I think part of the reason is because the actions that happened when he brought them out of Egypt were a demonstration the superiority of God, the falsity of idols, how he was powerful and the other gods weren't. So it's a major demonstration. It's also a major demonstration of the heart of God. He felt for his people that were in slavery and he wanted to bring them out. It's also a picture of our salvation. We are slaves to sin and God has to bring us out of that slavery. We can't get out of it by ourselves. The coming out of Egypt and the bringing out of Egypt through the wilderness into the promised land is a major, major, major event in all of the Bible. That's why he keeps bringing it up.
Speaker 1:In verses 5 and 6 here in Ezekiel 20, god repeats some key ideas. He says I chose Israel. He's emphasizing who is actually doing the good actions. He mentions I swore three times. He says I made myself known to them. Once again. He also, in those verses, mentions the land promise the land is a major theme throughout all of the Bible. God is reminding Israel how many times they rebelled and how many times God delivered them and provided for them. He reminds them of the things that he promised to give them. The promises were unilateral, made by God to Israel. Even after all of the disobedience, even after all of the centuries, even after he's pouring out his wrath on his children here at the time of the Babylonian captivity, he is still reminding them. I promised, I swore I brought you out of Egypt. I was fulfilling my promises. That's what he's doing, steve. Can we take comfort in hearing these words even today?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and the reason why is because we know that God is a promise keeper Through keeping his promises that he made to Israel. We can take comfort that he's going to keep the promises that were made to us as believers in Jesus Christ, of eternal life. All of that stuff. With all the things that are going to happen in the future, we can take pride and comfort in knowing that they're going to happen, because God has revealed himself not only to the nation of Israel and what he's done and keeping his promises, but he's also revealing himself to us. So, yes, we can take comfort in knowing that and be assured that it's going to happen.
Speaker 1:In verse 7, let me read that again. It's something quite amazing. Here I said to them cast away each of you the detestable things of his eyes and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God. But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me. They did not cast away the detestable things of their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. I find this quite amazing.
Speaker 1:After all of the 10 plagues, after all of the miracles, after all of the water from a rock and manna from heaven and the quail and all of the miraculous things that God did, they hung on to the idols of Egypt. If you remember, if you were with us when we went through Joshua, joshua 24, verse 14 says that even after the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, after that another few decades of conquering parts of the land, israel still had some of the Egyptian idols that they had been carrying around with them, hanging on to All the way. At the end of Joshua's life they still had idols from Egypt. Idol worship plagued Israel for most of the Old Testament. Steve, I just find that amazing that they would have hung on to those idols that long after God had warned them not to. But you know what amazes me even more than that Idol worship still plagues us today, does it not?
Speaker 2:It's a form of taking God for granted. I think they were there. They hold on to these idols, which is really a representation of holding on to the world, holding on to worldly things and worldly items. I think we do the same thing here in our day and age, in that sometimes we take God for granted. Oh, we have salvation and we have the freedom to pray directly to God and all other freedoms that we have. We can always go to God and confess our sin, as it mentions in 1 John.
Speaker 2:I think possibly sometimes that turns into an area where we get a little bit comfortable with worldly ways and we do worldly things and we kind of take God for granted in that form that we can always go to him and ask for forgiveness. Maybe we should spend more time trying to make sure that we're becoming more Christ-like and becoming not part of the world. We go back to Israel and I think that's what they're doing. They're holding on to the old ways of Egypt, the old gods, the old ways of the world. In a way, they're really taking advantage of God, becoming maybe a little bit too comfortable with him, thinking that he's always going to overlook their sins, but we see that he's going to bring judgment on them and he does that several times throughout their history. It's a little bit of a mystery. But I think it's also a mystery in our day and age why we sometimes maybe take God a little bit too for granted.
Speaker 1:The idols that plague them were statues that they would either have in their homes or carry around with them or have in a shrine or a temple. I would hope that our audience wouldn't have statues laying around that you do religious things in front of. But other things can be idols as well. It doesn't have to be a physical object. We can make lots of things into an idol Money, sex, drugs, pride, even hobbies can be idols.
Speaker 1:Anything that gets in between us and God takes away our attention from worshiping God. That becomes an idol. God's not a divine killjoy. He's not asking us to get rid of anything that's fun. What he is is asking us to get rid of anything that takes the place of him, and whether that's something that we find innocuous or whether it's some religious ritual, if it takes us away from the Lord, it's an idol. In this passage, steve, he also reminds them of all of the things, as we said, of bringing them out of Egypt, all of the blessings. Do we in our day, need to be reminded of God's blessing? Is it helpful for us to go back and be reminded of the things that God has done for us in the past?
Speaker 2:I think that it's essential that we do that.
Speaker 2:We cry out to God whenever we are in problems or trouble and we seek His face, we seek His attention.
Speaker 2:We want Him to be gracious and merciful to us, depending upon the situation that we find ourselves in.
Speaker 2:Then, when we maybe come out of those situations, maybe we give a thanks to God. Probably, most likely we'll give a thanks. Then we kind of pass on and then we go back to our life and our old ways until another crisis comes along and we never go back and remember what God has done for us in the past. So I think if we spent more time remembering what God has done for us in the past, in that exercise, you're also remembering what type of situation you were in when you cried out to God and how he answered it and how he brought you through that particular situation. That helps us becoming embroiled in new situations, because that helps us to remember we don't want to go down that path again, even though God brought us out of it. So I think remembering things that God has done for us in the past is an essential thing that we should do in order to help us, as we move forward in our life, to not get into the situations where we necessarily have to cry out to God for deliverance.
Speaker 1:We're at a spot here in Ezekiel where we're going to see even more of this very graphic language that's coming up in the next sessions very emotional language, very descriptive language. God is going to be again showing his anger and wrath in a very graphic way, again showing his anger and wrath in a very graphic way. We trust that you'll be back here next time as we continue to reason through the book of Ezekiel.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you you.
