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The Bible Breakdown
Ezekiel 04: Burning Poo for Jesus
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today, ezekiel, chapter 4, and listen, we're going to call this one Burning Poo for Jesus. Yes, you heard it Burning Poo, p-o-o for Jesus. Listen, okay, pause for a moment. If you've been around us for a while, you know I kind of have a process. I go through this. I'll tell you something about Ezekiel. I love him. I love him so much, and one of the reasons why I love Ezekiel is because Joker's crazy, because God trusted him to constantly be a living metaphor for the people, and today I got no words. We're going to go on this journey together and you're going to be horrified, just like I was. God ain't messing around If you dare, open your Bibles up to Ezekiel 4. While you're doing that, as always, if you're new around here, please come back. Listen. God's Word is amazing, it's true, which means God uses crazy people, which gives you and me hope. Just help us, jesus. Make sure you like, share, subscribe to YouTube channel on the podcast. We, you owe us, in Jesus name, a five-star review, because so many people would skip this chapter. I don't know what happened. A chapter, for we just escaped somewhere. No, no, we covering all of it. We went all the way through Leviticus and Song of Solomon. We missing ain't missing this one, Okay, so make sure you go there and we're going to have some fun. So, if you have your Bibles, open up with me to Ezekiel 4.
Speaker 1:I think it is so very important that we remember the theme of Ezekiel before we get into today, and the theme is God's promise of renewal. God's promise of renewal, God's promise of renewal. God has a purpose for the things that he is doing, and he is telling the nation of Israel listen this time that you're in exile. Remember, they've lost everything. They're in exile. They have been moved to a different country. Everything is horrible, and God is telling them. It's not always going to be that way, but you've got to get your act together. You've got to stop rebelling against me. You've got to come back and do the things I've told you to do so that I can heal you. You got to. And so what God has called Ezekiel to do is he has called the right man for the right time. Because, remember, yesterday we were saying that God told Ezekiel these people are stubborn, they're hard-headed, but that's great news, because you're just as stubborn and hard-headed as they are. So he has brought up the right person for the right time and, what I'm guessing, there's a shock factor here so that God can get the nation of Israel's attention, because, I mean, that's what it sounds like to me. And so God is going to constantly use Isaiah, he's going to constantly use Ezekiel as an example for what he needs to do and to make sure that he is doing the right thing, so that he can get their attention. And so he is going to use these metaphors as examples to shock the people into hearing the message. Okay, so here we go, let's do this together.
Speaker 1:Ezekiel 4, verse 1. Remember, by the way, every time it says Son of man, that's God's way of calling him a human. He said, hey, buddy, you know he's saying hey, man, let's listen. So here it goes. And so now, son of man, take a large clay brick and set it down in front of you. Then draw a map of the city of Jerusalem on it. Okay, good enough.
Speaker 1:Verse two show the city under siege. Build a wall around it so no one can escape. So right now Ezekiel's playing with blocks. Okay, set up the enemy camp, surround the city with the siege rams and battering rams. Okay, here we go. Take an iron griddle and place it between you and the city. Turn toward the city and demonstrate how harsh the siege will be against Jerusalem. This will be a warning to the people of Israel.
Speaker 1:Now lie on your left side and place the sins of Israel on yourself. You are to bear their sins for a number of days that you lie there on your left side and place the sins of Israel on yourself. You are to bear their sins for a number of days that you lie there on your side. So he's got to lay on his side for a number of days. How many days? I am requiring you to bear Israel's sins for 390 days. One day for each year of their sins. After that, turn over and lie on the right side for 40 days, one day for each year of Judah's sins. So pause. So what he's supposed to do is lay on his side and look at a brick that he drew a picture of Jerusalem on and then built a little play wall around it, and that is God's way of saying this is what your sins look like. Here we go, lie there with your arm bared and prophesy her destruction. I will tie you up with ropes so you won't be able to turn from side to side until the days of your siege have been completed. Now, here we go.
Speaker 1:Now go get some wheat, barley beans, lentils, millet and emmer wheat and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself during the 390 days that you'll be lying on your side. Ration it out for yourself eight ounces of food for each day and eat it and set it at the set times. And then measure out a jar of water for each day and drink it at the set times. Prepare to eat the food as you would barley cakes, while all the people are watching. So, first of all, that's not so bad, right, like? Lay on your side for 390 days, so a little over a year and stare at these blocks and then turn over for 40 more days on the other side, which is good. You need to stretch it out and then stare again and then have these basic essential vegetables and you're going to have a jar of water per day. No problem, got that. But now look at this, verse 12. Prepare to eat this food as you would barley cakes, while the people are watching. You bake it over a fire of human dung, human poo as fuel and then eat the bread Verse 13.
Speaker 1:Then the Lord said this is how Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands, to which I will banish them. Can I just be honest with you? I'm going to say this. I didn't even know poo could burn. Just get that out of the way. Okay, I didn't even know that. But look, even Ezekiel, as stubborn as he is, he's got some problems with this and he says oh, sovereign Lord, must I defile myself by using human dung? In other words, I'd just rather starve to death. And can I tell you, ezekiel, me too, buddy, for I have never been defiled before. None of us have my friend Not like that. From the time I was a child until now, I have never eaten an animal that died of sickness or was killed of any other animals. I have never eaten meat forbidden by the law. All right, the Lord said you may. Meat forbidden by the law. All right, the Lord said you may. Oh, wow, you may. Bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung. Great, so much better. All right, verse 16.
Speaker 1:Then he said to me son of man, buddy, I will make food very scarce in Jerusalem. Yeah, yeah, I bet, and it will be weighed out with a great care and eaten fearfully. The water will be rationed out drop by drop and the people will drink it with dismay. Lacking food and water, people will look at one another in terror and they will waste away under their so.
Speaker 1:Ezekiel, the man of God, was told by God hey, listen, I want you to show the people how bad it is when they don't honor me. Got you? Okay, god, I'll do that. I'll tell them no, no, no, don't want you to tell them. I want you to show them. Okay, said slightly less excitedly. What can I do for you? I want you to lay on your side for 390 days, bet, all right, I'm going to catch up on the game. I'm going to watch a whole bunch of TV shows. No, no, no, no. You're going to stare at a brick that is going to be a symbol of Jerusalem and you're going to lie on your side as a symbol of the sins that the people have committed. Okay, then you're going to turn over on the other side and you're going to sit there for four, or lay there for 40 days as a symbol of what Judah did.
Speaker 1:Okay, then I want to share with you what it's going to be like for them over the course of 70 years, and it's not going to be a picnic. They're not going on vacation, they're going to a hard environment. So they best turn to me. Okay, god, how hard is that going to be? Oh, you don't want to know. I got this. I'm going to show you how bad it's going to be. It's going to be so bad they're going to cook their food over human dung Poo. Oh God, that sounds bad. You better believe it. Show them how it's done. I'm sorry, jesus. Show them how it's done. Oh Lord, can you do it? Can you make it better? Sure, I can make it better. Cow dung instead, oh it better. Cow dung instead. Oh, thank you. So excited. So, and he does it, he does it, and there you go.
Speaker 1:Okay, so here, here's the thing. How in the world does that help us? What can I get out of this chapter? Here's what you can get out of this chapter, and that is this are we willing to live for god in front of people when it doesn't look popular? What? What I mean by that is is God is not. Can I say this? I'm going to say this right now. Look at me. Look, if you're. If you're watching the video, look at me.
Speaker 1:God is not going to ask you to cook food over human dung, okay. Or cow dung If. If you hear a voice telling you to do that, that ain't Jesus? Bind that devil in the name of Jesus, okay. It's the only time in recorded history God didn't ask somebody to do that, okay. But you know what God may ask you to do. He may ask you to honor him when everybody else says it's okay. You know what he might do. He might tell you you can't watch Game of Thrones because there's human dung in that called pornography, and you don't need that because, while it'd be easy for the world to say you can handle it, maybe it's the fact that you can handle it that's the problem.
Speaker 1:God's wanting you to live for him in a way that looks real peculiar to everybody else. God doesn't want you to cheat the system and try to cheat on your taxes or cheat on your pay scale or clock in late or check out early when you're on salary, or maybe he doesn't want you to watch some of the other movies that other people watch. He doesn't want you having those conversations. It's going to make you stand out just a little bit and you don't want to do that. But he's asking you are you willing to live for me? And it's going to look weird and it's going to make you look uncomfortable and you may not even want to do it, but are you willing to do it? Because I asked you to. You told me you'd do anything. You told me you would serve me.
Speaker 1:God asked Ezekiel to do something gross. You know what he's asking us to do Is to be holy. So, yeah, you can do it, but should you? Maybe? What we need to do is we need to take a long hard look at our life and say God, are you asking for me to live peculiar in a world that thinks living for you is weird For the college student?
Speaker 1:You know what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to have sex with people that I'm not married to. I know everybody else is doing it. I know that it makes me look weird, but you know what? I'm going to honor my body because God told me I was special. You know what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to sacrifice my family on the altar of success. I know that everybody's telling me if I want to get ahead, I got to work ahead, but you know what I'm going to put in hard work and then I'm going to go home because when I'm dying one day, no one's going to care how high on the ladder I got. All people are going to care are the people that call me daddy or call me mom. I'm going to live peculiar because that's what God's called me to do. Are you willing to live peculiar? God has his equal to do some gross stuff. He's asking you to live for him. I think we got it a whole lot better.
Speaker 1:Let's pray God. Thank you so much for today. God, can I just say I'm so thankful that you have not called us to eat something cooked over cow dung. But what you have called us to do, god, is hard Because there's a whole culture around us telling us that we're going too far. I pray, god, that we'll never stop going far, that we'll go as far as we can, as we're running closer to you.
Speaker 1:Lord, I don't want us at RLC everyone listening to this podcast or watching this video. I don't want us to see how close to hell we can get and still go to heaven. I want to see how close to heaven we can get and still live on this earth. I pray, god, that you will light a fire in us that will be full of you, holy Spirit, and that it will cause us to want to know you more every day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen.
Speaker 1:Well, we're going to read this scripture, but if nothing else, can we all just be thankful that nobody had to eat anything cooked over cow dung today? Tell someone that and then say you got to listen to this podcast. Okay, you ready? Here's God's word. Says in Ezekiel 34, verse 14, 14,. I've been reading this a couple days now, so read it with me. It says this I will put my spirit in you and you will say it live again. God's hope for us is that he will renew his promise in our life and we will live fully in his presence. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Ezekiel, chapter five.
