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The Bible Breakdown
Ezekiel 07: It's Pumpkin Time
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Ezekiel, chapter 7, today's title is it's Pumpkin Time. Alright, it is pumpkin time and you're not going to understand this unless you've ever watched Cinderella. Right Now, I know there's like a thousand versions of Cinderella, but we're going to talk about the old school cartoon Cinderella. We're going to talk about that in just a moment and what in the world that has to do with Ezekiel.
Speaker 1:But if you like what we're doing here, while you're getting your Bibles open to Ezekiel chapter seven, make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown YouTube channel and podcast, make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast and make sure that you are going to the Bible Breakdown discussion on Facebook. There's a lot of people who do a lot of hard work there every day in order to create a community for us so that we can talk about God's Word. I can't think of anything better to talk about than to talk about how we are interacting with God's Word. So make sure you go there and join the conversation. Well, once again, if you have your Bibles, I want to open up with me to Ezekiel, chapter 7. Don't forget that the overall idea of Ezekiel is about God's promise of renewal, god's promise of renewal, and remember, they have to be renewed from something right, you know what I mean. Like something has to be renewal means that you take something that is old, out of date, lapsed, all that, and you renew it, and so they're talking about what they need to renew and that's kind of where we are right now and basically Ezekiel is going to talk about in chapter 7, what we're going to say is pumpkin time. What I mean by that is when I was a kid and I watched Cinderella, it was this whole thing where Cinderella wanted to go to the ball but she couldn't because you know things, reasons, evil stepmothers, all this stuff, but her fairy godmother now it's not a Christian thing, all right. So it is what it is. Her fairy godmother came up to her and she was like, hey, listen, I got a plan, but there's a catch to the plan and that is at midnight everything turns back to a pumpkin, like your ride you got here turned back into pumpkin. The horse is going to turn back into rats, and that started a phrase called pumpkin time, which means at midnight. Everything that was good is now over, right, and so that is what Ezekiel is experiencing in this chapter. He is telling them the end is now here. You guys have been hanging out, you've been playing around. It is now over. So let's read this together and let's see, at the end of this, what the Word of God may say to us today.
Speaker 1:Ready Ezekiel, chapter 7. Let's talk about pumpkin time. Verse 1 says this Then this message came to me from the Lord, son of man. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Israel the end is near. Wherever you look, east, west, north and south, your land is finished. No hope remains. For I will unleash my anger on you and I will call you to account for all your detestable sins. Now pause for a second. Realize he's telling them they're going to be accountable, but it's because of their sin, their constant unwillingness to do what he's asked them to do. Okay, I will turn my eyes away and show no pity. I will repay you for all your detestable sins. Then you will know that I am the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says. Disaster after disaster is coming your way. The end has come. It has finally arrived. Your final doom is waiting.
Speaker 1:O people of Israel, the day of your destruction is dawning.
Speaker 1:The time has come. The day of trouble is near. Shouts of anguish will be heard on the mountains, not shouts of joy. Soon, I will pour out my fury on you and unleash my anger against you. I will call you to account for all your detestable sins and I will turn my eyes away and show no pity. I will repay you for all your detestable sins and I will turn my eyes away and show no pity. I will repay you for all your detestable sins. Then you will know that it is I, the Lord, who is striking the blow. The day of judgment is here. The destruction awaits. The people's wickedness and pride have blossomed to full flower. Their violence has grown into a rod that will beat them for their wickedness. None of these proud and wicked people will survive. All their wealth and prestige will be swept away. Yes, the time has come. The day is here. Buyers should not rejoice over bargains, nor sellers grieve over losses. All of them will fall under my terrible anger. Even if the merchants survive, they will never return to their business.
Speaker 1:Wow, verse 14. The trumpet calls Israel's army to mobilize, but no one listens, for my fury is against them all. There is war outside the city and disease and famine within. Those outside the city walls will be killed by enemy swords. Those inside the city will die of famine and disease. The survivors who escape to the mountains will moan like doves weeping for their sins. Their hands will hang limp and their knees will be weak as water. They will dress themselves in burlap. Horror and shame will cover them. They will shave their heads in sorrow and remorse. They will throw their money in the streets, tossing it out like worthless trash. Their silver and gold won't save them that day of the Lord's anger. It will neither satisfy nor feed them, for their greed can only trip them up.
Speaker 1:They were proud of their beautiful jewelry. It was used to make detestable idols and vile images. Therefore, I will make all their wealth disgusting to them. I will give it as plunder to foreigners, to the most wicked of nations. They will defile it. I will turn my eyes from them and these robbers invade and defile my treasured lands. People prepare chains for my people, for the land is bloodied by terrible crimes. Jerusalem is filled with violence. I will bring the most terrible, ruthless of nations to occupy their homes and I will break down their proud fortresses and defile their sanctuaries. Terror and trembling will overcome my people. They will look for peace but not find it. Calamity will follow calamity, rumor will follow rumor. They will look in vain for the vision of the prophets and they will receive no teaching from the priests and no counsel from the leaders. Wow, I mean, that's not good news at all. I mean that's really, really bad news that Ezekiel is saying you guys have done this, you guys have brought this on yourself over and over and over again. You were like, no, we're not going to serve God. And so God is basically saying the measure at which you have measured your evil deeds out to others, now it's going to come back to you. So what can we learn from this chapter? And that is this.
Speaker 1:I think this chapter reminds us to live with a sense of urgency. The first of all, realize that he starts the chapter with saying it's here, now is the time. And one of the things that has always been interesting to me is I know they made it a song eventually, but I was talking to somebody one time who he was in a terrible car accident and they did not expect him to live, and while he was on his deathbed, basically he was saying his last goodbyes and he was getting ready to just say goodbye and die, and God worked a miracle and he saved him and he was able to live. And it was this wonderful thing, and it changed his life, because for a moment, he felt like he was just a whisper away from death, just a whisper away from death. And he said, brandon, I cannot describe to you how that changed my life, because now, every time I think about what I could be doing or I should be doing, there's a part that I immediately go okay.
Speaker 1:Well, if I were dying today, what would be the most important thing to do If I were not, then, what I waste my time with? And he just said there's something about living like you're on the edge of death that has a way of giving you true perspective, and I wonder if we were to hear this message from the Lord, and that is this that the end is near. Whatever you have dished out to others I'm about to revisit to you Would it, number one, change our priorities? And, number two, would we be excited or would we be terrified? The question, then, is what are we dishing out to others? How are we investing our time and our life in others? Because if we were living with a sense of urgency. I wonder what would become important and what would not be important, important and what would not be important. So my encouragement to you is to live your life like you got a message like this Not the bad news, but just to say the end is near. Live like that and live putting the most important things up front.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that for some of us this will be a reality one day, and I pray it's a long way away for all of us but there will be a day when it will be the final day of our life here before we pass on over to the other side. I pray when that day comes, lord, we won't live with regrets, we won't live with unthings said or unthings done, but we will live our life full in your presence. We will know you more every day and we will let you control our lives in all things. We thank you for that. Today, in Jesus' name, we pray Amen and then what God's word says in Ezekiel 34, verse 14,. It says I will put my spirit in you and say it with me and you will live again. My hope is that we will take encouragement from these chapters to always remember that God wants life for us and to have it to the full. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Ezekiel, chapter 8.
