Youth Bible Study Lessons > Ezekiel

The Exile: A Transition to the New Covenant – Ezekiel

Feb 7th, 2009
by Anthony Delgado.
the-exile-a-transition-to-the-new-covenant-ezekiel

xymonau, http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1025856

There are many thematic elements to the book of Ezekiel. For example, there are ample depictions of the glory of God which take place in different fantastic forms (see Ezekiel 1.22-28 for one instance). These can be fun to read and to ponder on, but the major reason to consider the glory of God in this context is to understand the plan of God as consistent with the whole of canon, namely the Law, the Gospels and Revelation. In this light, the primary theme of Ezekiel is the new covenant. This covenantal change took place in three major phases: the exile, the post exilic period and the coming of Christ. All of these are reoccurring elements throughout Ezekiel. There was a great need for covenantal change due to the Israelites, as well as the whole of mankind, not fulfilling their responsibility to God.

The exile was a seventy year period which was caused by Israel’s consistent effort to serve themselves in worldly ways, rather than to serve God. As part of Ezekiel’s call into the ministry God chose him for, he was tested to eat a scroll containing the woes of the people (The MacArthur Study Bible, Ez. 2.8-3.3). He succeeded in this task, whereas the Israelites failed in theirs when they forsook the Lord. The exilic period existed to remove from Israel all of the blessing which they had because of God and to remove any uncleanliness from them so that a new Israel could be established. Ezekiel was assigned the task of being a watchman over Israel in order to guarantee the remnant. He was in direct control of bringing God’s word to the people so that all would hear and some would choose to follow. This was such a critical task that God made it clear that Ezekiel was personally responsible for the non-repentance of the people if God’s word did not reach them; their blood would be on his hands (The MacArthur Study Bible, Ez. 3.16-21).

Once the exile was used to establish the remnant, Israel was freed by Cyrus King of Persia to re-inhabit the promise land (The MacArthur Study Bible, Ezra 1). The priesthood was restored to the Levitical priests, who were preserved through the line of Zadok (The MacArthur Study Bible, Ez. 48). The rest of the Levites who presided over the temple would not be allowed to serve before the Lord because they defiled the Lord’s ordinances, however they would be allowed to serve in other ways within the temple (The MacArthur Study Bible, Ez. 44:9-31). One of the most important things which was restored to them at this point was God’s divine provision of food and shelter which they did not experience in abundance during the exile (The MacArthur Study Bible, Ez. 47.1-12).

The coming of Christ is the next major significant theme. In spite of Israel’s continued lack of obedience to God, even throughout the post exilic period, God allowed them enough religious establishment for the coming of the messiah. Possibly this was a demonstration of their need for a true shepherd as described by Ezekiel. There was established one Shepherd set over the new Israel (The MacArthur Study Bible, Ez. 3.23,24). This establishment was the new covenant. Ezekiel describes the new covenant in terms of peace and provision (The MacArthur Study Bible, Ez. 34.25-31). It is known that Christ came for all, so it can be speculated that Ezekiel focused on Israel because salvation for the Gentiles was for the glory of Israel (The MacArthur Study Bible, Luke 2:32). As part of this new covenant, the shepherd makes them spiritually clean with a new heart (The MacArthur Study Bible, Ez. 36.24-32). Christians know this new heart to be the Holy Spirit, sent as a helper after the resurrection of Christ.

The exile was important for the new covenant to take place. Therefore Christ’s coming was contingent on God’s knowledge that the nation of Israel would not be obedient and therefore the will of God, Christ’s coming, would be done through the nation of Israel in spite of their disobedience. God foreknew that there would always be a remnant which would carry on the Davidic line. He also used prophets like Ezekiel to ensure that His message would be upon the people that enough would repent, that the new covenant would be established and that ultimately a New Israel, Christ and the New Covenant would be established for the Glory of God.

Works Cited
The MacArthur Study Bible: Updated New American Standard Translation. MacArthur: Thomas Nelson
Inc., 2006.

How to be Free from Sin – Righteous

Sep 16th, 2008
by Anthony Delgado.

How to be Free from Sin – Righteous
Righteousness is observation of all the Lord’s commandments. Everything that is law for us to do is required to be done in order for us to be righteous. If there is any evil, any sin, in us we are not righteous. Certainly our unrighteousness has been covered over by the blood of Jesus Christ, but we should still desire to do what God has required of us in order to bring Him glory. There are three categories of sin which require very different methods in order to be repentant of them. They are intentional sin, unintentional sin and unknown sin.

“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the LORD our God commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. ‘Moreover, the LORD showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household; He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’ “So the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today. “It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the LORD our God, just as He commanded us.

Deuteronomy 6:20-25 NAS

In simplest form, this passage from Deuteronomy tells us that we are to remember that once we were slaves, but through many trials, God delivered us from sin into holiness. For the Israelites that was a literal deliverance from slavery, but for Christians today, it is a deliverance from the slavery of sin. We are no longer subject to the control of sin and are free now to observe all the commandments of the Lord, just as the Israelites were free to observe them once they reached the Holy Land. The passage is clear that in either case we will be righteous of we observe the commands of the Lord God.

Observing the commands of God is a daunting task. There are so many! How can we know them and how can we obey them? Broken down categorically it makes more sense.

  • Intentional Sin. “If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear” (Psalms 66:18 NAS). To regard is to observe closely or attentively. If you attend to evil in your heart, you are not yet free from the bondage of sin. You must choose Christ and give over all sin to him; you will be forgiven. This step is really the easiest for most. With Christ comes a desire to do right and so avoiding sinful actions of this nature are easily avoided.
  • Unknown Sin. This is a trap for many Christians. “If I don’t know it is sin, it isn’t sin.” Wrong! If there is unknown sin, then there is a lack in the knowledge and wisdom of God. “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (1 Timothy 3:16 NAS). If there is unknown sin, it is because you have not been trained in righteousness. How do we become trained in righteousness? Scripture. As Christians we are accountable for all of our sin. If we are to rid ourselves of sin, we must know sin and must be trained to be rid of it. Through careful study of the Word of God we can become aware of sin, trained in righteousness, so we can be repentant of this sin.
  • Unintentional Sin. “Thus you shall do on the seventh day of the month [put blood from the sin offering on the doorposts] for everyone who goes astray or is naive; so you shall make atonement for the house” (Ezekiel 45:20 NAS). To an extent everyone is naïve to sin in some form or another. The naïve will go astray if they are led too close to sin. A good example is lust. A man may be fully aware that lust is a sin and make a conscious effort not to lust in his mind, but if he finds himself in situations which become a temptation to lust, he is likely to fail. So, the solution is to not be hasty in action, instead exhibit patience in all action, considering carefully the words of God so that we will not be led into temptation and be subject to our naïve nature which will cause sin.

    • This is not all to say that if one sins he is not a Christian. “There is none righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10 NAS). No one is going to be completely sinless, but we are free from the slavery of sin through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Still we are all called to be set apart from sin and if we truly believe the words of God, and regard Holiness in our hearts, then freedom from sin is a feasible goal, even if we are not likely to obtain it of our own power.

    Not One is Holy

    Sep 2nd, 2008
    by Anthony Delgado.

    Not One is Holy
    Reading through Ezekiel you get a pretty good idea of the wrath of God, but you also get some insight into a huge question that people ask about Christianity? Why is the God of the Old Testament vengeful, but the God of the New Testament is a God of love? The answer in short is that He is and was both a loving God and a vengeful God. Ezekiel makes this pretty clear.

    I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.
    Ezekiel 22:30: 31

    God says that he looked upon man to find someone who could bridge the gap. This gap is between the sinful ways of man and the perfection of God. His desire is to be with man, but only on His terms, which are perfection. God looked and found no one because, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NIV).

    This passage is actually a foreshadowing to the coming of Christ. Jesus Christ is the bridge between man and God because He provides atonement for sin so that we are “Holy and Blameless in his sight” as we have been commanded to be (Ephesians 1:4 NIV). Not without sin, rather forgiven of our sin. Atonement is the sufficient payment required from God for our sins. The acceptable payment was Christ’s death on the cross.

    The important thing to note, as an application of this passage is that we, like the Israelites are deserving of destruction, however we do not experience destruction because God looks down and sees Christ who is able to bridge the gap so He does not have to destroy us. We should accept the gift of Christ with humility. How much blessing is in our lives as a result of Christ and we are deserving of destruction?