One of Jesus’ most memorable methods of teaching was through parables. But did you know long before Jesus arrived in Bethlehem, the prophet Ezekiel also used parables to teach God’s people? Welcome to Thru the Bible.
Dr. J. Vernon McGee shares two of those parables with us as the Bible bus rolls through Ezekiel chapters 23 and 24. We’re learning about how timeless God’s Word is in our five-year journey through this amazing book.
As Dr. McGee often points out, the Old Testament words of Ezekiel are just as relevant to our lives as those of the gospel writers. A listener named Sandy in Fort Wayne, Indiana agrees. Here’s what she recently wrote to us in an email.
Tomorrow is my birthday and I turned 68, which seems quite surreal, Sandy says. I’ve been married for over 40 years now and nearly as long as I can remember, my husband and I and then our children have been passengers on the Bible bus. It is hard to estimate how many complete trips we’ve made, but it never gets old due to the wonderful old fella who is our beloved tour guide.
Each message is truly timeless and it never fails to speak to us in relevant and needful ways as the Holy Spirit gives new insights. We love Thru the Bible. As a birthday present to myself, I am finally writing the letter I have wanted to write all these years, just to tell all of you what a precious blessing you have been to our lives.
Merely to say thank you seems inadequate. We do pray for you, for new opportunities for the Bible bus in unchartered territory and for blessings to all of you faithful servants of the King who worked tirelessly to reach the world for the cause of Christ. It is our joy to listen in.
Every day we ride the Bible bus, we get closer to our destination. Please continue your great work, and God be with you all. Sandy, thank you so much.
What a terrific gift to us on your birthday. Happy birthday to you as well. And Richard in San Diego said the same thing, but in a different way.
I’ve been riding on the Bible bus since 1985. A friend asked me if I knew who Dr. McGee was. At that time, I did not, so I found you on a radio and started listening.
I didn’t listen every day, but every chance I had. I now listen online every morning as part of my daily Bible study. Over the years, God has grown my spirit and Dr. McGee’s messages take on new meaning.
God has revealed His word to me because of my study with you and I’m thankful. I enjoy hearing from you every day and I thank God for Dr. McGee and Thru the Bible. I’m looking forward to meeting Dr. McGee when I get to heaven.
Well, thanks so much, Richard. And what’s your story? Are you new to the Bible Bus or maybe you’ve been writing for many years like Sandy and Richard?
What’s God teaching you as we study His word together? You know, we’d love to hear from you. You can email us, BibleBus at ttb.org.
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Let’s pray for and with one another now. Heavenly Father, thank you for your timeless word. As we travel through the pages of Ezekiel, help us to clearly hear your messages for our lives.
Open our hearts so that we might see you and your word. We come now in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Let’s dive into our study of Ezekiel 23 on Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
Now we’ve come here today to Chapter 23, and I hope you have your Bible and have found the place there. Now this section that we are in here, it began back at Chapter 21. It has been a very remarkable section because these are the last prophecies concerning the judgment that was coming upon the nation Israel.
Now Ezekiel’s messages at the beginning were to the first two delegations that had gone in to captivity because they held on to the belief that God would never destroy the temple. It was his sanctuary. His glory had been there, and they knew that.
And they held on to that, and the false prophets encouraged them in this unbelief and made them think it was not necessary for these people to come back to God, to give up idolatry, and to give up their evil ways. And they went on, the false prophets, encouraging them in that. I think today one of the most subtle things that takes place is the fact that a great many men are eulogized even before they die, and then at their funeral, and they may have been godless, blasphemers.
But some preacher pushes them right into heaven. May I say to you, without having God’s mind on the matter, I think we should be very careful what we say about these folks. Because the false prophets were doing the same thing in that day, and how tragic it was.
And it gives the unsaved who come to a funeral today, or hear a message, the idea that their little goodness, and they measure it by some person’s life, that they know, and he’s a great sinner, they don’t think they need a savior. My friends, the fact of the matter is that I’m afraid that today, sometimes a gospel message is given in one place for the saints, and that it’s not given in the place where it ought to be given. When a man is out in the world, especially at a funeral or speaking to a group of unsaved, he trims his message to please the crowd.
Now, this man, Ezekiel, has really been putting it on the line. I think I should say two things that we’ve already seen that are remarkable prophecies. You will recall that in chapter 20, he gave a prophecy concerning the Negev.
That is the southern part of that land around Beersheba, all of that territory. And it was a prophecy that said, and say to the forest of the Negev, I’ll kindle a fire in thee. Well, I’ve been through that area a couple of times.
And I want to tell you, that’s as ballheaded as a door knob. There’s no vegetation there of any size whatsoever. I never saw a tree that was any bigger than my arm in the entire place.
And talk about a forest, they’re just not down in that section at all. What happened to it? God judged.
And you can take a look there today that He did a pretty good job of judging. Then we’ve seen over here in chapter 21, that remarkable prophecy about the fact that there’ll be no one to sit on David’s throne and tell the Lord Jesus come. That’s what the angel meant when he said to Mary, I’m going to give unto him the throne of his father David.
You see, even at Christmas time, it’s nice to have Ezekiel around to find out what even the angel was talking about. We need the background of these prophets that I think is so needful today. And then in chapter 22 last time, we saw the Lord calling Jerusalem a bloody city.
Well, check its history, and you’ll find out that the Lord is accurate. And yet, that was his city, the city that he loved, because God said that his eye was constantly upon him. And because his love, he judged this city.
Now in chapter 23, we have something here that’s quite interesting. Here goes Ezekiel again, way out on a limb right to the left, if you please. He’s way out in left field here.
The parable of two sisters. Now that’s something. And of all things, one was named Ohola, and the other was Aholaab.
And I think that when he gave this parable, but people actually began to smile. They said, where in the world is this fellow going with a story like that? Well, he’s going to give them the parable now, chapter 23.
And here we go again, friends. The word of the Lord came again unto me. Now, this man, Ezekiel, just didn’t make this up.
God gave him this message. He says, son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother, and they committed harlotries in Egypt. They committed harlotries in their youth.
There were their breasts pressed. There they bruised the breasts of their virginity. They no longer virgins, but they became harlot.
What in the world is he talking about? Listen to him. And the names of them were Ahola, the elder, and Aholibai, her sister, and they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters.
These were their names. Now, what’s he talking about? Samaria is Ahola.
That is, the northern kingdom of Israel is Ahola, and Jerusalem, Judah in the south, is Aholiab. Now, what in the world is he talking about? Well, we have to first get the meaning of their names.
The meaning of Aholiab, that is, of Judah and Jerusalem in the south, is my tent is in her. And who’s saying that? God’s saying that.
God’s saying, my tent is in her. That is, it was in Jerusalem, in the southern kingdom, that there was, there, this wonderful temple of Solomon, patterned after the tabernacle in the wilderness. And that was where the people approached God.
Wonderful. But what does Ahola mean? Well, that means her own tent.
The northern kingdom rebelled, and you remember, old Jeroboam put up two golden chairs, one in Bethel, the other up in Samaria, and tried to keep the people from coming south. Now, it’s very easy for the southern kingdom, and the prophets there to say, oh, God’s going to judge these golden calves up, and he surely did. But what about the southern kingdom?
He’s going to judge it too, because they, going through the ritual of a dead religion, thought that they were right with God, and they were living in sin. And today, one of the things that is cutting the nerve of the spiritual life, even of fundamental Christians and fundamental churches, is the lives of some of the members. Oh, my friend, somebody says, well, I’m saved by grace.
You sure are. And that’s the only way you’ll ever get saved. The only way I’ll ever get saved.
I know that. God’s not saving by grace, then I couldn’t possibly be saved. But that doesn’t mean you’re not to live for Him, and that doesn’t mean He’s not going to judge you.
And that doesn’t mean that you can actually kill the spiritual life of a church. These are two girls that you ought to get acquainted with. Ohola and Oholab.
Oholabab. What names of all things. And this man, I think, attracted a little attention by that.
You know, I think of that whimsical story that comes out of my Southland. A poor tenant farmer, we call him sharecroppers. And croppers is the name given to them.
He had one of these little donkeys, burrows, some folk call it. And had him hitched up to a wagon in which one line was leather and the other was a cotton rope. And a friend wanted to ride with him one day, and he told him, fine, get in, I’ll take you to town.
And so the fellow sat down in a spring wagon. And then he got out, the owner, and took a tube of four out of his wagon, went up there in front and hit this mule on the head. And this man was thunderstruck.
He couldn’t believe. Well, he says, why in the world do you do that? He says, well, I always have to get his attention before I start.
And why is Ezekiel doing this? Because he’s dealing with a lot of hard-headed people. God said that.
And he does this to get their attention. We sometimes criticize some preachers for using sensational messages or sensational subjects. And I always have great sympathy for them.
How else are you going to get people to listen today? Because they don’t want to hear the same message again and again. They’ll sing, tell me the old, old story, but they don’t want to hear it.
Maybe they want you to sing it to them. I don’t know, but they don’t want to hear it. So that this man is using unusual methods.
Now, the Assyrians, they’ve already taken the Northern Kingdom. Verse 12, she doted upon the Assyrians, her neighbors, captains and rulers, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. Now, this, by the way, is quite unusual in this 23rd chapter.
It refers back, actually, to a historical event that took place when old King Ahas was on the throne. If you go back and read 2 Kings 16, 10 through 20, you’d pick up this incident, that he went up to Damascus to meet Tiglet-Palisa, king of Assyria, and he saw an altar that was at Damascus, and he thought that was the prettiest altar he’d ever seen. So, he sent a rider to the priest to get a picture of it, a pattern of it, and to make one like it.
You see, he went in for this type of thing, attempting to improve the worship, you know, as if that had something to do with the souls of men. Well, God noted that, and he’s judged that northern kingdom for it. Now we have here the Babylonian invasion that’s now going to take place, and there’s no alternative for it, and you find that he’s judging both the northern and the southern kingdom, because both had turned away from the living and true God.
One went brazenly into idolatry, and the other pretended to worship the living and true God. And friends, it might be well today for God’s people, all of us for that matter, Paul said, examine yourself to see whether you’re in the faith or not. Somebody says, don’t you believe in the security of the believer?
I sure do, but I believe in the insecurity of make believers. And we need to examine ourselves. When you go to church, do you really worship God?
What does the Lord Jesus mean to you? Oh, to be drawn to the person of Christ, and to love him, and to serve him. How close are you to him?
Do you really love him? He doesn’t want you to serve him unless you do. He said to Simon Peter, You love me?
And until he could say it, he says, Now you can go feed the sheep. I’ll use you. That’s the most important thing of all.
Now here in the 24th chapter, we come to it, and we have here another parable, and he’s going to end these parables. That is a section of them right here for us. And in this section, why we have the parable of the boiling pot and the death of the prophets.
Why? And God’s going to use both to speak to the people. Now will you notice, I’m reading chapter 24, verse 1.
Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came unto me, say, now this is the first time he’s dated his message. Why? Because at that very moment, Nebuchadnezzar was breaking through the wall in Jerusalem, and they didn’t have television there.
It wasn’t coming by a little fellow out there in orbit conveying the message over to Babylon. The only way he could get it was by God revealing it to him. The liberal has always had a problem with this.
One of the liberals said this. He says, this verse forces on us in the clearest fashion the dilemma. Either Ezekiel was a deliberate deceiver, or he was possessed of some kind of second sight.
He sure was. God’s sight was his second sight. Liberal doesn’t recognize that, of course.
Well, he got the word, and now this parable of the boiling pot. Well, here it is, verse 6. Wherefore, thus saith the Lord, Woe to the bloody city, to the pot, whose scum is in it, and whose scum is not gone out of it.
Bring it out piece by piece. Let no lot fall upon it. Now, he calls it again the bloody city, and they’re in a pot, and there’s scum in the pot.
Now, what is that scum? The pot is the city of Jerusalem. The citizens were in it, in that pot.
And their sin is the scum that’s in it. Now, sometimes you hear somebody say to another person or concerning a certain people, they are the scum of the earth. You want to know what God says?
God says, your sin and my sin is the scum of the earth. He never said that group of people over there that’s not in our crowds is the scum of the earth. He said, your sin and my sin.
And listen, we are all in the same pot. Jerusalem is now the world. And for you and me today, it’s the world.
I get a little weary today of all of this talk about the different ethnic groups. What do you mean, different ethnic groups? We are all in the same pot.
And we are the scum of the earth. And I don’t care who you are, your sin is the scum of the earth. Now, I don’t know how you can say it any stronger than that.
Now, verse 15, Also the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke. Yet neither shalt thou mourn or weep, neither shalt thy tears run down. Now, apparently, this young prophet had married, I think, a lovely, beautiful, young Israelite girl.
And they loved each other. And then down there in captivity, she took sick and died. Now, I imagine it was a heartbreak, but this man is still acting.
God says even in the time of death, what is he to do? He says to him, forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead. Bind thy turban upon thee and put on thy shoes upon thy feet.
Cover not thy lips and eat not the bread of man. Don’t act like you’re mourning at all. And the people didn’t understand it.
The people came to him, they said unto him, what in the world does this mean? You talk about a boiling pot with scum on it. Now your wife has died and you’re not even mourning.
What kind of man are you? And all of this he’s doing to get a message through to them. Why?
Verse 24, it’s the key to the book. Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign. According to all that he hath done shall ye do.
And when this cometh, ye shall know that I’m the Lord God. That moment, Jerusalem was being destroyed and word came to them later on concerning the fact that the city was being destroyed. Over in the 33rd chapter, verse 21, and it came to pass in the 12th year of our captivity, in the 10th month, in the 5th day of the month that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me saying, The city is smitten.
Into this camp there came these stragglers. Oh, how terrible they looked. And they said, We’ve escaped from the city.
The false prophets are wrong. It’s burned up. That temple is level.
The city is debris and ashes. And the interesting thing is Ezekiel is right. And don’t mourn.
Why? Why not mourn for it? Well, the reason that you’re not to mourn is this.
Verse 27, In that day shall thy mouth be open to him who has escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb, and thou shalt be a sign unto them, that they shall know that I am the Lord. Now, what is the message here? The message is just simply this.
The false prophets were right in this. That’s God’s house. That’s God’s city.
That was God’s witness to the world. But you see, they had failed. And when they failed, God says now, I will even destroy my own witness on the earth.
This is, I think, without doubt, one of the most remarkable prophecies that you have in the Word of God. And actually here, it’s a strange position that we find here. God is saying, I want you to know that the city is destroyed.
Your people, the rest of them, sons and daughters that are left, they’re being brought into captivity. And there’s no use weeping. And no use howling to me now.
I did it. I’m responsible for it. And you remember what the Lord Jesus said to each one of the seven churches, and He’s saying it to the churches today, for those of us that are believers.
He says, you better be careful. I’ll come and remove your lamp stand. And the lamp stand of all seven of those churches, it was removed.
It ought to be a message to us. And I don’t care who you are, where you are, friend, if you’re not going to give out the Word of God. He’s already said it.
If you’re not going to stand for God today, and you make a profession out of it, He’s removing your lamp stand. And be no light there. What a statement.
Somebody says, my, this is strong. This doesn’t sound like the lovey-dovey, sloppy stuff that we’ve been hearing. No, this is Ezekiel.
And Ezekiel, he’s just speaking for God. He says, the Word of the Lord came unto me. Now, friends, if you have any opposition to what we’ve been saying, I’ve been saying what’s here, I would suggest you take it up with the Lord.
Don’t take it up with me. He said it. I didn’t say it.
And remember, he’s always right, and we’re always wrong. Remember that when you go to him in prayer. May God richly bless you, my beloved.
Although we still have much to learn from Ezekiel, in a little over two weeks, we’re gonna start a new study in the New Testament Book of Titus. Now I mentioned this so that you have time to download your notes and outlines before we begin. They’re really a great resource.
You can download one book at a time or get them all in one volume called Briefing the Bible. That’s what I do. It contains Dr. McGee’s notes and outlines for our entire five-year journey through the Bible.
Just visit the resources section of ttb.org and download it today. Or to receive an abridged paperback copy by mail, you can order yours at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE. If you’d like to spend a little more time in Ezekiel or share these messages with a family member or a friend, get our Thru the Bible app or visit ttb.org.
Or if you’d prefer to have Dr. McGee’s entire five-year series available at your fingertips, consider getting our Bible Bus Flash Drive. It’s got the whole Bible Bus on a small flash drive. You plug it into your computer and you’ll have it all.
To find out more about this terrific tool and order yours, give us a call at 1-800-65-BIBLE or shop our online store over at ttb.org anytime. While you’re visiting, be sure also to check out our ministry newsletter. Each issue has a bunch of great teaching by Dr. McGee as well as terrific ideas on how to apply all that you’re learning from God’s Word, and then updates from the field on our global ministry.
Again, you can download your free copy at ttb.org or receive it by email or post when you sign up online or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Our journey on the Bible bus through Ezekiel continues in Chapter 25. I’m Steve Shwetz and as always, I’m going to be right here saving a seat just for you.
Today’s study is always available, free to stream or download thanks to the generous and faithful investments from your fellow Bible Bus travelers. Just go to ttb.org or download our app to listen again anytime. As always, we’d love to know what’s God teaching you.
