Ezekiel: The Whistleblower A. In 1927, TIME magazine named Charles Lindbergh their first Man-of-the-Year: 1. Lindbergh was the first person to fly solo, non-stop, from NY to Paris. 2. The response to that cover was so positive that naming a Man-of-the-Year became an annual tradition. B. FDR is the only man who made the cover three times: 1. The 1 st woman on the cover was Wallace Simpson, the American divorcee who persuaded King Edward to abdicate. 2. In 1999, Time renamed the award from Man-of-the-Year to Person-of-the-Year. C. TIME has also had to wipe egg off their face by honoring several men who turned out to be less-than Men-of-the- Year: 1. Adolf Hitler (exterminated millions of Jews) 2. Joseph Stalin (imprisoned his own in the Soviet Gulags) 3. Richard Nixon (only President to resign in disgrace) 4. Ayatollah Khomeini (founder of the Islamic Republic). D. But one of the more interesting picks occurred in 2002 when TIME honored The Whistleblowers: 1. Their names are Cynthia Cooper Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins. 2. Each of the recipients was forced to turn their employer in. 2 E. Sherron Watkins was the Vice President at Enron: 1. She wrote a memo to the company chairman. 2. Our methods of accounting are improper, she wrote. 3. Watkins testified B4 Congress, exposing Enron s deceit. F. Coleen Rowdy worked at the FBI: 1. She wrote a memo to FBI Director, Robert Mueller. 2. She was concerned about a man named Moussaoui. 3. Recognize the name? He was one of the co- conspirator s in the 9-11 attack on the USA!
G. Cynthia Cooper was an internal auditor at WorldCom: 1. She discovered irregularities amounting to $3.8 billion! 2. 1 month later, WorldCom declared bankruptcy, and they were found guilty of bilking investors out of $9 billion! H. TIME concluded their story w/these words: These women did the right thing just by doing their jobs rightly For believing that the truth is one thing that must not be moved off the books, and for stepping in to make sure that it wasn t. I. We re in a series called Route 66. We re taking a Roadtrip Through the Bible 1. This is week No. 26, we re in Ezekiel, and Ezekiel was a whistleblower (not the term Ezekiel uses for himself). 2. He calls himself a watchman. A watchman guarded the city and warned the people when the enemy approached. 3 J. In Ezekiel 3, the Lord spoke his prophet and said: 17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. K. In Lamentations, Jeremiah gives an eyewitness account of the final destruction of Jerusalem: 1. Jeremiah was the only prophet to see it survive it and record it. 2. But he wasn t the only prophet alive. Ezekiel was dig- ging irrigation ditches on the Kebar River in Babylon. L. You ask, How did a prophet end up in Babylon? 1. Josiah was the last good king, and 3 sons/1 grandson followed him on the throne. 2. During the reign of Jehoiachin, Babylon crushed Egypt and 10,000 Jews were deported.
4 M. One of 10,000 exiles was a 25-year-old priest-in-training named Ezekiel (and his wife): 1. He d heard Jeremiah s prophetic warnings his whole life 2. He knew what to expect. 3. Now, he experienced the fulfillment of those warnings. N. That history will help explain Ezekiel s introduction: 2 On the fifth of the month it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. 3 Ezekiel was a priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the LORD was on him. O. And so begins 22 years of ministry as God s watchman. I want to divide this talk into three parts: 1. 1 st, Talk about the man. 2. 2 nd, Survey the book. 3. 3 rd, Highlight the responsibilities of being a Watchman. I. The Man A. Ezekiel was a priest who had been assigned the task of ir- rigating the canal on the Kebar River: 1. I m convinced that he was discouraged. 2. Why? Whenever you have to do something that you don t want to do it s difficult to put your heart into it. 5 B. Psalms 137 1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we thought about Jerusalem. 2 There on the poplars we hung our harps. 3 Our captors demanded that we sing songs of joy! 4 But how can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? C. Day after day, Ezekiel the Priest rolled up his pants 1. Grabbed a shovel 2. Stepped into water 3. And spent his day irrigating ditches for his captors.
D. But, look at the last line of vs. 3: There the hand of the LORD was on him. 1. 1 st, God s hand was on him. 2. Your circumstances do not have to be perfect, or even ideal, for God s hand to be on your life! E. You may hate your job or dislike your employer 1. Maybe you moved out-of-state against your will 2. Or perhaps your relatives are difficult to live with. 3. 1 out of every 3 family members is mentally ill. 4. Look left then right if it isn t them, it s you! 6 F. Ezekiel was fortunate in the sense that he got to take his wife w/him to Babylon: 1. Can you imagine their conversation? 2. Honey, when we married, I promised a honeymoon. 3. Babylon isn t Hawaii but it s better than N Dakota! 4. In spite of his location, God s hand was on him. G. 2 nd, God s Word was in him: Ezekiel. 2 On the fifth of the month it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin, the word of the Lord came to H. Ezekiel was a priest-in-training in Jerusalem 1. He dug ditches in Babylon 2. And he was stuck in a dead-end job for 5 years 3. Out of nowhere, The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. I. I ve had guys say to me, I wish I studied to be a pastor. 1. I d love to spend my week surrounded by Xians. 2. I d love to spend some quality time studying the Bible.
3. My response is always the same: So would I! 7 J. When my sophomore year of seminary started, a big Hungarian showed up at my apartment: 1. Russell Lieb. 2. I m looking for a Youth Minister. I got your name at the office. Would you do it for $40 every weekend? K. As summer approached they offered me full time pay: 1. We ll have devotions/prayer every morning at 9. 2. I had 7:00 classes so 9:00 sounded great! 3. Next morning the phone rang, and it was Russell. 4. I got called to the hospital; we ll do devotions 2moro! L. The only thing I remember learning that first summer is to expect the unexpected! 1. The hand of the Lord was on him. 2. The Word of the Lord came to him. 3. But he was still digging ditches in Babylon! 4. I love the ministry, but 99% of it is unexpected stuff! M. Case in point, turn to Ezekiel 24: 15 The word of the LORD came to me: 16 Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears. 17 Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Keep your turban fastened and your sandals on your feet; do not cover your mustache and beard or eat the customary food of mourners. 8 N. I don t think I could have done that! We have gone thru some things here that I ve never gone thru elsewhere
1. Like Misha Byers toddler being killed 2. Like Brian Bowman s death in Afghanistan 3. Been to court been to prison divorces 4. I preached 2 funerals for stillborn babies. O. God had a reason for telling Ezekiel not to mourn: 1. God wanted to teach his children a lesson. 2. He needed a visual image b/c even in antiquity people see better than they can think. P. The next day Ezekiel spoke to the exiles (he s exiled in Baby- lon, and Jerusalem is surrounded by Nebuchadnezzar): 1. God is about to desecrate his sanctuary. 2. Like my wife, It has been the object of our devotion. 3. You will do as I have done and not mourn. 4. Your response will indicate who God is! Q. If that were to happen today, America s psychologists would go nuts! 1. It s not healthy to suppress your feelings. 2. Do you know the psychological damage that will do? 3. You need to be in a support group! 9 R. God s hand was on him even when he dug ditches: 1. God s Word was in him even when his wife died. 2. And Ezekiel became the watchman for God s people in exile for two decades. II. The Book A. This is the last of the lengthy books OT books: 1. Personally, I really enjoyed Lamentations.
2. Only 5 chapters 3. Got to dissect it, one chapter at a time 4. Actually got to read through it several times. B. Ezekiel is probably the most difficult book in the OT, and I only read thru it once: 1. It s similar to Revelation (visions/figurative language). 2. Revelation quotes from Ezekiel in 21/22 chapters. 3. Chapter 1 is a vision of a creature wheels. 4. Vs. 28, That s how the glory of God appeared to me. 10 C. In chapter 2, God s Spirit has to raise Ezekiel to his feet b/c he was so overwhelmed w/god s glory! 1. He tells Ezekiel to preach his message 2. He s given a scroll filled w/a sorrowful message 3. In chapter 3 he tells him to eat the scroll. D. I ve been looking for a church my entire life where the leadership says, Eat up! 1. That scroll was filled w/laments and sorrows to come b/c it was God s correction to sinful people. 2. But to Ezekiel, it tasted sweet. E. And then God gives his traumatized, ditch-digging priest a pep talk B4 sending him out to preach: 15 I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Abib near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven days overwhelmed. F. Tel Aviv, the 2 nd largest city in Israel, took its name from this passage in Ezekiel: 1. They changed the Arabic spelling to Hebrew. 2. And they named it in 1910 (B4 Israel became a nation), to symbolize the rebirth of Israel which Ezekiel predicted. G. There are 4 fascinating visions in Ezekiel and 5 parables (most famous vision is the valley of dry bones, Ezekiel 37): 11
1. My favorite prophecy is the one concerning Tyre. 2. Dr. Wilke Winter taught OT Survey and he spent an entire day on Tyre (devoting two paragraphs). H. In Ezekiel 26:3, God promised to bring many nations against Tyre, like the sea casting up its waves. 4 They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. 12 They will break down your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea. I. When Nebuchadnezzar arrived, the people of Tyre retreated to an impregnable fortress on an island (half mile): 1. Nebuchadnezzar gave up and went home. 2. But 250 years later, Alexander the Great marched against Tyre, but he didn t give up! J. He threw stones timber rubble into the sea and created a causeway: 1. He conquered the city and changed the landscape. 2. That causeway has grown exponentially over the years and today it s part of the local geography. K. Here s an outline: 1. Chapters 1-3 are the prophet (personal). 2. Chapters 4-24 include God s judgment on Judah. 3. Chapters 25-32 detail God s destruction of the nations. 4. Chapters 33-48 reveal the restoration of God s people. 12 III. The Whistleblower A. Throughout his life and in all 48 chapters Ezekiel lived by the code of a whistleblower: 1. 1 st, A Whistleblower Looks Out. 2. Ever since the story of Cain/Abel, man has known that, He is his brother s keeper. 3. We have a responsibility to watch out for each other!
B. Every month, we (WHCC) purchase a CD: 1. We have nearly $330,000 drawing interest. 2. Last Thursday we purchased a new CD for $8,792. 3. On Monday that money was in my account! 4. Christie: That s illegal, but I d visit you in prison! C. Ezekiel was given a responsibility to watch out for Israel! 33:3 When the watchman sees the army coming and blows the alarm to warn the people, 4 if anyone hears the alarm but refuses to heed it the fault is his own. D. Then Ezekiel adds this: 6 But if the watchman sees the enemy coming and doesn t sound the alarm to warn the people, he is responsible for their deaths. 13 E. In one sense, almost every person here is a watchman! 1. Parents employers teachers coaches Law enforcement and pastors watch for the church. 2. A whistleblower looks out! F. 2 nd, A Whistleblower Speaks Up: 1. Watchmen were not placed on the wall simply to observe. 2. Once danger was spotted, it was time to speak up! 3. If danger was spotted w/o sounding the alarm, his mission was a failure. G. The tornado sirens went off on Wednesday afternoon: 1. The alarm I heard was Steve s phone. 2. He ran for the preschool; I phoned the daycare. 3. Everybody else pulled out their phones to sound the alarm to friends/family!
14 H. Martin Luther King, Jr. must have had the code of the watchman in mind when he said: Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. I. Parents teach their young the truths of life, the values of eternity and the faith that saves: 1. Churches hold forth the Word of life in a world of dark- ness by preaching/teaching the truth. 2. Christians bear the challenge of sounding the warning of judgment to come and salvation thru JC. J. JC called us to be the light of the world/salt of the earth: 1. We can t force people to do the right thing. 2. But, we are responsible to be diligent and speak up! K. In Ezekiel 34, the prophet applies the code of the watchman to church leaders: 2 Woe to the shepherds who only care for yourselves! 3 You eat the best food and wear the finest clothes, but you let your flocks starve. 4 You haven t cared for the weak, or tended the sick, or looked for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with force and cruelty. L. 3 rd, A Whistleblower Never Gives Up! 15 1. Some of the people who heard Ezekiel preach listened to his message and changed their ways. 2. Others did not. 3. But those who refused did not discourage Ezekiel. M. A watchman sounds the alarm b/c he knows the danger: 1. He keeps on sounding it b/c we know God s desires. 2. Peter reminds us (2 Pet 3:9) that God doesn t want, anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
N. In Ezekiel 18, God asks his prophet a question: and live. 23 Do you think I like to see the wicked die? Of course not! I only want him to turn from his wicked ways O. On May 23, Richard Hughes was driving thru Tulsa when he spotted a crowd of people on Tulsa s Inner Dispersal Loop: 1. A drunk driver was backing his car down an exit ramp, which caused a chain-reaction accident. 2. In order to avoid the crowd, he drove his rig onto a concrete embankment. Why? If the watchman doesn t sound the alarm to warn the people, he is responsible for their deaths.