The Deep End

The Prophet “Paddles” His Audience

In Chapter 16 Ezekiel’s sermons began to grow in intensity. The religious leaders of his day had come to call on him, hoping to be entertained by the “crazy preacher man,” but they got more than they bargained for when the prophet started comparing them to a cheating wife.

And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood. And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;) That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.

Ezekiel 16:22-24

Hosea had a similar message.

Ezekiel had preached about the unfit vine and the adulterous wife. In his third sermon, in Chapter 17, he got very specific in his prophecy and used the image of three cedar trees. These represented kings. The first two were wicked – King Jehoiakin, who had already been deposed by Nebuchadnezzar, and King Hezekiah, who was King at the time of this prophecy. These two wicked kings were compared to the coming King Messiah:

Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent:

Ezekiel 17:22

Here is the pattern of Ezekiel’s witnessing. He used his O.A.R.S.

1. He O.pened the Word of God: “The word of the Lord came unto me, saying…”

2. He A.lleged. He held up their exposed idolatry next to the Word of God. Sorcery and idol-worship had previously been condemned by God in the Book of Deuteronomy.

3. He R.easoned. These religious leaders knew their history. They knew their kings and their genealogies, and they could comprehend the comparisons between the great cedars – and the leaders of the enemies of God, who were being used by God – to eagles.

4. He S.hared by preaching and proclamation. Ezekiel, the “man of God” – called the “Son of Man” – sat in the house of God and used the Word of God to proclaim the Son of God.