(This sermon is part of Dr. Manuel's sermon series: "What is Foremost?" Links to
each of the sermons in the series will be found here as they are posted.)
When a Christian moves to a new area, one of the first things he should do is find a church to attend. Some communities have quite a few, with a wide range of denominations, and that may make choosing one a challenge. Other communities have relatively few churches, which may make the decision easier.
In the sixth century B.C., God brought the Babylonians against His people, sending them into exile for seventy years. It was not an arbitrary decision on His part; it was judgment, especially for their flagrant disregard of the Lord's clear prohibition against idolatry. Moreover, their crime was not a single violation, as with the golden calf incident in the wilderness. It was years of persistent and deliberate disobedience, despite the repeated call to repent from His prophets. The Israelites are either oblivious to or unconcerned about the far-reaching effect of their rebellion, but Ezekiel describes it as...
XLV. The Foremost Contamination2
...which threatens...
The Babylonian deportation, which occurred in three stages, did not include only the guilty in Israel; it swept up the innocent as well (corporate solidarity).6 One of those taken away early was the prophet Ezekiel who, from his place in the exiled community, presents a catalog of transgressions, illustrating how sin has permeated every level of Israelite society back in the land and has led to the nation's precipitous decline, a downward spiral that will eventually culminate with Israel's national demise.
While the Babylonian (and Assyrian) exile was God's punishment for Israel's rebellion against Him, it was not merely punitive, divine retribution for bad behavior that ends with the nation's demise. The Lord's intention was that His punishment also be corrective, causing the people to recognize the error of their ways that they might repent and be restored. To that end, they needed to connect their sentence to their sin.
Just as a parent must tell an errant child why he is being punished; to be effective, Israel's punishment requires a clear tie to the people's sinful behavior. So the Lord says to Ezekiel a few verses earlier in chapter 36...
In his declarations, the prophet makes the connection between the Israelites' sin and their situation, but the people must demonstrate their recognition of that connection by making the appropriate correction in their actions. The people must change what they are doing, especially if they hope to change where they are living. Convincing them is a difficult task for Ezekiel, and what he can actually accomplish is limited by the people's willingness to change, but they will have to forsake idolatry before God will allow their return to the land.
By telling them where they went wrong, God also indicates how they can correct it. They have not made His concern their concern, a decision they must rectify. It is most evident in that many of the people are still involved with idolatry. They do not see or do not care that their disregard for God has brought disgrace on God publicly, so the prophet tells them, "Your concern must be for the sanctity of God's name."
Continuing to speak through the prophet, the Lord says...
We often think our indiscretions affect only us or that we can contain whatever damage might result. That is rarely the case. The circle of those affected by our sin is usually larger than we anticipate. Almost inevitably it draws in other people, many times those closest to us, whether by deceiving them or by involving them. For Israel, it had a cumulative affect, compounding as each new generation followed the idolatrous example of the previous generation. More significant, though, than sin's effect on the people close to us is its effect on the reputation of the God we serve. In this sense, the sin of those who know God has potentially greater ramifications than the sin of those who do not know God.
In Ezek 36, God is addressing those to whom He has made His expectations quite clear. They are to be holy as He is holy. So there would be no question, He made it clear from the beginning, saying through Moses repeatedly:18
Is God's expectation limited to the Israelites? That is, does He also expect you to be holy? ...Yes, He does, and He says as much through the apostle Paul...20
What most distinguished the Israelites from the people around them was not their basic education or their speech patterns or their fashion sense. God did not expect great differences in those areas.23 What He did expect was exclusive allegiance to Him, unrivaled by anyone or anything else.24 When they had that, it made them holy. Exclusive allegiance to Him is also what He also expects from you,25 and when you have that, it makes you holy.
In this modern age, holiness is passé, out-of-date, especially when some people's idea of acceptable behavior is..."evolving."26 Does holiness still matter?
Indeed it does, especially to God. His opinion does not evolve, and people ignore the clear, consistent teaching of God's word to their eternal peril. The author of Hebrews says...
The culmination of Israel's rebellion is the loss of people, land, autonomy, and king. Moreover, the idolatry problem for the Israelites when they lived in Canaan remains a problem after they leave for Babylon. It is The Foremost Contamination, and it threatens the priority of God among the people He redeemed. Through Ezekiel, God tells them how to remedy their situation, which eventually they do. Seventy years later, when the Israelites return to the land, they have forsaken idolatry; more than that, they are cured of idolatry, and it is never again a problem for God's people.
This is good news, because it illustrates an important principle: Even when God's people turn away from Him, God does not turn away from them. Very little, if any, of your sin will equal the depravity of idolatry that sent Israel into exile. You can be confident, then, that because God did not forsake them when they sinned, He will not forsake you when you sin, and that is good news indeed.
Having considered The Foremost Contamination, we will look next at The Foremost Conciliation, which is the precedence before God, in Matt 5:23-24.
For the Bibliography and Endnotes, see the pdf here.
A man had been shipwrecked and stranded alone on a deserted island for 20 years. Just as he had lost all hope, he spotted a ship on the horizon. He lit a signal fire and caught the ship's attention. When it arrived at the island, the captain came ashore and noticed that the man had constructed three buildings. "Excuse me," the captain said, "but you have been alone on this island for 20 years. Why did you build three different houses?" The man replied, "Just the one on the left is my house. The one on the right is my church." The captain, impressed but now even more curious, asked, "What about the building in the center?" "Oh, that" the man answered... "it's the church I used to attend."No matter where we go, we may bring our problems with us. That is what many Israelites did when they left the Promised Land for exile in Babylon. They brought their problems with them, in particular, the idols they had worshipped in Canaan, a decision that prolonged The Foremost Contamination.1
In the sixth century B.C., God brought the Babylonians against His people, sending them into exile for seventy years. It was not an arbitrary decision on His part; it was judgment, especially for their flagrant disregard of the Lord's clear prohibition against idolatry. Moreover, their crime was not a single violation, as with the golden calf incident in the wilderness. It was years of persistent and deliberate disobedience, despite the repeated call to repent from His prophets. The Israelites are either oblivious to or unconcerned about the far-reaching effect of their rebellion, but Ezekiel describes it as...
XLV. The Foremost Contamination2
...which threatens...
- The priority of God (Ezek 36:21)
Ezek 36:21 I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.When God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, His intention was that they would model His righteousness before the nations.3 He said as much in...
Exod 19:5 ...if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6a you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.One of the conditions to receiving His favor was that they remain loyal to Him and not imitate the nations.4 He says in...
Lev 20:23 You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. 24b I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the nations. 25a You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean.... 26 You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.After they entered the land, though, the Israelites' loyalty was not consistent and, by the sixth century, it had declined steeply, having passed the point where exile was inevitable.5
The Babylonian deportation, which occurred in three stages, did not include only the guilty in Israel; it swept up the innocent as well (corporate solidarity).6 One of those taken away early was the prophet Ezekiel who, from his place in the exiled community, presents a catalog of transgressions, illustrating how sin has permeated every level of Israelite society back in the land and has led to the nation's precipitous decline, a downward spiral that will eventually culminate with Israel's national demise.
- The people, in general, have sinned. Those who should be loyal to the Lord, are instead worshiping pagan deities and exploiting those in society weaker than they are.
Ezek 8:12a [Each of] the elders of the house of Israel [has a] shrine of his own idol.... 14b [At] the entrance...of the house of the LORD [are] women...mourning for [the Mesopotamian god] Tammuz.... 16 [In the] the inner court of the house of the LORD [are men] bowing down to the sun in the east.
Ezek 22:29 The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice.
Ezekiel decries these actions by the people.
- The prophets have sinned. Those who should be presenting God's critique of the situation, are instead condoning bad behavior and pursuing their own selfish interests.7
Ezek 13:2a [They] prophesy out of their own imagination.... 6 Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. They say, "The LORD declares," when the LORD has not sent them; yet they expect their words to be fulfilled.
Ezekiel decries these actions by the prophets.
- The politicians have sinned. Those who should be promoting justice, are instead engaging in illicit and immoral behavior.8
Ezek 22:7 [T]hey have treated father and mother with contempt... they have oppressed the alien and mistreated the fatherless and the widow. 8 [They] have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths. 9 [They] are slanderous men bent on shedding blood...and commit lewd acts.... 12a [They] accept bribes to shed blood...and make unjust gain...by extortion.
Ezekiel decries these actions by the politicians.
- The priests have sinned. Those who should be examples of devotion to the Lord, are instead defiling the sanctuary and disregarding the law.
Ezek 22:26 [The] priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
Ezekiel decries these actions of the priests.As a consequence of such behavior, those who are supposed to represent God before the nations are, instead, misrepresenting Him. They have brought disrepute on themselves by becoming no better, and in some ways worse, than their pagan neighbors.9
Ezek 5:7 "[T]his is what the Sovereign LORD says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you.More than that, they have brought disrepute on God, profaning His name among the nations, even in their dispersion.10 He says in...
Ezek 36:20a ...wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name....The Israelites had failed to meet God's expectations and were now suffering for it.
While the Babylonian (and Assyrian) exile was God's punishment for Israel's rebellion against Him, it was not merely punitive, divine retribution for bad behavior that ends with the nation's demise. The Lord's intention was that His punishment also be corrective, causing the people to recognize the error of their ways that they might repent and be restored. To that end, they needed to connect their sentence to their sin.
Just as a parent must tell an errant child why he is being punished; to be effective, Israel's punishment requires a clear tie to the people's sinful behavior. So the Lord says to Ezekiel a few verses earlier in chapter 36...
Ezek 36:17a Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct.... 18 So I poured out my wrath on them...because they had defiled [the land] with their idols. 19 1 dispersed them among the nations.... I judged them according to their conduct....Right from the start of God's relationship with the people of Israel, He made His opinion about idolatry clear.11 We read in...
Exod 20:3 You shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,This was the first of several warnings they would receive over the course of the nation's history. While some generations heeded those warnings, others did not, and when their disobedience became intractable, their punishment became inevitable. In Babylon, as the people look to repair the damage they have done, they need look no further for guidance than the assertion of God in...12
Ezek 36:21a I had concern for my holy name....and He expects His people to have the same concern.13 That is the prophet's first call to the Israelites...
1. Your concern must be for the sanctity of God's name.14Among God's many attributes—His omnipotence and omniscience, His righteousness and lovingkindness—the preeminent attribute that supersedes and subsumes all others is holiness, the one in this verse and appearing more than seventy times elsewhere in this book. Not only did the Israelites forget about the holiness of God, they forsook Him altogether, choosing instead to pursue their own agenda, one that did not include God but did include idols. Consequently, He sent them into exile. While the exile changed their location, it did not improve their position before Him nor His disposition toward them; they were still in rebellion, still the object of His displeasure, because they brought their idols with them to Babylon.
In his declarations, the prophet makes the connection between the Israelites' sin and their situation, but the people must demonstrate their recognition of that connection by making the appropriate correction in their actions. The people must change what they are doing, especially if they hope to change where they are living. Convincing them is a difficult task for Ezekiel, and what he can actually accomplish is limited by the people's willingness to change, but they will have to forsake idolatry before God will allow their return to the land.
By telling them where they went wrong, God also indicates how they can correct it. They have not made His concern their concern, a decision they must rectify. It is most evident in that many of the people are still involved with idolatry. They do not see or do not care that their disregard for God has brought disgrace on God publicly, so the prophet tells them, "Your concern must be for the sanctity of God's name."
Continuing to speak through the prophet, the Lord says...
Ezek 36:21b ...the house of Israel profaned [my holy name] among the nations where they had gone....and He expects His people to correct their conduct...publicly. That is the prophet's second call to the Israelites...
2. Your concern must be for the testimony of God's name.15Back in Exodus, God chose the Israelites to promote His name among other people.16 Instead, the Israelites profaned His name among other people,17 bringing reproach on the character of God and, in consequence, bringing His retribution on the community of God now in exile. If they want a different outcome in the future, they must first adopt a different outlook in the present, one that exchanges the gods of their own making (whom they then adopted), with the God who made them (and who then adopted them). They must make God's reputation paramount, so the prophet tells them, "Your concern must be for the testimony of God's name."
We often think our indiscretions affect only us or that we can contain whatever damage might result. That is rarely the case. The circle of those affected by our sin is usually larger than we anticipate. Almost inevitably it draws in other people, many times those closest to us, whether by deceiving them or by involving them. For Israel, it had a cumulative affect, compounding as each new generation followed the idolatrous example of the previous generation. More significant, though, than sin's effect on the people close to us is its effect on the reputation of the God we serve. In this sense, the sin of those who know God has potentially greater ramifications than the sin of those who do not know God.
In Ezek 36, God is addressing those to whom He has made His expectations quite clear. They are to be holy as He is holy. So there would be no question, He made it clear from the beginning, saying through Moses repeatedly:18
Lev 20:26 You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.Holiness is not an unrealistic demand for Israel. Quite the contrary...
- It is a reasonable expectation because, as the One who redeemed them from slavery, He can set the conditions of their emancipation, which He does, also saying through Moses...
Lev 11:45 I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
Holiness is a reasonable expectation.
- It is also a reachable aspiration, because He not only establishes the requirement, He explains how they can meet it, so they have no excuse.19 Moses says...
Deut 28:9 The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.
Holiness is a reachable aspiration.Despite the fact that holiness was both reasonable and reachable, there were occasions when the Israelites failed, not for lack of resources or time, because being holy required no extra amount of either. They failed for lack of will. Something appeared more appealing to them and, at that moment, they did not want to be holy. They wanted to be like everyone else, which is what they became. In so doing, they ceased to be holy, like God, and failed to reach the potential He had set for them. It did not have to be that way. The choice was always theirs.
Is God's expectation limited to the Israelites? That is, does He also expect you to be holy? ...Yes, He does, and He says as much through the apostle Paul...20
Eph 1:4a [God] chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy...in his sight.Here as well, holiness is not an unrealistic demand for you, and for the same reasons.
- It is a reasonable expectation because, as the One who redeemed you from sin, He can set the conditions of your emancipation, which He does.21 So Paul says...
Rom 12:1 ...I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
Holiness is a reasonable expectation.
- It is also a reachable aspiration, because He not only establishes the requirement, He explains how you can meet it, so you have no excuse.22 Again, Paul says...
Eph 5:3 ...among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.
Col 3:12 [Rather,] as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Holiness is a reachable aspiration.Despite the fact that holiness is both reasonable and reachable, there are occasions when you may fail, not for lack of resources or time, because being holy requires no extra amount of either. You may fail for lack of will. Something appears more appealing to you and, at that moment, you do not want to be holy. You want to be like everyone else, which is what you become. In so doing, you cease to be holy, like God, and fail to reach the potential He has set for you. It does not have to be that way. The choice is always yours.
What most distinguished the Israelites from the people around them was not their basic education or their speech patterns or their fashion sense. God did not expect great differences in those areas.23 What He did expect was exclusive allegiance to Him, unrivaled by anyone or anything else.24 When they had that, it made them holy. Exclusive allegiance to Him is also what He also expects from you,25 and when you have that, it makes you holy.
In this modern age, holiness is passé, out-of-date, especially when some people's idea of acceptable behavior is..."evolving."26 Does holiness still matter?
Indeed it does, especially to God. His opinion does not evolve, and people ignore the clear, consistent teaching of God's word to their eternal peril. The author of Hebrews says...
Heb 12:14 Make every effort...to be holy [for] without holiness no one will see the Lord.One of the other attributes of God is that He is immutable, unchanging.27 He does not grow more tolerant or enlightened with age, revising what He had previously labeled as sin, be it idolatry or immorality. If you would be holy as He is holy, you must do no less.
The culmination of Israel's rebellion is the loss of people, land, autonomy, and king. Moreover, the idolatry problem for the Israelites when they lived in Canaan remains a problem after they leave for Babylon. It is The Foremost Contamination, and it threatens the priority of God among the people He redeemed. Through Ezekiel, God tells them how to remedy their situation, which eventually they do. Seventy years later, when the Israelites return to the land, they have forsaken idolatry; more than that, they are cured of idolatry, and it is never again a problem for God's people.
This is good news, because it illustrates an important principle: Even when God's people turn away from Him, God does not turn away from them. Very little, if any, of your sin will equal the depravity of idolatry that sent Israel into exile. You can be confident, then, that because God did not forsake them when they sinned, He will not forsake you when you sin, and that is good news indeed.
Having considered The Foremost Contamination, we will look next at The Foremost Conciliation, which is the precedence before God, in Matt 5:23-24.
For the Bibliography and Endnotes, see the pdf here.
(This sermon is part of Dr. Manuel's sermon series: "What is Foremost?" Links to each of the sermons in the series will be found here as they are posted)
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Jim Skaggs