Bible Studies
Eyes that Do Not See and Ears that Do Not Hear (Ezek. 12:1-6)
Series: God Speaks to Our People In ExileIntroduction:
1. These words begin a section in Ezekiel (12:1-14:11) that condemns rebellious Jerusalem to exile. 2. The problem? They will not listen to the word of the Lord. 3. There were charlatans claiming to be spokespersons for the living God, but they spoke only from their own inspiration (13:1ff). They spoke falsehood and lies. 4. Now the people would bear their iniquity and in all this process they would come to know that the Lord was indeed God.Discussion:
I. Chapter 12 describes two dramatic enactments and their interpretations followed by two sayings used among the Israelites.A. In the first dramatic enactment God has Ezekiel dig through the wall and go out carrying baggage for exile.
1. Ezekiel did as he was instructed (7).
2. The next day the Lord gave the interpretation (8-16).
B. 1 Kings 25:1ff gives the background against which this passage is set.
1. Zedekiah had been made king of Israel by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
2. When he rebelled Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem.
3. Nebuchadnezzar slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and then put out his eyes and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon (7).
4. Thus the city of Jerusalem was conquered, the temple destroyed and the people taken captive to Babylon.
5. Zedekiah would die in Babylonian captivity (Jer. 52:11).
6. It is evident that Ezek 12:1-16 is predicting these events.
C. All of these events were coming about as a result of their unwillingness to listen to the voice of the Lord.
1. Not only was Ezekiel referring to them as having eyes to see but not seeing and ears to hear but not hearing, other prophets of this period were saying the same.
2. Isaiah’s was commissioned with these words, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.’ Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed” (6:9-10). Cf. Isa. 43:8-9.
3. In Jer. 5:20-21 God said, “Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah, saying, ‘Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see; who have ears but do not hear.”
4. The Psalmist interpreted this as their becoming like the gods that they worshiped (115:5-7; 135:15-18).
D. God intended that these judgments bring them to their senses so that they would recognize Him (Ezek. 12:15-16).
1. While experiencing God’s judgment they might conclude, “God has abandoned His throne. He has abandoned us.”
2. Meanwhile God’s goal in this discipline was their repentance, their acknowledgement of sinfulness, confession of His righteousness and submission to His lordship.
E. The second enactment carried a similar message (12:17-20).
1. They would eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water with horror.
2. The land would be stripped of its fullness.
3. Because of the violence of those who lived in it. The cities would be laid waste and the land would become a desolation.
4. The desired goal—“So you will know that I am the Lord.”
F. The third and fourth events of chapter 12 do not involve enactments but verbal communications.
1. The third (12:21-25) involves a proverb.
a. The people were saying, “The days are long and every vision fails.” Cf. 2 Pet. 3:3-9.
b. Seems they had the perception that what God said was not happening and not going to happen.
c. God would eliminate their proverb. He said, “The days are near as well as the fulfillment of every vision.”
d. But they had been false visions and flattering divination.
e. God would demonstrate the truth and perform it.
2. The fourth event (26-28) involves God’s response to a saying used in Israel.
a. Israel said of Ezekiel’s vision, “What he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies of times far off.”
b. God’s response, “None of My words will be delayed any longer.” (They were only 5 years from Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of the city.)
3. These two events serve as a preamble to 13:1-14:11.
II. In this section the false prophets are condemned. In addition, some of the elders of Israel are condemned. They came to hear Ezekiel, but held on to their idols in their hearts (13:1-14:11).A. The false prophets were prophesying from their own inspiration (13:1-7).
1. They were following their own spirit and had seen nothing.
2. Instead of building up Israel, they were like foxes among ruins. They are scavengers seeking out things for themselves.
3. They said, “The Lord declares,” but the Lord had not sent them and had not spoken to them.
B. God said, “I am against you” (13:8ff).
1. “Such prophets will have no place in the council of My people.”
2. “They will not be written down in the register of the house of Israel.”
3. “They will not enter the land of Israel.”
4. They had misled the people saying, “Peace! When there was no peace.”
5. It was as if they had built a wall and plastered it over with whitewash. God would send flooding rain, hailstones and violent wind and destroy it.
C. God said to Ezekiel, “Set your face against the daughters of your people who are prophesying from their own inspiration” (13:17-23).
1. These women are frauds. Their so-called prophecies derive from their own imaginations.
2. They were making “magic bands” worn on the wrists and arms.
3. They were making some kind of head gear (veils, NASB) evidently associated with their magical arts.
4. Daniel I. Block (NICOT, Ezekiel 1-24, p. 414) says of these objects, “They appear to have been objects of black magic, and their wielders may justifiably be designated sorceresses, evil magicians, witches.” Such practices had been condemned from the days of Moses (Deut. 18:9-14).
5. These are little more than human vultures preying on the people of God (18b-22). They are lying and the people are listening to it.
6. God says, “You women will no longer see false visions or practice divination, and I will deliver My people out of your hand.”
7. “Thus you will know that I am the Lord.” God’s condemning judgment and His deliverance of His people give evidence of who He is.
D. Then some elders of Israel came to Ezekiel as if to listen to what God had to say (14:1-11).
1. “A light of hope,” you might think. But no, they are idol worshipers.
2. Should idol worshipers come to listen to what God has to say?
3. Here is what God said, “Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations.”
4. God said, If you unrepentant idol worshipers come to inquire of Me, I will set My face against you and cut you off from among My people.
E. If you entice false prophets to speak to you I will destroy that prophet and destroy the one who inquires of him (13:9-11).
III. Implications and applications.A. Jerusalem is going to be taken into captivity and the reason for it is that she will not listen to the Lord. She is adequately equipped with eyes to see and ears to hear but she will not listen.
1. Such was the case with some in N.T. days.
a. They had refused to listen to John. Now they were refusing to listen to Jesus.
b. Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
c. He proceeded to compare them to children who said, “We played a flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a funeral song for you and you did not mourn.”
d. He said, John came neither eating nor drinking and they said, “He has a demon!”
e. He said, I came eating and drinking and they said, “a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”
2. The Lord is calling to repentance. He says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. . . . I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28-30).
3. How long will you continue in rebellion? How long will you reject His invitation?
B. Who is it that you are listening to? Are you listening to the Lord or false prophets who speak from their own inspiration with attractive language what you want to hear?
1. If one religion is just as good as another and you are privileged to attend the assembly (church) of your choice then how about the churches of those who prophesy by their own inspiration? How about the church of divination and witchcraft?
2. And how about coming before God’s prophets as if to listen, all the while harboring idolatry in your heart?
C. Counterfeits are out there (in here?) claiming divine authority when in fact they speak from their own inspiration.
1. They may have charismatic personalities, expert training, and be oratorically gifted but do they have the word of God?
2. They proclaim what we want to hear—“Peace, when there is no peace.”
3. There is no place for us to be lax is our relationship with God. We need to personally search out and hear the message of God, not just smooth talk as we go on about our pursuits in life. I fear that we deteriorate into paying professionals to speak to us as we neglect our own personal responsibility to investigate the word of God.
4. It is not just the false prophets that will be condemned but also those who encourage them to speak their false words.
D. Although there is judgment the Lord is gracious and merciful to those genuinely repentant.
1. Do not come to Him with idols in your heart.
2. Do not come to Him with a rebellious spirit, merely attempting to escape judgment.
3. Come to Him in humility. Come to Him in genuine grief over your sin.
Conclusion:
1. See with your eyes and hear with your ears. 2. Make a covenant commitment with the Lord God so that He is your God and you are His people (14:11b).
