Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S15 || Remnants of Faith in a Fallen World || Ezekiel 14:20 - 16:14 || Session 15 || Bible Study
Ever felt disheartened looking at a world that seems increasingly distant from God? You're not alone—and you're not the first. In this deeply insightful exploration of Ezekiel chapters 14, 15 and into 16, we discover that God's ancient prophet faced remarkably similar circumstances to our own.
The episode begins with God's sobering revelation that even if the most righteous biblical figures—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were present in Jerusalem, they could only save themselves through their righteousness. This powerful message speaks directly to believers today who wonder how to remain faithful when surrounded by spiritual indifference.
We dive into one of scripture's most profound metaphors: Jerusalem as an abandoned newborn, unwashed and left to die, whom God rescues, nurtures, and transforms into a beautifully adorned bride. Through vivid imagery and historical context, we see how God took Israel from humble beginnings through to Solomon's glorious kingdom—and the tragic consequences when they abandoned their divine purpose.
The allegory of the useless grapevine delivers a particularly potent message about spiritual fruitfulness. Unlike other trees whose wood remains useful, a fruitless vine serves no purpose—mirroring the reality of what happens when believers disconnect from their divine source. This imagery, later echoed by Jesus in John 15, reminds us that our primary calling is to remain connected to God regardless of cultural currents.
Despite the heavy themes of judgment—foretold through sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—this episode ultimately delivers hope by emphasizing God's faithfulness to preserve a remnant of believers in every generation. For anyone feeling increasingly isolated in their faith, this timeless message offers both challenge and profound reassurance.
Join us as we unpack these ancient words that speak with surprising relevance to our modern spiritual journey. Discover how to stand firm when society separates from God and find courage in knowing you're part of a faithful remnant with deep historical roots.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
In our day, many Christians who have a heart for the Lord look around and we see a generation that is very far away from the Lord. We see people all around us that have no interest in learning about God or following God's ways, and we see the world through that perspective. But what we're going to find out today on Reasoning Through the Bible is that back in Ezekiel's day, he was thinking the same thing. God says there's going to be very, very few that are actually following after God's heart, so we can take this lesson and apply it to us today. Hi, my name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We do verse-by-verse Bible studies through the Word of God. Glenn, I'm here with Steve. We do verse-by-verse Bible studies through the Word of God. We have a ministry we call Reasoning Through the Bible, where we go through and look at every passage of the Scriptures and explain it to you. So check out our website at reasoningthroughthebiblecom. But today, if you have your copy of the Word of God, turn to Ezekiel, chapter 14, and we're going to pick up in verse 20.
Speaker 2:Even though Noah, daniel and Job were in its midst as I live, declares the Lord God, they could not deliver either their son or their daughter.
Speaker 1:They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness With that God is telling Ezekiel about the generation of the Jewish people that were living in his day. God says this people, this generation, even if I sent out the greatest of the prophets, noah, daniel and Job, if I sent them out to try to reach these people, then the only ones in the entire city of Jerusalem, the entire nation, the only ones that would be saved were the ones that he sent out, noah, daniel and Job. They would have been fruitless in their efforts. God is saying that that entire generation of Israel at that time were so obstinate in their evil that even Noah, Daniel and Job wouldn't be able to reach them and turn their hearts towards God. Our generation is not the first to be very rebellious towards the Lord, steve. Can we take any lessons from that? In our day we have a very rebellious, very lost generation that is very far from the Lord.
Speaker 2:I think the lesson that we can take from it is that we're all responsible for ourselves first thing, and we need to be strong and faithful to the Lord, jesus Christ. What he's done, what he can do for them, lead them to believe and trust on him and change the society or change the culture around us, one person at a time. That's one thing we can take away from it. But to your point is that every generation has the same situation where you have people that don't follow God. In our previous session, when we were describing this chapter, it said one of the first things in the verse was that the people had separated themselves from God. Now we were talking about believers and giving some advice associated with that, but that's true for the unbelievers. That's the first thing that they do is they're separating themselves from God. They don't want to follow God and they want to separate. They don't want to have anything to do with God. They don't want to be held accountable by God for the things that they do. So the result of that, as we talked about last session, was that God was going to separate himself from them.
Speaker 2:Well, my friend, if you happen to be listening to this or watching this and you're not a believer. Let it be known that you have separated yourself from God because you've wanted to do that, and at some point, god will separate himself from you. We have people, just as we're encouraging you here. Follow Jesus Christ, become a believer in him, understand what he did through his death, burial and resurrection, and that you need to have a way to be reconciled back to God, and that can be done through Jesus Christ. Bring yourself closer to God so that he will bring himself close to you. To God, so that he will bring himself close to you. So I think that's a lesson that we can take, glenn that we have a responsibility in every generation as believers, in order to spread the gospel, spread the good news, go out and make disciples, and that's our mission. That's the main thing that we should be able to do in our generation as we go and live our lives.
Speaker 1:It's very easy in our generation for anyone who has a heart for God and godly things, it's very easy to get discouraged because there's so much sin, so much evil in the world. It rubs off on us. We tend to stray as well. So we want to live righteous lives and we want our friends and our family to fall along with us towards God. But what we find is the generation doesn't want to listen. But I think we can take encouragement from these words, because Ezekiel's day was no different. Jesus's day was no different. There's always been a remnant.
Speaker 1:The next few verses that we're going to read God has been giving this very harsh message, but he gives some word of encouragement here. What he's about to say at the end of the chapter, god is telling Ezekiel that a remnant of Jerusalem will come to where Ezekiel is, in Babylon, and once that happens, the people are going to see how sinful these people of Jerusalem were and why God's wrath is justified. Let's read the last part of chapter 14, starting in verse 21, says this For thus says the Lord God, how much more when I send my four severe judgments against Jerusalem, sword, famine, wild beasts and plague to cut off man and beast from it. Yet, behold, survivors will be left in it who will be brought out, both sons and daughters. Behold, they are going to come forth to you and you will see their conduct and actions. Then you will be comforted for their calamity.
Speaker 1:To send four judgments against Jerusalem the sword of an enemy, famine, wild beast and disease. God is going to ensure that some survivors make it to Babylon, but most of them are going to die. And, of course, steve. That brings up the question how could God be just in this severe punishment that he gives? He's answered it in those verses, did he not.
Speaker 2:He has answered it. The question, though, is how could he be this way? Well, go back to the very first part of Ezekiel and what he's conveying to the people. They're stubborn and obstinate people. They have been out putting up idols and not only idols within their land. The kings had led them to that and allowed them to do it, but they were doing it on the temple complex. They had a secret room in the temple so they weren't just out within their own homes or somewhere else. They were right in the midst of the center of worship of God of Israel, doing these things.
Speaker 2:God had protected them several times. He had allowed the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom, to be taken off Again. This was a time when the kingdom was split into Israel in the north and Judah in the south. They had been taken off a couple of hundred years before by Assyria because they were in a worse situation than Judah was, but then Judah followed along with it, and now it's gotten down to the point that the only thing that is left is the city of Jerusalem itself. There's been two waves of people that have been taken off into captivity by Babylon.
Speaker 2:You had false prophets that God is talking about saying to the people, both that are left in Jerusalem and to the exiles don't worry, god is going to come through one more time and he's not going to allow the city to fall.
Speaker 2:We have that dramatic story of one time when Assyria had come down and the death angel had gone out and killed 185,000 of the troops that were encamped about the city of Jerusalem, and then the king left the next day after that. So the people had this false impression at the time that God was one more time going to come through for them. But in reality God is telling them no more, I'm done coming through for them. But in a reality, god is telling them no more, I'm done coming through for you. You're going to pay the consequences for your stubbornness and the sin that you have been doing. And here he's saying there's going to be four plagues that are going to come through and the city is going to be destroyed, but, as you pointed out, glenn, there's still going to be a remnant of people that are believers in Yahweh that are going to come out of that calamity that's about to come on Jerusalem.
Speaker 1:What God is telling Ezekiel in these last few verses we just read, and the message to give to the people there in Babylon was that, yes, I'm going to bring all these horrible things sword famine, wild beasts, disease going to bring all of horrible things sword famine, wild beasts, disease. I'm going to bring all of this and some of the remnant's going to come, and when they get to you in Babylon, you're going to see why I'm justified, god says. To understand this, we have to really grasp the severity of what it means to have this idol worship. It wasn't just a different type of worship. What they were actually doing and we're going to see this in the chapters in Ezekiel some of them were frying their children, their infants, on the heated metal arms of the god Molech that was passing their children through the fire. They were sacrificing their own children. They had gross and widespread sex worship. This was total given over to idol worship, to the point that it was causing mass death, mass disease.
Speaker 1:I find it interesting that when God deals with passages like this, people throw up their hands and say how could God be so severe? How could he punish people like this? But when he doesn't and he is patient and allows people time to decide on their own to repent and allows evil to go across the land. People throw up their hands and say why isn't God dealing with this evil? Well, he can't have it both ways. God deals with it in his wise timing here. It's time to deal with it. What he's telling Ezekiel is when this remnant gets to you, you're going to realize how evil they are and how much I was justified in destroying this people. Moving on to chapter 15, ezekiel gives a message from God about a grapevine. Now we have to remember the purpose of a grapevine is to bear fruit. When a grapevine doesn't produce fruit, it's useless. God had expected Israel to bear fruit. Steve, can you read the eight verses of chapter 15, and we'll find out his message about the vine.
Speaker 2:Then the word of the Lord came to me saying Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any wood of a branch which is among the trees of the forest? Can wood be taken from it to make anything, or can man take a peg from it on which to hang any vessel? If it has been put into the fire for fuel and the fire has consumed both of its ends and its middle part has been charred, is it then useful for anything? Behold, while it is intact, it is not made into anything. How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it still be made into anything.
Speaker 2:Therefore, thus says the Lord God, as the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem and I set my face against them, though they have come out of the fire, yet the fire will consume them. Then you will know that I am the Lord when I set my face against them. Thus, I will make the land desolate, because they have acted unfaithfully, declares Lord God.
Speaker 1:A little bit of background about grapevines will help us get a little more meaning out of this passage. Grapevines are very weak by themselves they fall over on the ground. In order to grow grapes, the orchard keepers have to tie them up on stakes and hold them upright off of the ground. Then they're quite vigorous. So they grow a lot of vine. And if you want grapes instead of just grapevine, then every year you have to cut off parts of the branches of the vine so that the grapevine will be more productive and grow more grapes. If you just let it go, then you're going to have a whole lot of vine and not a lot of grapes. That's the background of this. Every year a vineyard keeper would cut off a lot of the vine and the wood would then be lying there in big piles. Steve, look at verse 3 here. Is the wood of a vine good for making anything?
Speaker 2:No, the wood of a grapevine is very thin and it's kind of limber. So, no, you can't really take it and make anything out of it like you could from a tree or even a tree branch. The grapevine is just as I said it's very small, very limber. In fact, you even said they have to tie it up in order to get it to produce grapes. In fact, you even said they have to tie it up in order to get it to produce grapes. So, no, the vine of a grape vine is not useful for anything such as that. What is the purpose of a grape vine? It's to bear fruit.
Speaker 1:It's to bear grapes. What does the orchard keeper, vineyard keeper, do to a vine that's not producing fruit?
Speaker 2:keeper. Due to a vine that's not producing fruit, he cuts it off so that the tree itself is giving all of its energy into other vines or branches that are actually producing grapes the ones that are just out there not producing grapes. They're just wasting the energy that the tree is putting into itself to live.
Speaker 1:Oh, all that's exactly right. And if we remember over in the New Testament, john chapter 15, jesus picked up on this same theme and he used the same idea of the grapevine and he told his disciples that he, jesus, was the vine and they were the branches. And if the branches abided in the vine then they will bear fruit, and if they got apart from him and didn't bear fruit, they're going to be pruned and thrown into the fire. So when he mentioned that, his hearers would have immediately thought about not only what they knew about grapevines, but they would have thought about this passage right back here in Ezekiel, chapter 15. After God's judgment, then the leftover grapevines are going to be doubly useless. If they stay in the vine and produce fruit, then they'll be left and they'll be part of the productive goal of the vineyard keeper. But as soon as they stop producing fruit or stop being connected to Christ, then they're going to be judged. It tells us here. If we look at the end of verse 7, it says Then you will know I am the Lord. Well when? Well, he says after it's burned. What he's saying is that they take these vines that aren't producing fruit and cut them off. The wood's too small, it's too limber, can't even make a good peg out of it and throw them into the fire. Now they're doubly useless After the fire hits it. It's really useless.
Speaker 1:One of God's major themes that he keeps repeating throughout the Word of God is that people will know he is the true God after he pours out his anger and judgment. And I can imagine, steve, that the people in Ezekiel's day were sort of like the people in our day. We haven't seen God do anything severe in our lives. He doesn't come down and cause mass judgment on people around us. People were thinking well, if God hasn't done it up to now, then he never will, which is exactly what people are thinking today, correct People?
Speaker 2:do think that and I think that there are times whenever there are particular judgments that come on nations in various ways, but the people are so separated from God that they don't acknowledge that it might be something from God whenever these so-called natural disasters take place. Maybe sometimes they are something that's related to God, but in general what you said is true People don't think that God is active in the world today and that that therefore the judgment isn't going to be coming at any time, because he hasn't brought any type of judgment in several hundred years, since the time of Jesus and the time of the Old Testament. But we're told through these prophets, glenn, that there is going to be a time of judgment. That's going to come and it's in our future. Time of judgment that's going to come and it's in our future and just as assured as God is telling Ezekiel to tell the people that Jerusalem is going to be dealt with here and the example that he's given here of the charred branch, the ends of it, the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah have come into under judgment and therefore it's no longer any use to him. They've failed their part of what they were to do.
Speaker 2:Same thing is going to happen in some time in the future, that the world is so separated from God that there's going to come a time of judgment in the future and it's not going to be pretty. There's going to be famine, plagues, natural disasters that are going to happen and the people are going to know at the time it's coming from God whenever it happens. It says, in fact, that the people on the earth are going to try and hide from these natural disasters and wish that they would die, but they're not going to be able to die, wish that they would die, but they're not going to be able to die Through those plagues and disasters. Then they are going to know the Lord God, just like he's saying to them here, when these plagues and disasters come on the city of Jerusalem. They're going to know that he is the Lord God.
Speaker 1:And at the end of this chapter, verse 8, he says thus, I will make the land desolate. We have to understand the contrast here in order to grasp the significance of this. Remember the land of Israel was described as the land flowing with milk and honey. It was very productive. We remember back when Joshua sent the spies into the land. It was so productive. One of the things they brought back to Joshua was there was one cluster of grapes that was so big that two men had to carry it on a pole in between them. The land was very productive. But here in Ezekiel 15.8, god says I'm going to make the land desolate, and he gives a reason because why, Steve?
Speaker 2:It says because they were unfaithful to him. Think about it, Glenn. At the time that they were going in, it was under occupation by pagans. They were not worshiping God. They certainly weren't faithful to the God Yahweh. So it gives a picture that God had blessed the land in preparation for the people to go in and take it. In fact, he had even told them I'm giving you a land that has vineyards that you didn't grow or cultivate, and things that are there, cities that were built that you didn't build, or anything else like that. I'm going to go before you and I'm giving you this land.
Speaker 2:Now look at what they've done with it. After hundreds of years of occupation, they have come to the point that they have not fulfilled what God had put them there for. They have become unfaithful, so that now God is going to leave the land desolate. I mean, just really think about that. They went into a land, as you have just described, full of milk and honey and prosperity, rich in produce, and their unfaithfulness is now turning the land to where God is going to make it desolate. I don't know about you, Glenn, but I think there's something there Really we can take away from that.
Speaker 1:We can take away what God can do in our lives. He can make our lives very productive and very flowing with His grace and His benefits. He could also make our lives very desolate. It all comes down to what it says here in this verse, which is are we faithful to Him, do we believe Him, do we follow his ways, or do we reject him and ignore his ways? Do we come to him and ask forgiveness and keep short accounts with the Lord, or do we hide sin in our hearts? Now, moving on to chapter 16, we have a passage here where he gives a description of Jerusalem as if it were a newborn baby. He has very descriptive language here of finding this baby, of Jerusalem as a city and how he finds her, what condition she's in as a newborn and what he does to raise her up.
Speaker 1:Let's go ahead and read the first 14 verses of Ezekiel 16. Say this Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations and say Thus says the Lord, god to Jerusalem, your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. As for your birth, on the day you were born, your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things, for you to have compassion on you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field for you were abhorred. On the day you were born. When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood live. Yes. I said to you while you were in your blood, live. I made you numerous, like plants of the field.
Speaker 1:Then you grew up and became tall and reached the age for fine ornaments. Your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare. Then I passed by you and saw you and behold, you were at the time for love. So I spread my skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became mine, declares the Lord God. Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet, and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth. Steve, what had God done for Jerusalem to make it shine like this?
Speaker 2:He had taken them and raised them up. He had taken them to the point of, like it says here, they were abhorred, and he rescued them, he clothed them, he took care of them. He clothed them, he took care of them. He cut the umbilical cord, because if you don't cut the umbilical cord after the uterus is no longer feeding the baby, it will kill the baby. He took it, gave it clothing, he adorned it with different types of silver and gold and rings and things like that.
Speaker 2:It shows him that he took this young city of Jerusalem, israel, who's being a representative of the nation of Israel itself. He has taken it and brought it to himself and rescued it from a very small entity to raise it up into what it was. So he's taking them back to their roots and where they came from and he's basically saying is is that you're mine? I'm the one that took you from a very young age and brought you up. So he's going to get here to a point as to what they've done. But, compared to all the previous verses, them being unfaithful, obstinate, stubborn he's now taking them back through this allegory that he's using to Ezekiel, that he's the one who took them from the very birth.
Speaker 1:First thing I notice, steve, when I read passages like this, are that not only is it the inspired, inerrant Word of God, but it's also just beautiful literature. The description here, in the descriptive language, is just very emotional. It's very telling. It's very good literature. He talks about a very graphic description of the baby. Then he gives also a very graphic, beautiful description of the grown woman.
Speaker 1:He talks about finding this newborn baby that was still in its blood. No one had taken care of it. Imagine a newborn baby that no one had even wiped it off or put a blanket on it to warm it. He says all of that. He even says, in verse 3, your birth was from the land of the Canaanite, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. What he's saying there is that your father was no good and neither was your mother. You came from a very bad heritage and no one was going to take care of you.
Speaker 1:I found you you were kind of ugly, left alone, and he said I washed you off, I put cloths on you, I raised you up, I took you to a time when you were beautiful. I found you very dirty and abandoned and I took care of you. When you grew up, you became a very beautiful bride and I clothed you in fine ornaments. He had this wonderful description of the clothing and the jewelry that he had. He adorned her with fine jewelry. Verse 9, he says I washed her and anointed her with oil, which means he took away her sin and blessed her with anointing. He did all of that for Jerusalem. Did God actually do this for the Jewish people? Did he take them from really nothing, no real nation, up to a time when they were powerful as a nation, very beautiful, very wealthy? Did God do all of that?
Speaker 2:Yes, he did. In studying for this chapter, glenn, I read where the rabbis through the centuries at least some of them don't want to teach, or read Ezekiel, chapter 16, because as we get into it further, it gives a very disturbing picture of the nation itself and how it's described here, as far as the allegory that's here. Part of it was that they look at it some of them as being a slap to Abraham and Sarah. But God here isn't really describing their birth from Abraham and Sarah. When he says that you're from the Amorite and Hittite, it's like what you said is he's saying the land that you were given and that you came out of were from pagans. It was something that I gave to you and brought you into and gave to you and brought you up out of.
Speaker 2:They need to understand that this is God's land, it's his land and he gave it to them and pushed the other people out because, as I mentioned before, it was something that they hadn't even cultivated themselves the people themselves. He's trying to get across to them how much he loves them as a nation and what he has done for them to try and make them understand once again through Ezekiel in this story, this allegory, that he cares for them, so much so that he brought them up from a very, very young age, allegorically speaking, and did bring them to a point where they were much prosperous and they had expanded their borders and things like that. But they had gotten to a point where they just let their kings and their leadership lead them astray over and over again. So now it's led them to this point where they're going to be total destruction of now, finally, the southern kingdom of Judah, if we read the history of Israel, it starts with Abraham and it was really nothing.
Speaker 1:Abraham was really of no real repute when he started and even up to the time where Jacob went into Egypt, then there was really sort of a ragtag group of extended family. That wasn't really much. The people there Jacob was a deceiver, was really nothing to look at, not very powerful, not very wealthy. And if we then take it up through the Egyptian slavery, there was really again these were just slaves in Egypt. God took them up to the time of Solomon. All the gold, all the silver, all the fine linens, all the fine cloths Read the amount of food that he produced for his household and his peoples. It was very beautiful to look at. The foreigners would come just to look at how beautiful it was, with all the wealth and all the food and all the glory Because of worshiping idols. Now the land is desolate. Next time, as we get into the passages in the next part of Ezekiel 16, we're going to see equally graphic description of how ugly and evil that Jerusalem had taken the beautiful things that God had given them.
Speaker 2:It's really a sad story as we leave it at this point, glenn, but at the end of chapter 16, there's going to be hope and the redemption that God is going to say that he has for them. Thank you very much for watching and listening. We hope that you're enjoying this series on Ezekiel. Look for our resources on our resource page where you can find other types of books that we've gone through. We hope that you'll come back with us next time as we continue through the book of Ezekiel. Thank you so much. May the Lord bless you.
