1. Ezekiel: the Hardened Prophet of Hope

2. Finding Hope in God
Ezekiel—God Hardens

3. Finding Hope in God
Ezekiel 3:8-9 But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house.

4. Finding Hope in God
Ezekiel 2:3-5. He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’

5. Finding Hope in God
Ezekiel 2:3-5. And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them.

6. Finding Hope in God
Events in Ezekiel’s life:

7. Finding Hope in God
Events in Ezekiel’s life: 612 Neineveh Falls to the Babylonians

8. Finding Hope in God
Events in Ezekiel’s life: 612 Neineveh Falls to the Babylonians 609 Battle of Charchemish (2 Kings 23:29)

9. Finding Hope in God
Events in Ezekiel’s life: 612 Neineveh Falls to the Babylonians 609 Battle of Charchemish (2 Kings 23:29) 605 Nebuchadnezzar Subjects Judah to his rule (2 Kings 24:1)

10. Finding Hope in God
Events in Ezekiel’s life: 612 Neineveh Falls to the Babylonians 609 Battle of Charchemish (2 Kings 23:29) 605 Nebuchadnezzar Subjects Judah to his rule (2 Kings 24:1) 586 Jerusalem falls/ Exile begins (2 Kings 24)

11. Finding Hope in God
2Kings 24:8-11 On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down.

12. Finding Hope in God
2 Kings 24:8-11 The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had gone over to the king of Babylon.

13. Finding Hope in God
Psalm 137:1-9 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy;

14. Finding Hope in God
Psalm 137:1-9 they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.

15. Finding Hope in God
Psalm 137:1-9 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.

16. Finding Hope in God
Psalm 137:1-9 Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!”

17. Finding Hope in God
Psalm 137:1-9 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us— he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

18. Finding Hope in God
Deuteronomy 11:26-29 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

19. Finding Hope in God
Exodus 6:7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

20. Finding Hope in God
Leviticus 26:11-12 I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.

21. Finding Hope in God
Having experienced God’s punishment, the nation of Israel lost hope. But Yahweh gives them hope, even in the hurt of apparent abandonment.

22. Finding Hope in God
Ezekiel 36:28-31 You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you.

23. Finding Hope in God
Ezekiel 36:28-31 I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine. Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices.

24. Finding Hope in God
Ezekiel 37:1-3 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

25. Finding Hope in God
Ezekiel 37:4-8 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

26. Finding Hope in God
Ezekiel 37:4-8 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

27. Finding Hope in God
Ezekiel 37:9-10 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

28. Finding Hope in God
Ezekiel 37:11-14 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.

29. Finding Hope in God
Ezekiel 37:11-14 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ”

30. Finding Hope in God
Lessons to be learned:

31. Finding Hope in God
Lessons to be learned:
Even when we sin…

32. Finding Hope in God Lessons to be learned: Even when we sin…
…there is still hope.

33. Finding Hope in God Lessons to be learned: Even when we sin…
…there is still hope.
Even when we experience hardship…

34. Finding Hope in God Lessons to be learned: Even when we sin…
…there is still hope.
Even when we experience hardship…

35. Finding Hope in God Lessons to be learned: Even when we sin…
…there is still hope.
Even when we experience hardship…
Even when all seems lost…

36. Finding Hope in God Lessons to be learned: Even when we sin…
…there is still hope.
Even when we experience hardship…
Even when all seems lost…
…there is still hope through God.

37. Finding Hope in God
Colossians 1:21-23 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.