Systematic Theology – The Land

Disinheritance

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: 19-19

Genre: Speech

Track: 19 of 19

Dictation Name: 19 Disinheritance

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us begin with prayer. Oh Lord of hosts unto whom all glory belongeth we thank Thee that every atom in creation moves at Thy command and according to Thy purpose, that all things work together for good for them that love Thee, to them that are the called according to Thy purpose in this confidence our Father we come to Thee to rejoice in thy providential care, to cast our every care upon Thee who carest for us and to commit our loved ones with all their needs into their omnipotent hands. Bless us this day and always and prosper us in Thy service in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our scripture this morning is the eighth chapter of Ezekiel and our subject as we continue the theology of the land is Disinheritance. Ezekiel 8.

“And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me.

2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.

3 And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.

4 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.

5 Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

6 He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

7 And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.

8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.

9 And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.

10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.

11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.

12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, the Lord seeth us not; the Lordhath forsaken the earth.

13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.

14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

16 And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.

18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.”

The eighth chapter of Ezekiel is a very remarkable vision by a remarkable prophet. In Ezekiel 8 beginning with the first verse to the end of the eleventh chapter we have Jerusalem’s sin and judgment described by the prophet. Its judgment was abandonment by God. Now Ezekiel had this vision in Chaldea, he was among the first to be taken into captivity by Babylon. He was in his home, what had been done by Nebekednezar was to take the leadership of the country first of all into exile and we are told he sat in his house and the elders of Judea sat before me. This means that the entire leadership of Israel had been taken into captivity, the elders of Israel has reference to what was later called the Sanhedrin, seventy men, the high priest was not there and Ezekiel sat in their midst in a sense taking the place of the high priest or as another Moses. So this was very much a formal assembly of some kind. All the leaders, the elders of Israel, the lay leaders of the nation in captivity had come to the prophet for the word of God and Ezekiel sat in the midst in what was in some sense an official meeting. They were seeking from Ezekiel the word of God. And Ezekiel describes the vision that ensues, a rather unceremonious one, he is not transported as other prophets he is simply grabbed by the lock of the hair and taken to the temple. God’s anger, God’s disdain for the people manifests itself even towards his own prophet, he is a part of a people about to be judged. There in the temple he sees some remarkable things.

First of all the image of jealousy, that is an image that arouses God’s jealous anger. Now this immediately creates a problem superficially if we do not read carefully. King Manasseh somewhat earlier had set up such an image but it was not there at this time. Jeremiah who was there in Jerusalem at this time with Ezekiel in Chaldea in Babylon gives an entirely different account, why do the accounts differ? Then second, dropping that question for a moment, God calls attention to a hole in the wall and he sees therein in the inner chamber worship, worship of creatures, of idols, of every kind of abominable beast and here too were the elders of Israel with the king or high priest or both glorifying these elders with their [unknown]. So here were the elders of Israel who had replaced those in captivity and these elders of Judea more accurately were involved in pagan worship. This is not all. Then he is shown next women at the door weeping for Tammuz, taking part in a fertility cult worship. So that the fertility cult is seen as having invaded the very precincts of the temple. Again, this had been true earlier but outwardly it was no longer true. Then the fourth aspect of this vision: twenty five men worshipped the rising sun. they are located where only priests had the right to be, the twenty five men perhaps to a modern reader do not mean much but to any Judean at that time or anyone subsequently with any knowledge of the temple it meant a great deal. There were twenty five classes or rather twenty four classes of priests, the priests were divided into twenty four groups, all are here represented and the twenty fifth is the high priest.

They are involved in paganism. Thus we see the civil rulers, the temple rulers and the women all involved in idolatry in abomination. And yet as I noted earlier Jeremiah gives no evidence that any such thing was taking place. Obviously these are not actual events, for one thing the time of mourning for Talmuuz was the fourth month and this vision is plainly dated in the sixth month in the fifth day of the month. It was the wrong time for such a vision to describe an actual event. It is Jeremiah who gives us the grim account of the actual events at Jerusalem at the time, the outward conformity to God with an inward corruption. And the fact that people who professed to believe in God could not have been less interested in the word of God. Ezekiel thus gives us what was under the surface. Jeremiah portrays the hypocrisy of the surface, Ezekiel the reality underneath. Under the façade of conformity to God there was a radical hypocrisy and apostasy. There was ostensible Jehovah worship but underneath paganism and will worship and this, says God to Ezekiel, is the truth about the temple and the people. Do not believe the reports you hear about what is going on, that ostensibly there is a reformation and everyone is conforming themselves, this is the truth. Moreover, the heart of this truth is portrayed in the latter part of the twelfth verse. The twelfth verse tells us thou hast seen what the ancients, that is, the leaders of the house of Israel do in the dark. Every man in the chambers of his imagery, in his inner life, in the chambers of the secret places of their lives, for they say the Lord see us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth.

Now here we have the heart of the vision. The Lord see us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth. The people thus are divided between an outward unbelief or a belief that God is so remote that what happens on earth makes no difference to Him. This God says is at the heart of all they do. Believing that God is either dead or remote they put their trust in natural forces, they put their trust in what the other nations trust in. they are formally Godly, they felt a security as morally superior to their nations, they felt a security, Jeremiah told us, with having the temple, after all, they were God’s people, we have the temple. It was the same kind of security they felt in our Lord’s day and why they were incredulous when He declared that not one stone would be left standing upon another in Jerusalem and in the temple. How could that be? Anyone looking at Judea in Jeremiah’s day and our Lord’s day would have to say there’s no question as between Judea and Babylon and Egypt or later as between Judea and the Roman Empire. There’s no question, Judea is morally superior. Here you have the best literacy if you want to look at it from that point of view, no other nation upon earth had a comparable literacy. But our Lord also tells us to whom much is given of them much is expected. And what they were doing on both occasions was to compare themselves not to the standard of God but to other men. I thank thee Lord that I am not as one of these and hence the judgment. AS a matter of fact through Jeremiah also God was indicting this attitude.

We read in Jeremiah 7:3-11:

“Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.

5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;

6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;

10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.”

That last verse our Lord quotes when He cleanses the temple. There was the same trust by Judea on both occasions, they were guilty of apostasy, of hypocrisy, of injustice, of the oppression of helpless peoples and more and can we say that is any different today here in the United States or in the western world? We have abortion, we have homosexuality, we have the persecution of Christianity in the name of all kinds of technicalities and we have a contempt for God’s law. The true possession of faith means that instead of saying the Lord see us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth, rather we know that we walk constantly in the eye of God, in His presence and that there is nothing hidden from His sight. Practical atheism was what prevailed in Jerusalem then and which prevails throughout the western world today, a belief that God if He exists is indifferent and therefore men can be indifferent to God. They saw reality as natural forces only and the temple vision is of this. Power for them was in the universe not in God and they said God does not see it, God is remote, indifferent or dead. Therefore, the glory of the Lord left the temple and Judea for those who had already been taken into captivity in Chaldea and were therefore repentant. In Ezekiel 11:22-25 we have the vision of the glory of the Lord leaving the temple in Jerusalem and going eastward to be with the men in captivity. To leave the Lord can be an inner fact when there is an outward conformity.

Men can be sitting in churches by the millions and they can be a million miles away from God. This is what Ezekiel’s vision tells us. The outward adherence can be pronounced but whom we rely on moment by moment is our God and because the reliance of the people even within the temple precincts, the civil leaders, the religious leaders, the women of Judea, was a reliance on anything but God, God says this is the reality of their worship. The last verse tells us the conclusion:

“18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.”

God’s reaction to this, Ezekiel says, is one of fury. God is a person, not a vague force, He reacts personally with fury. We are also told blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people whom He hath chosen for His inheritance. But the reverse of that is cursed is the nation whose God is not the Lord, whatever their outward profession. This means that the nation whose God is not the living God is cursed and disinherited from the earth. Their destiny is to inherit judgment and we must say of the leaders of this country and of the countries of the western world today that they are trying to inherit judgment and it’s a race against time between the forces of Godly reconstruction and the forces that seeing God as dead are bringing judgment upon them. Tolstoy in his book on the secret betrayal tells us how after World War II not only were the refugees from the Soviet Union rounded up and shipped back into the Soviet Union but they went after immigrates who had come before the soviets took over.

Persons who had become citizens of their respective countries and with rifle butts and bayonets the British and also the Americans and also the French and the Belgian and the Dutch and the swedes rounded them up and shipped them because they were more afraid of what the Russians might say and do although mostly they were bent on cooperating with their noble allies. Only one country stood up to the Soviet Union and said we will not return a single person. It was Lichtenstein, a tiny principality of twelve thousand people and they stood up to the Soviet Union. Not only so they cared for the many, many refugees and then provided the funds so that they could settle subsequently in South America. And the Soviet agents ranted and railed against them but they stood firm. Whom do you think God will bless in the days ahead? Unless we mend our ways we have the promise of God, His fury, His judgment and disinheritance. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God Thy word is truth and in the heart of the churches and in the heart of this people, in the heart of Washington there is idolatry. The secret image in their inner chambers other gods are worshipped. Oh Lord God of Hosts give us grace and mercy in the days ahead we may turn this country into Thy habitation into a holy place, a godly place and save our people. Save us oh Lord by Thy grace and mercy, make us a free people in Jesus Christ that we might again be a beacon light of grace unto this dark world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Well I think that’s a relatively insignificant point, the significant point is that the churches are full of people who are sending their children to state schools, where God, where Christ is forbidden, cannot be mentioned. Now that’s evil. They are surrendering their children to the enemy. Those are the significant things and they themselves are ready to go to churches that are faithless to God because well my family has been in this church for a good many years and we paid for that stained glass or my grandfather did. That kind of attitude, you see, we have to get to the root of the problem, not to the superficials. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Of course Isaiah was originally divided by the higher critics into two: chapters one to thirty nine, and then forty following was supposedly second Isaiah. Now they have five Isaiahs [laughs] and they are making a name for themselves, different scholars, by finding reasons to say this is by a different hand and what we have to say in Ezekiel is that most of is indeed for Ezekiel’s time.

One or two chapters do go beyond the time of Ezekiel and they are in the latter part of the book. However, none of them are without reference to Ezekiel’s day. For example, chapter 34 does look beyond his day, so does chapter 36 which predicts the new testament age but all of them are set in the context of what was happening in Ezekiel’s time. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. One of the things we need to recognize about all of these prophesies is that they have a progressive fulfillment. Now a good instance of that is the chapter we dealt with today, it obviously applied to the facts of Ezekiel’s day but it also applies to the facts of our time too, does it not?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes so when we limit these prophesies of the false prophets to a particular time and era we limit their meaning. Or when we limit them only to a future reference we again limit their meaning so we have some of the modernists who say well this has reference only to something that happened five hundred or six hundred or four hundred B.C. and therefore its relevance is dated. And those that say it didn’t mean a thing all through the generations till our day and now the prophetic clock is starting to tick. Both attitudes are equally absurd. Any other questions or comments?

Well if not let us bow our heads in prayer.

Thy word oh Lord is truth, and Thy word is stronger than the powers of men and nations. Oh Lord let Thy word roll out like thunder across the world, changing lives, smashing down obstacles and making all things new that we may again see the birth of freedom, that we may see men, women and children remade, recreated in Jesus Christ and the kingdoms of this world made the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. Grant us this we beseech Thee in Jesus’ name, Amen.