THUMPS IN THE NIGHT
#088 THUMPS IN THE NIGHT
Scripture Ezekiel 1:26-2:5 NIV Orig. 6/14/64
Rewr. 8/78, 8/24/87
Passage: 1 26 Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne(A) of lapis lazuli,(B) and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man.(C) 27 I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him.(D) 28 Like the appearance of a rainbow(E) in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.(F)
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory(G) of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown,(H) and I heard the voice of one speaking. 2 1 He said to me, “Son of man,[a](I) stand(J) up on your feet and I will speak to you.(K)” 2 As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me(L) to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.
3 He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day.(M) 4 The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn.(N) Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’(O) 5 And whether they listen or fail to listen(P)—for they are a rebellious people(Q)—they will know that a prophet has been among them.(R)
Purpose: Calling attention to the integrity of God’s word to call His people to our higher goals of faith.
Keywords: Compassion Person of God Word of God Sin
Introduction
Have you ever been called upon to chase down some uncertain noise that has gone “thump” in the night? You went to bed after a hard, long day, expecting to get a full night’s sleep. You had even spent some quality time with your family, and so had gone happily to bed and to sleep. In the quietness, and with contentment you had dropped quickly off to that place somewhere between wakefulness and sleep. Then your wife sits bolt upright in bed and asks, “What was that?”
“What was what?” you groggily reply.
“That noise!” she says.
“What noise?” you ask, sensing some urgency.
“That thump!” she insists.
By now, you are ready to suggest that she’s watching too much TV, or that she should not have eaten so much pizza, either of which would not have been a smart thing to say. Before you can blurt it out, one of the children pads into the room in the dark, and you hear a sleepy voice say, “Daddy, I heard a funny noise!”
“Well, if it was funny, why are we not all laughing?” is all that you can think to say.
But now, you, the brave, strong daddy must get up and face the unknown, and you didn’t even hear it go thump. After a few minutes you come back to bed assuring them that all is secure. All you did was get a glass of water, but they don’t know that. You have to reply when they ask what went thump. Daddies just know that there are things that go thump in the night.
But what if the “thump” is a word from God, and we are not tuned in? What if an event, or a spoken word, is a love note from God to you, and you are involved elsewhere?
The boy Samuel heard a thump in the night (I Samuel 3:4) and it was God. “Where are you, Samuel?” Where are we when these experiences come?
I. The First Thump Involves Seemingly Religious People. Ezekiel 2:3 “And He said to me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me.”
A nation having every spiritual advantage becomes indifferent to these very values. Their history records God’s blessing. Their prophets called them again and again to their destiny. The promise to them was of a Saviour/Messiah who would usher in the kingdom age.
We also should feel this sin burden upon the world. There are too many indications of faithlessness. A Babel ethic has appeared on the contemporary scene. The morality of Sodom visits our people. Political chaos is born of expediency. Sexual permissiveness leans upon the icy wings of liberation, freedom, sensualness. Godlessness stalks the streets as a plague.
Too near at hand are the cold stares of people turned from religion who never gave it a chance.
James 1:27 reads “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep themselves unspotted from the world.” I pastored a church once that was in a region of ideal, rustic simplicity and contentment, and its members reached out to several people in the community who were HIV positive, in love and caring.
What if, as some suppose, that this present stage is beyond redemption. Be reminded that God is the Judge; that decision is His. Revelation 6:17 “The great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand.” Hosea 6:5 “Thy judgments are as light.”
As God has vindicated His faithful people in the past, He will do so again. Ezekiel here comes to a rebellious people. His own Son invaded a world of spiritual procrastination of people saying one thing and doing another.
What is expected of us is a willingness to be his vessels unto righteousness, not as doers of wrong only, but as proclaimers of right.
II. The Second Thump in the Night is Disbelief. V4 “. . . you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ . . . whether they hear or whether they refuse, they will know.’”
God’s concern for His people is seen in every valid experience. On an early earth day when a man looked lustily from a piece of fruit to her who was the true object of his lust, he and she could think only of deliverance from God’s oppressive PRESENCE. Yet it was He who took the step in their behalf. “Adam, where art thou?”
On the hinder end of forty long wilderness years came a limping population. Their struggling so vaingloriously was over a span of forty years, a highway that could have been trod triumphantly over a few short weeks. To these Hebrews, forty years late, bedraggled, beaten, not yet ready to attest that God keeps His promise, God came to explain His choice. Deuteronomy 7:7 “The Lord did not set His love on you and choose you because you are more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of people: But because the Lord loved you.”
It should not be difficult for us to grasp such a concept today. Don’t wait to see ourselves as lovable, see God’s innate affection for His people. My wife and I had gone to retrieve one of our daughters from some summer activity. We were in an art gallery passing time. There before us was a picture of Christ holding a Saturday Night Special. The picture attested to nothing about Christ. It boldly asserted the artist’s view of faith, and of sin.
God’s commitment, as His promise, is to these human needs. Jeremiah 31:3 “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you.” Malachi 1:2 “’I have loved you,’ saith the Lord, yet you say, ‘In what way have you loved us?’” Instead of declaring God’s love as we have experienced it. We raise other questions of validity of His love. “What have You done for us lately?”
III. The Final Thump Is the Reminder That This Is Our Message Also. V1 “And He said unto me Son of man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak to thee.” He continues to desire to speak to the lowly son, or daughter, of man. He spoke to Jesus constantly, because Jesus was constantly available. He speaks to Ezekiel as one presently available. He spoke to Moses with the fear of Egypt upon him and sent him as deliverer. He spoke to Amos, the herdsman, and sent him to Israel with a message of hope.
How many others are there to whom He is yet able to speak? To one eating the dust of some godless employer. To one struggling under the ingrained and irrelevant habits learned in childhood. And to the one whose life is marked as available to God.
He speaks and calls us to the intention to obey. We can’t serve God while thrashing aimlessly in the mire of shame over past sin. In the admission of sin, there is always the offer of forgiveness with acceptance. I Samuel 15:22 “To obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken, than the fat of rams.” To this end came the Spirit to Ezekiel, set him on his feet in a position of obedience, spoke to him of God’s expectation. Recall Luke 11:1-4 “teach us to pray” and the parable in vv. 5-13: “How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
Conclusion
I experienced a thump this week. JH Harris stopped by. It was his third time. The first time, he came seeking help. The second, he just wanted to say thank you. His 12-year-old son was with him. He stopped again last week. He was running from trouble, going back to South Louisiana. He wanted me to know that the boy is dead. He had heart disease, it hadn’t been detected soon enough, and he wanted me to pray with him. It is too easy to overlook the people around us who most need what we have to share. Listen to the thumps in the night. They are all around us.