5th Sunday in Lent Year A Sermon

G’day! Today we keep our ‘detective hats’ on as we take a broad sweep across Ezekiel from 3:16 & selected verses up to chapter 36. And as we briefly explore what God says in these chapters, keep in the back of your minds Ezekiel’s vision in chapter 1 underscores and is the backdrop to everything God says and Ezekiel’s obedience.
Secondly, to give you confidence to know when it is God speaking. All throughout Ezekiel you have specific statements to Ezekiel like:
The word of the Lord came to me
For the Lord has said to me
For the Lord has told me
the Lord said to me
this message came to me from the Lord
Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord

And often “The word of the came to me (Ezekiel) was quickly followed by one of God’s opening statements to His people:
this is what the Sovereign Lord says
Declares the Sovereign Lord
this is what the Lord says
Say to them

Or God affirming statements:
I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do what I said
I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken,

And everything is about helping God’s people know how to be His people and to know that I am the Lord your God.