<TITLE>06. Par 32-43</TITLE>L-32 But as this Scripture that lays before us in Ezekiel the 24th chapter and 24th verse, this prophet was made a sign. And that's the sign that I wish to speak on.
This man was made a sign to Israel. And all down through the Scriptures, God has used His prophets for signs. And they've always been overlooked. They never seem to catch that sign. They're always looking for a sign of emotion.
Even the Pharisees of the days of Jesus said, "Show us a sign from heaven."
But Jesus referred to them that they would get a sign. "You've already got a sign." Said, "You can discern the skies; you can look at that sign. You say, 'if it's red and lowering, tomorrow will be foul weather.'"
If they would've looked at a sign, they'd have looked at Him and knew that He was God's Sign to them; because their prophecies concerning Him was being fulfilled before their eyes. But they still looked for a sign.
How strange it is that men will do that, that will look for a sign when a sign's right with them, right among them. Now, Israel had got into this condition.

L-37 And sometimes the torture that that sign has to go through is amazing. The torture that Jesus went through to prove the Sign of God, that He was the Messiah...
We find out here this young prophet by the name of Ezekiel constantly became a sign all the time. How he tortured himself. One place here we find where he laid on his left side for three hundred and ninety days. God told him to get some beans and some pottage, put it all together, and cook it up, and lay it down by his side, and go lay on a tile, and lay on his left side alone, not turn over for three hundred and ninety days. Think of it! And then said, "Turn over on the right side and lay there forty days again."
And he said here, "What you see..." Ezekiel said, "Because you're bearing the iniquity of the people. Each day will I count a year for them." Being that every day he laid there, that meant a year they'd be in captivity, and that their iniquities would be remembered to God and God would not hear their prayers no more.

L-40 But the torture that that man had to go through, why would that be necessary? Many has wondered why would such a thing be necessary for a man to do. It's because that people won't read the Word and they won't pray. So God is sovereign, and He sends His prophet to be a sign. The people won't read; they don't care to read. And they won't pray, because they're too--got other things to do. They can't take time to pray. And the Bible is boresome to them, hasn't got enough action for these modern days or any day.
You know, I believe it was Paul said, "Ye are epistles of God, read of all men." God uses people for signs, to show His sign. And many times that sign, and every time mostly, unless it's with the elected people, that sign is overlooked, and criticized, made fun of, cast out, and considered...
Even in the Old Testament in the days of the prophets, they were considered mental, disturbed people. They thought those prophets were psychic neurotics, that they were--something wrong with their mind. And they'd see them come in from the wilderness and--and perform signs, and then turn back into the wilderness again. And they would make fun of them, because they did not know the Scripture.

L-43 Jesus told the Pharisees one time concerning the resurrection; they said, "We had a... The law says that if a brother dies and leaves a wife with no--no children to him, that his brother's to take that wife and raise up children to his--the dead." And said, "We had one that had seven brothers. And the first one took a wife, and he died leaving no seed. And then his brother took her, and then he died, and on to the seventh one; and finally the woman died." Said, "Now, in the resurrection," said now, "whose wife will she be of those seven?"


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