Every year now for awhile I have read Ezekiel’s detailed description of the Temple in his vision. After all of that time I still fail to find a message in the passage for us today. That is not quite true. When Ezekiel describes to return of God’s glory to the Temple, in a way it mirrors his vision of God’s glory leaving the Temple. Under the new covenant which God entered into us through Jesus, our bodies are now His Temple. If we partake in idolatry, in worshiping anything other than God, His presence will depart from us. However, this passage reminds us that if we clean out our hearts of all things which compete with God for our love, He will return to us and fill us with His love and grace.
Yesterday, I wrote about Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning Gog’s invasion of Israel. In today’s passage Ezekiel discusses the outcome of that invasion. The outcome will be that not only will the force invading Israel be destroyed, but fire will rain down on the nations which launched that attack so that they will know the God is the Lord of all. There are several aspects of Ezekiel’s description of the outcome for which I can think of explanations, but which do not fit modern warfare. He writes of the people of Israel using the abandoned weapons of the invaders as fuel for seven years and of teams of men being assigned to hunt for dead bodies seven months after the battle. I am not going to go into possible explanations of these two predictions from Ezekiel. Instead, I will point to the reason he talked about these things. The invading force which Ezekiel prophesies will be so large and overwhelming that Israel could only survive with Divine intervention. When the people of Israel faithfully worship and serve the Lord, He will care for them, no matter what the odds against them are.
Ezekiel describes his vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. In my opinion, we should pay a lot of attention to this passage. There are two closely related messages here. No matter how dead and dysfunctional a group or organization may seem, if and when God chooses to bring them back to life they will become an army to serve His purposes. Further, when God calls you to speak His word to a group or organization trust that it will be effective, even if no one seems to be paying attention. Actually that lesson goes beyond that: when God calls you to a mission, that mission will accomplish God’s purpose, even if it seems a failure. Do that to which God has called you, no matter how pointless it may seem.
I go back and forth between thinking that Ezekiel’s message to God represents a specific future event (future to Ezekiel, but not necessarily to us) and that it is a figurative prophecy. If it represents a specific event, the lands mentioned (Magog, Meschech, and Tubal) would today be parts of Turkey, Georgia (the nation, not the U.S. state), and southern Russia. The current leader of Turkey has shown that he has the ambition to be able to do what is described here and has said things which suggest he even has the ambition to launch the invasion described. The passage even contains a suggestion that the ruler who launches the invasion believes that he is called by God to do so. The current ruler of Turkey would make such a claim if he launched an attack. Such an alliance would be diplomatically opposed by Sheba, Dedan, and Tarshish. Sheba and Dedan were located on the Arabian peninsula and the countries located there today would be among those whose aid Turkey would seek should it choose to attack Israel. Many of those countries, especially Saudi Arabia, would currently question the wisdom of attacking Israel and oppose doing so. In any case, such an attack will result in utter defeat for the attackers so as to bring glory to God’s name. Their destruction will come about as the attacking allies turn on each other.
Today’s passage begins with a condemnation of the shepherds of God’s people. I believe it was intended for both the secular and religious leaders of Israel, but I think it applies very well to the religious leaders of today (there are exceptions, just as there were probably exceptions in Ezekiel’s day). Ezekiel describes leaders who are perfectly happy to profit off of their position as leaders, but unwilling to do anything to help those whom they lead. Ezekiel addresses the failure of leadership to care for the weak, tend the sick, and bind up the injured. Perhaps his greatest condemnation is that they have failed to go looking for those who have wandered away and become lost. All too many of those whom God has called to be leaders of His people put more emphasis on taking care of themselves rather than on taking care of the people who have been placed in their care. When this happens God takes away His people away from these leaders and provides for them Himself. We can see this happen again and again throughout history. The failure of the leadership of the Catholic Church to care more about their own comfort than about caring for the common people led to the Reformation. We see it today in the decline of many denominations in the United States where the leadership is more concerned with their political agenda than with the needs of the common person. You also see it today in the rise of psuedo-religions which prey on those whom Church leaders have failed to reach out to and guide back to God’s love.
Ezekiel wrote here about how God called him to be a watchman for the people of Israel. A watchman is obligated to warn people when danger approaches. If the watchman fails to warn people and harm comes to them, the watchman is liable for that harm. On the other hand, if the watchman warns people and they fail to take action, the watchman is held blameless. The same is true for some of us today. God has called some of us to be watchmen (and women). He calls us to warn people of the suffering which awaits them if they do not turn from their sin(s). Actually, there are two messages we may receive to pass on. We may receive a message to warn people to turn from sin and begin to act righteously. We may also receive a message to warn people not to turn to sin from righteousness. If those who have lived righteous lives so far turn from their righteousness and begin to commit evil acts, God will destroy them. None of their previous righteous acts will save them. However, if those who have lived sinful lives turn from their sins and begin to do what is just and right, God will forgive their sins and give them joy.
Not all of us are called to be watchmen the way that Ezekiel was. He was called to deliver God’s message to all of the people of Israel, to be their watchman. However, I believe that most, if not all of us, have been called to deliver God’s message to a few people. Perhaps you have been called to warn one, or a few, of your righteous friends not to turn from their godly behavior. Do not shirk your calling. Or perhaps you have been called to warn someone, or even just a few people, that they will destroy themselves with their sinful acts. Again, do not shirk your calling. You may be afraid of saying anything because you fear you will lose a friend. If you speak up, you MAY lose a friend, but if you do not, you WILL lose a friend.
The first thing I want to note about this passage is that it tells us it is written AFTER the Babylonian siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. This leads me to think that the writer considered his prophecy against Tyre to have been fulfilled, despite the fact that the island portion of Tyre never fell to Nebuchadnezzar. That would also lead me to believe that the prophet would have considered his prophecy against Egypt to be fulfilled even though Babylon never fully controlled Egypt. I want to note that the prophecies against Tyre and Egypt were not directed to the people of those nations. They were directed to the people of Israel. The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem had allowed the leaders of Tyre and of Egypt to convince them to rebel against Babylon despite the prophets of God warning them not to do so. The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem turned to the might of Tyre and of Egypt rather than turning to God. In yesterday’s passage, Ezekiel reminded everyone that Tyre, for all of its wealth, could not defend its mainland city from Babylon, let alone come to the aid of Jerusalem. In today’s passage he shows how Egypt was unable to stand against Babylon despite its natural defenses. When we rely on humans rather than on God, they will fail us.
Ezekiel prophesied that Tyre would fall despite its great wealth. The king of Tyre viewed himself as a god and thus felt that he needed answer to no one. But I get the impression that the pride Ezekiel talks about was not just that of the king of Tyre, that the people of Tyre thought that they too needed answer to no one. Their trade and wealth made them think that they were secure. The people of Tyre were convinced that no one would attack them because everyone would lose more by Tyre’s destruction than they would possibly gain. They thought that they were wiser and more knowledgeable than everyone else. Unfortunately for the people of Tyre, God brought against them someone who did not calculate value the way that they did. An important lesson here is that not everyone is motivated by wealth and the things which wealth can buy.
Elsewhere, some of the false prophets were quoted as saying that people would be safe in Jerusalem because it was like an iron cooking pot. Here Ezekiel illustrates why that was a faulty metaphor for safety. He makes the point with this illustration that the wealthy and the powerful, those who think of themselves as the “choice cuts”, will be no different from the poor and needy. When you cook meat in a pot like this, it all becomes pretty much interchangeable. Further, as I read the passage, he cooks the meat until it becomes burned to the sides and bottom of the pot, charred and inedible. As a result the pot cannot be cleaned and becomes unusable. Ezekiel takes the metaphor which false prophets had used to reassure people and makes it a metaphor for the results of the people’s unwillingness to turn from their sins. This is a perfect metaphor because earlier Ezekiel had used the metaphor of using fire to purify silver. God brings trouble into our lives to purify us. We can either let it melt us down to remove the impurities, or we can resist and be discarded as useless.
I am going to skip over the very sad portion where Ezekiel was forbidden by God to mourn for the death of his wife. I find a very real lesson for practical politics in Ezekiel’s prophecies against the nations which surrounded Judah. Those nations fell into two classes: those which encouraged the kings of Judah to ally against Babylon, and those which sought to gain by encouraging Babylon to destroy the Jewish people. There may have been significant overlap between these two groups., as some may have sent envoys to convince the kings of Judah to rebel against Babylon while sending envoys to Babylon to swear fealty to Babylon. In either case, the destruction which came upon Judah brought devastation on those nations as well. War does not stay within borders.
Ezekiel condemns Jerusalem as a city of murderers. He goes on to tell them that their idolatry is inherently linked with their willingness to murder. What truly struck me was the list of sins for which he condemned the leaders of Jerusalem. From that list, I can cite example after example of all of them being practiced today, except for foreigners being forced to pay for protection. Even there, I read tales of companies abusing employees who are H1-B visa holders by using their immigration status against them (note: while the stories are plausible I do not know if they are true). Ezekiel goes on to tell us that this problem extends beyond the leaders to the common people. Even the common people oppress the poor and rob the needy.
Ezekiel talks about how both the secular and religious leaders look out only for their own interest. The secular leaders conspire to take wealth from others. The religious leaders blur the lines between good and evil, as Isaiah said, they call evil good, and good evil. Finally, those called to “speak truth to power”, the prophets, make up lies to tell people in order to cover up the sins of their favored leaders (sound familiar?). The common people seek leaders who will use power to grant them their desires rather than leaders who will justly enforce the laws.
A study of history shows that when a society fully descends into the state which Ezekiel describes it will become an economic shamble. Wealth becomes less and less as everyone strives to gain wealth by taking it from others rather than creating it themselves. Those who spend their time attempting to create wealth quickly lose it to those who merely take it until everyone learns that there is nothing to be gained by being productive. Throughout history people observe how these behaviors lead to the fall of civilizations and attempt to put in place rules which stop them. Ezekiel, and most of the Old Testament prophets, tells us that such sins inevitably follow idolatry. Whatever rules you put in place, those who reject God and His commands will find ways to use to take advantage of others.
As I read today’s passage I struggled with what to make of Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning the repeated sinning by the people of Israel. He wrote about how generation after generation God became angry with the people of Israel and considered bringing judgement against them, but withheld that judgement for the sake of His name. Then I came to the part where Ezekiel declared that the people of Israel no longer even tried to hide their sins and I started to see the message for us today.
I was initially struck by the way in which our society today no longer attempts to hide its idolatry and other sins. In fact people proudly proclaim their worship of idols and of the sins which they commit. As I thought about how this works in our society I was reminded of how those who celebrate such things condemn this country (and on a larger scale, Western Civilization) for its past sins. I often find myself attempting to defend this nation, and Western Civilization against these charges. I should not because this country and all of Western Civilization is guilty of great sins. However, the sins of the past do not justify the sins of today. Instead of defending the sins of the past, we need to point out that those condemning today’s society because of those sins are the heirs of those who committed them. They embrace the values of those who committed the sins while rejecting the values of the prophets, and there were such prophets, who called out the sins as they were being committed.
