May 2022
REFLECTIONS ON THE WRITING PROPHETS
‘Reflections’ on the Writing Prophets 35
E Z E K I E L
A ‘lament’ is a verbal expression of grief. God required Ezekiel to pronounce such a deep regret. It is historical. It’s about the past. But as is often the case, the past determines the future. So it was for the southern kingdom of Judah, The ‘mother’ refers to the nation, Judah. The ‘lions’ refer to her recent kings. All of them “bad” kings. Specifically, Jehoahaz, who only reigned for 3 months in 609 BCE, overthrown by Egypt’s Pharaoh Necho. Then Jehoiachin, unjust and cruel, who also only had a 3 month reign before being carried off to Babylon in a cage (2 Kings 24:6-15) in 597 BCE. He was held captive for 37 years. And finally, Zedekiah, bringing about the collapse of the Davidic dynasty in 586 BCE. By his treachery, he was responsible for the burning down of Jerusalem. But as to the future, the Davidic dynasty will be restored when Messiah Yeshua returns to sit on that throne.
In Ezekiel 14 we pondered the question “Should I let Myself be enquired of at all by them?” Which the LORD put to Ezekiel (a question which brought enormous challenge to my life, see “reflection” 33). Now the LORD is quite specific when some of the elders came to enquire of Him. “I will not be inquired of by you”. But He told Ezekiel to “Judge them, and make known to them the abominations of their fathers”. Abominations which evidently were continued by them. Hence the judgment. So it was that again God spoke to Ezekiel about the blessings He had promised to the Israelites. Bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. Giving them their own land which He described as “a land that I had searched out for them, ‘flowing with milk and honey’, the glory of all lands”. Not any land. The best that existed. And as He continued, we find an expression which provides a salutary lesson for each of us. “Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they did not walk in My statutes; they despised My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them”. Remember Malachi 3:6. “I am the LORD, I do not change”. So here is the lesson. There are NOT some rules for one, and different rules for others. For the Israelites, Deuteronomy 28,29 spelled out the blessings (for the obedient) and the ‘curses’ (for others). Those curses are activated by mans own choices. They are stated clearly upfront. No ambiguity. What Ezekiel was being told to say was already known by the Israelites. It was not a mystery. But that did not make any more palatable either. As we said earlier in this ‘reflection’ “the past (or even for us the present) determines our future”. That is an unambiguous fact of Scripture, proclaimed here by the prophet Ezekiel. “I am the LORD your God: Walk in My statutes, keep My judgements, and do them; hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God”. Selah!
It must have been heartrending for Ezekiel to bring the words of the LORD to the people. He was one of them. He was captive in Babylon at the time. He is told to tell the people that a sword is already prepared, sharpened, polished, waiting to bring destruction to Jerusalem. Dreams turned into nightmares. As Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon prepared to go to battle, it seemed that he had two places to invade. Ezekiel is shown the alternatives. Rabbah of the Ammonites and Judah, where Jerusalem was fortified. At the junction of the two ways, a decision had to be made. Nebuchadnezzar turned to ‘divination’ for direction. But, Ezekiel knew that God Almighty was in control, because He told him so. The Judeans thought it was a false divination. That it would not happen. Speaking of Zedekiah, God said “Now to you, O profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose iniquity shall end, thus says the LORD ‘Remove the turban, and take off the crown; nothing shall remain the same”. God’s judgment cannot be stayed. It is as inevitable as night follows day. The Judeans did not believe it. And my dear friends, many, even those who claim allegiance to our God, do not believe it. (Matthew 7:21) It would be good to read again, from Ezekiel 3 and 33, the role we have as watchmen. It is an onerous duty to be called as a modern day Ezekiel.
As we near the end of this ‘reflection’, God, repetitiously, calls Ezekiel to be a judge. Pointing out over and again the abominations which caused Him to act against the people called by His name. Why? Why now? As I pondered this thought, it came to me that the abominable actions of people called by God’s own name, could not continue because of the damage being done to His NAME. God was effectively being mocked. He had intended the Israelites to be an example for good in the world. As He does US. Instead God’s very name was brought into disrepute. Pray that we are not guilty of the same offence, not by what we say, but by the way we live our lives before men. That was the ultimate sin of the Israelites. They belonged to the LORD, but acted as though they did not. The result for them? “I will scatter you among there nations, disperse you throughout the countries, and remove your filthiness completely from you. You shall defile yourself in the sight of the nations; then you shall know that I am the LORD”.
The people were about to experience the fire of the LORD. “I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no-one”. How sad. God looks, in every generation, for those who will ‘stand in the gap’ before Him. In our generation we have been called for that purpose. God grant that we diligently seek His face to understand the role He has allotted us to accomplish in His Name, by living righteously before men. May you find blessing in so doing.
Shabbat Shalom
RS
REFLECTIONS ON THE WRITING PROPHETS
‘Reflections’ on the Writing Prophets 34
E Z E K I E L
The tone of God’s judgement against Judah appears to change. It was lack of attention to the covenant, to which they had agreed, which had been the focus of complaint against them. The idolatry, the rebellion, the defiance, and the attitude, which caused the anger of the LORD to be directed against them. The metaphor of the wood of the vine, useful for the purpose of bearing fruit, and for no other practical purpose, is graphic. When its fruit bearing is finished it is burned in the fire. Judah, indeed the whole of Israel, is likened to the wood of the vine. God chose them, nurtured them, raised them, for that very purpose. The ‘reflection’ Scriptures this week start with a bit of a history lesson for them. The first 7 verses of chapter 16 contain a survey of the time from Abraham to their departure from Egypt. The time when God was preparing them to be the “special treasure”, He had promised Abraham they were to be. The manifestation of that role was to come when they entered the land God had promised them. The language in our text is graphically descriptive. From an unattractive ‘waif’ to a ‘beautiful queen’. And now, some 800 years later, Judah, the southern kingdom, was about to feel the hot breath of God’s chastisement for their misdemeanours. Just as Israel, in the north, had done 120 years earlier. Humiliating exile from the land. A quite sad commentary. From “queen” to “waif” again. Is there a lesson for us in that? Am I the man God expected me to be when He called me into His service? Selah!
What had happened to these ‘chosen people’? Ezekiel continued the narrative. God blessed them abundantly. They began to understand and appreciate that there were safe arms of love and protection around them. Their enemies seemed to be powerless against them. Yes, they suffered some defeats, but were not overwhelmed. Until now. What had changed? Put as simplistically as it possibly can be, they took God’s protection for granted. In so doing, they forgot the most solemn promises of God (Deuteronomy 28,29) which required that they had an important role to fulfil, in order to enjoy the continuation of God’s unfailing blessing. There is a parallel we might make here. Their salvation, like ours, was freely provided for by our God. When they painted the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of their houses, their salvation was assured. When we put our faith and trust in the finished work of Messiah Yeshua, our salvation is assured. We enter into covenant with God. The Apostle John quoted Yeshua Himself when referring to the way we would be identified as His disciples. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments”. That’s right, it’s that clear. That’s the same Yeshua who was “In the beginning”. (John 1:1) Taking Him for granted leads to a perilous outcome. Take time to read Matthew 7 : 20-23. ‘Lawlessness’ is a Greek translation of“Torahlessness”.
Ezekiel does not mince words. Chapter 16 describes the spiritual immorality of Judah. Comparisons are made with Samaria (the northern kingdom), with Sodom (completely removed from sight). Even the women of the Philistines were abhorred by their behaviour. “Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD: Because your filthiness was poured ourt and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, surely therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all this you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness”. Devastating humiliation before all those to whom God expected they would be an good example.
It sounds as though God was finished with them for ever doesn’t it? He had every right to be angry, and we have good reason to expect that they would experience the curses which follow disobedience to their covenant. Otherwise how can we have trust in His promises to us? But God had not finished what He wanted to tell them. “For thus says the Lord GOD: I will deal with you as you have done, who despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Never- the- less I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. … Then you shall know that I am the LORD”. That covenant, when it is made, will be unbreakable. “Not according to the covenant I made with their fathers”. (Jeremiah 31:31) And it will have the same Torah as the one they broke!
God then told a ‘parable’ for the people to consider. The parable of the two eagles. The first referred to the king of Babylon, who prevailed against Judah. The second eagle refers to Judah’s last king, Zedekiah, who turned to Egypt for help against the invasion of the Babylonians. That plan turned against them, and they ended up with two enemies! Two eagles instead of just one.
Our reading comes to an end on a note of great comfort. There is redemption for anyone who acts in accordance with the covenant they make. “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the fathers well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die. But if a man is just and does what is lawful and right; … If he has walked in My statutes and kept My judgements fait“hfully - he is just; he shall surely live! Says the Lord GOD”.
Our God is a covenant keeping God. Righteous. Upright. Just.
Shabbat Shalom
RS
REFLECTIONS ON THE WRITING PROPHETS
‘Reflections’ on the Writing Prophets 33
E Z E K I E L
The LORD had shown Ezekiel, in visions, the wickedness and rebellion of the people. It continued further by revelation of 25 people, leaders no less, who were stirring the people up to fight against the insurmountable might of the armies of Babylon. They described the people as “meat in a cauldron”, from which there was no escape. By engaging in battle, many would unnecessarily lose their lives. In contrast, the prophet Jeremiah, also a priest, had counselled the people to go quietly, to avoid losing their lives in battle, and trust the LORD to bring them back (Jer 27:9-17). Ezekiel cried out to the LORD. “Ah, LORD God! Will You make a complete end of the remnant of Israel?” The LORD replied with words which are of immense comfort. They form part of a major theme of the prophetic message of Ezekiel, which is the faithfulness of God in keeping covenant with His people. That does not in any way diminish His anger at their disobedience, or reflect change in His attitude to their idolatry. “Although I have cast them far off among the gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone”.
The hostility was from Babylon, and that is where the vast majority were exiled. But it would appear that many others did not wait for that invasion, but took opportunity to escape to other neighbouring lands, even some very far away. The promise of the LORD to “be a little sanctuary” speaks of those who remain faithful in their observances and remembrances of the love, grace, and mercy of Him throughout their generations, even in foreign places. (It is notable that, with no temple available to them, the ‘synagogue’ as a place of worship and praise arose from that exile in Babylon. It is a characteristic of Jewish people to this very day. Readily identified in any community.) And in unambiguous language, the LORD continued “I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel”. The covenant promise of the land, previously made with the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is hereby verified yet again, to the people who are about to be exiled from the land. That’s the good news. But the LORD also said “None of My words will be postponed any more, but the word which I speak will be done”.
There is damning evidence of the deception which some “prophets” in the community had sought to elevate themselves in the eyes of the people. Claiming to speak in the name of the LORD. “You say, ‘The LORD says,’ but I have not spoken”. There is a huge lesson for us today right here. When anyone uses the words “The LORD told me” or similar, it is almost invariably used as a conversation stopper. The exact opposite is a better response. “How did the LORD speak to you?” would be better. As believers we have a responsibility to ‘test the spirits’. Do not be deceived, as were these people of Judah, by words spoken in the name of the LORD, when He has not spoken such words. The test? God will not speak anything which is contrary to His written word. “My hand will be against the prophets who vision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD God”. God used the example of a wall plastered with untempered mortar. When the rains came, the facade was washed away and the foundations exposed. Falsity. Ambitions of the fakes. Exposed for all to see.
Ezekiel then related an incident which the LORD used to speak directly into my heart several years ago. I was lying in a hospital bed at the time, immobilised. Trust me when I say that I was praying long and often for the LORD to heal me. It is quite personal to me, and it changed my life. YES, I am SURE it was the LORD who spoke. Some elders of Israel had come to enquire, to seek some counsel, from Ezekiel the priest. Read the story very carefully yourself (Ezekiel 14). The LORD revealed to Ezekiel that these ‘elders’ had “set up idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity”. Then the body blow. “Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?” Was the LORD saying that there are some (me specifically) that He was questioning if their requests should be heard? That my prayers were blocked from Him? That He was not even willing to hear about my pain? My inability to move? The good news for me was that God used that to change me, and to bring about my recovery. But MORE than that, I learned that God speaks through His word TODAY. All it takes is a desire to listen. “For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to enquire of him concerning Me, I the LORD will answer him by Myself”. Everyone of us is answerable directly to the LORD. Selah!
Finally, for this ‘reflection’, Ezekiel was told “When a land sins against me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it”. Nations are to receive the judgment of the LORD according to their faithfulness to the LORD whose land it is. All the world is His. But there is hope for individuals living in such faithless lands. “Even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it (Jeremiah adds Moses and Samuel to that short list (Jer 15:1)) they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness”.
There is always a remnant. People who remain faithful. God grant that we may be numbered among them.
Shabbat Shalom
RS
REFLECTIONS ON THE WRITING PROPHETS
‘Reflections’ on the Writing Prophets 32
E Z E K I E L
Our ‘reflection’ last week ended with God giving Ezekiel an unusual picture of the discomfort He wanted Ezekiel to know. Symbolic of the discomfort which would be Israel’s experience. Painful. It continued in our reading this week. Shaving the head. Symbolic of shame and humiliation to which Israel would be subjected. The hair, divided into portions, symbolic of the manner in which Israel would be treated. Some (vv 4 and 12) to die by ‘fire’ (pestilence and famine), by the ‘sword’ (dispersed and killed). Some (v 3) to remain as a remnant but subject to further calamity. “This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. (As an example and a witness for My holy name’s sake) She has rebelled against My judgements by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes …. therefore … Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations” (As an example and a witness for My holy name’s sake). Expressed in human terms, the disappointment of the LORD, evident in these words of His, by the extent of the failure of His own to keep the covenant to which they had agreed, is palpable. What a lesson that should provide for everyone who enters into covenant with Him.
It need not have been so. We are not reading the account of one suddenly and maliciously confronted, without warning, by an angry parent. The nation of Israel had received countless warnings. All unheeded. Defiantly ignored. For us it provides yet another opportunity to take stock. What can we learn from this message of Ezekiel’s? “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). The record of God’s dealings with His own are there so that we may know Him. That we may understand what He requires of us. Only the foolhardy, the stubborn, the rebellious, ignore such a clear message.
In chapter 6 of our text, Ezekiel is shown how displeased the LORD was with the desecration of the land. Worship of idols had been instituted. The ‘high places’ which had been established would be completely erased from the landscape. The bones of those who would lose their lives, scattered around those desecrated sites. And yet, in the midst of all this carnage, for His own purposes, a remnant would be left. “Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all there abominations. And they shall know that I am the LORD”. Then the LORD laments over the land itself. The entire land seems ripe for judgment. Is it the land which has swallowed up the people and caused them to stray? Or is it the people who have faltered, and in familiarity taken so much for granted, taking the land down with them? “Doom has come to you, you who dwell in the land; the time has come, a day of trouble is near, and not of rejoicing in the mountains. Now upon you I will soon pour out My fury …. I will repay you according to your ways”. Such a sad end to the promise of freedom in their own land, to which their forefathers had looked forward, after centuries of slavery in Egypt.
One year and two months (about 592 BCE) after the first vision, Ezekiel, the priest, was sitting at home with the elders of Judah when the LORD “fell upon him'. In visions, he was lifted up above the earth where he could see Jerusalem (Reminder:- he was in Babylon at this time, but the main populace was still residing in the land, which was not yet conquered, nor the temple destroyed, until 6 years later). The LORD showed him the abominations which were being committed by the elders, and others, who were saying “The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land”. What a mistake. But there was even worse. “Women were there weeping for Tammuz” (The Babylonian worship of Tammuz is connected with the basest of immoralities). Further, he was shown a picture of 25 men, facing towards the east, engaged in worship of the sun. In that vision, Ezekiel was shown why God was so angry with the people. “Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to to provoke Me to anger”. The LORD then commanded that a mark be put on the foreheads of “those who sigh and cry over all the abominations that had been done within the city”. Yes, even in the midst of these abominations, there are righteous people who will not suffer the judgement of those who are guilty. Another lesson. We observe events, attitudes, actions and even laws passed, today which are offensive, and at great variance with our faith. The God we worship is openly mocked. God is neither blind nor deaf. He sees and He hears all that is going on. But importantly for us who belong to Him, is that He also sees how we react, and how we behave, in the face of such “abominations”. When judgment comes, will He see His mark on me?
The final vision confirms the observation made in our previous ‘reflection’ about the identity of the “four beasts” and the chariots of judgement. For Ezekiel it was a confirmatory vision that he was still hearing from God. His mission unfinished. Much more to accomplish. The glory and majesty of God was lifted above the chaos and abomination of situation. But His judgment will still be proclaimed .
God grant that we understand the commitment we made when we chose to follow Him.
Shabbat Shalom
RS