Ezekiel -- Lesson Thirteen
Chapters 22-24
1. The cause of judgment: Judah's idolatrous rulers
(22:1-31).
1. Deliberate disobedience of the Mosaic covenant
(22:1-16).
1. The city is still standing, but it is clear from
Ezekiel's words that its days are numbered.
1. The city that is still called the "holy city" had become
the "bloody city"; the bloodthirsty deeds of its citizens
had transformed the character of the city.
2. While the words are addressed to Jerusalem, they are
heard by exiles in Babylon who, upon hearing, lost their
few remaining hopes that rescue might come from Jerusalem.
2. The condemnation of the city moves from the general to
the specific, and from the sacred to the secular.
1. Jerusalem had been guilty of of idolatry and bloodshed,
and so had hastened the day of its judgment (vv. 4-5).
2. The city had not only lost its true faith in its acts of
idolatry (v. 3), but in addition its inhabitants had
committed a multitude of social crimes making it the "sin
city" of the ancient world.
3. The crimes of their capital city demanded punishment
(the sins charged parallel those in the holiness code of
Lev. chs. 17 - 26).
4. The phrase "O infamous city full of turmoil" (v.5, NIV)
can be translated literally, "O defiled of the Name,
abounding in tumult."
1. "Name" with the definite article was regularly used as a
substitute for the personal name of God, which represented
his holy nature and character.
2. They defiled "the Name," meaning the person and
character of God, especially his holiness.
1. Laughter at the proud city rung around the world --
"Look at her now."
2. Have you hear the latest Jerusalem joke?
3. Can this not be the lot of the church of the Lord when
we live like the world while making claims of being
different?
4. Where would that (this) world look for light if not to
Jerusalem (the church)?
5. What is clear is the interrelationship between the faith
of the city and the moral behavior of its citizens.
1. When the faith of a nation or individual is healthy,
moral behavior towards human beings flows from that faith.
2. When the faith collapses, it undermines the foundation
of moral life so that crime and immorality flourish.
3. Thus, the root of Jerusalem's evil in the worship of
false god's, or the worship of the true God in the form of
an idol.
4. Thus, the catalog of crime is secondary; the root of the
problem is the loss of faith.
5. The interrelationship between faith and morality is
illustrated over and over again in the Old Testament; it is
a lesson that needs to be learned if any life is to be
successful.
1. The Ten Commandments deal first with the life of faith
before moving on the the social and moral areas of human
behavior (theft, adultery, murder, etc.).
2. Israel's educational system as developed in the Book of
Proverbs, started with the foundation of faith (1:7 --the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom); when that
foundation has been established it is possible to learn the
way of morality.
3. The loss of faith is accompanied by a decline in
morality; there is no longer a commonly shared vision as to
what constitutes the good, and so evil may flourish
unnoticed.
4. The tragedy in this process of decline is the
transformation of character that is an integral part of the
process; the "holy city" become the "bloody city"; the good
person becomes the evil person; both invite the judgment of
a God who is both good and holy.
5. That judgment will be severe (v. 14 --Can your heart
endure or can your hands be strong in the day when God
shall deal with thee? Thank God for Jesus Christ!)
2. The purification of judgment (22:17-22).
1. The image is that of a smelter.
1. Various types of metals are dumped into a furnace to
obtain something precious, but there is nothing but dross.
2. There is nothing precious.
2. In the same way God acts as a smelter.
1. The melting down of the people is a metaphorical
description of God's coming judgment.
2. There is nothing precious to be found; Israel has become
dross of no value.
3. Ezekiel takes a familiar Old Testament metaphor and
converts it from one of hope to hopelessness.
1. Isaiah describes God as a smelter (Isa. 1:21-27), but
his message has an element of hope: the judgment of God
would remove the dross, but it would also be a process of
refinement and restoration.
2. Ezekiel sees no prospect of refinement; beyond the
smelting there remains only dross.
3. Israel's evil has been taken so far that the prophet, at
this point, sees no prospect beyond judgment.
4. The prophecy is one of waste.
1. In every life there is potential both for dross and for
silver.
2. Life's purpose, from one perspective, is to remove the
dross and refine the silver.
3. That goal may be obtained by maintaining a relationship
with the living God, but when one loses that relationship
and dross dominates where silver should have been, life has
lost its purpose.
4. To have lived without knowing the purpose of human
existence (Eccl. 12:13-14) is the greatest of human
tragedies and waste.
3. The void of righteous leaders (22:23-31).
1. Now Ezekiel's condemnation becomes quite specific in
terms of the various segments of society.
2. The picture is that of an enormous court; before the
court the people are lined up in various ranks -- princes
(v. 25) responsible for the government and administration
of the nation; priests (v. 26), to whom were entrusted the
worship and spiritual welfare of the nation; prophets (v.
28), who were responsible for declaring God's word to his
people; and the citizens as a whole.
1. Princes.
1. The princes had power that should have been exercised in
the course of their leadership for the good of the nation,
but it was abused.
2. They no longer saw the people as sheep entrusted to
their care, but as prey upon whom they could feed by
destroying their lives and seizing their wealth.
2. Priests.
1. The priests were responsible for maintaining the divine
law and guarding the sanctity of worship.
2. They failed miserably; they had neither fulfilled their
responsibilities with respect to worship and the Sabbath,
nor had they taught the people the fundamentals of the
faith.
3. Prophets.
1. The prophets had succumbed to the pressure of popular
demand.
2. No one wanted to hear bad news, so they declared none.
3. They whitewashed the dark truth of Israel's terrible
estate and declared instead the cheerful things that the
people wanted to hear.
4. They claimed the authority of God for all their hollow
pronouncements, but God had not spoken.
4. Citizens.
1. The people as a whole were just as guilty.
2. They committed every type of crime, exploited the poor,
and exercised no concern for the rights of immigrants and
other marginal members of their society.
3. In this prophetic condemnation by rank and file, a
number of things become clear about God's judgment of the
chosen people.
1. The judgment was to be all-inclusive (vv. 17-22 made
this clear), and no single class of people could claim
innocence or exclusion from it.
1. The judgment announced by Ezekiel was not only
justified, but it was demanded by the national collapse of
faith and morality among the people as a whole.
2. However, if there had been a single person to stand in
the breach (v. 30) judgment could have been turned aside,
but there was none.
1. God was looking for someone to take the lead and stand
in the breaches of the wall so he would not destroy the
land.
2. This was similar to the proposal found in Gen. 19:22-33
where God promised to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if but ten
righteous persons were found.
3. God's plan for reaching people and nations is still the
same.
4. He uses godly men and women to stand in the breaches in
morality and spirituality and make the difference by
calling the nation and individuals to repentance.
5. Many are willing to do an easier task, seeking to ban
pornography and drugs, etc.
6. The harder job is what God asks -- help me change people
from the inside.
2. Ezekiel's declaration removes a natural human tendency
in time of trouble to blame someone else.
1. When a nation has gone wrong we blame the government;
when the economy goes bad, we blame the workers; when the
church is in decline we blame the preachers and elders;
fault must always lie elsewhere.
2. Yet the fault, albeit rampant elsewhere, also lies
within.
3. Ezekiel seeks to bring home to the people not only the
pervasiveness of evil, but also the responsibility of
individuals for evil, regardless of rank or vocation.
3. Each group that disobeys is responsible for its own
condemnation.
1. If the princes had maintained their integrity; if the
priests or prophets had retained faithfulness in their
calling; if the people had kept the faith, there would
still have been hope.
2. But there was no honest person left, and so there was no
hope.
4. The declaration of judgment is a challenge to accept
responsibility.
1. God seeks for one person to stand in the breach.
2. Though we may not be able to see the impact of one such
person, we (I) am required to stand and not conform to the
tenor of our times.
2. An allegorical summary of Israel's political
prostitution (23:1-49).
1. The whole chapter is taken up with the story of Oholah
and Oholibah, together with its various levels of
interpretation.
1. On the surface it is a story of two sisters whose lives
are characterized by blatant immorality and eventual
failure.
2. But the story serves as an allegory: it is really a tale
of two cities and their fate in history of the world
nations.
1. Oholah ("her tent"; a possible reference to a place of
worship such as the pagan shrines prevalent in the north)
represents Samaria, the capital city of the northern state
of Israel.
2. Oholibah ("my tent is in her"; a reminder that God had
selected Jerusalem as the place for his place of worship)
represents Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.
3. The method of the story is to cause comprehension by
shock.
1. It is a lewd tale told in a vulgar fashion.
2. It would have raised eyebrows and offended sensibilities
when it was first told, as it continues to do today.
3. Yet the complacency of many people is so firmly set that
only a shocking approach can break the shell of hardness.
4. Ezekiel is saying, if you think this story is crude,
what do you think that God's reaction must be to your
lives.
3. The story is one of horror and unfaithfulness in terms
of international relationships.
4. It is expressed as a horrifying tale of moral turpitude,
easily understood and easily abhorred by any listener.
2. Israel's sordid youth (23:1-4).
1. The story beings with two sisters living in Egypt where,
as young women, they had already adopted the life of a
prostitute.
2. Despite their unworthiness, God took them as his wives
(v. 4 - they became mine).
3. Samaria's prostitution (23:5-10).
1. Oholah took lovers and was unfaithful to her husband.
2. She fancied the young warriors of Assyria and devoted
her attentions to them until at last her husband turned her
over to them.
3. Only then did she discover the cruelty of her lovers;
they slew her,and in death she became a byword among women,
one whose immoral life was told to the young to warn them
of the final end of the profligate.
4. Israel fell to Assyria in 722 B.C.
5. George Bernard Shaw said that there were two horrible
times in each one's life, the time when you don't get what
you want and the time when you do get what you want. Psalm
106:15 said it best, "And he gave them their request but
sent leanness into their soul."
4. Jerusalem's prostitution (23:11-35).
1. Oholibah was worse; knowing full well the fate of
Oholah, she continued to behave in the same fashion.
2. Sometimes it was the Assyrians that caught her fancy;
sometimes it was the Babylonians, until at last she too had
gone so far beyond the limits that her husband turned from
her in disgust (v. 18).
3. Even that did not halt her; she continued the lewd
lifestyle that had been her only companion since youth.
4. Oholibah would drink the same cup that her sister had
drunk, a cup of "horror and desolation" (v. 33).
5. From all the bleakness of this continuing tale of two
sisters, two lessons emerge:
1. The source of all the sins (both of the city and the
sister) was unfaithfulness.
1. Covenants of every kind required faithfulness between
the partners.
2. The first of the ten commandments specified the primary
requirement of Israel -- that it be faithful to the one
true God.
3. Failure in this first requirement leads to collapse
elsewhere.
2. There is a deeper diagnosis of Israel's failure -- acts
of unfaithfulness culminated in disaster, but behind the
unfaithfulness lay forgetfulness (v. 35 -- ye have
forgotten me, see 22:12.).
1. When one forgets God and leaves his ways, the path into
every kind of abomination opens before him.
2. A healthy memory was a necessary part of a healthy
relationship (Deut. 8:11-20).
3. By forgetting God's past mercies, Israel had no brake in
its headlong rush into disaster.
5. Judgment for prostitution (23:36-49).
1. The allegory draws to a close in this passage in which
some elements of the preceding story are recapitulated and
a number of minor new elements are added.
2. The behavior of the cities and sisters invited judgment,
and so God summoned judgment (v. 46).
3. The judgment would be administered by righteous men (v.
45), not in the sense that they were righteous before God,
but in the sense that they were more righteous than Israel
and Judah.
4. Only one small positive note emerges -- all women may
take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done (v.
48).
5. If they or their children should survive the exile and
return to life in Jerusalem, it was a lesson that they
could take with them.
6. The only future was for the faithful; if they were to
hope once again for a future for their city and land, they
would first have to relearn the daily practice of
faithfulness to God.
3. The execution of Jerusalem's judgment (24:1-27).
1. The parable of the cooking pot (24:1-14).
1. Once again Ezekiel specifies a date for what he is about
to declare.
1. The last date referred to was the summer of 591 B.C.
(20:1).
2. Now, some 2 1/2 years later, he specifies a winter date,
probably in January, 588 B.C.
3. It is presented distinctively -- he is told to write it
down.
1. The date was important, because it was the date on which
he was instructed to announce that the Babylonian king had
begun the siege of the city of Jerusalem.
2. Although the expedition might have been known (the
exiles probably heard of the expedition that had been
dispatched to Palestine), the date that the siege had
actually begun was something that could not have been known
by normal means.
3. This is one indication that the prophecy was taking
place in Babylon, not Jerusalem; the whole point in writing
down the date was that he could not have known it by normal
means, an exercise that would have been futile had he been
in Jerusalem.
2. The Ezekiel was told to declare an allegory -- a pot is
set on the fire and meat and bones are added to make a
tasty stew.
1. The pot has not been properly cared for -- it is
corroded with rust and cannot do its job properly.
2. The rust ruins the stew and it is poured out.
3. The pot is put back on the fire where the dry flesh and
bones burn, and eventually the pot itself melts down to
bits of useless metal.
4. The scene of domesticity has been turned into one of
destruction -- the pot is not good for the task for which
it was created and so it must be destroyed.
5. Interpretation of the allegory.
1. The pot is Jerusalem.
2. The flesh and bones are its citizens.
3. The fire beneath is the Babylonian enemy.
4. A healthy (uncorroded) city and use external heat to its
own purposes, strengthening those within in times of
adversity.
5. But when the city is corrupted, external adversity
destroys both the city and its inhabitants.
2. Signs to the exiles (24:15-27).
1. The death of Ezekiel's wife (24:15-24).
1. This event was after the dated allegory (24:1-14), but
it is uncertain how long after.
2. It may have been some 18 months which would have been in
the fateful summer of 586 B.C. when Jerusalem finally fell.
3. God's word on this occasion would have caused Ezekiel
instant shock -- his wife is about to die.
1. In the book as a whole, she is an anonymous person;
nothing is known of the relationship between her and
Ezekiel except for the statement that she is the delight of
his eyes.
2. The shock is compounded by the instruction that when she
dies Ezekiel is not to mourn her in the conventional
manner, but to hold his grief within himself.
3. Further, he is told to announce the event to the people
which he did on the same morning that he received the
revelation.
4. In the evening, Ezekiel's wife died; the following
morning he exhibited none of the customary signs of
mourning as required by convention and compelled by grief.
1. We do not know how she died except at a stroke, which
may indicate suddenness.
2. Nor do we know whether she had been sick and vulnerable
to death.
3. All that is known is that her death was announced, and
she died later on the same day.
5. Ezekiel's hearers were curious about the sequence of
events and questioned him as to the absence of mourning.
1. Usually he would have been weeping loudly, he would have
removed his priestly turban, taken his sandals off, and
dressed in sackcloth and ashes.
2. Ezekiel explained.
1. As his wife had been the delight of his eyes, so the
temple in Jerusalem had been the delight of the exiles eyes
(v. 21).
2. That striking temple, beautiful in architectural form
and profound in its symbolism of God's presence would die
as did Ezekiel's wife.
3. As had Ezekiel, so too would the exiles control their
grief.
1. For both parties the tragedies would be too great for
resort to formal grief.
2. As one part of the prophet's life and hope had died with
his wife, so too hope would die for those in exile when the
temple was destroyed.
3. The destruction of the temple in Jerusalem would seem to
mark, in an external sense, the end of the religion of
Israel -- God's presence would no longer be among them.
2. The removal of Ezekiel's muteness (24:25-27).
1. From the time of his wife's death until news was
received by those in exile of the temple's destruction,
Ezekiel was to be totally speechless.
2. Only when he received new of the temple would he be able
to speak again.
3. When his speech returned, the people would be speechless
from the news of Jerusalem's destruction.
4. Ezekiel was obedient and faithfully fulfilled his
instructions; we completely misread the man if we think
that his obedience came easily.
1. He was a man who loved deeply, and true grief is born of
true love.
2. Yet even his grief was to be used in the service of God;
no part of his human existence was excluded from the
totality of his vocation.
3. We begin to perceive how the real tribulations of mortal
existence may be more direct messengers than the words of
sermons and speeches.