Kicking Around in your Blood

Kicking Around in your Blood

Ezekiel Chapters 12-17

Whatever I Say Will Be Fulfilled

In previous chapters, God has instructed Ezekiel to act out prophecy in various ways which must have seemed very strange to his audience, as for example, Ezekiel was told to lay on one side and then the other for a period of over a year, and to make a clay tablet replica of Jerusalem and lay siege to it. In Chapter 12, this method of Prophecy continues, as we read in verses 2-11, the Lord told Ezekiel to pack his belongings as if preparing for exile, and then to dig a whole in “the wall” and pass through it. We do not know what wall this could be, but the Lord instructed Ezekiel to perform these things in plain site, so either Ezekiel invited people into his home, or he chose a wall that was in a public place.

These actions accomplished the purpose of the Lord: the people asked Ezekiel what in the world he was about. The Lord told Ezekiel to explain that the prophecy concerned the whole house of Jerusalem. “As I have done, so it will be done to them.”

We know, of course, that God is the ultimate inspiration of scripture and that we, whoever we are when we approach it, are the intended audience. Even so, when we approach scripture we must develop some understanding of the setting of the scripture in terms of the original author and audience. With Ezekiel there may be some question as to who collected the prophecies and edited them together into the book of Ezekiel, but there is (speaking in the broad terms of a layperson) no question that the source of the book is Ezekiel.

The question of the audience is a bit trickier. A great deal of the text of Ezekiel is related to the fall of Jerusalem. It is generally accepted, and there is some evidence in Ezekiel, that there was communication between Jerusalem and the exiles in Babylon. On the other hand, there was Jeremiah, the prophet to the remnant; why should Ezekiel, the prophet in exile, preach to the remnant? And why use such dramatic means, which would certainly have greater impact on Ezekiel’s fellow exiles than on the remnant in Jerusalem?

One explanation is that the immediate audience for Ezekiel was his fellow exiles. These exiles would not have been as affected by the act of the fall of Jerusalem as they would the idea of the fall of Jerusalem. All of this actually has some bearing on our interpretation and application of the book of Ezekiel, and specifically on the final passage of the chapter.

In verses 21-28, the Lord asks Ezekiel about a proverb: “The days go by when every vision comes to nothing.” Taken out of context, it sounds very much like our proverb: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” It is a very cynical view of the world. But, we know from this passage that the proverb specifically applied to the actions of God. Today, we seem to have two prevailing notions about God’s day-to-day activity in the world. On the one hand, there is the notion that God is like some grand clockmaker, who made the world and then stood back to watch it run. The other idea, which is just as terrible, is that everything that happens is the will of God. We provide “comfort” to parents who have lost their children to a drunk driver by saying that this is the will of the Lord. “God does nothing” and “God does everything” are two sides of the same coin. They are both cynical views of the world.

How could these exiles, dragged from their homes to the desert of Babylon, cling to the idea that nothing ever happened? It was because they had misplaced hope. Their hope was in Jerusalem. The temple was in Jerusalem, and God, as they believed, was in the Temple. They found it much easier to believe in a god they could contain in a temple in a city, than in a Sovereign Lord that could redeem them wherever they were.

False Prophets and Idolaters

In Chapter 13 the idea of the false proverb is expanded into the condemnation of false prophets. In verses 1-7, the Lord says that these prophets simply make up their prophecies, and in verses 10-12 the Lord says that the prophets’ claim of peace is just whitewash over a flimsy wall which cannot withstand even the elements. If it cannot withstand the wind and the rain, how can it withstand an actual attack?

Chapter 14 goes from false prophets to idolaters. In verses 1-6 we read three very important points about this sin of idolatry.

1. It was idolatry in their hearts. While the Israelites had been guilty of the worship of graven images, this “great idolatry” was an image within their own hearts.
2. Idolatry is the essential sin, in that it turned the people away from God. Sin is always choosing something over the will over God. Whatever we choose – often it is our own will – is our false god.
3. The Lord’s reaction to the idolatry of the people was to act to redeem them and to call them to repentance.

The latter half of the chapter deals with a topic that is a major theme in Ezekiel: individual and corporate responsibility. In this chapter, the subject is introduced in verses 12-14, where we must first briefly consider the three characters that are mentioned. Noah, of course presents no problem, as he is an ancient figure who would have been well known to Ezekiel. Job may or may not be a problem. It is assumed that the book of Job was written much later than the book of Ezekiel, but of course the story of Job may have been around long before the book of Job. There is a real question, though, whether the Daniel from the book of Daniel would have been before Ezekiel, or more contemporary, and if contemporary, if he would have been an iconic figure in the same manner as Noah and Job. But, having raised that issue, any conclusion, or theory, perhaps, is beyond the scope of this discussion.

The point of these names is that they were individuals who were iconic in their righteousness. The Lord says of Jerusalem that the righteousness even of such individuals as these would not save the city. Their righteousness would save only themselves. Perhaps, then, there were righteous people in the city. Still, the city as a whole was had sinned against the Lord and there would be consequences to that sin.

Today, we have almost the opposite view as the Israelites. The Israelites understood God to deal with the nation of Israel, more or less immediately. That is to say, when the nation did the right thing, the nation prospered and when the nation did the wrong thing, the nation suffered. Today, we think of God as dealing with individuals, but not immediately. So, we may sin or be righteous, and while God may help us in this life, our ultimate reward is in the afterlife. The book of Ezekiel continually deals with the ideas of individual responsibility and the corporate affect of individual choice.

The Useless Vine

Chapter 15 briefly investigates the vine purely as wood. From a literary point of view, it is very interesting. It points out a few things the vine is not good for, and rather obliquely mentions that it is good for burning. Of course, the purpose of the vine is to bear fruit, and if it were bearing fruit, one would not be wondering what it might be good for. So, without saying it, the passage says that the vine is not bearing fruit, and that when a vine does not bear fruit, it can only be thrown into the fire. (John 15:4-6)

Kicking Around in your Blood

The entirety of Chapter 16 is devoted to an extended allegory. The allegory is a love story, which in verses 1-5 describes Jerusalem (which we must understand as referring to the Hebrew people) as the most abject of orphans, rejected at the moment of birth. Verses 6-8 say that the Lord came by and found the orphan girl kicking around in her own blood and took her and raised her and, when it was time, entered into a covenant with her.

This comparison of the love of the Lord to pure, marital love is only a literary device, of course, the love of God goes far beyond our human love, but it establishes a reference for the actions of the orphan, about which we begin to read in verses 15-19. In these verses, there is no indication even of any gratitude, much less of any returned love. Instead, the orphan uses all the things the Lord gave her to turn away from the Lord and pursue other lovers who, in turn, take away these things.

The Lord’s reaction is summarized in verses 59-63, and it involves a combined message of judgment and atonement. How can the orphan get what she deserves and be atoned for all she has done? The Lord always remembers the covenant. We do not always remember the covenant. When we break the covenant, we break our relationship with God. That is what we deserve. God is always ready to reestablish the covenant and make atonement for our sin.

Will It Thrive?

Chapter 17 is another allegory. This allegory has to do with the cedars of Lebanon, which were symbols of the glory of Jerusalem. As the story begins, first one and then another eagle takes a shoot from the top of a cedar away to another land and tries to get it to grow. The Lord asks “will it thrive?” The Lord himself explains that these eagles symbolize Babylon and Egypt taking away exiles into their lands. The Lord says that these are the efforts of men, but that God himself has a plan, and will take a shoot and bless it, and it will thrive.