Month: November 2020

While in the past chapters we have seen a prophecy against Tyre as a nation and how God has turned His back on the nation and that the structures and institutions of the Tyre will come tumbling down.  This chapter is dedicated to speaking out against the ruler of Tyre, the king of Tyre.  It is really interesting how God speaks incredible praises about this king.  He was a “signet of perfection”.  I don’t think those words were reserved for anyone else, much less one who was considered outside of the people of God.

The reasoning behind the destruction of the king is seen a few times where we read: “your heart is proud” in verses 2, and in vs.5 where because of that pride God will bring strangers against him.  Once that declaration is proclaimed then God extols the king as someone who could have been a contender, someone who could have been someone special.  Look at vs.15 where we read: “You were blameless in your ways from the day that you were created, until iniquity was found in you.”  Basically what we read is that you were perfect until we started looking for imperfections.

One of my favorite quotes is that a saint is someone whose past has not been examined enough.  That is so true, each of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  But thanks be to God that we have Jesus who has taken our sin and claimed it as his own so that we can have eternal life.

Another description of the destruction of Tyre is found in chapter 27.  Here we find all of the allies of Tyre, who worked closely with her in order to provide for her those things which the city needed to survive and prosper.  So you have Senir who provided planks for their boats, Lebanon who provided masts for their ships, oars from Bashan, decks from Cyprus, the sail from Egypt, awnings from Elishah, rowers from Sidon and Arvad, pilots from Zemer, the caulkers of the seams were the elders of Gebal, and the list goes on and on.  Tyre was not a lone ranger.  Tyre was surrounded by allies who helped her to get where she was.  It does not state that they will be harmed even in the destruction of Tyre, although we do hear that they grieved and were appalled by the destruction of Tyre.

The destruction of not only a powerful city but a well liked and well connected city with those around it is tragic.  It would be one thing if they were disliked, but they were liked.  They worked closely with their neighbors.  Isn’t it interesting how the demise of someone who is loved seems to be more of a tragedy than the death of someone who is either an  unknown or not loved at all?  God certainly grieves the loss of all people equally.  Even though, ironically, it is God who brings about the destruction of Tyre in this example.

This chapter is almost exclusively on Tyre and the destruction that will befall this city because of their involvement in the captivity and the exile of the people of God.  We read in vs.7 that Babylon is going to be the force that is bringing this destruction upon Tyre, just as they were seen as an instrument of God in bringing about his destruction.  Again, keep in mind that they are a secular nation, pagans who worshipped idols, and yet God was going to use them to bring about God’s purposes.  

Just to give you a taste for what is about to come, Tyre is going to be our focus again in chapter 27.  It might be helpful to see where the modern day Tyre is today.  It is in current day Lebanon.  Just fascinating to see that these locations in the Bible are related to modern day locations as well.  Here is a map of where current Tyre would be located.  

I think it is time to see another map.  Find below a map of the oracles that Ezekiel gives against the nations.   As you read this chapter see if you can identify where those nations are as they surround Israel and Judah.  Remember, both Israel and Judah are God’s people.  

Each of these nations will receive the fruits of their rebellion against the people of God.  God says that to each of these nations: “I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful punishments.”  God’s people have been taken away captives and those nations that participated in this will receive their due reward, which is “wrathful punishment”.  

So while many of these oracles and prophecies were written against the people of Israel and described their unfaithfulness, these oracles are written against the foreign nations that contributed to taking the people of Israel away from their God and, as the previous chapter stated, the “delight of your eyes.”  Nice to give the people of God a break here.

There are object lessons and then there are object lessons.  We find today God speaking to Ezekiel in a way that is powerfully impactful.  The object lesson he gives is that of his wife being, as he describes her, “the delight of your eyes.”  It is all within this context that Ezekiel began to describe how Israel and Judah have abandoned God and as a result they will reap the results of their traitorous actions.  

So why does Ezekiel’s wife get involved?  Well, she is only involved in that she dies and Ezekiel is commanded to sigh, but not too loudly.  The current situation in which he finds himself is not insignificant, so no mourning is allowed because the destruction and the temple is an event that supersedes all things, even the death of our wives, our children, our delights of our eyes.  

God’s delight, his sanctuary, his temple, was profaned, was destroyed, was considered insignificant by the people of Israel and so as a result this object lesson points back to that reality that God reminds us through his prophet.  Things are not going well, people have desecrated the temple, people have turned their back on their God and as a result they need to know the impact of that betrayal.  Pretty severe things here.

I always try to tread carefully in Scripture especially when it addresses women in a way that portrays them in a negative sexual light.  As you read through this chapter you will find that this is not one for the faint of heart, nor is it one who is looking for anything PG-13 and below.  Ezekiel describes the unfaithfulness of Judah and Israel in terms of women who have been unfaithful.  In the 21st century we could just as easily portray it as men who have been unfaithful, but Scripture does seem to prefer to describe the infidelity of His people using images of what is called “whoredom”.  

The graphic depictions of these two daughters is painful at times.  They are both exposed even as they pursue their passions by teaming up with the nations around them which inevitably leads to their wanting the gods and idols that the nations around them have.  This is the root of the problem.  It is not that they are friendly with the nations around them.  But rather that they have taken on the gods of these others nations and they have worshipped other idols and been drawn away from the God of Abraham.  This is the real problem.  

There really isn’t any sign of hope or promise in this chapter.  Things just look bad.  We know that there is always light at the end of the tunnel in Scripture, but we just don’t see it in this chapter alone.  Let’s move on to another chapter.

The primary image in this chapter is that of blood.  There is blood seen as the city seems to hemorrhage as a result of the idolatry that has led it to defile itself.  As a result it has become a disgrace to the nations.  If you look at vs.6 you see that those who are in power in Israel were bent on shedding blood, and as a result they are now reaping what they have sown.  The list of abominations in which they were involved is jarring and not worth repeated.  Suffice it to say that the theme is that of blood and this blood comes as a result of the abominations that are committed.

God is not only frustrated but relegates Israel to a place where they will receive and fully experience the wrath of God.  You can find that in vs.21.  This fire of wrath was seen first hand as the nation is taken into captivity into Babylon.  So, we find ourselves in the midst of a contested election.  But notice how things are going.  Things are pretty quiet as people are counting votes.  The uniqueness of our system and the way in which we are able to persevere even in this very strange time is an incredible testament to the system that we have established here in this country. We are all waiting for the results…peacefully.

I am always careful in making too many parallels to Scripture and any sense of manifest destiny that some within our country might feel.  We are no better nor closer to the kingdom of God than any other country on the face of this earth.  But I can think of no other country that is able to make the types of transitions that we make while the people of the land wait peacefully for the results.  It ought to make us not proud, but certainly grateful and even more motivated to find ways to encourage our governments to more closely align with the kingdom of God and that which Matthew 5 and Matthew 25 encourages.  Take heart, we are an amazing country with amazing people from every end of the spectrum.

We are being dragged, it seems, back and forth across the oracles and this chapter contains, once again, a sense that God will not hold back his hand in order to bring wrath upon Israel.  the chapter before we read how God did prevent his hand from falling, or to use this imagery, the sword from falling, because he wanted his people to save face so that he would also save face.  But here there is none of that.  The sword falls and the people perish and are taken into captivity.  I know that this oracles reflects more of the current situation than a prophecy of the future, but we are able to catch the ebb and flow of God’s words which remind us that God is full of grace, but there is also a time for wrath.  

Babylon remains the protagonist, in some sense, because in many ways even without it knowing it, it is being used as God’s agent to bring about judgment.  We see that later in Romans 13 where Paul says that we are to respect the authorities, even while those authorities are even looking to destroy complete any Christians who might be in the land.  Paul says that even the most brutal of rulers can be used for God’s purposes.  It is not that they know they are being used, but simply that God is able to use all things, even the most brutal ruler, to bring about God’s purposes.  Even Babylon is able to be used to bring about God’s purposes.  That’s a hard pill to swallow.

We find ourselves with a bit of a history lesson here.  Ezekiel is approached by the elders who find themselves in captivity along with Ezekiel and they ask for an audience with him ostensibly so that he would prophecy that good things are about to come.  But he sends them on a history lesson.  They have come to consult with him.  But God tells Ezekiel to remind them of the “abominations” that their ancestors committed, which in turn, as we saw in the last chapter, they committed as well.  We know that their children will not automatically suffer the same fate as they have, because they will not be punished for the abominations of their ancestors, but only if they commit the same abominations themselves.

There is a repetition in this history lesson where we hear: “Then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them…but I acts for the sake of my name, so that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations.”  God holds back his wrath, God holds back his anger and his discipline against his own people because he basically did not want to embarrass them in front of the other nations.  You know how they say that families shouldn’t air out their dirty laundry in front of other people.  This is why God hesitated to bring wrath down.  

This cycle repeats itself.  God provides a covenant filled with grace and the people turn their back on it and commit abominations.  God wants to destroy the people, but changes his mind and provides another grace filled covenant.  I think it is time for another grace filled covenant.  What Jesus did for us by providing a covenant based solely upon his sacrifice and his resurrection is enough to save all of humanity.  But we have refused and we have turned our back on that.  It is time for another one since we have long since committed numerous abominations.

Just to be clear, this is a lamentation and it is used as a lamentation.  So, as we read in Ecclesiastes, there is a time and a season for all things, including lamentations.  A lament is a time when we identify ways in which we are feeling abandoned and distraught because of the life situations that are a part of our current reality.  Every now and then it is important to make clear that we are in a time of lament.  The author of Ezekiel wanted to make clear that what he had just written in very poetic form was meant to be a lament.

We find two very different images that are given to us in order to depict the current state of the nation of Israel.  The first is that of a lion which we find in Genesis 49:9 as the depiction of the son of Jacob whose name happened to be Judah.  Okay, it didn’t happen to be, it purposefully was Judah.  Remember, at this point Israel and Judah are both the people of God and Judah represents the Southern Kingdom.  So here we find this lion who is captured and brought for all to see in its captivity.  That would be Judah, the southern kingdom.  

The next image is that of a vineyard which is described as “your mother”.  This would be Israel who was plucked up and trampled on and then transplanted into the wilderness, into a dry and thirsty land.  This poetry which is really quite beautiful, describes the very tragic reality that the people of God found themselves which was in captivity, both the lion and the vine of vineyard.