How to Avoid Ticking God Off: A Case Study
I do a Bible Study and send out a summary each week of what we taught the week before. We have just started a study of Ezekiel. Israel at the time of Ezekiel was a nation under God's judgment. Many people are saying our nation may...
Updated Dec 14, 2008
Ezekiel was a prophet and priest of Israel who was among those who were displaced from their land as the result of an invasion by Babylon (modern day Iraq.) To understand why Ezekiel found himself along with many other countrymen captive in Babylon, we need to begin by looking at the history of Israel going back to the times of Abraham and Moses.
God chose the nation Israel as a people for Himself. A people set apart from all other peoples of the earth. He revealed Himself and His purpose to Abraham generations before the time of Moses, saying Abraham’s offspring would become a great nation. The sign of that inclusion in the nation, which became known as Israel, was circumcision. Then at the time of Moses, God enacted the Law under which that nation would serve Him in the land the Lord was about to give them..
This Law had certain blessings which would accrue to Israel if they obeyed, and certain curses if they disobeyed. The blessings and the curses are summed up in the book written by Moses, Deuteronomy, chapters 27 through 30. Of special relevance to our study of Ezekiel’s situation: “The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as an eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who shall have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you.”
The historical book detailing the lives and times of Israel’s kings gives us some of the fulfillment of this terrible curse in Second Kings chapters 21 to 24. By this time, a civil war had split the nation Israel into two kingdoms – the northern kingdom became known as Israel, and the southern kingdom, which included Jerusalem, became known as Judah. Israel had already fallen. Judah was in the process of falling, due to King Manasseh and others before and after him violating the Law that Moses had received from God: “He did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel….He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger. Then he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, ‘In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.’…“therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘behold I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle…I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. I will abandon the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies.’” Then around 597 BC, some 600 or 800 years after God’s warning through Moses, the historical record says, “In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him. The Lord sent against him bands of Chaldeans, bands of Arameans, bands of Moabites, and bands of Ammonites. So he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken through His servants the prophets. Surely at the command of the Lord it came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh…”
It was at that time, in 599 BC, that Ezekiel and many others from Judah and Jerusalem were taken away to Babylon. Ezekiel, as we noted, was a priest. His work as a priest probably was to have begun when he became 30 years old (the traditional age that a priest began his work) but since priestly activities took place in Jerusalem at the temple, and he was exiled far from Jerusalem in the land of Israel’s enemy when he turned 30, he would be unable to fulfill the traditional function for which he was born. Yet his priestly orientation was evident in many of the visions he had in his role as a prophet. It could therefore be said that he indeed carried out his priestly functions, not however in a role at the temple, but rather in his role as a prophet.
Ezekiel was a contemporary of Jeremiah who prophesied to those remaining behind in Judah, and a contemporary of Daniel who was also among the captives in Babylon. Comparing Ezekiel’s mission to Daniel’s, the commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown (1871) says Daniel’s “position in a heathen king's palace fitted him for revelations of the outward relations of God's kingdom to the kingdoms of the world.” Ezekiel, on the other hand, “had to do with the inward concerns of the divine kingdom” [Judah/Jerusalem at that point in time.]
My interest in Ezekiel is to cover its historical aspects as well as its yet-future aspects. But also, frankly, I want to learn what Ezekiel might teach us if we as a nation come under a similar judgment from God. There are many who are saying such a judgment might be coming, due to our government-sanctioned killing of millions of unborn children in addition to numerous other affronts to God.
While I glean from many sources in an attempt to gain insight into Scripture, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown seems to give a particularly good introduction to Ezekiel’s writing. The rest of what follows is exclusively from that commentary, which can be read in its entirety by going to www.947krks.com, then clicking “Bible Study Tools” just to the left of my picture on the home page, then clicking “references,” then “commentaries.”
Excerpts from Introduction to Ezekiel by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown (1871):*
His great aim was to stimulate the dormant minds of the Jews. For this end nothing was better suited than the use of mysterious symbols expressed in the plainest words. The superficial, volatile, and wilfully unbelieving would thereby be left to judicial blindness awakened to a deeper search into the things of God by the very obscurity of the symbols.
The priestly element predominates in his prophecies, arising from his previous training as a priest. He delights to linger about the temple and to find in its symbolical forms the imagery for conveying his instructions. This was divinely ordered to satisfy the spiritual want felt by the people in the absence of the outward temple and its sacrifices. In his images he is magnificent, though austere and somewhat harsh. He abounds in repetitions, not for ornament, but for force and weight. Poetical parallelism [a characteristic of Hebrew poetry] is not found except in a few portions
The earlier portion, the first through the thirty-second chapters, which mainly treats of sin and judgment, is a key to interpret the latter portion, which is more hopeful and joyous, but remote in date. Thus a unity and an orderly progressive character are imparted to the whole. The destruction of Jerusalem is the central point. Previous to this he calls to repentance and warns against blind confidence in Egypt After it he consoles the captives by promising them future deliverance and restoration. His prophecies against foreign nations stand between these two great divisions, and were uttered in the interval between the intimation that Nebuchadnezzar was besieging Jerusalem and the arrival of the news that he had taken it.
The effect of his labors is to be seen in the improved character of the people towards the close of the captivity, and their general cessation from idolatry and a return to the law. It was little more than thirty years after the close of his labors when the decree of the Jews' restoration to their native land was issued.
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* Those old guys really do it good!
Scripture References
Israel’s birth, and history of disobedience leading to Ezekiel’s circumstances:
Genesis 17:1-22 Promise of a nation made to Abraham
Deuteronomy 27:1-30:20 Blessing and Curse; note Deuteronomy 28:49ff
II Kings 21:1-24:16 Events leading to the Babylonian Captivity; see 21:1-12, 24:1-4
Ezekiel 1:1-3:15 Called to stimulate the captives to obedience
God chose the nation Israel as a people for Himself. A people set apart from all other peoples of the earth. He revealed Himself and His purpose to Abraham generations before the time of Moses, saying Abraham’s offspring would become a great nation. The sign of that inclusion in the nation, which became known as Israel, was circumcision. Then at the time of Moses, God enacted the Law under which that nation would serve Him in the land the Lord was about to give them..
This Law had certain blessings which would accrue to Israel if they obeyed, and certain curses if they disobeyed. The blessings and the curses are summed up in the book written by Moses, Deuteronomy, chapters 27 through 30. Of special relevance to our study of Ezekiel’s situation: “The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as an eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who shall have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you.”
The historical book detailing the lives and times of Israel’s kings gives us some of the fulfillment of this terrible curse in Second Kings chapters 21 to 24. By this time, a civil war had split the nation Israel into two kingdoms – the northern kingdom became known as Israel, and the southern kingdom, which included Jerusalem, became known as Judah. Israel had already fallen. Judah was in the process of falling, due to King Manasseh and others before and after him violating the Law that Moses had received from God: “He did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel….He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger. Then he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, ‘In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.’…“therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘behold I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle…I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. I will abandon the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies.’” Then around 597 BC, some 600 or 800 years after God’s warning through Moses, the historical record says, “In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him. The Lord sent against him bands of Chaldeans, bands of Arameans, bands of Moabites, and bands of Ammonites. So he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken through His servants the prophets. Surely at the command of the Lord it came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh…”
It was at that time, in 599 BC, that Ezekiel and many others from Judah and Jerusalem were taken away to Babylon. Ezekiel, as we noted, was a priest. His work as a priest probably was to have begun when he became 30 years old (the traditional age that a priest began his work) but since priestly activities took place in Jerusalem at the temple, and he was exiled far from Jerusalem in the land of Israel’s enemy when he turned 30, he would be unable to fulfill the traditional function for which he was born. Yet his priestly orientation was evident in many of the visions he had in his role as a prophet. It could therefore be said that he indeed carried out his priestly functions, not however in a role at the temple, but rather in his role as a prophet.
Ezekiel was a contemporary of Jeremiah who prophesied to those remaining behind in Judah, and a contemporary of Daniel who was also among the captives in Babylon. Comparing Ezekiel’s mission to Daniel’s, the commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown (1871) says Daniel’s “position in a heathen king's palace fitted him for revelations of the outward relations of God's kingdom to the kingdoms of the world.” Ezekiel, on the other hand, “had to do with the inward concerns of the divine kingdom” [Judah/Jerusalem at that point in time.]
My interest in Ezekiel is to cover its historical aspects as well as its yet-future aspects. But also, frankly, I want to learn what Ezekiel might teach us if we as a nation come under a similar judgment from God. There are many who are saying such a judgment might be coming, due to our government-sanctioned killing of millions of unborn children in addition to numerous other affronts to God.
While I glean from many sources in an attempt to gain insight into Scripture, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown seems to give a particularly good introduction to Ezekiel’s writing. The rest of what follows is exclusively from that commentary, which can be read in its entirety by going to www.947krks.com, then clicking “Bible Study Tools” just to the left of my picture on the home page, then clicking “references,” then “commentaries.”
Excerpts from Introduction to Ezekiel by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown (1871):*
His great aim was to stimulate the dormant minds of the Jews. For this end nothing was better suited than the use of mysterious symbols expressed in the plainest words. The superficial, volatile, and wilfully unbelieving would thereby be left to judicial blindness awakened to a deeper search into the things of God by the very obscurity of the symbols.
The priestly element predominates in his prophecies, arising from his previous training as a priest. He delights to linger about the temple and to find in its symbolical forms the imagery for conveying his instructions. This was divinely ordered to satisfy the spiritual want felt by the people in the absence of the outward temple and its sacrifices. In his images he is magnificent, though austere and somewhat harsh. He abounds in repetitions, not for ornament, but for force and weight. Poetical parallelism [a characteristic of Hebrew poetry] is not found except in a few portions
The earlier portion, the first through the thirty-second chapters, which mainly treats of sin and judgment, is a key to interpret the latter portion, which is more hopeful and joyous, but remote in date. Thus a unity and an orderly progressive character are imparted to the whole. The destruction of Jerusalem is the central point. Previous to this he calls to repentance and warns against blind confidence in Egypt After it he consoles the captives by promising them future deliverance and restoration. His prophecies against foreign nations stand between these two great divisions, and were uttered in the interval between the intimation that Nebuchadnezzar was besieging Jerusalem and the arrival of the news that he had taken it.
The effect of his labors is to be seen in the improved character of the people towards the close of the captivity, and their general cessation from idolatry and a return to the law. It was little more than thirty years after the close of his labors when the decree of the Jews' restoration to their native land was issued.
+++
* Those old guys really do it good!
Scripture References
Israel’s birth, and history of disobedience leading to Ezekiel’s circumstances:
Genesis 17:1-22 Promise of a nation made to Abraham
Deuteronomy 27:1-30:20 Blessing and Curse; note Deuteronomy 28:49ff
II Kings 21:1-24:16 Events leading to the Babylonian Captivity; see 21:1-12, 24:1-4
Ezekiel 1:1-3:15 Called to stimulate the captives to obedience
Originally published December 14, 2008.
