The Death of Ezekiel’s Wife (and Jerusalem)

Read:  Ezekiel 24:15-27

Record:  The outline of Ezekiel lets you know that chapter 24 is the latter bookend to Ezekiel’s section concerned with the Oracles of Doom (4-24).  The next major section is the Oracles Against the Nations (25-32).  Before Ezekiel can speak out the words of the Lord to the nations, he must suffer (personal doom?).  Ezekiel 24 ends the Oracles of Doom in very personals way to Ezekiel.  Essentially, it hits as close to home as possible.  Vv. 1-14 describe the destruction of Jerusalem, Ezekiel’s true home and motherland.  Vv. 15-27 describe the destruction of Ezekiel’s wife, the home of his heart, or as v. 16 says, “the delight of your eyes.”  God gives Ezekiel the very strange command to not mourn his wife’s death.  Ezekiel is to go about carrying on business as usual with his mouth quiet.

Reflect:  The final verse in chapter 24 is seemingly the only bit of hope in this chapter of utter judgment.  Since his call, Ezekiel has been unable to properly speak (see Ezekiel 3).  And now, of all the moments in his life, he is not allowed to properly mourn his wife’s death.  But what is going on here is a foreshadow of what will happen to the Israelites:

Ezekiel will be a sign to you; you will do just as he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the Sovereign LORD.’ (Eze 24:24)

Just as Ezekiel was unable to publicly mourn the loss of his wife, so too will the exiles be unable to mourn the destruction of Jerusalem and her temple.  They’ll sit there speechless, unable to express what they feel inside for their home, because their providential exilic setting won’t allow it.

Respond:  But that final verse of the chapter states:

At that time your mouth will be opened; you will speak with him and will no longer be silent. So you will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the LORD.” (Eze 24:27)

This is the last verse in the Oracles of Doom.  The Oracles Against the Nations immediately follows, but Ezekiel’s lips are properly restored to usher in the words of hope that will eventually come in chapters 34-38.  With the final series of judgments that must come, Ezekiel is then able to offer hope found in the Lord.  Judgment must come with sin (and the sin described in Ezekiel is rampant and heinous).  A major theme of the book has been the pending judgment of sin.

Yes, the death of Ezekiel’s wife will be a sign to those in exile that Jerusalem will be in siege that death and the silent mourning will follow, but Ezekiel’s lips will be opened.  The question is: What will he be able to proclaim on behalf of the Lord?

The Oracles of Good News. (Eze 33-48)

But all this judgment leads somewhere for His people.  Redemptive history’s story is such that in the midst of judgment comes redemption for God’s remnant.  Sin was rampant and heinous in Christ’s time as well.  The sins Jesus bore on the cross weren’t limited to his contemporaries’ sins.  Rather Christ bore the full weight of sin of His entire remnant, past, present, and future.  Jesus’ lips were sealed as he bore the eternal weight of God’s wrathful judgment: hell on the cross.  Thankfully, his lips spoke of redemption in the middle of bearing His Father’s curse.  One day those lips will speak by the power of His word and bring judgment to those not in His fold and heavenly redemption to those who know His voice.

27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. (John 10:27-28)

Ezekiel’s voice may have been restored, but Christ’s voice is the very life-source that Ezekiel will soon prophesy about concerning the dry bones.  I’m thankful that when I deserved judgment, I received His mercy instead.  I’m thankful that God has given me the grace to hear His voice in Christ.  Thankful for my Shepherd.

A Lament for the Princes of Israel

Read: Ezekiel 19 (slight emphasis on vv. 10-14)

Record: At first glance this chapter seems difficult to comprehend, but with a bit of help from the commentators, the chapter comes together nicely.  As the subtitle suggests, this is a lament.  Laments are a type of Hebrew poetry used during funerals.  Those hearing this specific lament would’ve immediately thought a death had taken place or in the case of Ezekiel 19, about to take place.
There are two main images that make up this chapter:

• a lioness with her cubs
• a vine and its branches

Both of these images were associated with the royal tribe of Judah which makes this chapter that much clearer.  Combine the metric verse of a lament with the royal imagery associated with Judah and the message being proclaimed is a death song concerning the princes of Israel (19:1).

Image #1: a lioness with her cubs (vv. 1-9)
She gives birth to cubs and one strong cub arises to become a leader.  He devoured his prey–men.  The nations got wind of him, trapped him, and led him with hooks to Egypt.  The lioness then takes another cub and makes him and even stronger lion.  He is more dreadful than the first cub, but suffers the same fate.  The nations spread their net, trapped him in a pit, and with hooks pulled him into a cage.  He was put in prison in Babylon with his roar silenced.

Image #2: a vine and its branches (vv. 10-14)
A vine is planted by abundant water.  The branches are tall, strong, and numerous, and stand out for that reason.  The east wind uproots the vine and shrivels up its fruit; the branches are then consumed by fire leaving nothing.  Originally, the vine’s strong branch was fit for a ruler’s scepter, but ultimately nothing is left nor useful for a royal scepter.

Reflect:  I want to spend my time reflecting on the vine image.  The text is clear that the vine was not only by a cheap source of water, but by abundant water.  It had plenty of what it needed most.  The branches grew strong worthy of a king’s ruling instrument.  The vine itself become a thing of beauty and strength surpassing all the foliage around it.  But in the end, the vine gets burned, uprooted, and replanted in the desert.  The vine is none other than Judah.

Respond:  The Lord gave Judah everything.  The only way the text allows you to describe her situation was that it was the absolute best.  Yet, Judah’s pride wasn’t in the Lord who provided perfection, Judah’s pride was entirely in her own strength and beauty.  For this, she was punished and exiled to the desert.

This is nothing new in redemptive history.  A quick glance back to the Garden of Eden makes the point.  Adam was created with everything perfect around him.  He had everything he needed in abundance.  But ultimately when the task of obedience was set before him, his response was one in self-trust (aka pride).

Both settings have strong similarities… one man in the covenant of works: Adam and a nation in the reconstitution of the works covenant: Judah.  In both biblical history settings, God’s great goodness is returned with sin.  Notably that sin is pride in creation rather than the Creator.

But there is good news in this sealed fate of Judah, because both images offer a powerful hint to the biblical reader.  There is a lion stronger than all the other cubs.  There is also a vine stronger than the one uprooted in our passage.  And Scripture tells us that Jesus is both:

• the Lion of the Tribe of Judah
• the Root of David

Revelation 5:5 ties our two images together:

5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

The two images in Ezekiel 19 are telling the same story of sin and punishment.  This is the point, because it is also my Savior’s story too.  He bore my sins and took my punishment; only He didn’t sin (I did) and he should not have been punished (I should have been).   The absolute blessing in all of this is that I can already now look to heaven and see Jesus, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the Root of David, receiving the praise and honor that is due to Him alone.  So if I’m going to be prideful about anything, it’s to boast in the cross of my Savior and nothing else.

My prayer is that God would allow me to savor the reality of Christ’s work on my behalf as we are lifted up to the heaven during our corporate worship.  May my pride be the kind that exalts in the person and work of Christ and nothing else.  May I not take the perfect blessings that God has given me and then turn them into reasons for finding pride in myself.  Help me to look to Christ.

Jerusalem the Prostitute

Read: Ezekiel 16:1-63

Record:  I really appreciate outlines, because they usually help me make better sense of the text.  I’m going to break up the chapter by agreeing with the translation’s subtitles and paragraph breaks.  Unfortunately, that’s as deep as it gets.  If you know of something better out there, let me know, because I’m not too satisfied with this one:

• The Lord’s Faithless Bride
• VV. 1-5 = Jerusalem’s Origin
• VV. 6-14 = The Lord Flourishes Jerusalem
• VV. 15-58 = Jerusalem Prostitute’s Herself

• The Lord’s Everlasting Covenant
• VV. 59-63

The Lord begins by explaining how Jerusalem came to significance using consistent imagery throughout the entire chapter.  Her start was a humble one when the Lord called her as His own.  In her birth, Jerusalem’s heartless parents (the nations around her) left her as an abandoned infant to die.  Her cord wasn’t cut, she wasn’t washed at birth, no salt and oil were lotioned on her, and she was not swaddled (v. 4).  But then comes the Lord calling her to life.

In verses 8-9, the Lord provides what wasn’t there at her birth.  He bathes, anoints, and clothes Jerusalem; and not only with swaddling clothes, but he dresses her up as a beautiful queen.

This chapter hinges at verses 8 and 15.  Verse 8 states:

“When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine.

God graciously calls Jerusalem out of the abandonment and death of her infancy.  He enters into a covenant with her and pronounces his supreme love upon her.  She receives the finest clothes, jewelry, and food; all that she didn’t have at her birth is now lavishly hers.

But the passage turns quickly in verse 15:

“But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his.

The following verses describe Jerusalem’s return to idols and the high places.  This is the prostitution of Jerusalem, and Lord’s indictment against Jerusalem continues to build until verse 35.  It is at this point that Jerusalem’s judgment is described.  Since Jerusalem has prostituted herself to the surrounding nations, the Lord God will gather these nations to usher in her judgment.  The very nations to which Jerusalem sought refuge become the means of her destruction.

Reflect:  At this point, the chapter isn’t finished, but I wanted to continue my summary here in the reflection because that’s the very point of the chapter.  The chapter should have finished at verse 58.  After all the Lord God had done for Jerusalem and after all Jerusalem did to the Lord, Ezekiel 16 should have finished with verse 58.  It would have been a justified end to an ugly story of adulterous betrayal.

In verses 59-63, the Lord God remembers the covenant He made with Jerusalem in verse 8.  Jerusalem has long forgotten the humiliation of her infancy, and she has no recollection of what God covenanted in verse 8.

But the Lord remembers.

And the Lord establishes a new covenant.  This was spelled out already in Ezekiel 11.  What makes this new covenant so much better is its everlasting nature.  It would make clear the sins committed and the need for forgiveness.  It would also atone for these forgiven sins.  This new covenant would include the prostitute city (as well as the prostituting nations).

Respond:  So why choose this bleak, graphic passage?  Because the imagery is powerful and it hits you hard as you read it.  With 63 verses in the chapter, it’s like an onslaught of tidal waves crashing on you.  Ezekiel’s content forces you to grapple with the text.  When I finished reading verse 63, I wasn’t thinking, “Yes!  I’m done.  I’ll just move along in my reading.”  Just the opposite.  I felt floored and sat there for a moment thinking, “How in the world do I get a handle on all this?  This is my weak attempt to do so…

In many ways, I am Jerusalem (I know textual narcissism; I’ll try to be careful).  I look at her in this passage and I think,  “What the heck are you doing, Israel?”  But just like Samuel speaking to David in parable form, God is describing Jerusalem’s heinousness.  And just as David is the guilty party whom Samuel describes, my association with Jerusalem is one of guilt as well.  The similarities continue.  Jerusalem’s idolatry is my sin as well.

God’s dealing with Jerusalem at the outset is beyond comprehension.  He transforms her from neglected infancy into queenly royalty.  Yet His goodness is returned with the dirtiest type of adultery.

Given that I’m living in the post-resurrection days, my position in redemptive history is much clearer because I live with the benefits of the New Covenant already established.  As good as Jerusalem had it, I have it better.  She had the promise, I have the promise fulfilled in Christ.

The question is:

Do I turn away from my covenant-keeping God to other idols and prostitute my life away?

This is the gist of it all.  Am I wasting my life away pursuing cheap, secondary imitations?  Ezekiel is an awesome book, in that, it forces you to confront the ugliness of idolatry.  The responsive prayer is simple:

Dear God,

Thank you for your covenant faithfulness in Christ.  Thank you that Christ has dealt with my adulterous idolatry by never ceasing to obey your entire will.  Thank you that He bore my judgment and now, give me the grace to so closely follow you, that the idols of my heart would cease to exist.  May Christ be my all in all and may the building of His kingdom be the all-encompassing purpose of my life.

Hope for the Exiles

Read: Ezekiel 11:16-21

Record:  This is the end of Ezekiel’s Vision of the Temple, which started out in chapter 8 (8:1-11:25).  It’s a vision directed to the exiles.  Here’s a brief outline to better situate the immediate context within the temple vision:

1. Four Scenes of Abomination (8:1-18)
2. The Visionary Destruction in Jerusalem (9:1-11)
3. The Departure of the Divine Throne-Chariot from the Temple (10:1-22)
4. Judgment on Israel’s Leaders (11:1-15)
5. Hope for the Exiles (11:16-25)

In verse 16, the Lord God makes clear that though the exiles were scattered among the nations, He Himself was still a sanctuary to His true people.  This makeup of people will come from the nations.  To them, God will give a new heart of flesh in contrast to their old heart of stone.  They will walk in His statutes, and keep and obey His decrees and laws.  The promise of hope continues in v 20b, “And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”  To those in opposition to the Lord who remain in the land, judgment awaits, as their deeds will be brought upon their own heads.

Respond: What stands out to me is hope in overwhelming despair and promised salvation in the midst of present and pervasive judgment.  Furthermore, God defines his true people as those in whom He has placed a new heart of flesh who desire more than anything unadulterated obedience to Him.  Rather than worshipping idols and detestable things, they desire Him who is eternally worthy of their worship, the Lord God not the idols.

Reflect:  You can’t help but be thankful when you read this.  When there is no reason for grace from God, it stands out all the more.  Thankfully this scene is the definition of grace–entirely undeserved.  As a sojourner waiting to come home to my heavenly rest, I can relate to the exiles here in Ezekiel.  I want to go home (to the not yet), but there is already so much to be thankful for.  As Ezekiel proclaimed this short message of hope, I was reminded that there is so much to be thankful for:

• God never forsaking me (v. 16)
• God being my sanctuary in Christ (v. 16)
• God calling me out from the nations (v. 17)
• God changing my heart (v. 19)
• God giving me one heart that looks to Him alone (v. 19)
• God giving me the grace to worship and obey Him (v. 20)
• God being my God (v. 20)
• God embracing me as a part of His people (v. 20)
• God giving me a new land…heaven (v. 17)
• God exacting His judgment at the right time and place (v. 21)
• God’s covenantal faithfulness and the cost of that faithfulness to Him (v. 20)

Thank you.

Ezekiel Outline

So I’ll be venturing into Ezekiel very soon.  Here’s a quick little post on Duguid’s outline of the book.  There are four main sections:

1. Ezekiel’s Call and Commissioning (1-3:27)
2. Oracles of Doom (4-24:27)
3. Oracles Against the Nations (25-32:32)
4. Oracles of Good News (33-48:35)

I’ll be in section two for a long while.  I’m thankful for growth groups or else I probably wouldn’t be spending extra study time in Ezekiel.  Meet my new friend for the next few months…