05 September

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Ezekiel 21-22

Ezekiel 21

The commission was then repeated in terms of explanation. Ezekiel was to set his face against Jerusalem, and prophesy against the land of Israel, declaring that Jehovah would draw His sword out of its sheath in order to proceed in ultimate judgment against the sinning people.

Moreover, Ezekiel was charged that his message was to be delivered with all the tokens of overwhelming anguish, which tokens should in themselves constitute a sign which he was to interpret to the people as the anguish which must inevitably overtake them in the day of calamity.

All this had prepared the way for the song of the sword. First, in graphic language the prophet described the sword itself, sharpened and furbished, and ready to the hand of the slayer. This song was immediately followed by an interpretation. The king of Babylon was seen approaching. He came to a place where the ways parted, one leading to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, ,the other to Jerusalem. There he used divination with arrows, and consulted the teraphim. The lot fell on ,Jerusalem, and toward that he proceeded with all the instruments of siege.

Then the prince of Israel was addressed. Charged with sin, his judgment was announced, and the fact that Jehovah would continue to overturn until the coming of the rightful King. When at the parting of the ways the king of Babylon turned toward Jerusalem it would seem as though Ammon had drawn a sword, in all likelihood with the intention of taking part in the vengeance about to fall on Jerusalem. The prophet uttered the word which commanded Ammon to sheathe that sword, and declared that the judgment of Jehovah was against it.

Ezekiel 22

The next movement described the utter evil of the city. Its fundamental sins of bloodshed and idolatry were named and denounced, and the resultant evils were described. These consisted of the oppression of the people by the princes, of despising holy things and of profanation of the Sabbath, of terrible and widespread impurity, and of active and iniquitous greed. On account of these things the judgment of Jehovah would be terrible, and the people were challenged whether they could endure Jehovah's dealing with them. Again the truth was emphasized that the method of judgment was characterized by a procedure toward the fulfillment of purpose, by the figure of the refining of metals in the furnace of fire.

Again the prophet described the corruption of the inhabitants, first in a general statement under the figure of an unwatered land, that is, having no teaching, and the figure of the polluted springs, that is, having no prophets. He then proceeded to make particular charges against priests, princes, prophets, and people. The priests had failed to discriminate between things unclean and clean. The princes had cruelly oppressed for selfish ends. The prophets had uttered false words of hope. The people had been guilty of oppressing the poor, and needy, and the stranger. He then concluded by describing the utter hopelessness of the case. There was no man to stand in the gap, therefore the fire of wrath must proceed on its way.