May 5, Ezekiel 21
“Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am against you and will draw my sword from its sheath and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked. Because I will cut off from you both righteous and wicked, therefore my sword shall be drawn from its sheath against all flesh from south to north. And all flesh shall know that I am the LORD. I have drawn my sword from its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again. - Ezekiel 21:2-5
Chapter 20 ended with the image of a great forest fire, and a mocking protest from the leaders about Ezekiel's strong, clear message. The leaders who came to inquire of the Lord through Ezekiel didn't really want to hear or heed God's words. They accused Ezekiel of speaking in parables and claimed they couldn't understand what the prophet said.
If they didn’t get it about the fire, maybe they would understand some talk about a sword. God told them his own mighty sword, unsheathed, polished, flashing like lightning was in the slayer’s hands. He identified the slayer as Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar’s armies would kill from south to north, across the whole nation. Surely this meaning was unmistakable. Their stubborn refusal to listen to God was about to bring them calamity and death.
God repeated the message more than a dozen times in Chapter 21 to emphasize it. It was as if he underlined it, highlighted it and put it in big, bold print: Judgment was coming for them at the bloody tip of the Babylonian king's sword. God would direct Nebuchadnezzar to Jerusalem. He would send the great king to lay siege to the city, attack it and destroy it.
God told Ezekiel to deliver this dark announcement of doom with deep sighing from a broken heart. He told the prophet to cry and wail, clap his hands and slap his thigh as he spoke. (These gestures were not to signify joy or approval, but rather expressions of grief that wracked the prophet as he spoke the words.)
Ezekiel prophesied the ruin of the house of David, the end of the dynasty. One future day, Messiah would come as the rightful, God-ordained king. But they would have no more kings of David's lineage until that time. The restoration God promised would happen when Messiah came and set up his kingdom. But that kingdom would be nothing like the Jews of Ezekiel's day imagined. When Jesus did come, his contemporaries were not looking for that kind of Messiah or kingdom, either.
Contrast this dark prophecy with a ray of hopeful light to the announcement of doom for the Ammonites. God had a word for them as well, but there would be no restoration or recovery from this judgment. They would be destroyed, and pass into history, forgotten.
This brutal, traumatic announcement of Judah's approaching doom came at the end of a long history of rebellion and idolatry. They rejected multiple appeals to turn away from the idols and back to God. They hardened their hearts and closed their ears to the call for repentance. God took no pleasure in destroying anyone. But he would finally carry out the threats and promises, and the nation's inglorious end would come.
These tragic events could have been avoided, if only the people (and their leaders) had listened to the prophets and returned to God. Maybe that is the best thing for us to remember and apply to ourselves about all of this. It is foolhardy self-destruction to persistently disobey God and ignore his plain warnings and loving calls to repentance.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—May 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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