Explaining Ezekiel 7
Earlier this week, I received this email from a young lady in my youth ministry:
The following is the best answer that I could muster. I welcome any other input.
You’re right! The seventh chapter of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel is scary, but only if we fail to examine it within its correct context. In fact, the fear that arises in us is put to rest by the final chapters of the book and by the rest of Sacred Scripture.
To begin, let’s accept that being “horrified,” in this case, may have been a good thing. No sane person wishes for herself, her friends, or her enemies, to experience the fate of Israel in Ezekiel 7. Being “horrified” means that a person knows good things from bad things and that she desires eternal happiness. Now let’s put the passage in its proper context so that we can allow the good kind of fear to dwell within us, the fear of the Lord.
In 722 B.C., the Israelites were exiled from Jerusalem and the Promised Land into Babylon, which was a worldly and evil city. The Torah and the historical books of the Old Testament reveal the story of why Israel was exiled (remember, it was due, in large part, to their own choices). While the Israelites were in exile, they began to stray from the law that God gave to them, and they began to adopt many of the secular customs of the Babylonians. Ezekiel was sent by God as a prophet to call the Israelites back to God’s law and right worship.
The largest portion of Ezekiel’s text relays the message that God is fed up with Israel’s sinful and self-seeking ways. Ezekiel 7 is part of that message. Remember also, this is not the first time that the Israelites have heard this message. There were other prophets before Ezekiel who warned those people that God’s punishment would come upon them if they didn’t change their ways. The last sentence of chapter seven is important to understand that the Israelites deserved this punishment: “According to their way I will do to them, and according to their own judgments I will judge them…” (7:27). So, it was because of Israel’s own hardness of heart that God decided to destroy Jerusalem.
There is one thing of which we must never lose sight: the fact that God is Perfection. He is the perfection of every good thing, which includes justice. God is the perfect Creator, and He has every right to judge His creatures (including you and me) according to what they deserve. If a man has sown evil and wickedness, God’s perfect justice should condemn him. If a man has lived a virtuous life and kept the law, God should reward him accordingly.
In addition to knowing about God’s justice, Christians know that His mercy and love are always triumphant. So, God will always bestow His mercy (in place of His justice) upon those of us who are willing to receive it and repent of our prideful ways. This reality is made known by later portions of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel. After the siege of Jerusalem took place as a punishment toward Israel, God extended mercy. In the last fifteen chapters, Ezekiel’s message has a decidedly different tone; a tone of providing salvation and new life. Readers must always take into account the entirety of a prophet’s message, because God’s justice is always overcome by His mercy and love.
The reality of God’s infinite mercy is also proved to us by the portions of Scripture that were written after the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel (which was written around 590 B.C.). The prophets who came to Israel after their exile, and after the destruction of Jerusalem, had a different tone altogether. Further, the books of the New Testament (the Gospel accounts and the letters) promise that God’s own Son has walked among us so that we might receive His love and mercy; and so that we might gain eternal life with Him.
While we have examined God’s just anger and wrath, it is also good to recognize the things that will prevent that wrath from coming upon us. Ezekiel 7 lists several offenses of Israelites: injustice, pride, vainglory (the pursuit of wealth and status in the eyes of men), and violence. We can reasonably conclude that if we do the opposites of these things, we will merit God’s grace. The opposites of those things are justice, humility, poverty, peace-making, and so on (see Matthew 5).
Finally, it is necessary to explain the different senses of Scripture. There is, indeed, the literal sense of Scripture. In this case, Jerusalem really was destroyed as God’s way of making His divine point to the Israelites. There is also a spiritual sense of Scripture, which takes a reader to the “deeper meaning.” In the case of Ezekiel, like all of the prophets, a person was used by God to spread a message to a group of people. In our own lives, God sends people to whom we can listen and receive blessings; or whom we can reject and stray into evil. The message of Ezekiel is essentially this: avoid the sinful patterns that you have developed; return to God’s law and right worship; receive the mercy that God is extending and prevent severe punishment.
Derek, I was flipping through my Bible for the first time in a while today and I choose to read a random passage. My random choice landed on Ezekiel 7. I read the whole chapter and was horrified after I finished. Does this passage really mean what is says or does it have a symbolic purpose?
The following is the best answer that I could muster. I welcome any other input.
You’re right! The seventh chapter of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel is scary, but only if we fail to examine it within its correct context. In fact, the fear that arises in us is put to rest by the final chapters of the book and by the rest of Sacred Scripture.
To begin, let’s accept that being “horrified,” in this case, may have been a good thing. No sane person wishes for herself, her friends, or her enemies, to experience the fate of Israel in Ezekiel 7. Being “horrified” means that a person knows good things from bad things and that she desires eternal happiness. Now let’s put the passage in its proper context so that we can allow the good kind of fear to dwell within us, the fear of the Lord.
In 722 B.C., the Israelites were exiled from Jerusalem and the Promised Land into Babylon, which was a worldly and evil city. The Torah and the historical books of the Old Testament reveal the story of why Israel was exiled (remember, it was due, in large part, to their own choices). While the Israelites were in exile, they began to stray from the law that God gave to them, and they began to adopt many of the secular customs of the Babylonians. Ezekiel was sent by God as a prophet to call the Israelites back to God’s law and right worship.
The largest portion of Ezekiel’s text relays the message that God is fed up with Israel’s sinful and self-seeking ways. Ezekiel 7 is part of that message. Remember also, this is not the first time that the Israelites have heard this message. There were other prophets before Ezekiel who warned those people that God’s punishment would come upon them if they didn’t change their ways. The last sentence of chapter seven is important to understand that the Israelites deserved this punishment: “According to their way I will do to them, and according to their own judgments I will judge them…” (7:27). So, it was because of Israel’s own hardness of heart that God decided to destroy Jerusalem.
There is one thing of which we must never lose sight: the fact that God is Perfection. He is the perfection of every good thing, which includes justice. God is the perfect Creator, and He has every right to judge His creatures (including you and me) according to what they deserve. If a man has sown evil and wickedness, God’s perfect justice should condemn him. If a man has lived a virtuous life and kept the law, God should reward him accordingly.
In addition to knowing about God’s justice, Christians know that His mercy and love are always triumphant. So, God will always bestow His mercy (in place of His justice) upon those of us who are willing to receive it and repent of our prideful ways. This reality is made known by later portions of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel. After the siege of Jerusalem took place as a punishment toward Israel, God extended mercy. In the last fifteen chapters, Ezekiel’s message has a decidedly different tone; a tone of providing salvation and new life. Readers must always take into account the entirety of a prophet’s message, because God’s justice is always overcome by His mercy and love.
The reality of God’s infinite mercy is also proved to us by the portions of Scripture that were written after the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel (which was written around 590 B.C.). The prophets who came to Israel after their exile, and after the destruction of Jerusalem, had a different tone altogether. Further, the books of the New Testament (the Gospel accounts and the letters) promise that God’s own Son has walked among us so that we might receive His love and mercy; and so that we might gain eternal life with Him.
While we have examined God’s just anger and wrath, it is also good to recognize the things that will prevent that wrath from coming upon us. Ezekiel 7 lists several offenses of Israelites: injustice, pride, vainglory (the pursuit of wealth and status in the eyes of men), and violence. We can reasonably conclude that if we do the opposites of these things, we will merit God’s grace. The opposites of those things are justice, humility, poverty, peace-making, and so on (see Matthew 5).
Finally, it is necessary to explain the different senses of Scripture. There is, indeed, the literal sense of Scripture. In this case, Jerusalem really was destroyed as God’s way of making His divine point to the Israelites. There is also a spiritual sense of Scripture, which takes a reader to the “deeper meaning.” In the case of Ezekiel, like all of the prophets, a person was used by God to spread a message to a group of people. In our own lives, God sends people to whom we can listen and receive blessings; or whom we can reject and stray into evil. The message of Ezekiel is essentially this: avoid the sinful patterns that you have developed; return to God’s law and right worship; receive the mercy that God is extending and prevent severe punishment.
