Unfinished Story (586-ca. 430 BC)
(2 Ch 36.22-23; Ezra-Nehemiah)
1. Introductory
notes
a.
During this time, Israel (Northern Kingdom) and Judah
(Southern Kingdom) are both in Babylonian exile
b. Though
away from the temple and their homeland, the Israelites enjoyed a remarkable
amount of prosperity and were generally allowed to rule themselves informally
under the watchful eye of the Assyrians
c.
In Canaan, the Babylonians left the land mostly
depleted…Governor Gedaliah was set up as a puppet ruler over the poorest of the
land the Babylonians did not want to deport (2 Ki 24.14)
d. In
Israel’s mind, God’s promises had failed:
i.
They no longer dwelled in the Promised Land
ii.
God’s everlasting covenant seemed irreparably broken
iii.
The temple was destroyed
iv.
The throne of David had been replaced by a puppet ruler
e.
Even this was not the end of the story or the end of
God’s amazing works of grace! Before
returning to the historical narrative of Ezra and Nehemiah, we shall look
briefly at some of the prophets of exile…
2. Ezekiel
a.
The prophet and his background / historical context
i.
In Ezek 1.3, Ezekiel is identified as a priest and son of
Buzi
ii.
He ministers in Babylon during the exile
1. Most of
his ministry is actually before the fall of Jerusalem
2. He is
given prophetic announcement of the fall in 33.22
iii.
Ezekiel is a contemporary of Daniel (also in exile)
iv.
Ezekiel is also a contemporary of Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and
Obadiah (who minister in Canaan)
v.
As a priest in exile (i.e., away from the temple), his
primary functions would be:
1. Intercession
2. Teaching
/ preaching
3. In
Ezekiel’s case, he also functions as a prophet
b. The
message of Ezekiel
i.
Though a lengthy and varied book with several related and
intertwined themes (see below), Ezekiel’s message is easily summed up under
three overarching motifs…
ii.
Ezekiel proclaims the covenant fidelity of God
1. From
his initial dealings with Adam, Noah, and Abraham, Yahweh is clearly a faithful
God who keeps his word (unlike the gods of the nations)
2. At
Sinai, God’s jealousy / passion (both from the same Hebrew word) and fidelity are
made explicit:
a.
With respect to idols / other gods turning his people
from truth (Ex 20.5; 34.14; Dt 4.24; 6.15)
b. With
respect to blessing his people (Ex 20.6; Dt 5.10; 28.1-14)
c.
With respect to
judgment for sin (Dt 28.15-68)
d. With
respect to forgiveness granted the penitent (Dt 30.1-10)
3. Since
the metaphor for marriage is used as one of the basic images of God’s covenant
with his people, God’s ‘jealous’ response to their infidelity is both natural
and understandable
4. Ezekiel’s
prophecies (both of judgment and hope) stem from and build upon earlier
revelations of God’s fidelity and jealousy
iii.
Ezekiel proclaims the certainty of God’s word
1. As is
true today, God’s people in Ezekiel’s day were obsessed with ‘claiming the
promises’ of God as assurance of their salvation
a.
Their ‘faith’ was hardly faith as it manifested in
complete apostasy as we have seen
b. Even
so, Israel maintained hope (falsely) in God’s ‘unconditional’ promises (cf. Jer
7.1-15)
2. Israel
claimed four promises as the foundation for their assurance:
a.
God promised Abraham and his descendants eternal claim to
Canaan
b. God
entered into an eternal covenant with his people at Sinai
c.
God has chosen Zion in which to dwell forever
d. God
adopted David as his son and promised him an unending lineage on the throne of
Israel
3. The
‘problem’:
a.
All of these promises were true, but…
b. The
people thought the only obligation was on God…the reality is that covenant
relationships require responses from both parties
i.
Did works save Israel then? May it never be!
ii.
Israel (like us) was saved by faith…a life-transforming
faith that manifested itself in changed lives following God, in other words
more than lip service
iii. The
problem in Israel was that this faith was conspicuously absent from God’s
people
4. Ezekiel’s
systematic deconstruction of these promises was intended to show Israel that
their ‘faith’ was no faith at all and they had no reason to hope in God’s
rescue
a.
In spite of Israel’s faithlessness, God would be
faithful…but not as they envisioned
b. God
would be faithful to carry out the covenant curses outlined at Sinai
c.
But with those curses also brought the promises of
restoration, to which God would also be faithful (the good news!)
iv.
Ezekiel proclaims what it means to be the ‘people of God’
1. Being
the ‘people of God’ does not merely mean:
a.
Claiming descent from Abraham
b. Living
in the Promised Land
c.
Having a Davidic king on the throne
d. Having
the temple, the very symbol of God’s presence among the people
2. True
membership comes only through a ‘divine heart transplant’ (Ezek 36),
demonstrated in:
a.
A transformed life
b. Wholehearted
devotion to God
c.
High ethical behavior
d. Compassion
for the poor
3. Aside: none of this should have been ‘new’ to
Ezekiel’s hearers, the problem was that Israel never (ever) really was the
people it was designed to be…the reality would be perfectly fulfilled later…
a.
In Christ
b. In the
community of the redeemed at the end of time (Rev 21-22)
c.
Themes of Ezekiel
i.
The transcendence and holiness of God
1. Transcendence
a.
God is beyond creation and beyond the prophet
b. Revelation
comes to Ezekiel by angels (Ezek 40-48), in visions (Ezek 8-12)
c.
Ezekiel’s visions of God are always cloaked in mystery /
figurative language (1.28) so as to give no hint of seeing God unmediated or
face-to-face
2. Holiness
a.
The whole book displays God’s holiness, by which he will
not ignore Israel’s sin (Ezek 4-24)
i.
Note: Though
human sinfulness could be treated as a separate theme, it can also be treated
here with God’s holiness as the obvious reason for judgment
b. Exile
will come as judgment for sin but it will birth a purified people ready to live
in true faith
c.
Judgment for sin is not the end to which God is driving
nor the end of the story
ii.
The grace and mercy of God
1. God’s
grace and mercy are demonstrated through restoration, the flipside of judgment
2. Human
sinfulness would not frustrate God’s purpose in creating a holy covenant people
3. God’s
mercy would be evident as the remnant, by grace, is gathered and restored to
enjoy:
a.
God’s presence in their midst (48.35; cf. 11.20; 14.11;
36.28; 36.23, 27)
b. The
rule of a Davidic king (37.24-25; 45.7)
c.
God’s gift of a new heart and spirit (36.24-28)
d. God’s
return to his temple in glory (Ezek 43)
iii.
The sovereignty of God
1. As
shown repeatedly elsewhere, God rules over the affairs of Israel and the whole
world (cf. Ezek 25-32), unlike the territorial gods of the nations
2. Yahweh’s
vindication in the eyes of Israel and the nations would be made plain (cf. the
phrase ‘they/you will know that I am the Lord’ in 2.5; 5.13; 6.7, 10, 13-14;
7.4, 9, 27; 11.10, 12, and many, many other places)
3. God’s
ability to foretell the future (not merely predict it) through the mouths of
his prophets demonstrates his sovereignty not only over nations, but over time
and eternity
iv.
Individual responsibility
1. While
the exile was the result of the corporate guilt of Israel from forsaking God
for generations, corporate guilt is the result of a multitude of personal sins
spreading out on a larger scale
2. More
than any other prophet, Ezekiel emphasized the consequences of individual
obedience and transgression (18.1-32; 33.1-10)
d. Specific
notes on interpretation
i.
Thoughts…
1. The
last few chapter of Ezekiel, the latter half of Daniel, and portions of several
other prophets (Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Zechariah), and the whole of Revelation are
written in a genre called ‘apocalyptic’
a.
This style differs from other prophecy in its use of
highly symbolic language, bizarre imagery, use of numerology, etc.
b. As a
result, even more so than with prophecy, we must recognize God’s warning
through Moses about working out all the details in a highly literal way (cf.
Num 12.6-8)
2. That
said, we should not shy away from reading, enjoying, and receiving nurture from
these difficult portions of God’s word…but we should keep several ‘rules’ in
mind
a.
This language is poetry…don’t get bogged down in the
details but look for the ‘big picture’
b. Read it
in concert with other, more straightforward, portions of Scripture, letting the
clearer passages shed light on the more difficult (and not the other way
around!)
c.
Recognize that more than one interpretation is possible,
even among conservative believers
d. Be
gracious to those with other interpretations…nothing presented in apocalyptic
passages is of primary importance to our theology and doctrine
ii.
Chapters 38-39
1. Since
the mid-19th century, some have suggested that Gog (38.3) is a future prince of
Russia and have argued:
a.
Meshech sounds much like Moscow / Tubal sounds like the
name for the city called Tobolsk
b. The
Hebrew word ‘rosh’ should be understood to be Russia and not translated ‘chief’
2. This
understanding has a multitude of problems, including:
a.
Meshech and Tubal were known tribes in Ezekiel’s day
i.
They lived in Anatolia, part of present-day Turkey
ii.
One king of he Meshech was known by the Assyrians as King
Midas, of legendary wealth
b. The
word from which we get ‘Russia’ was first given to the area around Kiev by the
descendants of the Vikings in the early Middle Ages
i.
If Ezekiel used a Hebrew word that sounded similar and
meant the same region, his prophecy would have been meaningless to hearers /
readers for over one thousand years[1]
ii.
More importantly, of the hundreds of times this word is
recorded in and out of Scripture, this would be the single exception to
translating ‘rosh’ as ‘chief’ or ‘head’[2]
c.
Ultimately, since Ezekiel’s terms have recognizable
equivalents present in his own day, speculation about some end times showdown
in the Middle East seems far-fetched, at best
3. An
alternate understanding
a.
Invasions and threats to Israel are often described in
Scripture as coming from the north…why?
i.
Not because the Russians are coming!
ii.
Highways into Israel ran north-south, as no invasion is
possible across the desert to the east
iii. After
Egypt fell off the scene as a world power (not long after the exodus), all the
major world powers (Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome) would have invaded Israel
from the north
b. Rather than
speculate about specific future invasions, we should probably understand
Ezekiel to use these nations as representatives of all powers arrayed against
God and his people
c.
Alternatively (and perhaps as a compliment to point two),
since Babylon is conspicuously absent from Ezekiel’s judgments against foreign
nations, he may use Magog, Meshech, and Tubal as veiled references to Babylon
i.
Why be so cryptic?
Why not just come out and condemn Babylon?
ii.
Remember Ezekiel lived and ministered in Babylon
1. Any
unsavory judgments from a foreign god (Yahweh) would have been unpopular, at
best, and Ezekiel would have been labeled an enemy of the state and likely
executed
2. Many
interpreters find the exact same kind of pseudonym used by John in Revelation
and understand the ‘beast’ of Revelation to be speaking of Nero of Rome[3]
iii.
Chapters 40-48
1. Let me
describe three potential interpretations of Ezekiel’s temple vision and suggest
why reading this as apocalyptic makes the most sense…though each view has its
merits and should make us think
2. The
symbolic Christian interpretation
a.
Popular in the early church and among older scholars
b. This
view holds that the vision has its fulfillment symbolically / directly in the
Christian church
c.
This view has the same problem as does finding the word
‘Russia’ in 38.3, it would have made no sense for hundreds of years and had
little or no application / meaning to Ezekiel’s hearers
3. The
dispensationalist view
a.
The most popular view in Evangelical circles, it reads
this passage literally and futuristically
b. This
view holds that Ezekiel is referring to the last days when the temple is
rebuilt in physical Israel and the worship / sacrifices / priesthood / etc. are
reintroduced
i.
Most who hold this view would argue that this happens
during the millennium of Rev 20
ii.
Most holding this view would also suggest that the NT
church has been raptured into heaven at this point in history, a la ‘Left
Behind’
c.
This view has the serious (fatal?) problem of answering
why the finished, fulfilled work of Christ, (who takes away the sins of the
world) is not enough to grant salvation for ethnic Jews
i.
This viewpoint also radically divides the OT from the NT,
creates two plans of salvation (one for Jews, one for Gentiles), and destroys
the idea of progressive revelation from OT to NT (which is one of the
foundational presuppositions of our entire OT study)
ii.
There are certainly tempered versions of this view that
are well within orthodox Christianity but this perspective as a whole has
serious questions it cannot answer well
4. The
apocalyptic view
a.
Recognized Ezekiel’s vision as God’s pattern for the
Messianic age that was to come
i.
This age lay in the future (like the dispensational view)
ii.
This age grew out of the present (unlike
dispensationalism)
b. Views
Ezekiel’s vision as one expressed in tangible and graphic terms but ones that
are also symbolic and figurative
c.
Understands various aspects of Ezekiel’s vision in the
following ways:
i.
The perfection of God’s plan symbolically expressed in
the perfect symmetry of the temple
ii.
The centrality and importance of worship expressed in the
meticulous detail given for the observance of its rites
iii. The
abiding presence of the Lord in the midst of his people expressed by the return
of the Lord’s glory to the temple
iv. The
blessings that flow from God’s presence to even the most barren places of the
earth expressed by the river of life flowing from the temple
v. The
orderly allocation of duties and blessings to God’s people expressed by the
descriptions of the priests duties and division of the land
e.
Approaching the NT
i.
The NT only quotes Ezekiel twice, but the UBS Greek NT
records 139 allusions to Ezekiel in the NT[4]
ii.
The main points of connection are not between Israel and
the Church but between Israel and Christ
1. River
of life
a.
Ezek 47.1-12 identifies a life-giving river flowing from
south of the altar in the new temple
b. Jesus
identified himself as the source of this life-giving water (Jn 4.10-14;
7.38-39)
c.
A clearer reference to Ezekiel’s river of life comes in
Rev 22.1-5
2. False
prophets vs. true prophets
a.
Ezekiel condemned false prophets for not ‘standing in the
breach’ when the walls of Jerusalem had been damaged (13.5)
i.
He was not really chastising the false prophets for their
inability with masonry
ii.
He was contrasting them with Moses, who continually
interceded for Israel before God to plead for his mercy and forgiveness (Ps
106.23)
b. When
God announced his plans to destroy Jerusalem in judgment, no one could be found
to ‘stand in the breach’ to intercede for the people and bear the brunt of
God’s wrath (22.30)
c.
Only in Christ, a prophet greater than Moses (Heb 3.3),
stood in the breach between God and humanity, interceding for us and bearing
the full force of God’s wrath against sin
3. The
temple
a.
Ezekiel’s vision of restoration included a new temple
(40.1-47.12)
b. After
the return from exile, the temple was rebuilt but:
i.
It was not build like that described by Ezekiel
ii.
There is no indication that the glory of Lord (i.e., his
presence among the people) ever returned to this new temple
c.
However, when Christ came and dwelt in the midst of humanity,
the glory of God returned
i.
In him we see ‘his glory, glory as of the only Son from
the Father, full of grace and truth’ (Jn 1.14, cf. also Heb 1.3)
f.
Outline [5]
i.
Part One: Messages of doom and gloom (1.1-24.27)
1. Ezekiel’s
call to ministry (1.1-3.27)
2. Signs
and visions of woe for Israel/Judah (4.1-11.25)
a.
Dramatizing the fall of Jerusalem (4.1-5.17)
b. Proclaiming
judgment against the mountains of Israel (6.1-14)
c.
Sounding the alarm for the land of Israel (7.1-27)
d. Envisioning
the profaning of the temple (8.1-11.25)
3. Collection
of judgment oracles against Israel (12.1-24.27)
a.
Signs of the times / two symbolic actions (12.1-20)
b. Popular
proverbs (12.21-28)
c.
False prophets (13)
d. Consequences
of idolatry (14)
e.
Parable of the vine (15)
f.
Jerusalem as child and harlot (16)
g. Parable
of two eagles (17)
h. Individual
responsibility (18)
i.
Dirge allegory for Israel’s kings (19)
j.
Review of history and lesson on the future (20)
k. Babylon,
God’s sword (21)
l.
Sins of Jerusalem (22)
m. Parable
of two sisters (23)
n. Boiling
cauldron (24.1-14)
o. End of
an era: Ezekiel’s wife dies (24.15-27)
ii.
Part Two:
Messages of hope and restoration
1. Negative
messages: Oracles against foreign
nations (25.1-32.32)
2. Ezekiel
the watchman (33)
3. Positive
messages: Gospel according to Ezekiel
(34.1-48.35)
a.
Proclaiming the Good News (34.1-39.29)
i.
Salvation of the Lord’s flock (34)
ii.
Restoration of the Lord’s land (35.1-36.15)
iii. Restoration
of the Lord’s honor (36.16-38)
iv. Resurrection
of the Lord’s people (37.1-14)
v. Renewal
of the Lord’s covenant with Israel (37)
vi. Guarantee
of the Lord’s protection over Israel (38.1-39.29)
b. Envisioning
the Good News (40.1-48.35)
i.
The new temple (40.1-43.11)
ii.
The new torah (43.12-46.24)
iii. The new
land (47.1-48.29)
iv. The new
city (48.30-35)
3. Daniel
a.
The prophet and his background / historical context
&nb