In our reading Ezekiel is consulted by "certain elders of Israel" (14:1), but the word of the LORD allows him to discern that "these men have taken their idols into their hearts" (14:2). The idols they have embraced are not necessarily statues of pagan deities; they may be some other deep delusion or desire that has replaced God secretly in their hearts. Ezekiel's discernment of the secret apostasy is a sign that he is authentically God's prophet. Through him God threatens those who have "taken idols into their hearts" and then come to a prophet "to inquire by him" with more than they had bargained for—"I the LORD will answer them myself," he says (14:7). He will "cut them off from the midst of [his] people" (14:8). And if a prophet is deceived by such pretenders, he is not a true prophet and he with perish together with the hypocritical inquirer who comes to him—false prophet and apostate together (14:10).
Each one will be responsible for his own uprightness before God or lack of it. No one can depend on the virtues of another for his deliverance. So even if the most famous righteous men—the saints of the Old Testament world—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in a land "that sins against [the LORD] by acting faithlessly" (14:14) only they "would save their own lives by their righteousness." They would not save sons or daughters or the animals of a land cursed by the LORD. On the other hand, the best will survive—"sons and daughters" purified and disciplined by suffering who will "console" the people when they see their "ways and their deeds"; and they will "know that it was not without cause that [the LORD has done] all that [he has] done" in Jerusalem (14:23). Out of the present tribulations to come God promises to create the better Jerusalem of the future.
The prophet relates parable describing Jerusalem, this one in verse form, which he ascribes to the LORD. It asks--What is the wood of the grapevine good for when it is exhausted, dried and will bear no fruit good for? Can you make a peg of it to hang something from? It is too twisted. It is good only for burning. And once it is charred on both ends, what is it good for then? It is worthless, good for nothing but to be consumed. This is all that the "the inhabitants of Jerusalem" are good for—burning. Even if "they escape from the fire" of the captured city, "the fire" of the exile "shall still consume them" (15:7). But out of the fire will come a people who will recognize the LORD's work in their punishment.
The prophet relates yet another parable, this one an elaborate political and social allegory comparing Jerusalem to an unfaithful bride. Jerusalem was originally a pagan city parent to foreign peoples—"your father was an Amorite your mother was a Hittitie (16:2). She was uncared for at her birth and exposed to die, but God found her as she "lay in [her] blood". He pitied her and he said, "Live!" (16:6). Accordingly the city grew up like a beautiful girl, and God loved her and made an agreement with her—a marriage covenant. "I pledged myself to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the LORD God, and you became mine" (16:8), and the city "grew exceedingly beautiful, fit to be a queen" (16:13). But she forgot that all her beauty and wealth was a result of the fact that God had pitied and cared for her in the beginning.
The city forgot her beginnings and "played the whore," using the beautiful and precious gifts God had bestowed on her to worship idols. And the LORD says to her—"In all your abominations and whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, flailing about in your blood" (16:22)—unwanted and unloved until the LORD found and saved her. Instead of being faithful, Jerusalem played the whore with one nation after another—Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, and now Chaldeans—they all enjoyed your favors—and free. She courted them with the gifts she had been given by God. "You were not like a whore, because you scorned payment" (16:31), God tells her. She was like an "adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband" (16:32)—giving gifts to your lovers, rather than asking for payment for her favors (16:33).
But now because of this lustful behavior the LORD will " bring a mob against you and they shall stone you"—the usual penalty for adultery—"and cut you to pieces with swords" (16:40)—a reference to the coming destruction of the city by the Babylonians. But by this violence the Lord "shall satisfy his fury, and his jealousy "shall turn away from you; [he] will be calm, and will be angry no longer" (16:42).
He knows where she comes from, after all, who her mother was, and "like mother, like daughter" (16:45). She is sister to those unfaithful cities, to Samaria and to Sodom which have already been destroyed—and yet they did not commit half the sins that Jerusalem has. In fact, the LORD says, "you have made your sisters appear righteous" (16:52) by comparison. Yet there is hope, nevertheless. In spite of all this, the LORD promises to restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and Samaria and her daughters—in spite of their notorious wickedness-- "and I will restore your fortunes along with theirs, in order that you may be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them" (16:54). Jerusalem has repeatedly broken the marriage covenant she made with God, but God will establish with her "an everlasting covenant" (16:60). Not because of any good in her—she is not better than Samaria and Sodom-- but so that "you
shall know that I am the LORD, in order that you may remember [your sins] and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I forgive you all that you have done, says the LORD God" (16:63).
____________________________________________________________________________________
Bored stiff? Loosen up...
Download and play hundreds of games for free on Yahoo! Games.
http://games.yahoo.com/games/front
No comments:
Post a Comment