Day 246 Ezekiel 24-26

Our reading for today is located at a remarkable intersection between history and revelation. This most famous of Ezekiel's allegories—the boiling pot—is placed very precisely in time —January 15, 588 B.C. God commands the prophet—"Mortal, write down the name of this day, this very day" (24:2)--How wonderful it would be if other Biblical authors had troubled to date their writings so exactly! This is the very day on which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon lays siege to the city of Jerusalem.
This momentous day--the climax of so much prophecy—is the end of the history of the kingdom of Judah and the beginning of the history of the Jews. On this momentous day the word of the Lord comes to the prophet in the form of an allegory in which Jerusalem is compared with a cooking pot in which meat seethes and boils. It is not a dainty dish—far from it. Jerusalem, "the bloody city" is like a "pot whose rust is in it, whose rust has not gone out of it" (24:6). The rust makes the vessel ritually unclean and the loathsome stew inside doubly impure and unwholesome. (It would probably be more accurate to think of this as a copper cooking pot rather than an iron one, and the rust inside is in fact verdigris, which would actually render the contents of an boiling pot poisonous.)
We have noted before that for ancient peoples blood was a mysterious and sacred fluid, the very essence of life. The Law of Moses forbade consuming it in any form, and commanded that it be disposed of carefully by returning it symbolically to the earth. But the blood the "bloody city" of Jerusalem has shed is "inside" the boiling pot. She has not bothered to hide it; "she placed it on a bare rock." It was not disposed of properly; "she did not pour it out on the ground, or cover it with earth" (24:7). Instead it seethes and boils in the pot, which represents the besieged city. The LORD has decreed its fall. The rusty pot with its polluted contents cannot be made clean except by fire—a blaze which God will ignite—"Heap on the logs, kindle the fire," he says (24:10). The fires the King Nebuchadnezzar will kindle in the city will destroy it, but will also make it pure again. That is why the LORD commands--"To the fire with its
rust!" (24:12) He "will not spare"; he "will not relent" until the uncleanness is purged from the bloody city by fire.
The destruction of Jerusalem corresponds to a great tragedy in Ezekiel's personal life—the death of his wife--and his personal sorrow becomes a parable about the city's fall. "With one blow," the LORD tells the prophet, he intends take away the "delight of [his] eyes." His wife will die, and yet the prophet is instructed not to "mourn or weep" nor let his "tears run down" (24:15). He is allowed to sign, "but not aloud" (24:17). He may sign silently. Nor is he to go through any of the traditional rituals of bereavement. We can imagine the anguish this command must have caused him, nevertheless that night his wife does indeed die, and Ezekiel gets up the next morning and does as he was told (24:8). And when his fellow exiles ask him why is behaving in such an strange and unnatural way, he replies as he is instructed--The armies of Babylon will shortly profane the temple in Jerusalem and burn it; they will put to the sword their
"sons and daughters whom [they] have left behind" in Jerusalem (24:21). Yet until it happens the exiles in Babylon will not openly mourn—as indeed they should. They will do what Ezekiel is doing--"pine away in [their] iniquities and groan to one another" (24:23). But on the day when Jerusalem does indeed fall and the temple is destroyed, God will send a messenger who has escaped the destruction to tell Ezekiel the news. Then the prophet's mouth will be opened, and he will "no longer be silent." Once the city has fallen, his message will be transformed from condemnation to hope (24:27). This change commences in chapter 33 of the Book of Ezekiel.
But chapters 25-32 form a sort of interlude, a pause in the narrative during which judgments and laments are directed against Israel's troublesome neighbors. These oracles regarding the fate of long-vanished nations need not delay us long, but we will have something about each of them.
The Ammonites had rebelled against Babylon at the same time as Judah did but had escaped Nebuchadnezzar's immediate attention. Now with Jerusalem under siege, they clap their hands and stamp their feet and shout "Aha!" at the sight of Judah for its life (25:6). But God promises that Babylon will get around to the Ammonites as well, and it will not be pretty. Using the king of Babylon as his agent, the LORD "will destroy" them because they rejoiced over the fall of the holy city of Jerusalem (25:7).
The nation of Moab is condemned for saying that "the house of Judah is like all the other nations" (25:8)—their defeat and humiliation prove they are no better than anyone else, in spite of being "chosen." Moab, like Ammon, shall be conquered by Babylon, destroyed, and "be remembered no more among the nations" (25:10). The people of Edom, who according to Genesis descended for Esau, the twin brother of Jacob, will also suffer for their lack of sympathy. They never had gotten on well with their Israelite kinfolk. Now they will judged for acting "vengefully against the house of Judah and . . . grievously [offending the LORD by] taking vengeance upon them" (25:12). God himself will take revenge on them "by the hand of [his] people Israel" (25:14)—though not right away, obviously. Jerusalem is struggling for its very life.
Philistia, whose five city-states that occupied the area of Gaza in biblical times, is also judged harshly because of its "unending hostilities" with Israel and Judah. The Philistines were bad neighbors throughout their history, and now God will use the Babylonians to "execute vengeance on them with wrathful punishments" (25:17) Philistia, like the other troublesome little nations roundabout, will recognize the power of the God of Israel when he lays his "vengeance on them."
The powerful Phoenician city-state of Tyre never did fall to the power of Babylon, although King Nebuchadnezzar besieged it for seventeen years. But like the Ammonites, the Tyrrhenians apparently made light of the fall of Jerusalem, saying "Aha!"—which must then have meant something worse than it does now (26:2). God will deal with Tyre himself, reducing the great seaport to "a place for spreading nets" (26:5)—which indeed it did eventually become. But the destruction of gaudy, impregnable Tyre--the name itself means "rock"—which is so vividly described here in the Book of Ezekiel--did not in fact take place under the Babylonian king. It will be another two centuries and more before Alexander the Great will take the city with enormous effort in 322 B.C.
When they hear of the fall of Tyre, its trading partners far and wide, the "princes of the sea" (25:16) will be appalled and terrified and raise their lamentation (26:17-18). God will make the great city "live in the world below [the sea it once ruled], among primeval ruins with those who go down to the Pit" (26:20)—to Sheol, the abode of the dead. The Queen of the Mediterranean will sink like a stone, and the LORD "will bring the deep over [it], and the great waters will cover [it]" (26:19) with utter oblivion and forgetfulness.