Ezekiel - Lesson 26

Lesson 26, when God Calls the Nations to Account. Ezekiel 25, 1 to 17. In Ezekiel, we hear his oracles against Bnei Amon, the Ammonites. I use that expression here because it's the expression that Ezekiel uses, Bnei Amon, the longer version of the name. The Ammonites, twice, he has two oracles for the Ammonites, verses 1 to 5 and 6 to 7 of chapter 25. There's an oracle against Moab, verses 8 to 11, against Edom, verses 12 to 14, and Philistia, verses 15 to 17. So you've got a bunch of little oracles against these little nations in ancient Israel's neighborhood. Many readers of Ezekiel chapter 25 wonder what on earth we are supposed to do with this chapter, so negative in tone and focused on four or five nations that disappeared from history more than two millennia ago. To be sure, the name of the Ammonites lives on in the name of the modern capital city of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, that is, Amman, located on the ruins of the ancient city of Rabah, chief city of the Ammonites, and the name of the Philistines lives on in the modern name Palestine and the gentilic Palestinians. But these days we never hear anything like the names of Edom and Moab. And while recent advances in DNA science have confirmed some genealogical links to the ancient populations, the people that occupy these regions today claim no ties with these peoples. As Arabic Muslims largely, they claim descent from Ishmael, Abraham's oldest son, through Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian handmaiden. Well, what then shall we make of this text historically and especially for ourselves today? Thankfully, in terms of literary style, this is one of the simplest chapters in all of Ezekiel. The text divides, obviously, into five short sections, which are uncomplicated and, in many respects, quite repetitious. Since the issue in all is essentially the same, I shall treat the entire chapter synthetically by asking and answering a series of questions. First, who were the targets of Yahweh's attention in these oracles proclaimed by the prophet in exile in Babylon? This question is easily answered by looking at the heading of each oracle. Number 1, verses 1 to 3a, the following message of Yahweh came to me, human, set your face toward Bnei Ammon and prophesy against them and say, O Bnei Ammon, hear the word of the Lord. That's 1. Number 2 thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, because Moab is saying. That’s verse 8. Number 3, verse 12, thus has the Lord declared, because Edom. That's verse 12. Verse 15 thus has the Lord declared, because the Philistines. Well, the map of this region in ancient times reveals the prophet's deliberate rhetorical strategy in dealing with Israel's immediate neighbors. Working in a clockwise direction, he began with the Ammonites to the straight east of Jerusalem, to the east of the former northern kingdom of Israel, across the Jordan, then the Moabites across the Dead Sea from Judah, then Edom south of the Dead Sea and the Negev, and then the Philistines to Judah's west on the Mediterranean coast. But there's much more we could say about all these people groups. The first two, Moab and Bnei Ammon, represent distant relatives of the Israelites. Genesis 18 to 19 tells the story of their ancestral roots, including the significance of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the extraordinary divine rescue of Lot and his family. Lot was the nephew of Abraham, who had migrated with him first from Chaldean Ur, approximately 400 miles northeast of Damascus, and then down to Canaan. Before long, their flocks and herds became too large to manage by a single clan. So, Lot moved across the Jordan to the lush region of Sodom and Gomorrah and settled down there, Genesis 13, 8 to 13. However, having been rescued by the angel of the Lord when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Lot and his two daughters took refuge in a cave from which they could see the effects of the fire and brimstone that fell from heaven.Here is the personal story of Lot and his daughters in the aftermath of that Holocaust from Genesis 19. Verse 29, God had listened to Abraham's request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain. Afterward, Lot left Zor because he was afraid of the people there, and he went to live in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters. One day, the older daughter said to her sister, there are no men left anywhere in this entire region, so we can't get married like everyone else, and our father will soon be too old to have children. Come, let's get him drunk with wine, and then we will have sex with him. That way, we will preserve our family line through our father. So that night, they got him drunk with wine, and the older daughter went in and had intercourse with her father. He was unaware of her lying down or getting up again. The next morning, the older daughter said to her younger sister, I had sex with our father last night. Let’s get him drunk with wine again tonight, and you go in and have sex with him. That way, we will preserve our family line through our father. So that night, they got him drunk with wine again, and the younger daughter went in and had intercourse with him. As before, he was unaware of her lying down or getting up again. As a result, both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their own father. When the older daughter gave birth to a son, she named him Moab. He became the ancestor of the nation now known as the Moabites. When the younger daughter gave birth to a son, she named him Ben-Ami. He became the ancestor of the nation now known as the Ammonites. That’s an adaptation from the New Living Translation. We can imagine the psychological effect of having names like this, Moab and Ben-Ami. The name the older daughter gave to her son was Moab, which means something like, from my father. Well, the name the younger daughter gave to her son was Ben-Ami, which means son of my male relative or son of my grandfather. Both names memorialize the incestuous affair with their father that these two girls had arranged. How would you like to live with a name like that? And the Israelites, no doubt, could not think about Moabites and Ammonites, Ben-Ammon, without snickering over those people. That’s a horrific story. Makes me sometimes wonder, why does God inspire the biblical author to insert this? Edom is the third nation listed here. This was the name of the territory occupied by the descendants of Esau, Jacob's twin brother, Genesis 25, 19 to 34, making Edomites even closer relatives of the Israelites than Ammonites and Moabites. The Edomites were cousins. Descendants of the Edomites endured into New Testament times in Greek writings as Idumaeans, of whom Herod the Great was a descendant. The Philistines were a completely different stock. They were neither Canaanites nor Asians, but one of a series of peoples identified in Egyptian inscriptions as the Sea Peoples. We now know that their roots were in the Aegean. Our text provides one of the clues to their origin. In verse 16, Ezekiel refers to them as Carathites, a name that is related to the name of the Greek island today of Crete, Carathites, C-R-T, the same consonants. While the Israelites were moving into Canaan across the Jordan under Joshua, the Philistines were coming in from the Mediterranean, from the Greek islands. The Philistines were Vikings, creating havoc wherever they touched down, which is why they are so problematic in the days of Judges and Saul and David. But they contributed little to the advance of culture. They have survived on the Mediterranean coast, modern Gaza and Ashkelon, until the Babylonians came. All four nations had been a problem throughout Israel's history. Apparently, when Zedekiah was contemplating joining the alliance against the Babylonians, as Jeremiah reported in Jeremiah 27, 1-3, these nations participated in the alliance. But five years later, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, the word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh. Thus, Yahweh said, Make yourself straps and yokbars, and put them on your neck. Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of Ammon, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah, king of Judah. Although these nations at that time apparently were sympathetic to Judah, when Jerusalem was demolished, they abandoned her. They stood by and cheered. We hear a memory of the exile's response to the refusal of their Edomite neighbors to come to their aid in Psalm 137. By the waters of Babylon, we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows we hung our lyres, for there our captors required of us songs and our tormentors mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. But how shall we sing Yahweh's song on a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. Remember, O Yahweh, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations.O daughter of Babylon doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall be he who repays you with what you have done to us. Blessed shall be he who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock. This is how the Israelites, the Judeans, felt about the Edomites for their response to the fall of Jerusalem. Well, these were the targets of the Lord's fury. They called themselves once in a while the allies and relatives of the Israelites, but in the end they all betrayed the Judeans. Second, that was, who are these targets? Why were these nations the targets of Yahweh's fury? Well, the composer of Psalm 137 gave us a good idea of the pain for Israel, not only of the total physical destruction of the nation and the exile of what remained of the population, but especially the psychological and spiritual effect of such a devastation. In the previous study, we collected Yahweh's expressions of the problem in these four oracles. 25.3, Because you exclaimed, Aha, against my sanctuary when it was desecrated, now he's talking to the Ammonites, and against the land of Israel when it was laid waste, and against the house of Judah when they went off into exile, that's Bnei Ammon. 25.6, Because you clapped your hands and stamped your feet and celebrated with utter contempt over the land of Israel, that's against Edom.25.8, Because Moab and Seir say, Look, the house of Judah is just like all the nations, that's Moab. 25.15, Because the Philistines have acted with vengeance and taking bitter revenge with utter contempt, destroying with everlasting enmity. And then 26.2, Because Tyre exclaims against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken, the gateway of the people. She has been turned over to me. I will be satisfied. She's been laid waste. We may imagine the scene as the Babylonians were slaughtering the population of Jerusalem, knocking down the walls, burning the palaces and the temple, all symbols of Israel's past. These other nations stood by, mocking and clapping their hands with glee. What great entertainment this disaster has brought them. Those who know a little German may know the expression schadenfreude, which means taking delight in another person's tragedy. We witness this on a worldwide scale after 9-11, 2011, when al-Qaeda operatives brought down the Twin Towers in New York, attacked the Pentagon and brought down a plane load of people in the fields of Pennsylvania. Around the world, many were celebrating. Unfortunately, we are often guilty of this ourselves on a smaller scale, to be sure. But instead of commiserating with all who mourn, for whatever reason, we celebrate gleefully. When a competitor whom we cannot stand wins the contract for a construction project and then disaster strikes, we clap our hands and say when our rival, if not enemy, team is at the top of the standings, but then their star athlete breaks his leg, we smirk and we say it serves them right. We can be so cruel. In this case, they were doing it to their own family members, their neighbors, watching while an enemy from 800 miles away wreaked havoc in Jerusalem. From our studies of Ezekiel 1-24, we know that in God's view, Jerusalem had indeed sunk to the bottom of human depravity, and that because of their evil, they had brought on the judgment of God, precisely as he had predicted in the covenant curses. However, this gave their neighbors no license to make sport of that disaster. And of course, although now Yahweh was involved in punishing Judah in accord with their abominable and treacherous behavior, they were still his chosen people, and you may not treat them that way. Furthermore, as we notice, especially in the statement against B'nai Amon, because you exclaimed, aha, against my sanctuary when it was desecrated, and against the land of Israel when it was laid waste, and against the house of Judah when they went off into exile. Here, Yahweh has alluded to the three members of the triangular covenant relationship. They have mocked Yahweh, symbolized by the temple, the desecration of the sanctuary. They have mocked the land when it was laid waste, and they have mocked the covenant people when the remnant that survived was schlepped off into exile. Well, how should and would Yahweh react to this mockery? Remarkably, the accusation in each case was signaled by, because. Because you said, verse three, because you clapped your hands, verse six, because you said the house of Judah is just like the other nations, verse eight, because Edom acted revengefully against the house of Judah, and because the Philistines acted with vengeance and took revenge with utter contempt, destroying with everlasting enmity. Five times we heard, because, because, because. And now, five times we hear, l'chaim, therefore. Therefore, watch out. So, watch out, O nations who have opposed Judah. Which leads to the third question. What did Yahweh threaten to do to Jerusalem's neighbor? Well, with respect to B'nai Amon, Yahweh said, therefore I am handing you over to the Kedemites, as this possessed property. They will set up their encampments and pits their dwellings within you. They will devour your produce and drink your milk, but I will transform Rabbah into a pasture land for camels, and B'nai Amon into a resting place for flocks. This would involve the total devastation of the magnificent capital of Rabbah Amon. It would be leveled by the Kedemites, Easterners, a reference to a nomadic band of marauders who will bring down the mighty seat of power. Amazingly, Yahweh envisioned a band of Bedouin tribesmen taking down the city. Then who will laugh? The second, therefore, comes after the second because, against B'nai Amon in verse six, therefore see, I have stretched out my hand against you, and I will hand you over as booty to the nations. I will cut you off from among the peoples and destroy you from the countries. I will eliminate you. In effect, Yahweh would wipe the Ammonites off the map and annihilate their population. With respect to Moab, Yahweh said, therefore, I will open up the flank of Moab, removing the cities, its cities from all its territories, the pride of the land, and then he lists several of them, and I will deliver it along with B'nai Amon to the Kedemites as dispossessed property so that the B'nai Amon might not be remembered among those nations. Thus, I will execute judgments on Moab. Remember Moab and Ben-Ami? They were brothers, lots, uh, lots boys, uh, conceived in the bellies of his daughters, and here they are together in this fate as well. Again, notice the role of the Bedouin tribesmen. It took Nebuchadnezzar and the largest military force ever assembled to bring down Jerusalem, but B'nai Amon and Moab, the two nations descended from Lot, will fall to a band of bandits. With respect to Edom, Yahweh said, I will stretch out my hand against Edom, cutting off from it both human and beast, and turning it into a wasteland. From Timan and Dedan, they will fall by the sword, and I will inflict my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they will deal with Edom according to my wrath and according to my fury. Like Rabbah of B'nai Amon and the cities of Moab, so all the impressive Edomite towns from Timan to Dedan, they will all be destroyed and their armies routed. With respect to Philistia, Yahweh said, therefore thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, Look, I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines, cutting off the Carathites and destroying the survivors of the sea coast. I will execute extreme vengeance on them with furious wrath. The reference to the survivors of the sea coast reflects the location of these people on the Mediterranean, where once the five major cities of Gath, Ekron, Gaza, Ashgod, and Ashkelon had once controlled this region, Yahweh will cut off all the Cretans, Carathites. All these nations would experience what the northern Israelites had suffered first at the hands of the Assyrians in the eighth century, and the Judeans suffered at the hands of the Babylonians in the sixth century. However, the way Yahweh would inflict the devastation on these nations is remarkable. The emphasis on God's own direct involvement is intentional. Verse four, I am handing you over to the Kedemites. Verse five, I will transform Rabbah into a pastureland. Verse seven, I will hand you over as booty to the nations. I will cut you off from among the peoples and destroy you from the countries. I will eliminate you. And then, I will open up the flank of Moab, removing the cities, its cities, and then he lists a bunch, and I will deliver it along with Bnei Amon to the Kedemites. Thus, I will execute judgments in Moab 9, 10, and 11. And then, I will stretch out my hand against Edom, cutting off from both human and beast and turning it to the wasteland, and I will inflict vengeance upon Edom. I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines, cutting off the Carathites and destroying them. Well, this would not involve merely the permissive or passive will of God. While these actions are expressions of his fury and his administration of justice, note, I will execute judgments in verse 11, we should not interpret this as divine glee. No, Yahweh would find no joy in this. The sight of cities burning would not please him, like the sight of Jerusalem burning had pleased Israel's enemies. Every human being is created as an image of God, and whenever conception occurs, God has begun the process of creating another image of himself. However, whenever his images exalt themselves, like we did in the Garden of Eden, trying to be like God and push him off the throne, this is treason of the highest order. And when we delight in the death of human beings and are entertained by the suffering of God's chosen people, this invites God's fury. The other element to notice is that when God chose agents of punishment against these smug people, he did not choose the most recently emerged mega-emperor. But unimpressive and insignificant little people, Kedemites, sons of the East, who in the world of international peoples were nobodies. They were not mentioned in the table of nations in Genesis 10. They claimed no territory as their own national country. They had no sophisticated army or civil administration. And like ants, they had no king. You know this one from Proverbs 6, go to the ant slugger, consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in the harvest. They had no king, sophisticated political structures. Now that's insulting, isn't it? There's one additional detail about Yahweh's agents to notice here. And I will inflict my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they will deal with Edom according to my wrath and to my fury. Then they will know my vengeance. But now we have spilled over into the fourth question. What implications did Yahweh's actions have for Israel? What we observe here is amazing. In Ezekiel 28, 24 to 27, one of the points we observed was that the goal of the oracles against the nations was to demonstrate that Yahweh had not abandoned his covenant commitments to his people. Indeed, there we saw that when Yahweh had completed his judgment of the nations, the Israelites would know that he had not forgotten them or his covenant. In fact, the three factors over which these nations had been crowing, the desecration of the sanctuary, the devastation of the land, and the deportation of the population, they would all be reversed. Humpty-dumpty would indeed be put together again. Yahweh will be back. The scattered people will be regathered, and they will be in their homeland. We get a beautiful hint of this new reality in Ezekiel's oracle against Edom. I will inflict my vengeance upon Egypt by the hand of my people Israel. Did you hear that? My people Israel. They are God's people again. The horrors of divine rejection, turning his face from them, bringing in his agent of judgment, will be passed behind us, and the nation will become his agent, not only of punishing these other nations, but also of his revelation. Notice the repetition of the recognition formula in these four many oracles. Verse 5, then you will know that I am Yahweh. Verse 7, then you will know that I am Yahweh. Verse 11, then they, the Moabites, will know that I am Yahweh. Verse 14, then the Edomites will know my vengeance, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh. And then the last one, the Philistines, then they will know that I am Yahweh when I've inflicted my vengeance upon them. Here we notice two significant developments. First, by disposing of these nations, the Israelites themselves will come to a new realization of the identity and character of Yahweh. The addresses here, you, are Ezekiel's fellow exiles who represented all that was left of the once great nation of Israel. Yes, Yahweh is faithful to his covenant with the ancestors. He will be their shield and protector in the direst circumstances. Second, by using the Israelites as his agents, the world would recognize that he is Yahweh. He has made a covenant with his people, and he will deal with them once more in grace and mercy. This is a remarkable gospel. And with this comment, we transition to the last question, question five. What lessons are there in this chapter for us? Some of the answers are obvious. First, we should find great comfort in rediscovering that Yahweh is sovereign over the affairs of all the nations. The notion of Yahweh raising up the low and bringing down the high, this is a common theme in Scripture. We saw this at the end of the riddle of the eagle and the vine in chapter 17. Then all the trees of the countryside will know that I am Yahweh. I bring down the tall tree, I exalt the low tree, I cause the green tree to wither, and I make the withered tree thrive. I am Yahweh, I have spoken, and I will perform as I have declared. We heard it in Hannah's prophecy 600 years earlier, in anticipation of what Yahweh would do with her son Samuel, and ultimately the appearance of Yahweh's king and his Messiah, 1 Samuel 2 20. The Lord brings death and gives life. He sends some to she, all he raises others up. The Lord brings proper poverty and gives wealth. He humbles and exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the garbage pile. He sets them with noblemen and gives them a throne of honor, for the foundations of the earth belong to Yahweh. He has set the world on them. He guards the step of his faithful ones, but the wicked are silenced in darkness, for a man does not prevail by his own strength. Those who oppose the Lord will be shattered. He will thunder in the heavens against them. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give power to his king. He will lift up the horn of his anointed, 1 Samuel 2 6-10. We heard it almost 600 years later in Mary's Magnificat, when she declared, From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors. This will be a common theme in the book of Daniel, which involved a fellow exile as the principal character, as his speech to Nebuchadnezzar himself, when he interpreted the dream that the king could not remember. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give praise and thanks, for you have given me wisdom and might, and made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king's matter. Some of us are fearful about the state of our nation and the uncertainty of our future in it. We need to be reminding ourselves constantly that our primary citizenship is not in this country and our primary ruler is not our president or congressional or state leaders. The challenge for us is to walk confidently with this knowledge, to ensure that our hearts are right with God, that our hands and our lips respond to events around us with integrity, with optimism, that in doing so we have a sparkle in our eyes which is missing in the people around us. Second, we find comfort in knowing that God keeps his promises to Israel, but we realize that his primary motive in calling Israel was not to make the people of this nation feel good about themselves or smug in their relationship to God and the nations. Rather, it was to be vehicles of divine revelation. That agenda did not end in 586 B.C. In Isaiah 49.6, with reference to a regathered Israel, Ezekiel's predecessor had declared, it is to light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. As Gentiles who have been grafted into the olive tree, that same mission has fallen to us. As Peter declared to Christ followers scattered throughout Asia in 1 Peter 2.9-17, you are the chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's treasured possession, his segula, that you may declare the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human authority, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority or to governors who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil. Live as God's vassals. Show proper respect to everyone. Demonstrate love for the believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor.1 Peter 2, 9-17 NIV, slightly modified. Third, Ezekiel's oracles against the nation caution us against the temptation to schadenfreude. Whether in academics or sports or in business or in the most successful business or career, the temptation to celebrate calamity when it strikes our competitors is an ever-present danger. It takes character to win humbly and gracefully, but it takes even greater character to commiserate with our competition when they flounder and fail. At this point we need to remember that there but for the grace of God go we all. By virtue of our fallenness, our rebellion against our creator, we all deserve the fate these nations would experience. But it is only by grace that anyone is saved, not by earning it through meritorious works, Ephesians 2, 8-9. In 1 Corinthians 10, 12, Paul issued a warning that all God's people should hear. Therefore let all who think that they stand watch, lest they fall. Paul had a special warning for Gentiles, like most of us who are tempted to feel smug at having been grafted into the chosen olive tree when it appears the original branches have been rejected. Some of these branches from Abraham's tree, some of the people of Israel have been broken off, and you Gentiles who were branches from a wild olive tree have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing of God, that he has promised Abraham and his children sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God's special olive tree. But you must not brag about your being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root. Well, you may say, these branches were broken off to make room for me. Yes, but remember, these branches were broken off because they didn't believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don't think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. For if God did not spare the original branches, he won't spare you either. Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you will also be cut off. And if the people of Israel turn from their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, for God has the power to graft them back into the tree. This is a glorious gospel.