Ezekiel - Lesson 22

Lesson 22, No Sanctuary City Here, Ezekiel 22, 17 to 31. Ezekiel 22 consists of three separate oracles. First, the indictment of Jerusalem, woe to the bloody city, 22, 1 to 16. Second, the judgment of Jerusalem in the smelter of Yahweh's wrath, verses 17 to 22. And third, the rationale for the judgment upon the land, the unmanned breach, 22, 23 to 31. Each of these sections begins with the word came to me saying, followed by the direct address of the prophet as son of man, human. Each concludes with a formula found often in Ezekiel, the recognition formula, then they will know that I am Yahweh, verses 1 and 2, and the signatory formula, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh. Third, each addresses a different hypothetical audience. You have the bloody city, the house of Israel, and the unclean land. Third, each is inspired by a different prophetic text. The first is inspired by Nahum 3, 1, the second by Isaiah 1, 21 to 26, and the third by Zephaniah 3, verse 1. Each has a unique agenda, listing Jerusalem's crimes in the first, describing Yahweh's imminent judgment with an analogy from the world of smelting metal in the second, and justifying the punishment decreed in the third. Each prophecy was probably delivered separately, though they all obviously date to a time shortly before the fall of Jerusalem in 586. But certain shared features may have been influenced by the present grouping. There's a common geographical focus, either Jerusalem or the land of Judah, the motive of the shedding of blood, and lots of other vocabulary that runs right through. Well, in this session, I will deal only with the second and third prophetic pronouncements, but as the literary contextual background, it may be helpful to highlight the legal tone and structure of the first sixteen verses as well. In verses 1 to 2, we have Yahweh's call for Jerusalem's arraignment, arraign, arraign. In verse 3, Yahweh's summons to Jerusalem come. That call for arraignment is a word for the prophet. In the second, you have Yahweh's summons to Jerusalem. In the third, you have Yahweh's present announcement of the charges, verses 4 and 5. Then fourth, Yahweh's presentation of the evidence, 6 to 12. And finally, Yahweh's announcement of the sentence, verses 13 to 16. Well, after a remarkably coherent but shocking second legally structured presentation of Yahweh's against Jerusalem in Ezekiel 22, 17 to 31, Ezekiel announced the sentence of on the city itself, in verses 17 to 22, and then clarified the underlying rationale for this hard sentence. As I noted previously, this text represents two separate prophetic moments in the prophet's life, each introduced by its own word event formula. The word of Yahweh came to me saying, you have in verse 17 and in verse 23.The first continues the preceding focus on the city, offering a metaphorical assessment of the place, verses 17 to 22, while the second shifts attention to the leaders of the city, offering a direct assessment of all the classes of leaders there, that's 23 31. So let's look at these two parts. First, in the smelter of God's wrath, no sanctuary city here, that's verses 17 to 22. We hear a lot today about sanctuary cities, especially in the largest cities that claim this status, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Washington, D.C., Miami, Boston, San Francisco. These places are called sanctuary cities, not because they're particularly holy, that's what the word sanctuary means, but because they offer undocumented aliens, even those who are vile criminals, protection from ICE, the ICE officers and other federal agencies. But sanctuary is a total misnomer for what they represent. The word comes from a Latin word sanctarium, which designates a holy container for holy objects to protect them from unholy misuse or contamination by unholy people. Jerusalem is called the holy city five times in the first testament, Isaiah 48 2 and 52 1, Nehemiah 11 8 and 11, and Daniel 9 24, and twice in Matthew 4 5 and 27 53, and four times in Revelation 11 2, 21 2, 9 and 19, the holy city. But what makes a city holy? It is the presence of God. Remember Moses at Mount Sinai. At the burning bush, Moses hears a voice, take off your sandals for the spot where you are standing is holy ground, Exodus 3 5. But now we must recall the vision of the departure of the glory of God we observed in chapters 8 to 9. So long as the glory was there, this was a sanctuary, the temple was. When Yahweh left his temple and the city that was called by his name, Daniel 9 18, both lost their sanctity. And apart from the presence of God, there is no sanctuary here. If by sanctuary we mean protection from harm. In 22 1 to 16, we hear of the sorry state of Jerusalem, which had been totally desecrated by the moral and spiritual crimes committed inside it. The city had become a city of blood, and with that expression, Ezekiel certainly did not mean washed in the blood of the lamb, Revelation 7 14. The question for us in 22 17 to 22, this passage is what is God to do with a city whose people claim it as a place of guaranteed security, but who care not one whit about true holiness? The prophecies we are considering in this session give us the answer to that question. Although verses 17 to 22, six short verses, give us one of the shortest prophecies in the book, they build on verses 1 to 16. Note especially the stress on the events in the midst of the city. But the introductory and concluding formulas and the change in literary style set it apart as a separate unit. Here, a metaphor composed in the third person and drawn from the realm of metallurgy replaces the legal form of verses 1 to 16. Since the siege and destruction of Jerusalem were still future events, the prophecy should probably be dated around 589 to 590 BC, but that's a guess. Ezekiel could have characterized this oracle as a mashal, a figure of speech, like other extended metaphors in the book. Like some that we have separated previously, this text divides into two parts, the word picture, verse 18, and the interpretation, verses 19 to 22. The concluding recognition formula at the end of verse 22 reminds us of the goal, that people might recognize Yahweh as their God. Apart from exploiting a common cultural practice and phenomenon, the rhetorical force of this oracle is determined to a large extent by the effective use of repetition. The T key word, sig, or sigim, dross, appears three times in verses 18 and 19. Six times we hear, within it, highlighting the city as the locus of the smelting event. In spite of the claims of official theology and of Yahweh's special interest in the city and his residence, Jerusalem will be no sanctuary city when God begins to act against her. It will be a smelter. Beyond this feature dominating this text, we find a series of verbs that cast Yahweh in the role of a smelter, extracting valuable metals from ore. He gathers the raw materials, verses 19, 20. He blows on them, 20, 21. He smelts the ore, verse 20. He dumps the ore into the smelter. He collects the stuff coming out of the smelter, verse 21. He pours out the liquid product, verse 22. The smelter is also reflected in the objects identified, sigim, dross, kur, smelter. The words are there very clear. And then the identification of common metals. We are smelting. We are separating copper, nechosheth, tin, bedil, iron, barzel, and silver, kesef, verses 18 to 20. Other key words are words like smelt, fire, my anger, my fury, fire, my anger, my fury, in verses 22 to 23. This is not a pleasant picture, but it is an interesting cultural snapshot. Ezekiel was not the first to compare the judgment of God with a refining furnace. Indeed, the lexical links between this text and Isaiah 1, 21 to 23 and 25, and Jeremiah 6, 28 to 30, suggest he was drawing on a common prophetic image. So, let's begin with a metaphor in verse 18. Now, the following message of Yahweh came to me, human, son of man. The house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead. Inside the refining furnace, they have become the dross of silver. Well, after the customary introductory formula, the oracle opens with Yahweh's complaint in the third person that the whole house of Israel has turned into nothing but dross. This expression, has become, it has become, describes a change of states. When you heat snow, it turns to water. When you heat water, it turns to steam. In form, it becomes something different from what it was previously, but it remains H2O, water. Here Yahweh declared, what is left of the house of Israel has become dross to me. The word dross comes from a root meaning to move away, that is, to dispose of, in this case involving the removal of waste material during the smelting process. But the people were not just any kind of dross. According to the ending of the verse, they were silver dross, not silver. They were the garbage left over once the silver had been extracted. This opening statement suggests that Ezekiel was familiar with ancient metallurgical techniques, specifically the refinement of silver, and that he assumed the people in his audience were as well. Now, I'm not a metallurgist, but apparently the raw element of silver exists in two principal natural states, as an alloy of gold known as electrum, compare chapter 1 verse 5, and more commonly in lead ores known as galena, lead sulfide. These ores often contain significant amounts of copper, zinc, tin, and other minerals as well. Because silver is often found in lead ores, one of these, lead or silver, is extracted and the other is often refined. One is extracted, the other refined. The process of extracting and refining silver involved two principal stages. First, using charcoal or wood as fuel, the ore was gently roasted in a furnace, which might have been nothing more than a hole in the ground. This process caused the sulfur to escape as sulfur dioxide gas and the lead to oxidize, producing litharge. When the ore had been appropriately desulfurized, the temperature was raised to about 330 degrees, producing a metallic lead silver alloy that collected at the bottom of the smelter. Second, the silver was separated from the lead by a process of cupellation, which involved heating the alloy to 960 to 1000 degrees, which melted down the alloy that was collected in a shallow porous clay or bone ash receptacle. By sending a stream of air across the surface of the molten mass, the lead and other impurities were preferentially oxidized, producing a dross on the surface of the liquid ore. This dross, which contained most of the lead, was then skimmed off. The remaining lead was absorbed by the porous cupel, and the silver still in solution was drained away, and that's what you're after. Ezekiel's metaphor involved the second stage. In this prophecy, Yahweh is the smelter operating the refining furnace, a word kur, a word also used of furnaces in which iron and gold were refined. Since the process was about extracting silver, a precious metal, second only to gold, everything else was dross, garbage. That's not what we're after. We're after the silver. Ezekiel noted that in this case, four metals showed up in the dross, copper, tin, lead, and iron. His identification of the metals that show up in the process is true to life. The prophet's point was that far from being regarded as Yahweh's special treasure, remember that word, a treasured people in Exodus 19.5 and Deuteronomy 7.6 and 14.2 and 26.18. The house was not Yahweh's treasured gemstone, the crown jewel. The house of Israel was nothing more than slag, the waste produced in the extraction of what he was actually after, silver. Ezekiel's use of this figure of speech, specifically the isolation of silver from other metals, is a clever rhetorical ploy. If we interpret the house of Israel as those who remained behind in Jerusalem in 598 BC, they probably claimed to be the silver that Yahweh had produced, and those who had perished in Nebuchadnezzar's previous visits or had been taken into exile, they have been skimmed off as dross. As the silver, the people back home claimed to represent the favored ones, the chosen ones of God. But Ezekiel did not elaborate or explain the change in Yahweh's disposition toward his people. If his immediate audience of exiles were familiar with the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, they should have recognized in the image a picture of their nation's spiritual decay. Isaiah 121-27. How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water, your princes are rebels and companions of thieves, everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them. Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, a favorite expression for Isaiah, ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself of my foes. I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy, and I will restore your judges as at first, as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city, finally the silver will show up, but that's in the in the distant future. Jeremiah 6 27-30. I have made you a tester of metals among my people, that you may know and test their ways. They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders, they are bronze and iron, all of them act corruptly, the bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire, in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed, rejected silver they are called, for Yahweh has rejected them. That's the dross. The interpretation, verses 19 to 22. Back to Ezekiel 22 19. Therefore thus has the Lord declared, because all of you have become dross, look out, I will gather you inside Jerusalem, just as silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin are gathered inside a refining furnace, so one may blow on the ore with fire to melt it down, so I will gather you in my fury and in my wrath, then I will dump you in and melt you down, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, then you will be melted inside the city, as silver is melted inside a refining furnace, so you will be melted inside the city, then you will know that I am Yahweh, I have poured out my wrath upon you. Notice the liquid imagery. The remainder of this oracle is taken up with interpreting the metaphor. The interpretation divides into three parts, a thesis statement, verse 19, an expansion on the judgment using a pair of similes, 20 to 22a, and a modified version of the recognition formula, 22b. The opening statement, verse 19, is shocking, because it identifies the smith who gathers the ore for the furnace as none other than Yahweh himself. That's one big shocker. And the second, the furnace is Jerusalem. Both details represent direct challenges to official theology, the people's retreat to the city for sanctuary in the face of the enemy's invasion is hereby transformed into an act of God, whereby he deliberately gathers them and sets them up for judgment. That's a shocking metaphor. Verses 20 to 22 elaborate on the nature of the judgment with two versions of the same simile as we see when we put these together. Verse 20, just as silver, copper, iron, lead, tin are gathered inside a furnace so one may blow on the ore with fire to melt it down, so I will gather you in the fury of my wrath. That's the first one. Verses 21 to 22a, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath. Then you will be melted down inside the city as silver is melted down inside a refining furnace, so you will be melted down inside the city. The variations in the comparison are largely stylistic. The interpretation focuses exclusively on the silver, and we observe a shift in the involvement of Yahweh's wrath. In the first, Yahweh blows fire and gathers Jerusalem in his wrath. In the second, Yahweh blows with the fire of his wrath. In the interpretation, we see also a heightened emphasis on the meltdown. Furthermore, the metals listed are no longer constituents of dross to be removed, but as raw material deposited in the furnace to be blown upon and melted. Yahweh had become the divine smith who gathered the raw material, the ore, dumped it inside the cupel, and blew on it with fire to melt Jerusalem down into liquid state. Now he intentionally included the silver with other metals, cautioning the exilic audience against an unrealistic view of their own spirituality, if perchance they view themselves as the silver. Even those in exile must experience the fire of divine wrath to refine them into the precious metal that Yahweh can use. The concluding recognition formula declares Yahweh's goal in the process. When he will be through with the house of Israel, they will recognize him and understand his fury. So much for the smelter. But then in the second part, verses 23 to 31, we hear the rationale for the judgment he has just been talking about, the rationale for the judgment of Jerusalem, the unmanned breach, 22, 23 to 31. After the usual opening, verse 23, the Lord charged Ezekiel to speak to her, the city of Jerusalem. This time the reference is not to the city referred in the previous land, but the land of Israel, as the following identification of the addressee demonstrates. You are a land that has not been cleansed. Indeed, the concerns of the prophet have changed. Whereas verses 1 to 16 had focused on the corruption of the political leaders, and 17 to 22 had not dealt with human causality at all, here his aim was to expose the intensity and extent of the problem that was about to bring down the nation. The corruption extended beyond the political leaders to the priests, the prophets, and even the people of the land. Now through his prophet, Yahweh offered the exiles another explanation for the severity with which he was about to punish the land. The text opens with a survey of the corruption that characterized the population, particularly the leaders, verses 24 to 29, and follows this up with a summary of the Lord's response to that degeneration in verses 30 to 31. So let's begin. The introduction and thesis statement 23 to 24. The oracle opens with an announcement of another message from God followed by a charge, this time to address the land of Israel. You are a land that had not been cleansed or deluged on the day of wrath. Most commentators follow the Septuagint and interpret this as a reference to the rains that have failed and the showers that have been withheld. On the one hand, according to the blessings, abundant rainfall was a sign of divine favor, a reward for loyalty to Yahweh, which Ezekiel also will call showers of blessing, 34-26. These were obviously not the torrential rains of judgment we heard about in 1311 and 13 and will hear again in 38-22. But on the other hand, the covenant curses had warned that Yahweh would answer persistent infidelity by turning off the taps. He would turn the sky into iron or bronze and the rain into dust so that the earth would refuse to yield her produce, Leviticus 26-19-20 and Deuteronomy 28-23-24. Such curses were common in ancient rhetoric. In Esarhaddon's covenant curse invoked upon potentially treacherous vassals, he declared, just as rain does not fall from a sky of bronze, so may rain and do not visit your fields and meadows. Instead of rain may charcoal be in your land. However, in our text, the referent can scarcely be to failed rains, whose catastrophic effects are only gradually realized. Verse 24 describes this event as the day of indignation, yom zaam, that is, a cataclysmic outpouring of divine fury. Ezekiel had warned the people of the coming day, chapter 7, and the time of your final punishment, 21, 25, and 29. And here the prophet declared that though the people had deserved it for a long time, the land of Israel had never yet experienced the cleansing force of the torrential deluge, the time has come. This was neither the first nor the last time Ezekiel would refer to the rains as a means of judgment. In chapter 13, which is linked to this oracle by common references to plastered walls, the torrential rains, they had destroyed the houses the false prophets had smeared over with their vain proclamations of peace. Ezekiel's connection of rain and judgment was based on the Genesis flood story, which referred to the downpour that inundated the earth as geshem, a word we find here. The purpose of that flood was to cleanse the entire globe of human wickedness, corruption, and violence, three words we find in Genesis 6, 5, and 11, ra'ah, shachat, and chamas. Yahweh hereby declared that this same kind of cleansing was long overdue for the land of Israel. His intention in the rest of the prophecy was to prove this point and to declare in advance that if Yahweh poured out his fury on the land, notice the liquid metaphor, if he poured out his fury on the land the way he did on the earth long ago, they totally had it coming. The prophet's concluding statement in verse 31 affirms that what the rain of divine fury had not yet accomplished, the fire of his wrath would. The remainder of the oracle explains why it was necessary for Yahweh to treat the land with such indignation. The crimes of Israel's leaders, verses 25 to 29. Her princes behave like roaring lions inside her, tearing their prey. They devour humans. They seize wealth and treasures. They've multiplied the number of her widows inside her. Her priests have done violence to my instruction. They have desecrated what is sacred to me, failed to distinguish between the holy and profane, and to teach the difference between the clean and the unclean, and have closed their eyes to my Sabbaths. As a result, I am profaned in their midst. And her officials behave like wolves inside, tearing prey, spilling blood, and destroying lives for illicit profit. Her prophets have smeared the wall for them with plaster, seeing false visions, serving them with deceitful divinations, and declaring, thus has the Lord Yahweh declared when Yahweh hasn't even spoken. And the people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. The poor and the needy they have oppressed, and the alien they have treated without justice. In short, Jerusalem's population, particularly her leaders, had violated the fundamental principles of covenant relationship, and filled the land with violence. Indeed, Jerusalem had become a swamp, full of monstrous swamp creatures. The only answer was, get rid of the swamp. Here there would be no sanctuary, even for the authorities who were supposed to be administering justice and righteousness in the land. In 726 to 727, Ezekiel had lumped together prophets, priests, elders, kings, and princes for a brief denunciation, 726 to 727. Disaster will follow disaster. Rumor will succeed rumor. They will demand a vision from a prophet. Instruction will vanish from a priest. Counsel from the elders. The king will go into mourning. The prince will be dressed in horror, and the hands of citizens will be paralyzed. I will deal with them according to their conduct. I will judge them on the basis of their judgments, and they will know that I am Yahweh. This is a clear case now of resumptive exposition. There the prophet had listed these kinds of leaders. Here he returns to the subject of unfinished business. We find a similar grouping of leaders in Micah's 8th century protests against the prophets, including seers and diviners who led people astray, judges who perverted justice, and priests who provided instruction for a price, Micah 3, 5 to 12. Even more striking are its affinities with Zephaniah 3, 3 to 4, from the days of Josiah that follows up a pronouncement against Nineveh with a sharp denunciation of Jerusalem and her leaders. Zephaniah 3, 3, her officials within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the morning. Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men. Her priests profane what is holy. They do violence to the Torah. Again, Yahweh may have crafted this oracle as an intentional expansion of the 7th century prophet's message. In any case, it offers further evidence that Ezekiel was familiar with his professional predecessors. These prophets read each other's works. These prophets were part of a larger and older club whose roots we can trace all the way back to Moses in Deuteronomy 18, 15 to 22, where Moses predicts that the Lord will raise up prophets like him. In leaning on Zephaniah's oracle, Ezekiel was both a traditionalist and a creative rhetorician. He skillfully interwove borrowed and characteristically Ezekielian ideas to create a single coherent whole, which by the testimony of the introduction and the conclusion, this constituted the revealed will of God. In the process, this prophet had expanded our understanding of prophetic authority. If the authority of the first oracle in this triad, chapter 22, verses 1 to 16, had derived from its foundation in Leviticus 19, the rhetorical force of this utterance came from its roots in previous prophecies. Unlike scrupulous concerns about plagiarism in our day, as was the case with most New Testament allusions to First Testament texts, Ezekiel did not acknowledge the source of his ideas. There are no footnotes here. See Zephaniah 3.3. He didn't cite the divine spokesman from the previous generation. Instead, he always opened with, the word of Yahweh came to me saying. And if Zephaniah had said something like this 50 years earlier, these were not his ideas. Like Ezekiel, he too had been inspired by God. So these are the words of the Lord. In any case, with all these allusions, he placed himself in the mainstream of true prophetic tradition and added the weight of his predecessors to his own argument. So let's look at the charges. The charges against the prince is verse 25. He talks about the conspiracy of the princes who are like roaring lions inside her, tearing her prey. They devour humans. They seize wealth and treasures. They've multiplied the number of her widows inside. They are widow makers. Ezekiel modified the imagery of chapter 19, where lions had functioned as symbols of royal nobility. It's a scathing indictment of the Davidic house in chapter 19. They are roaring lions who destroy their citizens. Now he portrayed the princes as a ferocious pride of lions who conspired to hunt and kill, compare 19.3 and 6. Given their appetite for human beings, it is appropriate that Yahweh charged them with bloodshed and judicial robbery. These beasts devoured their human victims, seized their wealth, and left their wives widowed. That is, they murdered their husbands. Ezekiel will paint a fuller picture of conduct of princes in chapter 34, 1 to 10. We'll get there soon. But instead of adhering to the Deuteronomic charter for kings for leadership in Deuteronomy 17, 14 to 20, they exploited the government office for personal advantage. This was patterned after the practices of their neighbors. Kings always did that in that world. While these princes were not all of the Davidic royal house in the northern kingdom, Ahab and Jezebel's murder of Naboth and the confiscation of his property represented the most egregious illustration of this problem. First Kings 21. The charges against the priests, for priests have done violence to my Torah. They've desecrated what is sacred to me, failed to distinguish between the holy and profane, and to teach the difference between the clean and the unclean. And they've closed their eyes to my Sabbaths. As a result, I am profaned in their midst. It's interesting that verse 26 is the only place in chapters 1 to 39 where Ezekiel cast the members of his own social class, the priesthood, in a negative light. But remarkably, here he devoted more attention to them than any of the other groups of leaders, which makes me wonder what his fellow priests in exile will have thought about this. Before Ezekiel began his ministry, he was part of the problem, like Saul who became Paul in Acts 9. Here Ezekiel charged the religious leaders with a series of crimes all related directly to the discharge of professional duties. First, they treated Yahweh's Torah with violence, Hamas. We know this word from the name of the violently anti-Israel leaders today in Gaza, and the demonstrations all over the world. This verb, which means to do violence, occurs only six times in the first testament, and the present expression, to do violence, to the Torah, appears elsewhere only in Zephaniah 3, 4, which I read earlier. The association of such a strong verb with Torah is unusual, but it highlights the priest's blatant disregard for the substance and intent of the Mosaic instruction. Although here Ezekiel's concern was focused on ceremonial aspects of the Torah, presumably it included ethical regulations as well. Compare Malachi 2, 5-9. Second, they desecrated the holy things, the Qadoshim, which in Ezekielian usage includes both sacred objects and sacred donations that sacrifices the offerings. Although Ezekiel's first charge was borrowed directly from Zephaniah, the next three are new. They don't come from Zephaniah, but we may view them as expansions of this second one. Third, they blurred the boundaries between the sacred and the profane. Although the language plays on the same roots, Qadosh and Halal, as the previous charge, here the prophets seem to be thinking of Leviticus 10.10. The duty of priests was, you must distinguish between what is sacred and what is common, between what is ceremonially unclean and what is clean, the New Living translation there. This statement is inserted immediately after the account of Nadab and Abihu's use of alien fire before Yahweh in Leviticus 10. Fourth, they failed to instruct the people in the regulations concerning ceremonial cleanness and uncleanness. It was not only that they personally failed to maintain these distinctions themselves, they also failed to teach the people, which was their duty. Sacred, profane, and clean, unclean issues often overlap, though the latter tend to involve diet, hygiene, and other practices affecting health. But the accusation of neglect in pedagogical duties, teaching, touches on then an issue that received surprisingly little attention in the Pentateuch. The charge to Aaron in Leviticus 10.11 to teach the Israelites all the statutes spoken by Moses is the most explicit. But Moses placed this burden upon the Levites in his final blessing of this tribe in Deuteronomy 33.10. They shall teach your ordinances to Jacob and your Torah to Israel. Although Hosea alludes to this responsibility in passing in 4.6, the post-exilic prophet Malachi provides the fullest statement in Malachi 2.6-8. Proper instruction, Torah, emeth, was in his mouth. No, no righteousness was found on his lips. He conducted himself with me with complete uprightness. He held many back from iniquity. For the lips of the priest should guard knowledge. People should seek Torah from his mouth, for he is the messenger of Yahweh of hosts. That's the fourth problem. Fifth, they led the way in the neglect of the Sabbaths, referred to earlier in verse 8. The odd expression, to hide the eyes from the Sabbath, recalls Leviticus 26. It denotes not only personal violation of the Sabbath, but also failure to prosecute offenders of the Sabbath when they were violating them. As in verse 12, Ezekiel summarized the effect of all of these professional crimes with two simple words, so I am profaned in their midst. That's what happens. God is profane. His name is blasphemed. He is misrepresented. Ultimately, the priest's betrayal of the calling affected Yahweh himself. Not only did their irresponsibility reflect on his character, since he had appointed them to this office, it also inhibited the nation as a whole in its performance of his will. In verse 27, he gives the charges against the civic officials. Her officials behave like wolves inside her, tearing her prey, spilling blood, and destroying lives for illicit profit. Based on the parallel with Zephaniah 3.3, which we read earlier, we may surmise that Ezekiel's third group of leaders, officials, sarim, included the judiciary. However, by preferring this word, sarim, Ezekiel probably intended a broader reference to all lay nobility. Since they ranked lower than the neseim, the princes, the royals, in the social hierarchy, they were probably the civil servants appointed to their positions by the princes. This probably explains why the prophet referred to them as ravenous wolves rather than lions. That applied to the princes, but these people are wolves. This did not mean they were less vicious. On the contrary, Ezekiel highlighted their moral ignobility with a series of typically Ezekielian expressions of violence. They tear prey, verse 25. They pour out blood. Compare this with 22, 3 to 4, and 6, 9, and 12, chapter 22 earlier. They destroy lives, life they consume, in order to make illicit profits. Those are the charges against the civic officials. And then the charges against the prophets. And now he brings up a familiar theme. Her prophets have smeared the wall for them with plaster, seeing false visions, serving them with deceitful divination, and declaring, thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, when Yahweh hasn't even spoken. In Ezekiel 13, 10 to 15, this prophet had accused the other prophets of smearing walls with plaster, by which he meant offering the people false promises of peace when everything was in turmoil. Now he expanded on Zephaniah's charge by taking up the figure again. As in 13, 6 to 9, he characterized the counterfeits as envisioners of falsehood and diviners of a lie. Today we would call them fake prophets. He defined the lie explicitly by employing the prophetic citation formula. They are saying, thus has the Lord Yahweh declared. They claim to have received the message from Yahweh, when in truth, Yahweh had never spoken to them. Then we have the charges against the people of the land, who have practiced extortion and committed robbery, the poor and needy they have oppressed, and the alien they have treated with justice. Perceiving Zephaniah's list of criminals too limited, Ezekiel added this fifth category, the people of the land. We saw this expression earlier in 727, where it referred to free citizens, particularly the supporters of the Davidic rulers, who imitate their leaders by capitalizing on their middle class positions. Like minor rulers, they practiced extortion, committed robbery, oppressed the poor and needy, and exploited the proselytes. This is the swamp that was Jerusalem in 590 BC. How would Yahweh respond to the swamp? We hear this in his response to the crimes of the leaders in verses 30 to 31. I looked for a man from their midst who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land to prevent its destruction. Notice the focus is on the land, but I couldn't find anyone. Therefore I have poured out my indignation on them and in the fire of my fury consumed them. I have held them accountable for their conduct, the declaration of Adonai Yahweh. Ezekiel's accusation against the nobility of Judah climaxed here with expressions of dismay over the absence of spiritual leadership in the nation's critical hour. To clarify God's disposition, Ezekiel borrowed a metaphor from his older contemporary Jeremiah, whom Yahweh had commanded to scour the streets of Jerusalem in search of anyone who practiced justice and pursued truth. The image of Yahweh looking for someone to man the breach derives from the military world. The word peretz denotes a hole in the city wall, either because governors have neglected to maintain them or because the enemy's battering rams have already punched a hole in the wall. Unless the gap was quickly repaired or armed men were stationed in the gap, the invader would have easy access to the city. But Ezekiel didn't specify what kind of person he had in mind with this figure of speech. Based on the antecedent in Jeremiah, he was probably looking for someone who would stand up for justice, call a halt to oppression, break the spiral of increasing violence, and appeal for repentance. If only there had been a voice to announce the certain judgment of God in the face of their criminal activity and to warn the people that Yahweh is nearby, he's coming after you. As in Ezekiel 3.17 and 33.7, Yahweh was the real threat. But like the false prophets in 13.5, the leaders were all too indulged in their own pursuits to worry about the welfare of the city. The absence of anyone to sound the alarm left only one course of action for Yahweh, the one portrayed in verse 31 as the enemy. By her persistent revolt against the covenant Lord, Jerusalem and Judah and their leaders had dared him to pour out his indignation and to annihilate them with a fire of his wrath. By their conduct, they had brought the covenant curses upon their heads. This oracle ended abruptly and solemnly with a divine signatory formula, the stamp. Yahweh's patience had run out, Judah's doom had been sealed, thus the signature of Yahweh, the declaration. Well, what theological and practical implications do we find in these passages for ourselves? Let's pause and look back on what we've heard to reflect on how these texts might become our texts. The image of the smelter turned on its head Israel's view of herself as Yahweh's prized possession. Traditionally, they had looked on Egypt as the iron smelter, the iron furnace in which the elect nation had been refined and transformed into the people of Yahweh, Deuteronomy 4.20, 1 Kings 8.51. This is what had created this treasured possession, segolah. In a radical skewing of the image, Ezekiel casts Jerusalem in the role of Egypt. The nation may consider herself precious metal in God's sight, but this was a delusion. In order for them to become what God wanted them to be, they must be subjected again to the refiner's fire. This time, however, it would be the fire of divine wrath, not Pharaoh's wrath. The picture of divine fury painted in verses 17 to 22 is terrifying. However, like the New Testament portrayal of the divine vinedresser, who cuts off a fruitless branch, lets it dry, and casts it into the fire, John 15, 1 to 11, this one serves as a warning for all who claim security in divine election, but refuse in their lives to reflect the glory of the divine elector. Yahweh's passion for a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his special treasure, has not diminished, 1 Peter 5.9. Although the text offers no indication how Ezekiel's audience reacted to either of these prophecies, the second oracle presented some obvious clues for how we modern readers should respond. First, as we could note from examining verses 1 to 16, that the call to leadership is primarily a call to responsibility, not privilege. But power has the baneful tendency to transform noble lions and majestic wolves into cannibalistic beasts. The people of God are not immune from the temptation to exploit positions of power for personal advantage and thereby threaten the vitality of the community. Even for the church, power may corrupt, absolute power may corrupt absolutely. Sadly, corners of the church have all too often become swamps where predator monsters lurk. Those who pervert thy kingdom come, to my kingdom come, invite the wrath of God. Second, whatever responsibilities other leaders have, those called into divine service are charged with maintaining the sanctity of God. This is accomplished by scrupulous and disciplined moral living, embodying holiness, personal observance of sacred profane distinctions, and the indoctrination of the people of God with the same sensitivity. However, in our world, all boundaries seem to have evaporated, and our leaders, our often religious leaders, officially push the wrong side of the boundary. The absence of such distinctions leads to theological and moral anarchy, and even more seriously, the desecration of the reputation of God. Third, the survival of the church depends upon the positive response of leaders to the call to stand in the breach. This call is not fulfilled by professional self-gratification or plastering decayed walls with reassuring pronouncements of peace. The breach is repaired, and the wrath of God averted with compelling appeals for repentance from sin and a new commitment to God. And so, this text challenges us. Is there anyone here who hears the call?