Ezekiel - Lesson 8

Lesson number 8, Sounding the Alarm for the Land of Israel, Ezekiel 7, 1-27. A few sessions ago we learned of Ezekiel's prophetic status as the divinely appointed Watchman of Israel. In his ordination speech, Yahweh had described his role in no uncertain terms in 3, 17-18. Human, Son of Man, I have appointed you a Watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a message coming from my mouth, you shall warn them about me. If I announce to the wicked you shall die and you fail to warn him, that is, you do not speak out to warn the wicked person to turn from his wicked way to save him, that wicked man shall die for his iniquity, but I will hold you responsible for his death. These words may well have been ringing in the prophet's ears in chapter 7, as he, after the impassioned description of Yahweh's determination to fumigate the land of Israel of its abominations in chapter 6, now he sounded this warning trumpet blast. We find a significant clue to this interpretation in 7, 14, where he says, They have blown the horn, literally horned the horn, or trumpeted the trumpet. They have made all the preparations, but no one goes out to battle, because my wrath is upon her entire mob. And that's what Ezekiel is doing in this chapter. Here we hear the prophet's three alarm warning. Yahweh, who had become the enemy of the Judean kingdom and its population, was about to pounce on Jerusalem. The opening word event formula, the following message of Yahweh came to me, and the direct address of Ezekiel as Ben-Adam, son of man, human, in verses 1 to 2a, represent a heading for the entire chapter. The text subdivides into three alarming announcements of Israel's end. The first alarm, the first trumpet blast, verses 2b to 4, the second alarm, 5 to 9, and the third alarm, 10 to 27. The first two begin formally with a citation formula. Thus has Adonai Yahweh declared. But all three conclude with a recognition formula. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. You have it in verse 4, 9, and 27. The aim of the events predicted here was to convince Ezekiel's audience of the character of Yahweh and his involvement in their nation's affairs. The approach Yahweh and the prophet took to communicating this message is striking. First, like chapter 6, it is addressed to the territory of Israel, Admath Yisrael, reflecting the strong emotional bond between the land and the people's sense of nationhood. Second, it is difficult to classify the proclamation's literary style, the tendency toward parallel constructions and short measured pronouncements along with the use of colorful imagery and hyperbole exaggeration give it a poetic flavor. But these features are not consistently employed. However, whether we classify it as poetry or prose, its rhetorical aim is clear, to evoke a strong emotional reaction in the minds of Ezekiel's audience, that is, his fellow exiles. There's a third feature, contributing to this intended response, is the nature of the text itself. Not since the report of the prophet's inaugural vision in chapter 1 has the Hebrew text presented so many problems. Redundancies, confusion of gender, omitted articles, missing verbs, obscure allusions, incomplete and garbled sentences, we'll see this in verse 11. Not to mention words, forms and literary constructions unheard of elsewhere. But perhaps the most striking feature is the use of repetition, specifically the restatement of the sermonic core in two remarkably correspondent panels. In chapter 7, verses 2 to 4, the first panel, that's the first alarm, and verses 5 to 9, the second alarm, which is a second panel. If you put these two texts side by side, you can look, you can see the parallels and the similarities, though the second is slightly longer. The day is at hand. Panic, not harvest celebrations on the mountains. Now, shortly, I will pour out my wrath upon you, I will vent my anger against you, and I will judge you according to your conduct, and I will hold you accountable for all your abominations. My eye will not have pity, nor will I spare. On the contrary, I will hold you accountable for your conduct while your abominations persist. Within you, then you will know that I am Yahweh who smites. I read from the second panel, which is slightly fuller and expanded than the first panel. But this is a one-two punch of largely identical material, but this is intentional. It highlights the urgency of the crisis envisaged. The sound of this trumpet blast the first time is much like the sound of the trumpet blast the second time, only it's louder in the second instance. Like two trumpet blasts of a watchman, he has sent out the alarm. And as we saw in chapter 1, the textual problems seem to reflect the prophet's emotional state. He's excited. Ezekiel was hereby fulfilling his sentry role, blowing the trumpet over the land of Israel. The end is at hand. He had no time to worry about fine literary style. And then in the third panel, the sound of the trumpet reaches a deafening crescendo. Ezekiel opened with elevated excitement, but as he proceeded, his presentation became more controlled, his tone more solemn and deliberate.The vague references to the end had become specific predictions of the day of Yahweh. No longer did the prophet address the land in the second person. It had become a third party. The primary focus in the last trumpet blast had shifted from the implications of the message for the land to the effects of the Lord's judgment on its population. The use of similar vocabulary, the agricultural and horticultural imagery, the only other occurrences of the word for least, sefirah, in verse 10, compare verse 7, the reference to judgment according to the conduct of the people, and the continuation of short staccato lines all suggest that Yahweh had intended verses 10 to 27 as an exposition of the twofold alarm sounded in verses 2b to 9, the first two panels. As a unit, the vocabulary and style of 7, 1 to 7, have been heavily influenced by previous prophetic oracles concerning the day of the Lord. The Hebrew expression Yom Yahweh identifies the moment when Yahweh intervenes in human history with the outcomes of such interventions being determined by him alone. It is Yahweh's day. The prototypical meeting occurred at Sinai at the day of the Assembly, Deuteronomy 18.16, and concluded with the ratification of the celebration of the covenant by participating in a banquet in the presence of the Lord, Exodus 24.11. By the 8th century BC, the sacrificial meal itself, the zevach, seems to have been associated with the coming of Yahweh whose presence would assure peace and well-being. But in Amos 5.18, the 8th century prophet announced the day of Yahweh with a different twist. Oy vey to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why would you long for the day of Yahweh? It is a day of darkness, not a day of light, as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall and a serpent bit him. Although the expression Yom Yahweh, Day of Yahweh, is missing in Amos 5, his vision of summer fruit warns that the encounter will mean the end, the ketz, the end of the nation. His vision of the basket of summer fruit, the basket of final fruit, evokes the pronouncement, the end is coming upon my people, Israel. He describes that event in vivid terms. On that day, declares the Lord Yahweh, I will make the sun set at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will make you all don sackcloth around your waists and cause everyone's head to be shaved. I will make it like mourning for an only son and its end like a bitter day. Amos 8.9-10 Ezekiel's portrayal of the Day of Yahweh demonstrates that he was the heir of 8th century prophet Amos and others who had come after him, especially Zephaniah in Zephaniah 1.7-8. However, the eschatological flavor of Zephaniah's portrayal of the Day of Yahweh contrasts with the language of imminence in Ezekiel's message. In the first twelve verses, the ominous, It has come, appears nine times. Now, we'etah, is twice. Hinei, watch out. Behold, four times. It has gone forth, once, yatsah. It has arrived, once, verse 12. Shortly, and it is near, once, each. It's at hand. The problem Ezekiel addressed, he would declare explicitly in 12.22-28. It was not that the people had stopped hoping for the Day of Yahweh as if it would bring about final vindication of Israel as they had in Amos' times. Rather, they had divorced that day from the present situation. Even those who recognize the judgmental quality of divine visitations dismissed it as an irrelevant and remote eschatological event. It's so far in the future, it has no bearing on us. Ezekiel's God's reaction to the public indifference and the refusal to take the divine threats seriously is obvious in the tone of this chapter. Well, after this lengthy introduction setting the stage, let's listen to the prophet's three trumpet blasts. I will take the first two together, that is, verses 1-9. The first two trumpet blasts. Ezekiel opens the first trumpet alarm on a piercing note. An end, the end has come on the four corners of the land! And we have to have an exclamation mark at the end of that to capture the tone. The opening, and now, highlights the imminence of the coming. In verses 3-4, the prophet explained the divine response with a threefold declaration of the principles by which Yahweh would deal with the land of Israel. First, he would punish her in keeping with her conduct her ways. Second, he would hold her accountable for her abominations. Third, he will hold her accountable for her conduct, a separate statement. These last two sentences both involve an expression that involves laying charges upon guilty persons and penalizing them accordingly. With great economy of diction, Ezekiel declared on the one hand that as people have behaved, so Yahweh would treat them. But on the other hand, that people's fate is merely the outworking of the present conduct, what you sow you reap. Yahweh would personally guarantee that this occurred. As we learn in verse 4 and again in verse 9, this was no time for pity or sentimentality. Yahweh would not stifle his compassion or block his emotions from interfering with his determined action. His eye would not pity, he would not spare. He would stifle his emotions, his tendency to pity. The second blast, verses 5 to 9, is even more piercing than the first. In his fragmented open declaration, the prophet used six different words for the coming calamity. Disaster, the end, the leash, a scary reference to how ancient conquerors dragged off their captives. The time, the day, the panic, mechuma, instead of celebration on the mountains. The style and diction of verses 7 to 9 are heavily influenced by Zephaniah 1, 14 to 16. The great day of Yahweh is near, Zephaniah declared, near and quickly approaching, the sound of the day of Yahweh, how bitter, there the warrior shrieks, that day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of calamity and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and deep darkness, a day of trumpet alarm against the fortified cities and against the lofty defenses. The remainder of this second alarm echoes the first with two significant deviations. First, Yahweh replaced the statement of dispatching his anger, shalach af, I will send out my anger, with the more conventional, I will expend, he will expend his anger, and it is then paired with to pour out his wrath, a liquid metaphor. This latter idiom derives from the image of a boiling cauldron whose contents are poured out on an unfortunate victim. We hear of this in Jeremiah 1, 13 to 15 and 6, 11. Second, the addition of the participle, I am Yahweh who smites, adding that to the recognition formula, then they will know that I am Yahweh who smites, emphasizes even more strongly that the doomsday for Israel is the work of Yahweh himself. So much for the first two alarms. Now let's go to the third alarm, verses 10 to 27. This alarm is much longer and more complex than the first two had been, but the vocabulary and style of the opening trumpet blasts those sounds echo through this one as well. After this opening blast, the alarm though goes its own way, warning the audience in frightening detail of the disintegration of every aspect of communal life in the wake of the day of Yahweh. On the basis of style and content, we may divide this third alarm into five parts. First, the announcement of the day of Yahweh, verses 10 to 12a. Second, the economic effects of the day of Yahweh, 12b to 13. Third, the psychological effects of the day of Yahweh, 14 to 18. Four, the religious effects of the day of Yahweh, verses 19 to 24. And five, the political effects of the day of Yahweh. Is there any dimension here that's missing? It's an amazingly comprehensive statement. So let's begin with the announcement of the day of Yahweh. I've already noted that the third blast of the watchman's trumpet sounds like the previous two alarms, announcing that the end has come, the day of captivity, and the day of chains, sefirah, of captivity, that was about to strike Judah. But then he introduced a series of enigmatic botanical images, talking about the staff that had blossomed, insolence has budded, violence has matured to become a staff of wickedness. But what does all this mean? When Ezekiel's audience heard the staff, or rod, had budded, they will immediately have thought of Aaron's staff that had sprouted, produced buds and blossoms, and finally yielded ripe almonds, after which it was placed in the tent of the covenant, Numbers 17, verse 8. However, whereas Aaron's budding staff served a positive purpose, it was a sign of his special priestly status, here the metaphor was obviously negative in its intent. When Ezekiel added that insolence has sprouted and violence has matured into a staff of wickedness, he may have been thinking of the wickedness gaining the total upper hand in Jerusalem, except that he had already announced the chains are coming, a threatening thought. With these metaphors, Yahweh was probably sending an early hint of the identity of the agent of his fury, that is, Babylon. It was Babylon's staff that had sprouted. Nebuchadnezzar was the insolent, violent, and wicked one who would create the tumult reflected in the rest of verse 11. Compare this with Jeremiah 50, 31 to 32. However, in his excitement, Ezekiel had confused the normal botanical order. Plants normally sprout first, then mature, finally blossom. In the alarm, the people will have heard the prophet twisting what was originally a positive symbol of election and legitimate authority into an emblematic cudgel of oppression and wickedness. The garbled state of the text in the remainder of verse 11 reflects the prophet's excitement. He couldn't speak coherently. The ESV has a fairly clear translation of the last part of verse 11. None of them shall remain, nor their abundance, nor their wealth, nor shall there be preeminence among them. But then the translators added a footnote. The meaning of this last Hebrew sentence is uncertain. Well, this is an understatement. The texts, as Ezekiel will have written, will have looked like a whole series of consonants with English characters involving M-H-M-H-M-H-W-M-H-W-L. It's just a long list. It's gibberish in English, when you put all those letters together, but it's equally gibberish in Hebrew, where we hear a series of alliterative combinations of the letters M-H-N interrupted by four occurrences of the L or W-L, meaning none, not, and not, and none. The best I can make out is, none of them, and none of their tumult, and none of their turbulence, and none of the high and mighty among them, but what in the world does that mean? But this, even my rendering, is a guess. It's impossible to recover the sense intended. The sentences are all unfinished, and the sounds suggest onomatopoeic expressions of alarm or grief. Only the last line is at all sensible, none of the high and mighty among them. But even this is unfinished. What was Ezekiel trying to say? Whether intentional or not, the confused state of the text represents the message. It appears to reflect both the excitement, if not panic, of the prophet, and the chaos of the day of Yahweh, as he would describe it in the following verses. This feature contributes to the rhetorical power of the prophecy. He didn't go back and smooth it out as he was editing this oracle. He left it just like that. That's the announcement. Let's go to the economic effects of the day of Yahweh, verses 12b to 13. The opening exclamations in verse 12 signal a new phase in the alarm. Again, we recognize the prophet's excitement in the style. Abrupt sentences, rare forms, a lack of smooth progression. However, we can get a handle on the opening strophe by noting the refrain that occurs in three variations. For wrath, for vision, for my wrath, is upon, concerns all her mob. You have that kind of sentence in verses 12, 13, and 14, three times. This refrain declares the source of the crisis, the Lord's fury, as well as his disposition toward his people. The word hamon, rendered mob, bears a wide range of meanings. It's often used of din, noise, confusion, as in the tumult of a crowd in celebration, or a boisterous noise of city folk, or the confusion of an army camp, or in our day, the noise of anti-Israeli and pro-Hamas protest event. It could scarcely describe the crowd that stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. It could also describe the crowd that stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2020. But it could also denote simply multitude, which is what ESV has, as in 513, or material wealth, abundance, hamon, or pomp, insolence, hubris, arrogance. That's a wide range of meanings, and what are we going to do with it? Well, Ezekiel invited his hearers to consider all these meanings. The present context and its usage in chapters 29 to 32, we'll see it later, favor a theological interpretation. Here the reference is to excessive pride, irreverence, insolence, like we will see in the kings of the foreign nations later. The noise of the people represents a revolt against heaven, which would be crushed under the heat of Yahweh's burning anger, haron. Ezekiel predicted the devastating economic impact of the day of Yahweh in verses 12 to 13a, and then he picked up a little more detail in verse 19. The economic disaster would be total, rendering all business transactions futile. The mercantile exchange and the Judeans' equivalent of the stock market will collapse. Buyers would have no time or motivation to celebrate good deals they had made, nor would sellers regret that they had parted with their treasured possessions. In fact, in a grim parody of the ancient laws of Jubilee, the prophet declared that patrimonial property that had been lost to the family would in fact never return, for the year of Jubilee will be canceled. Even though both parties to business transactions might still be living, legal efforts to reclaim lost property would be forestalled by the inevitable and irrevocable day of Yahweh. In short, buying and selling, celebrating and mourning business deals would be irrelevant in this environment where the economic infrastructure had totally collapsed. In the event, the people would fall victim to their own iniquity, verse 13, with all their props knocked out from under them. Indeed, to borrow the image of Isaiah in 24.2, the wrath of Yahweh would prove the great equalizer when he would be through with the entire population, then people and priests, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor, all will have been reduced to the lowest common denominator. Business is done. We turn then to the psychological effects of the day of Yahweh, verses 14 to 18. In these verses, Ezekiel painted word pictures of the psychological effect of the day of Yahweh on the population. First, the people would be paralyzed emotionally. They had heard the sound of the watchman's trumpet from the lookout tower and had made the necessary preparation to defend the city. But when the moment for action arrived, they would be immobilized. In the face of Yahweh's anger, there would be no heart to defend themselves. If the people tried to flee his wrath, his sword would pursue them. If they sought refuge within the city, fortress, then famine and plague would devour them like voracious beasts. However, Yahweh opened the door just a crack for a few fugitives who would manage to escape to the mountains in verse 16. But even there they would find no peace as they bemoaned their situation like valley doves, probably city pigeons. Here the prophet envisaged the total destruction of the towns and cities of Judah, forcing those who survived to seek refuge in the mountains. The sound of their mourning would resemble the plaintive cooing of ordinary pigeons. Even so, they would be unable to run away from the fundamental problem, their own guilt, iniquity, of own twistedness, literally. Verse 16. Verse 17 provides a graphic description of the physiological signs of emotional devastation. First, drooping hands, a nonverbal symbol of failed strength or loss of courage. Second, peeing their pants. Yes, I said that. Here I do not follow most English translations in reading, all knees are weak as water. This may represent precise translations of individual words, but the result is meaningless. The ancient translators of the Septuagint were on the right track with their interpretation when they translated it as and all their thighs will be stained with urine. The expression recalls a vivid Neo-Assyrian description of enemies fleeing from Sennacherib 705 to 681 BC. As for him, Uman-Menanu, the king of the land of Elam, along with the king of Babylon and the sheikhs of Chaldea, who marched at his side, terror of doing battle with me overwhelmed them like aloo demons. They abandoned their tents, and in order to save their lives, they trampled the corpses of their troops as they pushed on. Their hearts throbbed like the pursuing young of pigeons. They passed their urine hotly and released their excrement inside their chariots. I ordered my chariots and horses to pursue them when wherever they caught them they killed with a sword the runaways amongst them who had fled for their lives. This is the sort of scene the prophet imagined, referring to the loss of bladder control that occurs in a moment of extreme crisis with no depends to cover their embarrassment and shame. Ezekiel concluded his word picture of the emotional or psychological impact of the disaster by describing the people's non-verbal gestures of shame. They will don sackcloth and shuddering will cover them. Shame will be on every face and baldness on all their heads. Again, that's a sign of grief. That's the emotional effect of the day of Yahweh. In verses 19-24 we have the religious effects of this day. On first sight, Ezekiel's attention to gold and silver in verses 19-20 looks like a return to the commercial concerns dealt with in verses 12-13. But the hearer, we who listen, quickly discover that these precious metals represent much more than coinage paid out in business transactions. People have perceived them as the keys to life itself. On the day of Yahweh, the bankruptcy of this expression of materialism will be demonstrated in two ways. First, the people's silver and gold will buy no food. After all, when Yahweh breaks the staff of bread, the supplies will all be exhausted. The appetites will remain unsatisfied and their bellies empty. Second, their money will not buy appeasement from Yahweh. Given the absolute worthlessness of silver and gold in satisfying either physical or spiritual needs or buying Yahweh's favor, the people might just as well dispose of it along with the rest of their rubbish niddah. The last line of verse 19 summarizes Yahweh's analysis of the situation. The people have been tripped up by their own materialism. Their love of money, silver and gold, has incurred their guilt and provoked Yahweh's ire. However, the people have not mishandled only their own wealth. According to verse 20a, they have also taken the temple treasures and desecrated them by making abominable and disgusting pagan images for themselves. The word adi is sometimes used of jewelry that women wore, but here the phrase tzvi edyo, glory of His ornament, whose ornament? The Lord's. The glory of His, the Lord's ornament, alludes to the temple, as we will see in verse 22. The Judeans were not only treating the temple as their source of pride and security, but they were also melting down the gold and silver vessels and the decorations from the temple and making idols of precious metals for themselves. At this point, Ezekiel may have been alluding to the asherah and related objects installed by Manasseh in the temple, 2 Kings 21.7. Instead of patterning their own lives after the will of Yahweh and sanctifying His house with true worship, the Israelites had fashioned gods, rivals to Yahweh their covenant Lord after their own imagination. They should not, therefore, have been surprised if Yahweh is angry, if His passion is ignited. Ezekiel was not the first or the last to associate wealth with idolatry. More than a century earlier, Isaiah had charged the nation with filling the land with silver and gold, horses and chariots, and man-made idols. Job was equally aware of the connection between wealth and false worship in one's personal life. In his Apologia, he declared, If I have put my trust in gold, or regarded fine gold my security, if I have gloated over the abundance of my wealth, because my hand had accumulated so much, if I have gazed at the shining sun, or the moon in splendorous procession, if my heart were secretly seduced, and my hand touched my mouth in a kiss, that would likewise have constituted an iniquitous twisted act, for I would have denied God above." 31, 24 to 26 in Job. The expression, therefore, in Ezekiel in 720, Ezekiel 720, signals a turning point in this oracle. In verses 21 to 24, Ezekiel focused on the nature of the Lord's reaction to this iniquitous twisted, idolatrous situation. After verse 21, he gives, he identified four specific actions. What's God going to do about this? First, Yahweh will make the gold and silver odious, nedach, to those who have misused it. He did not specify how he would do this, but the result was clear. Objects that have previously been the source of pride would become repulsive. The polemic against idolatry reminds us here of the story of Rebekah sitting on Laban's teraphim, household idols, at the time of her menstrual period. As for the idols on which they had built so much hope, they will be powerless to defend against Yahweh's hand when Yahweh comes. Second, Yahweh will personally deliver the precious metals and other property into the hands of the most ruthless of enemies. He characterized these fearful agents as aliens, outsiders, but not any outsiders. They are hostile despoilers of Jerusalem's treasures. He characterized them as the most wicked people on earth, as vandals, and as the most evil of the nations. As far as we know, unlike Jeremiah and Isaiah, Ezekiel directed none of his oracles against the Babylonians. Ezekiel is in Babylon, but he has no oracle against the Babylonians. This is as close as we get. With hindsight, we know that here he was describing Nebuchadnezzar and his hordes. The fearful picture of the invaders that he painted matches the prediction of Deuteronomy 28, 49 to 57. It matches it perfectly. These ancient versions of the Vikings will desecrate and confiscate these objects of delight and worship as spoils and plunder of war. Third, Yahweh will permit the invaders to desecrate the land. The pain in God's heart is apparent in verse 2 as he turned his face away from the invaders, giving them free reign to enter and desecrate what he calls my treasured place. Given the introduction to this oracle, verse 1, this probably refers to the land as a whole. But as we shall see, the city of Jerusalem was the crown jewel of Yahweh's treasury. As we saw in chapter 6, the land too, though, must fall victim to the wrath of God, not because of any fault of its own, but for the evil of its inhabitants. Like the contaminated silver and gold, the mountains and valleys have been desecrated by the evils of his own people, and they will be further desecrated by the invasion of foreigners. Fourth, Yahweh will permit the population to be led away into exile, verse 23. The prophet hints at this fate with the command to forge a chain. This rare word, ratok, is used in Nahum 3.10 to describe the chain used to tie prisoners of war together to form a long train headed for exile. Ezekiel the watchman hereby declared that the enemy was mobilizing his forces. The military equipment factories are running. In verse 24, the prophet reinforced Yahweh's justice in imposing the coming doom on the people by adding moral crimes to the cultic and overtly religious offenses we saw earlier. Specifically, he speaks of murderous judicial decisions, judgments of blood literally, and violence, hamas. As Ezekiel 19.3.6 and 22.6 and 27 suggest, these crimes were characteristic especially of the community leaders who held the lives of ordinary folk in their hands, and the violence they committed was hamas.We hear that word often in the news these days. But these were the very crimes against humanity for which Habakkuk had condemned Babylon in Habakkuk 2, 8, 11, and 17. This meant that the land had been defiled in the first place not by idolatry, but by the blood of innocent victims, like the blood of Abel, which cries out for punishment for the perpetrator in the Genesis story. Fifth, Yahweh will break the power of the strong and desecrate their holy places. The expression, the pride of the mighty, Geor Azim. We have this expression only here. Ezekiel uses a lot of unique expressions. Here's another one. Because the strong are closely associated with the pagan cult sites, their sanctuaries, he uses that word. This refers to the exploitation of religious institutions to support the power of a special class. By the time Yahweh would be through, not a trace would remain of the abominable pagan cults. These are the religious effects of Yahweh's action on the day of Yahweh. Finally, we look at the political effects of the day of Yahweh. Verses 25 to 27. The three-alarm announcement of doom for the land of Israel climaxes with a return to the excited staccato style of delivery. The opening word, Kippadah, occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Ezekiel is scratching for vocabulary. The translation, terror, captures the intended sense. Under such frightful conditions in which the people experience disaster after disaster, and the stories of horror know no end, there will be no relief. Ezekiel highlighted the hopelessness of the situation by describing the complete collapse of the traditional bases of security in Israelite society. The true prophet envisaged frantic searches for peace because the false prophets had no vision, chatzon, no vision to share. Priests had no instruction, Torah, to offer. Elders had no counsel, eitzah, to give. And the king, the melek, himself was in mourning. The nobility were dressed in horror, and the free citizens of the land, the amhaaretz, were all paralyzed. Ezekiel's arrangement of this list of leaders reflects his perspective on the theocratic community. He began with the religious leaders, his own class, the priests, and then moved to the civil authorities. The first triad identifies the advisors to the realm, prophets, priests, and elders, as in Jeremiah 18-18, while the second triad involved officials that actually governed. In Ezekiel's view, the former, the advisors were bankrupt, and the governors were demoralized. The oracle proper concludes with a frightening final reminder that the bases of Yahweh's judgment will be the people's own conduct. Their behavior will come home to roost. Where the previous messages had described the desolation and the leveling of the land itself, 5-14, 6-6, and 6-14, even though this oracle had begun as a message for the land of Israel, with bold and excited strokes, he announced not only the desolation of territory, but also the collapse of the nation's entire social order, that is, its economic, psychological, religious, and political structures. But Yahweh's aim was not only punitive. He also, and primarily, desired that his own people recognize again his person and his presence in this experience. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, the one who smites. Verse 9. Well, what are we going to do with this text in our own times? Theological and practical implications of Ezekiel chapter 7. What does this prophecy from the prophet exiled in Babylon have to say in the 21st century? I can think of several extremely relevant theological points we need to hear. First, the loss of a vision of God and the sense of awe and wonder at his grace inevitably leads to cynicism and independence. When a society forgets its theological roots, evils sprout and flourish. Arrogance, the conversion of God's good gifts into shameful objects and customs, the displacement of the transcendent but gracious God by images that are nothing more than projections of vain imaginations. Violence, the abuse of power, and the shameless disrespect for human life. In a society such as this, revival must start with a renewed vision of and obeisance to the living God, who will in any case have the last word on human history. The renewed vision will not come from Steven Spielberg and other Hollywood moguls who fill our minds with all sorts of amazing images or from the techies who create all sorts of imaginary virtual worlds on our computer screens, but who have no comprehension of God. It can come only through direct encounters with God in the hearing of his holy revelation, the Scriptures. Second, those who saw the wind will reap the whirlwind. This is Hosea in Hosea 8-7. People may not violate the moral and spiritual will of God with impunity and expect to escape the consequences of their behavior. Those who practice evil will bring ruin upon themselves. If people pursue an abominable course, they must know that ultimately God will call them to account and heap upon them the due rewards of the deeds. After all, his punishment for human sin is neither arbitrary nor capricious. It is perfectly consistent with his declared standards of justice and in keeping with the offenses that have been committed. Third, the apparent delay of the Lord's visitation is no cause for complacency or indifference toward evil. Even we who claim to be his people are constantly faced with the twin temptations. One, to assume that God overlooks sin and that he's obligated to visit us with his favor, and two, to relegate the Lord's intervention in human affairs to the distant eschatological future. It won't happen in my lifetime. This problem was not new with Ezekiel, nor did it die with him. More than a century later, his successor Malachi would remonstrate, You have wearied Yahweh with your speech, in that you say, Yahweh regards as good and delights in everyone who practices evil. And in that you ask, Oh, where is the God of justice? He's nowhere in sight. We don't have to worry. Malachi 2.17 Centuries later, Peter predicted that this cynical attitude would continue, even until the breaking in of the eschatological day. The true eschatological day. Peter wrote, Know this first, that in the final days, people pursuing their own lusts will mock, asking, Where is this coming that he promised? Since the death of our ancestors, everything continues on in the same course as it has followed since the beginning of creation. 2 Peter 3. 3-4 However, the Lord's perspective on time differs from that of mortals. The distinction between the eschaton and the present is false. All who practice evil stand in danger of the judgment of God. Now God lives in the eternal present. Fourth, the Lord has ways of undermining all the supports on which we base our security. Under his judgment, the wealth of the rich turns to rubbish, the futility of idolatry is exposed, and the resources found in human institutions are annulled. God is able to turn their own evil upon the wicked in a moment, and when he does, nothing will deliver them. Relief cannot be purchased, deliverance cannot come from false gods, and those who seek shalom from their leaders will all be disappointed. Fifth, God's agents are not limited to those who acknowledge him as their divine patron. On the contrary, he exercises full authority over the most wicked of nations and uses them as instruments of wrath on his people. But it's not that he delights in instruments of wrath or in punishment of his people, ungrateful though they may be. He treasures his covenant relationship with them, and his harsh treatment is driven ultimately by a desire to draw them back to himself. But in the face of persistent rebellion by his own people to their shame, he may call upon violent and ungodly instruments to serve as his agents of discipline. He can do that. He may use a more wicked population to punish a less wicked one, and may create theological problems for mortal minds, but it is consistent with his sovereignty over all. Compare Habakkuk 1 and 2. This is Ezekiel's word of the Lord.