Ezekiel - Lesson 25

Lesson number 25, The Bad Good News, Ezekiel 25 to 32. We begin with, Why does God's fury rage against the nations? Focusing on Ezekiel 28, 20 to 26. We must make a few introductory comments now to Ezekiel's oracles against foreign nations. The title for this lesson, Why does God's, God rage against the nations, comes from Psalm 2, 1 to 4. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed Messiah, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord holds them in derision. Well, you will notice immediately that I've turned this world upside down. Why does Yahweh's fury rage against the nations? When we look at the world around us and are tempted to get depressed over what is happening, not only in the international world, but even more so here at home. Psalm 2 reminds us who is ultimately in charge of cosmic affairs, which means that he is also in charge of affairs at home. Within our lifetime, we have watched kingdoms rise and fall with incredible speed on both ends. Many of us were born when the Third Reich and other fascist regimes were rising and threatening the stability of the world, only to be toppled within a decade. Alas, but not before they had wreaked their havoc on many nations and in Europe, especially on the Jewish people. But this threat was replaced by a Leninist and Stalinist communism, which in long-range terms resulted in the deaths and misery of more people than the Nazis and fascists had caused. While the original center of gravity of this force, the land of my father's birth, it collapsed under its own weight and evaporated, the movement remains alive, with its un- and anti-godly ideology being pushed in more sophisticated ways, especially in democratic lands, through agencies that control the culture and its center, having shifted to Asia. And many in the West are paranoid of the awesome efficiency and power of the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party, that has emerged in the past three decades over there. And we wonder, where is God in this ostensibly godless world where power and world dominion have become the idols of empire? And in the re-emergent nationalism that might sweep across our country, it will be important for God's people to maintain a humble posture and remember that no nation has title to the throne of the planet, especially not nations that have no place for God in the culture. At the same time, we remember that the more God really becomes a part of our culture, the less it matters whether our nation is the greatest. Only God is the ultimate arbiter of that issue, and in our collective memory we must retain the instruction and model of Jesus, that greatness is achieved not by pompous human effort, but by abandoning the agenda in the service of God and of his creation, especially all who are created in his images. In the next eight chapters of the book of Ezekiel, we will be wrestling with what the nations did to one another in Ezekiel's day. And as we do so, we will need to absorb this prophet's profoundly theocentric vision of the cosmos, his vision of what a good world looks like and how we might fit into that world. But let's begin by talking about the literary context of the oracles against the foreign nations that take us from chapters 25 of Ezekiel through chapter 32. This lesson will differ slightly from what we've encountered in the previous ones. Here I must set the stage for the next dozen or so oracles that take us through Ezekiel's international world as represented in chapters 25 to 32, Ezekiel's prophecies against the nations. To prepare us for this segment of Ezekiel's recorded oracles, here we will focus on a fragment found at the exact middle of this section, 28, 20 to 26, which functions as a sort of fulcrum between the two parts and provides perspective for interpreting the entire complex of judgments against the nations. The time span between Ezekiel's ordination as priest and induction as prophet to the exiles and the two oracles we studied in chapter 24 was about six years. Remarkably, his messages of indictment on Jerusalem and Judah during this time began and ended with a dramatic and ominous sign actions. In chapter 4, 1 to 3, we read, Now you, human, take a tile and lay it in front of you and grave a city on it, the city of Jerusalem. Impose a siege against it, build a siege wall against it, construct a ramp against it, set up army camps against it, and station battering rams against it all around. Now you, take an iron griddle and set it up as an iron barrier between yourself and the city. Set your face against it so that it may be under siege. You shall be, you shall, yes, you shall be sieged. It is a sign for the household of Israel. Here the prophet looked forward ominously to the events predicted in chapter 24 that we discussed in our last two lessons. As in 24, 15 to 27, in his first dramatic performance, Ezekiel represented Yahweh, and his disposition toward Jerusalem was hostile. The iron griddle symbolized the absolute break in the relationship between Yahweh and his city. Set your face against the city. That declared his disposition, an order Yahweh would repeat in verse 7. What Yahweh had predicted six years earlier was about to be fulfilled, and in so doing, his character, I am Yahweh, I have spoken, I will act as I have spoken, which we've heard four or five times, that's about to be fulfilled. Because that fateful moment had arrived, Yahweh and the prophet could begin to look beyond the holocaust of 586 and change the subject from warnings of judgment upon Israel and Judah to the brighter future that lay beyond the judgment. However, perhaps because it would be too jarring emotionally to move directly from chapter 24 to the restoration oracles of chapters 34 to 48, whoever collected Ezekiel's prophecies and put them into this book placed a huge buffer between the announcement of Jerusalem's imminent fall on January 587 and the incredibly blessed gospel prophecies of renewal and revitalization that we will encounter at the end of the book. In those chapters, the prophet looked into the distant future and saw Yahweh bringing Israel back to the promised land from their exile, reestablishing his covenant with them, installing a Davidic Messiah over them, and taking up residence among them forever. This would indeed be the good, good news. We could say super good news. But between the bad, bad news of chapters 1 to 4, to which we devoted the previous sessions, and the good, good news of 34 to 48, we encounter this buffer, chapters 25 to 32, and actually 33, which I call the bad, good news. What we will hear in these oracles will be horrific news for the nations. But for Israel, this will be incredibly good news because Yahweh was taking care of, and I'm using that expression rhetorically, he was taking care of Israel's enemies all around. Hence my title, the bad good news for Israel. When we look at the structure and design of the oracles against foreign nations, we notice an intentional mind at work. So let's take a quick survey of the next eight chapters in which we find Yahweh, the God of Israel, focusing on the nations around Israel and announcing judgment on them. Ezekiel was not the only prophet to devote a series of oracles to the place of the nations in Yahweh's agenda. Obadiah's entire prophecy was directed against the Edomites. Nahum's oracles were against the bloody city of Nineveh. But we find collections of oracles against the nations in Amos 1 3 to 2 8, Isaiah 13 to 23, and Jeremiah 46 to 51 58. When we compare these lists of targets of divine fury with Ezekiel's targets, perhaps the biggest surprise is the absence of Babylon in Ezekiel. Compare that with Isaiah and Jeremiah. Ezekiel has no separate oracle against Babylon. The closest he came was in 21 30 to 32. Return it to its sheath in the place where you were created in the land of your origin. There I will judge you, and I will pour out my wrath upon you, and with the fire of my fury I will blow upon you. I will deliver you into the hands of barbarians, experts in destruction. You will be consigned as fuel for the fire. Your blood will be poured out in the midst of the land. You shall not be remembered, for I am Yahweh. I have spoken. That's all we have in Ezekiel, which contrasts sharply with Jeremiah, who devoted two chapters to Babylon alone, exceeding in length by 100 words all of Ezekiel's seven oracles against Egypt. Ezekiel's silence on Babylon was undoubtedly grounded in his pro-Babylonian stance in political matters. To this prophet, Babylon was the sword in Yahweh's hand, executing his judgment on Judah, and anyone who stood against Babylon stood against Yahweh. Indeed, the objects of divine wrath in his list seem to have been selected deliberately, not only because they celebrated the demise of Judah, as we will see, but also because they resisted Nebuchadnezzar, and in so doing they stood in the divinely ordained path. This would also account for the inordinate attention he gave to Tyre and Egypt, who represented the principal obstacles to Nebuchadnezzar's fulfillment of his divinely designed mission. The common denominator of these nations was not only that they resisted Babylon's incursion into western Asia and northern Africa, but also because they were enemies of Israel. These divine pronouncements of judgment upon them served as backhanded messages of hope for Israel. In terms of the amount of space devoted to the nations in Ezekiel, like the book itself, these prophecies divide into two identically sized segments. Ezekiel's oracles against the nations consist of two parts, seven targets of Yahweh's fury, ten mini-oracles, and then seven oracles against Egypt, the big boy. This incredibly symmetrical arrangement reflects Ezekiel the priest's sense of order in the universe generally. We can grasp the prophet's rhetorical strategy in this section if we plot the sequence on the map. Like Amos's oracles against the nations, Ezekiel's appear to be geographically arranged. In the first half, 25 to 28, the prophet begins by gazing directly to the east to Ammon, Bnei Ammon, the Ammonites, and then he moves in a clockwise direction, dealing successively with Moab, south of Ammon, then Edom, south of Moab, then he turns to the northwest to Philistia, and then to Tyre, and to Sidon in the north. It's deliberate. This may explain in part why he had Sidon, 28, 20 to 24, after Tyre, even though in length it resembles the first four. However, he seemed to have had other reasons as well, as we will see in a moment. At the same time, the oracles of chapters 25 to 32 exhibit extraordinary symmetry and balance, evidence of intelligent design, and a lofty theological agenda. This is a teeter-totter, a seesaw, whatever we call it, with each of the two halves, the oracles against the many nations first, and then the oracles against Egypt, both of which consist of exactly 97 verses. That's remarkable. I haven't counted the words, and I don't know if it matches that closely, but that is remarkable. Structurally, the prophecies of the first half divide into four parts, five short oracles against four nations, two fully developed oracles against Tyre, the state, the city, then two medium-length oracles against the king of Tyre, 28, and then finally a short oracle against Sidon, 28, 20 to 23. Instead of beginning at the beginning in chapter 25, I propose to leapfrog over these five mini-oracles in chapters 25 and the four oracles against Tyre and its king and take the last oracle against Sidon and the following commentary as my point of departure. I do this for two reasons. First, in terms of structure, the oracle against Sidon is the simplest. But second, and more importantly, the oracle introduces us to the fulcrum of this teeter-totter, that is, the oracles against the nations as a whole, offering the theological lens through which we need to interpret the whole package. Verses 20 to 23 of chapter 28 function as the right lens for our glasses dealing with the divine point of view, while verses 24 to 26 function as the left lens of our glasses from Israel's point of view. Once we recognize this, chapters 25 to 28, 19, this will make more sense. So let's begin with the prophecy against Sidon, chapter 28, verses 20 to 22a. This short literary piece is set off as a separate unit by a series of stereotypical prophetic formulas which actually take up almost half the space. The following word of Yahweh came to me, human, direct your face towards Sidon and prophesy against her and say, thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, look, say, thus has the Lord Yahweh declared. We have heard variations of all of these before, some many times. For the sake of our hearers who are listening to this series of lectures or watching them, whose primary concern is these oracles and who have not followed us through chapters 1 to 24, a brief review may be helpful. We will keep hearing these in the future. The following word of Yahweh came to me, translated literally, the word of Yahweh happened to me saying, we call this the word event formula. The word appears as a contract object that talks but was sent from God in heaven to Ezekiel. This signals the prophet's moment of divine inspiration. Second, by addressing Ezekiel as human, ben adam, literally, son of man, God reminded the prophet and us readers that he was addressing an earthling, a human earthling, rather than an angelic member of the heavenly court. It also reminded the prophet that in God's view, Ezekiel was part of his earthly environment. That should have kept him humble. Yes, he reported many encounters with God, but he was to resist the temptation we will observe in chapter 8, where the king of Tyre pompously boasted, I am divine. There God reminded him, no, you're not. You are human. You are not divine. For the king of Tyre to imagine that he was divine did not make him divine. And Ezekiel was reminded of this more than 100 times in the book. A third formula, set your face against, in this case, Sidon. We call this the hostile orientation formula, set your face against. This set of oracles against the four nations had opened with, son of man, set your face toward Bnei Amon, the Ammonites. However, we had heard an even stronger version in 4-2, way back then, fix your face toward the city. In that case, Jerusalem. The expansion reflects the rhetorical situation in which the speaker sets his face, and probably in Ezekiel's case, he may well have geographically or physically turned to his hypothetical audience way out there beyond the desert. In the present case, Ezekiel did not travel to Sidon or preach to the Sidonians. His primary audience was his fellow exiles. Perhaps he had a big map on the ground, but God gave his message to the prophet to pass on to his fellow exiles so they might know what God was up to with respect to Israel's enemies. He probably turned toward Sidon physically like Daniel would turn toward Jerusalem whenever he prayed in Babylon, Daniel 6-10. Fourth, and prophesy against her. Here the preposition is determinative. This was not just a message to Sidon or about Sidon. It was against Sidon, which was the target of Yahweh's anger. Fifth, and say, thus has Adonai Yahweh declared. This is the citation formula, as is the case with our oral speech. Written Hebrew compositions do not include quotation marks. If we are quoting someone else's words, we say something like, my mother said, I have told you a million times not to exaggerate. In print, we have quotation marks. Well, Ezekiel began his oracles with this formula so that his audience would know that he was not composing this speech. It is, in effect, God's voice that they heard from his mouth. Sixth, look, hinei, archaically, behold. Technically, this was an optical expression, see with your eyes rather than oral, hear with your ears as in the Shema. Hear, O Israel, our God is Yahweh. With this word, the speaker appealed for the audience's attention and challenged them to perceive, that is, see reality as God sees it. That reality took up most of the rest of this chapter, that is, chapter 28. But the prophecy itself breaks down into two parts. There is the message against Sidon, which is cast in semi-poetic language, verses 22b to 23. It's very short. And then the significance of the message for Israel in prophetic prose, verses 24 to 26. So, the prophetic message against Sidon, verses 22b to 23. Look, I am against you, O Sidon. I will display my glory in your midst, and they will know that I am Yahweh when I inflict punishments on her and display my holiness in her midst. I will send the pestilence against her and bloodshed into her streets, and the slain will fall in her midst, cut down by the sword attacking from all sides. Then they will know that I am Yahweh. Now, why should Ezekiel have had a message for Sidon at all? Well, perhaps it was because along with Tyre, Sidon remained in Canaanite hands after the conquest under Joshua and was never occupied by the tribe of Asher, to whom it was assigned in Joshua 19.28. Would Yahweh now finally solve that problem, drive Sidon out and give it to the Israelites? Well, Ezekiel's later tribal allotments, his map in chapter 48, have little to do with the original situation. More likely, this was Yahweh's response to Sidon's participation in the anti-Babylonian alliance at the beginning of Zedekiah's reign, as reported by Jeremiah. In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, the word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, Yahweh. Thus the Lord said to me, make yourself straps and yoke bars and put them on your neck. Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of Bnei Amon, 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. There is the king of Sidon. Unfortunately, we know very little about Ezekiel's international prophetic agenda. Given the lack of substance in this oracle, it's also conceivable that Sidon was included here to fill up the predetermined quota of seven targets, to match the seven targeted oracles against Egypt in chapters 29 to 32. In any case, we learn nothing about Yahweh's real complaint with this city here, that it's a city state with its own king. We will learn of Tyre's and Egypt's evils in detail later. But since Ezekiel did not list Sidon's crimes here, we do not know what triggered Yahweh's fury. In earlier times, Sidon was the premier Phoenician city, a fact reflected in the table of nations in Genesis 10, which omits Tyre altogether, but lists Sidon as the firstborn of Canaan, verse 15. In the first testament, the Gentilic Sidonians often stood for the Phoenicians, as it did in Homer, who used the words interchangeably. Whereas since Solomon's time, Sidon had lived in Tyre's shadow, after the Babylonian conquests, Sidon was able to recover more quickly and regained her superior position among Phoenician cities above Tyre. Had Ezekiel not named Sidon as the addressee, we would not have guessed this oracle was directed at this city. The divine words against her are so general, they could have been pronounced against any of the nations addressed in chapters 25 to 32, as well as many that receive no attention in the book. Well, this reinforced the significance of this oracle. The general pronouncements in verses 22 to 23, and the specific concern for the fate of Israel in verses 24 to 26, summarize Yahweh's purpose in dealing with all the nations, to display his glory and holiness to the world. The oracle itself consists of three elements. First, Yahweh's word to Sidon. When Ezekiel opened his mouth, Yahweh spoke directly to Sidon, his hypothetical audience. Look, I am against you, O Sidon, I will display my glory in your midst. Yes? As Adonai Yahweh, the Lord Yahweh, the sovereign, he had the freedom and authority to address anyone he chose. The Phoenicians worshipped their own lifeless gods, but in the end, Yahweh determined their, that is, the Phoenicians' fates. They had arrayed themselves against Yahweh, the God of Israel, and the maker of heaven and earth, as Jonah reminded the Phoenician sailors in Jonah 1, 9. But with the second line, I will display my glory in your midst, Yahweh issued a direct challenge to the gods of Sidon to stand up against him, Yahweh, on the city's behalf. Now, in the ancient world, capital cities were viewed not only as a reflection of the glory of the king who ruled there, but especially of the glory of the patron deity of the place. In effect, Yahweh declared, let the God of this place dare to stop me. That's his word to Sidon. In verses 22C to 23, we have the words about Sidon. Switching to the third person, in verse 22C to 23, the prophet spoke as if Sidon was that other entity out there. I will display my glory in your midst, and then he switches, and they will know that I am Yahweh when I inflict my punishments on her and display my holiness in her midst. I will send pestilence against her and bloodshed into her streets, and the slain will fall in her midst, that is, be cut down by the sword, attacking her from all sides. Then they will know that I am Yahweh. Notice Sidon is no longer the addressee. We may imagine the prophet, after those opening lines, I am against you, O Sidon, that the prophet turned around to his actual audience to inform them of the significance of Sidon's fate. However, whereas Western logic typically moves from cause to effect, here Yahweh began with the effect, and then he declared the cause. I propose for the moment to go with Western logic and look at the first actions of Yahweh, and then at the effect they produce. What does the Lord do against Sidon? According to verse 23, Yahweh will inflict punishment by dispatching, sending agents of death, pestilence, devor, bloodshed, tam, and sword, herev, from earlier lists of agents at the Lord's disposal, or should we say, in Yahweh's arsenal. We are familiar with pestilence, famine, and the sword. Sometimes they add wild animals, as we saw in 14.12-22. But the verb dispatch, commission, send, was used elsewhere of kings sending envoys, or Yahweh sending Moses, or prophets to proclaim his word for them. In the account of Ezekiel's call, the word appeared five times, the Lord is sending Ezekiel. In Sidon and the other nations around, the people thought that these disasters were all caused by specific demons dispatched by Mot, the god of death who ruled from the netherworld. However, in the scriptures, Yahweh exercised full control over them. They were not independent powers, nor agents of some other deity, but weapons in Yahweh's arsenal. The good news here for Ezekiel's people was that the agents that Yahweh had dispatched against his own people would in the end stand up for them and attack their enemies. Ezekiel emphasizes the divine causation without reference to human agency, certainly without reference to demonic agency, so that when the slaughter had been completed, the Sidonians too will acknowledge Yahweh as the sovereign lord of their own history. We have little information on Sidon's actual fall to Nebuchadnezzar, but it is reasonable to suppose that this city succumbed with the rest of the mainland. However, we do have external confirmation of the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy in Nebuchadnezzar II's court register, which names the king of Sidon along with other notables from conquered states as residents in Babylon. So he must have conquered them at one point and brought their king here as he had done with Jehoiakim from Jerusalem. The remainder of the oracle, verses 24 to 26, dismisses Sidon altogether and focuses instead on Ezekiel's own people and the effect Yahweh's judgment of the nations will have on her welfare. Finally, let's notice the theological goals of Yahweh's action. Although expressed in terms of the effect of Yahweh's action on Sidon, the recognition formula in the middle of verse 22 and repeated at the end of verse 23 declares the goal. Then they, Sidon, will know that I am Yahweh. The repetition highlights this as the primary agenda. Yahweh's concern truly was to reveal himself to the Sidonians as he had centuries earlier to the Egyptians during the Exodus, that they might know that I am Yahweh. He sent all those plagues in Egypt. Now, because the peoples around Israel were ignorant about their own gods, the gods didn't actually reveal themselves, it was left to their imaginations to create images that corresponded to their ideas, their imaginations, and then hope that their gods would be positively impressed. But they never knew whether or not their imaginations were accurate or acceptable to their gods because their gods neither spoke nor actually acted in history. Not so with Israel's God. Paying no respect to international borders, Yahweh would invade Sidonian space and reveal himself there. But what would the Sidonians learn about Yahweh? Although Ezekiel did not answer this question explicitly, based on this prediction, they should have learned that, one, he was the only true and living God. Two, he had come to visit them, and that visit was not pleasant. And three, when he spoke, he kept his word. However, in this oracle, Yahweh informed Ezekiel's audience what they should have grasped about them. What was that? Well, first, he would display his glory in their midst. This form of the verb, nikbaddi, occurs elsewhere in Ezekiel, only in 39.13, I will display my glory. And it bears a reflexive sense. I will show myself glorious. For an illustration of its meaning, we need only to read Exodus 14.4, 17 to 18, where the crossing of the Red Sea and the drowning of the Egyptians had been deliberately planned by Yahweh that he might display his glory to Pharaoh. The narrator writes, God's speech, he says, I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, that is, the Israelites, and I will show myself glorious through Pharaoh and all his hosts, and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh, and I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, so they will go in after them, and I will show myself glorious through Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots, and his horsemen, and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh, when I have shown myself glorious over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen. The Hebrew word for glory, kavod, comes from a root, meaning to be heavy, weighty with majesty. Here it spoke of the weight of the transcendent, divine, royal majesty. Earlier in Ezekiel 28, the king of Tyre had gloated in his wealth, his wisdom, and beauty, but everything he possessed was a gift from Yahweh and paled in significance compared to the infinite glory of God himself. As Ezekiel himself had experienced by the river Kibar in chapter 1, this was the sort of glory that drove him down on his face in submission and homage. God would show his glory. Second, through Yahweh's execution of judgment in Sidon, by sending his agents of destruction and death, he would display his holiness. Now we have the Nephal form of the verb nikdashti, which is the same form as we had seen for his displaying glory. I will display my holiness. Now the present text doesn't elaborate, but presumably this meant cleaning up the ethical and spiritual cesspool that was Sidon, purging it of evil. However, it will also have involved the vindication of his sacred name, which has been desecrated among the nations to which the Israelites had been scattered. In typical Ezekielian style, he dropped the subject here, but he would pick it up later and develop in full detail in chapter 36 verses 16 to 32. Since the reputation of the God of a place or the people was always implicated in the demise of his people, it's not surprising that Yahweh was concerned about his glory and his holiness. Here, too, the proof of his majesty would be seen in his intervention in human affairs to destroy the enemies of his people. His actions against Sidon were intended to declare to the world that he was the one true and living God, infinitely glorious in majesty and power, and absolutely holy in his character, his hatred of evil, and his commitment to the good. So much for the message to and for Sidon. What about the message for Israel? The tone changes and the focus changes in verses 24 to 26. The prophet writes, the Lord's words, of course, The family of Israel will never again suffer from prickling briars or painful thorns inflected by any of their neighbors who have treated them with contempt, and they will know that I am the Lord Yahweh. Thus has the Lord Yahweh declared. When I regather the family of Israel from the peoples among whom they have been dispersed, I will display my holiness through them in the sight of the nations. Then they will live on their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob, and they will live on it securely. They will build houses and plant vineyards. They will live securely when I have inflicted punishments upon all from the surrounding peoples who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am Yahweh their God. Interestingly here, the Septuagint, the Greek translation adds, and the God of their ancestors. With this paragraph, it becomes clear that Sidon was not Yahweh's or the prophet's primary audience. This oracle was for their own people's consumption, the Israelite exiles. I noted earlier that verses 24 to 26 function as a hinge between the two remarkably balanced complexes of oracles directed against the six nations, ten oracles against six nations on the one hand, 25-1 to 28-23, and then Egypt, seven oracles against a single nation, 29 to 32. However, theologically, this fragment of theological reflection provides the key to interpreting all of these oracles and why they're even in the Bible. What was their significance for Ezekiel, his rhetorical audience, his fellow exiles? In announcing the doom of Israel's enemies, the prophet offered hope to them. All was not lost. Yahweh, the Lord of cosmic history, remained firmly committed to their well-being and restoration, and he was certainly firmly seated on his throne. Sidon seems out of the picture in verse 24. And with his use of the plural pronouns, the prophet appears to have had in mind all the nations that he had dealt with in chapters 25-28. This statement announces the end to the pain caused by the derision, the mocking, the schadenfreude of all of Israel's neighbors, literally all their surroundings. In our next lesson, we will see how this was expressed. But for now, notice these excerpts from chapter 25. In chapter 25-3, we have, 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, there he's talking against Bnei Amon. Then 25-6, because you clapped your hands and stamped your feet and celebrated with utter contempt over the land of Israel, that's talking to Edom. Then 25-8, because Moab and Seir say, look, the house of Judah is just like all the nations. That's against Moab and Seir, which is a cipher for Edom as well. 25-15, because the Philistines have acted with vengeance and taken bitter revenge with utter contempt, destroying with everlasting enmity, that is the Philistines. And then finally 26-2, because Tyre exclaims against Jerusalem, aha, she's broken, the gateway of the peoples, she's been turned over to me, I will be satisfied, she has been laid waste. Well, in effect, as the Babylonians were destroying Jerusalem, these other nations had stood by with their own version of our own para-linguistic na-na-na-na-na-na. Verse 24 represented a glorious gospel for Ezekiel's people because it announced the end of the insults they had endured from their enemies. Two parallel figures of speech described the pain. The derision was comparable to the jabs of prickling briars and noxious thorny weeds that cause intense pain. And with the recognition formula at the end of verse 24, then they will know that I am Yahweh, Ezekiel reminded the audience that although Yahweh's intervention on behalf of his people reaffirmed their special status, he did so for his own namesake. They may take hope in the announcement of the end of abuse, but Yahweh's ultimate goal was the recognition of his person and the confession of his involvement in human affairs. The Israelites cannot get too preoccupied with it. Again, aren't we special? Aren't we special? No, it's not actually about you. It's about the name of the Lord. Opening with, thus has Adonai declared at the beginning of verse 25, we reach the climax of this section. The prophet had two pieces of good news for the people. First, he announced that one day in the end, Yahweh would put his Humpty Dumpty together again. He will reconstitute the nation of Israel in two phases. First, he will regather the dispersed population. We've had lots of hints of this earlier, and we will see full-blown developments of it in chapters 34 and 36 and 37 and 38 and 39. And he will bring them back to their homeland. By homeland, he meant the territory Yahweh had given to my servant Jacob, an expression that referred narrowly to the patriarch, but also carried a national sense, especially in restoration prophecies in Isaiah and Jeremiah, these references to my servant Jacob, a cipher for Israel and her ancestor. After spending their exile in Mesopotamia, the region from which Abraham had come in the first place, from the mouth of Yahweh, my servant, vassal Jacob, announced the restoration of a broken relationship. The people of Yahweh would be serving him again in the land they had received as their grant from him under Joshua. Second, picking up on verse 22, Ezekiel announced the public manifestation of Yahweh's holiness. The divine patron of Israel, whose name had been brought into disrepute through the rebellion and immorality and the calamity of his people, will be vindicated. How this will be accomplished, the prophet will develop later in chapter 36, 16 to 32. Verse 26 summarizes the significance of Yahweh's intervention on Israel's behalf. Instead of suffering the insults of the nations among whom they were scattered, Yahweh's people would dwell securely in their own land, a theme he will unpack fully in 34, 25 to 31. But see also 38, 8, 11, 14, and then 39, 26. Here Yahweh reinforced the theme with concrete symbols of security. They will construct houses and plant vineyards. He may have borrowed these images from Jeremiah, who encouraged the exiles to settle down in Babylon for a long haul. Yahweh has sent to us in Babylon saying, your exile will be long. Build houses, live in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce. That's what Jeremiah had advised against other false prophets who were saying, don't even bother to unpack your suitcases, you're coming home soon. The concluding comments reaffirmed the role of Yahweh in Israel's restoration. He was the one who would solve the problems created by nasty neighbors, and when he had restored Israel, then they too would know Yahweh in a new and fresh way. The reconstitution of the nation will be the work of God and God alone. When he resumed his patron role, his people would be impressed, not with their own achievements, but with Yahweh who had intervened on their behalf. On the surface, the effect would be the same as the effect of his judgment on the nations as it had been when he had sent Nebuchadnezzar, but this time they will be beneficiaries of his amazing grace, glory, and holiness. As we had witnessed in the judgment oracles against Judah and Jerusalem, this mini-prophecy here at the end of chapter 28 affirmed several basic theological principles. First, no nation stands outside the scope of divine sovereignty. It's easy for us to stand back and clap our hands with na-na-na-na-na when the Lord visits our enemy nations with his judgment, as the Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines had done. However, we need to be careful about how we treat other victims of divine judgment, imagining ourselves to be immune from the divine fury and smug in the prosperity we enjoy. Our nation is in crisis, and if we look to our political parties to solve the problems, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment in them and complicity in their crimes. And yes, there is plenty in the policies of both major parties to provoke the ire of the Lord. Our eyes should be open to the evils they represent and to the evil that we as citizens tolerate and promote. But Yahweh sees everything. Second, God keeps his covenant. Ezekiel's people were languishing in exile, but God had not forgotten his promises to the ancestors, whether the patriarchs or the Exodus generation of their descendants. Accordingly, a holistic vision of Israel's future must involve both a restoration of her status as Yahweh's servant and a return to the land promised centuries ago. We'll have much more to say about that in the future. Third, when the Lord intervenes in human affairs, he does so not to make us feel good about ourselves. We will hear Ezekiel talk a lot about that later. But that our eyes and the eyes of the world would be open to see him in his glory and his holiness. A recognition of this principle will deliver God's people from an undue anthropocentrism that views the world as revolving around ourselves. As affirmed by Jesus Christ's own prayer, the agenda that drives God and should motivate the people is his people is the sanctity of his name. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. And that's also the recognition of his sovereignty. Both are affected by the well-being of those who claim to be his people. The combination of Yahweh's glory and holiness in the context of the nations is celebrated in Psalm 96. Sing a new song to Yahweh. Let the whole earth sing to Yahweh. Sing to Yahweh. Praise his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves. Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does. Great is Yahweh. He is most worthy of praise. He is to be feared above all gods. The gods of other nations are mere idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty surround him. Strength and beauty fill his sanctuary. O nations of the world, recognize Yahweh. Give to Yahweh the glory he deserves. Bring your offering and come into his courts. Worship Yahweh in all his holy splendor. Let all the earth tremble before him. Tell all the nations, Yahweh reigns. The world stands firm and cannot be shaken. He will judge all peoples fairly. When you read it like that with the name Yahweh, it begins to make sense. We're dealing with the nations. They called their gods their Lord as well, which is why the translation the Lord, even if it's in all capital letters, is really misleading when you hear it. This is the personal name of the God of Israel, who is the God of the universe. Well, what does this new vision of his glory and holiness call for? Well, hear Isaiah's answer. And one called to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is the fullness of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, oy vey, woe is me for I'm lost, I'm done. I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh Zebooth, the Lord of heaven's armies. This vision of God's glory and holiness calls for prostration, submission, and homage. But once again, we need to remind ourselves that the God of ancient Israel hasn't gone into hiding. On the contrary, he has revealed himself to humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we observed his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.In the words of Paul, although Jesus humbled himself even to the death of the cross, God the Father has highly exalted and bestowed on him the name that is above every knee, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, yes, but Yahweh to the glory of God the Father. He wins in the end, and he displays his glory. May that inspire us in our service for him.