Ezekiel - Lesson 24

Lesson 24, When God Does Not Cry. Subtitle, The End Is In Sight. Ezekiel 24, 1-2 and 15-27. It's appropriate that as we reach the end of the first half of the book of Ezekiel that we pause to reflect on how far we have come. This is our 24th session on this series on Ezekiel, which to this point we have been discussing under the general heading, When God Abandons His People. Before we look at 24, 15-27, we need to review where we are in the book itself and where we are in the life of Ezekiel, since this is such an intensely personal passage for the prophet. We may answer the first question with a graph of the book, which divides precisely in the middle between messages of judgment against Judah and messages of hope for Judah. Whoever put this book together intentionally placed our text at the very end of the first half, for now the prophet would declare explicitly that the end of Jerusalem and the temple and the nation of Judah as we have known it were in sight. Yahweh's predictions of judgment in the preceding chapters were about to be fulfilled. And even as Ezekiel was speaking, Nebuchadnezzar was setting up his armies for the siege of Jerusalem. This chapter had opened with, The following word of Yahweh came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month. Human, record the date, this very date, the king of Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem on this very day, and compose a parable concerning the rebellious house. 24, 1-2. And as for the prophet himself, we may review Ezekiel's story based on information we have in the book by summarizing the critical dates he has provided. First, in 623 B.C. apparently he was born, Ezekiel's birth. Incidentally, the year Josiah's men discovered the long-neglected Torah scroll in the temple coincided with his birth in 623 B.C. July 31, 593, Ezekiel is called to prophetic ministry as a thirty-year-old. August 7, 593, Ezekiel's induction into prophetic priestly ministry. September 18, 592, Ezekiel's first temple vision. August 14, 591, the visit of the elders in Ezekiel's house. This is the oracle of the seven stages of Israel's apostate history, chapter 20, verse 1. January 5, 587, the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem. That's our date. Ezekiel records the day of his wife. This is the day his dear wife died. January 7, 587, Ezekiel's oracle of Egypt's doom, 29-1. July 14, 586, the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians and the raising of the temple, 2 Kings 25, 8. January 8, 585, the fugitives arrives in Babylon with his announcement, the city has fallen, literally been struck. April 28, 573, Ezekiel's greatest vision of the new temple compound and Israel's complete restoration in 40, verse 1, all the way through to the end of chapter 48. But his last dated oracle, April 26, 571, an oracle against Egypt, as we will see later on, 29-17. The present oracle and personal tragedy struck Ezekiel exactly 10 years after he and his wife had been taken captive into Babylon, and six years after Yahweh had conscripted and ordained him for prophetic priestly ministry to the exile settled at Tel Aviv by the Kemar Canal. Although Ezekiel had been totally isolated and his messages were rejected by his countrymen, for six years when he had no other friends, his wife had stood faithfully by him. And now, on the darkest day of all for his ministry, the day that Yahweh revealed to him that Nebuchadnezzar was setting up the siege of Jerusalem, now the word came from God that he was taking his wife from him, the darkest day personally. What a price to pay for serving Yahweh. But with this as background, we may turn to our text, which informs us that this passage was not really about Ezekiel's grief over the loss of his wife. That was intense, but it pointed to a far more consequential grief, Yahweh's grief over the loss of the temple, his loss of his people, and the devastation of his land. The grenade had been tossed into the covenant triangle, and we're all waiting for the explosion. What can we say about the nature and genre of this prophecy, Ezekiel 24, 15 to 27? The kind of prophecy we have here is established by the key word, mofeith, omen, portent, usually translated as sign. This word, mofeith, appears twice. Verse 24, Ezekiel will be an omen for you. Verse 27, you will be an omen for them. God is talking to Ezekiel here, and they will know that I am Yahweh. Those who have tracked with us in this course of lectures on Ezekiel from the beginning may recognize that this oracle displays many links with another sign action portending the capture of Zedekiah in 12, 1 to 20. The context. Both follow a parabolic oracle involving a pot and a disputation speech challenging false claims of security by the people of Jerusalem. Second, the command and execution. Like 12, 1 to 20, but unlike most sign actions, 24, 15 to 24 reports the divine command, and it reports its execution. Three, the key word, sign, omen. The word occurs only four times in the book, twice in chapter 12, 6 and 11, and twice in 24, 24, 27. The time of day. Both accounts describe a night event followed by an explanation in the morning. Five, the response of the people. Both texts cite the audience request for an explanation of the prophet's action, but we see this also in 21, 12 and 37, 18 later on. Six, the imitative significance. In 12, 11, Ezekiel said, I am your omen. Just as I have done, so it will be done to them. Into exile, into captivity, they will go. In our text, the prophet says, you will do as I have done. Verse 22, and Ezekiel will be an omen for you, just as he has done, so you will do when it comes. And that's a scary it, when it comes. In terms of structure, this text divides into three parts. The first involves Yahweh's announcement of the omen concerning Jerusalem's imminent fate, verses 15 to 17. The second, an account of the fulfillment of the omen, verses 18 to 24. And the third, Yahweh's interpretation of the significance of the acted riddle and its fulfillment for Ezekiel, though the language Yahweh used was still very vague and we could say enigmatic. Like so much of Ezekiel's life and his prophecies, this was all one big major riddle, and we scratch our heads trying to solve him and his message. So let's talk about the omen of the end of Jerusalem and the temple, verses 15 to 17. The following message of Yahweh came to me, human, look, with a stroke I am taking from you the delight of your eyes, but you must not wail, you must not weep, your tears must not flow, groan, bewail the dead, but do not perform mourning rites, bind your turban, put on your put sandals on your feet, do not cover your mustache, do not eat the meal of mourning. The opening of this oracle must have seemed like a cruel nightmare to Ezekiel. Out of the blue, Yahweh arrested his attention with a shocking announcement, human, look, with a stroke I am taking from you the delight of your eyes. Well, at least the Lord could have spoken in plain English, or should we say plain Hebrew. Instead he tortured his prophet with a riddle, I am taking the delight of your eyes, with a single stroke. Apparently Ezekiel knew immediately what he meant by the delight of your eyes, his prized possession, his darling, his beloved, his wife. Judging by the responses to his prophesying in the hostile world of the Babylonian exiles, she was the only friend he had. To understand his situation, we may compare him with his senior contemporary in Jerusalem, who had the opposite problem. God forbade Jeremiah from marrying, chapter 16, too, but at least he had friends, several key friends in high places in Jerusalem. Earlier, King Josiah, for whom he had the privilege of writing the obituary and the memorial lamentation. And then there was Baruch, and Shaphan, and Sariah, and Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, who rescued Jeremiah from the cistern. By contrast, Ezekiel had no friends, but he had a wife, until in his own darkest professional moment, Yahweh took her from him. This brief note gives us a rare glimpse into the private life of the prophet. There was obviously no glamour to this office. Serving Yahweh was tough, and what God demanded of him was pain, and rejection, and sacrifice. As we will see, he was literally filling up what was lacking in Yahweh, later on incarnate in Jesus Christ, Colossians 1.24. After this, apparently Ezekiel would have no one with whom to share his load. But from a natural point of view, Ezekiel must have felt initially that Yahweh was doubly cruel. First he took his wife, and then he prohibited him from mourning her death, verses 16 to 17. But you must not wail, you must not weep, your tears must not flow, do not observe mourning rites, bind your turban, put your sandals on your feet, don't cover your mustache, wear a face mask, do not eat the meal of mourning. These were all normal response to grief, especially at the death of a loved one. In addition to loosing the turban, walking barefoot, covering the mustache, literally wrap it, which meant veiling the lower part of the face to the upper lip as a sign of grief, and not eating morning meals with family and friends who came to share his grief. The word for mourning rites here, evil, would have included donning sackcloth, could have included donning sackcloth, sprinkling ashes or dust on one's head, shaving the beard and the hair of one's head, lying on the ground. But God forbade Ezekiel from all expressions of mourning. Instead, the prophet was to wear his sandals, keep his face exposed, go out to McDonald's or McDavid's and pretend like nothing had happened. Having delivered this message during the height of the COVID-19 epidemic, everyone knew about isolation and wearing face masks. One of the hardest elements of the shutdown involved isolating family members from those who were in hospice and from those who had died. At a time when people needed community more desperately, it seemed criminal. Those who are dying cannot hold the hands of those they love and those whose loved ones cannot be at their sides as they pass through this dark, unknown journey. When people grieve, they need others to stand with them, not to mouth trite theological clichés, but simply to hold their hands, to break bread together, to share the pain. But Ezekiel was denied all of these. Yahweh forbade him from publicly expressing grief over the loss of his wife. Well, in verses 18 to 24, we have the fulfillment of the omen. Notice first the principal characters adhering to the script, verses 18 to 19. So I spoke to the people in the morning, my wife having died in the evening. In the morning, as I had been commanded, then the people asked me, won't you tell us what these things mean for us that you are acting this way? Well, the fulfillment of the omen actually involved two elements. First, Yahweh, the primary character in this drama, kept his word and took Ezekiel's wife that night. That's verse 18. Second, the secondary character performed as prescribed. He appeared in public without showing any signs of grief. Almost matter-of-factly, in verse 18, Ezekiel reported, so I spoke to the people in the morning, my wife having died in the evening. In the morning, I did as I had been commanded. In Hebrew, he does not even start with, that evening my wife died. And in the morning, I talked with the people and acted exactly as the drama coach had instructed me. No. The first thing he mentions is, so I spoke to the people. Doesn't even talk about his wife's death. The most important item on the prophet's mind was fulfilling his prophet's commission. He spoke to the people in the morning as he was commanded, apparently as if nothing consequential had happened overnight. And by the way, that evening, his wife had died. That's how the Hebrew reads. It's no wonder the people asked, won't you tell us what these things mean for us that you are acting this way? But they were, in fact, as heartless as Ezekiel appeared. Remarkably, they didn't ask, Ezekiel, why are you not grieving? Your wife has suddenly died. Your grief and pain have to be intense. Can we sit with you? How can we comfort you? But look at their cynical response. Won't you tell us what these things mean for us that you are acting this way? They knew he was acting strange, but by now they also knew in everything Ezekiel did and said in public, he had a message for them. And as always, Ezekiel would not disappoint on that count. And so in 20 to 24, we have the interpretation of the sign act for the people. Of course, without interpretation, Ezekiel's audience could not know the meaning of his bizarre response to Mrs. Ezekiel's death. They could propose solutions to this riddle, but in the end, the only interpretation that mattered was the playwright's intended meaning and the interpretation they heard from the lips of the prophet must have shocked them. Ezekiel's interpretation began with the declaration of the meaning of the sign act. The following word of Yahweh has come to me, say to the house of Israel, thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, look, I am desecrating my sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes and the passion of your life. And your sons and daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword. Now the prose part of this interpretation involves two critical elements. First, Ezekiel had declared on several occasions that back in Jerusalem, the children of the people and the children of those still at home, the children of those who were in exile with him in Babylon, they would all be slapped, slaughtered in the disaster about to strike. Look at 517 and 96. Indeed, Nebuchadnezzar's forces were already setting up for it. In verse 25, he added, surely on the day I take away their stronghold, their pride and joy, the delight of their eyes and the inspiration of their lives, their sons and daughters. Oh dear, these people watching and listening to the prophet will lose what was most precious to them, their sons and daughters back home. But there would be no funeral services, no opportunity to mourn or weep. They would respond to that event the way Ezekiel responded to the death of his wife. However, the shocker for the people would be not the death of their children, but a far more momentous event, the destruction of the temple as Yahweh would declare in verse 25, on the day I take away their stronghold, their pride and joy, the delight of their eyes and the passion of their beings, that is, their sons and daughters. These were words we would expect parents to use when talking about their children. As Yahweh had spoken about Ezekiel's wife, she was the delight of his eyes. Similar, their children were their pride and joy, and literally, their joyful glory, that is, the glory and inspiration of their being, the lifting up of their souls, literally. This was what the exiles were about to lose. However, the real shocker had come earlier in verse 20, where Yahweh had applied all these expressions to the temple. Here rendered, my sanctuary. And what was perverse was the people's relationship to the temple. Addressing the exiles, Ezekiel declared that Yahweh's sanctuary was the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes and the passion of their being. Here, machmal, passion, functions as a variant of massa, the burden, the inspiration of your being. We all know what these expressions mean. Our children are our pride and joy. They are what drive us, and their well-being is our highest priority, and when they thrive, I mean, we're so happy. However, as noted in verse 21, as far as Yahweh was concerned, passion for children had been diverted to passion for the temple. In fact, he will end this statement with a reference to the exiles' children, but they will be simply victims of the coming slaughter, and the people won't care. All they cared about was the temple. It was their stronghold, their good luck charm, their symbol of security, and their right to divine protection. Here we recognize that in the people's minds, in their doctrine of eternal and divinely and unconditionally guaranteed security, Yahweh's promise concerning the temple was the kingpin. It may be helpful here to remind ourselves of the four pillars of Israelite security, to which they hung on tighter and tighter the closer Nebuchadnezzar's armies came, and now he's setting up his siege works. But no, we are going to be all right. One, Yahweh, the divine patron of Israel, has entered into an eternal covenant with his people. He is obligated to protect us, our people. Two, Yahweh, the divine patron of Israel, had given the nation the land of Canaan as their an eternal territorial possession. He was obligated to protect it. Third, Yahweh, the divine patron of Israel, had promised the Davidic house eternal title to and occupancy of the throne of Israel. He was obligated to protect the king. And four, Yahweh, the divine patron of Israel, had chosen Jerusalem as his eternal residence from which he exercised sovereignty over and distributed blessings to his people. He was obligated to protect them. When Ezekiel, speaking for Yahweh, declared, I am desecrating my sanctuary, your base of security, the people should have sat up and paid attention. When they had been back in Jerusalem, as they walked by the magnificent temple, probably inscribed with, Hey, call Yahweh. The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of Yahweh on the front, their hearts swelled with pride over the magnificence of this monument to Israel's glory that Solomon had built. But their hearts also swelled with confidence because this was the symbol of Yahweh's irrevocable presence among them. God would never let anyone desecrate the sanctuary, let alone destroy it. He will protect his house, and if he protected his house, then the people are all safe. But note what happens here. Yahweh declared, I will desecrate my sanctuary. The pagan Nebuchadnezzar would not be the one to do so. God would do it himself. However, if the people in Ezekiel's audience remembered his first temple vision in chapters 8 to 11, they should have known that they and their people in Jerusalem had been desecrating this temple for a long time with their abominable, idolatrous rituals in Yahweh's house, and by letting anyone enter this hallowed building, and then filling the land with bloodshed and iniquity, a land that should have been full of the holiness and glory of Yahweh emanating from the temple, Isaiah 6.3. But no, Yahweh said he would desecrate his own holy place, which is what the word sanctuary, mikdash, means. But how would he do this? Well, just as the mountain in which Moses had stood and removed his sandals was holy ground because Yahweh had touched down there, so the tabernacle had become a sanctuary when the glory of the Lord entered, Exodus 40, 34 to 38. And so had this magnificent box built by Solomon become Yahweh's sanctuary when the glory entered there, 1 Kings 8, 1 to 11. What would it take for Yahweh to desecrate, desacralize his sanctuary? Simply to leave. As we saw in chapters 8 to 11, once the glory of Yahweh had left the temple and moved off to the east over the mountain there, that building was nothing but a box. God was not obligated to protect this box that was no longer holy. In verses 22 to 23, we have the predicted response of the people. The opening line in verse 22 is the key to Ezekiel's clarification of the significance of the sign action for his audience. They asked, what does it mean for us? Well, let me tell you. In effect, when Yahweh desecrates his sanctuary, you will do as I have done. The script that follows for the people, verses 22 to 23, represents a mirror image of the script that Yahweh had written for Ezekiel in verses 16 to 17, as the following synopsis demonstrates. We should note briefly a couple of minor variations. In their guilt and their iniquity, the exiles will groan and pine away. The verb makah, to rot away, to fester, comes right out of the covenant curses in Leviticus 26.39. To groan, naacham, is used of growling lions in Isaiah 5.29 and Proverbs 28.15. However, the association of rotting away and groaning recalls Proverbs 5.11, which speaks of ultimate groaning when one's flesh and body are consumed. The image was macabre, as if as a corpse you can feel the maggots eating you. However, we must remember that the primary concern in this prophecy was not Ezekiel's or even the exiles' emotional paralysis when the fateful event happened, but Yahweh's disposition toward the collapse of the covenant triangle and especially toward the desecration and destruction of the temple, the people's symbol of security. In that moment, God would not protect either what had been his residents or those who had been his people. In verses 25 to 27, we see Ezekiel identified as an omen of God's refusal to cry when God does not cry. Indeed, this is what would make the events to which the omen pointed so tragic. As for you human, surely, on the day I take away their strangle, their pride and joy, the delight of their eyes, and the inspiration of the lives of their sons and daughters. Notice the addressee in the closing verses. Now, as for you human, now here Yahweh was being pastoral. His prophet had experienced serious grief in the service of the divine agenda, so now he offered him a word of consolation. First, he announced the significance of the event for which Ezekiel had served as an embodied omen, verse 25. Then he predicted that in the wake of the event, a fugitive survivor, Hapalit, from Jerusalem would find his way to Ezekiel's house in Babylon and deliver to the prophet the critical announcement for his ears. On that day, the fugitive will come to you and let your own ears hear it. On that day, your mouth will be opened toward the fugitive and you will speak. You will be done no longer. You will be an omen for them, and they will know that I am Yahweh. This announcement will signal the fulfillment of the historical event to which the omen pointed and would declare the personal significance of that moment for Ezekiel. On that day, the significance of Ezekiel as an omen would be fully realized. Now, this was the third time Yahweh had identified Ezekiel himself as an omen. At first, we thought that Ezekiel's refusal to show any emotion or grief in the face of his wife's death was an omen of what the people would do when they learned that they had lost the delight of their eyes and the passion of their beings, verse 21. And Ezekiel had said, you will do as I have done. And later, Yahweh had said, just as he has done, so you will do when it comes. And you will know that I am Yahweh, verse 24. But why does God not cry in this instance? There was so much more to this omen than a prediction of the people's response to the disaster for Jerusalem that lay ahead. Ezekiel actually also represented Yahweh in this picture, and his wife represented the temple, which was as dear to Yahweh as Ezekiel's wife was to him. But in the face of the destruction of the passion of his very being and the light of his eyes, Yahweh would not cry either. Yahweh would show no grief. But how can this be? Does God have no emotion? Is he a stone that he is unable to delight in his creation or grieve over people's rebellion? After living with Moses in Deuteronomy and Ezekiel in this book and Jesus in the Gospel of John, I find statements like, God does not experience emotional change in any way, I find statements like that confusing and unhelpful. How then are we to take Jesus' response in the face of the death of Lazarus when Jesus saw their weeping? And the Jews who had come with her also weeping. He was intensely agitated in his spirit and greatly disturbed. And he said, where have you laid him? And they said to him, Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. Was Jesus faking passion, emotion to make his friends feel better? No. Jesus wept in grief over his friend Lazarus dying and over the grief that Lazarus' sisters were feeling. This is divine sympathos, sympathy at its glorious best. And Jesus is God incarnate. Well, what are we to make of the references to God's passion, kinah, which he expressed with acts of love or fury, the latter of which we witnessed in his reaction to Israel's persistent apostasy for 24 chapters, especially for their going after other gods. In 3511, Yahweh says of him, therefore, by my life, the declaration of the Lord, I will treat you according to the anger and passion you have shown in your hatred of them. I will make myself known among them when I judge you. And what about Yahweh's explicit declarations about stifling his emotions that we hear repeatedly, as in 511, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and all your abominations. Therefore, I will withdraw my, I will not spare, and I will not pity. Here, God was certainly reacting. To be sure, God has no eyes, and this is metaphorical speech, but for him to resolve not to do something implies that his natural disposition is to do something, to pity and to spare. But based on the correspondence between Ezekiel and his wife and Yahweh in the temple, as he had been in 478, Ezekiel's reaction to the passing of his wife was an omen, an omen of God's reaction to the destruction of the temple. We heard about this earlier in 7, 20-22. They have made his ornamental beauty into a source of pride. With it they created their abominable and disgusting images. Therefore, I will turn it into rubbish. I will hand it over as booty to strangers and as plunder to the most wicked people of the earth, and they will desecrate it. I will turn my face away from them. While they desecrate my treasure, vandals will invade and defile it. In our text, the last verse is particularly telling, on that day when the fugitive comes to tell Ezekiel the city has fallen, your mouth will be open toward the fugitive, and you will speak. You will be done no longer. You will be an omen for them, and they will know that I am Yahweh. This suggests that when the judgment is over, Ezekiel and God will breathe easier, because what had to be done was behind them. But in the meantime, like Ezekiel, in the face of his wife's death, in the face of the impending destruction of the temple, and with it Jerusalem and Judah, the last remnant of the once great nation of Israel, God will not wail or weep. His tears will not flow. He will not cry. He will not display external signs of grief, like mourning rights, taking off his turban, going barefoot, wearing a face mask, or eating a commemorative meal with his heavenly host. Of course, this is metaphorical language, but Ezekiel is a metaphor for God. But the question remains, why does God not weep when his land is invaded by pagans, his temple is trashed, and his people slaughtered? Does he really not experience grief? Here our text provides a clue. You may have noticed that so far we have said nothing about the enigmatic first line of verse 17, groan, moan for the dead. The meaning of the first word, anak, is clear, groan. But the second expression, domei, theme, literally, keep silent the dead. That's obscure. On the surface, this is an oxymoron, groan, but keep silent with respect to the dead. Or as the Jewish interpreter, Shalom Abramski, suggests, groan in deathly silence. Well recently, Mosey Greenberg has solved the problem by recognizing cognates to Hebrew dome in Akkadian, where damamu, from the same root, actually means to moan, sigh, mourn, and Ugaritic damam, where the word actually means, occurs with baka, baki, to weep. This interpretation is reinforced by the corresponding statement in verse 23, which uses a more common word, nakham, to groan. The word is used in this sense in Proverbs 511, at the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and body are consumed. We alluded to this earlier. In short, these two imperatives permit the prophet to sigh and weep inwardly over his wife's death. But God demanded that he stifle any external or ritual expression of mourning. This was important because that was what provoked the people's reaction, which led to Yahweh's interpretation. Verse 23 clarified the situation slightly with the equivalent expression, nakham, to groan, but then Yahweh added, each to his brother. That is, in the privacy of his own family. But no, the public displays of grief. For Ezekiel, this will have been pastorally important. Yahweh was watching out for him. He was not actually to deny his sense of loss, but in the urgency of the moment he was to be declaring the message that God was trying to get across to the people. His sign act was a message for them. If the prophet represented God in this drama, then Yahweh sent a signal to him, but not the people, that of course he was deeply grieved by what was about to happen. We tend to think of the God of the first testament as one who finds great pleasure in beating up on people, and he loves the sight of blood, whether it's the Canaanites or the Assyrians, or as we will see in the next couple of sessions, the Phoenicians and Egyptians and Ammonites and Philistines, or in the present case, if it is the Israelites. But theologian Stephen N. Williams has argued convincingly that yes, God could have commanded the slaughter of the Canaanites, and so applying that in this case, yes, God could command the slaughter of Jerusalem, but no, he would never have done so glibly, arbitrarily, or capriciously. On the contrary, whether the commanding the death of an individual or the death of entire peoples, he would have done this with a very heavy heart. Although the scriptures portray this violence as an appropriate response to revolt against the Creator, God treasures all that he has created, most of all human beings created, especially to function as his image by governing the world on his behalf. The Canaanites were not subhuman species that could be annihilated without remorse. And as for the Israelites, they were his treasured possession, his holy people whom he had chosen to be his covenant people and the agents of grace to the world. Hosea 11 recalls Yahweh's internal struggles over the deserved fate of the northern kingdom 100 years earlier or more. When Israel was a child, I loved them, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them up by their arms, but they didn't know that I was the one who healed them. I led them with cords of kindness and with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and I fed them. But my people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all. But how can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Adma? How can I treat you like Zebulim, two towns that were destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah? My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. They shall go after the Lord. He will roar like a lion, and when he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord. Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One. But we must remember that these texts all have to do with the people. God grieves over the death of people. But what about the destruction of temple? This is just a box. The box made of stone and lumber and decorated with precious metals and Edenic images. Was Jesus cavalier about the temple when he said, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another not made with hands? Was that cavalier? And is Yahweh cavalier in our text? Of course not, on both counts. To grasp this, we need to understand the role of temples in the ancient world and the role of Israel's temple. Jesus spoke of a temple as made with hands. Of course he was referring to Herod's temple, which had none of the legitimacy of the portable temple that was the tabernacle or the Davidic temple built of Solomon at the place where Yahweh had imprinted his name. Herod's temple was a political statement constructed to appease the Jews and ameliorate their antagonism toward him, and there's no record of the glory ever coming into that temple. But Yahweh had never actually taken up residence in Herod's temple. When the curtain was torn in two at the moment of Jesus' death, the emptiness of the holy of holies was exposed. However, both the tabernacle and the original temple were divine projects from the ground up. Yahweh determined the plan. He prescribed the miracles materials. He inspired the people to contribute to the project. He selected the persons to design and construct the buildings. He endowed the craftsmen with special gifts to perform all the tasks necessary for the project. Yahweh endowed all who worked on the project with special spiritual gifts, and Yahweh determined the date the structure was to be erected. But for what purpose? Well, in Israel, the sanctuary, whether portable or permanent, was viewed not only as the residence of Yahweh the God of Israel, but as the link between the resources of heaven and the needs of earth. On the one hand, in design, it functioned as a replica of the heavenly temple, Yahweh's true dwelling place, but it also was decorated with motifs of Eden to remind worshipers of their roots at creation and their destiny in a new creation. From the temple, Yahweh's blessings were to flow out to the ends of the nation, guaranteeing their well-being and shalom. But there was more. At the time of the dedication of the temple, Solomon had declared, Let these words of mine with which I have pleaded before Yahweh be near to Yahweh our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires, that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh is God, there is no other." 1 Kings 8, 59 and 60. When the queen of Sheba visited Solomon and saw what had been accomplished, at first she was breathless, it took her breath away, 10-5. But when she recovered, she exclaimed, How privileged are your people, how privileged are your servants, who stand before you continually, she's talking to Solomon, who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom. Praise be to Yahweh your God, she's the queen of Sheba, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel, because Yahweh loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness. 1 Kings 10, 8-9. The temple was an essential element in Yahweh's plan of revelation to the world, which is why both Micah and Isaiah speak of the day, when all nations will stream to Zion in the last days, the mountain of the Lord's house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills, all nations will stream to it. Here's the image of a river going uphill, many people will come and say, come, let's go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob, he will teach us about his ways so we may walk in his paths, for Torah will go out from Zion and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem, he will settle disputes among the nations and provide arbitration for many peoples, they will turn their swords into plows and their spears into pruning hooks, nations will not take up sword against other nations and they will never again train for war, O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the Lord's light, Isaiah 2, 2-5, and see also Micah 4, 1-5. In Deuteronomy, Moses mentioned Yahweh's promise to choose a permanent place where he would imprint his name, he mentioned that at least 20 times, while not explicitly stated the mission of Israel depended upon Yahweh's presence in the temple, he set Israel high above the nations that he had made for praise, honor, and glory, Deuteronomy 26-19. Ezekiel knew about this, in chapter 5, 5-6, 11-13, he had declared, this is Jerusalem, I have set her at the center of the nations with countries all around her, but she has rebelled against my ordinances and with greater wickedness than the nations, and against my demands for more than the countries that surround her, for they have rejected my ordinances and they have not followed my demands, therefore by my life, declares the Lord, guaranteed because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable, abominable practices, I will do the shaving myself, my eye will show no pity, nor will I show mercy, one-third of your people will die by the plague and succumb to the famine in your midst, one-third will fall by the sword round about you, and one-third I will scatter in every direction, and I will unsheathe my sword after them, and when my anger is spent, and I will have vented my fury against them, then I will be appeased, and when I have spent all of my fury against them, they will know that I am Yahweh, I have spoken out of my passion. Israel's high calling was to be a blessing to the world, to be agents of grace, to flourish in the land that Yahweh had given them, that the world might know what grace can accomplish, for this reason Yahweh had granted them privileges of the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Torah, the temple service, the promises, and the ancestors, and most emphatically from whom the Messiah would come, Romans 9.45. But Israel had not only squandered their calling with their abominations, they had made Sodom and Gomorrah look righteous. After 700 years, mostly of rebellion, Yahweh had finally had enough. It was time to keep the covenant, not by lavishing blessing and protection on an undeserving people, but by sending in his agents of fury, precisely as he had warned them within the terms of the covenant. In 586 BC, he was dealing with a fundamentally wicked people. The time for sentimentality was gone. Then why does God not cry? It's certainly not because he lacks the passion to experience grief, nor is it because he finds the present situation entertaining or funny, absolutely not. Rather, it seems to be because he knows the time has come for him to fulfill his covenant threats. Not that this caught him by surprise, as the prophet of Huldah had declared to Josiah 35 years earlier, Yahweh had written the date 586 on his calendar, and Nebuchadnezzar was in place to make it happen. But Yahweh had also provided a light at the end of the long, dark tunnel. The arrival of the fugitive announcing the fall of the city would signal the turning of a corner. And with a judgment passed, God will be able to focus on the reconstruction project. His promises are eternal, but first he must clean house. After that had happened, he could start rebuilding, and that's the good news we will begin to recognize already in the next lesson as we move into the oracles against the four nations in chapter 25. In terms of theological and practical implications, as the last of the judgment oracles in the first part of the book, this text reinforces several notions we've heard more than once. First, this prophecy confirms the centrality of Jerusalem in the life and faith of Israel, but it also confirms the disturbing human propensity to transform legitimate religious symbols into idolatrous images. Think of the bronze serpent that Hezekiah had to destroy in 2 Kings 18.4. It had become an idol. Or the love agape feast in 1 Corinthians. Paul says, get rid of it. Ideally, the city and its temple symbolized Yahweh's presence among his people. But instead of providing a place where they could come humbly for an encounter with him, an audience with him, it had become a source of cultural and national pride. Instead of finding their security in relationship with God, his residents had become the focus of their affections, and hence the false basis of their hopes. The tragic events of 586 serve as a warning for all who are attempted to make the same mistake. Perhaps we idolize our church, our community, our location. Perhaps we feel a special pride at being part of a particular church, and we forget that our orthodox creedal statements do not secure our relationship with God. The proof of a living relationship with him is still the transformed life. Second, nothing, not even the temple, is more sacred to God than a sanctified people. For more than 300 years, Solomon's temple had stood as a magnificent symbol of Yahweh's glory and holiness. This was indeed his earthly residence, the place he had chosen for his name to dwell. Through its service and ritual, his sanctifying grace was dispensed to all who sought him in spirit and in truth. But formality had replaced authentic faith. The symbol had displaced the reality as the center of the people's affections. Although the temple was as dear to God as Ezekiel's wife was to the prophet, not even the sanctuary was immune to his wrath. Not until the people had been sanctified through the work of Yahweh's Spirit 3616-38 could they expect him to resume his residence in their midst. Third, the message of God is proclaimed most powerfully when it is embodied in the life of the messenger. While few will be asked to go to the lengths of this remarkable prophet, the implications of this oracle for those who are called to be God's agents of grace are staggering. The cost of bearing in their bodies the message they proclaim is often high. In an earlier age, God had tested Abraham by demanding of him his son Isaac. But that story had a happy ending, Genesis 22. It will not always be that way. The call to divine service cost Ezekiel his wife the delight of his eyes. Although the text is silent on the struggle that must have raged in prophet's soul over Yahweh's absurd demand, I'm sure it felt absurd. This was no less a test of faith for him than the sacrifice of Isaac had been for the patriarch. He could have rebelled against this intrusion into his personal affairs, but he did not waver. In his reaction to his wife's death, he was a sign for his people. But in his response to the hand of God, he was a model for all who follow in his professional train. We must note that the bitter experiences of life are not always signs of God's indignation toward us, the individual. Upon encountering a blind man, Jesus' disciples asked, Who sinned, this man or his parents? To which he replied, It was neither that this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. He became a more faith. While it did not lessen Ezekiel's personal pain in walking through his valley of deepest darkness, the prophet could take some comfort in knowing that God was not angry with him, and that his role as suffering servant would ultimately lead to the renewed knowledge of Yahweh among his people.