Ezekiel - Lesson 21

Lesson 21, guidance for Yahweh's agent of the sword, when witchcraft works, Ezekiel 21, 18 to 32. In Ezekiel 21, we encounter the prophet's sword song, which reminds me of the calls for violence that we hear, not only in mob demonstrations today, but also a lot of violent rap music that we hear these days. Human prophesy and say, thus has the Lord declared, say, a sword, a sword has been sharpened and polished as well, sharpened for slaughter, polished to flash like lightning. Let us celebrate, the staff, my son, it despises every tree. He will hand it over to be polished, to be grasped with a hand. It has been sharpened, the sword has been polished to deliver it into the hand of the slayer. Cry out and weep, human, for it will befall my people. It will strike all the princes of Israel. They will be delivered over to the sword with my people. So slap your thighs for the testing is over. Now what? Even the staff, it despises, it will not be, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh. But you, human, prophesy and clap your hands. Let the sword strike twice, thrice. It is a slaughtering sword, the sword of the great slaughter whirling against them. So hearts may melt and multiply, those who stumble. At all their gates, I have called for a slaughter. Oh no, it is made to flash like lightning. It is drawn for slaughter. Be sharp, turn right, get set, turn left, whichever way your blade is directed. And also, I will clap my hands and satisfy my fury. I am Yahweh, I have spoken. Well, in the text in this session, we encounter the sword that Yahweh was about to wield against his own people. But let's put this text in its context. After we heard the second tenor's voice carry the melody in verses nine to 17, in verses 23 to 32, we hear the bass voice introducing us with dark sounds to the person Yahweh had in mind in this quartet of oracles involving his avenging sword. We may summarize the four voices in this quartet this way. There is the riddle of the sword, 20, 45 to 21, seven. The song of the sword that I just read, 21, eight to 17. The agent of the sword, 21, 23 to 32. And then the taunt of the sword, 21, 33 to 32. And then the taunt of the sword, 22, 24, 30 to 37. Our primary concern here is the third one, the baritone, the agent of the sword. From the preceding song, we heard that Yahweh had created, sharpened, and polished his own sword. He had drawn it from its scabbard and it would not return to its sheath until it had done its horrific work of the slaughtering of the people. By the time we get, reach the end of the song of the sword, the weapon had taken on a life of its own as the instrument of divine fury. But in verse 11, we heard a hint that another agent would be involved. In fact, Yahweh will hand the sword into the hands of a person who is here called the slayer. Horaic. Verse 16, he will hand it over to be polished, to be grasped with a hand. It has been sharpened. The sword has been polished to deliver it into the hand of the slayer. Oh, so there will be a secondary agent actually wielding the sword. Well, if Ezekiel's audience had actually been listening, they might have wondered whom the prophet would identify as the solution to this riddle. In the oracle that follows in verses 18 to 27, we learn the answer to that riddle. Ezekiel did not actually name that person, but at the beginning in verses 19 and 21, he identified him as the king of Babylon. Ezekiel did not actually name that person, but at the beginning of verses 19 and 21, he identified him as the king of Babylon, Melech Babel. But now we are racing way ahead of ourselves. Though the timing and the chronological relationship between this prophecy and the two that have preceded it are unknown, these prophecies are united in theme. The sword of Yahweh. But the logic of this particular segment is obvious. Here, parable, song, and sign action combine to produce an ever clearer image of the sword of Yahweh. So let's begin with the sign action, 21, 18 to 20. This oracle opens with a command by the Lord to his prophet to perform another sign act. Verse 18, the following message of Yahweh came to me. Now you, human, make two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to advance, both originating in the same country. Carve a signpost at the fork of the road to the city. Carve it. Make a road sign for the sword to come. Rabbah of Bnei Amon and Judah in fortified Jerusalem. Yahweh's instructions to Ezekiel involved two principal actions. First, the prophet was to draw a map with two roadways, the Rahim, originating in the same country, presumably by scratching two lines, probably with his finger or a spoon or a stick, perhaps in the dirt floor of his house while people watched. In this instance, Yahweh may have allowed him to step outside and draw the map in the sand with a stick or a finger. But these two lines begin at the same place. But at a critical point, they divide. There's a fork in the road. We might think these two lines represent a royal highway as the king and his entourage were headed to the west, perhaps to the Mediterranean for a vacation. But no, these two roads were not for the king, but for his sword. These lines obviously represented two possible courses for a military campaign. But where were they headed? Ezekiel would answer that question with his second action. Carve a signpost, stick it in the ground at the fork of the road, mark the road sign for the sword like this, Rabbah of Bnei Ammon in that direction and Judah in fortified Jerusalem in that direction. Now the word for sign here is hand, yad, which makes sense because it represents the finger pointing to the destination of an inquirer asking for directions. Which road should I take? Go that way or that way. Yahweh designates the spot where the sign was to be placed as the head of the road of the city. We would say the fork in the road. In verse 21, the prophet used a different expression, at the mother of the road, the head of twin roads. It's a maternal metaphor. Now this makes sense. Since geographic places were generally designated feminine in Hebrew, we should probably not be surprised if the ancients treated the fork in the road as a mother, which gives birth to twins. Ezekiel was probably drawing a map of an actual and well-known place on a trade route, or in this case, on a military highway. But where was this place? Well, if Ezekiel's map was based on real conditions, Damascus was the most likely candidate, especially since Yahweh commanded him to mark a way to Rabbah of Bnei Amon and Judah in fortified Jerusalem in the following verse. At Damascus, a traveler from the north coming down from the Euphrates would need to decide whether to take the left branch of the fork and proceed along the Golan and east of the Jordan on the way to Amman, Jordan today, or the right branch running through Palestine west of the river. The branches on Ezekiel's roadmap were identified on the basis of their significance for this prophecy. Rabbah of Bnei Amon, Bnei Amon is the common designation for the Ammonites. This represented the full designation of the Ammonite capital, Rabbah, the big city, though Ezekiel would also use the abbreviated form, simply Rabbah. This is the only Ammonite city ever named in the First Testament. It was located 23 miles east of the Jordan at a place known today as Amman, Jordan, and the name carries on. This was an important stop on what's called the King's Highway, numbers 2017 and 2122, and ran parallel to the Jordan River on the east. However, instead of identifying the alternative destination as Jerusalem of Judah, which is parallel to Rabbah of Bnei Amon, Yahweh substituted an awkward construction, Judah, in fortified Jerusalem. This expression highlighted this city's strategic significance in the defense of the nation. If you conquer Jerusalem, the capital, you have conquered everything. But the choice of words was intentional, emphasizing the perceived impregnability of the city, hence the challenges that were in this traveler's mind, but also throwing into sharper relief the devastating power of the sword when it comes, because this is no small town. It is fortified Jerusalem. So much for the sign act. In verses 21 to 23, we have the interpretation, and now the Lord explains. For the king of Babylon has paused at the source of the road, at the fork of the two roads, to consult an omen. He has shaken the arrows, consulted the idols, teraphim, and examined the liver. On the right side of the liver appears the omen, Jerusalem, to set up battering rams, to open the mouth with a roar, and to sound the war cry, to set up battering rams against the gates, to heap up a siege ramp, to construct siege implements. But to them it seemed like false divination. They are bound by the most solemn oaths, but it will expose the guilt and result in capture. The reference to the sword of the king of the Babylon in verse 19 had already involved an early interpretive element in the Lord's instructions for the prophet. But this insertion emphasized that what Ezekiel had drawn was actually a military map, rather than a sketch of trade routes or a highway for vacationers. It was the road by which the sword that represented the coming battle, the armies, would take. But it also provided the first clue about the identity of the one to whom Yahweh had handed his sword as his instrument of wrath, verses 11 and 15. Ezekiel's original audience probably found this identification incredible. But who would know how the story, but we who know how the story ends know that that man was Nebuchadnezzar, or Nebuchadrezzar, Ezekiel's preferred spelling. And that this exercise, we know that this exercise in geography anticipated the horrific story that was just around the corner. However, Ezekiel signaled the beginning of the formal interpretation by giving his hearers and us access to the mind of the Babylonian king. For the king of Babylon has paused at the source of the road, at the fork of the two roads to consult an omen. He has shaken the arrows, consulted the teraphim, and examined the liver. It appears that the indecision of the pagan king may have provoked this oracle. If Ezekiel issued this prophecy at the time of Nebuchadnezzar's actual approach, we could date it to the summer of 587 BC, relating it to 24 one, where Ezekiel will tell us in a future lesson, the following word of Yahweh came to me in the ninth year, in the 10th month, on the 10th day of the month. Human, record this day, this very day, the king of Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem on this very day, and compose a parable concerning the rebellious house. Well, we can identify that very day on Yahweh's calendar as January 5, 586 BC, 10th of the month, Tevet. Later, we will see that Jerusalem fell on July 14, 586 BC, slightly more than six months after the siege had begun. Now, if it took Nebuchadnezzar and his vast army several months to get from Damascus to Jerusalem, the date of the beginning of the siege, this prophecy could have been delivered in the summer of 587 BC. On the other hand, since God can see into the future, he may simply have foreseen the Babylonians' indecision much earlier, years earlier, and had Ezekiel announced to his exiled audience that he would not take any chances with Nebuchadnezzar's freedom of choice. So Yahweh sent his prophet an advance signal that everything, including the Babylonian king, was under his, that is, Yahweh's control, and that his agenda would be filled, his agenda, God's agenda. The key event on that agenda was the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and the divine countdown to Judah's end was well advanced. However, the way Yahweh, the God of Israel, got Nebuchadnezzar to Jerusalem catches us all by surprise. Poised to advance toward the south, the Babylonian had to decide whether to direct his attack against the Judeans or the Ammonites, two nice targets. In customary ancient Near Eastern fashion, he resolved the issue by divination, a series of procedures designed to determine the mind of the gods. We find a close parallel to Nebuchadnezzar's consultation of an oracle to select a campaign route in a letter from Mari on the Euphrates from the previous millennium. He, that is, Atarum, will arrive either via Sagaratum or via Terka or via Mari. Concerning the three routes, he is going to arrange an oracular inquiry, and if his gods render their consent, it is that particular route which shall be seized, and he will arrive at my lord. May my lord know about it. This is an advance warning, he's coming. Now, oracular practice was not foreign to Israel. Saul recognized that his kingship had reached a critical stage when Yahweh ceased to respond to his inquiries by whatever means, dreams, Urim, the prophets, God wasn't talking to him anymore. This contrasts sharply with Yahweh's ready responses to David, who inquired of Yahweh through prophetic media as well as the ephod in the hands of the priests, 1 Samuel 23, nine to 12, and 30, seven to eight. In this case, Ezekiel characterized Nebuchadnezzar's action as kasam kesem, which functions as a key expression in this episode, we have it in verses 22 and 23. It means, it translates literally to divine divination, and it helps tie this prophecy to the next one, as we'll see in verse 29. Ezekiel used the expression to engage in divination elsewhere in 13.9 and 13.23 and 22.28, but in this context of divination in general, strictly speaking, it involved obtaining a decision by casting lots to see what the gods had in mind. This time, the Babylonian king resorted to three different divinatory techniques, because, presumably because ancient Near Eastern laws of evidence required three witnesses to ensure the veracity of the communication. Remember Moses' three signs to demonstrate to the Israelites that yes, Yahweh had called him to lead them out, three signs we need. Well, here we have three signs. First, he manipulated the arrows, a common practice known as ravdomancy. This action consisted of shaking two inscribed arrows and then drawing one as one draws a lot on the assumption that the gods had determined which one was selected, Proverbs 16.33. Even the way the lot falls is determined by the Lord. Or perhaps simply tossing them and observing how they fell. In this instance, the inscriptions apparently would have matched those on Ezekiel's signpost. Probably one arrow had rabba of Bnei Amon on it and the other one had Jerusalem, the fortified city. So that's the first way. Second, he consulted the teraphim. He asked, inquired of the teraphim. We still do not know much about the nature and function of teraphim in the ancient Near East. My deceased friend, Harry Hoffner, demonstrated that this word comes from the Hittite word tarpish, which referred to a spirit that one could consult on some occasions for positive protective purposes, but at other times to harm others. Well, you remember when Jacob fled from Laban, Rachel had stolen her father's teraphim, it's the same word, and taken them with her, Genesis 31.34. Presumably to secure her own future. These are the household gods. Laban identified them as his gods, Elohim, but the narrator talks about them as teraphim. The closest we get to Nebuchadnezzar's divinatory actions involve the Urim and the Tumim, two differently inscribed stones that Yahweh authorized Israel's priests to use to determine his will, precisely in context of battle, Numbers 27.21. When you go out to war, use the Urim and the Tumim. Obviously, this procedure involves some form of cultic object, perhaps oracular alabaster or hematite stones that we know of from Akkadian sources. Third, Nebuchadnezzar examined the liver, a custom we call hepatoscopy. Of the three techniques named, this is the best known, even though this is the only reference to it in the First Testament. Archeologists have discovered numerous examples of clay liver models, presumably used in training diviners. One of those discovered in Babylon from the second millennium B.C. is mapped into more than 50 sections and punctuated by special interpretive marks. The fact that the clay models have been discovered throughout the ancient Near Eastern world demonstrates its importance in that cultural context. Evidently, if diviners could interpret the spots and other irregularities on the liver of a sacrificed animal, they would know the will of the gods. Ezekiel described the results of this inquiry in verse 22. On the right side of the liver appears the omen, Jerusalem, to set up battering rams, to open the mouth of the roar, to sound the war cry, to set up battering rams against the gates, to heap up a siege ramp, to construct siege implements. This meant that not only was Nebuchadnezzar's target to be Jerusalem rather than Rabbah, but also that the time had come to prepare to take the city. Like Ezekiel's sign act in 4.1.2, where on a brick he had drawn a map of Jerusalem and then put all his G.I. Joel figures and the armaments around the city to besiege it. The rituals that he used here were unanimous in their omen result. The liver pointed to the right, that is the road down the coast to Jerusalem. And then the prophet extrapolated the horrifying consequences of this divine decision on the targeted city. He painted his verbal picture from the perspective of citizens of that town, or their sentries looking down from their lookout towers. What did they see? Battering rams set up to knock down the gates and the siege mounds designed to starve out the population, all accompanied by bone chilling cries of the enemy soldiers. An open pitch battle would be futile because Zedekiah's forces could never match those of the enemy. So the omen assumed the troops had retreated within the defensive walls, a strategy that could succeed only if the invading forces were far from home and lacked sufficient, efficient supply lines. Jerusalem's only hope would be to pray and wait out the siege and hope that the Egyptians would appear to drive off the enemy as we mentioned earlier. In verse 23a, Ezekiel predicted the reaction of the Jerusalemites to the arrival of the Babylonians. But to them, that is the people of Jerusalem, it seemed like false divination. Now, unfortunately, that statement is cryptic, but it seemed to involve two issues. First, the people of Jerusalem would refuse to take the results of the divination seriously. How they found out, we'd find out about it, we have no idea, but of course, this is rhetoric. He's painting a picture here and it's abstract rather than photographic art. In any case, they dismissed Nebuchadnezzar's actions as empty divination, kesem shal, it's all for nothing. On the surface, it seems like a proper and orthodox response because there's no such thing as true divination. But to Ezekiel, this represented fraudulently pious thinking. Their theology affirmed that even if Jerusalem should be identified as the target and the siege works installed around the city, it could not fall. Yahweh's protection guaranteed their security. Second, it also means that they persisted in their defiance of their legally contracted overlord. Ezekiel notes, they were bound by most solemn oaths, but it would expose their guilt and result in capture, verse 23b. The Hebrew here is difficult, but the expression resembles what we found in chapter 17, verses 11 to 21, and we'll see again in 29, 14 to 16, suggesting an allusion to the loyalty oath that Zedekiah had pledged to Nebuchadnezzar, his Babylonian overlord. To contempt for divination, they added treachery and contempt for their oath of fidelity, fealty, loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar. Presumably, the latter would drive the Babylonians to deal with the Jerusalem problem once and for all. But the end of verse 23 declares how this story would end. The divination would prove true. Jerusalem's treachery would be exposed, and yes, the city would fall. The prophet's presentation of this oracle is filled with irony. A pagan king, the enemy of Yahweh's people, employed strictly forbidden techniques of divination, and in so doing, he discovered the will of Yahweh, the God of the targeted enemy. This fact is confirmed by the precise correspondence between the results and earlier oracles. Meanwhile, the people of Yahweh adapted an orthodox stance in rejecting the omens as false, but in so doing, they sealed their own fate. In the pagan oracle, Ezekiel heard the judgment of God. But we can only speculate how Ezekiel's audience, that is, the exiles, might have reacted to this sign act. All of this is hypothetical, imagining the response of the people in Jerusalem, but what about the people in exile? How would they react to this sign act and its interpretation? Well, on the one hand, no doubt, they were intrigued by his map and may even have thought initially that he was pointing the way home for them. Hey, that's the road we're gonna take. It's the highway. Perhaps they saw in this road map the GPS, God's positioning statement, the positive results of the alliance that Judah had struck with her neighbors, including the Ammonites, Jeremiah 27 three. On the other hand, the exiles may have been aware that Nebuchadnezzar had mobilized his forces and was poised to move against Jerusalem even as the prophets spoke. But Ezekiel's goal was to dash all such hopes. The sword had been raised. Nebuchadnezzar had departed from Babylon, had arrived in Damascus. Let the outpouring of Yahweh's own wrath against Judah and Jerusalem begin. That's the sign and its interpretation. But then in verse 24, we hear an appeal to the Prince of Israel. Verse 24, therefore, thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, because you have exposed your guilt by disclosing your rebellious acts, bringing to light your sins through all your vile deeds, because you have exposed yourselves, you will be captured by force. Oh you, oh vile one, oh criminal Prince of Israel, whose day has arrived in time for your final punishment. Thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, remove the turban, take off the tiara, let nothing remain the same. Raise the low, bring down the high. Topsy-turvy, topsy-turvy, topsy-turvy. That's what I will make it, a disaster without equal until he comes to whom the judgment belongs and to whom I will give it. Now, although the opening, therefore, in verse 24 links what follows with what has preceded the subject, the tone has changed. To be sure, the rest of verse 24 will still concerns the people of Jerusalem. Because you have exposed your guilt by disclosing your rebellious acts, bringing to light your sins through all your vile deeds, because you've exposed yourselves, you will be captured by force. That's Jerusalem. However, without warning in verse 25, Ezekiel's focus changes and his tone reaches a fever pitch in 25 to 27. Without warning, he forgot completely about the king of Babylon and launched into a tirade against Zedekiah, unequaled in this book or any other prophet for its intensity, forthrightness, and harshness. Although he did not dignify Zedekiah by mentioning his name, his quadrupled vocative outbursts no doubt, left no doubt about what he thought of the Judean king. Oh you, oh vile one, oh criminal, oh prince of Israel, oh vile one. The word, oh vile one, involves a root meaning to defile, to profane, in this case, a reference to his corruption. This man, a descendant of David, who sat on the throne of Yahweh, that's what First Chronicles 29, 23 calls the throne in Jerusalem. It's Yahweh's throne. That's who this guy is. Oh criminal, Rasha uses the same word Ezekiel had used of the wicked, deserving of death in chapter 18. The epithet, oh prince of Israel, Nasi Yisrael, is certainly a downgrade from king of Israel, Melech Israel, but this was Ezekiel's rhetorical habit. Just as he could not dignify Zedekiah by mentioning his name, so he could not dignify him by calling him king. The prophet did not elaborate on how Zedekiah had defiled himself, but he undoubtedly had in mind the violation of his vassal oath, hereby considered sacrilege. Oh wicked one, that expression interprets this as a criminal act. Verse 25 closes out on an ominous note. The Babylonians advanced toward Jerusalem, ushered in the day of Zedekiah. His day has come. His appointment with destiny has arrived. That is the time for his final punishment. The final moment of truth, literally, the time of his final guilt, that expression is pregnant with meaning, speaking not only of the moment of Zedekiah's punishment, but also of the termination of his iniquitous, twisted behavior. Ezekiel's excitement became even more evident in verses 26 and 27. Verse 26 opens, as we expect, with a citation formula. Thus has the Lord Yahweh declared. But the words Ezekiel hears from Yahweh's mouth in which he was charged to pass on to the people obviously reflected a very impassioned divine speaker. Remove the turban, take off the tiara, let nothing remain the same, raise the low, bring down the high, topsy-turvy, topsy-turvy, topsy-turvy, that's what I will make, a disaster without equal. While Yahweh's emotional state renders the language difficult, the meaning is clear. Everything is to be turned upside down. Well, let's look at the elements here. First, he opens by focusing on the king. You are toast. Remove the turban, take off your tiara. This means get off your throne and your high horse. Give up the insignias of royalty, it's over. Now in Assyria and Babylon, the crown often consisted of a band of elegant cloth wrapped repeatedly around the head like a modern turban. They were often embroidered or embossed with floral and geometric designs and set with precious stones. So that's the first signal. Second, with this, not this, which I have translated as let nothing be the same, and then raise the low and bring down the high, the prophet announced the ruthless fruit basket upset of Judean social structures. Here Ezekiel envisioned something much more revolutionary than a change for the occupants of the throne. Let the slaves rule and rulers be enslaved. Ezekiel foresaw a wholesale revolution affecting all strata of society. But the prophecy climaxed in verse 32 with a threefold, awa, awa, awa, which appropriately played on the word for awone, iniquity, twistedness, and which was based on a root meaning, to twist, to bend, to pervert. The vocabulary recalls other images of cosmic and cataclysmic disintegration envisioned in Isaiah 24, one to three, the only other occurrence of this word. Look, Yahweh will strip the earth bare and lay it waste. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. The layman shall be like the priest, the priest like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor. The earth will be laid totally waste and completely despoiled for Yahweh has declared this word. In the previous century, Emperor Esarhaddon of Assyria had described nature twisted out of shape because of the fury of Marduk over the moral and cultic crimes of the Babylonians as ominous signs convened to announce the ruin of humankind in heaven and on earth. The omens were everywhere. The symmetry of the cosmos had vanished. The people of Mesopotamia recognized this in a series of omen signs. The degenerating courses of the stars of Enlil, Anu and Ea, the three big gods, they prognosticated disaster. Their omens kept changing. The Arachta Canal became an overflowing current reminiscent of the deluge itself, flooding the residents and sacred shrines and turning it into a wasteland. And according to one version, Isaggela, that's the temple of Marduk in Babylon, Isaggela and Babylon were turned into a barren field. And according to another version, the city was turned into a swamp. All the gods abandoned their shrines and flew off to heaven. Depending on the version, the citizens either fled to an unknown foreign land or were captured and dragged off as slaves. Everything was upside down. Ezekiel's oracle envisioned this kind of scene. But his oracle ended with a sinister reinterpretation of the ancient promise concerning Judah's hegemonic position within Israel. "'Until he comes to whom it belongs "'and to whom I will give it.'" An interesting statement. The messianic Christological interpretation of this clause, "'Until he comes to whom the judgment belongs.'" This has a long history, beginning with the translation of the Old Testament into Greek. The Septuagint renders, "'Whoever comes and to whom it is due "'and to him he will give it.'" This is a century before Christ. And it's also reflected in the NIV, for instance."'Until he to whom it rightfully belongs shall come. "'To him I will give it.'" The Hebrew here clearly echoes the earliest, clearly messianic text in the Bible. Genesis 49.10. "'The scepter will not depart from Judah "'nor the ruler's staff from between his feet "'until he to whom it belongs shall come "'and the obedience of the nations shall be his.'" That's NIV's translation of Genesis 49.10. Ezekiel 21 echoes Jacob's words concerning Judah at a critical heart of this sentence. And for two millennia, many Christians have understood this as a reference to the Messiah, the perfect king who will resolve the rot that Zedekiah and his immediate predecessors on the throne represented. According to Kyle, "'He then to whom this right belongs "'and to whom God will give it is the Messiah "'of whom the prophets from the times of David onwards "'have prophesied as the founder and restorer "'of the perfect right on earth.'" However, there are two problems with this interpretation. First, it overlooks the shift from a vague reference to whom it belongs, whatever it is. ESV specifies it as the tribute with a very specific word in Ezekiel, hamishpat. Second, in this book, this word never means a claim, a right, an entitlement to anything in this book. Elsewhere, the word mishpat means justice. 18, five, 18, 19, 21, 27, 33, 14, 16, 19, or judgment, 23, 24, or custom of the nations, 23, 24, 42, 11. Judgment, execution of the sentence in the sense of punishments, suits this context perfectly. The person to whom the task of judgment was delivered was not the Messiah. In this context, it was none other than Nebuchadnezzar. And so the Jerusalem Bible translates it to ruin and to ruin on ruin. Am I going to bring it to such ruin? It was never known before this man came who is appointed to inflict the punishment which I have determined to impose on it. Furthermore, we would not expect such a ray of hope from Ezekiel at this point in the middle of this extraordinarily impassioned exposure of the evils. He envisions the imminent fall of Jerusalem. He's not talking about a distant future, but this is an event in which no Messiah will interfere. Now, this is not to say that Genesis 49, 10 is out of the picture. I think it underlies this statement. Ezekiel has hereby taken an ancient word, perhaps a favorite text on which the people in this audience had staked their hopes and transformed it into a frightening prediction of doom. These exiled Judeans viewed the Davidic King as the symbol of Yahweh's irrevocable commitment to his people. And in this moment of crisis, they were probably quoting Genesis 49, 10 to bolster their sense of security. David is here, the one to whom the responsibility for judgment and rule is still with us. This will be the rabbit's foot protecting us. God is obligated. Ezekiel's heavy use of Jacob's blessing of Judah in Genesis 49, 8 to 12 to demolish their understanding of this pillar of their theology reinforces this possibility. He takes a favorite verse and turns and uses it for rhetorical purposes to make a completely different point. Ezekiel will have none of this hopeful interpretation. That third pillar of Israel's security is our guarantee of security.No, it's difficult to imagine a more effective rhetorical strategy. The prophet has turned a sacred text upside down in order to expose a twisted world and a null false basis of hope. If they want to abuse this text for their purposes, he says, let me use that text for my purposes as well, for my argument. As a prophet in the tradition of Moses, Ezekiel will have known the passage in Genesis as well, but now he was not performing a strictly exegetical exercise. He was not writing a term paper on Genesis 49, 10. Ezekiel was a preacher who has a man inspired by Yahweh found in the vocabulary of Genesis 49, 10. He found that vocabulary useful to undermine the delusions of his people. From Ezekiel's lips, Genesis 49, 10 was not about tribute and subordination of the world to Judah, but the execution of the judgment of Judah by the principal representative of that world that was to bow before Judah. Yahweh sealed this prophecy with a final reminder that in so doing, Nebuchadnezzar operated as Yahweh's agent. To him, I will give it, give what? The judgment symbolized by the sword. In Nebuchadnezzar's hands, Yahweh's sword functioned as a symbol of authority like the queen of England's maze or Aragorn's Anduril, the flame of the West. It authorized and empowered him to execute the divine sentence on Judah. And this leads us to the epilogue, the last of the quartet of sword oracles, the taunt of the sword, verses 28 to 32. A complex formulaic opening in verse 28 signals a new prophecy. As for you human, prophesy and say, thus has the Lord Yahweh declared concerning Bnei Amon. Oh, the other one, they're off the hook, are they? He's going to Jerusalem. No, say, the focus on the sword confirms that it belongs with the preceding rather than with what follows. On the basis of literary style, this mini oracle divides into two parts, an Ammonite version of the sword song reported in verses nine to 10, and a final word directed against the sword himself, itself, verses 30 to 32. So here, the Ammonite version of the sword song, 28 to 29. A sword, a sword drawn for slaughter, polished to consume, to flash like lightning while they offer you false visions and deceitful, divine deceitful omens to place you upon the necks of the impious wicked ones whose day has arrived in time for your final punishment. There's a lot of vagueness in this one, but the opening of this oracle looks like a sop, S-O-P, to the prophet and others for whom the Ammonites represented the enemy. Given Ezekiel's identification of Jerusalem as the focus of Yahweh's rage, we wish that what he had pronounced upon Judah would apply to the Ammonites, and we'll have an oracle, fuller oracle, two of them later in chapter 25. But curiously, this oracle concerns B'nai Ammon and their taunt. Verses 28B to 29 do not actually constitute an oracle against the Ammonites, but involve a quotation of the Ammonites' taunt of Israel once they realize the omen had pointed Nebuchadnezzar in the direction of Jerusalem instead of toward them. The Ammonites are saying, na, na, na, na, na, na. We would interpret this that way. It's fitting that Yahweh cast this taunt song as an echo of the earlier sword song against Jerusalem. From the taunt, it seems, the sword polished for slaughter was still poised. Nebuchadnezzar had not yet fulfilled his deadly mission. There's still a chance it could go somewhere else. Here Yahweh apparently commanded the prophet to encourage the Ammonites to mock Israel by singing the sword song of verses nine to 10 themselves. The rhetorical strategy is impressive. No longer was it only the voice of the prophet announcing Israel's doom, even the nation's enemies have picked up the tune. But even so, it is striking that Yahweh should even command Ezekiel to give a prophecy that concerns the Ammonites. We've not heard anything about them since Nebuchadnezzar's omen had directed him toward Jerusalem in verse 17. And because this Transjordanian nation had been involved in Judah's revolt against Babylon, Jeremiah 27.3, her citizens would have been relieved to learn that the invaders had set their sights on Jerusalem instead of them. Indeed, the prophet envisioned them betraying their former allies, and with smug schadenfreude, delight over someone else's grief, they taunt them in their moment of crisis. Unlike 25.1-7, which deals with the Ammonites after the 586 taunt of Jerusalem, here the day of slaughter was still in the future. The first line of verse 29 interrupts the song with an allusion to Nebuchadnezzar's divination in verses 21 to 23. In Hebrew, these lines are perfectly parallel. Because the vision concerning you are false, because the divination concerning you is a lie. The feminine pronoun in concerning you applies to the sword, the divination concerning the sword. In contrast to them in verse 28, it's hard to establish the sense of these statements. They could refer either to erroneous results of Nebuchadnezzar's visions or divination, hence not to be taken seriously, compares verse 23, or to the falsehood of the Judeans' own prophetic attempts. But what follows, to place you, the sword, upon the necks of the impious ones, this represented another description of the sword's function. This is idiomatic for slaughtering victims. The announcement of Judah's doom in the last two lines borrows expressions verbatim from 25, verse 25, whose day has arrived in time for your final judgment. In the earlier statement, Ezekiel had announced, this as the fate of Israel's prince. Here it applied to the people who would go down with him. And then this series of oracles on the sword ends with a brief statement on the fate of the sword, the sword itself. Verses 30 to 32, return it to its sheath in the place where you were created. Here the focus has shifted. This short utterance began with a command directed to the sword to get back into the sheath. Although the following declaration of divine fury resembles previous oracles against Judah, the sword, that is Babylon, is in view throughout. Judah and the Ammonites are now off the stage. Ezekiel's attention has returned to Nebuchadnezzar. The prophet began by commanding the addressee to return the sword to its sheath. Notice the third person. Apparently, the addressee and the sword are distinguished. Presumably, this was a charge to the Babylonians, Nebuchadnezzar, to cease his military activity and return home. However, when the prophet clarified what he meant by the sheath, the place where you were created in the land of your origin, the feminine pronoun again shows that he was now talking to the sword, not about it. The reference is obviously to Nebuchadnezzar, go back to Babylon, your native land. But the use of the passive, the land where you were created, raises the question, created by whom and for what purpose? Well, earlier we noted with reference to the sword that Yahweh was the one who created it, who sharpened it, who polished it, who charged it when to attack, and now he was the one who declared when its job was over. Yahweh's involvement in Nebuchadnezzar's life didn't begin when he commissioned him as his agent of wrath, as Yahweh would do in a few decades in raising up Cyrus as anointed shepherd, Isaiah 44, 28. Well, this chapter ends then with a dramatic turning of the tables. The one who had traveled far to the west to carry out the will of Yahweh was being called back home. Apparently, the reason for the recall had nothing to do with the completion of his mission or the cessation of his hostilities against Jerusalem. Listen to verse 30. 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. 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 will not be remembered, for I am Yahweh, I have spoken. The king of Babylon must return home to face the judgment of God himself. This was as close as Ezekiel got to an oracle of judgment against the Babylonians. Compare long oracles against Babylon in Isaiah 13 or Jeremiah 50 to 51 or Habakkuk 2. Since Yahweh offered no explanation for his change of heart toward his agent, we suspect a problem with the way Nebuchadnezzar had carried out his charge. Or was it simply that he refused to recognize that he was Yahweh's rather than Marduk's agent in destroying Jerusalem? Whatever the reason, and it doesn't say, the fact that he was called to serve as the divine agent did not absolve him of moral responsibility for his conduct. In detailing the nature of Nebuchadnezzar's punishment, Ezekiel brought back the fire motif. Compare chapter 20, 47 to 48. However, this time the image was not of a forest fire. It was borrowed from the realm of metallurgy. Posing as a smelter, first Yahweh will pour out his wrath like molten metal on his victim, 31. Second, he will blow on him with a fire of his fury, presumably an allusion to bellows, to increase the heat by increasing the flow of oxygen. By this time, Yahweh will use another, but this time Yahweh will use another band of agents whom he summoned. He would hand the Babylonians over to brutal barbarous men, experts in destruction. The statement anticipated a Viking-style invasion of Babylon by foreigners who would destroy everything in their path. Ezekiel describes the results in verse 32. In short, the magnificent city of Babylon would itself be razed, her population slaughtered, and her memory permanently obliterated. The last fate which would be pronounced upon the Ammonites in 2520 was the worst of all. Burned cities may be rebuilt and decimated populations restored, but not to be remembered anymore, that's to be annihilated, permanently deleted. And you can't recover the document. As in the judgment oracles against Judah, Yahweh sealed the fate of Babylon with the concluding affirmation, I am Yahweh, I have spoken. Unlike the gods of the nations, Yahweh had no mouth, but he spoke. And unlike the gods of the nations, he fulfilled his word, what he promised and threatened that he did. Well, having reached the end of this quartet of oracles on Yahweh's avenging sword, we may now pause and look back on what lessons we might have learned. The first two sword oracles taught us, first, that God becomes the enemy of those who claim to be his people, but refuse to accept the responsibilities accompanying the privilege, that's one lesson. And second, that the Lord is faithful to his word. This applies not only to his promises of presence and well-being, but also his warnings of judgment for apostasy and infidelity, whether they constitute the fine print of the ancient covenant or the immediate pronouncements of the prophet. Of course, the fine print would be Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. But now we need to consider a third lesson, which might be particularly relevant for our own time. In Yahweh's execution of his plans and the achievement of his agenda, he was not bound by human agendas or definitions of propriety. In these oracles, we see God choosing agents for his providential and cosmic agenda who were scarcely the kinds of people we would vote for. As we learn from the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar may have been a powerful king and he may have liked Daniel and his three friends, but he was not a nice man. And nor were the Babylonians a nice people. Talk to Habakkuk, who at first was exercised by the fact that Yahweh was doing nothing about the evil he saw around him. How long, O Lord? Must I wait for help? But you don't listen. Violence is everywhere. But finally, Yahweh answered in Habakkuk 1, 6-12. I'm raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands. They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like. Their horses are swifter than cheetahs and fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their charioteers charge from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey. On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand. They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile up ramps of earth against their walls and capture them. They sweep past like the wind and they're gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their strength is their God. And then Habakkuk protested. Oh Lord, Yahweh, my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal, surely you don't plan to wipe us out. Oh Lord, Arak, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins? How can that be? For the Habakkuk, the question was, how can God use a more wicked nation to discipline a less, in this case, his own people? But Yahweh has been using outsiders to accomplish his purpose for a long time. When good leadership in the period of Judges was in short supply, he raised up Shamgar, who was not an Israelite. He rescued the Israelites from the Philistines with an ox goad, Judges 3.31. The author of the book of Judges seems to have been so troubled by this that he gave him only one verse. And when deliverers like Gideon and Jephthah and Samson get two or three chapters, Shamgar's name, Shamgar gets one verse. His name, four hard consonants, and his spiritual allegiance, Ben-Anad, show that he was no Israelite, but God used him. In Romans 13, Paul talks about the Romans. In shockingly respectful terms, the Romans were not nice people. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to judgment, but to bad conduct. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. He is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience, for because of you, let's also pay taxes for the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenues due, respect to whom respect is owed, and honor to whom honor is owed. Concerning the Romans, I have news for you. They were not nice people. And Cyrus, the Persian, modern Iran, whom Yahweh calls my shepherd, and the author of the book calls the Lord's anointed, he was not a nice man. God sometimes uses people who are not nice people to do his work. Finally, if God's hand is involved in the setting up and tearing down of governments, he remains sovereign also over the way the governments do their business. And the way they do that business is not always ethical or morally right. Nebuchadnezzar consulted the omens and it worked. Yahweh revealed to him his will, apparently without introducing himself. He is the one and only God that exists and he can override all the methods of the devil and his minions and accomplish his purposes in the end. Nebuchadnezzar was a devotee of Marduk. He named his son and successor Amel Marduk, meaning man of Marduk. At the time of this prophecy, we don't know if the Babylonian king knew anything about Yahweh. He operated like a pagan and God was able to use those pagan operations to accomplish his will. This doesn't mean that those practices are tolerable for his people. It speaks to Yahweh's freedom and sovereign authority. However, the end does not justify the means, nor does the commission offer immunity from divine scrutiny to the agent. In the end, those charged with fulfilling God's commission must account to him how they've executed the charge. And they must also account to him what kind of people they have been.