This prophecy continues the emphasis on judgment from the previous one and stresses the irrevocability of Jerusalem's destruction (cf. Jer. 7:16; 15:1-4).
14:12-14 The Lord spoke to Ezekiel again. He revealed that Jerusalem's great sins had made deliverance from divine punishment impossible. Evidently some of the exiled Jews were remembering God's promise to Abraham that He would deliver Sodom if there were enough righteous people in it (Gen. 18:22-23). Surely, they thought, there were enough righteous people in Jerusalem that God would not destroy it.
"This attitude is nothing less than using the saints as an insurance policy to cover the sinners. It has been a human failing in every generation. A community is a trifle embarrassed to have a saint among its number, but it derives a sense of security from his presence, rather like the possession of a religious lucky charm. A family with no pretensions to spirituality is often glad to have a minister of religion in one of its branches, however far removed."218
When sin had gone so far that Yahweh stretched out His hand in severe judgment by famine, even the righteousness of a Noah, a Daniel, and a Job could not save the nation. Noah was the only righteous man of his day, but his righteousness did not avert God's judgment on the rest of humanity. Daniel was righteous, but his presence in Jerusalem had not precluded the deportation of many Judahites.219Job's righteousness could not even prevent judgment that touched his family members and possessions. All three men were righteous men who lived amidst unrighteousness--Noah, a pre-Israelite, Daniel, an Israelite now living in Gentile Babylon, and Job, a non-Israelite. If these three men lived in Jerusalem, the Lord would deliver them for their own righteousness, but He would deliver no others for their sake.220God would have spared Sodom if only 10 righteous people lived there (Gen. 18:33), but He would not spare Jerusalem if three of the most righteous people in history lived there. Jerusalem's guilt was greater than Sodom's.
The Lord said that this principle of judgment applied to "a country"(v. 13), any country that acted treacherously against the Lord.
"It probably is sufficient simply to note that the hypothetical situation has both a general character (note that Noah, Daniel, and Job are all associated with non-Israelite contexts) and a specific application to Israel. The point of the passage is that Israel was under a divine judgment that was irreversible in its very nature."221
14:15-16 If God's judgment by wild beasts resulted in the depopulation of the land, including the children (cf. Lev. 26:22; Deut. 32:24), the righteousness of Noah (cf. Gen. 6:9), Daniel (cf. Dan. 6:4-5, 22), and Job (cf. Job 1:1, 8; 2:3) would not deliver even their own family members from divine judgment. God would spare just these men alone. God had spared Noah's family for his sake (Gen. 6:18), and he had spared Daniel's friends for his sake (Dan. 1:6-20; 2:17-18) and Job's friends for his sake (Job 42:7-10), but he had not spared Job's children.222
14:17-20 The presence of these three men would not save the city if the Lord brought an invading army against it (vv. 17-18). The same would be true if God judged His people with disease, the effect of siege warfare (vv. 19-20; cf. Rev. 6:1-8). The Lord confirmed the certainty of each of the last three forms of judgment with His oath (vv. 16, 18, 20).
14:21 The Lord promised to send judgment by these four agents against Jerusalem: war, famine, wild animals, and disease (cf. Lev. 26:22-26). Four agents of divine judgment would overcome even the influence of three extremely righteous individuals, super-saints.
"The number four conveys the idea of completeness with an allusion to the four quarters of the earth. The logic is this: If there would be no sparing in one judgment, how much more certain would the universal judgment be in the case of four devastating judgments?"223
14:22-23 In spite of this severe judgment on Jerusalem, some of the inhabitants would survive and would join the Jews already in exile (i.e., a remnant, but this time an apostate remnant, cf. Jer. 44:27-30; Amos 9:8, 11-15). The formerly exiled Jews would see their conduct and actions (Heb. alilah, evil actions) and feel some comfort in view of the calamity that had overtaken Jerusalem. They would then see that what the Lord had done to Jerusalem was fair because these Jerusalemites' actions deserved judgment (cf. Gen. 18:25). They would also see that God's preservation of some of them was pure grace.
The presence of godly people living in an ungodly society will not preclude divine judgment on that society. There must be repentance by many people in that society for God to withhold judgment.
"A vicarious deliverance from individual sin, however, is impossible, except for the singular eternalvicarious deliverance provided by Jesus the Messiah in his substitutionary death for all sins (cf. John 14:6; Acts 4:12; 2 Cor 5:21). He alone can deliver others because of his death for their sin and his resurrection from the dead."224
