C. Yahweh's reply to the invalid hopes of the Israelites chs. 12-19

"The exiles had not grasped the serious consequences of Ezekiel's warnings. They still hoped for an early return to Palestine, for they viewed the continued preservation of Jerusalem and Judah as signs of security. After all, Jerusalem was the eternal city. They presented several reasons for their hope and security--as well as their objections to Ezekiel's warning--in chapters 12-19.

"First, if judgment was to come, it would not be in their lifetime, as Ezekiel had declared (ch. 12). Second, Ezekiel was only one of many prophets. Most prophets and prophetesses announced hope and reasons for optimism. Why should the people listen to Ezekiel (ch. 13)? Third, the leaders in Judah were ultimately responsible. If there was to be any judgment, it would be on them, not the exiles (ch. 14). Fourth, if real danger of judgment should exist, then they would only have to find some righteous man to intercede for them before God. Thus they would be delivered (ch. 14). Fifth, how could Ezekiel possibly believe that God would judge his own chosen people? He would not do that (chs. 15-16). Sixth, it would not be fair for God to judge anyone for his forefathers' sins. The people thought Ezekiel was saying that God did judge one for his forefather's sins (ch. 17). Seventh, if judgment was really coming, then there was nothing they could do to stop it; for they would be paying for their fathers' sins. It would not make any difference if they repented (ch. 18). Eighth, Zedekiah, the contemporary ruler of Judah, could be trusted. He would throw off the yoke of Babylonia (ch. 19).

"Ezekiel patiently, systematically, and adamantly (cf. 3:8-9) challenged the naive reasoning of the exiles, undermining each source of their optimistic rejection to his warnings of judgment. When Ezekiel had finished his challenges, no excuses remained."¹⁸⁷

This series of messages expands and develops the concepts presented in the preceding vision (chs. 8-11). Similarly the messages of judgment on Judah and Jerusalem (chs. 4-7) expounded elements in the vision of Ezekiel's commission (chs. 1-3). This pattern continues through the book.

"Chapters 4-11 have repeatedly shown the certainty of Jerusalem's destruction; chapters 12-19 present the necessity for it. The emphasis in these chapters is the moral cause of the exile."¹⁸⁸

The Judahites had trusted in the remnant in Jerusalem (12:1-20), parables (12:21-28), other prophets (ch. 13), idols (14:1-11), religious intercessors (14:12-23), their position as God's vine (ch. 15), the holy city of Jerusalem (ch. 16), Zedekiah (ch. 17), and God's justice (ch. 18).¹⁸⁹

 1. The dramatic tragedy of exile 12:1-20

This section contains three messages from the Lord all of which deal with the inevitability of another deportation of Jews from Jerusalem and Judah (vv. 1-7, 8-16, 17-20). Jerusalem would be overthrown and the Jews still there would be taken to Babylon in the very near future. The prophet's perspective now broadened from the temple (chs. 8-11) to the city (ch. 12).

 2. The present judgment as evidence of divine faithfulness 12:21-28

This section contains two prophecies (vv. 21-25 and 26-28). The first one deals with the objection of some of the exiles that the prophecies of Jerusalem's overthrow would never come to pass. The second addresses the view of some that destruction would come but not for a very long time.

 3. The condemnation of contemporary false prophets ch. 13

This chapter follows quite naturally from the previous one. There God corrected the mistaken views of His people, and here He rebuked those who were responsible for those views. In this section God pronounced judgment on the false prophets who were responsible for the Jews' false sense of security (cf. 12:21-28; Jer. 14:14; 23). He dealt with two groups of false prophets in this chapter: the males (vv. 1-16) and the females (vv. 17-23).

"The Prophet Ezekiel has already pronounced the judgment of God on the city of Jerusalem, the princes and the king. Now he rebukes the false prophets. . . . This chapter, one of the most important in the Old Testament on the abuses of the phenomenon of prophecy, may be considered an elaboration of the truth in 12:24."²⁰⁰

 4. The effect of false prophets on Israel's leaders 14:1-11

This prophecy carries on the thought of the one in chapter 13 about false prophets. Those who resorted to false prophets would share their fate, namely, judgment by God.

"Idolatry was the standard method of religion in ancient times. Ancient peoples believed that any depiction of a thing somehow partook of the essence of that thing, no matter how crude or artificial the depiction might be. A picture of a tree contained part of the essence of the tree; a statue of a god contained part of the essence of that god. Where that statue was, the god was of necessity at least partly present. Anything offered to a god's statue was offered directly to the god."²¹⁰

This attitude persists even today in some parts of the world as seen, for example, in some people's unwillingness to allow someone else to photograph them. They believe that the image of themselves on the photograph is a part of their essence that the photo removes from them.

 5. The need of personal righteousness for deliverance 14:12-23

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

 6. The unprofitable vine of Jerusalem ch. 15

This is the first in a series of three parables designed to impress on the overly optimistic exiles that there was no possibility that Jerusalem would escape destruction (cf. chs. 16-17).

15:1-2 The Lord asked Ezekiel how the wood of a vine was superior to the wood of other trees.

15:3-5 Vine wood was not good for making much of anything because it was too soft, weak, and crooked. It was not even good for making a peg on which to hang a vessel because it was so soft. It was only good for producing grapes. If vine wood was naturally of so little value, it was of even less value when charred by fire.

15:6-7 The Lord compared the inhabitants of Jerusalem to a piece of vine wood that He had used for fuel.²²⁵The vine was one of the most common symbols of Israel (Gen. 49:22; Deut. 32:32; Ps. 80:8-16; Isa. 5:1-7; Jer. 2:21; Hos. 10:1; Matt. 21:33-41; John 15:1-6).²²⁶Israel's purpose was to bless the nations with fruitfulness; she was to be a source of blessing to the world (Gen. 12:1-3). If she failed to do that, she was of very little value.

The Lord had set His face against His people in judgment twice already (cf. Ps. 66:12). They had experienced two invasions and deportations in 605 and 597 B.C. Even though some of them had escaped complete destruction, they were still not bearing fruit and would end up completely burned (cf. John 15:6; Heb. 12:28-29). This would happen when the Chaldeans destroyed the city and deported the rest of the Judahites in 586 B.C. (2 Chron. 36:10; cf. Josh. 6:24; 8:19; 11:11).²²⁷

15:8 Yahweh would desolate the land of Judah because His people had not been faithful to the Mosaic Covenant. The exiles could still be fruitful, but only if they remained faithful to the Lord.

"It is clear from Matthew 21:33-41 and other passages that God desires fruit. This is spiritual fruit, fruit of the spiritual life. Instead, God finds sour grapes or none at all. Unless men come into vital relationship with the true vine [cf. John 15:1], there can be no fruit. The vital link must be formed by faith."²²⁸

"This parable implies that the exiles had asked about God's consistency. They understood that they were his chosen people, his choice vine. How could he destroy them? They had been through the fire of two invasions and deportations by the Babylonians, but each time they had endured and sprouted up again. They did not believe that God's judgments would destroy Judah as Ezekiel had proclaimed."²²⁹

 7. Jerusalem's history as a prostitute ch. 16

This chapter is the longest prophetic message in the book and the longest single allegory in the entire Bible. It carries forward the guilt of Jerusalem described in the preceding chapter. God's chosen people were not only a vine that was good for nothing (ch. 15), but they had produced disgusting fruit (ch. 16). The Lord compared Jerusalem to a despised orphan who had become the beautiful wife of a king but had abandoned her privileges to become an insatiable prostitute (cf. Hos. 1-3).

"A sad parallel to this narrative is the course of Christendom in its departure from the purity of God's Word and the life of godliness."²³⁰

 8. The riddle and parable of the two eagles ch. 17

This message addressed another objection to the destruction of Jerusalem that the exiles entertained. The preceding parable placed much emphasis on Jerusalem's long history of unfaithfulness to the Lord's marriage covenant with her. Was the Lord fair in destroying Jerusalem now since former generations of Judahites had been unfaithful? The present parable clarified that Judah's recent leaders were also unfaithful and worthy of divine judgment.²⁴⁵

 9. The importance of individual righteousness ch. 18

This chapter, like 12:21-28, corrected a common proverb. This one dealt with the people's false view of the reason for their judgment by God.

"In Chapters 18 and 33 are contained some of the most thorough, carefully expressed, and absolutely clear discourses on the topic of the responsibility of the individual for his or her own sins found anywhere in the Bible. These passages provide a valuable correction to the potential errors of fatalism, rigid determinism, and blame-avoidant judgmentalism."²⁵⁶

 10. A lament for the kings of Israel ch. 19 

This prophecy shows that there were no more rulers left in Judah who could restore the nation to its former glory. Evidently the exiles hoped that some Davidic descendant would prove successful in overcoming the Babylonians and restoring Israel's sovereignty. This was their last hope, and it is the last prophecy in this section of the book that shows that such a hope was futile.

The prophecy contains two parts. The first part (vv. 1-9) uses the figure of a lion and her cubs to describe the Davidic line and two of its kings. The second part (vv. 10-14) uses the figure of a vine to describe Israel including its final strong branch or king.

19:1 Ezekiel was to lament (Heb. qinah) for the princes of Israel.²⁷⁰

"A dirge was normally sung. or chanted, by professional mourners after the death of the deceased and during his funeral. Ezekiel expressed the Lord's sadness over the Judean leadership's failure by chanting this elegy over her final rulers prior to their deaths . . ."²⁷¹

Ezekiel used the term "princes"to describe Judah's kings (7:27; 12:10, 19; et al.).

19:2 The prophet compared the former Davidic kings of Judah to a lioness. This was a common symbol of rulers in the ancient Near East, and the Israelites used the figure for the Davidic kings (Gen. 49:9; Num. 23:24; 1 Kings 10:19-20; Mic. 5:8; cf. Rev. 5:5).²⁷²This lioness was responsible for producing and nurturing young lion cubs, the kings that followed in the Davidic line.

19:3-4 One particular ruler in the Davidic line became lion-like. He tore his prey and devoured people. When his neighbors heard about him, someone captured him and brought him as a prisoner to Egypt.

This describes the character and fate of King Jehoahaz who did evil in the Lord's sight by devouring people in his own kingdom by oppression and injustice (2 Kings 24:8-15). Even though his reign lasted only three months (in 609 B.C.) it was a violent and brutal period in Israel's history. The Judeans placed Jehoahaz on Judah's throne after Pharaoh Neco killed his father, Josiah, at Megiddo thereby gaining sovereignty over Judah. However, Jehoahaz proved to be unmanageable, so Pharaoh took him to Egypt where he finally died (2 Kings 31-34; 2 Chron. 36:1-4; Jer. 22:10-12). The Judeans had hoped that Jehoahaz would return from Egypt and rule again in Judah, but that was not to be the case (cf. Jer. 22:10-12).

19:5-9 With the death of this cub the lioness took another of her offspring and made him dominant. He gained his position among the other rulers of the area and also became violent and destructive, like the first cub. He so devastated his own land that the people in it despaired. His neighbors also trapped this lion and took him captive to Babylon thus ending his reign.

This describes the career of King Jehoiachin, who also ruled over Judah for only three months (in 598-597 B.C.).²⁷³The Babylonians captured him and took him into exile in 597 B.C. Later he enjoyed a measure of freedom, but he never returned to rule over Judah (2 Kings 24:8-17; 25:27-30; 2 Chron. 36:8-11).

19:10-11 Ezekiel changed the figure of the Davidic rulers to that of the nation of Israel as a fruitful vine in the vineyard. This vine was fruitful and it flourished because it enjoyed abundant resources. Israel was like a fruitful vine among the other nations because God blessed it (15:1-6; 17:1-10; Deut. 8:7-8; Ps. 80:8-16; Isa. 5:1-7; 24:7; 27:2-6; Jer. 2:21; 6:9; cf. Matt. 21:33-41; John 15:1-8). Its branches were so strong that they proved usable as scepters for rulers. The vine became exceedingly large in the season of its greatest glory, the days of David and Solomon.

19:12-14 However, others uprooted this vine in their fury, trod it underfoot, and cut off its fruitfulness as with a hot east wind (from Babylon; cf. 17:6-10, 15; Ps. 89:30-37). Its strong branch, King Zedekiah, was cut off so it withered and burned up. This was a prediction of Zedekiah's future.²⁷⁴He went into captivity in 586 B.C. King Zedekiah had been responsible for much of the destruction that had overtaken Judah.²⁷⁵The vine was now in the wilderness, a place of limited resources. It had burned up so there were no more strong shoots or fruit left in it.²⁷⁶No scepter was in it now; there was no Davidic king who could rule over Israel. The vine was not completely destroyed, but it languished having been transplanted to a hostile environment.

The writer identified this piece again as a lamentation, a funeral dirge or elegy that the Jews used to describe their sorrow over the fate of the Davidic rulers of their nation.

It is appropriate that this last section in the part of the book that consists of Yahweh's reply to the invalid hopes of the Israelites (chs. 12-19) should be a lament. Judah's doom was certain, so a funeral dirge was fitting. All the exiles could do was mourn the divine judgment on their nation that was to reach its climax very soon.

"Jerusalem's fall was so certain that Ezekiel considered it inevitable. . . . The dirge was not over one individual; it was being sung for the Davidic dynasty and the death' of its rule."²⁷⁷

Not until Jesus Christ returns to the earth to reign will a strong branch and the ruler's scepter arise in the line of David again.