Archives For Bible – Ezekiel

The Exodus and the Cross

November 4, 2010 — Leave a comment

On the mount of transfiguration Moses and Elijah appear and speak with Jesus about the coming “Exodus” that He will accomplish at Jerusalem (Lk. 9:31). While this is commonly translated “decease” (e.g. NKJV), the word in the Greek is “exodus” which, incidentally, means “exodus.” The word is used throughout the Septuagint to mean “going out” or “going forth” beginning with the Exodus from Egypt (e.g. Ex. 19:1, Num. 33:38).

Interestingly, the word is only used in two other places in the New Testament: first, in Hebrews 11 where Joseph is remembered as prophesying the coming Exodus of Israel out of Egypt, and secondly, it is used in 2 Pet. 1:15 where Peter does seem to be speaking about his coming death. But even there, this reference comes immediately after him speaking about his “tent” that he will soon be putting off. Obviously “tent” is used elsewhere to refer to the body (e.g. Jn. 1:14, 2 Cor. 5:1-4), but a form of the same word is also used for the tabernacle. The Exodus story moves from one house to another, from the house of bondage to the tent of Yahweh. Similarly, later in Israelite history, they will be freed from the tent in Shiloh under Eli’s wicked sons and David will construct his tent on Mt. Zion. Still later, Ezekiel will see the entire exile story as an exodus, freeing Israel from the bondage in Jerusalem and the Solomonic temple and bringing them to a new, heavenly temple.

Thus, the death and resurrection of a human is this exodus story. We put off the old tent of the body, the body that is in bondage to sin and death, and we go into the “wilderness” in the heavenly presence of Christ until we are re-clothed with a new, heavenly house in the resurrection of the body (2 Cor. 5:1-8). In this sense, Israel “died” in the Passover/Unleavened Bread/tenth plague. They were putting off the “tent” of Egypt so that they could put on a new, heavenly tent, a new resurrection body in the tabernacle. They “went to heaven” in the presence of God at Mt. Sinai, and they were finally “re-clothed” in the body of the tabernacle.

And this makes sense of Christ’s description of His own death and resurrection as an Exodus. His death is the great Passover/Unleavened Bread/tenth plague all wrapped up into one. And His body is the temple, the old tent of Israel, which is being destroyed so that it can be rebuilt in three days. In His body on the tree, Jesus became the old Israel in the tent of bondage, the tent of Egypt, so that He could free us from that tent, free us from that house of death, and re-clothe us with a new heavenly tent, a new body, a new temple in Him.

In Bible - 2 Corinthians, Bible - 2 Peter, Bible - Exodus, Bible - Ezekiel, bible - John
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Performing for Captives

October 28, 2010 — Leave a comment

Following up on the quote I posted a couple of days ago from Jordan’s Handwriting on the Wall concerning the prophecies that Israel would have been receiving from the prophets already in exile:

Ezekiel is already in exile while Jerusalem still stands. He is taken to Jerusalem in the Spirit (by his hair! – 8:3) to see the abominations that are being done there (Ez. 8-11). But apparently he is carrying out most of his antics in exile. So for example, he returns to those in captivity (Ez. 11:25) from his vision of the glory of the Lord leaving Jerusalem in Ez. 11, and in Ez. 12, he does his theatrical rendition of the inhabitants of Jerusalem going into captivity. But apparently he’s doing this for those who are already in captivity.

He’s acting out what will happen to those are still back in Jerusalem. This seems to add another layer of embarrassment to Ezekiel’s calling. Poor guy has to do tons of weird and awkward stuff and it’s not actually for the audience he’s performing in front of. This underlines Jordan’s point that almost certainly the reports of Zeke’s antics are getting transmitted in some form back to Jerusalem. Given the limitations of sixth century technology, we know that the “signs” of Ezekiel would then have been delivered to the inhabitants of Jerusalem by word (written or spoken).

The purpose of Ezekiel’s charades would then have been an encouragement to those already in captivity. He’s saying in effect, you people in captivity should be thankful that you aren’t back there in Jerusalem.

This seems to suggest some place for prophetic preaching in the Christian Church which isn’t necessarily directly aimed at the congregation being preached to. A pastor who preaches against immorality, abuses, evil out in the world is carrying on a ministry like Ezekiel’s. And those who are gathered together in the congregation who aren’t perpetrating those particular evils can be encouraged that they have been delivered from the judgment of God sure to fall on the wicked. And of course it’s problematic if a preacher never addresses the sins of his own particular congregation.

In Bible - Ezekiel, Preaching
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Another Tenth Plague/Passover

October 28, 2010 — Leave a comment

Ezekiel 9 combines a number of elements from Exodus 12-13, 32. It too is a tenth plague/passover story.

In Ezekiel 9, like Exodus 32, the Destroyer is embodied in the actions of men. This time the “sign” that marks those who are to be spared is made with a pen on the foreheads of those who cry over the abominations done in the midst of Jerusalem (Ez. 9:3-4).

As in Exodus 32, there is an advocate for Israel, a Moses, who pleads on their behalf that God not destroy them entirely (cf. Ex. 32:11-14, Ez. 9:8-11). Only this time Yahweh does not appear to relent from His anger.

In Bible - Exodus, Bible - Ezekiel
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I am Yahweh

October 28, 2010 — Leave a comment

The declaration of God, “I am the Lord” using the the covenant name Yahweh occurs nearly 200 times in the OT. Nearly three quarters of those are found in the books Exodus, Leviticus, and Ezekiel.

This suggests a few things: First, this invites a close connection between Exodus and Leviticus. The Exodus from Egypt is all about Yahweh, a display of His name, making His name known to the Israelites, their children, and the Egyptians. The plagues, the division between the Israelites and Egyptians, the death of the firstborn, the deliverance from Egypt: all of this is done so that they might “know that I am Yahweh.”

When Leviticus repeats this phrase some forty or fifty times, it is frequently explicitly tied to the Exodus (“I am Yahweh who brought you out of Egypt…”, etc.). But it is always implicitly referring back to that event, back to the revelation of Yahweh’s name in the Exodus. They are to keep Yahweh’s sabbaths because He is Yahweh who brought them out of Egypt. They are to be holy because they serve Yahweh who brought them out of Egypt. They are not to worship other gods because their God is Yahweh who brought them out of Egypt. They are to release their slaves, forgive debts, and care for orphans and widows because “I am Yahweh.”

But when Ezekiel uses this phrase nearly seventy times, he is drawing off of both of these books. Ezekiel is a Moses pleading with Israel to leave Egypt, to leave the Jerusalem that has become an Egypt. But this already implies the Leviticus connection. Not living according to the word of God in Leviticus is to to “return to Egypt” while still living in Israel. To disobey Yahweh, to break covenant is to reject the Exodus, to take Israel back into Egypt. For Ezekiel to bring God’s declaration, “I am Yahweh,” is to remind Israel of Leviticus, to remind Israel of the word of their Redeemer, their Near-Kinsman who came and set them free.

In Bible - Exodus, Bible - Ezekiel, Bible - Leviticus
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Believing Babylon

October 25, 2010 — Leave a comment

“Consider the likelihood that these three stories [Daniel 1-3] were in circulation for ten or more years before Jerusalem was destroyed. For ten years Jeremiah and his associates were able to tell the citizens of Jerusalem and Israel that God was working to convert the Babylonian empire. For ten years it was clear that the Babylonian empire was ruled by faithful believers. Those Jews who refused to obey God by submitting to Nebuchadnezzar were totally without excuse. They could not argue that to submit to Babylon was to submit to a heathen power, because Babylon was clearly being ruled by believers. Their rejection of Babylon and of Nebuchadnezzar was a rejection of Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Yahweh.”

(James B. Jordan, The Handwriting on the Wall, 11)

In Bible - Daniel, Bible - Ezekiel, Bible - Jeremiah
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Israel as a Prophet

October 23, 2010 — 2 Comments

If the prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel are marked by rituals and charades that symbolize what God is doing or about to do with His people, this applies back in time and biblical history to some extent to those rituals and charades that God instituted among His people. When He instructs Moses to instruct the people to perform the ritual of Passover and keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they are acting out what God is about to do. They are acting like prophets.

The blood of the Passover lamb will ward off the Destroyer, but it also symbolizes and pictures death, the death of a “son”, the spotless lamb. There will be blood either way; there will be death. And where there is no blood on the doorways, there will be “blood” and great crying inside the houses. Likewise, the leaven is to be removed from the houses of Israel, and the soul who eats any leaven during the feast will be “cut off” from among his people. And in the tenth plague, God will cut off the firstborn from the land of Egypt. The leaven is the strength of the bread, the strength of a people, and the firstborn sons of Egypt are the hope of a new generation, the strength of Egyptian culture.

So Israel as nation enacts the tenth plague before/as it happens like a Jeremiah, like an Ezekiel acting out what the Lord is about to do.

Israel as a nation is a prophet.

In Bible - Exodus, Bible - Ezekiel, Bible - Jeremiah
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Ezekiel 20

October 19, 2010 — 1 Comment

If one were to be preaching through the book of Exodus, one would not want to forget about the book of Ezekiel. Turns out.

And let me commend to such a one Ezekiel 20 in particular.

The elders of Israel come to Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord, but the Lord refuses to hear them because of the abominations of their fathers (20:4). And Yahweh proceeds to review their history, the history of their fathers, beginning with when He raised His hand and swore an oath to bring Israel out of Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey (20:5-6). God says that when He came to Israel to deliver them, He came to call them to repentance: “Then I said to them, ‘Each of you, throw away the abominations which are before his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt’” (20:7). But the Israelites in Egypt did not obey God’s call to repentance in Egypt. They rebelled against Yahweh, did not cast away their abominations, and did not forsake their idols. And therefore God determined to pour out His fury upon them in the midst of Egypt (20:8).

This is striking. We have hints that all is not well in Egypt in the Exodus account. And much later in Joshua’s farewell speech, he is urging Israel to put away the gods they used to serve in Egypt. But here in Ezekiel, the depths of Israel’s sin and rebellion are exposed. And this makes sense given how Israel so quickly wants to return to Egypt, given how hard hearted and unbelieving they are in the wilderness. Israel was not a poor, oppressed people having fallen innocently under the thumb of an evil tyrant. The Pharaoh did not know Yahweh because Israel had forgotten Yahweh. What becomes an endless cycle in the Judges era (forgetting Yahweh, serving other gods, falling into slavery, crying out for deliverance, etc.) seems to be the very pattern at work in Egypt.

It seems damning that even when Israel cries out and groans because of the hard bondage in Egypt, they do not even explicitly address their cries to God. Their cries come up to God; He hears their cries and sees their bondage and sorrow (Ex. 2:23-24, 3:7, 9). But they do not appear to be crying out to God directly, and given Ezekiel’s version of the events, it seems even more likely that they were not crying out to God. Of course we know that there were some faithful still in Egypt (the midwives, Moses’ family), but the vast majority are apparently serving idols, performing abominations, and rebelling against Yahweh. And apparently they continued in these actions even after Moses had come to them and declared God’s intentions.

This means that the plagues on Egypt are not only for the Egyptians. God’s fury is being poured out on all of the idolaters, Egyptian and Israelite. When Moses struck the waters and they turned to blood, blood filled the entire land of Egypt. And there does not seem to be any indication that Goshen was exempt. In fact all three of the first plagues are apparently universal in the “land of Egypt.” The blood, the frogs, and the lice are presented without indication of distinction between Israelites or Egyptians. It is only in the fourth plague that a distinction is made (8:22-23), and while the distinction is not explicitly referenced in every plague following (it’s missing in the sixth and eighth plagues), it is recurring otherwise, suggesting that only the first three were universal and then God began making a difference. The final plague, however, is a potential threat to everyone. Only those who find refuge in houses covered in the blood of the Passover lamb are safe from the Destroyer of the firstborn.

But these plagues are the fury of God not merely on Egypt; Ezekiel says that God was pouring out His anger on Israel. But God did not destroy Israel in Egypt for His name’s sake, so that His name would not be profaned in the midst of the gentiles (Ez. 20:9). Clearly, this is the same God who acted in Christ to reconcile His enemies to Himself. While we were still dead in our sins, while were still enemies, Christ died for us. While Israel was still dead in slavery to idols, God brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, providing forgiveness through the lambs that were slain, spotless sons, pointing forward to the Perfect Son, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

In Bible - Exodus, Bible - Ezekiel
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Exile as Promised Land

August 2, 2010 — Leave a comment

“Signs and wonders” come to a nation when it is being judged and destroyed. Egypt is the great example of this. Yahweh multiplies His signs and wonders in the land of Egypt in order to destroy Egypt and bring His armies out of the land. And throughout much of the rest of the law “signs and wonders” repeatedly refer back to what God did in Egypt. However this changes under the prophets, Isaiah and Ezekiel in particular, who become “signs and wonders” in Israel (Is. 8:18, 20:3, Ez. 12:6, 12:11, 24:24, 27).

This implies that by the time of the prophets Israel has become an Egypt, and Yahweh is once again on the move to free His enslaved people. This is why obedience to Yahweh eventually means defecting to Babylon. “Staying in Israel” when the prophets call the people to submit to Nebuchadnezzar is equivalent to “staying in Egypt.” The kings and priests of Israel are no better than pharoah and his magicians. Following the prophets and going with the Spirit of God into exile is the historical equivalent of going into the Promised Land. Where the Spirit of the Lord is; there is freedom.

In Bible - Exodus, Bible - Ezekiel, Bible - Isaiah
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Talking to a Corpse

March 22, 2010 — Leave a comment

In Ezekiel 37, the Lord brings the prophet to a valley full of old, dry bones, and asks Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And Ezekiel says that only the Lord knows, and the Lord commands Ezekiel to prophecy to the bones, to speak to them in the name of the Lord, and to tell them that they will live, that breath will enter them, that sinews will come upon them and flesh will once again cover them, and they will live and know that Yahweh is God. And Ezekiel proceeds to prophecy to the bones and there is a great rattling, and the bones come together, and breath comes into them, and they stand up and they are alive, and they are an exceedingly great army. The prophet is told that this is the house of Israel dead in sins, dead in exile, lifeless, breathless. But the Lord says that He will cause Israel to come out of the grave, and He will put His Spirit within them. As we have been meditating on the death of Jesus, we come this week in Matthew’s gospel to the burial of Jesus. Even here, we see the wonder of God’s grace and power. God himself enters the valley of dry bones. In Christ, God endures death and gives up the Spirit. But the Word of God does not return void, the promise of Christ that He would come back out of the grave after three days is not an empty promise. The Spirit returns and fills the body of Jesus, and Israel comes out of the grave filled with the Spirit. And of course Pentecost is the gift of this same life giving Spirit for us and for the world as down payment of our own resurrection. But this is also encouragement in evangelism. Preaching to unbelievers, witnessing to family members who do not know the Lord, this is always talking to corpses, conversation with a dead body, prophesying to dry bones. You say, I tell them about Christ, I pray for them, I invite them to church, I show love and hospitality, and all I hear is crickets chirping. And Ezekiel says that’s exactly right. What did you expect, preaching in a grave yard? But the death and burial of Jesus is our hope. Can dead men live? Can corpses be resurrected? Only the Spirit can do that. Our best attempts at evangelism are no better than Ezekiel’s prophecy to the dry bones. But Jesus has burst out of the grave, and you and I are all living members of His body. We have tasted this resurrection life and have been filled with the same Spirit. Can these dry bones live? Absolutely. Here we are, everyone of us, once a corpse, once stiff in the tomb of Adam, and now alive and forgiven in Christ. Jesus was buried in order to enter into our death and the death of this world. And He was raised in order to undo it all, raising the dead to an exceedingly great army.

In Bible - Ezekiel, Exhortations
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The Shepherd and the Lion

February 16, 2010 — Leave a comment

My friend and colleague, Joshua Appel, pointed out that 1 Peter 5 actually holds together fairly tightly: moving from exhortation to elders to “shepherd the flock” faithful as those who will give account to the Chief Shepherd ultimately to the exhortation to resist the devil who is a “prowling lion” seeking to devour them.

This is helpful in a couple of ways: First, if the “adversary” and the “the devil” is tied specifically in Peter’s mind to the mechanism of persecution (which it seems to be, given 5:9), then the “devil” here would seem to be something similar to the “principalities and powers” spoken of elsewhere which seems to combine demonic beings with earthly, political rulers. The “devil” then is a sort of “ruler” who contrasts with the shepherds of the Chief Shepherd who are called to “rule” in an entirely different sort of way (5:2-3). If the Jews are specifically in Peter’s mind, as seems implicit in a number of places in 1 Peter, then Peter is consciously comparing Christian elders to the “shepherds of Israel” who continue to “devour” the flock of God (Ez. 34:2-3).

But secondly the implication is that submission to the Christian elders is submission to protection from these false shepherds, protection from these lions who are seeking to devour the flock of God. Following these elder-shepherds as they follow the example of the Chief Shepherd may very well mean suffering and death, as it did for Jesus, the Chief Shepherd. But after they have suffered a little while, they will be raised up, whether they are delivered from persecution in this life or literally raised from the dead at the end. But notice that this submission is “resistance.” The death of Jesus was the death blow of all principalities and powers, the death blow to Satan’s project. This means that the suffering and death of Christians is likewise an act of war and resistance. As Revelation puts it: “they overcame [the devil] by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death” (Rev. 12:11).

In Bible - 1 Peter, Bible - Ezekiel, Pastoral Theology
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