CHAPTER 33
This just rehashes some points. First we get some basics about being a prophet that we heard back
in Chapter 3. After that, Ezekiel
reminds us of his main moral message, which he already covered in Chapter
18.
This isn’t a bad chapter, but it doesn’t really add
anything.
CHAPTER 34
The Bible has plenty of talk about shepherds, but there is
nothing like this shepherd talk in Chapter 34 of Ezekiel. Typically, shepherds are there to serve as
positive metaphors: God is a shepherd and the people are his flock. But here we’re told, “Son of man, prophesy
against the shepherds of Israel.
Prophesy and say to them: To the shepherds thus says the Lord God: Woe
to the shepherds!” Woe to the
shepherds? That’s not a commonly found
phrase in the Bible.
The shepherds here aren’t God (obviously) but the earthly
rulers of the Hebrew. And they
suck. They suck because they don’t
engage in ethical behavior. They don’t
aid the weak nor heal the sick, and instead look after themselves. This is another Bible passage that wouldn’t
like the Ryan budget. It’s a peon to
morality, a morality based on treated those on bottom of society with as much
care and respect as you can manage.
Confucius would approve of this.
Since the leaders aren’t doing that, God has it in for them,
saying, “Was it not enough for you to graze on the best pasture, that you had
to trample the rest of your pastures with your hooves? Or to drink the clearest water, that you had
to pollute the rest with your hooves?
Thus my flock had to graze on what your hooves had trampled and drink
what your hooves had polluted.” The
leaders have used their power to attack the masses instead of help them.
CHAPTER 35
We get another chapter attacking Edom. This is a weirdly placed chapter, as all the
other attacks upon people came a bit ago.
Edom has angered God for gloating so much as Israel for her final
collapse. Duly noted.
CHAPTER 36
This is a positive prophecy – one promising rejuvenation for
the Hebrew. It’s a little weird, as
much of it is specifically directed at the mountains of Israel. Not the people, the land itself. Oh.
Okay. It’s Ezekiel, you expect a
bit of weirdness from this one.
CHAPTER 37
Now for one of the more famous moments in the prophet books
in the Bible. In fact, this one even
inspired a famous song:
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones
Hear the word of the Lord!
Well the toe bone’s connected to the foot bone
The foot bone’s connected to the leg bone
The leg bone’s connected to the knee bone…
God takes Ezekiel to a dry barren place where there are
bones lying around. Dry bones, of
course. God asks Ezekiel if they can be
made to live again, and Ezekiel then defers to God, saying only He knows that
for sure.
Good answer. God
that commands Ezekiel to prophesize to the bones – “Hear the word of the Lord!”
and has them assemble. Then muscle and
tissue form. Then skin covers
them. And before you know it, an army
of people has risen from the dry bones.
Then God commands Ezekiel to prophesize them to breath – and they
do!
Hear the word of the Lord! – indeed!
It’s a vision. This
isn’t real. There isn’t an army of
people who rise up. We never hear of
them again. But it sure is a memorable
vision.
CHAPTER 38
This begins a new series of prophecies – about a mysterious
enemy called Gog from a placed called Magog.
There is no place and there are no people. It looks to be set in the future. The name probably shouldn’t be taken too literally. Anyhow, they are the bad guys. Gog will attack but God will oppose Gog.
CHAPTER 39
More Gog and Magog.
They sound like a bad comedy team when you put it like that.
Anyhow, they’ll lose, leading to maybe the most disgusting
prophecy of victory in the Bible: “Say to the birds of every kind and to every
wild beast: Assemble! Come from all sides for the sacrifice I am making for
you, a great slaughter on the mountains of Israel. You shall eat flesh and drink blood! You shall eat the flesh of warriors and drink the blood of the
princes of the earth: rams, lambs, and goats, bulls, and fatlings from Bashan,
all of them. From the sacrifice I
slaughtered for you, you shall eat fat until you are sated and drink blood
until you are drunk.”
Click here for the end of Ezekiel.
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