CHAPTER 8
Time for the trippy side of Ezekiel to come out. We get a charming introduction – “I was
sitting in my house” – hey, a nice personal touch! It’s not really describing the scene much,
but you rarely get first person in the Bible at all.
Anyhow, Ezekiel gets his mind blown by another vision. A vision of a man as brilliant as polished
bronze comes to Ezekiel and transports Ezekiel to the Temple of the Lord in
Jerusalem. While there, Ezekiel sees all
manner of abominations. Ezekiel is
horrified at the sights – and especially in this place! Clearly, people deserve the punishment coming
to them soon.
CHAPTER 9
The vision continues, with God saying that the abominators
will be slaughtered. Bummer. Then
Ezekiel – unlike Jeremiah, ever – pleads with God to not do this. No dice, says God. Their sins are too great.
This is a vision that could only come from someone in
Babylon. After all, if he were still
there, plenty could deny it. But who in
Babylon can say that God transported them to Jerusalem to see what was going
on?
Again, though, this is entirely outside all prophetic
tradition for the Hebrew. That people
would accept Ezekiel’s astonishing claims despite his breaking with precedent
and his rather, uh, unorthodox behavior is a sign of how desperate they were
for some contact with the Lord. Also,
he’d continue to get support later on because he’s saying that Jerusalem will
fall – and it does. Like Jeremiah, he
helps explain the calamity before it happens, so people can more easier adjust
their theology instead of entirely abandoning their God (as the lost 10 tribes
did) when things fall apart on them.
CHAPTER 10
The vision continues, and Ezekiel learns what the memorable
vision from Chapter 1 was. It was a
cherubim. They had some cherubims in the
Holiest of Holies in the old Temple, two with their wings stretched out, by the
Ark of the Lord. But I can’t imagine
that they looked much like Ezekiel’s memorable depiction of the four-headed whatever.
CHAPTER 11
God continues talking to Ezekiel. He tells the prophet that the people of
Jerusalem will be destroyed and devastated because of the abominations that
Ezekiel saw there during this odd journey/vision.
Ezekiel begins telling people this prophecy, and someone
named Pelatiah drops dead right in front of Ezekiel. However, this is still in the vision, not
real life. So it’s not a real death. It’s just meant to symbolize what will happen
to Jerusalem.
But there will be a happy ending. God will renew his oath to
the Hebrew and the survivors will be allowed to return at some point. Finally,
the vision ends, and Ezekiel begins to tell everyone what he saw. If I were one of the Hebrew, I’d have trouble
believing him. Jeremiah might’ve come
off like a misanthrope, but Ezekiel comes off like a whacko.
CHAPTER 12
Now that he’s fully back from his vision, Ezekiel does what
he does best – engage in some showmanship.
God tells him to go around with a packed bag, as if he’s going of to exile. Also, at night he is to dig a hole through
the wall of where he is living. The
packed bag represents the Hebrew going off to exile. I don’t quite get the dug hole, but it’s
related somehow.
It doesn’t go too well.
People hear his bleak prophecies and think he is wrong. Yeah, that isn’t too surprising. People believe what they want to
believe. Besides, how can they tell that
his guy is a true prophet, or just some crazy guy who eats cow manure?
Also, one thing I noticed in this chapter, Ezekiel has his
own favorite phrase. Just as Isaiah had
“Lord of hosts” and Jeremiah had “oracle of the Lord” so does Ezekiel have a
signature phrase: son of man.
Pretty much every time God goes to talk to him, he begins
off by saying “Son of man.” I haven’t noticed
much of it until now, but God drops, “son of man” on Ezekiel six times. I like this phrase. It just sounds nice and separates us from
God. Ezekiel and Isaiah both have nice
signature phrases, but Jeremiah’s “oracle of the Lord” lags behind.
CHAPTER 13
This is mostly a chapter of Ezekiel doing an imitation of
Jeremiah. Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel has to
contend with a rival pact of prophets.
Like Jeremiah, the rivals foretell happy tidings. Jerusalem won’t fall! All is well!
Remain calm! People like hearing
them because it’s what they want to hear.
But Ezekiel is critical, so people don’t like him as
much. He complains of his rivals, “They
have led my people astray, saying, `Peace!’ when there is no peace, and when a
wall is built, they cover it with whitewash.”
Oh, so that’s where the phrase “to whitewash” comes from (and yes, he
does use it repeatedly in this section).
Huh. So we get that from the
Bible, too. For the most part Ezekiel
doesn’t have nearly as good a way with words as Jeremiah or Isaiah, but I’ll
give him that one.
He also attacks witches.
So apparently they had witches then.
CHAPTER 14
The first half of this chapter if fairly generic,
boilerplate Bible stuff. Idolatry: it’s
bad. Just say no to idolatry, got that
kids? Good.
The second half is a little better, as Ezekiel tells
everyone about the need for a just cause, and he namedrops three greats to look
up to: Noah, Job, and Daniel. Wait –
Daniel? He hasn’t even shown up
yet. In fact, from what I know he’s late
exile and Ezekiel is still early exile.
So how can Ezekiel mention Daniel?
(In fact, scholars believe that Daniel was written centuries later, so
that really sounds off). Well, the
footnotes can explain this one. There
was a popular heroic figure in the Near East called Daniel. So the Bible’s Daniel isn’t the first
Daniel. I guess.
Anyway, that’s a pretty eclectic mix – Noah, Job, and this
Daniel person. If nothing else, it means
the Book of Job should’ve been written before the exile began.
Oh, and at the end of the chapter, something somewhat famous
happens – we meet the Four Horsemen!
Well, they aren’t the four horsemen.
Not yet anyway. But God does say,
“Even though I send against Jerusalem my four evil punishments – sword, famine,
wild beasts, and plague – “ Wait, let’s end the quote there. War, famine, disease – those are three of the
Four Horsemen. This has beasts, not
death, but it is very similar. I think
the Four Horsemen come from the end of the New Testament and the Book of
Revelations. Well, that author was
likely cribbing from Ezekiel. (That
makes sense. Ezekiel is our most
visionary Old Testament figure and Revelations is the most visionary New
Testament book). He just shifts wild
beasts to death. Admittedly death sounds
more imposing, but it’s also a bit redundant of the others. From a logical point of view, Ezekiel holds
up better. (Looks at the last
sentence). Wow – there is something I
never expected to write!
CHAPTER 15
This chapter is a short one.
It’s also poetry, the first poetry in all of Ezekiel so far. (This is very different from the poetry-heavy
Jeremiah and Isaiah).
But I don’t quite get the poem. It’s a parable of the vine. Apparently, there is some wood in a vine
(really? I had no idea) and it makes
good kindling. So will it be with the
people of Jerusalem. OK, I guess it
makes sense. But talking about wood in a
vine threw me. I guess that’s my
ignorance of vines showing. I’m sure it
makes more sense back in the day. People
lived closer to nature then. They had
more experience then I do with things like vines.
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