The Spirit of the LORD leads Ezekiel to the gate of the Temple. Here he comes across twenty-five men who are giving wicked advice. They are saying that soon it will be time to build houses in Jerusalem, and we are protected like meat in a cooking pot. From a commentary I was looking at, it suggests that these men were saying that everything was going alright. They’re basically saying that there is a fire going on outside of the pot (Jerusalem), but the pot keeps the meat from the fire. I guess they are ignoring the fact that the meat is still getting cooked; anyways, the pot will soon be shattering. Ezekiel is told to prophesy against them for their wickedness. Then all of a sudden, these guys start dropping dead like Ezekiel (remember he’s in Babylon) is some sort of voodoo doctor. This causes great distress to Ezekiel because he fears that God will wipe Israel from the face of the Earth (11:13).
But God has a plan and he lets Ezekiel in on it: “I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again. They will return to it and remove all of its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them.” (11:17-19) This is incredible! God is saying that he’s really angry, but he’s never going to forget his people. He has a plan to bring them back and all of these things did end up happening. Sometimes we have to go through some really hard things to realize God’s plan. In this case, the hard things were as a result of their sin, but I think it often works that way for us as well. We go down a path of sin and suffer for it, but God so often redeems it when we come back to him (Think of a former drug addict who talks to kids to keep them from doing the same thing).
So the vision ends and Ezekiel is back in Babylon. He gets word from God, who says that, “They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.” (12:2) This makes me think of Jesus who is constantly saying, “He who has ear to hear, let him hear”. Obviously a lot of hyperbole, but still a lesson to us. If you see things and hear things around you that are not right, you have a responsibility to act. One thing I do like about this chapter 12 is in verse 4 where God says, “Perhaps they will understand”. He’s giving them somewhat of an out. He’s saying that they still have a chance to maybe alleviate some of this and to turn things around. There are indeed times in the Bible where God does actually say that it’s too late, but I like to think that as long as you have breath, there’s an opportunity to turn things around in your life no matter how screwed up they are. Perhaps you will understand.
A couple interesting things to wrap up this chapter. Ezekiel predicts how Zedekiah (last King of Judah) will leave Jerusalem and meet his demise (12:12-14). Apparently the Israelites had a proverb that all these bad visions from prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel never happened or they’ll happen a long time from now. God does not like this. “For in your days, you rebellious house, I will fulfill whatever I say, declares the Sovereign LORD.” (12:25) Don’t ever tell God what he will or will not do; don’t tell God when his visions will come true. God has this great way of throwing these sort of things back in our faces. It’s like when God reacts to Job’s anger and starts going off that Job wasn’t there when he created the mountains and the seas and all this other stuff and that he had no authority to question God. If you tell God that you will never do anything, there’s a pretty good chance that someday you will do that very thing. Kind of like Murphy’s Law…
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