NOTES for Eze 5:1-17

Horror seizes the prophet Ezekiel when God enables him to see Israel's history in the light of God's righteousness. Every word of the prophet that we read in chapter 5 is permeated with fear and pain. In the prophet's eyes, Israel's sins prove to be far more than breaches of established standards and rules: he sees in them resistance to the Almighty Himself.

The time in which the prophet Ezekiel lived was filled with the constant struggle of rising and falling empires against small countries and peoples. Israel itself, because of its geographical position, was continually caught in the vortex of this struggle. The days of Assyria were still alive in the chosen people's memory: its collapse under Babylon's blows had taken place only some thirty years before Ezekiel's call. As a child, he might have heard what the prophet Nahum said then about Assyria's downfall: ‘All who hear the news about you will clap their hands over you, for upon whom has your wickedness not continually fallen?’ (Nah. 3:19). It is therefore quite natural that the apocalyptic picture described by the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 5 should contain echoes of Assyria's punitive expeditions against rebellious peoples. Such things were commonplace in those days: Babylon and Egypt acted in the same way.

Ezekiel sees Israel's lawlessness, penetrating every sphere of life, its betrayal of the Sinai covenant, as just such a rebellion of a small people against a mighty ruler—a rebellion awaiting severe punishment. God's righteousness cannot tolerate the idolatry, cruelty and violence that have come to reign in Israel's life. Resistance to the ruler cannot be tolerated, because otherwise the ruler will appear weak. This was absolutely obvious to everyone in the East at that time. The logic of events described by the prophet is inexorable: Israel, called to holiness, has instead multiplied its lawless deeds and become worse than the pagans; in response, God too has risen in judgment against Jerusalem.

Some five or six years before this prophecy, something similar had happened in Jerusalem under King Zedekiah and the prophet Jeremiah, and God then said to the king through Jeremiah: ‘You refused to grant freedom to your fellow countrymen—then I proclaim freedom for you... to suffer the sword, pestilence and devastation.’ One of the most piercing revelations of this era was apparently the thought that God would treat Israel as Israel treats God.

To a person today, this may seem unjust: the weak and the small must not be mistreated, we would say. But in the confrontation between God's holiness and the sin of this world, nothing less than life and death is at stake. God's exacting demands in this case are therefore no more unjust than in the words ‘as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me’ (Mt. 25:40), or ‘Whoever says he is in the light but hates his brother is still in darkness’ (1 Jn. 2:9). The love given by the Spirit of God cannot be one-sided or partial. Either we live guided by the Spirit—and then we are faithful and merciful both to God and to our neighbour—or we are against both.

No abundance of sacrifices or formal worship can buy the Almighty's indulgence if the moral principles He laid at the foundation of the world are trampled upon and faithfulness to His love is betrayed. What else can await Jerusalem, which has rebelled against its Lord? This is why the picture of Jerusalem's devastation and destruction described by the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 5 is so terrible. This is why the text of this chapter so closely resembles the commands of ancient Eastern rulers ordering punitive campaigns against rebels. Yet as we read these words, it is important to remember that they do not encompass the fullness of God's will: further on, in the following chapters, God will complement this revelation of righteousness with a revelation of mercy.