NOTES for Eze 12:1-28

The key words in chapter 12 are: “The land ... shall be stripped of all its abundance because of the iniquity of all who dwell in it” (Ezek 12:19). It is precisely because we do not believe these words that we find it difficult to accept the New Testament commandment that the world’s salvation lies in our love for one another. Yet it turns out that the world is sustained only because people are sometimes capable of showing one another mercy.

And the closer one is to God, the stronger the connection between life and mercy, and between death and violence. Life in Israel in the time of the prophet Ezekiel was unattractive but ordinary enough, if violence and lawlessness can ever be considered ordinary. Nations that did not know God committed even worse things...

But if you have been called by God and have answered His call, if you wish to be His inheritance on earth, then even “ordinary” inhumanity is ruinous. The closer one is to God, the stronger the flame of His love, in which every sin is consumed, to use the Apostle Paul’s image.