By Eric Hatch
July 2, 2018
As we read Ezekiel’s writings, including most of the last post about it, God would forgive you (if you asked!) for thinking the prophet only describes a God who revels in judgment. However, Ezekiel’s audience finds bountiful hope and a cornucopia of details throughout his book, including amazingly detailed maps and powerful drama. Both continue to provide color in our process of learning God’s true character. We will study the unique way God directs Ezekiel to use plays to explain God’s response to His people’s sin. First, though, we will provide some context for Chapters 40 to 48.
Maps Detail God’s Redemptive Heart
This closing section foretells the merciful plans of the Eternal God of Isaac and Jacob for their descendants. Ezekiel receives The Word of The Lord with boundary lines for how God will apportion the restored land first promised to Abraham and his children. This may seem straight forward – that God has a specific plan to give each tribe a place to build and call home. However, Christians may find these chapters difficult to harmonize with Apostle John’s words in The Revelation and other end-time prophecies.
In this layout of a future kingdom promised by God to the nation of Israel, Ezekiel provides pinpoint, “GPS” cartography, laying out of the boundaries of each tribe of Israel’s allotment of land in a restored and future kingdom. From my view, this detailed description may have provided John with his framework of Jewish apocalyptic writings. Yes, I believe that God directly inspired John’s description of numbers: for example, the 144,000 Jewish converts to Christ during the Great Tribulation period and the New Jerusalem, a city over 1,000 miles wide, and just as long and high (yes, tall enough to stretch into Outer Space). With reformed Temple worship including animal sacrifice, even seemingly after Christ’s “once for all” sacrifice (Romans 6:10), these last 9 chapters may scare away more Christians and theologians than any of Ezekiel’s writings, even the graphic descriptions of 16 and 23!
I will note here that I don’t feel qualified yet to interpret the closing passages of Ezekiel and all of its minute detail. However, we can know for sure that Ezekiel completes his prophecies in the same place as John does in Revelation. At the end of his writings, Ezekiel writes in 48:35, “the name of the city from that time on shall be, The Lord Is There.” Then, as John finishes The New Testament, John writes in Revelation 21:3 this description of the New Jerusalem in language complementary to Ezekiel’s hope-filled name of our future home:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.”
With these passages, let us build our hope on The One True God and His desire to reveal Himself in the short-term, when we commune in the spiritual realm, and His promise to live with us in the long-term, when He will physically and perfectly inhabit our new home.
Looking at both John and Ezekiel’s writings, I admit to confusion. I try to understand how God sees present-day rulers in Israel/Palestine, and the ongoing fight for land in The Middle East, and the promise of a perfect nation ruled by “The Prince of Israel”. I also don’t understand when and how the Lord’s coming will occur, as described by John. Nevertheless, God promises His mercy, and He even maps it out in detail because He will fulfill His words. His grace is consummated for all women and men who care for Him.
Profound Plays Tell God’s Tragic Tale
Still, Ezekiel contains an even more uncommon narrative style, when compared to other parts of The Bible: 2 forms of drama. In Chapter 4, Ezekiel acts out a true “One Man Play” among the exiles from Judah in Babylon, preaching each day while laying down outside for over a year (390 days)! To depict God’s wrath on Jerusalem, he also builds dirt dioramas of The City of David and shows in excruciating detail how The Babylonians will destroy Judah.
In the second form of drama, Ezekiel performs as God’s avatar, his direct reflection to reveal how God acts in relationship with His rebellious children. In Chapter 24, God tells Ezekiel of his wife’s impending death, but God requires Ezekiel NOT to mourn her passing. Seemingly the cruelest job of any prophet, God wants the exiles in Israel to understand their deep, ongoing sin. It’s almost like God says to His people, “See, look at Ezekiel. He doesn’t even grieve the loss of ‘the delight of [his] eyes’. Like him, I have no more tears to cry for you. My wrath will be spent.”
This harsh picture of God shows the other side of God’s character, seemingly in contrast to the tender story in Amos about God’s buying back unfaithful Israel. There, Amos, acting in the part of God, marries the prostitute Gomer, who bore children not fathered by Amos. Then, when Gomer returned to prostitution, Amos bought her back, knowing that she still was unfaithful to him.
Both of these examples of “prophet as performance artist” complement each other, similar to the proverbial “two sides of the coin”. We can’t have a coin… without 2 sides! God acts at different times and in different circumstances with wrath toward His children in rebellious disobedience and with mercy toward the sinner. These sets of actions provide more evidence of the significance of reading the writings of Ezekiel.
See, many preachers and seekers of The Lord Jesus Christ (including myself, occasionally) emphasize God’s mercy when responding to sin and unfaithfulness, as seen in the “reality drama” of Amos and Gomer. However, just like the best human fathers, God not only provides mercy, but He also doles out discipline. By reading all of the prophets and their proclamations, we see a glimpse of the true depth of God’s personality. What majesty I see in this nuanced revelation of God’s goodness: just, fierce, forgiving, merciful, and always trustworthy! And I know this about God because I read all of the counsel about Him in scripture.
God Reveals Both His Mercy and Justice
How should this two-sided (NOT two-faced!) picture of God affect His followers and our sharing of His grace with humanity? For one thing, we only understand the character and actions of God as we seek Him in and through His past words in The Holy Bible. For both believers and seekers of The Lord God, we can and should use our studies of the Old and New Testaments to push our awareness of His divine nature. Remember that God doesn’t expect us to somehow discover a jewel about Him after innumerable unfruitful searches in the garbage heaps of Worldly Wisdom. I am, similar to greater minds of the past like Isaac Newton, a follower of Jesus Christ and a person concerned with living my life in the logical world created by Him. Therefore, I “use a metaphor popular at the time [of Newton]: God created two books, the book of Scripture and the book of Nature, and both books are true.” (Seen at https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-book-of-nature-the-book-of-scripture). We need not worry if reality seems hazy at times, whether within one of God’s “two books” or when comparing Nature with Scripture. As we wrestle with the meaning of The Bible, and as we learn more every day about the intricacies of God’s Creation, let us seek to find both what is real and what is holy. As we do, we will know more about how God relates to us and what we must know to follow Him.
Thank you for your consideration… and remember: Holy Spirit is directing us all on a journey to unity in Him, through Christ, bringing us all closer to unity in Heavenly Father. “God, bless those who read this. In Jesus’ name, amen!”
I will share in my next post about more of the somewhat obscure parts of Ezekiel.