Punishment for those who celebrate the punishment of others, restoration for those who are suffering, and a tantalizing hint of what might lie ahead.
Read Ezekiel 35-37
Read Ezekiel 35-37
The only thing I am taking away from the punishment of Edom is that it’s a foolish thing to celebrate the misfortune of others. Edom is located south of Israel, in southern Jordan. Their kingdom was up in the mountains, virtually impregnable due to the sheer cliffs and narrow passageways leading into rocky plains where the people lived. I was there years ago, and I didn’t see much by way of agriculture or fertile soil. If that was true in ancient times as well, it’s no wonder they were celebrating the fact that Israel was exiled. David and Solomon both had conscripted the Edomites, and there was a longstanding hatred between the two countries. In our time, we have agricultural land, but there are other reasons to desire the property or resources of others….we should be careful not to celebrate too loudly when God judges others. And we should not make proud, ambitious plans to possess that which God hasn’t given to us.
Chapter 36
Several things here: God is furious (His own words) at how the exile of the Israelites has made Him appear. That is, the surrounding nations are suggesting that the God is Israel was too weak to protect them, or too harsh to love them. Either way, they are misinterpreting events and developing wrong conclusions about God. For that reason, God is bringing His people home. Sometimes when God works in your favor it isn’t because you are so wonderful.
Secondly, God reminds the people that they will be blessed again, but they shouldn’t make the same mistake that the nations around them have made. They should receive what God provides with humility, and a measure of grief, shame and embarrassment at the way they have acted in the past.
Third, when the people return they will have more than they ever had before. Their crops will overflow, their homes will have many children and they will never have to leave their homeland again. A new tender, responsive heart is promised…this sounds like it was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit came, not when the exiles first returned to Jerusaem. Life after forgiveness and restoration is sweet indeed.
Chapter 37
Okay, here’s a few tantalizing thoughts. We begin with the valley of dry bones, which are beyond life when Ezekiel sees them. Somewhere in the text today exile was referred to as a “grave”, that’s apparently what the dried out bones represent…a life being lived outside the fullness of Jesus Christ. I wonder how many bleached and dried out lives are being “lived out” around us? Then the bones come together with flesh and skin…they look like people..in fact, they ARE people; but they lack the “breath of life”. I know that the dried bones were figurative for exiled people…wouldn’t the return to Jerusalem before the Holy Spirit came represent bodies with no life? Wouldn’t the Holy Spirit be the “breath” that makes them alive, and creates the tender, responsive heart? I think so. I think what God was promising through Ezekiel happened at Pentecost, and at the Cross leading up to it.
The end of chapter 37 offers up some images of what the redeemed nation of Israel will look like… David will be king (actually I think this probably refers to Jesus who is descended from David’s line. Jesus is the one who can reign forever as verse 25 says. He is the one who can establish an eternal covenant…no one else has the ability or authority to do that. And then it says in verse 26 and 28 that God will put His temple among us forever. I wonder, does that refer to a physical temple built before the world ends? It seems unlikely that anything built by human hands would last forever in God’s kingdom. In Revelation John saw a “new Jerusalem” coming down from heaven…it seems more likely that the new temple that will last forever is God’s design, and placed on earth by supernatural means. Many people seem to think that this chapter lends evidence to a third temple period on earth. I don’t see it. In fact, Jesus could be the temple that is eternal. The Holy Spirit in the believer could be the temple. Both of those last forever, and I would believe that before I believed that these few lines are suggesting a third temple.
I’m not opposed to the idea of a third temple, it’s just that I don’t see it proven here.
Faithfully,
PR