The Times of Ezekiel
The downfall of the kingdom of Judah was brought about in stages by three campaigns of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, whom God several times spoke of as His servant, who would execute His judgments on His unfaithful people (Jer. 25. 9, etc.). The first attack was in the third year of Jehoiakim (about 606 B.C.), when Jerusalem was taken, the temple plundered and some of the noble families deported to Babylon, among them Daniel (Dan. 1. 1-6). The second assault ended the brief reign of Jehoiachin in 598 B.C. Further spoil was taken, and a general deportation of the upper and middle classes took place (2 Kings 24. 10-16). Among the captives on this occasion was Ezekiel, one of the priests.
The kingdom was left to linger on with a vassal king, Zedekiah, under oath of allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar. But Zedekiah, broke his oath and plotted with Egypt; and so the king of Babylon struck again, destroyed the city and burnt the temple in 587 B.C. All except a few of the very poor were deported (2 Kings 25. 8-12). It is interesting to note that the restoration from Babylon was also a progressive one, with three stages each 70 years from the dates given above. The terms Servitude, Captivity and Desolation have been applied to these three overlapping periods.
Ezekiel’s Prophecies Ezekiel was commissioned as a prophet of the Lord in the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity, and the word of the Lord came to him at intervals over a period of 20 years, his last great vision of the future temple being dated in the 25th year of his captivity. The first 32 chapters belong to the period before the destruction of Jerusalem, and many of them are messages of rebuke and warning to Zedekiah and those still with him in Judah. After the complete overthrow of the state, his messages assured his fellow-captives that God had not forsaken His people, but would, in due time, stretch out His arm to fulfil His promises, and do better unto the nation than at their beginning.
As Ezekiel had been forewarned, the people to whom he was sent were, in general, “impudent, stiff-hearted and rebellious”. Those in Judah had forsaken the worship of Jehovah, the one thing that gave meaning to their national existence, and, like many another doomed community, had given themselves over to personal excesses and political intrigues. The captives in Babylon were broken in spirit, and could not raise their thoughts above the material needs of their day-to-day life.
Ezekiel’s Parables
In trying to gain the attention of such jaded ears, Ezekiel, under the Spirit’s guidance, made frequent use of parables or story-lessons. Among people, few of whom can read, and especially in eastern lands, the telling of stories has always made a strong appeal, and, in the use of this medium, Ezekiel was second only to Jesus. Like him, the prophet sometimes introduces his story as a parable, and sometimes omits such introduction.
In chap. 17. 2 the prophet is told to “put forth a riddle, and speak a parable”. The only other occurrence of the word “riddle” is in Judges 14, where the Philistines solved Samson’s riddle by “ploughing with his heifer”. The Hebrew word translated “parable” is sometimes rendered as “proverb”. Both translations are found several times in Ezekiel and in other books, including the Proverbs of Solomon. The meaning of this parable is explained later on in the chapter. The first great eagle (verse 3) signifies Nebuchadnezzar, who carried way the topmist twig (Jehoiachin) to his metropolis, Babylon. He planted one of the seed of the land (Zedekiah) to become a “vine of low stature”, subject to Babylon. In this capacity Zedekiah might have enjoyed a measure of peace and prosperity; but he turned his roots towards another great eagle, Pharoah Hophra of Egypt, seeking to throw off the yoke of Babylon. The prophet warns Zedekiah that God holds him as bound by his oath of allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar, and his rebellion can only bring disaster. Then (v. 22) as in so many of the prophecies of woe, God adds the assurance that His purpose will triumph at last. From the highest branch of the cedar of David’s royal house He will take a twig, “a tender one” (compare Is. 53. 2) and plant it in the mountain of the height of Israel, to flourish above all the trees.
In the 19th chapter the same political events are treated under a different figure. On the death of Josiah, the nation, represented by a mother lion, chose one of her cubs, Jehoahaz, to reign. But he was taken as a prisoner to Egypt (2 Kings 23. 30-33). Another cub, Jehoiachin, was carried captive to Babylon.
In each of these parables the figure of the vine is substituted in the later stages in place of the cedar and lion repectively. The “rod” referred to in the last verse of chapter 19 is probably Zedekiah, “the profane, wicked prince”, whose iniquity made further forbearance from God impossible. (See 2 Chron. 36. 1119).
The Vine
The vine is a familiar figure for Israel in both Old and New Testaments. (See Psa. 80. 8, Is. 5. 1, Mark 12. 1), etc.). In all these parables, the lesson is that, if the Proprietor does not receive the fruit that He has a right to expect, the whole purpose of the vine has failed. It is good for no other use. As Ezekiel emphasizes in chapter 15, its wood will not even provide a usable peg, and is of very little value as fuel. A barren vine is fit only for destruction. Jesus, in his parable of the True Vine, again stresses the necessity of fruitfulness, and points out that we can only accomplish the object of our being by abiding in him.
The Cauldron and the Flesh
It was not only the prophet who spoke in proverbs.They were apparently in general use, and Ezekiel was sometimes called upon to rebuke the people for the half-truths expressed in some of their sayings. (See Ezek. 12. 22, 18. 2).
One of these proverbs was turned against the people to show them their real position. We read of it in chap. 11. 3. The princes in Jerusalem were complacent, trusting that their walls would resist any attack, and that they could rely on Egypt to help them. Moffatt renders their words, “All is well; the city is a cauldron, and we are flesh, safe inside it”. But the prophet tells them that they will be cast out of their defences to suffer the punishment for their misdeeds. The only one who will escape the fury of the Chaldean attack will be those already dead.
In chapter 24 we are told that, three years later, on the very day that Nebuchadnezzar laid seige to Jerusalem, Ezekiel returns to the figure of the cauldron or pot. The same Hebrew word sir is used in both chapters. He told how the pot would finally be set empty over a strong fire and brought to red heat to burn the rust or scum out of it. So did God indicate the drastic treatment that he found necessary to purge the city from the defilement brought upon it by the idolatry of its inhabitants.
On several occasions Ezekiel was instructed to present his parable by actions instead of words, in an endeavour to attract an audience to hear the explanation. The first acted parable (ch. 3. 1) was, however, for the instruction of the prophet himself, to prepare him for the unpleasant task to which God was calling him as a watchman. As in the very similar experience of John (Rev. 10. 8) the revelation of God’s completed purpose was sweet to the spiritual taste, but the knowledge that there would first be much of “lamentation and mourning and woe” was bitter (verse 14).
The Tile
In chapter 4, Ezekiel is told to portray on a tile the city of Jerusalem, and, in dumb-show, to lay siege against it, signifying by appropriate actions the distresses which the people would suffer in “the siege and straitness”, as Moses had forewarned so long before (Deut. 28. 53). The prophet was to lie on his left side for 390 days (or “for a sign of 390 days”, as some render it) bearing the iniquity of the house of Israel, and then on his right side for 40 days, bearing the iniquity of the house of Judah. It is in this connection that the principle is stated, which has been applied in interpretation of several other prophecies, “I have appointed thee each day for a year”. What were the successive periods of 390 years and 40 years, here applied to the two houses of Israel, and related to the siege of Jerusalem? No satisfying explanation has yet come to the writer’s notice. Even Dr. Thomas, usually so convincing, does not seem to clear away the difficulties in this case (See “Christadelphian”, 1884, p. 100).
Other acted parables are found in chapter 5, where the prophet shaved his head and beard, and disposed of the hair in different ways to signify the end of the Jewish polity, and in chapter 12, where he packed up his household goods ready for deportation. The meanings of these symbolic actions are explained in the respective chapters.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One