Ezekiel 11

So the glory, again, has left the temple, parked on the cherubim-throne, and that's its final ride. They're going to depart very soon. The whole place, the whole complex–Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, the temple is going to be destroyed, and they're going to get out of there. So what about Ezekiel? Chapter 11:

Ezekiel 11:1 ESV

Again, “east gate of the house of the Lord” Didn’t we just see that? That’s where the merkabah is parked. “They stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord,” chapter 10, verse 19. “The glory of the God of Israel was over them.” So the Spirit grabs Ezekiel, essentially, and brings him to the same location—the east gate of the house of the Lord, which faces east. Here we go again! Back in chapter 8, we can read that the Spirit of God picked him up or that the divine man reached out his hand and picked him up by a lock of the hair. So is it God as man or is it the Spirit? And again, they don’t care about distinguishing them. But here we go… the Spirit again (in the vision) is back in the scene. He brings Ezekiel to that location. We’ll just keep reading:

Ezekiel 11:1–4 ESV

The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of the Lord, which faces east. And behold, at the entrance of the gateway there were twenty-five men. And I saw among them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. And he said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked counsel in this city; who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This city is the cauldron, and we are the meat.’ Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, O son of man.”

A couple of questions. One basic one that I think you can pretty well predict at this point: Who is talking to Ezekiel? Is it the Spirit who picked him up and brought him to the east gate of the house of the Lord (where the glory was and where the divine man was) or is it the divine man now? We're not told specifically. In verse 5, the Spirit of the Lord is going to fall upon him and "he said to me," and we'll get into that. So somebody is talking to Ezekiel. Which one of the characters is it? You know what? It doesn't matter! They're all God. That's the point.

Now let's go back to what we actually just read here in chapter 11. He sees 25 men, and they are these princes. Two of them at least are princes. Maybe all of them are princes and these two or just pointed out. Or maybe these two are the only ones that get that title. We're not told that, either. It's a bit ambiguous. But in chapters 1 through 4, Ezekiel gets taken to the gateway on the east side of the temple. If you had a model of the temple in front of you, that would be outside the sacred area. According to other parts of the Old Testament, this is typically a place where people would assemble and you'd have public assemblies. So they're outside of sort of the "temple proper." He sees 25 men there. This is the same number of men that you get from chapter 8, but these are not the 25 sunworshipers of chapter 8. Scholars are pretty much unanimous on that point. And the reason is that these two guys that are singled out and called "princes" apparently–either they or the whole group, or they're representing this group or they're leaders of this group–are the political elite. The term here used for "princes" is a term that would be used of nobility. You'd use this of someone in a ruling class, perhaps, the royal household that had different jobs in the government administration. They would be called princes. In other words, they're not priests. They're not in charge of worship or anything like that. They're an elite, a ruling-class group, these 25. So they're probably, again, political counselors, politicians, government officials, maybe some of them are part of the royal household–related to the king. We're not given a great deal of information. We are told, though, why God wants them prophesied to or at, and it's because they give wicked counsel. They devise iniquity. And here's what they say:

Ezekiel 11:3 ESV

who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This city is the cauldron, and we are the meat.’

Now to understand this metaphor (and there are lots of different ways to understand it), one of the first things you have to fix in your mind is that the meat... if you're boiling part of an animal carcass–let's say you've slaughtered it for food and you're boiling it–the meat is the part that you're going to eat. That's the good part. It's the worthy part of what's in the pot, as opposed to bones and gristle and what-not. So calling yourself the meat... When these guys are devising wicked counsel and they say, "this city is the cauldron, this city's in trouble, but we are the meat." In other words, "We're the good part of the city. We're the ones in the city that are worthwhile saving." You get the impression that they're thinking that God's going to spare them because of who they are. Now the question is, who exactly are they? Again, they're either home-grown nobility or they might be... I think it's probable that they're Jews in governing positions. These are the people who were left behind by the Babylonians to rule the city in their place. They're the puppet governance of the city. But we've talked in earlier chapters about how the people thought, "Oh boy, phew! We've survived two stages of exile. It's all over now. We're left here and we're okay." Well, if you're thinking that, you're also thinking–along with those thoughts—“Maybe we're here because God loves us more. We're the elect. We're the ones that God has shown favor to by sparing our lives. Yeah, Yeah, we have to work for the Babylonians. They installed us here and we've got to report to them and pay tribute to them. Okay, we get that. But we're still here. God has shown favor to us, hence, even though the city is in trouble, we're the meat. We're the favored of God. We'll be okay.” Basically, Ezekiel says, "Nah, not so much!" He is told to prophesy to them.

I want to read you an extended section from John Taylor's Ezekiel commentary. This is in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentary series. He talks about the different ways you could take this whole thing about this saying they have. Again, the meat is fairly clear because if you're boiling something to eat, you're not going to eat the bones and the gristle, you're going to eat the meat–that's the good stuff. But the first part about the building of the houses is a little more obscure and needs a little bit of attention. So the statement was, again, that God was angry at them. The time is not near to build houses. So what does that part mean? Taylor says:

The possible interpretations of these words are as follows: (a) AV translates, It is not near (i.e. the threatened judgment); let us build houses. [ The King James here makes it sound like “We’re not in trouble, so let’s do something. Let’s build houses.”] This sentiment expresses confidence that all will be well and, if building houses is taken as a symbol of peaceful activity (cf. 28:26), it advocates a policy of ignoring the threat of a further Babylonian invasion. A variant of this is to interpret houses as ‘fortifications’, but this is not warranted by the ordinary Hebrew word bāttîm, though it would fit a context of warlike preparations. A more serious weakness of this interpretation is the linguistic one. The Hebrew reads lō’ bĕqārôb bĕnôt bāttîm, lit. ‘not at hand to build houses’. [ Or “not near to build houses.” The verb form there is “to build.” It’s an infinitive, and it cannot be translated as what is called a hortatory, “Let us build.” So the King James does not do a good job here translating this particular statement.] The infinitive ‘to build’ can hardly become the hortative ‘let us build’, and the word ‘at hand’ must be complementary to the idea of ‘house-building’. (b) On the basis of Jeremiah 29:5…

I’ll just break in here to read Jeremiah 29:5:

Jeremiah 29:5 ESV

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.

Jeremiah was writing right near the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion, so…

…on the basis of Jeremiah 29:5, Keil took ‘house-building’ as a reference to living in exile and this slogan as a deliberate attempt to ridicule Jeremiah’s policy. The meaning would thus be ‘the house-building in exile is still a long way off; it will not come to this, that Jerusalem should fall … into the hands of the king of Babylon’.

So this interpretation more or less says that Jeremiah had been warning, “Look, you’re going to get taken into exile. You’re going to build houses and live in them there. You’re going to plant gardens and eat your produce and all that stuff.” And so Keil and others would say that when Ezekiel mentions this here—that this is what these nobles are talking about—they’re making fun of Jeremiah and his threat, his prophecy. They’re saying, The house-building and the exile is a long way away. We’re not in trouble here. And you can see why that would anger God. So, again, a possibility. Back to Taylor:

This ingenious suggestion presupposes, however, that reader as well as hearer would automatically recognize the allusion to Jeremiah’s teaching, and this must be considered very doubtful.

In other words, how would they know what Jeremiah had said? How do we know that that was written before Ezekiel? How do we know that the people Ezekiel is thinking of would have ever heard that? We don’t know that at all. And so that’s a weakness to the view. Third option:

(c) [Some translations] put the phrase as a question, Is not the time near to build houses?That is to say, ‘We are quite safe: let us carry on our normal peace-time occupations.’ This is not impossible, and LXX also translates interrogatively [ as a question] ‘Have not the houses been recently rebuilt?’; but it is not easy to see why the advocates of such peaceful policies should be condemned by Ezekiel as devising iniquity and giving wicked counsel.

In other words, this one makes it sound like, "Don't panic, let's just go on with everyday life here." It's not so much a denial that the trouble is coming, but you could see that if the nobles were saying this, they're trying to calm the people. Taylor says it's kind of hard to see why that would be so bad. Think what you will of Taylor's analysis there, but that's the third view and that's a possible weakness to it. Lastly, the fourth view:

(d) There is much to be said, therefore, linguistically and in the context, for [such a] rendering, namely that it is inappropriate to be building for peace when danger

threatens. The only right policy is to prepare for war in the firm assurance that the city defenses will be impregnable [ In other words, that’s what he’s saying that you’d think good advice would be, even though it’s not going to work.]: the defenders will be as safe from the fires of war as meat is in the cauldron that protects it from the flames. Such an attitude would readily be seen by Ezekiel to be sheer folly [ Yeah, it’s understandable, and yeah you’re going to build up defenses, but it’s not going to work] and deserving of the sternest condemnation.

In other words, what’s really needed is repentance. It’s not building defenses. And, of course, from what we’ve read in Ezekiel up to this point, we have to wonder if God would have really responded to the repentance. Of course, God knows that they’re not going to repent so the wheels are in motion for judgment. But there you go you’ve got the four views here.

The general point is that the nobles of the city, the people in leadership, are either not helping them prepare in ways that make sense of an impending invasion, or they're just in denial. Either of those options is just not good. This is poor counsel. It's wicked counsel. It's something that's going to make the people there endure more pain and more punishment. There's no effort on the part of the leadership to even try, to even lead them down a path of repentance–to recognize why this stuff is happening to us and to respond accordingly. So God says, "Tell them otherwise." He says here in verse 4:

Ezekiel 11:4–12 ESV

Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, O son of man.” And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and he said to me, “Say, Thus says the Lord: So you think, O house of Israel. For I know the things that come into your mind. You have multiplied your slain in this city and have filled its streets with the slain. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the meat, and this city is the cauldron, but you shall be brought out of the midst of it. You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, declares the Lord God. And I will bring you out of the midst of it, and give you into the hands of foreigners, and execute judgments upon you. You shall fall by the sword. I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord. This city shall not be your cauldron, nor shall you be the meat in the midst of it. I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord. For you have not walked in my statutes, nor obeyed my rules, but have acted according to the rules of the nations that are around you.”

It's kind of an interesting statement there in the Divine Council worldview. Instead of Israel being the kingdom of priests that is designed to live in such a way to attract the nations back to God... No, we can't have that! "We're going to live like the other nations do." And God says, "That's why you're under judgment." Verse 13:

Ezekiel 11:13 ESV

And it came to pass, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face and cried out with a loud voice and said, “Ah, Lord God! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”

We'll stop there. Ezekiel is prophesying, basically: "You guys are doomed. What you're saying is going to create more of the slain in the streets. You're not chosen. You're not favored. You're not going to escape. This is going to happen." And while he's in the midst of this, this one guy (one of these princes) just dies. And Ezekiel kind of freaks out. He's scared again! He's again fearful that God is angry enough to destroy even the remnant. He has talked about a remnant before, and this just sort of hits him. Now a comment on the death of this person, Pelatiah…Taylor writes (and he's representative of a lot of scholars here):

The text does not insist on it, but it seems reasonable to suppose that Pelatiah was a known figure in Jerusalem [ he’s mentioned by name] and that his death, which was seen in the vision, actually took place far away in Jerusalem at that very moment.

Remember that Ezekiel is not actually physically in Jerusalem. He is transported spiritually there. He's having a vision. He's seeing things that are happening there, and he's seeing people that are there. It's kind of a real-time vision. But he's actually there by the River Kavar telling this to people, but the wording suggests that he sees Peletiah die at that very moment, and that he actually did. That's actually what happened. So that Taylor writes:

Subsequent reports of the incident reaching the exiles would have confirmed the authenticity of the vision and of Ezekiel’s supernatural powers.

And he and others draw attention to the fact that this might have had the effect of something like the Ananias and Sapphira incident, when God just judges somebody right on the spot. They just drop dead. It creates a fear at what God is doing. Basically, God actually means what he says. He's telling people what's happening. It's like Ezekiel is watching on the screen, as it were, and while he's doing that, Peletiah drops dead. Remember, Ezekiel dates a lot of things. So this vision, in and of itself, falls within a certain chronology given by Ezekiel himself. Later on, after the fact, when people sort of do the math–when they realize it was on this day, and this month that Ezekiel was having this vision and then they hear that Peletiah died at the same time on the same day–that's just going to drive it home again: "Next time Ezekiel opens his mouth, we probably ought to listen. He saw this real-time event, even though he wasn't there. God showed it to him. He's for real. He is the real deal."

So it's just kind of an interesting sidebar, where this guy just drops over dead. But it did serve a purpose to the people there to validate his message. So the rest of the chapter... let's just keep going here and take verses 14 and 15. We have another conversation here:

Ezekiel 11:14–15 ESV

And the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far from the Lord; to us this land is given for a possession.’

Now think about the statement. What does it mean? What are the implications?

The implication here is that the people who are left back in Jerusalem... Remember Ezekiel is part of the second wave of the captivity. He and a bunch of other people are sitting there in Babylon wondering, "How in the world did we get here?" The whole scene from the very beginning is they are there and there are still people back at home. So the implication is that the people back at home are thinking, "Phew... we survived. And those people that God allowed to be exiled, well they deserved it." It's kind of like the incident in David's life when he talks about having to leave Judah and the city and the impression is, "Go, get out of here–go worship other gods." (1 Samuel 26:19) So the people back in the city are like, "Those exiles... yeah–get out of here. Go worship other gods. God must know you're not worthy. God must know that you deserve this exile. So get out of here. Don't let the door hit you on the butt as you go!" So the people back in the city, again, are making assumptions. Now think about this. They're making assumptions about the bad things happening to their kindred. They're parsing it poorly. They're doing bad theology here. They're making erroneous theological assumptions about what the hardships of this other person or these other people–what that means in God's mind. And they're getting it wrong. They're just getting it wrong. They're thinking of themselves as, again, the chosen. "We survived. We're better." Whatever. And Ezekiel is like, "No, no... that really isn't the case." Being considered God's family is... There's the issue of the heart here that everybody's missing. So in response, verses 14-15 is what we just read, and the people are saying, "Go far from the Lord. Get out of here! To us this land is given as a possession, so we're the real Israel now. We're left here and you guys are in exile." Verse 16 picks up the thought, as God tells Ezekiel what to say:

Ezekiel 11:16–17 ESV

Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’

Did you catch that? God is saying, "Ezekiel, you go tell those people who were sent into exile–and I allowed it, I created the mechanism to send them into exile– you tell them that I will gather you from where you're scattered and I will give you the land of Israel." So who does God have his eye on? The people who were exiled. He is promising to bring back a remnant. So the thinking of the people back in Jerusalem is, again, just totally wrong.

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