Ezekiel 12:1–20

THE WORD OF THE LORD came to me: 2“Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.

3“Therefore, son of man, pack your belongings for exile and in the daytime, as they watch, set out and go from where you are to another place. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house. 4During the daytime, while they watch, bring out your belongings packed for exile. Then in the evening, while they are watching, go out like those who go into exile. 5While they watch, dig through the wall and take your belongings out through it. 6Put them on your shoulder as they are watching and carry them out at dusk. Cover your face so that you cannot see the land, for I have made you a sign to the house of Israel.”

7So I did as I was commanded. During the day I brought out my things packed for exile. Then in the evening I dug through the wall with my hands. I took my belongings out at dusk, carrying them on my shoulders while they watched.

8In the morning the word of the LORD came to me: 9“Son of man, did not that rebellious house of Israel ask you, ‘What are you doing?’

10“Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This oracle concerns the prince in Jerusalem and the whole house of Israel who are there.’ 11Say to them, ‘I am a sign to you.’

“As I have done, so it will be done to them. They will go into exile as captives.

12“The prince among them will put his things on his shoulder at dusk and leave, and a hole will be dug in the wall for him to go through. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land. 13I will spread my net for him, and he will be caught in my snare; I will bring him to Babylonia, the land of the Chaldeans, but he will not see it, and there he will die. 14I will scatter to the winds all those around him—his staff and all his troops—and I will pursue them with drawn sword.

15“They will know that I am the LORD, when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the countries. 16But I will spare a few of them from the sword, famine and plague, so that in the nations where they go they may acknowledge all their detestable practices. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

17The word of the LORD came to me: 18“Son of man, tremble as you eat your food, and shudder in fear as you drink your water. 19Say to the people of the land: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says about those living in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: They will eat their food in anxiety and drink their water in despair, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who live there. 20The inhabited towns will be laid waste and the land will be desolate. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

Original Meaning

THE MESSAGE OF Ezekiel 8–11 may well be summed up as: “Nothing escapes the Lord’s notice.” Contrary to public opinion in Jerusalem, which held, “The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land” (Ezek. 8:12; cf. 9:9), the Lord had indeed seen everything and laid it out in a vision before his prophet. Likewise, the Lord’s acute sense of hearing had picked up the pronouncements of the wicked counselors in 11:3, though he would be signally deaf to any cries for help from his people (8:18). Because of their abominations and idolatry, he would indeed abandon the land, leaving it at the mercy of the Babylonian army. This was the message that Ezekiel was to bring to the exiles; it was a vision intended for their ears (11:25).

But if Ezekiel cherished any hopes of seeing a revolutionary change in the thinking of the exiles as a result of his message, he is quickly disabused of his notions in chapter 12. Like the Jerusalemites, his fellow exiles are a rebellious people. They do not see what the Lord shows them, nor do they hear what the Lord says, not because they lack the physical organs of sight and hearing, but simply because they are rebellious (12:2). They have eyes to see but they do not see; ears to hear but they do not hear (12:2). In the language of 11:19, they are still characterized by the heart of stone, a stubborn will that rejects obedience.

This saying of 12:2 underlies the sign-acts that follow it. This section is made up of a sign-act of exile (12:3–7), the interpretation of this sign-act (12:8–17), and a second sign-act of fear and trembling (12:18–20). The dominant motif throughout is of looking and not seeing. Repeatedly, Ezekiel is instructed to carry out his actions “as they watch” (leʿênêhem, seven times in 12:3–7). His actions are not particularly obscure, depicting as they do an event in which the exiles had all personally taken part. Yet the result of his actions, noted by the Lord in verse 8, is not dawning comprehension on the part of the exiles but inability to understand. They ask him: “What are you doing?” Nor does the second sign-act make things clearer to them. Though they have seen with their eyes what he has done, they still do not get the message.

What is more, even when he delivers the word of the Lord to them, explaining in oracular form what the sign-act means, the people’s response is that recorded in 12:27: “The vision he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies about the distant future.” Though they hear every word he speaks, it is clear that they have understood nothing at all. Indeed, they are a rebellious people, who have ears and do not hear, eyes and do not see.

The initial sign-act that the prophet performs depicts the action of going into exile. Ezekiel is first to put together an exile’s pack, containing the few belongings an exile might be able to carry along on the long journey. This may consist simply of an animal skin to hold food and act as a pillow, a mat to lie on, and a bowl out of which to eat and drink.1 These preparations are to be made in the daytime, though the departure is delayed until evening. This delay serves both the practical purpose of allowing time for a crowd to gather to witness the sign-act and a symbolic purpose, representing God’s delaying of judgment until the proper time, the gathering gloom of evening (12:4).2

The growing darkness provides a frighteningly appropriate backdrop for the drama. At that time, Ezekiel is to dig through the adobe wall of his house and go out through it, taking his pack with him (12:5). Moreover, he is to cover his face so that he cannot see the land (12:6). All of this has symbolic meaning: The Jerusalemites and their prince will go into exile just as he has acted out (v. 11).

The symbolic meaning of the otherwise rather enigmatic sign is expounded in 12:10–16. It concerns the fate of Zedekiah, the prince (nāśîʾ ), along with the house of Israel in Jerusalem (12:10). Many of the details of the sign-act are capable of more than one interpretation. Does the breaking through the wall symbolize something Zedekiah does in his attempt to escape3 or the breaches made by the Babylonians through which they bring out their prisoner?4 Does the covering of his face represent an attempt at concealment,5 or shame and grief?6

Some of these complexities may be due to reading the text in the light of its historical fulfillment recorded in 2 Kings 25:4–7; however, some are due to the prophet’s penchant for complex, multivalent images, which involve plays on words and sounds.7 Thus the prince (nāśîʾ ) is both the one who “lifts up” (yiśśāʾ ) his pack and also “the burden” (māśśāʾ ) to be carried (Ezek. 12:10, 12).8 He is both the one who goes out and the one who is brought out, as a literal translation of verse 12 makes clear: “As for the prince who is among them, he will lift up [his pack] upon his shoulder in the darkness and he will go out; through the wall they will dig to bring [him] out through it.”9

Though the imagery is complex, the essential message seems reasonably straightforward. Not only will there be a further exile, bringing out those still remaining in Jerusalem and Judah, but this anti-exodus will center on the person of the prince, Zedekiah. His personal transgressions have not yet been the object of Ezekiel’s prophecies (though they will be later on, e.g., in Ezek. 17 and 19).10 Here he is in view primarily as the representative of the people. Because he shares their inability to see the coming judgment, that judgment will take the form of no longer being able to see the land, that is, he will never return from exile. This motif is found regularly in extrabiblical curses11 and was fulfilled historically when the Babylonians blinded Zedekiah at Riblah and took him into exile, never to return (2 Kings 25:7).

All this will happen not because of the desire of Nebuchadnezzar for a little more Lebensraum (“room to live”), as Adolf Hitler later designated his expansionist ambitions. More fundamentally, it is because the Lord has set a snare for Zedekiah and for the people he represents (Ezek. 12:13). The Lord is the One who will bring Zedekiah to Babylonia and will scatter his forces to the winds, pursuing him with drawn sword (12:14). The Lord is the One who will disperse his followers among the nations, a mere handful surviving Ezekiel’s favorite apocalyptic triad of “sword, famine and plague” (12:15–16). These (lit.) “men of number” (’anšê mispār; i.e., a number small enough to be counted) will “acknowledge” (yesappe) among the nations their abominations and come to acknowledge the Lord’s preeminence (12:16). The implication is not necessarily that they will exhibit repentance for their actions but that at least they will recognize that it is the Lord who has acted against them. Their defeat and dispersal are evidence of the Lord’s wrath in action, evidence aimed at curing the willful obtuseness of those remaining in Judah.

To this initial sign-act and interpretation, a further one is then added: Ezekiel is to eat and drink with trembling and shuddering, depicting the anxiety that the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah will feel. The violence with which they have filled the land will return on their own heads, with the towns being destroyed and the land devastated. This time, however, those emerging from the devastation with a knowledge of the Lord’s preeminence are not those in Judah but “the people of the land” (v. 19), that is, the exiles. The land of Judah and all who remain in it are doomed. They are not to be the objects of envy, as the exiles must have been tempted to view them, but rather of horror and pity. At the same time, those whom the inhabitants of Judah would have regarded as landless unfortunates will turn out to be the inheritors of the land (11:16–17).12

God is not impotent even in the face of ears that will not hear and eyes that will not see; one way or another, he will get his message through. The exiles will come to see that they indeed are the fortunate ones who have escaped the total judgment of God on his rebellious people. But in order for them to receive their inheritance in the land, God must first of all act in judgment on those who remain. It is this unpalatable truth that they are so reluctant to see.

Bridging Contexts

THE NEED FOR and value of visual aids. In our churches, we are used to preaching to the converted. Few have experience of the difficult task of street preaching, attempting to bring God’s message to an audience that, by and large, is not predisposed to listen. Those who do have such experience generally recognize the need to grab people’s attention in some way. In some respects, therefore, Ezekiel’s sign-acts functioned as a kind of “street theater,” a means of drawing a crowd.

Yet Ezekiel’s sketches were not merely a prelude to the message, they were themselves the message. Because of their vivid, visual nature, they were able to penetrate past the blind eyes and deaf ears into the consciousness beyond. These visual images would sit there, like the sower’s seed, waiting to germinate into an awareness of the reality of God and of his purposes in history. God’s self-revelation that “I am the LORD” was written on the life of his prophet; he was their “sign” (12:11). That “sign” would not bear the same kind of fruit in every life. The knowledge that “I am the LORD” was not necessarily a saving knowledge. Yet one way or another, through the actions of God in history, revealed first to his prophets, all would come to know that there is a God and there is a judgment on sin.

This is an unpalatable truth at all times and in all places. It is not just the modern era that finds it hard to accept that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). But perhaps particularly in the contemporary American setting, where positive thinking carries such weight, the language of sin and judgment is considered out of place. Thus Rabbi Harold Kushner’s most recent book seeks to counter the notion “that God holds us to strict standards of Right and Wrong, that God knows every secret, nasty thing we ever do, even our secret, nasty thoughts, and that every sin separates us from God’s love.”13 Like the exiles of Ezekiel’s day, Rabbi Kushner prefers to think rather more optimistically about the future. But the biblical perspective is ruthlessly honest about our own failures and their consequences. This truth is important because only those whose eyes have been opened to the true danger of their position as objects of God’s wrath will be persuaded to flee to the refuge God offers.

God’s definitive “visual aids.” Supremely, of course, God’s self-revelation of his own existence and of the reality of judgment on sin comes through Jesus Christ. His life, death, and resurrection are God’s ultimate acts of judgment on sin and salvation of his people. If sin does not separate us from God’s love, why was Jesus separated from his Father on the cross? But also the resurrection demonstrates visibly God’s acceptance of Jesus’ death in place of his people. The cross and the empty tomb are God’s definitive visual aids.

In the meantime, through the work of the Holy Spirit, God is opening the eyes and ears of the spiritually blind and deaf to the reality of salvation in Christ. Though his people may be despised and rejected by other people, like their Savior, they are accepted by God and incorporated into his family. On the last day, however, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10–11). At that time the knowledge of his lordship will be universal.

In the meantime, we as the people of Jesus have a unique role to play as signs, as witnesses before a watching world (Acts 1:8). To the world around us, we are a letter from Christ, to use Paul’s phrase (2 Cor. 3:3). That testimony, like Ezekiel’s witness, must not only be verbal but also visual, aimed at the eye-gate and the ear-gate alike. This will be particularly true in cultures and locations that are not hospitable to our message. Words by themselves may suffice to communicate to those who have ears to hear, but those whose ears are tightly shut must see the Word become flesh again in the lives of his followers. We must speak clearly of the tragic and dangerous state of men and women without Christ: They are sinners under the wrath of God, at risk of eternal lostness. But we must also make visible clearly, in word and deed, the love of God demonstrated in this awesome fact, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).

Contemporary Significance

GOD’S WORD BECOMING flesh. How do we demonstrate the reality of the Word who became flesh in our contemporary world? For Ezekiel, the word he received took flesh in his actions—actions that were uncomfortable and costly (breaking through his own wall with his bare hands!), actions that were embarrassingly odd (pretending to go into exile, eating and drinking with violent trembling). Through his actions, along with the accompanying words, a message of judgment on their dearest hopes was imparted to his hearers, so that when God’s judgment occurred, the people would know that God was the One who had brought it about. Ezekiel had to tear down the things on which his hearers depended in this present world, in order that they might see the greater thing that God wished to do in and through them.

For Jesus, the Word becoming flesh meant leaving the heavenly glory he shared with the Father to come to earth, taking on himself humanity with all its weaknesses and limitations. He was no armchair warrior; in his incarnation, he was willing to get down and dirty and become part of humankind, bearing the consequences of Adam’s sin along with us. He experienced the frustrations of living in a world where things do not work as they ought to; he wept at the graveside of his friend Lazarus, overcome by the pain of human loss. He wrestled with the forces of evil and darkness and death and won the struggle, so that we might be liberated from our bondage to sin and take part in the new exodus of God’s people. He died so that we might share in an exodus, not from Egypt or Babylon but out of the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of God. In his crucified flesh, he demonstrated both the judgment of God on sin and the love of God toward sinners.

How though does God’s Word take flesh through us? Evangelicals have sometimes been accused of making the Word who became flesh back into words again. We can talk a good talk, but don’t always have the walk to match it. A world with ears tightly closed against the truth needs to see the reality of our faith written in changed lives. It needs to see what Harvie Conn calls “show and tell” evangelism: costly witness in word and deed, where our deeds underline the reality of our words, while our words explain the meaning of our deeds.14

These actions need not be as peculiar or complex as Ezekiel’s sign-acts. One church I know of offered free gift-wrapping at Christmastime at a local store, handing out also a leaflet about the real gift of Christmas. Another might offer a free car wash, while explaining our need as humans for the washing that Jesus offers. The church of which I was pastor in Oxford ministered to older people who had no connection with the church by cutting their grass, as a means of demonstrating in practical ways the love of Jesus.

In this, we were simply following the ancient tradition of the church. The fourth-century emperor Julian complained to the pagan priests of his day that the “impious Galileans” were looking after the pagan poor as well as their own.15 Free service offered in self-sacrificial ways may indeed seem to many people as bizarre as Ezekiel’s actions in an age where so many people are motivated solely by the bottom line. Yet it simply reflects the fact that word and deed together can penetrate to the heart in a way that words alone cannot.

Going out to people. As our culture becomes more and more opposed to the gospel, it will become more and more necessary to take the message out to people rather than waiting for them to come in to the church. Street preaching is one method, while street theater may also be a means of sparking spiritual conversations. These are not in any sense a substitute for the regular ministry of the church, but they are a means of bringing the gospel out to those who are a rebellious people, who have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear (Ezek. 12:2).

However, even creative communication efforts cannot by themselves open up closed eyes. Even after we have shown the gospel and told the gospel, the fundamental truth remains that those around us are not merely spiritually blind and deaf but dead in their transgressions and sins (Eph. 2:1). What they need is not simply a vivid depiction of the truth of sin and judgment and God’s love; rather, they need new hearts, something only God can give people. Unless the Lord opens their ears and eyes and hearts, all our labors will be in vain.

But what gives us hope in our evangelistic efforts is that God wants to bring men and women to know him, to see his hand as the Prime Mover in everything that happens in this world. Our task is not to sit about debating whether the size of that redeemed remnant will be few in number, but rather to enter the kingdom ourselves and make every effort to encourage others to do likewise in word and deed (Luke 13:23–24).