THE WORD OF THE LORD came to me: 46“Son of man, set your face toward the south; preach against the south and prophesy against the forest of the southland. 47Say to the southern forest: ‘Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am about to set fire to you, and it will consume all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and every face from south to north will be scorched by it. 48Everyone will see that I the LORD have kindled it; it will not be quenched.’ ”
49Then I said, “Ah, Sovereign LORD! They are saying of me, ‘Isn’t he just telling parables?’ ”
21:1The word of the LORD came to me: 2“Son of man, set your face against Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuary. Prophesy against the land of Israel 3and say to her: ‘This is what the LORD says: I am against you. I will draw my sword from its scabbard and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked. 4Because I am going to cut off the righteous and the wicked, my sword will be unsheathed against everyone from south to north. 5Then all people will know that I the LORD have drawn my sword from its scabbard; it will not return again.’
6“Therefore groan, son of man! Groan before them with broken heart and bitter grief. 7And when they ask you, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you shall say, ‘Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt and every hand go limp; every spirit will become faint and every knee become as weak as water.’ It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
8The word of the LORD came to me: 9“Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the Lord says:
“ ‘A sword, a sword,
sharpened and polished—
10sharpened for the slaughter,
polished to flash like lightning!
“ ‘Shall we rejoice in the scepter of my son └Judah┘? The sword despises every such stick.
11“ ‘The sword is appointed to be polished,
to be grasped with the hand;
made ready for the hand of the slayer.
12Cry out and wail, son of man,
for it is against my people;
it is against all the princes of Israel.
They are thrown to the sword
along with my people.
Therefore beat your breast.
13“ ‘Testing will surely come. And what if the scepter └of Judah┘, which the sword despises, does not continue? declares the Sovereign LORD.’
14“So then, son of man, prophesy
and strike your hands together.
Let the sword strike twice,
even three times.
It is a sword for slaughter—
a sword for great slaughter,
closing in on them from every side.
15So that hearts may melt
and the fallen be many,
I have stationed the sword for slaughter
at all their gates.
Oh! It is made to flash like lightning,
it is grasped for slaughter.
16O sword, slash to the right,
then to the left,
wherever your blade is turned.
17I too will strike my hands together,
and my wrath will subside.
I the LORD have spoken.”
18The word of the LORD came to me: 19“Son of man, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to take, both starting from the same country. Make a signpost where the road branches off to the city. 20Mark out one road for the sword to come against Rabbah of the Ammonites and another against Judah and fortified Jerusalem. 21For the king of Babylon will stop at the fork in the road, at the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen: He will cast lots with arrows, he will consult his idols, he will examine the liver. 22Into his right hand will come the lot for Jerusalem, where he is to set up battering rams, to give the command to slaughter, to sound the battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to build a ramp and to erect siege works. 23It will seem like a false omen to those who have sworn allegiance to him, but he will remind them of their guilt and take them captive.
24“Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘Because you people have brought to mind your guilt by your open rebellion, revealing your sins in all that you do—because you have done this, you will be taken captive.
25“ ‘O profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose time of punishment has reached its climax, 26this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Take off the turban, remove the crown. It will not be as it was: The lowly will be exalted and the exalted will be brought low. 27A ruin! A ruin! I will make it a ruin! It will not be restored until he comes to whom it rightfully belongs; to him I will give it.’
28“And you, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says about the Ammonites and their insults:
“ ‘A sword, a sword,
drawn for the slaughter,
polished to consume
and to flash like lightning!
29Despite false visions concerning you
and lying divinations about you,
it will be laid on the necks
of the wicked who are to be slain,
whose day has come,
whose time of punishment has reached its climax.
30Return the sword to its scabbard.
In the place where you were created,
in the land of your ancestry,
I will judge you.
31I will pour out my wrath upon you
and breathe out my fiery anger against you;
I will hand you over to brutal men,
men skilled in destruction.
32You will be fuel for the fire,
your blood will be shed in your land,
you will be remembered no more;
for I the LORD have spoken.’ ”
Original Meaning
THIS SECTION OF Ezekiel’s prophecy, all one chapter in the Hebrew versification,1 divides up into four subsections:
(1) A parable and its interpretation (20:45–21:7)
(2) The song of the sword (21:8–17)
(3) An oracle of judgment against Jerusalem and her prince (21:18–27)
(4) An oracle of judgment against Ammon and against the sword (21:28–32)
The common theme that binds these sections together is the catchword “sword” as an image of God’s judgment, which together with the associated image of fire, falls first on God’s people, then on the not-so-innocent bystanders, and finally on the agent of judgment, the Babylonians.
The passage begins with the command to Ezekiel to face toward the south of Israel and preach against it (20:46); fire is coming on the southern forest, which will consume every tree, “both green and dry” (20:47). The conflagration will consume the entire land from south to north and scorch the faces of all who are present. It will be publicly recognized as the work of the Lord and will not be extinguished (20:48). But the people’s response to this message is apparently total lack of comprehension: They say of Ezekiel, “Isn’t he just telling parables?” (20:49).
Like all parables, this one both conceals and reveals. Some things are immediately clear from the parable, for it concerns an all-consuming judgment of the Lord. The judgment is all-consuming in its content, both green tree (i.e., not normally suitable for burning) and dry (i.e., naturally fit for the fire); in its geographical scope (from the south northwards); and in its temporal scope (it has been kindled and will not be extinguished). Yet the precise focus of the parable is not immediately clear: Who is the “southern forest” (20:47)? Without that critical piece of information, the parable remains an obscure riddle.
That information is supplied in the interpretation that follows: The three Hebrew terms for “south” in the parable (têmān; dārôm; negeb) are matched by three objects of judgment: Jerusalem, the sanctuary,2 and the land of Israel (21:2). With that identification in place, other elements of the parable are put into sharper focus. Israel is the southland from the perspective of the traditional “enemy from the north,” a motif introduced already in 1:4. The image of fire is linked with that of the sword of the Lord, which is coming against the land to cut off both righteous (the green tree) and wicked (the dry tree), from the south to the north of the land. The sword has been drawn from its scabbard and will not return there.
The focus of the interpretation, like that of the parable, is the all-encompassing nature of the coming judgment. “Righteous” and “wicked,” like “green tree” and “dry tree,” operate together as a merism, a pair of opposites that includes everything in between. These two are not, however, a randomly chosen pair, which could be replaced by another stock pairing such as “young” and “old.”3 If the judgment includes even the righteous, whom one would expect normally to be spared (9:4), then indeed no one will escape. The coming judgment on Jerusalem will not be selective and short-lived, as was the invasion of 597 B.C., but all-encompassing and all-consuming. Nor is there any hope of a reprieve: The fire is kindled; the sword is drawn; there is only the fearful expectation of judgment.
To underline that fearful certainty, Ezekiel is instructed to perform a sign-act of publicly sighing and groaning with a broken spirit (21:6).4 When people ask him why he is sighing, he is to respond with a somewhat cryptic statement: “Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt and every hand go limp; every spirit will become faint and every knee become as weak as water” (21:7). What event has come that merits such a response? Ezekiel’s hearers would have to think back to Ezekiel 7, where the final judgment was threatened in virtually identical language.5 The threatened judgment is now a present reality.
The prophet then receives a poetic oracle concerning the sword.6 The twin judgment images of cutting (the sword) and burning (the fire) are maintained in the twin actions of sharpening and burnishing (note the connection between polishing and lightning in 21:10, 15). Together, these actions serve to prepare the weapon for action. Once prepared, the sword is handed over to the executioner to use against God’s people and the princes of Israel. Ezekiel is to strike his hands together in a threatening gesture,7 not once or twice but three times, symbolizing the totality of the judgment (21:14). Israel will be surrounded, hemmed in on all sides with no place to run and no place to hide (21:14–16). The prophet’s threatening gesture is merely a public display of the Lord’s own threatening gesture and determination to satisfy his wrath8 in his decimation of the people.
Thus far “the sword” of the Lord has been an entirely figurative image of divine judgment. In 21:18–27, however, we are introduced to the human agency that executes the divine will, the sword of the king of Babylon. The prophet is instructed to perform another sign-act, this time marking out a three-way road junction with a signpost.9 One way comes from Babylon; the other two go to Rabbah, the capital of the Ammonites, and to Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. Ezekiel is to act out the forces of the king of Babylon coming to this parting of the ways and deciding which route to follow. To which of those two rebellious cities should they go?
Ezekiel pictures the king utilizing all the pagan means of decision-making: drawing arrows from a quiver (somewhat akin to our practice of drawing straws), consulting the household gods, and examining the liver of a sacrificial animal (Ezek. 21:21). These three means belong properly to different cultural contexts: divination by arrows was typically Arabian (though see 2 Kings 13:15–19), consulting household gods was known in an Israelite context (Hos. 3:4), while the examination of livers was a Babylonian specialty. It may be that Nebuchadnezzar actually used such diverse practices;10 however, given the prominence of the number three as representative of completeness in this section, it is perhaps more likely that the multiplication of oracles represents comprehensive consultation of the gods. Where three separate oracles agree on a single course of action, is not divine approval sure?
The irony is that this use of pagan means of discerning the will of the gods is here an accurate discernment of the will of the true God. The “lying divinations” that had found such favor with God’s people (Ezek. 13:7) now become the very means through which judgment comes on them (21:23). Their broken oath to the Lord is punished by the one with whom they have broken a human covenant. In this way, the king of Babylon is acting as divine prosecution counsel (mazkîr),11 bringing out into the open Israel’s guilt and arresting them for it.12 As in a court of law, the point is not so much that the guilty party is “reminded” of their sins, as the NIV suggests, but rather that they are made public and therefore subject to the punishment they deserve (21:24).
That punishment falls not only on the people but also upon Zedekiah, rather dismissively addressed as “O profane and wicked prince.” By introducing him by that title rather than by name, Ezekiel puts the focus of the judgment on the office, not the person.13 It is not simply that Zedekiah will be stripped of the insignia of royalty, the turban and the crown (21:26), but that in him the old order of things has reached a conclusion. A divine reordering of society is called for, in which the Lord will exalt the lowly and bring down the exalted (21:26; cf. 17:24).14 His guilt (ʿ awōn) is complete; so, with a fittingness that the Hebrew pun brings out, he will be made completely a “ruin” (ʿawwâ, repeated three times).
This ruinous state will persist until the coming of him to whom judgment (mišpāṭ) belongs, to whom it has been assigned by the Lord. In traditional exegesis, this has been seen as a reference to the coming of the Messiah, the one to whom the “right” (mišpāṭ) of kingship belongs.15 However, since in Ezek. 23:24b nātattî mišpāṭ refers to the Lord’s handing over judgment to the Babylonians, the traditional exegesis seems unlikely.16 Rather, it seems that Ezekiel has reshaped the traditional messianic oracle of Genesis 49:10 into a threatening oracle of judgment. Now the scepter will not depart from Judah until the coming of the judge . . . Nebuchadnezzar!17
Yet precisely this method of framing the judgment oracle reminds us of the Judge behind the judge, the Coming One behind the coming one. Heathen Nebuchadnezzar may be God’s chosen instrument of judgment in Ezekiel 21, just as heathen Cyrus may be God’s “anointed,” his chosen instrument of salvation, in Isaiah 45. Yet the dominant reality in both cases is the plan and purpose of God. God’s promise to Judah in Genesis 49 is not retracted in Ezekiel 21, though it may be reshaped because of the sin of God’s people. The departure of the scepter may be necessary and appropriate because of the history of sin of the “princes of Israel,” which culminates in Zedekiah; yet its departure can only be temporary, because the defining reality is God’s election, not humanity’s sin.
Judgment is not limited to Judah, however. The (pagan) oracle that directed Nebuchadnezzar toward Jerusalem is more a stay of execution for Ammon than a reprieve. They too, like Zedekiah, are among the profane wicked whose time of punishment has come (cf. 21:29 with 21:25). Therefore they too will feel the cutting edge of the sword of God’s judgment. As the initial parable made clear, God’s judgment is comprehensive in scope. Indeed, that judgment will eventually include the sword itself. The sword that was drawn from the Lord’s scabbard, “not [to] return again” in 21:5, will at last be returned to its sheath in 21:30. There, in the place where it was created, it will be judged (21:30).
Babylon is neither above God nor independent of God in its furious power. Rather, it is merely his creation, a tool to be taken up and used for his purposes and then put down when its usefulness is over. What the Lord has lifted up, the Lord can also reduce once more to nothing. In that way it will become clear that it is the Lord who has raised her up and put her down, not any supposed power of her own gods.
Bridging Contexts
FIRE AND SWORD. The images of fire and sword for God’s judgment have a venerable history. They come together already in Genesis 3:24, where the cherubim assigned to guard the entrance to Eden are accompanied by a flaming sword. The flashing sword is God’s instrument of judgment on his enemies in Deuteronomy 32:41; his sword is poised against Assyria (Isa. 31:8) and Edom (34:5–6), and the angel of the Lord appears to Joshua with a drawn sword before the battle of Jericho (Josh. 5:13).
But the Lord can fight against his people as well as for them. In 1 Chronicles 21:16 the angel is poised with drawn sword over Jerusalem rather than an enemy city, while Jeremiah prophesies the coming of the sword of the Lord against the whole land from one end to the other (Jer. 12:12). Equally, the Lord’s fire continually threatens his unholy people: It burns up those who rebel against him in the desert (Num. 11:1; 16:35) and hangs over the head of their unholy descendants (Jer. 15:14; 17:4).
In no instance, however, is either the sword or fire an entity with a mind of its own. Even when they are figurative representations of human agencies of destruction, they operate entirely within the realm of God’s sovereignty as agents of his judgment. He kindles the fire and brings the sword down on his enemies in his wrath. Nor is that simply an Old Testament concept of God. In fact, Jesus describes his ministry on earth in precisely those terms. He came not “to bring peace to the earth . . . but a sword” (Matt. 10:34). In the parallel passage in Luke’s Gospel, the sword is replaced by fire as Jesus exclaims: “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). His mission is one of executing God’s judgment on earth.
This indeed was what the Old Testament prophesied: Malachi spoke of the appearance of the Lord like a refiner’s fire or launderer’s soap (Mal. 3:1–2). But if Jesus has come to bring about judgment, how can any survive? Will his judgment not be as comprehensive as that which Ezekiel described, leading to the total destruction of all flesh?
Surviving the refiner’s fire. How can the refiner’s fire of God’s wrath pass over us and not burn us alive? The answer is because it has already passed over Jesus and poured its heat out on him. How can the avenging sword of the Lord pass by us without destroying us? Because it was sheathed in the body of Jesus on the cross so that it cannot further harm his people. God has raised his sword of judgment and brought it down on the shepherd in place of the sheep (Zech. 13:7).18 His death in our place makes it possible for us to come close to the avenging God of justice and not be destroyed by him. Through Jesus, a safe way has been made for us to approach God, whereby the fire of God’s wrath is transformed into the refiner’s fire, which purifies and tests but does not destroy (13:9). Because of him, we may return to God and find him coming near to us also.
That is not to say that we do not experience the testing work of God’s fire as believers. We do. The quality of all of our work will be tested by that medium, which will expose its true nature (1 Cor. 3:13). If we have built with lasting materials upon the only foundation of our lives as Christians, the finished work of Christ, there will be rewards stored up for us. But if we have built only with shoddy, temporary materials, all that we have labored for on earth will be destroyed. The prospect of the fire to come is a sobering challenge to the believer to examine whether he or she is building suitably for the test. Yet even that believer who has built the least-enduring structure on the foundation of Christ will not be destroyed by the testing fire (1 Cor. 3:15). Though his or her work may count for nothing, he or she will still be saved because the destructive power of the fire has all been absorbed by Jesus.
But that safety is only for those for whom Christ died. Those outside Christ are left exposed to the full weight of the crushing, piercing, burning wrath of God. The fire of God’s anger against sin has not been extinguished, nor has the sword of his wrath been blunted. There are no innocent bystanders; none will excuse their actions by reference to God’s sovereignty. A day is established for God’s final and complete judgment of all flesh, when Jesus Christ will ride forth to battle with a sharp sword, treading the winepress of the fury of God’s wrath (Rev. 19:15). He will make war on all the forces that oppose God and anyone whose name has not been written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire (20:14–15).
Imagery and propositional statements. The Bible is a book filled with images and imagery. God delivers his message not in the cold tones of propositional statements (although we may certainly deduce from the Bible propositions about who God is and what he is like) but in a welter of pictures. Supremely, his self-communication takes the form of the visible enactments of the prophets and most particularly of the final prophet, Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh.
Ironically, however, much expository preaching, which seeks to faithfully deliver the message of the Bible, begins by abstracting the proposition (the so-called “big idea of the passage”) from its surrounding imagery. That imagery is then tossed away like so much used wrapping paper, while the “big idea” is repackaged in an entirely new format for its delivery to the contemporary congregation. Could that be one reason why people find so much of our preaching boring? We have lost the vivid directness of the fire-filled Word of God, replacing it by the cool logical flow of classical rhetoric. If we wish to regain the power of the original proclamation, we would do well to consider more fully how we can deliver messages about fires that burn and words about the sword that cut to the heart.19
Contemporary Significance
THE QUESTION OF JUSTICE. One of the biggest questions in contemporary society is the question of justice. Where is the God of justice in our modern world? When children are gunned down on our streets in drive-by shootings, what is God doing about it? Where is God in Bosnia and Rwanda, in the midst of ethnic cleansing and tribal genocide? Deep in their hearts, people are outraged by the lack of justice in this world. Instinctively, they long for justice to reign and have an innate desire to see strong action against the wicked, with right triumphing and evil defeated. Isn’t that why virtually every politician is on the side of law and order? Isn’t that why there is a whole genre of popular vigilante movies, in which a strong individual establishes justice and peace by shooting, stabbing, or otherwise disposing of a formidable array of bad guys?
But if a standard of complete justice were actually to be imposed, each of us would face a very real problem: The justice for which we say we long would condemn each one of us as transgressors. Far from saving us, Superman would be implacably opposed to our way of life. All would stand condemned and guilty; all would face the fearful prospect of immediate and complete reckoning, with the Man of Steel dedicated to putting us out of circulation.
Imagine yourself as the villain rather than as the innocent bystander in the vigilante movie, and you begin to understand the horror of Judah’s situation. They stood condemned as guilty, and now the prophet declared the onset of immediate and complete judgment at the hands of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. Nor was it simply the might of Babylon that was dedicated to crushing the life out of them. The sword of the Lord himself was raised against them; the fire of his wrath had been kindled and would not be extinguished. What a fearful prospect! This is Jerusalem’s Nightmare on Elm Street, with the Lord himself playing the part of Freddy Krueger.
The fire of eternal punishment. Yet is the situation of modern men and women who are without Christ any more secure? Not at all! Unless they hear the gospel and trust in the death of Christ on the cross, turning from their sins, they face the eternal prospect of the fire and the sword, God’s wrath poured out on them. They are, to use the language of Jonathan Edwards, “sinners in the hands of an angry God,” suspended over the pit of eternity by a narrow thread of life, in perpetual danger of falling to eternal destruction.
The destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. was terribly comprehensive when God handed over judgment to the sword of Babylon. However, it was merely a sideshow when compared to the comprehensive judgment of the world that awaits the coming of the one to whom judgment belongs. God’s wrath is aroused at the rebellious thoughts, deeds, and words of those whom he has created. When the Judge of all the earth comes to settle final accounts, the sword will fall on uncleansed sinners, to their eternal doom.
The doctrine of eternal torment in hell is not popular these days. In fact, it probably never has been, even in the heyday of Puritan preaching. In the modern world in particular, however, it is rarely the topic of sermons. Far more often, it is the subject of attempts to present the biblical teaching in a kinder, gentler light. As John Gerstner so aptly put it: “Modern theology has tended to take either the pain out of eternity or the eternity out of pain.”20 Like the erstwhile inhabitants of Jerusalem, we are convinced that the Judge will choose the other road and we will be spared. We don’t really believe that the Bible’s teaching on eternal punishment should be taken literally, at least not with reference to ourselves. But it is precisely with reference to ourselves that we should consider this doctrine. As C. S. Lewis reminds us:
In all our discussions of Hell we should keep steadily before our eyes the possible damnation, not of our enemies nor of our friends (since both these disturb the reason) but of ourselves. This [doctrine] is not about your wife or son, nor about Nero or Judas Iscariot; it is about you and me.21
The fire of purification. What then are we to do? Is there any hope that we can survive his coming? Is there any future for you and me? The answer, incredibly, is yes. Yes! The fire will descend with purifying power as well as destructive force. Yes, the sword will cut away impurity as well as cut off the impure. A remnant, a purified remnant, will emerge, refined like gold and silver, ready to serve the Lord in righteousness.
So what is the answer to the problem of evil and injustice in this world? On one level, there is no answer. God does not give us information simply to satisfy our philosophical questions. What he does do is to bring the question home personally to each person: What is the answer to your evil and lack of justice? The Christian’s answer is to point to the cross: there, once and for all time, the eternal wrath of God that I deserved was poured out completely on Jesus Christ, God’s only Son. In that act is God’s final answer to the problem of my evil: The Son of God was bruised for my transgression and broken for my iniquity. Because of that death, and only because of that death, I can look forward without fear to the coming again of the heavenly Judge to judge all nations of the earth with righteousness and truth.
But lack of fear of the coming of the fire and the sword does not mean that we can sit back and relax. Our works will be tested by fire as believers, and much of what we spend our time on is far from fireproof. We fill our lives with the trivial, passing our time instead of spending it, living alongside people aimlessly instead of living with them purposefully. Even those closest to us may hardly ever be affected by the ideas that we claim are closest to our hearts. Instead of burning out for God, we are heaping up empty actions for God’s grand bonfire. From the perspective of eternity, how wasted will so much of our lives seem to have been?