Recap

So far in Ezekiel, we’ve read through Ezekiel’s commissioning, his prophetic acts, and finished the accusations against Judah. The book started five years after the first group of Israelites had been exiled to Babylon. Jerusalem was still standing, and many Israelites still lived there. Ezekiel received a vision of God on his chariot throne over Babylon. He was not limited to Israel. His authority is over all the earth.

God charged Ezekiel with speaking to the Israelites still in Jerusalem to repent and change their ways before it was too late. But God also warned Ezekiel that the people would likely not listen to him. After taking a week to process all he had seen and heard, Ezekiel started acting out prophetic declarations. These included making a miniature model of Jerusalem and acting out sieges against it, laying on his side while eating unclean food, and shaving shaved his head and beard.

After more time passed, God gave Ezekiel a vision of what the people were doing to his temple back in Jerusalem. From the outer gates to right inside the inner temple, the people were worshipping false gods and idols. They had desecrated the space that had been reserved for God.

Ezekiel had a vision of the presence of God leaving the temple and entering his throne chariot carried by the four living beings. So God declared judgement over the people, their leaders, and the prophets. God used many metaphors to depict Israel. An unfaithful bride, a proud lion now caged, a great vine that was dug up an left in the wilderness.

God again laid out all of Israel's sins and then we got the most graphic of images used so far. Israel was likened to an unfaithful woman and God invites her other lovers to come have their way with her and disfigure her. The language was highly graphic and was intended to be shocking. It was a passage that needs wrestling with before we import it into our modern day thinking.

Then, finally, the siege of Jerusalem started. God's wrath was starting to pour out. And Ezekiel's mouth was freed so he could now move from declaring judgement on Israel to judgement on the foreign nations. We read through judgements on Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia. We then started the judgement of Tyre, a city nation focused on trade, which was much longer than any of the others.

Ezekiel 28-30

God now focuses on the king of Tyre. This king had become seriously arrogant and prideful. He believed that he was greater than the gods and reigned over them. He thought he was the wisest man on earth, even wiser than Daniel, who we'll meet in a later book. Through his own wisdom, he's been able to acquire wealth and power for himself.

Because of this, God is going to bring foreign nations to come and strike him down. They'll take this king, who believes he reigns over the gods in heaven, and will throw him into the pits of death. Will he still try to claim he's a god then? This king is a being of pride and chaos that has tried to set himself above God. God tells Ezekiel to lament over this king, and he does this by drawing imagery from another being of pride and chaos that tried to set themselves above God.

Ezekiel goes back to the garden of Eden and, though he doesn't mention him by name, makes a comparison between the king of Tyre and the serpent of Eden. An ancient Israelite would have recognised that the serpent in Genesis 3 wasn't actually just a serpent. Serpents don't talk. It would likely have been a spiritual being posing as a serpent, and it's this imagery that Ezekiel is drawing from.

The spiritual being had been made full of wisdom and perfection. He had been set up as a cherub, a guardian angel over the garden of Eden. But sin crept in and this spiritual being became pride, choosing its own will over God's. As a result, God cast him down to earth and made him hated.

The point here is to show that rebellious and corrupt kings, such as the king of Tyre, are merely reflections of a much deeper spiritual rebellion that happened long before. This comparison then feeds back, because just as God is punishing these corrupt and proud kings so that he might restore nations to himself, God will one day properly punish the serpent of Eden, so that he might restore the whole earth to himself.

Next comes Sidon, who was a sister city to Tyre. You will often see the two mentioned together. Like many of these other nations, Sidon had often caused problems for Israel. The most famous person from Sidon is Jezebel, who married king Ahab and led the nation in worshipping foreign gods and removing the worship of the true God. God will appear powerfully in Sidon, bring his punishment and judgement. There will be pestilence and death by the sword. God will do this to remove all of these nations that have been little by little chipping away at Israel. Then God will restore his people to their land so that they may turn to him and flourish.

Then comes Egypt, and their pharaoh. Pharaoh is described as a 'great dragon' (Ezekiel 29:30). Dragons were often seen as water-dwelling beings of pure chaos, completely opposed to the beauty and order of God. We read about a similar dragon like being in Job, the leviathan. God will take Pharaoh, this proud being of chaos, and draw him out of his rivers where he feels safe and throw him into the wilderness, the place of death. Then the people of Egypt will know that he, not Pharaoh, is God over all the earth.

The Israelites had trusted in Egypt, and leant on them like a staff, but they were more like a staff of reed that snapped when the Israelites put weight on it. The shattered pieces cut the Israelites, hurting them instead of supporting them. Because of this and their pride, God will attack Egypt and scatter them.

But afterwards he returns and restores them. He will keep them small, so that they don't get proud again, but he will restore them. This little glimmer of hope for Egypt demonstrates God's desire that all the earth might know him and enjoy his blessing, not just the Israelites. Meanwhile, by this point, king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has now conquered Tyre, and so God points out that Egypt is next.

God then calls for Ezekiel to announce and lament Egypt's destruction. The Day of the Lord, the day of destruction and judgement, is coming. God will destroy and Egypt and plunder her wealth. All those who support Egypt, her allies and those who look to her for help, will be crushed. God will use Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the wealth and pride of Egypt. He will destroy all their idols and foreign gods. He will attack each of their cities, leaving none untouched. God is going to break the arms of Pharaoh and Egypt so that they cannot fight back. And then he will strengthen the arms of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon so they can destroy Egypt.

Psalm 37

This psalm is attributed to king David and falls into the category of wisdom psalm. It instructs the reader/listener on how to lead a moral life. 

The psalm is an acrostic, where every couple of verses start with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It’s also a chiasm, though a very long one due to the length of the psalm.

A) Psalm 37:1-8 - The righteous must ignore the wicked and trust God

B) Psalm 37:9 - Wait and inherit the land

C) Psalm 37:10-15 - The righteous will inherit the land and the wicked’s plotting will be destroyed

D) Psalm 37:16 - The righteous are blessed

E) Psalm 37:17 - Yahweh upholds righteous

F) Psalm 37:18a - Yahweh guides the righteous

G) Psalm 37:18b - The righteous inherit

H) Psalm 37:19 - The righteous get

I) Psalm 37:20 - The wicked perish

H) Psalm 37:21 - The righteous give

G) Psalm 37:22 - The bless inherit

F) Psalm 37:23 - Yahweh guides the righteous

E) Psalm 37:24 - Yahweh upholds

D) Psalm 37:25-26 - The righteous are not forsaken

C) Psalm 37:27-33 - The righteous will inherit the land and the wicked’s plotting will be destroyed

B) Psalm 37:34 - Wait and inherit the land

A) Psalm 37:35-40 - God destroys the wicked but saves the righteous

The psalm opens with an encouragement not to get too concerned with the wicked. They may be successful now, but it won’t last long. Instead, trust in the Lord that he will be your provision.

He will cause you to dwell in his land, give you the desires of your heart, act on your behalf, and lead you in righteousness. 

All it requires is that you patiently wait on him, and he will cause you to prosper in a way that the wicked never could.

So refrain from getting angry, because the wicked will be cut off for their evil. They will be no more, and the righteous will inherit the land. This message is repeated throughout the psalm and can be seen as the main focus of the psalm. 

Each pairing of verses reinforces this message. Do not become jealous of the wicked who seem to prosper. They won’t. Ultimately, they will fail and fall away. Instead, live a blameless life and you will be sustained and blessed by God.