Week 39 - Ezekiel 1-4, Revelation 10 (Sept 24-30)
Notes
Ezekiel
Date of Authorship: Ezekiel is pretty good about giving historical markers that we can trace back throughout his book. We can use the historical information in 1:2 to date the call of Ezekiel to 593 BC. The last historical marker that we have is in the introduction to Ezekiel’s vision of the restored Jerusalem (40:1) which can be pinpointed to April 28th, 573 BC.
Author: We have every reason to believe that Ezekiel is the author, or at least the speaker, of this book of his prophecy; it is filled with a consistent, first-person voice. Ezekiel was a priest who was exiled in the second small (~10,000) batch of prisoners taken by the Babylonians in 597 BC. The first batch in 605 BC was when Daniel and his friends were taken to Babylon. Ezekiel was exiled together with the Israelite king Jehoiachin, the grandson of Josiah. Ezekiel’s career happens away from the promised land. He is prophesying from Babylon where he is a prisoner.
Here’s a refresher on the final kings of Judah. Ezekiel was deported to Babylon with Jehoiachin
Historical Setting: Ezekiel begins when the writing is on the wall for Judah’s demise. Twice already, the resistance of the nation of Judah to control by the Babylonian empire has resulted in military threats and deportations. The first exiles were taken away in 605 BC, just four years after the death of Josiah, and included Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The second deportation occurred as a result of further Judahite resistance to Babylonian control and saw the exile of King Jehoiachin to Babylon. In Jehoiachin’s place, Nebuchadnezzar installed his uncle Zedekiah who had sworn loyalty to the Babylonians. It is a this moment that Ezekiel begins to prophecy. during Ezekiel’s career, Zedekiah allied with Egypt against Nebuchadnezzar, and that rebellion resulted in the total devastation of Jerusalem at the hand of the Babylonians and a large exile of people from the promised land.
Purpose: Ezekiel is commissioned to bring charges against Judah for violating their covenant with God before the arrival of God’s Judgment. In service to that role, Ezekiel is explaining God’s anger and justice while remarking upon the utter unfaithfulness of His people. But that is just one pole of Ezekiel’s message. Ezekiel is also a deliverer of hope. God uses Ezekiel to tell his people that there will be restoration on the other side of Judgment because God’s faithfulness will not fail them. C. Hassell Bullock puts it best:
Ezekiel, as clearly as any of the prophets, set up the opposite poles and then showed how Yahweh resolved the polarization. On the one hand God declares that He will turn His face from Israel, and on the other that he will not hide His face from them anymore. At one pole Israel drives Yahweh from His sanctuary, and at the other Yahweh gives instructions for a new Temple where he will take up His everlasting residence. The glory of the Lord leaves the Temple, and it returns. He gives up the land to destruction so that even Noah, Daniel, and Job could not save it, and He reclaims and repartitions the land for His people. On the one side Israel breaks the Mosaic covenant, and on the other the Lord establishes and everlasting covenant. The shepherds neglect His flock, and He Himself becomes the Good Shepherd. Israel’s idolatrous abominations are pitted against Yahweh’s holiness. Repentance has a low profile in the book, giving place to Yahweh’s initiative to bring about the drastic changes that could save and restore Israel. ( Bullock, An Introduction to the Old Testament: Prophetic Books, 305)
EZEKIEL 1:1 THE THIRTIETH YEAR
We’re given two descriptions of the same date in Ezekiel 1:1-2. The most helpful description is the “fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin” which allows us to assign a year to the beginning of Ezekiel’s ministry (593), but assigning meaning to the first date has proven to be very difficult. There have been three main theories advanced concerning what the “thirtieth year” means in verse 1
The first theory is that there are actually two different dates being described in verses 1-2. The date in verse 1, would be the thirtieth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin - which would be 25 years after the visions beginning in 1:2. Those who hold this theory see verse 1 as an introduction to when the book is being published by Ezekiel, and verse 2 as describing the beginning of Ezekiel’s ministry (Proponents include E.G. Howie, and William Albright).
the Jewish Targum claims that the “thirtieth year” is counted from Josiah’s reform which was declared a year of Jubilee. The year of Jubilee was supposed to be celebrated every fifty years, so it would be natural to record a date according to this benchmark. In this and the following theory, the dates in verses 1 and 2 are coincidental.
Finally (the theory which I prefer) the thirtieth year could be a reference to Ezekiel’s age. This is roughly how old we expect Ezekiel to be in 593 and the thirtieth year is when a priest would fully enter into his profession (see Numbers 4:3, 30, 35,43,47). Thus Ezekiel would be telling us that his vision occurred at the beginning of his priestly ministry. (proponents include Moshe Greenberg and R.K. Harrison)
EZEKIEL 1: EZEKIEL’S VISION
The vivid imagery of Ezekiel’s vision will seem familiar to us because we’ve been reading through revelation. Ezekiel’s wild heavenly depictions are likely the foundation or framework through which John processes the revelation that he receives from God on the Island of Patmos which becomes the book of revelation. The parallels in style and content between Ezekiel and Revelation are stark, and you will see them as you read along. For example, consider the two scroll-eating stories we read this week!
I don’t believe that there is any artist’s rendering that could capture what Ezekiel is depicting for us in Chapter 1 when he describes the theopany which he witnesses. There are really no ancient Near Eastern parallels to what Ezekiel describes, especially as it relates to the multi-faced creatures described here. Along with the wheels which could move in any direction, the purpose of the multiple faces of the beasts shows the power of God to be present everywhere and to be aware of all events on earth. In ANE iconography, the lion indicates strength (2nd Samuel 1:23), the eagle indicates speed and gracefulness (Isaiah 40:31), and the ox indicates fertility (Psalm 106:19-20).
EZEKIEL 4:12, 15: FUEL FOR THE FIRE
Ezekiel was given more than just words by which to communicate to the Israelites. More than any other prophet (with Hosea as a close second), Ezekiel was asked to live out his message to God’s people:
Ezekiel’s symbolic actions were numerous, surpassing even Jeremiah… In these actions, message and messenger were combined into one inseparable mode of communication. Consistently some words of interpretation accompanied them, and most often the dramatic signs focused on the destruction of Jerusalem and the resulting conditions of siege and exile. Walther Zimmerli and others have drawn attention to the interesting idea that Ezekiel took several metaphors found in other prophets and enacted them literally; for example, Jeremiah’s metaphor of eating the Lord’s words (Jeremiah 15:16) and Ezekiel’s actual consumption of the scroll(3:1-3), Isaiah’s metaphor of shaving Israel with a razor (Isaiah 7:20) and our prophet’s literal shaving of his head and beard (5:1-4). (C. Hassell Bullock, An Introduction to the Old Testament: Prophetic Books, 282-283)
Consider that Ezekiel had to lay on his side for four hundred and thirty days! Furthermore, Ezekiel’s calling takes a turn for the gross when he is told by God to cook his food over human waste (4:12). This was to signify that the Israelites would eat defiled foods (i.e. food that was unclean, and meat that had been sacrificed to pagan Gods) in the land where they were, and would be exiled. However, God yields to Ezekiel’s complaint about this requirement, and God allows him to use animal waste. To the modern reader, this certainly seems preferable, but maybe not much* better. However, cow dung was an extremely common fuel for fire in the ancient world, especially in Palestine, where timber was sparse.
The typical fuel in areas like Mesopotamia and Palestine was dried animal dung or cakes made from the waste pulp of crushed olives. Trees were too precious to be cut for cooking and warming. (IVPBBC:OT, 693)
Revelation 10: An Interlude in the trumpets
To refresh where we are, in the loosening of the 7th seal on the scroll which is introduced at Revelation 5, there were 7 angels with seven trumpets, We have read the accounts of the first six trumpets (the sixth trumpet was the last thing we read in chapter 9), and would expect to read of the seventh when we get to chapter ten. However, as is often the case in revelation, there is an interruption or an interlude in the unveiling of this sequence. This one will last for all of chapters 10 and half of 11 before we return to the seventh trumpet in 11:15.
Revelation 10: The Mighty Angel with the Little Scroll
This gift of the little scroll, and the vocation to turn its words into prophecy which will bring God's purposes into reality, all takes place as we are waiting with bated breath for the seventh trumpet to sound. Yes, says the angel, it is coming soon, and when it comes it will complete 'God's mystery (verse7). There will be no more time (verse 6): not, I think, in the sense that 'time shall be no more, leaving everything in the timeless 'eternity' beloved of some non-biblical philosophies, but rather that time will have run out for all those who are presuming on God's patience. This time things will reach their goal. This reminds us that the sequence of the seven trumpets is not meant to stand chronologically between the other 'seven' sequences - the letters, the seals and the bowls - but is one key dimension of the same basic sequence. We are building up, at the end of chapter 11, to what could be the final climax of the book - except for the fact that we still have the entire second half of the book to come, in which the same story is approached from a radically different angle, spelling out in depth all sorts of aspects of the story which cannot be told until these preliminary tellings have done their work.
The angel described at the start of the chapter bursts onto the scene in a blaze of light, all the more welcome after the gloom and horror of the previous section. He comes from heaven with God's word for the earth, dressed in a cloud which, we may suppose, is the sign that God himself is present but hidden in this message. The rainbow over his head reminds us of the throne-vision of chapter 4, and of the ancient biblical echoes awoken there. His face is like the sun, as was that of the son of man in the first chapter, and his feet, like fiery pillars, remind us of the pillar of fire in the desert, the flaming sign of God's personal presence. This is no ordinary angel, and when he speaks we know why: his voice is like a lion roaring. He comes with the words of the lion-lamb, the Messiah. He embodies the sovereignty of the creator God over the whole creation: the sea and the land (verses 2, 5) are the two spheres of 'earth, as heaven and earth are the two spheres of the whole creation and male and female are the two spheres, as it were, of the animal world. It could hardly be made clearer that the message he brings is from the creator, since in verse 6 he swears an oath by the one who made heaven, earth and sea and all that they contain. Any suggestion, then, that the message he
brings will collude with the forces of destruction and declare that the present world is a piece of trash, to be thrown away and replaced with something completely different, is ruled out. When God’s mystery is complete, it will be the fulfilment of creation, not its abolition
NT Wright, Revelation for Everyone P. 96