Week 43 - Ezekiel 17-20, Revelation 14 (Oct. 22-28)

Notes

 

Ezekiel 18 & Original Sin

Imagine the hopelessness of the exiles in Babylon knowing both that their sin (and that of generations before them) led to this great punishment from God that they were suffering AND watching the remainder of God’s people still in Jerusalem (still will not be destroyed for at least 5 years) continue to rebel against God, by practicing wickedness and idolatry and trusting in Egypt. Surely they are wondering: “We will never get out from under God’s punishment.” But against this gloomy outlook, God gives Ezekiel this wonderful message to them in Ezekiel 18. He tells them that he is a God who clears the slate and will not hold their fathers' sins against them.

There is a theological doctrine in Christianity made popular by Agustine in the 5th Century AD called “original sin” which teaches that all humans are born guilty of sin because they inherit this guilt from Adam and Eve. This idea has gained incredible popularity and is held by a large majority of Christians today. I (Joel) don’t adopt the classical doctrine of original sin. It seems to fly in the face of these words of Ezekiel that we are reading in chapter 18 and much more Biblical data that i will spare you at this point. We do not worship a God who condemns us because of our father’s/mother’s guilt.

 

HISTORICAL MARKERS IN Ezekiel

There are a number of historical markers in Ezekiel. More than any other prophet, Ezekiel keeps anchoring his prophecy in a concrete historical timeline. He clearly wants the readers to know when these words were spoken. we get a key marker at the end of this week’s reading which places us 5 years before the total destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 586. Remember that multiple batches of exiles have already been taken to Babylon where Ezekiel is prophesying from. Here are the remaining historical markers in the book that lead to and surround Jerusalem’s destruction.

  • Ezekiel 20:1; August 15th 591, BC

  • Ezekiel 24:1; January 5, 587 BC (the day that Nebuchadnezzar begins his siege of Jerusalem)

  • Ezekiel 26:1; sometime in 586 BC

    • notice the footnote in your NIV Bible. the words “month of the twelfth” are likely not original to the text. this date is really only one year after the date listed in 24:1.

  • Ezekiel 29:1; January 7, 587 BC

    • even though this date appears to be 1 year later than the one described in 24:1, most commentators believe that Ezekiel there used an “nonaccession” year system (which would not count the first year of Jehoiachin’s exile) rather than an accession year system. (IVP Bible Backgrounds Commentary, note on 29:1).

    • the Egyptian response to the siege (an easily defeated effort to repel the Babylonians from Judea) occurred in the summer of 587.

  • Ezekiel 30:20; April 29, 587 BC

    • At this point the Egyptian attempt to repel the Babylonians is imminent, but Ezekiel warns that it will not be successful

  • Ezekiel 31:1; June 21, 587 BC

  • Ezekiel 32:1; March 3 585 BC (a few months after the report of the fall of Jerusalem had reached Ezekiel - this is out of Chronological order)

  • Ezekiel 33:21 January 19, 585 B.C. (about 5 months after the fall of Jerusalem)

 

EZEKIEL 20:25: “BAD LAWS”

because they had not obeyed my laws but had rejected my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes lusted after their parents’ idols.  So I gave them other statutes that were not good and laws through which they could not live; (Ezekiel 20:24-25)

The Hebrew terms used here are extremely important to a proper understanding of Ezekeil’s controversial statement. This in not a reference to the Law given at Sinai, and the word “Torah” is not used. The word that the NIV translates as “statutes” is the same word that in verse 24 is translated “decrees,” except that there it is feminine (as usual) rather than masculine (as here). The word the NIV translates “Laws” is the word for God’s judicial decisions. Therefore the consequence of Israel’s unfaithfulness, then, was that God decreed events that were not in their favor, and he made judicial decisions that threatened their survival. This resulted in God’s use of forces that devastated Israel, such as war, famine, plague, and foreign armies. (IVPBBC:OT, 705)

 

Revelation 14: the 144,000

In contrast to those who received the mark of the beast in chapter 13, we’re introduced to 144,000 who have the name of the Lam and his Father written on theirs. they are described as virgins in verse 4 but that indicator may not be absolute. In the Old Testament, soldiers would abstain from sexual activity during times of war and battle in order to remain ceremonially pure and devoted to the task before them (think of Uriah when called to Jerusalem by King David). The image here may be one of a constantly pure and devoted army ready to go to war for the lamb. Here is NT Wright on the 144,000

As usual, we need to be clear about the symbol and the reality to which it points. In the symbol, this body consists of a hundred and forty-four thousand (we have met them before, of course, in chapter 7); they sing a new song; they have abstained from sexual relations. They are, in other words, the ideal representatives of the people of God, permanently ready for battle. In the reality to which this symbol points, they are in fact a great company which nobody could count; the chances are that they sing songs which all Christians would know; and some of them may be married and some single - but all are permanently ready for the real battle, which is the engagement with the monsters and their demands, an engagement which may mean at any moment that they will be required to suffer or even to die. This great crowd, surrounding the lamb, is not the sum total of all believers. It is the beginning, the great advance sign of an even greater harvest to come. That is the point of the first fruits image in verse 4. At the ancient Jewish harvest-time, the first sheaf of wheat (or whichever crop it might be) was offered to God as the 'first fruits, signifying the expectation and prayer that there would be much more on the way. Even so, these one hundred and forty-four thousand are to be an encouragement to the churches. Already there is a great multitude! The lamb is winning the victory! We can carry on patiently.

NT Wright, Revelation for Everyone

 

Revelation 14: The ‘good news’ of God’s wrath

This is ‘the gospel’, the ‘good news’, for those who live under 'Babylonian, monstrous, rule. First, God the creator is at last going to sort everything out (verse 7). Second, Babylon is fallen, after all her efforts to make the nations drunk with her own immoral wine (verse 8: this is an image we shall look at more fully a bit later). Third, God's judgment will be just, thorough and complete (verses 9-11).

All this is, in this sense, 'good news’ for those who have lived in a world of horror, torture and squalor. God is going to sort it all out! That's what the Psalmist, too, thought of as good news (Psalms 96.10-13; 98.7-9). What we are not allowed to conclude from all this is that either John, or we, or anybody else, know who if anyone comes into the category described in verses 9-11. These things - which are themselves symbolic, evoking yet more biblical passages, and not literal descriptions - can only be heard with awe, and with the recognition that the deep seduction of evil really can swallow people up whole. John is eager, anxiously eager, to prevent any of Jesus' followers being sucked down into that dark whirlpool of wrath. Their part is to be patient, obedient and faithful, knowing that death itself has been defeated, so as to become now a source, not of curse but of blessing. Their labours in the present, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15.58, are not in vain (verse 13).

 
Joel Nielsen