The Theology of the Book

The judgment process extends to other nations as well and has as its ultimate aim restoration rather than destruction. When the final blow comes (the destruction of the Temple), the judgment process enters a new phase, that of restoration. Again, this phase uses relational metaphors---a loving shepherd, the mountain lands of Israel, dry bones, and a stick rejoined. The restoration phase addresses the problem of permanent and residual evil in the universe in the greaat victory over Gog of Magog. Only after that evil is destroyed (in some future time) is it possible for the Lord's own palace and city to be constructed. Chapters 33 through 37 speak of the immediate future and chapters 38 through 48 of the indefinite future.

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The Theology of the Book

Another important contribution of the book is its careful literary structure. Ezekiel is a writer as well as a speaker. The structure in a sense frees Ezekiel from his immediate context to address a wider audience. In the book, one sees the glorious Lord, obligated to no human institution, choosing an individual to announce a painful judgment on beloved Israel that will eventuate in the renewal of the people. The metaphors for this process are dominantly those of love (marriage and betrothal) and personal presence (departing and returning), even though Ezekiel employs the metaphors in his peculiarly concrete and dramatic way.

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The Theology of the Book

In fact, the prophet insists on this point with such vehemence that some modern readers are offended. The text locates the authority of the prophetic oracle in the Lord: the prophet is constantly referred to as "son of man," that is, mere human in comparison with God. The phrase "oracle of the Lord" occurs eighty-five times; the so-called recognition formula "that they may know that I am the Lord" occurs fifty-four times; and the assertion that the Lord acts so his name will not be profaned among the natiions is constant. Although at first reading they might suggest a self-centered deity, they actually make a positive statement, for they locate the reason for God acting in God's very self in the divine character. How dangerous it would be if God acted because of human righteousness! God acts because of who he is, not because of who Israel is. That is the basis of true hope, and it is why Ezekiel is so intent on destroying all human grounds for hope. True hope is based in God, not in human beings.

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The Theology of the Book

Though not cited as often by Christians as other prophetic books, Ezekiel says much to modern Christians. It insists on the Lord's transcendence and freedom; one can be over whelmed and transformed by the presence of the Lord whom one cannot see. The Lord moves easily from the Temple to the exile and back to a restored Temple. Yet this utterly free and sovereign Lord has fallen in love with Israel and cannot leave or abandon her. Ezekiiel insists more than any other prophet that the Lord acts because of the Lord's own reasons, not because of Israel's virtues or miseries.

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The Theology of the Book

Those empires will be the instruments of Israel's purification ("judgment") and eventual return to the Lord. Hence, exile and destruction are not the end of the relationship; rather they constitute the judgmnent process that will establish justice, that is, uphold the righteous and put down the wicked. God is not absent from the process. Ezekiel does not hesitate to affirm that the Lord is present among the exiled population and that if people give up their delusions and their sinful ways, the Lord will raise them from the death of exile and give them a new city and temple. In the general picture of exile and restoration just presented, Ezekiel did not differ significantly from his prophetic predecessors. What then was his peculiar contribution to the Bible and to the contemporary church?

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The Theology of the Book

The great empires, Assyria and then Babylonia, and the writing prophets' assessment that Israel had failed to live up to its covenantal responsibilities, changed forever the situation of Israel, in a sense "requiring" the Lord to do a new thing. What is the "new thing"?

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The Theology of the Book

Like Micah's prediction, affirmed by Jeremiah, that the Temple was not sacrosanct and could be destroyed (Mi 3,12; Jer7,4), and like Isaiah's prediction that the Lord was doing a new thing (Is 43,19; 48,6), Ezekiel strikes a blow for the freedom of God. It is important to note, however, that the Lord does not leave the Jerusalem Temple to become a spiritual presence available in every time and place. Rather, the Lord will come back to a specific place, there to meet the people in a purified and sacred place.

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The Theology of the Book

At the basis of his theology was the great founding moment of Israel--the Exodus from Egypt and entry into Canaan as seen through priestly eyes. It has already been pointed out that the Priestly source deeply influenced the prophet. An example of its influence is the dominant structuring device of the glorious Lord on the throne of wheels: the glory appeared to the exiled prophet (1,28;3,23), departed from the Jerusalem Temple (10,18;11,23), and will return to the templecity (43,2-5), to fill the Temple (44,4) as the glory once filled the tabernacle in the wilderness in Exodus 40,34. The mobility expressed by the throne with wheels is very important: the Lord is not tied down to one place or to a particular way.

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The Theology of the Book

Ezekiel's theology originated in his prophetic interpretation of the situation of his community---the Judeans living as exiles in Babylonia---and his counsels on how they should live in their new circumstances. His theology includes praxis, or observance. Although Ezekiel is concerned with the actions of the Lord and the course of Israelite history, he must also deal with the people's immediate anxieties and concerns, among which are concerns about whether they have title to their land and whether they have a future as a people. In other words, should they give up their dreams of being the Lord's special people and, instead, acculturate themselves into the babylonian empire? As many exiles saw things, their ancestors' sins definitively severed the relationship of the Lord to Israel. This bitter truth was especially visible among the landless and unhappy exiles. Ezekiel thus had to explain concrete issues without losing sight of the overall purposes of the Lord whose spokesman he was.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

The next section of the vision (43,13---46,24) is concerned with the altar, the reorganization of the clergy making the Zadokites alone full priests (45,15--31), the territory set apart for them (45,1-9), and the princes's responsibilities for supporting the temple (46) and overseeing justice (45,9). "Prince" is an ancient premonarchic title that Ezekiel revives in place of "king," which for him had become a symbol of failed leadership. The third section is intoduced by 47, 1-11, the water flowing from the temple throughout the land, which serves as a transition from temple to land. Water in Ezekiel is associated with the deity (1, 24 and 43, 2). The sacred mountain is the garden of God, the source of all fertilizing water (Gn 2, 10-14; cf. Ez. 28, 13; 31, 8-9; 36 35). Mount Zion is also associated with that tradition (e.g., Ps 46, 4 and Is 12, 3; 33, 20-24). One of the four great rivers arising in the garden of Eden was the Gihon, which is according to 1 Kings 1, 33, the river of Jerusalem. The remaining chapters speak of the boundaries of the future land of Israel (essentially the same as Nm 34, 1-12), the redistricting of the tribes in equal east-west strips, each with coastal land, uplands, and territory in the Jordan-Dead Sea depression. The new name given to Jerusalem, "The Lord is there," is the last verse in the book.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

The order of topics in 40 through 48 follows generally those of the priestly writings of the Pentateuch (Ex 25-31;33-40; Lv; Nm 1-10; 32; 34-35). The temple plan follows generally the latest form of the Solomonic Temple but with an emphasis on safeguarding the sanctity of the temple from profane contact. For example, the eastern gate ("the gate which faced the east," 40,5) is a military gate, like gates found in Gezer, Hazor, and Megiddo, which contain four successive recesses so that guards can interrupt chariots rushing the gate. The nearness of the king's palace to the temple in the old system is vigorously criticized (43,6-12). The Lord returns to the temple (43,1-5), and Ezekiel sees "that the temple was filled with the glory of the Lord" (v.5).

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

According to the combat myth, after winning the cosmic battle, the victorious deity is recognized as the supreme god and builds his palace (temple), announcing his decrees for the ruling of the world. In chapter 40, 1-4, the hand of the Lord brought Ezekiel in a vision to the land of Israel and set him down on a very high mountain on which there was a city and a temple. An angelic figure shows him the ground plan (there are no elevations in the plan) of the Temple area; the tour is a counterpart to the tour of chapters 8--11.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Divine initiative is stressed repeatedly, just as it is in the Exodus accounts. Gog does not attack on his own initiative; the Lord brings the army into the holy land so that he can destroy it on the mountains of Israel. The text seems to presume that there is some primordial evil, greater than any one empire that must be identified and destroyed before Israel can live in complete peace. In a sense, the composite battle and victory is a theological reflection on evil and a statement of the hope that god will someday eradicate every vestige of that evil.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Furthermore, Exodus texts said that the Lord was glorified by the defeat of the Egyptians: "Thus will I make Pharaoh so obstinate that he will pursue them. Then I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord: (Ex 14,4). Such a statement sounds very much like Ezekiel 39,13, which describes the victory as the day the Lord reveals his glory. To a first-time reader, the text of chapters 38 and 39 seems confused, and indeed there may have bveen revisions or additions to underline the meaning.. Its structure, however, seems clear: 38, 1-16, Gog's attack on Israel; 38, 17-23, God's war against Gog; 39,1-16, God's victory (39,1-3 is parallel to 38,1-6); 39,17-29, God's glory is revealed to all. Although based vaguely on historical characters (Gog seems based on the Lydian ruler Gyges; Magog, his hiomeland, was probably created to rhyme with Gog: Gomer is from the Cimmerians), the scene is transhistoriclal; it is an event that will happen at an unspecified future time.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

The final part of the book begins with chapter 38, not chapter 40, for the battle of God of the land of Magog against the Lord is the necessary prelude to the construction of a new temple-city, its regulatilons, and the positioning of the holy people around it. Chapters 38 and 39 presume that Israel has returned from exile and dwells peacefully on its own land (38,12). In a grand finale, God, the divine warrior, musters the armies of the world and lures them into a massive battle that results in their annihilation and his glory. Such a divine initiative was, according to 38,17, predicted in such earlier prophetic passages as Isaiah 29,7; Micah 8,11-13; Jeremiah 1,14, Isaiah 14,24-27 predicted that the great empire Assyria would be destroyed in the midst of the holy land.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Ezekiel 36, 16-38 makes points similar to those in Jeremiah 31,31-37. Both passages speak of an interior renewal. As a priest, Ezekiel introduces a number of ritual details to accompany the interior transformation: cease to profane my holy name; witness to my holiness; sprinkle with clean (or holy) water; be cleansed of idols; observe my decrees. Chapter 37 uses two different images to recount Israel's revival: dry bones scattered across a field are fitted together, covered with sinews and flesh, and broght to life by the breathing of the spirit and the two sticks brought together.

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