5' Prophecies of Hope

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5. Prophecies of Hope

• Ezekiel 33-37

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A. Context of Comfort and Hope

• Isa 40.1-2
• 1. Recall? A Watchman Again 33.1-20 (3.16-21)
• ...the watchman passage is used as a transition
  piece after the anti-foreign oracles of Chaps
  25-32. To mark the turning from addresses to the
  nations, the prophet is told Son of man, speak
  to the sons of your people Brownlee,
  Ezekiels Parable of the Watchman, 398
• 1.1 The role of the watchman 33.2-9
• 1.2 Repentance and the hope of the despairing
  33.10-11
• 1.3 Contrastive consequences of turning from
  righteousness and turning from wickedness
  33.12-20

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A. Context of Comfort and Hope

• 2. Theological Crux
• 2.1 Ezek 14.1-11
• In 14.1-11, . . . we find a call to repentance.
  In fact, 14.6 contains the first explicit case of
  this in the book.... Joyce, Divine Initiative
  and Human Response in Ezekiel, 69
• 14.12-23 Ironic Comfort Vicarious retribution
  refers to the idea that one persons
  righteousness could positively affect the wider
  community or even his or her own descendants by
  providing a reason for Yahweh to refrain from
  carrying out his judgment. Klein, Ezekiel, 101

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A. Context of Comfort and Hope

• 2.2 Ezek 18.1-20, 21-32
• Ezekiel 18 is clearly concerned with the
  questions about Yahwehs punishment of human sin,
  that is with divine retribution. Despite their
  differences, both the prophet and his audience
  regard the crisis as a punishment of sin by
  Yahweh the contested issue is that of whose sins
  are being punished. The people blame their wicked
  ancestors Ezekiel, on the other hand, argues
  that these events are punishment for the sins of
  the very people who are now suffering. Joyce,
  Divine Initiative and Human Response in Ezekiel,
  38

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A. Context of Comfort and Hope

• What chapter 18 insists upon, therefore, is
  really not individualism, but the moral
  independence of the house of Israel. They are not
  limited by the deeds of previous generations or
  even by the sinful past of their own generation.
  Chapter 18 calls them to do what they can in fact
  do to turn and to live. Klein, Ezekiel, 108
• Far from constituting an argument for
  individual responsibility, the purpose of the
  chapter is to demonstrate the collective
  responsibility of the contemporary house of
  Israel for the national disaster which she is
  suffering. Joyce, Divine Initiative and Human
  Response in Ezekiel, 36

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A. Context of Comfort and Hope

• 2.2.1 A proverb 18.2 The Fathers have eaten
  sour grapes, and the childrens teeth are set on
  edge. (parallel in Jer 31.27-30)
• ...presumably the audience into whose mouths the
  sour grapes proverb is put are the exiles in
  Babylonia. Joyce, 43
• 2.2.2 History of Thought Deut 5.9 / Ex 20.5 Jos
  7 2 Kgs 14.1-16 gt 2 Kgs 25.1-9 Lam 5.7
• The accounts of the Decalogue in the Pentateuch
  report that the iniquity of parents is visited
  upon the children to the third and fourth
  generations (Ex 20.5 34.7 Deut 5.9 cf. Num
  14.18). This may mean no more than that the head
  of the family is responsible for the ethical
  behavior of all his descendants during his
  lifetime, and that they through family solidarity
  (third and fourth generation of those who hate
  me), also reap the effects of his wickedness. It
  is not hard to see, however, that these words
  might be taken to mean that the sins of one
  generation automatically bring subsequent
  generations under the threat of judgment.
  Klein, Ezekiel, 104

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A. Context of Comfort and Hope

• 2.2.3 Deut 24.16 - The fathers shall not be put
  to death for the children, nor shall the children
  be put to death for the fathers every man shall
  be put to death for his own sin.
• 18.5-9 Person who observes sacral laws will live.
• In the first generation (vv. 5-8) the good deeds
  of the righteous person are described. They
  consist of 1) not eating idolatrous sacrifices on
  the mountains 2) not looking to idols for help
  3) not defiling the wife of the neighbor 4) not
  having sexual intercourse with a woman during her
  menstrual period 5) not wrongfully doing a
  person out of property 6)restoring a pledge
  after the payment of a debt 7) not robbing 8)
  giving ones bread to the hungry 9) covering the
  naked with clothing 10) not exacting interest on
  a loan 11) keeping clear of injustice in court
  and 12) arbitrating between people. While this
  list is not comprehensive as the Decalogue
  itself, it does include concerns about idolatry
  and ritual purity as well as about personal and
  social ethics. Klein, Ezekiel, 105

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A. Context of Comfort and Hope

• 18.10-13 Wicked son will not live.
• Seven of the list appear 1, 3, 5, 7, 6, 2, 10.
• This case does not directly apply to the proverb
  in dispute (v. 2) since here a wicked child of a
  righteous parent is described in verse 10-13, and
  not vice versa as in the proverb. These verses do
  make clear, however, that the law of retribution
  can be applied only within one generation, and
  that the righteousness of a previous generation
  is no guarantee of ones righteousness, let alone
  a guarantee that one will be blessed. Klein,
  Ezekiel, 106
• 18.14-18 Righteous son who will live although
  father dies.
• Ten out of the first 12.
• Direct refutation of the proverb

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A. Context of Comfort and Hope

• 18.19-20 Objection to 18.5-18 is found in v
  19-20, but is not upheld
• If they had admitted the force of the prophets
  argument in vv. 5-18, of course, they would have
  had to draw a different conclusion Their own
  sins had led to their own teeth being set on
  edge, that is, to the punishment of the fall of
  Jerusalem. If intergenerational retribution is
  inoperative, the people would have to admit their
  blame for the current situation. Klein,
  Ezekiel, 106
• 18.21-32 The final appeal to repent.
• Question Does a persons wicked behavior limit
  the possibilities for repentance?
• Vv. 30-32 draw a conclusion based on 1) the
  preceding arguments (vv. 5-20, 21-29) 2)
  Ezekiels

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A. Context of Comfort and Hope

• understanding of the doctrine of retribution (I
  will judge you each according to his ways, v.
  30) and 3) Yahwehs lack of pleasure in the
  death of the wicked (vv. 23, 32) Turn away
  from you rebellions and no longer let them be a
  stumbling block that leads to iniquity. Because
  repentance is the goal of this chapter, the new
  heart and spirit are described as human
  achievements. Elsewhere, where the emphasis is
  more theocentric, the new heart and spirit are
  identified as gifts of Yahweh (11.19 36.26).
  Klein, Ezekiel, 108

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A. Context of Comfort and Hope

• 3. Historical Situation 33.21-22 (3.22-27)
• July 586 BCE Walls breached Jer 39.2 52.6-7
• August 586 BCE Temple destroyed 2 Kgs 25.8-9
  Jer 52.12
• January 5, 585 BCE Announcement came to Ezekiel
  33.21

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A. Context of Comfort and Hope

• 4. Two Attitude Problems
• a. Israel in Palestine 33.23-29
• 33.24 Quote of their attitude
• 33.24-26 Continued problem of sin
• 33.27-29 Judgment
• The three-fold scourge of sword, pestilence, and
  wild animals is traditional language drawn from
  ancient near eastern treaty curses. By this the
  Prophet meant to suggest to his hearers that the
  curses of the broken covenant would have to run
  their full course (cf. Deut 28.15-26 and Lev
  26.21-33). Though these acts of judgment they
  would have to acknowledge that God was true to
  his word and brought about what had been foretold
  through his prophets. Lemke, 172

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A. Context of Comfort and Hope

• b. Israel in Babylon 33.30-33
• The exiles were gathering to hear and see
  Ezekiel, but not to really acknowledge what God
  was telling them through the prophet.
• These Ezekiel reminded that neither he nor Gods
  word which he spoke were sent for their
  entertainment or superficial edification. The
  function of a prophet is to announce Gods
  purposes in history and, if possible, to induce
  people to take action which is commensurate with
  Gods announced purpose and intention. Lemke,
  172

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B. New Leadership 34 37.24-28 (17, 19)

• 1. Problems with Old Leaders Chapter 17
• Judah cedar
• King of Babylon first eagle
• Jerusalem Lebanon
• the King (Jehoiachin) and the princes of Judah
  top part of the cedar tree
• deportation to Babylon taking the top of the
  cedar to the land of Canaan
• royal seed (Zedekiah) with whom covenant is made
  planting the slip from the seed of the land
• lowly kingdom sprawling vine
• Pharaoh (Psammetichus II) second eagle
• dispatching of emissaries to Egypt twining the
  roots and
• branches toward second eagle

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B. New Leadership 34 37.24-28 (17, 19)

• 1. Problems with Old Leaders Chapter 19
• ...chapter 19 makes violence (oppression) and
  pride the cardinal faults of the monarchy rather
  than treaty infidelity (chap. 17) or
  self-aggrandizement and failure to protect the
  people (chap. 34). The lion imagery is not
  positive but thoroughly violent. The cubs take
  booty from their citizens and do not shrink from
  violent acts. In 11.6 Ezekiel made similar
  accusations against the house of Israel.... In
  chapter 22 he compared the kings to wild
  animals.... The punishment visited on the
  vine/mother and her bough (the dynasty and its
  last king) is an expression of wrath (v. 12),
  first of all the wrath of the nations and finally
  also the wrath of Yahweh (cf. 7.8-9 23.24-25).
  The dead of the people/dynasty confirms that
  there is not hope for the future of the monarchy
  beyond the judgment depended entirely on divine
  intervention (vv. 22-24). The dirge spoken about
  the kings in chapter 19, however, is not a taunt.
  It occurs in a context that affirms that Yahweh
  has not pleasure in the death of the wicked
  (18.32). Klein, Ezekiel, 120-121

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B. New Leadership 34 37.24-28 (17, 19)

• 2. God will become the Shepherd 34.1-31
• a. Judgment of former shepherds 34.1-10
• Characteristic for Ezekiel, the promise is
  preceded by an indictment of the bad shepherds of
  Israel. Lemke, 173
• 34.4 Rule harshly The Hebrew expression radah
  beparek to rule with harshness (v4) occurs in
  only two other passages of the OT. In Ex 1.13-14,
  it refers to the manner in which the Egyptians
  treated their Hebrew slaves and in the Holiness
  Code (Lev 17-26), it is forbidden to treat a
  fellow Israelite in such a manner (cf. Lev 25.43,
  46). Ezekiels polemic is thus quite pointed He
  accuses Israels rulers of doing what their own
  history should have taught them to abhor and what
  the law of Moses expressly forbade! Lemke, 173
• The end of v. 6 returns to the charge of
  searching out the lost in v. 4 and underlines the
  perverse neglect of royal responsibility. It also
  introduces a new key term of the oracle, vrd, the
  shepherds duty to put himself out and look for
  the missing sheep in order to bring them home. .
  . . Yahweh declares that he will take on the
  monarchy and - with a deft re-use of the keyword
  vrd - hold it liable for its negligence.
  Allen, WBC, 162

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B. New Leadership 34 37.24-28 (17, 19)

• b. Promise of God as Shepherd 34.11-16
• Yahweh declares that he is to take over his
  negligent agents responsibilities. Pride of
  place is given to the keyword vrd in a promise
  that the subjects future is assured by his
  determination to look for them. Yet, by now,
  their situation was dire indeed. They needed to
  be saved not only from royal rapacity (v10) but
  from the homelessness. Allen, WBC, 162
• c. Judgment of some former sheep/rams/male goats
  34.17-22
• Here the rams and male goats are accused in a
  long, indignant question of unfair exploitation
  by dominating the flock. Both nouns are used
  elsewhere as metaphors for human leadership (cf.
  e.g., 17.13 32.21 Isa 14.9 Zech 10.3). The
  setting is not divulged, but it is noteworthy
  that exile, if such it is, is now a minor theme
  (v. 21b) and that the emphasis on judgment in
  reminiscent of 20.35-38. These factors suggest
  that we are to envisage social exploitation not
  in pre-exilic Judah but among the exiles
  themselves, which Ezekiel endeavors to correct.
  Allen, WBC, 163

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B. New Leadership 34 37.24-28 (17, 19)

• d. My servant David 34.23-24
• Nasi Another designation which David receives
  in this passage is the title prince (Hebrew
  Nasi), which literally means exalted one....
  Ezekiel seems to have preferred this term to the
  more common word for king, which in his day may
  have had misleading or even negative
  connotations. For Ezekiel the nasi was the
  person who in the coming age of salvation would
  be the success or the former Davidic kings and
  who would exercise limited cultic and rulership
  functions as a subordinate of Yahweh God.
  Lemke, 174
• e. New Peace 34.25-31
• ...imagery of peace and blessing which the
  restored people of Israel would enjoy in the
  future. Lemke, 174

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B. New Leadership 34 37.24-28 (17, 19)

• 3. Leader of the re-unified Israel 37.24-28
• The first, formulaic promise announces that they
  the people Israel will dwell in the land
  generation after generation - they, their
  children and their grandchildren will live there.
  The land is also identified as the land given to
  my servant Jacob. Klein, Ezekiel, 152
• A second formula promises, And David my servant
  will be prince over them forever (v. 25b). David
  is the only person other than Jacob who is
  referred to in Ezekiel as my servant. Like
  Jacob, he too was the recipient of great promises
  (2 Sam 7), but his line came to a dreary end....
  Klein, Ezekiel, 152-153

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B. New Leadership 34 37.24-28 (17, 19)

• 3. Leader of the re-unified Israel 37.24-28
• . . . Ezekiel did not hold to the unbroken
  covenant with Israels ancestors as the basis for
  assurance during the Exile or shortly hereafter.
  Rather, like Jeremiah, he looked forward to a
  new, or renewed, covenant representing wholeness,
  peace, and plenty, a covenant of peace (cf.
  34.25-29). This is the third promise in this
  paragraph. This covenant relationship would be
  accompanied by a great population increase (v.
  26 cf. 36.10-11, 33, 37-38), and, of course, it
  would last forever. Klein, Ezekiel, 153
• In a fourth promise, Yahweh declares that he
  would put his own sanctuary (mqdsh) in the midst
  of the people in an attempt to sanctify it (qdsh)
  Israel (37.27).... The promise of the tabernacle
  in any case leads directly into the covenant
  formula I will be their God and they will be my
  people. Note the striking parallel in Leviticus
  26.11-12.... Klein, Ezekiel, 153

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C. Re-unified Israel 37.15-23

• The unity of the restored people of God is the
  theme of this action, signaled by the 11 uses of
  the word one. Klein, Ezekiel, 151
• The unity Yahweh promises is a gift, not a human
  achievement. The one king embodies this unity,
  and Yahweh makes provisions protecting against
  any dissolution of this unity. The prophet
  apparently held that involvement with idols,
  abominations, rebellions, and backslidings were
  the surest rout to schism. Klein, Ezekiel, 152

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D. Dynamics of Deliverance 35.1-36.15 36.22-38
37.1-14

• 1. Edom Destroyed and Israel re-established
  35.1-36.15 (38-39)
• History of relations with Edom Jacob and Esau
  (Gen 27-33) barred from crossing in the conquest
  (Num 20.14-21) Conquered by David, but
  continually revolted (2 Sam 8.13-14) After
  destruction of Jerusalem they exploited Israel
  (Obadiah Ps 137.1 Lam 4.21-22).

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2. Foundations to Re-establishment 36.16-38

• a. Sola Gracia 36.21, 22-23 The ground is none
  other than Gods own holy name.
• Ezekiel ...laid the sure foundation for the
  future hope of his people. For with human merit
  and capabilities found so radically wanting, and
  with Israels historical existence in exile so
  abysmally bleak, nothing short of Gods own
  character and overarching purposes in history
  could become the basis for renewed hope among
  Gods people. Whatever future Israel had would
  come from God and be the result of Gods
  sovereign freedom to act as God saw fit. Lemke,
  176-177

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2. Foundations to Re-establishment 36.16-38

• b. A New Heart 36.26-27 Jer 31.31-34
• Heart The heart and spirit in Hebrew psychology
  were the seat of human volition, thinking,
  feeling, and aspiration. Thus what Ezekiel in
  effect is promising is that God will affect a
  profound renewal and reorientation in the hearts
  and minds of his people, so that they will want
  to, and be empowered to, walk in Gods ways.
  Lemke, 177

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2. Foundations to Re-establishment 36.16-38

• b. A New Heart 36.26-27 Jer 31.31-34
• "In by far the greatest number of case it is
  intellectual, rational functions that are
  ascribed to the heart i.e., precisely what we
  ascribe to the head and, more exactly, to the
  brain." Wolff, Hans Walter, Anthropology of the
  Old Testament, 46

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2. Foundations to Re-establishment 36.16-38

• c. My Spirit 36.27 37.14
• ". . . r. is to a large extent the term for a
  natural power, the wind, this meaning being
  applicable in no less than 113 out of 389. . . .
  r. more often refers to God (136x) than to men
  (sic), animals and false gods (129x), that is to
  say about 35 of all instances, whereas n. is
  only applied to God in 3 of the cases in which
  it is used, and b. never applies to God at all. .
  . . a theo-anthropological term." Wolff, Hans
  Walter, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 32

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2. Foundations to Re-establishment 36.16-38

• c. My Spirit 36.27 37.14
• "Man as he is Empowered" "It should be
  remembered that r. stands twice as often for wind
  and for the divine vital power as for man's
  breath, feeling and will. Most of the texts that
  deal with the r. of God or man show God and man
  in a dynamic relationship. That a man as r. is
  living, desires the good acts as authorized being
  none of this proceeds from man himself."
  Wolff, Hans Walter, Anthropology of the Old
  Testament, 39

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3. Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones 37.1-14

• ...the prophet is transformed from being the
  spokesman of human impotence into the spokesman
  of divine omnipotence. The stress on the
  impossibility of any self-achieved change of the
  peoples situation is again a foil by means of
  which to affirm Gods unconditional will for his
  peoples life (chap. 18). The magnitude of the
  promise proclaimed is seen even more vividly when
  one recalls the repeated earlier message which
  announced death to a people whose stubborn
  confidence led them to deny that message. Now
  that the threatened death had become undeniable
  and presumably inescapable reality, and the
  hearers of the prophet were willing to confess
  that his earlier words had been fully validated,
  the prophet proclaims life where it has become
  clear that the life of the one called by God is
  now definitely at an end. Hals, FOTL Ezekiel,
  271

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3. Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones 37.1-14

• spirit It occurs no fewer than ten times in
  these fourteen verses, with varying nuances which
  embrace virtually the whole gamut of meanings
  which the term has in the Hebrew Bible.
• In verse 1, ruah refers to the spirit of the Lord
  as the source of visionary rapture and prophetic
  inspiration.
• The term ruah may also denote the life-giving
  breath or spirit coming from God, which creates
  living beings out of inanimate matter (cf. v 5,
  6, 8, 9, 10 and cf. Gen 2.4b-7 or Ps 104.29-30).
• In verse 9, the term ruah occurs in the plural
  and refers to the four winds of heaven.
• Finally, in verse 11 a suffixed form of ruah
  clearly refers to Yahwehs spirit as the ultimate
  source of life in the full range of both its
  physical as well as its spiritual connotations.
  That these dimensions should never be separated
  too far, as religious people are sometimes
  tempted to do, is perhaps another lesson of which
  Ezekiels vision would remind us. Lemke, 179

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E. Theology of Restoration in Ezekiel

• 1. Message of Judgment and deliverance are
  connected. Note this is the same as that of the
  Doctrine of Justification in Romans
• 2. God is motivated by the honor for His own
  Name.
• 3. There is responsibility in the restoration