God Gives Second Chances (Ezekiel 18:1-32) Series

Today, we have the privilege of working through a chapter of the Bible that I've been unsettled about, and wrestled with off and on, and changed my mind back and forth, for over 20 years. Ezekiel 18. If you're not familiar with the passage, that's fabulous. That's great. If you are, today's sermon is going to feel disorienting, and confusing, because whatever it is that you've read, and think is right about the passage, is going to get flipped on to its head. I'm going to spin the passage around, and challenge everything. So if that's you, just a heads up that today will be too much. You'll probably need a copy of my manuscript, a couple pots of coffee, and a few readings, before it makes sense. That, at least, was my experience, when I found myself slowly being convinced by one of my commentators who saw everything from a very different perspective (Margaret Odell, Ezekiel).

Ezekiel 18 is a confusing chapter, but I think there are three keys to getting it right.

(1) Key #1: The Historical Context

The first, is to understand the historical context to the chapter. It's hard, because we haven't read anything earlier than this in the book, but the thing we really have to understand, is that there are two groups of people in view in this chapter. The first group, which is the one Ezekiel prophesies to, is a group of exiles who live in Babylon (Ezekiel 1:1). Jerusalem, at the beginning of the book, hasn't yet fallen. But much of Israel has been captured by Babylon, and there have been waves of prisoners captured in Israel, who have been scattered throughout the Babylonian empire. The second group, which is mentioned at least a couple times, is the group of people who have been "left behind," and still live in Jerusalem. I think we should read both passages where we see these two groups.

Let's turn first to Ezekiel 11:14-21:

14 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 15 Mortal, your kinsfolk, your own kin, your fellow exiles,[a] the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, “Stay far from the LORD; to us this land is given for a possession.” 16 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I removed them far away among the nations and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a little while[b] in the countries where they have gone. 17 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord GOD: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. 18 When they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. 19 I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them;[c] I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations,[d] I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, says the Lord GOD.

So the people still living in Jerusalem/Judah, who weren't captured and sent into exile, are arguing that the whole land now belongs to them. The exiles abandoned God, and so God punished them by sending them into exile. God is now only with them, and not the exiles. The land now belongs to them, and not the exiles. There's been a transfer of ownership. Imagine a small rural church, made up of basically farmers, where someone comes in, and takes everyone in the front half of the sanctuary, and those people are just gone for like 10 years. At what point, do the people who are left start looking around and saying things like, "The building now belongs to us. God is with us." And God responds to this by giving his people words of comfort: (1) "I am your sanctuary away from home" (v. 16), and (2) I will gather you, and bring you home, and give you your land a second time" (v. 17).

We find this same idea in Ezekiel 33:21-29, after the city of Jerusalem fell. NRSV updated no reason:

21 In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, someone who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has fallen.” 22 Now the hand of the LORD had been upon me the evening before the fugitive came, and he opened my mouth when the fugitive came in the morning, so my mouth was opened, and I was no longer unable to speak.