Ezekiel 11: 1 – 25
‘Deep stew’ Part 1
“ 1 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the East Gate of the LORD’s house, which faces eastward; and there at the door of the gate were twenty-five men, among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. 2 And He said to me: “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and give wicked counsel in this city, 3 who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses; this city is the caldron, and we are the meat.’ 4 Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man!”5 Then the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said to me, “Speak! ‘Thus says the LORD: “Thus you have said, O house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind. 6 You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain.” 7 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Your slain whom you have laid in its midst, they are the meat, and this city is the caldron; but I shall bring you out of the midst of it. 8 You have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you,” says the Lord GOD.
Have you ever been in love with someone who walked away from you? If you ever had this experience then you also know how hard it is to accept this rejection. To witness daily the cold words and treatment from this person whom you love seems unbelievable. Our God Is Love! He wants to give us His Love and be loved in return. How hard is that? Yet, as you well know, He extends His Love to His creation and what does He get back? – Rejection, Blasphemy, Avoidance, and Rebellion. How long do you continue to reach out to anyone whose feelings are like these towards you? Sooner or later you accept the fact that you are not wanted and you go your way.
Our Holy God Yahweh for many years petitioned His people Israel to turn from seeking other gods to express their love and return to Him, the ‘Only’ True and Living God. Yet, they would not respond to His endless requests. Sadly, yet surely in stages He has left His House on earth, which bore His Name and Presence. We now will see how He now reluctantly went away from His city Jerusalem for good.
“ 1 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the East Gate of the LORD’s house, which faces eastward; and there at the door of the gate were twenty-five men, among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.”
As the Lord has departed from the Temple, the Holy Spirit has taken Ezekiel in the like manner and moved him to the east gate. Here Ezekiel sees twenty-five men. There is something very familiar here.
In chapter 8 Ezekiel saw 25 corrupt priests in the Temple. Now he sees 25 corrupt civic leaders. How come there are 25 again? Is it just a coincidence? The repetition of a number is significant. Five is the number of covenant. Five squared represents the whole covenant community. Here we see evil public and political leaders of the Jews. Judicial, military, and royal men are in this category.
The twenty-five men included two princes of the people – Jaazaniah and Pelatiah. It is quite astonishing to realize that we have a different Jaazzaniah introduced. The previous Jaazaniah was the son of Shaphen that was mentioned in chapter 8. This guy here with the same name is the son of Azzur. I guess you do not want to name any of your sons with this guy’s name, huh? This is in the same ugly list of names that include Lucifer, Judas, Haman, and Nabal.
These men were probably all young inexperienced men. Most of the mature experienced leaders were taken in the first and second deportations.
1 Timothy 5: 22 reports this, “22 Do not lay hands on anyone hastily, nor share in other people’s sins; keep yourself pure.”
It is not good to lay hands [promote] a novice in the faith to a position of leadership. Pride will get the best of them, then lookout. The same rule also applies to secular leadership in my opinion.
Jeremiah 26: 10.,“10 When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the LORD and sat down in the entry of the New Gate of the LORD’s house.”
The gate was a place where all jurisdictions took place. The gate was usually a large area. Usually walled in cities become jammed with houses and therefore open space turned out to be at the entrances of the cities.
“2 And He said to me: “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and give wicked counsel in this city, 3 who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses; this city is the caldron, and we are the meat.’ “
The Jews were going down hill morally. We should not be surprised when we discover what the names of the two listed men are. Jaazaniah means ‘God hears’. Petaliah’s name means ‘The one delivered by the Lord’. Their actions prove just the opposite of what their positive names meant.
In the slaughter of the last two deportations, apparently, boys were born whose mom’s appreciated God sparing their sons. They therefore in appreciation gave them these names.
We read in verse 2 that these men had been giving wicked counsel even to the point of scheming evil plans and actions against their own people.
Micah 2: 1 – 2, “1 Woe to those who devise iniquity, and work out evil on their beds! At morning light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2 They covet fields and take them by violence, also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.”
Even with total destruction looming in the near horizon these men coveted their neighbors fields and houses and schemed to take them away from their rightful owners. Jeremiah 22: 13 informs us of this type of rotten treatment of fellow countrymen, 13 “ Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor’s service without wages and gives him nothing for his work,”
The leaders were using their positions to enrich themselves. Look at our country and our congressmen. Every one of them is now a millionaire.
The specific evil counsel is even listed – ‘The time is not near to build houses.’ There are a few ways to look at this statement. Since it has been pronounced by our God that these counselors were evil. We therefore know that they did not care for the people who looked to them for helpful advice. They may have been promoting this advice against building houses so the homes that were left could derive higher rates, you know – supply and demand. I have seen in the city of Philadelphia, slumlords keep a hold of lousy buildings in hopes to gain a future profit from a land developer.
It was not time to build houses because of the needed training for war. The leaders in order to advance their own power, advancement, and status were proclaiming rebellion and resistance to the Babylonian control. They had sent delegates to Egypt to seek military aide.
This illustration then fits in well with the previous statement, ‘the city is the cauldron and we are the flesh.’ Walls surrounded Jerusalem. The Kidron Valley was hundreds of feet below and provided a natural defense against attack. Here the false leaders were giving out the idea that all the Jews in the city were safe and secure behind the walls as meat is safe in a pot.
It is interesting to me to see a truth within their lies. They were over confident. Pride had blinded them to see the real facts. Their statement would come true as a prophecy but not as they foresaw. The likened Jerusalem to a protective caldron that kept them [the meat] out of the fire of judgment. They did not realize that they indeed were the flesh being cooked up as a delicious meal for the Babylonians.
Jeremiah 21: 8 – 10 reports how God described the proper actions in which to survive the Babylonian assault, 8 “Now you shall say to this people, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him. 10 For I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for good,” says the LORD. “It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.”’
The city had been successfully attacked by the Babylonian army twice before. Now in their blindness and arrogance the Israelites think that they can turn away from God and get the help they need from their former slave masters – the Egyptians.
There is a popular statement, ‘out with the old, in with the new.’ The old leaders had been killed off or taken into captivity that opened the door for these young superstars. Those who considered themselves ‘chosen’ were in for a rude awakening. God knows exactly who and what we are. If we humbly commit our ways to Him then He will direct our lives.
1 Corinthians 4: 4 – 5 says, “4 For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.”
2 Corinthians 4 reports great advice to us also, “ 1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you. 13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,”we also believe and therefore speak, 14 knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Everything is about God from the beginning to the end. We are just blips in the whole scheme of things. Yet, our God loves us and cares about us. Wow! What a Great God!
Not to beat this verse to death, but I feel this one last interpretation should at least be considered. Reviewing this statement in Hebrew, we see the verse read as, ‘who say, have not the houses been newly built?’ or ‘Is is not now time to build houses?’ Both ideas declare that the people had nothing to worry about. They could invest in a house and settle down for a long life of peace and prosperity.
Back to the book of Ezekiel, verses 4 and 5,
“4 Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man!”5 Then the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said to me, “Speak! ‘Thus says the LORD: “Thus you have said, O house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind.”
As we review the book of Ezekiel, I stand in awe of the patience of our Holy God Yahweh. How much garbage thrown in your face can you stand? Can you see the Love of our Great God here in putting up with this continued mockery? Note, the command to prophecy is given twice. When you see a statement listed twice it is meant to grab the readers attention that a major significant point is being made. ‘Son of Man’ which means ‘human one’ appears 90 times in the book of Ezekiel. It emphasizes Ezekiel’s humanity in his role as spokesperson for our Holy Yahweh. He is in good company. Daniel is called this and refers to the coming Messiah. Our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled this title as the Messiah.
Our God has emotions. You can almost hear His heart as He speaks to Ezekiel. Paraphrasing this verse as, ‘Tell them, tell them, they are wrong in everything they think, say, and do.’ They Almighty God sees all and knows all – even their thoughts and everything they have tried to hide. We need to stop and check ourselves. Does He not know everything about us also? Instead of worrying or being concerned on what people think about us, we need to get our priorities right and be concerned about what God thinks about us. Are we walking the walk or just talking the talk? Are we trying to hide our thoughts, words, and actions from Him? That is a joke to do such things. Secret sins are never secret from God. The only safe healing effective way to deal with sins is to confess them and seek God’s help in overcoming future sins.
Psalm 139: 1 – 6 informs us as to the wonder of God’s thinking about us, “1 O LORD, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. 3 You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. 5 You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.”
Isaiah 29: 15 also says, “15 Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the LORD, and their works are in the dark; They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”
Hebrews 4: 13 lastly reports, “13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
Ezekiel chapter 11 verses 6 through 8 says this,
“6 You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain.” 7 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Your slain whom you have laid in its midst, they are the meat, and this city is the caldron; but I shall bring you out of the midst of it. 8 You have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you,” says the Lord GOD.”
Let me ask you this question. Be honest. Have you ever thought after you have read a passage in the Old Testament, where God instructed the Israelites to wipe out and destroy every man, woman, child, and even the animals, that there is something cruel in those instructions? The apostle Paul puts it well into words on answering critics of God as he penned these comments in Romans 9.
“14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?”
God’s instructions are not difficult. To put it simply He says that if we obey Him then we will be blessed, if we do not obey then we suffer the consequences. Although wordy, our God’s instructions to the Israelites are straightforward.
Deuteronomy 7 reports, 1 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. 3 Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. 5 But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.6 “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. 7 The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8 but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; 10 and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. 11 Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them. 12 “Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. 13 And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. 16 Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. 17 “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’— 18 you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: 19 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20 Moreover the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. 21 You shall not be terrified of them; for the LORD your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. 22 And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. 23 But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. 24 And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; no one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. 25 You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. 26 Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.”
Deuteronomy 8 completes these directions,
1 “Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you. 6“Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. 11 “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end— 17 then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ 18 “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.”
If man is left alone to himself because of his sinful nature he will ultimately destroy himself and every living thing along with him. It is the mercy of God that controls evil from running rampant. Look at all the evil the Nazi’s caused the world with the Third Reich. They claimed that it would last for a thousand years. It amazes me that all the damage they did was in a span of only twelve [12] years. Just think of the horror they could have caused if the Lord allowed them more time to do their evil.
The reason behind our Lord’s permission to the Babylonian army to destroy the people of Jerusalem was because evil had grown out of control and the only remedy was to destroy and then rebuild.
Everything was evil. It was animalistic behavior. Only the strong survived. Murder was a daily routine. The powerful ruthlessly killed off anyone that upset them. It was a sport to brutally execute any adversary whether real or imagined.
The young leaders were talking tough. They were bragging that the walls of Jerusalem would protect them from any Babylonian attack. Yet the Lord speaking through Ezekiel said that these murderers would ‘be brought out of Jerusalem and suffer the fate they had brought on others.’
You will note in this section of scripture the usage of the term ‘Lord Yahweh’. Besides being a title bestowed on people from England, what is a Lord? A ‘Lord’ is a person who is in charge. He rules over a group of peasants. He protects them and they live on his land. When we see the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we give Him this title because, He is our Master or Lord, His Name is Jesus, and He Is the Christ, God the Father’s Anointed One – The Messiah.
The Jews in Jerusalem were not just ignoring their Lord Yahweh, they were rebelling against the One Who was their true Lord Who was over them. Our Lord Jesus Christ explained this well in Mark chapter 12,
“1 Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 2 Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. 5 And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. 6 Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.9 “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘ The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. 11 This was the LORD’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
The vineyard is the land of Israel. When this evil is done in the Lord’s land, the evil ones are cast out and destroyed.
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