“My soul was this day, at turns, sweetly set on God: I longed to be with him, that I might behold his glory. I felt sweetly disposed to commit all to him, even my dearest friends, my clearest flock, my absent brother, and all my concerns for time and eternity. O that his kingdom might come in the world; that they might all love and glorify him for what he is in himself; and that the blessed Redeemer might ‘see the travail of his soul, and be satisfied!’ O come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Amen.”1
Those were the last words David Brainerd ever wrote in his journal. He would die and go on to be with the Lord only one week later. I think it’s pretty obvious that these are the words of a man who knew God and loved God. You don’t write things like you long to be with God and that others might know him and glorify him for who he is in himself without knowing and loving God.
And I would dare say that all of us in this room would like for that to be our hearts upon the time of our death. Though it’s easy to consume ourselves a number of things in this world like our achievements, prestige, or bank accounts, I’m fairly certain that in the final moments of our lives, we’d rather the thoughts of our hearts not be, “Wow, I sure did some amazing things, really made myself known, and made some pretty good money doing it.” In the end, those things don’t matter do they? It doesn’t matter how impressed people are with our accomplishments or intelligence. It doesn’t matter whether everyone knows our name or will even talk about us when we’re gone. What I think we all would say we want for ourselves in that moment is to have a heart that would say the kinds of things Brainerd wrote in his final journal entry.
Now, some of us may be conditioned to think that being able to say we know God and love God is pretty elementary. Perhaps we should move on in our lives to better things and more mature thinking. The problem with that thought process, however, is that Scriptures tell us that loving God is the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:47) and that eternal life is found in knowing “the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom [he has] sent” (John 17:3).
In light of that, then, it is good for each of us to be asked the question, “Do you know God, and do you love him?” I think Ezekiel 25-32 is written to aid us in our knowledge of and love for God. Reading these chapters gives us insight into who God is, what is his character, and what his heart is like toward his people. So, this morning, I want us to look through these chapters and see what they show us about our God in order that we might know him and love him more.
What’s going on in this section of Ezekiel? Well, you’ll remember that in Ezekiel 24 the Lord told Ezekiel that the siege of Jerusalem by Babylon had begun. This news didn’t come to Ezekiel via a messenger or even a man. The Lord himself gives this news to Ezekiel, and he tells him to write down this very day as evidence that the Lord had told him accurate information. But the Lord also told him that one day a fugitive from Jerusalem would make it to Babylon to tell Ezekiel and the exiles that Jerusalem has been destroyed, and on that day, Ezekiel’s mouth would be opened.
Now, having read that news, you’re ready for that to happen in chapter 25, but it doesn’t. In fact, this fugitive doesn’t make it to Ezekiel until chapter 33. And from the point that the fugitive arrives until the end of the book, Ezekiel’s message changes to one (mainly) of hope and restoration. But what then happens in these chapters in between the Lord’s declaration that the fugitive is coming and the time he actually arrives? Well, chapters 25-32 are filled with Ezekiel proclaiming the Lord’s judgment to the nations surrounding Jerusalem. It’s actually very systematically constructed. There are seven nations in total that are addressed, and they are addressed geographically.
It’s as if Ezekiel stood in Jerusalem, looked directly east, started addressing that nation, and then worked clockwise, around Jerusalem, addressing all the nations that were surrounding the city. Therefore, he addresses the nations of Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt. Egypt is saved for last and given the most room because they had historically been a major enemy of the Lord’s people and had become a symbol of the enemy of God’s people. Moreover, in the case of Tyre and Egypt, the cities are judged, there is a lament over them, and then their kings are spoken against and lamented over as well. That’s how these chapters set up. So, what do they teach us about God? Well, I want to start broadly and then get more directed and personal. So, first, I want to note that:
As Ezekiel prophesies against each of these nations, he tells them that God is about to judge them. So, for example, he tells the Ammonites in 25:4, “Behold, I am handing you over to the people of the East for a possession.” Similarly, he says of Moab in 25:10-11, “I will give it along with the Ammonites to the people of the East as a possession, that the Ammonites may be remembered no more among the nations, and I will execute judgments upon Moab.”
Now, these are historical realities. The Bible isn’t fictional narrative. Daniel Block notes that these two countries were overrun by people from the East known as the Qedemites, and then eventually by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.2 This was God’s doing.
Let me give you one other example. In 26:3, the Lord says he is going to bring many nations against Tyre, saying, “Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.” The first of these is going to be the Babylonians. Thus the Lord says in 26:7-8, “Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, and with horsemen, and a host of soldiers. He will kill with the sword your daughters on the mainland. He will set up a siege wall against you and throw up a mound against you, and raise a roof of shields against you.”
Well, you know what the history books tell us happened? Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonians armies went after Tyre. Now, Tyre was a difficult city to lay siege to because much of the city was an island. So, you could wreak havoc on part that wasn’t on the island, but setting up a siege against the island took some hard work. But the Babylonian armies sure tried. In fact, they set up siege against Tyre for thirteen years. For thirteen years the people of Tyre suffered and hung on against the Babylonians. Tyre wasn’t completely conquered until Alexander the Great’s armies actually built a bridge out to the island, laid siege, and destroyed the city. Thus, many nations came against Tyre.
But concerning the Babylonians laying siege to the city for thirteen years, we are told that the Babylonians armies eventually grew bored and tired, and wanting loot, turned their attention to Egypt, went after them, and took their possessions as bounty. After all, if you’ve worked thirteen years to bring destruction to a people, you deserve a reward. That was how the soldiers saw Egypt.
But the Babylonian armies didn’t just go after Egypt because they grew weary and wanted a bounty for their efforts against Tyre. They went after Egypt because God gave them Egypt as bounty for their efforts against Tyre. Thus, we read in 29:17-20, “In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: ‘Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare, yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against her. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, declares the Lord GOD.’”
Do you see? Ezekiel is giving us a sneak peek into God’s dealings with the affairs of history. He is directing them, calling the shots, and controlling the events. Our God is not some local deity who only was able to control the affairs of Israel. The whole earth is his.
And it’s important for us to see this because you need to know the might of God if you’re ever going to be comforted by God’s care for you. If God cares for us but can’t control the affairs of history, then it is no better than me saying to some missionary in Iran, “Hey, buddy, I’m thinking of you.” Well, good. Too bad my thoughts and care are powerless. But God is not powerless. He is in control of the affairs of the world throughout all of time.
But I want us to see something else about God as well. We also see that:
Now, in order for us to feel the weight of this reality, think back to the reason God gives for not totally destroying his people time and time again. Look back to Ezekiel 20:13b-14 and 17, for example. The Lord had delivered his people out of the hands of the Egyptians, brought them into the wilderness, and they had engaged in idolatry. And the Lord was set to wipe them out, making an end of the nation apart from Moses. Now, God speaks of his thoughts in this matter in these verses in Ezekiel 20, saying, “Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to make a full end of them.” Again, so why didn’t he? He continues, “But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. . . . Nevertheless, my eye spared them, and I did not destroy them or make a full end of them in the wilderness.”
Do you see the logic there? All of the surrounding nations were watching Israel. God had led them out triumphantly from the grips of the might nation of Egypt. But if he had destroyed them in the wilderness, then the nations would have said, “Well, I guess their God wasn’t able to sustain them in the wilderness” or “I guess their God wasn’t more of a treasure than the gods that they knew in Egypt, so they had to turn to those making idols in the wilderness until their God destroyed them.” Do you see how destroying the people would be God risking profaning his name?
Now, fast-forward to the destruction of Jerusalem at the hand of the Babylonians. This, as we have seen for twenty-four chapters, was God’s judgment against his people. But you know what it led to? It led to the surrounding nations profaning the name of Israel’s God, celebrating his apparent weakness and inability to defend his people against the mighty Babylonians. It led to people celebrating Israel’s demise and mocking them. This is why God had to step in and make sure these nations understood that this wasn’t about him being weak or unable to do something. He’d prove it by destroying the surrounding nations.
Thus, we read in 25:3-4, “Say to the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God, Because you said, ‘Aha!’ over my sanctuary when it was profaned, and over the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and over the house of Judah when they went into exile, therefore behold, I am handing you over to the people of the East for a possession . . .” The Ammonites had seen the temple destroyed and Jerusalem’s destruction, and had said, “Aha! Israel’s God is weak, unable to defend his home and his people.” So, God vindicates his name and might before the Ammonites by destroying them.
Similarly, the Lord pronounces judgment and destruction coming to Moab. Why? We read, “Thus says the Lord God: Because Moab and Seir said, ‘Behold, the house of Judah is like all the other nations’ . . .” (25:8). The Moabites thought that the God of Israel was no greater than the other nations, able to be defeated just like the other nations. But God wants them to know that this was not because someone got the upper-hand on God. This was his action, and he would show it by destroying the Moabites.
And we see this go on in each case. And on each occasion, we have a similar declaration repeated – “Then they will know that I am the Lord.” We see it in 25:7; 25:11, 25:14 [which is his way of saying the same thing]; 25:17; 26:6; 28:23; 29:21; 30:19; 30:26; and 32:15. He will not allow these nations to profane his name, acting like our God is something less than the Almighty God of the whole world.
In each case, note that the nation is thinking much of themselves and little of God. For example, Tyre was a glorious city. Sitting out in the seas, a harbor for trade all over the world, and an economic bastion for the world. In fact, it is seen as such a place of economic security for the world, that the Lord declares that the rest of the world will be scared of their economic security slipping away. We read in 26:15-18, “Thus says the Lord GOD to Tyre: Will not the coastlands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when slaughter is made in your midst? Then all the princes of the sea will step down from their thrones and remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground and tremble every moment and be appalled at you. And they will raise a lamentation over you and say to you, ‘How you have perished, you who were inhabited from the seas, O city renowned, who was mighty on the sea; she and her inhabitants imposed their terror on all her inhabitants! Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your fall, and the coastlands that are on the sea are dismayed at your passing.’”
But the problem was not that Tyre was a city of greatness with great prosperity. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. The problem was that the city, its inhabitants, and its king thought that they were responsible for their prosperity.
In 27:3, for example, the Lord notes, “O Tyre, you have said, ‘I am perfect in beauty.’” And then the Lord goes on to show that it was a beautiful city. He speaks of Tyre as a beautiful ship in the seas, but then he notes that it is a ship that will be destroyed so that the kings of the earth who are enriched by this great city will bristle with horror. And why? Because it was a beautiful city? No. Because of its pride.
This is seen more clearly when the Lord deals with Tyre’s king. He notes in chapter 28, “Because your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seas,’ yet you are but a man, and no god, though you make your heart like the heart of a god (v.2). . . . Because you make your heart like the heart of a god, therefore, behold I will bring foreigners upon you, the most ruthless of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendor (vv. 6b-7). . . . Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who kill you, though you are but a man, and no god, in the hands of those who slay you? (v. 9).”
And again, the problem is not his wisdom, glory, and beauty. He had all of this. In fact, in 28:11-19, the Lord speaks of the king of Tyre is such glorious words that some have (mistakenly, I think) thought this is speaking of Satan’s fall from glory. And you can see why. He speaks of him being “perfect in beauty” and notes that he was “in Eden, the garden of God.” He mentions that he was anointed a guardian cherub, placed by God on the holy mountain until unrighteousness was found in him, until pride corrupted his wisdom and beauty and caused the Lord to cast him down.
But this is not speaking of Satan. The Lord doesn’t mean the king of Tyre was literally in Eden any more than he means that Tyre is literally a ship sailing the seas. He’s saying, rather, that he was put by God in the place of paradise, like the garden of Eden. He was giving glory, beauty, and wisdom, like an anointed cherub. The problem is that he didn’t recognize that God had put him there and that God had given him that wisdom, beauty, and glory. And now the Lord had to cast him down.
Similarly, with Egypt and the Pharaoh, the Lord compares the Pharaoh to the grandest tree in Eden. He says in 31:18, “Whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? [and the answer is to be, there is none as glorious as you, yet …] You shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below. You shall lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword.” But why? It is because he thought much of himself and did not honor God. His pride caused the Lord to cast him down. Thus, we read in 29:3-5, “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams, that says, ‘My Nile is my own; I made it for myself.’ [See his wrongful pride. Thus, the Lord will respond] I will put hooks in your jaws, and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales, and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams, with all the fish of your streams that stick to your scales. And I will cast you out into the wilderness. . . .”
Similarly, in 32:2-4, “You consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas; you burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers. Thus says the Lord God: I will throw my net over you with a host of many peoples, and they will haul you up in my dragnet. And I will cast you on the ground. . . .”
You see, in both cases, God’s name is being profaned. Either the nations are delighting that Israel is destroyed, thinking God was unable to defend her or they are acting like the gifts of God came from their own hands and exalting themselves against the Lord God. And in both cases, God is exercising judgment to vindicate his name.
This is our God. And this is good for us to remember. There are times, aren’t there, when you think, “God, why won’t you vindicate your name?” Perhaps you’ve exhorted someone against a path of sin, then they go down that path, and they prosper. Their actions are a mockery of God’s Word, profaning his name, and it seems that he is silent. Well, God will not be mocked forever. He will not allow his name to be ultimately profaned. So, we don’t have to worry whether God will honor his truth and his name, but we can rest in that he most certainly will.
But there’s also a warning for us, isn’t there? I don’t know how many of us might think that God is weak, like many of the nations did in light of Israel’s destruction. But we are prone to show the same kind of pride that the kings of Tyre and Egypt did, aren’t we? It is possible for us to look around and think, “Look what I’ve done.” Maybe we delight in our intelligence, accomplishments, fame, or riches, as if it’s come from our own hand. If we put ourselves in that place, however, God will cast us down. He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So work hard to cultivate an attitude of humility and thankfulness.
But I also want to note something else about God vindicating his name through this judgment of the nations. There is a message of hope for the nations here, isn’t there? Again and again, the Lord works so that the nations of the earth will know that he is the Lord. He wants the nations to recognize who he is and bow the knee to him. And though they face judgment, there will be many who survive and continue to populate those portions of the earth. And God is determined to be known among them to this day.
In fact, Isaiah tells us that one day the Lord is going to gather his people through faith in Jesus Christ from all over the earth. And it won’t just be those Israelites who believe in Christ who will be saved, but rather, Isaiah speaks of a day in Isaiah 19:24-25 when the Lord will say, “Blessed by Egypt, my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” Then in Isaiah 49:6, the Lord says to his servant, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
You see, as we go as ambassadors for Christ to the ends of the earth, we warn every man about the coming judgment of God who will vindicate his name through the judgment of his enemies. But we also proclaim the good news that they can be reconciled to God through faith in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. And if they do, their lives can honor God in their proclaiming, the Lord is king of this place. How great is our God!
But there is one final thing I want us to see. We’ve seen that the Lord is sovereign over the affairs of history and will vindicate his name through the judgment of his enemies. But we also see that:
Interestingly, right in the middle of these chapters, there is a section of text that talks about God’s heart in judging his enemies. We read in Ezekiel 28:24-26, “And for the house of Israel there shall be no more a brier to prick or a thorn to hurt them among all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD. Thus says the Lord GOD: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they shall dwell in their own land that I gave to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell securely in it, and they shall build houses and plant vineyards. They shall dwell securely, when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God.”
God is judging Israel’s neighbors because he has a plan to restore his people. When Israel is gathered back in the land, he says, “You’ll be able to dwell in it securely,” without fear of these neighboring nations. You see, God is judging his enemies as a means to bringing blessing and salvation to his people. He is the defender, protector, and vindicator of his people.
Judgment is always the backdrop to salvation. The first promise of salvation in the Bible after the fall is a threat to the serpent that his head will be crushed. I’ve mentioned before that Hannah’s prayer, recognizing that God is bringing salvation to his people when she realizes she is pregnant with Samuel, is filled with images of warfare. She begins, “My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation,” and then she goes on to deride the enemies of God, speaking of them being broken to pieces, silenced before God, and cast down (1 Samuel 2:1-11). And even in the end, isn’t it the defeat of death – the last enemy – for which we eagerly wait in hope? Why? Why is the defeat of death so exciting for us? It is because against the backdrop of death’s destruction will shine the resurrection to eternal life.
Therefore, here, God is showing that he is intent on bringing salvation to his people, and it will shine against the backdrop of the judgment of his enemies. This is why, I think Ezekiel 25-32 is placed right before the messages of hope, salvation, and restoration in Ezekiel 33-48.
But, God is not just a protector, defender, and vindicator of his people 2,500 years ago. He is the protector, defender, and vindicator of his people today. He is our protector, defender, and vindicator. God fights for us. He fights for you. God is for us, as the text from Romans 8 that was read earlier tells us.
Therefore, hold onto this through the trials and difficulty of obedience. I know your obedience is hard. I know that it may be harder because some don’t understand and may even attack you. I know it is hard because you feel like no one is standing with you to vindicate you, uphold you, and protect you. But God is there. And it doesn’t mean that we will never walk through darkness.
On that Friday, as Jesus hanged on that cross outside of the city, many mocked and derided him. He suffered and cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” And I’d guess that few thought God did anything that day to vindicate his Son. But the author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was heard when he cried out to his Father. What is the evidence he was heard? The evidence is that on the third day, God raised up his Son from the dead, vindicating him before all men. It became clear on that Sunday morning that every judgment cast against him on that Friday had been wrong. These men might have mocked for a while, but God overturned their judgment in one act, raising him from the dead, and showing him to be both Lord and Christ.
And for us, our ultimate salvation and vindication will come in the same way. You may walk through the valley of the shadow of death in obedience today. And though he hears your prayers, you may feel like God is distant and not coming to your aid. But trust him, cry out to him, and press on in obedience, knowing one day your salvation and vindication will be known to you and all others as the Son descends from the clouds and cries for his church to rise from their graves. And we will. And the world will know that our God is the ultimate protector, defender, and vindicator of his people. May that day come quickly, and may we be found growing in our knowledge of and love for our great God as we await that day! Amen.