In my first post on Ezekiel I set forth the principles that guide my reading of the book. I concluded with, “I’m considering making two more posts on Ezekiel, using two separate chapters to demonstrate how I read them. Then you can see how this works for me and decide whether I’m on a good road or completely derailed!”
I chose chapters 2 and 19. How did I choose them? I cast lots for them! My last post was on chapter 2. This time I will look at chapter 19.
Here is my disclaimer: I’m not attempting to provide a commentary on the chapters. No, just a brief overview demonstrating how I read / understand them, applying the principles set forth in that original post.
Ezekiel 19
I will admit right at the beginning, chapter 19 is probably one of the reasons people have difficulties with the Old Testament! I mean, what is he talking about?? First the chapter itself:
1 Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
2 And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.
3 And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.
4 The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.
5 Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.
6 And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.
7 And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.
8 Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.
9 And they put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.
10 Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.
11 And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.
12 But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.
13 And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.
14 And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule.
This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.
Clearly, this is not to be taken literally. He is not really talking about lions and vines. So, are we free to make of this anything we want? You know, based on the behavior of lions, develop some incredible sounding spiritual truths? Or, following the other image, pursue similar things using the vine? No. He was saying something specific and the hearers knew what it was. And as you read the chapter you can see that this is about their captivity in Babylon and the attempt by some of the Jewish leaders to find help from Egypt. In other words, even though it is not to be understood literally, he was saying something definite and specific about and to the Jews of his day.
I freely admit, if I was teaching through Ezekiel, I would not spend much time on 19.
So, is there any personal and spiritual application from this chapter?
How about:
† This is one reason why people stopped casting lots to make decisions!
† Man, Chapter 18 sure was good!
And on a more serious note,
† Be sure your sin will find you out. This reinforces an idea that runs all through Ezekiel: They sinned and now is the time for them to face the judgment of God. And there is no escaping the judgment / chastisement / discipline of God.
This is how the grammatical / historical hermeneutic works for me. Not everything is to be taken literally and the context makes it plain just how you are to take it. As you can see, I’m fairly simple and I don’t believe in developing what I consider to be hyper-spiritual thoughts from the images we find here. And I am firmly convinced that there is direct application to my life from nearly every chapter in Ezekiel.
Thus ends my posts on Ezekiel. Well, planned posts. I am only at chapter 20 of some 48 chapters and there is a lot of good stuff here!
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