TOTC Ezekiel by John B. Taylor

Author:John B. Taylor
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: More Translations, Commentaries, Judaism, Reference, Encyclopedias & Subject Guides, Old Testament, Criticism & Interpretation, Bible Study, Bible Study & Reference, Old Testament Study, Religion, Sacred Writings, Bibles, Religious Studies & Reference, Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), Religion & Spirituality, Christian Books & Bibles
ISBN: 9781783592555
Publisher: IVP
Published: 2009-04-16T22:00:00+00:00

k. A review of Israel’s past history and of God’s future plans for her (20:1–44)

Unlike the illustration of the foundling child (chapter 16) and the parable of Oholah and Oholibah (chapter 23), we have here a description of Israel’s past history of continuing rebellion against the Lord, expressed in actual historical terms without the aid of metaphor and allegory. The chapter traces the main events of the past, beginning with Egypt and leading on to the exodus, the wilderness experience, life in Canaan and eventual dispersion among the nations. There are a number of themes which recur: (a) the rebelliousness of Israel, despite God’s merciful treatment of them in giving them numerous blessings and in repeatedly withholding his wrath from being poured out upon them. (b) The wilderness wanderings, as being more than simply an episode in Israel’s history. They represented a state of mind and its consequences. So the final period of Israel’s history, the dispersion in exile, is seen as a reversion to the wilderness life which had preceded the settlement in Canaan (verse 35: ‘I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples’). (c) The motive of Yahweh’s concern for his own name. This is a new feature in Ezekiel’s writing and it appears later on in chapters 36, and 39, but it is not wholly absent anywhere from the prophet’s thought. Its significance is that it represents a cessation by God of his covenant blessings towards Israel because they had so completely abandoned their own responsibilities under the covenant. All the covenant requirements, like the statutes and ordinances of Sinai, had been broken and the covenant sign, the sabbath, had been profaned: God was therefore justified in carrying out the sanctions of the covenant. He was still, however, a God of mercy; but now his merciful acts were prompted primarily by concern for his own ‘name’ (i.e. glory, reputation), and with an eye to the conclusions which would be drawn by the watching nations of the world.

20:1–4. The enquiry of the elders. The date is given as the tenth day of the month Ab (July–August) in the year 591 BC.30 No indication is given of the purpose of the elders’ visit. It may have been that they had come to sit at Ezekiel’s feet in the hope of hearing some news of the homeland or a word from God about the length of their exile, as in 14:1. They may have set Ezekiel a particular question which they wanted answering. Verse 32 has been taken by some to suggest that the elders were advocating a form of syncretism and were trying to gain Ezekiel’s support for their policy. This would certainly accord with the decisive rejection in Ezekiel’s reply, but the question remains entirely speculative. The reason given for the refusal to answer the elders’ enquiry is cryptically given as the abominations of their fathers (4). To interpret this as an accusation against the elders on the grounds of their forefathers’ sins would involve a denial of much that Ezekiel has been arguing in relation to individual responsibility.

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