The Lord said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations; That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them. Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house. And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments, And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil. And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads. Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them? Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.
And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. For thus saith the Lord God; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled. And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness. And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord God (verses 36-49).
Little comment is needed on this final section; there is a recapitulation of the sins of Aholah and Aholibah. They committed adultery with their idols, both in a spiritual way and also literally. Their offspring were cast into the fiery arms of Moloch and thus slain to their idols. They profaned the sanctuary of the Lord. Adulterers they were and blood was in their hands. What degradation! Licentiousness, violence and child sacrifice were the leading sins of the nation and these were produced by having forgotten God and by idolatry. The punishment of the adulterers, according to the law, stoning, awaited Jerusalem. "And the company shall stone them with stones and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women (surrounding nations who knew of Jerusalem's vileness) be taught not to go after your lewdness. And they (the heathen nations) shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols, and ye shall know that I am the Lord." The Lord had manifested Himself to Jerusalem as a Lord of grace and power. He had dealt with that nation as He had not dealt with others. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos iii:2). In awful judgments they were to learn that He is the Lord; what they should have known through His mercies, they found out by the punishment from the hands of a righteous Lord. All this will be repeated in future history. The time is not distant when still greater judgments will be poured out upon nations as well as upon the Jewish people. During that time the world will find out that He is the Lord. "For when thy judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness" (Is. xxvi:9).
THE BOILING POT AND THE LAST WORD.
Chapter xxiv.
We have reached the final message of this great Prophet concerning the judgment and overthrow of Jerusalem. The fatal siege of the city which sealed its doom, so long announced, had started. Ezekiel receives the information directly from the Lord and then utters the solemn words of the Lord in which for the last time the wickedness of the bloody city is made known. First, he spoke in a parable and afterwards in the death of his wife he was a sign unto them.
I. The Parable of the Boiling Pot and its Significance.
Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day. And utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it: Gather the pieces thereof into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones. Take the choice of the flock, and burn also the bones under it, and make it boil well, and let them seethe the bones of it therein. Wherefore thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum is not gone out of it, bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it. For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust; That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance; I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the bloody city! I will even make the pile for fire great. Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned. Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass of it may be hot, and may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed. She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her: her scum shall be in the fire. In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord God (verses 1-14).
The Prophet is instructed to note the exact date, the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year. The same date we find in 2 Kings xxv:1. "And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about." The same statement is made by Jeremiah (chapter lii:4). But how did Ezekiel, far away from the scene of the siege, know the exact date when the king of Babylon began to carry out the threatened divine judgment? It was the Lord who gave him this information. This is the statement of the second verse, "Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this selfsame day, the king of Babylon set himself (literally, leaned upon) against Jerusalem this same day." Higher Criticism shows its teeth in connection with such definite statements which introduce the power of God. We quote the following from a recent commentator: "This verse (verse 2) forces on us in the clearest fashion the dilemma—either Ezekiel was a deliberate deceiver, or he was possessed of some kind of second sight." According to these words Ezekiel was either an out-and-out deceiver, a wicked man, or, he was a clairvoyant. That the word of the Lord came to him and imparted unto him the news that on the same day Jerusalem's siege had begun, is neither considered nor believed. Such is the blind unbelief of the modern critics. The boiling pot or caldron mentioned in this parable is the symbol of Jerusalem. What is cast into this pot typifies the guilty people; the choice bones and the choice of the flock, the leaders. All are to be thrown in one common caldron to seethe therein, the symbol of the fiery judgments which had now come upon the city. The scum[16] in the pot is symbolical of Jerusalem's sins. The woe is pronounced upon the bloody city on account of the scum; it is to be consumed. "She hath wearied Me with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her; her scum shall be in the fire." While the inhabitants of the city are thus described suffering for their sins, the city itself will be dealt with (verse 11). This parable becomes still more interesting if we compare it with the message of the eleventh chapter. Then the people of Jerusalem had said, "This city is the caldron, and we be the flesh" (xi:3). The Lord had answered them, "This city shall not be your caldron, within shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof" (xi:11). They gave the caldron a different meaning from the parable here. As the flesh is preserved in a pot, a caldron, so they thought themselves secure and safe in Jerusalem. And now the Lord tells them that Jerusalem shall be a caldron, but not for their preservation, but for their judgment. They had deceived themselves when they thought themselves safe. His fury is now to be displayed upon bloody, filthy Jerusalem. "I the Lord have spoken it, it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings shall they judge thee, saith the Lord God." What the Lord hath spoken will come to pass; He will do it. This is a solemn word. Men ignore what God has spoken. Others sneer at it and are unbelieving. The mass of professing Christians are indifferent and have no thought that God will do what He has spoken about judgments to come. But they will as surely come upon our age, as the threatened judgments came upon Jerusalem.
II. The Death of the Wife of Ezekiel.
Also the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men. So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded (verses 15-18).