Chapter 24 begins with the allegory of the pot. The flesh has been cooked, removed piece by piece. Then as intent on melting it down the cook turns up the heat. The people may well have accepted suffering at first as discipline. However, prolonged suffering has prompted resentment. What is the purpose? Ezekiel explains that evil is so ingrained in Judah that judgment demands the fire of pain and continual cleansing as if it is a rusty pot. Ezekiel is despondent. “In vain I have wearied myself; its thick rust does not go out of it by fire.” So dedicated is Ezekiel to his call that he cannot indulge in individual griefs as other do; his task remains and demands all his energies. In chapter 25 we see Ammon gloating over the calamity which has befallen Jerusalem in an attempt to appease the wrath of Nebuchadrezzar. We see Moab refuse to see anything of special worth in the Jewish tradition. “The house of Judah is like unto all the heathen;” In Edom the animosities that arise are rooted in blood relationships which tend to be more severe than those between strangers. The conflicts with the Philistines are open and violent. The Philistines, the uncircumcised, represent a way of life which is not that of Israel. Further, they possess military power far in excess of Israel’s. As we look back on the wrangling and hatred of these five petty states in a tiny country, only Israel has survived. In chapter 26 Ezekiel enunciates an oracle against Tyre, an important Phoenician city. Phoenicia was not merely a great power, but a center of civilization to the neighboring countries. In the day of Solomon, Israel looked to Tyre for building materials, craftsmen, and architectural models. The charge leveled against Tyre is that it is a city of wealth without a soul. Tyre witnesses the fall of Judah, the misery inflicted upon tens of thousands of human beings, the hopelessness of deportation, the shame of defeat. For Tyre, profits will grow; that is all that matters to Tyre. Sound familiar?
Chapter 24 begins with the allegory of the pot. The flesh has been cooked, removed piece by piece. Then as intent on melting it down the cook turns up the heat. The people may well have accepted suffering at first as discipline. However, prolonged suffering has prompted resentment. What is the purpose? Ezekiel explains that evil is so ingrained in Judah that judgment demands the fire of pain and continual cleansing as if it is a rusty pot. Ezekiel is despondent. “In vain I have wearied myself; its thick rust does not go out of it by fire.” So dedicated is Ezekiel to his call that he cannot indulge in individual griefs as other do; his task remains and demands all his energies. In chapter 25 we see Ammon gloating over the calamity which has befallen Jerusalem in an attempt to appease the wrath of Nebuchadrezzar. We see Moab refuse to see anything of special worth in the Jewish tradition. “The house of Judah is like unto all the heathen;” In Edom the animosities that arise are rooted in blood relationships which tend to be more severe than those between strangers. The conflicts with the Philistines are open and violent. The Philistines, the uncircumcised, represent a way of life which is not that of Israel. Further, they possess military power far in excess of Israel’s. As we look back on the wrangling and hatred of these five petty states in a tiny country, only Israel has survived. In chapter 26 Ezekiel enunciates an oracle against Tyre, an important Phoenician city. Phoenicia was not merely a great power, but a center of civilization to the neighboring countries. In the day of Solomon, Israel looked to Tyre for building materials, craftsmen, and architectural models. The charge leveled against Tyre is that it is a city of wealth without a soul. Tyre witnesses the fall of Judah, the misery inflicted upon tens of thousands of human beings, the hopelessness of deportation, the shame of defeat. For Tyre, profits will grow; that is all that matters to Tyre. Sound familiar?
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