Ezekiel 21
The Sword of the Lord
Open your Bibles to…
Ezek. 20:45 Furthermore the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Ezek. 20:46 “Son of man, set your face toward the south; preach against the south and prophesy against the forest land, the South,
Ezek. 20:47 and say to the forest of the South, “Hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree and every dry tree in you; the blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be scorched by it.
Ezek. 20:48 All flesh shall see that I, the LORD, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.” ’ ”
Ezek. 20:49 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! They say of me, ‘Does he not speak parables?’ ”
Pray
Intro
√ The Sword of the Lord
You may remember that we closed chapter 20 without reading verses 45-49?
The reason is that I believe these verses belong in chapter 21!
Why
The Jewish Bible places them there.
You’ll note that contextually they fit better with chapter 21 because they contain a parable about a fire…
…that is really an introduction to the parable of the sword found in chapter 21.
So, I left them for our study of chapter 21!
Ap. Judgment
The theme of chapter 21 is God’s coming judgment, not a new theme…
…rather, God is providing more detail about how the judgment will come to pass so that when it does the Jewish people will know without doubt that it was God whom orchestrated the destruction!
The Fire of the Lord (vs. 45-49)
Ezek. 20:45 Furthermore the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Ezek. 20:46 “Son of man, set your face toward the south; preach against the south and prophesy against the forest land, the South,
Ezek. 20:47 and say to the forest of the South, “Hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree and every dry tree in you; the blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be scorched by it.
Ezek. 20:48 All flesh shall see that I, the LORD, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.” ’ ”
Ezek. 20:49 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! They say of me, ‘Does he not speak parables?’ ”
√ The fire of the Lord
Verse 46 identifies the object of God’s coming judgment…
“Son of man, set your face toward the south; preach against the south and prophesy against the forest land, the South…”
“Toward the south” is the Hebrew word “temanah” whch literally means…
“What is on the right hand”
The idea is that if one faces the East (orient toward the rising sun) everything on the right side would be in the South.
Additionally the word “temanah” is a poetic word and when used as a proper name identified a city
in
…the capital city of
So, the object of God’s judgment is the nation of
√ A forest fire
But, God also identifies another area that He is going to judge, which we find listed in vs. 46…
“Son of man, set your face toward the south; preach against the south and prophesy against the forest land, the South.” ~ NKJV
In the NKJV the word “south” at the end of the verse is capitalized and is a different Hebrew word than used in vs. 45.
That’s because the Hebrew word is another poetic word that when used as a proper name identifies a specific geographic area…
…the
In fact, in many modern English translations they read…
“…prophesy against the fields of the
Today it is the dry wilderness area south of the
However, in Ezekiel’s time it was forested and well
populated and was home to the Biblical cities of Kadesh Barnea and
Ezekiel’s parable communicates that God will bring His
judgment upon both
√ Literal or symbolic?
Bible students aren’t sure whether or not God’s judgment would be by literal fire…
…or if the fire spoken of here is meant to be understood in a figurative sense.
Historically what we know is that
But, what’s interesting is that the area is described as being forested in Ezekiel’s time while today it is almost completely void of any vegetation!
So, the fire may be both figurative and literal in that God’s judgment came through the Babylonians who after destroying the people of the area…
…burnt all their fields and forests to prevent them from re-inhabiting their cities is today still a wilderness.
√ No more parables!
Note vs. 49…
Ezek. 20:49 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! They say of me, ‘Does he not speak parables?’ ”
Don’t you feel a bit sorry for poor Ezekiel!?
Ex. Reminds me of Kelly ~ “no more needles!”
Think of Ezekiel’s situation…
God’s called him to preach to a people who don’t want to listen to him.
Don’t want to repent.
And, on a number of occasions God chooses to speak through Ezekiel by means of parables that the people don’t understand…
…so they use it as an opportunity to mock him!
So, Ezekiel does a little complaining to the Lord because he’s tired of people giving him a hard time about the message that God’s given him to speak.
Ap. Be encouraged!
I like it that God has chosen to record the shortcoming of His servants like Ezekiel.
Here we find him doing a very human thing…
…complaining to the Lord about how God is using him!
The point is that God uses regular people like you and me and that He isn’t put off when we have a weak moment and act human!
Ex. Elijah
James tells us that the lion-hearted prophet Elijah was just as human as you and I!
James 5:17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
So, don’t be too hard on yourself when you find that you’re not the spiritual giant you thought you were…
…we’re all human and God uses us anyway!
Draw the Sword (vs. 1-7)
Ezek. 21:1 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Ezek. 21:2 “Son of
man, set your face toward
Ezek. 21:3 and say to the land of Israel, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I am against you, and I will draw My sword out of its sheath and cut off both righteous and wicked from you.
Ezek. 21:4 Because I will cut off both righteous and wicked from you, therefore My sword shall go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north,
Ezek. 21:5 that all flesh may know that I, the LORD, have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it shall not return anymore.” ’
Ezek. 21:6 Sigh therefore, son of man, with a breaking heart, and sigh with bitterness before their eyes.
Ezek. 21:7 And it shall be when they say to you, “Why are you sighing?’ that you shall answer, ‘Because of the news; when it comes, every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it is coming and shall be brought to pass,’ says the Lord GOD.”
√ Draw the sword
God now changes the symbols of the parable from fire to a sword and declares that He is drawing it from its sheath so
that He might use it to judge
The idea in this first part of the parable is that while in
time past God threatened to bring His judgment upon
…by removing the sword from the sheath He is communicating that the warnings are over and that judgment will come!
Kind of like a policemen taking a gun out of his/her holster.
They only do if they intend to use it!
That’s what God is saying here! He’s drawn His sword and He’s going to use it!
√ Confusion
Vs. 4 has caused a lot of people to be confused!
“Because I will cut off both righteous and wicked from you, therefore My sword shall go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north.”
Seems to contradict God’s earlier promise to not destroy the righteous with wicked! (Ezekiel 18)
In fact it caused the early translators of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) such grief that they changed “righteous” to “unrighteous”!
I think the best way to reconcile it is to understand God’s threat to…
“…cut off both righteous and wicked from you…”
…to mean “removed”
from
The righteous like Jeremiah were not killed, but they were removed from the city and safely relocated to other areas.
Whether or not that’s the correct interpretation the main point that God wants the people to understand is that His judgment is coming (His sword is drawn)…
…and that it would effect
the entire
Sharpen the Sword (vs. 8-17)
Ezek. 21:8 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Ezek. 21:9 “Son of man, prophesy and say, “Thus says the LORD!’ Say:
‘A sword, a sword is sharpened
And also polished!
Ezek. 21:10 Sharpened to make a dreadful slaughter,
Polished to flash like lightning!
Should we then make mirth?
It despises the scepter of My son,
As it does all wood.
Ezek. 21:11 And He has given it to be polished,
That it may be handled;
This sword is sharpened, and it is polished
To be given into the hand of the slayer.’
Ezek. 21:12 “Cry and wail, son of man;
For it will be against My people,
Against
all the princes of
Terrors including the sword will be against My people;
Therefore strike your thigh.
Ezek. 21:13 “Because it is a testing,
And what if the sword despises even the scepter?
The scepter shall be no more,” says the Lord GOD.
Ezek. 21:14 “You therefore, son of man, prophesy,
And strike your hands together.
The third time let the sword do double damage.
It is the sword that slays,
The sword that slays the great men,
That enters their private chambers.
Ezek. 21:15 I have set the point of the sword against all their gates,
That the heart may melt and many may stumble.
Ah! It is made bright;
It is grasped for slaughter:
Ezek. 21:16 “Swords at the ready!
Thrust right!
Set your blade!
Thrust left—
Wherever your edge is ordered!
Ezek. 21:17 “I also will beat My fists together,
And I will cause My fury to rest;
I, the LORD, have spoken.”
√ Sharpen the Sword
This part of the parable describes God’s judgment from the perspective of a soldier who is preparing for battle, note the repetition of the word “sharpen”…
“A sword, a sword is sharpened” ~ vs. 9
“Sharpened to make a dreadful slaughter.” ~ vs. 10
“This sword is sharpened, and it is polished.” ~ vs. 11
The idea that God is communicating here is that the preparations for His judgment are already being made.
Just as a soldier would sharpen the edge of his sword before going into battle, and polish the flat of sword to remove the rust…
…so God was already preparing the weapons of His judgment for the upcoming battle.
What’s interesting is that this section of Ezekiel is written in the format of a song with three stanza’s…
Vs. 8-10a
Vs. 11-12
Vs. 14-17
Sort of a battle hymn, or since it describes the sharpening of a sword it could be the first example of Death Metal as a musical genre!
√ Cut down the king!
The sad reality revealed here is that the target of God’s sword is His own people!
Ezek. 21:12 “Cry and wail, son of man;
For it will be against My people,
Against all the princes of
Israel.
Terrors including the sword will be against My people;
Therefore strike your thigh.
Ezek. 21:13 “Because it is a testing,
And what if the sword despises even the
scepter?
The scepter shall be no more,” says the Lord GOD.
Specifically God is targeting the wicked king of Judah, Zedekiah for his refusal to repent and accept the word of God given through Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
Note vs. 13…
“And what if the sword despises even the scepter?
The scepter shall be no more,”
The “scepter” is a symbol of authority and understood by the Jewish people to prophetically speak of the Messiah.
Gen. 49:10 The scepter shall not depart from
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.
The point is that in vs. 13 God says that His sword is going to destroy the scepter…
…that is, king Zedekiah and his offspring!
The reason that God says this is that the people to whom Ezekiel and Jeremiah were speaking rejected God’s threat of judgment…
…and leaned instead on His promise of a continual line of
king’s from
But here God tells them that He is in fact going to use His sword to destroy Zedekiah and his sons.
Point the Sword ~ toward
Ezek. 21:18 The word of the LORD came to me again, saying:
Ezek. 21:19 “And son
of man, appoint for yourself two ways for the sword of the king of
Ezek. 21:20 Appoint a
road for the sword to go to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to
Ezek. 21:21 For the
king of
Ezek. 21:22 In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem: to set up battering rams, to call for a slaughter, to lift the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a siege mound, and to build a wall.
Ezek. 21:23 And it will be to them like a false divination in the eyes of those who have sworn oaths with them; but he will bring their iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken.
√ Point the
Sword ~ toward
This section is fascinating because it predicts the exact path of Nebuchadnezzar’s military campaign!
Historically three city-nations joined together in an alliance to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar and his authority over them.
The three were Ammon (modern day
So, when Nebuchadnezzar marched his armies to crush the
rebellion he traveled northwest along the
Which city should he attack first?
He could head due west and attack
Or he could take one of the two highways that lead to Ammon
and
Of the three
So, he found himself at a literal “fork in the road” and had to decide whether to take the King’s Highway and attack Ammon…
…or take the
Here’s the cool part ~ God tells us exactly how it’s going
to down before Nebuchadnezzar even leaves
Ezek. 21:19 “And son
of man, appoint for yourself two ways
for the sword of the king of
Ezek. 21:20 Appoint a
road for the sword to go to Rabbah of
the Ammonites, and to
So, the king has to decide which city to attack first ~
Rabbah (modern day
√ Which way
Next Ezekiel tells us how Nebuchadnezzar will chose which city to attack first…
…he’s going to use his pagan occult resources!
Ezek. 21:21 For the
king of
Ezek. 21:22 In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem: to set up battering rams, to call for a slaughter, to lift the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a siege mound, and to build a wall.
Ezek. 21:23 And it will be to them like a false divination in the eyes of those who have sworn oaths with them; but he will bring their iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken.
Before I describe what Nebuchadnezzar did let me just say that God isn’t encouraging this behavior, rather, He’s simply foretelling the future and how it will go down.
Arrows ~ like drawing straws, two arrows were marked,
one with the word “
Idols ~ heads
Liver ~ “hepatoscopy” his magicians would remove the liver of a animal they sacrificed and bisect its liver. They claimed that the shape and markings of the liver would tell them which direction to go!
Remember, God’s not encouraging this practice, but He can use it to guide Nebuchadnezzar in the direction He wants him to go!
“The lot is cast into the lap,
But its every decision is from the LORD.”
Pro. 16:33
The point is that there is no such thing as “chance”, God is
guiding the events and activities of Man to accomplish His will!
So, which way does God foretell that Nebuchadnezzar will go?
To
“In his right hand is the divination for
Guess what he did?
Nebuchadnezzar marched first against
Point the sword ~ toward the king (vs. 24-27)
Ezek. 21:24 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear—because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken in hand.
Ezek. 21:25 “Now to
you, O profane, wicked prince of
Ezek. 21:26 thus says the Lord GOD:
“Remove the turban, and take off the crown;
Nothing shall remain the same.
Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted.
Ezek. 21:27 Overthrown, overthrown,
I will make it overthrown!
It shall be no longer,
Until He comes whose right it is,
And I will give it to Him.” ’
√ Point the Sword ~ toward the King
God’s judgment against Zedekiah “the wicked prince”
God will remove his turban and crown
No king until He comes whose right it is!
Predictive of the fact that no descendant of David would rule
Point the Sword ~ toward Ammon (vs. 28-32)
Ezek. 21:28 “And you, son of man, prophesy and say, “Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach,’ and say:
‘A sword, a sword is drawn,
Polished for slaughter,
For consuming, for flashing—
Ezek. 21:29 While they see false visions for you,
While they divine a lie to you,
To bring you on the necks of the wicked, the slain
Whose day has come,
Whose iniquity shall end.
Ezek. 21:30 “Return it to its sheath.
I will judge you
In the place where you were created,
In the land of your nativity.
Ezek. 21:31 I will pour out My indignation on you;
I will blow against you with the fire of My wrath,
And deliver you into the hands of brutal men who are skillful to destroy.
Ezek. 21:32 You shall be fuel for the fire;
Your blood shall be in the midst of the land.
You shall not be remembered,
For I the LORD have spoken.’ ”
√ Point the Sword ~ toward Ammon
God speaks judgment upon Ammonites who thought that they had
escaped Nebuchadnezzar when he turned toward
But, God predicts that after Nebuchadnezzar is finished crushing the rebellion of the Jews that he will bring his armies against the Ammonites.
That’s exactly what happened!
Close
√ The sword of the Lord
This chapter reminds us that God governs the affairs of Men and that He has a perfect plan for this world and will bring it to pass!