God’s protection

 

READ Ezekiel 25–28

The congregation was silent, attentive, as we listened to amazing stories of God’s work and protection in the lives of a couple who work in a country where talking about Jesus is illegal. His ministry through them and His protection of them went beyond our wildest imaginations. No surprise that today’s reading outlines God’s care for His OT people by what He did to entire nations that went against them. God’s words to Ezekiel are specific.

Against Ammon the Lord God says, “Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the malice within your soul against the land of Israel, therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand against you, and will hand you over as plunder to the nations. And I will cut you off from the peoples and will make you perish out of the countries; I will destroy you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 25:6–7)

He says of Moab and Seir that they will be given to other nations and experience His judgments that they “will know that I am the Lord.” It is the same for Edom who “grievously offended in taking vengeance on them.” God says He will cut them off, make them desolate as they fall by the sword and “know my vengeance.” Philistia also would suffer the same fate. (25:8–17)

Ezekiel gives more specific descriptions of what Tyre, what God will do, and specific judgments against their leaders that sound like God is rebuking Satan himself as the one being their activities. Tyre looked good, was prosperous, highly involved in commerce with other nations, yet God says, “Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock. She shall be in the midst of the sea a place for the spreading of nets, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. And she shall become plunder for the nations, and her daughters on the mainland shall be killed by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.” (26:1–6)

My mother often talked about this prophecy, especially this part Ezekiel repeated: “I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt.” (26:13–14) It happened as God said. I’m also noticing personification that begins with:

Now you, son of man, raise a lamentation over Tyre, and say to Tyre, who dwells at the entrances to the sea, merchant of the peoples to many coastlands, thus says the Lord God: “O Tyre, you have said, ‘I am perfect in beauty . . . .’ (27:2–3)

After describing Tyre’s fate, the prophet spoke as if to a person:

You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you . . . on the holy mountain of God . . . in stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you . . . . By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever. (28:11–19)

Ezekiel ends with a short prophecy against Sidon’s bloody and terrible end, then God says:

“When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they shall dwell in their own land that I gave to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell securely in it, and they shall build houses and plant vineyards. They shall dwell securely, when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.” (28:25–26)

God protects His OT people from all other nations. He still protects His own, just as we heard yesterday and will never forget. Nothing and no one can separate us from the love and gracious care of our God!