Scripture Daily

Context No. 676 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 28:20-26: in context

20The LORD’s word came to me, saying, 21“Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it, 22and say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Behold, I am against you, Sidon. I will be glorified among you. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have executed judgments in her, and am sanctified in her. 23For I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets. The wounded will fall within her, with the sword on her on every side. Then they will know that I am the LORD. 24“‘“There will no longer be a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are around them that scorned them. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.” 25“‘The Lord GOD says: “When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and am shown as holy among them in the sight of the nations, then they will dwell in their own land which I gave to my servant Jacob. 26They will dwell in it securely. Yes, they will build houses, plant vineyards, and will dwell securely when I have executed judgments on all those around them who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God.”’”

After the long oracle against Tyre, Ezekiel turns for a moment to Tyre's sister city on the Phoenician coast, Sidon. The word is brief and hard. I am against you, Sidon, God says; I will be glorified in your midst, and they will know that I am the LORD when I execute judgments in you. Pestilence and blood in the streets are named. But the oracle does not end with Sidon. It pivots, and the reason for the judgment turns out to be someone else's healing.

There will no longer be, God says, a pricking brier or a painful thorn for the house of Israel from any of the neighbors who treated them with scorn. And then the promise widens: I will gather Israel from the peoples where they are scattered, and they will dwell in their own land, the land I gave to Jacob, and build houses and plant vineyards and live in safety. The judgment on the mocking city is bent toward the security of the mocked. And over all of it, again and again, runs the one phrase Ezekiel cannot stop saying: then they will know that I am the LORD. The aim is not ruin. It is recognition.

The whole oracle drives toward knowing who God is, and pulls the thorns out of a scorned people's side. Have I been a brier in someone's side, or waited for God to pull one out of mine?

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