Reading: Ezekiel 9-12, Psalm 33
The days grow long, and every vision comes to nothing.
Ezekiel has a number of visions in today’s readings, and on a first glance they do not appear to make a whole lot of sense. Are these future visions? Present visions? Maybe even things that happened in the past? I think the visions that Ezekiel is relating deliberately do not answer those questions. Or rather, says that all of them are true. Yesterday Ezekiel saw idolatry in the Temple, which we know from the book of Kings was nothing new. Today he sees a remnant of people upon whom God places a mark, really the Hebrew letter Tāw, the last letter in the alphabet. These people mourn the idolatry of their nation. Again, from the book of Kings we know this is nothing new, as there was such a remnant in the time of Elijah. But neither of those things are the major event of these chapters. In chapters 10 and 11 Ezekiel sees a sort of divine chariot arrive, borne by Cherubim, and which the glory of the God of Israel inhabits. Then it leaves the Temple in stages. First to the threshold, then out of the city… and to Babylon. Finally, Ezekiel is given another wonderful sign act to perform. He digs a hole in the side of his house, and tells a story about exile to a bunch of exiles.
Ezekiel spends much time describing, or at least attempting to describe, the Cherubim, the mobile throne of God, and the angelic beings that mark the faithful and strike down the unfaithful. It is not the most comfortable subject for the modern western mind to grapple with, but Ezekiel is saying that there is an actual spiritual world in which events occur that affect the world visible to us. It is not detectable by our scientific means, but it nonetheless exists, and upon getting a glimpse of it Ezekiel struggles to even put it into words. Ezekiel’s visions do not appear to be metaphor. His visions peel back a layer of reality to see the spiritual players behind the scenes, somewhat like Elisha in the city of Dothan in 2 Kings 6. There the prophet prayed that his servant, afraid of the Syrian army surrounding them, might see the divine army surrounding them all.
The underlying reality presented is not a happy event for the people of Israel. The glory of God is departing from the Temple, even as the unfaithful among the people are struck down. As the glory departs, judgment is passes on some very specific people: the priests and teachers of the law. One of them is struck dead while Ezekiel is watching. God is dealing, as always, most harshly with those who are given the responsibility to lead and teach but take their followers down the wrong path. God is not amused by bad leadership.
After the glory departs, one might expect a great deal of mourning, but the story isn’t over yet. The glory of God goes, with Ezekiel, over the eastern mountains and goes to Babylon. To the land of exile. At the same time God is declaring that those who have been exiled will be protected, reassembled, and brought back to Jerusalem, where they will live in peace. Those who remain in Jerusalem now will be destroyed. It is the same message that we heard in Jeremiah, but from inside Jerusalem instead of outside.
Upon his return, Ezekiel tells all the exiles what he has seen. This would be good news, one would think. However, the next chapter makes us wonder if the exiles believed Ezekiel’s message. Not sure why they wouldn’t. I mean, the crazy hair burning, brick assaulting, old man who yells at mountains tells you that you are actually blessed in your deportation from your home into a foreign land. Now he’s digging a hole through the wall of his house, and walking around with his face covered. Who wouldn’t trust him?
In fact, God directly calls out their disbelief in the prophecies: The days grow long, and every vision comes to nothing. God says he will make an end to this proverb. The visions Ezekiel has received are past, present, and future, but they are being fulfilled at this moment. The exile was the end of the long delays in fulfillment. When God speaks to the exiled people, it will occur. The days of false prophecies are over in Israel. The people of Israel went out of the land like Ezekiel with his face covered. They could not see where they were going, and they did not understand why they were going there. But now God is going to tell them. First there will be a long story of why the people must be exiled. It is not going to be a pretty story. Then, much later in the book, Ezekiel will relate a vision of where the exile is headed, which is a much better story, though no less confusing.