Day 231: Ezekiel 17-20 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Hey Bible nerds, this is Dr. Manny Arango. Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by ARMA. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. Family, welcome to day 231. We are in the book of Ezekiel today, chapter 17, 18, 19 and 20. If you have done the reading, everything that I'm gonna say is gonna make perfect sense. But if you have not done the reading, you got to stop the video, pause the audio, go do the reading. It's only four chapters of the book of Ezekiel and there's a wide variety today of all kinds of literary types and genres. And so today's reading is really, really fascinating. Like always, I'm gonna start off with context clues so that we're all oriented and then I'm gonna get into nerdy nuggets. I'm gonna try my best to give you at least one nerdy nugget for every single chapter on the Bible reading plan today. And then of course, like always, we're gonna leave off with a timeless truth. So let's dive in to context. The context for today's reading actually hasn't changed since yesterday. We're still in around 591 BC. You're actually gonna get a date in chapter 20 and the date that we've got, chapter 20, is going to start and I'll just read verse 1 to you. Ezekiel chapter 20, verse 1 says this, Well, thanks to the Babylonian calendar system, we know exactly what day that would correlate to and that is August 14th, 591 BC. So that's our context. Our context is post second wave exportation, but pre third wave deportation. Okay, so three waves of deportation from Jerusalem to Babylon. So we're right in between the second wave of deportation and the third wave of deportation. Remember, that first wave of deportation is gonna have Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego on that first wave of deportation. And in that second wave, that first wave of deportation is 605 BC. The second wave of deportation is right around 597 BC and Ezekiel is on that wave of deportation. Also, Jehoiachin, the last five kings of Judah are Josiah, Jehoiahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. So Jehoiachin is on that last wave of deportation and then, sorry, on that second wave of deportation and then the last wave of

exile of deportation of Jews to Babylon would be 586 BC. So this context is situated right in between the second wave and the third wave of deportation to Babylon. Obviously, the people are believing that exile is not gonna last long, that this is temporary, and that the king in Jerusalem named Zedekiah, the very last king, is going to figure something out to rescue them, to get them back to Jerusalem, and all the false prophets are prophesying that that is something that's a reality. True biblical prophets, people who like believe in what Yahweh has to say, men like Ezekiel and Jeremiah are definitely declaring that that's not gonna happen. So that's our context. Let's get into some nerdy nuggets. All right, chapter 17. I want to read the first words. This is verse 2 of chapter 17. It says, Son of man, set forth an allegory and tell it to the Israelites as a parable. Okay, so a lot of people are gonna refer to chapter 17 as a fable or an allegory or an allegory that feels like a parable and the allegory is actually quite simple. Chapter 17 starts and Ezekiel has a prophecy, obviously, to the people and starts like this, okay? Say to them, this is what the Sovereign Lord says, a great eagle with powerful wings, long feathers, and full plumage of varied colors came to Lebanon, taking hold of the top of a cedar. He broke off its topmost shoot and carried it away to a land of merchants where he planted it in a city of traitors. My goal is to kind of help you understand, like, okay, what is Ezekiel talking about? Okay, so the great eagle is Nebuchadnezzar, the top of the cedar that got broke off, the topmost shoot, carried away to merchants, that is Jehoiachin. Okay, so that's the second wave of Deportation and where did he get carried off to a land of merchants where he was planted in a city of traders Merchants and traders. Well, that is Babylon. Okay next verse 5

He took one of the seedlings of the land and put it in fertile soil So he took a seedling and placed it in fertile soil He planted it like a willow by abundant water and it sprouted and became a low spreading vine Okay, so Jehoiachin is seen as a cedar and then who is it that gets planted next as King is A low spreading vine. Okay, that's Zedekiah So this is a theme all throughout the book of Ezekiel that Zedekiah is not really a rightful King that the last rightful King of Judah is Jehoiachin Remember if you don't know this, okay when Jehoiachin gets taken off to Babylon for deportation His uncle gets set up as King and he's a puppet King. He's a client King he is a vassal to the greater suzerain known as Nebuchadnezzar and this parable or this this allegory is God's way of talking through this story and saying yep, Nebuchadnezzar represents the eagle and He broke off the topmost shoot of a cedar. That's Jehoiachin Zedekiah is not a tree. He's not a cedar He's a low spreading vine. So one of the one of the themes of the book of Ezekiel is Zedekiah is not given glory or respect or honor by Ezekiel and Ezekiel really Holds Jehoiachin as the last descendant of King David as the last Rightful heir to the throne of David's dynasty All right Let's keep moving But there was another great eagle with powerful wings full plumage the vine now sent out its roots towards him From the plot where it was planted and stretched out its branches to him for water It had been planted in good soil by abundant water So then it would produce branches bare fruit and become a splendid vine. And this is how Yahweh is going to talk about Zedekiah looking to Egypt for help verse 9 say to them This is what the Sovereign Lord says will it thrive? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so that it withers all its new growth will wither It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by its roots

It has been planted but will it thrive? Will it not wither completely when the east wind strikes it the east wind? Represents Babylon because Babylon is coming from the east When the east wind strikes it wither away in the plot where it grew So Ezekiel's prophesying that Zedekiah will not be successful Zedekiah will not thrive Okay, will it thrive rhetorical question? Will it not wither completely when the east wind strikes it wither away in the plot where it grew verse 15? But the king rebelled against him sending his envoys to Egypt to get horses in a large army Will he succeed another rhetorical question? Will he who does such things escape? Will he break the treaty and yet escape? So Ezekiel saying hey Zedekiah has rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar He's not going to escape. This is not gonna go. Well, okay This is you can see how as a Jew this feels very unpatriotic, dude You should be rooting for the home team. But Ezekiel is not rooting for the home team he's just saying the truth of what the Lord has has Commissioned him to say which is this is not going to be successful and we know from history when Nebuchadnezzar sieges Jerusalem and Burns it to the ground. What is he gonna do? He's going to capture Zedekiah So Ezekiel's prophecy here comes to pass verse 16 as surely as I live declares the Sovereign Lord He shall die in Babylon in the land of the king who put him on the throne Whose oath he despised and whose treaty he broke. So this right here is talking about Zedekiah and the fulfillment of this prophecy can be seen in a couple of different places the fulfillment of this prophecy can be seen as 2nd Kings 25 Jeremiah 39 and Jeremiah 52 if you want even more specific verses 2nd Kings 25 1 through 7 Jeremiah 39 1 through 7 and then lastly Jeremiah 52 4 through 11 those Historical accounts are all going to tell us that when the king when the king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar Comes to Israel Zedekiah is gonna try to escape. He fails to escape Nebuchadnezzar captures him the very last thing Zedekiah Kai is able to see is his family members are all killed by Nebuchadnezzar and then Nebuchadnezzar gouges out his eyeballs and leads him to Babylon as a prisoner where he is going to die. And so

Ezekiel is prophesying that this is the exact thing that's going to happen about five to six years before it actually happens. And again, Ezekiel is spot on. So everybody who's saying, no, everything's going to be fine. No need to be afraid. No need to fret are wrong. They are false prophets. They're giving false hope. The truth is that Zedekiah is going to absolutely be led with bronze shackles to Babylon as a prisoner. All right, that's enough nerdy nuggets for chapter 17. Let's move to chapter 18. So chapter 18 is a proverb about sour grapes. I actually really, really love this. And this is kind of going to help us lead into our timeless truth. Chapter 18 says this. The word of the Lord came to me. What do people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel? The parents eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. So that's the proverb. And this is a proverb that's being said by all of the exiles who are held in captivity in Babylon. What are they going around saying? They're going, the parents eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are on edge. What they mean by this proverb is we don't deserve to be in exile. We are reaping the consequences of our parents' mistakes. It's our parents that ate sour grapes. Why is Yahweh punishing us based on things that our ancestors did or our parents did or our grandparents did? We are innocent. They're also contending with God based on Deuteronomy chapter five, verse nine and 10. So here's what Deuteronomy chapter five, verse nine and 10 say, you shall not bow down to them or worship them. This is false gods, false idols. For I, the Lord, your God am a jealous God punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. Okay. Of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands. So the people in exile are quoting in a proverbial format. They're actually quoting Deuteronomy chapter five, verse nine and 10. And they're saying, this is not fair. We don't deserve to be in exile. God is the kind of God that's punishing us for the sins of our parents. So let's kind of break this down. Number one, that's actually not what Deuteronomy chapter five, verse nine and 10 is saying. Let's actually examine the verse. What is Deuteronomy chapter five, verse nine and 10 saying? Says this, that Yahweh punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. Okay. So the third generation and to the fourth generation, I need you to remember that that's actually what we should be focused on in the verse. That Yahweh punishes to the third and fourth generation for the sins of the parents. Okay. But showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands. So three to four generations versus a thousand

generations. The point of the verse is actually to show that God is way more loving than he is judgmental. That's actually the heart of the verse for you to begin to go, Oh wait, three or four generations of punishment when people sin, but a thousand generations when people are loyal, when people actually love God. So I want to actually read Deuteronomy 24 because Deuteronomy 24 is the heart of how Yahweh responds here in Ezekiel chapter 18. Deuteronomy 24 says this, parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents. Each will die for their own sin. So Deuteronomy itself makes it very clear. God does not punish children for the sins of their parents, nor does he punish parents for the sins of their children. Nope. Every single person has to give an account for their life, for their decisions, for what they do. And Ezekiel is going to respond to the people's proverb with a whole parable and proverb and poem. And the heart of what Ezekiel is saying in his response is really an elongated version of Deuteronomy 24. And I'll read Deuteronomy 24 for you one more time. Okay. So you need Deuteronomy chapter five and Deuteronomy chapter 24 because the worst thing we could do when we're studying the Bible is to take one verse and build an entire theology around one verse. Okay, so Deuteronomy chapter five, if that's all we had, if Deuteronomy chapter five was the only verse we had, then we could make the argument, yeah, God punishes the sins of the parents for three or four generations. And this is where you start to get all kinds of weird teaching in the church space around generational curses and generational strongholds. And I'll talk more about that when we get to our Thomas truth. But the reality is that, that's actually not the only verse we have. Deuteronomy chapter five is not the only verse we have about what God does. God don't even let the book of Deuteronomy end

without bringing clarity. So he then says, parents are not to be put to death for their children nor children put to death for their parents. Each will die for their own sin. So the Bible has to be read in context and we have to take two verses that seem to be contradictory and hold them in tension with each other. This is what it means to be a mature reader of the Bible. Someone who's engaging with scripture, not just trying to pluck one verse out of context, but someone that can hold truth in tension. There is a very wise way to hold Deuteronomy chapter five and Deuteronomy chapter 24 in tension with each other. And that's exactly what Ezekiel is doing as he begins to respond to the people. Before we get into our Thomas truth, I just wanna make sure I don't have some more nerdy nuggets for you. I got one more. Ezekiel chapter 19 is gonna be a lamentation for the princes of Israel, a lamentation. This is a dirge or a funeral song. And so Judah is gonna get figuratively talked about, but really it's not just Judah, but it's Hamatol, okay? Who's the wife of King Josiah. And so she's the mother cub that's gonna produce the last four Kings of Judah. Say, cause remember when we talk about the last five Kings,

Josiah is the first, his wife obviously is gonna be the woman that's gonna produce Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, okay? So chapter 19 is a funeral song. This is a dirge, there's a song of mourning, there's a song of lament. And then Ezekiel chapter 20, the elders of Israel are actually going to come and they are gonna try to inquire of the Lord through Ezekiel. And this is a straightforward lawsuit style oracle. And we've seen these in Jeremiah, we've seen these in Isaiah, where God's prophet is also God's lawyer. And he is going to begin to talk to the people as if he is creating a courtroom scene, okay? And he is going to convict the people of sins, especially idolatry of the generations of Israel and Judah. Yahweh is essentially saying that these elders are just like their fathers, which ironically means that the very thing that they are saying is true is not true, right? Cause their complaint is it's our fathers who sinned, not us. But what Yahweh is saying over and over and over is, nope, you're not having to pay back taxes for what your parents did. There's idolatry in your heart. And it is very easy to blame your parents or your grandparents or whoever,

but you are gonna have to take responsibility for your decisions and your relationship with me and your heart posture, which gets us into our timeless truth. Our timeless truth today is it's complicated, but rather simple, that there is this unique tension, maybe a dance between consequences and punishment. Consequences and punishment. Punishment is you did something and God is now gonna punish you because of what you did. The other is consequences. I made a bad decision and now I'm living in the consequences of a bad decision that I made. So here's the reality. Are children punished for the sins of their parents? No, they're not. But do children live in the consequences of the decisions that their parents have made? Yes. So does God punish people? Does God curse people? Does God doom people? Does God say, no, you can't achieve anything because of who your father was or because of who your mother was? Or does God bless people just because of what their parents did? No. So blessing and cursing,

punishment or the lack thereof are not connected to the actions of our parents. However, we are living in the world that is a direct result of the actions of our parents. And that is a consequence. It's funny. I remember I was counseling this couple who had been having sex out of wedlock. been having premarital sex, which the Bible calls fornication, which is a sin, and they were really struggling because they were like, yeah, and God punished us, and now we're pregnant. And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, slow down, slow down. This child is a consequence of your actions. But this child is a gift from God. This child is not a punishment. Where did you get off thinking that God punishes people with children? That's terrible. First of all, children are a gift from God all the time, every time. No exceptions, no caveats. Children are a gift from God. The Bible says children are a gift from God, a reward from God. And so this is a consequence of your lack of wisdom. This is a consequence of your actions. But this is not a punishment from God. And so often, it is so easy to confuse natural earthly consequences with divine punishment. And that's exactly what's happening with the children of Israel. They're upset because they're in exile. And so they come to Ezekiel, and they're like, it's our parents' fault. We don't want to accept responsibility. We want to blame our parents and our grandparents and our great-grandparents. And we're going to quote the Bible to you. Hey, Ezekiel, Deuteronomy chapter 5 actually says that God will punish us for three or four generations based on what our parents did. And that's not fair. We shouldn't be in exile. And Ezekiel has to go, whoa, whoa, whoa. But that same Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 24, not just Deuteronomy chapter 5, but in Deuteronomy 24, that God doesn't punish children based on what their parents did, which means you're not living in punishment. You're living in a consequence. A consequence. And a consequence is not the same as punishment. And you know, there's something in us, in our heart, like in the human heart, that doesn't want to really accept responsibility for our actions. And it's easier to blame God and say, God's punishing me than to go, no, this is a consequence of my lack of wisdom. This is a consequence

of the decisions that I've made. And it's easy to abdicate responsibility and point the finger and blame God and say, he's punishing me, or I'm living in a generational curse, or I can't be anything other than who I am. You know what's hard? It's hard to say, you know what? I am living in the consequence of decisions that my parents have made, but I actually want to live in some consequences of decisions that I'm going to make. So therefore I'm going to take back authority of my life, and I'm going to take back ownership of my life and power over my life. And I'm going to make some decisions so that my children live in the consequences of my positive decisions. Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and available everywhere books are sold. Literally today, I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble, or you can go to a Books A Million, or Amazon, or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Do I think that my son is just automatically blessed because I'm a Christian? No, I don't. But do I think that my actions are creating a consequence where he is more likely to make decisions so that he can unlock blessing in his life? Absolutely. And my job is not to take responsibility for every decision that he makes. And my job is to not think that all the decisions that I've made are because of the parents that have come before me. But God has this unique way of judging individuals and holding communities accountable at the exact same time. And that's attention. And that's a dance. And that's not just true for Ezekiel's context. That's true forever. That's a timeless truth. Does God punish? Yes, he does. But a lot of times, God just allows the consequences of our actions to actually catch up with us. And it is very common for humans to mistake natural consequences for divine punishment. And that's true for your life, my life and everybody's life. That's our timeless truth for today. Family, tomorrow we've got day 232. We're gonna be walking through Ezekiel chapters 21 to 24.

It's gonna be great. If you're on a streak, I'm so, so, so proud of you. I'll see you right here tomorrow as we continue our trek, the book of Ezekiel. Love you, peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department Podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebibledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.