RELIGION OF ISRAEL
RELIGION OF ISRAEL
703
breach of treaty (177%) ; the princes, who are like wolves and worthless shepherds (22% 341%); the priests, who are forgetful of their duties (22) ; the lying prophets (13'* 22°%) and prophetesses (13!7#-), who lull the people into false security.
_All this guilt cries for vengeance. A feeling of pity for the perishing people is awakened, indeed, in the heart of Ezekiel by the view of the approach- ing terrible judgment, but the transgression is too great for pardon to be still possible (98 11% and often). Even such examples of piety as Noah, Daniel, and Job could now effect nothing by their intercession ; at most they would be able to save only themselves (14"4*:), The judgments that now threaten are only the close of those that have long —always, indeed, in vain—been impending over Israel. Quite peculiar in this connexion is the prophet’s doctrine that Jahweh has punished the Israelites for their apostasy by giving them com- mandments that were not good, as, for instance, the order for child-sacrifice. Only in this sense can the language of 20% be understood, even if the prophet in 167 and 23° speaks of these sacrifices as offered to idols. But it is almost inconceivable that Ezekiel should have repre- sented child-sacrifice as instituted by Jahweh Himself for the purpose of destroying Israel. Perhaps he speaks of the command of Ex 2275 9)» as ‘not good’ simply because it gave occasion to the delusion that God demanded not only the ee but the actual sacrifice of the first-
orn.
Ezekiel foresees with perfect clearness the ap- proach of the Chaldzeans (21°7*-), the siege of the city, with all its horrors (411), as well as its burning to the ground (10). By symbolical actions he portrays the fate of the besieged, the fresh decimation of those who had apparently escaped (5), and their departure to exile (12°*). Sword, famine, and pestilence shall devour them without intermission ; the land shall become a desolation and, along with its people, the subject of savage mockery by the heathen (514 337") ; the inhabit- ants themselves, carried into exile, shall have to eat unclean bread in the place of their captivity (4°").
7. But this casting off is not to be final. It would appear, indeed, from 21° as if the pious and the ungodly were alike to be overwhelmed by the judgment—a declaration to which Ezekiel evidently felt impelled for the time by the facts of the case; but at bottom the old Prophetic ex- pectation abides, that a certain number, however few, shall escape sword and famine, wild beasts, and pestilence (147). For Ezekiel beholds in spirit (94) not only the fall of Jerusalem into the hands of the enemy, but also the mark put by the angel on the foreheads of those who are destined to escape. And, further, he sees in spirit (37'*) the resurrection of the dead bones (i.¢. the people sunk as it were into the grave in exile) by the breath of God, which awakens them to new life. Those who are brought back to the Holy Land shall henceforward, after the removal of all the former abominations, dwell there secure, and re- joice in rich blessings from Jahweh’s hand (112 QQ2i. B413". BE8i. S38. 3g), Hor He remembers His former promises, forgives Jerusalem all her sins, and concludes with her an ever enduring covenant (16%. 3726), He can no more hide His face from His people now that He has poured out His spirit upon them (39%). And, as the. result of this receiving of the spirit of God, it is promised that the old nature shall have its place taken by another spirit and a new heart,* that the stony
* The call in 1831, in a somewhat different connexion, ‘ Make you a new heart and a new spirit,’ does not invalidate the truth that the bestowal of the new spirit can come from God only.
heart shall be changed into a soft heart of flesh (ale 307),
8. In so far as its fulfilment necessitates an extraordinary interposition of God, the last men- tioned promise may already be included in the category of Messianic prophecies (in the wider sense). Such prophecies, even in the narrower sense, are found in Ezekiel, although sparingly and with no special emphasis. Thus the tender Eira taken from the top of the tall cedar, and planted on a high and lofty mountain (the temple hill), where it grows to be a majestic cedar (177""'), can stand only for the Messianic king of David’s race, under whom Israel is to dwell secure. B, his exaltation shall the heathen kingdoms (all the trees of the field’) learn to know the power of Jahweh. There is no mention here then of the exercise of world-empire by the Messianic king. So also in 21° 7) it is said only that the State shall lie low until Ae comes to whom it [sc. the rule] belongs and to whom Jahweh gives it. A descendant of David is first expressly promised by Ezekiel in 34%; but even there not as the cham- pion and saviour of the people, but only as the faithful shepherd, who shall feed the flock after Jahweh Himself (v.1*, clearly dependent on Jer 231) has intervened on behalf of His sheep and even zealously discharged the shepherd’s office for them (v.U"). It is only after this that He is to set over them a single shepherd, namely His servant David. That this does not mean king David redivivus, but, asin the case of the ‘righteous shoot’ of David in Jer 23°, only one who rules in the spirit of David, is shown by the simple fact that he is not once called ‘ king’; on the contrary, it is said in v.24 ‘1, Jahweh, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince (s*¥}) in the midst of them.’ But, beyond this, nothing is predi- cated of him. It is Jahweh alone that concludes a covenant of peace with the people (v.*"), confers upon them security from wild beasts, as well as from oppression and mockery by their enemies, and imparts rich fertility to the land. The same prediction occurs in 37”* in connexion with the symbolic action whereby two staves (Judah and Joseph) are to be joined together in the hand of Ezekiel. Even the long fallen Northern king- dom is to be reunited with Judah so as to form one kingdom under one king. But once more it is Jahweh Himself (v.23) who delivers and purifies them, that they may become again His people. Now, it is true that in 37”, as compared with 34%, there appears to be an advance in so far as 37%" declares not only ‘and my servant David shall be king over them,’ but (v.”) ‘my servant David shall rule over them for ever.’ Can it be that the expectations of Ezekiel underwent such a trans- formation in the interval that he now looked for a king whose dominion should be unending? This is impossible, for it would completely contradict the réle which the ‘ prince’ (not the king) plays in the future programme of Ezk 40-48 (see below). But, even apart from that, in ch. 37 as in ch. 34 Jahweh appears so prominently as the real Ruler dwelling in His sanctuary in the midst of the people and exercising towards them the everlast- ing covenant of peace, that there is scarcely room left for the idea of the Messiah.