The Sword of Judgment

In Ezekiel 21 we have one of the hardest words from the Lord in the whole Bible. God will brandish a sword and strike both Jerusalem and the Ammonites from their lands. His judgment will come down upon all those who live there, and the instrument of His judgment will be the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. 

Ezekiel 21:1–3 (ESV) The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel 3 and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am against you and will draw my sword from its sheath and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked.

Other portions of scripture refer to the Word of God as a sword that pierces and divides. Here, it is a picture of judgment. God says the judgment will come and affect both the righteous and the wicked. 

Ezekiel 21:4–5 (ESV) Because I will cut off from you both righteous and wicked, therefore my sword shall be drawn from its sheath against all flesh from south to north. 5 And all flesh shall know that I am the LORD. I have drawn my sword from its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again.

Is God treating the righteous the same as the wicked? In the case of national events, yes. In the case of eternal recompense, no. Other scripture would affirm God delineates between the two. The actions of the Lord will always affect all people. Those who know the Lord will be safe amid judgment, rising up to serve in whatever capacity God determines - as the lives of Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abed-Nego attest. 

Ezekiel 21:6–7 (ESV) “As for you, son of man, groan; with breaking heart and bitter grief, groan before their eyes. 7 And when they say to you, ‘Why do you groan?’ you shall say, ‘Because of the news that it is coming. Every heart will melt, and all hands will be feeble; every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it is coming, and it will be fulfilled,’ ” declares the Lord GOD.

God wants Ezekiel to express the bitterness of all these things even before the people see them. What is that about? So that Israel might know God's attitude toward judgment. It is not with delight He performs these things. It is with grief. The Lord is patient and had been patient with Israel for 400 years as the abandoned Him repeatedly. Now, the Lord's determined outcome is inevitable but still regrettable.

Ezekiel 21:20–22 (ESV) Mark a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the Ammonites and to Judah, into Jerusalem the fortified. 21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shakes the arrows; he consults the teraphim; he looks at the liver. 22 Into his right hand comes the divination for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth with murder, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build siege towers.

Here, Ezekiel reveals the direction Nebuchadnezzar takes in attacking Jerusalem was determined by divination, a tool of the pagans the Lord prohibited from Israel (See Deuteronomy 18:10). Now the people who followed these pagan practices in rebellion will see those very practices become their undoing. Why? So that they might learn the uselessness of these activities and be purged of their desire for them. 

Ezekiel 21:26–27 (ESV) thus says the Lord GOD: Remove the turban and take off the crown. Things shall not remain as they are. Exalt that which is low, and bring low that which is exalted. 27 A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it. This also shall not be, until he comes, the one to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to him.

Israel is to be humbled so that the humbled might one day be exalted. And this Temple they trust will be demolished until the Son, to whom it belongs, arrives. 500 years later, Jesus arrived at a rebuilt temple and took our judgment for sin on the cross. 

A dark chapter draws our attention to the inevitability of judgment to come - upon all in the land. Yet for those in Christ, the judgment passes over and brings salvation and purpose in their time on the Earth. 

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