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Back to Ezekiel now; and in chapter 33 we learn that a fugitive from Jerusalem brings
news of the fall of Jerusalem. So it's about 587, 586 [BCE]; and when he hears this, Ezekiel
exchanges his message of doom for a message of hope.
Before the fall of the city, his task had been to shatter the people's illusions. He
wanted to shake them out of their complacency, but now the people are reduced to despair
and remorse, and his task is to offer reassurance and hope. God is going to initiate a new beginning.
Though Israel's punishment was deserved, it was not, according to Ezekiel, a sign of the
end of the relationship between Yahweh and his people, and a new Israel would rise from
the remnant of Judah and Israel. He expresses this restoration by means of many metaphors
and visions. So chapter 34 condemns the shepherds. This
is a very common Ancient Near Eastern metaphor for the leadership of a people; a king is
always a shepherd and so on. So chapter 34 condemns the shepherds of the people and promises
to set up in the future one shepherd of the House of David to be prince among the people.
Chapter 36 uses metaphors of purity and cleansing. Israel will be cleansed from the impurities
of the past. She'll be given a new covenant of the heart. This is in verses 24 and 25
in chapter 36. I will take you from among the nations and
gather you from all the countries and I will bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle
clean water upon you [pure water upon you], and you shall be clean: [Pure.] I will cleanse
you from all your uncleanness and from all your fetishes. And I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit into you: I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give
you a heart of flesh; and I will put My spirit into you. Thus I will cause you to follow
My laws and faithfully to observe My rules. [There are echoes here of Jeremiah also.]
Then you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people
and I will be your God.
So we have again this almost utopian redesign of human nature that we heard in Jeremiah.
One in which the problems that are associated with the exercise of free will may be obviated.
Another metaphor that's used for the restoration of a new Israel out of the remnant of the
old, is the metaphor of revival from death and this is found in chapter 37--a very, very
famous passage: Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones:
The hand of the Lord came upon me. He took me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me
down in the valley. It was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very
many of them spread over the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, "O mortal, can
these bones live again?" I replied, "O Lord GOD, only you know." [Very diplomatic answer.]
And He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word
of the LORD! Thus said the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you and
you shall live again. I will lay sinews upon you, and cover you with flesh, and form skin
over you. And I will put breath into you, and you shall live again, and you shall know
that I am the LORD!" I prophesied as I had been commanded. And
while I was prophesying, suddenly there was a sound of rattling, and the bones came together,
bone to matching bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had grown,
and skin had formed over them.
…
The breath entered them, and they came to life and stood up on their feet, a vast multitude.
And He said to me, "O mortal, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They say, 'Our
bones are dried up, our house is gone; we are doomed.' Prophesy, therefore, and say
to them: Thus said the LORD GOD: I am going to open your graves and lift you out of the
graves, O My people, and bring you to the land of Israel. You shall know, O My people,
that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves and lifted you out of your graves.
I will put my breath into you and you shall live again, and I will set you upon your own
soil. Then you shall know that I the LORD have spoken and have acted--declares the LORD.