Ezekiel 5

If some evil folks had wanted a proof-text to justify the Holocaust, they could have easily misrepresented this. But though it seems to quite literally hint about the mass cremation of Jews in concentration camps throughout Europe in the 1940s, it refers instead to the death of the Jewish nation in 586 BC. That’s when Babylonian invaders from what is now Iraq levelled Jerusalem and other cities of Judah. Most survivors were either executed or deported and exiled to what is now Iraq. Assyrian invaders had earlier done a similar thing to the northern Kingdom of Israel. That was in 722 BC. It was more than a century later, that the southern Kingdom of Judah fell as well. The Jewish nation had been wiped off the map, becoming extinct. Surviving Jews began to wonder who they were and where they belonged and how they could possibly worship God without the Jerusalem Temple. For Jerusalem’s Temple was the only place Jews were permitted to offer their sacrifices. And within about seven years after Ezekiel started prophesying, Jerusalem became rock city.

The implication here is that Israel was supposed to be a good example to the neighboring nations, not just another one of the Good Ol’ Boys having a hoot, doing whatever they wanted.

Perhaps the most repulsive and disgusting things some of the people did in and near the sacred spaces of the Jerusalem Temple and courtyard was to sacrifice children to other gods. Bible writers report that at least two of Judah’s kings did that: King Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:6) and his grandfather, King Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:3). Many kings of Judah also built shrines to various gods on hilltops throughout the land. Some, including Manasseh, put pagan shrines on the grounds of the Jerusalem Temple (2 Chronicles 33:4).

This is what sometimes happened during a long siege, when an invading army surrounds a walled city and cuts off their access to food. People inside the city eventually ate all the food they had and killed all the animals to eat the meat. When nothing else was left, they ate one another. This wasn’t just a prediction. This was later reported as fact (2 Kings 6:29; Lamentations 2:20).

These verses are a lot to take in when we consider that they’re presented as coming from our Creator. The words sound more violent than peaceful, more hateful than loving, more petty than divine. Bible scholars explain that in different ways. To some, the words are like someone screaming “Stop!” to people about to fall off a cliff. To others, it’s the word choice of Ezekiel, trying to convey God’s warning to the people and his urgent attempt to direct the people back to God. Yet others say these are God’s words, not Ezekiel’s. They argue there is a place for holy anger when it comes to horrific sins like the child sacrifice that some people of Israel practiced. In a counterpoint, though, some say they wonder if God’s punishment of putting parents in a place of having to kill and eat their own children is overkill. At the end of the arguments, there is God. No matter how we interpret words attributed to him, the Bible’s persistent teaching is that God is the LORD of everyone, the supreme being. What that means to how we interpret Bible prophecy and reported Bible history is sometimes hotly debated among people with minds open and searching and among people with minds settled, sealed, and out to lunch.