Day 249 (Ezekiel 31-33) - Year 4
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

Yesterday we left off with God speaking in oracle against Egypt and Pharaoh. Today we dig into that a little deeper, starting in chapter 31, but it's not evident right off the bat. God is talking to Pharaoh, Hophra, and the Egyptians, but he spends most of the chapter talking about Assyria. God compares Assyria to the tallest and most significant cedar tree that has ever existed. And until recently, Assyria was the most powerful nation in the world for approximately 300 years. Then the giant cedar tree got chopped down by Babylon.

In verse 9, God says, I made it beautiful. He's the one who supplied it with water for its growth and abundance. But then in verse 11, God commands it to be chopped down. He brought it to life and he can bring it to an end. Ezekiel tells this story about Assyria for two reasons. A, he wants to illustrate that no nation is indestructible. And B, he wants to let Egypt know that they will see the same end as Assyria. They'll be chopped down too.

You may have noticed that Ezekiel has been establishing a bit of a pattern here. After he prophesies about a nation's destruction, he tends to follow it up with a lament. Since chapter 31 prophesies against Pharaoh specifically, chapter 32 is a lament for him specifically. Pharaoh thinks of himself as a lion, an apex predator among all the nations. But God says he's not very self-aware. He's more like a water dragon, which is the same imagery God used for him in chapter 29.

And God reiterates his promise to catch Pharaoh and the Egyptians in his net and hurl them onto land, where they'll be eaten by wild animals. But as we've talked about before, much of prophecy involves metaphorical language, so this isn't necessarily the precise way the Egyptians will die.

In verse 9, we see that something interesting will happen when Egypt is overthrown. We might expect the other nations around it to celebrate, but they won't. They'll be terrified. Because if Egypt can be toppled, then everyone is vulnerable. It's a terrifying but important reminder. Countries aren't built to last. Only one kingdom won't crumble. When we lean into nationalism or put our trust in earthly kingdoms, fear is a natural result.

These terrified other nations will even write their own song of lament for Egypt. Pharaoh finds consolation in the fact that other great nations before him have been toppled too. But God adds insult to injury by telling Pharaoh and the Egyptians that they'll be sharing the pit with all those uncircumcised nations. Egypt practiced circumcision and hated the nations that didn't, so this would kind of be like God telling the Philadelphia Eagles that they'd share a grave with the Dallas Cowboys.

Chapter 33 revisits a few things we first talked about in chapter 3, back when Ezekiel first got his assignment to be a prophet and to act as Israel's watchman. It compares Ezekiel to the guy who blows the trumpet to let people know about an attack on the city. If the trumpeter sounds off but no one listens, they bear the blame. If he doesn't blow the trumpet, he bears the blame. Ezekiel is only responsible for his obedience to God.

He isn't responsible for how other people respond to God or to him. He knows his lane, and his lane is not something as big as heart change or even as small as behavior modification. That's the Spirit's lane. His lane is trumpeting. So he's been blowing the horn for 33 chapters, and Israel is still like, Do you guys hear something? Whose ringtone is that? It's not mine. I keep my phone on silent. But finally, the people are like, Wow, we've really messed up here. What should we do?

God tells Ezekiel to remind them that no matter how wicked they've been, it's never too late to repent. True repentance is a sign of a new heart. And no matter how righteous they've been, even though we know they haven't been righteous, they just think they have, their actions won't save them. Because even people who think of themselves as good people, whatever that means, still sin. God says the state of their hearts is revealed in their actions.

God is very clear here that their actions aren't saving them. He isn't putting good deeds and bad deeds on a scale and weighing them. I have no idea where people even get that idea, but somehow it has become a prominent myth about what Christians believe. Even though that isn't part of our belief system at all, that teaching is nowhere in scripture. It is, however, a core belief of something theologians call moralistic therapeutic deism, MTD for short.

It's centered around the idea that God really just wants us to do good and be happy. If you want to learn more about MTD and how it's contrary to the gospel and pervasive in our culture, check out the short article we've linked to in the show notes. When Jerusalem falls to Babylon, a fugitive comes to Ezekiel to let him know, just like God promised in chapter 24. And also like God promised, Ezekiel is no longer mute.

How was that possible since he's been making all these prophecies? I promised you we would address this, so here's what I learned. Most commentators I read seemed to believe that Ezekiel's muteness was related to anything that was not prophecy. He'd been able to speak his prophecies but not have any conversation about the weather or his backache from lying on his side for 14 months, or even, as you may recall, to openly mourn the death of his wife. For years, his words only existed to warn others about God's judgment.

Not exactly the kind of guy you want to invite to the party, but honestly, he was probably more at peace in his soul than anybody else. What was your God shot? Mine was a little phrase we read in 3311 today, but that we first read not long ago back in 1823.

In both verses, he says, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. We've talked about how important it is to look for God and his character in Scripture, the things he loves, the things he hates, the things that motivate his actions. And we've talked about how the things he hates are things that run contrary to what he loves. So if God does not delight in the death of the wicked, then he does delight in their salvation. God's delight, God's joy is expressed in salvation.

When sinners repent and turn to him, we see his delight at work. We see his joy and his affection in the spotlight. God loves to save sinners and sanctify them. And from one sinner slash saint to another, his delight is the best thing that has ever happened to me. He's where the joy is.

Tomorrow we begin the second part of Ezekiel, so we've included the short video overview that we promised you back on day 238. The video is seven minutes long, so check that out if you have some time to spare.

Today is the day. La Synopsis de la Biblia is finally available and we're so excited to share this resource with you. So grab one for yourself and your Spanish speaking friends at the link in the show notes. In addition to releasing the Spanish book, we're also going to begin including Spanish translations in our daily social media posts. So follow us on social for those if you haven't already. And you can find all our socials in the show notes too.