12 The word of the Lord came to me:
13 "Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals,
14 even if these three men — Noah, Daniel and Job — were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord.
15 "Or if I send wild beasts through that country and they leave it childless and it becomes desolate so that no one can pass through it because of the beasts,
16 as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved, but the land would be desolate.
17 "Or if I bring a sword against that country and say, ‘Let the sword pass throughout the land,’ and I kill its men and their animals,
18 as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved.
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Heb. 12:25-2919 "Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out my wrath upon it through bloodshed, killing its men and their animals,
20 as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save neither son nor daughter. They would save only themselves by their righteousness.
21 "For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments — sword and famine and wild beasts and plague — to kill its men and their animals! 22 Yet there will be some survivors — sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem — every disaster I have brought upon it.
23 You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign Lord."
The key to understanding what God says here to Ezekiel seems to be in the last two verses of this section. Ezekiel must have gone through the same kind of emotional struggle Jeremiah experienced in Jerusalem. Jeremiah came to the point where he felt he could no longer prophesy the message of doom and punishment. He said: “Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.”1 Soldiers who have been in combat for a long time can suffer emotional and psychological distress to the point of damage. Killing with words or with the sword will harm our own soul. Therefore, God promises Ezekiel consolation that will come in the testimony of those who survive the ordeal.
There is in this section an indirect reference to Abraham’s prayer of intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah.2 Abraham was convinced that God would not “kill the righteous with the wicked.” He therefore interceded and said: “Far be it from you to do such a thing — to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”3 He was told that ten righteous people would have saved the cities, but they were non-existent.
Here God presents Ezekiel with the hypothetical picture of the presence of three righteous people, one of whom was Ezekiel’s contemporary, Daniel, the other two historical figures, Noah and Job. Incidentally, the mention of Job’s name pleads for the fact that he was a historical person, not merely a character in a fiction, as some theologians believe.
We find a similar picture in Jeremiah, where we read: “Then the Lord said to me: ‘Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go!’”4
One point that emerges from the text is that there can be circumstances in which three righteous people could save a city or a country. In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, even the presence of one person, the righteous Lot, would have made it impossible for the angel to destroy the cities. Lot asked to be allowed to flee to Zoar, which was granted to him. We read that the angel says to Lot: “I cannot do anything until you reach it.”5 But in the case of the nation of Israel, no one could save them from the wrath of God that had built up over the centuries.
John B. Taylor, in Ezekiel, comments on the attitude of the people who believed that God would not punish the nation of Israel, because of a small pious remnant: “This attitude is nothing less than using the saints as an insurance policy to cover the sinners. It has been a human failing in every generation. A community is a trifle
1.
Jer. 20:8,9 2. Gen. 18:16-33 3. Gen. 18:254.
Jer. 15:1embarrassed to have a saint among its number, but it derives a sense of security from his presence, rather like the possession of a religious lucky charm.”
Barnes’ Notes observes about the names of Noah, Daniel, and Job: “Three striking instances of men who,
for their integrity, were delivered from the ruin which fell upon others. Some have thought it strange that Daniel, a contemporary, and still young, should have been classed with the two ancient worthies. But the account of him (Dan 2) shows, that by this time Daniel was a very remarkable man (compare Ezek 28:3), and the introduction of the name of a contemporary gives force and life to the illustration. There is in the order in which the names occur a kind of climax. Noah did not rescue the guilty world, but did carry forth with him his wife, sons, and sons’ wives. Daniel raised only a few, but he did raise three of his countrymen with him to honor. To Job was spared neither son nor daughter.”
John B. Taylor, in Ezekiel, observes about vv.13 and 14: “Committing a trespass (RV) is far too mild a translation for a strong Hebrew verb with its cognate accusative following it. The root meaning is of ‘acting treacherously’ and so breaking a solemn covenant. It is used of the sin of Achan in relation to the devoted thing (the
herem, Jos. 7:1) and of a wife’s adulterous act (Nu. 5:12), both of which incurred the death penalty. The meaning here
is similarly of a land which by its unfaithfulness deserves the ultimate in punishment.” About the name Daniel, Taylor disagrees with other Bible scholars, saying: “Daniel alone is unknown from the Bible. He can hardly be Ezekiel’s contemporary in exile: in any case the word used here is ‘Dani’el’ and not ‘Daniyyel’l’ as in the book of that name. The likelihood is that this is the ‘Dan’el’ of the ancient Canaanite epic discovered in 1930 at Ras Shamra, the ancient Ugarit, on the north Syrian coast, and dating from about 1400 BC. He appears there mainly as the dispenser of fertility, but also as the upright one, judging the cause of the widow and of the fatherless. We must suppose either that this early Semitic literature was known to later Hebrew generations or, more likely, that ancient Hebrew traditions which have not survived incorporated material centered around a character of the same name and similar character to the Ugaritic Dan’el.” Basing his rejection of the Biblical Daniel on different spellings of the name seems to require more ingenuity and faith than most Biblical scholars with authority can produce.
Here, the Lord paints four pictures before the eyes of Ezekiel, not that Ezekiel would choose one of them, but to emphasize the point of Israel’s complete moral failure and to show that the judgments that take place on earth are not the final ones. Famine, wild animals, war and sickness are shadows of the final judgment that will mark the end of this world. Jesus warned the generation of His days of this, saying: “And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”1 We tend to think that when God turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into what is now the Dead Sea, this was the final judgment. Jesus says that there will be a day of judgment at which the people of those cities, together with the citizens of Capernaum and the rest of the population of this word will stand before God and the books will be opened. The Apostle Paul tells us that God raised Jesus from the dead in order to save us “from the coming wrath.”2
The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary explains the phrase “You will be consoled when you see
their conduct and their actions” “Ye, the exiles at the Chebar, who now murmur at God’s judgment about to be inflicted on Jerusalem as harsh, when ye shall see the wicked ‘ways’ and character of the escaped remnant, shall acknowledge that both Jerusalem and its inhabitants deserved their fate: this recognition of the righteousness of the judgment will reconcile you to it, and so ‘ye shall be comforted’ under it (Calvin). Then would follow mercy to the elect remnant, though that is not referred to here, but in Ezek 20:43-44.” The last quoted reference reads: “There you will remember your conduct and all the actions by which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evil you have done. You will know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for my name’s sake and not according to your evil ways and your corrupt practices, O house of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
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Matt. 11:23,24The Pulpit Commentary comments: “The words end with a gleam of hope shining through the judgments.
For Ezekiel, as for Isaiah, there is the thought of a ‘remnant that shall return’ (… Isaiah 10:20-22). It has been questioned whether ‘the ways and the doings’ which are to bring comfort to men’s minds are those of the evil past or of the subsequent repentance. I incline to the view that they include both. Men should see at once the severity and the goodness of Jehovah. His punishments had not been arbitrary nor excessive. They had also been as a discipline leading men to repentance. In each of those facts there was a ground of comfort for men who asked the question, which Abraham asked of old, ‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?’ (… Genesis 18:25). In either aspect men will recognize that God has not done without cause all that he has done. In this way the prophet seeks, as others have done since, to justify the ways of God to man. Ezekiel’s word for ‘remnant’ is, it may be noted, not the same as Isaiah’s, its primary significance being ‘these that escape.’ Ezekiel does not quote the earlier prophet, though his thoughts are in harmony with him.”
Although it may be difficult to distinguish in all the elements of judgments, whether they are positive or negative, and which groups will receive the “comfort” that seems to be hidden in them, it is clear that the outcome will be positive in that it will bring glory to God. And God’s glory benefits all of creation. When the youngest son in Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son came to the end of his rope and was compelled to hire himself out to a citizen of the country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. That was not the highlight of his life he had envisioned when he left his father’s house. But it was the best thing that ever happened to him. For we read that “He came to his senses.”1 There is comfort in the words of the Psalmist: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.”2 C. S. Lewis coined the phrase “A severe mercy,” which can be very appropriately applied to those who go through any kind of trial and come out purer.