Chapter 21
A new message from God through Ezekiel. He is to look toward Jerusalem and say that God has drawn His sword. He isn't standing there, arms akimbo, with a scowl on His face. That is passed. He has drawn His sword. This verse:
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. [Eze 21:5 ESV]
Once drawn, the sword will be used before it is sheathed again.
2024 - I would suggest this year that the sword is yet unsheathed against Israel.
2025 - And this year, I agree with last year!
Jeremiah is to groan, and make no secret of it. The fearful end is coming to Judah.
In vs 8,9, Jeremiah is to say the sword is sharpened for slaughter, and polished. It will flash like lightning. This will not be a test for Judah, to see if they will turn. This is wrath. This sword will kill.
Jeremiah is to take a sword himself, and to slash this way and that, saying that God has put a sword at every gate. That God is swinging His sword and will do, and "...I will satisfy my fury." God is so very angry. And this people cannot even see it. Won't listen. Still believe that Jerusalem will recover, and that they will soon return there.
Vs 18 is God's word, again, to Ezekiel. Ezekiel is to make a sign to go at the fork of the road Babylon will use to invade. One fork goes to Jerusalem, the other to Rabbah, in Ammon. The King of Babylon has reason to attack both. He will stop at this fork, and use divination to determine his course. He will look at a liver, consult his teraphim- household gods, and other sorts of "magic" to determine what he should do. The result will be an attack on Jerusalem. The people will know this is what he has decided. Yet even then, they will believe it is a false divination, and that either he will turn back, or be very unsuccessful. Even as Babylon marches to Jerusalem, they will not believe that the prophecies of both Jeremiah and Ezekiel are coming to pass before their eyes.
This verse:
26 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. [Eze 21:26 ESV]
One can tell this is an important verse, that much symbolism is here. But I don't understand it. Here is what MSB says, paraphrased. The turban is about the priesthood, the crown about kingly succession. Neither is really restored fully after Jerusalem falls. Per MSB, this fall is the actual beginning of the Age of the Gentiles. I had always believed that started when the Jews rejected Christ. This view has it starting after the captivity, in about 500 BC. This is tied to the phrase "Things shall not remain as they are." The Jews have lost their place as God's unique people, at least until He restores them at the end. Add to this the next verse:
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. [Eze 21:27 ESV]
Ruin repeated three times for emphasis. Israel, the Jews, will barely even be a nation again. For a long time, it won't be. And then it struggles every day with the threat of immediate annihilation. It will stay this way "until he comes:. The Messiah - Jesus - who will combine the offices of priest and king...and I would add that He is also the perfect sacrifice - and so restore Jerusalem and Israel.
2026 - Ezekiel is giving us these prophecies from Babylon. Chebar and Susa. He is there, in captivity, at the same time as Daniel. So from where he is, he is prophesying about the fall of Jerusalem. So it hasn't fallen yet...or hasn't fallen completely yet. Things are going to get worse before they get better. And we also need to understand that "things are going to change" even after they come home at the end of 70 years. The turban and the crown...no more ever. The Babylonian captivity was really the end of Israeli national sovereignty. Until perhaps 1948...
The last verses of the chapter are a prophesy against Ammon. It too is going to fall, and receive punishment for it's own sins. This last verse of the chapter sums it up:
32 You shall be fuel for the fire. Your blood shall be in the midst of the land. You shall be no more remembered, for I the LORD have spoken." [Eze 21:32 ESV] Nothing here about Ammon being restored at the end, as is mentioned in connection with Moab.