In this chapter, we read of the attitude of God towards the worshippers of idols and the certainty of judgment.
Israel’s leaders have idols in their hearts. Ezekiel is shown that God is only doing what He must. One irony of the people’s continued idolatry is their practice of seeking God’s will from the prophets.
They are fascinated and allured by the various idols they have set up in their hearts, but deep down in those same hearts, there is evidently the realisation that only a much greater God can provide the real answers to life. Yet God considers their dual allegiance an affront and orders Ezekiel not to accommodate their curiosity.
Who are these elders? Ezekiel 14:1. Perhaps the same group of elders who came in Ezekiel 8:1-18.
Trapp, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Rulers and chieftains of the captives in Babylon, pretending to be far better than those elders at Jerusalem, complained about in Ezekiel 8:11-12, but indeed no better; nay, so much the worse, because they had lost the fruit of all their afflictions, and were as arrant hypocrites.’
These were perhaps some of the ‘best’ elders Judah had. Nebuchadnezzar had taken the cream captive in 606 and 597 B.C. Ezekiel saw before him men who were well respected, but God saw they had idols in their hearts, Ezekiel 14:2-3 / Ezekiel 8:10-12 / Ezekiel 8:16.
The words, ‘idols in their hearts,’ Ezekiel 14:3, show the relationship these elders had with idolatry. They may not outwardly show idolatrous practices, but they had an intimate relationship with them.
Wiersbe, in his commentary, says the following.
‘They were like the people in Isaiah’s day who drew near to God with words but not with their hearts, Isaiah 29:13. Jesus said that the Pharisees in His day were guilty of the same sin, Matthew 15:8-9.’
Ellison, in his commentary, says the following.
‘No greater insult can be offered to God than for the man who offers Him no allegiance, or at best a divided one, which He will not accept, to come to His prophet and to ask to know His will, which he will only do if it suits him. He may do it to seem respectable in the eyes of man, or out of superstition, or just because it is customary.’
God, knowing their sin, asks Ezekiel a question, should I let them inquire of me at all? Ezekiel 14:3. The answer is to which is obviously no. Anyone with idols in their hearts has no right whatever to seek any information from God, Psalms 66:18.
However, God will answer them not through words but through actions. He will bring judgment upon them because of their idolatry, Ezekiel 14:4. The prophet’s word to them will, of course, be from God; the ultimate word for them was the destruction of Jerusalem, Ezekiel 14:4.
God says He is going to judge them to recapture the hearts of His people who have swapped a relationship with Him for a relationship with idols, Ezekiel 14:5. But again, the prophet is given the message of warning to all, to remove their idolatry, outward and inward.
They must turn from their idols and renounce their detestable practices, Ezekiel 14:6. Remember, idolatry is punishable by death, Exodus 20:3-5 / Leviticus 19:4 / Leviticus 26:1 / Deuteronomy 5:8 / Deuteronomy 12:3 / Deuteronomy 27:15.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The infinite mercy of God is here seen in the fact that, while in the very act of pronouncing a sentence of death upon his Chosen People, God here made one last solemn plea for them to forsake the evil idolatrous ways to which their hearts so avidly desired to return, in which guilty state they were already ensnared, and instead to give up all of their evil practices and return wholeheartedly to the Lord.’
Notice the hypocrisy of these men; they come to ask God for His will despite being steeped in idolatry, Ezekiel 14:7. They will be punished by God as He sets His face against them, makes them an example and a byword. God will remove them from His people, and then they will know that He is the LORD, Ezekiel 14:8.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The inquiry was hypocritical and unreal, but God will answer not by the mouth, but by the hand, not by word but by deed, not by speech but by a scourge.’
Feinberg, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The punishment outlined echoes the wording of Deuteronomy 28:37, and the earlier warning in Leviticus 20:3 / Leviticus 20:5-6. God would set Himself against that man until he was destroyed from the midst of Israel.’
If the people went to a false prophet to inquire of the LORD, God could give them an answer because He is the One who induced that prophet, Ezekiel 14:9. However, God will destroy that false prophet, Ezekiel 14:9.
Does God deceive the prophet? God allows them to follow their own wills, Romans 1:18-32 / 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12. God tells the prophet that he will only send one judgement on a people when it is absolutely necessary.
Block, in his commentary, says the following.
‘By giving the people lying prophets, who proclaim to the people exactly what they want to hear, Yahweh ensures the people’s judgment.’
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘A deep truth lies beneath these words, namely, that evil as well as good is under God’s direction. He turns it as He will, employing it to test the sincerity of men, and thus making it ultimately contribute to the purification of His people, to the confirmation of the righteous, to the increase of their glory and felicity. The case of the false prophets who deceived Ahab, 1 Kings 22:1-28, is a striking representation of this principle. The Lord sends forth an evil spirit to persuade Ahab to his ruin. Toward the close of the kingdom of Judah, false prophets were especially rife. The thoughts of men’s hearts were revealed, the good separated from the bad, and the remnant of the people purged from the sins by which of late years the whole nation had been defiled.’
Notice the punishment of the false prophet will be the same as the one who consults him, Ezekiel 14:10. There is also a warning to Ezekiel that he will be punished if he tries to comfort the people with lies. He knows the true message from God; he must speak it or expect the same judgement, Ezekiel 14:9-10.
God’s reason for His judgment upon Israel is revealed in Ezekiel 14:11. He wants to correct their sin, and He wants to restore the relationship they once had with Him. He wants them to be His people and He, their God.
This message from God seems to be primarily to Ezekiel. He tells Ezekiel that if a country sins against Him because of unfaithfulness, He will punish the country, Ezekiel 14:12-13. The punishment is seen in the food being cut off from the land and a famine in the land where people and the animals will die, Ezekiel 4:13.
Wiersbe, in his commentary, says the following.
‘God gave the Jews victory over the residents ‘little by little’ so that the land wouldn’t revert to its natural state and the wild animals take over, Deuteronomy 7:22.’
It appears that Ezekiel is not convinced that such a harsh judgement is due to his people. How many righteous people does it take to save a nation? It has been fifteen hundred years since Abram asked that question about Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 18:32. Surely at this time, there are righteous believers among both the captives and their Jerusalem kinsmen, who are asking the same question themselves.
Note that Noah, Daniel, and Job are mentioned in Ezekiel 14:14. Why these three are chosen seems unclear. The three together vouch for their historicity, of which Daniel’s and Job’s have been doubted.
God’s answer to Ezekiel is that there comes a time when a nation sins so completely that not even a remnant of righteous citizens can stop the destruction of inherent evil.
God uses as his illustration of a righteous remnant a trio of faithful believers. Noah who saw all mankind, except his own family, destroyed by the great flood, Hebrews 11:7. Job the patient patriarch, James 5:11.
Daniel who is in captivity in Babylon and serving in Nebuchadnezzar’s palace, who will distinguish himself even more than he already has, Daniel 2:48. There is so little righteousness in the land that these three righteous men could not avert the judgement.
Notice the four sore judgments that are coming on Jerusalem, Famine, Ezekiel 14:13, wild beasts, Ezekiel 14:15, a sword, Ezekiel 14:17, and pestilence Ezekiel 14:19.
For each one of these judgements, Noah, Daniel, and Job’s righteousness would not be enough to avert that judgement, Ezekiel 14:16 / Ezekiel 14:18 / Ezekiel 14:20. So, he says, how much more will that be true if God sends his four sore judgements on the land, Ezekiel 14:21.
This small amount of righteousness, not being able to save a nation, is seen in Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham’s interceding for the fifty, then eventually ten righteous, is the same principle, Genesis 18:23-25.
Lot’s righteousness was not enough to save Sodom. From the hypothetical land receiving one judgement from God, the prophet is now shown this in relation to Jerusalem, Ezekiel 14:21.
McGuiggan, in his commentary, says the following.
‘If a land is ravaged by any one of these sore judgements, what should one realise? That the nation is too sinful to be permitted to get away with it. And what if all of the four sore judgments fell on a land? That would mean the land was utterly incorrigible and beyond salvation without radical purging. Well, this is exactly the position that Jerusalem was in.’
Ezekiel is told in closing that the remnant from the destroyed city would prove God’s case, Ezekiel 14:22. The prophet would see in them the characteristics that demanded such judgement, Ezekiel 14:23.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This is not the ‘righteous remnant’ so often mentioned in Isaiah, because this remnant was wicked. These ‘sons and daughters’ were in no sense saved, but God preserved them as specimens and witnesses of the corrupt Israel that had required God’s terminal punishment. Ezekiel pointed out that they would be a source of comfort to those of right mind among the captives, because their ways and their doings (always mentioned by Ezekiel in the sense of wickedness) would enable the captives to see the righteousness of all that God would bring to pass in Jerusalem.’