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Bible - OT - Ezekiel: Baptismal meditation

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Ezekiel 16: 3-6: Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, Live! Yes, I said to you in your blood, Live!

Jerusalem was an abandoned infant, left by Canaanite parents who had performed none of the birth ceremonies. They had not cut the cord, they had not washed her, they had not rubbed her with salt. The Lord found Jerusalem screaming naked in her blood, and spoke to her words of life.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, September 2, 2007 at 8:05 am

Bible - OT - Ezekiel: Ezekiel 18

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Walter Bruggemann (An Introduction to the Old Testament, p. 206f) offers this intriguing discussion of Ezekiel 18. He notes that this has usually been taken as a universal statement about individual human responsibility, but that interpretation detaches the passage from its context. He suggests a contextually sensitive interpretation:

“When taken locally and pastorally, the text has a very different meaning. The body of the text is organized into three generations:

The first generation of a righteous man (vv. 5-9)
The second generation of a wicked man (vv. 10-13)
The third generation of a righteous man (vv. 14-18)

“In each case, the destiny for and verdict upon each generation depends on adherence to Torah in terms of (a) avoiding idolatry and serving only YHWH, (b) obedient sexuality, and (c) obedient economics. [PJL: Note the similarity to the Pentateuchal lists of sins that lead to expulsion from the land; cf. Klawans, Sin and Impurity in Ancient Israel.] It is likely that three generations are not a theoretical case, but refer in turn to (a) Josiah the good king (2 Kgs 23:25), (b) Jehoiakim the bad king (2 Kgs 23:36-37), and (c) Jehoiachin the third king (2 Kgs 24:8-12). That is, the verdict is still out on the third king who is in exile, the leader of the exilic community, the king upon whom the Ezekiel tradition has based its chronology (Ezek 1:2). Thus it is probably that this text in Ezekiel 18 concerns the destiny of and theological verdict upon the third generation, the generation of exiles led by Jehoiachin.

“The good news announced in this text is that the third generation may indeed repent and be obedient in three key areas of (a) YHWH’s sovereignty, (b) sexuality, and (c) economics. The assurance of the text is that the exilic generation need not be enthralled by the sins of the previous generation of Jehoiakim, but is free to start again in repentance and new obedience. . . .”

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 at 7:56 am

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