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Bible - NT - Revelation Bible - OT - Ezekiel: North and South

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Puzzling over the overlapping images of the faces of the cherubim and the tabernacle furnishings, with the help of James Jordan’s essay on orientation in Revelation. The east-west orientation, lion-bull, is fairly clear. East is the place of the altar, therefore the origin of the bull, who ascends to the inner sanctuary so that his face appears to the west. West is the place of the ark-throne, therefore the origin of the lion, who descends from the inner sanctuary so that his face appears to the east.

North and south has been more difficult. Here’s my best shot.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 11:27 am

Bible - OT - Ezekiel Bible - OT - Genesis Bible - OT - Isaiah: Naked and Ashamed

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Before the fall, Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed in the garden (Genesis 2:25). After the fall, they saw their nakedness (3:7), and their behavior manifests shame, even though the word is not used.

In the LXX, the two words “naked” and some form of “shame” are used together only twice. In Isaiah 20:4, the words are used to describe the people of Israel as they are driven into exile by Assyria naked and exposed. It is a new expulsion from Eden.

In Ezekiel 23:29, Yahweh threatens to hand Jerusalem and Samaria over to their enemies so that they will be stripped and exposed and theuir immorality will be evident to all. Tis like another fall of man.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 10:23 am

Bible - OT - Ezekiel: Measuring water

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In the Bible, holy things and holy places are measured out. Measuring is an act of consecrating, of dividing holy from common.

In Ezekiel 47, the water that flows from the temple is measured. That can only mean it is holy water, and not just holy but sanctifying.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, March 18, 2011 at 12:14 pm

Bible - OT - Exodus Bible - OT - Ezekiel: Heart of stone

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Throughout the early chapters of Exodus, Yahweh is hardening Pharaoh’s heart. By the end, there is a heart of stone in the heart of Egypt.

To say that Israel has a heart of stone that needs to be turned to hearts of flesh is to say that Israel is an Egypt that needs to be re-Israelized through exile.

At another level, Israel has a heart of stone because in the heart of Israel is the tabernacle, and in the heart of the tabernacle is the ark, and in heart of the ark are two tablets of stone written with the finger of God. Israel is constituted as an “Egyptian” or “Egypt-like” stone-hearted people. Like the Egyptians, they live under stony stoicheia.

Ultimately, what is needed is not Yahweh’s word made stone but Yahweh’s word made flesh.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, October 9, 2010 at 8:37 am

Bible - OT - Ezekiel: Windows of heaven

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Solomon’s temple had windows, but they are mentioned only once, in 1 Kings 6:4. Ezekiel’s description of the visionary temple uses the word “window” twelve times.

One can see out of, and look into, Solomon’s temple. From Ezekiel’s temple, Israel can look out the twelve windows to the world, and the temple is opened to the world.

This seems new: How strange is it to have the temple wall perforated with windows? Pretty strange, I suspect. Temples are supposed to be closed-off holy spaces. But Ezekiel wants to open the windows of heaven.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 4:20 pm

Bible - OT - Ezekiel: New Hearts

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Ezekiel is the only OT writer to promise a “new heart” to Israel (18:31; 36:26). He promises hearts of flesh in place of hearts of stone. What has given the people of Judah hearts of flesh in the first place?

Ezekiel 14:1-7 gives an answer: They have set (stone – gold and silver) idols in their hearts, and those who worship stone idols become stony. The new heart is a heart that is no longer devoted to stone.

Devoted to what then? We can corporatize this; Ezekiel is not just talking about individual Israelites worshiping idols, and hardening their hearts as a result. He is talking about Judah as a whole: They have set dead stone at the heart of their corporate, liturgical life, where they should have set the Lord of life. Ultimately, the transformation of hearts of flesh into stone requires an incarnation, an object of worship in flesh. When Jesus is set before the eyes and in the heart of His people, then their hearts are made human again.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 7:58 am

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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