Ezekiel 14:12-23--Jerusalem Will Not Be Spared

Ezekiel 14:12-23
English Standard Version

Jerusalem Will Not Be Spared
12 And the word of the LORD came to me: 13 “Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, 14 even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord GOD.

15 “If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through because of the beasts, 16 even if these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.

17 “Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Let a sword pass through the land, and I cut off from it man and beast, 18 though these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered.

19 “Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, 20 even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness.

21 “For thus says the Lord GOD: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast! 22 But behold, some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; behold, when they come out to you, and you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it. 23 They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, declares the Lord GOD.”

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It is not just the people that will be judged, but the Land must also be judged, because it has been polluted by the sins of the people.  The LORD will stretch out His hand over the Land and send judgment on it with the purpose of purifying the Land and letting it rest from all the iniquity of the people.

The LORD then makes an astonishing statement, but not that astonishing as it follows a similar pattern to what we have already seen in other parts of Scripture.  There are three men in Scripture whose righteousness is unlike others of their time--Noah, Job, and Daniel.  These men are actually declared righteous or blameless by the LORD.  They were men of integrity, though they were not without fault.  The LORD says that the combined righteousness of all three of these men would not be enough to save the Land from the coming judgment, but the LORD would deliver these righteous men from the judgment.  That sounds a lot like the conversation that the LORD had with Abraham before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  The LORD would not let the righteous (Lot and his believing family members) be destroyed with the wicked.  They would not save the cities if they stayed, but the LORD would make a way of escape for them.  So it is that the people of God will not save the world from destruction in the final judgment, but the LORD will provide a way of escape for us so that we who are in Christ will be saved through the judgment in the same way that Noah and his family were saved through the Flood.

The LORD will cause the wild animals to turn against men.  He has kept them at bay as a blessing to His people so far so that the animals feared them, but now they will fear the wild animals.  It would seem the judgment on Israel is even worse than the judgment of the Flood or Sodom and Gomorrah.  The LORD said that these righteous men would themselves be saved, but the LORD would not spare their children from the judgment that is to come.  A day is coming when each man will be responsible for his own choices about what he will do with Christ and they have accepted Him as both Lord and Savior or if they have rejected Him.  No man, no matter his righteousness, can make this choice for his wife, children, friends, or other family members.  Each person will be under His grace or under His wrath because of their own choices.

The LORD will also send war and others who would kill His people with the sword.  he likewise said that Noah, Job, and Daniel would be saved from such judgment, but their children would not be spared.  Again, each man is responsible for the choice he or she makes.  We cannot ride anyone else's coattails into heaven (except for Jesus' as we depend totally on what He did for us).

The LORD would also send pestilence (disease and famine and plagues).  This would be the most obvious outpouring of God's wrath on His people.  The other things could be blamed on external forces or natural causes, but it's hard to attribute natural causes to all nature turning against you.  Again, the righteousness of Noah, Job, and Daniel would save them from this judgment, but it would be insufficient to save their children.  (I hope you are detecting a pattern here as repetition is very important in this style of literature).   The LORD has told His people that none of them are good enough to earn salvation for themselves, let alone to cry out for salvation for their wicked children.  If the standard of righteousness is Noah, Job, or Daniel, none of them are going to measure up.

Though everyone in Jerusalem and Judah and all of Israel with them deserves to die, the LORD will save a remnant.  It will not be because they are righteous and they deserve it, but because He does this for the sake of His own Name and the promises that He made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David.  These survivors will be taken away into captivity, never to see the Beautiful Land again, but, one day, a future generation will return and rebuild the City of God and the House of the LORD (The Temple).  Though the LORD's wrath will be fierce, He does not act without cause.  He would have every right to destroy all of them, just like He rightly could have destroyed all men and women in the Flood, but He chose to save Noah and his family as a sign of the greater salvation that is to come.  In the same way, the LORD reminds His people that He is both their Savior/Redeemer and their Judge.   It is their choice how they want to know Him.