Ezekiel 40 – The note
in my Jerusalem Bible says that this
final section of Ezekiel “is a blueprint for the religious and political
rehabilitation of the Israelite nation in Palestine . . . He “assumes the role
of organizer intent on realizing . . . long-desired reforms . . . a founding
charter for what was shortly to emerge as Judaism, and to provide a basis for
all future efforts and aspiration from Ezra to the heavenly Jerusalem of the
apocalypse of St John” (1411).
Twenty-five
years into their captivity (573 BC), Ezekiel (in Babylon) is taken in a “divine
vision” to the land of Israel, to “a very high mountain” (40:2). There he has
an encounter with an angelic presence – “a man who seemed to be made of bronze”
(40:3). This “man”/angel shows him the future city of Jerusalem and in great
detail describes the structures – gates, outer courts and related buildings
that will surround the Temple. He shows him the Temple as well but it is not
described in such detail as the rest since 1 Kings 6 already has the detail.
Lawrence Boadt’s Reading the
Old Testament says that chapters 40 through 48 lay out God’s new plan for
the restored city. “At the center of
this vision, parallel to the new heart in the first part of the plan, are
life-giving waters that flow from the temple to touch every living thing in the
land . . .” (396).
Ezekiel,
unlike Jeremiah, lived in exile. He came to see the key of the new covenant in
its “interior-ness” (396). What the
community was in external things was not so important as what it did from the
heart. Those close to God were not the ones who had the priestly
bloodlines but those who had decided for
God and lived in the spirit of the covenant. “Ezekiel was the last of the
great prophets and the first of the new priestly
visionaries that would create modern Judaism . . .” (398).
Israel
could practice its faith without “having” land or king or outward Temple. They
created the “Book” – the Pentateuch - minus Deuteronomy. The “P” edition kept
the narrative stories as they had come down but added lists that filled out
important themes: census lists, genealogies, inventories, hymns and poems. They
added the opening chapter 1 to Genesis, dates and calendars that permitted
celebrations to go forward. Important rituals were incorporated. The “P”
writers incorporated orderly “ages” and “stages”.
The “interiorization” of religious practice that Ezekiel calls for
is a response to the loss of the simple idea that God was going to make of
Abraham’s descendants a holy people in a holy land so fruitful they would be as
many as the sands on the shore or stars in the heavens. This was GONE. So now the Promised Land would focus on the practice
of the Law, the inward faithfulness of the people wherever they were. With the reestablishment of the community
by the Persians, a new sense of the covenant evolved and when that was lost,
the Messiah brought yet a new path.
How will this story develop over time? Where are we going?
Revelation 9 – With
the fifth trumpet, the prophet “saw a star that had fallen from heaven on
to the earth, and he was given the key to the shaft leading down to the Abyss”
(9:1). The Jerusalem Bible note says
this “angel” is probably “Satan.” He is given a key to the Abyss where the
other fallen angels are being held.
When he opens
the Abyss, smoke pours out of it that blackens the sun and sky; and from the
smoke locusts descend to attack men who are not marked by the seal.
These locusts
have the pincers of scorpions; they are, like the “locusts” in Joel 1-1 seen as
historical enemies - Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans. Their
scorpion-like bite brings five hours of excruciating pain. This is the first of the troubles.
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