21In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has been struck down.” 22Now the hand of the Lord had been upon me the evening before the fugitive came; and he had opened my mouth by the time the man came to me in the morning, so my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.
23The word of the Lord came to me: 24“Son of man, the inhabitants of these waste places in the land of Israel keep saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land; but we are many; the land is surely given us to possess.’ 25Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: You eat flesh with the blood and lift up your eyes to your idols and shed blood; shall you then possess the land? 26You rely on the sword, you commit abominations, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife; shall you then possess the land? 27Say this to them, Thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword, and whoever is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in strongholds and in caves shall die by pestilence. 28And I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and her proud might shall come to an end, and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that none will pass through. 29Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations that they have committed.
30“As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ 31And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. 32And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it. 33When this comes—and come it will!—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”
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After the news of the fall of the city, a twofold message is given to the prophet, 22-29, and 30-33. First of all there is a word for those remaining in Judah after the captives had been taken away by Nebuchadnezzar. The dregs of the people had been left, as being of no importance and no significance, and they were now saying 'The land is now ours, we are the only ones left'. But this appropriation of the land in this way was challenged by Ezekiel in the Lord's name, saying 'The inheritance has to do with righteousness, and you are not fit to inherit the land. Look at how you live, there is no sign of repentance in you, in spite of all that has come upon you. You will not inherit the land'. God's strategic purposes with His people would be continued, not through them, but through the captives. In 11:22 we saw how the 'glory of the Lord' was looking eastwards to Babylon, as if to say 'That is where God's interest now lies, and these are the people with whom He is going to continue to have dealings, not those left in Jerusalem.' We know from subsequent history that when the exiles returned from Babylon, those that had remained in the land, like Sanballat and Tobiah (cf Nehemiah 2), became the enemies of God's work. The second word (30-33) relates to the exiles' reaction to Ezekiel's words. 'Against' in 30 should read 'of' or 'about'. There was clearly a tremendous surge of interest in what he was saying, and people flocked to hear him; to them his preaching was like listening to a lovely song. We should not, however, misunderstand this: they loved the preaching, it is true, but they were not as yet allowing it to touch their deepest hearts and lives. As one commentator puts it 'This speaks of the danger of treating God's prophets as if they were public entertainers'. It is as if the Lord were saying, 'Ezekiel, although the pattern of your ministry has now changed, although this is a new word I have given you to speak, do not imagine that everything in the garden will now be lovely. It is going to be a long, uphill task before My will is accomplished in this people'.