11/22/2025 – Week 4 of 13 – Ezekiel study (Nov 1st thru Jan. 24th) – Chapters 12 – 14 /- Post 1 of 2// Nov 1st thru Jan 24th / For introduction – See 10/14/2025 post / Post 1 of 2 – Commentary Excerpts
Just two sources for my commentary excerpts noted by;
(*A) – Apologetics Study Bible
(*B) – My personal standby for this study: “Be Reverent – Bowing Before Our Awesome God – OT Commentary Ezekiel” Warren W. Wiersbe / ISBN 978-1-4347-0050-6
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Let’s get started:
(*B):
“The leaders cannot escape (vv. 1-16). … Not only would the Jewish official be slain and their king humiliated, but the people in Jerusalem who survived the siege would be scattered abroad, and some of them would be taken to Babylon (Ezekiel 12: 14-16). Again, this would be the work of God – “I shall scatter them” — and not because these surviving Jews had been especially holy. Quite the opposite was true: The Lord allowed the survivors to go to Babylon as witnesses that their evil deeds deserved the punishment that God had sent to the nation. This will come up again in 14: 22 – 23.”
” The people will live in terror (vv. 17 – 28). … He was illustrating the tragic condition of the people in Jerusalem during the Babylonian siege. They would have very little food and would eat it with fear and trembling because it might well be their last meal. Their plight would be the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise in 4: 16-17. Anxiety, worry, fear and consternation would grip the people as the fall of the city became more imminent.
The theme of Ezekiel’s message (12; 21-28) was the certainty and the nearness of God’s judgment on Jerusalem and the land of Judah. The people were quoting a proverb that may have been devised by the false prophets to humiliate Ezekiel: ‘The days drag on and every vision comes to nothing and is not fulfilled’. (v. 22 AB). In other words, ‘Ezekiel tells us about all visions, but nothing ever happens.’ The Jews had said a similar thing to Isaiah (Isaiah 5:19), and people today say this about the return of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3). People can predict the weather, but they don’t discern ‘the signs of the times’ (Matthew 16:3)…
Among the exiles, one part said that Ezekiel’s words would never be fulfilled, but another group said, ‘Yes, they will be fulfilled, but not in our time. We don’t have to worry about what will happen because it will take place a long time from now (paraphrase of Ezekiel 12:27). Their interpretation was wrong and so was their selfish attitude. Even if the Lord did delay His judgments, how could the Jewish people be content with the present, knowing that a future generation would be wiped out and the Holy City and temple destroyed? They were like King Hezekiah when Isaiah rebuked him for his pride and warned him that Babylon would conquer Judah: “At least there will be peace and truth in my days” (Isaiah 39:8 NKJV). …
How tragic it is when people deliberately ignore or reject the dependable Word of God and put their faith in the empty but soothing words of false religious leaders! It reminds me of a story that came out of World War II. A group of soldiers asked their new chaplain if he believed in hell, and he laughed and said that he didn’t. The men said, ‘Well sir, if there isn’t a hell, then we don’t need you. But if there is a hell, then you’re leading us astray – and that’s worse!’ There is no substitute for God’s Word.”
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(*A):
“13:1 – 14:5 The second circumstance that led to the fall of Judah and Jerusalem was that the people listened to and heeded the false prophets. This section clearly defined the breakdown of the religious institutions in the decline of the culture. Ezekiel listed eight failure of these false prophets. (1) They prophesied out of their own mind, or ‘heart’ (Hb lev, the seat of the intention), and not what the Lord had told them (13: 1-3, 17). (2) They made the flock their prey (13:4). (3). They failed to reinforce the people’s faith in the time of crisis (13:5). (4). They preached deception as divine revelation (13:6-9). (5) They preached peace in the face of judgment (13: 10-16). (6). They used magical methods to gain advantage over the people (13: 18-21). (7). They discouraged the righteous and encouraged the wicked (13: 22-23). (8) They set up idols in their hearts, enshrining their own wills (14: 1-5).
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(*B):
FALSE PIETY (14: 1-11)
“… A casual reading of verse 9 would give the impression that it was the Lord’s fault that people were worshipping idols, but that isn’t the case. Everybody in Israel knew the Ten Commandments and understood that it was a sin to make and worship idols (Exodus 20: 1-6). Even if someone very close to them enticed them to practice idolatry, they were not to yield (Deuteronomy 13). God permitted these enticements to test the people to make sure they were loyal to Him… When people will not receive ‘the love of the truth, that they might be saved,’ God may ‘send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned’. (2 Thessalonians 2: 11-12 NKJV). It’s the condition of the person’s heart that determines the response to the Lord’s test, for God deals with people according to their hearts. (Psalm 18: 26-27). The attitude of the lost world today is that there are no absolutes, and therefore, the can be no truth. Satan is the liar and the deceiver, and he has blinded the minds of people so that they believe lies and reject the truth of God. We must do all we can to share the truth of the Word with a blind and deaf world, trusting the Holy Spirit to open their eyes and ears and saved the by His grace.”
FALSE HOPE (14: 12-23)
“In this particular message, the Lord described once again the four judgments He would send on the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and he emphasize one compelling fact: There would be no escape… God had told Jeremiah to stop praying for the people because they were beyond hope (Jeremiah 7:16; 11:14; 14:11), and now He would tell Ezekiel that the presence of three righteous men whom the Jews revered would not save the city of Jerusalem.
The judgments described (vv. 12-21). The first judgment is famine (Ezekiel 14: 12-14). God would break the staff of bread and cut off the lives of humans and animals. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel mention this judgment (Jer. 14; Ezek. 5:12, 16-17; 6: 11-12; 7:15; 12:16), and it came as promised…
The second judgment was wild beasts in the land (Ezekiel 14: 15-16)…
The third judgment was the sword (Ezekiel 14: 17-18). The word sword is used at least eighty-six times in Ezekiel. The Babylonian army would sweep through the land and show no mercy (Habbakuk 1: 5-11)…
The final judgment was pestilence (Ezek. 14: 19-20), which usually accompanies famine and war (Revelation 6: 3-8)… The fourfold repetition of this truth surely got the message across to the elders, but the Jewish people had a tendency to rest all their hopes on the righteousness of their ‘great men.’ Both John the Baptist and Jesus warned the Pharisees and the Sadducees that they couldn’t please God just because Abraham was their father (Matthew 3: 7-9); John 8: 33-47 or because Moses was their leader (9:28).
God’s judgments vindicated (vv. 21-23). The absence of even three righteous people in Jerusalem would make God’s judgments of the city even worse, and when all four of His judgments converge, how terrible it will be! No doubt the false prophets and some of the other captives would debate with the Lord and argue that He was being too hard on Judah and Jerusalem. But in His grace, He would allow some of the people to escape the four judgments and be taken captive to Babylon (Ezekiel 12;16). When the exiles who preceded them to Babylon see the wickedness of these people, they will have to agree that the Lord was righteous in His judgments (Jeremiah 22: 8-9). The hearts of these survivors must have been incurably sinful if they could watch the siege, see thousands die, be spared themselves, and still not repent and turn to the Lord. Indeed, their eyes were blind, their ears were deaf, and they were a stubborn and rebellious people.”
Soli Deo Gloria!