for human beings to sanctify any thing. Thus, he gives Sabbath observance a different function. It is not a commandment requiring “to sanctify” the Sabbath in recognition of human creaturehood (Ex. 20:8), or the celebration of the Israelites’ freedom from slavery in Egypt (Deut. 5:12). It is a mark on those who have been sanctified by God. The notion that the elect will be distinguished by a seal, or a mark, became standard with the apocalyptic understanding that not all those who are called are chosen.
The vision of the valley of the dry bones, no doubt, is one of the preeminent features of Ezekiel. It may be related to the complaint of the exiles who say “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off” (Ez. 37:11). It may also have a connection to the story of the Moabite man who was buried in the grave of the prophet Elisha, and “as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood on his feet” (2 Kings 13:21). The vision of the valley of the dry bones (Ez. 37) does not serve to announce the resurrection of the dead but the restoration of the exiles to their land. It also makes the point that those who will return to the land are not only the remnant of those exiled in Babylon, but also of those who had been dispersed by the Assyrians when they conquered the northern kingdom with its capital in Samaria. This is an emphasis of the whole of Ezekiel. It was announced by Ezekiel’s laying on his left side for 390 days to represent the 390 years of punishment assigned to the house of Israel, as distinct from the 40 years assigned to the house of Judah (Ez. 4:5-6). Besides the inclusion of the kingdom of Israel, the vision of the valley of the dry bones suggests that Ezekiel is concerned with how God’s justice applies to previous generations.
That both of the kingdoms that resulted from the partition of the kingdom of David after the death of Solomon will experience a restoration of their fortunes is also described by the allegory of the two sisters, Oholah (she who has a tent) and Oholibah (my tent is in her). The reader is told that Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah Jerusalem (Ez. 23:4). Both of them will be restored in their land. That the restoration will include not just the northern kingdom of Israel but also the southern lands that belonged to David’s original kingdom is told by another metaphor involving three sisters. Ezekiel identifies Samaria to the North and Sodom to the South as the sisters of Jerusalem. Their mother was a Hittite and their father an Amorite, and they are the personification of the proverb, “Like mother, like daughter.” Among the daughters, Jerusalem is the one whose harlotry is the worst. Normally men go out looking for a harlot who gets paid. Jerusalem has been going out looking for lovers and paying them (Ez. 16:44-47). The inclusion of Sodom among the daughters extends the land to be restored to the southern borders of the kingdom of David. The restoration of Israel is to be complete; it will include all three daughters of the ancient Hebrew stock (Ez. 16:53-55). God’s promise is, “I will deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant” (Ez. 16:59-60). The everlasting covenant to be established when the fortunes of all Israel are restored, unlike the covenant which the Israelites broke, is also described as a “covenant of peace” (Ez. 34:25; 37:26), because upon their return to their land they will no longer be “a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them; they shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid” (Ez. 34:28). That the beasts of the land will not devour them anticipates apocalyptic depictions of primordial evil as beasts coming out of the sea.
Such will be the situation after God defeated Gog and sent him down to Sheol to join the prince of Tyre, who has already been condemned to be “no more for ever” (Ez. 28:3, 9, 19). Gog and the other nations he has gathered to come against a restored Israel will suffer a resounding defeat. Then God will invite all “the birds of every sort and all the beasts of the field” to come to the great feast that he has prepared, telling them, “eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, … at the sacrificial feast which I am preparing for you” Ez. 39:18-20). Cleansing the land by burying the dead left from the great demonstration of God’s power and justice will take seven months (Ez. 39:12). If bones are still found in the land after that, they will be properly buried. Restored Israel will dwell in a land that is not only enjoying peace and prosperity but is also ceremonially clean, fully cleansed from all ritual pollution.
This description of Israel as a nation ruled by a descendant of David in a pure land after a horrendous battle that ends with the total triumph of God is the harbinger of the apocalyptic descriptions that later were adopted, with significant modifications, by the author of Revelation. The oracles having to do with the situation of exile conclude with a reaffirmation of the agenda that informs the book. “The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward” (because my ways are just!). “And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that I hid my face from them” (not because I am weak!). “Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel; I will be jealous for my holy name …when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations” (Ez. 39:23-27). Ezekiel ends naming the city that is now the capital of a restored Israel: “The name of the city henceforth shall be, The Lord is there” (Ez. 48:35). In this way, Ezekiel’s apology for the exile and for the sovereignty and justice of God has been demonstrated. God will be vindicated. Ezekiel proclaims an all-powerful God quite capable to vindicate his good name. Whether his God is also just was, apparently, not thought demonstrated by all his readers.
In Ezekiel the Israelites are suffering at the hand of God as a just punishment for their sins. It is not the case that they are suffering for the sins of their fathers, as it was previously said, nor is it on account of evil forces that persecute them because of their desire to adhere faithfully to the statutes and commandments of the Lord, as will become the case in the future. In this universe, God is in complete control and the course of history is totally determined so that even the abominations that the Israelites have been practicing, on account of which they are being punished, are due to their rebellious nature and the bad laws that God gave them knowing of their coming rebellion against him. The restoration of the Israelites in their land does not involve the termination of history or the destruction of the present creation. Once the forces of Gog have been defeated and the burial of all those killed has been completed, after birds and wild animals feasted on their carcasses, the land will be purified and the river of life will flow from the throne of the temple in Jerusalem and give life to the waters of the Dead Sea (Ez. 47:8-9). The restoration does not bring about a new heaven and a new earth, but a renewed earth. This demonstrates that the two basic doctrines of biblical apocalyptic theodicy are absent in Ezekiel. It ignores the doctrine of The Fall and the doctrine of The Two Ages. The way in which Ezekiel describes the abominable conditions pervading in the world and the vindication of God’s power and justice, however, provided the tools with which the apocalypticists elaborated these two distinctive doctrines. Besides, his detailed descriptions of what God will do to demonstrate his power and justice anticipate the apocalyptic descriptions of how God will bring about shortly a world in which justice and peace are the norm and the sea, the fountain of evil and death, has been eliminated.
In reference to God’s vindication, Ezekiel accuses the people of Israel and the neighboring nations of defaming him by declaring him unjust and weak. His vindication depends on a demonstration of his power and his ability to keep covenant with his people. To accomplish this, Ezekiel looks forward to the restoration of Israel in her land, where she will live securely in an eternal covenant of peace because God will destroy all those who used to prey on her. To explain the absolute sovereignty and justice of God, Ezekiel makes God responsible for the existence of both good and evil in his world. He has given bad laws (Ez. 20:25-26), and in his anger for the abominations being done in Jerusalem, he “will cut off from you both righteous and wicked” (Ez. 21:4).
The flowering of apocalypticism was an effort to solve the problem left unsolved by Ezekiel. God’s vindication as sovereign and just is not quite being achieved while declaring that present evil also comes from God. God cannot be worshiped if he is conceived as the source of both good and evil, as one
