THEIR CONTINUOUS REBELLION Having presented a lamentation for the kings, then for Israel itself, being the vine He cared for; that was plucked up and moved to a strange land for the sake of chastisement; He presents here a quick portrait of the continuous rebellion of the people along their history, despite the unfailing goodness of God. 1- An admonishment to the elders of Israel l-4. 2- Their rebellion in Egypt 5-9. 3- Their rebellion in the wilderness 10-17. 4- The rebellion of the new generation in the wilderness 18-26. 5- Their rebellion on their entrance into Canaan 27-29. 6- Their rebellion in the days of Ezekiel 30-32. 7- Their rebellion in the land of captivity 33-39. 8- Return and Reform 40-44. 9- The destructive sword of Nebuchadnezzar 45-48. It is a historical review of God’s dealings with man. He grants him every care and love; while man pays Him back by rebellion and mutiny. This is the nature of man after falling. He does not see God as a friend, but as a commander; that is why he gives Him the back and not the face, and is unable to keep His commandments. 1- ADMONISHMENT TO THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL In the previous year, it came to pass that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and sat before the prophet Ezekiel in the land of captivity, concerning what would happen to the kingdom of Judah and to the people in captivity in those days. The Lord’s response was however, directed toward repentance; saying: “As I live I will not be inquired by you” (Ez 20:3). If you have come to inquire of Me, You have first to rid yourselves of the rebellious nature, in which your fathers lived, and in which you now live; then I shall listen to you. We often cry out to the Lord in the time of affliction; although He wishes to rescue and yearns to save; yet He wants the affliction to realize its goal; namely, that we repent and return to Him from all the heart! If God delays in responding, it is not out of lack of caring, but is rather a sign of caring; as He waits for our true repentance, in order to benefit from the temptation. Our rebellious nature is in need of the fire of affliction, in order to return to the Lord our God, and to seek him fervently. 2- THEIR REBELLION IN EGYPT The nature of rebellion is not something new in their life, but has stuck to them since they appeared as a people or a nation in the land of Egypt. Jacob and his children came to Egypt as a family, and departed from it as a people under the leadership of Moses, their first leader. In Egypt, where that people and nation were planted, the idols of Egypt grew in their hearts. God revealed the secret of bondage of the children of Israel in the land of Egypt. It did not lie in the ferocity of Pharaoh’s heart, but rather in the diversion of the heart of those people; saying to them: “Each of you throw away the abominations which are before his eyes; and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. But they rebelled against Me” (Ez 20:7, 8). While God was searching out for them the land that flows with milk and honey-‘the glory of all 5 lands’ (Ez 20:6), they refused to cast away the abominations, which were before their eyes, and to forsake the idols. However, He did not pour His wrath on them in the midst of the land of Egypt. He mightily brought them out, for the sake of His holy name (Ez 20:9); to be glorified in them among the Gentiles. So, God cared for man since his creation. He arranged for our salvation, and for our crossover from the bondage of sin; to bring us into His bosom - the true Paradise that flows for the soul, with milk and honey; while man is born with the germ of rebellion flowing in his blood. Since rebelliousness is a nature we inherited after the rebellion of our first parents; our reform needs an overall change of our nature. 3- THEIR REBELLION IN THEWILDERNESS How numerous were God’s gifts in the wilderness! He granted them free and fresh food every day. They did not need to plow the land, to plant or to reap the crop, or even to prepare their meals. He gave them a rock that flowed with sweet water that followed them wherever they went; something very costly in the desert! They did not need new clothes, sandals, or medicine to treat the sick. He cared for every single thing, big or small. Despite that, in His admonishment to them, He did not mention any of this, but concentrated on two issues, that He considered as the best of His gifts to them. The divine commandment and His Sabbaths; saying: “I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them” (Ez 20:12). He gave them the commandment as His statutes and judgments; and the Sabbaths as being His Sabbaths. By the commandment a man lives; and by the Sabbaths he is sanctified. According to God’s opinion, that is the climax of what He has done for them in the wilderness. As to the commandment, it is a sign of God’s love and care for man. He did not make him the way He made the irrational beings that live according to what the nature given to them by God, dictates. But gave him the free will, and granted him the commandment as a sign of this freedom; he is free to accept life with God, or to reject it. And as Tertullian says: [He made him as a human being, to boast that he is the only creature to be found worthy of receiving the divine commandment; being knowledgeable and rational; capable of calmly controlling himself by the bonds of rational freedom; of submitting to God, to whom everything submits1. ] The commandment likewise is the medium, in which man surrenders his will to the Lord in submission; to receive the divine will working in him. Accepting the commandment, he accepts the word of God working in him. That is why the Lord says: “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31, 33); and, “The word that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). St. Mark the Hermit says: [God hides in His commandments; Whoever seeks Him will find Him in them2.] As to the Sabbaths that God gave to sanctify us, they refer to the Lord Christ Himself, who came on the seventh day, as the Mystery of our true rest; as the word ‘Sabbath’ means in Hebrew, “rest.” There is no rest for us except in Jesus Christ. He is the Mystery of the Sabbath. In Him, God the Father found rest in us; having found Him . 1 للمؤلف: الحب الإلهي، 1967 ، ص 95 . 2 المرجع السابق، ص 93 6 as our representative, the subject of His pleasure. And in Him we also found rest in God the Father; finding in Him, the bosom of God the Father receiving us. The Lord Christ is the Mystery of our Sabbath, and the Mystery of our sanctification. St. Augustine divides the world’s history of salvation, according to days of the week: - The first day: From Adam until the great flood. - The second day: From the great flood until Abraham. - The third day: From Abraham until David. - The fourth day: From David until the captivity. - The fifth day: From the captivity until the incarnation of Christ. - The sixth day: From the incarnation until the great day of the Lord. - The seventh day: This is the great day of the Lord, in which humanity will find its rest in our Lord Jesus Christ. By that, the Lord brings us into a life with no end, in which both our souls and bodies find rest. [There, we find rest and see… we see and love.... we love and praise.... That is how it will be in the end with no end... As what goal shall we seek for our souls, other than to reach that Kingdom with no end?!1] St. Clement of Alexandria says: [We holdfast to the spiritual Sabbath, until the coming of the Savior; having found rest from sin2.] God presented His commandment as a sign of His appreciation of man, more than of any other earthly creation; but man despised it, and did not abide to it. And God presented to him His Sabbaths for the sake of his sanctification; but man greatly defiled the Lord’s Sabbaths (Ez 20:13). Despite that, the Lord God says: “Nevertheless My eye spared them from destruction. I did not make an end of them in the wilderness” (Ez 20:17). This is God’s long-suffering toward us, and His love for us! 4- THE REBELLION OF THE NEW GENERATION IN THE WILDERNESS Again God confirmed to the new generation, who were born in the wilderness, that they should not walk by the spirit of their fathers, who came out from the land of Egypt, carrying its idols in their hearts. But they should walk in God’s statutes, keep His judgments, and do them; hallow His Sabbaths; that will be a sign between Him and them. However the children were not less rebellious than their fathers. they were attracted to the idols of their fathers, and not to the Lord their God. Despite all that, for His name’s sake, He did not pour out His fury on them and fulfill His anger against them in the wilderness, so as not to let His name be profaned in the sight of the Gentiles. Some people may probably object to the divine words: “Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live; And I pronounced them unclean because of their ritual gifts, in that they caused all their firstborn to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate and that they might know that I am the Lord” (Ez 20:25, 26). Persisting on their rebellion, God presents to sinners His statutes, and shows them His judgments for the sake of their salvation (Ez 20:11); Yet He does not commit them to walk according to them. If they persist on their rebellion, “God gives them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Rom 1:28). 1 St. Augustine: City of God, 22 :30. . 2 للمؤلف: المسیح في سرّ الإفخارستیا، 1973 ، ص 125 7 The words “I gave them up” here means “I allowed them” to adopt the statutes and judgments related to pagan worship, as for example, causing their firstborn to pass through the fire etc.; in order to let them perish. 5- THEIR REBELLION ON THEIR ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN Having extended their sojourn in the wilderness to 40 years, to let them forget the idols of Egypt that they carried in their heart, He brought them ultimately to a new land. Nevertheless they adopted the pagan worship of that land on the high places; and instead of acting as the sanctified people of God glorifying Him in the midst of the Gentiles, they followed their abominations. 6- THEIR REBELLION IN THE DAYS OF EZEKIEL The act of rebellion was not a matter of old history, but it is a present day fact. It began by the appearance of that people as a nation; then followed them in the wilderness, until the new generation. then flared the more as they entered the land of promise; and remained working in them even on the day the prophet Ezekiel was talking to the elders of Israel. The Lord rebuked them saying: “Are you defiling yourselves in the manner of your fathers, and committing harlotry according to their abominations? For when you offer your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols, even to this day?!... As I live, says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you”(Ez 20:30, 31). He is not going to listen to their inquiry, nor respond to their requests, until they change their hearts. He will chasten them with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm; will pour out His fury over them; will scatter them, and will plead His case with them face to face (Ez 20:33 - 35). 7- THEIR REBELLION IN THE LAND OF CAPTIVITY In all that, He does not act for the sake of revenge; but for chastisement, in order to bring them into a new covenant: “I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me” (Ez 20:37, 38). He brings them over to a wilderness, but not that of Sinai, as He did with their fathers, but to a condition of drought within their captivity; and will scatter them among the Gentiles, for the sake of their repentance under the rod. 8- RETURN AND REFORM He portrayed the diversion of Israel toward idolatry, as being an ancient diversion, violent, and with deadly results. But despite that dark and evil past, yet, and in the same chapter, He shines on them with a future full of hope, of returning from captivity, and of their reform; as a symbol of man’s return from the captivity of sin, and of the reform of his corrupt nature. He brings us into His “holy mountain,” into His sanctuaries; the mountain heights; namely, to the Church of Christ, where we worship God in Jesus Christ; and where He will accept our offerings as a sweet aroma for His pleasure (Ez 20:41). This salvation is not because of our own worthiness; but through free grace; saying: “‘Not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel,’ says the Lord God” (Ez 20:44). 9- THE DESTRUCTIVE SWORD OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR Although He shone on them with hope of their return and their reform; yet He confirms that chastisement is imperative; first by the destructive and fiery sword of Nebuchadnezzar. It started by a supernatural fire in the southern region; a fire of bitter 8 chastisement, to consume all thorns of sin. It starts from the south; as a reference to the kingdom of the south (Judah and Jerusalem). The prophet set his face toward the south (Ez 20:46, 47); namely, toward the land of Israel, to behold from afar the forests of Lebanon... He proclaimed: “Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you; the blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be scorched by it” (Ez 20:47). So God pours the fire of His judgment on them, to let them all realize His holiness and justice. The prophet ends this chapter by saying: “Ah, Lord God! They say of me, ‘Does he not speak parables?” (Ez 20:49). This is always the case of the slothful soul in its search for its Savior. it sees His talk as vague parables. as St. Ambrose says in his comment on the words of the ‘Song of songs’: “By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him, but I did not find him” (Song 3:1): [She seeks him by night, because he speaks parables. He made the darkness His dwelling place; “Day unto day utter speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge” (Ps 19:2)... But she would not find Him that way1.] 1 Isaac, or the Soul, 5:39. 9 AN INSPIRATION FROM THE BOOK OF E ZEKIEL 20 UPROOT MY REBELLION You are all love, O my God, as for me, I am a rebel! Who will save me from my denying nature, but You, O my Savior?! The elders in the land of captivity inquired of You; You did not answer them, because You wish for their repentance and their return to You. In the talk of your prophet to them, I see my denying nature! In the land of Egypt they rebelled against You; Although they were brought out by a mighty hand, and a stretched arm; Yet they carried the idols of the Egyptians in their hearts! In the wilderness, You were amazing in Your care for them; Yet they did not stop murmuring. In the land of promise, You were their stronghold; Yet they disobeyed Your statutes; and partook of idol worshipping! You chastened them by captivity. And there, instead of repenting they got filled with abominations! Now, how would You deal with them?! You did not create in me the situations for rebellion; But I, in the corruption of my heart, made every situation an excuse to proclaim my rebellion! Save me, O Lord, from my continuous rebellion! Let me abide in You, to bear the fellowship of Your divine nature. By partaking of the communion of Your given body and blood, I bear the nature of self- giving love!
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