Tag Archives: Peter Craigie

Commentary on Ezekiel 8-11 (God Leaves the Temple)

The Book of Ezekiel was written by the prophet of that name who was born around the year 623 BC and lived until at least 571 BC. The date of his death is uncertain.

Ezekiel was born into a priestly family and lived in Jerusalem until the year 597 BC. This was the year that King Nebuchadnezzar attacked Judah a second time and carried much of the nobility, including Ezekiel, to Babylon.

Peter C. Craigie, in Ezekiel, The Daily Study Bible Series, writes that

Ezekiel belonged to a community established at a place called Tel Abib, by the ‘River’ Chebar, which was actually an irrigation canal, drawing waters from the River Euphrates near the city of Babylon itself. The exiles built for themselves houses with mud bricks and settled there in a strange environment, not too far from the extraordinary capital city of the Emperor Nebuchadnezzar. It was in his fifth year as an exile in Tel Abib that Ezekiel had a profound religious experience. He was thirty years old at the time; if he had still been living in Jerusalem, it was the age at which he would have assumed the full responsibilities of priesthood. But instead he was called to the task of a prophet, of being a spokesman for God. For more than twenty years, he served as a prophet among the exiles. The last of his prophecies that can be dated with any certainty was given in 571 B.C., when he was in late middle-age.

Ezekiel received the first of a series of 14 visions in 593 BC, seven years before Jerusalem would be completely destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. His ministry was aimed at the Jewish exile community both before and after the fall of Jerusalem. All forty-eight chapters of his book are arranged chronologically and his visions are dated.

Craigie summarizes the overall message of the Book of Ezekiel:

The Jews of his time were faced with an enormous question; to put it in modern words, had their religion come to an end? Phrased so bluntly, it may sound foolish, especially with our knowledge of later history. Yet it was a real and awesome question at the time. The religion of the Hebrews had been linked intimately, before Ezekiel’s time, to the existence of the state of Israel and the possession of the promised land. And yet those two foundations upon which the faith had been established were crumbling before their very eyes. Had their failure, and that of their ancestors, been so terrible that God had finally given up on his people? In such an age, and to such questions, the message of Ezekiel was particularly powerful. He spoke of doom and judgment, but ultimately his faith and message outstripped the reality of contemporary experience. Ultimately, there was hope. Even the disasters of those decades somehow had a purpose in God’s plan. The events would somehow conspire to declare to the people that God was indeed the Lord. And so the final impression that is left after reading this extraordinary book is one of hope. It is not an unqualified and naive hope, but it is real nevertheless.

Chapters 8-11 contain the second of Ezekiel’s visions while he is living in exile in Babylon. The date is September 17, 592 BC. Recall that 592 BC is after the second deportation of Jerusalem, but before the final deportation and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The exile community is still hoping that God will save Judah and Jerusalem from Babylon, and they are seeking Ezekiel’s word on the matter.

Ezekiel is transported, in a vision, to the temple in Jerusalem by God Himself. God intends to show Ezekiel, and thus the leaders in the exile community, why He will not save Jerusalem. God will show Ezekiel four examples of the idolatrous worship taking place on the grounds of the temple itself.

temple

As seen in the figure above, there were two courts of the temple, the inner and outer. What cannot be seen is that there are gates leading from the outer court to the inner court on the north (top), south (bottom), and east (right) sides of the complex. There was no gate on the west (left) side.

Ezekiel is first transported to the north gate and he sees what is called the “image of jealousy.” It is clear this is an idol of some kind, and many scholars believe it is an Asherah pole. Asherah is the Canaanite goddess of love and was considered to the mistress or consort of El, the highest god in the Canaanite pantheon. This idol is set up right near the northern gate in the temple complex, side by side with the glory of God (the temple symbolizes God’s earthly dwelling).

In verses 7-13, God leads Ezekiel to a secret room that was built on the temple grounds where seventy elders of Israel are worshiping Egyptian gods that are painted on the wall. These are supposed to be the leaders of Israel and they are hiding away in a room to conduct their own form of blasphemous idol worship. They believe that God has forsaken the land and thus cannot see them.

Peter C. Craigie aptly writes:

The elders suffered from the delusion of secrecy. They thought they could act without being seen, and though primarily their secrecy was directed towards their people, at a deeper level it was an attempt to remain secret from God. Yet Ezekiel is standing there, and God is with him, observing the action.

There are no secrets from God. To act as if there were is the height of folly. For human life is conducted on a stage like the interrogation room of a modern police department; the insiders cannot see out, but the observers can see and hear all that goes on inside the room. All speech and behavior should be conducted with an awareness that ultimately there are no secrets from God.

God then moves Ezekiel back to the north gate and there Ezekiel witnesses a group of women worshiping the god Tammuz. Charles H. Dyer explains in The Bible Knowledge Commentary that

‘Tammuz’ is the Hebrew form of the name of the Sumerian god Dumuzi, the deity of spring vegetation. The apparent death of all vegetation in the Middle East during the hot, dry summer months was explained in mythology as caused by Tammuz’s death and descent into the underworld. During that time his followers would weep, mourning his death. In the spring Tammuz would emerge victoriously from the underworld and bring with him the life-giving rains. The worship of Tammuz also involved fertility rites.

The fourth and final example given to Ezekiel involves twenty-five Levitical priests in the inner courtyard facing toward the east and worshiping the sun. Note that facing toward the east means that their backs were toward the temple. They had figuratively and literally turned their backs on God.

Craigie explains the totality of the idol worship witnessed by Ezekiel.

The four scenes with which this great vision begins, taken together, form a comprehensive condemnation of Israel’s worship. All were involved, with no exceptions. The idol of Asherah at the north gate indicated the popular worship of the people. The secret room of sacrilegious murals demonstrated the distinctive failure of the nation’s leaders, the elders. The weeping women illustrated the loss of faith in the Living God. And, in the midst of it all, even the priests were turning backwards in their misdirected attempts at worship. And not only were all the people engaged in this folly; they were without discrimination in their choice of idols. The idol of Asherah represented the religion of Canaan; the secret murals were drawn from the religion of Egypt. The weeping women turned to a god of Babylon, while the priests worshipped the sun, whose cult was practised in almost every nation of the ancient Near East.

After showing Ezekiel the abominations in the temple complex, God says,

Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.

In chapter nine, Ezekiel witnesses the destruction of the people of Jerusalem by God. All who have turned against Him are executed. This vision is a foreshadowing of the Babylonian attack in 586 BC.

Chapters ten and eleven report the most devastating consequence of Judah’s betrayal: God’s glory leaves the temple of Jerusalem. Ezekiel sees God mount what looks like a chariot. The chariot is composed of a throne sitting on a large platform. Underneath the platform are four cherubim and four double-wheels. The cherubim and the wheels move the chariot wherever God wills. See the figure below.

chariot

God summons a man dressed in white linen to come to the cherubim under the chariot and receive burning coals from them. The burning coals are to be scattered around the city of Jerusalem. Lamar Eugene Cooper, in vol. 17, Ezekiel, The New American Commentary, writes,

Some see this as a rite of purification; others see it as an act of judgment. Both ideas are appropriate. Judgment from God is redemptive in its purpose, not purely punitive. His ultimate goal was the restoration of the nation through a purified remnant.

God moves, on the chariot, from the interior of the temple to the eastern gate of the inner courtyard. The eastern gate faces out over the Valley of Kidron. On the other side of the valley is the Mount of Olives. God lingers at the eastern gate, as if He is giving Jerusalem one last chance to repent.

Finally, in chapter 11, verses 22-25, God rises up from the eastern gate and exits the city. His chariot transports Him to the Mount of Olives, where He makes his final departure from the temple and Jerusalem. Cooper writes:

The departure of the glory of God from the Mount of Olives was the final step in the judgment process. The removal of his blessing signaled the end of his longsuffering with a disobedient and rebellious people. God had exhausted every means of soliciting repentance from the people. Therefore he removed the glory that was the sign of his presence so that judgment might run its full course. The absence of the glory signaled the last stage in the process of reprobation of the self-willed people of the nation.

Ezekiel reported everything he saw to the elders in exile. What were they to do with this information? What hope was left? Craigie explains that hope now rested with the exile community. The residents of Jerusalem had been completely rejected by God.

And so it was upon the exiles that the future now depended. Thinking themselves to be useless, they had looked to others in far off Jerusalem to provide a source of hope. But the tables were being turned. If there was hope to be found, it lay within them, not in the empty hands of others far away. The citizens of Jerusalem had already written off the exiles as irrelevant to the future of their city. Indeed, the exiles themselves thought that there was nothing they could do. But now they were learning that the weak of this world were the ones through whom God would work. And such new hope was not without its attendant anxiety, for it involved awesome responsibility.

Yet the message of the prophet to his fellow exiles carried with it a potent promise, to be developed still further later in his ministry. The future now lay with those in exile, yet it was plain for all to see that they did not have in themselves the strength to undertake the task. The enabling power would be provided by God in the gift of a new spirit and a new heart (see further 36:26). The doomed citizens of the city had built by themselves, and their buildings would soon come toppling down. The exiles, in their mission, would have to learn to build in a new way, employing the strength coming from their new and God-given heart and spirit.

Commentary on Micah 1-6 (A Promised Ruler from Bethlehem)

The Book of Micah was likely written by the prophet of that name who lived during the 8th century BC. Micah was born in a town about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem (in Judah), but he may have lived in Jerusalem during parts of his ministry. He prophesied during the reigns of the following kings of Judah: Jotham (750– 732 BC), Ahaz (735– 715 BC), and Hezekiah (715– 686 BC).

Thomas Finley, in the Apologetics Study Bible, Hardcover, provides additional information about Micah:

The identification of these kings does not mean that he was active from 750– 686 but that his ministry spanned parts of each reign. Since he predicted the fall of Samaria (722 b.c.), the bulk of his ministry probably took place between about 750 and 725 b.c. Jeremiah 26: 17-18 refers to Micah as prophesying during the time of Hezekiah. Determining exact dates, however, for each of the prophecies contained in the book is difficult. Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah, Hosea, and possibly Amos. His prophecies addressed Samaria and Jerusalem. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom (Israel) and Jerusalem of the southern kingdom (Judah). Even though Micah ministered in Judah, some of his messages were directed toward Israel.

In chapter 1, verses 1-9, the prophet Micah reports the vision he has of the destruction of Samaria and Jerusalem due to their sinfulness. Samaria is the capital of Israel and Jerusalem is the capital of Judah.

Micah calls on the entire world to heed God’s witness against them. God is coming down from heaven and He will be metaphorically stepping on mountains and crushing them under His feet upon his arrival. Why? For the sins of the people of Israel and Judah. In particular, the capital cities of Samaria and Jerusalem are responsible for the transgressions of their respective nations.

Micah, in verses 6-7, then prophesies the destruction of Israel and her capital city. Samaria will be laid waste. The money paid to the illicit temple prostitutes in Samaria for their “religious services” will be taken by another nation and used to fund its own temple prostitution. Likewise, this same nation will destroy all of the pagan idols in Samaria.

Who is the nation that will overthrow Israel? Assyria. In fact, in 725 BC, the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser V laid siege to Samaria and 3 years later it fell to the Assyrians. Micah foresaw this disaster years before it occurred, but his prophetic words were ignored.

The fall of Israel would also affect Judah. Micah also foresees, in verses 8-9, that Assyria will march through the territory of Judah, all the way to the gate of Jerusalem itself. Because of this vision, Micah marches through the streets of Jerusalem in mourning, trying to get the attention of the people living there, to no avail.

In the year 701 BC, 21 years after the fall of Israel, the Assyrian king Sennacherib would fulfill Micah’s prophecy by sweeping through Judah all the way to the doorstep of Jerusalem. Only through God’s intervention does Judah, ruled by King Hezekiah, survive. God strikes the Assyrian army with a plague and their military campaign against Judah promptly ends.

In chapter 3, verses 9-12, Micah continues to prophesy about Judah. The leaders of Judah, at the time Micah is alive, are corrupt. They deny justice to the poor and they accept bribes for judicial decisions. The Levitical priests are accepting wages above and beyond the required tithe to enrich themselves at other’s expense. The prophets sell their oracles to the highest bidder, instead of seeking the word of God. In all of this, the rulers, priests, and prophets in Jerusalem believe that they are exempt from the tragedy that befell Israel. Why? Because the temple of God is located in Jerusalem and so they believe that God will never destroy His temple, no matter how they behave. Micah knows they are wrong.

Because of the sin and corruption of Judah, Jerusalem will someday be destroyed, just as Samaria was. Micah later identifies the foreign invader as the Babylonians. In 586 BC, Micah’s prophecy would come true when King Nebuchadnezzar conquers Jerusalem.

Although Micah has pronounced the eventual destruction of both Israel and Judah, his message is not all doom and gloom. Micah foresees a day when God will raise up Jerusalem so that all nations will submit to her. Who will rule Jerusalem and the rest of the world in this future kingdom of peace and security?

Micah answers this question in chapter 5, verse 2.

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

Micah predicts that a ruler will be born in Bethlehem, which is the same place that his ancestor David was born. This ruler is the king whom God promised David in 2 Samuel 7, the future Anointed One, or Messiah. Micah is reminding his readers that the messianic promises made to David will indeed come to pass in the future. The apostle Matthew, in the 2nd chapter of his gospel, applies Micah’s prophecy to the birth of Jesus. He is the Messiah that Micah predicted would be born in Bethlehem, just as his ancestor David was.

Peter Craigie, in Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi (Daily Study Bible) explains the significance of Matthew’s quotation of Micah’s prophecy to the New Testament believer:

The deliverer has come to this world in the person of Jesus; like David, Jesus is the new Shepherd of God’s sheep, offering security from external enemies and a life of security. Jesus, of the Davidic line, is above all a gift of God to this world. To those who feel shut in on every side, like the besieged citizens of Jerusalem who first heard these words, Jesus brings the prospect of deliverance and security. And that is the essence of the Christmas message: God makes a gift to a besieged world through whom deliverance may come.

In verses 3-6, Micah reminds national Israel (and Judah in particular) that she will have to wait for the Messiah. Before he arrives, they will go through great pain, likened to a woman in labor. Kenneth Barker argues that the woman in labor is

a reference to Israel (Judah) or, more particularly, Zion (Jerusalem). Thus it would echo 4:9–10. God’s chosen people (the covenant nation), then, would bring forth the Messianic Ruler. The Ruler’s ‘brothers’ (=his people) would return from exile to join the other Israelites in Judah and Jerusalem as a restored, reunified, complete covenant nation again.

Verses 5-6 emphasize that all nations who attack God’s chosen people will be repelled by the Messiah. Under the Messiah’s rule, there will be peace on earth. Although Jesus did not bring peace on earth during his first coming, we know from the prophet Micah that he will bring peace during his future return.

Finally, in chapter 6, verses 6-8, Micah addresses an important question his readers would have had. What does God want from us? Micah speaks for Israel in verses 6-7 when he offers an answer to the question. The Israelites presume that merely offering sacrifices, in great numbers, and of great value, will appease God.

In verse 8, though, Micah writes what God truly desires from each Israelite and from each one of us. He wants our hearts and minds. He wants us to love Him and love our neighbors by showing them justice and mercy.

Walter Kaiser summarizes verses 6-8 in Hard Sayings of the Bible:

Thus this saying is not an invitation, in lieu of the gospel, to save oneself by kindly acts of equity and fairness. Nor is it an attack on the forms of sacrifices and cultic acts mentioned in the tabernacle and temple instructions. It is instead a call for the natural consequence of truly forgiven men and women to demonstrate the reality of their faith by living it out in the marketplace. Such living would be accompanied with acts and deeds of mercy, justice and giving of oneself for the orphan, the widow and the poor.

Commentary on Deuteronomy 31-34 (Joshua Succeeds Moses)

Moses’s speeches and admonitions to the Israelites are about to come to an end. Chapter 31 begins with Moses telling them that he is 120 years old, and thus he is no longer able to lead the people. In addition, God has commanded that Moses not cross into the Promised Land because of his sin at Meribah.

Even though Moses will not be leading Israel across the Jordan River, he encourages them about what will happen. God Himself will go ahead of the people and drive out the Canaanites so that the children of Israel can take possession of the land. Moses reminds them how God destroyed the Amorite kings Sihon and Og. He will do the same for them in Canaan, so they must be strong and courageous and never doubt God’s presence.

In verses 7-8, Moses singles out Joshua for encouragement, as Joshua would be assuming leadership after Moses’s death. Joshua must see that the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are fulfilled by dividing up the land that God will give them among the 12 tribes of Israel. Moses reminds Joshua that God will go before him and he need never be afraid or discouraged.

As we move ahead to chapter 34, the final chapter of Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch, we finally come to the death of Moses. Moses climbs, alone, to the top of a high mountain, so that he can see the Promised Land from his vantage point. His eyes sweep across the expanse of the land in a counter-clockwise direction. God reminds him that this is the land he promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but that Moses could never possess himself.

In verses 5-8, Moses dies and is buried by God in a valley in Moab (the exact location is unknown by the author of the text). Why would Moses’s body not be buried by another person? Scholars have speculated that God was preventing the Israelites from carrying Moses’s body into the Promised Land, which they surely would have done if they had known where he died. Therefore, God handled the death and burial of Moses Himself.

Note that Moses is called, in verse 5, the “servant of the Lord,” even though his sin prevented him from entering the Promised Land. Moses was denied the inheritance of the land, but he was still God’s servant. His sin did not completely separate him from God. God may punish his children, but He does not disown them.

In verse 9, the torch of leadership is officially passed to Joshua because Moses had duly anointed Joshua, with God’s approval, as his successor. The text indicates that the people of Israel respected the anointing of Joshua.

Verses 10-12 provide the literary epitaph for Moses. The author of this section, probably writing decades, if not hundreds of years later, states that there never was another prophet like Moses, whom God knew “face to face.” The incredible signs and wonders surrounding the Exodus from Egypt are incomparable to the feats of any previous or subsequent prophets of Israel.

Peter Craigie, in The Book of Deuteronomy (New International Commentary on the Old Testament), concludes:

Thus the unique aspect of Moses’ prophetic ministry is to be found in the role he played in a unique and vitally important event in Israel’s history. That unique event, emerging from the Exodus and the forming of the covenant at Sinai, was the formation of the kingdom of God in the nascent, theocratic state of Israel, in which the Lord was King (Exod. 15:18; Deut. 33:5). The event began with the great liberation from Egypt and it was sealed by the new commitment at Sinai. Consequently, however distinguished a subsequent prophet in Israel might be, his ministry would be within the community of God’s people; the work of the prophet Moses, however, was instrumental, under God, in the formation of that community.

Commentary on Deuteronomy 6 (Love the Lord your God)

In chapter 5 of Deuteronomy, Moses reviewed again with Israel the Ten Commandments. After this review, chapter 6 begins with Moses reminding the Israelites why they must follow the Law given to them by God, through Moses. It is “so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.” In addition, it is “so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.”

It is impossible for the Israelites to enjoy long life and to prosper in the Promised Land if they do not follow the commands of God. There is no successful way forward for this new nation without loving obedience to their God.

Verses 4-9 are known to Jews as the Shema. These verses contain the fundamental truth of Jewish religion and the fundamental duties based on that truth. Observant Jews still recite these verses at least twice a day.

The fundamental truth is found in verse 4: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Peter C. Craigie, in The Book of Deuteronomy (New International Commentary on the Old Testament), explains the implications of this important verse:

The Israelites had already discovered the practical implications when they celebrated the Exodus in song: ‘Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?’ (Exod. 15:11), a rhetorical question inviting a negative response—there were no gods like the Lord! In the Exodus, the Israelites had discovered the uniqueness of their God and that the Egyptian ‘gods’ could do nothing to stop the Lord’s people leaving Egypt. It was because they had experienced the living presence of their God in history that the Israelites could call the Lord our God. Thus the oneness and reality of the Lord were practical knowledge to the people.

But there were also theological implications and the context of this verse indicates its source as a direct revelation from God (v. 1). The word expresses not only the uniqueness but also the unity of God. As one God (or the ‘Unique’), when he spoke there was no other to contradict; when he promised, there was no other to revoke that promise; when he warned, there was no other to provide refuge from that warning. He was not merely first among the gods, as Baal in the Canaanite pantheon, Amon-Re in Egypt, or Marduk in Babylon; he was the one and only God and as such he was omnipotent. It was this all-powerful Unique God who imposed on Israel the charge to love him, thereby revealing another aspect of his character.

In verse 5 we find the fundamental duty of every Jew and Christian: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” In essence, this verse instructs us to love God with all of our being, with every part of us. Jesus referred to this verse as the greatest command.

Verses 6-9 command the Israelites to keep the Law on their mind at all times and to teach their children everything in the Law. Even though verse 8 was meant figuratively, some Jews, up to present day, have taken these verses literally and have actually tied small boxes containing Bible verses around their foreheads and forearms during particular religious holidays.

Verses 10-12 remind the children of Israel that all of the good things they will receive in the Promised Land will be given to them by God, not earned by Israel. The houses, cities, wells, and vineyards – everything – that they will take from the Canaanites, will be because of God’s promises to their forefathers. An interesting implication of these verses is that the Israelites, for the most part, are not to destroy the property of the Canaanites, but only drive the people out of the land.

In verses 13-19, God again reminds the Israelites that they are to only worship Him alone. If they do worship other gods, His anger “will burn against [them], and he will destroy [them] from the face of the land.” They are not to test the Lord, which means they are not to doubt His promises to them.  If they keep His commands, their enemies will be driven away and they will inherit the land they were promised.

If an Israelite father is ever asked by his child why Israel must keep the commandments of God, he is to answer:

We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the LORD sent miraculous signs and wonders—great and terrible—upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that he promised on oath to our forefathers. The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.

In summary, God saved Israel from slavery, delivered them to a new land, and provided them instructions (the Law) on to maintain a proper relationship with Him. As long as their relationship with God was first priority, they would prosper.