Do you ever find yourself listening in to somebody else's conversation? It could happen for a number of different reasons. It could simply be that you or they are being indiscreet. You're just being nosy or rude. You're on a train, and somebody else in the carriage is having a fascinating conversation about what they did on their night out last night, and it's just too interesting not to listen in.
It could be that it's informative—somebody else is having a conversation about something that you want to know about. We are listening here and find out who won the sports yesterday. But it can also be intended, where sometimes someone says something to somebody else, but they do it deliberately knowing that you can overhear—and that is exactly the point. They want you to hear what they're saying without saying it to you.
Who is the audience here?
That is how the Bible works. We are overhearing God speak to somebody else, but God intends for that to happen. He wants us to listen in because He has something to say to us as well.
Take, for example, the letter to the Romans. That was written by the Apostle Paul to the Christian church in Rome. Unless you live in the early part of the second half of the first century in ancient Rome—which none of you do—that letter was not written to you. But God the Holy Spirit, as Paul wrote it, deliberately intended that we would be here today, able to read it and to learn from it.
Now, this is doubly important when it comes to the Old Testament, because in the Old Testament we are hearing words that were originally spoken to people who lived before Christ. So if, with the book of Romans, what we have to do is listen to what it originally said to the Christians in Rome and then adapt and translate for us, we really have to do that when it comes to the Old Testament.
But even with the Old Testament, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 12 says that it was revealed to the prophets in Old Testament times that they were not serving themselves but you—Peter's first readers, Christians—as they gave their prophecies.
And all of this is especially important when it comes to the book of Ezekiel, because with the book of Ezekiel, even the very first readers were listening in to a message that was not in the first place addressed to them.
Now, I've put a little diagram that will help to explain this. So the book of Ezekiel was put together in or just after the year 572 BC. We know that because of a date reference in chapter 40 verse 1. But if you've been with us for the past few weeks, you will know we've been looking at a cluster of prophecies, most of which were given by Ezekiel around about the year 592. So there's over a 20-year gap between those prophecies and the book of Ezekiel being put together, which means the first readers of the book of Ezekiel are actually listening in to Ezekiel addressing their parents. And the book was put together so they could listen in.
In fact, even the message that those parents heard was not, in the first instance, about them. We have been hearing how Ezekiel was ministering in a place called Babylon, but he was talking about the sins and the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, 500 miles away to the west. So even the parents were listening in.
Now, today in Ezekiel 25, it becomes even more far removed, because Ezekiel is not even speaking about Jerusalem. He's not speaking about other Jews at all. He's speaking today about what God will do with other nations. So this is not a message about the Jews Ezekiel is speaking to, or even the Jews in Jerusalem, but another nation entirely.
Now, those other nations would never get to hear the words that are in Ezekiel chapter 25. No runner ever got sent from Ezekiel to these nations to deliver this message to them. No—this was given to the first generation of exiles in Babylon so that it could be written together into a book for the second generation to read. And here's the wonderful bit: God the Holy Spirit did all of this so that we could listen in to all of that going on.
So we are listening in to a book written for Jews in Babylon in or after the year 572, inviting them to listen in to some Jews in Babylon in the year 592, listening in to Ezekiel speak about four other nations.
Why does the audience matter?
Now, why does all of that matter? Because it protects us from making two mistakes.
One mistake is that we read Ezekiel 25 and we spot that it's a message of judgement. In the case of the Ammonites, God says to them, I will judge you, and the danger is that we read that and we hear that and we think God's talking to us—He's warning us that He will judge us unless we take heed of this warning. But actually, it's written deliberately for somebody else—the people of God—to overhear. So actually, we are listening to Ezekiel say to the Ammonites, I will judge you, and it's being said so that we can listen in. And as we will discover, the purpose of that is actually so that we can draw comfort rather than take warning.
The other mistake is that we will focus on what God is going to do. But the emphasis here is not on God saying I will do this—the emphasis is on God saying I will do this. Why? Because by the time this got put into the book (572), half of this had already happened. The Ammonites and the Moabites were destroyed in about the year 581. It had already happened. So it wasn't news what God was going to do. They need to listen in, not because of what He's going to do, which is already in their history books, but because of who is going to do it.
Who are these nations?
So who were these four nations addressed here?
Number one: they were Israel's neighbours. So there is a map, and you will see that these are their closest neighbours, going clockwise from north-east round to the south-west. Next week we're going to hear an oracle of prophecy against the city of Tyre, which is to the north-west. So that then completes the circle. Tyre actually gets several chapters just to itself, which is why we will look just at that next week. And that's because, as Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, wanted to expand his empire, he had three primary military targets: Judah, Tyre and Egypt—who also get several chapters to themselves. They were their neighbours.
Number two: they were cousins. So have a look at the family tree of Abraham, and you will see that the Ammonites were descended from Lot, who was Abraham's nephew. So were the Moabites. And the Edomites were descended from Esau, who was Jacob's twin brother. So these oracles here do not come out of the blue. These people had several centuries of history. Now, all of us here come in a family. Many of you have brothers or sisters or cousins. And you will know that if you have brothers or sisters, you probably get on wonderfully—but, okay, there is friction between brothers, sisters, cousins. So several centuries of history. There was friction. There was history. And this chapter speaks into that. Neighbours. Cousins.
Number three: they were enemies. Even the Philistines, who were not their cousins, were not relatives, were a nation with whom there was a long-standing enmity and rivalry. The Philistines have been Public Enemy Number One in Israel ever since the time of the Judges, which you may remember from a preaching series a year or so ago. Neighbours. Cousins. Enemies.
What have these nations done wrong?
Let's look at what God draws attention to and judges with these nations. What is it they've done wrong?
Rejoicing
Number one: they rejoiced. They showed joy. They showed glee when Babylon attacked Jerusalem. They were delighted when their neighbour was ransacked. This is especially the case for the prophecies against Ammon and Moab—the first two. So here's verse 3:
This is what the Sovereign
Lord says: Because you said “Aha!” over my sanctuary when it was desecrated, and over the land of Israel when it was laid waste, and over the people of Judah when they went into exile…
Or verse 6:
For this is what the Sovereign
Lord says: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet, rejoicing with all the malice of your heart against the land of Israel…
Or verse 8:
Because Moab and Seir said, “Look, Judah has become like all the other nations…”
So this is like siblings—brothers, sisters—who utterly just love it when brother or sister gets in trouble with their parents: “Oh, are they going to get sent to their room? I hope so.” Or children in school who love it when one of their classmates gets told off by the teacher in front of everybody. Or the person peering out behind the curtains, fascinated, wondering what this police car is doing coming to arrest somebody from the house opposite.
That's what they're like. They rejoiced.
Revenge
Number two: they showed revenge. They jumped in. They got even. Remember, there was a history. This is especially true of Edom and Philistia. They saw their chance to get even and to join in. They kind of said to Babylon, “You appear to be beginning to attack the city of Jerusalem. Would you like some help with that? Do use us as a base if you would like. Oh, and when they come running out of their cities looking for somewhere safe to hide, we will be ready to hand them over. Don’t worry.”
That sounds awful. Maybe you think it sounds so awful I’m making it up. No, I’m not. The book of Obadiah is the shortest prophetic book in the Old Testament—it only has one chapter. Here is Obadiah (chapter one, if I have to say that), verses 12 to 14:
You should not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune (this is addressed to Edom) nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble. You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster. You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble.
You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors. How awful. And yet that’s what happened. But it is awful. God is not pleased.
A message of comfort
But remember, this is not a lesson for those nations to hear. This is a lesson for the people of God to hear and to draw comfort on. These chapters are designed to bring comfort. Many people are tempted to skip these chapters of Ezekiel, but actually they are the centrepiece of the letter—the pivot on which everything hinges.
Here are two ways that you could divide the book of Ezekiel up. One is to observe that chapters 1 to 33 are chapters that speak messages of judgement, and chapters 34 to 48 are chapters that speak of restoration—God rebuilding things. Or you could note that chapters 1 to 24 are designed to warn God's people, and chapters 25 to 48 are designed to comfort God's people.
So what you have is: the section that brings comfort begins by finishing the section that contains messages of judgement. And what it does is it brings messages of judgement against Israel's enemies—so as to bring them comfort.
And if you want to know why I say that, right at the centre of these chapters about the other nations (25 to 33—well, 25–32), right in the middle, you have chapter 28, verses 25 and 26. There are seven oracles before that, and seven after. And it says:
This is what the Sovereign
Lord says: When I gather the people of Israel from the nations where they have been scattered, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of the nations. Then they will live in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. There they will live in safety and will build houses and plant vineyards; they will live in safety when I inflict punishment on their neighbours…
They will live in safety when I inflict punishment on their neighbours.
Those verses are the kind of interpretive key to this whole section. It's designed to bring Israel comfort as they hear a message of judgement on their neighbours.
So what we’ve got here, then, are three things about God to bring his people comfort. Remember, we're listening in. So more exactly, three things that the Jews in 592 needed to know about God—designed to bring comfort when placed into the centre of the book in or after the year 572. And in the setting of that book, they are designed to bring us comfort too.
God is a God of vengeance
So, number one: He is the God of vengeance. He is a God of vengeance. So Edom and Philistia think that they are the ones getting even—they are the ones taking revenge. But notice the wordplay, the interplay on this language of revenge in those two prophecies against Edom and Philistia.
So there's two prophecies—Edom, Philistia. In each of them I’m going to show you two verses. And each of those two verses, the word “vengeance” or “revenge” occurs twice. Okay? So eight mentions: Edom, Philistia, two verses in each, each verse with two mentions of this word.
So, first of all, verse 12:
Because Edom took revenge on Judah (or literally, because Edom avenged vengeance on Judah)...
Verse 14:
I will take vengeance on Edom, and they will know my vengeance, declares the Sovereign
Lord .
Verse 15:
Because the Philistines acted in vengeance and took revenge…
Therefore, verse 17:
I will carry out great vengeance on them. They will know that I am the
Lord when I take vengeance on them.
God is really the one here getting even—not them. He’s a God of vengeance.
The letter of 2 Thessalonians was written to some Christians who were being persecuted. We’ve thought about that already with our final beatitude: “Blessed are the persecuted.” And in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 6, Paul says that God will pay back trouble to those who trouble you.
The Bible ends in the book of Revelation with Satan himself being cast into the lake of fire. Some Christians worry that there is a lake of fire in the Bible—they don’t like it, especially in the New Testament. That’s supposed to be good news.
Well, let me tell you: if you trust in the Lord Jesus, take refuge in him and in his forgiveness, then the fact that there is a lake of fire is good news indeed—because Satan will go there. Or 1 Corinthians chapter 15 says that the last enemy to be destroyed is death. But then death itself will be swallowed up in victory. Our enemies will not have the last word. God will.
God is God of the whole earth
Second, God is God of the whole Earth. It's really tempting to divide the world up between different religions, to think of different religions as having their own territory — a bit like car dealers.
Okay, so a car manufacturer has a number of showrooms all around the country, and what they've done is they divide up all the postcodes of this country between those dealers. If you ring up the manufacturer and go, "I'd like to buy a brand new car, please," then you're a richer man than me — but also, the other thing that happens is they look up, say, where you live, and they refer your sales lead to the garage that covers your postcode.
It's really tempting today to think of the countries of the world in the same way when it comes to religion. So people would say, "Well, the West — that's predominantly Christian, or at least it used to be. That's historically the way it's been. The Arabian Peninsula — that's predominantly Muslim, as is Pakistan. Over the partition line into India — that's predominantly Hindu. And Japan — that's predominantly Buddhist now."
So anyway, you can see some problems with this, I hope. But the problems are to do with — it's too simplistic. It needs a bit of nuance. You might say to me, "Japan — isn't that Shinto as well as Buddhist?" But details maybe need refining. But the broad model seems to fit.
It was tempting back then as well. So the Ammonites — they worship gods called Milcom and Molech, whereas the Moabites worshipped Chemosh — their worship costs — and the Philistines worshipped Dagon.
Now, modern Britain has a huge problem with this way of seeing the world, and the problem goes like this: modern Britain, they would say, has no particular right to see itself as Christian. Christianity has no territorial claim here. Just because you were born in Britain or live here doesn't make you a Christian.
Quite right, I would say — it doesn't. They would say, "You should be free, if you live here, to choose from any religion — or no religion — or several." The Bible has a problem with that, but it's not the same problem. The Bible's problem with that whole way of seeing the world is that God is the God of the whole Earth.
So, God was the God of Judah. Why did Judah go into exile? Not because the Babylonian god fought with their God — the Babylonian god won so he nicked his people, like nicking chess pieces off the board. No — Judah was judged because their God was in control and decided to hand them over.
But God is in charge of the other nations mentioned here as well. So look carefully at the language of verse 4, where God says, "I am going to give you to the people of the East as a possession." If God's going to give them, that implies that they are his to give.
If somebody in this church says to you, "I'm going to give you a car," you say, "Okay, that's nice" — but the first thing that implies is the car belongs to them. Otherwise, it's not theirs to give.
For the past few months we've been in the process of trying to buy a house, and if you do that, your lawyer will make all kinds of checks for you to make sure everything is in order. But the most fundamental thing they need to check is that the house does belong to the person who is claiming to sell it to you.
Well, if God is going to give these nations, that implies they do belong to him in the first place. We get the same language in verse 10: "I will give Moab, along with the Ammonites, to the people of the East — a possession." That means that their gods are not in charge. Our God — the God of Judah — is the one who is in charge. You can push the God of the Bible away, but you cannot push him off his throne.
So who is the God of Saudi Arabia? The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How many gods are there in India? One — and his name is not Vishnu. His name is Yahweh. God has the last word. His purposes will win.
To mention 1 Corinthians 15 again: verse 25 says that Jesus must reign until he's put all his enemies under his feet. And then verse 24 says, "Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power." He's the God of the whole Earth.
God is the God of his people
Number three: he's the God of his people. He's the God of his people.
Did you notice the refrain through this chapter? "Then you" or "they will know that I am the
"Then they will know that I am the
Verse 7: "I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the
Verse 11: "I will inflict punishment on Moab. Then they will know that I am the
And verse 17: "I will carry out great vengeance on them and punish them in my wrath. Then they will know that I am the
That's "
It's God's name — not his title. So, my name is James. I've got various titles depending on whether you're being rude or kind — but I'm Associate Minister, I'm Pastor, I'm husband and father and son. I've even been known to answer to "Oi you!" But those are titles. I only have one name.
God has many titles, including "Lord" in small letters — he's in charge. But his name is "
And what this is saying is that the nations will realise — too late — that the name of God is Yahweh, the
Judah did not go into exile because God had abandoned them. He's withdrawn his blessings from them, but he remains their God. They may be under judgement and under discipline, but he is jealous for his people.
And if we are part of the people of God — if we follow the Lord Jesus Christ — then our names are written on the palms of his hands. They're written in nail marks, and nothing can make God forget your name. And if someone picks a fight with the people of God, they will discover that God is the
Conclusion
Well, God intends us to listen in, as his people in the year 572 listened in — to him speaking about four of their neighbours. And he wants us to draw comfort, as this chapter speaks comfort to them.
We may live in a different era, but God has not changed. God is the God of vengeance. He will destroy his enemies, and there will come a day when his people live in safety.
God is the God of the whole Earth. He hasn't got a special area that he's in charge of. He has no competition and no rivals.
And God is the God of his people. If we are the sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we know his voice, and no one can snatch us out of his hand.