Ezekiel 14:12-16

Noah, Daniel, and Job.

Ezekiel was called by God to be a prophet to the exiles from Judah with the second wave of deportations to Babylon. He lived among the common people and gave them God’s instruction and reproof over a long and unusual career. This passage from chapter 14 is good example for its striking rhetoric. Here it is in full:

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“Son of man, if a country sins against Me by being unfaithful, and I stretch out My hand against it, destroy its supply of bread, send famine against it, and eliminate from it both human and animal life,

even though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only save themselves,” declares the Lord GOD.

“If I were to cause vicious animals to pass through the land and they depopulated it, and it became desolate so that no one would pass through it because of the animals,

though these three men were in its midst, as I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “they could not save either their sons or their daughters. They alone would be saved, but the country would be desolate.”

The mention of Noah, Daniel, and Job is striking but note first of all that God describes the possibility of sending calamity as a response to a country’s sinfulness. The goodness of God is active rather than weak and passive, and we find that He can bring a nationwide tidal wave of judgment that touches each life in an individually choreographed manner and with its own causitive reasoning. In our day we observed this same pattern during the global pandemic.

God can bring death upon His mortal enemies as a condemnation that ends life early, and He can bring troubles short of death as a warning wake-up call — to the rebellious that they would repent and to wayward believers that they mend their ways. God can bring troubles upon the faithful in order to exercise their faith, producing in them and their peers greater confidence as He carries them through life. God can spare believers from the tumult of the waves, when He sees that as the best choice.

All of these scenarios and more are within the ability of the Almighty as He in His holiness governs the affairs of men — particularly for the nation of Israel which is the apple of His eye.

The specific warning of this passage is intended to squelch a particular delusion: the thought that I am safe because my small community has godly people in it.

Too easily are we prone to reason in exactly that way. We have friends or family members who love the Lord, and we think the peace they have with God extends to us automatically. We reason that some calamity that is touching houses all around us will miss us as individuals because in our house lives a godly man.

God is not so weak or unskilled that He cannot deal with us as individuals, even during large wave of such judgment. There can be protection for you, or discipline, or condemnation — whatever is just and appropriate according to His perfect wisdom.

The healthy response to this warning is to discard this idea from our thinking wherever it may have taken root and to pursue the face of God personally. Regardless of your circumstances, if you will turn to God you will find Him. James 4 sets out a series of steps back to the throne of God.

A spiritually healthy heart is also attracted to these three names: Noah, Daniel, and Job. The fervor of their faith, the glowing fire of their commitment to God’s ways despite adverse circumstances, and the humility of their confidence in the Almighty shine as examples to follow. The Holy Spirit pricks our hearts to join these three men, to have our names listed with theirs, to have God’s opinion of us coincide. Would that by His grace, He would enable each of us to walk with Him in faith and steady purity. Would that we may yield to the Spirit’s call to this path.

Pursuit of wisdom for today from the Ancient of Days