John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 11

Here the Prophet admonishes the people that perverse leaders would be the cause of their destruction. For if the blind lead the blind both will fall into the ditch (Matthew 15:14; Luke 6:39). Since, therefore, the elders of the city were such wicked apostates, they drew with them the whole body of the people into the same ruin.

Now, therefore, the Prophet shows that the state of the city was so corrupt that no hope of pardon remained, since those who ought to be the eyes of the whole people were involved in darkness.

But he names the five and twenty seniors. From which it is probable that this number was chosen in the midst of confusion, or that a definite number is put for an indefinite; and I rather embrace this second view.

Whatever it is, it implies that those who held the reins of government were impious despisers of God, and therefore it is not surprising that impiety and defection from God and his law had begun to increase among the whole people.

But we must remark the Prophet’s intention. For common soldiers are accustomed to consider their commanders as a shield, as we see today in the Papacy.

For this is their last refuge, since they think themselves guilty of no fault when they obey their holy Mother Church. Such also formerly was the obstinacy of the people.

Lastly, men always throw off all blame from themselves, under pretense of error or ignorance. Hence the Prophet now shows that the city was not free from God’s wrath, since it was corrupted by its leaders and rulers; indeed, that this was a cause of its destruction, since the people were too easily led astray by perverse examples.

Meanwhile, we must note the Prophet’s boldness, because he here fearlessly attacks the most noble princes. He was, indeed, out of danger, because he was an exile: but it seems that he was at Jerusalem when he uttered this prophecy. He shows, therefore, his strength of mind, since he does not spare the nobles.

Hence, this useful doctrine is gathered: that those who excel in reputation and rank are not free from blame if they conduct themselves wickedly, as we see happens in the Papacy.

For, as to the Pope himself, it is in his power to condemn the whole world, while he exempts himself from all blame. And as to the Bishops, now twenty or thirty witnesses are required, and afterwards even seventy. Hence one of those horned beasts could not be convicted, unless the whole people should rise up; so it was also in former times.

But here the Prophet shows that however eminent are those who are endowed with power over the people, yet they are not sacred nor absolved from all law by any special privilege, since God freely judges them by his Spirit, and reproves them by his Prophets.

Lastly, if we wish to discharge our duty rightly, especially when it consists of the office of teaching, we should avoid all respect of persons, for those who boast that they excel others are yet subject to the censures of God.

For this reason

Here the Prophet explains what might be obscure through their perversity. He brings forward, therefore, what the ungodly thought could be covered by many deceptions. For we know that hypocrites strive to fix their eyes on God, and when they scatter their own clouds before themselves, they think that He is blinded.

For this reason Isaiah says that God also is wise (Isaiah 31:2), and mocks their cunning, since they think that they blind God’s eyes while they conceal their sins with various coverings. Since, therefore, the obstinacy of these men was so great, the Prophet here strips off their mask; for they could be turned aside by perverse counsels to deny that they deserved anything of the kind.

But the Prophet here cuts away their pretenses, because, in truth, their ungodliness was abundantly clear, since they boasted that the time was not yet near and, therefore, that they might build houses at Jerusalem as in a time of ease and peace.

As we saw in Jeremiah, the time of the last destruction was approaching; everything remaining in the city had now been destined for final ruin. For this reason, Jeremiah advised houses to be built in Chaldea and in foreign lands, since the captives would have to spend a long period there, even seventy years (Jeremiah 29:5). Since then the predicted time was now drawing near, it became extreme folly for the people to resist, to treat God’s threats as a laughingstock, and to boast that it was a time for building.

Now, therefore, we see what the Prophet blames and condemns in the twenty-five men who were leaders of the people: namely, that they hardened the people in obstinate wickedness and encouraged apathy, so that the Prophet’s threats were ignored. Since, therefore, they so stupefied the people by their enticements and removed all sense of repentance, they also set aside all fear of God’s wrath which had been proclaimed against them. The Prophet condemns this depravity in their counsels.

But, in the second statement, this contempt appears more detestable when they say that Jerusalem is the cauldron, and they are the flesh; I do not doubt their allusion to Jeremiah, for in the first chapter the pot was shown, but the fire was from the north (Jeremiah 1:13). So then the Spirit wished to teach us that the Chaldeans would come like a fire to consume Jerusalem, as when a pot is placed on a large and constant fire; even if it is full of water and flesh, yet its contents are consumed, and the juice of the flesh is dried up by too much cooking.

God had demonstrated this by His servant Jeremiah. Here the Jews mock and contentiously evade what should have struck them with great fear, unless they had been too complacent: Behold, they say, we are the flesh and Jerusalem is the cauldron: So they seem to criticize the Prophet Jeremiah, as if he were inconsistent— “What? Do you threaten us with captivity? And meanwhile you say that this city will be the pot and the Chaldeans the fire. If God wishes to consume us, then let us remain within; in this way we can build houses.”

Now we understand how they sought some semblance of inconsistency in the words of the Prophet: as depraved and ungodly men always seize upon arguments by which they may diminish and undermine all faith in heavenly doctrine, indeed, even reduce it to nothing if they could.

The Prophet, therefore, provides a remedy for this evil, as we have seen. But before he proceeds to it, he repeats their ungodly saying that Jerusalem is a cauldron, and the people flesh. They twisted what had been said to a directly contrary meaning, for the Prophet said that they should burn since the Chaldeans would be like fire; but they said— “Well, we will be scorched, but that will happen lightly, so that we will remain safe to a good old age.”

Hence we understand how diabolical their audacity was, as they were so blinded by the just judgments of God that they did not hesitate to insolently blame even God Himself and to make a laughingstock of the authority of His teaching.

Thus we see in another way how faithfully Ezekiel had fulfilled his duty: he had been made a Prophet. He did not have to fulfill his office by himself, but was an assistant to Jeremiah. And we cannot otherwise fulfill our duty to God and His Church unless we mutually extend our hands to each other, when ministers are mutually united and each one strives to assist the other. Ezekiel now shows this when he professes himself the ally and assistant of Jeremiah.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as we know from Your ancient people how great our hardness is (unless we are inclined by Your Holy Spirit, indeed, totally renewed into obedience to Your doctrine): that as often as we hear Your threatening, we may be truly frightened, and that we may desire to return to true and perfect obedience, not by momentary but by permanent repentance, until at last we are gathered into that happy rest, which has been obtained for us through the blood of Your only-begotten Son. Amen.

Yesterday we saw that the Jews contemptuously evaded the prophecies of Jeremiah, especially when he threatened them with God’s wrath. For he had said that a vision was given to him, in which Jerusalem was like a pot, and the fire lit from the north. Mockingly, they said that they could rest safely within the city because they were not yet cooked but raw, so that if that prophecy were true, they said, they would not depart from the city so quickly.

For, they reasoned, God foretold that we would be the flesh that was about to be cooked. If this city is a cauldron, we ought to remain here until we are cooked; but this has not happened. Therefore, what Jeremiah proclaims is futile—that we will be dragged into exile—because these two things conflict: namely, God wanting us to rest in the city, and yet dragging us into a distant region.

Their conclusion, based on this reasoning, was that Jeremiah’s prophecy was futile. In this way, then, they deceived themselves. But God commands another of his prophets to rise up against them. And the repetition is emphatic: prophesy, prophesy against them. For nothing is less tolerable than for men to arrogantly scorn God’s anger, which ought to inspire everyone with fear.

For if the mountains melt before him (Isaiah 64:3), and if angels themselves tremble (Job 4:18), how can it be that the vessel of clay dares to conflict with its Maker (Isaiah 45:9)?

And we also see how God grows angry against such perversity, especially when he denounces, by the mouth of Isaiah, that this sin would be unpardonable.

I have called you, he said, to ashes and mourning; but, on the other hand, you have said, "Let us eat and drink," and you have turned my threats into a laughing-stock. For this was your proverb, "Tomorrow we shall die": As I live, your iniquity shall not go unpunished.

God affirms by an oath that he would never be appeased by the impious and profane despisers of his judgments.

For this reason also, he now repeats, prophesy, prophesy. Let us go on—

Here the Prophet turns the wicked mockery of the people to another meaning, for they had corrupted what Jeremiah had said. They knew what he meant by the pot and the flesh, but they thought they could avert God’s wrath by their cleverness. Here the Prophet brings forward another meaning—not that of Jeremiah, nor that of the people, but a third.

In the twenty-fourth chapter, he will again denounce them as like flesh, since God will cast them into a pot to be cooked, so that even their bones would be consumed. But here the Prophet only considers how he will refute their wicked saying, by which they think to catch Jeremiah in a snare, as they did not agree sufficiently with his prophecy.

What does he say, then? First, that the Spirit had fallen upon him, so that he might gain a hearing for his prophecy; for if he had spoken from his own mind, he might be rejected with impunity. For the speakers ought to utter God’s word and be the organ of his Spirit.

The Pope boasts this to his followers, but the true and faithful servants of God ought to do this in reality: namely, not to utter their own comments, but to receive from God’s hands what they deliver to the people, and thus to discharge their duty faithfully. To this end, the Prophet says that the Spirit fell upon him. For although he had been previously endowed with the gift of prophecy, yet as often as he exercised it, this grace ought to be renewed; because it is not sufficient for us to be imbued once with the illumination of the Holy Spirit, unless God works in us daily.

Therefore, since God sustains his gifts in his servants while he uses their assistance, it is not in vain that Ezekiel says, the Spirit was still given to him, because this gift was necessary for every act. Afterward, he expresses more clearly what he had said, namely, that the Spirit had spoken; for it signifies that what he shortly adds had been dictated to him.

Here, therefore, he admonishes the Jews that they should not foolishly promise themselves impunity when they despised his prophecies, since he does not speak from himself but only relates what the Spirit suggested and dictated. Thus have ye spoken, O house of Israel, he said, and I have known the risings of your heart. God here precisely urges the Jews that they should not hope to obtain anything by turning their backs, for we know how carelessly and boldly hypocrites reject all teaching and do not hesitate to strive with God, since they find many pretexts by which they excuse themselves.

Hence, there would be no end unless the Lord should check them and, with the supreme command and power of a judge, show them that subterfuges were vain and make all their excuses idle and of no importance. This then is the Prophet’s meaning when he says, that whatever rose up in their heart was known to God. But by these words he implies that they sought in vain a theater in the world, as if they would succeed if they proved their cause before men: he says that it is vain, because they must come into the court of heaven, where God will be the only Judge.

Now, when our thoughts are known to God, it is futile for us to resort to this or that, because God will not accept our subterfuges, nor will he allow himself to be deluded by our smartness and cunning.

Now, therefore, we see what the Prophet means by saying that God knows what sprang up in the heart of the Jews, because, indeed, they had never stopped contending and quarreling with their fallacies, so as to undermine all confidence in his prophecies.

Hence, we see the usefulness of this teaching: that we deceive ourselves in vain by our acuteness, trying to escape through our devious imaginations, because God sees people’s cunning. While they desire to be ingenious, he seizes them and shows the vanity of what they consider the greatest wisdom.

So let us desire to prove ourselves acceptable to God, and not evaluate our deeds and plans according to our own perception and judgment.

Now Ezekiel attacks, as it were, in close combat, the buffoons who trifled with God by their jests, and brings forward that sense which I have just touched on, and of which the prophecy of Jeremiah was full, in a different manner than what they imagined. You, he says, have slain many; the city was full of many slaughters: therefore the pot was full of flesh; this flesh was cooked: there is no longer any room in the vessel.

You must therefore, out of necessity, be cast out as froth, or as foul flesh, for which no vessel is found for cooking it. We see, then, that the Prophet here treats them wittily, and plays off jests in answer to them; meanwhile he strikes a deadly wound, when he shows that they joked so petulantly to their own destruction, and boasted that Jeremiah was their adversary.

Hence he confirms the prophecy of Jeremiah, and yet he does not interpret it, because Jeremiah had spoken properly and clearly, when he said that they were flesh. The meaning was the same as if God were to pronounce that he would consume them in the middle of the city.

It happened as we have previously seen; for he scattered some of the people, and killed some with the sword, and some with hunger. In any event, the prophecy of Jeremiah will always be found true, namely, that God had cooked the Jews with the fire of the Chaldees (Jeremiah 1:13). But since they had perverted that doctrine, the Prophet does not regard the meaning of Jeremiah, but shows that they never profited while they turned their backs on God.

You shall not be flesh, he says, but your slain were flesh: you have refilled the caldron, that is, the city with the slain; now there is no room for you. What, therefore, remains, but that God should cast you out as foul flesh? Neither will he cook you, he says, nor will he consume you in a caldron, but where he has stretched you at full length on the earth, there will he consume you.

Now, therefore, we see how great a destruction the Jews had brought upon themselves, when they took the liberty of joking and jesting at the Prophets.

Hence he says, they had filled the city with the slain. He does not mean that men had been openly put to death in Jerusalem, but this figure of speech embraces all forms of injustice. For we know that God considers those as murderers who oppress miserable people, overturn their fortunes, and suck innocent blood.

Since, then, God considers all violence as slaughter, he properly says, that the city was filled with the slain. The Jews might object that no one had brought violence upon them; they could not be convicted in the sight of men.

But when their wickedness was so gross among themselves that they did not spare the wretched but cruelly afflicted them, he says that the city was filled with the slain.

He now adds that when the city was full of flesh, there was no more room for them. And he now shows that although Jeremiah had predicted that they should be cooked with the fire of the Chaldeans, yet they had advanced so far in wickedness that they were unworthy of being cooked within the city.

Hence, he says, a greater vengeance from God awaits you, since you continue to provoke his anger more and more.