Ezekiel 14:12 - Meaning and Application

These verses teach that national sin brings national judgment. When virtue is ruined, everything else soon begins to fall apart too. When a land sins against God, when evil becomes widespread, and when people grow bold in rebellion, God will stretch out his hand against it (Ezekiel 14:13). His power will be seen openly, and his judgments will reach every part of the land. Serious sins bring serious punishments.

They also show that God has many severe judgments at his command, and he sends whichever one he chooses. David was once given a choice of punishments for his sin in numbering the people, because any of them would have served God’s purpose. In the end, David left the matter in God’s hands, trusting him to choose the rod. God uses many kinds of judgment so that people may see his full rule over all things and remember their dependence on him. Four severe judgments are named here.

The first is famine (Ezekiel 14:13). When God withholds the common gifts of life, that alone is enough to bring misery. He does not need to add oppression. If he breaks the staff of bread, the support of life, people and animals suffer quickly. Even when there is bread, God can withhold the strength and nourishment that bread should give (Haggai 1:6).

The second is harmful beasts, animals that are poisonous or wild and ravenous. God can send them through a land so that they increase everywhere and destroy it (Ezekiel 14:15). They can take not only livestock, but also people, men, women, and children, until no one dares travel. It is just for God to let the lower creatures rise against people when people have rebelled against him (Leviticus 26:22).

The third is war. God often corrects sinful nations by bringing the sword of an enemy against them, and he decides what that sword will do (Ezekiel 14:17). He says, in effect, “Sword, go through the land.” It is bad enough when war reaches the borders of a country, but far worse when it cuts through its heart. God uses it to destroy both people and animals. The sword does its work only because God directs it.

The fourth is pestilence, a deadly disease that has sometimes emptied cities (Ezekiel 14:19). Through it God pours out his anger in death. Pestilence kills as surely as the sword, because disease can take life as completely as bloodshed. This shows how miserable human life is when it stands exposed to so many forms of death. It also shows how dangerous the life of sinners is, since God has many ways to strike them and one judgment may only be followed by another.

When God’s own professing people turn away from him, they may rightly expect a full weight of judgment. God has many ways to contend with a sinful nation, but if Jerusalem, the holy city, becomes like an unfaithful woman, he will send all four of these severe judgments against her (Ezekiel 14:21). The closer people are to God in name and profession, the more sharply he will deal with them if they disgrace that holy name. They will be punished much more heavily.

Yet even in a land ripe for ruin, there may still be a few very good people. It is not far-fetched to think that in a place guilty of great sin, there could still be three such men as Noah, Daniel, and Job. Daniel was alive then, and though he had not yet reached the height of his fame, he was already well known. He had been carried into captivity with the first group taken away (Daniel 1:6). Some in Jerusalem may have thought that if Daniel had remained there, the city would have been spared for his sake. But God says no, even such a man would not secure a pardon for the whole land.

In the worst and most corrupt times, God still keeps a remnant for himself. He preserves some who hold fast their integrity and stand as a credit to the land, as the innocent are said to deliver a place (Job 22:30). And while God does spare very wicked places for the sake of a few godly people in them, those godly people are the very ones who could most effectively plead for mercy. If Noah, Daniel, and Job could make any difference, they would. Noah was righteous when the whole world had become corrupt, and because of him his family was saved in the ark. Job was deeply devoted to God and prayed much for his children and friends, and God restored him when he prayed.

These examples are all older than Moses, the great intercessor, and that matters. God mentions them to show that he had his own special servants long before Israel became a nation, and he would still have such servants even when that nation was ruined. Daniel is placed between Noah and Job so no one would think God only honors the very ancient saints. We should not look down on faithful people of our own day by praising the old saints so much that we overlook them.

Let the children of the exile know that Daniel, their neighbor and fellow sufferer, was a man of deep humility, devotion, and zeal for God. He was steady and earnest in prayer, and he had as much favor in heaven as Noah or Job. Why should we doubt that God can raise up men just as great and good now as he did then, and do as much for them?

This passage also teaches that when a people’s sin has reached its limit, and God has decided to bring judgment, even the prayers and faithfulness of the best people will not stop the final outcome. The Lord repeats this point here. Even if these three men were in Jerusalem at the time, they would save neither son nor daughter. Not even the little children would be spared for their sake, unlike the children of Israel who were spared through Moses’ prayer (Num. 14:31). The land would still be left desolate, and God would not listen to prayers for it, even if Moses and Samuel stood before him (Jer. 15:1). Long abused patience finally turns into unbending wrath. In Jerusalem’s case, that wrath would seem even stronger than in other places (Eze. 14:6), because they had enjoyed greater mercy and privilege than any other people, and that made their sin worse.

Yet this is also true, even if godly people cannot save others, they will still save their own souls by their righteousness. They may suffer in the same trouble, but for them the trouble is changed. It is no longer the same thing it is for the wicked. It is stripped of its power to destroy them, and God uses it for their good. Sometimes their very lives are spared in a special way, and given to them as a prize. At the very least, their spiritual life is kept safe. If their bodies are not delivered, their souls are. Wealth cannot help on the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death, even from many deaths like those threatened here. This should encourage us to keep our integrity in times of widespread falling away, because if we do, we will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.

Even when God brings the greatest ruin through his judgments, he still leaves some as signs of his mercy (Eze. 14:22, Eze. 14:23). In Jerusalem itself, though marked for complete destruction, there would still be a remnant left. They would not be cut off by the severe judgments already mentioned, but would be carried into exile, sons and daughters alike, and would become the beginning of a new generation. These younger ones had not grown as hardened in sin as their fathers, who were cut off as beyond cure. The enemy would bring them out of Jerusalem’s ruins, and they would come to those already in exile. They would, in effect, make the best of a bad situation, and come more willingly to Babylon because many of their friends were already there to receive them.

When they arrived, the exiles would see their ways and their actions. They would hear them openly confess the sins they had committed before, and humbly admit that God had been right to punish them. They would also promise to change, and their new conduct would show that the affliction had done them good. Their narrow escape would leave a real mark on them. It would change their character and their way of life, so that they would seem like new people.

This would comfort their fellow captives. It is a very comforting sight to see people, while under God’s discipline, repenting, humbling themselves, and admitting that God is right in punishing their sin. When we grieve, as we should, over the troubles of others, it is a great comfort to see them profit from those troubles. When the captives told their friends how sinful they had been, and how just God was in judging them, it made the other exiles more at peace. It helped them accept Jerusalem’s disasters, God’s justice in punishing his own people, and God’s goodness, which now could be seen as loving and wise all along. In this way, they would be comforted about all the evil God had brought on Jerusalem, and once they understood it better, they would no longer fear it so deeply.

We owe this to our brothers and sisters: if we have gained good from our afflictions, we should comfort others by telling them so. This would also bring honor to God. They would learn that he had not acted without reason, or without just cause, and yet also not without a gracious purpose in all he had done there. When afflictions have done their work and fulfilled the purpose for which they were sent, then the wisdom and goodness of God in sending them will be clear. God will be shown not only to be right, but to be glorified in them.