Ezekiel the Heretic

"And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, Why have you troubled us? the LORD will trouble you this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones." (Joshua 7:24-25)

What a terrible and fascinating story. What on earth could it possibly have to do with Ezekiel? Let me explain the background to this story first. Achen was a soldier of Israel and was there with Joshua at the slaughter of Jericho. Before going into battle with Jericho Joshua had commanded that all of the treasures of Jericho belonged to the Lord and no one was to take what belonged to God. Needless to say, Achen did take from the city and buried it under his tent. When the Children of Israel went up to attack Ai they lost the battle badly. Joshua saw this as a sign that God was not with Israel and he complained to God. It is reported that God told him that one person in the camp had sinned against God and stolen from Jericho and so all of Israel was being punished for the sin of one man. No mention was made on the fact that Israel had become so confident that instead of attacking Ai with the entire army they only sent three thousand men, because Ai was a small city. Instead of an easy victory, however, Israel was defeated and chased from the city. Rather than assigning the cause to Israel’s over confidence, they assigned the entire blame to the sin of one man.

There is one thing that is worth mentioning before moving on. This idea that the sin of one person would inflict punishment upon everyone was very common and, if the record can be believed, God set this precedent Himself. This cultural practice was upheld by verses such as the following, “…and will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:7) Multiple times in the Old Testament the sin of one person caused the death of multiple people, it didn’t just happen in this story. The converse is also true, the righteousness of one person often spared the lives of all those around. In fact, In the previous chapter of Joshua all of Rehab’s family was saved, not because of their righteous deeds, but because of the actions of Rehab. Multiple times God spares the life of a king for the sake of the righteousness of his father.

So obviously Achen is discovered and Joshua asks him, “My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what tyou have done; hide it not from me.” Achen confesses his sin and tells Joshua what he did, and by the command of god himself, Joshua takes Achen’s entire family and all his animals and the entire camp of Israel throws large stones at them until they all die by blunt force trauma and internal bleeding. Then the camp took their bodies and all their possessions and burned them with fire as a kind of twisted offering to god, and “…the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger.”

So what does Ezekiel have to do with all of this? Quite simply stated, Ezekiel so pointedly contradicts scripture that if he were to preach today he would be labeled as a liberal heretic who was purposefully attacking the gospel of God and is deserving of hell fire for leading God’s people astray. To really understand what I am about to say you really need to read Ezekiel chapter 18 in its entirety. The chapter starts out with God questioning a common proverb in Israel. The proverb is, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” The meaning of the proverb is clear after reading the story of Achen. The fathers ate the grapes, but the children also feel the effects of the stinging sourness. God reacts strongly to this saying, stating the following, “As I live, saith the Lord God, you shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.” At this point I become very confused. Why does God contradict himself here? Didn’t he command Joshua to not only kill Achen, but also his sons, his daughters, his wife, and all his animals?

Is this even the same God that Ezekiel is presenting? It is not just us who asks this question; all of Israel asks this question of Ezekiel. They accuse him of presenting a God contrary to the word, yet Ezekiel continues on in his argument. Ezekiel goes through verse after verse describing in extreme detail all the wicked deeds and good deeds people can do. He finishes this back and forth between the wicked father and the righteous son with this statement, ”The soul that sins, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.” Further more what is even more unbelievable is that Ezekiel begins to paint a picture of God that is so fantastically more compassionate and forgiving than any other picture painted in the history of Biblical literature up to this point. “If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keeps all my statutes, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall not die.” Are you guys getting as excited about this verse as I am? I wish you could feel my excitement as I write this, this verse is fantastic! “All his transgressions that he has committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he has done he shall live!”

What comes next in the passage so contradicts the actions of Joshua that you almost have to ask the question, “was Joshua worshiping the same God?” “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? Saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” Ezekiel is essentially saying this, “Listen people, the death of the wicked does not appease God!” The people’s response to Ezekiel is surprising to me, they tell him “The way of the Lord is not equal!” God responds to the people by saying, “Hear now, oh House of Israel; is not my way equal? Are not your ways unequal?...For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live!”

What I find most fascinating about Ezekiel’s presentation about God is that even up to the time of Jesus' Ezekiel's message had still not been accepted as gospel by the religious leaders or the general public. Ezekiel simply walked to close to the line of heresy. Thus when the disciples asked Jesus, “Master, who sinned, this man or his parents…?” (John 9:2) The answer was shocking to everyone around, as if they had never heard of Ezekiel before, “Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents…” The same exact thing happened with the man with palsy, the first thing Jesus says to the man when he is lowered in from the roof is, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9:2)

These kinds of teachings are what got Jesus killed. Jesus contradicted the Scriptures. Jesus preached the message of a heretic. Is it any wonder why Ezekiel is one of those books that no one wants to touch? Even today people do not know what to do with Ezekiel. He has been portrayed as a mental case, an eccentric, a fraud, and a source for conspiracy and theory. What is missed in a study of Ezekiel is that Ezekiel is all about a revelation of the character of God. Ezekiel was building up a new foundation off which to base theology. His writings are a revelation of Jesus, but in order to reveal Jesus accurately He had to tear down the foundations that were built in the past in order to pave the way for the revelation that was soon to come. When people say that the Bible never contradicts itself I simply point to Ezekiel and Joshua, two polar opposites preaching extremely different messages about the same God.

This is where I proudly place myself squarely among the company of the heretics with a simple statement: In reading scripture, you must read it with a filter. All scripture is profitable, but not all scripture is equal. As is clearly seen with Ezekiel and Joshua, the Bible reveals a progression of understanding. It reveals a God in motion who is constantly leading people to greater understanding. God is not stagnant. If there is one thing that should be taken from this comparison of two different people in opposites sides of the Old Testament, it is this, God is on the move in scripture. You should not believe that God was not leading Joshua, rather God was not willing to leave humanity at the story of Joshua. God is constantly leading us on to something better. God does not exist only where the Bible ends, God is still moving, and He will continue to move us toward deeper and deeper understanding of His character. As long as God is moving there will always be prophets speaking the heresy of God.