An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 167: The Leg Bone Is Connected To The Hip-Bone, and Yahweh Plans A Comeback (Ezekiel 36-40)

Ezekiel 36-40
The Leg Bone Is Connected To The Hip-Bone, and Yahweh Plans A Comeback.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Ezekiel 36

“Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.”

The last chapter seems like an intruding interlude of smiting, as we are back to salvation here. God promises to bring back the remnant and to purify them with a kind of baptism (“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you”) and “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you”. I wonder if this is the origins of baptism as a rite, as there wasn’t any mention of it previously despite the significant presence of the River Jordan in earlier narrative.

This is not done, however, for the sake of the people, but for God’s own sake, to make people fear His name again which seems … Well, as has been established, God can do what He likes and humans have little or no say in it, but it does all seem a bit pointless if it’s not also for the people. Still, there is promise of plenty and prosperity, which all seems good.

I take issue with “their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman”, in other words menstruation. So, something that’s entirely natural, then? We know how Ezekiel likes to harp on about “whores”, he’s not the most female-friendly of biblical figures.

Ezekiel 37

“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,”

Ah, yes, Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones, so this is the origins of that song. Ezekiel is carried to a valley full of bones, and God asks him if they can live again. I do like Ezekiel’s answer “O Lord GOD, thou knowest” – in other words, you’re the God here, you tell me! At this point the reader kind of wants God to reply, come on Ezekiel, you’re not even trying. But He doesn’t. Instead he animates the bones and returns them to flesh, like some Ray Harryhausen spectacular, and then Ezekiel calls upon the wind to give them breath.

I’m not sure what happens to this “mighty army” next; they seem to be simply used as an example to show how the people of Israel will be raised up again. I guess God returns them to bones, otherwise Ezekiel now has an Army of the Dead to run around with, which feels like it belongs in another work entirely.

The other metaphor given is that God joins two pieces of stick together, to represent the rejoining of Judah and Israel into one kingdom. And it has to be said, from Kings and Chronicles, that the separation of the two seemed like a bad mistake both militarily and culturally; also it got very confusing as to which Jehoiakim was which king of which.

Ezekiel 38

“Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,”

Gog and Magog are names that seem to crop up in myth in various guises and I have trouble keeping them straight. I think they’re a pair of Cornish giants, but also terrible monsters that live beyond gates in the far East. Here, Gog is the land of the prince Magog, it would seem.

I’m not sure here about the prophecy, and perhaps it is continued in the next chapter. God tells Magog that one day he will have the great idea of raiding defenceless towns for plunder, along with his large army of various confederates from the near East. God mentions that He once prophesied that one day a foe from the north would come against the Israelites, but asks Magog – did I mean you? There’s hints that Magog will not find Israel is as defenceless as he thought, but also God promises terrible catastrophe should the invasion occur; “And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone”.

I’m not clear, however, if this is what will happen to Gog, or if it is indeed the punishment on Israel that was prophesied. I’d guess not, as that was evidently the Babylonian invasion.

Ezekiel 39

“Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal”

Okay, I guess this chapter thoroughly clears up my confusion from the previous one. The army of Gog will be destroyed, leaving only one sixth left. It will take seven months to bury all the bodies, and the Israelites will be able to use their spears as firewood for seven years (I like that image as a threat). That’s about it, really, the rest is about the reconciliation between God and the Israelites, and the message is Yahweh’s back, baby, and His people are with Him.

I’ve been noting the difficulties with assuming the work of God in geopolitical situations, but it does begin to make sense here – if the Israelites have a mighty God, how come they get enslaved by the Babylonians? Well, clearly they offended their God and He turned from them. But now people and God are reconciled, they are protected again, so watch out everyone. By assuming a motive for God to leave you in a time of failure, it must surely mean that if you are living correctly this will not happen again, giving a tremendous boost of positivity to the rebuilding of Israel.

Ezekiel 40

“And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.”

Well, it’s been a while since we’ve had one of these. In this chapter, Ezekiel is shown a vision of an architect, made of brass apparently, who measures out the plan for a new temple. And the rest of this chapter is basically architectural plans, and lots of cubits and reeds and measures.

This temple seems quite a different layout to Solomon’s one, more square with gates in the four cardinal directions, decorated with palm trees with more small chambers and fewer golden pomegranates and giant cherubim statues. It seems altogether more business-like and less ostentatious, indicative of a new era where religion is treated with perhaps more austerity and seriousness. Assuming this gets built, I wonder if this is the one destroyed by the Romans.