This chapter closes the section of the book that focuses on the destruction of Jerusalem (chap. 4—24) and it is divided into two parts: a parable about a boiling pot (24:1–14) and an “action sermon” involving the sudden death of the prophet’s wife (vv. 15–27). After that, Ezekiel deals with God’s judgment on the Gentile nations (chaps. 25—32) and His glorious promises for the people of Israel (chaps. 33—48).
God’s message came to Ezekiel on January 15, 588 BC, the date of the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem. So critical is this date that it’s mentioned in 2 Kings 25:1–3 as well as Jeremiah 39:1–3 and 52:4–6. During their years of exile, the Jews observed four annual fasts to remember the painful events of the destruction of Jerusalem (Zech. 7; 8:18–23). They marked when the siege began (tenth month), when the walls were breached (fourth month), when the temple was burned down (fifth month), and when Gedaliah the governor was assassinated (the seventh month, Jer. 41:1–2).
God called Judah a “rebellious house” not only because they broke His laws and violated His covenant, but also because Zedekiah had broken his treaty with Babylon and incited the displeasure of Nebuchadnezzar. The image of the cooking pot takes us back to Ezekiel 11:1–13, where the Jewish leaders boasted that the Jews left in Jerusalem were better than the Jews taken off to Babylon. The Jerusalem Jews were the best “cuts of meat,” while the Jews in Babylon were only the scraps! Of course, God contradicted that idea and made it clear that the exiles in Babylon would form a remnant with which He could rebuild the nation and the temple. Jeremiah had written to the exiles and instructed them to settle down, build houses, and raise families so that the remnant could continue the ministry for which the Lord had chosen Israel. God warned the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem that they weren’t the “meat”—they were the butchers! They were guilty of shedding innocent blood, and God would judge them for their sins. If they weren’t “cooked” in the cauldron of Jerusalem, they would eventually be slain by the swords of the Babylonian soldiers. Even if they escaped the city, they would be caught and killed.
In his parable about the cooking pot, Ezekiel used the image and vocabulary of the Jerusalem leaders. Yes, God would put “the best cuts of meat” into His pot (Jerusalem) and boil the meat and the bones (the Babylonian siege). He wouldn’t “cook” the flesh; He would consume it (Ezek. 10)! Then He would pour out the burned mess and burn the pot itself! Jerusalem was an evil city, filled with sin like a filthy pot encrusted with rust and scum. She had shed innocent blood and hadn’t even been decent enough to cover the blood (Gen. 4:10; Lev. 17:13; Deut. 12:16, 24; 15:23). The murderers left the evidence for everyone to see and didn’t worry about the consequences! But God would avenge the innocent victims and expose the blood of their murderers for all to see.
The Jerusalem leaders were confident of deliverance because they were depending on a lie: “Our God will never allow His chosen people to be killed, His Holy City and temple to be destroyed.” This was a delusion, and Ezekiel put an end to it. It was because the Jews were His chosen people that God was punishing them, and because Jerusalem was His Holy City that He couldn’t allow it to continue wallowing in wickedness. The only way to purge the city was to burn it and make it a great funeral pyre (Ezek. 24:9–10). He judged the people in the city (the “select pieces of meat in the pot”) and then burned the pot as well!
Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel had to deal with the false confidence of the people, a confidence based on a false interpretation of theology. Jeremiah warned Judah, “Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these’” (Jer. 7: nkjv). The presence of the temple in Jerusalem wasn’t a guarantee that the city would be saved, especially when what was going on in the temple was contrary to the will of God. Any theology that makes sin easy and divine punishment unimportant is not biblical theology. God’s judgment begins with His own people (2 Peter 4:17), and Hebrews 10: warns us that “the Lord will judge His people” (nkjv).
Our world today lives on delusions and myths because, like the Jews in Ezekiel’s day, the world won’t accept the authority of the Word of God. People still believe that might makes right, that money is the measure of worth and success, that the aim of life is to have fun and do what you want to do. You can believe whatever you please about God, yourself, and others, and everything will turn out fine because there are no consequences. But one day God will expose the stupidity of these delusions and the world will discover too late that there are consequences to what we believe and how we behave.