(REFLECTIONS ON EZEKIEL 25:1-7)

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.” 

Judgement came against the people of God, but this isn’t the end of the story. Although it may make sense to us that God punished His own people, just as parents discipline their own children, but what is interesting in the next few chapters, is that we see God’s judgment doesn’t just end with Israel and Judah, but it extends now to the surrounding nations.

The Lord tells Ezekiel to set his face against the Ammonites. To set your face against means to disapprove, and to oppose. Ezekiel is to stand in defiance against the Ammonites as they celebrate and rejoice the downfall of Judah. Although the Ammonites and surrounding nations perhaps thought they were spectators in God’s household dispute, they will soon find that they aren’t innocent and aren’t just spectators. They are also under God’s judgment, and are also under God’s authority.

Do we think that God is overstepping His bounds? It is one thing to punish your own children, but it’s another to punish the children of others, right? Yes, it may be so in human relationships, but we are reminded as we begin this new section of Ezekiel that all the world, and all the nations, are God’s creation.

Ezekiel says from the Lord to the Ammonites,

4 therefore I am going to give you to the people of the East as a possession. They will set up their camps and pitch their tents among you; they will eat your fruit and drink your milk. 5 I will turn Rabbah into a pasture for camels and Ammon into a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

I am the Lord isn’t a phrase just for the Israelites in Israel and Judah, but for all of God’s creation. God’s disapproval and opposition doesn’t begin or end with Israel, but He sees and cares about the condition of all His creation.

Although we may think that God just deals with the church or with believers, we must remember, that all the world is His. This can serve as a comfort to us, knowing that we aren’t only safe under God’s protection in a certain place or under certain circumstances, but no matter where we are, God is there as well.

This also reminds us, that the Gospel, is not only the Gospel for believers in the church, but for all of God’s creation. Jesus Christ did not just die on the cross for those of us in the church, but for all the world. That is why in John 3:16 we read, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

God’s judgment is for all the world, but His mercy and compassion is for all the world as well. The Gospel is for the whole world, and all of God’s creation, and whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Ezekiel 25