Commentary - Ezekiel 5:5-7

Bird's-eye view

Here in Ezekiel 5, the prophet is in the middle of a series of searing sign-acts that portray the coming judgment on Jerusalem. God does not leave His people to guess the meaning of these strange prophetic street performances. He interprets them directly, and our text is the beginning of that divine explanation. This passage is a formal declaration of a covenant lawsuit. Yahweh is the plaintiff and the judge, and Jerusalem is the defendant in the dock. The charge is high treason. The central argument is that Jerusalem's sin is uniquely heinous precisely because of her unique privilege. She was set at the center of the world, not as a matter of mere geography, but of theological purpose. She was to be the light of the world, but had instead become a black hole of rebellion, surpassing the wickedness of the very pagan nations she was meant to evangelize. This is the principle of noblesse oblige, to whom much is given, much is required. Jerusalem's judgment will be severe because her rebellion was an inside job, a betrayal of the highest order.

The logic is devastating. God lays out the facts of the case: her position, her rebellion, and the nature of that rebellion. It was a conscious rejection of His clear revelation, His judgments and statutes. She knew the rules and broke them with a high hand. Worse, she did not even live up to the debased standards of the surrounding pagans. This passage is a stark reminder that covenant privilege is no protection against judgment; rather, it is the very thing that heightens the stakes and guarantees the severity of the curse when the covenant is broken.

Outline

Context In Ezekiel

This passage comes directly after Ezekiel performs the sign-act of shaving his head and beard, dividing the hair into three parts, and disposing of it in ways that symbolize the fate of Jerusalem's inhabitants: a third burned in the city, a third struck with the sword around the city, and a third scattered to the wind. This is not abstract theology; it is a graphic depiction of utter destruction. The people in exile with Ezekiel, and those back in Jerusalem, would have been wondering what on earth this meant. God, through the prophet, now provides the explicit interpretation. These verses (5-7) are the opening statements of the prosecution, laying out the legal basis for the horrific sentence that has just been visually portrayed. The entire first section of Ezekiel (chapters 1-24) is a relentless drumbeat of judgment against Judah and Jerusalem for their idolatry and covenant-breaking. This passage is a concise summary of the central charge: apostasy from a position of immense privilege.

Key Issues

Privilege and Treason

One of the central lies of the human heart is the assumption that proximity to God or His blessings is a kind of spiritual insurance policy. The people of Jerusalem thought, "We have the temple, we have the law, we are the chosen people. Therefore, we are safe." They mistook their privileges for a permission slip to sin. But the Bible teaches the exact opposite. Privilege, when squandered, does not mitigate judgment; it magnifies it. God is not a respecter of persons. He does not grade on a curve. The servant who knew his master's will and did not do it will be beaten with many stripes (Luke 12:47). Jerusalem was that servant.

God had placed her at the center of the nations. This was not about cartography, but about missiology. She was to be a city on a hill, a light to the Gentiles, the place from which the law of the Lord would go forth. She was the display home for the goodness of living under God's rule. But she took that high calling and dragged it through the mud. Her rebellion was therefore not just a failure, but a profound act of treason. She slandered the name of God among the very nations she was called to win. When the church today, which is the new Jerusalem, engages in hypocrisy and rebellion, we are committing the same sin. We are taking the glorious privileges of the new covenant and using them as a cloak for wickedness, and we should expect judgment to begin, as it always does, at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17).

Verse by Verse Commentary

5 “Thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands all around her.

The declaration begins with the solemn formula, "Thus says Lord Yahweh," establishing the divine authority of the pronouncement. God Himself is speaking. He identifies the defendant: "This is Jerusalem." The city that Ezekiel has just pantomimed the destruction of is the subject of this indictment. And the first point in the prosecution's case is the immense privilege bestowed upon her. "I have set her at the center of the nations." This is a statement of sovereign grace. Jerusalem did not achieve this position; it was given to her. She was geographically at a crossroads of ancient empires, but more importantly, she was the theological center of the world. She was the place where God chose to put His name, the hub from which His salvation would radiate out to the "lands all around her." All the nations were arranged around her as spokes on a wheel, and she was to be the fixed point of reference for all humanity. This was her high and holy calling.

6 But she has rebelled against My judgments more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes more than the lands which are all around her; for they have rejected My judgments and have not walked in My statutes.’

The word "But" marks a sharp, tragic turn. The privilege was met not with gratitude, but with rebellion. And this was not just any rebellion; it was a uniquely wicked one. She rebelled "more wickedly than the nations." This is a staggering charge. The pagan nations lived in open ignorance of God's law, but Jerusalem had the law and consciously defied it. She sinned against the light. God's "judgments" (mishpatim) and "statutes" (chuqqim) refer to the whole body of His revealed will in the Torah, the moral, civil, and ceremonial law. This was the wisdom that was supposed to make the nations marvel (Deut. 4:6-8). Instead, Jerusalem rejected this wisdom. The reason for her rebellion is stated plainly: "for they have rejected My judgments and have not walked in My statutes." This was not an accidental stumble; it was a deliberate choice. They looked at God's perfect law, the blueprint for human flourishing, and they said, "No, thank you." Their sin was apostasy, a willful turning away from revealed truth.

7 Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations which are all around you and have not walked in My statutes, nor done My judgments, nor done the judgments of the nations which are all around you,’

"Therefore" connects the coming sentence to the charges just laid. God's judgments are never arbitrary. The reason for the sentence is now restated and amplified. "Because you have more turmoil than the nations." The Hebrew here is difficult, but the sense is that their frantic, chaotic rebellion exceeded that of the Gentiles. They had not kept God's law, which is the first and primary charge. But then a second, shocking charge is added. They had not even lived up to the standards of the surrounding pagans: "nor done the judgments of the nations which are all around you." This is the bottom of the barrel. Even pagan societies have a certain external moral code, a sense of justice or propriety derived from general revelation, that holds them together. But Jerusalem had become so corrupt that she had sunk beneath even this low standard. She had become lawless. When a people who have been given the very oracles of God become more debauched than those who worship sticks and stones, judgment is not just a possibility; it is a moral necessity.

Application

This passage from Ezekiel ought to land on the modern Western church with the force of a thunderclap. We are, in many ways, the new Jerusalem. We have been set at the center of the story. We have been given privileges that would make an Old Testament saint weep with envy. We have the completed canon of Scripture, the indwelling Holy Spirit, the sacraments, and two thousand years of church history to learn from. We have been lavished with grace upon grace.

And what have we done with it? We have rebelled. We have rejected God's judgments and statutes on everything from sexuality to economics. We have become "more wicked than the nations." The world looks at the church and often sees not a shining city on a hill, but a corrupt and contemptible institution, full of the same greed, lust, and power-plays that characterize the world, only with a pious gloss. We have often failed to live up to even the world's standards of decency, let alone the high calling of holiness. We have become a stench in the nostrils of the God who blessed us so richly.

The warning of Ezekiel is that this state of affairs cannot last. Judgment begins at the household of God. If we, who have been given everything in Christ, squander our inheritance and live like the world, or worse than the world, we must expect a fierce and fatherly discipline. The solution is not to despair, but to repent. It is to look at the charges leveled against Jerusalem and see our own reflection. It is to confess that we have sinned against the light, to plead the blood of Jesus Christ which is our only hope, and to beg God to restore us, not so that we might be comfortable, but so that His name might be glorified among the nations once more.