God's Signpost and the Pagan's Liver Text: Ezekiel 21:18-27
Introduction: The Illusions of Autonomy
We live in an age that worships at the altar of human autonomy. Modern man believes he is the master of his fate, the captain of his soul. He makes his plans, he consults his experts, he reads his tea leaves, and he trusts in his own wisdom. The pagan king Nebuchadnezzar, whom we meet in this passage, was the very embodiment of this kind of self-assured, autonomous power. He was the most powerful man on the planet, the head of a global empire, and he made his decisions based on the best occultic intelligence his wise men could provide. He shook his arrows, he consulted his idols, he inspected the liver of a sacrificed animal, all in an attempt to discern the future and make the right strategic choice.
But the central lesson of this passage, and indeed of all Scripture, is that there is no such thing as human autonomy. There are no maverick molecules. There are no rogue nations. There are no kings who are not puppet kings. The Lord God sits in the heavens and does whatever He pleases, and He is pleased to use even the rank paganism of a Babylonian despot to accomplish His holy and righteous purposes. Nebuchadnezzar thought he was making a free choice, guided by his dark arts, but he was simply walking down the path that the God of Israel had already paved for him. God had already drawn the map, and Nebuchadnezzar’s divinations were just God’s way of getting him to read it.
This is a truth that is both terrifying and wonderfully comforting. It is terrifying for the wicked, for those who are kicking against the goads. It means that their every act of rebellion, their every attempt to thwart God’s purposes, is simply being woven into the great tapestry of His sovereign plan. Their defiance is an errand boy for the Almighty. But for the people of God, this truth is a bedrock of comfort. It means that even when the most powerful and godless forces of the world are arrayed against us, they are not in charge. The pagan king may be looking at the liver, but our God is looking at the end from the beginning. He is the one who sets up the signpost at the crossroads, and He is the one who loads the dice of the diviner.
Here in Ezekiel, God pulls back the curtain of history to show us the gears and levers of His providence. He shows us a pagan king at a literal and metaphorical fork in the road, and He reveals that the choice is not really a choice at all. It is a divine appointment. This is a lesson that God’s people in Jerusalem desperately needed to learn, and it is a lesson that we, in our own tumultuous times, must take to heart.
The Text
And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Now as for you, son of man, make two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; both of them will go out of one land. And make a signpost; make it at the head of the way to the city. You shall mark a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the sons of Ammon and to Judah into fortified Jerusalem. For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he shakes the arrows; he asks the household idols; he looks at the liver. Into his right hand came the divination, ‘Jerusalem,’ to set battering rams, to open the mouth for killing, to lift up the voice with a shout of war, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up ramps, to build a siege wall. And it will be to them like a worthless divination in their eyes; they have sworn solemn oaths. But he brings iniquity to remembrance, that they may be seized.”
“Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your deeds your sins appear, because you have come to remembrance, you will be seized with the hand. And you, O slain, wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,’ thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Remove the turban and take off the crown; this will no longer be the same. Make high that which is low and make low that which is high. A ruin, a ruin, a ruin, I will make it. This also will be no more until He comes to whom the legal judgment belongs, and I will give it to Him.’”
(Ezekiel 21:18-27 LSB)
The Divine Stage Direction (vv. 18-20)
God begins by instructing Ezekiel to perform another one of his sign-acts, a bit of street theater to illustrate a divine reality.
"And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, 'Now as for you, son of man, make two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; both of them will go out of one land. And make a signpost; make it at the head of the way to the city. You shall mark a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the sons of Ammon and to Judah into fortified Jerusalem.'" (Ezekiel 21:18-20 LSB)
Ezekiel is to draw a map in the dirt. He is to sketch out a road coming from one land, Babylon, which then splits into two. This is a literal fork in the road. Nebuchadnezzar's army is marching west, and they will come to a place where they must decide: turn south toward Rabbah, the capital of Ammon, or continue southwest toward Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. Both nations had rebelled against Babylon, and both were ripe for judgment. Ezekiel is to make a signpost at this fork, clearly marking the two possible destinations for the Babylonian sword.
This is more than just a geography lesson. God is telling His prophet to set the stage for the historical drama that is about to unfold. God is the one who determines the roads. He is the one who establishes the intersections of history. The king of Babylon thinks he is on his own campaign, driven by his own imperial ambitions, but he is merely an actor following the script written by the Divine Playwright. God says, "make two ways for the sword...to come." The sword is not Nebuchadnezzar's; it is God's instrument, and its path is determined in heaven before it is ever chosen on earth.
The Pagan's Choice and God's Providence (vv. 21-22)
Now we see the human actor, the great king Nebuchadnezzar, arrive at the signpost Ezekiel has drawn. And what does he do? He does what pagans do. He turns to the occult.
"For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he shakes the arrows; he asks the household idols; he looks at the liver." (Ezekiel 21:21 LSB)
This is a fascinating glimpse into the pagan mindset. Faced with a critical strategic decision, the most powerful man in the world does not rely on military intelligence or economic analysis. He relies on superstition. He shakes his arrows, a practice called belomancy, where arrows marked with different outcomes were shaken in a quiver, and the first one to fall out was taken as the divine will. He consults his teraphim, his household idols. And he performs hepatoscopy, inspecting the liver of a sacrificed animal for omens. The liver was considered the seat of life, and its markings were thought to reveal the future.
To the modern, secular mind, this is primitive foolishness. To the rebellious heart of Judah, this was just the meaningless ritual of a Gentile king. But to the student of Scripture, this is a master class in the sovereignty of God. God does not need a righteous instrument to accomplish His will. He can play a straight stick with a crooked line. He can use the superstitions of a pagan king as the very means by which His predetermined counsel is carried out. Nebuchadnezzar is trying to get guidance from his demons, but the demons themselves are on a leash held by Yahweh. All the dark arts of Babylon are, in this moment, nothing more than the tools by which God directs traffic.
And the result is never in doubt:
"Into his right hand came the divination, ‘Jerusalem,’ to set battering rams, to open the mouth for killing, to lift up the voice with a shout of war, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up ramps, to build a siege wall." (Ezekiel 21:22 LSB)
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord (Proverbs 16:33). The arrow for Jerusalem just "happened" to fall out. The liver just "happened" to have the right markings. The idols just "happened" to give the right answer. God loaded the dice. The outcome was fixed. The divination did not determine the future; it merely revealed the future that God had already decreed. And that future was grim for Jerusalem. The result of this pagan ritual is a detailed, technical description of a brutal siege. God is not speaking in vague generalities. He is telling them exactly what is coming: the battering rams, the slaughter, the war cries, the siege ramps, the whole terrible apparatus of ancient warfare.
The Blindness of the Covenant Breakers (v. 23)
How did the leaders in Jerusalem react to this news? With unbelief and cynical dismissal.
"And it will be to them like a worthless divination in their eyes; they have sworn solemn oaths. But he brings iniquity to remembrance, that they may be seized." (Ezekiel 21:23 LSB)
The leaders of Judah hear the reports of Nebuchadnezzar's divinations, and they scoff. "It is worthless divination," they say. "He's just another superstitious pagan. It means nothing." They are confident in their own political maneuvering. The text says, "they have sworn solemn oaths." This refers to the covenant oath of loyalty that their king, Zedekiah, had sworn to Nebuchadnezzar in the name of Yahweh (2 Chronicles 36:13). They had broken this sacred oath by making an alliance with Egypt, and now they were trusting in that treacherous alliance to save them. They had exchanged the Word of the Lord for the word of Pharaoh.
They see Nebuchadnezzar's paganism and dismiss it, failing to see that their own apostasy is far worse. They, the people of the covenant, are acting with greater treachery than the pagans. They have sworn an oath by the name of the true God and then broken it. This is the height of folly. They look at the pagan shaking his arrows and call it worthless, while they themselves have abandoned the God who holds all arrows in His hand.
But God sees it differently. He says that Nebuchadnezzar, this pagan diviner, "brings iniquity to remembrance." The advance of this pagan army is God's way of calling Judah's sin to mind. Their covenant infidelity, their broken oaths, their idolatry, it is all being brought to the forefront. The arrival of the Babylonian sword is God's great audit of His people's spiritual accounts. And they are found to be bankrupt. The purpose of this invasion is "that they may be seized." Judgment is not an accident; it is an arrest.
The Sentence Pronounced (vv. 24-27)
Because their sin has been brought to remembrance, God now pronounces the formal sentence of judgment.
"Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your deeds your sins appear, because you have come to remembrance, you will be seized with the hand.’" (Ezekiel 21:24 LSB)
God's judgment is not arbitrary. It is a direct consequence of their sin. Their sin is not hidden; it is "uncovered." It appears "in all your deeds." They are not being punished for a few minor infractions. Their entire way of life has become an offense to God. Because their sin has come up for remembrance before God's throne, they themselves will be seized. The punishment fits the crime. They wanted to be like the pagan nations, so God will hand them over to a pagan nation.
The judgment then focuses on the head of the nation, the king himself.
In verse 25, God addresses Zedekiah directly:
"And you, O slain, wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,’" (Ezekiel 21:25 LSB)
God calls him "slain" even before the battle begins. From God's perspective, he is already a dead man. He is the "wicked one," the "prince of Israel," who has led his people into ruin. His "day has come." This is the language of final reckoning. The time for repentance is over. The cup of his iniquity is full. This is the "iniquity of the end," the final, culminating sin that triggers the covenant lawsuit's ultimate penalty: exile and death.
The sentence is the removal of all royal and priestly authority:
"thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Remove the turban and take off the crown; this will no longer be the same. Make high that which is low and make low that which is high.’" (Ezekiel 21:26 LSB)
The crown is the symbol of the kingly office, the Davidic line. The turban is the symbol of the high priestly office. Both are to be removed. The entire covenantal structure of Israel's leadership is being dismantled. This is a total regime change, orchestrated by God Himself. And it will be accompanied by a great reversal: "Make high that which is low and make low that which is high." The proud princes of Judah will be brought low, cast down into the dust of Babylon. And the lowly, the forgotten, the remnant, will eventually be exalted in God's plan of restoration. This is a theme that runs throughout Scripture, from the song of Hannah to the Magnificat of Mary. Our God is a God who casts down the mighty from their thrones and exalts those of humble estate.
But the judgment on the Davidic throne is not the final word. In fact, it sets the stage for the greatest promise of all.
"A ruin, a ruin, a ruin, I will make it. This also will be no more until He comes to whom the legal judgment belongs, and I will give it to Him.’" (Ezekiel 21:27 LSB)
The threefold repetition of "ruin" emphasizes the totality of the destruction. The throne of David will be utterly overturned. And it will remain overturned, vacant, for a long, long time. "It shall be no more, UNTIL..." This is one of the most glorious "untils" in all of Scripture. The throne is not being permanently destroyed; it is being held in trust. It is being kept vacant for its rightful owner. The line of Davidic kings ends with Zedekiah, but the Davidic throne does not. It is waiting for the one "to whom the legal judgment belongs," or as it can be translated, "whose right it is."
This is a direct Messianic prophecy. It points forward across the centuries to the coming of Jesus Christ. Jacob's prophecy in Genesis 49 declared that the scepter would not depart from Judah "until Shiloh comes," until the one to whom it belongs arrives. Ezekiel is reaffirming that ancient promise in the darkest hour of Judah's history. The crown is being taken off Zedekiah's head so that it can be preserved for the head of Jesus. The earthly kingdom is being ruined so that the eternal kingdom can be established. God is tearing down a temporary, corruptible throne to make way for a permanent, incorruptible one. And when that rightful king, Jesus the Messiah, comes, God the Father says, "I will give it to Him." The Father gives the kingdom to the Son (Psalm 2:8). This is the gospel in the heart of judgment. The ruin of Jerusalem is the necessary prelude to the reign of the King of kings.