The Folly of Divine Plagiarism: Judgment on Moab Text: Ezekiel 25:8-11
Introduction: The Sin of Sameness
We live in an age that worships at the altar of egalitarianism. The high priests of our secular moment insist that all cultures, all religions, all nations are fundamentally the same. To draw a sharp distinction, to say that one thing is not like the others, is to commit the unpardonable sin. They want a world flattened out, with no sharp edges, no high places, and certainly no chosen people. This impulse is not new. It is as ancient as the pride of man, and it is precisely the sin that God addresses here in His judgment against Moab.
Ezekiel chapter 25 is a gallery of divine judgments against the nations surrounding Israel. These are not random acts of divine petulance. God is the sovereign Lord of all nations, not just Israel, and He holds them all to account. His moral law is not a local ordinance. It is universal, and the nations that rage against Him and His people will inevitably smash themselves against the rock of His decrees. Here, God turns His attention to Moab, a nation with a long and sordid history with Israel, and He indicts them for a particular kind of intellectual arrogance. Their sin was not merely schadenfreude, taking pleasure in Judah's fall. Their sin was theological. They looked at the covenant people of God, broken and exiled, and said, 'Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations.'
This is the great lie of the pagan mind and the modern secularist. It is the attempt to domesticate God, to strip Him of His sovereign prerogatives, and to reduce His covenant people to just another tribe with a peculiar set of religious customs. It is to say that the story of redemption is no different than the myths of Babylon, that the law of Yahweh is no different than the code of Hammurabi, and that the fate of Jerusalem is no different than the fate of any other city that picked a fight with a superior military power. To say Judah is like all the nations is to say that Yahweh is like all the other gods. And for this, for this act of divine plagiarism, judgment is coming.
This passage is a stark reminder that God insists on His distinctiveness and the distinctiveness of His people. He does not grade on a curve. He is not one option among many in a spiritual buffet. He is the Creator, Redeemer, and Judge of all the earth, and the central purpose of His judgments is to make that reality inescapably, undeniably known.
The Text
'Thus says Lord Yahweh, "Because Moab and Seir say, 'Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations,' therefore, behold, I am going to open the flank of Moab by its cities, by its cities which are on its frontiers, the glory of the land, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim, and I will give it for a possession along with the sons of Ammon to the sons of the east, so that the sons of Ammon will not be remembered among the nations. Thus I will execute judgments on Moab, and they will know that I am Yahweh.”
(Ezekiel 25:8-11 LSB)
The Arrogant Assessment (v. 8)
We begin with the charge, the indictment from the heavenly court.
"‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Because Moab and Seir say, ‘Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations,’” (Ezekiel 25:8 LSB)
The formula is precise: "Thus says Lord Yahweh." This is not Ezekiel's political analysis. This is a divine verdict. The sin of Moab and Seir (Edom) is a sin of speech, a sin of theological declaration. They looked at the calamity that had befallen Judah, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and they drew a conclusion. Their conclusion was that Judah's God was no different from their god Chemosh, or any other tribal deity. When Nebuchadnezzar rolled through, Yahweh was apparently just as helpless as the gods of the Philistines or the Ammonites.
This is the essence of paganism. Paganism sees the divine as a force within the natural order, a bigger, stronger version of created things. When your nation wins, your god is strong. When your nation loses, your god is weak. Moab saw Judah's defeat and concluded that Yahweh's claims to be the one, true, transcendent God were thereby falsified. Judah was just another nation, and their God was just another god, now relegated to the dustbin of history. They were attempting to erase the Creator/creature distinction as it applied to the gods themselves.
But they were terrible theologians. They failed to understand the nature of the covenant. Judah's exile was not a sign of Yahweh's weakness, but of His faithfulness. God had promised centuries before in the covenant curses of Deuteronomy that if His people were unfaithful, He would cast them out of the land (Deut. 28). The exile was not Nebuchadnezzar defeating Yahweh; it was Yahweh using Nebuchadnezzar as His rod of discipline to punish His own rebellious people. Moab mistook a covenant lawsuit for a theological knockout. They saw the discipline and thought they were seeing a defeat. This is the same error the world makes today. They see the church beset by scandals or mocked by the culture and conclude that our God is impotent. They do not see the hand of a holy God cleansing His own house.
The Precise Judgment (v. 9-10)
Because Moab made a false declaration about God's nature, God announces a judgment that will reveal His true nature. The punishment fits the crime with poetic and geographic precision.
"therefore, behold, I am going to open the flank of Moab by its cities, by its cities which are on its frontiers, the glory of the land, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim, and I will give it for a possession along with the sons of Ammon to the sons of the east, so that the sons of Ammon will not be remembered among the nations." (Ezekiel 25:9-10 LSB)
Moab was geographically protected. It sat on a high plateau east of the Dead Sea, with fortified cities guarding its frontiers. God says He will "open the flank of Moab." He will strip away its defenses. The very cities that were Moab's "glory," their source of pride and security, would become the entry points for their destruction. God here names them: Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, Kiriathaim. This is not a vague threat. God knows their address. He has their defenses mapped out. The Lord of Hosts is demonstrating His intimate knowledge of the nations He is about to judge. He is not a distant, abstract deity; He is the sovereign who numbers the hairs on our heads and the bricks in the walls of our enemies.
And who will be the instrument of this judgment? The "sons of the east," nomadic tribes from the Arabian desert. God will give Moab away as a possession. This is a profound humiliation. This proud, settled nation would be overrun and dispossessed by wandering tribes. Notice the connection to the judgment on Ammon. God is lumping them together. Just as Moab and Ammon conspired in their pride, they will be bundled together in their destruction. The end result for Ammon is that they "will not be remembered among the nations." Their national identity will be erased. This is the fitting end for nations who tried to erase the unique identity of God's people.
There is a deep irony here. Moab said Judah was just like everyone else. So God says, "Fine. I will treat you just like everyone else. I will remove my restraining hand, and you will be swallowed by the chaos of history, forgotten and indistinct." The only way for a nation to have a lasting identity is to have that identity anchored in relation to the living God. All other identities, built on ethnic pride, military might, or economic power, are ultimately transient. They are sandcastles waiting for the tide of God's judgment.
The Theological Purpose (v. 11)
The final verse of this oracle gives us the ultimate reason for the judgment. This is not about mere retribution. It is about revelation.
"Thus I will execute judgments on Moab, and they will know that I am Yahweh.” (Ezekiel 25:11 LSB)
This phrase, "and they will know that I am Yahweh," is one of the central refrains of the book of Ezekiel. It is the grand purpose of all God's actions in history, both in salvation and in judgment. God is not interested in being vaguely acknowledged. He is determined to be specifically known. He is Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God, the I AM, the self-existent one who is Lord over all history, all armies, and all nations.
How will Moab come to know this? Not through a gospel tract. Not through a friendly sermon. They will know that He is Yahweh through the experience of His judgments. They will know it when their fortified flank is opened. They will know it when the sons of the east pour into their land. They will know it when their national glory is turned to shame. They will learn their theology the hard way.
This is a terrifying thought. God's glory will be revealed in one of two ways: either through the willing praise of His redeemed people, or through the destruction of His defiant enemies. But either way, His glory will be revealed. Pharaoh came to know that He was Yahweh when the waters of the Red Sea crashed down upon his army. The inhabitants of Jericho came to know that He was Yahweh when their walls fell flat. And Moab will know that He is Yahweh when their nation is erased from the map. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, some in joyful adoration, and others in horrified recognition just before they are cast into outer darkness. But all will know.
Conclusion: Knowing Yahweh Today
The sin of Moab is alive and well. Our entire secular order is built on the Moabite creed: 'Behold, the church of Jesus Christ is like all the other religious clubs.' They see our sins and failures, our internal squabbles, and our cultural weakness, and they conclude that our God is just another deity, our Bible just another religious text, and our gospel just another myth for those who need a crutch.
They are making the same theological blunder. They mistake God's patience for His absence and His discipline for His defeat. They do not understand that the true church is a covenant community, defined not by its own perfection, but by the perfection of the One who called her. Our identity is not in ourselves, but is hidden with Christ in God. We are distinct not because we are intrinsically better, but because He has sovereignly set His love upon us.
And the warning to Moab is a warning to the nations today, including our own. A nation that says the church is like any other institution, that Christ is like any other prophet, and that the law of God is like any other human opinion, is a nation that is positioning itself for judgment. God will vindicate His own name. He will "execute judgments," and the world will be forced to know that He is Yahweh.
For us as believers, this is both a warning and a comfort. The warning is that we must never adopt the Moabite creed ourselves. We must never begin to think that our faith is merely a private preference or that the church is just a social club. We are citizens of a heavenly kingdom, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession (1 Peter 2:9). We are not like all the other nations. We are called out of them to be a city on a hill.
The comfort is this: God's ultimate purpose is to make Himself known. And He has made Himself known supremely not in judgment, but in the cross of Jesus Christ. At the cross, God executed the ultimate judgment upon sin in the person of His own Son. There, the world looked on and said, 'Behold, this man is just like all the other failed messiahs.' But three days later, God overturned their verdict. In the resurrection, God the Father declared with power that this Jesus is Yahweh, the Lord of life and death.
The question for us, then, is how will we come to know that He is Yahweh? Will we, like Moab, learn it through the hard knocks of His judgment? Or will we learn it by faith, bowing the knee to Jesus Christ now, acknowledging Him as Lord, and finding our unique and lasting identity in Him? For He is executing His judgments in the world, and He is building His church, and the end of both activities is the same: that the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.