Day 64, Ezekiel 37-46

Ugh. I hate to say it, but I've been having a bit of a motivation problem lately. Today I offered myself an incentive: finish the reading, I said, and you can brush your teeth. This may not seem like a great reward, but I've been eating peanut butter out of the jar all day and that can do a number on your breath. I regret to say that this incentive system had very little effect on me and I wound up sitting in my bed in a state of insufferable stinky-breathdom, languidly searching tumblr when I should have been reading.

Nonetheless, I prevailed! I come to you now with my breath as fresh in my mouth as the words of Ezekiel are in my mind. That's pretty good, huh? I just made that up RIGHT NOW! Move over, Shakespeare!

So the reading... The reading... Remember all those chapters back in Exodus about the Tabernacle and cubits? We've got 'em! I hope you're as excited as I am.

Chapter 37 begins with God telling Ezekiel to make a prophesy to some BONES. Man, Ezekiel always gets stuck doing the weirdest stuff. He tells the bones that they will eventually have flesh and skin and will come to life again; it's all a big metaphor for Israel's redemption. God also indicates here that both Israel and Judah will be redeemed, and will exist once again as one nation.

Chapters 38 and 39 describe the defeat of a nation called Gog, which according to Wikipedia is actually an "eschatological" enemy. I literally JUST learned about eschatology in my Historical Jesus and I am THRILLED to tell you what it means: essentially, study of the end of time. The vision Ezekiel imparts -- where birds "eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth" (Ezekiel 39:18) -- is supposed to have kinda an apocalyptic vibe. Well, okay! I didn't catch it, but thanks for telling me, Wikipedia!

In chapter 40 God transports Ezekiel to the temple and tells him to take CAREFUL NOTE OF EVERYTHING so he can tell everyone how to rebuild it. The next three chapters consist of mostly measurements. It might just be because I'm tired and delirious and having peanut butter induced hallucinations, but I thought this was pretty freaking funny. For some reason the idea of God transporting Ezekiel to the temple to take boring measurements was anti-climactic in a very amusing sort of way.

The Exodus-y vibes continue throughout the rest of the reading, with God proceeding to give instructions about the new priestly class, among other things. He says that because most of the priests were disobedient and built idols, they are forbidden to enter the inner sanctuary of the temple; only the descendents of Zadok, the righteous priestly class, may do so. These "sons of Zadok" were important in the lore of the so-called Dead Sea Sect, who lived in the caves of Qumran during the Second Temple Period. Pretty neat!

God also forbids foreigners "uncircumcised in heart and flesh" (Ezekiel 44:9) to enter the temple. This rule will be breached by some familiar faces later on; among the transgressors are Antiochus IV of Syria (remember the Hannukah story!) and Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.

The priests have a set of rules they have to follow, which God lays out for Ezekiel. One of my favorites was the rule saying that "a priest must not defile himself by going near a dead person" (Ezekiel 44:25). My Historical Jesus professor explained that if you didn't like the high priest, and wanted to get him deposed without killing him, all you had to do was throw a corpse on him and he'd be too ritually impure for the office. Hah!

Chapter 45 provides the cubical dimensions of Jerusalem -- how fun! -- and then explains the sacrifices that the prince must make on the Sabbath. I guess there's a prince. Finally, chapter 46 lays down some inheritance laws aaaaaaand, we're done!

Tomorrow we wrap up Ezekiel and start Daniel, who is the last "major" prophet and will occupy us for two days. After that, we've got a barrage of twelve minor prophets who we read in a mere three days, and then it's New Testament time! Yowza. Stay tuned.