Ezekiel<\/a>) highlights the \u201cincarnational\u201d force of the overall vision. Not only does Yahweh come to be with His people, but He comes in a chariot that lumbers along the river, His heavenly throne entering earthly reality. Contrary to some commentators, who see the wheels as a piece of crude literalism, Jenson claims that this only reinforces the incarnational thrust of the passage.<\/p>\n This incarnational setting provides the context for Jenson\u2019s elaboration of the historical character of the prophecy. Ezekiel addresses his prophecies to Israel, not merely the specific generation of Ezekiel but Israel \u201cas a temporal entity with a consistent character\u201d (48),\u00a0a history that Ezekiel can summarize in one word \u201crebellion.\u201d Moderns view the idea that one can see a single narrative shape to the complex history of a people with skepticism, and Jenson thinks that the skepticism is warranted: \u201cif there is no God, there can be nothing like what the Western tradition has called history\u201d (48-49).\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the other hand, if God is the Lord of history, if history has a shape and a telos<\/em>, then God seems to be a threat to human freedom. The text does nothing to dispel this fear, and in fact \u201cthe Lord seems close to saying that he has himself determined that Israel\u2019s story will be a story of rebellion\u201d (49).\u00a0Does that not reduce human actors to mere puppets? Does that not rob history of the very character that makes it history?<\/p>\n At this point, Jenson might find some assistance in his favorite Calvinists, Edwards or Barth, but instead he sticks with Ezekiel. He finds a \u201ckey\u201d though not a solution in the very incarnational context of the vision: \u201cThe Lord\u2019s determining of Israel\u2019s temporal being is not done by arbitrary decision in heaven. It is done precisely by the presence of his word in Israel\u2019s life, by prophets being among them.\u201d God\u2019s word determines history, but that word is not high in heaven or in the abyss, but \u201cfully involved amid the clashing and joining bodies.\u201d The incarnational character of the chariot vision shows that \u201cGod does not rule only from without the rough and tumble of history but also from within it\u201d (49).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jenson\u2019s comments on Ezekiel 3:20 are starker. The prophet warns that both the impenitent wicked and the faltering righteous will die. Verse 20 adds, \u201cIf the righteous turn from their righteousness and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before them, they shall die.\u201d He makes the grammatical point that the stumbling block is part of the protasis rather than the apotasis; it is part of the condition, not the Lord\u2019s response to sin.<\/p>\n
Does this mean that the Lord will \u201ctrip the once righteous into their sin?\u201d Jenson\u2019s only answer is to affirm the text in all its terror: \u201cThe Lord can be that devious. . . . If the rest of scripture does not do it, Ezekiel will surely undo simplistic ideas of God\u2019s moral relation to history, whether traditional or modern-liberal\u201d(51-52).\u00a0Jenson makes no effort to avoid or smooth over the offense. The offense is there in the text, and he simply lets it stand. \u201cDeal with it,\u201d he tells the reader.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ezekiel\u2019s initial vision is of the Lord\u2019s chariot-throne, coming with whirling wheels and a sound like thunder, to visit him at the River Chebar. Though the prophet is in exile, the glory of the God of the temple is with him. Robert Jenson (Ezekiel) highlights the \u201cincarnational\u201d force of the overall vision. Not only does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-ot-ezekiel"],"yoast_head":"\n
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