How does this verse connect to God's justice seen throughout the Old Testament? Verse in Focus Ezekiel 28:23: “I will send a plague against her and shed blood in her streets; the sword will come against her on every side, and they will know that I am the LORD.” Immediate Context: Sidon’s Sin and Sentence • Sidon, like neighboring Tyre, exalted itself through idolatry, violence, and pride. • God answers with the same trio of judgments He has used since Genesis—plague, bloodshed, and sword—underscoring that His standards never change. • The closing refrain “they will know that I am the LORD” ties Sidon’s fall to God’s larger purpose of revealing His holy name. Justice Patterns Repeated Since Genesis • Flood of Noah – Genesis 6–9: widespread corruption met with worldwide judgment by water. • Sodom and Gomorrah – Genesis 19: flagrant wickedness answered by fire from heaven. • Egypt – Exodus 7–12: ten plagues expose false gods and liberate the oppressed. • Canaan – Deuteronomy 9:4–5; Joshua 6: the sword purges entrenched iniquity. • Nations around Israel – Isaiah 13–23; Jeremiah 46–51; Ezekiel 25–32: each receives tailored yet consistent penalties for violence, pride, and idolatry. The same righteous Judge who dealt with these peoples now addresses Sidon in Ezekiel 28:23. Covenant Blessings and Curses Echoed • Deuteronomy 28:15–26 lists plague, sword, and bloodshed as covenant curses for persistent rebellion. • Ezekiel applies those covenant terms not only to Israel (Ezekiel 14:21) but also to surrounding nations, showing that God’s moral law governs all peoples. • By invoking covenant language, God reminds Israel that He is impartial: justice falls on everyone who refuses His rule. God’s Tools of Judgment: Plague and Sword • Plague – Numbers 16:46–50; 2 Samuel 24:15: a swift, inescapable sign that life belongs to God. • Sword – Leviticus 26:25; Jeremiah 47:6: the ordinary instrument of warfare, yet wielded by divine decree. • Blood in the streets – Isaiah 59:7; Nahum 3:3: graphic evidence that unchecked violence boomerangs back on the violent. Ezekiel 28:23 gathers all three elements to signal a full, unmistakable verdict. “So They Will Know That I Am the LORD”: Justice as Revelation • Exodus 7:5 – “The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” • 1 Samuel 17:46 – “So that all the earth may know there is a God in Israel.” • Ezekiel echoes that refrain over twenty times, including 28:23, teaching that divine justice is never random; it is a megaphone announcing God’s holiness to every observer. Consistent Character, Consistent Verdicts • From Genesis to Ezekiel, God judges sin with measured, covenant-based penalties. • The repetition of plague, sword, and bloodshed in Ezekiel 28:23 aligns Sidon’s fate with earlier judgments, proving that the God who acted in the patriarchal, Mosaic, and prophetic eras still upholds the same righteous standard. • By tracing this thread, we see that Ezekiel 28:23 is not an isolated threat but one more link in the long, unbroken chain of God’s just dealings with a rebellious world. |
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