We've heard quite a bit about “Eden” in the oracles against the nations.
Why does Eden show up here? What do Egypt, Tyre, and Assyria have to do with the Garden of Eden?
Adam and Eve were created by God and placed in the Garden in Eden. The Garden was the “Holy of Holies” where God met with his people. Adam was the “chief priest” who was tasked with ruling and guarding the Garden.
And God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply – to fill the earth and subdue it, conforming all the earth to the pattern of the garden, and building it into the City of God.
Ever since the fall, humanity has been busy about that task! Our problem has been that we are busy about that task in all the wrong ways, and towards all the wrong ends!
Israel was supposed to be the holy nation that would become what Adam failed to be. Jerusalem was to be the holy city that would become the center of the new humanity.
But as we have seen with great clarity from Ezekiel, Israel failed just like Adam. Jerusalem has fallen from her glory into debauchery and wickedness.
And now, in the oracles against the nations, Ezekiel shows that the nations have tried to usurp Jerusalem's place.
In Ezekiel 31-32 Assyria and Egypt are portrayed as trying to become what Israel was supposed to be.
The glory of Eden should have lived and flowed through Jerusalem to the nations. But instead, Egypt's pride and Assyria's power have dominated the nations.
God had promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed through his seed. But as of Ezekiel's day, that hasn't happened yet!
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