Thinking in 3’s: Ezekiel 7:11

Thinking in 3’s: Ezekiel 7:11

^“Violence has grown up into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain,

1. nor their abundance, 
2. nor their wealth; 
3. neither shall there be preeminence among them.”

Ezekiel is a thick book. It is heavy with judgment. It is full of 3rd person metaphors, in which the prophet’s role-playing is actually part of the message - and these role-plays can be gut-wrenching. It is also, though, a book of great hope and promise. This is not one of those hope and promise passages. It describes a condition that needs to be amended.

Ezekiel leads up to our list of 3 with a couple other lists of 3’s. In verses 2 and 3, Ezekiel says, “An end! The end has come …; Now the end is upon you.” Also, in verses 5 and 7, around a two-fold repetition of the word “end,” we have this list of 3: Disaster; doom; and tumult.

The list of 3 that comes next is a description of the loss which the people should expect in light of their sinfulness. “Abundance; wealth; and preeminence.”

It is not difficult to understand the change in condition that the people should expect. Instead of abundance, there would be scarcity. Instead of wealth, poverty; instead of preeminence, inferiority.

In general terms, God desires that His people experience abundance, wealth, and pre-eminence. This can certainly mean different things at different times, and does not always translate into material or worldly abundance, wealth, and preeminence. Job lost his material abundance, but gained so much more in his knowledge and appreciation of God. Monetary wealth may be confiscated, but no one can touch “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Believers have preeminence in that they belong to God’s forever family, and that God directs special favor toward His children, and yet we are told that the world will hate us. 

But it seems in Ezekiel, the loss of abundance, wealth and preeminence signal the loss not only of material benefits, but evidences of spiritual benefit as well. Ezekiel is directed to write in verse 8, “I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you.” This signals a break in their relationship with God - certainly not a final break; but certainly a dramatic disruption.

I have two applications in mind. The first of these is that God’s gifts can easily be mis-used by individuals and the church at large to lead us to take God for granted. We receive gifts of abundance, wealth, and preeminence, and then, strangely, begin to think that we deserve these things, or that we earned these privileges for ourselves. This is a dangerous attitude, and sinful, in that it steals glory from God. It proves that this people had lost a sense of humility and thankfulness.

The second application should be a return to the fear of the Lord, in that a loss of abundance, wealth, and preeminence would be devastating. Being consigned as an individual, as a church, as a nation, to scarcity, poverty, and inferiority carries with it amazing loss of opportunity and freedom. It turns people into serfs and slaves. It sinks us so low, that the only way to look is up.

And isn’t that God’s goal? That we would look up? And is it possible that individual believers and communities of faith might be faithful in looking up now, in humility and thankfulness; in a healthy, holy fear of the Lord, even though we still enjoy so much abundance, wealth and preeminence? Because we do not - we must not - take it for granted. God has indeed blessed us. Let us bless God for His goodness.