For if these things are done when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? ”
Luke 23:31
What an enigmatic verse this is? What on earth does Jesus mean by this statement? It is obtuse because Jesus is making an allusion to a portion of the Old Testament. I gave you one of the verses in the quotes I shared with you in Gem 1259. But I deliberately hid it among the other quotes. Did you find the verse I hid? It was Ezekiel 20:47 – “Tell the southern wilderness, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Hear the word of the LORD! I will set you on fire, and every tree, both green and dry, will be burned. . .”
I can imagine you saying – yes Ian I got that verse but I still couldn’t work out what was going on. It confused to me. I suspect that is because you did not read far enough to take in the whole sense unit. Here is Ezekiel 20:47 set in its context.
Then this message came to me from the LORD: “Son of man, turn and face the south and speak out against it; prophesy against the brushlands of the Negev. Tell the southern wilderness, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Hear the word of the LORD! I will set you on fire, and every tree, both green and dry, will be burned. The terrible flames will not be quenched and will scorch everything from south to north. And everyone in the world will see that I, the LORD, have set this fire. It will not be put out.'”
Ezekiel 20:45-48
Is that clear? I am sure it is not. It wasn’t clear to the people who first heard Ezekiel’s message and I suspect it was unclear to Ezekiel himself at first. He didn’t explain it to the people. Instead he said,
“Oh Sovereign LORD, they are saying of me, ‘He only talks in riddles!'”
Ezekiel 20:49
It was a riddle to them, it was a riddle to Ezekiel and it’s a riddle to us. “So how do we solve it, Ian?”
Read on. The answer is on the other side of the chapter division. But classically most of us read one chapter a day and don’t connect the new chapter to what we read the day before.
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face against Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuary. Prophesy against the land of Israel and say to her: ‘This is what the LORD says: I am against you. I will draw my sword from its scabbard and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked. Because I am going to cut off the righteous and the wicked, my sword will be unsheathed against everyone from south to north. Then all people will know that I the LORD have drawn my sword from its scabbard; it will not return again.’
Ezekiel 21:1-5
Is it clear now? I hope so. “Green” and “dry” were just as confusing to the people in Ezekiel’s day and to Ezekiel himself as it is to us today. So God then tells Ezekiel how to explain it. Read Ezekiel 21:1-5 again. Notice that God reinterprets what was said for Ezekiel and for Israel. The words “green” and “dry” have been substituted by the words “righteous” and “wicked” and placed in a different prophetic word picture. The first word picture of God’s judgement is that of fire. Then God switches the word picture and uses the sword which is exactly the means of judgement He intends to use. Fire was a general use of the word picture. Now with Ezekiel expressing the confusion of the people God makes it clearer – the judgement of fire will happen “by the sword” and invasion. Not only that but this will happen to the righteous and to the wicked. The green symbolizes those who are righteous and the dry symbolizes those who are wicked.
Does that make it clearer? Now go back and investigate again the passage in Luke 23 in which we find this veiled reference from Jesus. Now you know what the reference points I am sure you can work out what Jesus meant when He made the statement on the way to the Cross.
And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.
Genesis 15:6
The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.
Habakkuk 1:4
Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
Malachi 3:18
For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.
Matthew 9:13
Grace is inviting to the unrighteous and threatening to the self-righteous.
Sandra Stanley
The more aware you are of your own sinfulness, the more gracious you are to others. Judging others reveals self-righteousness.
Rick Warren