Ezekiel 24:1-14

PARABLE OF THE RUSTED POT, 1-14.

Jeremiah had called Jerusalem a “seething pot,” and counseled submission to Babylon. But the Egyptian party had retorted that even if the city were a caldron it was a safer place than the Babylonian fires outside. Ezekiel had examined this reply (Ezekiel 11:3-11), declaring that the prophecy concerning Judah’s captivity must be fulfilled, and therefore the iron walls could protect none but the dead. Three years passed, and on the very day (Ezekiel 24:1-2; Jeremiah 39:1; 2 Kings 25:12) in which Nebuchadnezzar begins his long prophesied siege of the city Ezekiel again takes up the familiar parable of “the pot” (Ezekiel 24:3). The day of the month is emphasized because it proves Ezekiel’s prophetic knowledge of what was happening at a distance. Critics who do not believe in true prophetic foreknowledge are compelled to say, with Toy, “The date was added later by the prophet.”