I am the LORD. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord GOD.”
The date in this chapter marks the day Babylon's siege of Jerusalem began. The boiling pot is God's picture of what that siege means. Verse 14 is God's closing signature on that sentence: three refusals and one measure. It raises the hardest question in the chapter. Why does a God who elsewhere holds back His hand say here that He will not?
The sentence had been long delayed before it was fixed
This is not the first word God has spoken to Jerusalem, but the last. One commentator reads verses 9–14 as the second stage of the pot picture: the meat has been boiled, and now the empty vessel itself is put on the coals.
William KellyIn verses 9–14 we see that Jerusalem was to be taken and destroyed in no shallow way... Not only were the bones to be burnt. The city itself was the cauldron, set on the coals — no longer filled with water, but empty — so that its copper might glow, its filth be smelt inside it, and its scum consumed... Disciplinary measures had long failed; proper government according to His law was despised. Let the proudest and cruellest of earthly raiders come and carry out the divine decree, now fixed.
"I will not spare" — no one is drawn out of the pot
The pot's stain is what settles the outcome. Another writer notes that no lot is cast over the pieces, which in the picture means no one is picked out to be kept back.
Numerical Bible NotesThe city itself was a cauldron whose rust was in it, and could not be scoured out. So judgment falls on the whole city. No lot has fallen to spare anyone.
God had tried to cleanse her, and she would not be cleansed
The verse before this one says God would have cleansed her, and she was not cleansed. That refusal is what turns the fire from a cleaning fire into a consuming one — and it came from a city that felt no shame.
J. N. DarbyIn Ezekiel 24 God pronounces final judgment on Jerusalem, who was not even ashamed of her sins... God would set Jerusalem as a cauldron on the fire to melt and consume the whole. God had purged her, but she was not purged; and now He causes His fury to rest upon her.
"Nor will I relent" — when God does and does not turn back
Scripture elsewhere shows God withdrawing a threatened judgment, most famously over Nineveh. One writer distinguishes two things the Bible means when it speaks of God relenting, and both are needed to read this verse honestly.
The Bible TreasuryGod is not a man, that He should change His mind about His eternal and unchangeable purposes and His unconditional promises, which "are without repentance." But in His grace He may repent of a threatened judgment — that is, not carry it out — as with Nineveh. We must remember that the Spirit of God stoops to speak in our human way, because we are weak.
The measure is their own conduct, not God's temper
The last clause hands them the yardstick: their ways and their deeds. Earlier in this same book the people had argued that God's dealings were uneven, and He answered the charge directly.
James McBroomGod's word is the expression of His justice, and the guarantee of stability in all things... In such a state of things we hear the Lord saying: "Yet the house of Israel says, The way of the Lord is not just. O house of Israel, are My ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God" (Ezek. 18:29–30). The Lord stoops to reason with them. That is very telling in the light of Deuteronomy 32:4: "The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He."
Where mercy could begin again
This sentence cannot be stopped. Yet the same writer, on an earlier chapter, shows what did open a new road for this city — not a softer sentence, but Someone carrying it.
William KellyThere was no escape, for no real repentance followed, and God was not mocked... it was the only road open until Messiah came. He bore their judgment, and so made it righteous for the mercies of God to begin again on the ground of sovereign grace.
Summary
- Warned — the fire came only after long correction. Discipline had failed, and the people had despised God's law, before God fixed the decree.
- Refused — God worked to cleanse her, and she would not be cleansed. A stain that will not scour must burn out.
- Fixed — He may hold back a threatened judgment, as with Nineveh. Here He has spoken, and He will do it. No lot spares anyone.
- Measured — the sentence is by their own ways and deeds; His ways are just, and it was theirs that were not.
- Mercy — the road reopened only when Messiah bore that judgment. Then God's mercies could begin again on the ground of grace.