Ezekiel 25:15

Ezekiel 25 has a special character. The nations around Israel's land, and those living inside it, rejoiced at the ruin of Jerusalem and of the sanctuary. So God would carry out judgment on them. Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines are the objects of this prophecy… It is easy to see why they appear here. These nations were to share the same fate, and this judgment includes them because they are all on Israel's territory.

The first three of these nations were related to God's people by blood. When Israel took possession of Palestine at God's command under Joshua, they did not conquer Philistia. It was a strip of land about forty miles long and ten to twenty miles wide. It lay on the sea coast between Joppa and Gaza, west of the tribes of Dan and Simeon. Because of this failure on Israel's part, the Philistines were always thorns in their sides, and sometimes their masters… These four nations were allies in opposing God's chosen people. God now marks them out as special objects of His vengeance, for if you touch God's people, you touch Him.

Had the strangers come from Crete and settled inside the land of Palestine to harass and oppress Israel? Did they rise up to avenge their old grudges, even if they could not do it in their old grandeur? God did not forget… Here the threat of divine judgment is very strong. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God when He avenges His people on their proud and spiteful enemies.

If God finds it necessary to chasten His people, He does so for their good. It is always wrong to rejoice over the troubles that come on God's people, even if they deserve the chastening.

No doubt God can chastise His people, for He must make His own character clear. But the malice of their enemies brings His judgment on them as well.

One point in this series of prophecies is important. It begins with the judgment of Jerusalem, the centre of the former system of nations. God carries out these judgments to make all these nations know Jehovah… Ezekiel 25:15-17 marks out His special vengeance on the Philistines… So these prophecies show us Jehovah's power in general. They make Him known to all by the judgments He carried out. Nebuchadnezzar's conquests have realised part of this already, but its full accomplishment comes later, in Israel's favour.

The Philistines matter a great deal in this history, because they act as the power of the enemy. To me they represent the power of the enemy working inside the circle of God's people. They lived in Israel's own territory, inside the land… They were not enemies from outside, like the Egyptians or Assyrians. They were always hostile to Israel… and all the more dangerous because they were close at hand and claimed the country as theirs.

They were intruders into a land promised to Israel, though they were convinced the prior right was theirs. They have given their name to the whole land — Palestine, from Philistia — and they claim it, though they have never been able to take more than its lowest border. As Philistines they are "immigrants," but never Hebrews — that is, "passengers" or "pilgrims."