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Babylon, the Sword of God:
The speaks to the Prophet Ezekiel, set your face toward Jerusalem, preach against the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel: It’s a terrible thing to have God speak against a land, especially one so favored as He gave to Israel. Yet God was not only against the land; more pointedly He was against the people (Behold, I am against you).
The Lord God says, I will draw My sword out of its sheath and cut off both righteous and wicked: When God’s judgment came against the nation, it would not be against specific individuals. It would come against the people in general and both righteous and unrighteous would find themselves under His sword.God did not want Ezekiel to be an unemotional messenger of judgment. God wanted the heart of the prophet to display the same breaking heart that God Himself had. This judgment was certain, and it broke the heart of prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah to consider what great devastation would come upon the land. "Sigh therefore, son of man, with [b]a breaking heart, and sigh with bitterness before their eyes. And it shall be when they say to you, ‘Why are you sighing?’ that you shall answer, ‘Because of the news; when it comes, every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it is coming and shall be brought to pass,’ says the Lord God” Ezekiel 21:6-7 (NKJV).
Lord says, all flesh may know that I, the LORD, have drawn My sword. The magnitude and severity of God’s judgment would be revelation to the watching world. They would know that only God Himself could be behind such a great judgment. The people of Jerusalem and Judah heard from Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and other prophets that judgment was coming, and they didn’t take the message seriously. Yet when the armies of Babylon actually came and they heard the news of it, they would be completely broken. Every spirit will faint, and all the knees will be weak as water.
A sword, a sword is sharpened and also polished: In this poetically powerful prophecy regarding the instrument of God’s judgment against Judah and Jerusalem, the first emphasis is on the readiness of God’s sword against His people. It is sharpened to make a dreadful slaughter. The army of Babylon would come against Judah and Jerusalem, but only because God put the sword of judgment into the hands of the slayer. To emphasize the idea that all this is done at the Lord's direction, God presents Himself as something of a general over the army of judgment. He directs even the thrust of the blade and will not cease until He says, “I will cause My fury to rest. "Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord!’ Say: ‘A sword, a sword is sharpened And also polished! Sharpened to make a dreadful slaughter, Polished to flash like lightning! Should we then make mirth? It despises the scepter of My son, As it does all wood. And He has given it to be polished, That it may be handled; This sword is sharpened, and it is polished; To be given into the hand of the slayer" Ezekiel 21:8-11 (NKJV). It would be false in the sense that though Nebuchadnezzar sought the pagan gods with their superstitions of divination, Yahweh was actually guiding him. As much as the people of Judah and Jerusalem may have prayed the king of Babylon would not come against them, God would guide him to them to bring their iniquity to remembrance.
Judah sinned so memorably before God, it was to be expected that He would in fact remember them in judgment. They prayed and hoped that God and Nebuchadnezzar would forget about them, but they would not. The sword of God’s judgment would also come against the Ammonites. God promised, I will judge you in the place where you were created, in the land of your nativity. "'Return it to its sheath.
I will judge you; In the place where you were created, In the land of your nativity. I will pour out My indignation on you; I will blow against you with the fire of My wrath, And deliver you into the hands of brutal men who are skillful to destroy. You shall be fuel for the fire; Your blood shall be in the midst of the land. You shall not be remembered, For I the Lord have spoken'" Ezekiel 21: 30-32 (NKJV).
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