Let us read Ezekiel 21:18-27. “The word of the LORD came to me saying, 19 As for you, son of man, make two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; both of them will go out of one land. And make a signpost; make it at the head of the way to the city. 20 You shall mark a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and to Judah into fortified Jerusalem. 21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he shakes the arrows, he consults the household idols, he looks at the liver. 22 Into his right hand came the divination, Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth for slaughter, to lift up the voice with a battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up ramps, to build a siege wall. 23 And it will be to them like a false divination in their eyes; they have sworn solemn oaths. But he brings iniquity to remembrance, that they may be seized. 24 Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your deeds your sins appear—because you have come to remembrance, you will be seized with the hand. 25 And you, O slain, wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come, in the time of the punishment of the end, 26 thus says the Lord GOD, Remove the turban and take off the crown; this will no longer be the same. Exalt that which is low and abase that which is high. 27 A ruin, a ruin, a ruin, I will make it. This also will be no more until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it to Him” (NASB).

In this passage the prophet Ezekiel is sharing what the Lord told him. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, would come with his army to the land of Israel and come to a fork in the road. Ezekiel was told to make a signpost to show that one direction would lead to Jerusalem and the other way would lead to a city called Rabbah (capital of Ammon). Nebuchadnezzar used three types of divination to make his decision about which city to attack first. He shook arrows, asked his personal idols, and looked at the liver of a slaughtered animal. According to Oxford Bibliographies, “divination is the general term for a myriad of different techniques to communicate with the supernatural in order to gain access to that special knowledge.” We know that divination is not a godly activity due to Deuteronomy 18:10, which says: “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer” (NASB). The godly prophet Samuel told King Saul in 1 Samuel 15:23, “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king” (NASB).

The divinations that Nebuchadnezzar did in Ezekiel 21:21 were sinful, but the Lord was still in control of the situation. The Lord said to the people of Judah in Jeremiah 25:8-9, “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Because you have not obeyed My words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation” (NASB). In spite of his sinful divinations, the Lord calls Nebuchadnezzar “My servant” since He used Nebuchadnezzar to discipline the people of Judah for their sin and rebellion. We see in Ezekiel 21:22 that, as a result of his divinations, Nebuchadnezzar decided to attack Jerusalem first. Of course, the Lord was in control to cause Nebuchadnezzar to do God’s will to defeat Jerusalem and the southern kingdom of Judah. We learn in verse 26 that the king of Judah, Zedekiah, would no longer be king.

Verse 27 gives us a little dash of hope. It is telling us that, after King Zedekiah, there would be no more kings in the line of David until “He comes whose right it is.” That is, there is coming a day when the Lord Jesus Christ will come to reign over this earth. The Lord promised this to King David in 2 Samuel 7:16, which says: “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever” (NASB). What a day that will be when Christ reigns as “the Sun of righteousness” (Malachi 4:2). However, in the present day, may we be encouraged to stay focused on our Savior and please Him, as we have in this verse. “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen” (Jude 24).  (DJ)  (633.6)