How many social justice movements today involve groups of marginalized, disenfranchised people, living in one form of exile or another? But despite the exile and the yawning chasm between humanity and the divine world, Ezekiel’s God is intimately present among his people even if only to pin the looming disaster on them. It's the people who have broken the covenant. Jewishly speaking, the covenant is a contract, that can be terminated and set aside if it is not adhered to faithfully. Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel opines that rebellion against Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar is the same as rebelling against God. Yet, the prophet switches abruptly from condemnation to consolation, and brings up the notion of a "new heart.”
