The Living Man Between the Giants

Noah, Job... and Daniel? One of these names feels out of place.

Noah was an ancient father who survived the drowned world. Job was an ancient sufferer from the ash heap of Uz. But Daniel was alive. When Ezekiel wrote these words among the exiles in Babylon, Daniel was living just miles away, serving in Nebuchadnezzar's royal court. God plucked a contemporary—a living peer—and dropped him squarely between two titans of antiquity.

Why this trio? They were not selected at random. They were history's greatest human shields—men whose personal righteousness had previously snatched others from disaster. Noah carried his whole household through the deluge Genesis 6:8. Job interceded and spared his foolish friends from the wrath of God Job 42:8. And Daniel had recently stood between Nebuchadnezzar's executioner and the condemned wise men of Babylon Daniel 2. The Hebrew verb Ezekiel uses for "deliver" is nāṣal H5337—to snatch away, to wrench someone out of danger.

Jerusalem was leaning on that very hope. The exiles assumed the holy city could never fall because God would surely spare the whole for the sake of the few. They were banking on an umbrella.

In Ezekiel 14:14, God snaps the umbrella shut. Even if history’s three greatest intercessors were standing inside Jerusalem’s gates together, their ṣədāqāh H6666 (righteousness) would snatch only their own nep̱eš H5315 (soul).

Ezekiel leaves us no room to treat another person’s faithfulness as permission to remain unrepentant. But that does not mean our hope lies in becoming righteous enough to save ourselves. Noah, Daniel, and Job could not rescue Jerusalem from this judgment; Jesus is the Saviour through whom we come to God. A faithful family cannot believe for you. Let their prayers lead you to Christ, whose righteousness—not your spiritual pedigree—is your hope.