Day 244: Ezekiel 7-9

(The previous post covered God's warning to the people through Ezekiel with details so that they would know God did this, and would turn again to God.)

Ezekiel 7
¹ Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
² And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto the land of Israel, An end: the end is come upon the four corners of the land.

(The Word of God to Ezekiel concerned the end of Israel: Israel's judgment.)

³ Now is the end upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways; and I will bring upon thee all thine abominations.

(God would judge them according to their ways. God was Just.)

⁴ And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity; but I will bring thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.
⁵ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: An evil, an only evil; behold, it cometh.
⁶ An end is come, the end is come; it awaketh against thee; behold, it cometh.

(Destruction was coming for Israel, an "end." This did not mean that Israel would not be a nation again. The "end" represented the judgment that God was bringing upon them.)

⁷ Thy doom is come unto thee, O inhabitant of the land: the time is come, the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting, upon the mountains.
⁸ Now will I shortly pour out my wrath upon thee, and accomplish mine anger against thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways; and I will bring upon thee all thine abominations.

(Again, God would judge them according to their ways. God was Just.)

⁹ And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will bring upon thee according to thy ways; and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, do smite.
¹⁰ Behold, the day, behold, it cometh: thy doom is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.

(The "rod" represented Judah. The fruit that "blossomed" on this rod was pride.)

¹¹ Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness; none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth: neither shall there be eminency among them.
¹² The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.

(God's wrath would come upon all the people.)

¹³ For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they be yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, none shall return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.
¹⁴ They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but none goeth to the battle; for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
¹⁵ The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword: and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

(The three forms of judgment were mentioned again: sword, famine, pestilence.)

¹⁶ But those of them that escape shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one in his iniquity.

(Those who escaped would be in the mountains mourning in their iniquity. They were aware of their iniquity but would this lead to repentance?)

¹⁷ All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.
¹⁸ They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.
¹⁹ They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of Jehovah: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels; because it hath been the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

(The people focused on physical things (gold, silver, man-made idols, etc.) which were the "stumblingblock of their iniquity." They focused on the effects instead of the causes.)

²⁰ As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things therein: therefore have I made it unto them as an unclean thing.

(God made the things that the Jews worshipped as unclean things. This was Right and Just of God to show the people that the things they worshipped were actually abominable. God never enabled His people to worship any god other than Him. God was the Cause. These idols were effects of men...men were the cause of these idols. These men were worshipping themselves.)

²¹ And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane it.
²² My face will I turn also from them, and they shall profane my secret place; and robbers shall enter into it, and profane it.

(God would turn His Face from the strangers (non-Jews) who profaned and robbed His temple.)

²³ Make the chain; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
²⁴ Wherefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pride of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be profaned.

(God would bring the worst of the nations to the Jews. God was Just. Since the Jews were worshipping heathen gods, God used heathen nations to judge the Jews.)

²⁵ Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
²⁶ Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor shall be upon rumor; and they shall seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

(People would seek a vision but their leaders would not have access to God's Law or counsel.)

²⁷ The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

(The people would know that Jehovah was God because God was Just and He would judge them according to their ways.)




Ezekiel 8
¹ And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord Jehovah fell there upon me.

(The Hand of God fell upon Ezekiel while the elders of Judah sat with him in his house.)

² Then I beheld, and, lo, a likeness as the appearance of fire; from the appearance of his loins and downward, fire; and from his loins and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it were glowing metal.

(Ezekiel received a vision, in a supernatural realm.)

³ And he put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.

(The Spirit physically lifted up Ezekiel (by a lock of my head) between the heaven and earth and gave him visions. This was an example of a person being "translated," like Philip in Acts 8:39-40.)

⁴ And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain.

(Ezekiel saw the Glory of God.)

⁵ Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

(An image of jealousy (idol) was set up in the gate near the altar.)

⁶ And he said unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel do commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but thou shalt again see yet other great abominations.

(The great abominations of the Israelites caused God to go far off from His sanctuary. God's Glory (presence) was gone from the temple.)

⁷ And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall.
⁸ Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold, a door.
⁹ And he said unto me, Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.

(God was showing Ezekiel the wicked actions the Israelites were doing.)

¹⁰ So I went in and saw; and behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.

(In the inner court of the priests and Levites, there were all the idols of Israel portrayed on the wall all the way around.)

¹¹ And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel; and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, every man with his censer in his hand; and the odor of the cloud of incense went up.
¹² Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his chambers of imagery? for they say, Jehovah seeth us not; Jehovah hath forsaken the land.
¹³ He said also unto me, Thou shalt again see yet other great abominations which they do.
¹⁴ Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Jehovah's house which was toward the north; and behold, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz.

(Women were found weeping for Tammuz: a god of the Assyrians.)

¹⁵ Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? thou shalt again see yet greater abominations than these.
¹⁶ And he brought me into the inner court of Jehovah's house; and behold, at the door of the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of Jehovah, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.

(Twenty-five men were found between the porch and the altar with their backs to the temple facing east, worshipping the sun.)

¹⁷ Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.

("...they put the branch to their nose..." meant they were turning up their nose in scorn towards God. Ezekiel was able to be a literal witness to all of these physical events because God "translated/transported" him.)

¹⁸ Therefore will I also deal in wrath; mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

(God would respond according to the actions of the Jews. God did not initiate His Justice. God responded to the wickedness of the Jews with His Justice. God took Ezekiel up into another vision in order to deal with these twenty-five men in Ezekiel 11.)




Ezekiel 9
¹ Then he cried in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause ye them that have charge over the city to draw near, every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
² And behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which lieth toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man in the midst of them clothed in linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side. And they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar.

(Six men came with weapons, one of the men with a "writer's inkhorn by his side.")

³ And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house: and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer's inkhorn by his side.

(The glory cloud left its resting place which was on the mercy seat between the cherubim.)

⁴ And Jehovah said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof.

(God told the man with the writer's inkhorn to mark the foreheads of the men that wept for all the abominations. These men would have softened their hearts towards God.)

⁵ And to the others he said in my hearing, Go ye through the city after him, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity;
⁶ slay utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the old men that were before the house.

(The other five men with weapons were commanded to slay everyone else, just to stay away from those with the mark on their forehead.)

⁷ And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and smote in the city.
⁸ And it came to pass, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord Jehovah! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy wrath upon Jerusalem?

(Ezekiel cried out to God asking if Israel would be completely destroyed.)

⁹ Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of wrestling of judgment: for they say, Jehovah hath forsaken the land, and Jehovah seeth not.

(The people had been blaming Jehovah for the judgment they were experiencing. Did anyone consider this judgment was an effect of their own actions?)

¹⁰ And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way upon their head.
¹¹ And behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.

(The man with the inkhorn was obedient to God. The next chapter was a continuation of this vision and will give a more detailed explanation to what occurred.)

(This post covered God showing Ezekiel the evil actions that twenty-five men were doing in the temple and the judgment that was coming.)

Day 245