Ezekiel 6-11

1. Proclaimed judgment against the mountains of Israel (ch 6). The mountains were the notorious “high places” (v. 3; a phrase occurring nearly 80 times in the Old Testament, nearly always pejorative) where Israel had ascended to construct alters and burn incense to pagan gods; mountains symbolized the height of Israel’s idolatry. Ezekiel proclaimed the jealousy of the LORD against the situation of the Israelites: “Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense alters cut down, and your works wiped out” (v. 6). Despite the announcement of punishment, Ezekiel promised that the LORD would preserve a remnant; though these would be scattered among the nations, they would one day come to their senses, “And they will know that I am the LORD” (vv. 10; 13)
2. Rang the alarm for the time of Israel’s devastation (ch 7). Ezekiel’s condemnation against Israel was that they did not acknowledge the LORD as their God—they therefore failed the first commandment in the Mosaic law (cf. Deut 5.7). Since Israel didn’t publicly recognize the LORD in their lifestyle, they would be forced to recognize Him by experiencing His wrath. It was the LORD’s intent that “one disaster after another” (v. 5) would awaken the people to the fact that the time of God’s wrath had arrived; “Then you will know that I am the LORD,” He said (v. 4b; 9b, 27b; cf. Jer 9.23-24)
3. Described the departure of the glory of the LORD from the temple (chs 8-11). These chapters record some of the most discouraging words of the Old Testament. With exemplary literary eloquence, Ezekiel described a visionary journey to Jerusalem, “to the entrance of the inner gate that faces north, where the offensive statue that provokes jealousy was located” (8.3; cf. 2 Kgs 21.7). The offensive practices of Israel—shown to Ezekiel in order of escalating severity (8.6, 13, 15)—were so repulsive that the LORD could no longer stand it; “I must depart from My sanctuary” (8.6), He said after the first of these revelations to Ezekiel. God was ready to judge His people with perfect righteousness; He told those executing His wrath: “Pass throughout the city of Jerusalem…and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations committed in it” (9.4), while He said to others: “Pass through the city after him and start killing; do not show pity or spare them!” (9.5). The retribution upon the land was so severe in Ezekiel’s sight that he cried out, “Ah, Lord GOD! Are You going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel when You pour out Your wrath on Jerusalem?” (9.8). The vision of destruction was followed by a vision—while breathtaking in beauty—that was no less horrifying: the LORD’s glory exiting the temple in a chariot throne accompanied by cherubim (ch 10). Ezekiel, like Isaiah (cf. Ahaz in Is 7-8) and Jeremiah (cf. the scroll of Jer 36), viewed Israel’s leaders especially culpable for the situation of the land. When the Spirit lifted Ezekiel to the eastern gate of the LORD’s house, he saw Pelatiah, a leader of the people and one who had prophesied falsely; as Ezekiel prophesied against the word of Pelatiah the latter died (11.1-13)! To the distraught prophet the LORD promised a day when He would by His sovereign power change the situation of His people: He would gather them from the lands of their exile and “give them one heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, so they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God” (11.19-20)

1. In ch 9 Ezekiel described the destruction the LORD was about to bring upon Jerusalem through Nebuchadnezzar. In his vision the prophet noted that one of the LORD’s servants traveled throughout Jerusalem, sealing with a mark on the forehead “the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations committed in it (Jerusalem)” (v. 4). While the remainder of the inhabitants of Jerusalem were to be destroyed, these were to be spared (v. 6). This vision parallels the apostle John’s vision, when he saw an angel cry out to the angels who were empowered for destruction, “Don’t harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we seal the slaves of our God on their foreheads” (Rev 7.3). The latter group were not marked for their contrition regarding the idolatry committed in Jerusalem, but because their names had been “written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered” (Rev 13.8)
2. In 11.18-21 for the first time the prophet spoke of restoration. He proposed that the LORD would bring the exiles back to the Promised Land, and they would remove the idols from it. Their new course of action would be the fruit of a new inner condition; the LORD said to Ezekiel: “I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, so they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God” (vv. 19-20). The word of the prophet resembled Moses’ comment to Israel on the plains of Moab generations earlier (Dt 30.1-6; cf. Rom 2.28-29), and established the paradigm of spirituality for the days of the new covenant (cf. Jer 31.31-34; Heb 8.8-12). According to the apostle Paul, Ezekiel had received a vision of what would take place in Christ. He wrote to the Corinthians: “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, recognized and read by everyone, since it is plain that you are Christ’s letter, produced by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh” (2 Cor 3.3). Believers today thus live in the condition Ezekiel prophesied, the age of fulfillment, freedom of speech, and ethical transformation from within, as Paul wrote: “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces are reflecting the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3.17-18)

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