Studies in the Book of Ezekiel

Studies in the Book of Ezekiel

Jay Wegter

Highlights from chapters ten through fourteen Commentary

10:1-2, God told the angelic scribe to go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim and take burning coals and scatter them over the city. God was using similar coals to purge His holy city. We saw this in Ezekiel earlier in chapter 1:13 and Isaiah 6.

10:3-5, Ezekiel has repeated the fact the glory of the Lord has moved from t throne chariot to the temple threshold.

4:10, as the cloud was filling the temple, the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. The manifestation of God's glory perceived through the cloud illuminated the plaza, where Ezekiel stood. With this dazzling brightnes was the sound of the cherubim's wings, heard as far as the outer court. 10:6-7, Ezekiel returned from this momentary digression to continue his account of the man in linen. The messenger approached God's throne chario and stood beside one of its four wheels, and the cherubim. One of the cherubim then took some of the fire, put it into the hands of the man in linen The fire was scattered on Jerusalem enacting the divine purification. 10:8-13, Again, Ezekiel described the cherubim and the wheels. However, Ezekiel noted some additional details. Their entire bodies were completely fu of eyes, representing divine Omniscience, as well as the eyes on the wheels, also representing God's infinite knowledge. Ezekiel heard the wheels and referred to it as whirling wheels, whirling (Heb. Hagalalgal) in Hebrew means rolling or revolving. Thus, the wheels were named for their function. They set God's throne chariot in motion by revolving. The wheels here seemed to prepare the way for departure. For God's glory was about to whirl out of His temple on the whirling wheels.

10:15-22, And now, it's time for God's glory to depart, and the cherubim rose upward. God's throne ascended from the court of Israel into the air. Ezekiel's description of the movement of the cherubim in the wheels, in verses 15-17 uses the same words employed in chapter 1. God's glory, which had been standing at the entrance to the temple, departed from over the threshold of the temple, and stopped above the cherubim. before God left both the templ and the city, there was a final pause. Once God passed from the gate, the inscription, "Ichabod” the glory has departed, could be written over Jerusalem, as if to delay this final movement in the departure of God's glory. God will not share His glory with idols (Is 42:8; 48:4-11). Ezekiel, inserted th story of the 25 wicked rulers.

11:1, as God's glory hovered over the eastern gate, the spirit lifted up. 11:2-3, the wicked counsel given by these 25 men is summarized by Ezekiel Will it not soon be time to build houses? The city is the cooking pot, and we are the meat. The elders were encouraging Jerusalem’s inhabitants to forget the prophet's predictions of coming Babylonian invasion. They were urging the people to build houses; a sign of peace and safety. After all, the people were safe in the city, like meat enclosed in the kettle.

11:4-5, of the false optimism, God told Ezekiel to prophesy against them. Th public statements of confidence only masked the people's underlying fears. They were seeking security from the ever-present danger of Babylon by building or talking about building houses.

11:6-12, Ezekiel alters the elders’ imagery of meat in the pot to those who h been murdered in the city. You killed many people in this city. Their bodies have been thrown into the streets. They're the actual meat of the pot. God's judgments by sword would be executed at the borders of Israel. 11:13-15, God's response to Ezekiel was twofold; first he showed Ezekiel tha the remnant would not be destroyed. Those who were already in exile would be preserved. God had given Israel the land, but He'd also threatened to remove them from it for disobedience (Deut 28). God would spare a remnan as Ezekiel asked, but would not include the smug self-righteous leaders of Jerusalem.

11:17, There would be a distinct future for Israel nationally. God promises to gather them from the countries where they'd been scattered and give them back the land again. A partial restoration took place after the Babylonian captivity, see Ezra and Nehemiah, but Ezekiel goes beyond that return and points to a future gathering of Israel at the beg. of millennium (Ezek 36-37). 11:18-19, Israel's physical return will be accompanied by a spiritual renewal. They will come back to the land, they will remove all vile images and detestable idols, and the land will be purged of idolatry, and the people will b purged as well. For God said, I will give them an undivided heart and put a ne spirit in them. Israel's external difficulties resulted from her internal condition God promised to correct that. The results of a new heart; a heart of flesh, instead of stone, Israel will be new in her actions and new in her relationship 11:20-21, Their actions, the people will be obedient, and they'll follow God's decrees and keep his laws. The new internal condition will produce righteous actions, and will result in a new relationship with God. "They will be My people, and I will be their God." God ends this discourse by bringing Ezekiel back to the reality of Israel's sin. The captive remnant could look forward to restoration of blessing, but those in Jerusalem, devoted to vile images and detestable idols, would expect only judgment for their sin. This is a reminder that Ezekiel had witnessed what caused God's glory to depart from the city. 11:22-25, God's glory then continues this departure and went up from within the city and stopped above the mount and east of it. God's glory left Jerusalem and passed over the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives. This departure signals Jerusalem's doom. The city would be devoid of God's blessing. But the glory returned by way of the Mount of Olives. It's no coincidence that Christ ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives and promised to return to the same place (Zech 14:4). Ezekiel's vision ended, an he was transported by the Spirit back to the exiles of Babylon. As the vision went up from him, he told the exiles everything the Lord has shown him Chapter 12, The futility of false optimism. The people were still not ready to accept the fact of Jerusalem's fall. Ezekiel gave a new series of signs and messages. Any optimism would be futile. Jerusalem's fate had been sealed. 12:1-6, Ezekiel gave two more action signs because the people's unbelief. They had eyes, but they did not see; they had ears, but they did not hear. Th spiritual blindness and deafness was willful. They had faculties for receiving God's message, but they chose not to receive it. They were a rebellious hous And so, the first sign Ezekiel was to perform was carrying baggage through a hole in a wall. The sign involved two separate things. The first action in the daytime was followed by a second action in the evening. While the people watched he pretended to be taken captive and to dig through the wall and ta his belongings out on his shoulder. Ezekiel pantomimed before the people a furtive escape attempt. He was also to cover his face so that he could not se the land because as an exile he would die in Babylon.

12:7-11, Ezekiel performed the sign as commanded, after the actions and ne morning, the exiles spoke to him. They inquired about what he was doing. Th people's curiosity was aroused by his mini-drama. Once Ezekiel had their attention, he could deliver God's message. God explained that this oracle, th message concerned the prince in Jerusalem, King Zedekiah, and the whole house of Israel, who were there. They will go into exile as captives. It's inevitable. Those at ease in Jerusalem could be soon be exiles with their only possessions, but a little sack flung over their shoulder.

12:12-16, Zedekiah’s escape would fail, and God would make sure he was captured. The final destiny of Zedekiah was grim. His flight caused the noble to be executed. Zedekiah's troops would be slain, and the last thing, Zedekia would see was the execution of his sons before he was blinded and made a prisoner in Babylon until the day of his death (2 Ki 25:7; Jer 39:7; 52:11). T exiles will be dispersed among the nations, but God will spare few of them. Ezekiel's action represented the terror Israel would experience. As he said earlier, the people of Jerusalem eat and drink in anxiety and despair (Ezek 4:16-17). The enemy would plunder the land, devastating towns, and making the land desolate. Fear would grip the people as they watched God's judgment decimate their land by violence.

12:21-25, The popular proverb, the people were quoting, led to God to ask Ezekiel about the proverb. The days go by and every vision comes to nothing. This proverb was a terse expression commonly held for a self-evident truth. The point of this proverb was the belief that Ezekiel's predictions of doom would not take place. It had the effect of labeling Ezekiel and the other true prophets of God, doomsdayers, scaremongers, alarmists, doomsday prophets, thus allowing the people to ignore their messages. False prophets had been contradicting the claims of God's true messengers in both Jerusalem and Babylon. Their optimistic predictions would cease as God hastened to fulfill His Word. He would remove false visions and flattering divinations. The second proverb uttered by the exiles, like the first, was givin false hope to the nation, the vision that he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies of times far off (12:27). But God says to Ezekiel, none of My words will be delayed any longer. Ezekiel's cries of doom were not distant rumblings of some future storm. The judgment was imminent. But the people said, oh, these prophecies are about things in the distant future. The same attitude is manifested by the false teachers at the time that Peter was speaking the message of 2 Peter 3. Namely, the error that God's delay is a s of His mercy—Peter exposes the message of the false teachers which suggested God's delay means judgment is not coming. This was the deceptiv message of the false teachers who were trying to refute Peter's prophecy. 13:1-3, the message of the false prophets came from their own imagination. Ezekiel says they have seen nothing; it’s only the fruit of their corrupt imaginations. They've only concocted a message from their own spirit. There is actually a devastating break in the wall. The wall's about to collapse, and yet they've whitewashed over the wall.

13:4-9, These false prophets claim to represent God. They would have if they truly informed the people of God's counsel, there would have been repentance and faith. But these prophecies prove false.

13:10, the false prophets were saying peace, whereas Ezekiel was predicting destruction. Their deceptive ministry was like a flimsy wall covered with whitewash. These prophets were dabbing plaster to hide the deficiencies of the wall. A white paste formed of a chalk compounds was used to plaster ove rocks that formed the walls to make it attractive. But the whitewash hid the uneven rocks and cracks in the wall under a smooth surface. This was compounding Israel's difficulties by hiding, not exposing her problems. 13:11-12, the false prophets had plastered over an unsafe wall and they should be blamed when the wall collapses. God's judgment would break down the flimsy wall of Israel. Heavy rain, hailstones, violent winds would beat against the wall and it would collapse. Then the people would ask, "Where is the whitewash that you covered it with? Whitewash was their false prophecies. When Jerusalem was destroyed, this would be revealed. 13:13-16, When the wind and the hail and the rain caused the wall to fall, th prophets would be destroyed in it, for God's wrath was against them. His focus turned from the false prophet to address the false prophetesses. They were called the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own imagination. They had magic charms on the people’s wrists and made veils o various links for their heads. Magic charms, and magic rituals, magical knots and bands were bound to various parts of the body supposedly to ward off ev spirits, and to heal diseases, to bring good luck. The purpose of these magic charms was to ensnare people. Especially in times of uncertainty and turmoi frauds and charlatans seemed to prey on the fears of the gullible. These sorceresses would tell the future or provide a good luck spell for a few handfuls of barley and scraps of bread as payment for their divination. These prophetesses were employing fraudulent practices as a hoax, and were making a living off the fears of others. God said there're really lying to my people. The results of the prophetess's work ran counter to Israel's best interests: you kill those who should not have died, and you've spared those who should not live. These prophetesses justified the wicked for a bribe, and they should have exposed and denounced the evil practices of Jerusalem. 13:21-22, God said His anger would be invented against these false prophetesses. He will neutralize their power and tear off their magic charms from their arms. God would save His people from their hands. They'd be exposed as charlatans, and their gullible clients would desert them. 13:21-23, These prophetesses had disheartened the people and the righteou with their lies and encouraged the wicked not to turn from their evil ways. Th directly opposed God's purposes for his people. God would judge these prophetesses, and the people would realize that these women had lied to them, and the prophetesses themselves would be forced to admit their sin. Through this judgment, God would make Himself known (13:23). 14:1-6, some of the elders of Israel went to Ezekiel who was still confined to his house. They wanted to receive a message from God about Jerusalem or about the length of the exile. Before the elders sat before Ezekiel, God informed him that these men had set up idols in their hearts and had put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. These stumbling blocks, or idolatry, would cause the people to fall. It would be their downfall. These hypocritical elders came to the true God for answers while having another go in their hearts. And so, God asks Ezekiel, should I let them inquire of Me at al They'd refused to acknowledge God's sovereignty. God through Ezekiel informed the elders that when an Israelite comes to God while harboring idolatry in his heart, God would deal with the idolatry. God would do this for the ultimate benefit of the nation to recapture the hearts of his people. Repent, turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices was the message.

14:7-8, if an Israelite or an alien dared to presume on God while harboring idolatry, God would answer in judgment. Either the Lord will answer Myself and make him an example, a byword, or I will cut him off from his people. God would move against that idolatrous person to kill him. And this harsh action would be an example to others.

14:9-11, And so God would not respond through His prophet to an in enquire who was harboring idolatry in his heart. In some ways, God would allow a false prophet to deceive, letting them deceive others to bring about judgmen and death. This was certainly true. in the case of the prophets deceiving king Ahab to bring about his death in 1 Kings 22:19-23. A false prophet in Ezekie day would give an answer to an idolator that would be a deceptive word that would lead to the destruction of both the false prophet, as well as the idolate both individuals are be held responsible for their sin and be punished accordingly. God would remove the stumbling block of idolatry that brought about the national ruin. Then God said, "Then they will be my people, and I w be their God."

Application and Discussion

1. What does it mean that very often, sin is its own punishment? 11:21

2. Find examples in Scripture, that when God sends His man to preach, the powers of darkness will have a counter message to subvert the truth (note examples from Acts and the Gospels.
3. Comment on this statement; before conversion, we are suspicious of God. After conversion, we are suspicious of self.
4. Repentance comes with a cost. Describe that cost.
5. Ezekiel’s hearers resembled those who heard Isaiah preach, see Isaiah

28:14-19.

6. Why is whitewashing a cracked wall such an appropriate metaphor for a false teacher? 13:10-16
7. The soothsaying witches of Ezekiel 13:18-23 attributed spiritual power an protection to objects. Should we as Christians warn concerning the danger of trusting a talisman, an amulet, a fetish, a crystal, or a good luck charm?
8. Why do heart idols produce estrangement from God? 14:3-5ff.
9. Why is God’s jealousy an expression of His holy nature?
10. Explain why biblical theism exalts God as the ultimate reference point, touching all of life, versus confinement of God to a religious compartment.

11. Why does desensitization to sin make righteousness look ridiculous?
12. What does the term heart religion mean?
13. Describe the level of diligence which is required in watching over one’s heart (Prov 4:23).
14. Explain how God’s action in 2 Corinthians 4:6 makes a person a true worshipper for the first time in his life.
15. Being a worshipper is an indispensable aspect of our creational identity. What is meant by the phrase one cannot, not worship? How does this help us understand the allure and addicting nature of idolatry?

16. What are some of the ways that a believer can guard against developing heart idol?
17. Since God regards the heart of a believer to be His temple, it is most appropriate to ask, what are you doing to keep the temple clean? (1 Cor 6:19-

20; 1 Cor 3:16-17; 2 Cor 6:16).

18. Since we live in a culture that worships youth, beauty, and sensuality, wh strategies will help protect us from these idols?