# commentaries

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<p>They shall know that I am Yahweh: I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them- There was the tendency to think that Ezekiel was just another prophet groaning on about evil to come from Yahweh. By considering that God’s word is somehow not precisely, personally relevant to ourselves, we consider it to be"vain", no matter what high view of Divine inspiration of the scriptures we may hold."They shall::."as noted on :9 was God’s desperate hope for them.</p>


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<h4>Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Strike with your hand and stamp with your foot and say, Alas!- These things were an expression of anger. The intense wrath of God was appropriate considering the deep love He had for them, and the way they were breaking His heart by their adultery against Him; see on :9."Alas!"is really a calling to mourning, and in that word there may be also a calling to repentance, so that this tragedy need not happen.</h4><h4>Because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, they shall fall by the sword, by the famine and by the plague-"Evil"would come upon them (:10) because they had been evil. Their condemnation through the experience of"evil"was therefore really a reflection of the evil they themselves had wrought. By doing evil they were therefore living out their own condemnation.</h4>


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<h4>He who is far off shall die of the plague; and he who is near shall fall by the sword; and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine- The differentiation between those"far off"and those"near"is important. Jeremiah and Ezekiel were saying the same things, but Jeremiah to those still ’remaining’ in Judah, and Ezekiel to the captives"far off"; that phrase is used of how Judah were to be exiled"far off"in Babylon. The captives to whom he ministered, and who at this time had placed him under house arrest, would"die of the plague". Their repentance was required, lest they face yet further suffering.</h4><h4>Thus will I accomplish My wrath on them- The cessation, accomplishment or resting of God’s wrath is mentioned several times in Ezekiel, and nowhere else in this way (<a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a>; <a href='B:330 6:12'>Eze 6:12</a>; <a href='B:330 7:8'>Eze 7:8</a>; <a href='B:330 13:15'>Eze 13:15</a>; <a href='B:330 16:42'>Eze 16:42</a>; <a href='B:330 20:8'>Eze 20:8</a>; <a href='B:330 21:17'>Eze 21:17</a>; <a href='B:330 22:20'>Eze 22:20</a>; <a href='B:330 24:13'>Eze 24:13</a>). The idea is not that God was so angry that He had to express that anger and only calmed down once He had as it were lashed out. He does have real wrath; the huge love He has cannot exist in a dimensionless vacuum, it of itself implies He also has wrath. <a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a> continues:"I will cause My wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted", and the Hebrew there for"comforted"is literally ’to sigh’ to be sorry, even to repent / change. Having expressed His legitimate anger, God knew that He would then be sorry and would then embark upon a process of restoration- by grace. For the objects of His wrath didn’t deserve any restoration."To rest"is the word translated"to place"in <a href='B:330 37:14'>Eze 37:14</a>:"I shall place you in your own land"at the restoration from captivity. His wrath had to be expressed, and yet it was part of His wider purpose toward restoring His people and Kingdom. We would be quite wrong, therefore, to read these words as meaning that God was furiously angry and needed to lash out and get it all expressed so that He could as it were calm down again. His judgments are always ultimately constructive, and therefore"the wrath of God is the love of God". His wrath is therefore described in <a href='B:330 5:15'>Eze 5:15</a> as the rebuke of His fury / wrath; it was intended to rebuke, to achieve instruction, that they should ’know Yahweh’. The tragedy was that the captives for the most part refused to perceive it this way and respond.</h4>


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<h4>You shall know that I am Yahweh, when their slain men shall be among their idols around their altars on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains and under every green tree and under every thick oak- Judah were indeed slain and their corpses mockingly placed next to their idols. But they did not"know that I am Yahweh". For"you shall::.", see on :9. To know Yahweh was not so much to know about Him theologically, but to have a relationship with Him; for that is the Hebraic sense of ’to know’.</h4><h4>The places where they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols-"Pleasant aroma"is the phrase often used for the"pleasant aroma"of sacrifices to Yahweh- three times in Exodus, seventeen in Leviticus, seventeen in Numbers. As a priest, Ezekiel would have been aware of this. But instead, they offered this to the idols. The Divine hope (see on :9), the desperate hope of the unrequited lover for the beloved, was that a repentant remnant would realize this and then offer"pleasant aroma"again to Him alone (<a href='B:330 20:41'>Eze 20:41</a>). But they didn’t.</h4>


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<h4>I will stretch out My hand on them, and make the land desolate and waste- This was the judgment to come upon Babylon (<a href='B:300 51:26'>Jer 51:26</a>). Babylon was to be punished as they had punished Judah. This is the great theme of Revelation; the seals of judgment poured upon Israel in the last days are related to the vials of judgment poured upon those who perform that judgment.</h4><p>From the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations- This is the equivalent of"From Dan [the north] to Beersheba [the south]". The"wilderness"is usually applied to the nomad region south of Palestine, and this would lead us to look for Diblah in the north. The two Hebrew letters for ’d’ and ’r’ are easily confused. Riblah may therefore be the place in view, and the LXX has"Diblah"whereas the AV and Masoretic Text has"Riblah"in <a href='B:120 23:33'>2Ki 23:33</a>; <a href='B:120 25:6'>2Ki 25:6</a>. Riblah was a fortified town on the north road from Palestine to Babylon. Hamath, in the same region, is given as the northern boundary in <a href='B:330 47:16'>Eze 47:16</a>.</p><h4>They shall know that I am Yahweh- See on :9.</h4>


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<h4>You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel, An end: the end has come- The language of"the end::. an end"sounds as if this was intended to be the actual end of Judah. But it wasn’t; the judgments threatened didn’t work out in the totality they were described. More survived than envisaged in the judgment prophecies. And it was not the final end. This could be simply because God in His grace remembered mercy, and did not punish Judah as their iniquities deserved at this time, as Ezra notes (<a href='B:150 9:13'>Ezr 9:13</a>). But it could also be that Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry did in fact persuade a tiny minority to repent, and because of that, the judgments were ameliorated and the total end of Judah didn’t happen. The situation is analogous to how God had threatened to totally destroy Israel and make a new nation from Moses; but He was open to persuasion by the intercession of one faithful man, and this didn’t in fact happen.</h4><h4>On the four corners of the land-"Corners"is the same word translated"wings", which throughout Ezekiel usually refers to or alludes to the wings of the cherubim. The land had been under the protection of the cherubim wings, and even in judgment, they would be the channel through which that judgment was brought.</h4>


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<p>Now is the end on you, and I will send My anger on you, and will judge you according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations-"Abominations"is a reference to their idols, and is put by metonymy for ’sin with your abominations’. The thing sinned with, the channel of the sin, is thus out for the sinful actions of people. This suggests that God views sinners as their idol. Those who create idols are like unto them (<a href='B:230 115:8'>Psa 115:8</a>). It’s a question of identity. If our deepest heart and passion is upon anything other than God, then the object of that passion becomes ’us’. We identify with that which we worship, and all human beings have this tendency to focus upon something to worship. In this lies the challenge of the fact there is only one God; from that it psychologically follows that we serve Him with our whole strength and heart. Therefore believing there is only one God and rejecting a Trinity is not of itself a ’belief in one God’; for true belief will mean a total service of Him with all the heart and mind. And we can hold true theology whilst not doing this.</p>


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<h4>My eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you- See on <a href='B:120 17:23'>2Ki 17:23</a>. The wonder of God’s grace was that His eye did spare and He did pity at the restoration (<a href='B:330 36:21'>Eze 36:21</a>; <a href='B:360 2:18'>Joe 2:18</a>; <a href='B:460 3:17'>Mal 3:17</a> s:w:), just as His eye had spared them in the desert (<a href='B:330 20:17'>Eze 20:17</a>). This reveals the emotion of God, His pity even for the spiritually weak, and how this triumphs over His judgment.</h4><h4>You shall know that I am Yahweh- See on <a href='B:330 6:9'>Eze 6:9</a>.</h4>


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<p>Thus says the Lord Yahweh: An evil, a one-time evil; behold, it comes- As noted on :2, this sounds as if the projected evil would never be repeated. But the time of Jacob’s direst trouble is to be only in the last days (<a href='B:340 12:1-2'>Dan 12:1-2</a>). This means that the threatened ’final evil’ didn’t come, either because God’s mercy overwhelmed His wrath; or because of at least some intercession or repentance which meant it was delayed. But the essence of the prophetic word shall be fulfilled in the last days, when the final evil shall come upon Israel.</p>


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<p>An end has come, the end has come; it awakes against you; behold, it comes- The continual expression of the idea that ’It is starting to come, it’s nearly here:::’ ["it awakes against you"] is reflective of the ’gap’ there is with God. He pronounces certain judgment, as He did upon Nineveh, but in the gap between the statement and its execution, His mind can be changed by repentance. Hence the urgency of ’it is really and truly about to come’; for this implies the window of repentance was still just about open.</p>


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<p>Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land. The time has come, the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of mere echoing on the mountains- So many times the threats of judgment had not been carried out, perhaps because God was simply gracious, or because of His sensitivity to human intercession and the repentance of a remnant. But this had created the impression that the mountains were merely echoing with threats and the threats were not the real thing, mere echoes. The previous prophecy in Ezekiel 6 had specifically concerned the mountains of Israel. But judgment was real and would really come.</p>


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<h4>Now will I shortly- See on <a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a>."Shortly"presents the same idea as noted on :6; the judgment was about to come, and so the window of opportunity to repent was only just about still open.</h4><h4>&nbsp;Pour out My wrath on you and accomplish My anger against you, and will judge you according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations- These are the very words used about God’s intention to utterly destroy Israel at the time of <a href='B:20 32:10'>Exo 32:10</a>; <a href='B:20 32:12'>Exo 32:12</a>. But thanks to the intercession of Moses, this didn’t happen. Moses later uses the term in reflecting how God’s anger had been accomplished upon Israel, but not in the form of totally destroying them as He had first planned (<a href='B:230 90:7'>Psa 90:7</a>). The implication of course was that a Moses-like figure could arise in intercession, God had been open to change the outworking of His anger, and so by implication He was likewise open at Ezekiel’s time. And it seems He did relent, because as noted on <a href='B:330 5:12'>Eze 5:12</a>, God did not totally destroy Jerusalem’s population to the extent He had threatened. And yet just as Moses perceived that His anger was still accomplished, although without the total destruction of Israel, so Jeremiah uses this phrase in reflecting how in fact God’s anger was accomplished in the Babylonian destruction (<a href='B:310 4:11'>Lam 4:11</a>). Ezekiel himself will later note this too (<a href='B:330 20:8'>Eze 20:8</a>; <a href='B:330 20:21'>Eze 20:21</a>).</h4>


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<p>My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity. I will bring on you according to your ways; and your abominations shall be in the midst of you; and you shall know that I, Yahweh, do strike- See on :4. They would realize that it was God who was striking them, that He was working through the Babylonians, and their suffering was not simply due to the&nbsp; local geopolitics of a neighbouring empire attacking a smaller neighbouring state. But did they"know"this?"You shall know::."could be command more than prediction (see on <a href='B:330 6:9'>Eze 6:9</a>)."Strike"is the word used of God’s destruction of the eretz promised to Abraham at the flood (<a href='B:10 8:21'>Gen 8:21</a>). This was the scale of total destruction envisaged, although in reality, God’s grace was such that there was not absolutely total destruction. The amelioration of the judgments was maybe just because of God’s grace; or His response to intercession and repentance from a minority. See on <a href='B:430 1:2-3'>Zep 1:2-3</a>.</p>


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<h4>Behold, the day, behold, it comes: your doom is gone forth- See on :6. The pronouncement of doom had gone forth from the court of heaven, but in the gap between the statement and its realization, there was still the possibility for repentance. We too live in that same gap.</h4><h4>The rod has blossomed, pride has budded- The message may simply be that above all their many sins, Juda were to be punished because their pride had come to full fruition- in judgment. But"the rod"may refer to Babylon, as rods represent nations and leaders (<a href='B:120 18:21'>2Ki 18:21</a>), and Assyria is described in just the same way, as the rod for Judah’s correction (<a href='B:290 10:5'>Isa 10:5</a>). The budding rod is a parody of Aaron’s budding rod. But the buds were those of pride, which God saw as Babylon’s lead characteristic. We might have characterized Babylon in other ways, perhaps alluding to their idolatry. But typical of the prophets, God through Ezekiel focuses upon pride as the worst and fundamental characteristic of Babylon. The rod of Babylon’s pride was prepared to execute the final judgment.</h4>


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<h4>Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness- The Hebrew words for"violence"and"wickedness"are often used by the prophets about Israel, translated things like ’unjust gain’. The rod has been defined in :10 as that of the Babylonian invaders. But Israel’s oppression of each other had grown up into a rod of wickedness. Here we have the metaphor of ’making a rod for your own back’. Their sins grew into a rod of punishment, the rod of the proud Babylonians, whose pride had grown parallel with the violence of the Jews against each other.</h4><h4>&nbsp;None of them shall remain, neither of their multitude, nor of their wealth. There shall be nothing of value among them- As noted on <a href='B:430 1:2-3'>Zep 1:2-3</a>, it was God’s intention to destroy Judah as He did the eretz at the time of the flood. None would remain. But in fact many did. The amelioration of the judgments was maybe just because of God’s grace; or His response to intercession and repentance from a minority. The destruction of the people is paralleled with the destruction of their wealth; because like many today, they identified with their wealth. It was their self-identity. Their wealth is mentioned in the context of their oppression of each other for"unjust gain"(NEV"violence") in the preceding sentence. See on :19.</h4>


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<p>The time has come, the day draws near: don’t let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is upon all its multitude- The situation would be so desperate that people would sell anything they had for very low sums. But the end for them all was so near that the purchaser would have no time to rejoice over his good deal, nor the seller to lament how cheaply they had sold.</p>


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<h4>For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, even if they be still alive- The idea as explained on :12 is that the seller would be taken into captivity; the buyer, the manipulative wealthy spoken of in :11, would be killed and so the purchased things would be left for the former owner to just come and take back. But the impoverished seller would not be able to, because they would be taken into captivity.</h4><p>The vision is touching the whole multitude of it, none shall return- AV"the multitude therefore which shall not return". The majority are pictured as dying; only a minority would return. Remember that Ezekiel is speaking to the captives in Babylon. They were to see themselves as the minority who had survived by grace. They were therefore to repent. But at this time they had placed Ezekiel under house arrest and refused to accept his appeals.</p><h4>Neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life- The context is of their materialism (:11,12) and the loss of the things they bought and sold. This materialism was the sin of their soul, and they would be unable to continue [NEV"strengthen"] that addictive way of life.</h4>


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<p>They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready, but none goes to the battle; for My wrath is on all its multitude- The men of Judah blew the trumpet to call their soldiers, but Ezekiel and Jeremiah were blowing God’s trumpet of repentance (<a href='B:300 6:1'>Jer 6:1</a>; <a href='B:330 33:3'>Eze 33:3</a>; <a href='B:330 33:6'>Eze 33:6</a>). There was a total mismatch between God and His people. Again it is emphasized that God’s wrath was upon"all", but in fact a larger group than here envisaged survived; by God’s way of remembering mercy in wrath, and His extreme sensitivity to the repentance and intercession of a minority.</p>


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<p>The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within. He who is in the field shall die with the sword; and he who is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him- As I have continually noted, the death by famine, sword and plague did not destroy as many as here envisaged. I suggested why on :14. But another factor to be considered is that in <a href='B:300 34:8-10'>Jer 34:8-10</a> we read that there was some repentance amongst the Jerusalem Jews; at the beginning of the Sabbath year on 29 September 588 BC they released their slaves and stopped abusing them. In response to this, the siege was lifted by God- for the Babylonians temporarily lifted the siege due to the approach of the Egyptian army. Between that October and 29 April 587 BC they were concerned with fighting the Egyptians until they defeated them (<a href='B:300 34:22'>Jer 34:22</a>; <a href='B:330 30:20-21'>Eze 30:20-21</a>). In that time, many Jews took their slaves back (<a href='B:300 34:11-22'>Jer 34:11-22</a>; <a href='B:300 37:15-16'>Jer 37:15-16</a>). So from May 587 BC the siege resumed until the walls were breached, Zedekiah was captured and the city sacked on 29 July 587 BC (<a href='B:120 25:2-4'>2Ki 25:2-4</a>; <a href='B:300 39:2'>Jer 39:2</a>; <a href='B:300 52:7'>Jer 52:7</a>; <a href='B:330 33:21'>Eze 33:21</a>). Perhaps it was in response to this repentance, even though many didn’t follow through with it, that God rescheduled and ameliorated His plans of total destruction. Perhaps some did permanently release their slaves and stop abusing others, and God took notice of this.</p>


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<p>But those of the ones who escape shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one in his iniquity- The idea was that the remnant who were saved by grace would flee to the mountains, the place of their previous apostasy (<a href='B:330 6:2'>Eze 6:2</a>), and repent. They fled, and yet most didn’t repent. They"shall / should"do this&nbsp; may be command rather than prediction, and again a reflection of God’s intense hope, the hope of unrequited love.</p>


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<p>All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water- This again is Ezekiel repeating the message Jeremiah was preaching to the Jews in Judah (<a href='B:300 6:24'>Jer 6:24</a>). There would be a psychological paralysis- evidence that God can work directly on the mind of people, positively [through the"holy spirit"] and negatively [an"evil spirit from the Lord"].</p>


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<p>They shall also clothe themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads- The mourning was intended to be for their sins their"shame"was to be for their sins. This was the Divine intention of the invasion; the remnant would repent. But this didn’t really happen. We too can have repentance set up for us by God, but still not make it.</p>


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<p>They shall throw 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 Yahweh. They shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their stomachs; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity- We noted on :11-13 that the materialism of the Jews was a major reason for their sins. Their unjust abuse of each other noted there was to the end that they might accumulate more wealth. This love of wealth was their stumbling block, that which made them fall headlong into sin. We would perhaps rather have focused upon their worship of idols within the holy place of the temple. But the prophets always look to the essence. Even their idolatry was perhaps rooted in this desire for wealth, believing some kind of primitive prosperity Gospel, whereby worship of the gods would bring them wealth. This endless pursuit of wealth would not"satisfy". Their subconscious assumption was that of many today- that wealth can buy anything, even salvation from the day of God’s wrath. In one form or another, that is the same underlying assumption made by many religions and Christian groups, from Catholicism to Pentecostalism. But in that day of final judgment they like Judas would throw down their silver and gold in the streets, realizing it could not save them.</p>


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<p>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 to them as an unclean thing- Ezekiel will later be shown awful idolatry and images being used within the temple."Therein"therefore refers to the temple, the crowning ornament of beauty set in majesty. Just as their wealth was to be declared"unclean"(:19), so the temple would be. I suggested on :19 that the connection is in the fact that they thought that by worshipping those abominable images in Yahweh’s temple, they would get wealth. For many of the idol cults, Baal especially, were fertility cults, promising good harvests and wealth in return for worship. God would desecrate the temple, making it unclean; but this, as with all His judgments, was only a confirmation of what they themselves had done.</p>


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<p>I will give it into the hands of the gentiles for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane it- The Gentiles would"profane"the temple, but God would do so (:20). The tribal gods of the nations were thought to always be on the side of the tribe, fighting for them and ever protecting the sanctity of their own holy places. Yahweh was uniquely different; He could fight against His people and desecrate even His own holy place. This is the essence of the"problem of suffering"; that the one true God doesn’t act as we all subconsciously expect a God to.</p>


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<p>My face will I turn also from them, and they shall profane My secret place; and robbers shall enter into it, and profane it- As noted on :20,21, it was God who would do this, working with those blasphemous soldiers who actually profaned it, the Babylonian"robbers"who took His holy vessels into captivity. We note that only then, in the final desecration of the temple, would God turn away His face or presence from Israel. Right up until then, His face was still towards them, eager for their repentance. See on :6. Jeremiah had used the same word for"robbers"in lamenting that the Jews had turned the temple into a"den of robbers"(<a href='B:300 7:11'>Jer 7:11</a>). Again, the judgment brought upon them was an appropriate extension of what they themselves had done, and not the Almighty lashing out in anger. Sin is its own condemnation.</p>


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<p>Make the chain; for the land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of violence- The chain spoke of their captivity in chains, but the word is only elsewhere used of the golden chains in Solomon’s temple (<a href='B:110 6:21'>1Ki 6:21</a>). Those chains of gold which they so coveted were as it were to become chains of captivity. This continues the theme of :11-13 and what is stated explicitly in :19- that their love of gold and wealth was the essential reason for their stumbling into sin and now into captivity. We would likely have thought the essential reason was their idolatry, but that idolatry was essentially fuelled by a desire for wealth, which they thought their idolatry would bring them. We note that the land and the city of Jerusalem are placed in parallel. The bloodshed of the invasion was related to the"violence"[’unjust gain’] they had done to each other. The prophets, like the Lord Jesus, saw to the essence. A lack of love towards our brethren is effectively violence and bloodshed, and this was to be reflected in the bloodshed they were to suffer from the Babylonians.</p>


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<h4>Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations-"Worst"is"evil"; the same words are used to lament how Israel had done worse evil than the Gentile nations (<a href='B:120 21:9'>2Ki 21:9</a>). Again, the judgment brought was appropriate to what Israel themselves had done.</h4><h4>And they shall possess their houses. I will also make the pride of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be profaned- Again the theme ofmaterialism continues; the wealthy houses they had built on the backs of unjust gain would be destroyed, just as happened at the invasion; and the destruction of their personal houses would be reflected in the destruction of God’s house.</h4>


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<p>Destruction comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none-"Peace"often refers to peace with God."Seeking peace"is a quotation from <a href='B:230 34:14'>Psa 34:14</a>; now is the time to seek peace with God, and not all too late as the condemnation process begins. The logic is powerful. All those responsible to God shall come to desperately seek their peace with Him, either in this life, or all too late at judgment day. This theme of desperately searching for God all too late is continued in :26. But the idea may also be that all too late they would seek a peace treaty with the Babylonians which would not be accepted.</p>


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<p>Mischief shall come on mischief, and rumour shall be on rumour; and they shall seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders- This is the scenario of :26; the condemned desperately seeking God’s word and being unable to find it, like the rejected virgins of the parable rushing to buy oil and finding it all too late. The function of the priest was to teach God’s law and His word as revealed to the prophets. But no word would be given, and the priests would perish. Ezekiel at this time was a prophet-priest under house arrest. Instead of receiving revelations of God’s word, instead they would receive message after message of bad news concerning the Babylonian advance:"One disaster will follow another, and a steady stream of bad news will pour in"(GNB);"There shall be woe upon woe, and there shall be message upon message"(LXX).</p>


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<h4>The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled- Jeremiah had given Zedekiah a way of escape, but he feared his image. So he was to be stripped of his royal robes and clothed with shame. We note the parallel between the leadership and the ordinary"people of the land". The masses didn’t suffer because of the failures of the leadership, and neither did the leadership suffer because of the sins of the masses. Quite apart from democracy, it is a simple fact of human sociology that a population get the leadership they essentially want. Because leadership seeks to please the masses. And so the prophets often make the point that the masses as well as the leadership were equally guilty.</h4><p>I will do to them after their way, and according to their own judgments will I judge them- As so often noted, their judgments would be a continuation of their own actions. They were self condemned. See on :22; <a href='B:330 8:6'>Eze 8:6</a>.</p><h4>And they shall know that I am Yahweh- See on <a href='B:330 11:12'>Eze 11:12</a>.</h4>


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<p>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, the hand of the Lord Yahweh fell there on me- This was one year and one month from the opening vision of Ezekiel 1, once the days lying on his side were completed (<a href='B:330 4:5-6'>Eze 4:5-6</a>). These"elders"may have been visitors from Judah rather than the elders of the community of captives in Babylon. Jeremiah had sent a letter through Elasah, warning against the false prophets competing with Ezekiel, who were claiming that Jerusalem wouldn’t fall (<a href='B:300 29:1-3'>Jer 29:1-3</a>; <a href='B:300 29:9'>Jer 29:9</a>; <a href='B:300 29:25'>Jer 29:25</a>). The prophecies which Ezekiel now begun seem to continue until <a href='B:330 13:23'>Eze 13:23</a>, concluding with a threat of destruction upon the false prophets. These elders may have come in order to seek Ezekiel’s explanation of himself in the light of the false prophecies being made of immediate salvation. The eldership of Judah are roundly condemned at this time. So we can assume that they had not come humbly seeking God’s word. And therefore this chapter reveals how Ezekiel had a vision convicting them of the idolatry going on in Jerusalem, perhaps contrary to the impression of righteousness which they were giving.</p>


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<p>Then I saw, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire; from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it were glowing metal- As earlier in Ezekiel, this burning, molten metal speaks ofGod’s intense anger. See on <a href='B:330 1:27'>Eze 1:27</a>. The person appears without the cherubim. To be picked up by this person (:3) must have been a frightening experience. God’s wrath was because of the awful idolatry and blasphemy which Ezekiel was now to behold. The elders of Judah had come to Ezekiel (:1) and said nothing of the true state of affairs in Jerusalem. Ezekiel was being shown that God’s burning anger was in reality upon the people, whatever veneer of spirituality the elders had.</p>


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<h4>He put forth the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the sky and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north- This was the upper or higher gate (<a href='B:330 9:2'>Eze 9:2</a>), the gate where Jeremiah was put in the stocks (<a href='B:300 20:2'>Jer 20:2</a>). The false prophets were assuring Jerusalem of safety as Yahweh’s special city. Perhaps the elders had come with this message (:1). So Ezekiel is now going to testify what is really going on there.</h4><h4>Where there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy-"Image"translates an unusual word which appears to refer specifically to the worship of the asherah or groves (<a href='B:140 33:7'>2Ch 33:7</a>; <a href='B:140 33:15'>2Ch 33:15</a>). There would have been a distinctly sexual aspect to the worship. It was in this area that there were"houses of the Sodomites"(<a href='B:120 23:7'>2Ki 23:7</a>). The adultery of Israel against their God was both literal and spiritual, as demonstrated by Hosea’s experience with Gomer. This is why the image provoked God to jealousy, because it was the scene of His peoples’ literal and spiritual adultery against Him. Josiah’s reformation, like so much attempted spiritual reformation, was short-lived. The images were soon replaced.</h4>


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<p>The glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain- There is a purposeful juxtaposition between Yahweh’s glory and the awful idolatry going on. We too live in the shadow of His glory and all idolatry in whatever form ought to instinctively feel utterly inappropriate. It is worth considering whether the visions Ezekiel had of the progressive departure of"the glory of the God of Israel"(<a href='B:330 8:4'>Eze 8:4</a>) from the temple to the East of Jerusalem and then further away are describing the literal departure of the Angel from His dwelling place over the ark in the temple. Similarly"the glory"Angel departed (<a href='B:90 4:21'>1Sa 4:21</a>) when the ark over which He dwelt was taken by the Philistines. See on <a href='B:230 78:60'>Psa 78:60</a>.</p>


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<p>Then He said to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now to the road that leads toward the north. So I lifted up my eyes toward the northern road, and behold, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy was in the entry- The northward aspect is perhaps because the Jews were looking and worshipping towards the north, Babylon. To worship the idols of their enemies may seem incredible, but it is psychologically likely as it reflects the perversity and deep contradiction within unrestrained human nature. It was by that same northern road that the Jews would be led away captive.</p>


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<p>He said to me, Son of man, do you see what they do, even the great abominations that the house of Israel do commit here, so that I should go far away from My sanctuary? But you shall again see other, greater abominations-"Do you see:::?"could imply that Ezekiel was struggling to allow himself to realize what was going on. As he had not long been in captivity himself and was a priest familiar with the temple, we may enquire why he needed to be shown these things. Perhaps he had earlier been aware of them but not perceived their full import. See on :7. Or perhaps these things had only started going on in the temple area since he had gone into captivity. As the Babylonian threat increased, so the people increasingly turned to their idols. This is a paradox and yet psychologically credible given the perversity of the human mind when it comes to matters of faith. The Divine ’going far away’ was in the form of the cherubim of glory departing from the sanctuary, effectively driven out by Israel’s abominations. They had set up idols within the temple; effectively they were pushing God out rather than Him departing from them. They thereby had chosen the path of their condemnation. Hence"I will do to them after their way, and according to their own judgments will I judge them"(<a href='B:330 7:27'>Eze 7:27</a>)</p>


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<p>He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall- The hole was there but apparently needed to be dug through in order for Ezekiel to see clearly. I discussed on :6 the possibility that Ezekiel was vaguely aware of abuses in the temple from his time there before his captivity. This corresponds to the hole in the wall; but he had to make some effort to now see through to what was actually going on, and accept it.</p>


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<p>Then He said to me, Son of man, dig now through the wall; and when I had dug through the wall, behold, a door- See on :7. The worship was going on"in the dark::. in rooms of images"(:12). The darkness could mean this was the most holy place, lit only by the candlestick; although 70 men would hardly have fitted in there (:11). But the reference may be to the priestly chambers which surrounded the court; the priests had their images there. This would explain the huge emphasis in Ezekiel 40-48 upon the chambers. Much detail is given about them. The idea is that the previous abominations performed in them were not to be done in the new temple which the exiles were to build and operate.</p>


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<p>He said to me, Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here- It seems Ezekiel needed to be urged to ’see’ it, hinting at some reluctance in him to recognize the real state of affairs in Jerusalem and Judah.</p>


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<p>So I went in and saw; and behold, every form of creeping thing and abominable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall- We know from Jeremiah 44 and Zechariah 5 that many Jews had accepted the idols of their Babylonian conquerors, rather like Ahaz did after his defeat by Assyria (<a href='B:120 16:10'>2Ki 16:10</a>). The spirit of exposing the idolatry of Babylon whilst living in it, waiting the call to leave, is so relevant to modern Christians working, living and waiting in latter day Babylon. However the animal worship implied here is more Egyptian than Babylonian. Egypt were the great hope of Israel rather than Yahweh; perhaps they thought that by worshipping Egyptian gods, Egypt would come and save them. And it did for a few months appear that way; for the Babylonian siege was lifted in order to fight the Egyptian army (<a href='B:300 34:22'>Jer 34:22</a>; <a href='B:330 30:20-21'>Eze 30:20-21</a>). They were made to eat unclean animals in captivity (<a href='B:330 4:13'>Eze 4:13</a>; <a href='B:350 9:3'>Hos 9:3</a>), but this was really a reflection of the choices they themselves had made- to worship them. This worship of that which we are externally and religiously separate from remains a big temptation for us all.</p>


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<p>There stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel; and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, every man with his censer in his hand; and the odour of the cloud of incense went up- These 70 were the forerunners of the Sanhedrin, based upon the 70 elders with Moses. Ezekiel as a type of the Lord Jesus exposed their evil. These elders were not priests, and yet here they offer incense; this was exclusively the work of the priests. Shaphan was the scribe who had read the discovered law of God to Josiah (<a href='B:120 22:3-12'>2Ki 22:3-12</a>), leading to his reforms; now his son was a leader of this apostasy. Clearly enough, the cases of both Josiah and Shaphan demonstrate that spirituality cannot be passed on in any blood line nor by upbringing alone. There has to be a genuine desire for God in every individual heart.</p>


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<h4>Then He said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, every man in his rooms of images?- See on <a href='B:330 2:6'>Eze 2:6</a>. Jeremiah speaks of how he came to see Israel for who they were: “The Lord made it known to me and I knew; then thou didst show me their evil deeds” (<a href='B:300 11:8'>Jer 11:8</a>). Ezekiel was shown “what the house of Israel is doing in the dark” (<a href='B:330 8:12'>Eze 8:12</a>). To pass through human life with this level of sensitivity must’ve been so hard. Psychologically and nervously, the stress would’ve been awful. It seems to me that the prophets had to be somehow psychologically strengthened by God to endure living that sensitively in this crass and unfeeling world- hence God made Ezekiel and Jeremiah as a wall and “iron pillar” to Israel, hardened their faces, so that they wouldn’t be “dismayed at [the] looks” of those who watched them with anger and consternation (<a href='B:300 1:18'>Jer 1:18</a>; Jer 1520; <a href='B:330 2:4-6'>Eze 2:4-6</a>; <a href='B:330 3:8-9'>Eze 3:8-9</a>; <a href='B:330 3:27'>Eze 3:27</a>). This psychological strengthening was not aimed at making them insensitive, but rather in strengthening them to live sensitively to sin in a sinful world without cracking up. And He will do the same for us, too.</h4><h4>They say, ‘Yahweh doesn’t see us; Yahweh has forsaken the land’- They likely didn’t say this in so many words. But as the Lord Jesus taught clearly, the thought is counted by God as if it is a spoken word. Ezekiel was up against the idea amongst the captives that Yahweh had forsaken the land. Hence his visions of God’s cherubim-angels, present both in the land as well as amongst the captives by Chebar in Babylon (<a href='B:330 10:20'>Eze 10:20</a>). It was the same message as the lesson of Jonah- who likewise thought that Yahweh somehow only operated within the land of Israel. The amazing truth was that Yahweh only forsook the land when the Jews left it. He was there with them right up until the end.</h4>


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<p>He said also to me, You shall again see more, greater abominations which they do- The great abominations being done are those referred to in <a href='B:330 18:12-13'>Eze 18:12-13</a>; <a href='B:330 18:24'>Eze 18:24</a>, where Ezekiel encourages them with the reality that a man may do great abominations all his life, but then repent at the end and be saved.</p>


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<p>Then He brought me to the door of the gate of Yahweh’s house which was toward the north; and see, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz- Tammuz was the equivalent of Adonis in Greek mythology. But adon,"Lord", is typically used of the Lord God. They had replaced Yahweh as"Lord"with Tammuz. But there is only one Lord, the God of Israel. Having any other Lord was therefore a denial of Yahweh, just as it is today. The weeping for"Tammuz"was the ritual weeping for the death of the young handsome Adonis by Aphrodite, whose role the women played in the worship, and then became ecstatic with joy in the worship ritual when Adonis resurrected. Tammuz / Adonis was therefore a false Messiah.</p>


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<p>Then He said to me, Have you seen this, son of man? You shall again see greater abominations than these- The repeated questions imply Ezekiel struggled to perceive and see the import of the apostacy; see on :6.</p>


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<h4>He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh’s house; and there, at the door of Yahweh’s temple, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men- Perhaps in imitation of the 24 orders of priests in 1 Chronicles 24. They are likely the 25 princes of the people of <a href='B:330 11:1'>Eze 11:1</a>, who were located where only the priests should have been. It was at this very point between the porch and altar that Joel envisaged the repentant priesthood earnestly begging God for a change in plan, pouring out their repentance to avoid destruction (<a href='B:360 2:17'>Joe 2:17</a>). Instead, the leaders of Israel were worshipping the sun.</h4><h4>With their backs toward Yahweh’s temple, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east- Jeremiah had said that Judah had gone backward from Yahweh (<a href='B:300 7:24'>Jer 7:24</a>; <a href='B:140 29:6'>2Ch 29:6</a>), and this was symbolized by turning their backs upon the temple. God’s turning His back upon Israel was therefore only what they themselves had done to Him. Again,"I will do to them after their way, and according to their own judgments will I judge them"(<a href='B:330 7:27'>Eze 7:27</a>).</h4>


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<h4>Then He said to me, Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here?- The same word for"trivial"is used in <a href='B:330 22:7'>Eze 22:7</a> for how these people had a"light"attitude to their parents. This lighthearted, not serious view of life affected all their relationships, with God as well as family. And we live in an age where as never before, nothing is taken seriously.</h4><p>For they have filled the land with violence- The sins of the temple cult had spread to the whole land. The idea could be that the violence engulfing the land was their fault. But"violence"also carries the idea of unjust gain. It may refer to how what God took as ’violence’ was done by the Jews to each other as a result of the example set in Jerusalem.</p><p>And have turned again to provoke Me to anger-"Turned again"is literally ’returned’. Perhaps some of the community of captives had returned to Judah, as there was some contact between them and Judah (see on :1). But they had returned only to commit abominations, rather than in repentance.</p><h4>And behold, they put the branch to their nose- The allusion is to the Persian ritual of the Avesta. When men prayed to the sun, they held in their left hands a bouquet of palm, pomegranate, and tamarisk twigs, while the priests for the same purpose held a veil before their mouth, so that the bright rays of the sun might not be polluted by human breath. Judah went into captivity in Babylon which was then taken over by Persia. Again, they got what they essentially wanted. They had loved the Persian gods and culture, and so they were taken there to be dominated by it.</h4>


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<p>Therefore will I also deal with them in anger; My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them- The wonder of God’s grace was that His eye did spare and He did pity at the restoration (<a href='B:330 36:21'>Eze 36:21</a>; <a href='B:360 2:18'>Joe 2:18</a>; <a href='B:460 3:17'>Mal 3:17</a> s:w:), just as His eye had spared them in the desert (<a href='B:330 20:17'>Eze 20:17</a>). This reveals the emotion of God, His pity even for the spiritually weak, and how this triumphs over His judgment.</p>


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<p>Then He cried in my ears with a loud voice saying, Cause those who are in charge of the city to draw near, every man with his destroying weapon in his hand- It was Ezekiel who caused the Angels of judgment to go in to Jerusalem and slay her elders (<a href='B:330 9:1-4'>Eze 9:1-4</a>). How Ezekiel did this was simply by teaching his prophecies to the captives in Babylon. If they had responded, then the judgment could have been averted. So much power and eternal consequence lies in the message we preach, and in the invitation we give men to repent. See on <a href='B:330 10:2'>Eze 10:2</a>. Those"in charge of the city"were Angels; along with Ezekiel, the"writer"of :2, this made seven in total. The Jewish leadership weren’t really"in charge". The Angels along with their human agent, Ezekiel, who was effectively under house arrest in a prison camp by the Chebar river, were those really in control. We too have far more influence in world geopolitics than we realize; for"all things are for your sakes". A new group of faithful men were to ’have charge’ over the temple in the rebuilt Zion (<a href='B:330 44:11'>Eze 44:11</a> s:w:) who would likewise be in step with the Angel cherubim.</p>


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<h4>Behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate which looks toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand- The men, representing Angels, came from the north. They had charge of the city (:1) but were also on the side of the Babylonians, who approached from the north. The tribal gods of the nations were thought to always be on the side of the tribe, fighting for them and ever protecting the sanctity of their own holy places. Yahweh was uniquely different; He could fight against His people and desecrate even His own holy place. This is the essence of the"problem of suffering"; that the one true God doesn’t act as we all subconsciously expect a God to</h4><h4>And one man in their midst clothed in linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. They went in, and stood beside the bronze altar- This man was Ezekiel the prophet, who presumably also wrote down the words he saw in vision. He was"in their midst". Ezekiel was alone in a prison camp in Babylon effectively under house arrest. But he was in the midst of the Angels. They came to the bronze altar, the altar where the burnt offerings were made, as if to offer a sacrifice. The destruction of Jerusalem by fire was to be an offering to God.</h4>


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<p>The glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub upon which it rested, 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 departure of the cherubic glory from the temple was the sign of God’s leaving Jerusalem. And the massive cherubim system went to Babylon. That was where God now intended to work with the remnant whom He hoped would repent. The way the cherubim of glory had"gone up"and removed to the threshold shows that now God’s departure was imminent.</p>


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<p>Yahweh said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done in its midst- The faithful in Ezekiel’s time sighed and groaned over all the abominations committed in Jerusalem. Likewise the bleeding hearts of Jeremiah and Moses were actually for the ecclesia. David’s eyes wept “streams of tears” because Israel didn’t keep the Law (<a href='B:230 119:136'>Psa 119:136</a>); Paul spoke “even with tears” about those in the ecclesia who lived as enemies of the cross of Christ (Php_3:18), exhorting the Corinthians to mourn for those they had to disfellowship (<a href='B:530 5:2'>1Co 5:2</a>; <a href='B:540 12:21'>2Co 12:21</a>); Ezra wept for the sins of his people (<a href='B:150 10:1'>Ezr 10:1</a>). Is this attitude seen amongst us? We lament in a gossipy way the weaknesses of the brotherhood; but is there this bleeding heart for the cases we mention? Perhaps we should never think of disfellowshipping anybody unless the decision has been come to through a process of such prayerful mourning for them first. The mark was placed upon the foreheads because it was the mental attitude of the faithful which was of paramount importance, as it is today. Those marked off were to be preserved. Presumably they were not a large enough minority for God to avert the destruction of the majority for their sakes.</p>


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<p>To the others He said in my hearing, Go through the city after him, and strike. Don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity- These men were a manifestation of God; as their eye was not to pity, so God would not (:10; see note there). The situation recalls the Passover night, where those marked with the blood of the lamb were saved and the rest destroyed. We also think of Lot, who like these faithful ones, bemoaned the apostacy of Sodom and was spared. The implication is that the Angels followed Ezekiel; it was totally within his power as to who was preserved. Perhaps he personally knew all the few faithful in Jerusalem. In vision, he did this, and we imagine him marking Jeremiah.</p>


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<p>Kill utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark. Begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the old men that were before the house- These men were not necessarily old, but the elders. We notice that the little children were to be killed too. They were not marked. This raises the impossible question as to the death of little children. We are humbled and tested by the whole issue to accept by faith alone that the judge of all the earth judges rightly. He knew their futures, as He knows all possible futures. And on top of that there is the fact that we suffer the consequences of others’ sins, and there is no Divine mechanism which stops children from not suffering the results of their parents’ sins and positions.</p>


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<p>He said to them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the dead. Go forth! They went forth, and struck in the city- Judah had already defiled the temple, God’s house (<a href='B:300 7:30'>Jer 7:30</a>; <a href='B:300 32:34'>Jer 32:34</a>; Eze 511). This judgment, as all God’s judgments of men, was simply confirming them in what they had themselves done in their time of opportunity. They were judged according to their own judgments."According to their own judgments will I judge them"(<a href='B:330 7:27'>Eze 7:27</a>).</p>


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<h4>It happened, while they were smiting, and I was left- Jeremiah was asked to do likewise and he found nobody in the city to as it were"mark"(<a href='B:300 5:1'>Jer 5:1</a>). It seems that Ezekiel too knew nobody whom he could mark. He was the only one left of the priests ’in the sanctuary’.</h4>&nbsp;<p>That I fell on my face and cried, and said, Ah Lord Yahweh!- This was to intercede for his people as Moses and Aaron"fell upon their faces"to intercede for the people in <a href='B:40 16:22'>Num 16:22</a>. God does hear intercession, but by grace. And not always.</p><h4>&nbsp;Will You destroy all who remain of Israel in Your pouring out of Your wrath on Jerusalem?- Ezekiel hadn’t marked anyone, because he didn’t know any of his former acquaintances who truly lamented the abominations. But he believed that surely there must be a remnant apart from him. He had learnt the lesson from Elijah’s arrogance, who considered himself the only one faithful in Israel because he was unaware of the remnant. He was seeing in vision absolutely everyone destroyed apart from himself. He was sure there must be more spirituality, a remnant at least somewhere. And there wasn’t. The implication was that all in Jerusalem and Judah were to be destroyed apart from himself. There was no righteous remnant. Although God apparently responds negatively in :9, He doesn’t say He will not hear Ezekiel. And&nbsp; the reality was that not literally all of the unmarked people were slain. Ezekiel’s intercession worked. Just as if Abraham had reduced his numbers in reasoning with God to the point that if there were one faithful found in Sodom it wouldn’t have been destroyed::. it seems it wouldn’t have been. This is the ’power of one’. It’s an endlessly powerful challenge. The intercession of just one can save lives, even eternally. And we see this come to its ultimate term in the work of the Lord Jesus for us.</h4>


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<h4>Then He said to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great- Although only Judah is in view, it seems the sins of Israel, the ten tribes, were being also visited. And probably there were many of the ten tribes who had fled to Judah from the Assyrians and were living there with them. The restoration prophets envisaged a uniting of Israel and Judah at the restoration on the basis of their common experience of the new covenant, repentance and grace meaning that all personal divisions would end. That ought therefore to be true of all under the same new covenant today.</h4><h4>And the land is full of blood, and the city full of perversion; for they say, Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn’t see- They considered that Yahweh existed but was somehow distant from them, and therefore they had turned to other gods and even placed their images in the sanctuary of Yahweh. We too can have a sense that God is so distant that it leads us to turn to other gods and assume that He is not watching our thoughts and actions. But if God seems distant, then it is we who have moved and not Him. I suggest on :8 that God did in fact take notice of Ezekiel’s intercession. But He doesn’t mention that here, because He simply wishes to emphasize that the volume of judgment inflicted would never exceed their sin.</h4>


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<p>As for Me also, My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their behaviour on their heads- The wonder of God’s grace was that His eye did spare and He did pity at the restoration (<a href='B:330 36:21'>Eze 36:21</a>; <a href='B:360 2:18'>Joe 2:18</a>; <a href='B:460 3:17'>Mal 3:17</a> s:w:), just as His eye had spared them in the desert (<a href='B:330 20:17'>Eze 20:17</a>). This reveals the emotion of God, His pity even for the spiritually weak, and how this triumphs over His judgment. This apparent change was due to Ezekiel’s intercession; see on :8.</p>


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<p>Behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as You have commanded me-&nbsp; In the AVmg. we read that “the man clothed with linen”- representing Ezekiel or his representative Angel- “returned the word, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me”. The word ‘returned’ in the sense that someone, somewhere, was obedient to it even if others weren’t. This idiom is also found in <a href='B:290 55:11'>Isa 55:11</a>. Ezekiel alone was obedient to God’s word. For all his concerns about the justice of God and the ’problem of suffering’, he was personally obedient. These whole issues exist as a test for us, a help in our attaining of the humility which is so important to God.</p>


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<p>Then I looked, and behold, in the expanse that was over the head of the cherubim there appeared above them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne- Ezekiel has pretty much a vision of the silhouette of God Himself. This was to encourage and inspire him for the very difficult ministry he now had to perform in :2, whereby he was going to be presented as the one who actually brought about Jerusalem’s destruction. He who at that time was under house arrest at the hands of his own apostate brethren in a prison camp at the Chebar river in Babylon, apparently a nobody with his chips down on every front. This man::. saw one of the closest visions of God personally granted to any man.</p>


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<h4>He spoke to the man clothed in linen and said, Go in between the whirling wheels, even under the cherub, and fill both your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. He went in as I watched- That Ezekiel’s prophecies were not simple predictions but effectively an appeal for repentance is shown by the way in which he saw himself in vision as the prophet who put his hand in to the cherubim vision, and took out from it the coals of fire which would kindle the fire of judgment upon Jerusalem (<a href='B:330 10:2'>Eze 10:2</a>; <a href='B:330 10:7'>Eze 10:7</a>). He would have recalled how his opening vision of the cherubim had the strange feature of a man’s hand under their wings (<a href='B:330 1:8'>Eze 1:8</a>; <a href='B:330 10:21'>Eze 10:21</a>). This hand, he now understood, was his hand, the hand of the prophet. In Hebrew thought, the hand symbolizes power and control. Thus Ezekiel was taught an awesome truth- that the entire Angelic-Cherubic system was under the control of his word- in the sense that if Israel responded to his message, then the Cherubim would act accordingly. Likewise we read that it was Ezekiel who caused the Angels of judgment to go in to Jerusalem and slay her elders (<a href='B:330 9:1-4'>Eze 9:1-4</a>). How Ezekiel did this was simply by teaching his prophecies to the captives in Babylon. If they had responded, then the judgment could have been averted. So much power and eternal consequence lies in the message we preach, and in the invitation we give men to repent. See on <a href='B:330 3:6'>Eze 3:6</a>.</h4><h4>The"coals"are the same word used about the coals used in the sanctification of the tabernacle after the gross apostasy of Aaron’s two sons (<a href='B:30 16:12'>Lev 16:12</a>). The coals were used to burn incense which formed a cloud which covered the most holy place and made atonement for the desecration of the tabernacle (<a href='B:30 16:13'>Lev 16:13</a>; <a href='B:30 16:17'>Lev 16:17</a>). The situation is clearly that of Ezekiel 10, where Ezekiel takes the coals and then he cloud of God’s glory fills first the most holy, then the holy and then the entire temple. The cleansing ritual is then symbolized as complete by a live goat having the sins of the house of Israel placed upon it, and sent by a willing [AV"fit"] man into the desert far away. This willing man represented Ezekiel, sent by the Lord into the desert and thence to Babylon along with the captives. The word is also used in <a href='B:330 24:11'>Eze 24:11</a> concerning how there would be"coals"of fire in Jerusalem, upon which the cauldron of Jerusalem would be burnt and judged. This action was a direct result of Ezekiel taking the coals of fire from the cherubim in <a href='B:330 10:2'>Eze 10:2</a> and scattering them upon the city. This was therefore a direct result of the action of the cherubim, God’s massively powerful Angelic way of working, in cooperation with Ezekiel. The whole arrangement shows God’s eagerness to work with people. The coals of fire therefore don’t solely and simply speak of the burning of Jerusalem by fire at the hands of the Babylonians. That burning was part of the cleansing of the temple from its apostasy, and the exile into Babylon along with Ezekiel, the willing man of <a href='B:30 16:21'>Lev 16:21</a>, was in fact the bearing away of Israel’s sin. There is always a silver lining to God’s judgments. They are not simply Him lashing out in the offended anger of an omnipotent deity. They were and are designed to propel forward His purpose of saving by grace whilst at the same time judging sin and sinners.</h4>


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<p>Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court- This cloud was that of God’s glory but also of the incense; see on :2,4. The cherubim now removed to the right side, presumably the north, connecting with the Babylonian judgment to come from there. If to the south, then we have the picture of the cherubim as it were retreating as the northern invaders entered from the north. We note the perfect concert of action between the movement of Ezekiel,"the man","the son of man", the cherubim and the cloud. This was and is how seamlessly God can work with man. And in this sense,"God is in need of man", as Abraham Heschel put it.</p>


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<p>Then the glory of Yahweh was lifted up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of Yahweh’s glory- As explained on :2, the cloud of glory alludes to the cloud of incense. That intercession of Ezekiel and God’s cleansing of His people’s desecration of the temple was in fact all of His glory; for this cloud is the cloud of the opening vision in <a href='B:330 1:4'>Eze 1:4</a>. This was and remains the challenge to faith- to see things like the Babylonian siege as all a development of God’s glory.</p>


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<p>The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of God Almighty when He speaks- There seems to be a strong&nbsp; implication&nbsp; that&nbsp; the&nbsp; Angels were involved with writing the Bible through their inspiration of men. It was Angels who gave God’s word to many of the prophets. So close is the connection between the word of God and of Angels that"the sound of the (Angel) cherubim::. was heard as the voice of God Almighty God when He speaks". Zechariah stresses that the prophecies of the restoration were given by an Angel (<a href='B:450 1:9-14'>Zec 1:9-14</a>; <a href='B:450 4:1'>Zec 4:1</a>; <a href='B:450 4:5'>Zec 4:5</a>; <a href='B:450 5:5'>Zec 5:5</a>; <a href='B:450 5:10'>Zec 5:10</a>; <a href='B:450 6:4-5'>Zec 6:4-5</a>). The true prophet is one who “has stood in the council of the Lord to perceive and hear His word” (<a href='B:300 23:18'>Jer 23:18</a>; <a href='B:300 23:22'>Jer 23:22</a>); and yet these are exactly the words used of how the Angels stand in the council of Heaven and hear Yahweh’s word (1 Kings 22; <a href='B:230 103:18-22'>Psa 103:18-22</a>). The Angels are therefore reflective of he situation on earth; as they stood before the Father’s throne to hear the word in the council of Heaven, they were representative of the prophet on earth whom they were used to inspire. As the prophets were gathered together before the thrones of the Kings of Israel and Judah, they were reflecting how the Angels in Heaven were assembled before the throne of Yahweh, on whose throne the human kings were ruling (<a href='B:110 22:10'>1Ki 22:10</a>). The lying spirit / Angel which appeared before Yahweh’s throne would therefore have been reflected in Micaiah (<a href='B:110 22:15'>1Ki 22:15</a>). What we have here is the court of Heaven being reflected in the situation upon earth, seeing that each of the prophets was represented by an Angel in Heaven.</p>


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<p>It came to pass, when He commanded the man clothed in linen saying, Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim, that he went in and stood beside a wheel- This"man"was Ezekiel. It must have been a scary thing, to go in to that vision and stand beside one of the mighty wheels. Ezekiel’s obedience is recorded as it was indeed quite something. The more we sense the vastness of God’s working, portrayed visually here in the cherubim visions, the more utterly awesome is the idea that we as men can have a hand in it, quite literally in Ezekiel’s case. The fire of judgment had to be scattered by a man, rather than God merely doing this as direct punishment. Ezekiel as a priest was"son of man", representing the Lord Jesus. It was Ezekiel’s humanity which gave legitimacy to God’s judgment and also out of this the final salvation of His people which that judgment portended. See on :2.</p>


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<p>The cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim and took of it, and put it into the hands of him who was clothed in linen, who took it and went out- The opening vision of the cherubim had a man’s hand silhouetted against the most internal working of the cherubim system. This was now to be understood as Ezekiel’s hand. But the cherubim also had a hand. His hand and that of"the man", Ezekiel the"son of man"were united in working out this whole scheme of judgment and yet salvation which was to be brought about through that fire (see on :2).</p>


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<h4>There appeared in the cherubim the form of a man’s hand under their wings- Ezekiel had to put his hand under the wings of the cherubim; and then there appeared permanently in the Cherubim visions “the form of a man’s hand [i:e. Ezekiel’s] under their wings” (<a href='B:330 10:2'>Eze 10:2</a>; <a href='B:330 10:8'>Eze 10:8</a>). I take this to be indicative of how humanity can be so deeply a part of God’s work; we are identified with Him and His Angels. The visions involved the whole system held up as it were upon a human hand; and God in the image of a man crowning it all in the Heavens. Truly God isn’t far from any of us; and in a sense, as the great Rabbi Abraham Heschel put it,"God is in need of man". Note how when the cherubim lifted up, so was Ezekiel lifted up (<a href='B:330 11:22-24'>Eze 11:22-24</a>). Judah should have left Jerusalem when the Spirit told them to; and they should have upped and left Babylon when the Spirit told them to. But they were out of step with the Spirit, despite Ezekiel’s acted parable of literally being lifted up and going where the Cherubim went. The equivalent of this for us is surely our sense of doing all for God’s glory, of having this as the final deciding factor in all our decisions:&nbsp; See on <a href='B:330 1:1'>Eze 1:1</a>; <a href='B:330 1:20'>Eze 1:20</a>.</h4><h4>In <a href='B:330 40:5'>Eze 40:5</a>, the measuring reed or rod is defined as being 6 cubits plus 6 handbreadths. This recall this presence of a man’s hand, Ezekiel’s, within the cherubim visions. That represented the human part of the whole wondrous vision; God requires human response, but would work powerfully with it. This may explain the otherwise strange measuring unit which mixed a human hand with the cubit measure.</h4>


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<h4>I looked and behold, four wheels were beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like a beryl stone- Ezekiel now sees the cherubim portrayed as a chariot. Pure beryl stone is transparent, and extremely hard and enduring. The wheels imply they were chariots, or mounted on chariots; indeed this is a root meaning of the Hebrew word translated"cherub". The wheels make the living creatures appear as on a chariot, connecting with"the chariot of the cherubim"(<a href='B:130 28:18'>1Ch 28:18</a>). The firm grounding of this heavenly vision of power"on the earth"indicates that God’s glory and activity were not simply in Heaven but active upon earth, both to transport a repentant Judah back to the land, and also to bring forth chariots of enemies to further destroy the land and temple.</h4><h4>Daniel was contemporary with Ezekiel, and so the mention of the beryl would connect with his description of the future Messiah figure as having a body of beryl, also replete with torches of fire and lightning just as seen in the cherubim vision (<a href='B:340 10:6'>Dan 10:6</a>). As mentioned on Ezekiel 1, the final manifestation of God’s glory, Spirit, judgment and salvation was to be in the Lord Jesus.</h4>


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<p>As for their appearance, the four of them had one likeness, like a wheel within a wheel- The wheel within a wheel, each revolving as a gyroscope, deepens the impression of movement in contrary directions and yet all within the same direction. The confusion and contradictions which the exiles struggled with, as we do, were all somehow moving in the same direction, led by God’s Spirit.</p>


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<p>When they went, they went in their four directions. They didn’t turn as they went, but to the place where the head looked they followed it; they didn’t turn as they went- Like a complex series of gyroscopes within each other, so that the movement might be without turning to wherever they advanced. Thus each wheel was composed of two circles, cutting one another at right angles,"one"only of which appeared to touch the ground ("upon the earth"<a href='B:330 1:15'>Eze 1:15</a>), according to the direction the cherubim desired to move in. The idea was that what might appear to be contradictory direction was in fact all seamlessly part of movement in the same direction. And again this has so much meaning for our lives, as it did for the exiles by the river Chebar. What appears useless, taking us away from our intended direction, is being used by God in His bigger direction of our lives towards His Kingdom and restoration</p>


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<p>Their whole body and their backs and their hands and their wings and the wheels were full of eyes all around, even the wheels that the four of them had-"Body"is literally"flesh". The idea is that this hugely powerful system of Divine operation was essentially connected to people. The huge number of eyes speaks of God’s intense awareness- in response to Israel’s attitude that God saw somehow distant and unaware of their situation and also of their sins. He was incredibly aware. And we need to have the essence of this vision with us too.</p>


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<p>As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, ‘the whirling wheels’- Or,"the chariot". Although the vision appeared to be stationary, the wheels were whirling, God was in intricate movement. And this was the lesson to an Israel who considered God to be passive, distant and inactive. Even His apparent silence and lack of visible, proactive movement is not to say that He is not moving at a huge speed and complexity.</p>


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<h4>Each one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third face the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle- The first face is that of an ox in <a href='B:330 1:10'>Eze 1:10</a>. From this some have concluded that the cherubim had the appearance of an ox in some ways.</h4><h4>There are evident similarities between Ezekiel’s cherubim, and the four living creatures of Revelation 4. They are both described as"full of eyes"(<a href='B:330 1:18'>Eze 1:18</a> = <a href='B:730 4:6'>Rev 4:6</a>), with four very similar faces (lion, calf, man, eagle in <a href='B:730 4:7'>Rev 4:7</a> = lion, ox, man, eaglein <a href='B:330 1:10'>Eze 1:10</a>); and both have wings (<a href='B:730 4:8'>Rev 4:8</a> = <a href='B:330 1:8'>Eze 1:8</a>). Yet the living creatures of Revelation speak of being redeemed by the blood of Christ and made king-priests in God’s Kingdom (<a href='B:730 5:8-10'>Rev 5:8-10</a>)- as if they are the redeemed people of God. The four faces are likely to be connected with the four standards of the tribes of Israel (Lion = Judah, Man = Reuben, Ox = Ephraim, Eagle = Dan). Each of those tribes had two other tribes assigned to them in the encampment procedures of Numbers 2. There is extra-Biblical tradition that the cherubim in Solomon’s temple had the same four faces which Ezekiel saw on the cherubim- lion, ox, man and eagle (John Thomas, Eureka (West Beach: Logos, 1984 ed:) Vol. 2 Chronicles 4 sec. 4:2). Those to whom Ezekiel related his vision would have immediately understood the point- that the earthly sanctuary was a reflection of the Heavenly, and that above that was a huge Angelic system operating, which also represented God’s people- them. But that huge system was to remove to Babylon, and then the final visions of Ezekiel show that glory returning. Ezekiel, as the representative"son of man"as he’s so often styled, was caught up within that system and transported at ease between Babylon and Jerusalem- and those who wanted to opt in with God and His Angels could likewise be taken to Babylon and returned. Those who chose to remain in Babylon were therefore resisting being part of an awesome system of God manifestation and Angelic operation. We have that same choice in things great and small today.</h4>


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<p>The cherubim mounted up: this is the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar- The same glorious activity of God seen in the Jerusalem temple was equally present amongst the group of depressed Jews who sat by the rivers of Babylon weeping. No longer was God to be perceived as tied to sacred space. His presence and glory were everywhere and in any situation, geographically, mentally or spiritually; just as today.</p>


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<p>When the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the wheels also didn’t turn from beside them- The cherubim, this massive system of Divine operation, was direct by God’s Spirit. The feature of not turning during their movement is a major feature (<a href='B:330 1:9'>Eze 1:9</a>; <a href='B:330 1:12'>Eze 1:12</a>; <a href='B:330 1:17'>Eze 1:17</a>; <a href='B:330 10:11'>Eze 10:11</a>; <a href='B:330 10:16'>Eze 10:16</a>). The impression was given of God’s unchanging, massive help towards the realization of His purpose with His people.</p>


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<p>When they stood, these stood; and when they mounted up, these mounted up with them; for the spirit of the living creature was in them- The heavy stress upon ’mounting up’ (:15,17,19) uses a word which means"exalted"(s:w. <a href='B:220 24:24'>Job 24:24</a>). Even in the judgment of sinners, God was to be exalted and glorified. And the Hebrew idea of ’glory’ is literally ’that which is lifted up’.</p>


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<p>The glory of Yahweh went forth from over the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim- The withdrawal of God’s glory and cherubic presence from the temple is described in fine detail, as if it were painfully slow in progressing. It could have been described in just a sentence- ’The glory of God departed from the temple’. The various stages described are perhaps because at each point, there was still the opportunity of repentance. It’s as if God left reluctantly.</p>


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<p>The cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight when they went forth, and the wheels beside them. They stood at the door of the east gate of Yahweh’s house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above- See on :18. The cherubim would finally return through the east gate if Israel were repentant and built and operated the temple system of Ezekiel 40-48. It was from here that they left. But in the whole process of the presence of God being withdrawn from that place, the earth was alight with His glory. Just as happens today when we face situations which defy our understanding.</p>


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<p>This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim- Ezekiel was up against the idea amongst the captives that Yahweh had forsaken the land (<a href='B:330 8:12'>Eze 8:12</a>). Hence his visions of God’s cherubim-angels, present both in the land as well as amongst the captives by Chebar in Babylon (<a href='B:330 10:20'>Eze 10:20</a>). It was the same message as the lesson of Jonah- who likewise thought that Yahweh somehow only operated within the land of Israel. But again we see how God’s judgments are appropriate to human actions and positions. They acted as if God had forsaken the land (<a href='B:330 8:12'>Eze 8:12</a>), as if His presence was not really actual for them. And so in response, He did forsake the land and temple.</p>


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<p>Every one had four faces, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings- This silhouette of a human hand is repeatedly emphasized. In <a href='B:730 4:7'>Rev 4:7</a> the four heads are distributed, one to each of the"living creatures", while here each has four faces. This is to highlight the sense of humanity, and of God’s awareness of every angle of human situation. That was the lesson so required by Judah in their depression by the rivers of Babylon. See on :6,8.</p>


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<p>As for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces which I saw by the river Chebar, their appearances and themselves; they went each one straight forward- Again there is emphasis upon the fact that the same cherubim of glory were now by the rivers of Babylon amongst the captives as had been in the&nbsp; Jerusalem temple. The whole system would not be diverted- that is strongly emphasized in saying that they didn’t turn, but went straight forward. See on <a href='B:330 1:7'>Eze 1:7</a>.</p>


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<h4>Moreover the Spirit lifted me up- As the cherubim lifted up at the end of Ezekiel 10, so did Ezekiel. He as a mere tiny man was part of this amazing vision of Heavenly glory and activity. Just as we can be.</h4><p>And brought me to the east gate of Yahweh’s house which looks eastward- From here the cherubim of glory departed, and to here the glory would return (<a href='B:330 43:4'>Eze 43:4</a>) if Israel returned repentant from captivity and rebuilt the temple.</p><p>At the door of the gate were twenty-five men- The same 25 sun worshippers of <a href='B:330 8:16'>Eze 8:16</a>. The glory of the east gate is emphasized in the visions of the restored temple (<a href='B:330 40:6'>Eze 40:6</a>; <a href='B:330 40:22-23'>Eze 40:22-23</a> etc:, in all a total of 12 references to it in Ezekiel 40-48). The idea was that in the restored temple, this kind of desecration was not to occur.</p><h4>And I saw in their midst Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people- There is an irony in the meaning of these names. Jaazaniah ("God hearkens") the son of Azzur ("The Helper"), Pelatiah ("God rescues") the son of Benaiah ("God builds"). Azzur was the father of the false prophet Hananiah (<a href='B:300 28:1'>Jer 28:1</a>). God was willing and eager to hear and save His people and to help them rebuild the temple. But instead they advised the people to build their own houses (:3) because the promised destruction would not come</h4>


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<p>He said to me, Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked advice in this city- They were teaching directly against Ezekiel’s prophecies (:3). But this began with ’devising iniquity’, and the phrase is only elsewhere used of devising iniquity privately"on your beds"(<a href='B:230 36:4'>Psa 36:4</a>; <a href='B:400 2:1'>Mic 2:1</a>). Typical of the prophets, the root of false teaching and sin is seen as the human heart.</p>


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<h4>Who say, The time is not near to build houses- The idea may be that destruction would not come, so they should instead focus upon their own houses. But the Hebrew can also mean ’Not at hand is the building of houses’. This would then be an allusion to Jeremiah’s recent letter to the captives in Babylon where he had urged them to build houses because a return from captivity was not going to happen soon, contrary to the message of the false prophets (<a href='B:300 29:5'>Jer 29:5</a>).</h4><h4>&nbsp;This is the cauldron, and we are the meat- This would have been a sneering at Jeremiah’s prophecy that Jerusalem would be boiled in the fire of Babylonian judgment- <a href='B:300 1:13'>Jer 1:13</a>"I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north". Their idea was that the holy city was as a cauldron which would defend them from the fire of judgment. But this is deconstructed by Ezekiel in <a href='B:330 24:3'>Eze 24:3</a>. The cauldron would refuse to respond to the purging of the fire and they would all in fact be destroyed. Their concept of sacred space would not save them. And in reality, the walls of Jerusalem were so weak they could be dug through by hand; seeon <a href='B:330 12:7'>Eze 12:7</a>.</h4>


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<p>Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, son of man- As noted on :13, Ezekiel seems to have needed encouragement in his ministry as he may not have perceived the depth of Israel’s sin.</p>


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<h4>The Spirit of Yahweh fell on me- As if to say that this was a very heavy level of inspiration, God really wanted to say this.</h4><h4>And He said to me, Speak, Thus says Yahweh: ‘Thus you have said, house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind- The words of Israel are paralleled with their inner thoughts. The Lord emphasizes this in His teaching too. God knew, and knows, the inner thoughts and mental words of every person, especially those of His people.</h4>


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<p>You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain- The slain bodies of those to be killed by the Babylonians were their fault; they had slain them. But as noted on :5, the prophets have the same attitude to human behaviour as the Lord later did. To hate your brother and abuse him was to murder him. The slain bodies were what they had in essence already done. But the same language is used of what was to happen to Babylon (<a href='B:300 51:4'>Jer 51:4</a>). What Babylon did to Judah was to be done to them, and that is the reason for the structure of the book of Revelation. The seals describe what is to be done to Israel in the last days, and the vials what is to then be done in return to her abusers.</p>


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<p>Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Your slain whom you have laid in its midst, they are indeed the meat, and this is the cauldron; but you shall be brought out of its midst- Again the blame for the deaths is placed upon the Jews themselves. The cauldron of Jerusalem was not going to save them, God was going to end all concept of sacred space, and instead dwell in the hearts of repentant people."You shall be brought out::."is amazing grace. A remnant would be preserved in order to give them the chance of repentance.</p>


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<p>You have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword on you, says the Lord Yahweh- Part of Divine judgment is to bring upon men their worst fears. And He did so with Job, not because he had sinned, but to teach him further (<a href='B:220 3:25'>Job 3:25</a>). Job is indeed set up as a representative of Judah at this time, but he personally hadn’t sinned. This isn’t God being cruel; it is to force us to psychologically discard all clever plans to somehow thwart the worst, all insurance policies are voided by God. In order to bring us to totally cast ourselves upon His grace.</p>


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<h4>I will bring you out of its midst- They had reasoned that Jerusalem would be the cauldron which would protect them from the fire of Babylonian judgment. But they were to be brought out from that apparent position of safety.</h4><h4>And deliver you into the hands of foreigners, and will execute judgments among you-"Deliver you"also carries the hint of salvation. It was a deliverance to the sword in many cases, but also with the hint of fuller deliverance, at least nationally, and also individually if they would heed the message of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and repent.</h4>


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<p>You shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and you shall know that I am Yahweh- Perhaps God had in view some kind of extermination camp on the border between Israel and Babylon. It was at Riblah in Hamath, on the border, where the King of Babylon executed judgment on Zedekiah, his sons, and the chief officers and priests, and 60 men of the city (<a href='B:300 52:9-11'>Jer 52:9-11</a>; <a href='B:300 52:24-27'>Jer 52:24-27</a>; and <a href='B:120 25:19-21'>2Ki 25:19-21</a> cp. <a href='B:110 8:65'>1Ki 8:65</a>, where"the entering in of Hamath"implies Hamath, where Riblah was situated, was the entering or border of the land). But note that Ezekiel defines the border of Israel as including Damascus (<a href='B:330 47:18'>Eze 47:18</a>). <a href='B:460 1:5'>Mal 1:5</a> says that Yahweh would be glorified at"the border of Israel". Perhaps in their final moments they repented and glorified God; they ’knew that I am Yahweh’ (:12). Or maybe the idea is that the condemnation of the wicked was still a glorification of Yahweh.</p>


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<p>This shall not be your cauldron, neither shall you be the meat in its midst; I will judge you in the border of Israel- See on :10 and :3. The city of Jerusalem and the temple"in its midst"was not going to be the cauldron which would preserve them from the fire of Babylonian judgment.</p>


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<h4>And you shall know that I am Yahweh- The idea may not have to be that they personally would know Yahweh through the condemnation process (see on :10)."Yahweh is known by the judgments He executes"(<a href='B:230 9:16'>Psa 9:16</a>). The ’making known’ would therefore have been through advertisement to the world of His ways and essential character.</h4><h4>For you have not walked in My statutes, neither have you executed My ordinances, but have behaved like the nations that are around you’- They had specifically disobeyed <a href='B:50 12:30-31'>Deu 12:30-31</a>. God saw the tendency to be like those around us and warned them specifically against it.</h4>


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<p>It happened, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down on my face and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord Yahweh! will you make a full end of those remaining of Israel?- Ezekiel seems shocked at the severity of God’s judgments, just as the disciples still felt that the Pharisees were more righteous than they were. Ezekiel’s falling on his face was in intercession for Israel, and as explained on <a href='B:330 9:8'>Eze 9:8</a>, it seems that God did respond."Pelatiah"means either ’God’s remnant’ or ’Whom Yah delivers’. Ezekiel therefore saw in his death the destruction of the remnant which he had assumed God would preserve. But the remnant were not going to be righteous. We too can assume that there is more spirituality in the community we know than there actually is.</p>


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<p>The word of Yahweh came to me saying- Ezekiel’s overly high impression of Pelatiah (:13) was now going to be further challenged by news that there was far more unspirituality in his people than he had assumed.</p>


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<p>Son of man, the people who live in Jerusalem are talking about you and those of your nation who are with you in exile. They say, The exiles are too far away to worship Yahweh. He has given us possession of the land- The poor masses left in the land had to pay taxes and render service to the new administration (<a href='B:310 5:12-14'>Lam 5:12-14</a>), typical of Babylonian policy in conquered lands; see on <a href='B:330 5:10'>Eze 5:10</a>. The land taken from the exiled ruling classes was then redistributed to the rural poor who remained in the subjected states. This policy has been described as giving the land of the previously wealthy to"the sub-proletariat of the city and the country"(A. J. Soggin, A History of Ancient Israel (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1984) p. 252). This is what was done by the Babylonians in Judah (<a href='B:300 39:10'>Jer 39:10</a>; <a href='B:120 25:12'>2Ki 25:12</a>; <a href='B:300 52:16'>Jer 52:16</a> cp. <a href='B:330 33:21-27'>Eze 33:21-27</a>). These poor peasant farmer masses, who were likely 90% of the population, were rejoicing at their new prosperity [relative to what they had before] and considered that God had justified them against their abusive masters, whom the Babylonians had stripped of their land and taken into captivity. The Babylonian policy regarding deportation and management of conquered lands is described in N:P. Lemche, Ancient Israel: A New History of Israelite Society (Sheffield: JSOT, 1988) and D:L. Smith, The Religion of the Landless: The Social Context of the Babylonian Exile (Bloomington, IN: Meyer Stone, 1989). So those who remained were arrogantly assuming that those formerly wealthy Jews in captivity could not acceptably worship Yahweh outside of the land, but they could; and they were claiming that God"has given us possession of the land". They didn’t want the wealthy exiles to return and reclaim the land. But in fact it was through the repentance of the humbled wealthy and powerful that God intended to rebuild His Kingdom; and that may be a lesson for many today.</p>


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<h4>Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries- Judah had removed their heart far from God (s:w. <a href='B:290 29:13'>Isa 29:13</a>; <a href='B:300 2:5'>Jer 2:5</a>). Their scattering far off was but a reflection of what they in their hearts had chosen. And this is what condemnation will be- giving people that which is where their heart really is. See on :21.</h4><h4>Yet will I be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they have come- God promised to"be to them [the Jews in captivity] a sanctuary for a little while in the countries [the 127 provinces of Babylon] where they are come". His intention was that they should be there, preserved by Him even in their punishment, for the"little while"of 70 years. Then they would return, and their sanctuary there in exile would become the new sanctuary which would come to the restored Zion (<a href='B:330 37:26'>Eze 37:26</a>; <a href='B:330 37:28'>Eze 37:28</a>). And yet they preferred to remain there in Babylon. As noted on <a href='B:330 1:1'>Eze 1:1</a>, Ezekiel was the priest of this"little sanctuary"in exile, a sanctuary that didn’t require a temple. This was God’s answer to the sneering of those who remained in the land that outside of the land, the exiles couldn’t worship Yahweh as well as they could (:15). As explained on :15 and <a href='B:330 5:10'>Eze 5:10</a>, it was the rich leadership who were taken into exile. It may seem that God has no place much for the wealthier parts of society. But His plan was to humble those wealthy exiles, having stripped them of their land and dignity, and to use them as the basis for a returned, repentant Israel who would rebuild the Kingdom.</h4>


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<p>Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel- Consider the use of the word pus, ’scatter’. It was God’s intention that mankind should scatter abroad in the earth and subdue it (<a href='B:10 1:28'>Gen 1:28</a>); but it required the judgment of the tower of Babel to actually make them ’scatter’ (<a href='B:10 11:4'>Gen 11:4</a>). Thus even in judgment, God worked out His positive ultimate intentions with humanity. And this word pus is the same word used with reference to Judah’s ’scattering’ from the land into Babylonian captivity (<a href='B:330 20:34'>Eze 20:34</a>; <a href='B:330 20:41'>Eze 20:41</a>; <a href='B:330 28:25'>Eze 28:25</a>). The intention, surely, was to show the captives that they had been scattered as the people had at the judgment of Babel / Babylon, but even in this, God was working out His purpose with His people and giving them the opportunity to fulfil His original intentions for them.</p>


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<p>They shall return, and they shall take away all the detestable things of it and all its abominations- The exiles returned, but as Zechariah 5 and Malachi make clear, they continued in idolatry. <a href='B:300 41:5'>Jer 41:5</a> suggests that there was still some kind of sanctuary operating on the site of the temple even during the exile; but this too became full of idolatry which the returned exiles would need to purge.</p>


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<h4>I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh- Israel were to return from captivity, destroy all the Gentile abominations and idols from their land, and then receive a new heart and a new covenant (Ezekiel 36 develops this more). Sitting there in captivity, God offered His people a new covenant (<a href='B:330 11:19-20'>Eze 11:19-20</a>; <a href='B:330 11:25'>Eze 11:25</a> cp. <a href='B:650 10:16'>Heb 10:16</a>); they could have one mind between each other, and a heart of flesh. But Israel would not, and it was only accepted by those who turned to Jesus Christ. Their being of “one heart” after baptism (<a href='B:510 4:32'>Act 4:32</a>) was a direct result of their acceptance of this same new covenant which Judah had rejected. In the hearing of offer of the new covenant, we are essentially in the position of those of the captivity, hearing Ezekiel’s words, and deciding whether or not to remain in cushy Babylon, or make a painful and humanly uncertain aliyah to Zion.</h4><h4>The promise here is that of the new covenant, to be repeated in Ezekiel 20 and Jeremiah 31. We now are in that covenant, and it has promise of psychological transformation, a new spirit, a new worldview; a heart of flesh, open and soft toward God rather than hardened towards spiritual things. If we are intended to achieve spirituality solely by Bible reading and study, then there would be no place for such promises of a new heart and spirit.</h4>


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<p>That they may walk in My statutes, and keep My ordinances, and do them: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God- The new spirit given in the new covenant of :19 involved an inclination and proclivity towards obedience to God’s ways. Goddoesn’t simply leave man with His laws and waits for our obedience. He is eager to grant a spirit which desires to be obedient. This is why repentance as well as forgiveness is a gift of the Spirit (<a href='B:510 3:25-26'>Act 3:25-26</a>; <a href='B:510 11:18'>Act 11:18</a>).</p>


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<p>But as for those whose heart walks after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way on their own heads, says the Lord Yahweh- As noted on :16, Divine condemnation is a giving people that which is where their heart really is. The walk of their heart is here paralleled with their ’way’ in practical life. We walk as our heart walks. Thee is a huge emphasis in the prophets upon being spiritually minded, and the parallel between thoughts and words / actions.</p>


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<p>Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above- As the cherubim lifted up their wings, so Ezekiel was lifted up (:24); he was at one with the huge, awesome system of Divine working, as Israel could also have been.</p>


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<p>The glory of Yahweh went up from the midst of the city, and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city- The mount of Olives, from where the glory was intended to return to the city in <a href='B:330 43:2'>Eze 43:2</a>. It never did, but it will do when the Lord Jesus returns to that mount (<a href='B:510 1:9-11'>Act 1:9-11</a>) and it cleaves in half as <a href='B:450 14:4'>Zec 14:4</a> envisages.</p>


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<p>The Spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me- Note how when the cherubim lifted up, so was Ezekiel lifted up (:22). Judah should have left Jerusalem when the Spirit told them to; and they should have upped and left Babylon when the Spirit told them to. But they were out of step with the Spirit, despite Ezekiel’s acted parable of literally being lifted up and going where the Cherubim went. The equivalent of this for us is surely our sense of doing all for God’s glory, of having this as the final deciding factor in all our decisions:&nbsp; See on <a href='B:330 1:1'>Eze 1:1</a>; <a href='B:330 1:20'>Eze 1:20</a>; <a href='B:330 10:8'>Eze 10:8</a>. We note in this context that it was an Angel who described to Ezekiel the nature of the temple which the exiles were intended to build; and we even read in <a href='B:330 40:14'>Eze 40:14</a> that “He made…” [e:g. the posts of the temple]. The Angels had potentially built that temple; it was for Israel to build according to the pattern of it.</p>


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<p>Then I repeated to those of the captivity all the things that Yahweh had shown me- Probably Ezekiel was still under house arrest amongst the captives. He was imploring them to repent and see the possibilities there were for them. It would have required a lot of humility to release him and respond.</p>


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<p>The word of Yahweh also came to me saying-"Came"is also translated"came to pass". God’s word is so certain of fulfilment that when it ’comes’, it effectively ’comes to pass’.</p>


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<h4>Son of man, you dwell in the midst of the rebellious people, who have eyes to see, and don’t see, who have ears to hear, and don’t hear; for they are rebellious people- Ezekiel was living amongst the captives in Babylon. They had the potential to respond to his message as intended, and to become the repentant remnant who would restore the Kingdom of God in Israel. But they would not respond. Because of this, there would be a further captivity of the people of Jerusalem (:3). It wasn’t that the people still in Judah were being punished for the sins of those in exile; it was that the sinners in Judah could have been spared further punishment by the repentance of those in exile. So much can depend upon the spirituality of third parties; see on <a href='B:480 2:5'>Mar 2:5</a>. The same was true of the Jews in Judah- they too had eyes to see but chose not to (<a href='B:300 5:21'>Jer 5:21</a>).</h4><h4>They were"rebellious"in that they refused to mentally respond to Ezekiel’s message. Their rebellion, like ours so often, was a case of a sin of omission rather than commission. Those taken into captivity were the royal family and the leadership, and so the allusion would have been to Saul and his family being rejected as kings of Israel because of his ’rebellion’ against God’s word through Samuel (<a href='B:90 15:23'>1Sa 15:23</a> s:w:).</h4>


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<h4>Therefore, you son of man, prepare what you need for a journey into exile and move by day in their sight. You shall move from your place to another place in their sight- As explained on :2, the rebellion of the captives meant that they were not going to be able to spare those still in Judah from further invasion and captivity. And Ezekiel as"son of man"was representative not only of God but also of the sinful people of God, again typifying the work of the Lord Jesus. Ezekiel’s acted parable was to make them"consider". They had already gone on the journey into exile; the message was that they could really avert this happening for others. And they were apparently unmoved by the possibilities they had for others.</h4><h4>Perhaps they will consider, though they are rebellious people- God had told Ezekiel at the start that his audience would not respond. But here we see the essential hopefulness of God for human response-"perhaps"they would respond. When we do respond, we thrill the heart of the God who must be so often disappointed."Consider"is the common Hebrew word for ’to see’. Ezekiel was to act his parable"in their sight", in the hope they would"see". We have here the two kinds of sight, alluded to several times in John’s Gospel. We are to ’see’ spiritually the lessons behind what we ’see’ with our natural vision.</h4>


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<p>You shall bring forth your belongings by day in their sight, as belongings for exile; and you shall go forth at evening in their sight, as when men go forth into exile- This was to typify Zedekiah and the remnants of the Jerusalem leadership fleeing Jerusalem by night (<a href='B:300 39:4'>Jer 39:4</a>; <a href='B:300 52:7'>Jer 52:7</a>). Zedekiah was to be punished for his sins by the attempt to flee, his capture and judgment by the Babylonians; but the full effect of his sins could have been lightened by the repentance of the exiles. And this principle is still true; the judgment of some people can be ameliorated by the spirituality of third parties.</p>


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<p>Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry your belongings out that way- Although Zedekiah and his family fled through"the gate between the two walls", we can assume that all the main gates of Jerusalem were being watched by the Babylonian besiegers, and so this"gate"would have been dug specially for them to flee by (<a href='B:300 39:4'>Jer 39:4</a>; <a href='B:300 52:7'>Jer 52:7</a>).</p>


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<p>In their sight you shall carry it on your shoulder, and carry it forth in the twilight; you shall cover your face, so that you don’t see the land; for I have set you for a sign to the house of Israel- The disguise was to represent how Zedekiah and the remnants of the royal family would have tried to disguise themselves as they fled (<a href='B:300 39:4'>Jer 39:4</a>; <a href='B:300 52:7'>Jer 52:7</a>). See on :10. It was deep humiliation for Zedekiah; he himself had to carry his few belongings on his own shoulder rather than have servants carry them. It was all part of God’s attempt to bring him down, that He might exalt him in due time.</p>


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<p>I did as I was commanded: I brought forth my belongings by day, as if for exile, and in the evening I dug through the wall with my hand; I brought it forth in the dark, and carried it on my shoulder in their sight- Ezekiel was representing Zedekiah (:10). Perhaps he himself frantically dug through the wall with his own hands. If the wall could be dug through with hands, we see how flimsy were the defences of Jerusalem against the Babylonians. And yet the Jews had argued that Jerusalem was as strong as an iron cauldron, and the fire of Babylonian judgment could therefore never reach them; see on <a href='B:330 11:3'>Eze 11:3</a>. In <a href='B:330 13:14'>Eze 13:14</a>, the strength of Jerusalem is spoken of as a wall built with bad morter that was very weak. This had a connection with the literally weak wall of Jerusalem.</p>


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<p>In the morning came the word of Yahweh to me, saying-"In the morning"after Zedekiah fled Jerusalem he was arrested. The morning after Ezekiel’s symbolic exile from the house of his arrest, the observing Jews ought to have figured that now, he was as it were in captivity. They ought to have figured that he represented Zedekiah. And so this was now to be stated explicitly.</p>


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<p>Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’- This was the intention of the acted parable; to elicit this question, even though in their consciences the answer was surely clear. As in <a href='B:330 24:19'>Eze 24:19</a>, the question"What are you doing? / What do you mean?"was elicited; but this was followed by the direct revelation of God’s word. And so it is in our witness; our lives elicit questions and pique interest from those around us, as a springboard toward the declaration of God’s word to them.</p>


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<p>Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem, and all the people of Israel who are in it’- Josephus (Antiquities 10:7) claims that Ezekiel sent a copy of this prophecy to Zedekiah. As Jeremiah had sent a letter to the captives at the Chebar, so it would be understandable if Ezekiel sent a message to Jerusalem confirming the warnings of Jeremiah.</p>


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<p>Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done to them; they shall go into exile, into captivity- This was not merely prediction. The group of exiles had power over the outcome; if they had repented, the implication is that this need not have happened. Therefore we have the otherwise awkward change of pronouns from"I am your sign"to"so shall it be done to them". Ezekiel was a sign to those observing him in Babylon; and they were to respond to that sign by repentance, so that the outcome for"them"could be different.</p>


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<h4>The prince who is among them shall carry his belongings on his shoulder in the dark, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby-The"them"and"they"rather than"you"remind us that Ezekiel is saying this in captivity in Babylon. See on :11.</h4><h4>He shall cover his face, because he shall not see the land with his eyes- This looked ahead to how Zedekiah’s eyes were put out (<a href='B:120 25:7'>2Ki 25:7</a>). The way Zedekiah is described as"the prince"lays the basis for the later prophecies about"the prince"in Ezekiel 40-48. Had the exiles returned and rebuilt and operated the temple system as required there, another individual called"the prince"would have arisen. Perhaps the blind, repentant Zedekiah could have returned from exile and become the prince figure; this would then solve the otherwise strange prophecy of&nbsp; <a href='B:290 42:19'>Isa 42:19</a>, that the restored community would have had a blind leader. Likewise the exiles could have lived under the shadow of a great leader in exile (<a href='B:310 4:20'>Lam 4:20</a>), fulfilling the prophecies of Messiah as a great tree. But none of those involved lived up to their potential.</h4>


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<h4>My net also will I spread on him, and he shall be taken in My snare- The Babylonian army is likened to a net in <a href='B:420 1:14-16'>Hab 1:14-16</a>.</h4><h4>And I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there- “O Zedekiah… Thou shalt not die by the sword: but thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy fathers… so shall they burn odours for thee” (<a href='B:300 34:5'>Jer 34:5</a>) mentions no conditions. But consider the words of <a href='B:330 12:13'>Eze 12:13</a> about the same man; he would die in Babylon and he would be made blind before arrival. The surrounding verses give an accurate prophecy of how Zedekiah was captured whilst fleeing from Jerusalem. And the same is said in <a href='B:300 32:4'>Jer 32:4</a>; <a href='B:300 38:17'>Jer 38:17</a>. It surely has to be recognized that the ‘prophecy’ that Zedekiah would die in peace was conditional upon his obedience to the word of Jeremiah- even though those conditions aren’t recorded (although they are implicit surely).</h4>


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<p>I will scatter toward every wind all who are around him to help him, and all his armies; and I will draw out the sword after them- His personal bodyguard would scatter from him, and Zedekiah would be captured alone. This was the ultimate humiliation for a leader. And this is the nature of condemnation- intensely personal, when absolutely all human strength has been taken away. And Zedekiah fleeing from Jerusalem towards Jericho is picked up in the parable of the good Samaritan. We are all Zedekiah, beaten and injured because of our sins, but saved by the grace of the Samaritan.</p>


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<p>They shall know that I am Yahweh, when I disperse them among the nations, and scatter them through the countries- The curse for breaking the covenant was to be ’dispersed’ to the Gentile world, where they would serve other gods as a punishment for having done so in Israel (<a href='B:50 28:64'>Deu 28:64</a> s:w:). But it seems God ammended this judgment- He envisaged they would be ’dispersed’ and there would know or recognize Him as God alone. But there is ample evidence that the exiles did worship idols for the next few generations. So the original curse of serving idols in captivity was the path Israel allowed to happen. But God had provided an alternative potential.</p>


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<p>But I will preserve a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their abominations among the nations where they come; and they shall know that I am Yahweh- The righteous remnant were actually persecuted by the other Jews in Babylon, according to the testimony of the later parts of Isaiah. One significant problem which they had right from the start was that they insisted that the captivity was unfair, it was not their fault, they were righteous and were being unfairly punished for the sins of their fathers. Ezekiel 18 addresses this at length with them. God’s intention was that His exiled people would"declare all their abominations among the nations whither they ome", i:e. the 127 provinces of Babylon (<a href='B:330 12:16'>Eze 12:16</a>). The intention was that they would admit to all how they had sinned. Note how confession of personal failure and testimony to God’s forgiveness is actually a powerful witness to unbelievers. But instead, Ezekiel had to reason against the Jews’ insistence that they had not sinned, and were being unfairly punished for their fathers’ sins by an unjust God (Ezekiel 18). And so likewise it happens with us all too often that the potential witness which we could make simply isn’t made.</p>


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<p>Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and with fearfulness- The geography of Jerusalem meant that there was always a problem with water whenever the city was besieged. The"trembling and fear"refer to the psychological breakdown related to the paranoia about condemnation which was part of the curse for disobedience. But such paranoia was ultimately the fault of those who had chosen the way to condemnation. Ezekiel, the righteous, was here to feel and act like the condemned sinners. This was what it meant to be"son of man"; and the Lord Jesus as our representative felt the feelings of sinners and the condemned, whilst being holy, harmless and separate from sinners.</p>


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<h4>And tell the people of the land- The reference is to the Jews in"the land"of Babylon. They are addressed because their repentance could have affected the outcomes for the Jews in"the land"of Judah.</h4><h4>&nbsp;Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread with fearfulness, and drink their water in dismay, that her land may be desolate, and all that is therein, because of the violence of all those who dwell therein- The"violence"as in their unloving attitudes to their brethren (<a href='B:230 107:34'>Psa 107:34</a>). In the restored Zion, the princes were to not practice"violence"but instead justice, and make no demands ["exactions"] upon others (<a href='B:330 45:9'>Eze 45:9</a>). It is this human tendency to demand of others, often through not forgiving them (<a href='B:470 18:28'>Mat 18:28</a>), which is seen by God as violence. And it was this which led them to the"fear"and"dismay"which were part of the psychological breakdown which they were given; see on :18."Dismay"translates the word usually translated ’desolation’ with respect to the desolation of the land by the Babylonians (<a href='B:30 26:22'>Lev 26:22</a>; <a href='B:30 26:31-32'>Lev 26:31-32</a>; <a href='B:30 26:34-35'>Lev 26:34-35</a>; <a href='B:30 26:43'>Lev 26:43</a>). The land would be desolated just as they as persons would be left desolated. Ezekiel as the representative of sinful Israel had sat ’desolate’ by the rivers of Babylon (<a href='B:330 3:15'>Eze 3:15</a> s:w:). See on :18.</h4>


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<p>The cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be a desolation; and you shall know that I am Yahweh- The reference is to the cities still left habitable after the earlier Babylonian incursions. But again, in wrath God remembered mercy. Not all the cities of Judah were destroyed; Jeremiah records how Mizpah was made the new capital under a Babylonian puppet ruler. As explained on <a href='B:330 5:10'>Eze 5:10</a>; <a href='B:330 11:15'>Eze 11:15</a>, probably only about 10% of the population were deported, agricultural activity continued and grain offerings were still brought to the site of the temple by men from Shiloh and Shechem (<a href='B:300 41:5'>Jer 41:5</a>). This amelioration of the planned judgments may have been because of the intercession of Ezekiel and / or the repentance of a remnant.</p>


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<p>Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every prophetic vision fails?- God knows every bit of small talk and the phrases people use in mockery. It was God’s grace which had meant that the threatened judgments had not come. But they mocked at it, to the point of joking that prophecies of judgment never come true. The Jews in the land of Israel joked like this (also in <a href='B:300 17:15'>Jer 17:15</a>; <a href='B:430 1:12'>Zep 1:12</a>), and those in captivity did likewise. It is common amongst people of all ages to assume that God’s apparent slowness to act means that He never will do (<a href='B:680 3:3-4'>2Pe 3:3-4</a>). Just as the exiles thought that day by day had passed without Ezekiel’s words coming true.</p>


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<p>Tell them therefore, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but tell them, The days are at hand, and the fulfilment of every prophetic vision-"Days"was really literal; any day, the news would come of Jerusalem’s fall and the destruction of the temple. The false prophets had been falsely claiming that the captivity would end within two years (<a href='B:300 28:3'>Jer 28:3</a>). The"every::. vision"in view may refer to all of Ezekiel’s visions so far recorded. Or the idea may be that the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon was envisaged as the final and total fulfilment of the prophetic word of God so far given; but by grace, there was to be a restoration, and when this potential failed, then further destructions of Jerusalem.</p>


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<h4>For there shall be no more any false vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel- As noted on :23, there was the potential for the prophetic program to come to a finality in the destruction and restoration of Jerusalem under a Messianic king. This would have meant that literally, there would never again be false prophets in Israel. But the reality was different. That potential restoration didn’t happen; and false prophets did continue within Israel. They will only finally be destroyed in the last days, when all these prophecies will come to their final term.</h4><h4>There were many false prophets at the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel; when in fact the true word of prophecy could have ’turned away’ the captivity, if the exiles and the people left in Judah had responded to it (<a href='B:310 2:14'>Lam 2:14</a>). Indeed it could have been that Zedekiah returned as"the prince"of the restored kingdom; see on <a href='B:330 12:12'>Eze 12:12</a>. Ezekiel prophesied to the exiles in Babylon of what was going to happen to the Jews still in the land, exactly so that the exiles’ repentance might avert those in the land suffering further. An ameliorated program of judgment and events would have been possible if they had repented.</h4>


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<p>For I am Yahweh. I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall be performed. It shall be no more deferred; for in your days, rebellious house, will I speak the word, and will perform it, says the Lord Yahweh- There seems to be the suggestion that God ‘speaks’ a word / plan / intention; and when He decides to operationalize it, then He speaks it again- presumably in the court of Heaven."Deferred"is the word used by Nehemiah in thanking God for his ’forbearance’ (<a href='B:160 9:30'>Neh 9:30</a>). Tragically, this forbearance of God was what led some to take the impression that He was not serious about judgment and was a God somewhat distant and disinterested. See on :28.</p>


text:
<p>Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he sees is for many days to come, and he prophesies of times that are far off- They now apparently accepted that Ezekiel was a prophet, but comforted themselves that it would not come true in their times. We see here a classic case of how misinterpretation of God’s word has a psychological and spiritual basis. Rather than accept the plain meaning of Ezekiel’s message, that destruction in Jerusalem was imminent, they decided that the visions spoke of the far distant future.</p>


text:
<p>Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: None of My words shall be deferred any more, but the word which I shall speak shall be performed, says the Lord Yahweh- See on :25. The word was to be"performed"or literally ’done’. The same phrase is to be found in the lament that Israel would not perform or do God’s word (<a href='B:330 33:31-32'>Eze 33:31-32</a>). If we do not perform God’s word, then He will perform it in our condemnation. The idea is that His word is so utterly certain of fulfilment (see on :1). It is for us to as it were be on His wide by performing it ourselves, seeing He will surely perform it one way or the other.</p>


text:
<p>Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, Hear the word of Yahweh-"Their own heart"is here parallel with"their own spirit"(:2). The spirit is the heart or mind. It is far too simplistic to claim that ’spirit = power’. See on :17.</p>


text:
<p>Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit, though they have seen nothing!- See on :2. This is an alliteration, because the words for"foolish"and"prophet"are so similar: the nabiim are also the n’balim. This kind of device is often used in the Bible because the vast majority of people encountering God’s word were illiterate, and therefore we find many such aids to memorization of the text.</p>


text:
<p>Israel, your prophets have been like foxes in the desert places- This would imply that the men intended and inspired to be prophets actually became false prophets (:6). Hence they are likened to foxes, characterized by deceit. Their false prophecy, when they knew God’s true word, was therefore the more culpable and awful.</p>


text:
<p>You have not gone up into the gaps, neither built up the wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of Yahweh- By speaking the true prophetic word of God, the gaps in the weak wall of Israel could have been filled in."The day of Yahweh"would have come, but the walls of Jerusalem would have been able"to stand"rather than being breached and then burnt by the Babylonians. The false prophets had wrongly taught that Jerusalem was as strong as an iron cauldron and would preserve its people from the fire of Babylonian judgment (see on <a href='B:330 11:3'>Eze 11:3</a>; <a href='B:330 11:7'>Eze 11:7</a>). The idea of filling in the gaps can be taken as a metaphor for intercession. Thus Moses"stood before Him in the breach"(<a href='B:230 106:23'>Psa 106:23</a>) and caused God to alter His plan to totally destroy all Israel. Such language of utter desolation and destruction is likewise found in the earlier parts of Ezekiel, but it seems Ezekiel’s own intercession changedsome outcomes. But other prophets ought to have done this; instead they became false prophets and didn’t go up into the gaps.</p>


text:
<p>They have seen falsehood and lying divination, they who say, Yahweh says; but Yahweh has not sent them; and they have made men to hope that the word would be confirmed- Heb. as RVmg."they hope to confirm their word". By deceiving others, they came to deceive themselves, and were really expecting a fulfilment. This is the trouble with any form of lying; the liar comes to believe it is true. The true"hope of Israel"was the restoration from captivity after repentance; but this was being changed into a false hope, a kind of prosperity gospel, the Kingdom right now, without the need for humility and repentance.</p>


text:
<p>Haven’t you seen a false vision, and haven’t you spoken a lying divination in that you say, Yahweh says; but I have not spoken?- The very form of the question seeks for an answer. The purpose of it was therefore to elicit repentance. and apparently the question was met by silence, leading to the following woe upon the false prophets."False", AV"vain", is a word often associated with the"vanities"of the idols. Their messages were inspired by the idols they worshipped (<a href='B:450 10:2'>Zec 10:2</a>). These"lying divinations"are specifically defined as the"untempered morter"with which the wall of Israel, its supposed defence, had been built (<a href='B:330 22:28'>Eze 22:28</a> s:w:).</p>


text:
<p>Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have spoken falsehood and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, says the Lord Yahweh- This is yet another example of Ezekiel telling the captives the same message as Jeremiah was at the same time telling the Jews still in Judah;"I am against you"is the threat of <a href='B:300 21:5'>Jer 21:5</a>. They had ’seen’ lies in their minds; they ’saw’ what they wanted to see. And in this sense the psychology of the false prophets is a warning to us all.</p>


text:
<h4>My hand shall be against the prophets who see false visions, and who preach lies. They shall not be in the council of My people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel- We learn in <a href='B:150 2:63'>Ezr 2:63</a> and <a href='B:160 7:65'>Neh 7:65</a> that it wasn’t possible for the priests to eat of the holy things [signifying God’s acceptance of His people], because there was no record of their genealogy. Their names were not written in the “register” in fulfilment of <a href='B:330 13:9'>Eze 13:9</a>: “neither shall they be written in the writing [s:w. ‘register’, <a href='B:150 2:62'>Ezr 2:62</a>] of the house of Israel”. Only if a priest stood up with urim and thummim could they eat of the holy things. These were two engraven stones carried in a pouch in the breastplate which flashed out Divine decisions (see H:A. Whittaker, Samuel, Saul And David for an excellent study of this). <a href='B:450 3:9'>Zec 3:9</a> prophesies that Joshua the High Priest would have the engraven stone with seven eyes- the urim and thummim. It would thereby have been possible for a priesthood who had lost their genealogy record during the sacking of the first temple to eat the holy things, and thus fulfil <a href='B:330 42:13'>Eze 42:13</a>, which says that then the priests would eat the holy things. In a restoration context, <a href='B:290 66:21'>Isa 66:21</a> had prophesied that Yahweh would regather Judah, “And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the LORD”. This implies, surely, that He would accept some as Levites who could not otherwise prove they were. <a href='B:450 6:11'>Zec 6:11</a>; <a href='B:450 6:13'>Zec 6:13</a> speaks of Joshua being crowned with the High Priestly mitre and ‘bearing the glory’, i:e. carrying the urim and thummim in the breastplate. But all this was conditional on Joshua’s obedience: “This shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey” (6:15). Because Joshua failed, he didn’t have urim and thummim, therefore no decision could be given about who was an acceptable priest, and therefore the ‘Kingdom’ prophecy of <a href='B:330 42:13'>Eze 42:13</a> was left unfulfilled. So much depended upon that man. And likewise, the eternal destiny of many others depends on us. Isaiah’s prophecies of the restoration feature “the servant”- who was a symbol of both the people and a Messianic individual. His success was bound up with theirs. Thus <a href='B:290 65:9'>Isa 65:9</a>: “And I will bring forth a seed [singular] out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor [singular] of my mountains: and mine elect [plural] shall inherit it, and my servants [plural] shall dwell there”. His obedience would enable the peoples’ establishment as the Kingdom.</h4><h4>Neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh- Ezekiel told the captives during the early stages of their captivity that the false prophets and"rebels"amongst them would receive the condemnation and judgment of not returning to the land (<a href='B:330 13:9'>Eze 13:9</a>; <a href='B:330 20:38'>Eze 20:38</a>). And yet when the command came to return to the land, most of the people chose to remain in Babylon- and therefore they chose their own condemnation. They were a"rebellious house"(<a href='B:330 2:3'>Eze 2:3</a>). For they were aware from Ezekiel’s words that not returning to the land was God’s condemnation. Those who will not be in the Kingdom will be those who chose not to be there- all who truly love the Lord’s appearing will be accepted. The fact Ezekiel tells the false prophets amongst the captives that they would not return to the land of Israel implies that they could have done, and that that generation could have returned. This meant that the 70 years captivity period was open to negotiation; it could have been reduced, if the first groups of exiles had repented.</h4><h4>When Moses asked to be removed from God’s book or register, he was apparently not heard. But in reality, he was not allowed to"enter into the land of Israel". That was punishment for his personal sin, but whenever his sin and punishment is mentioned, he says that it was for Israel’s sake. And so the punishment of not entering the land was not solely a punishment for his personal sin; it was used as a way of Moses bearing their condemnation, in line with his request to have his name blotted out from God’s register. And here we have this thought confirmed- because not entering the land is paralleled with not being written in God’s book / register.</h4>


text:
<p>Because, even because they have seduced My people, saying, Peace; and there is no peace; and when one builds up a wall, behold, they plaster it with whitewash-"Peace"is usually ’peace with God’. But the idea may also be that they were predicting a peace agreement with Babylon. The false prophecies of peace at this time (<a href='B:300 6:14'>Jer 6:14</a>; <a href='B:300 23:17'>Jer 23:17</a>) are paralleled with idols speaking peace through the false prophets (<a href='B:450 10:2'>Zec 10:2</a>). This is another indication that there was idolatry amongst the exiles, as predicted in <a href='B:50 28:64'>Deu 28:64</a>. Israel’s rejection of idolatry after the exile didn’t come for a few generations. See on :18. The whitewash plaster was the false prophecy of peace (<a href='B:330 22:28'>Eze 22:28</a>).</p>


text:
<p>Tell those who plaster it with whitewash, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing storm; and on you great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it- The physical wall of Jerusalem was so flimsy that a man could dig through it with his bare hands (<a href='B:330 12:7'>Eze 12:7</a>), and this reflected how weak was the wall which the false prophets were symbolically building. The language of the storm causing the fall of the wall is that of the Lord’s second coming (<a href='B:470 7:24-25'>Mat 7:24-25</a>). These prophecies had a limited application in what happened to Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. But the full extent of what was envisaged didn’t fully happen. The final fulfilment is rescheduled and reapplied to the Lord’s second coming.</p>


text:
<p>Behold, when the wall has fallen, shall it not be said to you, Where is the plaster with which you have plastered it?- The wall would fall when Zedekiah himself dug through it to escape the siege. Later, the walls were breached by the Babylonians; and then the"plaster"of the false prophecies was apparent for what it was. The same word is used of the plastering of a leprous house (<a href='B:30 14:42'>Lev 14:42</a>; <a href='B:30 14:48'>Lev 14:48</a>); and the temple and house of Israel was indeed leprous, but there was no real plaster applied by the priests. Instead the leprous state was covered up, in a bodge job.</p>


text:
<p>Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will even tear it with a stormy wind in My wrath; and there shall be an overflowing storm in My anger, and great hailstones in wrath to consume it-"Tear"is the same word used for the ’breaking up’ of the city by the Babylonians (<a href='B:120 25:4'>2Ki 25:4</a>). The stormy wind connects with the rushing sound of the cherubim in the opening vision; the Angel cherubim were going to move the Babylon army from Babylon to Jerusalem just as easily as they could move the captives both to and from Babylon, back to Zion."Stormy wind"is s:w."whirlwind"in <a href='B:330 1:4'>Eze 1:4</a>;"overflowing storm"is s:w."the day of rain"in <a href='B:330 1:28'>Eze 1:28</a>. If they chose to like Ezekiel identify with God’s massive system of movement and operation. See on <a href='B:330 26:10'>Eze 26:10</a>. The same words are used of the storm and hailstones [literally, ’hail of God’] to be cast upon Gog; what is done to Israel shall be done to her invaders (<a href='B:330 38:22'>Eze 38:22</a>).</p>


text:
<h4>So will I break down the wall that you have plastered with whitewash-"Whitewash"of"untempered morter"(AV) is the word used of the"foolish things"seen by the false prophets at that time (<a href='B:310 2:14'>Lam 2:14</a>). The whitewash represented the false prophecies, as in <a href='B:330 22:28'>Eze 22:28</a>.</h4><p>And bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation shall be uncovered- The word"foundation"is often used of the foundation or bottom of the altar. This was presumably removed to the foundation, so that in <a href='B:300 41:5'>Jer 41:5</a> those who remained in the land could only come there to offer grain offerings and not animal sacrifice. It was the Edomite mercenaries who urged this destruction to the foundation (<a href='B:230 137:7'>Psa 137:7</a> s:w:).</p><h4>And it shall fall, and you shall be consumed in its midst: and you shall know that I am Yahweh- In reality, Zedekiah with his own hands dug through the very weak wall of Jerusalem; see on <a href='B:330 12:7'>Eze 12:7</a>. That was how weak it was. God broke down the wall through the Babylonians, but in reality, the Jewish leadership broke it through with their own hands. And the wall rebuilt by Nehemiah and the Jews, which apparently fixed upevery breach in it, was likewise overturned by Antiochus. But the wall of Babylon was to be broken down in the same way (<a href='B:300 50:15'>Jer 50:15</a> s:w:); what was done to Israel would be done to her invaders.</h4>


text:
<p>Thus will I accomplish My anger on the wall, and on those who have plastered it with whitewash; and I will tell you, The wall is no more, neither those who plastered it- The cessation, accomplishment or resting of God’s wrath is mentioned several times in Ezekiel, and nowhere else in this way (<a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a>; <a href='B:330 6:12'>Eze 6:12</a>; <a href='B:330 7:8'>Eze 7:8</a>; <a href='B:330 13:15'>Eze 13:15</a>; <a href='B:330 16:42'>Eze 16:42</a>; <a href='B:330 20:8'>Eze 20:8</a>; <a href='B:330 21:17'>Eze 21:17</a>; <a href='B:330 22:20'>Eze 22:20</a>; <a href='B:330 24:13'>Eze 24:13</a>). The idea is not that God was so angry that He had to express that anger and only calmed down once He had as it were lashed out. He does have real wrath; the huge love He has cannot exist in a dimensionless vacuum, it of itself implies He also has wrath. <a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a> continues:"I will cause My wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted", and the Hebrew there for"comforted"is literally ’to sigh’, to be sorry, even to repent / change. Having expressed His legitimate anger, God knew that He would then be sorry and would then embark upon a process of restoration- by grace. For the objects of His wrath didn’t deserve any restoration."To rest"is the word translated"to place"in <a href='B:330 37:14'>Eze 37:14</a>:"I shall place you in your own land"at the restoration from captivity. His wrath had to be expressed, and yet it was part of His wider purpose toward restoring His people and Kingdom. We would be quite wrong, therefore, to read these words as meaning that God was furiously angry and needed to lash out and get it all expressed so that He could as it were calm down again. His judgments are always ultimately constructive, and therefore"the wrath of God is the love of God". His wrath is therefore described in <a href='B:330 5:15'>Eze 5:15</a> as the rebuke of His fury / wrath; it was intended to rebuke, to achieve instruction, that they should ’know Yahweh’. The tragedy was that the captives for the most part refused to perceive it this way and respond.</p>


text:
<p>Namely, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace, says the Lord Yahweh- There were false prophets both in Judah as the Babylonians approached, and also amongst those of them already in exile (<a href='B:300 6:14'>Jer 6:14</a>; <a href='B:300 8:11'>Jer 8:11</a>; <a href='B:330 13:16'>Eze 13:16</a>). They were assuring the sinful people that in fact they were at peace with God, and that contrary to the prophetic message of desolation at the hand of the Babylonians, they would instead have"peace". This is described in Jeremiah as"lightly"healing the great wound or illness of Judah. That wound is described ambiguously; it was a wound or breach in themselves caused by God’s smiting of them in the earlier Babylonian incursions (<a href='B:300 14:19'>Jer 14:19</a>), but also caused by them to God Almighty."Lightly"carries with it the idea of not serious, light hearted, superficial, trifling. And we must likewise beware of this kind of religion that is pedaled in the name of Christianity; not facing our personal issues, and using a few Bible words from here and there to superficially cover over the most fundamental issues of our eternal destiny. And this was and is so attractive. But sin and its consequences are far deeper than any superficial, light hearted covering. It requires nothing less than the blood and word of the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<p>You, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy against them- So often it is the state of the human heart which is presented as of paramount interest to God. There is in ll of us the tendency to blur the crucial boundary between the word of God and that of men. Ezekiel was to prophecy as it were the words of God’s heart, whereas these women prophesied from their own heart. The heart is the Spirit; it is in this sense that the true word of God is ’inspired’, those words reflect the spirit of God, His very heart, rather than the mind / heart / spirit of men.</p>


text:
<p>And say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the women who sew magic wristbands for people and make magic scarves for everyone to wear on their heads, so that they can have power over other people’s lives. You want to possess the power of life and death over My people and to use it for your own gain- The ornamentation sounds like the"divining garments"of Cassandra, and the"garlands"or"fillets"of the Pythian priestesses. As noted on :10, there was idolatry going on amongst the exiles. Israel’s rejection of idolatry after the exile didn’t come for a few generations. This pagan headgear was later absorbed into Jewish religion in the exile, becoming the phylacteries and tallith of later Judaism.</p>


text:
<p>You have profaned Me among My people in order to get handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to kill the people who should not die, and to save the people alive who should not live, by your lying to My people who listen to lies- These priestesses were paid in small amounts of bread and barley, appropriate to the poverty of the Jews at the time. It could be that they even practiced witchcraft to the extent of actually slaying the righteous. Or the idea may be that if the true word of prophecy had been preached, then the repentant would not have died. Instead, the false message of peace with God for sinners without repentance and reconciliation meant that those who otherwise would not have died, would die.</p>


text:
<p>Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: I hate the wristbands that you use in your attempt to control life and death. I will rip them off your arms and set free the people that you were controlling- The bands on the arms were associated with pagan worship (see on :10) and became the tallith of later Judaism (see on :18)."Set free"or AV"to make them fly"implies the false prophetesses had caught the other Jews as birds in the snare of a fowler. Once the people were freed from this trap, they could as it were fly, and return to the land. The language of setting free the people from the hand of these people is that of the deliverance from Egypt, after which the people could begin their journey to the promised land (<a href='B:20 5:23'>Exo 5:23</a>; <a href='B:20 18:10'>Exo 18:10</a>).</p>


text:
<p>I will rip off your scarves and let My people escape from your power once and for all; and you shall know that I am Yahweh- As in primitive societies today, these fortune tellers and false prophets had real psychological power over people, even over"the righteous"(:22). In illiterate societies, it’s far easier to get this kind of power."Once and for all"is another of many implications that the envisaged judgment and restoration of the Kingdom was to be final and unprecedented. But in fact this didn’t happen, and the prophecies were reapplied and rescheduled to our last days. And so there were many periods after the exile when again, the Jews fell under the power of such false teachers and sorcerers (<a href='B:510 8:9'>Act 8:9</a>; <a href='B:510 19:14'>Act 19:14</a>).</p>


text:
<p>Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be saved alive- This is the language of <a href='B:330 3:21'>Eze 3:21</a>; <a href='B:330 18:9'>Eze 18:9</a>; <a href='B:330 18:17'>Eze 18:17</a>; the false prophetesses were stopping the repentance of the people in exile, and thereby stopping the fulfilment of all the great potentials. There was clearly a group called"the righteous"with Ezekiel in captivity, who had been duped by the false prophetesses. These"righteous"were heart broken ["sad"] at the supposed words of prophecy coming from the false prophets. They ought to have had the wisdom to discern them as false prophets, but they aren’t rebuked for that. Rather the false prophets are condemned for breaking the hearts of the righteous. Perhaps the breaking of their hearts was in causing them to spiritually stumble.</p>


text:
<p>Therefore you shall no more see false visions, nor practice fortune telling. I will deliver My people out of your hand; and you shall know that I am Yahweh- The condemnation of"fortune telling"was because with the Babylonians poised to attack, the false prophets and prophetesses were telling people what they wanted to hear- that actually the desolation predicted by God through Ezekiel wouldn’t happen. These false prophets were to"know that I am Yahweh". This could mean that they recognized His truth all too late; or that the knowledge of God’s Name was to be proclaimed through their destruction.</p>


text:
<p>Then came certain of the elders of Israel to me, and sat before me- They could have been the elders from Judah sent at the time of <a href='B:300 51:59'>Jer 51:59</a>; but probably they were the elders of the Jewish community with Ezekiel in captivity. They are called"the elders of Judah"in <a href='B:330 8:1'>Eze 8:1</a>; <a href='B:330 20:1'>Eze 20:1</a>. But Ezekiel seems to intentionally use the terms Judah and Israel interchangeably, because it was the prophetic intention that the restoration from exile would finally end the division between them. They were to be bound together, as we should be, by the wonder of a common experience of repentance, entry to the new covenant, the gift of the Spirit, and participation jointly in the things of grace resulting in the restored Kingdom of God. These elders apparently came to ask things from God through Ezekiel (:3); they had recently placed Ezekiel under house arrest and bound him. But now they come seeking God’s word from him. This is typical human behaviour; acting aggressively toward those whom we in another part of our lives recognize to be genuine servants of God.</p>


text:
<p>The word of Yahweh came to me saying- This was in response to the ’coming’ of the elders in :1.</p>


text:
<p>Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their wickedness before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them?- As mentioned earlier, it is incorrect to assume that the Jews quit idolatry in Babylon. They did not; it took a few generations after the restoration for them to do so. The Jews in Babylon with Ezekiel had"their idols", and yet God perceived that the essence of their idolatry was in their heart, their mental attitude. They, like many today, would never make spiritual progress because those attitudes were a stumblingblock to them, and before their face in their mental vision was their idolatry. God would not be inquired of by those who psychologically were focused elsewhere, despite their apparent desire to hear His word. And this is why so many complain that the Bible ’does nothing’ for them and they find God somewhat unresponsive and distant. Indeed He will be, if our mental focus is upon other gods.</p>


text:
<p>Therefore speak to them, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Every man of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his wickedness before his face, and comes to the prophet; I Yahweh will answer him according to the multitude of his idols- God would not be inquired of by these people (:3) but instead would allow their core beliefs and psychological focus be their answers. They were to lay stumblingblocks before themselves; but the contemporary <a href='B:300 6:21'>Jer 6:21</a> along with <a href='B:330 3:21'>Eze 3:21</a> says that God would lay the stumblingblocks before them. He confirmed them in the path they chose. <a href='B:330 7:19'>Eze 7:19</a> defines the stumblingblock as being specifically their love of wealth. <a href='B:330 44:12'>Eze 44:12</a> says that it was the priests who caused the people to stumble upon the stumblingblocks of idols just prior to the exile. Putting this information together, we can conclude that the underlying mental, spiritual reason for their idolatry was because they thought the fertility gods would give them immediate wealth, and the avaricious priesthood encouraged the people in this. For they too stood to benefit materially from it. Although physical idols may not be our temptation in these days, the spiritual essence of idolatry as portrayed here remains; for our society is focused upon wealth, and this is the stumblingblock which blocks mental vision, it is ’before his face’, it is the idol of the majority of hearts.</p>


text:
<p>That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from Me through their idols- Israel had not become atheists nor had they formally rejected Yahweh. The elders had come to Ezekiel in order to hear God’s word. But the essence of their literal idolatry was a mental attitude by which they were estranged from God."Estranged"means literally to become as a stranger or Gentile; and they had done this through giving themselves to strange gods (<a href='B:300 3:13'>Jer 3:13</a> s:w:) and therefore they were to be taken into an estranged or strange, Gentile land (<a href='B:300 5:19'>Jer 5:19</a>). By doing so they had estranged themselves from Yahweh by as it were marrying other gods (<a href='B:330 16:32'>Eze 16:32</a> s:w:).</p>


text:
<p>Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Return and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations- Quitting the literal idols is paralleled with no longer having the psychological idols before their faces, as they had in :4. If they ’returned’ from those idols they had in Babylon, then they would be returned to Zion. They were restored, by grace, even though they didn’t return from those idols. But they refused to respond even to that initiative. The question is what we turn our faces towards, the overall direction of our lives, the passion of our hearts- rather than individuals acts of obedience or disobedience, spiritual success or failure.</p>


text:
<h4>For each one of the house of Israel or of the foreigners who live in Israel- To"live in Israel"can as well be translated"who sojourn among Israel". The context refers to Jews in Babylonian captivity, and perhaps there some Gentiles had come to ’sojourn among’ them. Perhaps they were Gentiles placed in the same camps by the Chebar river.</h4><h4>Who separates himself from Me, and takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire for himself of Me; I Yahweh will answer him by myself- There was to be no response from Ezekiel; God would answer these people directly by condemning them. The words of the ’answer’ in :8 are in fact quotations from the law of Moses about the punishment for idolatry, so the idea may be that God will not give any fresh answer as He has already answered in His word. But the LXX has"I the Lord will answer him, according to the things wherein he is entangled". The answer would be from their idols, and they would follow that answer to their condemnation. Their ’inquiry’, coming to a prophet like Ezekiel, was at variance with the fact they had separated themselves from God by their mental fixation upon other gods. They ’came to’ God externally, when they had gone away from Him and separated themselves from Him. Such contradictions are common amongst those who are solely religious and not spiritual.</h4>


text:
<h4>I will set My face against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb- This is a quotation from <a href='B:30 20:3'>Lev 20:3</a>; <a href='B:30 20:6'>Lev 20:6</a> about what should be done to those in Israel who worshipped idols. Clearly literal idolatry was going on amongst the exiles, although the essence of idolatry is within the mind, as the preceding verses made clear. See on :7.</h4><h4>And I will cut him off from the midst of My people; and you shall know that I am Yahweh- Being cut off from God’s people is a common threat in the law of Moses. It could mean premature death by direct Divine intervention, or at least having no descendants; or that God would remove the person from the book of life; or it may solely refer to condemnation at the last day. We note from the Leviticus passages which speak about this that it is always God who removes members from His people; and not some disciplinary process amongst the person’s brethren and fellow believers. This sets an important precedent for the church today, who have no power to excommunicate anybody from the body of true believers.</h4>


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<p>If the prophet is deceived when he speaks a word, I, Yahweh, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand on him, and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel- Angels can give those who are closing heir minds to the clear truth of the word the temptation to believe wrong things, in a similar way to which God through the Angels hardened Pharaoh’s heart as a result of his own already hardened heart, and also were a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab’s prophets in 1 Kings 22. Jeremiah says that"O LORD Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived (mg. ’enticed’)"(<a href='B:300 20:7'>Jer 20:7</a>); although Jeremiah was not actually deceived in the prophecy he was given, it seems that he sensed there was a possibility that he had been, which is backed up by the Ezekiel reference. In &nbsp; <a href='B:110 22:22'>1Ki 22:22</a>, the Angels made the false prophets of Ahab to prophesy falsely. This fact is picked up in the New Testament by Paul saying it was possible for an Angel from Heaven to preach a wrong Gospel to them (<a href='B:550 1:8'>Gal 1:8</a>). If it was fundamentally impossible for an Angel to do this, why does Paul say it? See on <a href='B:600 2:2'>2Th 2:2</a>; <a href='B:610 4:1'>1Ti 4:1</a>; <a href='B:290 19:13-14'>Isa 19:13-14</a>; Ezekiel 20; <a href='B:690 4:1'>1Jn 4:1</a>.</p>


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<h4>They shall bear their wickedness- To carry sin means to bear and experience condemnation for sin. In this sense the Lord Jesus carried our sins; His death was a representative death for all those in Him. And thereby the punishment for our sins, death, was carried by Him in His death"for us". Unique amongst men, the Lord did not sin, and therefore was raised from that death, and thereby becomes the path to death and resurrection for all who in faith are baptized into Him and abide in the spirit of His death and resurrection.</h4><h4>The wickedness of the prophet shall be even as the wickedness of him who seeks him- It was not simply that the people were innocent and had been misled by the false prophets. There was an unconscious mutuality between people and false prophet; for the prophet said what he knew the people wanted to hear, and they came to him for confirmation in their evil way. Therefore all sectors of society were punished.</h4>


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<p>That the house of Israel may go no more astray from Me, neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be My people, and I may be their God, says the Lord Yahweh- The Divine intention was that Israel would never again go astray because the false prophets and influences were to be destroyed. But they did; the intended restoration and reestablishment of God’s Kingdom in Israel didn’t happen as it could have done. Being God’s people and His being their God is the language of covenant relationship; a new covenant was offered to the exiles, but for the most part they refused it.</p>


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<p>Son of man, when a land sins against Me by committing a trespass and I stretch out My hand on it, and break the staff of its bread and send famine on it and cut off from it man and animal- This is one of a series of allusions in this section to the curses for breaking the covenant in Leviticus 26. The connections are:"trespass"= <a href='B:30 26:40'>Lev 26:40</a>; ’breaking the staff of bread’ = <a href='B:30 26:26'>Lev 26:26</a>;"wild animals"(:15) = <a href='B:30 26:22'>Lev 26:22</a>; animals depopulating the land (:15) = <a href='B:30 26:22'>Lev 26:22</a>; cutting off man and animal (:13,17,19) = <a href='B:30 26:22'>Lev 26:22</a>; the land desolate (:16) = <a href='B:30 26:33'>Lev 26:33</a>; a sword upon the land (:17) = <a href='B:30 26:25'>Lev 26:25</a>; the sword passing through the land (:17) = <a href='B:30 26:6'>Lev 26:6</a>; the plague (:19) = <a href='B:30 26:25'>Lev 26:25</a>; the four judgments of :21 = <a href='B:30 26:21-22'>Lev 26:21-22</a>. The old covenant was broken, by Israel; and this paves the way for God’s offer of a totally new covenant to them in Ezekiel 20 and elsewhere. Had they built and operated the temple system as commanded in Ezekiel 40-48, they would thereby have accepted the terms of that new covenant; which was markedly different to the law of Moses.</p>


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<h4>Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would save only their own lives by their righteousness, says the Lord Yahweh- For the sake of our prayers, in some cases sins of others can be forgiven when otherwise they wouldn’t be; see on <a href='B:480 2:5'>Mar 2:5</a>&nbsp; For the sake of our conversion of our erring brethren, they can be saved from eternal death and have their sins covered. The Lord’s prayer says as much- we ask God to forgive us our &nbsp;sins; not ‘me my sins’. Likewise only once Israel had passed a certain level of sinfulness was Jeremiah told to cease prayer for them (<a href='B:300 7:16'>Jer 7:16</a> cp. 11:14). Until that point, God seems to have been willing to read Jeremiah’s prayer for them as their prayer (his “cry” was seen as theirs). And <a href='B:330 14:14'>Eze 14:14</a>; <a href='B:330 14:18'>Eze 14:18</a> imply the same- Noah, Daniel and Job could have delivered Israel up to a certain point, but they were so hardened in sin at Ezekiel’s time that even those men wouldn’t have saved a nation which otherwise, for a lower level of sin as it were, they could otherwise have saved. If we have any grain of love in us, we will likewise dedicate ourselves to fervent prayer for our brethren, seeing it does have effect and validity within certain boundaries.</h4><h4>Daniel was contemporary with Ezekiel and would have been known for his deliverance of his friends. But he is not named chronologically last. The order of mention is therefore significant. Noah saved his three sons and their wives; Daniel saved somewhat fewer, just his three friends; but Job could not save his own sons and daughters.</h4>


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<p>If I cause evil animals to pass through the land and they ravage it and it be made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of the animals- See on :13. The"If I cause::."suggests that the judgments in mind were still potential; they could have been averted by the repentance of the exiles.</p>


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<p>Though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate- The emphasis perhaps is upon those three men being"in it", within the land. The idea seems to be that even if such righteous men were found within the land of Judah, they could not avert the judgments planned- but the repentance of the exiles with Ezekiel could do so. This would be in line with the implications of this noted so far throughout the prophecy. This was why Ezekiel was telling the captives in Babylon in such detail about the fate of Jerusalem and the Jews still in the land. The exiles could affect the potential outcomes for that group by their repentance.</p>


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<p>Or if I bring a sword on that land and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off from it man and animal- See on :13. As noted on :15, the"If::."suggests that this level of destruction was still not concretely decided upon. And indeed it seems that God did to some extent relent. For not all men and animals were cut off. There is archaeological evidence that agricultural activity continued in Palestine after the sacking of Jerusalem. Indeed, the inhabitants brought grain offerings to the site of the temple (<a href='B:300 41:5'>Jer 41:5</a>).</p>


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<p>Though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only should be delivered themselves- I suggested on :16 that the emphasis perhaps is upon those three men being"in it", within the land. The idea seems to be that even if such righteous men were found within the land of Judah, they could not avert the judgments planned- but the repentance of the exiles with Ezekiel could do so.</p>


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<p>Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out My anger on it in blood, to cut off from it man and animal- See on :13. As noted on :15, the"If::."suggests that this level of destruction was still not concretely decided upon. And indeed it seems that God did to some extent relent. For not all men and animals were cut off. There is archaeological evidence that agricultural activity continued in Palestine after the sacking of Jerusalem. Indeed, the inhabitants brought grain offerings to the site of the temple (<a href='B:300 41:5'>Jer 41:5</a>).</p>


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<p>Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, they would save neither son nor daughter; they would save only their own lives by their righteousness- I suggested on :16 that the emphasis perhaps is upon those three men being"in it", within the land. The idea seems to be that even if such righteous men were found within the land of Judah, they could not avert the judgments planned- but the repentance of the exiles with Ezekiel could do so. It is worth noting that Ezekiel spells"Daniel"slightly differently to how the word occurs elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. Some have suggested a reference to the king Daniel mentioned in Ugaritic texts who was famed for his wisdom. But the context of saving others by personal righteousness seems to point to the Biblical Daniel.</p>


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<p>For thus says the Lord Yahweh: How much more when I send My four severe judgments on Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and savage animals, and the plague, to cut off from it man and animal!- See on :13. These are four similar judgements to those ministered by the four living creatures in Revelation 6 and by the four Angel chariots of Zechariah 6. There is reason to think that these creatures and chariots represent Angels; so it is worth speculating that whenever a group of four judgements are mentioned, there is a reference to the four cherubim Angels bringing them. <a href='B:330 5:15-17'>Eze 5:15-17</a> mentions the same four judgements as 14:21, and describes them as"the evil arrows"sent by God- His"Angels of evil"(<a href='B:230 78:49'>Psa 78:49</a>)? The context in Ezekiel 14 is God saying that even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in the land, they would not stop the judgements coming (v. 14,20). This seems to be directly referring to the Angels deciding to bring their judgements on Sodom (which typifies Jerusalem- <a href='B:290 1:10'>Isa 1:10</a>) despite a handful of righteous being there (<a href='B:10 18:24'>Gen 18:24</a>). It is even possible that the"noisome beasts"of <a href='B:330 14:15'>Eze 14:15</a> which were to spoil the land in judgement are the four beasts/ living creatures of Daniel 7 controlling the various nations used to execute these judgements.</p>


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<p>Yet, behold, therein shall be left a few who shall be carried forth, both sons and daughters. They shall come forth to you, and you shall see their way and their doings; and you shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought on it- The prophetic message to the exiles was"Comfort My people!"(<a href='B:290 40:1'>Isa 40:1</a>). Yet this comfort is that spoken of here in <a href='B:330 14:22-23'>Eze 14:22-23</a>, where we read that the exiles would be comforted when they recognized the evil of Judah’s ways and recognized that the judgment upon her had been just. But Isaiah 40 appears to be a message of unconditional comfort to the exiles- without specifically demanding their repentance. But even then, they still failed to accept it and respond; they preferred to stay in Babylon.</p>


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<p>They shall comfort you, when you see their way and their doings; and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, says the Lord Yahweh- The arrival of the final group of exiles was intended to elicit repentance in the group who were already there. They were intended to quit their position that the land and people of God were suffering unjustly, and to be provoked thereby to repentance. And yet they didn’t. God has so many potential plans and hopes for us His people which don’t come about. This is the greatest tragedy of the cosmos; and yet we who do seek to respond, albeit in weakness, are therefore His special joy.</p>


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<p>Son of man, what is the vine plant more than any tree, the vine-branch which is among the trees of the forest?- The false prophets, who are the subject of the previous chapter, had argued that Jerusalem was somehow inviolate, it would be a cauldron protecting them from the fire of Babylonian judgment; and Judah were God’s special people whom He would not allow to be totally destroyed. The same misplaced argument is used by some Christians today who seem to think that Israel is indestructible and ultimately inviolate. But the prophetic words of judgment for sin and disbelief did and will come true. The vine, clearly a symbol of Israel, was not of itself better than any of the other Gentile nations,"the trees of the forest". They were chosen by grace alone, and not because of their goodness or peculiar ability to do work for God (:3).</p>


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<p>Shall wood be taken of it to make any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?- <a href='B:520 3:12'>Rom 3:12</a> speaks of how there is “none that does good”- the Greek word essentially means profitable, useful. The contrast is with how we are all become “unprofitable”- none is profitable to God. It’s not that nobody ever does any good deed; rather the idea is that we are like the vine tree, not useful of ourselves to God (<a href='B:330 15:2-6'>Eze 15:2-6</a>) unless He justifies us and makes us useful in His service. The word for"pin"is often used of the pins or nails which held the tabernacle together. Ezra uses the same word for"pin"to describe how the returned exiles were only a"pin"in the sanctuary by utter grace alone (<a href='B:150 9:8'>Ezr 9:8</a>). Vine wood of itself is not strong nor reliable. And so we are within God’s purpose, His sanctuary. Only by grace and Divine patience are we used, as parents may delegate a task to very small children who likely will not perform it as required.</p>


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<p>See, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire has devoured both its ends, and its midst is burned. Is it profitable for any work?- The fire of final Babylonian judgment had not yet fully come. The ends of the vine wood nail had been burnt by the previous invasions, and now"its midst", Jerusalem and the temple, were to be burnt. But the judgment had as good as come, so sure is God’s word of fulfilment. Vines are not profitable for"work"; only for fruit. And that fruit of the spirit was lacking.</p>


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<p>Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work. How much less, when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned, shall it yet be of any use!- There in Babylon they the one time dwellers in Jerusalem (:6) were as the vine tree, burned up and fit for no work; and yet, still used to perform God’s work, by grace alone. And these men were truly types of us, saved by grace and not works. It would seem impossible that a charred piece of vine wood could be useful for anything; but this was God’s purpose, to use the apparently useless to reestablish His Kingdom in the land. The allusion is to God’s manifestation in the burning bush, similar wood to that of the vine tree; and the bush was burnt but not"devoured"(<a href='B:20 3:2'>Exo 3:2</a> s:w:).</p>


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<p>Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: As the vine plant among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem- The vine wood nail is described as already burnt in :4, so certain was God’s word of fulfilment; but here, that final burning is yet future. We need to give due weight to the fact that God’s words of judgment are as good as done. The prophetic word in Jeremiah’s mouth was like fire, and it was the people who were to be"devoured"by it (<a href='B:330 15:5'>Eze 15:5</a>; s:w. <a href='B:300 5:14'>Jer 5:14</a>; <a href='B:300 17:27'>Jer 17:27</a>; <a href='B:300 21:14'>Jer 21:14</a>). The amazing grace explained in Ezekiel 15 was in the fact that the ’devoured by fire’ vine twig would be refined in Babylon and still used by God to reestablish His Kingdom.</p>


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<p>I will set My face against them; they shall go forth from the fire, but the fire shall devour them; and you shall know that I am Yahweh, when I set My face against them- A vine twig or nail would be easily burnt up. The preservation of this charred twig was by grace alone; see on :3. But perhaps the idea is as in the Lord’s parable of the vine in John 15. Some fruitless branches were cut off by the vinedresser so that better fruit would be brought forth on other branches. The hope was that the cutting off of Jerusalem would bring forth spiritual fruit in the exilesalready in Babylon. But this didn’t happen, and so the Lord in John 15 reapplies that figure to all believers in Him who shall bring forth the required fruit.</p>


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<p>I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, says the Lord Yahweh- And yet by grace, the land was not totally desolated. See on <a href='B:330 5:10'>Eze 5:10</a>; <a href='B:330 11:15'>Eze 11:15</a>.</p>


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<p>Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations- Perhaps Ezekiel gave some of his prophecies in Jerusalem and others to the community of captives in Babylon, being transported between them by the cherubim. Or maybe the prophecies were taken to Jerusalem and read there. But <a href='B:450 2:7'>Zec 2:7</a> addresses the exiled community as"Zion who dwells in Babylon"(<a href='B:450 2:7'>Zec 2:7</a>). They were the daughter of Zion, and should have returned there and had Zion in their hearts rather than Babylon. As Ezekiel 18 makes clear, the captives considered they had done nothing wrong, and God was judging Judah too harshly. So they needed the conviction of sin which powerfully follows in this prophecy.</p>


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<h4>And say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Jerusalem: Your birthplace is in the land of the Canaanite; the Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite- The idea seems to be that the Jews were [and are] quite wrong to claim that they were ethnically different from the surrounding nations, and thereby enjoyed Yahweh’s special protection and interest. The Jews were not ethnically pure; Ephraim and Manasseh were half Egyptian, and they had a long history of intermarriage. They were chosen as God’s special people by grace, beloved for their fathers’ sakes, and not because God for some reason took a liking to their genetic structure. And morally they had acted no better than the Canaanite tribes, indeed they had done worse:&nbsp; They shared the same low moral culture; they were as Amorites and Hittites. And they were cast out of the land for their wickedness (<a href='B:10 15:16'>Gen 15:16</a>). Judah now could expect the same. Jerusalem or Jebus was originally a Canaanite city; for this prophecy is specifically about Jerusalem. She was born as an Israelite city out of Canaan, as it were, and her subsequent immorality showed that she continued the similarities. She had not been reborn of the Spirit as God had intended.</h4><h4>The Jews would immediately have been provoked by Ezekiel’s claim that their parents were not Abraham and Sarah, but a nameless Amorite and a Hittite woman, one of the"daughters of Heth"so spiritually despised by Rebekah. This was how they had acted; they lacked the faith of Abraham and Sarah and so were not their children. The Lord used a similar approach in claiming that the Jews were not the true seed of Abraham because they refused to accept his seed.</h4>


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<p>As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not tied neither were you washed in water to cleanse you; you weren’t salted at all, nor swaddled at all- Ezekiel defines Jerusalem’s"birth"as of Canaan, whereas the Jews would naturally have considered it more appropriate to trace their origins of birth to Abraham. But they lacked Abraham’s faith and spirituality and therefore they were likened to the Canaanites rather than Abraham when it came to origin and characteristic. This kind of intentionally shocking language and reasoning is to continue throughout this chapter. The lack of care for the newborn Israel suggests that those who ought to have cared for her, did not. And their lack of care was shocking. This speaks of how the priestly classes had not cared for Israel. It was God who had Himself cared for them.</p>


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<h4>No eye pitied you to do any of these things to you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open desert, because your existence was despised in the day that you were born-&nbsp; Moses is set up as example and representative of his people Israel. Israel is likened in <a href='B:330 16:5'>Eze 16:5</a> to a child rejected at birth, but miraculously found and cared for, and brought up with every pampered blessing. Just as Moses was. Stephen described the ‘putting out’ of Moses with the same word used in the LXX for what happened to Israel in Ezekiel 16 (<a href='B:510 7:21'>Act 7:21</a>; <a href='B:20 2:3'>Exo 2:3</a> LXX). But the casting out of the unwanted child into the"open desert"recalls Hagar and Ishmael. As noted on :3, there was no reason to think that Israel were better than Ishmael. The seed was"called"in Isaac, but that was by grace alone; for Ishmael was as much the seed of Abraham as was Isaac, according to the flesh.</h4><h4>The LXX suggests that the reason why the parents of this sad baby weren’t interested in it was because it was born deformed. It was usual to cast away a clearly deformed child:"Thou wast cast out on the face of the field, because of the deformity of thy person, in the day wherein thou wast born".</h4>


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<p>When I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, Though you are in your blood, live; yes, I said to you, Though you are in your blood, live- The newborn deformed child (:5 LXX) was wallowing or ’squirming’ in its birth blood, apparently choking to death in it- cast out to die. And God had mercy when nobody else would, and saved it. God had the power to give life to that dying, deformed child. And He could breathe His Spirit into the dead bones of the exiles and likewise make them"live", as described in Ezekiel 36. He can bring beauty and usefulness to Him out of nothing, just as explained in the story of the charred vine wood in Ezekiel 15. He shows a grace nobody else would show, not even a mother to her newborn child. That perhaps is why at times we have trouble understanding and believing it- because it is beyond our human experience. Our greatest experience of love was that of our mother at birth. But God’s love is here portrayed as far exceeding that.</p>


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<p>I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent beauty; your breasts were fashioned, and your hair was grown; yet you were naked and bare- God never forgot their pathetic beginnings, and He wished them never to forget them either. Jacob entered Egypt with 70 people, but multiplied very rapidly there. If we ask what it was that was attractive about Israel, it was her religion. For the items of beautification mentioned are all allusive to the tabernacle. This deformed at birth&nbsp; woman was made strangely beautiful by God, so much so that He married her.</p>


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<h4>Now when I passed by you and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread My skirt over you, and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord Yahweh, and you became Mine- This was the covenant at Sinai which was originally offered to them in Egypt (<a href='B:330 20:5'>Eze 20:5</a>). Time and again God’s love made Him re-think and alter His plans. <a href='B:330 20:9-10'>Eze 20:9-10</a> explains that God intended to destroy Israel in Egypt because of their idolatry, and so He decided to bring them out into the wilderness and destroy them there so as not to do it in Egypt and give the Egyptians a reason to mock Him. And yet according to Jeremiah and <a href='B:330 16:5-10'>Eze 16:5-10</a>, it was in the wilderness that God fell in love with Israel and gave them His covenant. He is attracted to us so easily; hence His anger when we abuse this and disappoint Him. To spread the garment over was a sign of betrothal and care, as done by Boaz to Ruth.</h4><h4>The covenant is described as being made in Egypt (<a href='B:330 20:5'>Eze 20:5</a>) to heighten the similarity with the exiles now in Babylon, who were being offered a new covenant, and then the possibility of leaving Babylon / Egypt and entering the land again.</h4>


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<p>Then washed I you with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil- This suggests the anointing of the priests. Perhaps the group known as"Jerusalem"here particularly refers to the priesthood, who along with the royal family were to be taken into captivity and judged so severely for their failures towards God’s people. But there may also be an allusion to marital rites involving washing and anointing with oil such as in <a href='B:80 3:3'>Rth 3:3</a>; the day before the wedding is described in the Ur Excavation Texts 5:636 as a"day of bathing". The washing away of blood would then refer to menstrual blood, or perhaps the bleeding after the first act of intercourse. But what the bride usually did to herself, God did to her, in this metaphor. All through, we see God taking the initiative, ever seeking to force through His love for the bride whilst she was at least vaguely willing to go through with it. And this God is our God, not passively waiting for us to jump various bars or reach certain levels before He shows any interest in us. Israel were commanded to wash their clothes before entering the covenant at Sinai, but here we read that God in fact washed them. We wonder if they were actually obedient to that commandment; but God as it were did it for them.</p>


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<p>I clothed you also with embroidered work, gave you shoes of sealskin, dressed you with fine linen, and covered you with silk- This is all the language of the tabernacle (<a href='B:20 26:36'>Exo 26:36</a>; <a href='B:20 27:16'>Exo 27:16</a>; <a href='B:20 28:39'>Exo 28:39</a>; <a href='B:20 35:35'>Exo 35:35</a>; <a href='B:20 36:37'>Exo 36:37</a>; <a href='B:20 38:18'>Exo 38:18</a>);"sealskins"are only spoken of in that context. Again the focus of the criticism is upon the priesthood and the abuse of the sanctuary for idolatry. Following on from the marriage or engagement allusion in :9, the idea was that the entire tabernacle system was in order to enable Israel to be the wife of God Himself. It was far from mere ritual for the sake of it.</p>


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<p>I beautified you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a chain on your neck- The girl had been born deformed, so badly so that her mother cast her out into the scrub to die from choking on her own birth blood (:5 LXX). She therefore had to be beautified, rather than being natural beautiful from birth. It was God who beautified her. And as noted on Ezekiel 15, there was no place for Israel to think that they were somehow born pleasing to God, that they had some genetic inheritance which He found so attractive. Their beauty to Him is presented as being of His own creation and device, rather than arising from Israel independently by nature. All this speaks of how righteousness is imputed to us in Christ, we are clothed upon with it as in the parable of the wedding garment, having nothing of ourselves but dirty rags.</p>


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<p>I put a jewel on your forehead, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head- This recalls the high priestly attire. The Jerusalem temple was beautiful to God, the desire of His eyes (<a href='B:330 7:20'>Eze 7:20</a>; <a href='B:330 24:16'>Eze 24:16</a>). She was crowned::. the queen of God Almighty. That she should turn to adultery and prostitution is to this day an unthinkable tragedy.</p>


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<p>Thus you were decked with gold and silver; and your clothing was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered work; you ate fine flour, honey and oil; and you were exceedingly beautiful, and you prospered to become a kingdom- The language so far has alluded to the tabernacle and the priesthood. It was God’s intention that all Israel should become a nation or kingdom of priests (<a href='B:20 19:5-6'>Exo 19:5-6</a>). A husband’s duty was to provide his wife with food; and God did this excellently for His priesthood. For it was they who ate the fine flour, honey and oil of the sacrifices. Ezekiel as a priest would have been keenly touched by this condemnation of the priesthood.</p>


text:
<p>Your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty; for it was perfect on account of My majesty which I had put on you, says the Lord Yahweh- The high priestly clothes were for glory and beauty (<a href='B:20 28:2'>Exo 28:2</a>). God as it were made them righteous and beautiful; He clothed them with His imputed majesty. The reference is to how the fame of Israel spread even to the queen of Sheba in Solomon’s time.</p>


text:
<p>But you trusted in your beauty and played the prostitute because of your renown, and poured out your prostitution on everyone who passed by; his it was- The beauty which they had been given was only in God’s eyes. They trusted in it in that they assumed that with such love and acceptance by God as their husband, they were free to do as they wished. This was the mentality of the false prophets of Ezekiel 14 - they were confident that whatever they did, God would not suffer Jerusalem to fall and the temple to be destroyed. The logic of the argument and metaphor here seems to suggest that the nations were attracted to Jerusalem because of her beauty, the beauty placed upon her by God, and she slept with them in worshipping their idols. Perhaps indeed the religion of Israel was attractive and fascinating to the pagan nations; it certainly was intended to be, for Israel were to be the light of the Gentile world. But instead of showing them the light, those people were welcomed into the temple and taught Israel their ways, resulting in idol worship within Yahweh’s temple.</p>


text:
<p>You took of your garments and made for yourselves high places decorated with various colours, and played the prostitute on them: such things shall not come, neither shall it be so- The"high places"were likened to prostitutes’ tents built from the garments given by God to Israel. They mixed pagan idolatry with the things connected with Yahweh worship. For those garments given alluded to the priestly garments.</p>


text:
<p>You also took your beautiful jewels of My gold and of My silver which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men and played the prostitute with them-"Images of men"is literally, phallic symbols. They took the jewels associated with the breastplate of Yahweh’s glory and turned them into models of a penis and worshipped them. Within God’s temple. This was perhaps an insight into things Ezekiel himself was unaware of, but it was part of the program of convicting Jerusalem of her sin (:2).</p>


text:
<p>And you took your embroidered garments and put them on the images, and set My oil and My incense before them- The intimate gifts which were to be part of the private commitment between husband and wife were used by this wife in order to get other men to sleep with her. This speaks of how Israel, at the hands of the priesthood, mixed Yahweh worship with idolatry. They sacrificed what was to be sacrificed to Him, to the phallic symbols and idols of :17. Again we note it was the priests who offered the incense; it is they who are particularly addressed here. It is appropriate that the appeal was made by a priest, Ezekiel.</p>


text:
<h4>My bread also which I gave you- The sacrifices are called God’s bread or food, and were given to the priesthood.</h4><p>Fine flour, and oil, and honey, with which I fed you, you even set it before them for a pleasant aroma; and thus it was, says the Lord Yahweh- The fine flour, oil etc. was what was to be offered upon Yahweh’s table, His altar. But the meal they provided there for God was actually given to them by God; He fed them with it. So the point was made that all we offer to God is only giving back to Him what He has given us (<a href='B:130 29:14'>1Ch 29:14</a>)- a powerful reason for generosity to Him.</p><h4>"Pleasant aroma"is the phrase often used for the"pleasant aroma"of sacrifices to Yahweh- three times in Exodus, seventeen in Leviticus, seventeen in Numbers. As a priest, Ezekiel would have been aware of this. But instead, they offered this to the idols (<a href='B:330 6:13'>Eze 6:13</a>). The Divine hope (see on <a href='B:330 6:9'>Eze 6:9</a>), the desperate hope of the unrequited lover for the beloved, was that a repentant remnant would realize this and then offer"pleasant aroma"again to Him alone (<a href='B:330 20:41'>Eze 20:41</a>). But they didn’t.</h4>


text:
<p>Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters whom you have borne to Me, and you have sacrificed these to them to be devoured. Was your prostitution a small matter- It was the priesthood who actually performed the sacrifices."Your sons::."become in :21"My children". Our children are His children, and we must ever remember that. The Jews became so obsessed with idol worship that they sacrificed their baby children to the idols; when Yahweh had instead taken such pity upon them, when they were an abandoned newborn baby. The devouring of their babies was to be reflected in the devouring of their land by the invaders. The intention of this gripping passage in Ezekiel 16 was to convict Jerusalem of her sins (:2); because they considered their spiritual and literal prostitution"a small matter". The same word is used in accusing the priesthood of considering it"a small matter"for the flock to have been ruined by them (<a href='B:330 34:18'>Eze 34:18</a>). This was the problem, as it is today- the real implications of attitudes and behaviour are not taken seriously. We fail to perceive how deeply we affect both God and man. Society makes us feel insignificant cogs, but we are not like that to God. This was the problem with Ezekiel’s audience; they had a light hearted approach to eternal issues. To them, sin was a light thing (<a href='B:330 8:17'>Eze 8:17</a>; <a href='B:330 22:7'>Eze 22:7</a>). This was the role of the prophets, to convict people of the gravity of their sins and positions, and the consequences to come.</p>


text:
<p>That you have slain My children and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through the fire to them?-"My children"may be a reference to circumcision, the sign of the covenant. Excavations of the Elephantine community reveal that the exiled Jews mixedYahweh and Baal worship to such an extent that they believed that Yahweh , like Baal, had a consort called Anat. Inscriptions from Quntillet Ajrud show the names Yahweh and Baal mixed together, including one which appears to speak of “Yahweh and his asherah”. &nbsp; <a href='B:330 16:21'>Eze 16:21</a> and <a href='B:330 23:39'>Eze 23:39</a> are quite specific about this anyway- Israel offered sacrifice to idols in Yahweh’s own temple.</p>


text:
<p>In all your abominations and your prostitution you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and were wallowing in your blood- To remember the days of our spiritual youth is critical; if we forget our cleansing from past sins then we lose all spiritual focus (see on <a href='B:680 1:9'>2Pe 1:9</a>):They had forgotten that they once were newborn, disabled children, abandoned to death but saved by grace. And that lack of awareness of their own frailty led them to lose all conscience in how they treated others.</p>


text:
<p>It has happened after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! says the Lord Yahweh)- All the other sins were nothing compared to the climax of their sin which :24 describes.</p>


text:
<p>That you have built for yourselves a vaulted place, and have made yourselves a high place in every street- The vaulted place refers to rooms for prostitution. These were in"every street", shrines for idol worship; but the supreme"vaulted place"was the temple, which had been turned into a centre of literal and spiritual prostitution. This"vaulted place"was to be ’thrown down’ (:39), so it clearly speaks of the temple. Ezekiel had been shown the elders worshipping the sun and idols within the temple, so it could really be that the temple had been turned into a huge brothel, all the worse for it being done in the name of Yahweh worship. Ezekiel uses this term"vaulted place"for the altar (<a href='B:330 43:13'>Eze 43:13</a> s:w:). Prostitution was often carried out before an altar; so it could be that it was being practiced actually around the altar in the temple.</p>


text:
<p>You have built your lofty place at the head of every street, and have made your beauty an abomination, and have opened your feet to everyone who passed by and multiplied your prostitution-"Opening the feet"is an allusion to a lewd gesture of a prostitute in spreading her legs wide. The crudeness is shocking to us, and it must have been far more so to the far more conservative society of Ezekiel’s time. These shock tactics were to achieve the aim expressed in :2, of getting Jerusalem [as well as the exiles already in Babylon, the primary audience] to appreciate the seriousness of what was going on.</p>


text:
<p>You have also committed sexual immorality with the Egyptians your lustful neighbours, and have multiplied your prostitution, to provoke Me to anger- Those mentioned as her partners were those with whom Jerusalem sought political alliances, rather than depending upon Yahweh. Those alliances may have been made with the agreement to worship the gods of the protecting power, as Ahaz did with the Assyrians. And those worship systems may have involved literal prostitution with women from those nations. The attempted alliance with Egypt is spoken of in <a href='B:300 2:18'>Jer 2:18</a>; <a href='B:300 2:36'>Jer 2:36</a>.</p>


text:
<p>See therefore, I have stretched out My hand over you and have diminished your allotted portion of food, and delivered you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way- We would expect God to have immediately destroyed Judah for such abominations; but He firstly just diminished their food, through the famines and lack of food that arose after the first Babylonian incursions. This"allotted portion of food"is the duty the husband had to provide food for his wife, and he was not to"diminish"it if he took another wife (s:w. <a href='B:20 21:10'>Exo 21:10</a>). But God did diminish it; He can do what we cannot, because He is not bound by His laws in a legalistic sense.</p>


text:
<p>You have played the prostitute also with the Assyrians because you were insatiable; yes, you have played the prostitute with them, and yet youweren’t satisfied- None of the political / military alliances provided Judah with what she wanted; safety from the Babylonians and confident freedom. That was only possible from Yahweh Himself. Being unsatisfied was one of the psychological curses for disobedience to the covenant (<a href='B:30 26:26'>Lev 26:26</a>); whereas eating bread"to the full", being ’satisfied’ [s:w:], was the blessing of obedience to it (<a href='B:50 6:11'>Deu 6:11</a> and often). The life of satisfying the flesh ends in dissatisfaction, at the end of a life spent ever more desperately seeking that satisfaction and never finding it. That is the great paradox. Only going God’s way leads to satisfaction.</p>


text:
<p>You have moreover multiplied your prostitution to the land of merchants, to Chaldea; and yet you weren’t satisfied with this- They had been dishonest with the Babylonians, making agreements with them, accepting their gods and pretending sole loyalty to them, whilst doing just the same with the Egyptians and Philistines; and whilst claiming they were solely devoted to Yahweh as the one and only God. As noted on :28, this in essence is the sad way of life chosen by many today.</p>


text:
<p>How weak is your heart, says the Lord Yahweh, since you do all these things, the work of an impudent prostitute- Typical of the prophets, the essence is correctly perceived as the heart, the mind. The worst idolatry and prostitution is only a reflection of the state of the heart."Weak"translates the word usually translated"languish"; the people and land were to languish physically because that was the state of their hearts (<a href='B:290 24:4'>Isa 24:4</a>; <a href='B:290 33:9'>Isa 33:9</a>; <a href='B:300 14:2'>Jer 14:2</a>). But this is where the power of God’s Spirit can transform human behaviour in practice; because the heart or spirit is of the essence.</p>


text:
<p>In that you build your vaulted place at the head of every street, and make your high place in every street, and have not been as a prostitute, in that you scorn pay- Like drug addicts, what began for personal pleasure ended up a mad obsession. Instead of being paid by her paramours, she paid them. The same degeneration into sexual addiction is portrayed in Hosea, where Gomer’s behaviour is that of Israel.</p>


text:
<p>A wife who commits adultery! Who takes strangers instead of her husband!-"Strangers"is literally ’Gentiles’. And the tragedy was that she had the best of all husbands- God Himself. The simple shock and disgust of it is shouted out in these simple words. And that is true of us if we turn to the many idols of this world, remembering the earlier observation that the idols are essentially in our hearts.</p>


text:
<p>They give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers and bribe them that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution- As suggested on :34, this payment was finally in the form of allowing the nations to have their idols in the Jerusalem temple. This was the"bribe"paid for them to offer military and political protection. And so the harlotry was not simply from the lust of the flesh; but like all sin, the essential reason was lack of faith in God.</p>


text:
<p>You are different from other women in your prostitution, in that no one follows you to play the prostitute; and whereas you give hire, and no hire is given to you, therefore you are different- The idols of Judah are described with this same word,"pay", which refers specifically to the hire of a harlot (<a href='B:400 1:7'>Mic 1:7</a>). It seems the"hire"Judah paid was in allowing the idols of the nations into the temple of Yahweh.</p>


text:
<p>Therefore, prostitute, hear the word of Yahweh- The prostitute was to be judged. This is the languageof court proceedings.</p>


text:
<p>Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your prostitution with your lovers; and because of all the idols of your abominations, and for the blood of your children that you gave to them- This repeats the complaint of <a href='B:300 2:34'>Jer 2:34</a>:"In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents". God had saved the infant Israel when she was in her blood; but she had poured out the blood of her children to the idols, totally refusing to remember God’s saving grace toward her in infanthood. We note here again the parallel between idolatry and prostitution. There was a literal connection, in that idolatry required sleeping with the cult prostitutes; but clearly the prostitution was of the heart. The open ’uncovering’ of her prostitution is in the context of this section being the court proceedings against the prostitute (see on :35)."Uncovered"is the word usually used for going into exile, as the captives were initially marched off in a state of undress. But this was to be only a reflection of what they themselves had done to themselves.</p>


text:
<p>Therefore see, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those who you have loved, with all those who you have hated; I will even gather them against you on every side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness- The metaphors used to describe the anger of God with Israel are pretty awful. Her children to be slain with thirst, she was to be stripped naked by her husband (Hosea 2), gang raped by her lovers, having her nose cut off and left a battered, bleeding mess in the scrubland (Ezekiel 16, 23), to have her skirt pulled up over her head and her nakedness revealed (<a href='B:300 13:20-27'>Jer 13:20-27</a>), wishing to pluck off her own breasts for shame (<a href='B:330 23:34'>Eze 23:34</a>). Jerusalem is to be raped, violated and humiliated, according to Ezekiel. Indeed, Ezekiel’s images verge at times on what some would consider pornographic. He speaks of the woman Israel’s pubic hair, breasts, menstrual cycle (<a href='B:330 16:7'>Eze 16:7</a>; <a href='B:330 16:10'>Eze 16:10</a>); the gang rape by her enemies which God would bring about, leaving her mutilated and humiliated (<a href='B:330 16:37'>Eze 16:37</a>; <a href='B:330 23:22-49'>Eze 23:22-49</a>); about the size of her lovers’ sexual organs and coital emissions, and how she let them fondle her breasts (<a href='B:330 23:8'>Eze 23:8</a>; <a href='B:330 23:20'>Eze 23:20</a>). This is shocking language, which perhaps we skip over in our Bible reading from sheer embarrassment- and we are modern readers brutalized by exposure to this kind of stuff in the media. For early Israel, it would all have been even more shocking. It all seemed out of proportion to having ‘merely’ made a few political alliances with Egypt and Assyria. Was that really like a wife letting other men fondle her breasts and have sex with her, admiring their bodies as she did so? Did it all have to end in such brutality and vulgarity? Today, sex and violence are what attract attention. From lyrics of songs to advertising and movies, that’s clear enough. And the prophets are using the same tactics to arrest Israel’s attention, all the more so because nudity and sex were things simply not up for public discussion. There’s an anxiety which any talk about sex seems to arouse in us, and it was the prophets’ intention to make us likewise get on the edge of our seats, anxious, rapt, sensitive for the next word… realizing that really and truly, this is what human sin does to God. The outrageous sex talk was to bring out how outrageous and obscene are our sins and unfaithfulness to the covenant we cut with God in baptism.</p>


text:
<p>I will judge you, as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy- Such women were destroyed by stoning, and the Babylonians catapulted stones at Jerusalem, and the burnt her with fire as a whore was to be destroyed. Let’s remember that God’s own law was pretty clear about adultery. The adulterous woman was to be punished with death- for one act of adultery. Even if she repented. And in any case, it was a defiling abomination [according to the Mosaic Law] to remarry a divorced wife. But Hosea doesn’t keep the law. He lets his wife commit multiple acts of adultery, and he still loves her and pleads with her- even though he was a man in love withGod’s law. And this reflects the turmoil of God in dealing with human sin, and His sinful people. Hosea outlines his plan in Hosea 2. He will hamper her movements so she can’t find her lovers; if she does find them, he will take away her food and clothing, so she appreciates his generosity to her; and if she still doesn’t return, he will expose her naked and shamed in front of her lovers. But there’s no evidence Hosea ever did that. He just… loved her, was angry with her as an expression of that love, loved her yet more, yet more… And this perhaps too reflects God’s mind- devising and declaring judgments for Israel, which are themselves far less than what He has earlier stated in His own law, and yet the power of His love means He somehow keeps bearing with His people. Even in the context of speaking of His marriage to Israel, God says that He will punish them "as women that break wedlock are judged". And yet, He didn’t. His love was too great, His passion for them too strong; and He even shamed Himself by doing what His own law forbad, the remarriage to a divorced and defiled wife. Perhaps all love involves a degree of paradox and self-contradiction; and a jealous, Almighty God in love was no different. This, to me, is why some Bible verses indicate God has forsaken Israel; and others imply He hasn’t and never will. Somehow, even right now, the Jews you meet… are loved still by their God. And he still fantasizes, in a way, over their return to Him. Imagine His utter joy when even one of them does in fact turn to Him! That alone motivates me to preach to Israel today.</p>


text:
<h4>I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your vaulted place, and break down your lofty places- As noted on :24, the temple had become a fornication chamber, both literally and spiritually, in that idols were worshipped there. This was to be done by the very lovers whom she had given gifts to- the Babylonians.</h4><h4>And they shall strip you of your clothes, and take your beautiful jewels; and they shall leave you naked and bare- The connection is with how the infant Israel as a disabled child had been thrown out unwanted, naked and bare to die in the wasteland (:4-6). Now she was to return to that state. The symbols of her religion were to be taken away from her; she had broken the covenant with her God, and He was going to ensure that the symbols of that covenant were taken away. Hence the ark disappeared at that time. And yet as at the first, God was going to take pity upon her, in that there was the hope of restoration to beauty for the naked, bare and bleeding exiled community. A new covenant was being prepared to replace the one that was now broken. But yet again, they despised and abused that grace.</h4>


text:
<h4>They shall also bring up a company against you- The same words for"bring up a company against you"are used of how Babylon shall be destroyed (<a href='B:300 50:9'>Jer 50:9</a>). What was done to Israel by Babylon would be done to Babylon, as we find in Revelation.</h4><h4>And they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords- Prostitutes were to be slain by stoning, and here we are reading the legal judgment against a prostitute (see on :35). But thrusting through with the sword was not stipulated in the law of Moses. This reflects the anger of the nations against Judah. That anger was surely because she had promised sole loyalty to each of them, and instead they found she was saying the same to others too, and her temple was full of various idols and not only theirs. This would explain their particular wrath against the temple.</h4>


text:
<p>They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will cause you to cease from playing the prostitute, and you shall also give no hire any more- We expect to read that the prostitute has been stoned to death. But although that was to be the case, we have the implication in these words that somehow the prostitute still lives, but she will not again be a prostitute or hire lovers. This was God’s hope for the remnant of His people; and they would never again leave Him, the covenant they would enter with Him was to be"eternal"in that they would never break it and neither therefore would He. But this was not to be, and finally God has to take another wife, the Gentiles, and start over. After so much effort to make it work with Israel. See on :43.</p>


text:
<p>So will I cause My wrath toward you to rest, and My jealousy shall depart from you, and I will be quiet and will be no more angry- The cessation, accomplishment or resting of God’s wrath is mentioned several times in Ezekiel, and nowhere else in this way (<a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a>; <a href='B:330 6:12'>Eze 6:12</a>; <a href='B:330 7:8'>Eze 7:8</a>; <a href='B:330 13:15'>Eze 13:15</a>; <a href='B:330 16:42'>Eze 16:42</a>; Eze 208; <a href='B:330 21:17'>Eze 21:17</a>; <a href='B:330 22:20'>Eze 22:20</a>; <a href='B:330 24:13'>Eze 24:13</a>). The idea is not that God was so angry that He had to express that anger and only calmed down once He had as it were lashed out. He does have real wrath; the huge love He has cannot exist in a dimensionless vacuum, it of itself implies He also has wrath. <a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a> continues:"I will cause My wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted", and the Hebrew there for"comforted"is literally ’to sigh’, to be sorry, even to repent / change. Having expressed His legitimate anger, God knew that He would then be sorry and would then embark upon a process of restoration- by grace. For the objects of His wrath didn’t deserve any restoration."To rest"is the word translated"to place"in <a href='B:330 37:14'>Eze 37:14</a>:"I shall place you in your own land"at the restoration from captivity. His wrath had to be expressed, and yet it was part of His wider purpose toward restoring His people and Kingdom. We would be quite wrong, therefore, to read these words as meaning that God was furiously angry and needed to lash out and get it all expressed so that He could as it were calm down again. His judgments are always ultimately constructive, and therefore"the wrath of God is the love of God". His wrath is therefore described in <a href='B:330 5:15'>Eze 5:15</a> as the rebuke of His fury / wrath; it was intended to rebuke, to achieve instruction, that they should ’know Yahweh’. The tragedy was that the captives for the most part refused to perceive it this way and respond.</p>


text:
<h4>Because you have not remembered the days of your youth- This is a repeated criticism of them. They had not remembered the utter grace shown to them, the abandoned, disabled newborn child (see on :5). It is a clear reminder to ourselves never to forget God’s grace to us and to ever be awed by it.</h4><p>But have raged against Me in all these things- The real sense of the Hebrew is that they had made God rage by"all these things"; and the word means to shake with rage. The God of such love and grace is going to have another pole to that grace; and His anger is fearsome. Yet they treated their sins lightly; see on :20. But that lighthearted attitude produced quaking in rage within Almighty God. This is how sensitive He is. It’s not that He is so far distant that the behaviour of a few bags of water and dust on this planet cannot really touch Him. He is touched, both positively and negatively, to the very core of His almighty being.</p><h4>Therefore, behold, I also will bring your way on your head, says the Lord Yahweh: and you shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations- As noted on :41, it was not that they would simply be punished by death. There was the hope within God that somehow a phoenix would arise, the dead bones would come together again, and they would not in future commit this lewdness.</h4>


text:
<p>Behold, everyone who uses proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter- The Jews proudly considered themselves the children of Sarah (<a href='B:290 51:2'>Isa 51:2</a>). But as explained on :3, God had purposefully subverted that idea by saying that their behaviour displayed the characteristics of their Hittite mother. Clearly even at this stage, fleshly descent meant nothing to God; His people were defined by spiritual characteristics and not those of the flesh.</p>


text:
<p>You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite- The implication could be that as Jerusalem hated Yahweh her husband, so the Hittites and Amorites had. Perhaps they too had had the opportunity of relationship with God and yet had turned away from it to their gods. And Jerusalem had now turned to the same gods from the same one true God. They would never said that they hated or loathed God nor their children; but the prophets see to the essence of what is implied by our attitudes and positions. Their sacrifice of their children to the idols was likely done with pangs of sorrow rather than loathing of those children; but God read it as loathing their own children. None of us are merely caught up the flow of life and situations, victims of circumstantial ethics. We can make some concrete election.</p>


text:
<h4>Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your lefthand, she and her daughters-"Daughters"may refer to the towns around (as <a href='B:40 21:25'>Num 21:25</a> Heb:).</h4><h4>And your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters- Sodom is seen as Judah’s sister in that Lot’s children, Moab and Ammon, were born near Sodom and were thus identified with it. The Orientals faced the East in marking the directions of the sky; thus, the North was"left,"the South"right".</h4>


text:
<h4>Yet have you not walked in their ways, nor done after their abominations- This could be quoting the words of the false prophets. The claim is to be utterly deconstructed.</h4><h4>But, as if that were a very little thing, you were more corrupt than they in all your ways- As noted on :20, they considered their sins to be little things; and yet they made God tremble with rage (see on :43). We too can so easily shrug off sin as mere surface level behaviour, when in fact it touches the heart of God Himself. Judah was more corrupt than Israel (Samaria, the ten tribes), and yet they went into captivity well before Judah did. This of itself reflects God’s special grace, and yet that grace was so abused by them to self-righteously consider Israel to be so far worse than themselves.</h4>


text:
<p>As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters-"As I live"is a strong term; God is insistent that the sins of Judah were worse than those of Sodom. The sexual perversions of Sodom were nothing compared to those of Judah, both literally and in the sense that Judah were so unfaithful to God. The children of Sodom could refer to Moab and Ammon (:49) or to the cities around her. But God’s grace in being patient with Judah had been so far greater. The connection with Sodom may imply that there was also the possibility of the salvation of Jerusalem for the sake of the intercession of a tiny minority.</p>


text:
<p>Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy- I suggested that"Sodom"is put for Moab and Ammon the sons of Lot who were born near there, and who were therefore as it were the brothers of the seed of Abraham. They too were proud (<a href='B:290 16:6'>Isa 16:6</a>; <a href='B:300 49:4'>Jer 49:4</a>) and refused to help the needy (<a href='B:290 16:3-4'>Isa 16:3-4</a>; <a href='B:300 48:27'>Jer 48:27</a>). The"fullness of bread"in Sodom was due to the fertile land there (<a href='B:10 13:10'>Gen 13:10</a>). The obvious sin of Sodom was sexual sin, but this singular"iniquity"was seen through by the Divine analysis to its core- which was pride, prosperity, self-focus and laziness. Rome and other societies have likewise been led by these things into gross sexual sin, just as western society has been today.</p>


text:
<p>They were proud and committed sexual abomination before Me: therefore I took them away as I saw good-"Before Me"recalls the comment that the men of Sodom were"sinners before the Lord"(<a href='B:10 13:13'>Gen 13:13</a>)."As I saw good"refers to how God"saw"their sin and responded appropriately to it (<a href='B:10 18:21'>Gen 18:21</a>).</p>


text:
<p>Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you have done- This quotes <a href='B:300 3:11'>Jer 3:11</a>. The sinful ten tribes were even made to appear righteous, justified, by the gross sins of Judah. Again this is an example of how the Bible describes things as they might appear from a human perspective; for Samaria was not righteous. God had a special love and grace for Judah; for they were not destroyed until well after Samaria. And they abused that grace.</p>


text:
<h4>You also bear you your own shame, in that you have given judgment for your sisters; through your sins that you have committed more abominable than they- Judah judged Samaria and Sodom in judging them as sinners, thinking they had therefore been punished. So often we see this- sinners are wont to harshly condemn other sinners. This is because they unconsciously transfer their conscience of their sins to others, and punish them withthe punishment they realize subconsciously that they also deserve.</h4><h4>They are more righteous than you: yes, be also confounded, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters- This is typical of how the Bible presents things as they seem to secular man; she was not righteous, but appeared that way. Yet the fact she was not actually righteous but just seemed so is not footnoted, just as there is no footnote attached to the usage of the language of demons in the NT.</h4>


text:
<p>I will turn again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captives in their midst- The vision was that the daughters of Sodom, which I suggested above were Moab and Ammon, along with the ten tribes, would return from captivity along with Judah. They had all been taken captive by Assyria or Babylon, and the prophetic vision was that the Gentiles would return with a repentant Judah and Israel; all racial and interpersonal divisions would be overcome by a common experience of grace, forgiveness and the bonds of the new covenant. But instead of repenting, the restored exiles of Judah became arrogant and exclusive towards others.</p>


text:
<h4>That you may bear your own shame, and may be ashamed because of all that you have done- Shame for sin is a major theme with Ezekiel. The days of shame would come to an end (<a href='B:330 16:54'>Eze 16:54</a>; <a href='B:330 34:29'>Eze 34:29</a>; <a href='B:330 36:15'>Eze 36:15</a>; <a href='B:330 39:26'>Eze 39:26</a>)- if Jerusalem accepted shame for her sins. But <a href='B:330 44:13'>Eze 44:13</a> says that the sins of the Jerusalem priesthood were such that in the restored temple, they would bear their shame in that they would never again minister in it. Likewise the Jewish priesthood who persecuted Jeremiah at this time were to bear a shame that would last for ever (<a href='B:300 20:11'>Jer 20:11</a>). And yet the hope of Israel was that they would eternally be unashamed, world without end (<a href='B:290 45:17'>Isa 45:17</a>). The resolution of this may be in God’s willingness to count them totally righteous by grace, upon their repentance. And Ezra"blushed"[s:w."ashamed"] because of Israel’s sins (<a href='B:150 9:6'>Ezr 9:6</a>), and Jeremiah at this time cast himself down in shame because of them (<a href='B:300 3:25'>Jer 3:25</a>). This representative intercession for Judah had some effect. Just as the Lord Jesus bore the shame of Israel and all sinners on the cross (<a href='B:290 50:6'>Isa 50:6</a>), and yet because of that He would not be ashamed eternally (<a href='B:290 50:7'>Isa 50:7</a>). He was to become representative of the repentant Israel of God; for the same words are used of how they too would have unashamed faces eternally (<a href='B:290 54:4'>Isa 54:4</a>). But the Jerusalem priesthood refused to take shame, they were unashamed of their whoredoms (<a href='B:300 3:3'>Jer 3:3</a>; <a href='B:300 8:12'>Jer 8:12</a>). Ezekiel’s appeal in Ezekiel 16 was so that they would recognize their sins, and be ashamed (<a href='B:330 16:2'>Eze 16:2</a>). There was time for them to do so right up until they were led captive, in the final attempt to make them realize their shame. For when they went into captivity, then God intended that they would be"ashamed"(<a href='B:300 22:22'>Jer 22:22</a>). The final vision of Ezekiel, of the potential that was possible in a restored Zion, was in order to make the exiles ashamed of their sins when they realized the possibilities they had wasted and yet which were still possible by grace (<a href='B:330 43:10-11'>Eze 43:10-11</a>). But they didn’t respond to that vision, they refused to build and operate such a temple system; because they refused to be ashamed in exile, although it was God’s intention that they should be. And so it is for us as a new Israel to be ashamed for our sins, and identify with the Messiah figure who would bear Israel’s shame and thereby emerge eternally unashamed.</h4><h4>In that you are a comfort to them- The Hebrew for"comfort"is that usually used for repentance. The idea may simply be that they would all repent together; see on :55.</h4>


text:
<p>Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate; and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate; and you and your daughters shall return to your former estate- This implies that both Samaria [the 10 tribes] and Judah would‘return to their former estate’ at one and the same time. And this passage is clearly in a restoration context. It was potentially possible for the 10 tribes to have returned at the same time as Judah. But somehow, that potential was never made possible by them. The message as heard by the inhabitants of Judah wouldn’t have been that attractive- that their only hope of restoration was together with Samaria and the children of Sodom whom they despised.</p>


text:
<p>For your sister Sodom was a byword to you in the day of your pride- The sin of the Jerusalem priesthood, which is whom Ezekiel is specifically addressing here, was compounded by their spiritual arrogance. They used proverbs which mocked the wickedness of Sodom (Moab and Ammon) and the ten tribes (Samaria), thereby exalting themselves spiritually in their own eyes. We note that God is aware of and sensitive to our throwaway expressions and words.</p>


text:
<p>Before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all who are around her, the daughters of the Philistines, who do despite to you all around- The GNB helps with"Now you are just like her- a joke to the Edomites, the Philistines, and your other neighbors who hate you". As the Jerusalem priesthood had mocked Sodom and Samaria, now they were mocked- by the very ones whose idols they had accepted, as"hire"or payment for having military protection from those peoples. The uncovering or exposure of Jerusalem was when the various nations she had made alliances with in return for sole devotion to their gods realized that they were being two timed. And worse. It became known that the Jerusalem temple was a house of all manner of gods, the symbol of her relationship with multiple nations, all of whom she had promised total allegiance to in return for their military and political help. Hence the anger and mockery of all of them, when their mercenaries confederated with Babylon to totally destroy that temple.</p>


text:
<p>You have borne your lewdness and your abominations, says Yahweh- To carry sin is a metaphor for carrying the punishment for that sin. That punishment was still future (:59) and yet the secret was out, the nations knew they had been deceived, and now there was only a very narrow window of opportunity for Jerusalem to repent. Their only way out was to throw themselves solely upon their only true defence, Yahweh. But they refused.</p>


text:
<p>For thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant-&nbsp; See on <a href='B:450 11:10-11'>Zec 11:10-11</a>. As explained on :57, they had broken not only their covenant of exclusive loyalty to Yahweh, but their covenants with multiple nations and their gods. As noted on :28 and often, they had broken the covenant which Yahweh made with them at Sinai. And the curses for disobedience to it were now to come.</p>


text:
<p>Nevertheless I will remember My covenant made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish to you an everlasting covenant- Here is amazing grace. They had broken the covenant (:59), but God would still be faithful to that covenant. Yet it was a broken covenant; and so He would make a new and everlasting one with them. That covenant was"everlasting"in that God hoped and envisioned that they would never again break it. See on :41,43. This was His hope, the hope of the desperate lover, but it was not to come true. Zechariah some time later was to speak of God breaking the covenant with His people. And so He has made the new covenant with us, a new Israel.</p>


text:
<p>Then you shall remember your ways, and be ashamed, when you shall receive your sisters, your elder sisters and your younger; and I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant- This implies a new covenant would be made with the exiles, as explained in Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36 etc. That new covenant involved acceptance of the ten tribes on an equal footing with themselves, as well as with the people of Sodom, whom I have suggested refer to the children of Lot born near there, Moab and Ammon- in other words, the reconcilliation of all the seed of Abraham. Given their spiritual pride and elitism, that was perhaps not a great prospect for the Jerusalem leadership at Ezekiel’s time. And after the restoration, their elitism continued, despising the Samaritans and indeed all Gentiles, rather than welcoming them into the covenant of grace. Acceptance of the new covenant, then as now, required reconcilliation with God to be reflected in reconcilliation with our brethren. They preferred the old covenant at Sinai; but they had broken that, and this acceptance of their apparently spiritually weaker brethren was to be"not by your covenant", the covenant made exclusively with Israel at Sinai, but by the new covenant. The way the Jews tenaciously held on to that old covenant merely reflected their refusal of this new way, this new covenant of grace. Whilst that covenant was fully ended by the Lord’s death on the cross, in effect it had ended at Ezekiel’s time; for here it is pronounced broken, and a new covenant offered- which they refused to enter. So from now onwards, their covenant relationship with God was effectively over.</p>


text:
<p>I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall know that I am Yahweh- They would"know"Him through the utter grace of this new covenant. They deserved death, the death of a whore, to be eternally forgotten after how they had treated heir husband- the God of all grace and patience.</p>


text:
<h4>That you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done, says the Lord Yahweh- The not opening their mouth again could refer to not using the language of spiritual superiority against others referenced in :56. But we can also read it as meaning that they will be so ashamed that they will feel as if they are dumb; and yet they will speak, but only of God’s grace, and with a deep humility.</h4><h4>In the future, God will use a repentant Israel to achieve great things in terms of converting this world unto Himself; but that was possible for the captives in Babylon who could have converted the world of their time to the God of Israel. They will walk up and down in His Name, witnessing to Him as He had originally intended them to (<a href='B:450 10:12'>Zec 10:12</a>); men will cling to their skirts in order to find the knowledge of their God (<a href='B:450 8:23'>Zec 8:23</a>). “In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee (Israel) the opening of the mouth in the midst of them (the surrounding nations, see context); and they shall know that I am the LORD”, in that Israel will preach to them from their own experience of having recently come to know Yahweh (<a href='B:330 29:21'>Eze 29:21</a>). But at the time of the Lord’s return, when Israel repent and enter the new covenant with Him, they will remember all their past sins “and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame::. for all that thou hast done” (<a href='B:330 16:63'>Eze 16:63</a>). They will be so ashamed that they will feel as if they can never open their mouth. But Yahweh will open their mouth, and they will witness. In some anticipation of this, Ezekiel as the “son of man” prophet, a representative of his people just as the Lord was to be, had his mouth shut in dumbness, and he only had his mouth opened when Israel came to know [to some degree] that “I am the LORD” (<a href='B:330 24:27'>Eze 24:27</a>). In all these evident connections something marvellous presents itself. Those who feel as if they just cannot open their mouths in witness are the very ones whom the Father will use; He will open their mouths and use them exactly because they are ashamed of their sins! And so it should be with us.</h4>


text:
<p>The word of Yahweh came to me saying- Chapters 17-22 form an ABABAB structure. Chapters 17,19 and 21 speak of Babylon, and chapters 18,20 and 22 of Judah’s sins which warranted the Babylonian involvement.</p>


text:
<p>Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel- A"riddle"is Heb. ’that which is sharp’. This was now painless riddle, but as the crude language of Ezekiel 16 was intended to grab their attention and elicit repentance, so this parable was intended to be"sharp". And indeed it is so- that a parable, a story expressing a challenge, can be sharper than bald statements.</p>


text:
<h4>And say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: A great eagle with great wings and long feathers, full of feathers of various colours- Literally, the great eagle, a symbol of Babylon (<a href='B:300 48:40'>Jer 48:40</a>; <a href='B:300 49:22'>Jer 49:22</a>), perhaps alluding to their god Nisroch, the eagle. The great wings spoke of his armies, the long wings / feathers of the extent of his empire. The feathers of various colours refer to the nations confederate with her.</h4><p>Came to Lebanon- Eusebius says that the temple at Jerusalem was called ’Lebanon’ by the Jews, because its woodwork was of cedars of Lebanon.</p><h4>And took off the top of the cedar- King Jeconiah, then only 18 years old, and many of the leaders with him (<a href='B:120 24:8'>2Ki 24:8</a>; <a href='B:120 24:12-16'>2Ki 24:12-16</a>). They were taken as hostages to Babylon, whilst Zedekiah became the puppet king under covenant with Babylon</h4>


text:
<p>He cropped off the highest of its young twigs and carried it to a land of commerce where he set it in a city of merchants- Babylon was famous for its transport traffic on the Tigris and Euphrates; also, by its connection with the Persian Gulf, it traded even with India.</p>


text:
<p>He also took the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful soil. He placed it beside many waters and set it as a willow tree- We must remember that Ezekiel was teaching this parable to the depressed exiles as they sat by the rivers / waters of Babylon by the Chebar river. What seemed a hopeless, dead end situation was in fact fruitful soil for their spiritual growth and the development of God’s purpose. The"seed of the land"were the royal family. The implication is that the kingly line would revive;"the prince"of Ezekiel 40-48 could have been literally in the line of David, and Zerubbabel was just such a candidate, although it seems he didn’t live up to the potential."Willow"can be"vine", which would connect with the parable of the destroyed, useless vine of Ezekiel 15. Those charred, useless branches were to be enabled by the spiritually fruitful soil of Babylon to miraculously revive. If we insist upon"willow", then we see the connection with <a href='B:230 137:2'>Psa 137:2</a>, where the depressed captives sit by the waters of Babylon under willow trees. But they were to realize that their apparently hopeless situation was in fact upon spiritually fruitful soil. And we can perceive dead end situations in life the same way. Indeed it could be that the willow tree, symbol of their mourning in Babylon, became a vine.</p>


text:
<p>It grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and its roots were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and young shoots- It"became a vine"in that it was planted a willow tree; see on :6. This speaks of the power of the Spirit to transform the most depressive situations into spiritual fruitfulness. The"low stature"may refer to the humility there would be in the revived community. But it was deformed, just as Israel had been at their birth (see on <a href='B:330 16:5'>Eze 16:5</a>)- its branches turned inwards, and the roots did not spread far out, accounting for its low height. This vine would be humble. Or we can read the"him"as referring to the eagle of Babylon. Zedekiah and the royal seed of the land (:5) were to be loyal to Babylon. His roots were under"him", Babylon.</p>


text:
<p>There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers. This vine bent its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him, from the beds of its plantation, that he might water it- This is interpreted later in that chapter as Egypt (:15). The partially revived vine looked to Egypt for help to throw off the Babylonians; we see here how in their hearts, God’s people always yearned toward Egypt. It could be that it was from exile in Babylon that the royal seed sought to reach out to Egypt and make a covenant with them to throw off the Babylonian yoke. They refused to accept Ezekiel’s message, that exile there was required and was part of their spiritual reformation. The reference is to the Nile being made to water the fields by means of small canals or AV"furrows;"these waters are the figure of the auxiliary forces wherewith Egypt tried to help Judah.</p>


text:
<p>It was planted in a good soil by many waters that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine- This laments how it was really possible that the exile in Babylon could have quite quickly brought forth spiritual fruit to God. The apparently bad situation was ideally suited to their becoming"a goodly vine". Fruit bearing is what God seeks of us; contrary to what we often think, He places us in situations which are optimal for our spiritual development. And yet by seeking a better material situation we can ruin all that potential.</p>


text:
<h4>Say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Shall it prosper?- Spiritually, the vine would not prosper, just as we will not spiritually prosper if we refuse to accept the situations God places us in for our spiritual good. Nehemiah uses this same word"prosper", as if he realized that the exiles had not prospered as intended, but he wished to put that right at the restoration (<a href='B:160 1:11'>Neh 1:11</a>; <a href='B:160 2:20'>Neh 2:20</a>). The plan of God didn’t ultimately prosper at that time, but it will in the hands of the messiah Jesus, the fulfilment of the twig which becomes a cedar later in the chapter (<a href='B:290 53:10'>Isa 53:10</a>). Jeremiah’s parable of the girdle demonstrated that the Jews would not"prosper"(<a href='B:300 13:7'>Jer 13:7</a>; <a href='B:300 13:10'>Jer 13:10</a>) even when taken into captivity at the Euphrates (i:e. Babylon), using the same word as in the parable of the vine in <a href='B:330 17:9'>Eze 17:9</a>. Babylon, according to <a href='B:330 17:8'>Eze 17:8</a>, was potentially fruitful soil for their spiritual revival. But they would not"prosper", Jeremiah says, because of their deep seated love of idolatry and lack of true repentance. The parable of the vine has just stated that the burnt and charred vine tree is not"suitable for any work", using the same word translated here"prosper"(<a href='B:330 15:4'>Eze 15:4</a>). Only Divine grace could make it prosper and be useful to Him.</h4><h4>Shall he not pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, that it may wither; that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? and not by a strong arm or many people can it be raised from its roots- Even a small Babylonian army could do the job of destroying Judah (<a href='B:300 37:10'>Jer 37:10</a>). The withering of the fruit is emphasized because the whole idea was that the vine could have brought forth spiritual fruit in the early days of the exile, even whilst Zedekiah was still puppet king in Jerusalem. But that was all to be destroyed by the uprooting.</h4>


text:
<p>Yes, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind touches it? It shall wither in the beds where it grew- For"prosper", see on :9. The focus is not so much upon the physical destruction, but upon the withering of the fruit and the tragedy of the loss of potential spiritual fruit. Babylon is likened to the east wind, coming from the north east to destroy that which had been planted.</p>


text:
<p>Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying- The apparent gap between the riddle and the interpretation was to encourage them to work it out for themselves.</p>


text:
<p>Say now to the rebellious people, Don’t you know what these things mean? Tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took its king, and its princes, and brought them to him to Babylon- The parable is not hard to interpret. They surely saw the point. But apparently they acted dumb, as if it was all a mystery; and so the obvious interpretation is given. This shows that apparent intellectual failure to understand God’s word, or at least His moral demands, has a moral basis. They refused to understand the parable because they were a"rebellious people", not because of some purely intellectual block.</p>


text:
<p>He took of the seed royal, and made a covenant with him. He also brought him under an oath, and took away the mighty of the land- These were the very people who were with Ezekiel in captivity in Babylon. The parable was highly relevant to them."The seed royal"were as it were hostages in Babylon.</p>


text:
<p>That the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand- The idea may be that it was God’s plan that through keeping the covenant, the royal family and leadership would be humbled, and this would bring about God’s favourite paradox- the brought down could then be exalted,"that::. it might stand". See on :24. But they refused to repent, to be humbled, to be ashamed, and instead sought to wriggle out of the covenant by making agreements with Egypt to attack the Babylonian forces, liberate Jerusalem and perhaps later themselves from Babylon itself. Yet all these things had been explicitly promised to Judah; God would do all these things, if they repented. But instead of doing so, they sought by all manner of desperate means to bring about this liberation in the strength of Egypt. This is so typical of human behaviour. It is for us to learn the lesson.</p>


text:
<h4>But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors to Egypt that they might give him horses and many people. Shall he prosper?- For"prosper", see on :9. We wonder whether it was yet public knowledge in Babylon that Zedekiah and the royal family had sent these ambassadors and had these plans. If not, Ezekiel’s message would have been tantamount to a betrayal of serious secrets which would have directly led to the Babylonian invasion and fury with the royal family who were already with Ezekiel in captivity in Babylon. It would have been a very hard message for Ezekiel to deliver, and would have made him hated and at risk for his life amongst the captives.</h4><h4>Shall he who does such things escape? Shall he break the covenant, and yet escape?- This is the language of Judah breaking covenant with God, just used in <a href='B:330 16:59'>Eze 16:59</a>. God had designed the covenant between Zedekiah and the Babylonians, for the spiritual growth and repentance of the Jews. To break it was therefore to effectively break covenant with God. Or we could instead perceive that covenant breaking with God is reflected in covenant breaking with men. Our attitude to God becomes our attitude to men.</h4>


text:
<p>As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die- The very opposite would happen to that which Zedekiah hoped. He is presented in Jeremiah as wanting to do the right thing before God, earnestly seeking God’s word, yet fearing the opinion of his princes. But here Ezekiel sees to the essence; that fear of the opinion of others was effectively a despising of covenant relationship with God.</p>


text:
<p>Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company help him in the war, when they cast up mounds and build forts, to cut off many people- The"they"appears to be the Babylonians. No amount of human might could alter the purpose of God, which required repentant trust in Him rather than hope in the human strength of Egypt. The Egyptian forces were destroyed and had to return to Egypt (<a href='B:300 37:7'>Jer 37:7</a>; <a href='B:300 44:30'>Jer 44:30</a>).</p>


text:
<p>For he has despised the oath by breaking the covenant; and behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done all these things; he shall not escape- To give the hand was a metaphor for making a covenant agreement. Jeremiah appears to justify the way Judah had done this by saying that they did it"for bread"(<a href='B:310 5:6'>Lam 5:6</a>), as if the famine sent by God to bring about their repentance was so severe that the alliances were not just for political and military protection, but for basic food. This was how low the one time beautiful prostitute of Ezekiel 16 had fallen; just"for bread"she made the agreements which meant that she had to have the idols of these people in the Jerusalem temple. Clearly these ’givings of the hand’ were wrong, and yet Jeremiah laments as if they were somehow justifiable. But Ezekiel 17 clearly condemns them as immoral acts. For God as Judah’s husband would surely provide her with bread. The lack of it was to bring her back to Him, but instead she responded by madly making more spiritually adulterous covenants. We too can respond to God’s chastening hand either by total repentance and casting ourselves upon Him, or by madly seeking to get around His chastisement by yet further sin and unfaithfulness.</p>


text:
<p>Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: As I live, surely My oath that he has despised, and My covenant that he has broken, I will even bring it on his own head- This is the language of Judah breaking covenant with God, just used in <a href='B:330 16:59'>Eze 16:59</a>. God had designed the covenant between Zedekiah and the Babylonians, for the spiritual growth and repentance of the Jews. To break it was therefore to effectively break covenant with God. Or we could instead perceive that covenant breaking with God is reflected in covenant breaking with men. Our attitude to God becomes our attitude to men. Judah were light hearted in their attitude to everything; they"gave the hand"in :18 in order just to get"bread"(<a href='B:310 5:6'>Lam 5:6</a>). They were in need, and instead of turning to God in repentance, they madly made promises of total loyalty to various peoples and their gods. It is this light hearted, not serious attitude, seeking for the immediate for the total sacrifice of principle, which dominates our age today.</p>


text:
<p>I will spread My net on him, and he shall be taken in My snare, and I will bring him to Babylon and will enter into judgment with him there for his sins that he has committed against Me- Zedekiah was to be taken by the net of the Babylonian armies. We marvel that he was not immediately slain by God. But there in Babylon God says in the AV that"I will plead with him there". In his blindness, God appealed to him. We marvel at God’s continual effort to save this man; it is the loving initiative of the shepherd who searches for the lost with the attitude that He will search until He finds it. God doesn’t give up with people, and neither should we.</p>


text:
<p>All his fugitives in all his bands shall fall by the sword, and those who remain shall be scattered toward every wind: and you shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken it- The prophecy would be written down, and would be later seen to have fulfilled exactly. Zedekiah’s accompanying soldiers were slain, but his life was preserved. This would surely have been reflected upon by him; it was part of God’s special pleading with that man to realize His grace (see on :20).</p>


text:
<p>Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also take of the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it. I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain- When Zedekiah was taken into captivity (<a href='B:330 17:20'>Eze 17:20</a>), it was prophesied that “a tender one” (Messiah- <a href='B:290 11:1'>Isa 11:1</a>; <a href='B:290 53:2'>Isa 53:2</a>) would be planted “upon an high mountain”, and grow into a tree in whose shadows all animals would live(<a href='B:330 17:21-22'>Eze 17:21-22</a>). This is clearly the Messianic Kingdom (<a href='B:490 13:19'>Luk 13:19</a>). This young twig at the time of the captivity [when Zedekiah was taken into captivity, :20] was surely Zerubbabel, and the “high mountain” upon which his Kingdom could have been established is surely the “high mountain” of <a href='B:330 40:2'>Eze 40:2</a> where the temple could have been built. Yet the prophecy had to suffer a massive deferment until its fulfilment in Christ. See on <a href='B:450 6:12'>Zec 6:12</a>.</p><h4>had spoken of how at the restoration, Babylon would fall and a “tender one” arise, who would grow into a tree under whose branches all the birds would find shelter. This is the very language of the Kingdom of Jesus in <a href='B:470 13:32'>Mat 13:32</a>. The Kingdom of Babylon- also likened in Daniel to a tree with birds beneath it- could have been replaced with God’s Kingdom when it fell soon after the restoration of Judah. But no Messiah figure arose (see on <a href='B:330 37:25'>Eze 37:25</a> - Zerubbabel could have fulfilled it), and so the prophecy had a changed fulfilment- the tree that was abased and then lifted up could have been Israel, but it was re-applied to the Lord Jesus, the ultimate “servant” of Yahweh. <a href='B:330 19:13-14'>Eze 19:13-14</a> help us perceive this more clearly- Judah in Babylon were as it were “planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground”. She had “no [Messianic] strong rod to be a sceptre to rule”, and this was “for a lamentation”. But the prophecy was fulfilled in another way- for the Lord Jesus was the root out of a dry ground who sprang up and did fulfil God’s intention (<a href='B:290 53:1'>Isa 53:1</a>).</h4><h4>This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation- The chapter at least from :10 onwards is therefore a funeral dirge. It could have been for the literal mother of Zedekiah who died in Babylon (<a href='B:300 29:2'>Jer 29:2</a>), or perhaps for Zedekiah himself. Part of the reason her sons made the alliances they did was due to her ambitions, which were clearly not based upon faith in God.</h4>


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<h4>In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it; and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar. Under it shall dwell all birds of every wing; in the shade of its branches shall they dwell- The parable opened by describing the various nations within the Babylonian empire as wings and feathers (:3). The potential was that the Babylonian empire would be converted to Yahweh by the repentant exiles, and would come to dwell under the shadow of the reestablished Messianic kingdom of God in Israel. So much potential was wasted by Zerubbabel and the exiles.</h4><h4>&nbsp; <a href='B:330 17:22-23'>Eze 17:22-23</a> had spoken of how at the restoration, Babylon would fall and a “tender one” arise, who would grow into a tree under whose branches all the birds would find shelter. This is the very language of the Kingdom of Jesus in <a href='B:470 13:32'>Mat 13:32</a>. The Kingdom of Babylon- also likened in Daniel to a tree with birds beneath it- could have been replaced with God’s Kingdom when it fell soon after the restoration of Judah. But no Messiah figure arose (see on <a href='B:330 37:25'>Eze 37:25</a> - Zerubbabel could have fulfilled it), and so the prophecy had a changed fulfilment- the tree that was abased and then lifted up could have been Israel, but it was re-applied to the Lord Jesus, the ultimate “servant” of Yahweh. <a href='B:330 19:13-14'>Eze 19:13-14</a> help us perceive this more clearly- Judah in Babylon were as it were “planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground”. She had “no [Messianic] strong rod to be a sceptre to rule”, and this was “for a lamentation”. But the prophecy was fulfilled in another way- for the Lord Jesus was the root out of a dry ground who sprang up and did fulfil God’s intention (<a href='B:290 53:1'>Isa 53:1</a>)</h4>


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<h4>All the trees of the field shall know that I, Yahweh, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish. I, Yahweh, have spoken and have done it- In the first context, the high tree was that of Babylon. The low tree was the deformed vine of :6 (see note there). This humiliated kingdom could have arisen to eclipse the Babylonian empire. As explained on Daniel 2, the vision of the image can be understood as a sequence of kings rather than kingdoms which could have been destroyed by the little stone of restored Judah under a Messianic ruler. But this was precluded by Judah’s lack of repentance and spiritual vision, and so the prophecies were rescheduled and reapplied to the Lord Jesus. He was to be the root out of a dry ground who through the humiliation of the cross was to establish the Divine kingdom of :23.</h4><p>It was God’s plan that through keeping the covenant, the royal family and leadership would be humbled, and this would bring about God’s favourite paradox- the brought down could then be exalted,"that::. it might stand"(see on :14).</p><h4>This lack of humility led to the prophecy being reapplied to the Lord Jesus. And His mother seems to have perceived this. The humility of Mary was the pattern for the Lord’s self-humiliation in the cross. Here above all we see the influence of Mary upon Jesus, an influence that would lead Him to and through the cross. Her idea of putting down the high and exalting the lowly (<a href='B:490 1:52'>Luk 1:52</a>) is picking up <a href='B:330 17:24'>Eze 17:24</a>: “I have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish”. And yet these very words of Ezekiel were quoted by the Lord in His time of dying. With reverence, we can follow where we are being led in our exploration and knowing of the mind of Christ. His dear mum had gone around the house singing her Magnificat. He realized that she felt the lowly who had been exalted [and perhaps in some unrecorded incident before her conception she had been recently humbled?]. And Jesus had realized her quotation of <a href='B:330 17:24'>Eze 17:24</a>. And He had perceived His linkage and connection with her, and how she saw all that was true of Him as in some way true of her, and vice versa. And now, in His final crisis, He takes comfort from the fact that like His dear mother, He the one who was now humbled, would be exalted. How many other trains of thought have been sparked in men’s minds by the childhood instructions of their mothers…?</h4><h4>The Lord’s words as He carried the cross"If they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"is packed with allusion to O:T. Scriptures (<a href='B:330 17:24'>Eze 17:24</a>; <a href='B:300 11:16'>Jer 11:16</a>; <a href='B:300 11:19'>Jer 11:19</a>; Psalms 1; <a href='B:300 17:5-8'>Jer 17:5-8</a>). His preceding words to the women were likewise; his quotation from <a href='B:350 10:8'>Hos 10:8</a> is set in a context so appropriate to the situation He was in. If they did these things to Him, the green and healthy shoot, what would be done to the dry dead wood of Israel…? His concern was always with the sufferings others would experience rather than being lost in His own introspection. Without getting too deeply involved in the actual exposition, a simple lesson emerges: He was not so overpowered by the terrible physicality of His human situation that He ceased to be spiritually aware. His mind was full of the word, not just out of place quotations flooding His subconscious, but real awareness of the spirit of the Father’s word and its’ intensely personal relevance to Himself. In this He sets a matchless example.</h4>


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<p>The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying- The righteous remnant were actually persecuted by the other Jews in Babylon, according to the testimony of the later parts of Isaiah. One significant problem which they had right from the start was that they insisted that the captivity was unfair, it was not their fault, they were righteous and were being unfairly punished for the sins of their fathers. Ezekiel 18 addresses this at length with them. God’s intention was that His exiled people would"declare all their abominations among the nations whither they come", i:e. the 127 provinces of Babylon (<a href='B:330 12:16'>Eze 12:16</a>). Note how confession of personal failure and testimony to God’s forgiveness is actually a powerful witness to unbelievers. But instead, Ezekiel had to reason against the Jews’ insistence that they had not sinned, and were being unfairly punished for their fathers’ sins by an unjust God (Ezekiel 18). And so likewise it happens with us all too often that the potential witness which we could make simply isn’t made <a href='B:110 8:47-50'>1Ki 8:47-50</a> had predicted that God would give the exiles compassion in captivity if they repented. They didn’t repent, as passages like Ezekiel 18 make clear (they blamed everything on their fathers and protested their personal innocence)- and yet still God gave them compassion in the eyes of their captors, through the amazing decrees of Cyrus enabling them to return to their land and rebuild the temple at his expense.</p>


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<h4>What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge?- Note that God is aware of even the throwaway language and phrases used by us.</h4><h4>It’s apparent that Judah in captivity weren’t repentant; and yet God granted them His forgiveness so that they might repent. Indeed, the Jews were bitter with God. They claimed that they were suffering unfairly as a result of their fathers’ sins, and that Yahweh was unfair (<a href='B:330 18:25'>Eze 18:25</a>)- when He was showing them a grace so wonderful that all that is within us fights against perceiving it! The lack of perception of God’s grace was terrible- and yet many of us have lived for decades doing just the same! Some of the comments of the Jewish religious leaders during the captivity are preserved for us in the Babylonian Talmud. It’s interesting to see the development of their commentaries upon the prophets (See H. Freedman, The Babylonian Talmud: Seder Mo’ed (London: Soncino Press, 1938). Hosea clearly taught that he represented God, and Israel were likened to a prostitute, unfaithful to Him. Time and again, Hosea appeals for Israel to"return", the same Hebrew word being used about ’returning’ to the land of Judah. But Israel would not. And they obviously found Hosea hard to grapple with. And so the Talmud condemns Hosea for marrying a promiscuous woman (See Peshitta 87b in the Babylonian Talmud; and H:L. Ginsberg, ’Hosea, Book of’ in G. Roth and C. Wigoder, eds, Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Macmillan, 1971) Vol. 18 col. 1011). By so doing they were refusing to let the prophetic word bite as it was intended to; their interpretations, like many false exposition today, was intended to justify them. And thereby they effectively condemned the God who loved them so freely. Even those who did return were impenitent. The sins of those who returned are styled"the transgression of those that had been carried away"(<a href='B:150 9:4'>Ezr 9:4</a>). Yet those who returned to the land weren’t mainly the generation who had been carried away. The intended confusion is surely to suggest that those who returned committed the same sins as had led Judah into captivity a generation earlier. And Ezra comments on this fact in his subsequent prayer (<a href='B:150 9:7'>Ezr 9:7</a>).</h4>


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<p>As I live says the Lord Yahweh, you shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel- In <a href='B:330 16:56'>Eze 16:56</a>; <a href='B:330 16:63'>Eze 16:63</a> we noted that God wished to stop Israel using certain proverbs. He paid attention to their sayings, their language, their throwaway expressions. All language is significant to God, and He aimed to reform even the kind of language they spoke. This is part of being in the new covenant- <a href='B:300 31:29'>Jer 31:29</a> had specifically stated this, contemporary with Ezekiel. So Ezekiel is so labouring the point in Ezekiel 18, because he wants them to accept the new covenant in exile, and to live and speak according to it. And yet Jeremiah himself seems to say that God has in fact punished the children for their fathers’ sins (<a href='B:310 5:7'>Lam 5:7</a>). He was contradicting his own message in <a href='B:300 31:29'>Jer 31:29</a>. We would therefore have in this an example of a man who in depression says things which are wrong, struggling with God, as Job did; and yet still finally accepted.</p>


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<h4>Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine- The idea may be that God created all people and therefore He will judge each individually. But the allusion is surely to <a href='B:30 20:26'>Lev 20:26</a>:"You [all Israel] shall be Mine", out of all the families of the earth. All Israel were indeed God’s people, but this did not mean that the person ["soul"] who sinned would not be punished with death. For the contrast is with the righteous who would"live"(:19) and in that sense, not die. And perhaps specifically the reference is again to the priesthood, who appear to be the subject of much of Ezekiel’s criticisms; for it was they and the royal family who were taken into captivity rather than the common masses. For"the Levites shall be Mine"(<a href='B:30 3:12'>Lev 3:12</a>; <a href='B:40 8:14'>Num 8:14</a>). This would explain the male reference, to"the son"; for the priesthood was male. The phrase is used again in <a href='B:460 3:17'>Mal 3:17</a>, of the repentant remnant amongst the exiles. But even amongst them, those who sinned would die.</h4><h4>The soul who sins, he shall die- Proof enough that"the soul"simply means ’the person’ and is not immortal. The death in view is death at the hands of the Babylonians, in the context. For some souls / people implicitly didn’t commit the sin which led to death. It is judicial death which is in view, rather than the death which is common to all men.</h4>


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<p>But if a man is just, and does that which is lawful and right- The things listed as exemplifications of this are all from the second table of the ten commandments. Doing justice and right was the characteristic of Abraham’s true seed (s:w. <a href='B:10 18:19'>Gen 18:19</a>). Those who did not do so were therefore not the true Israel of God. Again, the Jewish assumption of salvation from the Babylonians on account of their fleshly descent is being deconstructed.</p>


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<p>And has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither has defiled his neighbour’s wife, neither has come near to a woman in her impurity- The sexual immorality is bracketed together with the idolatry, because as made clear in Ezekiel 16, the two went together. The sexual aspect of idolatry was not solely in sleeping with the cult prostitutes but with other women who had come to worship, even your neighbour’s wife. The idol cults apparently had no restrictions regarding sleeping with menstrous women. And so at the very time when her husband could not sleep with her due to the Mosaic prohibitions about this, she could go to the idol worship and sleep with her neighbour’s husband. Thus the inability of compromise between God’s law and idolatry is emphasized, whereas the priests were teaching that the idolatry was being performed as part of Yahweh worship.</p>


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<p>And has not wronged any but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has taken nothing by robbery, has given his bread to the hungry and has covered the naked with a garment- Such sensitivity and generosity to the poor is not a mere optional extra in the spiritual life; it is in fact part of being basically"just"and committed to social justice (:5), part of ’dealing truly’ (:9).</p>


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<p>He who has not given forth on interest neither has taken any increase, who has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed true justice between man and man- These issues suggest that the person addressed is in a position of power; to lend to others, and to judge between persons. This strengthens the impression that Ezekiel is addressing specifically the leadership; it was the priests and ruling classes who had been taken into exile at that time, and they were his audience. ’Executing true justice’ was appealed for again by Zechariah after the restoration (<a href='B:450 7:9'>Zec 7:9</a> s:w:). Clearly the community addressed by Ezekiel were still failing in this as they had before the exile, and continued to do so after the restoration. The captivity didn’t produce the reformation intended. But by race, God still restored them, in the hope that this further outpouring of grace would motivate them to repentance; and yet it didn’t.</p>


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<h4>Has walked in My statutes, and has kept My commandments, to deal truly: he is just- See on :7. Dealing truly is a phrase often used of keeping covenant promises. By not doing these things, Israel had ended their covenant with God.</h4><h4>He shall surely live, says the Lord Yahweh-"Surely live"isn’t necessarily an offer of eternal life; it could refer to how those who repented in Jerusalem would be spared the destruction and death which would otherwise come.</h4>


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<p>If he fathers a son who is a robber, a shedder of blood, and who does any one of these things- These were all things going on at the time of Ezekiel. The exiles needed to repent of these things. Perhaps he is viewing coveting as theft, and hatred of brethren as murder. But there is strong reason to suspect that these actual things had been practiced by the ruling classes who were now in exile with Ezekiel. The same word is used to express how the Jerusalem temple had been turned by the priests into a"den of robbers"(<a href='B:300 7:11'>Jer 7:11</a>). Again we have the impression that Ezekiel as a priest is addressing the leaders of the priests and their children who had been taken into captivity. One reason Judah was destroyed was because Manasseh was a ’shedder of blood’ (<a href='B:120 21:16'>2Ki 21:16</a>; <a href='B:120 24:4'>2Ki 24:4</a>). Perhaps this was being focused upon by the exiles, complaining that God was unfairly punishing them for Manasseh’s sins. But the reality was that in essence, his descendants and wider family had done the same as he had done. For they too had been involved in the shedding of the innocent blood of their own children to the idol cults (<a href='B:230 106:38'>Psa 106:38</a>). Indeed <a href='B:300 7:6'>Jer 7:6</a> says that this innocent blood was shed in the temple; it was there that the idols were worshipped and child sacrifice made. This is in proximity to the description of that temple as a den of robbers (<a href='B:300 7:11'>Jer 7:11</a>), which is the same word used here in <a href='B:330 18:10'>Eze 18:10</a>.</p>


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<h4>And who does not any of those obligations- The idea of"obligations"may be that the theft and shedding innocent blood in child sacrifices (:10) were performed as part of their religious obligations to the idols of the surrounding nations whom they had contracted to worship, in return for material and political help.</h4><h4>But even has eaten on the mountains and defiled his neighbour’s wife- There was perhaps the idea amongst some of the exiles that they had not performed child sacrifice nor theft in the Jerusalem temple (:10), and were therefore acceptable. But they had eaten idol sacrifices elsewhere, and in that context slept with their neighbour’s wife; see on :6 for the connection.</h4>


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<p>Has wronged the poor and needy, has taken by robbery, has not restored the pledge and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has committed abomination- Lifting up the eyes can be understood as meaning to trust in, to look towards for help. Judah’s leadership, whose children were now in exile and formed Ezekiel’s first audience, had made deals with other nations, trusting in their gods to help them against the Babylonians; instead of looking to Yahweh.</p>


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<h4>Has given forth on interest, and has taken increase: shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations. He shall surely die; his blood shall be on him- Nehemiah makes it clear that this lending to brethren on interest was going on amongst the restored exiles, and clearly they were just continuing to live how they had done in exile. For those whom Ezekiel is addressing in captivity were apparently doing this, just as they had done before their exile. The experience of restoration by grace had not affected their behaviour. We too must allow ourselves to be challenged by this.</h4><p>The prohibition of taking interest was so that"your brother shall live by / with you"(<a href='B:30 25:36'>Lev 25:36</a>). By having done so, those now in exile were separated from their poorer brethren. They had placed personal material gain before the unity of God’s people. Again, that is a timeless warning. This taking of interest specifically happened in the temple, according to <a href='B:330 22:12'>Eze 22:12</a>; suggesting the priesthood had become a financial racket which exploited the poor. It is the priesthood and ruling classes whom Ezekiel addresses, for they were those in exile with him.</p><h4>"He shall surely die"sounds like a legal pronunciation of death at judgment."He shall not die::. live"is an allusion to the words of the serpent, who had taught that God’s people would not"surely die"for their sins. The Jews faced the same test, from false teachers acting as the serpent in Eden, the sanctuary of God at that time.</h4>


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<p>Now, behold, if he fathers a son, who sees all his father’s sins which he has done, and sees, and does not such like- Ezekiel was especially addressing the children of the priesthood, royal family and ruling classes. He was inviting them to repent. Those young people were the ones who could have brought about the repentance required to trigger God’s amazing plan of restoring His Kingdom in Israel. So often young people have great potential in God’s plan. But we get the impression that Daniel and his friends were the only truly faithful young men amongst the exiles.</p>


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<p>Who has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, has not defiled his neighbour’s wife- The idols are described specifically as belonging to"the house of Israel". The reference may be to the temple, where Ezekiel had seen the idols being worshipped. Or perhaps the sense is also that it took a strong individual to refuse to worship the idols of his house / family. The gods of the nations were now those of the people of Israel.</p>


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<p>Neither has wronged any, has not taken anything to pledge, neither has taken by robbery, but has given his bread to the hungry and has clothed the naked- The times of the exiles were those of famine, as God tried to bring Judah to repentance. Bread was to be removed from them (<a href='B:330 4:17'>Eze 4:17</a>; <a href='B:330 5:16'>Eze 5:16</a>). For the righteous to share their bread with those lacking bread was therefore tantamount to saying that they would pity sinners in their judgment, and not simply leave them to their sufferings because they had brought those sufferings upon their own heads. If a man digs a pit and falls into it, he is still in the pit and deserves our compassion. This is at the heart of God’s compassion towards His sinning people.</p>


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<p>Who has not oppressed the poor, who has not received interest nor increase, has kept My commandments, has walked in My statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live- The ’death’ in view here is the judicial death threatened at the hands of the Babylonians; see on :4. ’Living’ means being spared those judgments. These warnings take on especial relevance if indeed Ezekiel was preaching the message to the literal, exiled sons of those who had oppressed the poor in Judah."Not oppressed [the poor]"in <a href='B:330 18:17'>Eze 18:17</a> is literally ’to turn back the hand from’. God did not turn His hand back from destroying Jerusalem (<a href='B:310 2:8'>Lam 2:8</a> s:w:) because the people of Judah and those already in exile had not responded to Ezekiel’s call to ’turn back their hand’ from oppressing the poor. Their attitude to their poor brethren was to become God’s attitude to them. And that is taught by the Lord Jesus in His parables as being the principle by which we too shall be judged.</p>


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<p>As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother, and did that which is not good among his people, see, he shall die in his iniquity-"Robbed"is ’plundered’, exactly as Jerusalem and the temple was to be plundered, along with the houses of the wealthy. How they treated their brother was how they were to be judged; they were plundered because they plundered their brother. And that is the principle upon which we too shall be judged.</p>


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<h4>Yet you say, Why doesn’t the son bear the iniquity of the father?- The Hebrew is ambiguous, maybe purposefully so. It could be read as a complaint about they the children bearing the result of their father’s sins, as AV:"Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father?". Or it could be read as a statement that they the children who had gone into exile were bearing the punishment of their father’s sins, and therefore, their fathers shouldn’t suffer any more. Even though their fathers continued sinning.</h4><h4>When the son has done that which is lawful and right, and has kept all My statutes, and has done them, he shall surely live- The emphasis upon"When::."would suggest that the sons, the young people in exile, were not doing what was lawful and right. If they did, then they would"live", be spared the judgment which was threatened to come upon them even in Babylon. But they were powerless to alter the outcomes for their parents, unless their parents personally repented.</h4>


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<p>The soul who sins, he shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him- As noted on :19, this bearing sin, or the punishment for sin, was thought to work in that a sinful son could have his punishment carried by the suffering of his father, and vice versa. God doesn’t operate such a substitutionary system of atonement. The Lord Jesus bore the punishment for our sins in that He was representative of those who are willingly"in"Him and identify with Him in order to seek forgiveness of their sins which they fully acknowledge. This is different to substitutionary atonement.</p>


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<p>But if the wicked turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all My statutes and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die-"Turn"is the word also used for the ’return’ of the exiles. Their repentance would lead to their return. They didn’t repent, yet by grace God took the initiative and returned them anyway. Yet most didn’t want to return and preferred the soft life in Babylon / Persia, and those who did, as the later prophets make clear, didn’t repent.</p>


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<h4>None of his transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him: in his righteousness that he has done he shall live-"Remembered"is one of a series of Bible verses which could imply that there will be a ’going through’ of the sins of the rejected at judgment day, and a ’going through’ of the good deeds of the righteous, the water and clothing provided as it were to the Lord Jesus."Whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord"(<a href='B:560 6:8'>Eph 6:8</a>)- at judgment day. Not in this life, when the righteous often suffer for their goodness. Every good deed will then have its recognition; but their sins have been dealt with, and these will not be ’gone through’ with them.</h4><p>"God shall judge the righteous and the wicked (at the second coming): for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work:::for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or bad"(<a href='B:250 3:17'>Ecc 3:17</a>; <a href='B:250 12:14'>Ecc 12:14</a>). Note the emphasis on"every". Even what we have spoken in the ear will be shouted out (<a href='B:490 12:3'>Luk 12:3</a>) -implying others will somehow observe our judgment, cp. <a href='B:470 12:41'>Mat 12:41</a>. If the judgment is merely a yes/no statement which has been worked out taking our whole life into consideration, then this emphasis on every work having a time for consideration and judgment"there"is pointless. God will"require"the flock at the hand of the pastors (<a href='B:330 34:10'>Eze 34:10</a>), or, as the NT puts it, the ecclesial elders must give an account at judgment day for their flock. The Hebrew word translated"require"in the above passages has the sense of to search / enquire- which suggests a process of discussion during the judgment process. Paul prayed that the fact the brethren in Rome hadn’t stood with him in his court case"may not be laid to their charge"(<a href='B:620 4:16'>2Ti 4:16</a>). This sounds as if he expected their behaviour in this specific matter to be something which could be brought up with them in the last day and possibly be the cause of their rejection.</p><p>"I will never forget any of their works"(<a href='B:370 8:7'>Amo 8:7</a>) was God’s judgment against the wicked in Israel. Their works would be mentioned to them again at judgment day. Nehemiah several times asks God to"remember unto me"the good deeds he had done for Judah (<a href='B:160 5:19'>Neh 5:19</a> RV), and to likewise"remember"the bad works of the wicked (<a href='B:160 6:14'>Neh 6:14</a> RV). He clearly perceived judgment day as featuring the good deeds of the righteous being as it were listed, and the sins of the wicked being likewise recounted. Perhaps his prayer was heard in that in a restoration context, <a href='B:460 3:16'>Mal 3:16</a> comments that a book of remembrance was written by God to record the good deeds of the faithful at that time.</p><h4>For those who suffer persecution, prison etc. for the Lord’s sake,"it shall turn to you for a testimony"(<a href='B:490 21:13'>Luk 21:13</a>). When? How? Surely in that these things will be ’gone through’ with them at judgment as a testimony to their faithfulness. At judgment God"shall bring forth thy righteousness (good deeds) as the light, and thy judgment as the noon day"(<a href='B:230 37:6'>Psa 37:6</a>). The sins of the rejected and the good deeds of the righteous will be publicly declared at the judgment, even if they are concealed from men in this life (<a href='B:610 5:24-25'>1Ti 5:24-25</a>). This is how men will receive"praise of God"(<a href='B:530 4:5'>1Co 4:5</a>; <a href='B:670 1:7'>1Pe 1:7</a>; <a href='B:520 2:29'>Rom 2:29</a>). The wicked will see the generous deeds of the righteous rehearsed before them; and will gnash their teeth and melt away into condemnation (<a href='B:230 112:9-10'>Psa 112:9-10</a>).</h4>


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<p>Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord Yahweh; and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?- The desire of God for repentance is stronger than His need to punish sin. Hence LXX"Shall I at all desire the death of the sinner, saith the Lord, as I desire that he should turn from his evil way, and live?". This is why He hangs on so long with sinful people, and Israel are the parade example. His desire for repentance, His passion for human reformation, is active and huge. It’s not that He has set a bar which must be jumped over, and is passive toward us until that is achieved.</p>


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<p>But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered: in his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die- As explained on :22, the good deeds of the righteous will be ’gone through’ at judgment day. But if they turn away, then those good deeds will not be remembered or gone through, but rather his sins.</p>


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<p>Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not fair. Hear now, house of Israel: Is My way not fair? Aren’t your waysunfair?- <a href='B:290 40:3'>Isa 40:3</a>, which is quoted in <a href='B:490 3:4'>Luk 3:4</a>, speaks of “Prepare ye the way of the Lord”, whereas <a href='B:290 62:10'>Isa 62:10</a> speaks of “Prepare ye the way of the people”. Yet tragically, the way / path of Israel was not the way / path of the Lord (<a href='B:330 18:25'>Eze 18:25</a>). We are not only Jesus to this world but also effectively we are the witness to God Himself. We minister His care to others; to the extent that Paul could write both that he was a minister of God, and also a minister of the church (<a href='B:540 6:4'>2Co 6:4</a>; <a href='B:580 1:24-25'>Col 1:24-25</a>).</p>


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<p>When the righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and dies therein; in his iniquity that he has done shall he die- This was perhaps a warning to the righteous remnant who had so far repented in exile; they were liable to be dragged back into sin by the other exiles and the depressive situation they found themselves in.</p>


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<p>Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed and does that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive-"Save his soul alive"implies that judgment is about to come, the death penalty already passed, but his repentance just about averts this at the last moment. It is the term used in <a href='B:10 19:19'>Gen 19:19</a> of how Lot was just about saved by grace out of Sodom, which was a symbol of Jerusalem under judgment, as Ezekiel 16 has made clear. This was the desperate urgency of Ezekiel’s appeal; and yet he was seen at best as a singer of fairy tales or old time love songs (<a href='B:330 33:32'>Eze 33:32</a>).</p>


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<p>Because he considers and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die-"Considers"is literally ’see’. Part of our spiritual blindness is in refusing to see that our current path will lead to death and not life. They were to ’see’ their situation and turn back, literally, ’return’. Their return from captivity was to be associated with their return from sin. But God took the initiative and returned them anyway, despite their impenitence. And even that initiative of grace was refused by the majority. The same words are used of Ezekiel being bidden both to ’consider [see]’ and to ’turn’ (<a href='B:330 8:6'>Eze 8:6</a>; <a href='B:330 8:13'>Eze 8:13</a>; <a href='B:330 8:15'>Eze 8:15</a>; <a href='B:330 47:6'>Eze 47:6</a>). He was set up as their pattern, as the parade example of how the remnant ought to be.</p>


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<p>Yet the house of Israel says, The way of the Lord is not fair. House of Israel, aren’t My ways fair? Aren’t your ways unfair?- The majority of the captives insisted, according to Ezekiel 18, that they hadn’t sinned, and they were suffering unjustlybecause of the sins of their fathers; whereas this righteous remnant in Babylon were intended to admit that “we have sinned. Equally with them of old time have we transgressed” (<a href='B:290 64:5'>Isa 64:5</a>). They took the message of Ezekiel to heart- unlike the majority. And thus this was the sad end of the great plan developed by the God of all grace for His people in Babylon. They rejected it, and hated His servants who brought that good news to them. The complaint that God is unfair is answered by reminding them that they have sinned. And this finally is one aspect of the answer to ’the problem of suffering’.</p>


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<p>Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each one according to his ways, says the Lord Yahweh. Return, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin- Time and again the prophets judged Israel according to their"ways", rather than according to their theological or academic knowledge."Each one"was a reminder to the exiles that not one of them were mere victims of some group judgment whilst being personally innocent. They had sinned, but the appeal was not to allow that iniquity to be their"stumblingblock", which is how the Hebrew for"ruin"is usually translated. We all sin, but we are not to allow that sin to become a stumblingblock which plunges us headlong into further sin. And that involves a conscious attempt to turn themselves. God lay a stumblingblock before those who had sinned (<a href='B:330 3:20'>Eze 3:20</a>) in that He psychologically confirmed them in the way they chose to go. He confirmed them in how they had laid the stumblingblock themselves before their own faces (<a href='B:330 14:3-4'>Eze 14:3-4</a>), blocking their mental vision with a desire to do wrong, specifically to attain or retain personal wealth (<a href='B:330 7:19'>Eze 7:19</a>). All these passages use the same word for"ruin"as here, but translated"stumblingblock". This again is the urgency of our situation; we have sinned, but we must urgently repent. Otherwise, that sin becomes entrenched in our mental vision, and will stumble us into the mire of sinful being and thinking.</p>


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<p>Cast away from you all your transgressions in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, house of Israel?- Elsewhere in Ezekiel, God promises to give them a new heart and spirit (<a href='B:330 11:19'>Eze 11:19</a>; <a href='B:330 36:26'>Eze 36:26</a>). This was part of the new covenant God was offering the exiles, seeing they had broken the old covenant. On one hand, God can give the new psychology, the new pair of eyes, the heart of the Spirit::. just like that. But to simply do so regardless of human volition would be to turn man into a mere puppet of an almighty psychological controller. There must be a desire for that new heart and spirit, and then God will confirm it. This offer of a new spirit due to the work of God’s spirit on human hearts is just as much part of the same new covenant which God has given to all who accept it in Christ today.</p>


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<p>For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the Lord Yahweh: therefore turn yourselves, and live- God is not passive to human repentance. He wants us to repent and&nbsp; wills us to do so. Those who refuse to turn or repent will die, and He has no satisfaction or pleasure or will for that to happen. The exiles could have repented, both individually and collectively ["turn yourselves"in Hebrew carries that collective implication], and averted the death which was otherwise planned for them and their brethren back in Judah at the hand of the Babylonians. Peter alludes to these words in saying that for all time, God is not willing ["pleasure"in Hebrew can mean ’will’] that any should perish but that all should repent (<a href='B:680 3:9'>2Pe 3:9</a>). His work of judging insistent sinners is in this sense for Him a"strange act::. a strange work"(<a href='B:290 28:21'>Isa 28:21</a>). His passion is for our repentance and salvation, not our condemnation.</p>


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<p>Moreover, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel- Chapters 17-22 form an ABABAB structure. Chapters 17,19 and 21 speak of Babylon, and chapters 18,20 and 22 of Judah’s sins which warranted the Babylonian involvement.</p>


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<p>And say, What was your mother? A lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her cubs- The lions represent the leaders or princes; the lioness is the state of Judah or perhaps the Jerusalem leadership specifically (<a href='B:310 1:1'>Lam 1:1</a>; <a href='B:550 4:25'>Gal 4:25</a>), who"couched among [the other] lions"of the nations, one with them through making alliances with them. And she raised her cubs, the princes of Judah, amongst the lions of the surrounding nations, with their mentality. Babylon and Assyria are both likened to lions; although Jerusalem was"the lion of God"in <a href='B:290 29:1'>Isa 29:1</a> (also <a href='B:10 49:9'>Gen 49:9</a>; <a href='B:40 23:24'>Num 23:24</a>; <a href='B:40 24:9'>Num 24:9</a>). But she was to ’couch among’ the good pastures of Israel as a repentant sheep rather than as a lion once she had repented (<a href='B:330 34:14-15'>Eze 34:14-15</a>; <a href='B:430 3:13'>Zep 3:13</a>). The mother however may refer to Hamutal, the literal mother of the princes mentioned, and whose unGodly ambitions for her sons led them to tragic ends.</p>


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<p>She brought up one of her cubs: he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men- The reference is to Jehoahaz, son of Josiah [called Shallum in <a href='B:300 22:11'>Jer 22:11</a>], taken captive from Riblah to Egypt (:4) by Pharaoh-necho (<a href='B:120 23:33'>2Ki 23:33</a>). His devouring others must refer to an aggressive kind of behaviour simply called doing evil in the Lord’s eyes (<a href='B:120 23:32'>2Ki 23:32</a>),just like his father. He was raised in this way and continued; and Ezekiel was appealing to the young people of the royal family and Jerusalem leadership to not go in the way of their fathers.</p>


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<p>The nations also heard of him; he was caught in their pit; and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt- The aggression of Jehoiachin was to such an extent that he was seen as a threat and somehow entrapped by the Egyptians.</p>


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<p>Now when she saw that she had waited and her hope was lost, then she took another of her cubs and made him a young lion- This could refer to Jehoiachin (<a href='B:120 24:15'>2Ki 24:15</a>), although it could also be Zedekiah (<a href='B:120 25:6-7'>2Ki 25:6-7</a>); both were taken to Babylon (:9). The stress on the same mother (:2,3,5) would then highlight how the mother of Jehoahaz and Zedekiah had raised them in such a way that led both of them to make dishonest alliances as part of a crazy bid for power, which ended both of them in captivity.</p>


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<p>He went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men- He didn’t learn from the mistakes and judgment of Jehoahaz. Sometimes parallel people are brought into our lives from whom we are intended to learn, and avoid the path they took.</p>


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<h4>He knew their palaces- This is s:w."widows", hence RVmg. and Keil"he knew, i:e. outraged, the widows of Israel". He knew (i:e. eyed with satisfaction) his palaces" from which he had ejected their former owners (<a href='B:300 22:15'>Jer 22:15</a>). If we stay with "palaces", then the idea would be that he visited the palaces of the local rulers of the nations. But he hardly "laid waste their cities". Perhaps his plan to do so was counted as having been as good as done, which is why the nations saw him as a threat.</h4><h4>And laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and its fullness, because of the noise of his roaring- The idea may be that the land was made desolate because of his singular failures, just as was to happen with Zedekiah (see on :14). But the idea may be that he wasted the land for his own benefit, and therefore the land was to be desolated by the invaders.</h4>


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<p>Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces; and they spread their net over him; he was caught in their pit- He was seen as a dangerous lion, a potential threat, and caught. The nations are called "the provinces" to stress that Babylon was the empire to which they all belonged. They used their own limited autonomy in order to depose the aggressive princes of Judah.</p>


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<p>They put him in a cage with hooks and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into strongholds, that his voice should no more be heard on the mountains of Israel- And Ezekiel in captivity in Babylon was prophesying to him and his family.</p>


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<p>Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard planted by the waters. It was fruitful and full ofbranches because of the many waters- This is the language already used in Ezekiel 17. It uses the prophetic perfect tense, talking of that which was yet to happen as if it has happened. They had wasted all the potential to become a fruitful vine by seeking to establish the kingdom in their own strength. The chapter at least from :here onwards is a funeral dirge (:17). It could have been for Hamutal the mother of Zedekiah who died in Babylon (<a href='B:300 29:2'>Jer 29:2</a>), or perhaps for Zedekiah himself. Part of the reason her sons made the alliances they did was due to her ambitions, which were clearly not based upon faith in God.</p>


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<p>It had strong rods for the sceptres of those who bore rule, and their height was exalted among the thick boughs, and they were seen in their height with the multitude of their branches- We perhaps have an intensive plural here, referring to Zedekiah; or perhaps all 22 of the kings of Judah from David to Zedekiah are in view. And yet if the reference is to Zedekiah, we note that he appears to have been weak and under the control of Babylon, and finally his sons were slain before his eyes. The strength therefore refers to the potential strength and possibility there was to become the rulers of God’s revived Kingdom- if they had totally repented.</p>


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<p>But it was plucked up in fury, it was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit. Its strong rods were broken off and withered; the fire consumed them- The vine was not completely destroyed; only its branches were. It was plucked up by the Babylonians, but replanted in Babylon. The imagery reflects God’s grace in not totally destroying the vine. The east wind refers to the Babylonian invasion from the north east, and how the royal family withered to nothing in Babylon.</p>


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<p>Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land- The "dry ground" is Babylon, and the new "planting" indicates the deportation of Jehoiachin and the chief men of Judah. It was out of this dry ground that a Messianic figure could have arisen, as predicted in Isaiah 53. But Zerubbabel and others failed in this, and so the predictions were reapplied to the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p>Fire is gone out of the rods of its branches, it has devoured its fruit, so that there is in it no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule- This is the same figure as in <a href='B:70 9:15'>Jdg 9:15</a>; Zedekiah’s refusal to repent at Jeremiah’s preaching brought forth the fire of destruction upon the entire vine. Just one man’s repentance could have averted so much damage.</p>


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<p>It happened in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of Yahweh and they sat before me- At this time, Zedekiah was planning to revolt from the king of Babylon and under the influence of his mother (see Ezekiel 19) was planning to gain independent power through making alliances with other nations. The elders who come to Ezekiel may have been from within the community of Jewish captives already in Babylon, or from Jerusalem. The enquiry may have been because they wanted to know Ezekiel’s take on how long they would have to remain in captivity, considering how the false prophets were speaking of an immediate return and victory against Babylon. It seems they came to Ezekiel wanting to hear this message, which is why God would not be inquired of by them (:3,31).</p>


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<p>Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Is it to inquire of Me that you have come? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be inquired of by you- The allusion may be to <a href='B:50 4:29'>Deu 4:29</a>, where the same word for "inquire" is used. Israel would find God if they "seek" or "inquire" for Him "with your whole heart". And their apparent interest in God’s word was not wholehearted but like many today, they came to His word with their own already decided agenda as to what they wanted the answer to be. The word is also used of seeking other gods (<a href='B:50 12:30'>Deu 12:30</a>; <a href='B:300 8:2'>Jer 8:2</a> and especially see on <a href='B:330 14:3'>Eze 14:3</a>; <a href='B:330 14:7'>Eze 14:7</a>; <a href='B:330 14:10'>Eze 14:10</a>). Idolatry was clearly a problem amongst them; if they were ’seeking to’ other gods then they could not expect a response from Yahweh, if they treated Him as just one of many options available. The elders who came to Ezekiel are in the same category as those in Judah who did not seek / inquire of Yahweh, although they did externally (<a href='B:300 10:21'>Jer 10:21</a>). We can pray and come to God’s word, when in reality we are not doing so from our whole heart and are doing this simply on the level of religious interest rather than wholehearted devotion. They would only ’find’ God is they ’sought’ with their whole heart (<a href='B:300 29:13'>Jer 29:13</a>).</p>


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<p>Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers- Judgment is here paralleled with being caused to know the sins of their fathers which they were in denial of, and which they apparently were continuing in. For Ezekiel 18 had appealed for them to repent of the sins of their fathers. This is the purpose of judgment; to elicit in men an acknowledgment of their sins and thus coming to ’know Yahweh’.</p>


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<h4>And tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day when I chose Israel, and swore to the seed of the house of Jacob, and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore to them saying, I am Yahweh your God- "Swore" is ’to lift up the hand’ as AV. It is fitting that the Lord Jesus Christ died with hands and arms lifted up above his head, rather than spread out in a crucifix form, seeing that uplifted hands is a symbol of God’s promises being confirmed (<a href='B:330 20:5-6'>Eze 20:5-6</a>; <a href='B:330 20:15'>Eze 20:15</a>; <a href='B:330 36:7'>Eze 36:7</a>; <a href='B:330 47:14'>Eze 47:14</a>), as well as intense prayer (<a href='B:310 2:19'>Lam 2:19</a>;&nbsp; <a href='B:610 2:8'>1Ti 2:8</a>;&nbsp; <a href='B:140 6:12-13'>2Ch 6:12-13</a>;&nbsp; <a href='B:230 28:2'>Psa 28:2</a>), which Christ was engaged in on the cross (<a href='B:650 5:7'>Heb 5:7</a>). The covenant is described as being made in Egypt (<a href='B:330 20:5'>Eze 20:5</a>) to heighten the similarity with the exiles now in Babylon, who were being offered a new covenant, and then the possibility of leaving Babylon / Egypt and entering the land again. Judah are also being reminded that the covenant was made with all Israel, the seed of Jacob, and not just Judah. For it was God’s intention to regather them to the land together with Judah.</h4><h4>But although God had chosen Israel as His unique people, they had chosen other gods (<a href='B:70 5:8'>Jdg 5:8</a>), and at Ezekiel’s time they were doing this in order to get political and military protection from those various gods and nations whom they were choosing. God’s choosing of Israel is associated with God placing them in their own land (<a href='B:290 14:1'>Isa 14:1</a>; <a href='B:290 41:8-9'>Isa 41:8-9</a>). At the restoration they would therefore be as it were chosen again (<a href='B:290 49:7'>Isa 49:7</a>). Yet by grace God restored them, even though they had not uniquely chosen Him again. And they still didn’t respond to that grace.</h4>


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<p>In that day I swore to them, to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands- Likewise our place in God’s Kingdom will have been carefully prepared for us. Just as God "searched out" Canaan for His people. And yet the spies sent to search out Canaan were not in step with God’s searching out of the land. Indeed instead of trusting that He had searched out Canaan, they insisted on sending their own spies to do so, and stumbled because of this.</p>


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<p>I said to them, Throw away every man the abominations of his eyes, and don’t defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God- This was apparently a condition of God saving them from Egypt (:8). Later when in the wilderness the command was required again because they had brought the idols of Egypt with them through the Red Sea, as <a href='B:370 5:26'>Amo 5:26</a> states clearly. We too can smuggle the idols of the world through the waters of baptism (<a href='B:530 10:1-2'>1Co 10:1-2</a>). The parallel was with the exiles in Babylon, who were to quit idolatry before they could enter the land in restoration. Yet it seems God restored them anyway, so eager was He to restore them. The idols were abominations of their eyes in the sense of Ezekiel 14 - they had placed their idols before their eyes and faces, they were a mental block to them, because the essence of idolatry is within the worldview and mind of people.</p>


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<h4>But they rebelled against Me, and would not listen to Me; they didn’t throw away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt- And yet all the same God led them out of Egypt and He again led them from Babylon at the restoration despite the spiritual preconditions not being met. Ezekiel is told from the start that the exiles were ’rebellious’, just as Israel from the start had been rebellious by not casting away their idols. The idols of Egypt may refer to the literal idols, and the abominations of their eyes to their mental blockage and obsession with these things; see on :7.</h4><h4>Then I said I would pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt- The cessation, accomplishment or resting of God’s wrath is mentioned several times in Ezekiel, and nowhere else in this way (<a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a>; <a href='B:330 6:12'>Eze 6:12</a>; <a href='B:330 7:8'>Eze 7:8</a>; <a href='B:330 13:15'>Eze 13:15</a>; <a href='B:330 16:42'>Eze 16:42</a>; <a href='B:330 20:8'>Eze 20:8</a>; <a href='B:330 21:17'>Eze 21:17</a>; <a href='B:330 22:20'>Eze 22:20</a>; <a href='B:330 24:13'>Eze 24:13</a>). The idea is not that God was so angry that He had to express that anger and only calmed down once He had as it were lashed out. He does have real wrath; the huge love He has cannot exist in a dimensionless vacuum, it of itself implies He also has wrath. <a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a> continues: "I will cause My wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted", and the Hebrew there for "comforted" is literally ’to sigh’, to be sorry, even to repent / change. Having expressed His legitimate anger, God knew that He would then be sorry and would then embark upon a process of restoration- by grace. For the objects of His wrath didn’t deserve any restoration. "To rest" is the word translated "to place" in <a href='B:330 37:14'>Eze 37:14</a>: "I shall place you in your own land" at the restoration from captivity. His wrath had to be expressed, and yet it was part of His wider purpose toward restoring His people and Kingdom. We would be quite wrong, therefore, to read these words as meaning that God was furiously angry and needed to lash out and get it all expressed so that He could as it were calm down again. His judgments are always ultimately constructive, and therefore "the wrath of God is the love of God". His wrath is therefore described in <a href='B:330 5:15'>Eze 5:15</a> as the rebuke of His fury/ wrath; it was intended to rebuke, to achieve instruction, that they should ’know Yahweh’. The tragedy was that the captives for the most part refused to perceive it this way and respond.</h4>


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<h4>But I worked for My name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among which they were, in whose sight I made Myself known to them in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt- Time and again God’s love made Him re-think and alter His plans. <a href='B:330 20:9-10'>Eze 20:9-10</a> explains that God intended to destroy Israel in Egypt because of their idolatry, and so He decided to bring them out into the wilderness and destroy them there so as not to do it in Egypt and give the Egyptians a reason to mock Him. And yet according to Jeremiah and <a href='B:330 16:5-10'>Eze 16:5-10</a>, it was in the wilderness that God fell in love with Israel and gave them His covenant. He is attracted to us so easily; hence His anger when we abuse this and disappoint Him.</h4><h4>God’s salvation of Israel from Egypt and Babylon was very public, in the sight of the nations. Our baptism and deliverance from this world is likewise intended to be a public declaration, intended to encourage others to come with us.</h4>


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<p>So I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness- This ’causing’ to go forth was by grace, because they had not met the required spiritual preconditions- in that they had not in fact cast away their idols (see on <a href='B:330 20:6-8'>Eze 20:6-8</a>). And it was to be the same in the exodus from Babylon. This Divine ’causing to go forth’ was by the Spirit, for those who left captivity did so because their minds were stirred up by the Spirit to do so, even though they were not spiritually qualified for the restoration (<a href='B:150 1:5'>Ezr 1:5</a>). They had been commanded to "go forth" from Babylon (<a href='B:290 52:11'>Isa 52:11</a> s:w:) but it was God who caused them to do this by the grace of His Spirit’s operation on their hearts. The same is true of our exodus from this world through the water of baptism. It is all of grace and confirmation of the smallest desire to do so; and so this causing to go forth was by God’s "mighty hand" (<a href='B:330 20:34'>Eze 20:34</a> s:w:).</p>


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<p>I gave them My statutes and showed them My ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live in them- The context here has been of God entering a covenant with Israel by grace. They had not quit the idols of Egypt, which was a condition of the covenant. So the gift of God’s statutes and the revealing to them of His ordinances was far from a burden placed upon them, but rather a parade example of Divine grace in entering further into a relationship with a people who were not prepared or worthy of it.</p>


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<h4>Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies them- The Sabbath was specifically "a sign between them (Israel) and Me (God), that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them" (<a href='B:330 20:12'>Eze 20:12</a>):&nbsp;As such, it has never been intended to be binding on Gentiles (non-Jews). “::. the Lord has given you [not all mankind] the Sabbath (<a href='B:20 16:29'>Exo 16:29</a>); “::. You [God] made known to them [Israel] Your holy Sabbath” (<a href='B:160 9:14'>Neh 9:14</a>).</h4><h4>As noted on :11, this law was not a burden but a gift of grace, to remind them that they had been sanctified by grace, not on the basis of their works, but by God’s grace. For He had entered a covenant with them despite their refusal to meet the vital precondition of having quit the idols of Egypt. This resting from their own works was intended to teach them that they were sanctified, counted righteous and able to enter covenant with God, by grace and quite apart from their works</h4>


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<h4>But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness- Ezekiel’s ministry began with the revelation that the house of Israel of Ezekiel’s time were still a rebellious house.</h4><p>They didn’t walk in My statutes and they rejected My ordinances, which if a man keep, he shall live in them; and My Sabbaths they greatly profaned- The refusal to accept justification by grace and not by works was a great profanation. Keeping God’s commandments is intended to elicit a way of life. They are designed and structured to be lived in. There was no promise here of eternal life in return for obedience, but rather the point is that the commandments were given in order to provoke an upward spiral of spirituality, life lived within them. When Divine commandments are singled out and analyzed alone, with tokenistic obedience to them demanded, then they will not achieve that which they are designed for. The sum of Divine commandments were intended together to produce a life lived within them. This is why partial obedience or obedience only in the letter was not going to be helpful.</p><h4>Then I said I would pour out My wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them- This surely refers to the time of the golden calf incident when God says He would destroy Israel and make of Moses a great nation to replace them (<a href='B:20 32:10'>Exo 32:10</a>).</h4>


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<p>But I worked for My name’s sake that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out- This gives an insight into God’s internal struggles. His grace as it were worked against His judgment. His mercy rejoiced against His judgment. But that struggle was motivated by the appeal of Moses for Him not to consume Israel. And that same struggle was ongoing over the question of whether to totally destroy Judah in captivity. Perhaps there is the implication that He would have done were it not for the intercession of a Moses like figure- perhaps Ezekiel and / or Jeremiah. God "worked" so that His Name would not be further profaned amongst the nations. It was His people who profaned that Name. But He worked through His Spirit to preserve them from further profaning His Name.</p>


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<p>Moreover also I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands- The swearing of a covenant now becomes swearing to destroy them by not bringing them into the land which potentially had been given to them. And so the exiles in Babylon were in a similar situation. Whilst their idolatry continued, they could not hope to be ’brought into the land’, which is what the elders were presumably asking for (:2,3).</p>


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<p>Because they rejected My ordinances, and didn’t walk in My statutes, and profaned My Sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols- Typical of the prophets, the essential reason for disobedience is perceived as being that their heart, their mind, was elsewhere rather than with God. The phrase ’the heart going after:::’ is used by the contemporary Jeremiah of the heart going after its own imaginations and also of the heart going after idols; their heart walked after their own imaginations [literally, their own images] and also after Baalim (<a href='B:300 3:17'>Jer 3:17</a>; <a href='B:300 9:14'>Jer 9:14</a>; <a href='B:300 13:10'>Jer 13:10</a>; <a href='B:300 16:12'>Jer 16:12</a>; <a href='B:300 18:12'>Jer 18:12</a>). The essential reason for their literal idolatry was in their lack of spiritual mindedness, their following of the mental images they allowed themselves to internally worship. And this is why the essence of idolatry is so relevant to us today, we who live as never before in an age of visual images and mental pictures and all consuming perceptions. Judah’s heart went after their own covetousness (<a href='B:330 33:31'>Eze 33:31</a>), and that was why effectively their heart went after idols which promised them material blessings and fertility, and political and military support from those nations identified with those idols.</p>


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<h4>Nevertheless My eye spared them and Ididn’t destroy them, neither did I make a full end of them in the wilderness- see on <a href='B:330 7:14'>Eze 7:14</a>; <a href='B:330 9:1'>Eze 9:1</a>; <a href='B:20 34:9'>Exo 34:9</a>. There are passages which speak of how God’s eye would not spare at Ezekiel’s time, and also of how His eye would spare. This is not the meandering of an unstable God; rather is this God in passion, His pity and mercy struggling against the pole of judgment which is also within His same personality. He had gone through the same feelings with Israel in the desert.</h4><h4>The idea of two Angels being present with Israel is found here in <a href='B:330 20:17'>Eze 20:17</a>; <a href='B:330 20:22'>Eze 20:22</a>; God’s “eye”, which is definitely Angelic language, spared them from being destroyed- by the destroyer Angel. And therefore God “withdrew mine hand”, also Angelic language, in order not to destroy them. The "eye" Angel limited the action of the "hand of destruction" Angel, just as on Passover night. Note too how it is the Angelic “eye of the Lord” which is paralleled with God’s mercy in <a href='B:230 33:18'>Psa 33:18</a>; <a href='B:230 33:22'>Psa 33:22</a>.</h4>


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<p>I said to their children in the wilderness, Don’t walk in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their ordinances, nor defile yourselves with their idols- This call to radically break from their fathers’ example was exactly that being made to the younger exiles who first heard Ezekiel’s words. This is why this description of God’s appeal to the young people in the wilderness is not a verbatim quote from anywhere in the Pentateuch; it is expressed in terms which are appropriate to Ezekiel’s audience. We note that the historical record gives little clue that idolatry was such a major problem with the Hebrews; God’s record is so gracious. For in Ezekiel 16 He says that He fell in love with these people- despite all their idolatry.</p>


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<p>I am Yahweh your God. Walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them- The conflict is between walking in the statutes of their human fathers (:18) and those of their Heavenly Father. And there was a radical difference. It was so difficult for people in such strongly family-based societies to reject their human fathers for another. But this was the call of God to that generation in the wilderness; and now the royal family and priesthood were in exile in Babylon, it was equally necessary that their children likewise broke from their fathers’ ways.</p>


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<p>And make My Sabbaths holy; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God- It was not that the Sabbath wasn’t being kept. The issue was that the significance of it was being lost. The sabbath was to remind them that they had been sanctified by grace, not on the basis of their works, but by God’s grace. For He had entered a covenant with them despite their refusal to meet the vital precondition of having quit the idols of Egypt. This resting from their own works was intended to teach them that they were sanctified, counted righteous and able to enter covenant with God, by grace and quite apart from their works. But the Jews in exile as well as those in Judah were madly scheming by their own works and device as to how to overcome the Babylonian threat and achieve a kingdom on their own terms rather than God’s.</p>


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<h4>But the children rebelled against Me; they didn’t walk in My statutes, neither kept My ordinances to do them, which if a man do, he shall live in them: they profaned My Sabbaths- The younger generation on the wilderness journey were assured that they would enter the land / Kingdom, although the older generation would die in the wilderness. Despite that wonderful assurance, and seeing the carcasses oftheir parents falling in the desert::. they still refused to be obedient. Just as the younger generation of Ezekiel’s audience were a rebellious house, despite all and every evidence and reason to live differently to their fathers.</h4><h4>Then I said that I would pour out My wrath upon them, to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness- See on :8.</h4>


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<h4>Nevertheless I withdrew My hand- The idea could be that as Abraham withdrew his hand from sacrificing Isaac, so God relented. But "swore" in Ezekiel 20 is literally ’to lift up the hand’, so to withdraw the hand could mean that God rescinded the oath which was the basis of the covenant relationship with Israel- because they themselves had broken the covenant.</h4><h4>And worked for My name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them forth- God had said He would destroy Israel and make of Moses a new nation. But He relented of that, and here in <a href='B:330 20:22'>Eze 20:22</a> we see the picture of His internal struggle, working for His Name’s sake, for the sake of the principles incorporated within His Name. So it is an intrinsic part of His Name and essential personality that He changes His judgments from pity. When the Psalmist of <a href='B:230 109:21'>Psa 109:21</a> asks for God’s grace, He asks God to "do" or "work" for the sake of His Name, and not bring about a threatened judgment. Jeremiah likewise understood this and asks God to still be gracious to Israel despite their lack of repentance- through working for His Name’s sake (<a href='B:300 14:7'>Jer 14:7</a>). To save by grace was therefore working or doing according to His Name’s sake, rather than according to human merit (<a href='B:330 36:22'>Eze 36:22</a>). Thus by working for His Name’s sake, the repentant exiles would come to ’know Yahweh’ (<a href='B:330 20:44'>Eze 20:44</a>), they would come to see who He essentially is. And He is revealed as the very opposite of a stone faced, unchanging, insensitive God, which was then the standard conception of a deity.</h4>


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<p>Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations, and disperse them through the countries- The reference may be to this threat at the end of the wilderness journey (<a href='B:50 28:64'>Deu 28:64</a>). But more likely it alludes to an unrecorded curse made during the journey. However, if indeed it does refer to <a href='B:50 28:64'>Deu 28:64</a>, this was stated just prior to their entry into Canaan, on the last day of Moses’ life. And yet despite this curse of being scattered, they then soon afterwards entered the land of promise. This grace would then have special relevance to Ezekiel’s exiles, who were located spiritually although not geographically "in the wilderness", and whom God intended to restore to the land by grace even though they were unworthy of it.</p>


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<p>Because they had not executed My ordinances but had rejected My statutes and had profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols- This is a sad commentary upon the real state of the Israelites in the wilderness. Truly they were saved and brought into the land by grace. And the restoration from Babylon was to feature a similar grace. The wilderness generation who entered Canaan were not as faithful as some think; if indeed the reference of :23 is to <a href='B:50 28:64'>Deu 28:64</a>, then they entered Canaan still worshipping the Egyptian idols which their parents had worshipped in Egypt. They took them across the Jordan as their fathers took them across the Red Sea. And the law of Moses and Sabbath regulations were not observed by them in the wilderness. And we know that circumcision was also not practiced by them- thus they despised the covenant (<a href='B:60 5:5'>Jos 5:5</a>).</p>


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<p>Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they should not live- In the Hebrew Bible, God is oftensaid&nbsp;to do, what He only&nbsp;permits&nbsp;to be done. So it is here; He allowed them to be given bad laws from their religious leaders, which led them further into sin. God confirms people in the path they choose; this is the work of the holy Spirit positively, and negatively, an "evil spirit from the Lord" (<a href='B:90 16:14'>1Sa 16:14</a>) confirms sinners in the path they choose. It is God who is the dynamic in both these scenarios; there is no place for a superhuman, cosmic being called Satan.</p>


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<p>And I polluted them in their own gifts, because they caused their children to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate; to the end that they might know that I am Yahweh- We marvel at how God does not turn away from sin but instead seeks to work through it, so that even through the horror of child sacrifice, people were intended to come to know Yahweh through their repentance. They desolated themselves by offering their children to their idols, the fire and smoke of the burning bodies supposedly transporting those children to the gods in heaven. But God worked through that to desolate them. He only did to them what they had done to themselves. "Their children" is as AV "all that openeth the womb", the firstborn, which were intended to be Yahweh’s in memorial of how He had saved the firstborn at the Passover. They were wilfully ignorant of their past salvation and the implications that should have had upon them for all time. We too can forget our spiritual past, and the grace shown to us then.</p>


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<p>Therefore son of man speak to the house of Israel and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In this, moreover, have your fathers blasphemed Me, in that they have committed a trespass against Me- Ezekiel now moves on as it were to a new subsection in this description of Israel’s historical sins. They had sinned in the wilderness and now the history moves on to how they continued sinning once they entered Canaan. This surely gives us reason to reevaluate the idea that the generation who entered Canaan were the most faithful of all Israel’s generations- an idea taught by Rabbis to this day. We note however the present tenses- the fathers "have committed a trespass::.", as if to make the audience of Ezekiel realize that the essence of those historical sins was continuing in their literal fathers and in their own generation.</p>


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<p>For when I had brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill and every thick tree, and they offered there their sacrifices and there they presented the provocation of their offering; there also they made their pleasant aroma, and they poured out there their drink offerings- Such apostasy apparently happened as soon as they entered Canaan. The great victories given to the people under Joshua were therefore given to a people who also worshipped idols.</p>


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<p>Then I said to them, What does the high place where you go mean? So its name is called Bamah to this day- The implication is that they should have renamed such places. But "to this day" they called their high places "Bamah" just as the Canaanites had. "Bamah" appears to be a Canaanite term for the high places; it is the term found for them on the Moabite stone. They ought to have immediately destroyed the Canaanite high places (<a href='B:50 12:1-5'>Deu 12:1-5</a>) but instead they eagerly used them for worship, and still did. All the recorded reforms of the faithful kings of Judah had not therefore been that far reaching.</p>


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<p>Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Do you pollute yourselves in the way of your fathers? and do you play the prostitute after their abominations?- The emphasis is upon the word "you". Now the recounting of history ends, and the rhetorical question is asked- ’Are you really any better than your fathers?’. Ezekiel 16 and Ezekiel 23 clearly state that Judah were right then prostituting themselves to other gods- even the exiles with Ezekiel.</p>


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<h4>When you offer your gifts, when you make your sons to pass through the fire, do you pollute yourselves with all your idols to this day?- "To this day" means that the exiles in captivity were offering their children to Moloch. And yet they came asking for Yahweh’s word to be revealed to them. No wonder God refused to sympathetically respond.</h4><h4>Shall I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be inquired of by you- This is not so much God refusing to respond, but a function of their lack of ’inquiry’. The elders who came to Ezekiel are in the same category as those in Judah who did not seek / inquire of Yahweh, although they did externally (<a href='B:300 10:21'>Jer 10:21</a>). We can pray and come to God’s word, when in reality we are not doing so from our whole heart and are doing this simply on the level of religious interest rather than wholehearted devotion. They would only ’find’ God is they ’sought’ with their whole heart (<a href='B:300 29:13'>Jer 29:13</a>). See on :3.</h4>


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<p>And that which comes into your mind shall not be at all, in that you say, We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone- Their attitude was that they would leave Yahweh worship and be as the nations who worshipped idols. This was the thought which God perceived in them, even though they likely had not articulated this in so many words. For after all, they had come before Yahweh to hear His word (:31). But God wouldn’t let His beloved leave Him so easily. Despite this, He wanted to have them as His own, still.</p>


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<p>As I live says the Lord Yahweh, surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out will I be king over you- As explained on :32, the inner thought of the exiles was that they would just quit Yahweh worship and worship idols like the other nations. But God’s mighty hand would rescue them even from that, and through His judgments He would still become their exclusive king- even if only of a remnant. We see here the same tenacity God shows with us, searching for the lost until He finds us. But to again be king over Israel, with them subservient to Him as His kingdom, under His Kingly dominion, He would have to first pour out His wrath. But there was a purpose in that wrath- to establish again His Kingdom over them.</p>


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<p>I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries in which you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out- The mighty hand and stretched out arm of God was available to bring Judah out of Babylon- but most of them preferred to stay there. God was not sanctified before the heathen. The wonderful possibility of a new covenant went unrealized- to be deferred until the true Israel of God are gathered home in our last days. The scenario here envisaged didn’t fully come about, because Israel were unwilling to participate. The idea was that He would with anger bring them out of Babylon, and then judge them (:35), and a minority would then form the remnant who would then be the kernel of His Kingdom reestablished in Israel under a Messianic ruler.</p>


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<p>And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face- . <a href='B:330 20:30-33'>Eze 20:30-33</a> contains God’s response to the elders in captivity wanting Ezekiel to pray for them. They were committing whoredom, idolatry etc. <a href='B:330 36:20'>Eze 36:20</a> likewise comments how they “profaned My holy name” during the Babylonian captivity. They were not enabling God’s plan of restoration to be realized. <a href='B:330 20:35-40'>Eze 20:35-40</a> therefore goes on to outline what was perhaps another possibility- that God would take the entire captive people into the wilderness at the end of the 70 years captivity, and purge out the rebels, and then bring them into the land, where they would have a temple and worship God (<a href='B:330 20:40'>Eze 20:40</a>)- presumably in the temple outlined in Ezekiel 40-48. But it seems this alternative didn’t work out either. The "face to face" meeting recalls that when the old covenant was made in <a href='B:50 5:4'>Deu 5:4</a>. The judgment was to not merely punish them, but to enter into another covenant with them. "The wilderness of the peoples" was not the same as the lands of their captivity (:34). Those lands were the equivalent of Egypt (:36), and the "wilderness" was a period in which they would be judged and yet again enter covenant with God.</p>


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<p>Like as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you, says the Lord Yahweh- This judgment however was to result in a new covenant and a remnant entering the land (:34,35). The Hebrew for ’entering into judgment’ is literally "to plead" (as AV). The experience of judgment was not mere punishment, but a pleading to enter totally into covenant relationship. This pleading or judgment of the exiles is likewise associated with their salvation and restoration in <a href='B:290 43:26'>Isa 43:26</a>; <a href='B:290 51:5'>Isa 51:5</a>. God would plead with or judge the exiles "because you say, I have not sinned"(<a href='B:300 2:35'>Jer 2:35</a>). This was the purpose of the judgment envisaged- to elicit in the exiles repentance. Ezekiel was trying to achieve that by his ministry, he was to judge them so that they recognized their abominations (<a href='B:330 20:4'>Eze 20:4</a>; <a href='B:330 22:2'>Eze 22:2</a>), but they were a rebellious house:&nbsp; And so this idea of bringing them out of Babylon into some situation of judgment was envisaged (<a href='B:330 20:34-38'>Eze 20:34-38</a>), so that they might repent. Zedekiah personally was to be judged or pleaded with in Babylon concerning his sin (<a href='B:330 17:20'>Eze 17:20</a>), i:e. to make him recognize it and repent of it.</p>


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<p>I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant- This alludes to the custom of&nbsp;tithing&nbsp;the&nbsp;sheep. The shepherd stood at the door of the fold, where only one sheep could come out&nbsp;at a time. He had in his hand a&nbsp;rod&nbsp;dipped in red die [cp. the blood of Christ], with which he branded every tenth sheep as the Lord’s tithe portion. This apparently was known as ’causing to pass under the rod’. The implication would be therefore that only a tenth would survive, and come into the new covenant relationship with God. The size and proportion of the projected remnant differs between prophecies; so many different potential scenarios were possible, all depending upon the freewill repentance of His people. The intention was that having been brought out of Babylonian captivity and judged, those who were repentant would accept the new covenant. But this didn’t happen. Something similar will happen in the last days, when the essence of these prophecies will again come true.</p>


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<p>And I will purge out from among you the rebels and those who disobey against Me; I will bring them forth out of the land where they live, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am Yahweh- The idea as explained on :34-36 was that the exiles would be brought out of exile forcibly, "the land where they live" (Babylon) into a "wilderness" situation, where they would be judged. The rebellious house would be purged; and thus <a href='B:290 52:11'>Isa 52:11</a> would be fulfilled, which speaks of the purged ["clean"] exiles returning to the temple in Zion. Yet this scenario didn’t quite work out, because the people were so unwilling to participate. Ezekiel told the captives during the early stages of their captivity that the false prophets and "rebels" amongst them would receive the condemnation and judgment of not returning to the land (<a href='B:330 13:9'>Eze 13:9</a>; <a href='B:330 20:38'>Eze 20:38</a>). And yet when the command came to return to the land, most of the people chose to remain in Babylon- and therefore they chose their own condemnation. They were a "rebellious house" (<a href='B:330 2:3'>Eze 2:3</a>). For they were aware from Ezekiel’s words that not returning to the land was God’s condemnation. Those who will not be in the Kingdom will be those who chose not to be there- all who truly love the Lord’s appearing will be accepted.</p><p>says that the rebels in the wilderness “shall not enter into the land”, with reference to how when Moses called the people “rebels” and beat the rock, he was disallowed entry into the land. Because he called them rebels, i:e. unworthy of entry to the Kingdom, he also was treated as a rebel. If we condemn others, we likewise will be condemned. On another level, he was simply barred for disobedience; and on yet another, his prayer to the effect that he didn’t want to be in the land if his people weren’t going to be there was being answered; and on yet another and higher level, his offer to be blotted out of the book of inheritance for Israel’s sake was also being heard. Thus God works within the same incident in so many ways!</p>


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<p>As for you, house of Israel, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Go, serve each one his idols, and hereafter also, if you will not listen to Me; but My holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and with your idols- As noted on :25, God is often said&nbsp;to do, what He only&nbsp;permits&nbsp;to be done. So it is here; He allowed them to be given bad laws from their religious leaders, which led them further into sin. God confirms people in the path they choose; this is the work of the holy Spirit positively, and negatively, an "evil spirit from the Lord" (1Sa 1614) confirms sinners in the path they choose. It is God who is the dynamic in both these scenarios; there is no place for a superhuman, cosmic being called Satan. God wanted to bring an end to the miserable situation whereby His people professed to worship Him but also worshipped idols. His plan therefore was to purge out the rebels, and only those who were repentantly dedicated wholly to Him would return to the land and restore the Kingdom. But the truth was that there were none of them.</p>


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<p>For in My holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them, serve Me in the land. There will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first fruits of your offerings, with all your holy things- God’s vision for the restoration was that the ten tribes would also come out of captivity and join with Judah in repentant, acceptable worship of Him in the one and only high place He recognized, mount Zion. But they were unwilling to leave, and so this prophecy or project will have its final fulfilment in the last days. But such prophecies will be reapplied and only fulfilled in their essence, not in their detail. Hence we are not to imagine&nbsp; them offering literal offerings. For the one acceptable offering for all time was to be that of the Lord Jesus, whom they will then accept.</p>


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<h4>As a pleasant aroma will I accept you when I bring you out from the peoples- "Pleasant aroma" is the phrase often used for the "pleasant aroma" of sacrifices to Yahweh- three times in Exodus, seventeen in Leviticus, seventeen in Numbers. As a priest, Ezekiel would have been aware of this. But instead, they offered this to the idols (<a href='B:330 6:13'>Eze 6:13</a>). The Divine hope (see on <a href='B:330 6:9'>Eze 6:9</a>), the desperate hope of the unrequited lover for the beloved, was that a repentant remnant would realize this and then offer "pleasant aroma" again to Him alone. But they didn’t. The idea of God ‘accepting’ Israel is found later in <a href='B:330 43:27'>Eze 43:27</a>; when the temple was built and the sacrifices offered, “I will accept you”- if they passed through the program here envisaged, of coming out of Babylon and being purged by a meeting for judgment in "the wilderness". But this scenario didn’t happen, and so neither was the temple vision fulfilled as planned. If Judah had later resumed building the temple according to Ezekiel’s plan in penitence, then they could have even then been accepted: “I will take pleasure” in it, God offered (<a href='B:440 1:8'>Hag 1:8</a>).</h4><p>And gather you out of the countries in which you have been scattered- Consider the use of the word pus, ’scatter’. It was God’s intention that mankind should scatter abroad in the earth and subdue it (<a href='B:10 1:28'>Gen 1:28</a>); but it required the judgment of the tower of Babel to actually make them ’scatter’ (<a href='B:10 11:4'>Gen 11:4</a>). Thus even in judgment, God worked out His positive ultimate intentions with humanity. And this word pus is the same word used with reference to Judah’s ’scattering’ from the land into Babylonian captivity (<a href='B:330 11:17'>Eze 11:17</a>; <a href='B:330 20:34'>Eze 20:34</a>; <a href='B:330 20:41'>Eze 20:41</a>; <a href='B:330 28:25'>Eze 28:25</a>). The intention, surely, was to show the captives that they had been scattered as the people had at the judgment of Babel / Babylon, but even in this, God was working out His purpose with His people and giving them the opportunity to fulfil His original intentions for them.</p><h4>And I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations- As explained on :34-36, God’s intention was to forcibly bring His people out from captivity,the ten tribes as well as Judah, into a "wilderness" situation, where there would be some kind of public judgment of them. The wicked would be purged (:38) and the remnant accepted into a new covenant. This would be done "in the sight of the nations", in the hope that Gentiles would also enter that covenant. But this scenario didn’t happen in the form envisaged.</h4>


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<p>You shall know that I am Yahweh when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country which I swore to give to your fathers- Their knowledge of Yahweh would be in terms of relationship, walking in covenant with Him, in awe at His grace towards them and their experience of salvation by grace. This was and is to know Yahweh; academic knowledge of theological propositions is not in view. The new covenant is based upon the promises to Abraham, hence the frequent reference to their receiving the land sworn to the fathers.</p>


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<p>There you shall remember your ways and all your doings, in which you have polluted yourselves; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed- It is the experience of grace and salvation by grace which elicits an awareness of our sins. The idea originally had been that the remnant would repent in exile and then be restored. But they didn’t. And so the Divine hope was that by restoring them in impenitence, they would remember their sins and loathe what they had done. It’s the same reason why Jesus broke His bread with as yet impenitent sinners- because He as a doctor was trying to bring sinners to repentance. We note that it was the exiles with Ezekiel who were to loathe themselves for their pollutions, or that was the intention. It was they there in exile who were still offering their children to their idols, "to this day" (:31). Their self loathing uses the word translated "grieve" regarding God’s grieving for Israel’s idolatry in the wilderness (<a href='B:230 95:10'>Psa 95:10</a>). They would come to see their sins as God saw and felt them; that is part of repentance. But initially it had been God’s plan that they would grieve or loathe their sins whilst in captivity in Babylon (s:w. <a href='B:330 6:9'>Eze 6:9</a>). But now the plan was different; seeing they had not done so, they would be forcibly brought out from Babylon into the undefined "wilderness" situation, where God would purge the rebels from the rebellious house, and then the remnant would be allowed to return to the land; and only then would they loathe themselves for their sins. But then in <a href='B:330 36:21'>Eze 36:21</a> the grace was extended even further- it was after the restoration of the kingdom conditions in the land that they would be thus provoked to loathe their former sins. God’s grace is such that He amends His plans if by any means He might save some. He has that same passion for human salvation today.</p>


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<p>You shall know that I am Yahweh when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, you house of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh- See on :22. "The wages of sin is death" (<a href='B:520 6:23'>Rom 6:23</a>) but we see here how God’s earnest passion to save people leads Him to devise means whereby He can all the same save from death (see on <a href='B:100 14:14'>2Sa 14:14</a>). It is appreciating this breathtaking grace which is to "know Yahweh", rather than any cold assent to theological propositions, no matter how true they are.</p>


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<p>The word of Yahweh came to me saying- This final addendum may be an explanation of the otherwise mysterious "wilderness" situation into which God envisaged bringing the people when He had released them from Babylon and before He brought the remnant back into the land of Israel.</p>


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<p>Son of man, set your face toward the south and direct your word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the field in the south- "The south" could refer to the area south of the Chebar river where Ezekiel was located with the captives. This short prophecy may explain area the otherwise mysterious "wilderness" situation into which God envisaged bringing the people when He had released them from Babylon and before He brought the remnant back into the land of Israel.</p>


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<p>And tell the forest of the south, Hear the word of Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you and every dry tree. The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burnt thereby- This may be the explanation as to how Israel would be released from captivity. "The north", Babylon itself, to the area south of Babylon which is in view (see on :45,46), would be burnt by the fire of God’s wrath. It was that wrath which was to lead to Israel being able to leave Babylon (:33,34)</p>


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<p>All flesh shall see that I, Yahweh, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched- The wilderness in which Israel was to meet their God in judgment was to be observed by all the nations (:41). Hence the reference here to "all flesh" observing. This scenario didn’t work out at the time because Israel were so utterly rebellious; had the rebels were purged from the rebellious house, there would have been no remnant. For Ezekiel’s ministry began with the comment that all Israel were in totality a rebellious house. But something similar in essence shall happen in the last days.</p>


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<p>Then I said, Ah Lord Yahweh! they say of me, Isn’t he a speaker of parables?- It was tragic for the prophets that the people were so indifferent. They portrayed the tragic, passionate love of God to His people, they sung of it, wrote of it, made poetry about it [for much of the prophetic writing is poetry]. And yet they passed this off as mere “allegory” in a mocking way (<a href='B:330 20:49'>Eze 20:49</a>), Ezekiel was “to them like one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice… for they hear what you say, but they will not do it” (<a href='B:330 33:32'>Eze 33:32</a>). They were like buskers singing songs in the subway, which we may listen to with half an ear, even admire them for a few moments, and then walk on in our busy lives. But the prophets were speaking forth the words of passionate love of God Almighty for His people… truly as Paul Simon put it, with an uncanny appropriacy to our train of thought, “the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls”. They thought that “the Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill” (<a href='B:430 1:12'>Zep 1:12</a>); “the Lord does not see us” (<a href='B:330 8:12'>Eze 8:12</a>; <a href='B:330 9:9'>Eze 9:9</a>); “my way is hidden from the Lord” (<a href='B:290 40:27'>Isa 40:27</a>; <a href='B:290 29:15'>Isa 29:15</a>). This of course is the attitude with which we daily live. The question is, will we perceive it as the prophets did?</p>


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<p>Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop your word toward the sanctuaries and prophesy against the land of Israel- The plural "sanctuaries" may refer to all the high places, or it could be an intensive plural for the great sanctuary, the temple. We recall that Ezekiel was with the exiles in Babylon, hence he looks towards Jerusalem and Israel.</p>


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<h4>And tell the land of Israel, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, and will draw forth My sword out of its sheath- For "Israel" to be told of these prophecies, Ezekiel’s words must have been published and taken there in some form; see on :13. Or perhaps the cherubim transported him there to give this message to them in person. However the threatened destruction of Judah is being told to the exiles because their repentance could have altered the outcome for the Jews still in Judah. We note Ezekiel’s continual reference to Judah as "the land of Israel" because of God’s intention to restore both Judah and the ten tribes in the Kingdom He wished to reestablish in the land.</h4><h4>And will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked- The allusion is clearly to Abraham’s pleading with God not to destroy both righteous and wicked in Sodom (<a href='B:10 18:23'>Gen 18:23</a>; <a href='B:10 18:25'>Gen 18:25</a>). Jerusalem was no better than Sodom, a point already made in Ezekiel 16. Perhaps the implication was that there was no intercessor like Abraham to stop this eventuality happening; and that the "righteous" were not even as righteous as ’righteous Lot’ (2Pe 27), who himself was weak spiritually and only counted righteous by faith. Ezekiel 20 has painted a very bad picture of the spiritual state of things in Judah, with sacrifice of children to idols ongoing at that very time.</h4>


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<p>Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north- I have often noted that God speaks His judgments, but there is a gap between the statement and its fulfilment. During that gap, there is the possibility of repentance. Hence Nineveh was to be destroyed after 40 days, but in reality it wasn’t because there was repentance. This idea of a gap is represented here by the sword of judgment being still in its sheath. If there was no repentance then it would be drawn out of the sheath. Likewise the implication of the Sodom and Abraham allusion could be that the sword would have remained in its sheath if there had been an Abraham type intercessor. Although maybe the state of affairs was such that God saw total destruction as the only way to move forward.</p>


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<p>And all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, have drawn forth My sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more- The judgment of Israel in the wilderness spoken of in <a href='B:330 20:36-38'>Eze 20:36-38</a> (see notes there) was to also be the judgment of "all flesh". This scenario didn’t come about, but it will do so in essence in the last days. The judgment of "all flesh" around Israel and that of the Jews is described in Revelation as being part and parcel of the same series of events. The threatened judgments would not again be delayed or rescinded, the sword would no more return to its sheath. This speaks of a final judgment, such as will only be seen in the last days, but which could have come about in Ezekiel’s time had the preconditions been met.</p>


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<p>Sigh therefore, you son of man; with the breaking of your thighs and with bitterness you will sigh before their eyes- We have the impression of the exiles standing around Ezekiel. Perhaps he was still under house arrest. He was personally involved in his message, feeling for the tragedy of it all, and not merely a relayer of information from God; as the GNB expresses the Hebrew, "groan as if your heart is breaking with despair". Just as any preaching work is not merely the imparting of information, but the word has to become flesh in the preacher of it. The despair was for the fact that had the exiles repented, the awful judgment need not have come. "Thighs" is literally "sides", as if his heart had burst and the blood was issuing through his side- yet another way in which he prefigured the ultimate "son of man", the Lord Jesus. "Bitterness" again reflects how Ezekiel was to feel their bitterness, as their "son of man" representative. But GNB offers "sorrow" for "bitterness".</p>


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<p>It shall be, when they tell you, ‘Why do you sigh?’ that you shall say, Because of the news, for it is coming. Every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, every spirit shall faint and all knees shall be weak as water. It is coming, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh- Because Israel’s heart would melt and be feeble “Because of the tidings” which Ezekiel taught, therefore his heart sighed and broke because he identified with how they would later feel when his words came true (<a href='B:330 21:6-7'>Eze 21:6-7</a>). See on <a href='B:330 3:15'>Eze 3:15</a>. There would be a psychological paralysis- evidence that God can work directly on the mind of people, positively [through the "holy spirit"] and negatively [an "evil spirit from the Lord"]. This had been threatened in <a href='B:330 7:17'>Eze 7:17</a> and <a href='B:300 6:24'>Jer 6:24</a> in the same words as used here; the point is now made that the words of the prophets were to really come true, and they must be taken seriously.</p>


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<p>The word of Yahweh came to me saying- There may or may not have been a gap between the prophecies, but the sword which was about to be taken from its sheath has now been prepared by sharpening and polishing (:9,10).</p>


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<p>Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh: Say, A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also polished- This speaks of the preparation of the Babylonians by God. They were His sword, and would be wielded by His hand.</p>


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<h4>It is sharpened that it may make a slaughter; it s polished that it may be as lightning- This is again an allusion to the opening vision of the cherubim, from whom flashed lightning. This huge system of Divine operation was to use the Babylonians in order to destroy His own people.</h4><p>Shall we then laugh?- As noted on <a href='B:330 20:49'>Eze 20:49</a>, the response to Ezekiel’s words was mirth and refusing to take seriously the issues of eternal judgment, just as we see today.</p><h4>The rod of My son condemns every tree- LXX "be sharpened that thou mayest be bright, ready for slaughter, slay, set at nought, despise every tree"; GNB "There can be no rejoicing, for my people have disregarded every warning and punishment". This would take "my son" as Israel (as in <a href='B:350 11:1'>Hos 11:1</a>). The rod to fall upon Israel would also be the condemnation of every nation or tree, a figure just used in <a href='B:330 20:46-47'>Eze 20:46-47</a>.</h4>


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<p>It is given to be polished, that it may be ready for use: the sword, it is sharpened, yes, it is polished, to give it into the hand of the killer- The sword of Babylon was in fact being prepared by the Jews trying to deceive Babylon by entering into alliances and loyalty agreements with other nations. This was what provoked the sharpness of Babylon’s final fall upon Judah. But God worked through that; thereby Judah were preparing their own judgment.</p>


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<p>Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on My people, it is on all the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with My people; strike therefore on your thigh- The princes were to be judged parallel with the masses of "My people". This is a point often made in the prophets. It wasn’t that the masses suffered because of the failures of the minority in leadership. The leaders acted as the people wanted, so that even without democracy, a people effectively get the leadership they subconsciously desire. And so all Judah were to be judged.</p>


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<p>For I am putting My people to the test, and if they refuse to repent, all these things will happen to them, says the Lord Yahweh- The message of Ezekiel, perhaps particularly of this chapter, was to be published in Judah itself; see on :3. It was a call to repentance, and if they failed to respond, then these things would happen. Jeremiah’s prophetic words to Judah were likewise to be their "test" (<a href='B:300 6:27'>Jer 6:27</a> s:w:). The same word is used of how the fire of the invaders’ judgment would "test" the people (<a href='B:450 13:9'>Zec 13:9</a>). But they could have avoided this if they had responded to God’s word ahead of time. The call to repentance we hear today is likewise a foretaste of the fire of final judgment; and now is the time to respond and not then when it is too late.</p>


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<h4>You therefore, son of man, prophesy and strike your hands together; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the deadly wounded: it is the sword of the great slaughter which surrounds them- The sword doubled the third time may simply be an idiom meaning as GNB "the sword will strike again and again". The LXX has "take a second sword: the third sword is the sword of the slain, the great sword of the slain: and thou shalt strike them with amazement, lest the heart should faint". Perhaps the first sword refers to the "test" of :13; the sword point is held at Jerusalem in the hope they would repent on the cusp of Divine judgment. The second sword is repeated twice, in that Jerusalem was to fall and suffer from the sword, and then the exiles also were to suffer the sword in Babylon. &nbsp;The ESV has "let the sword come down twice, yes, three times"; and this would be using the same idiom as "for three and for four" in <a href='B:370 1:3'>Amo 1:3</a> etc. The triple coming of the sword would then connect with the triple ’overturning’ of Zion to be spoken of in :27.</h4><h4>"The deadly wounded" refers to Zedekiah, "You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come" (:25). The intention was that Zedekiah would die by the sword, but in fact he didn’t. He was blinded, but died peacefully in prison (<a href='B:300 52:11'>Jer 52:11</a>). The wound that ought to have been unto death was in fact not unto death- because God wanted him to be moved by His grace to repent.</h4>


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<p>I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their hearts may tremble, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made as lightning it is pointed for slaughter- The sword was a "threatening sword" because it was part of the "test" of :13. It was as if the people of Jerusalem were being held at sword point by Ezekiel’s words, telling them that the sword was about to pierce them. If they repented, then it would be withdrawn. That sword was fully prepared for actual slaughter, and the similarity with lightning [from being so highly polished and therefore glinting] was to forge connection with the cherubim vision. God was in and behind and above and controlling the Babylonian invasion; His huge system of operation was involved.</p>


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<p>Gather yourselves together, go to the right, set yourselves in array, go to the left, wherever your face is set- GNB sees this as addressed to the sword, in what could be described as "the song of the sword": "Cut to the right and the left, you sharp sword! Cut wherever you turn". Right and left could return to ’north and south’.</p>


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<h4>I will also strike My hands together- Just as Ezekiel had done (:15). Ezekiel was not merely imparting information on God’s behalf, but was emotionally caught up in the message as God’s representative. And any true preacher of God’s word should be likewise.</h4><h4>And I will cause My wrath to rest: I, Yahweh, have spoken it- The cessation, accomplishment or resting of God’s wrath is mentioned several times in Ezekiel, and nowhere else in this way (<a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a>; <a href='B:330 6:12'>Eze 6:12</a>; <a href='B:330 7:8'>Eze 7:8</a>; <a href='B:330 13:15'>Eze 13:15</a>; <a href='B:330 16:42'>Eze 16:42</a>; <a href='B:330 20:8'>Eze 20:8</a>; <a href='B:330 21:17'>Eze 21:17</a>; <a href='B:330 22:20'>Eze 22:20</a>; <a href='B:330 24:13'>Eze 24:13</a>). The idea is not that God was so angry that He had to express that anger and only calmed down once He had as it were lashed out. He does have real wrath; the huge love He has cannot exist in a dimensionless vacuum, it of itself implies He also has wrath. <a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a> continues: "I will cause My wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted", and the Hebrew there for "comforted" is literally ’to sigh’, to be sorry, even to repent / change. Having expressed His legitimate anger, God knew that He would then be sorry and would then embark upon a process of restoration- by grace. For the objects of His wrath didn’t deserve any restoration. "To rest" is the word translated "to place" in <a href='B:330 37:14'>Eze 37:14</a>: "I shall place you in your own land" at the restoration from captivity. His wrath had to be expressed, and yet it was part of His wider purpose toward restoring His people and Kingdom. We would be quite wrong, therefore, to read these words as meaning that God was furiously angry and needed to lash out and get it all expressed so that He could as it were calm down again. His judgments are always ultimately constructive, and therefore "the wrath of God is the love of God". His wrath is therefore described in <a href='B:330 5:15'>Eze 5:15</a> as the rebuke of His fury / wrath; it was intended to rebuke, to achieve instruction, that they should ’know Yahweh’. The tragedy was that the captives for the most part refused to perceive it this way and respond.</h4>


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<p>The word of Yahweh came to me again saying- This further prophecy is also about the sword; but the point is that the Babylonian sword is in fact in God’s hand</p>


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<p>Also, you son of man, appoint two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; they both shall come forth out of one land. Mark out a place, mark it out at the head of the way to the city- Ezekiel as God’s prophet is helped to see that he and his prophetic word are in fact the controllers of the movements of the Babylonian army. Ezekiel was to as it were draw a road coming out of Babylon and then split it into two ways (:21), one going to Rabbah and the other to Jerusalem (:20).</p>


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<p>You shall appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified- Perhaps the Jewish false prophets claimed that the Babylonian army advancing from the north was in fact heading for Rabbah and the Ammonites and not for them. But Ezekiel was to prophesy that the same Divine sword was to attack both cities, and the apparent choice exercised by Nebuchadnezzar was in fact all overruled by God.</p>


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<p>For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use fortune telling. He shook the arrows back and forth, he consulted the images, he looked in the liver- The king had a choice as to whether to attack Rabbah first, or Jerusalem. He would have taken two arrows, presumably with the names of the two cities upon them, and shaken them back and forth in his quiver, believing that whichever he withdrew first after a certain ritual would be the one to attack first.</p>


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<p>In his right hand was the forecast for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts- The battering rams are exactly those depicted by Ezekiel (<a href='B:330 4:2'>Eze 4:2</a>);</p>


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<h4>It shall seem to them as a false forecast in their opinion- Perhaps the Jewish false prophets claimed that the Babylonian army advancing from the north was in fact heading for Rabbah and the Ammonites and not for them.</h4><h4>They have sworn solemn oaths, but he brings their guilt to remembrance, that they may be caught- The Jews had solemnly promised total allegiance to Babylon, when in fact they had been making such solemn oaths to others, in the hope of assembling enough political and military might to overcome Babylon. This was how the Babylonian sword was so sharpened against Israel; they were angry that they had been lied to, and that the Jerusalem temple was not merely the shrine of their gods, but of the gods of other nations too. In all this they were used by God to express His anger regarding how Judah had treated Him.</h4>


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<p>Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have made your wickedness to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered so that in all your doings your sins appear; because you have come to memory, you shall be taken with the hand- The way the Jews had made alliances with other peoples was an uncovering of their sins. Their previous infidelities to Babylon now were also remembered by the Babylonians; and again, God was manifest through Babylon. Because their feelings of hurt and anger at the deception experienced were exactly those of God- with whom Judah had also entered a covenant of total loyalty, and promised the temple as His sole sacred space.</p>


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<h4>You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come- “The prince” of Ezekiel 40-48 is hard to understand as an immortal being such as the Lord Jesus. “The prince” of <a href='B:330 21:27'>Eze 21:27</a> was Judah’s last ruler- so “the prince” later in Ezekiel would appear to be a promise of a restored monarchy. Yet tragically, the royal family chose to remain in Babylon. See on <a href='B:330 37:25'>Eze 37:25</a>. "The deadly wounded" of :14 refers to Zedekiah, "You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come" (:25). The intention was that Zedekiah would die by the sword, but in fact he didn’t. He was blinded, but died peacefully in prison (<a href='B:300 52:11'>Jer 52:11</a>). The wound that ought to have been unto death was in fact not unto death- because God wanted him to be moved by His grace to repent.</h4><h4>In the time of the iniquity of the end- This phrase could imply that this was the time when Judah’s iniquity would be finally punished. It is the same idea as in <a href='B:340 9:24'>Dan 9:24</a>, when after the 70 weeks there was to be an end of Judah’s sin, in that the punishment for it would be completed. But as noted there, the 70 years prophecy had become reapplied to a 70 weeks prophecy. So this "end" envisaged didn’t in fact come when expected, neither in the death or deposition of Zedekiah, neither at the end of the 70 years, neither at the end of 70 weeks, but only in the last days in the final "time of the end".</h4>


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<h4>Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Remove the mitre and take off the crown; this shall be no more the same- It seems that Zedekiah had worn both the crown and the high priestly mitre, declaring himself to be the Messianic king-priest. But "this shall be no more the same", he was not to be a king-priest any more.</h4><h4>Exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high- Zedekiah the high, the proud, was to be abased- blinded and then left to die in prison. But a "low" one was to&nbsp; be exalted to take his place. This would have been possible at the time of the restoration. But the various possibilities didn’t work out, and so the prophecy was reapplied and rescheduled to the Lord Jesus, the low one who was made high, as Philippians 2 exults.</h4>


text:
<h4>I will overturn, overturn, overturn it. This also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him- The triple ’overturning’ of <a href='B:330 21:25-27'>Eze 21:25-27</a> can refer to the three invasions made by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon:&nbsp;Remember that Ezekiel was primarily speaking to the captives in Babylon who had been taken there after the first and second Babylonian invasions. One more was yet to come. We have here an example of how the kingdom of God and its king can be treated as parallel;&nbsp;Zedekiah’s overthrow was that of God’s kingdom:&nbsp; Thus God’s kingdom as it was in the nation of Israel ended:&nbsp;"I::. will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel" (<a href='B:350 1:4'>Hos 1:4</a>):&nbsp;"It shall be no more, until::." carries the implication that the kingdom would revive when "he come whose right it is;&nbsp;and (God) will give it him":&nbsp; God will "give (Jesus) the throne of his father David::. and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (<a href='B:490 1:32-33'>Luk 1:32-33</a>) - at Christ’s return:&nbsp;This, therefore, is when the promise of the kingdom’s restoration will be fulfilled. There is a tremendous theme throughout the Old Testament prophets of the restoration of God’s Kingdom on Messiah’s return:&nbsp;Christ’s disciples were well tuned in to this:&nbsp;"When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt you at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?" i:e. ’Will <a href='B:330 21:27'>Eze 21:27</a> be fulfilled now?’&nbsp;Jesus replied by saying that the exact time of his second coming they would never know, although the angels immediately afterwards assured them that he would, indeed, return at some point (<a href='B:510 1:6-11'>Act 1:6-11</a>).</h4><h4>And yet the triple overturnings, perhaps parallel with the triple smiting with the sword of :14, could refer to three overturnings of Zion; once by Babylon, then by Rome, and then finally a third time in the last days, which will be the final signal for the Lord Jesus to come and revive the throne.</h4>


text:
<p>You, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and say, A sword, a sword is drawn, for the slaughter it is polished, to ause it to devour, that it may be as lightning- This is the language of the same sword which was to come upon Judah as described earlier in this chapter. Judah had tried to make an alliance with Ammon so that together they could resist the Babylonian advances against them. But this was not to succeed, and Ammon also was to be destroyed by the same Divinely directed Babylonian sword as Judah. But <a href='B:330 25:3-6'>Eze 25:3-6</a> describes the Ammonites rejoicing with Babylon at the destruction of the temple. Clearly they were not sincere in their agreement with Judah; like Judah, they were promising loyalty whilst making the same promise of loyalty to Babylon. The deceivers were deceived by each other.</p>


text:
<p>While they see for you false visions, while they forecast lies to you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are deadly wounded, whose day has come in the time of the iniquity of the end- Ammon like Judah had its false prophets. The "deadly wounded" earlier referred to Zedekiah (:14,25), and the time of the end of the iniquity to the final judgment for Israel’s sins (:25). So the idea may be that Ammon was to be judged together with Judah- far from the false prophecies that "No, actually this Babylonian advance is not in fact headed for us, but it’s aiming for Rabbah::. for Jerusalem". They would perish as it were together, even if they didn’t do so chronologically.</p>


text:
<h4>Cause it to return into its sheath- This can be translated as a rhetorical question: "Shall I cause it to return into its sheath?". And the answer was that no, God was really going to bring about this destruction, and the prophets claiming that the sword of judgment was going to return into its sheath at the last moment were going to be shown utterly false.</h4><h4>In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, will I judge you- Ammon was born of an incestuous relationship in the land of Sodom. Sodom has been associated with apostate Judah in Ezekiel 16. The idea is that Ammon and Judah would share a similar judgment because their origins and mentality were similar. Jerusalem’s birthplace was therefore defined as being in Canaan, where Ammon’s was too (<a href='B:330 16:3'>Eze 16:3</a>). The false prophets were quite wrong to claim that the Babylonians would only judge Ammon and not Judah; and it seems the false prophets of Ammon were saying similarly that Babylon would judge only Judah and not themselves.</h4>


text:
<p>I will pour out My indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of My wrath; and I will deliver you into the hand of cruel men, skilful to destroy- The idea is that these men had been educated or trained up for this destruction, just as in an earlier analogy the sword of Babylon had been sharpened and polished.</p>


text:
<p>You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be remembered no more: for I, Yahweh, have spoken it- If Ammon were but fuel on the fire, the implication is that the fire is burning something else. And according to Ezekiel’s pictures of Jerusalem as a pot, that something was Jerusalem. Clearly it was utterly foolish for the false prophets of both Rabbah and Jerusalem to claim that the Babylonian judgment was solely intended for the other party.</p>


text:
<p>You, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the city of blood? So now cause her to know all her abominations- Ezekiel’s initial audience were in denial of their sins and that of their families. The Hebrew for ’entering into judgment’ is literally "to plead" (as often in AV). The experience of judgment was not mere punishment, but a pleading to enter totally into covenant relationship. This pleading or judgment of the exiles is likewise associated with their salvation and restoration in <a href='B:290 43:26'>Isa 43:26</a>; <a href='B:290 51:5'>Isa 51:5</a>. God would plead with or judge the exiles "because you say, I have not sinned" (<a href='B:300 2:35'>Jer 2:35</a>). This was the purpose of the judgment envisaged- to elicit in the exiles repentance. Ezekiel was trying to achieve that by his ministry, he was to judge them so that they recognized their abominations (Eze 204; <a href='B:330 22:2'>Eze 22:2</a>), but they were a rebellious house:&nbsp; And so this idea of bringing them out of Babylon into some situation of judgment was envisaged (<a href='B:330 20:34-38'>Eze 20:34-38</a>), so that they might repent. Zedekiah personally was to be judged or pleaded with in Babylon concerning his sin (<a href='B:330 17:20'>Eze 17:20</a>), i:e. to make him recognize it and repent of it.</p>


text:
<h4>You shall say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: The city sheds blood in the midst of her so that her time of judgment may come, and makes idols against herself to defile herself!- The starting point of the 70 or 40 years (see on <a href='B:330 4:6'>Eze 4:6</a>) was somewhat flexible- for <a href='B:330 22:3-4'>Eze 22:3-4</a> records Ezekiel’s prophecy that the desolation of Jerusalem by the Babylonians [the starting point of the time periods] was actually being hastened, brought forward, by the terrible behaviour of the Jews living there after the initial Babylon invasion of the land. See on :30. God worked through their sins; it was they who were bringing on their time of judgment, rather than God of Himself.</h4><h4>The shedding of blood was done "in the midst of" Jerusalem, presumably in the temple. <a href='B:300 7:6'>Jer 7:6</a> likewise laments that innocent blood was shed there, in connection with idol worship. The reference seems to be to the sacrifice of children to other gods in the temple. <a href='B:310 4:13'>Lam 4:13</a> states that it was the priests, perhaps Ezekiel’s relatives, who had shed this innocent blood in the temple:&nbsp; Jerusalem gave the blood of her children to the idols rather than dedicating the firstborn to Yahweh (<a href='B:330 16:36'>Eze 16:36</a>):&nbsp; The ideas of shedding blood and idolatry are again found in <a href='B:330 22:4'>Eze 22:4</a>; <a href='B:330 33:25'>Eze 33:25</a>. We may recoil at this awful practice, but to dedicate our children to careers and the idols of this world rather than to Yahweh is in essence the same abomination, and it can likewise be done in the temple of Yahweh.</h4>


text:
<h4>You have become guilty in the blood that you have shed, and are defiled in your idols which you have made- "The blood" is AV "Thy blood"; as explained on :3, the reference is to their sacrificing their own children to their idols of their own hands. We must ask what are the equivalents in this age of sacrificing our children to our idols. "Guilty" is the same word sometimes translated "desolate" (<a href='B:290 24:6'>Isa 24:6</a>; <a href='B:330 6:6'>Eze 6:6</a>). The desolation of the land was directly their fault. But it may also mean that they were legally now pronounced guilty for the sacrifice of their children- hence after doing it, they ’became guilty’. In the gap between their sin and the execution of judgment for it, they could have repented. We too live in such a gap, giving intensity to the life we live and our response to the calls for repentance.</h4><h4>And you have caused your days to draw near, and have come even to your year of judgment. Therefore have I made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all the countries- See on :3. The idea is that their time of judgment was hastened by their awful behaviour.</h4>


text:
<p>Those who are near and those who are far from you shall mock you, you infamous one and full of tumult- "Tumult" refers to the psychological breakdown of those under Divine condemnation. Shame and mockery were a fate worse than death in the ancient world, and therefore it is so often mentioned that Israel and Jerusalem would become a mockery to the world. God deals with people within the frameworks of their self-understanding and worldviews.</p>


text:
<p>Behold, the princes of Israel, each according to his power, have been in you to shed blood- The initial audience of Ezekiel would have included members of the royal family. These words were therefore a direct rebuke to them and / or their families. I explained on :3 that the shedding of blood referred to child sacrifices. The princes of Israel, the royal family of Judah, had apparently done this too- with the royal seed.</p>


text:
<h4>In you have they set light by father and mother- The intention of the gripping passage in Ezekiel 16 was to convict Jerusalem of her sins (<a href='B:330 16:2'>Eze 16:2</a>); because they considered their spiritual and literal prostitution "a small matter". The same word is used in accusing the priesthood of considering it "a small matter" for the flock to have been ruined by them (<a href='B:330 34:18'>Eze 34:18</a>). This was the problem, as it is today- the real implications of attitudes and behaviour are not taken seriously. We fail to perceive how deeply we affect both God and man. Society makes us feel insignificant cogs, but we are not like that to God. This was the problem with Ezekiel’s audience; they had a light hearted approach to eternal issues. To them, sin was a light thing (<a href='B:330 8:17'>Eze 8:17</a>; <a href='B:330 22:7'>Eze 22:7</a>). This was the role of the prophets, to convict people of the gravity of their sins and positions, and the consequences to come.</h4><h4>In the midst of you have they dealt by oppression with the foreigner; in you have they wronged the fatherless and the widow- Sin brings an appropriate judgment. As they oppressed foreigners, so now Ezekiel’s audience were being oppressed by foreigners. And yet all that follows in this section is exemplification of how the princes had "shed blood" (:6), which I have argued on :3-6 was in the context of idolatry and human sacrifice, with distinct sexual overtones (:9 "lewdness"). We wonder if their sexual perversions extended to masochism and the murder of their sex objects, as in cases of extreme sexual violence today. And their victims led to the exploitation of the most vulnerable in society, including Gentiles. It’s all so similar with cases we encounter in the news today.</h4>


text:
<p>You have despised My holy things, and have profaned My Sabbaths- This implies a conscious defilement, a using of the sabbath regulations and holy things as part of idol worship and sexual lewdness (:9). Again, this kind of extreme blasphemy, sexual perversion and masochism is known today, and it seems the princes of Israel, whose relatives and children were before Ezekiel in exile as he uttered these words, were doing the same kind of awful things. And doing them in Yahweh’s temple. The same word is used how even after the restoration, the returned exiles "despised" God’s Name and offerings ["holy things"] (<a href='B:460 1:6-7'>Mal 1:6-7</a>; <a href='B:460 1:12'>Mal 1:12</a>). They didn’t learn the lesson.</p>


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<p>Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood; and in you they have eaten on the mountains: in the midst of you they have committed lewdness- Typical of the prophets, there is a juxtaposition between slandering and shedding blood. The Lord Jesus taught the same- that hatred in the heart was murder. To slander is to murder. And yet slander is here listed along with the grossest sexual immorality imaginable, apparently involving the murder of vulnerable people in the process of it. See on :12.</p>


text:
<p>In you have they uncovered their fathers’ nakedness; in you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity- The sexual lewdness (:9) involved with the idol worship involved sleeping with family relatives and sexual perversions with menstruating women. This was all a conscious denial of Yahweh worship. And yet they claimed loyalty to Him.</p>


text:
<p>One has committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife, another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter- These sexual perversions with close relatives were, in the context, performed in the temple and as part of idol worship. "Abomination" is elsewhere used in that sense. And thereby the most basic moral teachings of the Law of Moses, Israel’s covenant with God, were broken.</p>


text:
<h4>In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, you have greedily gained from your neighbours by oppression and have forgotten Me, says the Lord Yahweh- The prohibition of taking interest was so that "your brother shall live by / with you" (<a href='B:30 25:36'>Lev 25:36</a>). By having done so, those now in exile were separated from their poorer brethren. They had placed personal material gain before the unity of God’s people. Again, that is a timeless warning. This taking of interest specifically happened in the temple, according to <a href='B:330 22:12'>Eze 22:12</a>; suggesting the priesthood had become a financial racket which exploited the poor. It is the priesthood and ruling classes whom Ezekiel addresses, for they were those in exile with him.</h4><h4>As noted on :9, we have here a powerful juxtaposition. Sexual perversion in the temple as part of idol worship, even involving masochism and the murder of the women they abused, is mentioned along with taking bribes and lending on interest to their brethren. These things might seem insignificant compared to those apparently far grosser sins. But not to God through the prophets. We note that the bribes were "to shed blood", and there seems no reason to doubt that literal murder was in view.</h4>


text:
<p>Behold, therefore, I have struck My hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at the blood which has been shed in the midst of you- As noted on :9 and :12, some "dishonest gain" here and there might appear not at all on the same scale as sexual perversion / idolatry in the temple, even involving murder of those sexually abused as sacrifices to the idols. But to God, such sin is in fact in the same league. There are degrees of sin, as the regulations of the Law of Moses itself reflected; but all sin against persons, especially abuse of God’s people, is seen as within the same league- be it deceiving them financially or murdering them. For hatred is murder, in the Lord’s book.</p>


text:
<p>Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it- The implication is that they had psychologically strengthened and desensitized themselves to perform the gross abominations just discussed. That was surely the only way they could have committed murder as part of a sexually perverted session of idol worship, performed within Yahweh’s temple. But in the day of judgment, all such hardening of themselves would collapse, and even they would face God’s judgment with weak hands and broken hearts. It is for us to soften ourselves before Him now, and never become hardened in sin. See on :22.</p>


text:
<p>I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries; and I will consume your filthiness out of you- This didn’t actually happen; the captivity didn’t reform them. And yet the essence of the prophecy will come true in the last days. This suggests that as the day of the second coming approaches, Israel will be progressively purged and move closer and closer towards repentance. We marvel too at God’s desire to ultimately save; for the perversions listed previously are so disgusting that we would assume that such persons should just be destroyed and forgotten eternally. But God’s intention was as ever to punish with a view to reformation. We must never forget this in any discipline we may be called upon to minister.</p>


text:
<p>You shall be profaned in yourself, in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am Yahweh- This was perhaps the Divine hope; that the filthiness would be consumed from out of them in captivity (:15) and thus they would know Yahweh, coming into a relationship with Him. But this didn’t happen; they refused to be cleansed, and so they didn’t come to know Yahweh. And nationally, they even went on to slay His begotten Son. But this shall ultimately come true in the last days.</p>


text:
<p>The word of Yahweh came to me, saying- This next prophecy seeks to develop the idea of how God hoped to consume the filthiness out of His people (:15). He hoped to achieve that by their exile, and yet here we have the hope that this might be achieved by the judgment of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The hopefulness of God comes through powerfully.</p>


text:
<p>Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me: all of them are brass, tin, iron and lead in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver- God’s intention was that the fire of Babylonian judgment would somehow purge His people in Jerusalem. Impurity had become so mixed with purity that only this crisis could separate them. It seems this was true both in the hearts of individuals, and in society- in that not a single person was found with a pure heart (:30).</p>


text:
<p>Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem- As noted on :18, they "all" were dross. Impurity was apparently inextricably mixed with purity, and only the fire of the Babylonian holocaust could possibly divide the righteous from the wicked, and also purify the hearts of even the righteous.</p>


text:
<h4>As they gather silver, brass, iron, lead and tin into the midst of the furnace to blow the fire onto it to melt it; so will I gather you in My anger- The gathering of the impure metals into the furnace was fulfilled through the peasant masses fleeing into Jerusalem in the face of the Babylonian advance. Again we see that it was not just the leadership who were corrupt, but the masses too.</h4><h4>And in My wrath, and I will lay you there, and melt you- "I will lay you" uses the word usually used about the resting of God’s wrath. And that seems the preferable translation. The cessation, accomplishment or resting of God’s wrath is mentioned several times in Ezekiel, and nowhere else in this way (<a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a>; <a href='B:330 6:12'>Eze 6:12</a>; <a href='B:330 7:8'>Eze 7:8</a>; <a href='B:330 13:15'>Eze 13:15</a>; <a href='B:330 16:42'>Eze 16:42</a>; <a href='B:330 20:8'>Eze 20:8</a>; <a href='B:330 21:17'>Eze 21:17</a>; <a href='B:330 22:20'>Eze 22:20</a>; <a href='B:330 24:13'>Eze 24:13</a>). The idea is not that God was so angry that He had to express that anger and only calmed down once He had as it were lashed out. He does have real wrath; the huge love He has cannot exist in a dimensionless vacuum, it of itself implies He also has wrath. <a href='B:330 5:13'>Eze 5:13</a> continues: "I will cause My wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted", and the Hebrew there for "comforted" is literally ’to sigh’, to be sorry, even to repent / change. Having expressed His legitimate anger, God knew that He would then be sorry and would then embark upon a process of restoration- by grace. For the objects of His wrath didn’t deserve any restoration. "To rest" is the word translated "to place" in <a href='B:330 37:14'>Eze 37:14</a>: "I shall place you in your own land" at the restoration from captivity. His wrath had to be expressed, and yet it was part of His wider purpose toward restoring His people and Kingdom. We would be quite wrong, therefore, to read these words as meaning that God was furiously angry and needed to lash out and get it all expressed so that He could as it were calm down again. His judgments are always ultimately constructive, and therefore "the wrath of God is the love of God". His wrath is therefore described in <a href='B:330 5:15'>Eze 5:15</a> as the rebuke of His fury / wrath; it was intended to rebuke, to achieve instruction, that they should ’know Yahweh’. The tragedy was that the captives for the most part refused to perceive it this way and respond.</h4>


text:
<p>Yes, I will gather you, and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst- As noted on :20, the gathering&nbsp; of the impure metals into the furnace was fulfilled through the peasant masses fleeing into Jerusalem in the face of the Babylonian advance. Again we see that it was not just the leadership who were corrupt, but the masses too.</p>


text:
<p>As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so you will be melted in its midst; and you will know that I, Yahweh, have poured out My wrath on you- "Melted" is often translated "poured out", so there is a play on ideas here. The intention of the pouring out of wrath was to pour them out. We noted on :14 the psychological hardening of the people to do the abominations which they did. The intention of the fire of judgment was to soften them. But the Divine hope and intention didn’t come about. Instead of softening them and purging them, the fire consumed them (:31). They were not cleansed of their dross.</p>


text:
<p>The word of Yahweh came to me saying- This prophecy follows on from the fact just presented that the fire of Babylonian judgment would not in fact cleanse Judah of their dross. Hence :31 concludes that the fire would not purge but rather consume them.</p>


text:
<p>Son of man, tell her, You are a land that is not cleansed nor rained on in the day of indignation- As noted on :23, the intention of the "day of indignation" was that it would be a fire which would cleanse the land. But it didn’t, the dross as not removed, and the rain of blessing intended therefore didn’t come.</p>


text:
<p>There is a conspiracy of her prophets in its midst, like a roaring lion tearing the prey: they have devoured souls; they take treasure and precious things; they have made her widows many in its midst- The reason as to why the land was not cleansed by the fire of judgment in the "day of indignation" (:24) is now given. The people allowed the false prophets to devour them. It was the ordinary peasant masses who were to be gathered in to the furnace of Jerusalem and judged (:20). They were equally culpable; for the false prophets had spoken and acted as they perceived the masses wanted them to. And so the prophets became like the Babylonians, as a roaring lion, the symbol of Babylon. They were to be identified with Babylon; the Babylonian judgment was what they had done to themselves, as :31 makes explicit. Perhaps the valuable items of the peasants fleeing into Jerusalem was taken by the false prophets. The souls and widows they devoured may refer, as earlier in this chapter, to vulnerable women whom they killed during perverted sex acts as part of their worship of idols. And this was done in the "midst" of the city, in the temple.</p>


text:
<p>Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things: they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean and have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them- See on :8. The priests were those who actually performed the human sacrifices (<a href='B:300 2:34'>Jer 2:34</a>; <a href='B:300 19:4'>Jer 19:4</a>). But the root cause of their gross abominations was because they had failed to recognize and teach a distinction between holy and common, clean and unclean. The Mosaic regulations about these things were intended to teach a clear separation in the conscience between sin and righteousness. But when the line between sin and righteousness is blurred into so many shades of grey::. then the awful abominations mentioned in this chapter are committed:&nbsp; And this is our abiding challenge, in a world which increasingly cannot tell right from wrong.</p>


text:
<p>Her princes in its midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood and to destroy people so that they may get dishonest gain- The attitude of the princes to the people is described in terms appropriate to the Babylonians, who were to act as wolves in devouring the people (<a href='B:300 5:6'>Jer 5:6</a>; <a href='B:420 1:8'>Hab 1:8</a>). By so doing, and with the people tacitly supportive of the whole system, they had brought about the Babylonian judgment; for this would be but an extension of their own attitudes (:31). ’Getting dishonest gain’ characterized the entire society, from the poor to the rich (<a href='B:300 6:13'>Jer 6:13</a>; <a href='B:300 8:10'>Jer 8:10</a>). See on :29.</p>


text:
<p>Her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing false visions and foretelling lies to them, saying, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, when Yahweh has not spoken- The gross immorality spoken of earlier in this chapter was justified by false claims that Yahweh in fact sanctioned it. The scary thing was that such gross immorality was performed in His temple; the people involved would have subconsciously wished to have Yahweh’s sanction of it in order to ease their bad conscience, and so the false prophets complied. Again we see that as in the New Testament, the false prophets or teachers were not simply genuinely mistaken over abstract theological issues; the false teaching of false teachers in the Bible is nearly always in a moral context, justifying sin as righteousness.</p>


text:
<p>The people of the land have used oppression and committed robbery; yes, they have troubled the poor and needy and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully- Again we see how the judgment to come was not just because of the sins of the leadership, the princes and false prophets (:27,28). The ordinary people had in their turn also abused the weak and vulnerable. And so it was appropriate that now foreigners were to oppress them. ’Getting dishonest gain’ (:27) characterized the entire society, from the poor to the rich (<a href='B:300 6:13'>Jer 6:13</a>; <a href='B:300 8:10'>Jer 8:10</a> s:w:).</p>


text:
<p>I sought for a man among them, who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none- See on :3. If a person had been found who would have powerfully interceded for Jerusalem, ’stood in the gap’, God wouldn’t have destroyed Jerusalem - "that I should not destroy it" is an allusion to Abraham interceding for Sodom in <a href='B:10 18:28'>Gen 18:28</a>. But there was not such a person, because they were "all" dross (<a href='B:330 22:18-19'>Eze 22:18-19</a>). Jeremiah was in the land at the time and was surely righteous, but he had been told not to intercede for the people (<a href='B:300 11:14'>Jer 11:14</a>; <a href='B:300 14:11'>Jer 14:11</a>). It seems that if another like him had been found, in addition to Ezekiel in exile, then the judgments could have been averted. There were simply so many possible scenarios! And this is what we must expect if even time periods can be shortened or extended in response to human behaviour. And yet Jeremiah himself seems to have been too ’pro’ Israel. He was shocked at the depth of their weakness and even naive to it; and in Lamentations he seems to consider God had acted too harshly against His people. So perhaps in any case Jeremiah was not the appropriate interceder.</p>


text:
<p>Therefore have I poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath. Their own way have I brought on their heads, says the Lord Yahweh- As noted on :22, the fire of Babylonian judgment had been intended to purify them, to remove the dross. But the dross would not be removed, and so they were in fact consumed by the fire. And this was completely the result of their own ways, rather than simply the anger of God. Judgment is really always an extension of a man’s own way in his time of opportunity.</p>


text:
<p>The word of Yahweh came again to me saying- The metaphors used to describe the anger of God with Israel are pretty awful. Her children to be slain with thirst, she was to be stripped naked by her husband (Hosea 2), gang raped by her lovers, having her nose cut off and left a battered, bleeding mess in the scrubland (Ezekiel 16, 23), to have her skirt pulled up over her head and her nakedness revealed (<a href='B:300 13:20-27'>Jer 13:20-27</a>), wishing to pluck off her own breasts for shame (<a href='B:330 23:34'>Eze 23:34</a>). Jerusalem is to be raped, violated and humiliated, according to Ezekiel. Indeed, Ezekiel’s images verge at times on what some would consider pornographic. He speaks of the woman Israel’s pubic hair, breasts, menstrual cycle (<a href='B:330 16:7'>Eze 16:7</a>; <a href='B:330 16:10'>Eze 16:10</a>); the gang rape by her enemies which God would bring about, leaving her mutilated and humiliated (<a href='B:330 16:37'>Eze 16:37</a>; <a href='B:330 23:22-49'>Eze 23:22-49</a>); about the size of her lovers’ sexual organs and coital emissions, and how she let them fondle her breasts (<a href='B:330 23:8'>Eze 23:8</a>; <a href='B:330 23:20'>Eze 23:20</a>). This is shocking language, which perhaps we skip over in our Bible reading from sheer embarrassment- and we are modern readers brutalized by exposure to this kind of stuff in the media. For early Israel, it would all have been even more shocking. It all seemed out of proportion to having ‘merely’ made a few political alliances with Egypt and Assyria. Was that really like a wife letting other men fondle her breasts and have sex with her, admiring their bodies as she did so? Did it all have to end in such brutality and vulgarity? Today, sex and violence are what attract attention. From lyrics of songs to advertising and movies, that’s clear enough. And the prophets are using the same tactics to arrest Israel’s attention, all the more so because nudity and sex were things simply not up for public discussion. There’s an anxiety which any talk about sex seems to arouse in us, and it was the prophets’ intention to make us likewise get on the edge of our seats, anxious, rapt, sensitive for the next word… realizing that really and truly, this is what human sin does to God. The outrageous sex talk was to bring out how outrageous and obscene are our sins and unfaithfulness to the covenant we cut with God in baptism.</p>


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<p>Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother- Unlike the similar lurid passage in Ezekiel 16, this appears to be a private revelation to Ezekiel, addressed personally as "son of man". Perhaps he still struggled to realize that the priesthood and society he had come from were really as bad as God saw them to be. The Jews considered the Israelites of the ten tribes to have been so far worse than themselves that they had gone into captivity in Assyria. One purpose of this allegory was to remind them that Israel were not worse than Judah; in fact the opposite was the case, and they were all the same sisters.</p>


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<p>And they played the prostitute in Egypt; they played the prostitute in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there were fondled the breasts of their virginity- The people of Israel worshipped idols in Egypt, and there lost their virginity. It was by grace that God took them on as His wife when they were already not virgins. The language of pressing the breasts means groping. They were raped, but raped as prostitutes are raped, half willingly so, in Egypt.</p>


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<h4>Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became Mine, and they bore sons and daughters- God’s grace is here noted, that He married such defiled women; and by grace, they had children, when prostitutes were stereotypically perceived as barren.</h4><h4>As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah- "Oholah" is "her tent", a reference to the false sanctuary created by Jeroboam for the ten tribes; and "Oholibah" ’my tent is in her’, reflecting how indeed God’s true sanctuary was in Jerusalem and not Samaria. But the allegory will continue to reveal that this didn’t make her superior but rather even more responsible for the profanity performed in that sanctuary. So the assumption of Judah that they were somehow more righteous because they had the true sanctuary amongst them is thereby subverted.</h4>


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<p>Oholah played the prostitute when she was Mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours- Those lovers turned on her and destroyed her. She was taken captive to Assyria, the people whose gods she had so loved. "Doted" is literally ’to breathe after’, the language of a woman in heat. This is how God presents her attraction to the Assyrian idols. And the word and extreme image is repeatedly used here (:7,9,12,16,20).</p>


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<p>Who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses- It was as horsemen that the young men of Assyria came as soldiers to destroy Samaria and lead her into captivity. Her rulers were attractive because Israel thought that they had power to protect and save them instead of their God. And there again is a timeless warning. What they found so attractive turned to be their destruction. It was God’s Kingdom which should have been "desirable" to Israel (s:w. <a href='B:290 27:2'>Isa 27:2</a>; <a href='B:290 32:12'>Isa 32:12</a>), but the passing visual attraction of the world was more "desirable".</p>


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<p>She bestowed her prostitution on them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself- Idolatry is presented as prostitution. But she "bestowed her prostitution on them", rather than them coming to her. For "doted" see on :5. Every relationship with the idols of our age is likewise prostitution against the God who has so loved us. "Choicest men" is used of soldiers (<a href='B:340 11:15'>Dan 11:15</a>; <a href='B:300 48:15'>Jer 48:15</a>; <a href='B:20 15:4'>Exo 15:4</a>). It was the protection of Assyria’s handsome soldiers which was so attractive to Israel; and therefore they agreed to serve their idols to have their protection. And it was those same soldiers who were to turn and destroy them.</p>


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<p>Neither has she left her prostitution since the days of Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they fondled the breasts of her virginity; and they poured out their prostitution on her- Israel is presented as having been sexually unstable from her youth; her subsequent encounter with Yahweh, her marriage to Him and His pouring out His love upon her::. didn’t change her basic mentality. She was not serious, light minded, and went to whatever her eyes and flesh were attracted to. This is our tendency as humans. She didn’t leave her prostitution "for" or because she had lost her virginity in Egypt, before she met Yahweh. The long term effect f her idolatry there, just like the long term effect of sexual promiscuity in youth, was that she never settled down to a stable monogamous relationship, even though she had the best ever husband.</p>


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<p>Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians on whom she doted- For "doted" see on :5. It was appropriate that she should be delivered into the hand or power of the Assyrians, for they were the ones she had loved more than Yahweh.</p>


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<p>These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters and her they killed with the sword, and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her- The ’death’ of the ten tribes must be compared to the insistence of all the restoration prophets that a revived Israel and Judah would together return to the land and form God’s reestablished Kingdom. This has to imply that the slain Samaria would be as it were resurrected; which is what Ezekiel 37 predicts, a resurrection of the dry bones. The uncovering of nakedness implies shame, as does becoming a byword. This was a fate worse than death in their terms. The uncovering her nakedness means she was revealed for who she was- a worn out whore, self-ruined by her profligate life. What was uncovered by the Assyrians was her whoredom (:29). The Assyrians realized that Samaria had not been faithful to them as she had promised, but in fact had made similar agreements with other powers, and also worshipped their gods- as well as Yahweh. It was this discovery which made the Assyrians so angry with Samaria, just as the Babylonians were to be with Judah.</p>


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<p>Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her prostitution which was more than the prostitution of her sister- This repeats Jeremiah’s message to the Jews still in the land (<a href='B:300 3:7'>Jer 3:7</a>). For "doting" see on :5. The idea seems to be that Jerusalem was encouraged in her immorality by Samaria. The reasoning was that because the sanctuary was in Jerusalem, Judah were automatically more righteous than Israel, and could therefore sin more than her. This is where mere tokenism and externality leads in religious life- to spiritual and literal immorality. "Corrupt" is the word used about the situation before the flood, when the eretz was again "corrupt" and was "destroyed" (<a href='B:10 6:11-13'>Gen 6:11-13</a>)- both are valid translations of the same Hebrew word. To be corrupt was to destroy oneself. The judgment was the sin.</p>


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<p>She doted on the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbours, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men- For "doting" see on :5. She was infatuated by the Assyrian leadership and military, the very things which Judah found attractive as promising protection and stability, when instead she should have looked to Yahweh for this.</p>


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<p>I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way- Again it is stressed that Judah was not better than Israel, as she imagined; she took the same "way". "Defiled" means that she was no longer a virgin (s:w. <a href='B:10 34:5'>Gen 34:5</a>; <a href='B:10 34:13'>Gen 34:13</a>; <a href='B:10 34:27'>Gen 34:27</a>). But she had lost her virginity in Egypt; it was there that she had been defiled by idolatry (<a href='B:330 20:7'>Eze 20:7</a>). The idea therefore is that God recognized that this was how she had been from the beginning; He "saw" the iniquity in His people which earlier by grace He had not ’seen’ because He imputed righteousness to them, as the object of His love (<a href='B:40 23:21'>Num 23:21</a>). It was specifically the temple which was "defiled" (s:w. <a href='B:300 32:34'>Jer 32:34</a>; <a href='B:330 5:11'>Eze 5:11</a>; <a href='B:330 43:7'>Eze 43:7</a>), and perhaps that is the location of "the wall" in :14.</p>


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<p>She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed withvermilion- I suggested on :13 that the context is of the temple. It could be that Jews went to the land of the Chaldeans and were impressed with the friezes on their walls, coloured with bright red. For they loved anything foreign, rather than the things of Yahweh. But more likely were these friezes replicated on the walls of the temple. Instead of the motif of the protecting cherubim within the temple, there were friezes of Chaldean soldiers, her pinups, her heroes and preferred saviours. "The wall" in <a href='B:330 8:10'>Eze 8:10</a>; <a href='B:330 43:8'>Eze 43:8</a> refers specifically to the wall dividing the holy and most holy place; there, perhaps on the inside of the most holy, there were the friezes of idols and Chaldean warriors, used in a&nbsp; pornographic sense.</p>


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<p>Dressed with girdles on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them princes to look on, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth- See on :23. The men depicted on the wall (:14) were like the Babylonian soldiers depicted on the friezes in the palaces and cities of the Chaldeans. The Jews had visited these lands and in their love for anything foreign, had replicated such motifs and friezes upon the walls of the temple.</p>


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<p>As soon as she saw them she doted on them, and sent messengers to them into Chaldea- For "doted" see on :5. She sent to Chaldea for these men to come to her, suggesting the pictures of the men were on the walls of the Jerusalem temple, and even within the holy places (see on :15). It is stereotypically men who respond to visual representations of females. Here it was men responding to the pictures of Chaldean men. It could be a reference to homosexual attraction, but the idea was that the lust was for the military protection of these soldiers; when the entire Angelic army symbolized by the cherubim was ready to protect Jerusalem. But they had removed the cherubim motif and replaced it with these images.</p>


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<p>The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them- Judah felt that she had not been given the protection and support from Babylon which she had expected.</p>


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<p>So she displayed her prostitution, and uncovered her nakedness: then My soul was alienated from her, like as My soul was alienated from her sister- <a href='B:300 6:8'>Jer 6:8</a> and <a href='B:330 23:18'>Eze 23:18</a> speak of how God’s soul "departed" (AV) from His people- but the same word is translated to hang / crucify (<a href='B:40 25:4'>Num 25:4</a>; <a href='B:100 21:6'>2Sa 21:6</a>; <a href='B:100 21:9'>2Sa 21:9</a>; <a href='B:100 21:13'>2Sa 21:13</a>). It’s as if God was crucified in His pain for Israel. And in the death of His Son He went through that pain. And so never, ever, ever::. can we nor Israel complain that our pain is greater than God’s. Never. The pain of God at Israel’s sin leads Him to exclaim (almost in the language of piercing and crucifixion): "Before me continually is grief and wounds" (<a href='B:300 6:7'>Jer 6:7</a>). We can wound God by our sin, so sensitive is He to us. In the end, we read that God’s "soul" departed from them, because "the Lord has rejected you" (<a href='B:300 6:8'>Jer 6:8</a>; <a href='B:300 6:30'>Jer 6:30</a>). This is the same language used about Saul- God rejected him, and so His spirit departed from him (<a href='B:90 15:23'>1Sa 15:23</a>; <a href='B:90 16:14'>1Sa 16:14</a>). The implication was that God’s very soul / spirit is "with" us, and therefore He can be so terribly wounded by us in His heart by therebellions of those in covenant relationship with Him. For His heart / soul / spirit is so close to us His beloved people.</p>


