# commentaries

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<p>He has filled me with bitterness, He has sated my thirst with wormwood- When in the dungeon, which is the basis for this chapter, Jeremiah was at the mercy of his tormentors for food and water. And they lowered down to him water with wormwood. The Lord too was offered such bitter drink on the cross.</p>


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<p>He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; He has covered me with ashes- This gives the impression of a living death, as if the ashes of the funeral pyre and the gravel of the grave had been poured upon his body. Jeremiah didn’t die, neither in the dungeon nor in the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. But he felt as if he had. He thereby as it were"tasted death for every man"as did the Lord, so intense was his identification with his people (<a href='B:650 2:9'>Heb 2:9</a>).</p>


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<p>You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity- GNB"I have forgotten what health and peace and happiness are". Jeremiah had only known peace and prosperity before his prophetic call. So he seems to be complaining about and resenting his entire prophetic call.</p>


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<p>I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh- Jeremiah appears to be alluding to <a href='B:240 10:28'>Pro 10:28</a>; <a href='B:240 11:7'>Pro 11:7</a>, using the same Hebrew words as there; with the implication that he is now amongst the condemned, who are left without hope- in contrast to the righteous, whose hope doesn’t perish. He so identified with his condemned people that he absolutely felt a personal, condemned sinner; and perhaps there was something of that in the Lord’s desperate cry"Why have You forsakenme?"; see on <a href='B:470 27:46'>Mat 27:46</a>.</p>


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<p>Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall- See on :1. He had likely been given gall to drink as this was the punishment for false prophets (<a href='B:50 29:18'>Deu 29:18</a>; <a href='B:300 23:15'>Jer 23:15</a>). And yet in the judgment of Jerusalem, Jeremiah so pitied those who did this to him that he feels as if he has drunk the gall which they were to drink, such was his identity with them (see on :5). Thus he reapplied his dungeon experiences to his grief for Jerusalem; see on :4. GNB gives"homelessness"for"misery"; as if he felt his own uncertain residency, living temporarily at Gedaliah’s house, was a way of fellowshipping the homeless exiles. <a href='B:300 40:6'>Jer 40:6</a> observes:"Then went Jeremiah to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah, and lived with him among the people who were left in the land". It is repeatedly emphasized that Jeremiah"lived... among the people". Even though he lived in Gedaliah’s house in relatively luxury, his living is described according to how Jeremiah perceived it- he lived"among the people"(also <a href='B:300 40:1'>Jer 40:1</a>; <a href='B:300 39:14'>Jer 39:14</a>). And this of course is an example to us, wherever our lot be cast. In this manner we from relative luxury and stability can fellowship and identify with those who are literally homeless and exiles.</p>


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<p>My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me- The referent of"them"is unclear. If the suggestion on :19 is correct, then it would refer to the homeless exiles, with whom Jeremiah identified through his far less radical homelessness. Or the reference could be to his former peace and prosperity noted on :17.</p>


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<p>This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope- The referent of"this"would seem to refer to the grace of Yahweh which he comments upon in :22. Jeremiah had previously been looking only negatively at what he"remembered"- a former life of peace and prosperity (:17,20). But now he recalls to mind Yahweh’s many graces toward him. And again we have a lesson here for us in depression. We can focus solely upon the past losses, the negatives; but we can also choose to remember all the past graces. We have some power over what we recall to mind. And Jeremiah, who had been saved from death in the dungeon and other plots on his life by divine grace alone, had many"graces"he could remember.</p>


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<p>It is because of Yahweh’s graces that we are not consumed, because His compassion doesn’t fail- See on :21. Jeremiah was commanded not to make lamentation for the punishment of his people (<a href='B:300 16:5'>Jer 16:5</a>). But he did, and God inspired the record of them in Lamentations, and because they are inspired words, He spoke through those words to all subsequent generations. The reason for this was that God’s covenant, referred to as"kindness and mercy"in <a href='B:300 16:5'>Jer 16:5</a>, was broken; they were not at peace with Him. And so they should not be pitied in their death. And yet although the covenant was broken by Israel, and God broke His side of it in response to that... He in fact still treated them as His covenant people. This is not to say that God is not serious about His statements. He is; but His love, grace and pity is displayed as the more extraordinary, in that it leads Him to break the words and threats spoken in justifiable and understandable wrath. For the same Hebrew phrase"loving kindness and tender mercies"is used again by Jeremiah in <a href='B:310 3:22'>Lam 3:22</a>, where he reflects that these have not been withdrawn from God’s people, even though Zion is now in ruins. See on :39.</p>


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<p>They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness- The fact life goes on morning by morning is itself a huge example of God’s grace (:21) and faithfulness. In the dungeon, existence was a daily struggle. The fact Jeremiah was alive each morning was evidence to him of God’s grace, and he recalls this to mind and applies it to the suffering of Judah. The fact some of them remained alive was evidence enough of His faithfulness. Remember that in the context, Jeremiah has been accusing God of unreasonably rejecting him and Judah. But now he sees that whilst there is life, there is no simply hope- but also the actual experience of God’s faithfulness and grace every morning. See on :39.</p>


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<p>Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in Him- Jeremiah was a priest, and the priesthood were promised that although they would have no"portion"or inheritance, yet Yahweh was their portion (s:w. <a href='B:40 18:20'>Num 18:20</a>; <a href='B:50 10:9'>Deu 10:9</a>). Jeremiah returns to his basic, core spirituality. He had lost his peace, stability and prosperity (:17). But he shouldn’t have focused on those things, because his relationship with Yahweh was his real portion. And he therefore had hope that in the restored kingdom, he would receive an eternal inheritance. Jeremiah was identified with Israel, and they were to be a nation of priests:They had lost their physical inheritance, so that they might become a nation of priests who had Yahweh as their inheritance. Here we see how the Father was working through their loss of their natural inheritance. And Jeremiah is emerging from his depression in appreciating this.</p>


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<p>Yahweh is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him- Jeremiah reflects that in the dungeon, he had waited for Yahweh, and been delivered. Instead of focusing solely upon the losses, the tragedy of the invasion... he now turns towards the concept of waiting for Yahweh, and hoping in Him. But he confesses that the waiting and hoping will only be for the one who seeks Yahweh. Jeremiah is yet to come to the unconditional repentance which is the climax of the book in <a href='B:310 5:16-21'>Lam 5:16-21</a>, but he is edging towards it by reflecting that the"hope"for those who"wait"for Yahweh is only for those who seek Yahweh. Isaiah’s prophecies of a restored Kingdom for the exiles were for those who"wait for Him"(s:w. <a href='B:290 40:31'>Isa 40:31</a>; <a href='B:290 49:23'>Isa 49:23</a>). And Jeremiah was surely aware of those prophecies.</p>


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<p>It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh- Jeremiah had so far in Lamentations been implying that he expected Yahweh to act immediately to save Judah from their tragedies. But now he recognizes that it is good to have to wait for that salvation. He still hasn’t stated clearly that Judah must repent, and their condemnation [from which they needed salvation] was solely due to their sins. But he is edging closer to it.</p>


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<p>It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth- Jeremiah realizes that his own sufferings had led him to wait and hope in Divine salvation, especially when he was in the dungeon awaiting death. And he realizes that his personal path must be Judah’s. He had literally carried a yoke in the acted parable of warning Judah to submit to the yoke of Babylon (<a href='B:300 27:2'>Jer 27:2</a>). And Judah were now themselves beneath that yoke, which was a figure of servitude to the Gentiles in <a href='B:300 2:20'>Jer 2:20</a>. And he realized that it had been spiritually"good"for him. So instead of lamenting the exile, he was beginning to see a long term purpose and blessing in it.</p>


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<p>Let him sit alone and keep silence, because He has laid it on him- Jeremiah may have himself in view here. See on :27. He considers such sitting alone as"good". Earlier he had been rebuked for his attitude of resenting that he"sat alone"and had kept away from the"assembly"of the rejoicers (<a href='B:300 15:17'>Jer 15:17</a>; <a href='B:300 15:19'>Jer 15:19</a>); and so we are to assume that he had said these things in resentment that he had had to stand alone amongst men. He had resented how he"sat alone"; yet this is the very term used of how Jerusalem was to"sit alone [solitary]"(<a href='B:310 1:1'>Lam 1:1</a>). He was her representative, and yet he seems to have resented that. He was after all being representative of those who had hated him and tried to kill him. As Jeremiah wrongly lamented his own ’sitting alone’, so he ought to have perceived that he should not have lamented Jerusalem’s likewise. But now he seems to have learnt his lesson, and sees his aloneness as"good".</p><p>Jeremiah sat in silence in the ruins of Zion just as the condemned Jews were to (<a href='B:300 25:37'>Jer 25:37</a> s:w:), totally identified with his sinful and judged people, in response to how there was to be no funeral wailing for the dead but rather, silence (<a href='B:330 24:17'>Eze 24:17</a>).</p>


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<p>Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be that in this case there may be hope- Here Jeremiah edges closer towards the concept of repentance; for putting the mouth in the dust surely implies some regret. But GNB"We should bow in submission, for there may still be hope"would continue the allusion to the need to bear the yoke of the Babylonians in :27,28, and thereby come to the ultimate freedom of God’s restored Kingdom in Israel.</p>


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<p>Let him give his cheek to Him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach- Without yet appealing for unconditional repentance, Jeremiah edges yet further towards it. For to be smitten on the cheek was the sign of reproof for some kind of wrong doing; and he urges Judah to give their cheek to God to strike, and to allow themselves ["let him be..."] to filled with shame. For it was from this basis that they could come to a position of waiting for the Lord in hope. When the Lord Jesus was smitten on the cheek we see how He absorbed the spirit of these things.</p>


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<p>For the Lord will not cast off forever- Yahweh ’cast off’ Judah (<a href='B:300 12:7'>Jer 12:7</a>; <a href='B:300 23:33'>Jer 23:33</a>) but only because they had cast Him off (<a href='B:300 15:6'>Jer 15:6</a> s:w:). And yet God did not cast off His people (<a href='B:300 33:26'>Jer 33:26</a>); Jeremiah personally was persuaded that God would not cast off His people for ever (<a href='B:310 3:31'>Lam 3:31</a>). He will show them mercy as if He had not cast them off (<a href='B:450 10:6'>Zec 10:6</a>); this reversal of their casting off was to be through the repentance of the exiled community (<a href='B:30 26:44'>Lev 26:44</a>). But even this didn’t happen, and yet God still did not cast them away (<a href='B:520 11:2'>Rom 11:2</a>). His love and grace was such that He holds on to them. This desperate holding on to His people is seen in the experience of every person who joins God’s people through baptism into Christ. They may indeed be cast off ultimately, but that is because they cast Him off, and wrestled against His insistent desire to keep hold of them eternally.</p>


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<p>For though He cause grief, yet He will have compassion according to the multitude of His graces-"Grief"or ’to grieve’ here is the same word for in :33, where Jeremiah moves on from simply lamenting the"grief"to appreciate that this was not done willingly; and he now realizes that at best there is a paradox, in that God causes grief and yet at the same time is the God of all grace. And somehow His compassion will be revealed. Previously in the Lamentations, Jeremiah has seen only one part of the picture- the immediate suffering. But now he moves on to realize that there is another side to the dialectic, and that is God’s grace."Compassion"is the word used of what would be revealed when the exiled Israel repented and returned to God (s:w. <a href='B:50 30:3'>Deu 30:3</a>). Jeremiah is moving towards the conclusion that radical repentance is required to release that revelation of compassion.</p>


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<p>For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men- This is a marked improvement from his earlier tone of criticism toward God. He had earlier complained that God was but an archer, using him for His target practice (:12). But now he recognizes that the ever present ’gracious’ side of God means that we can never conclude that suffering is inflicted willfully by God nor in any merely capricious sense.</p>


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<p>To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth- Instead, the restoration prophecies speak of Yahweh’s releasing of the prisoners (s:w. <a href='B:450 9:11-12'>Zec 9:11-12</a>; <a href='B:230 68:6'>Psa 68:6</a>; <a href='B:230 69:33'>Psa 69:33</a>; <a href='B:230 79:11'>Psa 79:11</a>; <a href='B:230 102:20'>Psa 102:20</a>). And yet Judah were prisoners, and apparently crushed. But Jeremiah begins to see that this is not to be man’s last end. The prophecies of restoration, uttered by himself too, spoke of freedom for the prisoners. They were not to be always imprisoned, let alone crushed. Jeremiah is speaking here firstly of his own experience of prison- he had not been crushed there, but released. And his path was to be Israel’s. But this is not to say that exiles were not crushed; the word is used about their crushing in <a href='B:290 57:15'>Isa 57:15</a>. But Jeremiah was coming to see that this was part of a bigger picture. He had used the same word of how a repentant Judah would be humbled or crushed, and then the suffering would end (<a href='B:300 44:10'>Jer 44:10</a>). They were not willingly crushed nor need they remain crushed; for salvation and restoration was and is part of God’s essential purpose and personality.</p>


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<p>To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High- The idea is that when men come before God’s face to be judged, God will not pervert their"right"or ’sentence’. This is parallel with :36- God will not"condemn a man unjustly in his judgment"(LXX). Jeremiah is rapidly moving away from his depressive focus upon just one part of the picture- i:e. the immediate suffering before his eyes. He accepts that God is just and will not bring condemnation for the sake of His own ulterior motives. Jeremiah is also recognizing that all the suffering was a result of a judgment given by God- and it was a right judgment.</p>


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<p>To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve- LXX"condemn a man unjustly in his judgment". As explained on :35, Jeremiah is now realizing that the judgments which Judah were experiencing were just. God would never condemn unjustly.</p>


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<p>Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?- The obvious complaint a reader would make to Jeremiah’s earlier lamentations, his complaining about the judgments, is that they had all been prophesied by none other than Jeremiah himself. He had almost disassociated himself from his prophetic past. But now he reflects that the evil being experienced had all been spoken by Yahweh ahead of time. It was all within a tightly controlled Divine program.</p>


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<p>Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?- As noted on :37, Jeremiah is now accepting what to us the readers is glaringly obvious- the tragedy he has been lamenting had all arisen from the prophetic words which he himself had spoken. The evil came from Yahweh’s mouth or word. And Jeremiah is driven to the same conclusion as the restoration prophecy of <a href='B:290 45:5-7'>Isa 45:5-7</a> - that both good and evil are alike from Yahweh. In his depressed state, he had seen only the evil as coming from Him. But now he starts to see a wider picture.</p>


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<p>Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?- He had learnt in the dungeon that just to be alive is a sign of God’s grace. And the more we appreciate and understand the function of our own bodies, the more we will likewise accept that our existence every moment is but by God’s grace. This has been the force of Jeremiah’s conclusions in :22,23. And so a living man should not complain. And Jeremiah moves again closer to the final truth he will arrive at in <a href='B:310 5:16-21'>Lam 5:16-21</a>; here he recognizes that the judgment is a punishment for sin, and anyone left alive after it had no reason to complain about anything. This may be a helpful tool in coping with depression. The"living man"whom he challenges may well be himself.</p>


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<p>Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh- I have argued that the book of Lamentations begins with Jeremiah bitterly complaining that God is as good as dead (see on <a href='B:310 1:1'>Lam 1:1</a>), with him looking solely at the tragedy before his eyes, and progresses to a climax of unconditional repentance in <a href='B:310 5:16-21'>Lam 5:16-21</a>. But the progression is a jagged graph. There are increasingly points at which he does recognize that the sufferings are directly due to Judah’s sins, he increasingly sees that there is a future hope and the God of judgment is also a God of grace. And he vaguely implies that repentance is needed, but always quickly returns to accusing God of unreasonable behaviour. And now in these verses he does speak clearly of the need for repentance. But his appeal for repentance here is still tinged with a cynicism, that God will not hear and has not listened (:42), and that He still lacks pity (:43), and has put a barrier between human prayer and His response (:44). Jeremiah has yet to come to the appeal for unconditional repentance with which the book climaxes.</p><p>And so in likely allusion to the descriptions of God searching and trying our hearts in the Psalms, Jeremiah says that Judah should"search and try our hearts"- we should seek to know ourselves as God does. David’s invitations to God to search and try him (<a href='B:230 17:3'>Psa 17:3</a>; <a href='B:230 26:2'>Psa 26:2</a>; Psalms 139; Psalms 23) imply he has done so himself (cp. <a href='B:230 77:6'>Psa 77:6</a>). God now searches and tries the hearts, and will [at judgment day] give every man as his work shall be (<a href='B:300 17:10'>Jer 17:10</a> cp. <a href='B:730 22:12'>Rev 22:12</a>). The spirit of man is [i:e. is intended to be] the candle which God also uses for His examination of men (<a href='B:240 20:27'>Pro 20:27</a>); there is thus a link intended between our self-examination and the way God looks at us. His judgment must be ours. As sin is condemned by Him, so we should examine ourselves to the point of self-condemnation.</p>


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<p>Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens- As noted on :40, this appeal for repentance is still far from unconditional. Sacrifice was now impossible because the temple had been destroyed. But as a priest, Jeremiah surely had in view how that instead of ’lifting up’ the heave offerings of animal sacrifice, the people were instead to grab hold of their own hearts and lift them up to God, and they could lift them as high as heaven. This is surely consciously alluding to how David realized that sacrifice and offering was not what God was essentially looking for, but rather broken, repentant and contrite hearts (<a href='B:230 51:16-17'>Psa 51:16-17</a>) We marvel at how God worked through the loss of the temple to bring His people more fully to Himself.</p>


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<p>We have transgressed and have rebelled; You have not pardoned- As noted on :40, this apparent appeal for repentance is tinged with the self- justification which robs ’repentance’ of its real power. To say ’OK let’s repent, OK we sinned... but God, You didn’t forgive us, and so [by implication] all this grief came upon us unfairly’... is to miss the point. Repentance axiomatically requires a declaration that God is right and we are wrong, our sin is inexcusable, His judgment is right, and only by utter grace can we now be saved. David learnt all this very well at the time of his great repentance. Jeremiah has alluded to it in theory (see on :41), but he is still far from grasping the real spirit of David. And our repentance is often so similar. It’s why repentance in practice seems to end up a process, rather than the one time act that it is intended to be.</p>


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<p>You have covered with anger and pursued us; You have killed, You have not pitied- See on :40,42. Jeremiah is appealing for repentance, but goes straight on to accuse God of being a pitiless murderer. The word for"pitied"is used in a word play in <a href='B:140 36:15'>2Ch 36:15</a>; <a href='B:140 36:17'>2Ch 36:17</a>. God had pitied His people by patiently sending prophets like Jeremiah to them. But because they despised that pity, they didn’t want it, He sent upon them the Babylonians who did not pity them. And so in <a href='B:300 15:5'>Jer 15:5</a>, Jeremiah had asked the rhetorical question:"For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem?". And the answer was, only Yahweh. But now Jeremiah has slipped back to seeing only part of the picture, focusing on the tragedy before his eyes; and this refusal to see a bigger picture leads him to charge God wrongly with being pitiless. When Yahweh’s pity is one of the most recurrent themes of His self revelation. Truly God had threatened in <a href='B:330 5:11'>Eze 5:11</a>:"Neither shall My eye spare, and I also will have no pity". But 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>You have covered Yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through- As explained on :40, here and in :43 Jeremiah seems to be tingeing his appeal for repentance with the thought that God had cut Himself off from His people, and placed a barrier between Him and them through which repentance couldn’t pass. This all sets the scene for the final unconditional confession and appeal for repentance and restoration by grace which we have at the end of the book in <a href='B:310 5:16-21'>Lam 5:16-21</a>. Here Jeremiah appears to be almost sarcastic; the cloud of incense from the incense altar, which as a priest he was familiar with, represented prayer (<a href='B:730 8:3-4'>Rev 8:3-4</a>). But Jeremiah is saying that this cloud has been used by God as a barrier through which prayer could not pass. So his appeal for repentance in :40,41 is far from absolute.</p>


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<p>You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the nations- Paul alludes to this in <a href='B:530 4:13'>1Co 4:13</a>, where he says that God made him and the apostles like this to"the nations"to whom they preached; and yet more specifically, Paul considers that they were off-scouring and refuse in the eyes of the Jews. It’s as if he realized that Jeremiah was not quite correct here; for Israel had made themselves to be despised amongst the nations, to whom they had prostituted themselves. And so Paul is saying that the Gentile"nations"are as the Jews, and the true Jews are prophets like himself, the true and spiritual Israel.</p>


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<p>All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us- Jeremiah likens the Gentiles to a devouring beast, and yet He has called God just that (:10). He sees God as making Himself gross, in that He was manifest through those nations. And that is a deeply unfair take on the whole situation. Again, Jeremiah has slipped back to seeing only one aspect of the picture. As with Job, God may well have cut him some slack in this because he was reasoning as someone who is the parade example of a man in depression.</p>


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<p>Fear and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction- Jeremiah initially wrote the lamentation of chapter 3 concerning his own enclosure in the pit / dungeon, in fear for his life. And yet he now reuses the material concerning Israel, his people with whom he was soidentified; and yet apparently forgetting that he had been revived from that pit by grace.</p><p><a href='B:300 48:44'>Jer 48:44</a>; <a href='B:300 49:5'>Jer 49:5</a> describe condemnation as fear being brought upon people (as <a href='B:220 3:25'>Job 3:25</a>; <a href='B:240 1:27'>Pro 1:27</a>), and <a href='B:290 24:18'>Isa 24:18</a> and other passages speak of the condemned fleeing from “the noise of the fear”. “The fear” is almost a way of saying ‘the judgment of God’ (<a href='B:310 3:47'>Lam 3:47</a>). The torment of the rejected will be their fear (<a href='B:690 4:18'>1Jn 4:18</a>). Psychologically, we need to get in touch with our own fears now, face our fears of condemnation eye to eye, and work through them- in repenting and coming to believe firmly in God’s gracious acceptance, living in the spirit of the true love which casts out fear. I know men and women who knew God and walked with the Lord, but now say ‘it means nothing to me’. They shrug when I nervously mention to them the reality of judgment to come- and I’m not very bold at bringing the conversations around to that issue, because it is just so fearsome and of such magnitude. They tell me that they’re indifferent. But somewhere deep within them, no matter what good actors they are before the stage of our human eyes, there has to be a deep and awful fear. And it is that fear which will be revealed and which will grip them in that final day. Perhaps the greatest mental torment of the rejected will be realizing how they could have been in the Kingdom of God; they will then perceive how great was the potential which they had had in the brief years of their mortality.</p>


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<p>My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people- What he saw with his eye affected his mind / heart (:51). Let us not see the doom of others, the pain and suffering of another life, and walk on by not permanently moved. What we see should affect our heart- if we have a heart that bleeds. And a bleeding heart doesn’t merely bleed- it does something concrete, in prayer and action. Consider other examples of the bleeding heart of Jeremiah: “Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth [“my stomach is in knots”, the Net Bible], for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city” (<a href='B:310 2:11'>Lam 2:11</a>). “For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water… my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled” (<a href='B:310 1:16'>Lam 1:16</a>; <a href='B:310 1:20'>Lam 1:20</a>). And this is the more impressive when we recall that it was his own people who had tried to murder him, and very nearly succeeded when he was cast into the dungeon. In this he reflects the amazing love of God for His people.</p>


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<p>My eye pours down, and doesn’t cease, without any intermission- He considers his tears to be his prayer to God, begging for intervention (:50). God often considers our situation and feelings to be our prayer of intercession. Otherwise, the acceptability of prayer would simply be a reflection of our ability to verbalize. And some are better at this than others. His lack of"intermission"is alluding to the appeal of <a href='B:290 62:7'>Isa 62:7</a> to give God no rest until He reestablish Jerusalem. But again he is pleading a Scripture without attention to the wider context- which is that the reestablishment would come when Judah returned to their God. And then they would be returned to their land and Zion would return to her glory. Jeremiah has so often made this point in his prophecies, repeatedly playing on the word shub, to return / repent.</p>


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<p>Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven- The aspect of repentance is still missing from all this emotional appeal to God. At this stage, Jeremiah is still asking God to respond to the tragedy simply for the sake of the tragedy. See on :49.</p>


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<p>My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city- What he saw with his eye affected his mind / heart. Let us not see the doom of others, the pain and suffering of another life, and walk on by not permanently moved. What we see should affect our heart- if we have a heart that bleeds.</p>


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<p>They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause- Jeremiah now reuses material from a previous composition about his feelings in the dungeon, but reapplies those feelings to suffering Israel with whom he so identified. Those who had chased Jeremiah without cause were the Jews. And now he parallels those Jews with the Babylonians, and himself with the Jews. He ought to have perceived that in fact the Jews who had so persecuted him were but receiving the same judgment which they had passed upon him. But he didn’t want to see that, because he in the end had a heart of love for his people; and that love manifested itself in a sense of identity with them. See on :66.</p>


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<p>They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me- See on :52. The rest of this lamentation directly concerns Jeremiah’s experience in the dungeon, where he experienced a living death. His point is that he now saw those experiences as those of Judah; he identified with them even in their death. And thus he points forward to the Lord Jesus, who by God’s grace tasted the death of a sinner for every sinful person; and yet was like Jeremiah resurrected from it and was personally innocent of their sins.</p>


text:
<p>Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off- Jeremiah in the dungeon felt as if he was dead; see on :54. His enemies mocked him from above (<a href='B:310 3:14'>Lam 3:14</a>), pouring water that was probably excrement upon him, as the dungeon was a sewer.</p>


text:
<p>I called on Your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon- The implication was that as Jeremiah had called upon Yahweh and been saved from the dungeon, so should Judah. But still Jeremiah is begging for divine intervention simply on the basis that the people were in dire straits. Still he is not emphasizing the need for unconditional repentance, and that was what would lead to the deliverance and restoration he so hoped for.</p>


text:
<p>You heard my voice; don’t hide Your ear at my breathing, at my cry- This implies that Jeremiah was literally about to die, or he felt he was; and his last breaths were in prayer. And he wished Judah to pray likewise; although still in the analogy, there is no place for their repentance, which was so critical.</p>


text:
<p>You drew near in the day that I called on You; You said, Don’t be afraid- We don’t know whether or not Jeremiah heard a literal voice telling him not to be afraid; perhaps the voice of Yahweh was manifest in the voice of Ebedmelech, who would have removed the stone and called down to Jeremiah"Don’t be afraid!". But Jeremiah is now seeing this as hopefully representative of the restoration prophecies which assured Jacob not to fear, because they would be restored (<a href='B:290 43:1'>Isa 43:1</a>; <a href='B:300 30:10'>Jer 30:10</a>). And likewise Yahweh would ’draw near’ to the restored Judah (s:w. <a href='B:300 30:21'>Jer 30:21</a>).</p>


text:
<p>Lord, You have pleaded the causes of my soul; You have redeemed my life- Jeremiah understood his prayer as having entered the court of heaven, although it was offered from the absolutely lowest point; death by thirst and starvation in a deep sewer. And there in heaven, his case was judged, and the decision given to redeem his life from that living death. And so Ebedmelech was motivated by God to rescue him. And Jeremiah clearly thought this was possible for Judah, if they likewise prayed. But he is carefully omitting the factor of repentance, which was so critical for Judah.</p>


text:
<p>Yahweh, You have seen my wrong. Judge my cause- Jeremiah was the innocent suffering wrongfully, and he could rightly ask Yahweh to judge his case and deliver him by doing justice rightly. But the analogy with Judah breaks down; because they needed to repent, and were suffering less than their iniquities deserved, but rightfully. See on :58.</p>


text:
<p>You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me- The motive for Jeremiah’s persecution and consignment to death was a wrongful desire for revenge because he had faithfully spoken God’s word. But the situation of Judah was not analogous, because they were being judged for their"devices"against God (s:w. <a href='B:300 6:19'>Jer 6:19</a>). Jeremiah had asked to see Divine"vengeance"upon the Jews who threw him into the dungeon (s:w. <a href='B:300 11:20'>Jer 11:20</a>). But now he did see it, and his prayer was answered, he likes to change around the analogy; Babylon was taking vengeance upon Judah wrongfully, so he implied; and he asks God to take note of that and change things. But his appeal for ’right’ to be done by reversing the Babylonian victory is misplaced- only repentance and throwing themselves upon grace rather than any concept of vengeance could change things.</p>


text:
<p>You have heardtheir reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me- Jeremiah had prayed that the Jews would suffer Divine vengeance for reproaching him (s:w. <a href='B:300 15:15'>Jer 15:15</a>). But now he is asking for God to revenge the Babylonians for reproaching those same Jews. As explained on :60, his appeal for ’right’ to be done by reversing the Babylonian victory is misplaced- only repentance and throwing themselves upon grace rather than any concept of vengeance could change things. The reproach against Israel was to be"everlasting"(s:w. <a href='B:300 23:40'>Jer 23:40</a>). Only a desperate, repentant appeal to God’s grace could change that, and not until <a href='B:310 5:16-21'>Lam 5:16-21</a> does Jeremiah finally advocate such an appeal.</p>


text:
<p>The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day- God not only heard the words spoken against Jeremiah, He even observed the lips of those who framed those words. This is how intensely He is sensitive to words; but see on :60,61.</p>


text:
<p>You see their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song- As noted on :62, God sees the lips of those who speak hard things, just as He sees the fingers which tap them on keyboards today. And He watched their sitting down and rising up, their body language. This is His sensitivity to His people, and Jeremiah is asking that God be likewise sensitive to the sufferings of Judah; but see on :60,61.</p>


text:
<p>You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands- These are the words of <a href='B:360 3:4'>Joe 3:4</a>; <a href='B:360 3:7'>Joe 3:7</a>; <a href='B:380 1:15'>Oba 1:15</a> about the works of Judah’s enemies being rendered back to them. Jeremiah had prayed for this to be done to Israel; but now he asks for this policy to be applied to Israel’s enemies. But see on :60,61. The truth was that Jeremiah had prayed for a recompense upon the Jews, and that was now happening before his eyes. And he was in vain seeking to backtrack and change things.</p>


text:
<p>You will give them hardness of heart, Your curse to them- This is yet more evidence that God can work directly upon the human heart, even in response to the prayers of others for that. The climax of Jeremiah’s imprecations against Israel was that they would be given hard hearts, and receive the curses for breaking the covenant. And indeed his prayer was heard. But now he was desperately trying (albeit in vain) to have his prayer reapplied to the enemies of Israel.</p>


text:
<p>You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh- Yet Jeremiah in :43 has just complained that God had pursued His people at the hands of the Babylonians. Now Jeremiah’s imprecation, uttered in the dungeon, had come true... he bitterly regretted it and resented God doing what he had asked. The lesson clearly is to be careful what we pray for, lest it come true. To be destroyed from under the heavens is what God wanted to do to Israel for their idolatry, meaning to disown them as His people (s:w. <a href='B:50 9:14'>Deu 9:14</a>). That is what Jeremiah had prayed for his people when he was in the dungeon, and indeed they had broken the covenant and the curses for that were coming upon them (:65).</p>


text:
<p>How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street- Gold by its nature is supposed not to tarnish; the precious stones in the sanctuary (presumably referring to those in the breastplate) were likewise supposed to be valued by their very nature, and not just poured out at the head of every street. The idea is that what was thought to have been inviolate, the temple, had been violated. The precious stones are parallel with the precious sons of Zion (:2), who were perishing at the head of every street (<a href='B:310 2:19'>Lam 2:19</a>). The false prophets had taught that Jerusalem would not fall because God would never give up Zion. And it seems Jeremiah now laments that indeed the apparently inviolate had been violated. Again he appears to be identifying too strongly, or in an inappropriate manner, with his sinful people. For he was overlooking the fact that"at the head of every street"there had been idols (<a href='B:330 16:24'>Eze 16:24</a>; <a href='B:330 16:31'>Eze 16:31</a>) and little sanctuaries for them. And now their children were perishing in those very same places. The appeal needed to be for repentance, but instead Jeremiah is still focusing totally upon the tragedy before him and lamenting it; without&nbsp; considering the bigger picture as to why it was happening.</p>


text:
<p>The precious sons of Zion- There is a connection with how earlier God had told Jeremiah He would reject him, unless he brought out the precious from among the base (see on <a href='B:300 15:19'>Jer 15:19</a>). And this he apparently failed to do, and so he laments it. See on :1.</p><p>Comparable to fine gold, how are they nowesteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!-"Potter"translates the same word Jeremiah has used of how God as the potter or former has formed Israel in order to do His work (<a href='B:300 18:2-6'>Jer 18:2-6</a>; <a href='B:300 18:11'>Jer 18:11</a>; <a href='B:300 19:1'>Jer 19:1</a>; <a href='B:300 19:11'>Jer 19:11</a>; <a href='B:300 33:2'>Jer 33:2</a>). According to Jeremiah’s own parables, those who didn’t respond to the potter’s hands were to be broken. But now Jeremiah seems to object to this happening to Israel.</p>


text:
<p>Even the jackals draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones: the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness- The idea is that the mothers had become apparently cruel and uncaring for their children, because the famine and thirst had led to them being unable to provide breast milk for their own children. Jeremiah seems to imply that this is an untenable situation for God to tolerate, since even the wild animals are able to feed their young. Again, as explained on :1, in his depression he is focusing upon just one aspect of a complex picture; and willfully overlooking the fact that these same women had sacrificed their children to Baal, and were the very ones who stubbornly claimed that worshipping the queen of heaven was preferable to Yahweh worship (see on <a href='B:300 7:18'>Jer 7:18</a>; <a href='B:300 44:17'>Jer 44:17</a>).</p>


text:
<p>The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaks it to them- See on :3. ’Breaking bread’ or ’eating bread’ is simply an idiom for sharing in a meal (<a href='B:290 58:7'>Isa 58:7</a>; <a href='B:300 16:7'>Jer 16:7</a>; <a href='B:310 4:4'>Lam 4:4</a>; <a href='B:330 17:7'>Eze 17:7</a>; <a href='B:330 24:17'>Eze 24:17</a>; <a href='B:350 9:4'>Hos 9:4</a>; <a href='B:50 26:14'>Deu 26:14</a>; <a href='B:220 42:11'>Job 42:11</a>). ’Bread’ is used for any food, just as ’salt’ is used in the same way in Arabic. The way the Lord broke His bread with sinners, with anyone, is therefore evidence enough that the ’breaking of bread’ is inclusive and not exclusive.</p>


text:
<p>Those who fed delicately are desolate in the streets: those who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills- Jeremiah seemed to find it especially tragic that the royal family [once"in scarlet", the colour of royalty] and the formerly wealthy were so desolate. But these were the very classes whom he had singled out for particular condemnation in his earlier prophecies. Now those prophecies had come true, he seems to almost resent it. We notice the connection with Job losing his wealth and sitting in dunghills- he was representative of Judah, and it seems his story was rewritten under inspiration during the exile to make it relevant for them. But his captivity was turned when he repented without reservation; and that is the critical factor Jeremiah only fully accepts at the end of Lamentations.</p>


text:
<p>For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid on her- The idea is that Sodom perished in an instant and not at the hands of cruel people. Jeremiah laments this- as if implying that he considered Jerusalem’s sin to have been less than Sodom’s, but her punishment was greater. And yet <a href='B:330 16:48'>Eze 16:48</a>, which was a contemporary prophecy which Jeremiah likely knew, states clearly that Judah sinned far more than Sodom. Jeremiah had commented in <a href='B:300 23:14'>Jer 23:14</a> that God considered Jerusalem as Sodom. But now he appears quite out of step with God’s assessment; because he simply will not adequately factor in Judah’s sin and need for penitence.</p>


text:
<p>Her nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire- Yet it was the nobles whom Jeremiah had singled out for particular condemnation. They were not at all snow white in God’s eyes; that could only come through repentance (Is 1:18). But Jeremiah likes to think they were like this despite their impenitence. AV and some manuscripts read"Nazirites". In this case, Jeremiah would be alluding to the idea that those who kept the Nazirite vow experienced great blessing in their health and bodily appearance; and Jeremiah laments that this is now not the case. And yet Daniel and his friends appeared more healthy than the other Jews because they refused to eat food and drink wine that had been part of idol worship; whereas it seems that Jerusalem and its religious classes at Jeremiah’s time were almost wholly given over to idolatry. Jeremiah’s path from thinking God was effectively dead (see on <a href='B:300 1:1'>Jer 1:1</a>) to the total repentance at the end of Lamentations 5 was not a smooth journey; it was a jagged graph. In <a href='B:310 3:40-42'>Lam 3:40-42</a> (see notes there) he has come to a very limited idea of the need for repentance, but now he has slipped back to being out of step with God because of his depressive insistence upon seeing only the immediate issues which were before his eyes, i:e. the suffering in judgment of God’s people.</p>


text:
<p>Their appearance is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin clings to their bones; it is withered, it has become like a stick- See on :7. This appears to speak of the situation during the famine which occurred during the siege- and this death by famine had been predicted by Jeremiah. This implies that Jeremiah was having these thoughts during the siege; for he speaks of the nobles suffering like this (:7), and it was they who were either slain or carried into exile once the city fell. So Lamentations provides us with another perspective upon the Jeremiah we meet in the book of Jeremiah, who appears to bravely speak God’s word and adopt His perspective. The reality is that at the same time, he was deeply struggling with the words he was teaching, and more than questioning some of it.</p>


text:
<p>Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field- The present tenses suggest Jeremiah was composing this lamentation as he observed (or heard about in prison) the effects of the famine during the siege; see on :8."The fruits of the field"would only be restored once Judah repented and entered a new covenant with God (s:w. <a href='B:330 36:30'>Eze 36:30</a>). But Jeremiah appears to think that they had a right to those fruits anyway, without that repentance.</p>


text:
<p>The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people- Jeremiah earlier had had much to say in condemnation of the women of Jerusalem, who had offered their own children to the idols, and who both before and after the siege insisted on worshipping the queen of heaven in preference to Yahweh (see on <a href='B:300 7:18'>Jer 7:18</a>; <a href='B:300 44:17'>Jer 44:17</a>).</p>


text:
<p>Yahweh has accomplished His wrath, He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations- The complaint that the foundations had been destroyed, when fire would typically only burn the edges and surface of a city wall, suggests Jeremiah is at a low ebb of faith that there could ever be restoration.</p><p>Both Yahweh and Israel are described as kindling the fire of judgment; He responded to what they had done (<a href='B:300 11:16'>Jer 11:16</a>; <a href='B:300 15:14'>Jer 15:14</a>; <a href='B:310 4:11'>Lam 4:11</a> cp. <a href='B:300 17:4'>Jer 17:4</a>). Likewise as they had kindled fire on their roofs in offering sacrifices to Baal, so Yahweh through the Babylonians would set fire to those same houses (<a href='B:300 32:29'>Jer 32:29</a>). Thus Israel were the ones who had kindled the fire of Yahweh’s condemnation (<a href='B:300 17:4'>Jer 17:4</a>).</p>


text:
<p>The kings of the land didn’t believe, neither all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem- The fortifications of Jerusalem were apparently legendary; and indeed it took the might of Babylon 18 months to breach them. But the great prophetic theme is that all human strength is to be brought down by Divine judgment. We note that the eretz, the land promised to Abraham, is effectively"the world"from the perspective of the prophets. The prophets have little to say about the rest of the planet- including Russia and the Anglo-Saxon world.</p>


text:
<p>It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her- As often noted, Jeremiah’s path is a jagged graph- through depression to the final confession of sin without reservation at the end of Lamentations. Having been very insistent so far in this chapter that Jerusalem is suffering unfairly, and the suffering of her priests and leadership is particularly tragic, Jeremiah now does bluntly recognize that all this has happened because of their sins. They had tried to shed his blood, and had succeeded in killing other prophets. They had shed the blood of children and other animal sacrifices- and the false prophets and priests who taught their false words were directly responsible for this.</p><p>And yet perhaps even these words of Jeremiah somewhat contradict the prophetic position, whereby blame was placed upon all Judah, every part of society; whereas now Jeremiah laments the situation as if Judah is being hard done by, suffering for the sins of the leadership:&nbsp;The blame is being unfairly placed by him just upon the priests and prophets; whereas Jeremiah himself has earlier stated that all Judah must carry the blame (see on <a href='B:300 17:20'>Jer 17:20</a>; <a href='B:300 22:2'>Jer 22:2</a>; <a href='B:300 25:5'>Jer 25:5</a>; <a href='B:300 37:2'>Jer 37:2</a>).</p>


text:
<p>They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, so that men can’t touch their garments- The tenses are unclear in the Lamentations because Jeremiah has brought together various feelings that he had at different times- before, during (:14,17,18) and after the siege (:19) and exile (:18,20). LXX has"her watchmen staggered in the streets"; the watchmen were the prophets of:13. The reference is to the descriptions of blindness as a punishment for breaking the covenant (<a href='B:50 28:18'>Deu 28:18</a>; <a href='B:300 23:12'>Jer 23:12</a>; <a href='B:290 29:9'>Isa 29:9</a>). They were polluted with blood already because of their attempted murder of Jeremiah and actual murder of other prophets, as well as those they sacrificed to the idols. Now, they are portrayed as wandering the streets covered in blood. That may have been literally the case, but they were covered in blood anyway in God’s eyes. And this made them unclean.</p>


text:
<p>Depart! they cried to them, Unclean! Depart, depart, don’t touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall not live here any more- Translated this way, the paradox is developed that they who were now so covered in blood that nobody would touch them for fear of being made unclean (:14)- were the very ones who had condemned others as ritually unclean and had ordered them to get far away from them. Remember it is the priests who are being addressed here (:13). As they had driven away others for being unclean (when they themselves were unclean and covered with blood guilt), so now they were being driven away from their land as unclean. As Jeremiah so often demonstrates in his prophecy, condemnation was articulated in language which showed it to be but a continuation of attitudes and positions the condemned had already adopted in their lives.</p>


text:
<p>The anger of Yahweh has scattered them; He will no more regard them- Not regarding them, not having them in His sight, means that He would permanently end relationship with them. But as noted on <a href='B:310 4:15'>Lam 4:15</a>, this was but a reflection of how they had not regarded Him (s:w. <a href='B:290 5:12'>Isa 5:12</a>; <a href='B:290 22:11'>Isa 22:11</a>). And yet by lamenting that Yahweh would not again have relationship with them, Jeremiah was overlooking the prophecies of restoration which he himself had given. His depression was such that at this point, he focuses only upon the present pain and will not look wider.</p><p>They didn’t respect the persons of the priests, they didn’t favour the elders- The"they"appears to refer to the Babylonian soldiers. But Jeremiah has given reason after reason as to why the priests and elders were not worthy of any respect and deserved only condemnation. But now he laments that, identifying so strongly with Israel again, after in :15 beginning to accept that they were suffering only what they themselves had in essence done in their days of opportunity. He sees their guilt- and then slips back to simply lamenting the situation as it was at that moment.</p>


text:
<p>Our eyes still fail, looking in vain for our help- LXX"While we yet lived our eyes failed, while we looked in vain for our help". This may appear to contradict Jeremiah’s feelings explained on <a href='B:310 3:22-23'>Lam 3:22-23</a>; <a href='B:310 3:39'>Lam 3:39</a>, that to simply be alive is to know that God’s grace continues to us, and finally His"help"shall be articulated to us, even if not in terms of immediate salvation. And again Jeremiah seems to be implying that they were looking to God for help"in vain". This is the mentality noted on <a href='B:310 3:44'>Lam 3:44</a>, considering that God would not answer prayer. But Jeremiah was missing the point- that it wasn’t simply prayer for immediate rescue which was required, but rather the prayer of repentance for forgiveness.</p><p>In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save- A reference to Egypt, trust in whom was a large reason for their rejection by Yahweh. But Jeremiah appears to be writing here at the time of the siege or even after it, when Egypt was already no longer a viable help, having been crushed at the battle of Carchemish. And yet even then it would appear from <a href='B:330 29:16'>Eze 29:16</a> that they still vainly looked to Egypt for help, and the survivors of the siege fled there despite being warned not to. The attraction of trusting human strength rather than Yahweh was so great. Instead of watching or looking to Egypt they should have looked to and waited upon Yahweh.</p>


text:
<p>They hunt our steps, so that we can’t go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end has come- The tenses are unclear in the Lamentations because Jeremiah has brought together various feelings that he had at different times- before, during and after the siege and exile. See on :14.</p><p><a href='B:300 16:16'>Jer 16:16</a>&nbsp; suggests a total regathering of all who were in captivity as a result of fishers and"hunters"provoking the people to return to a restored kingdom. This didn’t happen because the exiles preferred the soft life in Persia. The effort made wasn’t responded to. Indeed Jeremiah later laments that the people were"hunted"after Jerusalem fell (s:w. <a href='B:310 3:52'>Lam 3:52</a>; <a href='B:310 4:18'>Lam 4:18</a>). He ought to have realized that the exiles were to be hunted back to the restored kingdom- if they responded. But in his depression, he focused only upon the negative, the glass half empty rather than half full.</p>


text:
<p>Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky: they chased us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness- A reference to the Babylonian cavalry, and particularly of their pursuit and capture of Zedekiah as representative of all Judah. As noted on :14, Jeremiah now seems to be writing from some time after the fall of Jerusalem. He has edited his thoughts together in these Lamentations. He was not pursued nor chased; but he so identified with his people that he felt as if he had been.</p>


text:
<p>The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh, was taken in their pits; of whom we said, Under His shadow we shall live among the nations- This sounds a far too positive take upon Zedekiah, whose demise was directly due to refusing to listen to Jeremiah’s words from God, and his impenitence. But instead of accepting that, Jeremiah seems to now think his demise to be so tragic. The way Zedekiah is described as"the prince"in <a href='B:330 12:12'>Eze 12:12</a> 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.</p>


text:
<p>Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom that dwells in the land of Uz: the cup shall pass through to you also; you shall be drunken, and shall make yourself naked- As Edom rejoiced against Jerusalem in the day of her destruction (<a href='B:230 137:7'>Psa 137:7</a>), so she is bidden sarcastically to rejoice because she would again be judged with Jerusalem’s judgment. Edom is noted as dwelling in Uz to point up the connection with Job; the whole book of Job was rewritten and reapplied to the drama of the exile, and it involved people from the land of Uz [the friends] being rebuked and finally having the imputed righteousness of Job revealed to them.</p>


text:
<p>The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion; He will no more carry you away into captivity: He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom; He will uncover your sins- But Zion was carried into captivity by God again, not least under the Romans, as well as by Antiochus, and she will be again in the last days. What was potentially possible was that Judah repented, returned both to God and Zion, and the Kingdom of God would have been reestablished in Israel- never again to be destroyed. That was the potential, but their lack of repentance precluded it. So Jeremiah’s statement here appears to be his desperate hope that Zion’s judgment had ended and now there would be restoration. But again, he refuses to factor in the aspect of their repentance.</p>


text:
<p>Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: look, and see our reproach- The invitation to"look"must be understood in the context of how Jeremiah has complained that God placed a cloud between Himself and His people, through which no prayer could pass (<a href='B:310 3:44'>Lam 3:44</a>). And in <a href='B:310 4:16'>Lam 4:16</a> he has just stated that God was not looking at His condemned people. He said thatin depression, just spot staring at the reality of suffering they were then experiencing. If it felt like God had permanently cast them off, then that was how he felt it was. But now he accepts that although God apparently will not look at them, yet He can be appealed to. But still he is asking God to simply take pity upon the tragedy of suffering people; he still must factor in the critical aspects of repentance and forgiveness.</p>


text:
<p>Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens- To lose an inheritance was a major tragedy in the thought of those times. The loss of inheritance was not a tragedy unfelt by God. God was losing His inheritance in that He was allowing it to be consumed (<a href='B:300 12:9'>Jer 12:9</a>), ’polluting it’ (<a href='B:290 47:6'>Isa 47:6</a>). No man would ever spoil his own inheritance like this; but God did, such was His belief in the need to punish His people for their sins. And yet the metaphor of lost / spoilt inheritance reflects how painful this was for God, felt as a personal loss. The whole idea elicits sympathy for God in this tragic loss.</p>


text:
<p>We are orphans and fatherless; our mothers are as widows- Again we note Jeremiah’s intense identification with those who had suffered. For he speaks of"we"and"our", rather than of"they"and"theirs". Surely Jeremiah means to remind God of His special care for these categories in His law.</p>


text:
<p>We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold to us- Perhaps the Bedouin tribes took over Jerusalem after it fell, and sold water and firewood to the Jews. See on :9.</p>


text:
<p>Our pursuers are on our necks: we are weary, and have no rest- Again his depression leads to exaggeration; there is no evidence that the Jews were moved around the Babylonian empire, making them find no rest. He himself had urged them to build houses in Babylon and settle down there. Being restless was a result of breaking the covenant (s:w. <a href='B:50 28:65'>Deu 28:65</a>) which Jeremiah had repeatedly accused them of doing. They were suffering far less than their iniquities deserved. They refused to repent and in that sense they had no rest to their souls. If they had accepted the yoke of Babylon, then they could have rested in their own land (s:w. <a href='B:300 27:11'>Jer 27:11</a>). Jeremiah had advocated accepting this yoke; and yet again he seems somewhat out of step with God as he complains about it.</p>


text:
<p>We have given the hand to the Egyptians, to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread- Jeremiah appears to be writing here at the time of the siege or even after it, when Egypt was already no longer a viable help, having been crushed at the battle of Carchemish. And yet even then it would appear from <a href='B:330 29:16'>Eze 29:16</a> that they still vainly looked to Egypt for help, and the survivors of the siege fled there despite being warned not to. The attraction of trusting human strength rather than Yahweh was so great. Instead of watching or looking to Egypt they should have looked to and waited upon Yahweh.</p><p>To give the hand was a metaphor for making a covenant agreement. <a href='B:330 17:18'>Eze 17:18</a> roundly condemns it as unfaithfulness to God. Yet 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><p>But perhaps here we have the beginnings of a sense of repentance; for now finally Jeremiah begins to look back at their spiritually adulterous covenants with the nations, and recognizes that their exile is due to that. See on :16.</p>


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<p>Our fathers sinned, and are no more; we have borne their iniquities- 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. Throughout Ezekiel 18, Ezekiel labours the point that they were not say any more that the children were suffering for the fathers’ sins. This was not to be stated any more (<a href='B:330 18:3'>Eze 18:3</a>). Not saying it any more was to be part of being in the new covenant- <a href='B:300 31:29'>Jer 31:29</a> had specifically stated this, contemporary with Ezekiel. 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 thatGod 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. Although this unjust complaint against God contributes towards the sense of unsatisfactory conclusion which we are left with in this final chapter, leaving us wondering whether Jeremiah’s faith did in fact remain intact at the very end. This is one of many cases of self-justification in Lamentations (<a href='B:310 1:2'>Lam 1:2</a>; <a href='B:310 1:19'>Lam 1:19</a>; <a href='B:310 2:14'>Lam 2:14</a>; <a href='B:310 4:13'>Lam 4:13</a>; <a href='B:310 5:7'>Lam 5:7</a>), which contradicts the prophetic position, whereby blame is placed upon Judah, whereas now Jeremiah laments the situation as if Judah is being hard done by.</p>


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<p>Servants rule over us: there is none to deliver us out of their hand- The servants who ruled over them on behalf of Babylon were the likes of"Tobiah the servant"(<a href='B:160 2:10'>Neh 2:10</a>; <a href='B:160 2:19'>Neh 2:19</a>). It seems that they made the remaining Jews work for them as slaves and day labourers (:13). But this was exactly the abuse which they tolerated in their society even during the siege of Jerusalem; and it was exactly because they refused to release their servants and stop abusing them, that they became abused labourers and slaves (<a href='B:300 34:17'>Jer 34:17</a>). So there was in fact a potential deliverer"out of their hand"; but that depended upon repentance, which is a theme Jeremiah is so loath to raise.</p>


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<p>We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness- A reference to marauding Arab Bedouin bands. See on :4.</p>


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<p>Our skin is black like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine- After the siege was over, Jerusalem was burnt and the survivors almost perished of hunger. But famine was a punishment for sin and breaking the covenant. The prophecies of judgment implied at times that none would survive. The fact some came out of the fiery oven of Jerusalem, albeit with blackened skin, was to be seen as a sign of God’s grace- and yet Jeremiah laments it.</p>


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<p>They ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah-"Virgins"can mean simply ’young women’. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Hosea have all presented Judah as a prostitute and unfaithful lover. She had made covenants of unique loyalty with the nations, undertaking to worship their gods. And then they discovered that she had made such covenants with multiple nations, and her temple in Jerusalem was full of the gods of her various lovers. She is therefore presented as a suffering the judgment of a prostitute, being burnt by fire; after having her skirts pulled above her head and being gang raped beforehand for good measure (<a href='B:300 13:22'>Jer 13:22</a>; <a href='B:300 13:26'>Jer 13:26</a> etc:). This is the shocking picture of her judgment which we find in the prophets. But Jeremiah so takes the side of his people that he presents this as meaning that she as an innocent, upright woman who was raped by some heartless beast.</p>


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<p>Princes were hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured- The judgment of the royal family and elders was&nbsp; a major part of Jeremiah’s message. And yet he seems to lament that they were not more respected by their conquerors. On one hand, his almost fanatical taking of Israel’s side, totally identifying with their feelings, represents the passionate love and pity of God for His condemned people. And yet on the other hand, Jeremiah appears to be out of step with God’s own perspective on the princes and elders as expressed in His own word through Jeremiah. Perhaps in this we see Jeremiah revealing to us the deep tension within God Himself when it came to judging His people; see on <a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a>.</p>


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<p>The young men were made to grind at the mill; the children stumbled under the wood- <a href='B:300 52:11'>Jer 52:11</a> LXX says that the captive Zedekiah was put"in the mill", as if he was in hard labour, now blinded, exactly like Samson (<a href='B:70 16:21'>Jdg 16:21</a>), and as the young men were made to (<a href='B:310 5:13'>Lam 5:13</a>). And the similarities continued, in that it seems Zedekiah likewise did finally repent. Perhaps the young men did likewise.</p><p>It seems that they made the remaining Jews work for them as slaves and day labourers (8). But this was exactly the abuse which they tolerated in their society even during the siege of Jerusalem; and it was exactly because they refused to release their servants and stop abusing them, that they became abused labourers and slaves (<a href='B:300 34:17'>Jer 34:17</a>). So there was in fact a potential deliverer"out of their hand"; but that depended upon repentance, which is a theme Jeremiah is so loath to raise.</p>


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<p>The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music- But there was great corruption in"the gate"; and the music of the young men was a reflection of their rejection of God. These young men and elders were those condemned in <a href='B:370 6:1-7'>Amo 6:1-7</a>:"Woe to those who are at ease in Zion... Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches... who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David did;&nbsp; who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Therefore they will now go into captivity with the first who go captive; and the feasting and lounging will end". So again we see Jeremiah in depression focusing just upon the immediate experience, without wishing to recall the wider context.</p>


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<p>The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning- That their joy should cease was specifically prophesied for their disobedience, in these very Hebrew words (<a href='B:290 24:8'>Isa 24:8</a>; <a href='B:350 2:11'>Hos 2:11</a>). And yet Jeremiah laments it. But he surely saw the connection with these prophecies, and that his feelings of lamentation were in fact their fulfilment; and so this leads him to the obvious conclusion: that the real problem is Judah’s sin, and they need to repent. As he lamented that the girls were no longer dancing but mourning, his thoughts were led to his own earlier words of <a href='B:300 31:4'>Jer 31:4</a>; <a href='B:300 31:13'>Jer 31:13</a> - that a restored, repentant Israel would again dance, and when David repented, his mourning was turned into dancing (s:w. <a href='B:230 30:11'>Psa 30:11</a>). And thus we come to the climax of the book, in the unreserved, unqualified repentance of the next five verses.</p>


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<p>The crown is fallen from our head: woe to us! For we have sinned- As noted on <a href='B:310 1:1'>Lam 1:1</a>; <a href='B:310 3:40'>Lam 3:40</a>,&nbsp; <a href='B:310 5:16-21'>Lam 5:16-21</a> is the climax of the book of Lamentations. And the point is that we have here a total confession of sin, and appeal for God to turn them to Himself (:21) and restore His relationship and Kingdom with Judah as before (:21). The book of Lamentations begins with Jeremiah bitterly complaining that God is as good as dead (see on <a href='B:310 1:1'>Lam 1:1</a>), with him looking solely at the tragedy before his eyes, and progresses to a climax of unconditional repentance in <a href='B:310 5:16-21'>Lam 5:16-21</a>. But the progression is a jagged graph. There have been points at which he does recognize that the sufferings are directly due to Judah’s sins, he increasingly sees that there is a future hope and the God of judgment is also a God of grace. And he vaguely implies that repentance is needed, but always quickly returns to accusing God of unreasonable behaviour; and as noted on <a href='B:310 3:40-42'>Lam 3:40-42</a>, the appeals for repentance are very qualified and still accuse God of injustice. But now in these verses he does speak clearly of the need for repentance, without excuses, justification, reservation or qualification. The path of Jeremiah was intended by God and himself to be that of Israel; for he had so intensely identified with them throughout the Lamentations.</p><p>It was because of this that"the crown"had fallen and the royal family had been ended (s:w. <a href='B:300 13:18'>Jer 13:18</a>; <a href='B:330 21:26'>Eze 21:26</a>). This may appear obvious to us, but in depression and focus upon the immediate tragedy, it was not so obvious to Jeremiah. But now he grasps it.</p><p>&nbsp;Throughout the book of Jeremiah, and often in Ezekiel, I have made the point that so much hinged upon whether Judah repented after Jerusalem fell. If they did, then the new covenant would have been accepted by them, and the promises of the restored Kingdom would have come true. They generally did not repent, but it was Jeremiah’s heartfelt desire that they did, following his own example. And so he wished them to identify with his feelings of anger with God, his struggle with God, his confusion... and thereby to be led to this conclusion of the matter in repentance and desperate appeal for restoration. But it seems Judah got caught up in the early stages of grief, never moved on from them, and failed to follow through to this confession of sin and appeal for restoration which we have in Lamentations 5. The last verse of the book (<a href='B:310 5:22'>Lam 5:22</a>) appears starkly out of context with the immediately preceding verses, with their appeal for restoration and confession of sin:"But You have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us". I suggest this is purposeful, because this is as it were Judah’s response to the book and the appeal to repent and appeal for restoration. They remained caught up in their grief and refused to repent and return to God because they considered He had removed Himself too far from them. And so the great prophetic potentials for a repentant Judah, described in such detail in the book of Jeremiah, didn’t then come about; although the prophecies are reapplied and rescheduled to fulfilment in the last days.</p>


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<p>For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim- The stress is upon"for this"- their sins (:16). Jeremiah’s faint heart (<a href='B:310 1:13'>Lam 1:13</a> s:w:) wasour heart; his sudden realization of sinfulness and repentance was to be a pattern for them. It was because of their sin that dimness had come upon them, and they could not see their way; specifically because they had not given glory to Yahweh in repentance (<a href='B:300 13:16'>Jer 13:16</a> cp. <a href='B:60 7:19'>Jos 7:19</a>). And therefore repentance would give glory to Yahweh, and lift the dimness upon their hearts and eyes.</p>


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<p>for the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: the foxes walk on it- Now he recognizes that the tragic desolation of Zion, with unclean animals wandering around it, was not so much due to God nor the Babylonians, as Jeremiah has previously lamented; but was essentially due to their sins (:16). The sanctuary would be"desolate"because of their sins (s:w. <a href='B:30 26:31'>Lev 26:31</a>). And after a period of desolation there would be repentance and restoration (<a href='B:30 26:35'>Lev 26:35</a>; <a href='B:30 26:43'>Lev 26:43</a> s:w:). And so- ’let us repent right now if we want to see that restoration’. That was the glaringly obvious conclusion, and now Jeremiah grasps it. The unclean foxes wandered upon Zion because her prophets had been as foxes (s:w. <a href='B:330 13:4'>Eze 13:4</a>).</p>


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<p>You, Yahweh, remain forever; Your throne is from generation to generation- If God’s rulership would be"forever", then He must rule or be king over someone. He must therefore always have a people; and so Jeremiah reasons that God should not forsake His people"forever". See on :20. Solomon had imagined that Yahweh would"remain forever"in the temple (s:w. <a href='B:110 8:13'>1Ki 8:13</a>). The temple was now in ruins, and so Jeremiah was driven to the conclusion that because Yahweh Himself would"remain forever", therefore He must indwell not a sacred space, but a group of people in whom He would dwell by His Spirit. And so He asks God in :20,21 not to delay, but to revive that people spiritually so that He might dwell in them. God’s eternity was therefore of itself an implication that He would revive Zion (<a href='B:230 102:12-13'>Psa 102:12-13</a>). Zion, however it might be redefined, would"remain forever"as God Himself would (<a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). Jeremiah himself had taught earlier that if Zion repented, then like her God, her people would"remain forever"(<a href='B:300 17:25'>Jer 17:25</a>; <a href='B:300 25:5'>Jer 25:5</a>, also <a href='B:330 37:25'>Eze 37:25</a>). But this remaining forever was related to entering the new covenant, and that required repentance; and it required an acceptance of a Messianic seed of David, whose throne like Yahweh’s would be from generation to generation (<a href='B:230 89:4'>Psa 89:4</a> s:w:).</p>


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<p>Why do You forget us forever, and forsake us so long time?- As explained on :19, this is more of a rhetorical question. Because Yahweh was to remain forever, and forever have a people; therefore He would not forget and forsake His people forever. The period between the fall of Jerusalem and this lamentation was hardly a"long time". Perhaps that was how Jeremiah felt, as every moment of desolation appeared to drag eternally. Jeremiah was urging God not to forsake and forget the people, but to take the initiative in spiritually reviving them (:21). Yet perhaps Jeremiah was inspired to use this term"so long time"because his words and feelings here were to be the template and prototype for Judah’s final repentance, whenever that would be, perhaps a"long time"in the future.</p>


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<p>Turn us to Yourself, Yahweh, and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old- This is the climax of the Lamentations. The appeal is not just for Judah to repent as Jeremiah, their representative, had done. Recognizing how critical is repentance in the return and restoration, it is asking God to take the initiative and give the people repentance. There is again the play on the word shub; returning / repenting would be the basis for God’s returning and restoring of His people. The new covenant involved an offer of God’s direct working upon the heart of His people, turning them so that they repented (see on <a href='B:300 31:19'>Jer 31:19</a>). Repentance itself [not just forgiveness] is therefore a gift (<a href='B:510 3:26'>Act 3:26</a>; <a href='B:510 11:18'>Act 11:18</a>)- to those who want it, or for those who have the likes of Jeremiah praying for them to receive it. And those who accept the new covenant today experience this same gift of the Spirit. And now Jeremiah begs for this gift of the new covenant to be given to his people, so that the restoration of the kingdom as in the"days of old"can begin."Renew"is also translated ’rebuild’, and is used of the rebuilding at the restoration (s:w. <a href='B:290 61:4'>Isa 61:4</a>).</p>


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<p>But You have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us- This could be read as by the LXX in the past tense:"For thou hast indeed rejected us; thou hast been very wroth against us", as if it is yet another statement that God’s judgments of them were just. But as explained on :16, it may be an intended juxtaposition with the preceding impassioned statement of repentance and begging for restoration; and the point would be that because they did not repent, God’s rejection of them continued. Jeremiah’s prophecies of gracious restoration were known by the exiles; but many passages in Isaiah, the Psalms (e.g. <a href='B:230 137:7-9'>Psa 137:7-9</a>) and Lamentations indicate that the exiles had little conviction they would be fulfilled, considering Judah as “utterly rejected” by God, and just getting on with their lives in Babylon without any real hope in God’s salvation. Considering the prosperity of their lives there, this was an all too convenient conclusion for them to draw. Once again we see that false interpretation of Scripture invariably has a moral subtext to it. And the belief that God is so angry with our sins that we have no real chance of revival... is attractive because it enables us to remain in our status quo, no matter how miserable it is. The conservatism of human nature makes this sadly so attractive to many people, as it was to Judah.</p>


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<p>Now it happened- The intention may be to connect with the previous prophecy, Jeremiah, which had concluded with Jeremiah sending a message to the captives urging them to accept their situation and not expect an immediate return from exile (<a href='B:300 51:59'>Jer 51:59</a> cp. <a href='B:300 29:1-32'>Jer 29:1-32</a>). Ezekiel was therefore encouraging the exiles that despite no immediate restoration, they could be sure of a huge activity of God for them which would bring about the restoration in due course.</p><p>In the thirtieth year in the fourth month in the fifth of the month- This could refer to Ezekiel as a priest starting ministry at age 30 (:3). He was the priest of the"little sanctuary"in exile (<a href='B:330 11:16'>Eze 11:16</a>), a sanctuary that didn’t require a temple.</p><p>As I was among the captives by the river Chebar- The mention of the river was to connect with the description sitting by the rivers of Babylon weeping in depression (<a href='B:230 137:1'>Psa 137:1</a>).</p><p>That the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God- Ezekiel’s opening vision of the cherubim was surely to encourage the captives in Babylon that above them was an awesome Angelic system, that was able to carry them with it back to the land- if they were workers together with God. Although it seemed that they were sitting still, nothing was happening, they were just passing time by the rivers of Babylon, above them there was an intensely active system of Angels working for their good. Asaph, writing Psalms in the captivity, perceived this when [surely referring to Ezekiel’s recent vision] he speaks of how the God who dwells between the cherubim is in fact actively leading Judah somewhere (<a href='B:230 80:1'>Psa 80:1</a>). And yet the common phrase “Lord of Hosts” / Angels never once occurs in Ezekiel or Daniel. This outstanding omission is surely reflective of the sad fact that the Angel-cherubim withdrew from the land during the captivity- the land where the Angelic eyes of the Lord had run to and fro previously. See on:20.</p>


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<p>In the fifth of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity- At this time a year before, the false prophets of Judah were prophesying the overthrow of Babylon and the return of Jeconiah within two years (<a href='B:300 28:3'>Jer 28:3</a>). Ezekiel’s message was intended to help them reject these fanciful ideas of immediate salvation and to demonstrate that the things of God’s glory are far weightier and eternal than that.</p>


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<p>The word of Yahweh came specifically to Ezekiel the priest the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of Yahweh was there on him- As noted on :1, he became a priest at 30 and was intended to be the priest of the"little sanctuary"in exile (<a href='B:330 11:16'>Eze 11:16</a>).</p>


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<p>I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out ofthe north, a great cloud, with flashing lightning and a brightness around it; and out of its midst as it were glowing metal out of the midst of the fire- The primary potential fulfilment of Ezekiel to is in the restoration from Babylon. The great emphasis on the Angel-cherubim shows the importance of the Angels in it. The Cherubim of chapter 1"came out of the north"."The North"in the prophets often refers to"the north country"of Babylon. Is the whole vision primarily describing the Angels coming from Babylon, with the wheels"upon the earth"(:15) representing natural Israel under Angelic control? Thus"when the living creatures (Angels) went, the wheels went by them"(:19), due to the Angelic inspiration of the Jews and their touching the hearts of men like Cyrus, Ezra and Nehemiah"according to the good hand (Angel) of... God upon"them;"the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels"(:20). Remember that the Angels are the vehicles of God’s Spirit. The visions of the glory progressively removing from the temple show the Angel departing from Jerusalem, and then in chapters 40-48 the glory Angel returns to a re-built Jerusalem. Recall how the Angel in Exodus 33, 34 is also described as the"glory". The idea is that as the depressed captives sat by the rivers of Babylon in"the north", they were to be aware that a huge, powerful, glorious system of Divine operation was hanging over them. If they identified with it, then this would ultimately return them to Zion.</p><p>And yet the cherubim vision also spoke of an invasion from Babylon unless there was repentance amongst the exiles and those still in the land. Ezekiel was taken captive in the second wave of deportations; but the temple had still not been sacked nor Jerusalem taken. Hence the cherubim vision had a double application. It could speak of a further invasion from the north, or of the return of the exiles. All alike would work out God’s glory.</p>


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<p>Out of its midst came the likeness of four living creatures. This was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man- The overall silhouette upon them was of a man. The cherubim were the heavenly representation of men, both the exiles and also perhaps the invading Babylonian armies. So there was something human about all this majesty of God’s glory. His care for man is paramount to His glory and personality. Ultimately this came to full term in His glorious manifestation in the face of Jesus Christ (<a href='B:540 4:6'>2Co 4:6</a>).</p><p>Ezekiel was prophesying against the background of the Assyrians and Babylonians. Their sculptures reveal winged bulls and lions with human heads. The cherubim alluded to them in that one aspect of meaning is that they could represent the invaders from the north which God would bring upon His people. But the"living creatures"were alive, not dead like the Babylonian ones. They were not quadrupeds, like the Assyrian and Babylonian forms. They were more human, and stood erect, having feet and hands as men have.</p>


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<p>Each one had four faces, and each one of them had four wings- 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.</p>


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<p>Their feet were straight feet- The return of the exiles led by Ezra made the journey by a"right way"from Babylon to Zion (<a href='B:150 8:21'>Ezr 8:21</a>). Yet this is the very word used about the"straight"feet of the Cherubim Angels here (also :23). The return from Babylon involved following in the path of the Angels, walking in step with them. The restoration prophecy of <a href='B:300 31:9'>Jer 31:9</a> spoke of how the returnees would walk"in a straight way"(s:w:)"by the rivers of waters"- and surely Ezra consciously alluded to this when by the river Ahava he fasted for the exiles to return in a"right / straight way". He knew that these prophecies of restoration would not just automatically come true- they had to be fulfilled by much prayer, fasting and stepping out in faith. But so very few perceived that. And the challenge remains for us today- to walk in the way which God’s Angels have potentially prepared for us, with prayer and boldness. I feel this is especially true in the matter of latter day witnessing. <a href='B:730 14:6'>Rev 14:6</a> describes the great latter fulfilment of the great preaching commission in terms of an Angel flying in Heaven with the Gospel of the Kingdom to be preached to all nations and languages. Surely the implication is that the latter day preachers of the Gospel are walking on earth in league with an Angelic system above them, empowering and enabling them.</p><p>And the soles of their feet were like the soles of a calf’s feet; and they gleamed like burnished brass- If the cherubim speak also of God’s people, as well as the Angelic hosts and the hosts of Babylon, then perhaps the message was simply that God was awesomely involved- as awesome as the cherubim vision- with His people on earth. The same Angelic system that brought the hosts of Babylon upon Judah also went with Judah into captivity, and would return from there with them- if they still wished to be part of that Angelic system. And yet most of Judah opted out of it, and remained in Babylon, just as we can opt out and remain in Babylon today. In this context it’s interesting that the vision of Jesus as the Son of Man in Revelation 1 has similarities with the cherubim vision of Ezekiel 1 (feet like brass, <a href='B:330 1:7'>Eze 1:7</a> = Rev 115; shining face, <a href='B:330 1:13'>Eze 1:13</a> = <a href='B:730 1:16'>Rev 1:16</a>; voice like many waters, <a href='B:330 1:24'>Eze 1:24</a>= <a href='B:730 1:15'>Rev 1:15</a>). Perhaps this suggests that Israel’s failure to identify with the cherubim led to a refulfilment of the prophecy in the person of the Lord Jesus, who was in person all that God intended Israel to have been. Thus the prophecies of Israel as"the servant of Yahweh", given in the context of the restoration, could have been fulfilled in the people of Israel, but were reapplied and fulfilled in the person of the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p>They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and the four of them had their faces and their wings like this- See on :10. As noted on :5 and :6, one theme of the visions of glory was God’s humanity and how the function and direction of the huge system of Divine activity is influenced by and in a sense dependent upon man. This is why Ezekiel sees the hands of a woman under the wings on every side of them. This presence of human hands is so emphasized; each of them, on all four sides, had this image of human hands as it were supporting them. Because God’s work is responsive to human freewill, God is in a sense"in need of man", as Abraham Heschel put it.</p>


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<p>Their wings were joined one to another; they didn’t turn when they went; each one went straight forward- This is an intentional paradox; wings can hardly be joined to each other if they are used for flying. But this is the paradox and contradiction, as viewed from earth, of God’s glorious progress and activity for His people. The whole system would not be diverted- that is twice emphasized in saying that they didn’t turn, but went straight forward. See on :7. An alternative is to understand that they each moved with two wings upward and two always down (:11,24), and it was the two upward wings which touched each other and therefore appeared to be"joined". The word speaks of joining in fellowship. This huge system was united, for the ultimate good of God’s people and to restore Zion. Hence Jerusalem would be built as a city compacted or"joined"together (<a href='B:230 122:3'>Psa 122:3</a> s:w:).</p>


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<p>As for the likeness of their faces, they each had the face of a man; and the face of a lion on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; the four of them also had the face of an eagle- 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, eagle in <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 t 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.</p>


text:
<p>Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above; two wings of each one touched another, and two covered their bodies- See on :9. Heb. ’were parted from above’. The impression is of unity in diversity. What appeared to the exiles to be contradictory was in fact working together in unity towards God’s purpose.</p>


text:
<p>Each one went straight forward- Literally, ’in front of their faces’. Their faces were set and they didn’t flinch. The same idea was to be applied to Ezekiel in <a href='B:330 3:9'>Eze 3:9</a>. He was to identify with God’s way and the cherubim, and would be strengthened to follow in the one way if that was what he chose.</p><p>Where the spirit was to go, they went; they didn’t turn when they went- 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>


text:
<p>As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches. The fire went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning- See on :7. The visual impression was of perpetual, churning activity and the cycling of power. This was a necessary encouragement for the exiles sitting in depression by the rivers of Babylon. God had not forgotten. His apparent silence only masked a hugely active and powerful system of operation.</p>


text:
<p>The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning- Perhaps the idea was that they ran and returned between Jerusalem and the exiles’ camp in Babylon. The return from exile could be achieved in a flash, and likewise the Jews still in Judah could be taken to Babylon in a flash.</p>


text:
<p>Now as I saw the living creatures, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four faces of it- 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.</p>


text:
<p>The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl: and the four of them had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel- The wheels imply they were chariots, or mounted on chariots; indeed this is a root meaning of the Hebrew word translated"cherub". Zechariah sees the same Angel chariots emerging from between two bronze mountains (<a href='B:450 1:7-11'>Zec 1:7-11</a>), perhaps designed to recall the bronze pillars of the temple (Ki 7:15-22). The rebuilt temple was intended to be the point from which the Angel chariots would go forth; but that didn’t happen at the very limited restoration from Babylon, and so the first four seals of Revelation 6 are full of allusion to this Zechariah vision- it was not left unfulfilled because of Israel’s indolence, but rather was reapplied to the latter day events of which Revelation speaks.</p><p>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. 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 above, the final manifestation of God’s glory, Spirit, judgment and salvation was to be in the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<p>When they went, they went in their four directions. They didn’t turn when 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":15), 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>


text:
<p>As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and the four of them had their rims full of eyes all around- See on :10. The abundance of eyes gave the impression of God’s awareness and intense gaze upon His people. The captives were tempted to think that God was no longer looking at them, unaware of their struggles, their losses, their history. But the vision impressed upon them that He was intensely aware. Likewise the same idea of many eyes is used to encourage the exiles to the same effect in <a href='B:450 3:9'>Zec 3:9</a>; <a href='B:450 4:10'>Zec 4:10</a>. And again, as noted on :16, Zechariah’s stone full of eyes looked forward to the Lord Jesus, the Messiah figure who was to be the quintessence and personalization of all this Spirit, power and glory.</p>


text:
<p>When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up- The wheels would speak of God’s active engagement with things upon the earth. And there were times when the whole chariot was lifted up above the earth.</p>


text:
<p>Wherever the spirit was to go, they went under the spirit’s control- The wheels, it appears, represented God’s people Israel on earth. If they had kept in step with the Spirit-Angel, following Him both to Babylon and back to Judah at His bidding, they would have been in step with God’s plan for them, and all would have prospered. This passage appears to be behind Paul’s appeal to us to walk in step with the Spirit (<a href='B:550 5:25'>Gal 5:25</a>). Ezekiel himself was the great example of this, for he was “lifted up” by the Spirit just as the wheels were lifted up, and went wherever he was taken, backwards and forwards between Babylon and Judah (<a href='B:330 8:3'>Eze 8:3</a>; <a href='B:330 11:1'>Eze 11:1</a>). He became part of the Cherubic system. See on <a href='B:330 10:2'>Eze 10:2</a>; <a href='B:330 10:8'>Eze 10:8</a>.</p><p>And the wheels were lifted up beside them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels- The spirit of the living creatures in the Heavens was the same spirit in the wheels, God’s people who operationalize God’s will here on earth:&nbsp; That vision was then immediately demonstrated in practice when the Spirit of God entered into Ezekiel and he was sent to preach; just as the Spirit of the living creatures had been in the wheels, and they were sent to and fro in the earth (<a href='B:330 2:2'>Eze 2:2</a>). And thus Ezekiel sees the hand of a man coming to him, just as he had seen it associated with the cherubim in the vision (<a href='B:330 1:8'>Eze 1:8</a> = <a href='B:330 2:9'>Eze 2:9</a>). And surely Ezekiel is addressed as “son of man” in this context because the living creatures have the “likeness of a man” (<a href='B:330 1:5'>Eze 1:5</a>); Ezekiel, God’s man on earth, alone and separate from his brethren, was merged with the huge Heavenly system above him, because God’s Spirit was in him, and he was willing to do God’s will. Just as the cherub “stretched forth his hand” to direct another Angel, so God’s hand was stretched forth [s:w:] upon Ezekiel and he likewise was sent to do God’s will (<a href='B:330 2:9'>Eze 2:9</a>; <a href='B:330 8:3'>Eze 8:3</a>; <a href='B:330 10:7'>Eze 10:7</a>). Knowing that we are part of this huge Heavenly system of working, identified with the Angels and the very cherubim of glory above, can eclipse to a large extent our human feelings of loneliness.</p><p>The LXX gives"spirit of life". As will be explained in Ezekiel 20 and also was explicit in Jeremiah 31, the returning exiles were offered a new covenant which involved being enlivened with a new spirit, the Spirit which was to bring the dry bones of scattered Judah back to life and restoration to the land in Ezekiel 37. This was taught here right at the beginning of Ezekiel’s vision. See on :21.</p>


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<p>When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels- Later, <a href='B:330 37:14'>Eze 37:14</a> alludes directly back to this vision of the Angel-cherubim’s spirit being placed in the"wheels"of natural Israel:"I (the Angel) shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall live". The cherubim therefore can be interpreted in different ways. This was the Angelic system working with and for Israel, and repentant Judah were bidden become part of it.</p>


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<p>Over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like an awesome crystal to look on, stretched forth over their heads above- Continually we encounter the word and idea of"likeness". Ezekiel is seeing a vision of God’s operations with His people, and we are unwise to try to attach meaning to every detail. The overall impression is of hugely powerful and active operation of God through His Spirit. The"expanse"seems to be a kind of crystal platform for God Himself who presided over the workings of this great system.</p>


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<p>Under the expanse were their wings straight, the one toward the other: each one had two which covered their bodies on this side, and each one had two which covered their bodies on that side- For"straight"see on :7. The cherubim are not so much pictured as supporting God but covering themselves in bowed reverence beneath Him.</p>


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<p>When they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a noise of tumult like the noise of an army. When they stood, they let down their wings- See on :7. This great army was the Lord of hosts, of armies, of Angels. The cherubim also speak of God’s people. The noise is that of the LXX in <a href='B:330 3:12'>Eze 3:12</a>, which has"the voice as of a great earthquake". Later, Ezekiel hears the"noise"of"shaking"or earthquake as the bones of Israel in exile come together by the spirit / Angelic operation of Yahweh, thereby forming a great army (<a href='B:330 37:7'>Eze 37:7</a>). The Spirit came from four places (<a href='B:330 37:9'>Eze 37:9</a>)- just as there were four cherubim. As the sound of the cherubim was as of a great army, so revived Israel stood up as a great army (<a href='B:330 37:10'>Eze 37:10</a>):The Angel cherubim would work with God’s disillusioned and broken people, to revive them, so that they would become like the guardian Angels of Israel above them. The point was that the Angel cherubim system which Ezekiel had seen at work amongst the captives was able to gather them together, and give life to the nation. And yet that didn’t happen to those exiles- because they didn’t walk in step with the spirit.</p>


text:
<p>There was a voice above the expanse that was over their heads when they stood and let down their wings- It was God’s word which was paramount, and even more powerful than this huge system of Angelic power. And it was that word which Ezekiel was to speak to Israel.</p>


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<p>Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and on the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man on it above- The repeated sense of"likeness"is because here we have an impression of God Himself. We are made in God’s image; not mentally, because we need to develop that image within us. Therefore it seems that we are somehow in His literal image. Whatever word we use about God- corporeal, material, tangible etc:- seems somehow inappropriate. But the fact is that God is real, He exists in an actual personal form, we pray to Him as children in His image, and we can form personal relationship with Him. He is not a puff of smoke out in the cosmos, nor a mere abstraction, but a personal being who had a begotten Son.</p>


text:
<p>I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance of fire within it all around, from the appearance of his waist and upward. From the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him- The idea is of the maximum heat known to people at that time- metal which was molten. The Babylonian worship of fire and the gods of fire was being deconstructed; Israel’s God was the ultimate fire greater than all others. And yet that intense heat was ameliorated by the grace and promise of the rainbow that appeared silhouetted over it (:28).</p>


text:
<p>As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke- When Paul writes of our being transformed into “the image of Christ” (<a href='B:520 8:29'>Rom 8:29</a>; <a href='B:530 15:49'>1Co 15:49</a>) he seems to have in mind <a href='B:330 1:28'>Eze 1:28</a> LXX: “The appearance of the image of the glory of the Lord”. “The glory” in Ezekiel is personified-&nbsp; it refers to a person, and I submit that person was a prophetic image of Jesus Christ. But Paul’s big point is that we each with unveiled face have beheld the Lord’s glory (<a href='B:540 3:16'>2Co 3:16</a> to <a href='B:540 4:6'>2Co 4:6</a>); just as he did on the Damascus road, and just as Ezekiel did. It follows, therefore, that not only is Paul our example, but our beholding of the Lord’s glory propels us on our personal commission in the Lord’s service, whatever it may be.</p>


text:
<p>He said to me, son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you- We have just read of the cherubim sounding like a great army, and have noted on <a href='B:330 1:20-21'>Eze 1:20-21</a> some connections with the prophecy of Ezekiel 37, of a great army of Israel who were to stand upon their feet once the Spirit had revived them in captivity. Ezekiel perhaps represents the faithful remnant; he is asked to stand upon his feet, and yet in :2 it is the Spirit which stands him upon his feet. His willingness to be obedient was confirmed by the direct action of the Spirit, just as happens today. See on <a href='B:330 3:2'>Eze 3:2</a>.</p>


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<p>The spirit entered into me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me- see on <a href='B:330 1:20'>Eze 1:20</a>; <a href='B:330 2:1'>Eze 2:1</a>. Ezekiel represents the remnant of the captives who were intended to be filled with the Spirit and stand upon their feet as a great army (<a href='B:330 37:10'>Eze 37:10</a>).</p>


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<p>He said to me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against Me. They and their fathers have transgressed against Me even to this very day- In Ezekiel 18, the captives seem to reason that they are unjustly suffering because of their fathers’ sins. But here it is made clear that they were sinning themselves"to this very day". Most of Israel and Judah didn’t want to leave the lands of their exile and return to the land of Judah. They were rebellious against all God’s gracious plans for them, just as Israel had ’rebelled’ by refusing to enter the land of promise in <a href='B:40 14:9'>Num 14:9</a>&nbsp; (s:w:). Jehoiakim had ’rebelled’ against the king of Babylon, resulting in the earlier Babylonian invasion; and finally Zedekiah also rebelled, leading to the taking of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple (<a href='B:120 24:1'>2Ki 24:1</a>; <a href='B:120 24:20'>2Ki 24:20</a>; <a href='B:140 36:13'>2Ch 36:13</a>; <a href='B:330 17:15'>Eze 17:15</a> s:w:). Judah are portrayed as most miserable; in rebellion against Yahweh, and also against the king of Babylon. They were unhappy, rebels without a cause; just as are those today who will not totally surrender to God. God’s plan at the restoration was to purge out the rebels and save the remnant (<a href='B:330 20:38'>Eze 20:38</a> s:w:), and Ezekiel was to play a part in this.</p>


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<p>The children are impudent and stiff-hearted. I am sending you to them; and you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh’- It was a tough ministry- to be sent to people who he was told from the beginning would not be responsive. Ministry work is easy enough when crowds are responding, but not when we know from the start we are working with hard hearts- because the God who alone knows the hearts has told us that they are stuff hearted.</p>


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<p>They, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear (for they are a rebellious house), will at least know that there has been a prophet among them- As noted on :4, it’s a hard ministry to keep witnessing to people whom God has revealed as hard hearted. We might think that they would only realize Ezekiel was a prophet when his predictions began to come true. And yet the return from exile was decades future. So they"knew"that he was a prophet in their consciences. Even those who reject the word and seem hard hearted to it- still have a conscience. And their aggression to us is often exactly because in their conscience, they know the truth of the word preached to them.</p>


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<p>You, son of man, don’t be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you do dwell among scorpions- There was active opposition to Ezekiel’s witness to the exiles- they persecuted him as with"briars and thorns", behaving as scorpions to him. See on <a href='B:330 3:25'>Eze 3:25</a>. His face had to be hardened against their faces (<a href='B:330 3:8'>Eze 3:8</a>). This was in the very early days of the exile. Jewish tradition has it that Ezekiel was murdered at the command of senior Jews in Babylon (See The Lives And Deaths Of The Prophetsin J:H. Charlesworth, ed:, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (Cambridge: C:U:P:, 1985). The same book claims that Isaiah was sawn in two by Manasseh, and Jeremiah was stoned to death by the Jews). By the time of Isaiah 66, we see that even well after the restoration had happened, there was still major persecution of the faithful remnant and their prophets.</p><p>Don’t be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house- 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>; <a href='B:300 15:20'>Jer 15:20</a>; <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.</p><p>The allusion is to <a href='B:50 1:17'>Deu 1:17</a>, where the judges of Israel were not to be afraid at the looks or faces (s:w:) of men,"because the judgment is God’s".</p>


text:
<p>You shall speak My words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse to hear; for they are most rebellious- Sharing God’s word should be done whether or not there is response. Ezekiel was obviously tempted not to speak God’s words to them because they weren’t listening, but still he is encouraged to continue. This is a timeless principle for all ministry.</p>


text:
<p>But you, son of man, hear what I tell you; don’t be rebellious like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which I give you- By refusing to preach to the rebellious, Ezekiel himself would become like them-"rebellious". We have here a parade example of a sin of omission. It is such sins which are likely our problem rather than cold blooded sins of commission. For how many times have we not shared God’s word when we ought to have done, fearing how people might look at us (:6). But the sin of omission particularly in view here would have been refusing to eat the scroll- refusing to take God’s word for others deeply and personally within ourselves.</p>


text:
<p>When I looked, behold, a hand was put forth to me; and behold, a scroll of a book was therein- Whether Ezekiel read the words and then later repeated them is unlikely, because the opening rubric for the visions implies he had God’s word coming to him, and then spoke it out. The hand was perhaps"put forth"from the cherubim vision. That enormous Spirit activity was in response to God’s word, which Ezekiel was to now preach.</p>


text:
<p>He spread it before me. It was written within and without; and there were written therein lamentations and mourning and woe- These were the woes to come still upon Jerusalem. Remember Ezekiel went into captivity with the second batch of exiles, and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was yet to come. The purpose of sharing this"woe"with the captives in Babylon and perhaps also the Jews left in the land was surely so that they might repent. Just as Jonah announced Nineveh’s coming doom in orty days’ time... with no mention of repentance. But the very existence of the prophecy elicited repentance, and so the judgment didn’t come.</p>


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<p>He said to me, Son of man, eat that which you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel- Eating the scroll spoke of the need at the beginning of his ministry to absorb the message personally into himself. Our preaching is not to be a mere forwarding of information to others, a sharing of fact in a mechanical way, a passive invitation to attend church social events. Rather is the reality of judgment to come and the real possibility of participating in the coming restored Kingdom of God to be part of our very core being. Only when we personally identify with it will our personal witness become compelling.</p>


text:
<p>So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat the scroll- Ezekiel was told to eat the scroll (:1), and when he expressed willingness to do so, he was made to eat the scroll- which otherwise, in a literal sense, would have been impossible. We recall how on <a href='B:330 2:1'>Eze 2:1</a> we noted that he was told to stand on his feet, and when willing to do so, the Spirit made him stand on his feet (<a href='B:330 2:2'>Eze 2:2</a>). And this is how God works with us today. See on :11.</p>


text:
<p>He said to me, Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you. Then I ate it; and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth- As explained on :1, Ezekiel like all preachers had to internalize God’s word before preaching it. To eat a literal scroll would have seemed impossible; but he was willing, and so the Spirit - Angel empowered him to do so (:2). What he instinctively imagined to be bitter and impossible to digest- turned out as sweet as honey. But note:"In my mouth". The hope of the message was sweet to him, and to all who would accept it. But the content was"woe"to Jerusalem (<a href='B:330 2:10'>Eze 2:10</a>). That bitter judgment could be turned to sweet honey- for those who chose true spirituality. The same figure is used in <a href='B:730 10:9'>Rev 10:9</a>. There is indeed a silver lining to all suffering caused as a result of Divine judgment. But it’s not immediate; it is the hope of the Kingdom and personal salvation for God’s true people. But the reality was that the word would not be sweet for those judged by it; hence in <a href='B:730 10:9'>Rev 10:9</a> the scroll was sweet as honey in the mouth, but then bitter in his stomach. This may be reflected here by Ezekiel subsequently feeling"bitterness"(:14). Bitterness is the experience of the condemned, and the prophets so identified with their message and audience that like the Lord Jesus, they felt the bitterness of condemnation within themselves, whilst personally being innocent and experiencing the word and purpose of God as sweet as honey.</p>


text:
<p>He said to me, Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak My words to them-"Son of man"is of course the common title for the Lord Jesus, who Ezekiel pointed forward to. But the phrase can simply mean ’a human one’. It was Ezekiel’s humanity which was to be the basis of appeal to the audience, as ours should be likewise.</p>


text:
<p>For you are not sent to a people of a foreign speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel- see on <a href='B:300 23:18'>Jer 23:18</a>; <a href='B:300 23:22'>Jer 23:22</a>. The foreign, hard language is surely that of Assyria and Babylon (<a href='B:290 28:11'>Isa 28:11</a>; <a href='B:290 33:19'>Isa 33:19</a>).</p>


text:
<p>Not to many peoples of a foreign speech and of a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you- The fact Gentiles would have responded in a given situation is often held up as an extra reason for Israel’s condemnation. The God who knows all possible futures sees this more clearly then we do; if he or she or they had been given what we have been, they would have responded far better. See on <a href='B:470 11:21'>Mat 11:21</a>.</p><p>We may well wonder why Ezekiel was sent to the first deportees in Babylon, to announce to them the sins of the Jews still in Judah and the impending destruction of the temple because of their idolatries. Why wasn’t he sent to tell this to the Jews in Judah, so that they might repent? Perhaps the implication was that if the Jews in exile, that first group taken captive, had repented, then their repentance would have been enough to forestall the planned judgment upon those back in Judah. But it didn’t work out like that. The tragedy was, according to <a href='B:330 3:6'>Eze 3:6</a>, that had Ezekiel preached his message in the Babylonian language to the Babylonians, they would’ve repented. In this we have an insight into the pain of God, knowing as He does all possible futures, all potential outcomes. Truly the hardness of heart of the exiles was something amazing. And God likewise looks down upon our lives today, seeing all possibilities, and how unbelievers would respond so much more to Him than His own dear people. It’s the pain of the parent, knowing that other children would respond so much more to their love than their own beloved offspring. The Lord Jesus had something of this when He commented that Tyre and Sidon would’ve repented had they had His message preached to them; but Israel would not (<a href='B:470 11:21'>Mat 11:21</a>). See on <a href='B:330 10:2'>Eze 10:2</a>; <a href='B:330 10:7'>Eze 10:7</a>.</p>


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<p>But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted- God told Ezekiel that Israel would not hear his preaching; and yet Ezekiel repeatedly prefaced his preaching addresses with an appeal to please hear God’s word (<a href='B:330 6:3'>Eze 6:3</a>; <a href='B:330 13:2'>Eze 13:2</a>; <a href='B:330 18:25'>Eze 18:25</a>; <a href='B:330 20:47'>Eze 20:47</a>; <a href='B:330 34:7'>Eze 34:7</a>; <a href='B:330 36:1'>Eze 36:1</a>; <a href='B:330 36:4'>Eze 36:4</a>). He was hoping against hope; his preaching work was asking him to attempt the impossible. To make a nation hear who would not hear. Jeremiah likewise was told that Israel wouldn’t hear him (<a href='B:300 7:27'>Jer 7:27</a>), but still he pleaded with them to hear (<a href='B:300 9:20'>Jer 9:20</a>; <a href='B:300 10:1'>Jer 10:1</a>; <a href='B:300 11:6'>Jer 11:6</a>; <a href='B:300 16:12'>Jer 16:12</a>; <a href='B:300 17:24'>Jer 17:24</a>; <a href='B:300 38:15'>Jer 38:15</a>).</p>


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<p>Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads- The idea is that he was face to face up against the Jews. The hardness of their foreheads was a reflection of how stiff hearted they were, as earlier lamented (:7). The heart effectively means the mind. Ezekiel was to have the Spirit work upon his heart, confirming him in the path and mental positions he had chosen; just as God hadapparently confirmed Judah in their hard mindedness. There is an"evil spirit from the Lord"such as plagued Saul, and also the holy Spirit from Him. He confirms men in the mental path they choose."Hard"is the word translated"obstinate"in :7. They both were confirmed or hardened in the mental attitudes they adopted.</p>


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<p>As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead. Don’t be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house- The hearts of the captives were to be described with the same word,"adamant"(<a href='B:450 7:12'>Zec 7:12</a>). God can harden us in the way of either spirituality or hardness of heart. This psychological strengthening was necessary for Ezekiel as he engaged with Jews hardened by the experience of captivity. The command not to be dismayed is exactly that spoken to Israel as they first entered the promised land (<a href='B:50 1:21'>Deu 1:21</a>; <a href='B:50 31:8'>Deu 31:8</a>; <a href='B:60 1:9'>Jos 1:9</a>; <a href='B:60 8:1'>Jos 8:1</a>; <a href='B:60 10:25'>Jos 10:25</a>). Ezekiel and the repentant remnant could likewise leave Babylon (cp. Egypt) and enter and possess the land, against all apparent obstacles. The same word is used in <a href='B:290 51:7'>Isa 51:7</a>, where the faithful at the time of the captivity are urged not to be dismayed because of opposition from apostate Jews. Jeremiah had been given the same encouragement (<a href='B:300 1:17'>Jer 1:17</a>). Circumstances repeat between the lives of God’s children. We are not alone. No situation is totally unprecedented. This is the value of empathetic Bible reading, as well as of fellowship with others within God’s people; for through them we also realize that we are not alone.</p>


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<p>Moreover He said to me, Son of man, all My words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears- This appeal had been materially symbolized by the eating of the scroll with those words upon it. Ezekiel is several times encouraged not to be a mere purveyor or forwarder of information, but to internalize the message. This is even now what makes for credible, compelling witness.</p>


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<p>Go to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them, and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh;’ whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear- Ezekiel was told to"go to them", he was willing, and was confirmed by the Spirit lifting him up and transporting him there in a moment. We have earlier seen this confirmation by the Spirit of his willingness; see on <a href='B:330 2:2'>Eze 2:2</a>; <a href='B:330 3:1-2'>Eze 3:1-2</a>.</p>


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<p>Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of Yahweh from His place- As noted on :11, this was the Spirit’s confirmation of Ezekiel himself being willing to make the journey and"go". The Angels are involved with the Cherubim. Yet in Ezekiel’s context, the language of chariots inevitably suggests the approach of enemy armies (<a href='B:330 26:10'>Eze 26:10</a>). Thus the cherubim chariots represented not only the Angels, but also the chariots of God’s enemies; for the Lord of the Angelic hosts was manifested on earth in the Babylonian hosts. The word for the"rushing"noise of the cherubim wheels is used elsewhere about the noise of the chariots of Israel’s enemies and the Babylonian invasion (<a href='B:300 10:22'>Jer 10:22</a>; <a href='B:300 47:3'>Jer 47:3</a>; <a href='B:410 3:2'>Nah 3:2</a>). The Angelic armies of Heaven were therefore revealed on earth in the chariots of Babylon; it was both Babylon and the Angelic cherubim behind them who took Judah captive, and who could also return them to their land. Hence the stress in Ezekiel’s vision that the wheels of the cherubim were on the earth / land. Clearly enough, the things that go on in our lives, even those things which appear as brutal and tragic as the Babylonian chariots were to Judah, are not random machinations of men; they are, in some unfathomable way, under the direct control of a God of love, who only means to do us good at our latter end.</p><p>Yet the cherubim also speak of God’s people. The LXX here has"the voice as of a great earthquake". Later, he hears the"noise"of"shaking"or earthquake as the bones of Israel in exile come together by the spirit / Angelic operation of Yahweh (<a href='B:330 37:7'>Eze 37:7</a>). The Spirit came from four places (<a href='B:330 37:9'>Eze 37:9</a>)- just as there were four cherubim. As the sound of the cherubim was as of a great army (<a href='B:330 1:24'>Eze 1:24</a>), so revived Israel stood up as a great army (<a href='B:330 37:10'>Eze 37:10</a>):The Angel cherubim would work with God’s disillusioned and broken people, to revive them, so that they would become like the guardian Angels of Israel above them. The point was that the Angel cherubim system which Ezekiel had seen at work amongst the captives was able to gather them together, and give life to the nation. And yet that didn’t happen to those exiles- because they didn’t walk in step with the spirit.</p>


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<p>I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing- The four Angels or groups of Angels that comprised them had wings which"kissed one another"(A:V. mg. ) and moved with a soft, smooth sound, despite all four being distinct in some ways. Thus the loving co-operation of the Angels in their work is emphasized. See on <a href='B:10 1:26'>Gen 1:26</a>. The wings made a noise, but apparently didn’t turn or move as they"went"(<a href='B:330 1:9'>Eze 1:9</a>). This again is the paradox of God’s working- motion without movement, winged beings moving without moving their wings. And so it seemed to the exiles; the apparent lack of Divine movement was in fact movement. And this likewise explains the apparent silence of God in our human lives.</p>


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<p>So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away- This was in confirmation of his own desire to"go"there in obedience (:11).</p><p>&nbsp;And I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of Yahweh was strong on me- The bitterness is explained on :3. The word of judgment was sweet as honey in Ezekiel’s mouth, but when John ate a similar scroll, it was sweet as honey in his mouth but then bitter in his stomach (<a href='B:730 10:9'>Rev 10:9</a>). This is the bitterness spoken of here. Ezekiel had absorbed the word into himself, so that he felt the bitterness for those who would be judged by it. See on :15.</p>


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<p>Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Abib, by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days- He sat astonished and silent among the captives for seven days when he arrived to them with his message of judgment. The connection with Job’s friends is obvious and intended. Ezekiel, the one whom Israel hated and rejected as they did all the prophets, beating some and killing some, felt their grief and sat with them, deeply sympathizing, just as Job’s friends initially did. The Hebrew translated “astonished” is usually translated “destroyed”, “desolate” or “wasted”. All that had happened to Israel for their sins, Ezekiel felt had happened to him, such was his identification with sinners. Two closely related words occur in <a href='B:330 3:14'>Eze 3:14</a>; <a href='B:330 3:26'>Eze 3:26</a> [marah cp. maree]: “I went in bitterness… they are a rebellious house”. Why was Ezekiel bitter / rebellious of spirit when he went to preach to his people; even though he personally was willing to preach to them? Surely it was because he shared their spirit with them; he so entered into their spirit that he reflected their feelings within himself, even though he was not ultimately rebellious personally as they were. BecauseIsrael’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>).</p>


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<p>It happened at the end of seven days, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying- The seven days of Ezekiel’s silence could be interpreted as disobedience to the command to speak. Hence he needed encouragement. He perhaps feared their looks, perceiving they were men hardened by the traumas of captivity and exile. He was therefore temporarily disobedient, or hesitant to obey, the commands not to fear their looks.</p>


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<p>Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore hear the word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me- As suggested on :16, this can be read as a rebuke of Ezekiel’s seven days silence. If Ezekiel personally was Israel’s watchman, then he is the watchman in view in <a href='B:330 33:2'>Eze 33:2</a>; <a href='B:330 33:6-7'>Eze 33:6-7</a>.</p><p>Ezekiel was prepared for his ministry by being told to eat and absorb the roll containing the words he was to preach. He was then picked up the spirit-wind, and transported to his audience (<a href='B:330 3:12-13'>Eze 3:12-13</a>). The noise of the wind in the wings of the cherubim is elsewhere interpreted as the sound of God’s word (<a href='B:330 10:5'>Eze 10:5</a>). Yet Ezekiel 3 goes on to warn Ezekiel that if he doesn’t preach the word to his audience, their blood will be upon his head (<a href='B:330 3:17-21'>Eze 3:17-21</a>). This warning was given after Ezekiel had been transported to the people but sat silent with them for 7 days (<a href='B:330 3:16'>Eze 3:16</a>). I understand from all this was that God’s intention was that His message was not to be merely parroted out by Ezekiel, but that it was to be fundamentally part of him; and the message of God’s word, symbolized by the awesome wind-spirit generated by the movement of the cherubim’s wings, was to propel him forward to make his witness to hard faced men and women. This is the ideal. And yet Ezekiel even when he failed to live to up it, was still propelled forward in the mission. And many a missionary knows the truth of this. I take the way that Ezekiel was told to go preach to the captives, and yet was then taken up and transported there, to suggest a reluctance on his part. Perhaps being struck dumb until the fulfilment of the prophecies (<a href='B:330 3:26'>Eze 3:26</a>; <a href='B:330 24:27'>Eze 24:27</a>) suggests this was a punishment of Ezekiel for a lack of faith- for this is exactly the judgment upon Zacharias for faithlessness (<a href='B:490 1:20'>Luk 1:20</a>).</p><p>Many times we read of how those who hold God’s word are to shine it out to others. The Old Testament tends to use&nbsp;a Hebrew&nbsp;word translated"warn"in speaking of how prophets like Ezekiel were to warn-out, or shine out, God’s word to others (<a href='B:330 3:17-18'>Eze 3:17-18</a> etc:). Yet the same word occurs in <a href='B:340 12:3'>Dan 12:3</a> about how the preachers of God’s word will"shine"eternally in His Kingdom. The connection is clear- how we shine forth God’s word now, is how we will eternally shine it forth. Thus in the practice of preaching today, we are working out who and how we shall eternally be. The very concept of preaching is therefore partly designed by God for our benefit, to develop us into the persons we shall eternally be, by His grace. When we read that God will ’require the blood’ of those to whom we fail to preach His word (<a href='B:330 3:18'>Eze 3:18</a>), we may here have another referenceto a ’going through’ of our deeds at the day of judgment. There, perhaps,&nbsp;we will have to give an account, an explanation, of why our neighbours and workfellows lie eternally dead- because we were too shy, too weakly convinced of the eternal realities we knew, to tell them. For the Hebrew word translated"require"implies some kind of inquisition / explanation. Here we see the vital importance of witness.</p>


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<p>When I tell the wicked, You shall surely die- The same phrase used in Genesis for the condemnation of Adam. Adam is everyman.</p><p>And you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand- We may reason that if we fail to upbuild a brother, or preach, then God will somehow do it anyway. But this doesn’t seem to be the spirit of <a href='B:330 3:18'>Eze 3:18</a>. We are to appeal to men and women with the message that there is no third road; that it truly is a case of believe or perish. There is no example of apologetics in their preaching, but rather an utter confidence that they were holding out to men the words that gave eternal life. Their words, lives and body language reflected their deep sense of the peril of those outside of Christ. By preaching, they were freed from the blood of men (20:26); evidently alluding to how the watchman must die if he didn’t warn the people of their impending fate. In line with this, “necessity is laid upon me…woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel” (<a href='B:530 9:16'>1Co 9:16</a>). Not talking to folks is perhaps the easiest and commonest sin of omission in our lives.</p>


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<p>Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn’t turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have saved your own life- The"you"in view is primarily Ezekiel, the watchman. By sitting there with the captives, scared of their hard, sceptical looks and saying nothing... Ezekiel was risking his eternal salvation. By warning them, he was saving his life. We note that the captives were in a"wicked way"; and yet in Ezekiel 18 they apparently reasoned that they were innocent and unfairly suffering because of their fathers’ sins."Turn"is the word commonly used for repentance and also for the ’return’ from Babylon to the land. If the captives repented, then the return and restoration would have happened. This was the significance and deep weight of Ezekiel’s ministry.</p>


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<p>Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand- If a person turns to sin, God confirms them in that way by laying a stumbling block before them. We are not to do this; but God can. He confirms us in the way we choose to go. The idea of righteous deeds being remembered struck a chord with Nehemiah, who would have been aware of this prophecy; he asks for his good deeds to be"remembered"(<a href='B:160 13:14'>Neh 13:14</a>; <a href='B:160 13:31'>Neh 13:31</a>). This was not, therefore, a works reliant attitude. Nehemiah was citing Ezekiel’s words. We are saved by grace, the penny a day of the parable which all receive (<a href='B:470 20:2'>Mat 20:2</a>); and yet the nature of our eternity will be a reflection of the works we do in this life. All we do for God will have its eternal moment and significance. Our lives therefore should be devoted to such good works. For we are thereby shaping our eternal experience.</p>


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<p>Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you have saved your own life- The allusion is to Elisha warning (s:w:) the king of Israel, and the king thereby saving his life from the Syrians (<a href='B:120 6:10'>2Ki 6:10</a>). And the leadership of God’s people were again being warned by a prophet, and could save their lives from the potential invasion by Babylon. The sword was coming upon Judah, and Ezekiel as the watchman was warning them, so that they could save their lives and avert the invasion planned by God (<a href='B:330 33:3-9'>Eze 33:3-9</a> s:w:). This was the tragedy of the final Babylonian invasion which destroyed the temple and sacked Jerusalem. It was avoidable, if Ezekiel’s message had been heeded</p>


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<p>The hand of Yahweh was there on me; and He said to me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with you- Just as the Lord Jesus heard God’s word in private and then revealed it to Israel, so with Ezekiel."Plain"here could as well be translated"valley"as it is in <a href='B:330 37:1-2'>Eze 37:1-2</a>."The valley of dry bones"may have been the same valley in view as here.</p>


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<p>Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and behold, the glory of Yahweh stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face- The point to note is that God’s glory was as much in that plain / valley, perhaps in the Jerusalem area, as it was by the Chebar in Babylonia. Stephen was to later point out that"the God of glory"likewise appeared to Abraham when he was outside of the promised land. He was not limited by geography nor nationality. The cherubim of glory are described as the Lord being “there”, and yet they move away to Babylon. Israel were being asked to follow their Angel, as they had followed the Angel in the pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness. But they refused, generally, and therefore the great things the Angels had potentially made possible were not realized. Our following of the Angel is just as real, and just as much a matter of daily freewill choice, as it was for the exiles. See on <a href='B:330 35:10'>Eze 35:10</a>.</p>


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<p>Then the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet- As noted on :22, the"plain"is the same Hebrew word translated"valley"in the valley of dry bones prophecy (<a href='B:330 37:1-2'>Eze 37:1-2</a>). And the connection continues, and that the Spirit enters Ezekiel and he stands on his feet- the very same words used of the dry bones in <a href='B:330 37:10'>Eze 37:10</a>. Ezekiel was representative of what could have happened to all the dry bones of Israel in captivity.</p><p>And He spoke with me, and said to me, Go, shut yourself inside your house- The wonderful vision given was to strengthen him for the pain of the abuse he was about to suffer. They Jews bound him and placed him under house arrest; but before that happened, he himself was to shut himself inside his house, representing how God had for the time being closed His house to the Jews. Psychologically this was also powerful, in that what they wanted to do to Ezekiel he had effectively already done to himself. They bond him with shackles (:25) but then God does this to Ezekiel in <a href='B:330 4:8'>Eze 4:8</a>. God was in control even of their own apparently freely chosen hatred of Ezekiel, and worked through it to further His appeal for repentance.</p>


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<p>But you, son of man, behold, they shall lay shackles on you and shall bind you with them- This suggests Ezekiel was actually tied up by the Jewish captives he prophesied to by the river Chebar; they set their foreheads hard against hearing the prophecies of hope (<a href='B:330 3:9'>Eze 3:9</a>). See on <a href='B:330 2:6'>Eze 2:6</a>. In <a href='B:330 4:8'>Eze 4:8</a> it is God who puts shackles (s:w:) upon Ezekiel so that he lives out an acted parable of captivity. But perhaps this refers to Him working through the angry Jews who bound Ezekiel with these shackles.</p><p>And you shall not go out among them- The same words are used of how Jeremiah had gone out among the people preaching his message, and was then imprisoned (<a href='B:300 37:4'>Jer 37:4</a>). Jeremiah was experiencing this about the same time as Ezekiel. Their lives were in parallel, just as through fellowship with other believers we too learn that we are not alone nor are our experiences as terribly unique and unprecedented as we may feel without that fellowship.</p>


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<p>I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be mute, and unable to reprove them; for they are a rebellious house- This may not have been permanent, because we twice read of Ezekiel’s mouth being opened to prophecy (<a href='B:330 24:27'>Eze 24:27</a>, four years later; and <a href='B:330 29:21'>Eze 29:21</a>). The idea may be that their rejection of him and his message meant that there was no more word from Yahweh to the people. But it could be that he was dumb literally. This would have been a powerful acted parable. They likely would have liked to imagine that being struck dumb was judgment from God as in <a href='B:490 1:22'>Luk 1:22</a>. But the more perceptive would have realized it was in fact God’s silence toward hem, and Ezekiel was a living embodiment of the word he preached. For he had internalized the word preached, represented by eating the scroll of the words, and therefore he was the word made flesh to his audience, as we should be.</p>


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<p>But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: He who hears, let him hear; and he who forbears, let him forbear;’ for they are a rebellious house- These words are quoted by the Lord Jesus when He invites those who have ears to hear, to hear (<a href='B:470 11:15'>Mat 11:15</a>; <a href='B:470 13:9'>Mat 13:9</a>). He was the One whose mouth Yahweh had opened supremely. The LXX&nbsp;"He who is disobedient, let him disobedient"is quoted in <a href='B:730 22:11'>Rev 22:11</a>. Clearly Ezekiel’s preaching to the captives is no mere historical record, but is set up by way of NT allusion as representative of all who hear the Gospel of the restored Kingdom and the call to repent in view of that.</p>


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<p>You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it the city - Jerusalem- Such engraven tiles with cities upon them were common in Babylon. Again we see God working to appeal to people in local terms. And our witness of His word must be likewise. It’s unclear where Ezekiel was imprisoned in Ezekiel 3, with the captives in Babylonia or in Jerusalem. His message in the acted parable which follows is clearly to the effect that Babylon would come a third time against Jerusalem and destroy it (:16). The message of judgment was of course an appeal to"turn"in repentance, for that was the aim of Ezekiel’s witness as Ezekiel 3 has made clear. If this parable was acted out by the Chebar, then there was the possibility that the repentance of those already in captivity could have saved Jerusalem from the threatened destruction. For it was God’s intention that Judah repent and Jerusalem not be destroyed.</p>


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<p>Lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around- Presumably this was done by drawing these things upon the tile. But it was as if by doing so, a siege was actually laid against Jerusalem- so certain was this prophetic word of fulfilment. Presumably Ezekiel was still dumb at this time (<a href='B:330 3:26'>Eze 3:26</a>). Hence the acted parable, the still small voice of lived example which was and is more powerful than the spoken word.</p>


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<p>Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between yourself and the city: and set your face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel- The setting of Ezekiel’s face represented the setting of God’s face against Jerusalem (<a href='B:300 21:10'>Jer 21:10</a>; <a href='B:330 15:7'>Eze 15:7</a>). Jeremiah’s message in Jerusalem was being repeated by Ezekiel to the captives in Babylon. The iron pan speaks of the"northern iron"of Babylon (<a href='B:300 15:12'>Jer 15:12</a>; <a href='B:300 28:13'>Jer 28:13</a> - again we note similarities between Jeremiah and Ezekiel, prophesying at about the same time and delivering the same message, Jeremiah in Judah and Ezekiel to the captives already in Babylon). Later Ezekiel would liken the defences of Jerusalem to a weak"wall"of clay bricks that toppled easily (<a href='B:330 13:12'>Eze 13:12</a>; <a href='B:330 13:14'>Eze 13:14</a>). But Ezekiel represented God, and the iron wall spoke of the barrier between Jerusalem and God through which their desperate prayers would not penetrate. It was a"sign"in that"the house of Israel"were to realize this is how it would be, and repent so it didn’t happen. There is a gap between the Divine pronouncement and its realization, in which we can repent and change that pronouncement. We also live in such a gap, and have repented and changed the verdict of eternal death for us."The house of Israel"is a term used repeatedly in Ezekiel. And yet the captives he was among were apparently from Judah. But it was God’s plan that at the restoration, both the ten tribes and Judah would together repent and return to the land. Perhaps there were also members of the ten tribes in captivity in Babylon, or Ezekiel’s prophecies were to be taken to them, as they were apparently taken to the Jews still in Jerusalem.</p>


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<p>Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; according to the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity- Again we see the"son of man"Ezekiel looking forward to the Lord Jesus, the ultimate bearer of Israel’s sins. Ezekiel was to"lie"on his side, but the Hebrew is often used for sleeping. Whilst sleeping he was to bear their sin and when he awoke from the final sleep, their sin would have been carried; again looking forward to the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Samaria, the capital of the ten tribe kingdom, is described by Ezekiel as being on the left side (<a href='B:330 16:46'>Eze 16:46</a>). To ’bear iniquity’ meant ’to bear the punishment for iniquity’ (<a href='B:20 28:43'>Exo 28:43</a>; <a href='B:40 18:1'>Num 18:1</a> etc:). They were as it were to sleep and then arise at the restoration.</p>


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<p>For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel- Perhaps some restoration could have happened to the ten tribes after 390 years, if the right conditions had been fulfilled by them; although there’s no sign it ever did. &nbsp;See on :6. Perhaps God was willing to accept Ezekiel as the sin bearer for them, whether or not they repented; but they didn’t even accept that. The start of the 390 day-years may have begun some time earlier for Israel, the ten tribes. We note that 390 + 40 gives 430, which was the number of years Israel were in Egypt (<a href='B:20 12:40'>Exo 12:40</a>). The LXX reads 190, not 390. If we take the beginning of Israel’s punishment as the deportations under the reign of Pekah in BC 736, this brings us to BC546. If Judah’s punishment began with the destruction of Jerusalem in BC586, forty years from that comes to the same date, BC546.</p>


text:
<p>Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it to you- Ezekiel was asked to prophecy that Judah would suffer for their sins for 40 years. Perhaps something could’ve happened after 40 years... And then, the starting point of the 70 or 40 years 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. Closer study reveals the variableness of outworking of the time periods. <a href='B:300 25:11-12'>Jer 25:11-12</a> and <a href='B:300 29:10'>Jer 29:10</a> speak of a 70 year period of Babylonian rule over Judah, beginning with the invasion of BC597. But Babylon only ruled over Judah for 49 years, before Babylon fell to the Persians. This would connect with the way that <a href='B:450 4:3'>Zec 4:3</a> speaks of 7 menorah candlesticks each with 7 lamps, making 49 lamps. 49 is the cycle of 7 sabbath years that culminated in the jubilee year, and the jubilee year, the proclamation of liberty to the land (<a href='B:30 25:8-12'>Lev 25:8-12</a>; <a href='B:30 27:7-24'>Lev 27:7-24</a>) is a figure used so often in Isaiah to describe the freedom of Judah once released from Babylon. <a href='B:30 26:34'>Lev 26:34</a>; <a href='B:30 26:43'>Lev 26:43</a> speak of the land enjoying her Sabbaths whilst Israel were in exile for their sins- i:e. for 49 years. So it seems that there could have been some restoration after 49 years- but it didn’t happen. But <a href='B:340 9:2'>Dan 9:2</a> and <a href='B:140 36:21'>2Ch 36:21</a> seem to reinterpret those 70 years of Jeremiah’s prophecies as speaking of a 70 year period during which Jerusalem and the temple would be desolate See on <a href='B:330 6:8'>Eze 6:8</a>.</p>


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<p>You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it- Ezekiel was representing God, whose arm was uncovered in His active judgment of Jerusalem. He was ready for action, and only desperate repentance would change this. But the same phrase"arm uncovered"is found only in <a href='B:290 52:10'>Isa 52:10</a>, which speaks of how God’s arm was uncovered in preparing to destroy the nations abusing Israel through the revelation of Messiah. There is always a silver lining in God’s judgments. The judgment of His people was to presage the destruction of Babylon and the establishment of His restored kingdom in Israel at the restoration, replete with a Messiah figure. But His people precluded this possibility by their disobedience.</p>


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<p>Behold, I lay shackles on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege-"Shackles"is the same word used of how the Jews bound Ezekiel with shackles in <a href='B:330 3:25'>Eze 3:25</a>. Perhaps this refers to Him working through the angry Jews who bound Ezekiel with these shackles. Our apparent limitations are used by God and even placed by Him, even through the hands of evil people; in order that we might be a witness to them and lead them to repentance.</p>


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<p>Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt, and put them in one vessel and make bread of it; according to the number of the days that you shall lie on your side, even three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat of it- The idea was that whilst sleeping in captivity, Israel and Judah would eat only very basic food without meat. But the book of Esther reveals that this isn’t what happened in the longer term; many of Judah ended up prosperous. Again we have here a potential scenario which was precluded by the utter refusal of the Jews generally to repent. See on :16.</p>


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<p>Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time you shall eat it- The way Peter was given a vision and asked to eat what he had previously thought unclean has many similarities with Ezekiel going through a similar experience (<a href='B:330 4:10-14'>Eze 4:10-14</a> cp. <a href='B:510 10:14'>Act 10:14</a>). Peter was intended to have made the connection, which he apparently didn’t do. We too find points of contact between our experiences and those of Biblical characters. This is where familiarity with the basic text of scripture can open up the meaning of our lives to us.</p>


text:
<p>You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time you shall drink- Not much less than a pint of water / day, less than what today would be considered a necessary fluid intake in a hot climate (<a href='B:110 22:27'>1Ki 22:27</a>; <a href='B:290 30:20'>Isa 30:20</a>). Ezekiel was effectively imprisoned at this time, as explained at the end of Ezekiel 3; the idea was that his captors would in turn suffer like this.</p>


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<p>You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man- This suggests a very stark existence without even firewood. But as noted on :9, God punished His people far less than He planned, less their iniquities deserved, as Ezra observed to the captives who returned (<a href='B:150 9:13'>Ezr 9:13</a>). Here we see how God’s statements may not come true because His mercy and pity is stronger than His judgment of sin. But that grace is not automatic, and is given depth and meaning the more we consider the reality of the statements of judgment made in His anger. See on :16; <a href='B:330 5:2'>Eze 5:2</a>.</p>


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<p>Yahweh said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will drive them- They were to be purposefully defiled, made to eat unclean food (<a href='B:350 9:3'>Hos 9:3</a>), driven to realize that they existed as unclean in God’s eyes, their situation precluding perfect obedience to Divine law. And thereby they were to be driven to appreciate His grace. Again, there was purpose and intention behind all God’s judgments for sin.</p>


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<p>Then I said, Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth- The implication might be that given such a lack of meat in the diet, the captives like Ezekiel would be driven to eat unclean meat. We wonder whether Ezekiel was in fact so totally technically obedient; his words recall that of the older brother who claimed total obedience to his father.</p>


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<p>Then He said to me, Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread thereon- This was a concession to Ezekiel, showing how God is open to dialogue with man. However, the use of any dung would still have made the food ritually unclean; so the essential lesson of :13 was still to be learnt.</p>


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<p>Moreover He said to me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and in dismay- The situation acted out by Ezekiel was however to go on many years, not just during the siege of Jerusalem. The idea was that the deprivations of the siege were to continue throughout their captivity. But in wrath God remembered mercy and this didn’t in fact happen; see on :9,12.</p>


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<p>That they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity- This pining away was that of <a href='B:30 26:39'>Lev 26:39</a>, the judgment for breaking covenant. But we must recall that they had just witnessed Ezekiel bearing their iniquity, in the spirit of the Christ. Their pining away, sitting depressed by the rivers of Babylon pining away in their sins, could have been resolved by realizing that Ezekiel had carried the punishment for their iniquity. He really was set up as their representative,"son of man"saviour. But as later with the Lord Jesus, they refused to accept that. Seeon <a href='B:330 5:3'>Eze 5:3</a>.</p>


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<p>You, son of man, take a sharp sword. You shall use it like a barber’s razor on yourself, and shall cause it to pass on your head and on your beard. Then take balances to weigh, and divide the hair- This was presumably to be done during the period Ezekiel was laying bound in Ezekiel 4. Ezekiel represented God, as made clear throughout the acted parable of Ezekiel 4. God like Ezekiel was taking the sword of the Babylonians into His own hand and as it were cutting off His own glory, represented by Ezekiel’s hair (<a href='B:530 11:15'>1Co 11:15</a>). Ezekiel may well have been a Nazirite with long hair. The eating of unclean food would have meant the end of his vow, and the need to shave his hair. The use of balances spoke of God’s judgment of His glory, His hair, His people. They in all their sinfulness, like us, were intended to be His glory. God was not therefore left without personal suffering and loss through the sword He was bringing upon His people.</p>


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<p>A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and you shall take a third part, and strike with the sword around it; and a third part you shall scatter to the wind - and I will draw out a sword after them- We would expect from this that the exiles would be persecuted and slain in captivity, and this surely was God’s intended judgment. But in Esther we find the exiles in prosperity, in positions of power, and respected by their captors; and Jeremiah concludes his long prophecy with the information that Jehoiachin, Judah’s exiled King, was exalted" above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon"and he was given special favour and honour by the King of Babylon (<a href='B:300 52:31-34'>Jer 52:31-34</a>). I can only understand these things as pure grace; see on :9. God showed tenderness and favour to His people in captivity, far above what He had intended or what they deserved; they were punished less than their sins deserved at this time (<a href='B:150 9:13'>Ezr 9:13</a>; see on <a href='B:330 4:12'>Eze 4:12</a>). And He does the same with us- He gives us so much more than we deserve. And yet most of Judah abused that grace; they were so taken up with the good life God gave them in captivity that they chose to remain there and not participate in the restoration. And we so easily can end up abusing His grace likewise</p><p>The judgment of the people of Jerusalem by thirds becomes the basis for some of the visions of Revelation; and it is the same subject in view there, the latter day judgment upon the people of God in their land and city.</p>


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<p>You shall take of it a few in number, and bind them in your skirts- A tiny remnant would survive, but even they would be reduced to a tiny remnant. Only a remnant of a remnant would survive, and these were intended to be the repentant group who would bring about the restored kingdom of God in Israel. But in His grace, God didn’t destroy on such a scale as here envisaged; and no repentant remnant therefore emerged. The"skirts"are s:w."wings"in the cherubim visions (<a href='B:330 1:9'>Eze 1:9</a>; <a href='B:330 1:11'>Eze 1:11</a>; <a href='B:330 1:23'>Eze 1:23</a> etc:). Ezekiel was representing God; he could have been for the salvation of the remnant; see on <a href='B:330 4:17'>Eze 4:17</a>. He was identified with the cherubim, as Judah also could have been. They too could have been transported with ease back to Jerusalem. But instead they imprisoned Ezekiel at the Chebar river.</p>


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<p>Of these again you shall take, and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; from it shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel- Perhaps the idea is that the destruction of the tiny minority of faithful ones by the persecution of the Jews themselves was what would bring the fire of judgment upon all Israel. The latter chapters of Isaiah speak of the persecution of this remnant by the Jews; Jeremiah was imprisoned and almost killed, as was Ezekiel. And Jewish tradition says that both those prophets were finally murdered by the Jews. Jerusalem killed the prophets, as the Lord lamented. The LXX however links this with :5 to imply that it was the burning of the house of Israel which would lead to the fire of judgment spreading from Jerusalem to the surrounding peoples who had participated in it.</p>


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<p>Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the peoples and countries which are around her- Jerusalem ought to have been the spiritual light of the world around her, but she was not. She was the city set on a hill for all to see. But she failed in this, and so the Lord reapplied that idea to every individual believer in Him (<a href='B:470 5:14-15'>Mat 5:14-15</a>).</p>


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<p>She has rebelled against My ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they have not walked in them- The Jews of course insisted that they were compliant with the law and covenant; but God perceived that in essence they were totally disobedient, and instead of being a moral light to the nations (see on :5), they were worse than the nations. The AV implies that Judah"changed"God’s laws into wickedness.</p>


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<p>Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you are rebellious more than the nations that are around you and have not walked in My statutes, neither have kept My ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you- God was disappointed that His people had not only been disobedient to Him, but they had not even been obedient to their conquerors. He so values obedience, and had an attitude that sought to see if they would show it to at least someone, even if they had rejected Him. He analyzes every facet of human life, disobedience and obedience, and this highlights the depth of His grace.</p>


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<p>Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I, even I, am against you; and I will execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations- Jerusalem and the temple was the location"in the midst of you", and the nations would view this in that their mercenaries were all part of the Babylonian army which sacked Jerusalem. But just as all the surrounding nations had been drawn against Zion to destroy it, so at the restoration it was God’s intention that they would be gathered together there again in repentant worship (<a href='B:300 3:17'>Jer 3:17</a>).</p>


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<p>I will do in you that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all your abominations- Again, this threat was ameliorated by God’s grace. For the time of final unprecedented trouble for Jacob is yet future (<a href='B:340 12:1-2'>Dan 12:1-2</a>; <a href='B:590 2:16'>1Th 2:16</a>). It could have come in the Babylonian invasion, but God’s grace didn’t let it happen; see on :2. But the essence will come true, the prophetic word is not falsified by this grace; it will come true in the last days.</p>


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<p>Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of you, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you; and the whole remnant of you will I scatter to all the winds- This again repeats to the exiles in Babylon the words which Jeremiah had told to those in the land (<a href='B:300 19:9'>Jer 19:9</a>). These things did indeed happen (<a href='B:310 2:20'>Lam 2:20</a>; <a href='B:310 4:10'>Lam 4:10</a>), in fulfilment of the curses for breaking the covenant (<a href='B:30 26:29'>Lev 26:29</a>; <a href='B:50 28:53'>Deu 28:53</a>). But as Solomon’s prayer made clear, once those things had happened, then Israel were to look to Zion in repentance from the lands of their exile. And it was to this end that Ezekiel was amongst them. The scattering to the winds is again an allusion to the cherubim vision; the sound of wind is associated with them. They who could have saved Israel and returned them from captivity would further scatter them to the winds- and also, if the exiles were willing, return them. The Hebrew for"scatter"is literally to winnow, and again repeats Jeremiah’s message to those in the land (<a href='B:300 15:7'>Jer 15:7</a> s:w:). But the idea of winnowing is that the grain falls to the earth, and this again was the idea- that out of the scattering throughout the provinces of Babylon, a remnant would fall to the earth / land from where they were winnowed, namely to Zion.</p><p>However, the scattering was not at all to the extent that God had envisaged here and in other prophecies. In wrath He remembered mercy, or perhaps the intercession and repentance of a minority led Him to ameliorate His judgments for their sakes. The Babylonians, unlike the Assyrians, didn’t practice mass deportations. They removed the leadership of subjected peoples, and appointed locals as the leaders under their control. This is what they did to Judah, taking the royal family and priesthood into captivity, and establishing Gedaliah as puppet governor (<a href='B:300 40:7'>Jer 40:7</a>; <a href='B:120 25:2'>2Ki 25:2</a>) along with some local Jewish"elders"(<a href='B:310 5:12'>Lam 5:12</a>), with Mizpeh rather than Jerusalem as the capital:&nbsp; <a href='B:150 9:7'>Ezr 9:7</a> is clear that it was"our kings and our priests [who] have been delivered"into captivity. The Babylonians saw no economic purpose in bringing masses of unskilled peasant farmers into captivity in their cities. It’s been estimated that at least 90% of Judah were peasant farmers; and these, the impoverished masses, were left in the land and not deported (<a href='B:300 52:16'>Jer 52:16</a>; <a href='B:120 25:12'>2Ki 25:12</a>). See on <a href='B:330 11:15'>Eze 11:15</a>. 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). God did not therefore scatter all the people quite as He intended. There is archaeological evidence for continued agricultural activity in the land after the deportations. And <a href='B:300 41:5'>Jer 41:5</a> seems to speak of men coming to the Jerusalem temple from Shechem and Shiloh, in the ten tribe area, in order to offer grain offerings at the site of the temple. Presumably the altar had been destroyed, hence no animal sacrifices are mentioned. It has been suggested that the book of Lamentations was written as part of a temple ritual or at least material to be recited at the site of the temple.</p>


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<p>Therefore as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations-"Defiled"is the word used in <a href='B:330 4:14'>Eze 4:14</a> of how Judah were to be defiled, to be ritually unclean, in their exile; but this is what they themselves had done by defiling or polluting the temple with the idols they placed within it, as Ezekiel will later reveal. So their judgment was as ever, appropriate to their sin. Their condemnation to defilement was in fact only a continuation of what they themselves had done.</p><p>Therefore will I also diminish you- They would likewise be"diminished"justas they had"diminished"God’s laws and requirements (<a href='B:50 12:32'>Deu 12:32</a>), minimizing and practicing reductionism to the point that they had done away with His law. We too can tend towards reductionism, reasoning towards the lowest common denominator rather than to the highest.</p><p>Neither shall My eye spare, and I also will have no pity- But 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>A third part of you shall die with the plague and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of you; and a third part shall fall by the sword around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds- It seems doubtful whether two thirds of Jerusalem died during the Babylonian siege. Rather it seems that God’s grace was such that He didn’t carry out His threats to the full extent; as Ezra perceived about the situation, they were punished less than their iniquities deserved (<a href='B:150 9:13'>Ezr 9:13</a>; see on <a href='B:330 4:12'>Eze 4:12</a>). <a href='B:300 40:7-12'>Jer 40:7-12</a> is clear that a number of Jews did remain in the land immediately after the final Babylonian invasion.</p><p>And will draw out a sword after them- See on :2.</p>


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<p>Thus shall My anger be accomplished- 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 :12, 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>).</p><p>And I will cause My wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted- 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><p>They shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in My zeal, when I have accomplished My wrath on them- As noted on :12, God’s words in wrath were not actually totally fulfilled. The Hebrew here is phrased in such a way as to imply that when the wrath was accomplished, they would realize that these threats were spoken in anger and had not been totally fulfilled; although it seems they will be finally in the holocaust of the last days.</p>


text:
<p>Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the peoples that are around you, in the sight of all that pass by- Again Ezekiel is repeating to the captives in Babylon the same message which Jeremiah was giving to the Jews in Judah (<a href='B:300 19:8'>Jer 19:8</a>). This was the punishment for breaking the covenant (<a href='B:30 26:13'>Lev 26:13</a>). But as shown on :12, God’s threatened judgments were not executed to the degree He had originally planned; in wrath He remembered mercy. For there is evidence that Jerusalem was broken down but not completely desolate, some lived there, and even operated some limited temple services after the Babylonian destruction.</p>


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<p>So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the peoples that are around you, when I shall execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath and in furious rebukes. I, Yahweh, have spoken it- God’s fury was in order to rebuke. It was unlike human fury poured out upon the weak by the stronger. See on :13.</p>


text:
<p>They shall see, when I shall send on them the evil arrows of famine that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you: when I will increase the famine on you, and will break your staff of bread- The arrows of famine may refer to the stabs of pain felt in extreme hunger, hence GNB"You will feel the pains of hunger like sharp arrows sent to destroy you"."Evil arrows"were thought to be cast by displeased gods; but here Yahweh insists that there is no supernatural evil, and He is going to be the one who fires such arrows. His omnipotence meant that there was no place left for any understanding of"evil"as coming from some cosmic evil being, such as the"satan"of modern theology.</p>


text:
<p>I will send on you famine and wild animals, and they shall bereave you; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you; and I will bring the sword on you: I, Yahweh, have spoken it- see on <a href='B:110 22:22'>1Ki 22:22</a>. The wild animals may be literal (as <a href='B:50 32:23-24'>Deu 32:23-24</a>). In 2Ki 1725 literal lions were sent by God to punish people. However there is no record of this happening; again, as explained on :12, in wrath God remembered mercy. But the reference could be figurative, to Babylon as the"lion"with"eagle’s wings"(<a href='B:340 7:4'>Dan 7:4</a>). But this would then be an awkward repetition of"the sword"coming upon them.</p>


text:
<p>The word of Yahweh came to me, saying- This phrase is used multiple times in Jeremiah and Ezekiel; but very rarely elsewhere. It is never once used in Isaiah. The fact it occurs so often in Jeremiah and Ezekiel supports the impression that they were giving very similar messages, often using the same words; Jeremiah to the Jews still in Judah, and Ezekiel to the Jews taken into captivity in the first and second invasions. Ezekiel was bidding the exiles to repent in order to avert the catastrophe which was otherwise to come upon the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem. This shows how much the spirituality of third parties can really affect people.</p>


text:
<p>Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them- We wonder why Ezekiel in Babylon would usefully prophecy against or towards the mountains of Israel. I suggest as on :1 that the repentance of the minority in Babylon could have affected the outcomes for the Jews still in Judah.</p>


text:
<p>And say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you- God told Ezekiel that Israel would not hear his preaching (<a href='B:330 3:7'>Eze 3:7</a>); and yet Ezekiel repeatedly prefaced his preaching addresses with an appeal to please hear God’s word (<a href='B:330 6:3'>Eze 6:3</a>; <a href='B:330 13:2'>Eze 13:2</a>; <a href='B:330 18:25'>Eze 18:25</a>; <a href='B:330 20:47'>Eze 20:47</a>; <a href='B:330 34:7'>Eze 34:7</a>; <a href='B:330 36:1'>Eze 36:1</a>; <a href='B:330 36:4'>Eze 36:4</a>). He was hoping against hope; his preaching work was asking him to attempt the impossible. To make a nation hear who would not hear. Jeremiah likewise was told that Israel wouldn’t hear him (<a href='B:300 7:27'>Jer 7:27</a>), but still he pleaded with them to hear (<a href='B:300 9:20'>Jer 9:20</a>; <a href='B:300 10:1'>Jer 10:1</a>; <a href='B:300 11:6'>Jer 11:6</a>; <a href='B:300 16:12'>Jer 16:12</a>; <a href='B:300 17:24'>Jer 17:24</a>; <a href='B:300 38:15'>Jer 38:15</a>). The"mountains"are put by metonymy for the people sacrificing to idols upon them; just as the altar is addressed in <a href='B:110 13:2'>1Ki 13:2</a>, when the people sacrificing upon it are in view.</p><p>And I will destroy your high places- Quoting from <a href='B:30 26:30'>Lev 26:30</a>; this was the result of having broken the covenant.</p>


text:
<p>Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain men before your idols-"Incense altars"is literally ’sun images’. But they had supposedly been destroyed inJosiah’s reformations (<a href='B:140 34:4'>2Ch 34:4</a>). This point is made so many times- that leaders destroyed idolatry but the people continued it. And it tends to be the same with so much apparent reform we may make in our lives. The corpses of the worshippers would be placed before their idols, because by worshipping them, the worshippers had effectively prostrated their lives before them. Again, the judgment was appropriate to the sin. They had effectively condemned themselves, and this will be true for all who are condemned at the last day.</p>


text:
<p>I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones around your altars- See on :4. The valley of dry bones vision in Ezekiel 37 depicted Israel in captivity as bones waiting to come together and return to the land as a great army. <a href='B:300 8:1'>Jer 8:1</a> and other passages earlier in Ezekiel (<a href='B:330 6:5'>Eze 6:5</a>; <a href='B:330 24:4'>Eze 24:4</a>) had described both Judah and Israel as dry bones. The feeling of those bones was that"our bones are dried and our hope is lost"(<a href='B:330 37:11'>Eze 37:11</a>). Judah in captivity felt that they had no"hope", that God had cast them off, and that they were unable to have a full relationship with Him outside the land. However, it seems that this was a rather convenient piece of theology for them- they were doing well in Babylon, and despite the opportunity to return to the land, they largely chose to remain in Babylon.</p>


text:
<p>In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished- Here the idols are called the works of their hands. And here we see the essential relevance for us today, living in an age where physical idols don’t exist. The idols were attractive because they were the works of the hands of the worshippers. This is what is so relevant to us. What we have made in our lives and by our own device, a business, a self built home... so easily thereby become our idols.</p>


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<p>The slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am Yahweh- The"midst"of the mountains may refer specifically to Jerusalem. They would know"I am Yahweh"in that they would all too late come to recognize Him. This is the tragedy of the Biblical pictures of condemnation; that all too late, the condemned come to realize the essence of Yahweh.</p>


text:
<p>Yet will I leave a remnant: you shall have some that escape the sword among the peoples, when you shall be scattered through the nations- This"remnant"were intended to return in repentance and be the basis of the restored kingdom of God. The same word is used in <a href='B:300 43:5'>Jer 43:5</a>:"Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah, who were returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to live in the land of Judah". But this remnant didn’t respond; having returned, they then began worshipping the sun again and went to Egypt, against God’s specific pleading with them through Jeremiah. The time spent in exile could have been far shorter than the 70 years of Jeremiah; there were various time frames potentially possible, as noted on <a href='B:330 4:6'>Eze 4:6</a>.</p>


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<p>Those of you that escape shall remember Me among the nations where they shall be carried captive because I have been broken with their lewd heart which has departed from Me- When God said that"I have been broken with their whorish heart"(<a href='B:330 6:9'>Eze 6:9</a> RV), He meant it. Sinful Israel broke the heart of Almighty God. The tone of God’s speeches in Jeremiah varies wildly, moving abruptly from outraged cries of pain to warm entreaties of love, and then to desperate pleas for a new start. He is responding like a jilted lover, who gained His Israel by wooing them in the wilderness. He felt the pain of Israel’s rejection, and went through very human-like reactions to this. The book of Hosea shows all this lived out in a real human life. Hosea was representative of God, and yet he married a slut called Gomer, and in their life together they portrayed graphically the pain of God’s relationship with His people. The image of God as the wounded lover which we meet in Hosea and Jeremiah ought to deeply impress us. The God who created all of existence subjects Himself to such humiliation from His creation. One is almost haunted by the reality of a God who lets our response to Him count that much. God says that the remnant of His people would"remember"what they had done to Him. But they didn’t, and that is the abiding tragedy</p><p>And with their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols- As an alcoholic’s eyes dart immediately to the alcohol on display in a supermarket, so their eyes had a natural inclination and attraction towards idols. And the glance of their eyes, their mental predisposition toward idolatry, was prostitution in God’s eyes. We see powerfully portrayed the sensitivity of God toward our deepest psychology and the core yearning of our hearts. May that be ever toward Him alone.</p><p>They shall loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations- But they didn’t. Ezekiel 18 explains how they considered they were suffering unjustly for the sins of their fathers, and sat depressed by the rivers of Babylon, still looking towards their idols."They shall..."do this was the Divine hope of the unrequited lover for the beloved. Or at best it was command rather than prediction.</p>


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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>


text:
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


text:
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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<p>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’.</p><p>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.</p>


text:
<p>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.</p><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><p>They shall know that I am Yahweh- See on :9.</p>


text:
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>You shall know that I am Yahweh- See on <a href='B:330 6:9'>Eze 6:9</a>.</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>&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>).</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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<p>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.</p><p>&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.</p>


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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>


text:
<p>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.</p><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><p>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.</p>


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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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<p>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.</p><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><p>And they shall know that I am Yahweh- See on <a href='B:330 11:12'>Eze 11:12</a>.</p>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<p>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.</p><p>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>).</p>


text:
<p>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.</p><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><p>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.</p>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<p>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</p><p>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.</p>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<p>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’.</p>&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><p>&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.</p>


text:
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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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<p>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>.</p><p>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.</p>


text:
<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>


text:
<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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<p>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>.</p><p>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.</p>


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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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>


text:
<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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<p>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.</p><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><p>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</p>


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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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<p>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>).</p><p>&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>.</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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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<p>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>).</p><p>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:).</p>


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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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<p>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>.</p><p>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).</p>


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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>


text:
<p>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.</p><p>&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.</p>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


text:
<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>


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<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:
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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:
<p>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>.</p><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><p>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.</p>


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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


text:
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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><em>The word of Yahweh came to me, saying-</em></p><p> See on <a href='B:330 12:1'>Eze 12:1</a>.</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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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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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<p>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.</p><p>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".</p>


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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>


text:
<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>


text:
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<p>My bread also which I gave you- The sacrifices are called God’s bread or food, and were given to the priesthood.</p><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><p>"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.</p>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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


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<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>


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<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>


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<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:
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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<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>


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<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:
<p>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.</p><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><p>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.</p>


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<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>


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<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>


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<p>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:).</p><p>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".</p>


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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<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>


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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


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<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>


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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


