The Prophet Ezekiel Part 4

Chapter vii.

II. The second Judgment Message. The End is at Hand. The Complete Judgment.

The seventh chapter which contains the second judgment message, closes the first prophecy of Ezekiel. All the different elements and phases of judgment which had just been foretold by the Prophet are now gathered up in this final great utterance. As the chapter is written in a certain rythm and contains in the authorized version many incorrect renderings, we give a corrected metrical translation.

"And the Word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, And thou Son of Man, thus saith Jehovah unto the land of Israel:

An end cometh! The end Upon the four corners of the land.

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

And mine eyes shall not spare thee, Neither will I have pity; Because I will bring thy ways upon thee And thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: And ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

Thus saith the Lord Jehovah!

An evil--an only evil!--behold it cometh.[8]

An end is come--the end is come!

It awaketh against thee. Behold it cometh!

O inhabitant of the land, thy doom is come unto thee The set time is come, the day is near, The day of tumult.

And not the joyous shouting upon the mountains; Now will I soon pour out my fury upon thee And accomplish mine anger against thee.

I will judge thee according to thy ways, And will bring upon thee all thine abominations.

Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity.

According to thy ways will I render unto thee, And thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee, And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, who smiteth

(chapter vii:1-9).

[8] Another rendering is: "Calamity after calamity!"

This is the first section of this great and solemn portion of Ezekiel's prophecy. The end is announced to come upon the entire land. The set time for judgment had come, it could no longer be averted. How merciful had been Jehovah's dealing with His beloved people. "But He, being full of compa.s.sion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not; yea many a time turned He His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath" (Ps.

lxxviii:38). But now the measure of their wickedness had come. The day of reckoning was at hand. Divine fury was to sweep now over the entire land. His eyes would no longer spare nor would He pity them any longer.

There is another day coming in which the Lord will deal in fearful judgments with this earth. Now is the day of salvation in which G.o.d speaks in love through His Son. When wickedness and apostasy has reached its climax, the day of salvation will end and "the day of vengeance of our G.o.d" will begin. Then He will speak in His wrath and vex them in His sore displeasure (Ps. ii:5). Then will they say to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" (Rev. vi:16-17). G.o.d's judgments for the future are as sure as were His judgments in the past.

There is a set time, the day of the Lord, when He, to whom the Father has given all judgments, will tread "the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of G.o.d, the Almighty" (Rev. xix:15).

Behold the Day! Behold it cometh!

Thy doom advanceth: The rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.

Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness; None of them shall remain; yea none of their mult.i.tude, Nor their wealth; neither shall there be eminency among them.

The time is come, the day draweth near; Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn, For wrath is upon all the mult.i.tude thereof.

For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, Even though he were yet amongst the living.

In the vision touching the whole mult.i.tude thereof It shall not be revoked; And none shall through his iniquity a.s.sure his life.

They have blown the trumpet and made all ready, But none goeth to the battle; For my wrath is upon all the mult.i.tude thereof.

The sword is without; the pestilence and the famine within; He that is in the field shall die by the sword; And he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

But they that escape of them shall escape, And be as the mountains like moaning doves, All of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.

All hands shall be feeble, and every knee shall fail like water.

They shall gird themselves with sackcloth, And horror shall cover them; Shame shall be upon all faces, baldness upon all heads

(verses 10-18).

What a solemn description of the doom which was now to fall upon Jerusalem, the land and its inhabitants! The buyer and the seller as well as all the mult.i.tude were to be affected by it. The decree of judgment which had gone forth could not be revoked. The blowing of the trumpet, which is mentioned has generally been misunderstood by expositors. It is said to picture "the collapse of Judah's military preparations in the hour of danger, that when the siege of Jerusalem came, none responded." The blowing of the trumpets among Israel had a special significance. It carried with it the a.s.surance that Jehovah heard and would be ready to fight for His people against their enemies.

But as they knew their iniquities had separated them from G.o.d, His face being against them, none did go to the battle, for His wrath rested upon them all. Sword, pestilence and famine would devour them all and the few fugitives would be upon the mountains mourning over their iniquities.

The rod mentioned which hath blossomed means Nebuchadnezzar, who executed this great judgment upon Jerusalem. The climax of the judgment prophecy is reached in the third part of the chapter.

They shall cast their silver in the streets, And their gold shall be as an unclean thing; Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them In the day of Jehovah's wrath; They cannot satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowls, Because it was the stumbling block of their iniquity.

And the beauty of their ornaments, they turned it to pride, And the images of their abominations, their detestable things made they of it.

And I shall give it to the hands of strangers for a prey, And to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane it.

For I will turn my face from them, And they shall defile my secret place, And robbers shall enter into it and profane it.

Form a chain, For the land is full of b.l.o.o.d.y crimes, And the city full of violence.

Therefore will I bring the worst of the nations, And they shall possess their houses; And I will make the pride of the mighty to cease, And their sanctuaries shall be defiled.

Destruction cometh!

They shall seek peace, but there shall be none.

Calamity after calamity shall appear; And rumour shall be upon rumour; Then shall they seek a vision from a prophet; But the law shall perish from the priest, And counsel from the elders.

The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with dismay, And the hands of the people of the land shall tremble: I will do unto them according to their way, When I shall judge them according to their deserts; And they shall know that I am the Lord (verses 19-27).

Here we learn first of all that the stumbling block of their iniquity (verse 19) was the silver and gold. Prophets like Isaiah, Amos and others bear witness to the fact that Jerusalem and the land enjoyed great prosperity and indulged in extravagant living before the judgment overtook the nation. Said Isaiah, "Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there an end of their treasures." In the third chapter of Isaiah the luxurious dress of the daughters of Zion is vividly described, while Amos also gives the scenes of their riotous, wanton living and emphasizes the oppression of the poor. Riches had increased and the prosperous conditions of the land produced vanity; they forgot Jehovah and wors.h.i.+pped the idols of the Gentiles. And now as the day of wrath breaks, their eyes would be opened and they were to find out the absolute worthlessness of their silver and gold. They would cast it into the streets, for it was unable to deliver them. Zephaniah, in his great vision of the national calamity which was to fall upon the people, gives a similar testimony. "Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy; for He shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land" (Zeph. i:18).

The Holy Spirit bears witness in the New Testament that similar conditions will exist in Christendom during the end of the present age.

"Men shall be lovers of their ownselves, lovers of money (covetous) and lovers of pleasure more than lovers of G.o.d" (2 Tim. iii:1-5). The conditions of worldliness, apostasy, prosperity and luxurious living which prevailed in Jerusalem before the hand of G.o.d stripped the people and the land characterize our times. This will go on, and will culminate after the Lord has taken His true church into glory. In view of the visible coming of the Lord to deal with the earth in judgment the Spirit of G.o.d through James addresses especially the rich men. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you....

Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days" (James v:1-3).

The message of Ezekiel also announced that the Gentiles, the strangers, were to come and defile the temple. The chain mentioned refers to their condition as captives. Destruction was to come. There should be no peace; calamity was to follow calamity; according to what they had done a righteous G.o.d would deal with them. And thus it came to pa.s.s when Jerusalem fell and the people were taken away as captives.

VISIONS CONCERNING JERUSALEM.

Chapter viii.

With this chapter begins a new section. It contains a series of visions.

The Prophet is shown first of all the awful abominations which were going on in the temple (chapter viii). Then the fact was made known to him that destruction would overtake all who were left in Jerusalem, except the sighing, faithful remnant, marked by the man with the inkhorn (chapter xi). This is followed by the vision of the coals of fire and the vision of glory (chapter x). The final vision in this section is the vision concerning the leaders of the people and the departure of the glory of the Lord (chapter xi).

These visions, which concern Jerusalem's history and condition in the days of Ezekiel, also foreshadow Jerusalem's future. There is a remarkable correspondence with events revealed in the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation. Another temple will be defiled by the abomination of the Anti-Christ during the coming great tribulation.

Ezekiel saw an image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. There will be another image in Jerusalem on account of which judgment will come upon the unbelieving Jews (Rev. xiii:14-15). Then there will be a remnant sealed and preserved (Rev. vii) as it was in the time of Ezekiel. Coals of fire Ezekiel saw scattered over the city; it denoted an act of judgment. When the last chapter of Jerusalem's final trouble pa.s.seth into history, fire from the altar will be cast upon the earth (Rev. viii:5). But while Ezekiel saw the glory departing after these judgments, the glory will return to the city and to Israel's land, when the great tribulation is ended. Ezekiel's vision of abominations among Israel is first given.

I. The Vision of the Image of Jealousy.

And it came to pa.s.s in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord G.o.d fell there upon me.

Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins, even downward; fire and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the look of glowing bra.s.s. And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of G.o.d to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. And, behold the glory of the G.o.d of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain. Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, and I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations (verses 1-6).

It was over a year after his first vision (i:1) when Ezekiel sat in his house surrounded by the elders of Judah. Perhaps they had come expecting some new communication from the prophet. Suddenly the hand of the Lord fell again upon him. He beheld once more the glorious likeness of Him who was the center of the first vision of glory.[9] The hand of the Lord took the prophet by a lock of hair and the Spirit lifted him between the earth and the heaven and he was brought in the visions of G.o.d to Jerusalem. Was this a real experience? Critics speak of a trance, that the prophet was some kind of a psychic with the gift of clairvoyancy. It was not a trance-vision, but an action by the Spirit and power of the Lord. Elijah must have had frequently the same experience, for Obadiah said to him: "And it shall come to pa.s.s, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not" (1 Kings xviii:12). And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha after Elijah departed: "The Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley" (2 Kings ii:16). The Spirit of the Lord also caught away Philip (Acts viii:39).

[9] The word "fire" is in the Septuagint (ancient Greek Version of the Old Testament) translated "man" so that it reads "the appearance of a man." There is a similarity between the Hebrew words for "man" and "fire." Fire is "esh" and man "ish." Compare with chapter i:26, 17.

In the visions of G.o.d Ezekiel is brought to the door of the inner gate that looketh to the north. Here was the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. Some have taken this and the following visions to be retrospective. It has been said, "It was as if he were translated back to Jerusalem, and to the time when these things were occurring."

Such is the view of some critics; however, it is untenable. These visions would lose their meaning if the prophet only seemed to be translated back to Jerusalem and to the time when these abominations had happened in Israel's past history. Later we find the names of persons given, whom he saw. They certainly were living persons known to Ezekiel and his contemporaries. One of them died while Ezekiel prophesied (xi:13).

What was the image of jealousy which provoketh to jealousy? It was an idol. The word is used in Deut. iv:16, where it is translated "graven image." It is also found in 2 Chronicles x.x.xiii:7, 15, where it refers to the idol, which Mana.s.seh had made and put up in the temple.

After Mana.s.seh's idolatry came Josiah's great reformation. After his death Judah plunged into greater wickedness under the reign of wicked kings and a revival of idolatry followed once more. Such a wrath provoking idol was beheld by the prophet. This image they wors.h.i.+pped.

"Son of man, seest thou what they do?" They must have lain prostrate before that idol. And yet the glory of the G.o.d of Israel was still there. He had not yet abandoned the place. Idolatry will once more be practiced in Jerusalem. Our Lord speaks of it prophetically in Matthew xii:43-45. The unclean spirit is idolatry. The Jewish people are now purged from it. At some future time that spirit will return with seven others. "And the last state of that man is worse than the first." Then our Lord applied the parable: "Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation" (literally: race). During the reign of the final Anti-Christ, idolatry in its worst form will be inst.i.tuted once more in Jerusalem (2 Thess. ii:3-4; Rev. xiii:11-18).