Ezekiel 7–12: Glory & Judgment

Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 25: Friday

Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been, to the threshold of the house of Yahweh. And He called to the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the scribe’s case.

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Yahweh said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being done in its midst.”

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But to the others He said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare.”

Ezekiel 9:3–5 LSB

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Friday’s Bible reading is Ezekiel 7–12. These chapters continue Ezekiel’s prophesy and vision of God’s judgment on Jerusalem. In the verses above, only those who are distressed over Judah’s rebellion against God will be safe from God’s judgment—the rest will not be spared.

In chapters 9–11 he describes the movement and departure of the glory of the Lord—first from the Ark of the Covenant in the temple, then to the threshold of the temple, then to the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house until finally the glory of God leaves Jerusalem altogether.

One of the most powerful sermons I’ve ever heard was on this vision of Ezekiel. The man who preached was a missionary to Africa who’d been back in the United States for a year or so to travel, give reports, and raise support. He and his family were preparing to go back overseas. I don’t know where he had traveled or what he had seen in the churches he had visited, but his concern for the churches in the U.S. was palpable. He’d obviously seen enough churches with a name for being alive, but that were in fact dead, to the point where he was impassioned as he urged the church to examine her spiritual state. I still remember him asking how many churches existed in our country in which the word Ichabod—the glory has departed from Israel—is already written over their door.

There are abominations being committed in the midst of the city today. Where are those to sigh and groan over them? G. R. Beasley-Murray notes that the word used for mark in Ezekiel 9:4, indicates, “a mark in the shape of a cross.”¹ John Taylor writes:

“The mark which is to be put on men’s foreheads is the tāw, the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Early Christian commentators were quick to notice that in the oldest Hebrew script the letter was written as X, a cross…many Christians would echo Ellison’s verdict that ‘this is one of the many examples where the Hebrew prophets spoke better than they know’.”²

Ezekiel’s words are sobering. He lived in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation as do we, and the Scripture speaks as to how we are to live. In writing to the Philippians, Paul exhorted them, and us:

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, so that you will be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to boast because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

Philippians 2:14–16 LSB

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Ezekiel remained true to God without compromise, however, he did not hear God’s judgment nor speak God’s message with a cold heart.

Now it happened as they were striking the people and I alone remained, that I fell on my face and cried out and said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh! Are You destroying the whole remnant of Israel by pouring out Your wrath on Jerusalem?”

Ezekiel 9:8 LSB

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Now it happened as I prophesied, that Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell on my face and cried out with a loud voice and said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh! Will You bring the remnant of Israel to complete destruction?”

Ezekiel 11:13 LSB

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Taylor comments:

“For all Ezekiel’s outward appearance of severity, beneath the hard shell there was a heart that felt deeply for and with his people. He did not relish the message of judgment that he had to give, still less the reality that followed when the message was rejected. This was one of the secrets of his greatness. Though his forehead was made as hard as adamant (3:9), his heart was always a heart of flesh (36:26).”³

We must hold fast to the word of life—to honor God as God, and to offer hope for those who would turn from their sin.

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Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Model of Solomon’s Temple, circa 950 BC, from the east: SalemOptix. Model of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, circa 950 BC. Photographed at a special exhibit at the Armstrong Auditorium in Edmonton, Oklahoma. CC0 1.0 UNIVERSAL. Public Domain.
¹G. R. Beasley-Murray, “Ezekiel,” The New Bible Commentary: Revised, D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, eds., A. M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, contributing eds., (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 1970) 670.
^2,3John B. Taylor, Ezekiel: An Introduction and Commentary (The Tyndale Press, London: 1969) 102 Ellison quote from Ezekiel, the Man and his Message by H. L. Ellison, p. 44; 103.

I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.