Ezekiel 8 - 11 (2nd Vision)

Ezekiel — Steve Gregg

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Ezekiel 8 - 11 (2nd Vision)

EzekielSteve Gregg

In this insightful interpretation of Ezekiel 8-11, Steve Gregg examines the second vision experienced by Ezekiel. He highlights the significant details within the vision, including the presence of God's glory and the departure of His spirit from the temple complex in Jerusalem. Gregg explores the symbolism and parallels with biblical narratives, such as the judgment of Lot in Sodom and the plague of locusts in Revelation. He also delves into the concept of God's sovereignty in war and the promise of a new covenant for those in exile. Concluding with the departure of God's glory on Mount Olives, Gregg presents a thought-provoking analysis of these passages.

Transcript

Now, I'd like you to believe that today we were going to be talking about the spoken parables of Ezekiel. Remember, we're taking Ezekiel kind of topically, rather than cover to cover, as it were. We had one lecture which was introductory, and we went through the first three chapters, which was the call of Ezekiel.

And then our second lecture, which was yesterday, dealt with the enacted parables, where he acted out a message. And that took us into chapters 4 and 5, actually through chapters 4 and 5, but also got us through chapter 12, and we dipped into chapters 24 and 37 also at that time. And we just wanted to take all of the enacted parables at one time.

Also, it was my desire to take all of the spoken parables at one time. I thought I would do that this morning. However, I think we'll save that for tomorrow.

And the reason is that chronologically, as far as what we hit next in the book going through, is not spoken parables, but the second vision of Ezekiel. So I thought maybe I should take that first. And there's a sense in which this vision lays the groundwork for some of the things that he brings out in the spoken parables.

So it seemed logical on my consideration of this yesterday afternoon that I should take this portion next. And that is chapters 8 through 11. That also, of course, puts us solidly within the material you've already read, because you've read up through chapter 15 now.

If we were doing the spoken parables of Ezekiel, we would be moving beyond points that you've read. And while that would not be something that we would avoid at all costs, yet it seems better to cover material that you have read. Now, chapters 8 through 11 make up his second vision.

This is a vision of a location seen by River Kibon in chapter 1, where he saw the chariot of God resting upon four wheels, which stood at the side of four living creatures that were not named for us. In this vision, we see them again. This time we're told what they were called, where we weren't told that in chapter 1. But he does see this image of the glory of God again.

In chapter 1, he had told us that what he saw was the appearance of the likeness, or the likeness of the appearance of the glory of the Lord. And so also he sees that again here in a significant vision. This has a lot more substance to it.

This has more of a message to it than the first one did. In the first vision, he simply saw the glory of the Lord and was stunned, was astonished for seven days, couldn't say anything. But this time he's actually transported in vision to Jerusalem.

Now, remember, he is in exile in Babylonia in the city of Tel-Aviv, which was where there was a Jewish settlement in captivity, an exile, refugee or whatever settlement. And he was a thousand miles away from Jerusalem, but in his vision he was transported back to Jerusalem where he was permitted to see the abominations that were being committed there. Remember, his message was principally one that God was going to destroy Jerusalem, that the Babylonians were going to come and destroy the city and the temple.

Now, that had not yet happened, though he had been deported with the second group that was deported to Babylon, there was yet to take place the destruction of the city. And he was predicting that it would happen, and this vision takes him to Jerusalem, and he is given a prophetic insight into the reasons why God is going to judge it. And in chapter 8 he sees the abominations of Jerusalem.

In chapter 9 he sees a vision which declares the judgment that would come in the image of six men with swords and a seventh with an ink one, and those six men with swords go through and slay the inhabitants. Now, that of course is not really the way that Jerusalem fell or the people were killed. This is a vision symbolizing the destruction of the people.

We know that the literal fulfillment was in the armies of Babylon coming in and wiping them out. But this is symbolized in vision by six angels, perhaps six because that's the number of men and God used men to bring about his judgment in this case, and it was by the sword. Then in chapter 10, principally what he sees there is the glory of the Lord, as he saw in chapter 1. And we have in chapter 10 a lengthy description, almost identical to the description found in chapter 1, of the cherubim, these living creatures, and the wheels of the chariot and the throne.

In other words, we cover a lot of the same ground in this description. There are only a few new elements. The main new elements added to the picture in chapter 10 is the movement of the glory of the Lord from above the cherubim to the threshold of the temple and then back from the threshold of the temple to the cherubim.

And then in chapter 11, at the end of that chapter, the glory of the Lord departs from the temple altogether. And that is basically the bottom line of the message that this vision is intending to convey. But because of the abominations that are taking place in Jerusalem, which he sees in vision in chapter 8, ultimately the glory departs and God's glory abandons the temple and Jerusalem.

And that is finished in chapter 11. And the intervening verses and chapters connect those two thoughts. Now, you might have noticed, in our previous talk yesterday, we covered up through chapter 5. And then we jumped to chapter 12, then chapter 24, and then chapter 37.

Which means that if we put in here at chapter 8, we have skipped over chapters 6 and 7. I intend to pick those up later. The reason we are skipping over them at this time is because there is nothing remarkable about them. And what I want to do first, when I say there is nothing remarkable about them, what I mean is there is nothing really very much out of the ordinary about them.

They don't contain visions, they don't contain enacted parables or spoken parables. They are just straightforward prophecies such as you might have read in Isaiah or Jeremiah and taking the form very much like those prophets, just speaking of destruction and doom. And what I want to do for the time being is skip over chapters like that and go right to the chapters that have remarkable features.

And then we will pick up the missing chapters on a separate lecture, probably at the end of the week. So now we will jump over chapters 6 and 7 to chapter 8 and take this second vision which took place 14 months after the first one. We know that because he gives the date here.

In chapter 8 he says, It came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month. Now, if you remember chapter 1 verses 1 and 2, we were told that it was the 30th year of Ezekiel's life, but with respect to the captivity of Jehoiakim it was the fifth year, whereas this is the sixth, so we are a year later. In chapter 1 verse 2, we are told that it was the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth year, or the fifth day of the fourth month I believe it was.

The fifth day of the month which was the fifth year, or it is in verse 1 that it says in the fourth month, in the fifth day of that month. So we have got the first vision taking place in the fifth year of the captivity and the fifth day of the fourth month. The next vision is in the sixth year, in the fifth day of the sixth month, which means that, how many months have passed? 14 months exactly have passed since the first.

Now, in this vision he seems to be caught up and taken to Jerusalem. You might ask yourself, and this is something to sort out, how it is that he fit in 390 days laying on his left side and 40 days lying on his right side, which he was told to do in chapter 4, how he fit that into the space of 14 months between these two visions. A Jewish year was considered to be 360 days because they went by a lunar calendar rather than the solar calendar.

Our year is based on the time it takes the earth to go around the sun, which is 365 and a quarter days. The Jewish year was measured by the movement of the moon, the waxing and waning of the moon, and every time the moon was full again, which is every 30th day roughly, there was a new month, and it was a new moon that began a new month. That is how the Jews measured time.

They were told that they had 12 months of exactly 30 days, and that means they had a year of 360 days, a shorter year than us. So if we are talking about 14 months, we are talking about 360 plus 2 more months, which would be 60 more, and that puts us at about 420 days. But if you add the 390 days and the 40 days that he laid, that would be 430 days, 10 days longer than the interval here.

So there is one of two conclusions we have to make. Either this vision happened to him while he was lying on his side in the last 10 days of that experience, or else it is possible that somehow he linked together the last 40 days with the 390 days and laid part of the time on his right side during those days and part of the time on his left side. We are not told how he worked that out, but it is an interesting problem.

It is not a problem that is insurmountable and it would give us any reason to challenge the validity of what we are told. It is just something that we are not quite sure how it works out, but there is more than one possible solution, so it is not really difficult. Okay, well, here he is in the 6th year now, which is 14 months after his call.

And he says, I sat in my house and the elders of Judah sat before me, which was common. They would come and sit in his house waiting for God to speak to them, though it seemed like he spoke very frequently. They never knew when he might, so they came and sat around to listen.

But the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me. Then I beheld in low 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 color of amber. You recognize this, of course, as the same personage that he had seen in chapter 1 sitting on the throne.

This time he does not mention the throne, though he does in chapter 10. But he sees the same person who is apparently God, or else some agent of God that bears a resemblance to God. And that person comes and grabs him by the hand.

It says in verse 3, He put forth the form of a hand and took me by a lock of mine head, that is a lock of hair, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God 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 God, the God of Israel, was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain. Now when he says the glory of the God of Israel was there according to the vision I saw in the plain, of course he means in chapter 1 when he was on the plain near the river.

He had seen that vision of the glory of God and he saw the same vision now here in Jerusalem, a thousand miles from where he had first seen that, which would imply, of course, on the presence of God, God's glory is manifest in all places. He could see it if his eyes were open to it, if he were in Babylon or if he were in Jerusalem. The glory of the Lord, we're told in Isaiah's vision, in Isaiah 6, the seraphs sing, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is filled with his glory.

And you remember that. That's what the seraphim were saying in Isaiah's vision in chapter 6 of Isaiah. So here we see the glory of God is there at Jerusalem too.

Now it has been debated whether Ezekiel was taken physically to Jerusalem or whether this was just a spiritual thing, whether his spirit left his body and went to Jerusalem. Or a third alternative is just that he had a vision as though he were in Jerusalem. My preference, the more I think about it, is the third.

Some have suggested that he was physically transported and in support of that they point out that the hand actually grabbed the hair of his head and lifted him as it would appear physically. He said, between earth and the heaven, that is in midair, he was lifted up. And so it sounds like he was physically moved and it says, and he took me, the spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem.

Now the language could imply that he was physically brought there, but then again there's much to imply that he didn't physically remove from the place. In fact, remember the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 mentioned that he had had some remarkable visions where in one case he was actually caught in the third heaven and he saw things that were unlawful to be uttered. But he said concerning that in 2 Corinthians 12, whether this transporting into heaven, whether it was in the body or out of the body, he said he couldn't tell.

That was not the thing on his mind at the time. He was caught up in where he saw these things. He didn't spend time deciding am I in the body or not.

He was more taken up by what he saw than the state that he was personally in. And Paul indicates that he didn't know even to this day whether it was an out of body experience or in the body experience and apparently he didn't care. He just said God knows and that's all that matters.

It doesn't matter whether he was in the body or out. And probably with Ezekiel it was rather the same. He probably didn't give much thought to whether he was in the body or out of the body.

It could well be that he remained the whole time sitting in the midst of the elders there in his house in Tel Aviv. But in a vision he could see himself being lifted up and carried to Jerusalem. And to me that seems likely, especially when he says he brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, which implies that it was in the state of vision, in a trance, that he saw these things happen.

So rather than seeing him personally there, now it's of course God. We can say that what he saw was really happening there. But whether he was physically taken there or not is a mystery that is not revealed to us.

I believe physically he remained in Babylonia, but spiritually or in vision he was able to go and see what he saw here. What he mentions first is that by the northern gate, apparently of Jerusalem, the door of the inner gate that looks toward the north, he saw the image of jealousy. And he talks about that in verses 5 and 6. Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north.

So I lifted up my 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, that I should go far off from my sanctuary, from the temple, but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations. Now the image of jealousy is not identified for us, but it is probably a reference to an image of Asherah.

Asherah was a Canaanite goddess, and in the reign of Manasseh, the king of Judah, who was the son of Hezekiah, Manasseh had set up an image of Asherah, this Canaanite goddess, in the temple. That is recorded in 2 Kings 21, in verse 7. Manasseh set up this image. And the reason that we call the image of jealousy is because it caused God to be jealous.

It caused God to be angry, like a husband is jealous when his wife commits adultery. So God was jealous and angry because they were departing from Him and serving other gods. And remember when God gave the Ten Commandments, as He gave the second commandment, which was that you shall make no graven image, and no likeness of anything in heaven or on earth or under the earth, and I shall not bow down unto it and worship it.

He said, For I, the Lord, am a jealous God, visiting iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. And so He said that He would be jealous if they made images. Well, here there was an image that was made and put in the temple by Manasseh, and no doubt that is why it is called the image of jealousy.

It provoked God to jealousy. And by the way, this image was removed by Josiah, and that is prior to Ezekiel's time, but apparently it was set up again by the Jews later. Josiah removed the image, and actually he burned it, but they must have remade it, because he burned it in 2 Kings 23, 6. The image was set up by Manasseh, and then taken down and burned when Josiah brought his revival and his reform in Jerusalem, but this image apparently was replaced and put up again.

So Ezekiel is allowed to see why God is going to remove himself far off from his sanctuary, as he says in verse 6. He says, These are the abominations that the house of Israel commits, so that I should go far off from my sanctuary. He is giving his reason, his rationale, his justification for abandoning Jerusalem. God is abandoning them to their enemies.

He is leaving his temple. His glory is parting, and this is why. And he shows Ezekiel this particular abomination, yet he says in verse 6, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

In all, four different abominations were shown to Ezekiel in this chapter. The first was this one. Now the reason it was said to be at the altar gate, or the gate of the altar in verse 5, is because it was the northern gate, and the sacrifices were offered, the blood was poured out and so forth, at the foot of the altar on the northern side of the altar.

So it was the gate of the city that was nearest the place where the sacrifices were made, because the sacrifices were killed at the north side of the altar too. So the gate that is associated with the sacrifices of the altar, that is why it is called the gate of the altar. Now the next abomination he sees is in verse 7. And he brought me to the door of the court.

Now this would be actually the temple complex. And when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall.

Ezekiel did a lot of wall digging in his ministry. He dug through the wall of his own house too, you recall, in order to enact one of his parables. But here now he is digging through a wall in the temple building.

Dig now in the wall, and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. Now in other images he has found a secret chamber. He saw this little break in the wall, and as he removed more bricks and more of the wall, he actually found a secret entrance to a secret room below the temple.

There was a door. And so obviously what he is going to see beyond that door are things that are going on in secret. And he said, I found, behold a door.

And he said unto me, go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in and saw, and behold every form of creeping things, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round about. And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel.

And in the midst of them stood Jazanath, the son of Shaphan, and every man had his censer in his hand with a thick cloud of incense going up. Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? For they say, The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth. He said also unto me, Turn ye yet again, turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.

So he said, I'll show you this one, you'll see worse. I'll show you this one, you'll see worse than this yet. Now what he saw here, of course, was seventy men of the elders of Israel, which were the social civil leaders of the city.

And they were burning incense, which was of course an act of worship in the temple. Incense was ordinarily burned at the golden altar for Jehovah, for God. But they had their incense censers, and they were burning incense to these pictures on the wall, which had every kind of unclean animal and idol of the children of Israel drawn on the wall.

And they were worshiping these pictures on the wall. And this in a secret chamber below the temple. They apparently wouldn't do it outwardly in the temple for fear of people seeing them.

It's clear that they didn't have any idea of God seeing them. In fact, they said in verse 12, The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth. There was no fear of God before them because they believed God was not close by.

Now this may be because of troubles they'd had. Maybe because there had been a couple of deportations, they seemed to be given over to the hands of their enemies. And they just felt like, well, where's God now? He must have left.

He's no longer around. It's very much like the views of the deists, who were a very major and significant religious movement in the early days of the history of this country. In fact, Thomas Jefferson and a lot of the founders of this country were deists.

And the deists believed in God. They believed in the Creator. They didn't believe he was involved in human affairs.

They believed that God had created the world and the universe and wound it up like a cloth and just left it to unwind. Left it to take its own course. Left it in the hands of man.

And that, of course, led to humanism. Deism and humanism went hand in hand. And usually the same people who were deists were also humanists.

Because they believed that the fate of the world was in man's hands. And God was not involved. There was a God, but he was departed.

He wasn't involved. And so that's sort of what they're saying here. The Lord has forsaken the earth.

And therefore he doesn't see what we're doing. Now maybe they're saying, we've offered our incense to God and he hasn't responded. So he must not see.

He must not be here to reward or to punish. So we'll now offer incense to these other gods, pictured on the wall, and maybe they'll see. Maybe they're still around.

Maybe they'll help us out. And so in other words, they're an abominable thing. And the fact that they are 70 leaders, among them is Jeazaniah, the son of Shaphan.

Well, Shaphan was the secretary of state in Jerusalem under Josiah's reign. And you remember that Josiah was a godly king who had brought the reforms. Shaphan was his secretary of state under him.

It was Shaphan's son, Jeazaniah, who was instigating this abomination among the leaders of the community. So that's an abomination that God's angry at. Verse 14, then.

Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house that was toward the north. And behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this old son of man? Turn thee yet again, and I shall see greater abomination than these.

Tammuz was a Sumerian deity, worshipped by the Sumerian people. He was the god of vegetation. And according to the Sumerian superstition, this god of vegetation died for a year in the winter and rose again from the dead in the spring, of course, corresponding with the agricultural cycle.

And part of the ritual and fertility rites of worshipping Tammuz by the Sumerians was that they would mourn and weep over his death each year. And there was a day set aside of mourning for Tammuz by the Sumerians. And what we see here is that the women of Jerusalem are now weeping for Tammuz.

In other words, they've entered into this heathen idolatry of worshipping Tammuz. So they're worshipping this image of jealousy. They're worshipping pictures of animals and idols on their walls in a secret chamber under the temple.

And now the women out in the open are weeping for Tammuz. And then there's one other abomination he sees, verses 16-18. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and behold, the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar.

Now what he's pointing out is all these things take place right in the temple complex, where, you know, that's the holy place set aside for God. And all these other gods are worshipped in there. And there, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east.

And they worshipped the sun toward the east. Of course, the sun rises in the east, and ancient religions that worshipped the sun always, of course, faced the east to do so, because that's the direction of the rising sun. And sun worship is a very ancient custom practiced among almost all heathens, even among the Egyptians.

Ra, the sun god, was the highest and most powerful of their gods, and almost all ancient peoples worshipped the sun as the source of life. Now the Jews had degenerated at that point, too, and they were worshipping the sun toward the east. There were twenty-five of them in the temple, probably representing the high priest, plus one from each of the twenty-four courses of the priest.

One represented from each. You remember that in David's time there were so many priests that they divided the priesthood up into twenty-four groups, twenty-four courses. And each group would take a turn serving in the temple two weeks out of the year.

And so probably the twenty-five men represent one for each of the twenty-four courses, plus the high priest, who is the twenty-fifth. And therefore the priests are represented here, and worshipping the sun rather than worshipping God. It says, Then to the end of me, hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, in addition to their idolatry, their full of bloodshed, murder and such.

They have returned to provoke me to anger, and lo, they put the branch to their nose. Now no one is really quite sure what this refers to, putting the branch to the nose. And some have understood it, have re-translated the Hebrew to make it something other than branch.

But it is probable that putting the branch to the nose was a custom in sun worship. That in the morning they would actually, as is known in some religions, they would take a certain kind of shrub, branch, and they would put it up to their nose and they would sing hymns to the sun as they faced the east, with this, you know, with holding this in front of their faces. And that is probably what was being done here, what is referred to here.

Therefore will I also deal in fury? Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity. And though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them. Even if they cry to him for mercy, he won't hear them.

Why? Because they have departed from him in their hearts. They have broken his commandments and they have set up other gods in the house of the Lord. And he says, I am going to deal with them in fury.

And the next chapter, which is a short one, describes that dealing with them in fury. And again, we know that the actual judgment that came upon them was through the Babylonian invasion. And Nebuchadnezzar and his armies came and destroyed the city and burned down the temple.

But that whole judgment is symbolically portrayed, as I said, in chapter 9, as six angels coming with swords and wiping out the people. So realize that he is not seeing this actually happen. He is seeing a vision that symbolically portrays the slaughter that is going to take place.

But it is seen more from the heavenly viewpoint. Not seen it just from the earthly viewpoint of one army of men coming against another army of men and overwhelming them, but rather seen that God is behind this invasion. It is God's judgment.

It is as though the angels of the Lord are meeting out his terrible fury upon those who have done these abominations. So he cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have the charge of the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and each of them had a man, a slaughter weapon in his hand.

And one man among them was clothed with linen, and a rider's inkhorn by his side. And they went in and stood beside the brazen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub." Which is the first time we encounter that word.

We have a description of who the cherub are. Probably the cherub here refers to the ones over the Ark of the Covenant rather than the real cherub, but the images of the cherub. And how gone he was, well I don't know, that could be the one with the cherub in the arm, it sounds like.

But it's not sure, because the glory of the Lord was said to rest over the mercy seat, and there were the cherubs there too, so it's not clear what he means here. But the point is that the Lord's glory moved to the threshold of the house, and he called to the man clothed with the linen, which had the rider's inkhorn by his side. And the Lord said unto him, Go thou, I'm sorry, go through the midst of the city, and go to the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city and smite. Let not your eyes spare, neither have ye pity. Slay utterly, old and young, both maids and little children, and women, and come not near any man upon whom is the mark.

And begin at my sanctuary. Then it began at the ancient men which were before the house. And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain.

Go ye forth. And they went forth and slew in the city. And it came to pass, while they were slain them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face and cried and said, O Lord God, wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city is full of perverseness.

And I say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth us not. And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head. And behold, the man clothed with linen, which is the ink-horn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded.

Apparently he went out ahead of the other six, and as he went out, the other six followed. Then he came back before they were finished. Of course, they were traveling behind him.

And he came back and reported that he had marked everyone. Now, realize, of course, that this was not happening literally at the time that Ezekiel fought. He was seeing this in a vision.

The slaughter actually took place about five years after this. He was seeing it prophetically. And the fact that that's clear is seen in the fact that later on in chapter 11, he sees again people doing bad things at the temple.

So the slaughter obviously doesn't actually take place at the time it's reported. He at this time is given a vision of the destiny or the fate of the people of Jerusalem, and that is their slaughter. Now, there are six persons with swords.

They are, of course, angelic beings. They're not literal people. They are said to have charge over the city, which might suggest that they were the ones that were the guardian angels.

When Jerusalem was doing what pleased God, there are, of course, angels that God had stationed over cities and nations and individuals, and these six apparently represent those that were the guardians of the city. But now that the city has turned against God, these guardian angels who are God, they just turn against the city. They spiritually hold the fate of the city in their hands.

And, of course, they take their orders from God himself. And God tells them to go through and smite. But first he has this other one with the inkhorn who goes through and marks persons on the forehead.

Now, that's very significant. Of course, this is not a literal mark that ever was put upon people. This is all symbolic.

The idea is that God marks and identifies his own. His own, in this case, are described as those who sigh and cry, verse 4, for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof. That is, those who are not sympathetic to these abominable things that the majority of the people are practicing.

There are people who were dissenters. There are people who grieved over it. Just like Lot in Sodom, we're told in 2 Peter 2, Lot vexed his righteous soul day after day by the unlawful deeds done in that city.

A godly person will be vexed by the wickedness that is done by God's people. And if we would look for a parallel today, it would not be so much being vexed by the sinfulness of the world around us, but the sinfulness of God's people around us, the sinfulness in the church. Because this was not the people who sighed and cried about the abominations the Gentile nations were doing around, that he was identifying as his.

The people were sighing and crying for the abominations done in Jerusalem, God's city, the city of God's people, which of course would be corresponding to the church today, the people of God. And that abominations and idols are set up in the church today can hardly be denied. There are Christians who worship money.

There are Christians that have other idols, things they put before God. And a person who has a heart after God, who has the burden of the Lord, will be grieved by that. Now it doesn't say the people who are angry or bitter or lashing out, but they sigh and they cry.

They're broken hearted over it. A lot of times when people see the sins of the church, they'll get sort of a chip on their shoulder and they'll get kind of a bad attitude or self-righteous attitude and they'll begin to make themselves prophets who think that they're the ones called to speak out against all these things. But these people that were marked were not necessarily prophets.

People who were always rebuking the people, but they were grieved deeply over what was going on, just like Lot was in Sodom, grieved. And they are the ones that God identifies as His, because they are men after His own heart, like David was. They have the same burden He does.

They have the same impression of what's going on that God does. They share His heart and His emotions over this matter. And therefore they are to be spared.

The mark that's put upon them is to identify them and separate them to be spared when the swordsmen go through and wipe out everyone else. When the swordsmen do go through and wipe out everyone else, they start at the sanctuary. They start at the priests, those who are most responsible for the decadence in the nation, because of course the priests were supposed to keep the knowledge of God alive.

Did you have a question, Dan? Could that be a symbol of the people's life? I'm going to bring that up. I'm going to bring up some connections there. But judgment begins at the house of God.

And so it's the people who are the most responsible for the spiritual climate and the spiritual state of the people that come under judgment first. Remember James said in James chapter 3, Brethren, be not many masters or many teachers, many spiritual leaders, for we have the stricter judgment. So those who are in leadership, who are responsible for the nurture and feeding of the sheep of God and for looking out for their spiritual welfare, are the ones who first come under judgment from God when they've neglected that or perverted that or abused it.

And so that's what takes place. Now, the marking of these people on the forehead to be reserved from judgment is very significant. It reminds us somewhat, of course, of the Exodus and of the last plague of the Exodus where the angel of death was going through Egypt and smiting the firstborn son out of every house of the Egyptians as a judgment upon them.

But you remember that God had provided for the Jews who were obedient to place a mark, not on their foreheads, but in this case on their door, a bloodstain of a lamb that they slew. And he said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you and I will not slay your firstborn. So this is sort of the same principle, that the mark of God was on God's people.

And when judgment was sent, his people were spared. And the fact of the matter is, God didn't have many people in Jerusalem at this time, but guys like Jeremiah were still there. And we know that he did escape before Jerusalem was destroyed.

He and others escaped down to Egypt. So they were spared from that judgment. But the point here is that God, before he'll judge, he identifies his own and sets them apart to not come under that judgment.

Now that doesn't mean that Christians don't suffer or die in situations that are calamities. But not all calamities are direct judgments from God. When God is distinctly bringing a calamity as a judgment, he will not bring it upon those who are not worthy of judgment.

He doesn't bring it upon the righteous as well as the evil. That's what, remember, when he was going to destroy Sodom, Abraham intervened and interceded because of Lot in Sodom. And he said to God, Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked? Far be it from thee, should not the judge of all the earth do right? And God assured him that he would not destroy the righteous with the wicked.

The judge of all the earth always does do right. And when he sends a general sweeping judgment, it is possible for his righteous people even to be among, mingling with those who are evil and yet not personally come under the judgment. And of course we've consulted on this point, Psalm 91 in the past.

Psalm 91 says concerning the person who dwells in the secret place of the Most High and abides under the shadow of the Almighty, he says, I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In him will I trust. It goes on to describe how God will save that person from judgment.

And it says of him in verse 7, Psalm 91, 7, A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked, because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation. There shall no evil fall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

This doesn't mean that sickness will never come to the home of a Christian. What it means is plagues that are sent by God as judgments will not come into the home of the godly, just as the deaf angel did not go into the home of the Jews that had the blood on the door. A thousand will fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it won't touch you if you're one of the ones who have made the Lord your habitation and dwell in the secret place of the Almighty and under the wing of the Most High.

So the point here is if you're one of God's people, when his judgments are sent, they will not hurt you. Now, for those who have always feared future tribulations and whose only hope was that they'd be raptured before such a tribulation ever came, many times when they learn that the Bible does not teach any such thing as a pre-tribulation rapture, they get all scared, because when they read the book of Revelation and they normally understand that to be a description of a great period of tribulation at the end of the age, a great plague being poured out as judgments from God, they're concerned because it seems like a horrible time to be on the earth. And they say, you mean God's going to let us go through that? Doesn't it say he's not appointed us into wrath, but to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ? And the answer is, of course, well, there's many parts to the answer to that question.

First of all, it's far from certain that Revelation is describing a future tribulation period, but even if it is, it's very clear that if his Christians are on the earth and he does not just point out plagues at any time, he does not pour out his plagues upon the godly. And we can see that in the book of Revelation. If you turn there, this is one of the places in chapter 7 of Revelation, one of the many places where Revelation picks up an image from Ezekiel.

And the image is somewhat modified for John's purposes when he writes it, but obviously the thought is taken from Ezekiel chapter 9. Revelation 7, verse 1, it says, And after these things I saw the four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of God, the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

That seal on the forehead, of course, is taken from Ezekiel 9, where the immense ink-horn went through and put a mark on the foreheads of those who sighed and cried. These are identified with the servants of God who are to be sealed on their foreheads. And I heard the number of them that were sealed, it was 144,000, and then the plagues commenced.

Now, later on in chapter 9, where the plague of locusts, with tales like scorpions and other remarkable features, is given, it says in verse 4, Revelation 9, 4, And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. This plague was only poured out selectively upon those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. So, whether you identify this as future tribulation period, or whether it is identified as some other judgment from God, one thing is clear, since it is a judgment from God, it does not come upon those who have the seal of God on their foreheads.

And whereas in Ezekiel you see six men with swords, who are the ones who have charge over the city of Jerusalem, in Revelation you see four angels, these are not identified with Jerusalem, but with the earth, the whole world. The judgment in Revelation is a global thing, whereas in Ezekiel it is local. It is local on Jerusalem, but in Revelation it is a global judgment that is being described.

Therefore, it is a different number of angels, a different scene, but still you have in both cases the seal of God, or the mark of God being placed upon his people, and then, when afterward the judgment is released, it slaves everyone except those who have the mark of God on their foreheads. And that this is not a literal mark is very clear. It simply means that as slaves had the brand of their master many times on their forehead, so God's servants, God's slaves have his identified mark, which with us is not a physical thing, but there is the spirit of God in it.

I find this interpretation tremendously magnifies God's sovereignty, and it brings me to the question of the aspect of this part of the world, because I feel like in Scripture, throughout history, how much God is really involved, or is probably involved in the aspect of at least judgment of God throughout history of wars and things that have come upon Israel. You know, as you read the prophets, you definitely get the impression that every war recorded in the Old Testament was a means of God judging. When God sent judgment on the Canaanites, because their iniquities were full, he sent what? War.

He sent the Jews in with their swords and to slay them. When he brought judgment on rebellious Jerusalem, it was through armies coming against them. So the person who didn't have spiritual insight would just see it as another political conflict, would just see it as another nation rising up against nation, but the prophets all saw it as an act of God.

Now, we could ask ourselves, does that remain true in the New Testament time? You know, maybe that's just an Old Testament idea, is that also true in the New Testament times and today? And there is a place that gives us a bit of an answer to that question, and that is in Matthew chapter 1, I believe it is. 422, it's chapter 22. And it's in the parable of the wedding feast that Jesus gave about how the invitation was put out to the Jewish people to come and join the kingdom of God.

And they made excuses and didn't come. And therefore, in the parable, it says in verse 7, Matthew 22, 7, But when the king heard thereof, he was angry, and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. Now, the fulfillment of this statement of 70 AD, when the Roman armies came and burned up Jerusalem and punished the Jews who had rejected the message.

But notice it says, the king sent his armies, and the king in the parable is God. And we know that the fulfillment was through the armies of the Romans. And yet in the parable, Jesus identifies them as God's armies coming to bring his judgment upon those that he rejected his invitation, the wedding feast.

So, I believe that we have reason to see the sovereignty of God in war. For example, in World War II, if you read Rethal's intercessor, and maybe you have, I don't know, some people here have, you know how his prayers moved the hand of God to bring about the proper conclusions to that battle. You may have heard me say before that I don't believe Christians should fight in war.

And I believe that that is true. I believe the Christian church has a higher function, a higher way of blessing society than fighting in its wars. But that doesn't mean war is wrong in itself.

The state is ordained of God to fight wars. It says in Romans 13 that God has given them the sword, not in vain, you know, but in order to enforce justice. And in a situation where one state goes to war against another, Christians, I believe, should be involved in praying in the spiritual aspect of the warfare.

You know, I don't think Christians do the country a service if they abandon their spiritual warfare to go out and carry weapons. I mean, when an unbeliever can do that as well as a Christian, the Christian ought to do what he can do and what an unbeliever can't do, and that is move the hand of God through his prayers, like Priest Howlson, those guys did. But that is still seen that war is a tool in the hand of God.

It is a tool that he exercises largely through state agency rather than church agency, but it is nonetheless part of his sovereign government of the earth affairs. And I definitely believe World War II was God's judgment on the Third Reich. And you might say, well, what about in wars where the wicked prevail, you know, like where the Russians come and invade Afghanistan? Well, you know, in that case, of course, we've got two heathen nations at war, and one temporarily defeats the other and so forth.

Both of them sustain heavy losses, but neither of them is particularly a godly nation. One is Muslim and the other is communist, you know. But still, that can still be seen as a judgment of God, because in the prophets, we see that God will sometimes even use a more wicked nation to punish a nation that is less wicked.

But eventually, he will punish them all. But in what order is his decision? You know, he used Babylon to punish Tyre. Well, Tyre was a wicked nation, but so was Babylon.

But it's very clear in Ezekiel, as we'll see, that Babylon was God's judgment upon Tyre, and also on Egypt and other nations too. So in those cases, all the nations involved were wicked nations, but God would still use one against another. And, you know, we can see wars having, as the sovereignty of God, you know, in action, governing the political affairs of the earth.

The Bible says God raises up kings and he brings down kings. He's the one who controls political uprisings and so forth. Now, that doesn't mean that everything that's done in war is done in a way that God would like it to be done.

And, of course, that's just true of the sovereignty of God in general. God is sovereign over everything, but that doesn't mean that everything that happens is exactly the way he would be most pleased to see it happen. It's more that in general, he directs the course of history.

It's like he paints the picture with a broad brush, you know, and he determines the general movement of history. But as far as individual decisions made by individuals, there's still a great deal of free will. And many people make decisions that are quite contrary to what God would wish.

But he still works all things after the counsel of his will, so that even people's sinful choices, he can manipulate to bring about an ultimate goal that he wished to happen, like the selling of Joseph into slavery was an evil choice on the part of his brothers. But God used it to bring about the purpose of getting Joseph to Egypt. Or Judas betraying Jesus and the Jews killing Jesus.

Those were sinful, wicked choices they made, and they certainly were not pleasing to God that they made those choices. Yet he used that situation to affect our salvation at the cross. So, I mean, it's a mystery.

The mystery of the sovereignty of God is really deep. But the point is that God always gets his purposes fulfilled. And the broader, more significant movements of history, like wars and so forth, are acts that we can see the purpose of God somehow being advanced in.

Though many times the specific acts done by soldiers or armies are very wicked and are not the kinds of acts that God would approve. So even in Isaiah, let me show you an example of this in Isaiah chapter 10. We're getting off the subject a little bit at Flippit, I think, just for a moment.

Isaiah chapter 10 is talking about how God is bringing the Assyrians against Samaria, that is against the northern kingdom of Israel, for their sins. And, of course, the Assyrians became the tool of God's judgment against Assyria. But then it says, let's see here, in verse 5, it says, O Assyrian, the rod of my anger... In other words, God is holding Assyria like a rod to smite him, to punish his people.

And the staff in their hand is my indignation. They're his tool. I will send him against an hypocritical nation and against the people of my wrath.

Will I give him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down like mire in the streets? But it says, Howbeit, he means not so. In other words, the Assyrian doesn't see it that way. He's not doing this as an act of obedience to God.

Neither does his heart think so, but it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off nations, not a few. In other words, the Assyrian doesn't have any good motive in what he's doing. He just is a bloodthirsty, cruel tyrant, and he just wants to cut off other nations.

But he says, they don't see themselves as God's agents. And therefore, they'll have to come under judgment, too, for their wickedness. But at the moment, he is using them to judge someone else.

Later, he'll judge them by some other force, namely Babylon. But notice later in the same chapter, it says in verse 15, Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it, as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself as if it were no wood? Now, rod and staff, he's already said, Assyria is his rod and his staff to punish Israel. He says, what a ridiculous thing for a rod or a staff or a saw or an axe to take the credit for whatever is accomplished by the person who uses that tool.

And so he indicates, therefore the Lord's going to judge them, too, in verse 16. Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones, that is among the Assyrian fat ones, to bring about his holiness, and under his glory shall he kindle a burning like the burning of fire, and so forth. So it goes on to talk about God's going to judge Assyria, too.

The sovereignty of God is a tremendously intricate, interwoven fabric, how he takes every individual moral decision that a man makes and interweaves it to bring about the tapestry of the big picture of his final purposes. It's an incredible thing, because it says in the psalm, he causes even the wrath of man to praise him, and the remnant of the wrath he will subdue. Anything that man's wrath is allowed to do, God allows it to happen so that it can bring about his ultimate praise and purpose.

But any wrath that he can't use, he'll subdue it and it won't ever come. So we can say that whenever the wrath of man is exerted, like Joseph selling his brothers or the Jews crucifying Jesus, or an army coming against another army, if God had no purpose to accomplish it, he would not have allowed that to rise up at all. He would have subdued it.

But he allows a certain amount of freedom for man's wrath to be vented, because there are times when he can use that to bring about judgment on a nation. So that's sort of a wide excursus from our main point, but I think it's an important point for us to understand the sovereignty of God and his relationship to war. What we can see then, in comparing Ezekiel 9 with Revelation, that there is a principle seen in a particular circumstance in Ezekiel that carries over into all God's dealings as seen in Revelation, that before he releases his agents of judgment upon a sinful world or a sinful city, he first has been sure to identify his people and make sure that they don't come under the same judgment.

Now we might say, but aren't Christians sometimes killed in war? And of course some Christians are killed in war, but they don't come under God's judgment. God may judge a nation corporately and destroy it through war. That doesn't mean that every individual in that nation who suffered and died was necessarily a direct object of God's judgment.

After all, if a Christian dies, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, and we go to be with the Lord. And Paul said to die is gain for a Christian, to live is Christ and to die is gain. So we can't really see that a Christian who is killed under those circumstances has come under God's judgment.

He's simply been released to go and be with the Lord, which is far better. But nonetheless, the overall effect of the war is a judgment upon the nation that loses that war. It's a corporate judgment on a corporate empire or whatever.

The individuals who die in the circumstance are not all necessarily objects of his judgment, but he has his mark upon us. So if he sent, for instance, judgment on this country, if he allowed there to be a nuclear war and America was wiped out, some of us might be killed in it. All of us might be killed in it.

But we still have the mark of God upon us so that we don't come under his judgment or his condemnation. And while that nuclear war may be the way that sinners are ushered into the judgment hall of Christ for judgment, for us it ushers us into his presence in fullness of joy. What it's saying is the same thing he said to Pharaoh through Moses, that God makes a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.

When he said that when the plague of darkness would come, he said there will be no darkness in the camp of Israel, just in the camp of Egypt, so that you may know, Moses said this to Pharaoh, so that you may know that God puts a difference between Israel and the Egyptians. And that's the point here. God makes a difference between his people and those who are not his people, and we shall never come under condemnation or judgment from God.

Even if we happen to be on this earth at a time when his judgment is being put out, we never need to fear his judgment. Now we may suffer physical harm, but we will never suffer his judgment and condemnation. But that we would suffer physical harm has always been understood.

I mean, Christians have always had to be subject and prepared to die. For God or in other means, everyone dies. Whether they die young or old doesn't really make a great deal of difference when you consider eternity as their destiny.

Well, let's go back into Ezekiel now. Let's go to chapter 10. Then I looked, and behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims, there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.

And it says, And he spake unto the man clothed in linen, and said, this is the one who had the inkhorn apparently, and said, Go in between the wheels, even unto the cherubim, fill thine hand with the coals of the fire from between the cherubims, and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight. So, mainly what happens here is this man with the inkhorn, after he has gone out and mopped the foreheads, and these other six guys with angels have gone out and done the bloody massacre, then this one takes coals from between the cherubim, unto the chariot and the throne of God, representing of course the near presence of God.

And these coals of judgment are coming sprinkled over the city, which suggests that it's a general sweeping judgment that comes upon the whole city. And actually as a result, the city is burned. It literally was burned down.

Now, the cherubim stood on the right side of the house, in the temple, when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court. Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house. Now, there are several occasions where we see movement on the part of the glory of the Lord.

The significance of that movement is not always easy to understand. For instance, it says in verse 3 of the previous chapter, chapter 9, verse 3, the glory of the Lord of God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. Now, here we have it almost as though that happens again.

So, either in the meantime, the Lord went back and rested over the cherubim, that is the four who stood by the wheels, and he's moving back and forth. Now, the cherubim are standing at the east side of the house, and the glory of the Lord is alternately either with them at the east side of the house, or moving to the threshold of the house, that is the doorway of the temple. Moving back and forth takes place a number of times.

In chapter 11, verse 23, we see again, then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubim. And finally, in chapter 11, in verse 23, it says, and the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which was on the east side of the city, which is Mount of Olives. So, one of the main foci of this whole vision is the glory of the Lord.

Where is the glory? In the early part of the vision, he is sort of fluctuated in and out of the temple itself. And maybe what this is illustrating is, of course, ultimately he leaves altogether. But maybe it's illustrating the fact that the Jews throughout the history alternately give him cause to stay with them, and then other times cause to leave them.

It's almost as though he looks indecisive. Am I going to stay or am I not going to stay? Not as though God is really indecisive, but he's moving back and forth, as of course their whole history was a reflection of this. They depart from the Lord and so he'd leave.

And then they'd come back to the Lord and he'd come back in. And his glory would depart from the temple or come into the temple, depending on their actions. I don't know that that's what's illustrated here.

I honestly don't know what's illustrated in chapter 10 particularly, because it's mostly, and we won't read it all again, but it's mostly just a description again of the cherubims and the wheels and the chariot and everything, almost verbatim as it was described in chapter 1. One significant difference though is in verses 14 and 15. It's describing these creatures again. It says, and every one had four faces.

The first face was the face of a cherub. The second face was the face of a man. The third face of a lion.

And the fourth face of an eagle. Now you remember in chapter 1 there were four faces. And the lion and the man and the eagle face are mentioned in both passages, but in the other passage, in chapter 1, there was mentioned the face of an ox.

Here there's a mention of the face of an ox, but rather the word cherub is stuck in where we'd expect ox. And I don't think we're necessarily to say that the overall image of a cherub was that of an ox, because we're told in chapter 1 their overall image was that of a man, that they had the appearance of a man generally. Therefore the face of the man would seem to be the predominant face of a cherub.

So why here it substitutes the word cherub for ox is not clear. It is possible that from his vantage point where he stood, it was the face of the ox on each one that was facing him. And as he looked at them, the prevailing impression he got was an ox's face, and so he called that, at that moment, the face of a cherub, whereas there were other faces too that he named.

But it's not easy to explain why he uses the word cherub here instead of ox. But verse 15 is interesting. It says, The cherubims were lifted up.

This is the living creature that I saw by the river Kebar. And then, let me see, in verse 20 it says, This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Kebar, and I knew that they were the cherubims. Now, what I'd like to point out is when he saw them at the river Kebar, he didn't call them cherubims, and apparently at that time didn't know they were cherubims.

He didn't know what they were called. But this time when he sees them, he knows that they are cherubims. He says, Well, I saw them this time, I knew that they were cherubims.

These are those creatures that I saw before, and now I call them cherubims because I now know that they are cherubims. Well, how did he know now that they were cherubims and not then? The answer would seem to be that when he was called in chapter 1, though he were a priest, he was too young to have ever entered into the priestly office, therefore he had never been in the temple. If he had been in the temple, he would have had opportunity to see images of cherubims everywhere.

On the curtains, and of course the high priest would actually go into the Holy of Holies and see the carved cherubims over the mercy seat. A man who could go into the temple would identify these creatures as cherubims immediately because the images of cherubims exist all over in the temple. But Ezekiel had never been in the temple at the time that he saw the first vision, so when he saw the cherubim, he didn't know that's what they were.

But now in this vision, he is taken into the temple. That's where he is. That's where the vision is happening.

And therefore, he knows what cherubim look like because the temple ornamentation is covered with them. And now he says, now that's the creature that I saw by the river Kibor. They're cherubim.

Now I know they're cherubim. I know what they're called now. So I think that's the revelation he got there, that this creature that he'd seen before, now, oh, those are those creatures that I've read so much about over the mercy seat and so forth.

That's what I saw was these cherubim. But he didn't know that they were cherubim when he first saw this. It also indicates, of course, that though only 14 months had passed between the first vision and the second, he apparently wrote down the first vision during that period, as opposed to writing down all these visions sometime later in his life.

He apparently wrote down the first vision before he had the second, because as he wrote down the first vision, he didn't insert the fact that they were cherubim, probably because he didn't know it at the time he wrote it. But now when he writes the second vision, he adds that as a bit of added knowledge. But as you know, because you've read this chapter, it doesn't really add very much new information except for the global order moving between the cherubim and the threshold of the door.

So we'll go on to chapter 11. And in chapter 11, the first part is a description of the attitude of the Jews that they had security, that they were not going to suffer judgment. And so it's a description of their false sense of security.

And that is illustrated in some of the Proverbs they were saying. It says, Now we encounter Jeazniah, the son of Shaphan among the 70 in that hidden court under the temple. Here we have the 25 men with censers that we saw who were worshipping the sun.

That was a different image. And there's another Jeazniah. It's clear that it's another Jeazniah, though the name is the same.

He points out clearly that it's a different one. This one's the son of Azer, not the son of Shaphan. It's the other one.

And Pelitiah, the son of Beniah, princes of the people. That is, this man Jeazniah and Beniah were princes of the people, whether that means they were actually sons of the king, which seems likely, or else just holding some other great post of authority. Pelitiah actually comes under judgment and drops dead before the end of this chapter.

But he sees them there, and he said, So these two princes seem to be the main perpetrators of idolatry in the city, and the ones who are largely responsible for what's happened. Just as Jezebel was largely responsible for introducing Baal worship into Israel, these men were largely responsible for all these abominations that he has seen in chapter 8, and for the destruction that takes place in chapter 9. It says, Now that's what they were saying. Now that seems like a strange statement, because if they say the city is a cauldron, and we are the flesh, meaning the flesh in the cauldron, it almost sounds like they are saying, we are in trouble.

We have the expression, jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. In the frying pan is not a good place to be, but in the fire is worse, in that expression. But this is totally different.

To them, the meat in the cauldron was something special, something holy. The cauldron is, of course, the cauldron used in temple worship by the priests. The portion of the animal that was given to the priests for their eating was holy food, and they cooked it in the cauldron and ate it.

And it was part of the temple ritual, part of the sacrifice ritual, for them to eat this meat in the cauldron. We can read in the book of 1 Samuel, how one of the sins of Eli's sons was that they took the meat out of the cauldron, with a free-flowing fork, before the fat and other things were removed that were supposed to be given to God. But the cauldron was the place where the holy meat was cooked to be consumed by the priests.

Therefore, what they are saying is, the city is like a big holy cauldron, and everyone in it is holy unto the Lord, like the meat in the cauldron. Basically, they are flattering themselves, by saying, we are the meat in the cauldron. Now, we have to understand that Jewish ritual in order to understand why that would convey that meaning.

But they saw, it was like the whole city of Jerusalem was just a big holy vessel, a big holy container, and everything in it was holy, just like the meat in the priest's cauldron was holy. And so, what they are saying is, we are holy unto the Lord, by dint of the fact that we live in Jerusalem. Regardless of how we live.

They had a false security that being members of the Jewish race, and living in the holy city, was automatic immunity from all judgment and from all harm. As of course, many people have that false notion about the Jews today, and have the belief that the Jews, regardless of what they do, nonetheless, since they are Jewish, they are God's people, and they should be supported. Well, that is sort of the view they had there.

But God said that these men, Jeazaniah and Pelitiah, these men were perpetrating mischief and wicked counsel with this kind of an attitude. Because they gave people the impression that they have license to sin, because some external circumstance caused them to be God's favorites, because they happen to live in Jerusalem. It is not far removed from today's eternal security doctrine, that teaches you, once you are in the church, once you are in grace, you can do whatever you want to, and you are exempt from hell, you are exempt from judgment.

Once you say the sinner's prayer, you are in, and nothing you do matters after that. And that is sort of the modern counterpart in the church to this attitude in the Jews. Therefore, prophesy against them.

Prophesy, O son of man. And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me and said unto me, Speak, thus saith the Lord, thus have you said, O house of Israel. For I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.

God knows all our thoughts. Ye have multiplied your slain in the city, meaning murder. Ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain.

Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Your slain, whom ye have laid in the midst thereof, they are the flesh. And this city is the cauldron. But I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.

Ye have feared the sword, and I will bring a sword upon you, saith the Lord God. And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments against you. You shall fall by the sword, and I will judge you in the border of Israel.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord. This city shall not be your cauldron, neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof. But I will judge you in the border of Israel.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord, for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathens that are round about you. Now God takes up this proverb they were saying, We are the flesh in the cauldron, that is, we are the holy ones. He says, No, the people who are really the flesh in the cauldron, the real holy people are the ones you've slain.

The people you've killed. You've persecuted the innocent. And you've oppressed the poor.

And you've slain people who had done no wrong. They are the ones who rightly should be called the flesh in the cauldron. They are the ones who are holy unto the Lord.

But you haven't treated them as holy unto the Lord. You've killed them. You, he says, though you are in Jerusalem, therefore you might see yourself as flesh in the cauldron, yet you will be removed like pieces of meat from that cauldron.

You'll be taken from Jerusalem, and your judgment will come upon you in the borders of Israel, he says twice. The borders mean on the outskirts. They're not going to be in the midst of the cauldron.

They're like meat removed from the cauldron for its unfitness to be there. And therefore they will be judged outside the city of Jerusalem on the borders of Israel. That's what he's saying.

So he goes ahead and accepts the idea that the city of Jerusalem is a cauldron. Just for the purpose of adopting their imagery. But he says, if the city of Jerusalem is a cauldron, you are certainly not holy enough to stay there.

You're not holy flesh. And so you'll be taken out like pieces would be discarded out of a cauldron, and you'll be judged outside the city in the borders of Israel. Those who have died at your hands, if there are any holy flesh in the city, it was them, he says.

They are the flesh in the cauldron. So that's how he adapts their parable. Then it says in verse 13, It came to pass when I prophesied, that's why he was saying these words, that Pelitiah the son of Benaiah died.

Then fell I down upon my face and cried with a loud voice, and said, O Lord God, wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel. Now, Ezekiel did not expect this to happen. He didn't prophesy death upon Pelitiah.

He just prophesied this general statement against him. And to his shock, Pelitiah fell down on death. Now, it does not necessarily mean that Pelitiah heard the words of the prophecy.

That Ezekiel was actually in the presence of Pelitiah, speaking these to him, and then he dropped dead out of shock, or whatever, from what he heard. It's quite consistent with what we know of the situation, that Ezekiel, in the vision, prophesied to Pelitiah. And in the vision, he saw Pelitiah die.

Now, Pelitiah may have actually, literally at that very moment, dropped dead. While Ezekiel was having this vision in Babylonia, Pelitiah standing over Jerusalem may have dropped dead at that very moment. It's entirely possible.

It's also possible that Pelitiah died at a later date, under the judgment of God, maybe at the hands of Babylonians, but in his vision he saw it happen now, just as he saw the six men go through and wipe out the city, in his vision, when it wasn't really happening at that exact moment. Simply pointing out that this man is going to suffer and die at the hands of God. It can be seen either way, and we're not told, we don't have any other historic information in the Bible telling us about the death of Pelitiah.

So, it seems possible that Pelitiah dropped dead at the moment that Ezekiel was making these prophecies. It reminds us, of course, of a New Testament incident, where Ananias and Sapphira had lied about the amount of money they were bringing to the apostles, and Peter prophesied against them, or he didn't prophesy, he just rebuked them. And to his surprise, they fell over dead.

Well, it surprised Peter when Ananias fell over dead in Acts chapter 5, but when Sapphira came in, Peter was expecting it. And so he said, the men that buried your husband are going to carry you out and bury you. And so he knew she'd drop dead, and she did.

But that's not always, I mean, that doesn't happen very frequently. But, in fact, as far as I know, only here, in Acts 5, did that happen, that when someone was rebuked or prophesied against, that they literally fell over dead. Then, of course, Ezekiel was amazed and stunned and shocked and he cried out in fear when he saw this happen.

He said, Lord God, will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel? And again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, saying, Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel holy, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the Lord. Unto us is this land given in possession. Now, there's a couple of ways of seeing this.

It says, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel holy, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said. In other words, it's as though Ezekiel's companions, perhaps those exiles in Babylon, his kindred and his fellows there in Babylon, were being spoken to by those who were still in Jerusalem. Now, maybe they were literally being told this, or maybe this is just reflecting, again, putting words in their mouth, reflecting what their attitude is.

But the attitude of the people in Jerusalem was that those who had been taken into exile were unworthy. I mean, it's like those who were still in the cauldron were the holy flesh. Those who escaped deportation and the earlier deportations were specially blessed people.

Whereas those that were exiles now were far from the Lord. And so, in a sense, the attitude of the people who remained in Jerusalem toward those who were exiles, like Ezekiel, was, you people are far from the Lord. You people, you're separated from the temple, therefore you're far from the Lord.

And he says, but this land is given to us in possession, could mean we who remain will not be removed. God has let us have the land. We don't know what's wrong with you.

God apparently didn't like you, and so he took us far from him. But we are going to stay here, because God has given us this land and that's where we're going to be. That's one way to understand it, and that could very probably be what's intended.

Another interpretation of the statement is that the people of Jerusalem said among themselves, let's ignore the Lord, let's get far from the Lord, let's worship other gods, because we have been given an unconditional grant to this property. This land is given to us in possession, meaning God has given us this land. He's not going to take it away from us, therefore it doesn't matter what we do.

And that would agree with their whole idea of the flesh in the cauldron. As long as we're in the cauldron, we're safe, we're holy, it doesn't matter how we live, it doesn't matter that we don't worship idols, we're still holy in the sight of God because we're in Jerusalem. And in that case they would simply be saying that again their grant to the land is unconditional, and therefore if they wish they can depart as far from the Lord as they want to, as long as they stay in the land they're going to be able to have it because God won't take it from them.

In either case, whichever is the true sense of what they're saying, both have the one element that they thought of the land as unconditionally theirs, and they figured that God would never take the land from them, because it was unconditionally given to them in possession. However, it's clear that Ezekiel does not agree with that, and God does not agree with that. He sees this as part of their faulty reasoning.

And of course, again, I would point out that there are many Christians and Jews today who still believe that the land is unconditionally theirs, regardless of whether they serve God or not, that the Jews have a right to that land no matter where they love God or not. And we know that most Jews, although there are many of them who are good Christians, many thousands of Jews have become wonderful Christians and leaders in the Christian church, still the majority of the Jews do not believe in Christ. And in fact, the majority of Jews today don't even believe in God anymore.

If a survey is taken among the Jews in New York City, which is of course where there are more Jews than anywhere else in the world, you'd find that most of them are just secular businessmen, most of them their personal religious faith is nil, most of them are atheists. And so, to say that the Jews are given this land unconditionally, regardless of whether they're close to God or not, is contrary to the biblical truth, and is actually the fallacy that these Jews were making at the time, thinking, well, we can worship our idols because we will never be put out of this land. Now, there is, at this point, God interjects a messianic prediction.

He begins by pointing out that he will preserve a remnant of righteous Jews in the captivity and restore them to their land. But then he goes on from there to go on to talk about the new covenant. Though he doesn't use the word covenant, he uses language that is to other places about the new covenant, about the new heart and the new spirit put in them.

And so we see that in these following verses. Verse 16, Therefore sayeth the Lord God, although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. Now, if the inhabitants of Jerusalem were saying, of the exiles, these people are far from the Lord, we don't know what's wrong with them, but God let them be judged, but we're safe.

He's saying, no, the opposite is true. Those exiles that have gone out, they're more righteous than the people in the city. They're more righteous than the ones who are still in Jerusalem.

Because the exiles, at least, are not worshiping idols anymore. In Babylon, where the ones in Jerusalem are still worshiping their abominations. So he's saying, therefore, because they're saying this, although I have cast them far off among the heathen, meaning the exiles like Ezekiel himself, his companions, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them a little sanctuary.

Now, they are far removed from the sanctuary in Jerusalem, but God himself is the sanctuary of those who serve him, even though they are a thousand miles removed from Jerusalem. The sanctuary in Jerusalem is just a building, and it happens to be a building from which the Lord is about to depart. But he will give his own private little sanctuary to every person who sets up an altar to him in their heart.

Even though they're in exile thousands of miles away, I will be to him a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. Therefore say, thus saith the Lord God, I will even gather you from the people and assemble you out of the countries where you've been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. That is, those who are in Israel still thinking that was their possession, God said, I'm going to wipe them out, drive them out, and these who are being accused by them of being unclean meat, cast out of the cauldron, you are the ones who will eventually have the land.

And it was, of course, the believing remnant of the exiles that was brought back with Zerubbabel and with Ezra and Nehemiah and was given the land back again. So this was fulfilled in the natural. And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from there, which happened.

And 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 I will give them a heart of flesh. Now we know that that, in a sense, well, we could read on, 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. Now, that in a sense is true of the exiles who returned under Zerubbabel.

They did have a different attitude. They did have a different spirit and a different heart than the ones who were taken out. They were chastened.

They were broken. They were, for the most part, determined to honor God, although they did lapse into interracial marriages and things like that that they were forbidden to do. But they were a different kind of people with a softer heart that returned.

And they did walk in God's ways for the most part. So there's a sense in which this does apply to the returns from the exile. However, the language itself, we know from other passages, is a reference ultimately to the new covenant and how he gives us a new heart.

This is seen most clearly in Ezekiel 37, I believe it is. Yeah. Ezekiel 37.

And it says in verse 25, Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you.

A new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them.

Now, again, a lot of this language is used in Messianic passages about what Jesus would bring in in the new covenant. The spirit is given, a new heart, he writes laws on our hearts, we're told in Jeremiah. It's a new heart, we're a new creature in Christ.

He makes us walk in his statutes because God works in us to will and to do. It's good pleasure, we're told in the New Testament. Also, when you go back to our passage in chapter 11, he also says, and they shall be my people, and I shall be their God.

Remember, Hosea used that language also of God restoring people, and Paul quotes it in Romans as being about the church. So there's a lot in this that looks forward, maybe to a short-term, lesser fulfillment in the return of the exiles, but the greater, more significant fulfillment in the coming of the new covenant is the new heart that is given to us. But it says in contrast to those who come into that, verse 21, but as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord God.

Okay, finally this last little section, we see the glory departs. Then did the cherubims lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountains, which is on the east of the city, which is the Mount of Olives.

Afterwards the Spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God unto Chaldea, that is where he now lived in exile, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me. It says the vision went up from him, suggests that something came down over him, and then left again, rather than him being physically transported.

And I speak unto them of the captivity, all the things that the Lord has shown me. So we've already read them, but he now at this point tells it to the captivity. I just want to point out this one thing.

The glory of the Lord leaving the city, in verse 23, and going to stand on the Mount of Olives at the east side of the city, is simply a picture of the fact that God has left the city, and there is nothing left to protect them against their enemies, because God is no longer with them. But for God to stand on the Mount of Olives, this image comes up one other place in the Old Testament, where it is widely misinterpreted, and probably because modern Christian interpreters failed to connect it with what Ezekiel just said in the passage we read. But in Zechariah 14, in verse 4, it says, And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.

And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley. Now, this is often used to say that when Jesus comes back, he is going to set his foot on the Mount of Olives and it is going to split in two. And you have probably heard that somewhere or another, because a lot of people teach that is true.

That entire concept is taken from this verse in Zechariah. There is certainly nothing else in the Bible that suggests that he is going to set his foot on the Mount of Olives and it is going to split. This is the whole basis for that teaching.

And yet, when we study Zechariah 14, you will find, I think, that this is not a passage about the second coming of Christ. It seems to be a passage about the institution of the church and the judgment upon Jerusalem by the Romans. Now, I won't go into that in detail now and justify that, but realize that when it says, And his feet shall stand on that day upon the Mount of Olives, that is just what we saw in Ezekiel.

The glory of God left the city and stood on the Mount of Olives. In other words, outside the city. For the Romans to come and destroy Jerusalem, as for the Babylonians to come and destroy Jerusalem, means that the glory of the Lord has to first remove from Jerusalem and stand outside the city to sit and watch the Holocaust take place.

So, to say that his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives is not necessarily a literal statement that Jesus is going to come back and stand on the Mount of Olives. Although I do believe in the literal second coming of Christ, I don't believe this passage is talking about that. I believe what is being described in Zechariah is the same thing as in Ezekiel.

That God, who had been in the city of Jerusalem, removes himself from the city, stands outside the city on the Mount of Olives. And, of course, that leaves the city vulnerable to destruction by its enemies. And so we'll see that connection again when we come to Zechariah 14.

So, tomorrow now, I intend to go through the spoken parables of Ezekiel. Continue to read your five chapters today, and you'll stay, for the most part, abreast of what we're covering. Alright? Any questions? Go to www.osho.com For more information, visit www.osho.com Copyright © OSHO International Foundation OSHO is a registered Trademark of OSHO International Foundation