17-4-13, Ezekiel 8-11

The primary purpose of Ezekiel’s message was to restore God’s glory before the people who had spurned it in view of the watching nations. But Israel’s own welfare was bound up with its God.

As a priest, Ezekiel was deeply concerned with the holiness of God, and consequently with the sin of His people, that is, with any behavior that offended the holy God. These twin themes can hardly be separated, as attention to matters of purity can be found on nearly every page.

Like other prophets called to explain the Babylonian exile, Ezekiel stressed that it was due to the people’s faithlessness toward God, and therefore to their failure to live as God’s renewed humanity. He also stressed that even this disaster was not the end of Israel’s story. God would restore them morally and spiritually, and eventually use Israel to bring light to the Gentiles.

Ezekiel adds a nuance to this prophetic refrain: Israel”s calling was to show forth holiness of God’s name, but they had “profaned” that name (treated it as unholy); in restoring them, God would act to vindicate the holiness of his name before all nations, enabling them to know him.

Ezekiel’s Temple Vision (8-11)

, Transportation and abominations

Ezekiel 8:1–4 ESV

1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. 2 Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal. 3 He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. 4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.

The New Bible Commentary 8:1–11:25 Jerusalem’s Idolatry and Its Punishment

Ezekiel has a vision in which he is transported to the temple in Jerusalem. There he sees the glory of the Lord—just as he had done on the plain. Then he is shown various examples of the idolatry being practised.

, Slaughter in Jerusalem

, The fire and the glory

, Punishment for civic authorities

, Punishment for civic authorities

, Promise of a new heart, spirit

, The glory of the Lord departs