EZEKIEL 9
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2003 James Melough
9:1. “He cried also in mine ears with a loud
voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even
every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.”
“... them that have charge over the city” is also translated “you
executioners, you scourges,” each one to have with him his weapon, assuring us
that they were to be God’s agents of destruction as He executed judgment
against the city’s wicked inhabitants. Most scholars understand them to have
been angels.
9:2. “And, behold, six men came from the way of
the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter
weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a
writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brazen
(bronze) altar.”
The linen-clad man is generally understood to have been a seventh in the midst
of the six, and there can be little question that he represents the Lord Jesus
Christ. Six is the biblical number of man, weakness, sin, departure from God,
and it always has a bad connotation. Seven, on the other hand, is the number
of perfection or completeness.
Their coming from the northern gate of the city confirms that their coming was
to execute judgment, for as noted already, the north is always connected with
intelligence rather than faith, and is almost invariably associated with
judgment, the slaughter weapon or battle axe in the hand of each enhancing the
idea of judgmental destruction. Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, coming
from the north in 586 BC, were God’s literal instruments of judgment.
Their standing at the brazen altar (brass or bronze is always the biblical
symbol of judgment), adds yet another confirmatory stroke to the symbolic
picture of doom and death about to envelop the sinful city.
The one clothed in linen (biblical symbol of righteousness) reminds us of the
absolute justice of the judgment about to overtake the wicked nation; and the
writing case by his side is the further reminder that the Scriptures given to
Israel declared not only God’s righteous standard governing man’s conduct, but
also the penalty that must attend disobedience. Israel could never say that
she hadn’t had abundant warning relative to the consequences of rebellion.
Nor can today’s equally apostate Christendom.
The writing case, however, may be also the symbolic reminder that God keeps a
full record of each man’s life, with every indication that that record will be
opened on the day of judgment, see Re 20:12 which describes what will occur at
the judgment of the unbelieving dead at the great white throne, “... and the
books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and
the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books,
according to their works.”
9:3. “And the glory of the God of Israel was
gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And
he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his
side.”
Most scholars believe that the “glory” was the shekinah cloud of glory that
was over the two guardian gold cherubim which kept constant symbolic vigil
over the mercy seat, at either end of which each cherub stood. The movement
of the shekinah cloud from its position over the cherubim, to the threshold of
the Temple, was God’s intimation of His departure from both the Temple and the
sinful people, and His abandonment of both to judgment. Its next step of
departure was to a position above the cherubim who appear to have been waiting
outside the door of the Temple, the next step being to the mountain. It will
not return again until it takes its place in the millennial Temple.
Some, however, take a different view as noted in The Wycliffe Bible
Commentary, “The text implies that Jehovah went to the threshold (9:3),
while the cherubim and vacant throne waited (10:3) until the Lord remounted
and departed (10:18).”
9:4. “And the Lord said unto him, Go through the
midst of the city, through 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.”
The linen-clad man with the writer’s inkhorn was then commanded to go through
Jerusalem placing a mark - generally believed to have been in the form of a
cross - on the forehead of every man who deplored and disapproved of the
filthy practices engaged in by the majority of the citizens. This surely
reminds us of the sealing of the 144,000 Jews in Re 7 prior to the outpouring
of the terrible judgments of the Great Tribulation.
Believers of this present Church age are also sealed by the indwelling Holy
Spirit, against judgment, the Lord Jesus Christ having borne their judgment at
Calvary.
9:5. “And to the others he said in mine hearing,
Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither
have ye pity:”
9:6. “Slay utterly old and young, both maids,
and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the
mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began with the ancient men which
were before the house.”
Without regard for age or sex, all not having the mark on their foreheads were
to be slaughtered, beginning with the idolatrous seventy ancient men mentioned
in 8:11-12, who worshiped idols even within the Temple precincts.
9:7. “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.”
The “house” was the Temple, and its being the place where the slaughter was to
begin reminds us of what is written in the NT relative to judgment, see 1 Pe
4:17-18, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God:
and if it begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel
of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and
the sinner appear?”
They were to defile the Temple with the carcases of the slain, only because
the people themselves had already defiled it by their wicked deeds. The
fulfillment of all of this is recorded in 2 Chr 36
9:8. “And it came to pass, while they were
slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said,
Ah Lord God! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of
thy fury upon Jerusalem?”
“... and I was left” means simply that Ezekiel had remained behind while the
executioners proceeded through the city doing their deadly work, the extent of
the slaughter so shocking him that he prostrated himself and asked the Lord if
the whole nation was to be annihilated in the Divine judgment.
9:9. “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 full of perverseness (injustice): for they say, the Lord hath
forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not.”
The judgment was proportionate to the wickedness of Israel and Judah. They
themselves had shed blood wantonly, and had perverted justice without
compunction, assuring themselves wrongly that the Lord had gone away and
didn’t see what they did. In other words, they had simply put Him out of
their minds, and lived as though He didn’t exist.
Will anyone deny that this is the very same attitude as marks the world
today? Men live as though there was no God; but condign judgment, similar to
that which overtook Israel and Judah in the days of Zedekiah, is also about to
break in the impending Great Tribulation, like a thunder burst upon an
unsuspecting world that plunges on to destruction heedless of warning.
9:10. “And as for me also, mine eye shall not
spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their
head.”
Ezekiel was assured that the God Israel and Judah had mocked, would neither
spare nor pity any of the wicked nation; and so will it be also in the coming
Great Tribulation. Today’s world will receive a judgment commensurate with
its wickedness, God having neither mercy nor pity for those whose sinfulness
has made them the heirs of judgment.
Relative to this verse The Jamieson, Fausset & Brown Commentary makes
the following interesting comment, “mine eye - to show them their
mistake in saying, ‘The Lord seeth not.’”
9:11. “And, behold, the man clothed with linen,
which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as
thou hast commanded me.”
The linen-clad servant, having done as God had bidden him, returned to report
that he had completed his assigned task. The Lord also could say in John
17:4, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou
gavest me to do.” It would be well for us who are believers were we able to
honestly present the same report, but it is to be feared that such are a very
small minority in the midst of even genuine believers today.
[Ezekiel
10]