IF the solemn pronouncements of chapter 5 had Jerusalem particularly in view, in these two chapters the whole land falls under God’s solemn dealing, and the reason for it is plainly expressed: it was idolatry, the forsaking of God for another god. Upon the mountains and hills, the watercourses and valleys once described, even by the unbelieving spies (Exodus 13:27), as a land flowing with milk and honey, God was about to bring a devouring sword.
The altars should be desolate, their sun-images (see margin) broken and the worshipers slain before their idols. The Hebrew Scriptures contain several words for idols, but that which Ezekiel uses in every instance is one of contempt, meaning “objects rolled about.” To faith this was a fit name for them, but they were the means Satan’s craft successfully employed to lead men to give up God. When the sword of vengeance passed through the land, the children of Israel would know that Jehovah had visited them, and their idols would be powerless to help them.
In mercy to Israel God would leave a remnant (verse 8), but these would be only they who escaped the sword, and they should be scattered through the countries. Such is Israel, or at least Judah, today, (for the ten tribes are lost to our view)—a people under God’s displeasure, making their homes as best they can among the Gentiles they once despised.
Verses 9 and 10 bring a gleam of hope for Israel; not yet have they been fulfilled, though the people have not worshiped idols since the Babylonian captivity.
Verses 13 and 14 emphasize the judgment upon all the abominations of the iniquities of the house of Israel, and show that Nebuchadnezzar’s hosts ravaged the land beside besieging Jerusalem. Where-ever idol worship was carried on—round their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thick terebinth— the places where they offered sweet savor to all their idols, there would the slain be found, their last steps leading them to seek these Satanic substitutes for the worship of the true God.
Diblath, a wilderness whose identity is now unknown, we may well suppose to have been a very desolate place in Ezekiel’s day, but the whole land of Israel was to be more desolate than Diblath had been.
Chapter 7 enlarges upon the desolation of the land, completing the prophetic word whose beginning was in chapter 4. An end, the end, indeed, was come for Israel whose abominations (a term in Scripture associated with idolatry) brought upon the nation the unsparing judgment of a longsuffering God.
There could be no pity in that judgment, since forbearance had ever been despised, and the words of God’s prophets refused. The rod had blossomed, pride was full blown; violence was risen up into a rod of wickedness; nothing of them should remain, nor of their multitude (verses 10 and 11). Outside would be the sword; within, pestilence and famine; death in one form or another threatened all. Some would escape with their lives, bemoaning their state (verses 15 and 16). They gird on sackcloth; horror covers them; shame is upon all faces, baldness on all heads (verse 18). These are all part of the wages of sin, but it does not appear that conviction would come to many, with confession and humiliation before God. When men and women will not heed God’s Word while there is opportunity, there is little ground to suppose that when death threatens they will believe and be saved. Rather are they apt to be hardened then, and die determinedly in their sins.
What use are gold and silver when life’s bright day is over? Silver and gold shall not be able to deliver the possessor in the day of Jehovah’s wrath, nor would they satisfy the soul or fill the belly in the famine which besieged-Jerusalem would experience (verse 19).
The costly temple Solomon had erected was profaned by the images of idols and of detestable things; God had forsaken it, and would give it to strangers, to the wicked. The worst of the nations would shortly enter the land now full of bloody crimes, and the city full of violence (verses 20-24). Peace sought when destruction comes is not found, nor will prophet, priest or elder be of avail then.
A mourning king and a dismayed prince, and trembling people, complete the picture of human woe in that day (verses 25-27).
Fearful are the closing words of chapter 7: “I will do unto them (the unrepentant sinners of Israel who were involved in the judgment of that day) according to their way, and with their judgments will I judge them; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.” What then of the despisers of God’s Word in 1935?
ML-07/28/1935