IN the prophet’s vision he is brought to the day of slaughter, the day of the vengeance of God upon Jerusalem, which occurred almost five years later. In view of the working of wickedness which was revealed in the 8th chapter, we can but marvel at the divine forbearance that permitted another 5 years to pass before the city and its inhabitants were overwhelmed in judgment long withheld.
As before, the action here is symbolic; what we see in figure is the judgment of God poured out on the people of Jerusalem, with angels as the doers of His bidding. When the final scenes were enacted, the soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar were God’s visible instruments.
From the north—the direction from which the enemy would approach for Jerusalem’s siege and destruction—come six men, each with his slaughter (literally “dashing-in-pieces”) weapon, and in the midst of them one clothed with linen, with a writer’s ink-horn on his loins. These angelic beings take their places at the brazen altar—place of the judgment of sin—but no victim to be offered as the sinner’s substitute is seen upon it now. The day for that is past; the sinner himself is about to be judged.
The linen clothing of the man with the ink-horn indicates a priest, or priestly work. He stands, in what follows, between those who sighed and cried for all the abominations that were practiced, and the sword of vengeance which should have devoured them. Does he not then present an apt figure of Christ’s work on behalf of those who trust in Him? We are reminded, too, in the marking-of those to be preserved from judgment, of His precious word in John 10:1.4; “I know My sheep.”
Verse 3 records the beginning of the departure of the visible token of the presence of God—the glory cloud—from the temple at Jerusalem. He cannot longer remain among a people who have sold themselves to Satan, but chapter 10, verse 19, and chapter 11, verse 23 show with what lingering steps Israel’s God darted from His earthly habitation. Chapter 43, in a prophecy yet to be fulfilled, presents the return of the glory to a new, a cleansed, Jerusalem where righteousness will reign.
Verse 6: The unbelieving, of course, reject the Word of God, but that Word, both by promise and example, points to unsparing judgment as the portion of those who are destined to meet Him as Judge. In the flood of Noah’s day, who escaped of those outside the ark of safety? None whatever! When Sodom’s judgment fell, who escaped from the city? None whatever!
These two examples were before the Lord Jesus in Luke 17, in speaking of judgment to come. And if we turn to Revelation 20, where the wicked dead are seen gathered before the great white throne, we search in vain for mention of any who shall he spared from the lake of fire. None? None whatever!
Judgment begins at the house of God, as Peter records, in his First Epistle (chapter 4:17). It is a principle the exercise of which is discernible throughout the Scriptures. God requires holiness in those who draw near to Him. Accordingly the word to the executioners in verse 6 is: “Begin at My sanctuary!”
Verse 7: The temple having been defiled by the introduction of other objects of worship, as told in chapter 8, God will no longer dwell there; the house has become common, and He directs His servants to defile it, and fill the courts with the slain.
Verses 8-10: Like Abraham, in Genesis 18:22-33, Ezekiel pleads for the objects of consuming judgment, but the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah was exceeding great; the land was full of blood, and the city full of perverseness. They said, “Jehovah hath forsaken the earth;” “Jehovah seeth not.” (See Psalm 94:9). God’s eye shall not spare, in the judgment; He will recompense their way upon their head.
Verse 11 gives the fitting close to the chapter: the priestly office has been fulfilled, and those who fear the Lord are marked out to be spared; they are safe in the day of judgment.
ML-08/11/1935