Section 2.—Chapters 8-19
WE have now come to a new section of the book, comprising a series of various revelations given to the prophet a year after those we have just been considering: “And it came to pass in the sixth year (that is, the sixth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity), in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month,” &c. (ver. 1). All is here most precise both as to time and to place.
From chapter 8 to the close of chapter 11 seems to be one connected vision. The sorrowful fact had been declared that Jehovah was about to forsake His sanctuary and give it into the hands of the wicked of the earth (chap. 7:20-23); now we are shown in detail what was the fearful iniquity that drove Him to such extreme action.
Chapter 8 — Greater Abominations
As the prophet sat in his house in the land of Chaldea, the elders of Judah presented themselves before him, drawn doubtless from the persuasion that the mind of the Lord was possessed by him in a special manner (see chap. 20:1). This was the moment chosen by Jehovah to set forth the cause of all the threatened judgments.
The hand of the Lord God fell upon him, and in the visions of God, the glory of the God of Israel passes before him such as he had before seen it, and he is carried in the spirit, not in actual presence, to Jerusalem, the center of all the nation’s wickedness.
The sight that now unrolls itself before Ezekiel of all the enormities practiced amidst the very precincts of the temple, shows ample ground for the departure from that house of the glory which had filled it in the day of its consecration under Solomon. At that blessed time the sound of joy and thanksgiving ascended in one united burst of praise, and “the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God” (2 Chron. 5:11-1411And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place: (for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course: 12Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:) 13It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; 14So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. (2 Chronicles 5:11‑14)). But now all was changed, the image of jealousy stood at the very gate of the altar. Of Manasseh, the wicked king of Judah, we are told that “he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put My name forever” (2 Kings 21:77And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: (2 Kings 21:7)). Indeed it was because of all the abominations that this wicked king had wrought in Jerusalem, that the Lord spake by His prophets, saying, “Because Manasseh king of Judah... hath done wickedly above all that the Ammorites did which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols; therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle” (2 Kings 21:11, 1211Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols: 12Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. (2 Kings 21:11‑12)).
This doubtless was the image of jealousy now seen by Ezekiel in vision, and now was about to be executed this solemn judgment of Jehovah, “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,” is a principle of universal application, and one which we do well to take heed to at all times. Many had been the warnings given, but all had been despised, and now at the commandment of the Lord the bands of the Chaldeans were come up upon Judah to remove them out of His sight, “for the sins of Manasseh... which the Lord would not pardon” (2 Kings 24:1-51In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him. 2And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants the prophets. 3Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did; 4And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the Lord would not pardon. 5Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? (2 Kings 24:1‑5)).
But greater abominations were yet to be seen. Now it was “the ancients of the house of Israel” with the son of Shaphan in their midst. In vain therefore to plead ignorance of the requirements of the law of Moses, for was it not his father who had read out of that book to King Josiah (2 Chron. 34)? “And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, 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 bold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about... 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 chamber of his imagery? For they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth” (vers. 7-13). What depths of idolatrous degradation are here described, all done in the dark, the “dim religious light” so abhorrent to Him who is light, and in whom is no darkness at all! Let guilty Christendom take heed, “otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Rom. 11).
But there was an accumulation of guilt, all centering around the house of the Lord, the place that should have appealed the most loudly to the people’s heart and conscience. There were women weeping for Tammuz, one of the most degrading of idolatrous rites; there were men “with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces towards the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.” Instead of standing out in testimony against the false gods of the heathen around, the chosen people had themselves sunk into its most debasing forms. All conscience was gone, every prophetic warning was unheeded, utter insensibility to the heinousness of their sin was manifested. “Then He said unto 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, and have returned to provoke Me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. 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” (vers. 13-18).
How literally all this sorrowful punishment was poured upon the guilty nation their after-history abundantly demonstrated.