18 Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. 19 And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.
20 These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the Chebar canal; and I knew that they were cherubim. 21 Each had four faces, and each four wings, and underneath their wings the likeness of human hands. 22 And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the Chebar canal. Each one of them went straight forward.
REFLECTION:
This chapter depicts the glory of God leaving the temple because the people sinned. The glory of God first stopped at the north gate (8:3-4), then moved to the “threshold” (9:3), next to the south side of the temple (10:3-4), and then down to the east gate (10: 18-19, 11:1), and finally reached the mountain east of the temple (11:23). This mountain may be the Mount of Olives. God is a completely holy and jealous God, so sin must be judged. Cherubim are powerful angels, and they scatter red coals throughout the city, representing the cleansing of sin. In this case in Jerusalem means the demise of those who refuse to repent and commit blatant sins. Soon after this prophecy was issued, Babylon burned Jerusalem (cf. 2 Kings 25:9; 2 Chronicles 6:19). The glory of God left the temple, “went out from the threshold of the house”, and never returned to the temple, and even the temple itself was completely destroyed. The leaders and people of Israel have defiled the temple of God. In order for the Israelites to truly worship God, He had to completely destroy everything that was filthy and distorted by the Israelites. Today, we should take the Israelites back then as a warning. We must commit ourselves, our family, and our church to God and follow God faithfully. In this way our God will not leave us, and the glory of God will always be with us.
PRAYER:
Pray for your family so that Jesus Christ will truly become the head of your family, make every family member of your immediate family a disciple of the Lord Jesus, and show the glory of the Lord in your life; pray for the church, and may the glory of God not leave the church, to make it a holy church after God’s heart.
1 Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Bring near the executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.” 2 And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand, and with them was a man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his waist. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.
3 Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist. 4 And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” 5 And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. 6 Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house. 7 Then he said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out.” So they went out and struck in the city. 8 And while they were striking, and I was left alone, I fell upon my face, and cried, “Ah, Lord God! Will you destroy all the remnant of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?”
9 Then he said to me, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see.’ 10 As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will bring their deeds upon their heads.”
11 And behold, the man clothed in linen, with the writing case at his waist, brought back word, saying, “I have done as you commanded me.”
REFLECTION:
This chapter depicts the picture of God’s judgment. After Ezekiel saw the corruption of Jerusalem, God asked a messenger to leave behind a few loyal people, and called six executioners to kill the evil people in the city. This was a judgment ordered by God. “Writing case” was a very common thing in Ezekiel’s time. It consists of a long and narrow board with a groove on it for holding a reed brush. This pen is used to write on parchment, papyrus, or dried mud. There is also a recessed place on the board to hold the black ink and the red ink block, which must be wetted before use. God told the executioner with the writing case to mark those who are loyal to God. They are “the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it” (v4), showing that they have a deep understanding of the sins committed by the people and are deeply saddened by them. The marked people were preserved when the six executioners began to destroy the wicked. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they put blood on the door lintel as a mark to save them from death. At the end of the day, God will imprint the mark on those who are redeemed (cf. Rev. 7:3). Satan will also mark his followers (cf. Rev. 13:16-17), and those who do not believe in the Lord are doomed to perish just like Satan. When God punishes sin, He will not forget the promise to protect His people. Today, God has carved His mark on our heart, and we are all people who have been saved by grace. If we follow God to the end, we will also receive grace to the end, and we will be rewarded by God and be with God in eternal glory.
PRAYER:
The Spirit himself bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God (cf. Rom. 8:16). You have received the mark of God’s children, and will never perish again. Thanks again to God for His grace and salvation for you; ask God to enable you to act with a good conscience and a sincere faith. At the judgment day you can stand up and come to God without fear and make an account to God.
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.
5 Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy. 6 And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”
REFLECTION:
Chapter 8 records that Ezekiel was taken to Jerusalem from Babylon in a vision and saw the evil things done there. The first vision Ezekiel saw in chapters 1-3 shows that the judgment comes from God. The vision in this chapter emphasizes that the reason for the judgment is the sins of religious leaders and the people. In a previous vision of Ezekiel, he saw a human-like image sitting on the throne of God. This person may be an angel, or it may be a manifestation of God himself. God allowed Ezekiel to see His own glory, and at the same time Ezekiel saw the corruption of man, forming a sharp contrast between light and darkness, holiness and filth. The “idol that provokes jealousy” may refer to Asherah, the so-called “god of harvest” in Canaan. The characteristic of Asherah is to encourage sexual promiscuity and self-indulgence. King Manasseh had erected this idol in the temple (see 2 Kings 21:7). Although King Josiah burned the Asherah pillar (see 2 Kings 23:6), the influence of the Asherah idol continued. The so-called postmodern society today is actually not much different from the society of Ezekiel back then, and even worse. We have seen a variety of individualistic and liberal thoughts and behaviours flooding all aspects of society. Many people in the world live in fornication and corruption, which will surely trigger the wrath and judgment of God. Reflect if we, as the people of God, are imperceptibly influenced by the world’s values and behaviours. May we fix our eyes on the glory of God, refrain from participating in any form of idolatry, and refrain from doing things that irritate God.
PRAYER:
Pray for God to strengthen your faith so that you can live out the holy and glorious way of life of the Lord Jesus Christ in this crooked and perverse world. Pray that God will enlighten you so that you can walk with God every day without seeing, listening or saying anything related to the filth, indulgence, or fornication of the world. May your thoughts, words, and actions be pleasing to God, and be a good testimony to the Lord in the world.
