What happens when God's patience reaches its limit? Ezekiel chapters 9 and 10 deliver one of Scripture's most sobering messages—the departure of God's glory from the temple and the subsequent judgment on Jerusalem. This powerful, often-overlooked passage reveals crucial spiritual principles that remain startlingly relevant today.
The vision begins with God marking those who mourned over Jerusalem's idolatry for protection, while commanding judgment on everyone else. The Israelites had adopted horrific practices including child sacrifice, turned their backs on God's prophets, and mixed pagan worship with true worship despite centuries of warnings. This historical context helps us understand God's severe response.
Most striking is the progressive departure of God's glory—moving from the Holy of Holies, to the temple threshold, and eventually out of Jerusalem entirely to the Mount of Olives. This symbolic withdrawal of divine blessing and protection carries profound theological significance, connecting to Christ's later movements in the same locations. The burning of Jerusalem with coals from God's throne represented both punishment and purification, fulfilled historically through the Babylonian conquest.
For today's believers, these ancient warnings speak directly to our churches. When we incorporate worldly values into worship, prioritize cultural relevance over biblical truth, or focus worship on ourselves rather than God, we risk the same spiritual judgment. "We have churches in our day doing the exact same thing," the hosts observe, noting how easily we can justify compromise that seems good but contradicts God's Word.
Despite its severity, Ezekiel's message reminds us that God distinguishes between those who embrace sin and those who grieve over it. He knows His children and protects them even amid judgment. While God's patience is vast, it isn't endless—a sobering reality we must acknowledge while there's still opportunity to return to authentic worship and obedience.
What's the state of your heart toward God today? Are you grieving over compromise or embracing it? This challenging episode invites honest reflection on our worship, our churches, and our personal walk with a God who is both merciful and holy.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
In Ezekiel, chapter 9 , we have God giving a very
harsh message.
It's very harsh but it's veryvaluable.
Oftentimes the Word of God willdo radical surgery on our soul
and it's sometimes painful, butit's always beneficial.
We today will discuss somethings that God has for us in a
(00:41):
very neglected section of theWord of God Ezekiel, chapter 9.
So, if you have your Biblesturn there, I want to go back
and pick up a couple of thingsfrom chapter 9, verses 3 and 4.
In verse 4, God has a man witha writing instrument go through
and mark out those that aremourning for the idol worship,
(01:05):
that are sad because of the idolworship.
These are the people that lovethe true God, that want to
follow him and are mourningbecause of all the atrocities
that are going on around them.
We can take comfort in thisbecause in the vision, God marks
out and saves those that lovehim.
We can take from this andextrapolate to the end times
(01:28):
when God will again pour out hiswrath, this time on the whole
earth.
He knows who are his childrenand he will save them.
God does not pour out his wrathon his children in Ezekiel,
chapter 9 and he will not pourout his wrath in the end days,
when the great tribulation comes.
He will not pour out his wrathon his children.
(01:49):
Anyway.
He will pour out his wrath onthe earth, but God does not
punish those that submit to himand love him and are under the
blood of Jesus Christ.
He does not pour out his wrathon his children, and we can have
comfort in that.
In the end times, Then we alsohave in Ezekiel 9.3, I'll read
(02:11):
it again says this Then theglory of the God of Israel went
up from the cherub, on which ithad been, to the threshold of
the temple and he called to theman clothed in linen whose loins
was the writing case, and hewent and marked out people Right
here.
When it says the glory of Godlifted up from the cherub, this
(02:32):
is the beginning of a veryprofound statement that God is
making here to Ezekiel.
If you remember back in whenIsrael was wandering in the
wilderness for 40 years, thecloud by day and the fire by
night, well, that was theShekinah glory of the Lord, God
Almighty, and whenever it pickedup and moved, Israel would pack
(02:57):
up the tabernacle and follow it.
When it stopped, they wouldreset up the tabernacle and
God's glory would rest over theArk of the Covenant.
On the top of the Ark of theCovenant there was two cherubs,
two angels with outstretchedwings, and God's glory would
hover between the two cherubs,over what's called the mercy
(03:21):
seat.
If you remember, that's whereMoses would go in and meet with
God.
His face would glow when hecame out.
And if you also remember,whenever Solomon built David's
temple and built a buildinginstead of the tabernacle, they
moved the ark in and all thefurniture.
At that dedication ceremony,the glory of God was so powerful
(03:46):
, hovering over the ark, overthe cherub, that it forced the
priest out and they physicallycouldn't do their work inside
the building because the gloryof God was so strong.
Well, here in the passage wejust read, God's glory rises up
from the cherub and goes to thedoor of the temple.
(04:06):
As we're going to seethroughout the coming chapters,
by the time we get to chapter 11, we're going to have the glory
leaving the city.
The glory of the Lord wasfilling the temple when God was
pleased with them.
But Ezekiel 9.3, and again inEzekiel 10.4 and 10.19 and 11.22
(04:31):
and 23, the glory steadilyleaves the temple and goes out
the gate of the city ofJerusalem and goes to the
mountain that's east of the city, that's the Mount of Olives.
In Acts, chapter 1, Jesusleaves from there.
He had done the triumphal entry, coming from the Mount of
(04:52):
Olives back into the temple andfound it wanting, and he leaves.
In Acts 1, Jesus ascends fromthe Mount of Olives and then, in
Zechariah 14, ascends from theMount of Olives and then in
Zechariah 14, he returns back tothe mountain and will go back
into the temple again.
So we have here the beginningof the leaving of the glory out
(05:16):
of the temple, and this is asign that God is withdrawing his
blessing from the people ofIsrael.
This story of the glory of Godis one of the reasons why we
believe in the literal return ofJesus to a literal temple in a
literal Jerusalem.
(05:37):
This is one reason we believethat God is almighty.
He gives us an inerrant word ofGod and the continuous story of
the glory of God says thatJesus is going to physically
return to the Mount of Olivesand will reign again from
Jerusalem.
The more we learn about ouramazing Bible, the more amazing
(05:58):
things we find.
Let's go ahead and move on fromthere.
Next we have again God pouringout his wrath In Ezekiel 9,.
He's going to describe what hedoes to the unbelieving
Israelites.
Steve, can you start at Ezekiel9, 5 and read through verse 11?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
But to the others he said in my hearing go through
the city after him and strike.
Do not let your eye have pityand do not spare.
Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children and
women, but do not touch any manon whom is the mark, and you
shall start from my sanctuary.
(06:39):
So they started with the elderswho were before the temple, and
he said to them Defile thetemple and fill the courts with
the slain, go out.
Thus they went out and struckdown the people in the city.
As they were striking the people, and I alone was left, I fell
on my face and cried out sayingAlas, lord, god, are you
(07:02):
destroying the whole remnant ofIsrael by pouring out your wrath
on Jerusalem?
Then he said to me the iniquityof the house of Israel and
Judah is very, very great, andthe land is filled with blood
and the city is full ofperversion.
For, they say, the Lord hasforsaken the land and the Lord
(07:25):
does not see.
But as for me, my eye will haveno pity, nor will I spare, but
I will bring their conduct upontheir heads.
Then behold the man clothed inlinen, at whose loins was the
writing case reported saying Ihave done just as you have
commanded me.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Steve.
This is in great contrast tothe picture of God that's often
given in our day.
In our churches, we often haveGod as being sugar sweet.
That is like a great uncle thatjust brings presents on our
birthday.
He only does things that feelgood.
Well, this passage doesn't feelvery good.
Is this description of God tooharsh?
(08:08):
How much punishment should weexpect for people that have
committed a crime against aninfinitely holy God?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
It's not too harsh whenever you understand.
It's an act of discipline.
You can control your actionsand the choices that you make,
but you can't control theconsequences.
These are the consequences thatthese people are experiencing
because they have abandoned God.
They have done abominablethings in his sight, so now
(08:40):
they're paying the price for it.
Glenn, we're seeing that God isgoing to use the Babylonians in
order to carry out what Ezekielis seeing in his visions here,
and we've also seen fromskeptics and others that talk
about a God that goes in andwipes out pagan nations.
Well, here's an example ofwhere God is taking his chosen
(09:05):
people, the people that he hascreated to the nation of Israel,
and he's disciplining them.
The reason why he'sdisciplining them is because,
again, the abominable thingsthat they're doing in his sight.
So there's going to beconsequences.
Romans says the wages of sin isdeath, which means spiritual
separation from God.
(09:25):
There's consequences.
We need to understand that.
I think it needs to be preachedmore often from our pulpits so
that people will understand it,that there's consequences to the
sin that we do in front of God.
To be covered by it is tobelieve in Jesus Christ.
Then you're covered from that.
You have the mark put on yourforehead, such as what the man
(09:51):
clothed in linen with thewriting case that his loins did
here.
That's the way that you canavoid the wrath of God.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Let me read verse 6 again just to remind us the
force of what he's saying hereUtterly slay, old men, young men
, maidens, little children andwomen, but do not touch any man
on whom is the mark.
And you shall start from mysanctuary.
So they started with the elderswho were before the temple.
So those elders that werebefore the temple, if you
(10:17):
remember, those were the onesthat had literally and
figuratively turned their backson God and were worshiping the
Son.
These were people that knew theWord of God and had turned
their back on it and wereworshiping the creation rather
than the Creator.
Also, remember where this fitsinto the history of Israel.
(10:39):
Way back when God was firstbringing Israel into the land,
he told Joshua and theirfollowers to utterly destroy all
the Canaanites old men, littlekids, all of them because of the
abominations that happened.
Well, joshua and his followersdidn't do that.
They left some.
(10:59):
They didn't kill them all.
So by the time we get down tothis point, many hundreds of
years later, the goodness ofGod's commands to love and don't
murder and don't commitadultery, things like this.
The goodness didn't influencethe Canaanites.
What happened was theCanaanites influenced the
Israelites, these people thatGod is commanding to be
(11:23):
destroyed here.
They were people that weresacrificing their own children
to the god Molech.
They were frying babies on ahot iron idol.
These were people that weremurdering their own children,
and had done so for quite a longtime, in the face of God's many
repeated commands to stop that.
(11:44):
So they were guilty of murder.
They were guilty of spiritualadultery against a holy God.
They were utterly worthless,because he had warned them many
times not to do this and theywould not listen.
Also be reminded that God's law, again given all the way back
many hundreds of years earlierin Moses' day, had commanded
(12:08):
punishment of death forworshiping statues and other
gods.
You'll find that in Ezekiel22.20 and Deuteronomy, chapter
13.
These people knew, they hadmemorized much of this and they
had not only mixed pagan deitieswith their worship.
They had not only turned theirback on God's prophets and
(12:32):
ignored them.
They had not only murderedGod's prophets when they brought
the message from God, they werealso sacrificing their own
children, going against God,god's law, and were deserving of
everything that God wanted.
God wanted the Canaanitesdestroyed so that these
practices would not continue,and Israel didn't do it.
(12:54):
So now God is giving the exactsame punishment on his own
people to destroy this worship.
Punishment on his own people todestroy this worship.
After they came back fromcaptivity, the Jewish people had
no more idol worship.
There was no more childsacrifice.
That is why he is so severe.
God's ways are not alwaysfeeling good that's the flaw of
(13:17):
our day but they're alwaysneeded.
In verses 7 and 8, god'smessengers kill everyone in the
city except Ezekiel.
Remember they had said put amark on everyone who mourned for
the abominations?
And apparently there was onlyone.
Ezekiel was the only one saved.
(13:38):
In verse 8, ezekiel cries outand asks God about the tragedy.
God gives, in verse 9, noexcuses, merely saying he has
forsaken the land and will giveout perfect justice.
Steve, is this a hard message?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
It is a hard message whenever you don't understand
that there's consequences to sinas part of the history as well.
When God gave the promises toAbram back in Genesis, he told
him that your descendants aregoing to go off into a foreign
land and they're going to becomeslaves there, and they're going
to be there for 400 years.
(14:17):
But then I'm going to bring youback the reason why at least one
reason why that he told Abramthat they're going to be in this
foreign land for 400 years wasbecause the iniquity of the
Amorites had not come tocompletion, and the Amorites
were another group of peoplethat were in the land of Canaan.
(14:38):
There.
I'm mentioning this because Godwas patient with the Amorites
for 400 years, allowing themtime to come to him and become a
worshiper in him, and theydidn't do it.
And so the people of Israel,when they're coming back into
the land at the time of Joshua,as you just noted, God is giving
(15:01):
them instructions to take themout.
The reason why was because ofwhat you just said they were not
to be an influence of thepeople of Israel, but now we see
that it has happened that.
So the original question is isit harsh?
It's harsh.
If you don't understand thatthe consequences of sin are
(15:24):
harsh and we need to understandthat and we need to come to
salvation, we need to become thebelief in Jesus Christ so that
we can be protected from it.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Look at the middle of verse nine again.
It says the land is filled withblood and the city is full of
perversion.
Reminds me of our day.
Much of our land is full ofblood and many of our cities are
full of perversion.
And we will not escape God'swrath any more than the ancient
Israelites did, because we werealso given the truth of the Word
(15:58):
of God, and many of us haveignored it Again.
God said go through and put amark on all those that were sad
and mourning because of theabominations and apparently
there were none.
Apparently, ezekiel was theonly one that was sad and
mourning.
All of the people in Jerusalemhad accepted these false
(16:19):
teachings and accepted thisabominable worship.
One of the reasons why God isso harsh is to try to drive
these people back to him.
Remember, he had tried patience.
He had tried waiting.
He had tried giving messagesthrough many prophets.
He had tried wooing them back.
(16:40):
Nothing worked.
He finally said the iniquity isfilled.
I am meeting out judgment righthere, right now.
No excuses.
The sin is going to stop righthere.
He's now using punishment andwe need to realize our God is
like that.
Yes, we have a loving God.
(17:01):
Yes, we have a patient God, buthis patience will not last
forever.
Our patience of God will get toa point where he will deal with
his children and we need totake sin very seriously and
drive it out of our lives.
That brings us to chapter 10.
In chapter 10, next, hedescribes the angels getting
(17:23):
coals from God's throne andburning the city.
The message doesn't get anyeasier, steve.
Can you read the first fourverses of Ezekiel, chapter 10?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Then I looked and behold, in the expanse that was
over the heads of the cherubim,something like a sapphire stone
in appearance, resembling athrone, appeared above them and
he spoke to the man clothed inlinen and said Enter between the
whirling wheels under thecherubim and fill your hands
(17:54):
with coals of fire from betweenthe cherubim and scatter them
over the city.
And he entered in my sight.
Now the cherubim were standingon the right side of the temple
when the man entered and thecloud filled the inner court.
Then the glory of the Lord wentup from the cherub to the
(18:14):
threshold of the temple and thetemple was filled with the cloud
and the court was filled withthe brightness and the glory of
the Lord.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
So here God is burning Jerusalem and of course
this happened when theBabylonians came in and
destroyed the city and burnedmuch of it and put much of the
population to the sword.
This was the message severaltimes now in the book of Ezekiel
.
Fire is a symbol of bothdestruction and a symbol of
(18:46):
purification.
God is destroying the city outof punishment for refusing to
repent, but he's also notallowing the abominations to
stay.
He is purifying Jerusalem.
He will not allow theabominations but will ensure
they get destroyed and the citypurified.
(19:07):
In verse 4 that we just read,god again has continuation of
this story of the glory leaving.
It lifts up from the cherubinside the Holy of Holies, goes
outside the veil separating theHoly of Holies from the holy
place, and then moves to thedoor of the temple.
The cloud of the glory of Godhas moved from behind the veil
(19:31):
to now filling the temple in thecourtyard near the altar.
As we're going to see into thenext chapter, it's ultimately
going to leave the city Now.
Moving on from this chapter.
It's ultimately going to leavethe city Now.
Moving on from this, verses 5to 17 in this chapter repeat the
description of God's thronewith the heavenly cherubs with
the four faces and the wheelswithin the wheels.
(19:52):
We saw this in chapter 1, sowe're not going to read it here,
but what this communicates tous is God's still there, god's
still on his throne, he's stillin his glory and he's still in
control and observing what'shappening.
Moving down to verses 18 and 19say this Then the glory of the
(20:13):
Lord departed from the thresholdof the temple and stood over
the cherubim.
When the cherubim departed,they lifted their wings and rose
up from the earth in my sight,with the wheels beside them, and
they stood still at theentrance of the east gate of the
Lord's house and the glory ofGod of Israel hovered over them.
(20:33):
So God is moving again to thegate of the outer court.
He's leaving the temple.
This represents God removinghis hand of blessing, removing
his protection.
The glory of God willeventually leave the temple and
go out to the Mount of Olives.
And, steve, it's a scary thingwhen God removes his hand of
(20:55):
protection and removes hisblessing from a people, god
removes his hand of protectionand removes his blessing from a
people.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
As we're going through this, glenn, this first
section of Ezekiel is talkingabout God working with Israel
and the wrath that he's puttingon them in the destruction of
the temple in Jerusalem.
In the middle section he'sgoing to talk about his dealing
with the nations, the Gentilenations, and then in the latter
(21:21):
part he's going to give hope andtalk about the future and the
temple, and we'll get to those.
But in chapters 38 and 39, inthose latter parts of talking
about the nations, there's somefuture things that are going to
happen and we're going todiscuss that when we get to them
.
But Ezekiel often has beenmelted down to these two
(21:47):
chapters.
Maybe a little bit of earlierpart of Ezekiel, that's what's
mentioned quite often Ezekielchapter 38 and 39.
Then they move on to otherparts of Scripture talking about
end-time events.
But, glenn, as we're sittinghere going verse by verse
through this early part ofEzekiel, yes, god is dealing
(22:09):
with the nation of Israel, hischosen people.
But what is overwhelming, as isbeing communicated, is God does
not overlook sin and he's goingto deal with sin.
Back in chapter 9, verse 10, hesays I will bring their conduct
upon their heads.
(22:30):
This is a message for us today,even though this is talking
about him dealing with Israel.
We have been given the Word ofGod.
You can go into any bookstoreand pick up a Bible.
You can go onto any app on yourphone today or your computer
and get a Bible.
You can turn on television orstreaming and go and search and
(22:54):
find a sermon of God's Wordbeing preached.
It's everywhere.
We have been given this today,so there's not going to be any
excuse for people of saying, ohwell, I didn't know anything
about God or anything else likethat.
I'm saying this part here inthat, even in these parts of
(23:14):
Ezekiel, there's messages for ustoday that sin is not going to
be overlooked and we need toheed that message as we continue
to go through this.
Hopefully this is stirring thehearts of some of our listeners
and making them rethink some ofthe things that they're doing
Maybe people that don't know Godat all.
(23:35):
There's consequences to sin andwe need to understand that.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
This is such a neglected part of Scripture, but
it is so profound and so richand has such a current message
for us today.
Think of it All the way backhere in ancient Israel, in
Ezekiel's day.
The message he's giving willapply to us right now in our
churches today.
Message he's giving will applyto us right now in our churches
(24:00):
today.
The people of Israel, they knewwhat God had commanded them.
They had God's Word.
They knew what the commandswere.
They knew what the sacrificeswere supposed to be.
They knew what the Mosaic Lawsaid.
But they thought, you know, wehadn't really heard from God
(24:22):
directly in a while.
So I think it seems to me thatwe ought to be able to do this,
and all my neighbors are thisand that.
So it just seems fair to methat we bring in some of these
other things along with God too.
God, eventually, would not putup with that.
They had brought in idolworship.
They were starting to worshipthe creation and it seemed good
to them.
It seemed like a good idea.
(24:43):
So they had mixed the trueworship of God with the false
worship that, just in theirflesh, seemed like good to them.
We have churches in our day thatare doing the exact same thing.
It seems to us that we ought tobe fair to such, and so the
people down the street aresaying this.
(25:04):
So if we want to be appealingto them, we have to accept their
morals too.
And people have brought in themorals and the values from the
world, and God's Word speaksagainst that.
And we're either going to takeGod's Word seriously and drive
that out of our churches orwe're going to be subject to the
(25:27):
same wrath of God that he gaveto the ancient Israelites.
Steve, what happens in the bookof Revelation?
It's a false religious systemas much as it is a political
system.
It's false worship that getspunished Throughout the
scriptures.
God says I'm a jealous God andI'm serious.
(25:48):
Yes, he's long-suffering, yes,he's patient, yes, he's
forgiving, but if we abuse thatprivilege, he will deal with us.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
We abuse that privilege, he will deal with us.
It says in Revelation, as thewrath is being poured out, that
mankind tries to hide and theycan't hide.
And then they say the rockscome and kill us.
We want to die, but yet they'renot going to be able to die.
There are things that are goingon where it makes Ezekiel
relevant to us today and we needto heed that.
(26:22):
As far as who God is, and it'ssuch a great message.
It's not a pleasant message,but it's one that we need to
heed and we need to understandthat God, yes, he loves us, but
he wants us to have arelationship with him and sin is
(26:42):
condemned Again.
I just feel that hopefully,there's a stirring and a
reflection that's taking placeamong the people that are
listening and watching as towhat you are and what your
standing is with God and whatyour standing is as far as your
church and what your standing iswith God and what your standing
is as far as your church andwhat your church is doing.
(27:03):
If you're a pastor or a leaderof a church and you're being
convicted of some of the thingsthat you're doing is not quite
right and not quite pleasing toGod, then maybe you need to
stand up to your leadership andsay maybe we should take a step
back on some of the areas thatwe're going into in worship.
(27:24):
Is it truly worship or is itworship of ourselves?
Are the songs talking aboutworshiping God or are the songs
talking about us and thebenefits that we get and us
worshiping ourself?
I just feel that, ezekiel herethere's such a strong message.
One of the reasons why Godcreated the nation of Israel was
(27:49):
to show the other nations whohe was and his interaction with
that nation.
We're seeing that here.
There's not going to be anyescape for the things that we do
and there's going to be answersthat we're going to have to
give for it.
So we need to heed this stuffhere.
(28:10):
And it's going to get worse.
We continue to go through it.
Not going to get any better,but it has some relevancy to us
in our day and age.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
We'll see that as we continue to go through this.
As you alluded to, Steve,there's sections of this that
aren't going to get any better,but there are some sections
before we get out of the book.
That's going to give us somewords of encouragement.
We trust that you'll be with usas we go through the book of
Ezekiel.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Thank you so much for watching and listening and, as
always, may God bless you.
In Ezekiel, chapter 9 , we have God giving a very
harsh message.
It's very harsh but it's veryvaluable.
Oftentimes the Word of God willdo radical surgery on our soul
and it's sometimes painful, butit's always beneficial.
We today will discuss somethings that God has for us in a
(00:41):
very neglected section of theWord of God Ezekiel, chapter 9.
So, if you have your Biblesturn there, I want to go back
and pick up a couple of thingsfrom chapter 9, verses 3 and 4.
In verse 4, God has a man witha writing instrument go through
and mark out those that aremourning for the idol worship,
(01:05):
that are sad because of the idolworship.
These are the people that lovethe true God, that want to
follow him and are mourningbecause of all the atrocities
that are going on around them.
We can take comfort in thisbecause in the vision, God marks
out and saves those that lovehim.
We can take from this andextrapolate to the end times
(01:28):
when God will again pour out hiswrath, this time on the whole
earth.
He knows who are his childrenand he will save them.
God does not pour out his wrathon his children in Ezekiel,
chapter 9 and he will not pourout his wrath in the end days,
when the great tribulation comes.
He will not pour out his wrathon his children.
(01:49):
Anyway.
He will pour out his wrath onthe earth, but God does not
punish those that submit to himand love him and are under the
blood of Jesus Christ.
He does not pour out his wrathon his children, and we can have
comfort in that.
In the end times, Then we alsohave in Ezekiel 9.3, I'll read
(02:11):
it again says this Then theglory of the God of Israel went
up from the cherub, on which ithad been, to the threshold of
the temple and he called to theman clothed in linen whose loins
was the writing case, and hewent and marked out people Right
here.
When it says the glory of Godlifted up from the cherub, this
(02:32):
is the beginning of a veryprofound statement that God is
making here to Ezekiel.
If you remember back in whenIsrael was wandering in the
wilderness for 40 years, thecloud by day and the fire by
night, well, that was theShekinah glory of the Lord, God
Almighty, and whenever it pickedup and moved, Israel would pack
(02:57):
up the tabernacle and follow it.
When it stopped, they wouldreset up the tabernacle and
God's glory would rest over theArk of the Covenant.
On the top of the Ark of theCovenant there was two cherubs,
two angels with outstretchedwings, and God's glory would
hover between the two cherubs,over what's called the mercy
(03:21):
seat.
If you remember, that's whereMoses would go in and meet with
God.
His face would glow when hecame out.
And if you also remember,whenever Solomon built David's
temple and built a buildinginstead of the tabernacle, they
moved the ark in and all thefurniture.
At that dedication ceremony,the glory of God was so powerful
(03:46):
, hovering over the ark, overthe cherub, that it forced the
priest out and they physicallycouldn't do their work inside
the building because the gloryof God was so strong.
Well, here in the passage wejust read, God's glory rises up
from the cherub and goes to thedoor of the temple.
(04:06):
As we're going to seethroughout the coming chapters,
by the time we get to chapter 11, we're going to have the glory
leaving the city.
The glory of the Lord wasfilling the temple when God was
pleased with them.
But Ezekiel 9.3, and again inEzekiel 10.4 and 10.19 and 11.22
(04:31):
and 23, the glory steadilyleaves the temple and goes out
the gate of the city ofJerusalem and goes to the
mountain that's east of the city, that's the Mount of Olives.
In Acts, chapter 1, Jesusleaves from there.
He had done the triumphal entry, coming from the Mount of
(04:52):
Olives back into the temple andfound it wanting, and he leaves.
In Acts 1, Jesus ascends fromthe Mount of Olives and then, in
Zechariah 14, ascends from theMount of Olives and then in
Zechariah 14, he returns back tothe mountain and will go back
into the temple again.
So we have here the beginningof the leaving of the glory out
(05:16):
of the temple, and this is asign that God is withdrawing his
blessing from the people ofIsrael.
This story of the glory of Godis one of the reasons why we
believe in the literal return ofJesus to a literal temple in a
literal Jerusalem.
(05:37):
This is one reason we believethat God is almighty.
He gives us an inerrant word ofGod and the continuous story of
the glory of God says thatJesus is going to physically
return to the Mount of Olivesand will reign again from
Jerusalem.
The more we learn about ouramazing Bible, the more amazing
(05:58):
things we find.
Let's go ahead and move on fromthere.
Next we have again God pouringout his wrath In Ezekiel 9,.
He's going to describe what hedoes to the unbelieving
Israelites.
Steve, can you start at Ezekiel9, 5 and read through verse 11?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
But to the others he said in my hearing go through
the city after him and strike.
Do not let your eye have pityand do not spare.
Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children and
women, but do not touch any manon whom is the mark, and you
shall start from my sanctuary.
(06:39):
So they started with the elderswho were before the temple, and
he said to them Defile thetemple and fill the courts with
the slain, go out.
Thus they went out and struckdown the people in the city.
As they were striking the people, and I alone was left, I fell
on my face and cried out sayingAlas, lord, god, are you
(07:02):
destroying the whole remnant ofIsrael by pouring out your wrath
on Jerusalem?
Then he said to me the iniquityof the house of Israel and
Judah is very, very great, andthe land is filled with blood
and the city is full ofperversion.
For, they say, the Lord hasforsaken the land and the Lord
(07:25):
does not see.
But as for me, my eye will haveno pity, nor will I spare, but
I will bring their conduct upontheir heads.
Then behold the man clothed inlinen, at whose loins was the
writing case reported saying Ihave done just as you have
commanded me.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Steve.
This is in great contrast tothe picture of God that's often
given in our day.
In our churches, we often haveGod as being sugar sweet.
That is like a great uncle thatjust brings presents on our
birthday.
He only does things that feelgood.
Well, this passage doesn't feelvery good.
Is this description of God tooharsh?
(08:08):
How much punishment should weexpect for people that have
committed a crime against aninfinitely holy God?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
It's not too harsh whenever you understand.
It's an act of discipline.
You can control your actionsand the choices that you make,
but you can't control theconsequences.
These are the consequences thatthese people are experiencing
because they have abandoned God.
They have done abominablethings in his sight, so now
(08:40):
they're paying the price for it.
Glenn, we're seeing that God isgoing to use the Babylonians in
order to carry out what Ezekielis seeing in his visions here,
and we've also seen fromskeptics and others that talk
about a God that goes in andwipes out pagan nations.
Well, here's an example ofwhere God is taking his chosen
(09:05):
people, the people that he hascreated to the nation of Israel,
and he's disciplining them.
The reason why he'sdisciplining them is because,
again, the abominable thingsthat they're doing in his sight.
So there's going to beconsequences.
Romans says the wages of sin isdeath, which means spiritual
separation from God.
(09:25):
There's consequences.
We need to understand that.
I think it needs to be preachedmore often from our pulpits so
that people will understand it,that there's consequences to the
sin that we do in front of God.
To be covered by it is tobelieve in Jesus Christ.
Then you're covered from that.
You have the mark put on yourforehead, such as what the man
(09:51):
clothed in linen with thewriting case that his loins did
here.
That's the way that you canavoid the wrath of God.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Let me read verse 6 again just to remind us the
force of what he's saying hereUtterly slay, old men, young men
, maidens, little children andwomen, but do not touch any man
on whom is the mark.
And you shall start from mysanctuary.
So they started with the elderswho were before the temple.
So those elders that werebefore the temple, if you
(10:17):
remember, those were the onesthat had literally and
figuratively turned their backson God and were worshiping the
Son.
These were people that knew theWord of God and had turned
their back on it and wereworshiping the creation rather
than the Creator.
Also, remember where this fitsinto the history of Israel.
(10:39):
Way back when God was firstbringing Israel into the land,
he told Joshua and theirfollowers to utterly destroy all
the Canaanites old men, littlekids, all of them because of the
abominations that happened.
Well, joshua and his followersdidn't do that.
They left some.
(10:59):
They didn't kill them all.
So by the time we get down tothis point, many hundreds of
years later, the goodness ofGod's commands to love and don't
murder and don't commitadultery, things like this.
The goodness didn't influencethe Canaanites.
What happened was theCanaanites influenced the
Israelites, these people thatGod is commanding to be
(11:23):
destroyed here.
They were people that weresacrificing their own children
to the god Molech.
They were frying babies on ahot iron idol.
These were people that weremurdering their own children,
and had done so for quite a longtime, in the face of God's many
repeated commands to stop that.
(11:44):
So they were guilty of murder.
They were guilty of spiritualadultery against a holy God.
They were utterly worthless,because he had warned them many
times not to do this and theywould not listen.
Also be reminded that God's law, again given all the way back
many hundreds of years earlierin Moses' day, had commanded
(12:08):
punishment of death forworshiping statues and other
gods.
You'll find that in Ezekiel22.20 and Deuteronomy, chapter
13.
These people knew, they hadmemorized much of this and they
had not only mixed pagan deitieswith their worship.
They had not only turned theirback on God's prophets and
(12:32):
ignored them.
They had not only murderedGod's prophets when they brought
the message from God, they werealso sacrificing their own
children, going against God,god's law, and were deserving of
everything that God wanted.
God wanted the Canaanitesdestroyed so that these
practices would not continue,and Israel didn't do it.
(12:54):
So now God is giving the exactsame punishment on his own
people to destroy this worship.
Punishment on his own people todestroy this worship.
After they came back fromcaptivity, the Jewish people had
no more idol worship.
There was no more childsacrifice.
That is why he is so severe.
God's ways are not alwaysfeeling good that's the flaw of
(13:17):
our day but they're alwaysneeded.
In verses 7 and 8, god'smessengers kill everyone in the
city except Ezekiel.
Remember they had said put amark on everyone who mourned for
the abominations?
And apparently there was onlyone.
Ezekiel was the only one saved.
(13:38):
In verse 8, ezekiel cries outand asks God about the tragedy.
God gives, in verse 9, noexcuses, merely saying he has
forsaken the land and will giveout perfect justice.
Steve, is this a hard message?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
It is a hard message whenever you don't understand
that there's consequences to sinas part of the history as well.
When God gave the promises toAbram back in Genesis, he told
him that your descendants aregoing to go off into a foreign
land and they're going to becomeslaves there, and they're going
to be there for 400 years.
(14:17):
But then I'm going to bring youback the reason why at least one
reason why that he told Abramthat they're going to be in this
foreign land for 400 years wasbecause the iniquity of the
Amorites had not come tocompletion, and the Amorites
were another group of peoplethat were in the land of Canaan.
(14:38):
There.
I'm mentioning this because Godwas patient with the Amorites
for 400 years, allowing themtime to come to him and become a
worshiper in him, and theydidn't do it.
And so the people of Israel,when they're coming back into
the land at the time of Joshua,as you just noted, God is giving
(15:01):
them instructions to take themout.
The reason why was because ofwhat you just said they were not
to be an influence of thepeople of Israel, but now we see
that it has happened that.
So the original question is isit harsh?
It's harsh.
If you don't understand thatthe consequences of sin are
(15:24):
harsh and we need to understandthat and we need to come to
salvation, we need to become thebelief in Jesus Christ so that
we can be protected from it.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Look at the middle of verse nine again.
It says the land is filled withblood and the city is full of
perversion.
Reminds me of our day.
Much of our land is full ofblood and many of our cities are
full of perversion.
And we will not escape God'swrath any more than the ancient
Israelites did, because we werealso given the truth of the Word
(15:58):
of God, and many of us haveignored it Again.
God said go through and put amark on all those that were sad
and mourning because of theabominations and apparently
there were none.
Apparently, ezekiel was theonly one that was sad and
mourning.
All of the people in Jerusalemhad accepted these false
(16:19):
teachings and accepted thisabominable worship.
One of the reasons why God isso harsh is to try to drive
these people back to him.
Remember, he had tried patience.
He had tried waiting.
He had tried giving messagesthrough many prophets.
He had tried wooing them back.
(16:40):
Nothing worked.
He finally said the iniquity isfilled.
I am meeting out judgment righthere, right now.
No excuses.
The sin is going to stop righthere.
He's now using punishment andwe need to realize our God is
like that.
Yes, we have a loving God.
(17:01):
Yes, we have a patient God, buthis patience will not last
forever.
Our patience of God will get toa point where he will deal with
his children and we need totake sin very seriously and
drive it out of our lives.
That brings us to chapter 10.
In chapter 10, next, hedescribes the angels getting
(17:23):
coals from God's throne andburning the city.
The message doesn't get anyeasier, steve.
Can you read the first fourverses of Ezekiel, chapter 10?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Then I looked and behold, in the expanse that was
over the heads of the cherubim,something like a sapphire stone
in appearance, resembling athrone, appeared above them and
he spoke to the man clothed inlinen and said Enter between the
whirling wheels under thecherubim and fill your hands
(17:54):
with coals of fire from betweenthe cherubim and scatter them
over the city.
And he entered in my sight.
Now the cherubim were standingon the right side of the temple
when the man entered and thecloud filled the inner court.
Then the glory of the Lord wentup from the cherub to the
(18:14):
threshold of the temple and thetemple was filled with the cloud
and the court was filled withthe brightness and the glory of
the Lord.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
So here God is burning Jerusalem and of course
this happened when theBabylonians came in and
destroyed the city and burnedmuch of it and put much of the
population to the sword.
This was the message severaltimes now in the book of Ezekiel
.
Fire is a symbol of bothdestruction and a symbol of
(18:46):
purification.
God is destroying the city outof punishment for refusing to
repent, but he's also notallowing the abominations to
stay.
He is purifying Jerusalem.
He will not allow theabominations but will ensure
they get destroyed and the citypurified.
(19:07):
In verse 4 that we just read,god again has continuation of
this story of the glory leaving.
It lifts up from the cherubinside the Holy of Holies, goes
outside the veil separating theHoly of Holies from the holy
place, and then moves to thedoor of the temple.
The cloud of the glory of Godhas moved from behind the veil
(19:31):
to now filling the temple in thecourtyard near the altar.
As we're going to see into thenext chapter, it's ultimately
going to leave the city Now.
Moving on from this chapter.
It's ultimately going to leavethe city Now.
Moving on from this, verses 5to 17 in this chapter repeat the
description of God's thronewith the heavenly cherubs with
the four faces and the wheelswithin the wheels.
(19:52):
We saw this in chapter 1, sowe're not going to read it here,
but what this communicates tous is God's still there, god's
still on his throne, he's stillin his glory and he's still in
control and observing what'shappening.
Moving down to verses 18 and 19say this Then the glory of the
(20:13):
Lord departed from the thresholdof the temple and stood over
the cherubim.
When the cherubim departed,they lifted their wings and rose
up from the earth in my sight,with the wheels beside them, and
they stood still at theentrance of the east gate of the
Lord's house and the glory ofGod of Israel hovered over them.
(20:33):
So God is moving again to thegate of the outer court.
He's leaving the temple.
This represents God removinghis hand of blessing, removing
his protection.
The glory of God willeventually leave the temple and
go out to the Mount of Olives.
And, steve, it's a scary thingwhen God removes his hand of
(20:55):
protection and removes hisblessing from a people, god
removes his hand of protectionand removes his blessing from a
people.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
As we're going through this, glenn, this first
section of Ezekiel is talkingabout God working with Israel
and the wrath that he's puttingon them in the destruction of
the temple in Jerusalem.
In the middle section he'sgoing to talk about his dealing
with the nations, the Gentilenations, and then in the latter
(21:21):
part he's going to give hope andtalk about the future and the
temple, and we'll get to those.
But in chapters 38 and 39, inthose latter parts of talking
about the nations, there's somefuture things that are going to
happen and we're going todiscuss that when we get to them
.
But Ezekiel often has beenmelted down to these two
(21:47):
chapters.
Maybe a little bit of earlierpart of Ezekiel, that's what's
mentioned quite often Ezekielchapter 38 and 39.
Then they move on to otherparts of Scripture talking about
end-time events.
But, glenn, as we're sittinghere going verse by verse
through this early part ofEzekiel, yes, god is dealing
(22:09):
with the nation of Israel, hischosen people.
But what is overwhelming, as isbeing communicated, is God does
not overlook sin and he's goingto deal with sin.
Back in chapter 9, verse 10, hesays I will bring their conduct
upon their heads.
(22:30):
This is a message for us today,even though this is talking
about him dealing with Israel.
We have been given the Word ofGod.
You can go into any bookstoreand pick up a Bible.
You can go onto any app on yourphone today or your computer
and get a Bible.
You can turn on television orstreaming and go and search and
(22:54):
find a sermon of God's Wordbeing preached.
It's everywhere.
We have been given this today,so there's not going to be any
excuse for people of saying, ohwell, I didn't know anything
about God or anything else likethat.
I'm saying this part here inthat, even in these parts of
(23:14):
Ezekiel, there's messages for ustoday that sin is not going to
be overlooked and we need toheed that message as we continue
to go through this.
Hopefully this is stirring thehearts of some of our listeners
and making them rethink some ofthe things that they're doing
Maybe people that don't know Godat all.
(23:35):
There's consequences to sin andwe need to understand that.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
This is such a neglected part of Scripture, but
it is so profound and so richand has such a current message
for us today.
Think of it All the way backhere in ancient Israel, in
Ezekiel's day.
The message he's giving willapply to us right now in our
churches today.
Message he's giving will applyto us right now in our churches
(24:00):
today.
The people of Israel, they knewwhat God had commanded them.
They had God's Word.
They knew what the commandswere.
They knew what the sacrificeswere supposed to be.
They knew what the Mosaic Lawsaid.
But they thought, you know, wehadn't really heard from God
(24:22):
directly in a while.
So I think it seems to me thatwe ought to be able to do this,
and all my neighbors are thisand that.
So it just seems fair to methat we bring in some of these
other things along with God too.
God, eventually, would not putup with that.
They had brought in idolworship.
They were starting to worshipthe creation and it seemed good
to them.
It seemed like a good idea.
(24:43):
So they had mixed the trueworship of God with the false
worship that, just in theirflesh, seemed like good to them.
We have churches in our day thatare doing the exact same thing.
It seems to us that we ought tobe fair to such, and so the
people down the street aresaying this.
(25:04):
So if we want to be appealingto them, we have to accept their
morals too.
And people have brought in themorals and the values from the
world, and God's Word speaksagainst that.
And we're either going to takeGod's Word seriously and drive
that out of our churches orwe're going to be subject to the
(25:27):
same wrath of God that he gaveto the ancient Israelites.
Steve, what happens in the bookof Revelation?
It's a false religious systemas much as it is a political
system.
It's false worship that getspunished Throughout the
scriptures.
God says I'm a jealous God andI'm serious.
(25:48):
Yes, he's long-suffering, yes,he's patient, yes, he's
forgiving, but if we abuse thatprivilege, he will deal with us.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
We abuse that privilege, he will deal with us.
It says in Revelation, as thewrath is being poured out, that
mankind tries to hide and theycan't hide.
And then they say the rockscome and kill us.
We want to die, but yet they'renot going to be able to die.
There are things that are goingon where it makes Ezekiel
relevant to us today and we needto heed that.
(26:22):
As far as who God is, and it'ssuch a great message.
It's not a pleasant message,but it's one that we need to
heed and we need to understandthat God, yes, he loves us, but
he wants us to have arelationship with him and sin is
(26:42):
condemned Again.
I just feel that hopefully,there's a stirring and a
reflection that's taking placeamong the people that are
listening and watching as towhat you are and what your
standing is with God and whatyour standing is as far as your
church and what your standing iswith God and what your standing
is as far as your church andwhat your church is doing.
(27:03):
If you're a pastor or a leaderof a church and you're being
convicted of some of the thingsthat you're doing is not quite
right and not quite pleasing toGod, then maybe you need to
stand up to your leadership andsay maybe we should take a step
back on some of the areas thatwe're going into in worship.
(27:24):
Is it truly worship or is itworship of ourselves?
Are the songs talking aboutworshiping God or are the songs
talking about us and thebenefits that we get and us
worshiping ourself?
I just feel that, ezekiel herethere's such a strong message.
One of the reasons why Godcreated the nation of Israel was
(27:49):
to show the other nations whohe was and his interaction with
that nation.
We're seeing that here.
There's not going to be anyescape for the things that we do
and there's going to be answersthat we're going to have to
give for it.
So we need to heed this stuffhere.
(28:10):
And it's going to get worse.
We continue to go through it.
Not going to get any better,but it has some relevancy to us
in our day and age.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
We'll see that as we continue to go through this.
As you alluded to, Steve,there's sections of this that
aren't going to get any better,but there are some sections
before we get out of the book.
That's going to give us somewords of encouragement.
We trust that you'll be with usas we go through the book of
Ezekiel.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Thank you so much for watching and listening and, as
always, may God bless you.
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