Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Ezekiel-Chapter 11

Ezek 11.1-25 tells us that the fate of the city is sealed (v 1.13), the future as a people lies with the exiles (v 14-21, and the Shekinah and the Kivod complete the withdrawal. This will also conclude the Maaseh Merkavah vision.

v 1…Moreover, the spirit (wind) lifted me up and brought me (from the inner court in Ezek 8.16) to the east gate (outer entrance) of the Lord’s house which faced eastward. And behold, there were twenty-five men (representing the civil rulers/princes and not the same ones in 8.16) at the entrance of the gate, and among them I saw Yaazaniah (Yehovah hears) son of Azzur (help) and Petatiah (Yehovah delivers) son of Benaiah (Yehovah builds), leaders of the people.

v 2…And he (Yehovah) said to me, “Son of man (Ezekiel represents the people), these are the men who devise iniquity (unwholesomeness) and give advice (counsel) in this city (the prevalent attitudes in the city derived from these men),

v 3…who say, ‘Is it not the time to build houses (our doom isn’t coming)? This city is the pot and we are the flesh (the false prophets said Jerusalem was likened to a pot in which meat is cooked, and just as meat is not removed from the pot until it is fully cooked, so the people will not be removed from Jerusalem before their time).’

v 4…Therefore, prophesy against them, son of man, prophesy (repeated for emphasis!”

v 5…The the Spirit of the Lord (meaning divine inspiration) fell upon me, and he (notice it is a “he”) said to me, “Say, ‘Thus says the Lord, “So you think, house of Israel, for I know your thoughts (Heb 4.12).

v 6…You have multiplied your slain in this city, filling the streets with them (their actions are evidence of their thoughts and they embraced all forms of injustice).”

v 7…’Therefore, thus says the Lord God, “Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of the city are the flesh (their parable in v 3 being turned against them. By their bloodshed, they turned the city into a pot in which the flesh of the dead are thrown), and this city is the pot; but I shall bring you out of it (the city will not protect them, but they will be taken captive).

v 8…You have feared the sword; so I will bring a sword upon you,” the Lord God declares (meaning the Babylonians)!

v 9…And I will bring you out of the midst of the city, and I shall deliver you into the hands of strangers (Babylon) and execute judgments against you (famine, pestilence, the sword and captivity).

v 10…You will fall by the sword (as they tried to flee from the city). I shall judge you to the border of Israel (like in Jer 52.8-9): so you will know that I am the Lord (proof that what he said was true).

v 11…This city will not be a pot for you (for protection), nor will you be flesh in the midst of it (the hedge of protection will be taken away), I shall judge you to the border of Israel.

v 12…Thus you will know that I am the Lord (Yehovah); for you have not walked in my statutes nor have you executed my ordinances, but have acted according to the ordinances of the nations around you (Jer 10.1-3).”

v 13…Now it came about as I prophesied, that Pelatiah son of Benaiah died (one of the twenty-five men at the door of the east gate in Ezek 11.1-he died suddenly). Then I fell on my face and cried out with a loud voice and said, “Alas, Lord God! Will you bring the remnant of Israel to a complete end (this made an impression on him and he wondered if Yehovah was going to end them all at once)?”

v 14…Then the word of the Lord came to me saying,

v 15…”Son of man (Ezekiel represents the people), your brothers, your brothers (repeated to increase the force of the expression, his true brethren in contrast to those who were Israelites in name only), men of your kinship (his duty was to them as the goel and he was to help them), and the whole house of Israel (in truth and spirit, his brothers and “next of kin”), all of them, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far from the Lord (as they were taken into captivity, which was Yehovah’s way to protect a remnant); this land has been given to us as a possession (you have been disinherited and we are the sole heirs now).’ “

v 16…Therefore say, ‘Thus says the the Lord God, “Though I had removed them far away among the nations and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I was a sanctuary for them (a dwelling place even in captivity to protect and provide for them) in the countries where they had gone.”

v 17…Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord, “I shall gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries among which you have been scattered, and I shall give you the land of Israel (regardless of what they say about you back in the land now, the exiles were not to feel rejected, they will have hope. This will happen again in the fullest sense when Messiah comes).

v 18…When they come here (in the return), they will remove all its detestable things (idols) and all its abominations (like false gods, doctrines and practices).

v 19…And I will give them a heart (desires, purposes, intentions) and put a new spirit (same as heart-Jer 31.31-33; Heb 8.8-10) within them and I shall take the heart of stone (stubbornness) out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh (soft, ready to submit to the Torah),

v 20…that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances, and do them (Torah observant). Then they will be my people, and I shall be their God (God gives them the desire to keep the Torah because they are saved, not the other way around).

v 21…But as for those whose hearts (purposes, desires, intentions) go after their detestable things (idols) and abominations (false gods, doctrines and practices), I shall bring their conduct down on their own heads,” declares the Lord God (Adonai Yehovah).

v 22…Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory (kivod) of the God of Israel hovered over them (having already left the Temple, the kivod is now forsaking the city).

v 23…And the glory (kivod) of the Lord (Yehovah) went up from the midst of the city, and stood over the mountain which is east of the city (Mount of Olives; this is what Yeshua did when he left. He departed the Temple, then the city, and then over the Mount of Olives-Luke 19.41; Acts 1.9-12. The mount is also called the “mount of the Messiah” and the “mount of the Shekinah.” The glory stayed there for three years to execute judgment).

v 24…And the spirit (wind) lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God to the exiles in Chaldea (Babylon, to the river Chebar). So the vision that I had seen left me (vanished).

v 25…Then I told the exiles all the things that the Lord had shown me (related them all he had seen).

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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