Ezekiel 6
McGeeCHAPTER 6THEME: Sword to fall upon Jerusalem; remnant to be savedThe Book of Ezekiel is a very orderly book, and up to this point we have had prophecies which largely concerned Jerusalem. However, the prophet will now turn his attention to the whole land of Israel: judgment is going to come upon the whole land. Ezekiel is with the second delegation of people who were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar. They were slaves of the government of Babylon working in the agricultural area by the river Chebar, the great canal running off the Euphrates River. Most of the people, however, were still back in the land, and Jerusalem had not yet been devastated. The false prophets continued to assure the people that everything was going to be all right and that the captives would be able to return shortly. Meanwhile, Jeremiah was saying that the captivity would last seventy years, but they paid no attention to him. They listened to the false prophets because their message sounded better and was very optimistic. I have found the same attitude among people throughout the years of my ministry. After I preached a series of messages on the judgments of God found in the books of the prophets, one very prominent man in my church at that time withdrew from the church. He said, “I go to church to be comforted, and I am not being comforted.” He did not want to hear the Word of God. I discovered later that in his business dealings he did not need to be comforted; the judgment messages were good for himthey were digging in right where he was! Another lady stopped coming to my church, saying, “There were times when Dr. McGee made me feel very bad.
Now I go to church, and the preacher makes me feel very good.” Frankly, her church was a cult, and its message concerned how to make friends and influence people. It emphasized the power of positive thinking: just feel good about it, and it will be good. May I say to you, that is not the message of the Word of God. In chapters 6 and 7 we have two messages of judgment. Ezekiel now is going to speak on that which concerns all of the land, and his message is that the idolators are to die and the land is to be desolated.
Ezekiel 6:1
SWORD TO FALL UPON JERUSALEMThis verse opens the first of the two messages; the second message in chapter 7 begins the same way: “Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying” (Eze_7:1). The people would not accept what Ezekiel said, but Ezekiel told them, “I’m not telling you what I think, and I’m not telling you what I hope or what I’d like to see come to pass. I’m telling you what God says.” It is also interesting to note that both of these messages conclude with “and they shall know that I am the LORD.” God sent this judgment upon them so that they would know He was the Lord; one of the purposes of judgment is that men might know that God is a holy God. This world needs to know that God is a holy God. We have had a great deal of emphasis upon the fact that God is love. While it is true that God is love, it is only half the story. We need to look on the other side on the coin: God is holy, and God will punish sin. If you turn in disobedience from Him, if you deny Him and do not accept His salvation, there is only one alternative leftjudgment. Men today try to excuse themselves; they do not want to recognize that they are sinners. They attempt to write God off and bow Him out of His universe by saying He does not even exist. A brilliant young Hebrew, who was a chaplain at the University of Pittsburgh a number of years ago, attempted to show that God did not exist. His argument was based on the premise that the God of the Hebrew Bible is depicted as the faithful protector of His chosen people, but at least six million Jews had died at the hands of the Nazis. He wrote, “To believe in the God of the covenant today you must affirm that their Creator [that is, of the nation Israel] used Adolph Hitler as the rod of His wrath to send His people to the death camps, and I find myself utterly incapable of believing this. Even the existentialist’s leap of faith cannot resurrect this dead God after Auschwitz.” This young rabbi speaks of the death of God as a cultural event. Wistfully and sadly he comes to the conclusion that there is no God because the God of the covenant is a God who would protect Israel and would never let anything happen to them. May I point out that he never takes into consideration, as Ezekiel did, that there might be something wrong with the people upon whom the judgment came.
They had turned their backs upon God and had denied Him. They had been given a special privilege, and that privilege created a responsibility which they did not measure up to. Ezekiel is telling the people that it is God who is sending this judgment that He might confirm to them that He is a holy God. His judgment is an awful thing. Paul wrote, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men …” (2Co_5:11). Because Ezekiel was made aware of God’s holiness at the beginning of his ministry, he devoted his life to the ministry of “persuading men.”
Ezekiel 6:2
The judgment is to come upon the entire land.
Ezekiel 6:3
“Mountain” in Scripture, if used figuratively, speaks of government, but you need to determine if it is being used literally or figuratively. I believe Ezekiel is speaking of that land, the good old terra firmaright down where there’s plenty of dirt. “I will destroy your high places.” In that land under every kind of tree there was a heathen altar around which the grossest immorality took place. This is what the heathen, the Gentiles did, but now this nation, God’s chosen people, had given themselves over to the same idolatry. God says to them, “Judgment is coming upon you.”
Ezekiel 6:4
It is too bad that the Jews in Germany did not read the Book of Ezekiel rather than turning to a man like Hitler, which the entire nation did at the beginning. Israel should have turned to the living and true God and been acquainted with His method of dealing with men. You cannot trifle with God, my friend. Judgment does come. America struggles to bring peace to the world; but, instead of solving our problems, they continue to mount up. Why? Because God judges. Do you think God is a senile old man with long whiskers, sitting on a cloud and weeping crocodile tears? My friend, God is a holy God. In chapter 1 Ezekiel saw a vision of a holy God: those wheels within wheels depicting the energy of God as He moves forward to accomplish His purposes, and the fire and whirlwind showing that God does move in judgment upon this earth in which we live. To understand God in this way may be a bitter pill, but when we take the bitter pills the doctor gives us, they do help us. We need to swallow this bitter pill: we are dealing with a holy God, and He is not wrong; we are the ones who are wrong. Are you willing to admit that? God is saying, “I am going to judge Israel, and it is not going to be easy.” I am afraid Israel was not at all willing to admit their wrong.
Ezekiel 6:8
REMNANT TO BE SAVEDThere were some among these people who remained faithful to God. The nation as a whole went away from God, but there was a believing remnant. This is true of the church today. Liberalism has taken over the bulk of the organized church, but there are many of God’s people left. God takes note of the faithful ones.
Ezekiel 6:9
“And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives.” What is this remnant going to do? They are going to be a witness for God. “Because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me” would be better translated “when I shall have broken their whorish heart which has departed from me.” They are people who belong to Him, but they have played the harlot, they have committed spiritual adultery. The organized church which will remain after Christ takes His true church out of the world is also called a harlot in Revelation 17. That is the most frightful chapter in the Word of Godit presents a terrible picture. “They shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.” This was one of the results of judgment, but we do not see this result in our world today. This means simply that there will be more judgment, and that judgment is coming during the Great Tribulation period. The people at that time will gnaw their tongues because of the judgment of God. You would think there would be a great wave of repentance, but there will not be among that crowd. In Ezekiel’s day there were those who loathed themselvesthey repented because they were still close to God. That will be true of God’s people always. If you do not hate yourself whenever you serve the Devil, then you must not be one of God’s people.
Ezekiel 6:10
“And they shall know that I am the LORD"this is said three times in this chapter, and it is another result of judgment. Again, we do not see this result happening in our own day. Instead of recognizing the hand of God, people are saying that He is not even there. They argue that if He did exist, He would always help them. Oh, my friend, where do we get that idea? God is judging sin. People rebel against this; they do not want a God who judges. You can make a God after your own likeness if you want to, but the holy God is still out there. You might wish He would go away, but He is not going to go away. He will continue to judge.
Ezekiel 6:13
I happen to know that the persecution under Hitler drove many wonderful Jews to God. There is a great company of believers today in Europe as a result of that. We forget about them, and very little is said about them. I received a letter once from a wonderful girl whose parents died in those gas chambers, and she testified to the fact that the horrible experience had been the means of her salvation. We need to recognize the hand of GodHe is a holy God. If He did not spare His own Son, but let Him die when He became sin for us, why in the world do sinners think they will escape His judgment? “Their altars, upon every high hill"God spells out the reason He judged them in the land. My friend, the judgment of God is still upon that land. Many folk like to speak of it as “the land of milk and honey.” Don’t kid yourselfit is not the land of milk and honey today. The people are not turning to Him, and His judgment is still on that land.
Ezekiel 6:14
I do not know about “the wilderness toward Diblath,” but I do know what it is like between Jerusalem and Jericho right now, and I am not interested in buying real estate there. If it were not for their need of protection, I think Israel would be willing to turn it back to the Arabs and let them have it! “They shall know that I am the LORD"again, this is one of His tremendous purposes in judgment.