The Prophet Ezekiel: An Analytical Exposition

by Arno Clemens Gaebelein

And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me. Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins, even downward; fire and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the look of glowing brass. And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. And, behold the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain. Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, and I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations (verses 1-6).

It was over a year after his first vision (i:1) when Ezekiel sat in his house surrounded by the elders of Judah. Perhaps they had come expecting some new communication from the prophet. Suddenly the hand of the Lord fell again upon him. He beheld once more the glorious likeness of Him who was the center of the first vision of glory.[9] The hand of the Lord took the prophet by a lock of hair and the Spirit lifted him between the earth and the heaven and he was brought in the visions of God to Jerusalem. Was this a real experience? Critics speak of a trance, that the prophet was some kind of a psychic with the gift of clairvoyancy. It was not a trance-vision, but an action by the Spirit and power of the Lord. Elijah must have had frequently the same experience, for Obadiah said to him: "And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not" (1 Kings xviii:12). And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha after Elijah departed: "The Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley" (2 Kings ii:16). The Spirit of the Lord also caught away Philip (Acts viii:39).

In the visions of God Ezekiel is brought to the door of the inner gate that looketh to the north. Here was the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. Some have taken this and the following visions to be retrospective. It has been said, "It was as if he were translated back to Jerusalem, and to the time when these things were occurring." Such is the view of some critics; however, it is untenable. These visions would lose their meaning if the prophet only seemed to be translated back to Jerusalem and to the time when these abominations had happened in Israel's past history. Later we find the names of persons given, whom he saw. They certainly were living persons known to Ezekiel and his contemporaries. One of them died while Ezekiel prophesied (xi:13).

What was the image of jealousy which provoketh to jealousy? It was an idol. The word is used in Deut. iv:16, where it is translated "graven image." It is also found in 2 Chronicles xxxiii:7, 15, where it refers to the idol, which Manasseh had made and put up in the temple.

After Manasseh's idolatry came Josiah's great reformation. After his death Judah plunged into greater wickedness under the reign of wicked kings and a revival of idolatry followed once more. Such a wrath provoking idol was beheld by the prophet. This image they worshipped. "Son of man, seest thou what they do?" They must have lain prostrate before that idol. And yet the glory of the God of Israel was still there. He had not yet abandoned the place. Idolatry will once more be practiced in Jerusalem. Our Lord speaks of it prophetically in Matthew xii:43-45. The unclean spirit is idolatry. The Jewish people are now purged from it. At some future time that spirit will return with seven others. "And the last state of that man is worse than the first." Then our Lord applied the parable: "Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation" (literally: race). During the reign of the final Anti-Christ, idolatry in its worst form will be instituted once more in Jerusalem (2 Thess. ii:3-4; Rev. xiii:11-18).

II. The Worship of Creeping and Abominable Beasts.

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, behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. 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 chambers of his imagery? for they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth" (verses 7-12).

The prophet saw next a hole in the wall, and being commanded to dig into it he found a secret door through which he entered. In the chamber, upon the wall round about, were pictured creeping things and abominable things. A worship of these creeping things and beasts was in progress, for the seventy ancients of Israel were swinging censers full of incense, so that a thick cloud went up. They were practising idolatry after the order of Egypt and of the most degrading kind. The people of God had sunk as deep, yea deeper, than the heathen round about them (Romans i:23). And the leaders of the nation, the seventy elders, were there leading in this worship of abominations. Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, is especially mentioned. Shaphan was the scribe, who received from the high-priest, Hilkiah, the book of the law, and who read it before King Josiah (2 Kings xxii:8-11; Jere. xxxix:14). The son of this illustrious and God-fearing scribe was the leader among the animal-worshippers. It was an evidence of the great apostasy which had engulfed the nation. And these idol-worshippers, each in his chamber of imagery (probably individual cells) said: "The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth." They denied His omniscience and omnipresence. The apostasy in Christendom is going the same road.

III. The Women Weeping for Tammuz.

He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these (verses 13-15).