Exile and Hope:

An Introduction to the Prophecy of Ezekiel

A Sermon by the Rev. S. Randall Toms, Ph.D.

St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Baton Rouge, LA

Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it: And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land. But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:17-28)

          When people try to read and study the prophecy of Ezekiel, their reaction may be the same as when trying to comprehend the book of Revelation.  There are so many strange and unusual symbols, images, parables, and stories that the reader is tempted to give up, despairing of ever understanding what the Scriptures are teaching us in this book, which can be, at times, a very puzzling book.  To understand Ezekiel does require diligent study because it contains so many different literary genres.  Within its pages, we will find prose, poetry, dirges, laments, apocalyptic language, history, and prophecy.  Great care must be taken to recognize what kind of language is being used in each section of the book, or else we could wind up with some very absurd interpretations.   Though the task of interpreting Ezekiel may be daunting, we must remember that all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for us.  If we give up trying to understand what the Lord is teaching us in his word, we miss so many truths, especially in the book of Ezekiel, about God’s glory, holiness, sovereignty, and his plans for the future. Though these words were written to the people of Israel in the 6th century B.C., they remain as relevant and applicable to the church's current situation in the world today. If we neglect to study this portion of the Bible, we miss the warnings and the comforts that are so needed in our present generation.

          As I introduce this book to you, I will start in chapter 36, then we will return to chapter 1 and study the prophecy in detail.  I am beginning in chapter 36 because this passage contains some of the most critical themes in the book.   In a way, chapter 36 summarizes the whole prophecy of Ezekiel.  This book tells the story of how a man named Ezekiel and thousands of his countrymen were taken into captivity to Babylon.   In the first two verses of the book, he says, “ Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.[2] In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity.”  In 597 B. C., the Babylonians invaded Judah and carried King  Jehoiachin and other aristocratic families of Israel into captivity in Babylon. Ezekiel dates his prophecies in reference to the time when he was carried away into captivity.   We are told in II Kings 24:14 that King Nebuchadnezzar “… carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land.” Since Ezekiel was in the priestly lineage, he was part of the group that was carried to Babylon.   Five years later, around 592 B. C., when Ezekiel reached the age of 30, he received his call to the prophetic ministry, as recorded in this book.   Though Ezekiel was in the priestly family, he had not yet been allowed to serve in the temple, as service could not begin until age 30, and Ezekiel would have been only 25 when he was carried into captivity.  But since his father was a priest, we can understand how Ezekiel knows so much about the temple and its rituals. Though he may not have been given the opportunity to exercise his priestly ministry in the temple, he would exercise his prophetic ministry among his fellow exiles in Babylon.   These people needed to hear the message of Ezekiel, because you would think that, since they had been carried into captivity, they would have recognized that they were under the judgment of God and would have repented.   But we find that even in captivity, the people of Israel were still hard-hearted and obstinate.   

This 36th chapter of Ezekiel explains why the people of Israel were taken captive.  In verses 17-19, we read, “Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. [18] Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:[19] And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.”  God had given the people of Israel the land of Canaan and had commanded them to live in obedience to his law.   But rather than obeying God, they fell repeatedly into the sin of idolatry, worshiping foreign gods, and engaging in all sorts of violence and immorality.  For these sins, God scattered his people among the pagan nations. 

 In 722 B. C., the northern tribes had been conquered, and many of the people were carried away by the Assyrians into captivity.   The Assyrians had not taken possession of Judah.   Although Judah and Jerusalem had maintained a measure of independence, the Assyrians forced them to pay tribute rather than face invasion and conquest.   But the world is constantly changing.   Though the Assyrians were one of the great powers of the world in the eighth century B. C., other powers were beginning to arise.   Egypt was making a comeback on the world stage.   And a new power, the Babylonians, was starting to make its mark among the world's powerful nations.  The Assyrians and Egyptians tried to form an alliance to withstand the power of the Babylonians, but at the battle of Carchemish in 605 B. C., the Babylonians defeated this confederation.   And just as God had used the Assyrians to punish the northern tribes, God would now use the Babylonians to punish Judah and Jerusalem for their idolatry, culminating in the sack of Jerusalem in 587/6 B. C.

          Now, just from this short historical sketch I have given you, we find several themes that recur throughout the book of Ezekiel, one of which is the absolute sovereignty of God over all the nations of the world.  When God’s people sin against him, he pours out his wrath and fury upon them.   But the interesting thing is that God does not pour out his wrath by hurling lightning bolts from the heavens, though he is undoubtedly capable of doing so. But in this instance, God uses the sinful, pagan nations of the world as his instruments of wrath.   God is so in control of the nations and rulers of this world that he raises empires like the Assyrians and the Babylonians to carry out his purposes, even the purpose of chastising his own people.   This same truth is taught by Daniel, a contemporary fellow-captive of Ezekiel’s in Babylon, when he told Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, that “the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will” (Daniel 4:32).  God is the one who raises kings and empires. He is the one who deposes and brings them to nothing. 

Ezekiel will teach the same truths about God’s sovereignty over the nations that we find in the prophecy of Isaiah.   Isaiah pointed out how the Assyrians were God’s instrument to punish his people for their sins.   In Isaiah 10:5-7, we read,  “O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.”   Notice again that while God could have just poured out his wrath directly upon his people by storm and tempest, he chooses to use human instruments, even wicked Assyrians.  The Assyrians are the rod of his anger.   The Assyrians have no idea that they are the instruments of God’s wrath.   As far as they are concerned, they are attacking the people of Israel out of their desire to destroy others to gain more land wealth.  But God uses their evil lusts to perform the holy act of pouring out his wrath on a sinful people.   And we will see in this book of Ezekiel how, even though Nebuchadnezzar has no idea that he is merely an instrument in the hand of a sovereign God, he is the means through which God works out his purposes in the world. 

In the first 24 chapters of Ezekiel, the prophecy deals primarily with the Jews, but in chapters 25-32, Ezekiel will turn his attention to the surrounding nations and announce judgments he will bring upon them.  We might get the impression from reading Scripture that God doesn’t care about the sinful actions of nations other than Israel because he was not in covenant with them as he was with Israel.   But these chapters will show us that God is very much concerned with all nations and peoples, and he holds them accountable and judges them for their sins, especially in how they treat the people of God.  God is in absolute, sovereign control of all the nations of the world, even those nations that despise him, and he uses them as he sees fit.   St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:11 that God works “all things after the counsel of his own will.”  God has an eternal plan and purpose in mind for every single thing that happens in this world, and that truth gives the people of God tremendous hope and comfort.

          Now, why does God exercise this kind of sovereignty over the affairs of men?  We do not know the details of all the reasons God has for orchestrating events as he does, for he is infinite in wisdom and his ways are past finding out. Still, there is one ultimate answer to the question of why God rules the world with absolute sovereignty: “for his own glory.”   Every puzzling question about the workings of God’s providence is answered in the response—" for his own glory.”    “Why did God do this?” we ask.  “Why did God allow this to happen?” we wonder.   Answer:  “For his own glory.”   God created us for his own glory.   God allowed man to fall into sin for his own glory.  God sent his son into the world to redeem us so that his name might be glorified.  Therefore, the greatest of all sins is to refuse to render to God the glory that is due to him.   One of the greatest crimes of all is that of bringing dishonor to the glorious name of God.   This is the sin that the people of Israel committed that finally brought upon them destruction and captivity. 

And that brings us to another of the great themes of the book of Ezekiel—the glory of God.  The first chapter of this book is dedicated to one of the most dazzling descriptions of the glory of God in Holy Scripture.   If you have ever tried to read that first chapter, you remember the images of the wheel within a wheel, the four living creatures, and the chariot throne.  Though we may feel we would never be able to understand that first chapter, it is vital that we try, because Ezekiel concludes the vision by saying, “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD” (27).   You will notice how difficult it is for Ezekiel to describe the glory of God, because it defies language to convey its essence.  After Ezekiel has this vision of the glory of God, he doesn’t conclude by saying, “This was the glory of God.”  He doesn’t even say “what I saw was like the glory of God.” Instead, he says that what he saw was “the appearance of the likeness” of the glory of God.  In other words, Ezekiel was doing his best to describe it, but the glory of God is far more excellent, beautiful, and overwhelming than his words could describe.  

Some have said that the glory of God is the outshining of God’s attributes.  That is why in Scripture, the glory of God is often associated with dazzling light.   For example, when the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds at the announcement of Jesus’ birth, we are told that “the glory of the Lord shone round about them.”  So, it will not be surprising when we study the description of the glory of God in Ezekiel 1 that we will find words like “fire, sparkle, burning coals of fire, lamps, lightning, and brightness.”   All his attributes, like love, mercy, justice,  and power, shine forth, as it were, with a brilliance that is almost blinding and overwhelming to those who try to gaze on that glory.   As our great hymn, “Immortal, Invisible,” puts, “’Tis only the splendor of light hideth thee.”

One of the great sins committed by the people of Israel was that they had forgotten the glory of God.  What the book of Ezekiel will show us is that everything God does in this world is to reveal his glory.  He reveals his glory in his creation, in his judgments, and in his love and mercy.   The great sin that the people of Israel had committed was that they had refused to render to God the glory that was due to him.  In this 36th chapter, the Lord says, “But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.”   These people had taken the name of God upon themselves; they were called by his name, and they were to live in such a way that God’s name would be glorified.  But the people of Israel had profaned God’s holy name by the way that they lived.

You remember that after David had committed his horrible sin with Bathsheba, David’s great condemnation was, as we find in II Samuel 12:14, that David’s actions had “given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme.”  This is what happens when the people of God sin.   The people of the world laugh and mock at our hypocrisy, but more than that, our sinfulness gives reason for people to blaspheme God.   They say to themselves, “That must be some God they worship.  He either gives them a license to sin so that they can commit all manner of abominable acts, or their God is powerless to keep them from sinning.”  As St. Paul said in Romans 2:24, after he had described the hypocrisy of the Jewish people, “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.”  The people of Judah and Jerusalem had given the pagans good reason to blaspheme the name of God, so God poured out his wrath on his people.  Even when they were taken into captivity, they had not repented of their sin, but continued to profane the name of God.  But notice what the Lord says he will do.   He is going to restore the glory of his name, which the people of Israel had dishonored.   He pitied his holy name.   He punished the people of Israel for the sake of his holy name.  And he is going to restore the glory of his holy name. 

And this brings us to another great theme of the book of Ezekiel—the holiness of God.  The holiness of God is one of the most important teachings in all of holy Scripture.   When we think of the holiness of God, we may be tempted to think of it as just another of his attributes, like his attributes of love, mercy, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, justice, faithfulness, goodness, grace, and lovingkindness.  But holiness is not an attribute of God.  Holiness is the very nature of his essence, and all his attributes spring from and are molded by his holiness.  Jonathan Edwards said, “Holiness is the very beauty and loveliness of Jehovah Himself. ‘Tis the excellency of His excellencies, the beauty of His beauties, the perfection of His infinite perfections, and the glory of His attributes.”  Notice that Edwards does not say that holiness is one of God’s attributes, but rather, holiness is the glory of his attributes.  His love is holy love.  His mercy is holy mercy, his justice is holy justice,  and his wrath is holy wrath. 

The root of the word for “holiness” means to be separate; God is wholly other.   Though God is omnipresent and there is no place where God is not, he is not to be confused with creation in any pantheistic sense.   He is present in creation, but at the same time, he is apart from it.   God is both transcendent and immanent.  He existed before there was anything else, and everything that exists now, he brought into being by his own powerful command. When we are in the presence of God, we are aware of how totally other, how different, how separate from us he really is.  When we see God as holy, we know that we are not God.  We see ourselves as creations of this mighty God, and we are totally overwhelmed by this sight of an infinite, all-powerful being.

 But God is separate in another way.  He is separate from all that is evil.   It is this aspect of his holiness that is emphasized throughout Scripture.  In Habakkuk 1:13, we read, “ Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.”  At first, that seems like an odd statement since we know that God does behold evil, and he does see all of the iniquity that human beings commit.   But this verse is saying that God cannot look upon evil and iniquity with any delight; rather, it is as though he must turn away his gaze from something so hideous in his sight.   The psalmist said in chapter 5, verse 4, “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.”  These verses, and many others like them, show us that God is absolutely pure in a moral sense, incapable of evil, and that he cannot even stand to look upon anything evil.   When God tells his people, “Be ye holy, for I am holy,” he is saying that they must be separate from evil as he is separate from evil.”

It is because of his holiness that God pours out his judgments when people are disobedient to him.  It is because of his holiness, his aversion to all that is sinful, that he delivered the people of Israel into captivity. In this 36th chapter, there are three references to God’s holy name. Remember that in Scripture, a name represents a person's character.   When people thought of the name of God, the first thing that should have popped into their minds was his holiness and his demand for holiness and moral purity from his people.    But the people of Israel had profaned his holy name, and God is said to have had pity or compassion for his holy name.  God’s holy name had been dragged through the dirt by the sinful actions of his people.  They had polluted his holy name in their very acts of worship.  In Ezekiel  20:39, God said,  “As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.”   God is so sick of even the worship of these people that he tells them to go ahead and serve the false gods if that is what they want to do, but don’t bring his holy name into these vile acts of worship.   Please don’t say that you are doing these things in my name.  When you live as you do and worship as you do, claiming to be my people, claiming to be worshiping me, you are in reality desecrating my name.  The word for “pollute” means “to defile” or “to profane.”   It was a term used to describe people who had become ritually unclean.   But in this case, it is said that God’s name had been profaned, God’s name had become defiled, as it were, by the sinful actions of his people.  God's name signified holiness, his moral purity, his separation from sin, but his people were living in such an ungodly manner that it seemed his worship condoned the ungodly actions of his people.  One of the great sins of the people of Israel was that they had taken everything that God had declared to be holy and had defiled it. In  Ezekiel 22:8, the Lord says,  “Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.”  Even the priests, who were supposed to reflect the holiness of God and make sure that everything in Israel reflected the glory of God, desecrated the holy things of God.   So, in Ezekiel 22:26, we read, “Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.”  These verses in chapter 36 describe how the people had defiled the land by their sinful actions.   They were unclean in his sight.  Because of their idolatry and violence, he poured out his fury upon them.   This furious anger springs from his holiness, which cannot endure evil.

Though God, in his righteous anger, had brought judgment upon his people, in this 36th chapter, we see one of the most beautiful pictures of how God will glorify his name once again among a people who had dishonored him. Beginning in chapter 33, after all the pronouncements of judgments against Judah and the surrounding nations, Ezekiel’s message turns to one of hope for the future.    Though this 36th chapter contains terrifying thoughts of God's justice and judgments, it also includes one of the most wonderful promises about the future he has in store for his people.  The holy God who punishes his people for profaning his name will make for himself a holy people who will bring glory and honor to his name.  He promises in verses 24-28:   For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.” 

In this beautiful passage, God promises to restore his people to their land.  He had cast them out of the land in his wrath and fury, but he will restore them to their land.  After the Persians came to power, the people of Israel returned to their land in 538 B.C.    But the blessings that God promises in this 36th chapter were certainly not fulfilled in their fullest extent by that return to Israel.   This prophecy in Ezekiel 36 has a far greater fulfillment than what occurred in the 6th century B.C.  There must not be simply a return to the land.   There must be a spiritual restoration of the people to holiness.   After all, there is not much point in restoring a sinful people to their land only to fill it with sin again.  Unfortunately,  Israel returned to their land, and they fell into horrible sin once again.  Though there was a faithful remnant in the land, when the Lord Jesus Christ arrived on the scene, did he find the people of Israel to be a holy people?   Far from it! They were heretical in their theology, believing that they could be made right with God through obedience to the law.  They were guilty of vile hypocrisy, pretending that they were holy and righteous while inwardly they were guilty of adultery, greed, and envy.   When God in the flesh appeared among them, they crucified him.  So, there has to be a greater fulfillment of this prophecy than simply returning to the land.  

Now, with New Testament history in view, we know how this prophecy was actually fulfilled.  It was fulfilled when Jesus Christ came into the world and established his church.  It was then that he sprinkled clean water upon his people, symbolizing baptism, which points to the blood of Christ by which people are truly cleansed.  The promise of the new heart was fulfilled when Christ came into the world.  By believing in him, people could receive new hearts by being born again, being made new creations in Christ Jesus, and given hearts that love God and love one another.  On the day of Pentecost, the Lord put a new spirit a new spirit into his people, his own Spirit, the Holy Spirit, into the hearts of his people to cause them to walk in obedience to him, to give them a genuine love of God’s holiness and the overwhelming desire to be holy as God is holy. 

Then, in chapters 40-48, we see a glorious description of the church, how it will grow, how beautiful and holy it will be.  In Ezekiel 40-48, we see Ezekiel’s glorious description of the Church as it grows, expands, and becomes a blessing to the world.   Matthew Henry, in agreement with John Lightfoot(the great Hebrew scholar  who died in 1675)  writes, “Under the type and figure of a temple and altar, priests and sacrifices, is foreshown the spiritual worship that should be performed in gospel times, more agreeable to the nature both of God and man, and that perfected at last in the kingdom of glory, in which perhaps these visions will have their full accomplishment, and some think in some happy and glorious state of the gospel-church on this side heaven, in the latter days.”  As we study chapters 40-48, we will see how they describe the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, its holiness and beauty, both in this world and in the world to come, as Ezekiel’s vision of the future tabernacle reaches its perfection in the eternal state. 

The covenant with Abraham was that he would be a God to him and his seed, and they would be his people.   That one covenant of grace flows throughout the Scriptures, and that covenant is, “I will be your God, and you shall be my people.”   The book of Revelation, at the close of the canon of Scripture, ends with the exact words, “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”   Chapters 40-48 of Ezekiel are a beautiful picture of the tabernacle in its perfection, and the tabernacle's blessing is eternal fellowship with God.   He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”  The covenant of grace will be perfectly realized.   Therefore, we can see that the promises of the book of Ezekiel are all fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who is the tabernacle of God, and it is through him, in fellowship with him, that we have eternal consummation of the temple.  As we study Ezekiel 40-48, we will see that just as everything in the Old Testament tabernacle and temple pointed to Jesus Christ, so everything in Ezekiel 40-48 points to Christ as well, and we will see that the book of Revelation describes the fulfillment of what Ezekiel saw in his visions.

Ezekiel speaks of God creating a new people for himself.  He is going to take sinful, rebellious people and give them new hearts, new spirits, and be their God and make them his people to live in eternal fellowship with him, worshiping and glorifying his name in his eternal tabernacle.   God reminds us in this 36th chapter that he will do all of this to glorify himself.  Let us look at those words again in Ezekiel 36, [21] But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.[22] Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.[23] And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.”  God does not bestow all these blessings on his people primarily for their sakes, but for His sake.  He does this because God pities his name.  His name should have been glorified, but it had been dishonored.   But God will see to it that his name is glorified once again, and he will glorify his name by redeeming these people.   Notice how he keeps reiterating this theme—not for your sakes.  I am not doing this for your sakes.  He is doing it for his own sake, that his name will be glorified.   When God creates the people anew, when God raises this holy people with new hearts and new spirits, even the pagans will see this glorious change and recognize that God is a holy God who has the power to make his people holy.   This is how he sanctifies his name.  His name is restored to its glory by the transformation he makes in his people. 

In the book of Ephesians, St. Paul states that God’s eternal purpose was to redeem and purify a people, put them on display for the whole universe to see, and thereby glorify himself.   St. Paul writes, “in Ephesians 3:8-11,  “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord”.  Notice that it is through the church that God reveals the glory of his wisdom.  Everything God does, even in the salvation of sinners, is to reveal his glory. 

There is another way of saying that God does everything for his glory, and I will close this introduction with perhaps the most crucial phrase in the book of Ezekiel.   Why does God do everything he does?   Why does he punish his people?   Why does he redeem his people?  The answer to these questions is found in a phrase that we first encounter in Ezekiel 6:7, “And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.”  This phrase, “ye shall know that I am the Lord,” and the phrase “they shall know that I am the Lord,” occur over 60 times in the book of Ezekiel.   Sometimes, God says he does what he does so that the pagan nations might know that he is the Lord.   But most often, the Lord is speaking to the people of Israel.  He will do these things so that his own people will know that he is the Lord.   We might ask, “Didn’t the people of Israel already know that he was the Lord?”  Unfortunately, at this particular point in their history, they didn’t.   Many had forsaken the Lord for foreign idols, which of course is a way of saying that the true and living God is not the Lord.  Others had forgotten the true character of the Lord.  But God is going to work in such an amazing way that there will no longer be any doubt.   After the way he has judged his people and then redeemed them, there will be proof positive that he is the Lord.  All of human history is moving in this one direction toward that day when every person will know that the sovereign, glorious, holy God is the Lord, and this knowledge will come to every person through the sight of Jesus Christ being exalted as King of kings and Lord of lords.     As St. Paul puts it in Philippians 2:9-11:  “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  Notice the emphasis again on the glory of God.   Jesus Christ came into the world and revealed the glory of God.   One day, every single person will acknowledge that Christ is Lord.  Just as Ezekiel said, everything that has ever happened and ever will happen is so that all people everywhere might know that this sovereign, glorious, holy God is the Lord.

Unfortunately, we are living in a situation much like we find in the book of Ezekiel.  People do not know the true and living God.   They do not believe that the God described in Scripture is the Lord.  They do not believe in the God described in Ezekiel's prophecy.  They don’t believe in the sovereign, glorious, holy Lord.   They believe in a god that they have concocted in their own imaginations--an idol-- a god of their own making that they are comfortable with, a god who is just like them, created in their own image.  Over 80% of people in the U.S. today say that they believe in God.      But  I would venture to say that only a tiny handful of people believe in the sovereign, glorious, holy God found in Ezekiel.  But it’s not just the people outside of the church who don’t believe in the God of Scripture.   The church in the United States is one of the chief missionary societies propagating a false god, but using the name of the true God, thereby profaning his holy name.  Just as Israel polluted God’s holy name in their very worship, thousands of churches in our country preach a false god and, therefore, a false gospel.   These churches that call themselves followers of Jesus Christ pollute God’s holy name by disregarding his commandments, advocating immoral lifestyles, and teaching that God is not sovereign, glorious, or righteous.   The church that will not teach the truth about God invites his judgment, and there is no doubt that the church in America is under the judgment of God.  The church is no longer a place where the holiness of God is revealed in its glory.  The church desecrates, profanes, and pollutes the name of God. 

 One of the saddest scenes in the book of Ezekiel that we will study in some detail is when the glory of God departed from the temple because of the abominations that people were committing there.   God removed his glory from the place where he had said he would dwell.   Has God done the same now?  Has he taken his glory from the church?   I fear that it may be true.  Do we see people worshiping God in fear and reverence, trembling before the sovereignty and glory of God?   Do we hear preachers preaching the holiness of God with such power that people see themselves as wretched sinners in need of a savior?  The modern church is not what Ezekiel’s prophecy envisioned.   The church was to be the place where the glory of God was revealed.  The last verse of the book of Ezekiel describes the church as a great city, just as John will describe her in the book of Revelation:  “It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.” Is that what people say about our churches?  Is it evident that the Lord is there, revealing his glory among us?  Have we so polluted the holy things of God that he has withdrawn his glory from us?  Now, I know that there is a sense in which the glory of God can never leave the church because the glory of God is everywhere.   In Isaiah 6, the seraphim say the earth is filled with the glory of God.  Everywhere and in every place God’s glory is revealed.  But when the Scripture says that the glory of God has departed, it means that God can remove the powerful sense of his presence.  He can remove his favor and blessings from a people who have rebelled against him.  So, at this time when we see the preaching of the gospel producing so few genuine conversions, when we see holiness of life at such a low ebb in the churches, we must entertain the suggestion that the glory has departed in the sense that God is not bestowing on us his special favors as when the Lord is so evidently revealing his glory among his people.  If we have grieved his Holy Spirit to the degree that he is grieved with us and has removed his glory, may God give us grace to acknowledge it and pray that the glory of God would be restored to his people.  It is still possible to desecrate the temple of God.  Paul warned the Corinthian church, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (I Cor. 3:16-17)   Are we guilty of defiling God’s temple, the church, just as the people of Israel had defiled God’s temple?  In his wrath, has God removed his glory?

But we can take hope for the future.  The glory departed from Israel—for a while.   But one of the glorious pictures of the book of Ezekiel is that God’s glory returned to the temple.  In chapters 10-11, God’s glory leaves the temple.   But in Ezekiel’s vision of the new temple, the glory returns.  In Ezekiel 43:4-5, we read, “And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.  So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house.”  Let us pray that the glory of the Lord would return to his house.   The great project of Ezekiel was the restoration of the glory of God.  The people of Israel had spurned the glory of God.   It must be the great project of the church of our day to restore the glory of God to the church, a glory that for several generations now has been refused and rejected by the people who call themselves Christians, the covenant people of God.  May people worship him once again as the sovereign, glorious, holy Lord.   May people everywhere at last know that he is the Lord.   Amen.