CHAPTER 6

(594 B.C.)

PROPHECY AGAINST THE MOUNTAINS OF ISRAEL

¹And the Word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

²Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them (while the prior Message attacked idolatry in the city of Jerusalem, this Message attacks it in the Land of Judah. The mountains of Israel are especially pointed out because of idol temples, which usually were erected on mountains and hills, and by water courses, and in valleys. These were, as should be obvious, an insult to Jehovah. Despite repeated admonitions, they had not been removed. Now they would be removed by force),

³And say, You mountains of Israel, hear the Word of the Lord GOD; Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. (Just as the Prophet [I Ki. 13:2] disdained to speak to the king and addressed himself to the idolatrous altar, so here Ezekiel addresses the idolatrous centers of worship.)

⁴And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. (The phrase, And your altars shall be desolate, refers to the fact that these altars were theirs and not Gods. The Lord had only one Altar, which represented Calvary and the Sacrifice of His Only Son, which would take place in the future. Every other altar represented a false way of Salvation.)

⁵And I will lay the dead carcases of the Children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. (The idea of this Verse is that God will not tolerate any other altar than His Sacred Altar of Calvary. As it was true then, it is most definitely true now!)

⁶In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. (This Verse illustrates the expression, abomination of desolation, which is the desolation brought on by the moral and material result of idolatry. This fundamental moral principle, i.e., that desolation is produced by idolatry, may be verified in modern as well as ancient times, for today vast portions of the richest districts in the world are now desert because of idolatry. In the case of multitudes, a sad personal experience demonstrates this fact, as well! If the heart is governed by an idol, and religious idols are the worst of all, there is inward desolation, with spiritual fruit, wealth, and beauty virtually unknown [Rev. 3:17].)

⁷And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am the LORD. (God can be known in Grace or in Wrath, in Salvation or in Judgment. Israel proved Him by experience to be a Saviour when He redeemed them out of Egypt [Ex. 10:2]; likewise, they proved Him by experience to be a Judge when He abandoned them to exile because of idolatry, as it evidenced in this Verse.)

A REMNANT WILL BE SAVED

⁸Yet will I leave a remnant, that you may have some who shall escape the sword among the nations, when you shall be scattered through the countries. (When you shall be scattered through the countries, occurred in Ezekiels day, but occurred in earnest in A.D. 70, when Titus destroyed Jerusalem, with over one million Jews dying in that horror, and with well over one million being sold into slavery.)

⁹And they who escape of you shall remember Me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which has departed from Me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. (The phrase, Because I am broken with their whorish heart, could be translated to mean that Gods heart was broken because of Israels determined idolatry. And they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed, will not actually be fulfilled until the Second Coming [Zech. 12:10].)

¹⁰And they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them. (Someone has said that the greatest thing one can do regarding the Lord is to simply believe His Word. Regrettably, most did not then, and most do not now!)

THE LAND WILL BE MADE DESOLATE

¹¹Thus says the Lord GOD; Smite with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the House of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

¹²He who is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he who is near shall fall by the sword; and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish My fury upon them. (It is amazing when one considers the continued Prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel proclaiming coming doom, and yet unheeded!)

¹³Then shall you know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols. (The phrase, Then shall you know that I am the LORD, implies that Judah little believed the predictions of the Prophet.)

¹⁴So will I stretch out My Hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the LORD. (The Holy Spirit through the Prophet would not continue making the statement, And they shall know that I am the LORD, if the unbelief of Judah, Jerusalem, and the exiles had not been so pronounced!)