CHAPTER 11

(594 B.C.)

EVIL PRINCES REBUKED

¹Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the LORDs house, which looks eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. (Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, refers to the Holy Spirit. Three times it says the Spirit lifted up the Prophet [3:14; 8:3; 11:1]. It also says that it carried him [37:1]. The five and twenty men could have been those mentioned in 8:16. However, those were probably Priests, and at least two of these are named as princes of the people. Irrespective of who they were, they represented rebellion against God.)

²Then said He unto me, Son of man, these are the men who devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city (And give wicked counsel in this city, referred to any counsel which contradicted the Prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but mostly referred to Jeremiah, because he was the one prophesying in Jerusalem. These men denied any coming invasion by the Babylonians, and that their city would be destroyed, along with the Temple):

³Which say, It is not near; let us build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh. (This city is the caldron, and we be the flesh, refers to the claims by these false prophets that the inhabitants of Jerusalem were as secure as if surrounded by iron.)

JUDGMENT ANNOUNCED

⁴Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man. (The Holy Spirit tells the Prophet to strongly oppose the false message of these false prophets. So much for those who claim that such Preaching should not be brought forth.)

⁵And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus says the LORD; Thus have you said, O House of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. (The Omniscience of the Lord is brought forth in this statement, For I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. This is in response to Judahs statement, The Lord has forsaken the Earth, and the Lord sees not [9:9].)

⁶You have multiplied your dead in this city, and you have filled the streets thereof with the dead. (The idea of this Verse is that the terrible destruction coming upon Jerusalem is not the fault of God, but the fault of the spiritual leaders in their rebellion against God. Therefore, the Lord lays the blame at their feet.)

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Your dead whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it. (The princes declared this city to have a ring of iron around it, i.e., they claimed it was what one might call impregnable. It was instead to be a boiling pot, i.e., cauldron, and the people in it as boiling flesh. As a result, the dead would be many.

But I will bring you forth out of the midst of it, concerns some of the princes, if not all, who would be taken captive to Riblah and there put to death.)

⁸You have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you, says the Lord GOD. (Observing the Babylonian Empire seeking to extend its borders, and having already suffered two deportations, the Nobles of Judah and Jerusalem, despite their bluster and bravado, feared the oncoming horde. They were well aware of the ferociousness of the Babylonians, and rightly feared the sword.)

⁹And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you. (And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, refers back to the words of Moses. He said, That the land spue not you out also, when you defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you [Lev. 18:28].)

¹⁰You shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and you shall know that I am the LORD. (I will judge you in the border of Israel, refers to the princes being carried to Riblah and there put to death.)

¹¹This city shall not be your caldron (fortress), neither shall you be the flesh in the midst thereof (protected in the fortress); but I will judge you in the border of Israel (the Lord was not speaking here of the majority of the population of the city, but of the king and many of the nobles who thought they may escape):

¹²And you shall know that I am the LORD: for you have not walked in My Statutes, neither executed My Judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen who are round about you. (The Believer is in the world, but he is not to be of the world!)

THE PROMISE OF RESTORATION AND RENEWAL

¹³And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord GOD! will You make a full end of the remnant of Israel? (Pelatiah, evidently, was one of the leaders of those who gave wicked counsel in Jerusalem [Vss. 1-2]. The emphasis is that his death was a judgment from God.)

¹⁴Again the Word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

¹⁵Son of man, your brethren, even your brethren, the men of your kindred, and all the House of Israel wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the LORD: unto us is this land given in possession. (Ezekiel is comforted by the Message that his real brethren and kindred were the captives in Babylon, at least those who truly served the Lord, and not the Priests in Jerusalem, who had proudly said to the Exiles, You are far from the Lord, for this land is given unto us in possession!)

¹⁶Therefore say, Thus says the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little Sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. (The comfort the Lord gave Ezekiel was deepened by the Prophecy that though the captives had no material Temple, yet God Himself would be to them a Sanctuary for the little while their exile was to last, i.e., the predicted seventy years.

The idea is: it is The Presence of Jehovah that makes the Sanctuary, and not the Sanctuary that secures the Presence.)

¹⁷Therefore say, Thus says the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. (This was fulfilled partially upon the return of the Exiles some seventy years after the first deportation; however, its total fulfillment yet speaks of a future time, which will actually take place in the coming Kingdom Age.)

¹⁸And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. (Once again, this Prophecy will be fulfilled totally after the Second Coming of Christ.)

¹⁹And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh (this will be fulfilled at Christs Second Coming and the acceptance of Him as their Saviour):

²⁰That they may walk in My Statutes, and keep My Ordinances, and do them: and they shall be My People, and I will be their God.

²¹But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, says the Lord GOD. (This Verse now returns to the present and Israels rebellion against the Lord.)

²²Then did the Cherubims lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the Glory of the God of Israel was over them above. (The Glory of the God of Israel was the strength of this Land, City, Temple, and people, and yet they little knew or understood it. They are now about to lose it.)

²³And the Glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city. (The mountain which is on the east side of the city is the Mount of Olivet. And the Glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, denotes a reluctance to leave. However, the Holy Spirit is no longer wanted or desired; therefore, He has no choice but to leave.

Having reluctantly left the Temple, the Glory then forsook the city, lingering for a while with sorrowing Love upon this Mountain. But the Glory returned to that Mount, veiled in the sinless flesh of the Messiah; once more Love looked upon the Beloved but rebellious City and wept over it [Lk. 19:41].

A few weeks later, Christ ascended from that same Mountain; and yet, in a future day, in the Glory of His Second Advent, His Feet shall stand, once again, upon it [Zech. 14:4]. Then shall Israel have one heart and a new spirit.)

²⁴Afterwards the Spirit took me up, and brought me in a Vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the Vision that I had seen went up from me. (And brought me in a Vision, denotes the fact that Ezekiel did not go to Jerusalem literally, but only in a Vision.)

²⁵Then I spoke unto them of the captivity all the things that the LORD had shown me. (As Ezekiel related to his compatriots what the Lord had shown him, they were no doubt very much comforted with the wonderful revelation that Israels God of Glory was in their midst as a Sanctuary, a True and Pure Temple; that He would continue to be so for the entire period of the captivity; that He shared their Exile with them; and that He would certainly restore them to the homeland.)