Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S10 || When God Withdraws His Blessing || Ezekiel 9:5 - 10:22 || Session 10 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
What happens when God's patience reaches its limit? Ezekiel chapters 9 and 10 deliver one of Scripture's most sobering messages—the departure of God's glory from the temple and the subsequent judgment on Jerusalem. This powerful, often-overlooked passage reveals crucial spiritual principles that remain startlingly relevant today.
The vision begins with God marking those who mourned over Jerusalem's idolatry for protection, while commanding judgment on everyone else. The Israelites had adopted horrific practices including child sacrifice, turned their backs on God's prophets, and mixed pagan worship with true worship despite centuries of warnings. This historical context helps us understand God's severe response.
Most striking is the progressive departure of God's glory—moving from the Holy of Holies, to the temple threshold, and eventually out of Jerusalem entirely to the Mount of Olives. This symbolic withdrawal of divine blessing and protection carries profound theological significance, connecting to Christ's later movements in the same locations. The burning of Jerusalem with coals from God's throne represented both punishment and purification, fulfilled historically through the Babylonian conquest.
For today's believers, these ancient warnings speak directly to our churches. When we incorporate worldly values into worship, prioritize cultural relevance over biblical truth, or focus worship on ourselves rather than God, we risk the same spiritual judgment. "We have churches in our day doing the exact same thing," the hosts observe, noting how easily we can justify compromise that seems good but contradicts God's Word.
Despite its severity, Ezekiel's message reminds us that God distinguishes between those who embrace sin and those who grieve over it. He knows His children and protects them even amid judgment. While God's patience is vast, it isn't endless—a sobering reality we must acknowledge while there's still opportunity to return to authentic worship and obedience.
What's the state of your heart toward God today? Are you grieving over compromise or embracing it? This challenging episode invites honest reflection on our worship, our churches, and our personal walk with a God who is both merciful and holy.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
In Ezekiel, chapter 9, we have God giving a very harsh message. It's very harsh but it's very valuable. Oftentimes the Word of God will do radical surgery on our soul and it's sometimes painful, but it's always beneficial. We today will discuss some things that God has for us in a very neglected section of the Word of God Ezekiel, chapter 9. So, if you have your Bibles turn there, I want to go back and pick up a couple of things from chapter 9, verses 3 and 4. In verse 4, God has a man with a writing instrument go through and mark out those that are mourning for the idol worship, that are sad because of the idol worship. These are the people that love the true God, that want to follow him and are mourning because of all the atrocities that are going on around them. We can take comfort in this because in the vision, God marks out and saves those that love him. We can take from this and extrapolate to the end times when God will again pour out his wrath, this time on the whole earth. He knows who are his children and he will save them. God does not pour out his wrath on his children in Ezekiel, chapter 9 and he will not pour out his wrath in the end days, when the great tribulation comes. He will not pour out his wrath on his children. Anyway. He will pour out his wrath on the earth, but God does not punish those that submit to him and love him and are under the blood of Jesus Christ. He does not pour out his wrath on his children, and we can have comfort in that. In the end times, Then we also have in Ezekiel 9.3, I'll read it again says this Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub, on which it had been, to the threshold of the temple and he called to the man clothed in linen whose loins was the writing case, and he went and marked out people Right here. When it says the glory of God lifted up from the cherub, this is the beginning of a very profound statement that God is making here to Ezekiel.
Speaker 1:If you remember back in when Israel was wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, the cloud by day and the fire by night, well, that was the Shekinah glory of the Lord, God Almighty, and whenever it picked up and moved, Israel would pack up the tabernacle and follow it. When it stopped, they would reset up the tabernacle and God's glory would rest over the Ark of the Covenant. On the top of the Ark of the Covenant there was two cherubs, two angels with outstretched wings, and God's glory would hover between the two cherubs, over what's called the mercy seat. If you remember, that's where Moses would go in and meet with God. His face would glow when he came out. And if you also remember, whenever Solomon built David's temple and built a building instead of the tabernacle, they moved the ark in and all the furniture. At that dedication ceremony, the glory of God was so powerful, hovering over the ark, over the cherub, that it forced the priest out and they physically couldn't do their work inside the building because the glory of God was so strong.
Speaker 1:Well, here in the passage we just read, God's glory rises up from the cherub and goes to the door of the temple. As we're going to see throughout the coming chapters, by the time we get to chapter 11, we're going to have the glory leaving the city. The glory of the Lord was filling the temple when God was pleased with them. But Ezekiel 9.3, and again in Ezekiel 10.4 and 10.19 and 11.22 and 23, the glory steadily leaves the temple and goes out the gate of the city of Jerusalem and goes to the mountain that's east of the city, that's the Mount of Olives. In Acts, chapter 1, Jesus leaves from there. He had done the triumphal entry, coming from the Mount of Olives back into the temple and found it wanting, and he leaves. In Acts 1, Jesus ascends from the Mount of Olives and then, in Zechariah 14, ascends from the Mount of Olives and then in Zechariah 14, he returns back to the mountain and will go back into the temple again. So we have here the beginning of the leaving of the glory out of the temple, and this is a sign that God is withdrawing his blessing from the people of Israel.
Speaker 1:This story of the glory of God is one of the reasons why we believe in the literal return of Jesus to a literal temple in a literal Jerusalem. This is one reason we believe that God is almighty. He gives us an inerrant word of God and the continuous story of the glory of God says that Jesus is going to physically return to the Mount of Olives and will reign again from Jerusalem. The more we learn about our amazing Bible, the more amazing things we find. Let's go ahead and move on from there. Next we have again God pouring out his wrath In Ezekiel 9,. He's going to describe what he does to the unbelieving Israelites. Steve, can you start at Ezekiel 9, 5 and read through verse 11?
Speaker 2:But to the others he said in my hearing go through the city after him and strike. Do not let your eye have pity and do not spare. Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark, and you shall start from my sanctuary. So they started with the elders who were before the temple, and he said to them Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain, go out. Thus they went out and struck down the people in the city.
Speaker 2:As they were striking the people, and I alone was left, I fell on my face and cried out saying Alas, lord, god, are you destroying the whole remnant of Israel by pouring out your wrath on Jerusalem? Then he said to me the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with blood and the city is full of perversion. For, they say, the Lord has forsaken the land and the Lord does not see. But as for me, my eye will have no pity, nor will I spare, but I will bring their conduct upon their heads. Then behold the man clothed in linen, at whose loins was the writing case reported saying I have done just as you have commanded me.
Speaker 1:Steve. This is in great contrast to the picture of God that's often given in our day. In our churches, we often have God as being sugar sweet. That is like a great uncle that just brings presents on our birthday. He only does things that feel good. Well, this passage doesn't feel very good. Is this description of God too harsh? How much punishment should we expect for people that have committed a crime against an infinitely holy God?
Speaker 2:It's not too harsh whenever you understand. It's an act of discipline. You can control your actions and the choices that you make, but you can't control the consequences. These are the consequences that these people are experiencing because they have abandoned God. They have done abominable things in his sight, so now they're paying the price for it. Glenn, we're seeing that God is going to use the Babylonians in order to carry out what Ezekiel is seeing in his visions here, and we've also seen from skeptics and others that talk about a God that goes in and wipes out pagan nations. Well, here's an example of where God is taking his chosen people, the people that he has created to the nation of Israel, and he's disciplining them. The reason why he's disciplining them is because, again, the abominable things that they're doing in his sight. So there's going to be consequences.
Speaker 2:Romans says the wages of sin is death, which means spiritual separation from God. There's consequences. We need to understand that. I think it needs to be preached more often from our pulpits so that people will understand it, that there's consequences to the sin that we do in front of God. To be covered by it is to believe in Jesus Christ. Then you're covered from that. You have the mark put on your forehead, such as what the man clothed in linen with the writing case that his loins did here. That's the way that you can avoid the wrath of God.
Speaker 1:Let me read verse 6 again just to remind us the force of what he's saying here Utterly slay, old men, young men, maidens, little children and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark. And you shall start from my sanctuary. So they started with the elders who were before the temple. So those elders that were before the temple, if you remember, those were the ones that had literally and figuratively turned their backs on God and were worshiping the Son. These were people that knew the Word of God and had turned their back on it and were worshiping the creation rather than the Creator. Also, remember where this fits into the history of Israel.
Speaker 1:Way back when God was first bringing Israel into the land, he told Joshua and their followers to utterly destroy all the Canaanites old men, little kids, all of them because of the abominations that happened. Well, joshua and his followers didn't do that. They left some. They didn't kill them all. So by the time we get down to this point, many hundreds of years later, the goodness of God's commands to love and don't murder and don't commit adultery, things like this. The goodness didn't influence the Canaanites. What happened was the Canaanites influenced the Israelites, these people that God is commanding to be destroyed here. They were people that were sacrificing their own children to the god Molech. They were frying babies on a hot iron idol. These were people that were murdering their own children, and had done so for quite a long time, in the face of God's many repeated commands to stop that. So they were guilty of murder. They were guilty of spiritual adultery against a holy God. They were utterly worthless, because he had warned them many times not to do this and they would not listen. Also be reminded that God's law, again given all the way back many hundreds of years earlier in Moses' day, had commanded punishment of death for worshiping statues and other gods. You'll find that in Ezekiel 22.20 and Deuteronomy, chapter 13. These people knew, they had memorized much of this and they had not only mixed pagan deities with their worship. They had not only turned their back on God's prophets and ignored them. They had not only murdered God's prophets when they brought the message from God, they were also sacrificing their own children, going against God, god's law, and were deserving of everything that God wanted. God wanted the Canaanites destroyed so that these practices would not continue, and Israel didn't do it. So now God is giving the exact same punishment on his own people to destroy this worship. Punishment on his own people to destroy this worship.
Speaker 1:After they came back from captivity, the Jewish people had no more idol worship. There was no more child sacrifice. That is why he is so severe. God's ways are not always feeling good that's the flaw of our day but they're always needed. In verses 7 and 8, god's messengers kill everyone in the city except Ezekiel. Remember they had said put a mark on everyone who mourned for the abominations? And apparently there was only one. Ezekiel was the only one saved. In verse 8, ezekiel cries out and asks God about the tragedy. God gives, in verse 9, no excuses, merely saying he has forsaken the land and will give out perfect justice. Steve, is this a hard message?
Speaker 2:It is a hard message whenever you don't understand that there's consequences to sin as part of the history as well.
Speaker 2:When God gave the promises to Abram back in Genesis, he told him that your descendants are going to go off into a foreign land and they're going to become slaves there, and they're going to be there for 400 years.
Speaker 2:But then I'm going to bring you back the reason why at least one reason why that he told Abram that they're going to be in this foreign land for 400 years was because the iniquity of the Amorites had not come to completion, and the Amorites were another group of people that were in the land of Canaan.
Speaker 2:There. I'm mentioning this because God was patient with the Amorites for 400 years, allowing them time to come to him and become a worshiper in him, and they didn't do it. And so the people of Israel, when they're coming back into the land at the time of Joshua, as you just noted, God is giving them instructions to take them out. The reason why was because of what you just said they were not to be an influence of the people of Israel, but now we see that it has happened that. So the original question is is it harsh? It's harsh. If you don't understand that the consequences of sin are harsh and we need to understand that and we need to come to salvation, we need to become the belief in Jesus Christ so that we can be protected from it.
Speaker 1:Look at the middle of verse nine again. It says the land is filled with blood and the city is full of perversion. Reminds me of our day. Much of our land is full of blood and many of our cities are full of perversion. And we will not escape God's wrath any more than the ancient Israelites did, because we were also given the truth of the Word of God, and many of us have ignored it Again.
Speaker 1:God said go through and put a mark on all those that were sad and mourning because of the abominations and apparently there were none. Apparently, ezekiel was the only one that was sad and mourning. All of the people in Jerusalem had accepted these false teachings and accepted this abominable worship. One of the reasons why God is so harsh is to try to drive these people back to him. Remember, he had tried patience. He had tried waiting. He had tried giving messages through many prophets. He had tried wooing them back. Nothing worked. He finally said the iniquity is filled. I am meeting out judgment right here, right now. No excuses.
Speaker 1:The sin is going to stop right here. He's now using punishment and we need to realize our God is like that. Yes, we have a loving God. Yes, we have a patient God, but his patience will not last forever. Our patience of God will get to a point where he will deal with his children and we need to take sin very seriously and drive it out of our lives. That brings us to chapter 10. In chapter 10, next, he describes the angels getting coals from God's throne and burning the city. The message doesn't get any easier, steve. Can you read the first four verses of Ezekiel, chapter 10?
Speaker 2:Then I looked and behold, in the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim, something like a sapphire stone in appearance, resembling a throne, appeared above them and he spoke to the man clothed in linen and said Enter between the whirling wheels under the cherubim and fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city. And he entered in my sight. Now the cherubim were standing on the right side of the temple when the man entered and the cloud filled the inner court. Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple and the temple was filled with the cloud and the court was filled with the brightness and the glory of the Lord.
Speaker 1:So here God is burning Jerusalem and of course this happened when the Babylonians came in and destroyed the city and burned much of it and put much of the population to the sword. This was the message several times now in the book of Ezekiel. Fire is a symbol of both destruction and a symbol of purification. God is destroying the city out of punishment for refusing to repent, but he's also not allowing the abominations to stay. He is purifying Jerusalem. He will not allow the abominations but will ensure they get destroyed and the city purified. In verse 4 that we just read, god again has continuation of this story of the glory leaving. It lifts up from the cherub inside the Holy of Holies, goes outside the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the holy place, and then moves to the door of the temple. The cloud of the glory of God has moved from behind the veil to now filling the temple in the courtyard near the altar. As we're going to see into the next chapter, it's ultimately going to leave the city Now. Moving on from this chapter. It's ultimately going to leave the city Now. Moving on from this, verses 5 to 17 in this chapter repeat the description of God's throne with the heavenly cherubs with the four faces and the wheels within the wheels. We saw this in chapter 1, so we're not going to read it here, but what this communicates to us is God's still there, god's still on his throne, he's still in his glory and he's still in control and observing what's happening.
Speaker 1:Moving down to verses 18 and 19 say this Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. When the cherubim departed, they lifted their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight, with the wheels beside them, and they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord's house and the glory of God of Israel hovered over them. So God is moving again to the gate of the outer court. He's leaving the temple. This represents God removing his hand of blessing, removing his protection. The glory of God will eventually leave the temple and go out to the Mount of Olives. And, steve, it's a scary thing when God removes his hand of protection and removes his blessing from a people, god removes his hand of protection and removes his blessing from a people.
Speaker 2:As we're going through this, glenn, this first section of Ezekiel is talking about God working with Israel and the wrath that he's putting on them in the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. In the middle section he's going to talk about his dealing with the nations, the Gentile nations, and then in the latter part he's going to give hope and talk about the future and the temple, and we'll get to those. But in chapters 38 and 39, in those latter parts of talking about the nations, there's some future things that are going to happen and we're going to discuss that when we get to them. But Ezekiel often has been melted down to these two chapters. Maybe a little bit of earlier part of Ezekiel, that's what's mentioned quite often Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39. Then they move on to other parts of Scripture talking about end-time events. But, glenn, as we're sitting here going verse by verse through this early part of Ezekiel, yes, god is dealing with the nation of Israel, his chosen people. But what is overwhelming, as is being communicated, is God does not overlook sin and he's going to deal with sin. Back in chapter 9, verse 10, he says I will bring their conduct upon their heads.
Speaker 2:This is a message for us today, even though this is talking about him dealing with Israel. We have been given the Word of God. You can go into any bookstore and pick up a Bible. You can go onto any app on your phone today or your computer and get a Bible. You can turn on television or streaming and go and search and find a sermon of God's Word being preached. It's everywhere. We have been given this today, so there's not going to be any excuse for people of saying, oh well, I didn't know anything about God or anything else like that. I'm saying this part here in that, even in these parts of Ezekiel, there's messages for us today that sin is not going to be overlooked and we need to heed that message as we continue to go through this. Hopefully this is stirring the hearts of some of our listeners and making them rethink some of the things that they're doing Maybe people that don't know God at all. There's consequences to sin and we need to understand that.
Speaker 1:This is such a neglected part of Scripture, but it is so profound and so rich and has such a current message for us today. Think of it All the way back here in ancient Israel, in Ezekiel's day. The message he's giving will apply to us right now in our churches today. Message he's giving will apply to us right now in our churches today. The people of Israel, they knew what God had commanded them. They had God's Word. They knew what the commands were. They knew what the sacrifices were supposed to be. They knew what the Mosaic Law said. But they thought, you know, we hadn't really heard from God directly in a while. So I think it seems to me that we ought to be able to do this, and all my neighbors are this and that. So it just seems fair to me that we bring in some of these other things along with God too.
Speaker 1:God, eventually, would not put up with that. They had brought in idol worship. They were starting to worship the creation and it seemed good to them. It seemed like a good idea. So they had mixed the true worship of God with the false worship that, just in their flesh, seemed like good to them.
Speaker 1:We have churches in our day that are doing the exact same thing. It seems to us that we ought to be fair to such, and so the people down the street are saying this. So if we want to be appealing to them, we have to accept their morals too. And people have brought in the morals and the values from the world, and God's Word speaks against that. And we're either going to take God's Word seriously and drive that out of our churches or we're going to be subject to the same wrath of God that he gave to the ancient Israelites. Steve, what happens in the book of Revelation? It's a false religious system as much as it is a political system. It's false worship that gets punished Throughout the scriptures. God says I'm a jealous God and I'm serious. Yes, he's long-suffering, yes, he's patient, yes, he's forgiving, but if we abuse that privilege, he will deal with us.
Speaker 2:We abuse that privilege, he will deal with us. It says in Revelation, as the wrath is being poured out, that mankind tries to hide and they can't hide. And then they say the rocks come and kill us. We want to die, but yet they're not going to be able to die.
Speaker 2:There are things that are going on where it makes Ezekiel relevant to us today and we need to heed that. As far as who God is, and it's such a great message. It's not a pleasant message, but it's one that we need to heed and we need to understand that God, yes, he loves us, but he wants us to have a relationship with him and sin is condemned Again. I just feel that hopefully, there's a stirring and a reflection that's taking place among the people that are listening and watching as to what you are and what your standing is with God and what your standing is as far as your church and what your standing is with God and what your standing is as far as your church and what your church is doing. If you're a pastor or a leader of a church and you're being convicted of some of the things that you're doing is not quite right and not quite pleasing to God, then maybe you need to stand up to your leadership and say maybe we should take a step back on some of the areas that we're going into in worship. Is it truly worship or is it worship of ourselves? Are the songs talking about worshiping God or are the songs talking about us and the benefits that we get and us worshiping ourself?
Speaker 2:I just feel that, ezekiel here there's such a strong message. One of the reasons why God created the nation of Israel was to show the other nations who he was and his interaction with that nation. We're seeing that here. There's not going to be any escape for the things that we do and there's going to be answers that we're going to have to give for it. So we need to heed this stuff here. And it's going to get worse. We continue to go through it. Not going to get any better, but it has some relevancy to us in our day and age.
Speaker 1:We'll see that as we continue to go through this. As you alluded to, Steve, there's sections of this that aren't going to get any better, but there are some sections before we get out of the book. That's going to give us some words of encouragement. We trust that you'll be with us as we go through the book of Ezekiel.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening and, as always, may God bless you.
