6:1ffThis is the beginning of a two-part message. Remember that Ezekiel could speak only when giving messages from God. The message in chapter 6 is that Judah’s idolatry will surely call . Stood and received God's message . Shut himself inside his house . Faithfully proclaimed God’s message . Drew a map of Jerusalem on a large brick (clay tablet) . Lay on his left side for 390 days . Lay on his right side for 40 days . Followed specific cooking instructions . Shaved his head and beard . Left home to demonstrate exile . Spoke against false prophets . Sang a funeral song concerning the leaders . Prophesied against Israel and the Temple . Marked out two routes for Babylon's king . Did not mourn his wife’s death have become idols for many. Punishment will come upon all who put other things ahead of God. {t is easy to forget that the LORD alone is God, the supreme authority and the only source of eternal love and tife. Remember that God may use the difficulties of your life to teach you that he alone is God.
Life Application Study BibleEzekielChapter 6
Ezekiel 6
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 1314, 1315
A few verse numbers on this page were hard to read in the scan and are marked with a dotted underline — compare with the original page image if in doubt.
1Again a message came to me from the LORD: 2“Son of man, turn and face the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. 3Proclaim this message from the Sovereign LORD against the mountains of Israel. This is what the Sovereign Lor says to the mountains and hills and to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring war upon you, and I will smash your pagan shrines. 4All your altars will be demolished, and your places of worship will be destroyed. I will kill your people in front of your idols. 5ST will lay your corpses in front of your idols and scatter your bones around your altars. 6Wherever you live there will be desolation, and I will destroy your pagan shrines. Your altars will be demolished, your idols will be smashed, your places of worship will be torn down, and all the religious objects you have made will be destroyed. 7The place will be littered with corpses, and you will know that I alone am the LORD. 8“But I will let a few of my people escape destruction, and they will be scattered among the nations of the world. 9Then when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how hurt I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols. Then at last they will hate themselves for all their detestable sins. OThey will know that I alone am the LORD and that I was serious when I said I would bring this calamity on them. 11“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Clap your hands in horror, and stamp your feet.
down God's judgment. The message in chapter 7 describes thenature of that judgment—utter destruction of the nation. Never-theless God in his mercy saved a remnant. Ezekiel prophesiesagainst the mountains of Israel because mountains were sitesof the pagan shrines used to worship idols.6:8-10 A ray of light appears in this prophecy of darkness—Godwould spare a smail group—a remnant—of people, but only afterthey had learned some hard lessons. God sometimes has tobreak a person in order to bring him or-her to true repentance.The people needed to change their attitudes, but they wouldn'tuntil God broke their hearts with humiliation, pain, suffering, anddefeat. Does your heart tong for God enough to change thoseareas displeasing him? Or will God have to break your heart?
Cry out because of all the detestable sins the people of Israel have committed. Now they are going to die from war and famine and disease. 12Disease will strike down those who are far away in exile. War will destroy those who are nearby. And anyone who survives will be killed by famine. So at last I will spend my fury on them. 13They will know that I am the LORD when their dead lie scattered among their idols and altars on every hill and mountain and under every green tree and every great shade tree—the places where they offered sacrifices to their idols. 141 will crush them and make their cities desolate from the wilderness in the south to Riblah* in the north. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
Textual footnotes
- upon Jerusalem—war, famine, and disease—as a way of saying
- that the destruction would be complete. War meant death in
- battle; famine came when enemies besieged a city; disease was
- always a danger during famine. Don’t make the mistake of under-
- estimating the extent of God’s judgment. If you ignore the biblical
- warnings and turn away from God, his punishment awaits you.
- 6:4 The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably atiudes to dung; also in 6:5, 6, 9, 13.
- 6:11 Prophets often used this threefold description of judgment
- 6:14 As in some Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts read Diblah.
Life Application Notes 1 note
Charts, profiles & sidebars from the printed pages
Study feature · page 1315
‘6:14 The phrase “then they will know that I am the LORD ” (or a Variation of this phrase) occurs 65 times in the book of Ezekiel. ‘The purpose of ail God’s punishment was not to take revenge but ito impress upon the people the truth that the LORD is the only true sand living God. People in Ezekiel’s day were worshiping human- "Made idols and calling them gods. Today money, sex, and power