Ezekiel 6--Judgment Against Idolatry

Ezekiel 6
English Standard Version

Judgment Against Idolatry
6 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, 3 and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. 4 Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols. 5 And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6 Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out. 7 And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the LORD.

8 “Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries, 9 then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations. 10 And they shall know that I am the LORD. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”

11 Thus says the Lord GOD: “Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say, Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. 12 He who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who is left and is preserved shall die of famine. Thus I will spend my fury upon them. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols. 14 And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate and waste, in all their dwelling places, from the wilderness to Riblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

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The LORD tells Ezekiel to prophecy against the mountains, hills and all the high places that were set up as places of worship to the false gods.  Their altars will be torn down and they will be desecrated with the bones of the dead people of Israel who would fight to try to save them, but would die trying.  These idols would be unable to save them from the LORD's wrath so that the people of Israel and all the other nations would know that the LORD alone is God.

As we mentioned last time, a small remnant would be left alive and taken captive.  They would be exiled to far away lands.  The LORD would use this time of exile to punish them for all the evil they did against Him and to raise up a new generation that would follow after Him.  This is much like the forty years of wandering in the wilderness when the first generation rebelled against the LORD and could not enter, so the LORD judged them by sending them into the wilderness to wander until all of that first generation died (with the exceptions of Joshua and Caleb).

See how the LORD's purpose in all of this is so that the people will know that He is the LORD.  They have forgotten who He is and that He is not only the one that blesses the righteous, but He judges the wicked.  They have abused the grace of God, and it is time for His unruly children to be disciplined.  The LORD will prove to them that they have no need for idols or high places to worship false gods and perform all kinds of sin.  Because of the idolatry of the Land, the whole Land is cursed and will become desolate, but it will one day be reborn so that everyone will know that He is the LORD.