I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 9-12.

    Having described the idolatry which he witnessed in his vision of Jerusalem, Ezekiel now describes God’s reaction to that idolatry. In the vision Ezekiel saw six men armed with deadly weapons and a seventh man clothed in linen(which makes me curious about how the other men were dressed) who was carrying a writing kit. God instructed the man dressed in linen to go through Jerusalem and mark the forehead of everyone who was saddened by the detestable things which were being done. He sent the six armed men to kill everyone in Jerusalem not so marked. As bad as things were, and as overwhelming as the judgment which God was sending upon Jerusalem, there were some people who had been faithful and whom God was going to spare.

    At the conclusion of Ezekiel’s vision of Jerusalem he saw the glory of God depart the Temple and the city. Then at the end of today’s passage Ezekiel addressed those who claimed that because prophets had been prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem for years and it had not yet happened, those prophecies were false. Ezekiel responds to those people by saying that the destruction would be put off no longer. An element of Ezekiel’s message is that God has repeatedly sent prophets to the people of Jerusalem calling them to turn from their sins to Him. Ezekiel was telling the people that, while it was too late to avoid the destruction of Jerusalem since the glory of God had already departed, there is still time to turn to God. You may have left turning to God to too late to avoid suffering, but there is still value in serving Him.
    I really wish I could understand the symbolism of the living creatures/cherubim and the related elements of Ezekiel’s visions because the imagery is really gorgeous and clearly had great significance to Ezekiel. Unfortunately, all I see when I read those descriptions is a beautiful word picture with no meaning attached to it (OK, not completely no meaning, but very limited). I know that there is something of significance to these elements of Ezekiel’s vision, otherwise he would not spend so much time describing them in detail.