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Ezekiel, part 25, Christ Manifested

Ezekiel 8:1 says,

¹ It came about in the sixth year, on the fifth day of the month, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell on me there.

Ezekiel dates the vision as “the fifth day of the sixth month” of the sixth year, counting from King Jehoiachin’s exile (Ezekiel 1:2). The New English Translation Bible dates it as September 17, 592 B.C., about fourteen months after Ezekiel’s first vision by the Chebar. Jerusalem and its temple were still standing, while Ezekiel and the elders who sat before him in Babylonia were still intensely interested in the fate of Jerusalem and its temple. God was about to show the exiles what was happening in the sanctuary that they had left behind.

Ezekiel’s house was a place where the leaders of the exiled community could gather before a prophet who could explain why God exiled them, give counsel as to how to live in captivity, and obtain hope for the future. The verse leaves their reason for coming unstated, though Ezekiel 20:1 explicitly says that elders came on a later occasion to inquire of the Lord.

There is a striking contrast within chapter 8. In Babylonia, elders sit before Ezekiel, while in Jerusalem, Ezekiel is shown seventy elders offering incense before images in a hidden chamber. Those elders say, “The Lord does not see us” (8:12). The vision itself answers them. God sees what they do in secret and shows it to His prophet hundreds of miles away.

The Hand of God

The hand of the Lord had come upon Ezekiel by the Chebar (1:3) and again before he saw God’s glory in the plain (3:22–23). Here it comes upon him in his own house. In verse 3 the Spirit carries him to Jerusalem in a vision, and in verse 4 he recognizes the same glory he had seen in the plain. The sequence shows how freely God acts across the distance between Babylon and Jerusalem. He lays His hand on Ezekiel in exile and opens the temple’s hidden chambers to his sight.

That opening prepares us for God’s promise in Ezekiel 11:16 to be a sanctuary for the scattered people. It shows them that the “sanctuary” (temple) was not dependent upon a singular location such as Jerusalem. In fact, Ezekiel 8 shows that a “holy” place can become unholy, and God can move His presence to a different location. Jeremiah 7:11 too confirms that the temple can be turned into “a den of robbers,” and God has the right to move away and never return—as He did with Shiloh (Jeremiah 7:14).

The elders are sitting in an ordinary house in exile when the hand of the Lord falls on Ezekiel. Before God announces that promise, He has already shown that His presence can reach them there.

The Man of Fire

Ezekiel 8:2 says,

² Then I looked, and behold, a likeness as the appearance [shape] of a man; from his loins and downward there was the appearance of fire, and from His loins and upward the appearance of brightness, like the appearance of glowing metal.

When the hand of the Lord falls on Ezekiel, he looks up and sees what the NASB calls “something like the appearance of a man.” From the waist down the figure looks like fire, and from the waist up it shines like gleaming metal. This is the same arrangement Ezekiel saw in Ezekiel 1:26–28, where a humanlike figure sat above the living creatures on the throne. Ezekiel called that earlier sight “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”

The Hebrew text describes an appearance of esh, “fire,” while the Greek reading behind the NASB describes an appearance of a man. Both readings then describe the figure by its waist, with fire below and radiance above.

The NASB follows the Greek Septuagint in the opening description and gives the Hebrew reading in a footnote. The Masoretic Hebrew text reads “the appearance of fire.” The two Hebrew words are close in spelling: ʾîsh (אִישׁ), “man,” and ʾēsh (אֵשׁ), “fire.” Both readings go on to describe the figure from the waist upward and downward, so both retain the outline of a human figure and the fire below its waist.

The Hebrew word translated “gleaming metal” is ḥashmal, the same rare word used in Ezekiel 1:4 and 1:27. Its precise material is uncertain, but the comparison is plainly to something intensely bright. The repeated image links the two visions, and in 8:4 Ezekiel explicitly recognizes the glory of the God of Israel as the glory he had seen in the plain.

The order matters. Ezekiel sees the glory before he sees the abominations. The figure reaches out in verse 3, and the Spirit carries Ezekiel in vision to the temple, where the idol of jealousy stands. The glory is still there in verse 4. That makes what follows a scene of judgment in God’s own sanctuary. The God whose glory Ezekiel had already seen in exile now shows him what has been done in Jerusalem and why His glory will depart (Ezekiel 10:18–19; 11:22–23).

Esh (אֵשׁ) is spelled alef–shin, which conveys the idea of strength and devouring—hence the “strong devourer” of Deuteronomy 4:24. Ish (אִישׁ) is spelled alef–yood–shin. The yood, “hand” signifies a work or deed, and, being the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, it carries the numeric value of ten. Therefore it is also connected to the law, corresponding to the Ten Commandments.

The difference between divine fire and man is the letter yood. This teaches us that man was created to do his works in the midst of God’s fire, so that his deeds express God’s character. He was created to do all his works (yood) within the fire (esh) or character of God. It is illustrated when Moses went up the Mount into the midst of fire (Deuteronomy 4:12; Exodus 20:21).

In Hebrew, a “woman” is ishah (אִשָּׁה), “woman,” where the final heh means “what comes from.” A woman who reflects the glory of God pictures one who comes forth from the fire. This too is illustrated when Moses emerged out of the midst of fire, reflecting the glory of God. Unfortunately, the Israelites, who were supposed to be the bride of Christ and the true woman, failed to follow Moses’ example.

Hence, fleshly Israel was a type of Hagar, the bondwoman, rather than Sarah, the wife who depicted the free woman (Galatians 4:24-26). Only those who have New Covenant (Abrahamic) faith are counted as the “seed” and can inherit the promises of God, Paul teaches.

The figure who appeared to Ezekiel seems to be (or represent) Christ Himself, who “is the radiance of His gory and the exact representation of His nature” (Hebrews 1:3). He did all of His works within the context of the fire/glory of God. Where the first man failed, Christ succeeded in fulfilling the purpose for which Adam had been made at the beginning.

The Hand of God

Ezekiel 8:3 says,

³ He stretched out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between heaven and earth and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the idol of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy was located.

In verse 1, the hand of the Lord falls upon Ezekiel. In verse 3, the fiery figure reaches out with what looks like a hand and takes him by a lock of hair. The first reference tells us that God’s power came upon the prophet. The second gives that action a visible form within the vision. This also suggests the yood (“hand”) in the word ish picturing work done in the midst of God’s fire. Here Ezekiel sees a hand reach out from the fiery, humanlike figure and take hold of him.

The figure takes hold of Ezekiel, and the Spirit carries him to Jerusalem “in the visions of God.” Ezekiel 11:24–25 closes the account by reversing the journey. The Spirit brings him back in the vision to the exiles in Chaldea, the vision ends, and Ezekiel tells them what the Lord showed him. God gives the exiles a witness to what is happening in Jerusalem while the temple still stands.

The Idol of Jealousy

At the north-facing entrance to the inner court, Ezekiel finds an image that has been given a place in God’s own sanctuary. The Hebrew repeats the same root in qin’ah, “jealousy,” and hammaqneh, “which provokes to jealousy.” Ezekiel names the image by what it provokes in the Lord, leaving the deity it represents unnamed.

The language recalls Deuteronomy 32:16, where Israel provokes God to jealousy with strange gods. Exodus 34:14 gives the covenant reason. “The Lord, whose name is Jealous,” claims the exclusive worship of His people. Deuteronomy 4:24 brings both images together by calling Him a consuming fire and a jealous God. The vision thus shows the offense before it shows the departure. Judah has brought a rival object of worship into the very place where God’s glory dwells. The Hebrew noun qin’ah (קִנְאָה) can mean zeal, jealousy, envy, or passionate anger, depending on the context. The common thread is strong feeling (passion) directed toward someone or something.

God’s jealousy here is His zeal for the exclusive worship that Israel owed Him under the covenant. Ezekiel later portrays Jerusalem’s idolatry as adultery (Ezekiel 16:32, 38).

This entire pattern of polluting the sanctuary follows the pattern of the original sin of Adam. Because we are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16), Adam too was a temple. Yet his temple was polluted, and thus he lost the glory of God and was expelled from the Garden. What happened in Jerusalem 3,000 years later provides us with a more complete picture of the fall of Adam at the beginning.