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Ezekiel, part 28, The Divine Scribe

Ezekiel 9:1, 2 says,

¹ Then He cried out in my hearing with a loud voice saying, “Draw near, O executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.” ² Behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate which faces north, each with his shattering weapon in his hand; and among them was a certain man clothed in linen with a writing case at his loins. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

At the end of chapter 8, the people cry loudly in God’s ears, and He says He will not listen. Now God Himself cries loudly in Ezekiel’s ears, summoning those charged with carrying out the judgment. The repeated image of a loud cry ties the chapters together. The people’s appeals come after God has heard and seen enough to pronounce judgment on the city.

In verse 2, six armed men come from the direction of the upper gate facing north. Among them is a man clothed in linen with a scribe’s writing case at his side. All stand beside the bronze altar. The “upper gate” facing north in Ezekiel 9:2 is generally understood to be the same north-facing gate of the inner court that Ezekiel calls the “altar gate” in 8:3–5. The idol of jealousy stood at the entrance, on the north side of that gate. If the men entered through that gate on their way to the bronze altar, they would have passed by the idol.

The writing case sets the linen-clad man apart. He is not one of the six armed men. His task is to spare, not to destroy. Hence, there are six destroyers and one scribe assigned to spare true believers, a total of seven. God gives the scribe the first assignment. The others are told to follow after him (9:5). The order matters because those who receive the mark are to be spared (9:6).

The Departure Begins

Ezekiel 9:3 says,

³ 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 at whose loins was the writing case.

Verse 3 says that the glory of the God of Israel rises from the cherub to the threshold of the temple. We learn more in Ezekiel 10:3, where “the cherubim were standing on the right side of the temple.” If you are standing outside the east entrance and looking west toward the temple, north is on your right. But if you stand at the porch and look outward toward the east, south is on your right. The question is whose “right” Ezekiel means.

Ezekiel 10:3 literally places the cherubim on the “right side” of the temple. The NIV renders that as “the south side of the temple.” The clearest biblical parallel is 2 Chronicles 4:10, where Solomon sets the bronze Sea “on the right side of the house toward the southeast.” That locates the temple’s right side to the south, using the perspective of the east-facing building. Therefore, the cherub (plural, cherubim) in question are not those positioned over the ark in the Most Holy Place. The living cherubim of God’s throne stand beside the temple, and the glory moves from the cherubim beside the temple to its entrance between the pillars of Jachin and Boaz.

It is clear that Ezekiel 9 initiates the departure of the glory of God from the temple in Jerusalem. The arrival of the six warriors and the scribe is what brings the glory of God to begin its departure from the temple. This leaves the altar, the temple, and the city desolate, which is to say, uninhabited by God’s glory. Jesus later referred to such an event as “the abomination of desolation.”

Daniel 11:31 and 12:11 later refers to “the abomination of desolation.” Jesus refers to it also in Matthew 24:15, 16, telling the believers to flee from the city because it is soon to be destroyed. It appears that in Ezekiel’s day, the divine scribe protects the believers during the destruction, but in the first century, the believers were told to leave the city before its destruction. Either way, God protected His people, and no doubt a parallel command will be issued prior to the coming destruction of Jerusalem.

The Mark of God

Ezekiel 9:4 says,

⁴ The Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark [tav] on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.”

The NASB says to mark those who “sigh and groan over all the abominations” committed in Jerusalem. This answers the scene at the north gate in 8:14. The women there were weeping for Tammuz. The people marked here are grieving over what has become of Jerusalem and its worship. God distinguishes people living in the same city by what they grieve over.

The Hebrew phrase vehitvita tav means “put a mark.” Tav is also the name of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which in the old script was be written like an X. Tav literally means “a mark or a sign.” It is, in effect, God’s signature, marking those that He owns. Hence, we read in Revelation 22:4, “they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.” They are His people—probably also Paul’s remnant of grace in Romans 11:5 KJV.

God’s mark stands in contrast to the mark of the beast in Revelation 13:16, which identifies those who are enslaved (or “owned”) by the beast empires set forth in Daniel 7. In other words, God distinguishes between those who support the idolatrous practices of the beast empires and those who mourn on account of those lawless practices.

In Deuteronomy 6:5 God instructs His people to love God with all their hearts—as opposed to having heart idolatry, which only pretends to love God while remaining lawless. Then in verse 8, He instructs:

⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.

This is the mark/sign of God, which stands in contrast to the mark of the beast. Jews used to bind certain Scriptures on their hands and foreheads literally (in small boxes). These were called tefillin in Hebrew. The English term phylacteries comes from the Greek phylaktēria, the word Jesus uses in Matthew 23:5 when He speaks of those who broaden their phylacteries to be seen by others.

Neither the mark of God nor the mark of the beast ought to be viewed so literally. Neither did the divine scribe put a visible X on the remnant of grace in Jerusalem. Nonetheless, God has marked His people with His own signature, and the beast system has also marked its people.

Destruction

Ezekiel 9:5-7 says,

⁵ But to the others [the six armed men] He said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare. ⁶ Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women, but do not touch any man [or woman] on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary.” So they started with the elders who were before the temple. ⁷ 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.

Keep in mind that the prophet was seeing a vision in the spirit. This destruction was yet to take place literally. All things happen in the spirit before they happen in the earth. Earthly events follow the pattern set in the heavens—for better or for worse. In this case, the spiritual pattern was destructive because it was divine judgment.

The positive side of this principle is seen in Jesus’ model prayer in Matthew 6:10, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” For this reason, we pray, intercede, and engage in spiritual warfare to alter conditions in the spiritual realm. By changing the spiritual landscape, we set patterns to be fulfilled in the earth until the fullness of the Kingdom comes.

Ezekiel was told that this divine judgment would “start from My sanctuary.” The first people called to account are the leaders nearest the place where God had made His presence known. Their position gave them responsibility for the worship that chapter 8 shows being corrupted.

The order also answers the elders’ claim in Ezekiel 8:12, “The Lord does not see us.” God has seen the worship conducted behind the wall, and His judgment begins at the very place where they thought their conduct was hidden. The judgment begins at the sanctuary and moves outward into the city.

In chapter 8 the people had defiled the temple by bringing idols into it. Now God orders the men to defile the temple by filling its courts with the slain. The courts that had been set apart for worship now display the consequences of what Judah had done there.

Yet the divine scribe goes first (9:4–6). Before the men begin, God identifies those who sigh and groan over the city’s abominations. Jerusalem comes under judgment as a city, but God distinguishes the people within it. The mark on the forehead identifies the remnant to be spared.

Peter applies the same order to the church in 1 Peter 4:17, “It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God.” In Peter’s setting, believers are undergoing a fiery ordeal, and he tells those who suffer according to God’s will to entrust themselves to Him while continuing to do what is right (4:12, 19). In both passages, God begins with His own house. The place where He has made Himself known is the first place where He calls people to account.

This is important, because it shows that divine judgment begins with the church itself. Within the church there is a remnant of grace (overcomers) among the majority of believers who harbor heart idolatry, later described in Ezekiel 14. Some believe the truth and know the nature of God through the revelation of His word (spoken and written). However, the majority of those who label themselves as Christians are little different from the people in Jerusalem in the days of Ezekiel.

This condition will be visible to all when Jerusalem is destroyed for the final time. Those who claim “Hagar” (the earthly Jerusalem) as their “mother” and consider it to be the eternal capital of the Kingdom of God will suffer loss. Their status as children of the flesh will be exposed. Yet the children of “Sarah” (the heavenly Jerusalem) are marked with the signature of God and will be spared to inherit the Kingdom.