Day 241 (Ezekiel 9-12) - Year 8

**Tara-Leigh Cobble** (0:01)
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.
Yesterday, we left off with Ezekiel in the midst of a vision of Jerusalem, where he saw all the evil done by the elders and the people. Today, that vision continues with God calling for their deaths. God summons the executioners, who are almost certainly angels, and has them come to the temple. The text describes them as men, but as we've already discussed, angels always appear as men. There are seven of these men, and six of them serve the purpose of slaughter, while the other one has a different role. He's dressed in linen, and he's got his tool belt on. But his tools are a writing kit, which in that day would have included an ink jar, a pen, and the case itself, which served as a hard surface to write on. His job is to go around Jerusalem, marking the people who were grieved over the evil there, because those are the ones God says he's going to spare. By the way, the word mark here is the Hebrew word tov. It's the last letter of the Jewish alphabet, and in this time period of Hebrew writing, it would have looked like either a cross or an X. We'll link to a resource in the show notes in case you want to see how the letter has changed over the years. This scene may have reminded you of the Passover, where those whose doorways were marked with blood, which also would have been in the shape of a cross, were saved while the rest encountered the death of the firstborn. Or maybe it reminded you of the mark of the beast from the Book of Revelation, except the opposite, obviously. But this also parallels something else we'll see in Revelation, where the righteous will be marked as well with the seal of God on their foreheads.
God tells them that when all the slaughter is complete, they should stack the bodies of the dead inside the temple. Obviously, this is against the cleanliness laws. Dead bodies are unclean. But it fits right in line with what God has said he's going to do, which is leave the temple. In the meantime, Ezekiel is distraught because he knows how wicked the people are, and he seems to be nervous that God will end up killing them all because of it, that there won't be any people marked for saving, and that Israel will be wiped out forever.
But God says the people have sinned against him long enough, and the days of mercy have passed, and it's time for judgment, starting with the leaders of Jerusalem. Not to worry, though. The man in Lennon does his job completely, saving everyone God commanded him to save. And I want to point out one thing here. There's nothing in the text that indicates that this Lennon man is a theophany where God the Son shows up on earth like we've seen before. But if you wondered about that, you're not alone. This man certainly is a Christ figure, though, even if he's not the Christ.
In chapter 10, Ezekiel has a vision that he compares to his earlier vision in chapter 1, where he sees the four-faced, four-winged creatures attached to gyroscope-like wheels. This time he clarifies that they're definitely cherubim, which is a type of heavenly being that is often seen guarding holy places. And that's exactly what they're doing here. They're carrying the throne that God's presence will dwell on when he leaves the temple. His cherubim chariot is waiting outside the temple as he's ready to go. But first, God has the Lennon man send holy fire in judgment on the city itself.
After this, God's presence departs from the temple, rests on the cherubim chariot, and heads east. God has left the building, but God hasn't left his people. Because those worshiping idols aren't his people. They aren't among the remnant. Then God's spirit moves Ezekiel to another part of the city in this vision. And he prophesies to 25 men, including leaders of the city. These men have been acting like they're going to be killed in the city, cooked like meat in a pot. Possibly because of the fires the linen man caused with his coal throwing. But God says, Nope, I'm not going to kill you here. I'm going to kill you outside of Jerusalem, where all your fears and more are going to come true. By the way, I don't just know what you do. I know what you think. I can read your minds. And maybe you think you're cooked meat now, but you're about to go out of the frying pan and into the fire.