Ezekiel Chapter 6

Jun 5

Ezekiel 6, Judgment and Restoration from Idolatry

Ezekiel 6 records the Lord’s judgment against the mountains of Israel because those mountains, hills, ravines, and valleys had become centers of idolatry. The uploaded notes rightly emphasize that the high places were not innocent religious locations, but corrupt centers of pagan worship that Israel had adopted from the Canaanites. Yet even in this severe prophecy of sword, famine, pestilence, and desolation, the Lord promises a remnant who will remember Him, loathe their sin, and know that He is the LORD.

Scripture Text, Ezekiel 6, KJV

Ezekiel 6:1, “And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,”

Ezekiel 6:2, “Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,”

Ezekiel 6:3, “And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD, Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.”

Ezekiel 6:4, “And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.”

Ezekiel 6:5, “And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.”

Ezekiel 6:6, “In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.”

Ezekiel 6:7, “And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.”

Ezekiel 6:8, “Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.”

Ezekiel 6:9, “And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.”

Ezekiel 6:10, “And they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.”

Ezekiel 6:11, “Thus saith the Lord GOD, Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.”

Ezekiel 6:12, “He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them.”

Ezekiel 6:13, “Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.”

Ezekiel 6:14, “So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the LORD.”

Introduction, Judgment Against Idolatry and the Mercy of a Remnant

Ezekiel 6 continues the early judgment messages given to Ezekiel while he was among the exiles in Babylon. The prophet had already been called as a watchman, and he had already acted out signs of Jerusalem’s coming siege and destruction. Now the word of the Lord comes against the mountains of Israel. This is significant because Israel’s mountains were not merely geographical features. They had become religious crime scenes. The high places, once associated with pagan worship among the Canaanites, had become places where Israelites corrupted themselves with idolatry.

The chapter exposes the seriousness of idolatry. To modern ears, idolatry may sound like an ancient problem involving statues and altars. But Scripture treats idolatry as spiritual adultery, covenant treason, and rebellion against the living God. Israel was not merely experimenting with religious variety. Israel was forsaking the Lord who had redeemed her, made covenant with her, given her the land, and commanded her to worship Him alone.

The chapter also shows that divine judgment has a revelatory purpose. The repeated statement “ye shall know that I am the LORD” becomes one of Ezekiel’s great themes. God reveals Himself not only through blessing and restoration, but also through judgment. When Israel refused to know Him through obedience, worship, and covenant faithfulness, they would know Him through calamity, discipline, and the collapse of their idols.

Yet the chapter is not without mercy. In verse 8 the Lord says, “Yet will I leave a remnant.” This is crucial. Judgment does not mean God has abandoned His covenant promises. The same God who judges idolatry preserves a remnant. That remnant will remember Him, loathe their abominations, and return to the knowledge of the Lord. This fits the broader biblical pattern, Israel is judged for unbelief and idolatry, yet God preserves the nation because His covenant promises are faithful and literal.

A. The Prophecy Against the Mountains of Israel

1. Ezekiel 6:1 through 3, A Word Against the High Places

Ezekiel 6:1, “And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,”

Ezekiel 6:2, “Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,”

The chapter begins with the prophetic formula, “And the word of the LORD came unto me.” Ezekiel is not offering personal opinion, political analysis, or emotional reaction. He is speaking the word of the Lord. This matters because the judgment announced in this chapter is not Babylon’s judgment alone. Babylon will be the instrument, but the Lord is the ultimate Judge.

Ezekiel is called “Son of man,” a title repeatedly used for him throughout the book. It emphasizes his humanity, weakness, and representative role as the prophet commissioned by God. The Lord then commands him, “set thy face toward the mountains of Israel.” To set his face means to take a firm, deliberate prophetic posture. Ezekiel is not to be vague or uncertain. He is to direct his message plainly toward the mountains of Israel.

The mountains are addressed because they were central to Israel’s geography and also central to Israel’s corruption. The mountains, hills, rivers, ravines, and valleys had become associated with idolatrous worship. High places were often located on hilltops and elevated sites, where altars, standing stones, wooden pillars, and cultic objects were used in pagan worship. Israel was commanded to destroy such places when they entered the land, but instead they often tolerated, imitated, and eventually embraced them.

Deuteronomy 7:5, “But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.”

The command was clear. Israel was not to preserve Canaanite worship and give it a Yahweh label. They were to destroy the altars, images, groves, and graven images. The land belonged to the Lord, and the worship of the land had to be purified according to His command.

The uploaded notes mention that the high places were flourishing centers of old Canaanite religion, often including altars, standing stones, wooden pillars, and images connected with false gods and goddesses. That is why God addresses not merely the people but the mountains themselves. The land had been defiled by Israel’s idolatry.

Jeremiah also rebuked Israel for this kind of spiritual adultery.

Jeremiah 3:6 through 9, “The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.”

Jeremiah’s language is severe because Israel’s sin was severe. The people committed spiritual adultery “upon every high mountain and under every green tree.” Ezekiel 6 addresses the same sin. The mountains of Israel had become platforms for covenant betrayal.

The Lord also speaks to “the rivers, and to the valleys.” The word translated “rivers” can carry the idea of ravines or watercourses. The valleys also had idolatrous associations, including immoral worship and even child sacrifice in some contexts.

Isaiah 57:5 through 6, “Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?”

Jeremiah 2:23, “How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;”

Jeremiah 7:31, “And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.”

These passages show that Israel’s idolatry was not a minor ritual error. It involved polluted worship, Baal worship, spiritual adultery, and even child sacrifice. The high places and valleys were filled with practices the Lord hated.

Therefore, the Lord says, “Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.” The repetition “I, even I” emphasizes that the judgment comes from God Himself. Babylon may bring the sword, but the Lord sends it. The destruction of the high places is not random wartime damage. It is targeted divine judgment against idolatry.

God’s patience had been long, but it was not endless. The watchman Ezekiel warned that invasion was coming because God had seen Israel’s sins and would punish them. The Lord does not overlook covenant betrayal forever.

2. Ezekiel 6:4 through 7, The Complete Destruction to Come

Ezekiel 6:4, “And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.”

Ezekiel 6:5, “And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.”

Ezekiel 6:7, “And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.”

The Lord now describes the destruction in detail. The altars will be desolate. The images will be broken. The slain men will be cast down before their idols. The dead bodies of the children of Israel will lie before the false gods they worshiped. Their bones will be scattered around their altars.

This is severe, but it is also fitting judgment. Israel had defiled the land with idols, so God would defile the idols with the corpses of their worshipers. The places where Israel offered incense to false gods would be filled with death. The fragrance of idolatrous worship would be replaced by the stench of judgment.

The phrase “your altars” is important. The true altar of the Lord was associated with the worship He commanded, centered in Jerusalem. These were not the Lord’s altars. They were Israel’s unauthorized altars. They were religious structures created by disobedience. Man made worship, even if emotionally sincere, is not acceptable when it rejects God’s command.

The Lord says, “I will scatter your bones round about your altars.” Scattered bones conveyed uncleanness, shame, and judgment. The dead would not receive honor. Their remains would become part of the desecration of the idolatrous sites.

Psalm 53:5, “There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.”

Psalm 141:7, “Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.”

The scattering of bones is a picture of humiliation and devastation. In Ezekiel 6, it announces that the Lord will expose the shame of idolatry. The gods Israel trusted would not save them. Their altars would become graveyards.

The Lord then expands the judgment from high places to cities, “In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate.” Babylon’s judgment would reach both urban and rural areas. The cities would be devastated, and the country shrines would be emptied. No priest would attend them. No sacrifice would be offered. No worshiper would come. The religious system of idolatry would be broken.

The language piles up destruction, “laid waste,” “made desolate,” “broken,” “cease,” “cut down,” “abolished.” The point is complete removal. God would not merely reduce Israel’s idolatry. He would smash it.

This judgment was historically fulfilled. After the Babylonian captivity, Israel never returned to the same widespread, institutionalized idolatry that had characterized the nation before the exile. The exile did not solve every spiritual problem in Israel, but it broke the nation’s addiction to the old high place idolatry. God’s judgment was devastating, but it had a corrective purpose.

Verse 7 gives the recognition formula, “and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” This phrase appears repeatedly in Ezekiel and captures one of the major themes of the book. God acts in judgment and restoration so that Israel and the nations will know that He is Yahweh, the only true God.

This is essential. The Lord’s goal is not merely punishment. His goal is revelation. Israel had treated idols as if they were real powers and treated Yahweh as if He were optional. Through judgment, they would know that He alone is the Lord.

B. The Promise of a Remnant

1. Ezekiel 6:8, A Remnant Who Escapes the Sword

Ezekiel 6:8, “Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.”

The word “Yet” is the mercy word of the chapter. After announcing sword, desolation, broken altars, dead bodies, and scattered bones, the Lord says, “Yet will I leave a remnant.” Judgment will be severe, but it will not be total annihilation. God will preserve a remnant.

This remnant theme is central to the Bible’s treatment of Israel. God judges the unbelieving and rebellious majority, but He preserves a remnant according to His covenant purposes. This is not because Israel deserves preservation, but because God is faithful to His promises.

Ezekiel had already illustrated a remnant through the acted parable of the cut hair.

Ezekiel 5:3 through 4, “Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts. Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.”

A few hairs were preserved, picturing a remnant. Yet even among the remnant there would be further purging. Ezekiel 6 now states the promise plainly. Some will escape the sword among the nations when Israel is scattered through the countries.

The scattering is judgment. Israel would be removed from the land because they had defiled the land. Yet the scattering would not erase God’s covenant purposes. The future of Israel would continue through those whom God preserved, including those carried away among the nations.

This must be read literally. The remnant is not a vague spiritual idea detached from Israel. It concerns the covenant descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, scattered among the nations and later restored according to God’s plan. The Lord’s discipline of Israel does not cancel His promises to Israel.

2. Ezekiel 6:9 through 10, The Spiritual Renewal of the Remnant

Ezekiel 6:10, “And they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.”

The remnant will not merely survive physically. They will experience spiritual awakening. The Lord says, “they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations.” This is remarkable because many Israelites assumed that meaningful relationship with Yahweh was tied to remaining in the land. Yet God says the exiles will remember Him among the nations. Spiritual renewal will occur on foreign soil.

To remember the Lord means more than mental recollection. It means to come back to covenant awareness. They will remember His precepts, which they violated. They will remember His mercies, which they abused. They will remember His warnings, which they despised. They will remember His prophets, whom they ignored and persecuted. They will remember His judgments, which proved His word true.

This remembrance becomes the beginning of restoration. The movement is clear, remembrance of God, repentance from sin, and restored relationship with the Lord.

The Lord then gives one of the most startling statements in the chapter, “because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me.” God describes Himself as broken by Israel’s adulterous heart. This is covenant language. Israel’s idolatry was spiritual adultery. The Lord is pictured as a faithful husband betrayed by an unfaithful wife.

This language must be handled reverently. God is not weak, emotionally unstable, or overcome as men are. Yet He truly reveals His holy grief over sin. Israel’s idolatry was not merely a legal violation. It was a relational betrayal. They had departed from the Lord and gone whoring after idols.

Hosea gives the clearest prophetic picture of this divine grief through the tragedy of an unfaithful wife.

Hosea 1:2, “The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.”

Hosea 3:1, “Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.”

Hosea’s life became a living sermon of the Lord’s covenant grief and covenant love. Ezekiel 6 speaks in the same category. God was broken by Israel’s whorish heart because He loved His people and had bound them to Himself in covenant.

The verse also says they went whoring “with their eyes.” Their eyes desired idols. Idolatry captured their imagination, affection, and devotion. The heart departed first, and the eyes followed after abominations.

The word Ezekiel often uses for idols carries strong disgust. The uploaded notes explain that Ezekiel’s favorite term for idols was a word of revulsion, likely carrying the sense of filthy, detestable dung-like things. This means Ezekiel does not treat idols as respectable religious alternatives. They are disgusting abominations. Israel forsook the living God for spiritual filth.

The remnant’s repentance is described strongly, “and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.” True repentance does not merely regret consequences. It loathes the sin itself. The remnant will not say, “We are sorry Babylon defeated us.” They will say, “We have committed evil and abominations against the Lord.”

This self-loathing is not the same as hopeless despair. It is the moral revulsion that comes when sin is finally seen truthfully. A man who sees how his sin grieved the God who loved him will not defend himself. He will condemn his own sin before God does.

This repentance will be thorough. They will loathe themselves for “all their abominations.” Partial repentance is not enough. A hypocrite repents of some sins while protecting others. The remnant’s repentance will be sound because it will face all their abominations.

Verse 10 then returns to the recognition formula, “And they shall know that I am the LORD.” This time the knowledge comes in connection with repentance and the realization that God’s warnings were not empty. The Lord says, “I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.” God did not threaten judgment idly. His word was not empty. The calamity came because the Lord said it would come.

The word “evil” here refers to calamity or disaster, not moral evil in God. God does not commit sin. He brings righteous calamity in judgment against sin. Israel would learn that the Lord’s warnings are never vain.

The spiritual renewal of the remnant is one of the great mercies in this chapter. God’s judgment would not merely destroy. It would awaken. The remnant would remember, repent, and return to the knowledge of the Lord.

C. God Revealed to Israel Through His Judgment Upon Them

1. Ezekiel 6:11 through 12, A Call to Anger and Mourning Over Israel’s Great Sins

The Lord commands Ezekiel to use dramatic physical gestures, “Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot.” The prophet is to clap or strike with his hand and stamp with his foot as he announces judgment. These gestures were meant to arrest attention and communicate grief, threat, urgency, and divine indignation.

Israel had treated idolatry lightly. God did not. The prophet’s body language was to match the seriousness of the message. He was to say, “Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel!” The word “Alas” is a cry of lament. Ezekiel is not gleeful over judgment. He mourns the evil that made judgment necessary.

The sin is called “evil abominations.” That is God’s assessment. Idolatry is not cultural diversity. It is not spiritual creativity. It is abomination. The house of Israel had corrupted the worship of the Lord and embraced what He hated.

The judgment is described with three instruments, “the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.” These are the dreadful covenant judgments often associated with siege and national collapse. The sword would kill those near the invading armies. Pestilence would kill those far off. Famine would kill those trapped in siege conditions.

Ezekiel had already emphasized these judgments in the previous chapter.

Ezekiel 5:12, “A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.”

The judgment is comprehensive. Distance will not guarantee safety. Proximity will not guarantee survival. Those inside the siege will suffer famine. Those outside may face pestilence or sword. The Lord says, “thus will I accomplish my fury upon them.” His wrath will not be symbolic only. It will be completed in historical judgment.

This is sober. God’s fury is not emotional excess. It is His settled, righteous opposition to evil. Israel had been warned by Moses, by the law, and by the prophets. Now the covenant curses would fall.

Deuteronomy 28:21 through 22, “The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.”

Deuteronomy 28:52 through 53, “And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:”

The law had warned Israel plainly. Ezekiel now announces that those covenant warnings are becoming historical reality.

2. Ezekiel 6:13 through 14, God Revealed in His Judgment Against Israel for Their Idolatry

The recognition formula appears again, “Then shall ye know that I am the LORD.” This time the setting is graphic. Israel will know the Lord when their slain men lie among their idols, around their altars, on every high hill, on the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thick oak.

The locations are repeated to show the spread of idolatry. It was everywhere. High hills, mountaintops, green trees, thick oaks, and altars had all become places where Israel offered “sweet savour” to idols. That phrase is especially offensive because sweet savour language belongs properly to acceptable offerings before the Lord. Israel had taken worship language and redirected it toward false gods.

The Lord now turns those worship sites into judgment sites. The places of false sacrifice become places of slaughter. The idols that received incense will be surrounded by the bodies of their worshipers. The message is clear, the idols cannot save. They cannot speak, act, defend, redeem, or deliver.

Psalm 115:4 through 8, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.”

Idols are lifeless, and those who trust them become spiritually deadened. Ezekiel 6 shows the final shame of idol trust. Israel’s idols will stand helpless while their worshipers fall.

Verse 14 says, “So will I stretch out my hand upon them.” The outstretched hand of God indicates a mighty act of judgment. When God stretches out His hand, His blow is heavy. Scripture often speaks of God’s mighty hand and outstretched arm in deliverance, but here the outstretched hand is against His rebellious people.

Exodus 6:6, “Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:”

The same God who stretched out His arm to redeem Israel from Egypt now stretches out His hand against Israel because they have become like the nations and have embraced their abominations.

The Lord says He will “make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath.” Some ancient readings and commentators understand this as Riblah rather than Diblath. Riblah was a location in Syria and later became significant in the final judgment on Judah’s leadership after Jerusalem fell.

2 Kings 25:20 through 21, “And Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took these, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah: And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their land.”

If Riblah is in view, the phrase may indicate devastation from the southern wilderness to the northern region associated with Riblah. Either way, the point is clear, the land would be made desolate in all their habitations. The land that should have been fruitful under covenant blessing would become barren under covenant judgment.

The chapter ends as it has repeatedly emphasized, “and they shall know that I am the LORD.” This final statement gathers the chapter’s message. Israel will know the Lord when the high places are destroyed, when the idols are broken, when the slain fall, when the remnant remembers, when the land becomes desolate, and when God’s word proves true.

God’s judgment is not meaningless destruction. It is corrective revelation. The Lord will be known as the one true God, the God of Israel, the God of history, the God who speaks and does not speak in vain.

Doctrinal and Practical Summary

Ezekiel 6 teaches that idolatry is spiritual adultery and covenant rebellion. Israel’s high places were not harmless religious traditions. They were centers of pagan corruption that defiled the land and provoked the Lord’s judgment. The mountains, hills, ravines, valleys, green trees, and thick oaks had become witnesses against Israel because they had hosted the worship of false gods.

The chapter also teaches that God’s patience must not be mistaken for approval. Israel had been warned for generations, yet the people continued in their abominations. When judgment came, it came with sword, famine, pestilence, desolation, and exile. God’s word was not vain. What He promised in warning, He fulfilled in history.

Ezekiel 6 also reveals the grief of God over sin. The Lord says He was broken by Israel’s whorish heart. This shows the relational seriousness of idolatry. Sin is not merely rule breaking. It grieves the God who loves, redeems, and enters covenant with His people. The more clearly a person sees the love and holiness of God, the more he should loathe the sin that offends Him.

Yet the chapter also contains mercy. The Lord says, “Yet will I leave a remnant.” Judgment does not cancel God’s covenant promises. The remnant will remember the Lord among the nations, loathe their abominations, and know that He is the Lord. This fits the broader pattern of Scripture, God disciplines Israel severely, but He preserves Israel faithfully and will ultimately restore the nation according to His promises.

For believers today, Ezekiel 6 is a warning against every form of idolatry. Idols may not always be carved images on hilltops, but the heart can still depart from God and chase false objects of trust, loyalty, worship, and security. Anything loved, feared, served, or trusted above the Lord becomes an idol. The Christian must not tolerate what God commands him to destroy.

The chapter also points forward to the ultimate need for heart renewal. Israel’s problem was not only external altars but adulterous hearts. The Lord would later promise a new heart and a new spirit.

Ezekiel 36:24 through 28, “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

Ezekiel 6 exposes the disease. Ezekiel 36 promises the cure. Israel needs more than broken idols. Israel needs cleansed hearts. That ultimate cleansing comes through the redemptive work of Christ, who bears judgment, secures forgiveness, and will bring all God’s covenant purposes to their appointed fulfillment.

Clayton Taylor https://taylorbiblestudy.com