Ezekiel 10:1

• This vision of God’s fearful and holy glory was almost the same as the one Ezekiel had seen earlier in Babylonia (Ezekiel 1). Now he saw it again, but this time in the temple in Jerusalem.

  The temple was filled with symbols of heaven. In this vision, Ezekiel understood clearly that the living creatures he had seen before were cherubim. Cherubim are powerful heavenly beings who guard God’s holiness and carry out his judgment (Genesis 3:24).

• A priestly figure was told to gather burning coals from among the cherubim. This action showed that Jerusalem, which had become unclean because of sin, would be destroyed by fire. This judgment was like what happened to the city of Sodom (see Ezekiel 16:46–50).

  The vision also showed that the Lord was leaving his city. Later, this became a reality in history. A few years after this vision, King Nebuchadnezzar burned Jerusalem and filled the city with dead bodies.

The temple was the earthly place where the Lord’s glory dwelled among his people. This was one of the greatest blessings of the covenant.

But this blessing depended on the people being holy (set apart for God and living in obedience to him). When they filled the temple with sin and idolatry, they defiled it.

Because of their unfaithfulness, the Lord left his house. Once his presence departed, the temple and the city were left unprotected. They became vulnerable to the coming attack by the Babylonians.

This section describes how the people defiled (made unclean by sin) the temple in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8). Because of this sin, the Lord left the temple. After he left, the city and the temple were destroyed (9:1–11:13).

At first, this sounds like only bad news. But for those already living in exile, it was also good news. The Lord was not limited to the temple in Jerusalem. He would come to be with his people in exile.

By coming to dwell with them, the Lord showed that the exiles were not forgotten. They were the ones who carried hope for the future of God’s people.