Ezekiel 8:1
And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me. And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.
In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, Ezekiel was sitting in his house with the elders of Judah sitting before him when the hand of the Lord God fell upon him there. This took place during his ministry among the Jewish captives in exile in Babylonia, and the falling of the hand was an open vision given in the presence of the elders so they could behold him and know something of its power. The vision thus opened exposes Judah's abominations in Jerusalem, including leaders worshiping Tammuz and the sun in God's temple with their backs to the temple and their faces toward the east. That exposure shows transgression begins as image-concepts in the mind, so that whatever a man daily bows to — farms, houses, automobiles, art, books, or his own handiwork — becomes his worship in breach of the second commandment, yet God exposes sin to bring His people back, marking for safety those who grieve and turn while the unrepentant face just wrath. The chapter therefore stands as a type of the last-days sealing and judgments, paralleling Revelation 7:2-3, where the seal is placed in the forehead as the seat of the mind in service to God and calls those who serve Him to be right about the Sabbath as the sign of His authority and sanctifying power.
Setting and Manner of Vision
The vision is dated to the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, when Ezekiel was sitting in his house with the elders of Judah sitting before him and the hand of the Lord God fell upon him there. This marks the beginning of the vision in which Judah's sins, including sun-worship, are exposed. The setting is his prophetic ministry among the Jewish captives in exile in Babylonia.
He was in his house beside the Chebar, which may have been the Nar Kabari, the great canal through Nippur where a Jewish colony of exiles may also have lived. The elders had come to inquire of the Lord during the years before the final captivity, and the verse gives the setting for a divine vision granted to Ezekiel in exile. It introduces the vision of the chambers of imagery, where the hidden sins of Israel's leaders were revealed.
The falling of the Lord's hand denotes an open vision given in the presence of the elders. While it was upon him he could be seen in vision, so that those present beheld him and had opportunity to know something of the power accompanying it. Ezekiel was of priestly family and served as God's mouthpiece to the captives. God revealed His glory to him before sending him with warnings and reproof, and this vision of divine majesty prepared him to confront his people without fearing them. The living creatures and wheels associated with his ministry were symbols of God's overruling providence and rule over the nations.
Idolatry Exposed and Condemned
The verse opens the vision in which Judah's sins are laid bare, the abominations and heathen worship practiced in Jerusalem being shown to the prophet in exile. Chief among those abominations is sun-worship, the gross idolatry of Israel exposed in order to turn the people back.
The vision reveals the chambers of imagery, the sins committed in the dark by Israel's leaders. Transgression does not require carving or molding or casting a graven image and bowing down to it, for the image-concept is in the mind before it is made in concrete form. A man may have a pantheon of gods in the temple of his mind.
Prominent men of Israel had fallen into pagan apostasy, worshiping Tammuz and the sun in God's temple with their backs to the temple and their faces toward the east. They turned the sun, a means by which God gives light, into an object of worship. That idolatrous nature-worship joined fertility worship to serve lust, and was especially degrading for consecrating sexual corruption as religion.
God sees in the soul the cherished imaginings of sins and lusts. Whatever object a man daily bows to and renders homage to — farms, houses, automobiles, art, books, and his own handiwork — that he worships, even without making it a likeness of man or ox or goat, and thereby breaks the second commandment. Inner thoughts, imagination, and desires can form idols that should be exposed and cleansed. The grace of Christ can save men from every species of false worship, open or secret.
In thus exposing gross idolatry God seeks to bring the people back to true worship. Those who grieve over sin and turn from it receive His mark of safety, while those who do not face His just wrath.
Foreshadowing Final Sealing Work
Ezekiel 8:1 opens a section of striking prophecies about the future in which Israel serves as a symbol of the last days. It begins the vision in which Israel's gross idolatry, especially sun worship, is exposed. God seeks in that exposure to bring the people back to true worship, and those who grieve over sin and turn from it receive His mark of safety while those who do not face His just wrath, making the scene a type of the last-days sealing and judgments. The vision continued in the ninth chapter parallels the sealing work shown in Revelation 7. It is the same work shown in Revelation 7:2-3, the sealing of the servants of God in their foreheads before hurt comes to the earth and the sea.
The seal or mark is placed in the forehead because the forehead is the seat of the mind, and with the mind God's law is served. That forehead mark represents the mind and service to God. This work calls people who already serve God to be right about the Sabbath, which is presented as the sign of God's authority and sanctifying power.