Ezekiel 11

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.

The Spirit showed Ezekiel God's view of Jerusalem, then let him hear the city's people. The wicked advisors claimed that although the Babylonian attack (the fire) was difficult (hot), the city's defenses (the pot) were strong enough to protect them (the meat). These advisors encouraged people to build houses on stolen land (see Ezekiel 11:15, 17), believing they would be safe. God, however, was determined to judge the wicked.

God once saved his people from foreigners in Egypt, but now he would give them over to foreigners for judgment.

• The judgment that the Lord announced happened at once.

• Oh, Lord GOD, will You bring the remnant of Israel to a complete end?: If those who still remained in the land were going to be completely destroyed, then who would be left? Who would continue as God’s people?

• Those who stayed in the land thought the exiles were far from the Lord, with no one to protect their family land. Normally, relatives (literally men of your redemption) would have redeemed Ezekiel’s family property if he faced debt or trouble. Since the exiles left as family groups, no one remained in Judah to guard their inherited properties.

• this land has been given to us as a possession: Those who stayed thought the exiles were under God's judgment and had lost their ancestral lands. The opposite was true. Israel's future was with the distant exiles, as the Lord went with them and would be a sanctuary during their exile (see Ezekiel 11:22–23).

The exile in Babylon would last until God completed his judgment. Afterward, God's people would return from the nations where they had been scattered to the land of Israel. Their land, currently taken by those remaining in Judah, would be restored to them.

The outward change in the lives of God’s people would match an inward change. God would not only restore their situation. He would also change their hearts. The heart includes a person’s thoughts, desires, decisions, and will.

They would have singleness of heart. This means they would have complete loyalty to the Lord. In the past, their hearts had wandered away from him.

God would give them a tender and responsive heart (literally a heart of flesh). This would replace their hard and stubborn heart (literally their heart of stone).

Instead of their old spirit that led them to worship idols, God would give them a new spirit (see Ezekiel 36:26–27).

Their transformed hearts and spirits would allow the Lord's people to follow his rules. This would achieve the covenant's goal: people living with God among them. The new heart and spirit promised to God's people have become real (Hebrews 8:8–13). Through the Spirit's outpouring at Pentecost, God's people have become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Those who stayed in the land would face the consequences of their actions. God would fully repay them for their sins, especially those involving offensive images and idols.

Ezekiel’s vision of the temple (Ezekiel 8–11) ends with the chariot carrying God's glory away from the temple. The Lord's glory would leave the defiled Jerusalem, travel east to Babylon with the exiles, and share in their suffering (Ezekiel 11:16).

God's glory paused briefly above the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, as if waiting for judgment to fall on the rebellious city. After departing to the east, it would return from the east to the renewed temple (Ezekiel 43).