Study Desk

Then God said, "Son of man, I am giving you this scroll. Swallow it! Let that scroll fill your body." So I ate the scroll. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

So I got up and went out to the valley. The Glory of the Lord was there—as I had seen it by the Kebar Canal. So I bowed with my face to the ground.

I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth—you will not be able to talk. So they will not have anyone to teach them that they are doing wrong, because they are always turning against me.

So the Lord God says, "I will do this because you did not obey my laws and commands. You broke more of my laws than the people who lived around you, and you did what even they know is wrong!"

So the Lord God says, "So now, even I am against you! I will punish you while those other people watch.

I will do things to you that I have never done before. And I will never do those terrible things again, because you did so many terrible things.

People in Jerusalem will be so hungry that parents will eat their own children, and children will eat their own parents. I will punish you in many ways, and those who are left alive, I will scatter to the winds."

Bad things will happen wherever your people live. Their cities will become piles of rock. Their high places will be destroyed so that those places of worship will never be used again. The altars will all be destroyed. People will never worship those filthy idols again. The incense altars will be smashed. Everything you made will be destroyed completely.

The people who sold their property will never go back to it. Even if some people escape alive, they will never go back to their property, because this vision is for the whole crowd. So even if some people escape alive, it will not make everyone feel better.

"They used their beautiful jewelry and made an idol. They were proud of that statue. They made their terrible statues. They made those filthy things, so I will throw them away like a dirty rag.

I will bring evil people from other nations, and they will get all the houses of the people of Israel. I will stop all you powerful people from being so proud. Those people from other nations will get all your places of worship.

God spoke to me. He said, "Son of man, look toward the north." So I looked, and there, north of the Altar Gate by the entrance, was that statue that made God jealous.

So I went to the entrance to the courtyard, and I saw a hole in the wall.

God said to me, "Son of man, make a hole in the wall." So I made a hole in the wall, and there I saw a door.

So I went in and looked. I saw statues of all kinds of reptiles and animals that you hate to think about. The statues were the filthy idols that the people of Israel worshiped. There were pictures of those animals carved all around on every wall!

Then God said, "Son of man, do you see this? The people of Judah think my Temple is so unimportant that they will do these terrible things here in my Temple! This country is filled with violence, and they constantly do things to make me angry. Look, they are wearing rings in their noses to honor the moon as a false god!

Then I heard God say to the other men, "I want you to follow the first man. You must kill all those who do not have the mark on their foreheads. It doesn't matter if they are elders, young men or young women, children or mothers—you must use your weapon and kill everyone who does not have the mark on their forehead. Don't show any mercy. Don't feel sorry for anyone. Start here at my Temple." So they started with the elders in front of the Temple.

He said to them, "Make this Temple unclean—fill this courtyard with dead bodies! Now go!" So they went and killed the people in the city.

So I will not show any mercy or feel sorry for them. They brought it on themselves. I am only giving them the punishment they deserve!"

God had given the man dressed in linen clothes a command. He had told him to go into the area between the wheels among the Cherub angels and get some hot coals. So the man went there and stood by the wheel.