Context for Ezekiel 9-10
God begins His purge of the rebellious idolatry of Judah and her leaders from the place He chose to reveal Himself to them: His holy Temple in Jerusalem. God wanted to remind the Jews that, in spite of their perversion of even that holy place, it was still God’s holy temple, a sure sign that the wrath about to begin was from Him and not man.
God could have chosen to reveal Himself to His people anywhere. Instead, He chose specific places and tied great importance to those places. Why? Because in giving His people specific places to come to Him, He separated His people from their own will and bound them to His own.
Therefore, it is fitting that the God of Heaven directed His punishment of the rebellion of the Jews from the very Temple He commanded them to build as their interface with Him. While the people of Judah rebelled against their one, true God, their one, true God did not change His approach to them.
God’s sameness remains today as it was then. While He no longer comes to us through the Temple, He does come to us by grace through faith through His holy Word. It is only through that Word that He saves us. There is no other way.
Therefore, just as God commanded the Jews to keep His commandments and worship Him at His Temple, He commands us to remain faithful to Him by remaining in His Word. To do otherwise is the same kind of rebellion with the same eternal consequences.
