Why does God order the murder of men, women and children in Ezekiel 9:6-7?

Question

Three days ago I was doing a bible study with my friend and I came across Ezekiel 9:6-7, where God orders the slaughter of men, women and children, as a somewhat new Christian I was obviously disgusted and horrified by the verse, but can my fellow brothers and sisters Christians explain this verse for me in more detailed information, it is greatly appreciated.

Ezekiel 9:6-7 says this:

6. Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.

7. And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.

Can only my fellow Christians please answer this verse? I would like to know their interpretation of this verse.

Answer 1

Why does God order the murder of men, women and children in Ezekiel 9:6-7?

Answer: These are all difficult due to our worldly perspective. We do not see our lives as God sees them from a position of absolute holiness. This world is often ugly, but we rarely understand that ugliness because we happen to be part of it.

As suggested by @Dave, there are many passages in Scripture, as with those in Ezekiel, that are really hard for us to swallow, even when we think we understand them. Such themes are difficult because we view everything from a jaundiced, fleshly perspective rather than from a spiritual one.

We think we know better. We believe that, if it were our responsibility, we would do things differently from that of an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent Deity. We are horribly mistaken. Due to our limited knowledge and wisdom, we rarely understand the whole picture.

Often, we simply cannot fathom why Almighty God allows certain events to transpire: we have missed the full ramifications of what is being related. We feel that God is unfair, or unjust, or that He is harsh. Our problem is that we cannot see the forest for the trees. If we could, our reasoning would be radically altered.

Consider the following.

When Israel invaded Canaan, they were to do so based on the terrible ruthlessness of those nations. They practiced child sacrifice (burning them alive!) and many other horrific crimes. A modern example might be those like ISIS, who commit unspeakable atrocities. What might we expect of these people, other than their utter destruction? Many of us view them as barbarians unworthy of life. Men and women like these seem possessed by the Devil.

Back to Canaan. Their punishment was hardly capricious. God had allowed this to continue for centuries before He finally had enough (Gen. 15:16). "[They had filled] up the measure of their sins [and God's] wrath [came] upon them to the utmost" (1 Thessalonians 2:16).

There is something very significant, something almost everyone overlooks, regarding children. Many of these had been raised under the excesses of those who were responsible for the carnage. Had they grown to adults, they would, in all likelihood, follow in precisely the same footsteps as their horribly sinful parents.

Here is what we fail to appreciate: all young children are unaccountable for their actions. This is true until a child reaches an age around 13 (perhaps as much as 17 or more?). God is, in fact, sparing these children from spiritual death: eternal torture in the flames of Hell. This is an act of profound mercy.

---

Such types of destruction, as with the idolatrous Israelites who remained in Israel - those not exiled to Babylon, were only implemented on occasions when the lifestyles of the people exceeded that which God would tolerate, and of that which He had warned so many times before (cf. Deu. 28:15+, especially gruesome). These were instances where "moral surgery" became necessary; the good would far outweigh the evil, and such would benefit all.

God does not "pull punches": He conveys the brutal truth to us. Yes, some Old Testament narratives such as Ezekiel 9 illustrate just how much "innocent" people can and do suffer from the sins of others. However, it is most likely that those who were truly innocent were exiled and thus spared from the devastation that would follow.

This is simply the world in which we live. And, God is bringing it all to an end. Such examples serve to highlight just how much we must all strive to live godly lives in the face of great evil.

Answer 2

Your question is similar to many some bring up - they look at these incidents in the Old Testament and ask the inevitable questions. Your question relates to what Ezekiel saw. But to fully understand this, you really need to have the foundation of what the Old Testament reveals prior to this, parts of which I need to briefly summarise. (So will lack important in-depth background understandings).

The other aspect to understand this incident may? also require putting aside some of your current understanding of the Old Testament. Nevertheless, let’s look a little closer ... first some background ...

Ezekiel was a prophet for Judah, the southern kingdom. The nation of Israel had split into two. A ‘prophet’ was someone who interacted with the ‘spiritual realm’. And much of Ezekiel is ‘looking’ into this realm. It is important to keep this in mind.

Judah was in captivity, in Babylon. King Nebuchadrezzar had ransacked Jerusalem, the temple, then returned later and took [many/most] of the nation into captivity - including Ezekiel. But what’s important to ‘take’ from this is the reasons why. Why was Judah ‘exposed’, ‘unprotected’ - even though their God was Almighty God, Yahweh. Reason - the Law. The nation was ‘under the Mosaic Law. Captivity because they violated the Sabbath. Desecration because they began to worship other gods. And because of this, they took themselves out from under Gods protection.

DEUT 28:45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.

Deuteronomy 28 starting at verse 15 has a long list of consequences. Some very ‘heavy’ consequences! You should read these! It will help towards understanding what happens in Ezekiel 8/9.

Some other background that would help is realising that being ‘put’ under the Law was not Gods idea - but that’s outside of being needed for this answer. The captivity, Judah being taken out of Judah, and put under a Nation with other gods was a ‘life preserver’ - doing this, it ‘shielded’ them from those consequences listed in Deuteronomy.

But what you read in Ezekiel 9 is for those who weren’t taken captive! Those who stayed (the reasons are interesting, eye opening, but outside of this answer.). Nevertheless, what you read in Ezekiel, the horrific judgements, were exactly those listed in Deuteronomy. And because they were ‘under Law’, God had no choice but to permit them.

Violating the Law was serious! It ‘killed’ thousands! A man picking up sticks! There was zero mercy, zero tolerance. The Law was not Gods idea! But God could not stop the judgement - the penalty was demanded by an Accuser.

In Ezekiel 9, we see the ‘background’ (spiritual realm) to what was described in Ezekiel 8. The ‘men’ assigned to ‘kill’ were spiritual entities - angels. Just like we see throughout the Old Testament - the firstborn in Egypt, Sodom, Lot, David in 1 Chronicles 21. Destroying Angels. They, ‘the angelic executioners’, came from the way of the upper gate - the Northern gate. All ‘spiritual oppression’ comes unto Jerusalem from the North.

The instructions to these ‘men’ were to carry out the requirements of the Law, the demands of the Law. The Israelites were warned repeatedly that there was no leeway - no tolerance!

EXODUS 23:21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions

So those that were judged in Ezekiel 9 were judged under the Law - not by God. They were there (not exiled) because they had ‘rejected’ God, were worshiping idols - in the temple!!!. They had taken onto themselves the consequences of the Law. There are other significant factors that contribute to their ‘status’, to them being the [seemingly innocent- but not] recipients of judgement, but you’d need a book to outline this. Sufficient to say that at this stage, they were ‘reprobate’ - (Romans 1 has a description of this state.).

Summary - There are clear understandings to these Old Testament incidents, but they are not necessarily found in the ‘traditional doctrinal explanations’. There is not much comfort in those explanations - but the Bible does have satisfying explanations, they are there - ones that show what was really behind these - and importantly, ones that reflect the same God you see in the New Testament. But a forum answer can’t reveal these, you need a book.