Has God given up on reaching the people? He instructs His prophet Ezekiel not to address the nation, but the land instead. "O mortal, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I, I myself will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places" (vs. 2 and 3).
Rather than a generic word to miscellaneous landforms, Ezekiel is delivering God's word of judgment to those places that have served as sites of idol-worship. This becomes clearer in verse 4 when we hear, "Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense stands shall be broken; and I will throw down your slain in front of your idols."
God's wrath is poured out upon those places where His name has been profaned through the worship of false gods. It is a time of judgment, and it will especially affect those areas that had indulged the people in the sin of idolatry. Here is the end goal in mind: "And you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountain tops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing odor to all their idols" (vs. 13). These verses show us that, whatever else may have prompted God to judge His people through the Babylonian forces, idolatry was a big part of it.
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