3rd December 2023 – Ezekiel 22:1-16
22 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to her all her abominations. 3 You shall say, Thus says the Lord God: A city that sheds blood in her midst, so that her time may come, and that makes idols to defile herself! 4 You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made, and you have brought your days near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. 5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you; your name is defiled; you are full of tumult.
6 “Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. 7 Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. 8 You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. 9 There are men in you who slander to shed blood, and people in you who eat on the mountains; they commit lewdness in your midst. 10 In you men uncover their fathers' nakedness; in you they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity. 11 One commits abomination with his neighbor's wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father's daughter. 12 In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.
13 “Behold, I strike my hand at the dishonest gain that you have made, and at the blood that has been in your midst. 14 Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. 15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness out of you.16 And you shall be profaned by your own doing in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
This chapter contains three prophecies about the sin, degradation and defilement of Jerusalem. In the first, in these verses, we are given a grim and ugly picture of the moral declension of the city. We should note the almost monotonous repetition of the words 'in thee', in 6, 7 ,9, 10, 11, 12. The force of the emphasis is that these things had been happening in Jerusalem of all places, the holy city of God, and all these abominations were violations of the express command and will of God as given in Exodus and Leviticus. They portray a state of moral collapse and disintegration. What is very striking in this passage is the startling similarity in what is recorded to conditions in our own day. This should not really surprise us: history shows that the breakdown of societies generally follows the same pattern in any age. It is always in this way that the collapse comes. The fact that we are for the most part unaware of our own declension is simply an evidence of the parochialness of our thinking, and of how enclosed we are in our national complacency. We are not, on the whole, aware of what other nations think of us, and it would be very salutary for us to read more of the world Press and its comments on the relative insignificance of 'Great' Britain. This would do more than most things to bring home to our startled consciousness the unpalatable truth of our decline. The words in 4, 'I will make thee a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries' would then be seen to be the simple truth about a nation that has left God out of its reckoning, and become divorced from its truest traditions. This is what God does to nations that have been privileged by His blessing.
2nd December 2023 – Ezekiel 21:18-32
18 The word of the Lord came to me again: 19 “As for you, son of man, mark two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come. Both of them shall come from the same land. And make a…
1st December 2023 – Ezekiel 21:18-32
18 The word of the Lord came to me again: 19 “As for you, son of man, mark two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come. Both of them shall come from the same land. And make a…
30th November 2023 – Ezekiel 21:1-17
21 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face towards Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel 3 and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the Lord: Behold,…
29th November 2023 – Ezekiel 21:1-17
21 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face towards Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel 3 and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the Lord: Behold,…
28th November 2023 – Ezekiel 21:1-17
21 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face towards Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel 3 and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the Lord: Behold,…
27th November 2023 – Ezekiel 20:45-49
45 And the word of the Lord came to me: 46 “Son of man, set your face towards the southland; preach against the south, and prophesy against the forest land in the Negeb. 47 Say to the forest of the Negeb, Hear…
26th November 2023 – Ezekiel 20:27-44
27 “Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: In this also your fathers blasphemed me, by dealing treacherously with me. 28 For when I had brought them into the land…
25th November 2023 – Ezekiel 20:5-26
5 and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: On the day when I chose Israel, I swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob, making myself known to them in the land of Egypt; I swore to them,…
24th November 2023 – Ezekiel 20:5-26
5 and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: On the day when I chose Israel, I swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob, making myself known to them in the land of Egypt; I swore to them,…