January 31, 2023
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Reading along with us in Ezekiel? Here’s today’s reading:
Ezekiel 22 (NIV)
Judgment on Jerusalem’s Sins
1 The word of the Lord came to me:
2“Son of man, will you judge her? Will you judge this city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her detestable practices 3 and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You city that brings on herself doom by shedding blood in her midst and defiles herself by making idols,............Continue Reading
God tells him tell them you are guilty of murder and idolatry. Your day of doom is here. He said he would make you the laughing stock of all nations. They lie and say their orders come from God.
God said he could not find even one man to stand in the gap. How sad that must have made him.
Again how sad that God’s people devolved into such behavior unfitting to those in the world as well. Shedding blood, sexual impurities that God had clearly warned against and taking advantage of the widows and the vulnerable are all heinous in God’s eyes and should be in ours as well. Even leaders are taking advantage of their position and using it for personal gain and pleasure. Rather than correcting wrong, prince, priest and false prophet condone and participate in it. They have left God no choice but to judge them in the furnace of His wrath. And yes how sad that God would look for someone to stand in the gap to defend the land and His people and His ways, but there wasn’t a one. May we choose to be gap standers and represent God well amongst others!
Ezekiel 22
Sad that he couldn’t find just one person to stand up against the evil and disobedience happening. This reminded me so much of a conversation…maybe more a debate…that I had with some unsaved friends the other day. Their point was that we should mind our business and just live and let live but my response was that then we let evil be evil. Our ignorance and avoidance of a problem does not control it but rather allows it a place to thrive. We need to love yes but not affirm and peacefully ignore what we know to be sin or judgement comes to us as well.
It is so hard to know when to speak up and when to shut up! When is our silence complicit? When are we just getting caught up in the “politics” of the matter and being distracted from sharing the gospel? Reminds me of the Watchman (which we haven’t read yet).
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 9 But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.”
It is hard to share the gospel when people are calling evil good, and good evil.
Ezekiel 22
The Lord said, “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one”. God makes a way for those who are faithful to him, it must have been disheartening that no one could be found who fit this description.
Ezekiel shows Israel their abominations.
“Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations.”