Ezekiel 22

Ezekiel 22:30

I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.

In the past, every time God was going to destroy a people, there was someone to plead for them.  First Noah was spared, then Abram's pleas saved his family in Sodom, and later Moses.  The people would get progressively worse, but there was always at least one good man to prevent their destruction.

This time, however, there is no one.  The gap lays empty, and the angel of death is coming through.  A single person could have changed the course of history, but there was no one left who knew what was right and stood for it.

Ezekiel 21

Ezekiel 21:4

Because I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore My sword will go forth from its sheath against all flesh from south to north.

God is bringing His justice upon the people of Israel.  However, this judgment will not only affect the wicked.  Those who have been faithful will also be punished.

I wonder why He is afflicting the righteous, as well.  Was it because they weren't able to bring their fellows back in line?  Or was it merely to demonstrate beyond doubt that He was in control?

Ezekiel 20

Ezekiel 20:43

There you will remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done.

The first part of repenting of sin is realizing that you've done it.  Sometimes this realization happens immediately, even as you're doing it, but you rationalize it away one way or the other.  Other times, you only realize after the fact that you did wrong, sometimes not until after some major life event like salvation or re-dedication.

Once you realize it, you should feel bad.  You know you did wrong, and are to the point where you regret it.  However you can't stay there; the next step is asking forgiveness, and accepting that Christ has forgiven you and His blood is sufficient to cover the sin, the eternal penalty paid.

Ezekiel 19

Ezekiel 19:13

'And now it is planted in the wilderness,
In a dry and thirsty land.

Israel is in the process of being destroyed.  It's people are about to be taken, with only a skeleton farming group left.  The rest are taken to Babylon, and their cities destroyed.

However, there is still hope.  God is leaving behind a remnant, even though they will be in a bad location.  But they will survive, and eventually be in a position to flourish again.

Ezekiel 18

Ezekiel 18:27

Again, when a wicked man turns away from his wickedness which he has committed and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his life.

You hear story about people whose lives have turned around.  They were into drugs, or violence, or theft, and then something changed.  Now they're perfectly respectable members of society, and you wouldn't know about their pasts if they didn't tell you.

Then there are those, more like me, who look good on the outside, but have darkness lurking.  They know when they're doing wrong, and just find an excuse.  When they turn back, does it have the same impact on others?  Or is it more shocking when people find out what they were into without those around them ever having been aware?

Ezekiel 17

Ezekiel 17:19

Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, "As I live, surely My oath which he despised and My covenant which he broke, I will inflict on his head.

Long ago, God made a promise to the Jews.  As long as they obeyed His commands, He would protect and strengthen them.  It sounds like a pretty good deal, and one they knew could be honored by Him.

However, over time, the promise was forgotten by their descendants.  They turned to different paths, paths away from Him.  But He did not forget, and now the bill has come due.  They broke the rules, and there was a warning of what would happen when that day came.

Ezekiel 16

Ezekiel 16:54

in order that you may bear your humiliation and feel ashamed for all that you have done when you become a consolation to them.

There's an old saying, "having a testimony is great; getting a testimony is terrible."  The trials that pain that go along with a testimony are not desirable.  They are usually pretty bad situations that one goes through, before discovering/returning to Christ.

However, those trials can also serve a purpose.  They can inspire others, whose hearts are open to hear the miracles that God worked.  I'll admit that for a long time, I was (and occasionally still am) resentful of those with long strife-filled testimonies, because I never had that and it makes me feel lesser somehow.  But I've also seen what good can come from them, the lives saved through others' examples.

Ezekiel 15

Ezekiel 15:5

Behold, while it is intact, it is not made into anything.  How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it still be made into anything!

Waste is always waste.  Something that's no good for anything is still no good for anything once it's destroyed.  But before it's destroyed, all it's doing is taking up space and getting in the way.

This is how God had come to feel about the people of Jerusalem.  They weren't even neutral anymore; they were in the way of what He was doing.  Therefore, the only solution, if they're not willing to be changed, is to destroy them to make way for the useful to fill the gap.

Ezekiel 14

Ezekiel 14:4

Therefore speak to them and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer of the matter in view of the multitude of his idols,

We have a bad habit of setting up idols in our own hearts.  We're not so big on the physical thing we bow to in the modern day, but idols of the heart, or the mind, are still alive and well.  Sometimes it's a person; sometime it's a thing, or an idea, or just a faulty notion of God.  But those idols do exist.

So, what do we do about them?  First, we have to identify them.  In a video my class watched today, the question was put to us, "What keeps you from growing closer to God?"  It's a question that I think would help very much in identifying these idols of the mind, for they are in effect the same question.

Ezekiel 13

Ezekiel 13:7

Did you not see a false vision and speak a lying divination when you said, 'The LORD declares,' but it is not I who have spoken?"'"

This scares me, in two ways.  First, I worry about heeding the false word, without realizing it.  It can be difficult to discern who speaks truth and who doesn't, especially if they're not citing sources.  It's one of the reasons I tend towards skepticism, I think (or maybe that's the other way around).

Second, I worry I might make this mistake.  As a teacher/leader, I worry about leading my class attendees down the wrong path.  Any such path would be unintentional, but I don't feel that would absolve me of blame.

Ezekiel 12

Ezekiel 12:27

"Son of man, behold the house of Israel is saying, 'The vision that he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies of times far off.'

This reminds me of King Hezekiah, after he was told that his kingdom would be given over to Babylon, but after he died.  He was content with that, because in his own lifetime things would be good.  What happened to future generations didn't concern him.

Why is that OK, that we don't worry about our descendant's problems?  Some would apply that lesson to the environment; I think of the national debt.  But why is it that once we know our lives will be OK, we don't worry as much about the future impact of our decisions?

Ezekiel 11

Ezekiel 11:8

You have feared a sword; so I will bring a sword upon you" the Lord GOD declares.

In my life, I usually make my biggest mistakes when I'm afraid of something happening.  I try to figure out how to avoid it, and usually make the wrong choice.  That leads me either to the very thing I was afraid of, or something worse in the long run.

It appears the Jews were making the same mistake.  They were afraid of being conquered and killed, and therefore turned to other nations for help, or to gods that they thought could aid them.  They were wrong, and therefore God brought upon them the thing they'd sinned trying to avoid.

Ezekiel 10

Ezekiel 10:4

Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple, and the temple was filled with the cloud and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD.

This would be an amazing sight.  God's glory has been seen by only a relative handful of people, and few to none of them alive at the time.  For the glory to come out from behind the curtain and fill the temple court, it would be an amazing sight to see, and one that none who witnessed it would ever forget.  Though it appears this is a foresight of what would happen later, Ezekiel obviously understood what he was forseeing.

However, this would also be a terrifying sight.  This glory is so amazing that few who have seen it have lived.  For those who did, they were sometimes kept away from others, because the aftereffects were hard to deal with for others.  Some who saw it were struck dead.  For it to suddenly come out to be seen would be shocking, and one might fear for his life.

Ezekiel 9

Ezekiel 9:9

Then He said to me, "The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with blood and the city is full of perversion; for they say, "The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see!

Here God gives His reason for what has happened and is about to occur in Jerusalem.  The people have turned away from God, and instead trusted in idols.  They feel that God has abandoned them, so why shouldn't they look for alternatives?

However are they seeing the cause, or the effect?  They say God abandoned them, but they abandoned God first.  They decided that He wasn't worth worshiping, so He is letting them feel the consequences of their decision.

Ezekiel 8

Ezekiel 8:16

Then He brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house.  And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; the they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun.

This is about as bad it it can get in blasphemy.  Here these men are, literally outside the door to the temple, God's house.  And not only have they put their backs to it, they are worshiping something God has made right there in front of him.

These people have decided that God is such an inconsequential thing that they're going to use His place to worship a physics demonstration.  It has no awareness, no ability to control itself, much less anything else.  It simply burns, and only avoids burning them by God's design.  Yet they bow to it, thanking it for its warmth instead of the one who put it there, whose contact point is right behind them.

Ezekiel 7

Ezekiel y:27

The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with horror, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble.  According to their conduct, I will deal with them, and by their judgments I will judge them.  And they will know that I am the LORD.'"

The leaders had failed the people, guiding them into false practices.  They will pay the price for their evil, because more is required of a leader than of those who follow him.  When that thought enters my mind, it always makes me worry about being a class leader at church.

In addition, the people will also be held responsible for what they have done.  Just because they were given bad guidance, it doesn't absolve them of their wrongs.  God sets the standard and judges everyone according to it, no matter their circumstances, and we must acknowledge Him for that.

Ezekiel 6

Ezekiel 6:10

Then they will know that I am the LORD; I have not said in vain that I would inflict this disaster on them."'

God is predicting ruin for all of Judah, due to their sins.  He's been warning them of this for a long time, and they either think it's from a false god or that it's been so long it just isn't coming.  However, the time is near, and they will know that He was telling the truth.

That is, those who survive will know.  Most will simply die, because they didn't pay attention when it could have counted.  Instead, they learn through their deaths, but their chance is spent.  However, those who survive will know why this has happened, and hopefully they will finally turn their ways back towards God.

Ezekiel 5

Ezekiel 5:16

When I send against them the deadly arrows of famine which were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break the staff of bread.

Just because God uses someone, doesn't mean they're His friend.  He can use anyone, in almost any way, and usually we'll never know it.  But just because He uses someone doesn't mean that He agrees with what that person does.

In this case, God is condemning Jerusalem because of the wickedness of the people, and is using a foreign army to do it.  However, He shows here that that army will also be destroyed in turn, for their evil.  As a result, the Jews would be hurt some more, but that is God's will.

Ezekiel 4

Ezekiel 4:15

Then H said to me, "See, I will give you cow's dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread."

I have heard of this, using excrement as a cooking fuel.  It seems very unhygienic, but it wasn't my idea to use it.  It would be a renewable resource, but rather inefficient.

So, why did God relent, and allow cow dung instead of human?  He obviously knew it would be considered unclean, and how that would taint Ezekiel.  So why go through the motions, when He would change things so quickly?  What did Ezekiel gain by raising objections?

Ezekiel 3

Ezekiel 3:18

When I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but but his blood I will require at your hand.

I've heard many writer say they write because they can't not write; the words just come out, and they have to channel them somehow.  Similarly, I've heard evangelists say roughly the same thing, that they can't not preach, because they know they have the message of life and have to tell people about it.

Here, Ezekiel is given another reason to preach when he is told.  If he does not, he will be responsible for the sinner's death.  His preaching might have saved that person.  Even if it doesn't, he would still have had the truth to consider, which is all Ezekiel can do.

Ezekiel 2

Ezekiel 2:5

As for them, whether they listen or not--for they are a rebellious house--they will know that a prophet has been among them.

There's an old expression I've heard about soldiers before in adventure novels.  It goes along the lines of "I don't have to win, I just have to fight."  I've always liked that idea, that it's more about the journey than the destination.

In this context, I think that expression is very appropriate.  You can't control what others do.  They may ignore you, may intentionally go directly against you, or may actually listen.  But all you can do is what's right, what you're told to.  The rest is up to them, but you still have to do your duty.