September 5, 2007

Ezekiel 21-22
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1. And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2. Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel,
3. And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
4. Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:
5. That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more.
6. Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.
7. And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD.
8. Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
9. Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished:
10. It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree.
11. And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.
12. Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon my people: smite therefore upon thy thigh.
13. Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD.
14. Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together, and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which entereth into their privy chambers.
15. I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter.
16. Go thee one way or other, either on the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.
17. I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the LORD have said it.
18. The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying,
19. Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city.
20. Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.
21. For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.
22. At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.
23. And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.
24. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.
25. And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end,
26. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.
27. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.
28. And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering:
29. Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.
30. Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.
31. And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.
32. Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the LORD have spoken it.

1. Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2. Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations.
3. Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.
4. Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.
5. Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, which art infamous and much vexed.
6. Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood.
7. In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
8. Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.
9. In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness.
10. In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.
11. And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.
12. In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.
13. Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.
14. Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.
15. And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.
16. And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
17. And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
18. Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.
19. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.
20. As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you.
21. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.
22. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you.
23. And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
24. Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.
25. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
26. Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
27. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
28. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken.
29. The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
30. And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
31. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.

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The concluding verses of Ezekiel 22 are very convicting. He opens in verse 24 by stating that the land of Israel is filled with sin and has not been spiritually cleansed. He lists out four different groups that have been involved in this defilement. First he mentions the prophets; those who were supposed to serve as the mouthpieces of God. In verses 25 and 28 the Lord reveals that they had been conspiring to enrich themselves, making others destitute in the process. They had destroyed the souls of those who they had been called to serve. When they did preach they spoke lies of their own creation, and gave the people spiritual "morter": words that looked like they might have come from the Lord, but that would not hold up in the day of adversity and judgment. He also mentions the princes; the political leaders of the land. They, too, did not care what happened to the "common folks" as long as they were able to make a good financial profit (27). The third group, the priests, were also guilty of a multitude of transgressions. They had profaned the holy things of God, for they treated them as they would any common, unclean item. They refused to honor the Sabbath day as God had commanded, and in so doing they treated the holy God just like they might treat a mere mortal (26). Finally, the people themselves receive condemnation. They were also out to get whatever they could by any means that they could, such as oppressing and robbing others and taking advantage of the less fortunate.

This sounds like a picture of modern day America. The politicians certainly can not be trusted to do what it right. It is a regular occurrence to hear of a scandal in which an elected representative or an appointed bureaucrat has accepted money in order to make a decision that harms someone else. The religious leaders are no better. We see pastors and evangelists whose main goal seems to be how much money they can bring into their ministries, if not into their own pockets. Widows and the impoverished are being encouraged to "send in your money and see what God will do" as if these organizations were some form of divine lottery. Large "cathedrals" are built on the backs of hard working people, and no one in authority seems to care. In addition, there is no longer any reverence or respect for the things of God. Music and worship styles in churches have been profaned to the point that you can't tell a church service from a rock concert or nightclub act just by listening. Sermons have been turned into comedy routines. Attitudes and standards that the unsaved deem to be acceptable are now being touted as the best by church leaders. Crude, vulgar language has become the norm both in the pew and in the pulpit. That which is profane has been given the church's stamp of approval, and is actually encouraged by many pastors through their preaching and behavior. Of course, much of this has been done in an attempt to both appease worldly church members and to appeal to the unsaved. Our Sovereign God has been reduced to the level of a simple man, and He is not pleased.

Verse 30 contains a most shameful statement. There the Lord has written,

"And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none."

Pastor Mark J Montgomery