Guilty as charged
Four prophecies.
- Against the southern forest: it will be consumed by an unquenchable fire. Reaction to the prophecy: Isn’t he just telling parables?
- Against the land of Israel: God will take His sword for slaughter from its sheath and cut off the righteous and the wicked. Reaction: Groan because of this news of what is to come. Be paralysed with fear. Wet yourself.
- Against Judah and Jerusalem: the King of Babylon will set up battering rams and give the command to slaughter and take the people captive. Reaction: hearts will melt with fear.
- Against the Ammonites: they will be punished by the sword, judged, delivered into the hands of their enemies, and burned. Reaction: they will be remembered no more.
Jerusalem is guilty because of the blood that has been shed.
Jerusalem is defiled because of the idols that have been made.
Jerusalem is to be scorned and mocked because it is full of turmoil.
The powerful have oppressed the weak. God’s holy things and rituals have been despised and desecrated. Promiscuity is rife. There is no respect for women. The people deal in bribes and extortion.
And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign Lord. Ezekiel 22:12
And God will respond. He will punish the city. He will disperse the people.
When you have been defiled in the eyes of the nations, you will know that I am the Lord. Ezekiel 22:16
The people have become like worthless metal. Dross to be thrown into the fiery furnace and melted down.
There is no distinction made between what is good and what is evil; what is holy and what is unholy; what is clean and what is unclean. The prophets whitewash over the issues. And who has been standing up and speaking out for what is right? No one.
I read all this and I think of our world. Of what we have made it. Of the blurred lines between right and wrong. Of the lies and deceit that tell us anything goes. Of the abuse of power and influence. Of the madness in politics.
Our world is not so very different.
Next in Ezekiel 23, we hear about two adulterous sisters – Oholah and Oholibah (Samaria and Jerusalem). They have been prostitutes since their birth. Groped, caressed, fondled. Lusting after lovers from other nations. Defiled. And then violated.
The sister representing Samaria led the way and Jerusalem, having witnessed the punishment of the sister, still followed on close behind. In fact, she went further. She paraded her nakedness. She became more and more promiscuous.
There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. Ezekiel 23:20
And this is Jerusalem, the city that God loves, remember. God’s chosen people. He burns with a jealous anger. All these lovers are to turn on this woman and bring God’s judgement down upon her. This is the only way to put an end to this lewdness and prostitution.
You will suffer the penalty for your lewdness and bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord. Ezekiel 23:49
What can I say? This world will reap the consequences of what it has sown. Suffer the penalty. Bear the consequences. For how else will we ever know that God is God.
And God demands faithfulness from those in relationship with Him.
