Year 2, Week 18, Day 1 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 18, Day 1

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Ezekiel 6-7.

Today’s reading continues the Book of Ezekiel. Today’s reading proceeds further into the first segment of Ezekiel (chapters 1-24), which is a series of prophecies about impending judgment on the people of Judah for their persistent disobedience to the LORD. Ezekiel 6 declares that judgment will be severe, the LORD would leave a remnant who will seek Him: “Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries, then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations” (Ezekiel 6:8-9). Ezekiel 7 emphasizes that the LORD would show no pity when He begins His punishment: “Disaster comes upon disaster; rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the prophet, while the law perishes from the priest and counsel from the elders. The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. According to their way I will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, and they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 7:26-27).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is the emphasis placed upon the reason behind the LORD’s judgment: “And they shall know that I am the LORD. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them…And you shall know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols…And my eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity, but I will punish you for your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the LORD…And my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the LORD, who strikes…The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. According to their way I will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, and they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 6:10,13; 7:4,9,27). One of the recurring statements running throughout much of the Book of Ezekiel is especially frequent in today’s reading: “And they shall know that I am the LORD…And you shall know that I am the LORD…Then you will know that I am the LORD…Then you will know that I am the LORD, who strikes…and they shall know that I am the LORD.” The LORD would demonstrate to His people that He really is who He says He is as He would do what He said He would do: judge His people for their sin.

Today’s reading is a difficult one; not difficult in the sense of it is hard to understand what the LORD is saying through Ezekiel, but difficult because it is very simple to understand. The message is clear—the judgment will be severe in its intensity and extensive in its scope: “I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars” (Ezekiel 6:5). The descriptions are horrific and gruesome: "Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say, Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. He who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who is left and is preserved shall die of famine. Thus I will spend my fury upon them” (Ezekiel 6:11-13). Even Ezekiel’s gestures of clapping and stomping reflect the threatening intensity of what the LORD was about to do. The judgment would be cataclysmic. And as it is, they will grasp something true about the LORD that they had dismissed. The LORD’s holy justice is swift and mighty.

The descriptions of disaster do not ease up; in fact, they escalate: “Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you, and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. And my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst” (Ezekiel 7:8-9a). With no pity shown, it will be all doom and no joy: “Thus says the Lord GOD: Disaster after disaster! Behold, it comes. An end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold, it comes. Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come; the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting on the mountains” (Ezekiel 7:5-7).

In considering the vivid descriptions of intensity and severity of God’s wrath upon Jerusalem, we can get a better grasp of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, whereby He absorbed the wrath of God for His people: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:8-9). Jesus our substitute is the only Savior from the wrath of God: “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe