Year 2, Week 19, Day 4 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 19, Day 4

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Ezekiel 21-22.

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 21 is a fierce denunciation of both Jerusalem and the Temple: “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am against you and will draw my sword from its sheath and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked” (Ezekiel 21:2-3). The LORD’s judgment will be like a slaughter from a sharp sword: “As for you, son of man, prophesy. Clap your hands and let the sword come down twice, yes, three times, the sword for those to be slain. It is the sword for the great slaughter, which surrounds them, that their hearts may melt, and many stumble” (Ezekiel 21:14-15a). Ezekiel 22 describes two of the main reasons for the coming judgment: “You shall say, Thus says the Lord GOD: A city that sheds blood in her midst, so that her time may come, and that makes idols to defile herself! You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made, and you have brought your days near, the appointed time of your years has come” (Ezekiel 22:3-4a). Judgment would fall upon Jerusalem for two chief reasons: bloodshed and idolatry.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is that while there is a quite extensive list of sins that the leaders and people of Jerusalem had engaged in, Ezekiel seems to indicate what was at the root of all their disobedience: “but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 22:12b). Built into the core of the covenantal arrangement between the LORD and His people was the need to remember or not forget the LORD: “You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 8:18-19). Also built into the arrangements of the covenant between the LORD and His people was the consequence of forgetting to remember the LORD: “And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known” (Deuteronomy 28:64). So, Ezekiel’s warning provides no new information: “I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it. I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness out of you. And you shall be profaned by your own doing in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 22:14b-15).

The results from forgetting to remember the LORD are a host of wicked acts and desires: “Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. There are men in you who slander to shed blood, and people in you who eat on the mountains; they commit lewdness in your midst. In you men uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity. One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter. In you they take bribes to shed blood” (Ezekiel 22:6-12a). Between this list and other matters listed in today’s reading, every one of the Ten Commandments as well as hosts of other violations of the covenant’s stipulations (see also, passages such as Leviticus 18-20,25), had been shattered. When the LORD is forgotten, there is no end to ways that unrighteousness expresses itself. The first step toward wickedness is to simply violate the greatest command: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).

At that moment in Israel’s history, there was only the certainty of judgment, for no one could be found to stand in the gap and mediate on their behalf: “And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 22:30-31). But the time would come when the guilt and punishment of sin would have One to stand in the gap and be a mediator: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time” (1 Timothy 2:5).

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

Pastor Joe