Ezekiel 22
COMMENTARY:
: 12 In you have they taken gifts to shed blood, you have taken usury and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten me, says the Lord GOD. (7911 “forgotten” [shakach] means to dismiss from the mind, stop remembering, to cease to care, ignore, or let it grow lean.)
DEVOTION: There are many people who have grown up in a good church that have gone into the world and dismiss from their minds all the teaching they received in church. They might remember some of the Bible stories that were taught as if they were only just stories they could learn anywhere. They were like listening to any story book that was good for them while they were young but think that they don’t apply to their lives as adults.
The Bible is for all ages. The telling of what happens in the Bible might be adapted to fit an age group but should have the same power because it is TRUTH as opposed to just a good story.
The children of Israel had heard it all most of their life if they went to the Temple to worship. There were good priests who taught truth. There were good prophets that had visions from the LORD. However, there were also wicked priest and wicked lying prophet who were just in it for the money or for the prestige of the office. Many took advantage of people.
God didn’t like it during this time period and HE doesn’t like it now. HE only wants those who are genuine believers to teach other genuine believers the truth of HIS WORD. HE expects that once it is taught it will be practiced in the lives of those who are listening.
Too often, we find that there are people who attend good churches who once they have gone through the doors into the world stop remembering what they have been taught just a few hours before. Homes are not places where parents continue to teach the truth of the Word of God and where they complement those who have taught the truth.
Instead some still have roast preacher for lunch. Some don’t give the LORD HIS portion of their weekly income. Some don’t witness to those around them. They grow lean in their relationship to the LORD. Israel was an example of this and it displeased the LORD.
Too many of those attending good Biblical churches are following the example of Israel instead of being like Ezekiel and Jesus who spoke the truth in love. Are you speaking the truth in love to those in your church, in your home and in your work place?
CHALLENGE: Ezekiel was just another human God used to spread HIS message of warning that judgment was coming if there wasn’t a turnaround in the actions of those who claimed to be HIS followers.
: 14 Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it. (6213 “deal” [asah] means act with effect, produce, put in order, to observe, to take action with respect to someone or something, manufacture, or to produce by labor.)
DEVOTION: The children of Israel were warned that there was a day of reckoning coming. They were continuing to sin thinking that the LORD would never deal with them. They were wrong.
Throughout the Old Testament we find that HIS people would test the LORD and HE would deal with them and they would straighten out for a while and then return to their sins. It is sad but true that faithfulness is hard for any group that say they are going to follow the LORD.
We are sinners by nature and without the help of the LORD we will continue to sin without regard for consequences. However, there is a group in the nation of Israel that would stay true to the LORD and there is a group even today that are staying faithful to the LORD. Are they sinless? NO! They continue to sin but they confess their sins regularly and try to live a life that is pleasing to the LORD. They fail but they confess their sins and listen to the HOLY SPIRIT as HE leads them in a way that is pleasing to the LORD.
We can and neither can Israel every be sinless but they can sin less with the help of the LORD and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in their lives. We have to depend on the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us each day. We have to confess our sins regularly and with the LORD’S help sin less.
Judgment came to the children of Israel and it will come to us as well. Our responsibility is to confess our sins daily and ask for HIS help to live a life that is pleasing to HIM.
CHALLENGE: There is coming a day when believers will stand before the LORD at the JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST to receive our rewards for our service to the LORD. The question seems to be “How many crowns will you receive?”
: 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 shown difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. (2490 “profaned” [chalal] means defile, treat with contempt, dishonor, make common, pollute, or desecrate.)
DEVOTION: The LORD gives Ezekiel a message that all HE finds in Jerusalem are individuals who like to shed innocent blood. They like to worship false gods. They liked to take advantage of those who were poor and had no one to defend them. They liked to practice ungodly acts toward the opposite sex. They were greedy.
Therefore the LORD had to send judgment. HE looked at all the different groups in society: prophets, priest, leaders, and common people. They were all dross in HIS eyes.
This verse deals with the priests, who were supposed to, instruct the people in worship of the LORD. They were the ones who should show the people the difference between the things that were holy and profane. They were supposed to teach them the difference between animals that were unclean and clean. They were supposed to warn the people that they could only come to the Temple when they were clean according to the standards set down in the Law of the LORD. So they were held responsible for the daily living of those who were called the people of God.
They polluted all the LORD’S holy things. They violated the LORD’S laws. They taught the people that all things were common. There was no difference. Everything was good. Nothing was evil. The LORD was looking for someone to “stand in the gap.” No one was found. Even among the spiritual leaders of the people.
Many in our churches don’t respect the BIBLE and the teaching of those who have fought the battles for our faith before us. Some are teaching that people that there is no absolutes. They are saying that everyone has to make the standard for themselves. When this happens, everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes.
If the pastors and leaders are teaching wrong doctrine, what are the people to do? God’s people are scattered rather than gathered. Let’s gather the people of God together and show them the difference between those that are holy and those that are not.
CHALLENGE: Leaders receive the greater judgment for their example. Leaders receive greater responsibility to train those who are looking up to them for direction.
: 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. (6556 “gap” [perets] means breach, broken wall, rupture, bursting forth, to make a split or break.)
DEVOTION: With God one person can make a difference. HE is always looking for at least one man to stand against the crowd. We find David standing in the breach between Israel and the Philistines when he went against Goliath. We find Abraham praying to the LORD for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He asked the LORD to spare the cities if ten men could be found. They were not found.
Can you imagine the LORD looking throughout the land of Israel and in the city of Jerusalem for anyone who would honor HIM? Remember that HE is omniscient and omnipresent. Nothing is outside HIS eyesight. The fact is that even the thought life of those in this world is known to HIM.
So with nothing hidden from HIS knowledge HE can make a statement that should shock those who are living in Jerusalem. It should even shock us if it is true today.
The LORD was looking for someone to stand between HIM and the rest of the children of Israel. HE told Ezekiel that HE could not find one. All of the people in Jerusalem were sinning to the point of no return. HE had to send judgment. The sins listed in this chapter are extensive. It seems that they liked to sin more than they liked to serve the LORD.
Today we find that it is easier to for even believers to disobey the LORD rather than trust and serve HIM. Excuses are multiplied by those who claim HIM as their LORD. It seems that everyone is too busy to serve. Many claim that they are afraid to serve the LORD. These excuses don’t please the LORD.
CHALLENGE: We need to be someone who is willing to follow the leading of the LORD in our life. We have to make a difference in our world. We have to make a difference in our homes. We have to make a difference in our churches.
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