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845. Bible Study: Ezekiel 22 (Do we speak up for God's laws? for others?) · Faith by annm2705

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  Ezekiel chapter 22, Dear Lord, please be with us as we read
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  through this and open our eyes and ears to hear what you have
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  to say. We ask this in Jesus name.
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  So I'm going to read through this chapter.
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  There's probably not a lot that I have to add to this at all,
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  and I will read through the questions and answers that are
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  in the study guide, and then I'll do a separate podcast to
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  share with you an experience that I had this morning.
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  So let's get started relative to this chapter.
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  So the word of the Lord came to me.
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  Son of man, will you judge her? Will you judge the city of
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  bloodshed? Then confront her with all her
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  detestable practices and say this is what the sovereign Lord
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  says. You city that brings on herself
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  doom by shedding blood in her midst and defiles herself by
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  making idols. You have become guilty because
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  of the blood you have shed and have become defiled by the idols
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  you have made. You have brought your days to a
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  close, and the end of your years has come.
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  Therefore I will make you an object of scorn to the nations
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  and a laughing stock to all the countries.
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  Those who are near and those who are far away will mock you, You
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  infamous city full of turmoil. See how each of the Princess of
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  Israel who are in you uses his power to shed blood in you.
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  They have treated father and mother with contempt.
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  In you they have oppressed the foreigner and mistreated the
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  fatherless and the widow. You have despised my holy things
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  and desecrated my Sabbaths. In you are slanderers who are
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  bent on shedding blood. In you are those who eat at the
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  mountain shrines and commit lewd acts.
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  In you are those who dishonor their father's bed.
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  In you are those who violate women during their period when
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  they are ceremonially unclean. In You, one man commits A
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  detestable offense with his neighbor's wife, another
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  shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another
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  violates his sister, his own father's daughter.
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  In you are people who accept bribes to shed blood.
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  You take interest and make a profit from the poor.
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  You extort unjust gain from your neighbors.
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  And you have forgotten me, declares the sovereign Lord.
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  I will surely strike my hands together at the unjust gain you
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  have made, at the blood you have shed in your midst.
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  Will your courage endure, or your hands be strong in the day
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  I deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I
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  will do it. I will disperse you among the
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  nations and scatter you through the countries.
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  I will put an end to your uncleanness.
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  When you have been defiled in the eyes of the nations, you
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  will know that I am the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came
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  to me. Son of Man, the people of Israel
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  have become dross to me. All of them are copper, tin,
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  iron, and lead left inside a furnace.
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  They are but the dross of silver.
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  Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says.
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  Because you have all become dross, I will gather you into
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  Jerusalem as silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin are gathered
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  into a furnace to be melted with a fiery blast.
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  So I will gather you in my anger and my wrath and put you inside
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  the city and melt you. I will gather you, and I will
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  blow on you with my fiery wrath, and you will be melted inside
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  her. As silver is melted in a
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  furnace, so you will be melted inside her, and you will know
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  that I, the Lord, have poured out my wrath on you.
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  Again the word of the Lord came to me.
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  Son of Man, say to the land, You are a land that has not been
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  cleansed or rained on in the day of wrath.
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  There is a conspiracy of her Princess within her, like a
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  roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour people, take
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  treasures and precious things, and make many wind widows within
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  her. Her priests do violence to my
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  law, and profane my holy things. They do not distinguish between
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  the holy and the common. They teach that there is no
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  difference between the unclean and the clean, and they shut
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  their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned
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  among them. Her officials within her are
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  like wolves tearing their prey. They shed blood and kill people
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  to make unjust gain. Her prophets whitewash these
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  deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations.
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  They say this is what the sovereign Lord says.
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  When the Lord has not spoken, the people of the land practice
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  extortion and commit robbery. They oppress the poor and needy
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  and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice.
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  I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and
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  stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would
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  not have to destroy it. But I have found no one, so I
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  will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery
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  anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done,
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  declares the Sovereign Lord. So there's, I guess the only
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  thing was the last part of it that he said was that bringing
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  down on their own heads all they have done, I think about sowing
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  and reaping like what we sow, we will reap.
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  So that's important in the way that we live.
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  And that's somewhat of a warning from God, a caution.
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  I mean, he doesn't want to see us perish.
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  He doesn't want to bring wrath on us.
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  He's given Israel many times to repent, but they refused it.
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  And that's kind of the sequence of events when people are
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  unrepentant, then will come to God's judgment.
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  And God's judgment, is it intended for them to wake up and
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  turn back to God? It God's, you know, in other
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  places in the Bible, it says he takes, no, he does not enjoy
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  this at all. He is not a wrathful God.
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  He is a loving God. However, he is holy and, and he
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  needs to and he's righteous and he needs to deal with this
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  because of His Holiness, because of his righteousness, because of
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  justice, he has to deal with these things that happen.
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  So I'll go through the questions and answers, and then we'll wrap
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  up. So why would Jerusalem become a
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  laughingstock among other sinful nations?
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  This verse refers to Israel's boast that because God has
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  chosen them, they would never meet the fate of other nations.
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  Now, because of their sinfulness and rebellion, they were just
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  like other nations, a target of scorn and derision for their
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  misguided faithfulness. Again, we can see here, this is
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  another sowing and reaping. It says because of their
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  sinfulness and rebellion, God's not protecting them anymore.
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  And he gave him a warning ahead of time.
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  He didn't just, you know, say, oh, you know, maybe they'll find
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  out that I'm not with them. No, he said, I am not going to
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  help you in this, that my wrath is going to come on you.
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  So if people were listening to Ezekiel, then they would have
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  repented because they would have hoped that maybe they can get
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  right with God, repair the relationship with God, and
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  therefore not have to experience the wrath, which God does say
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  that when we turn to him and he, he says the sins, I will
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  remember no more. Now it can't just be a a
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  manipulative thing that we do that we turn to him just so that
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  we don't have something bad happen to us where that's really
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  selfish. But when we go to God and we
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  truly want to repair that relationship with him, we don't
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  want to be considered his enemy. We want to figure out what it is
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  we need to do in our life to repair the relationship.
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  Then God says, you know, if it's true repentance, God says he
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  remembers our sins no more. And that's a beautiful thing for
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  all of us because every single person is a Sinner.
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  Jesus said there is no one good but God.
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  So that means every single person, unless you're God, which
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  you're not, then you have sin, and people who claim to not have
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  sin are liars. So that means every single one
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  of us has sinned to deal with. But when we turn to God and part
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  of it is receiving the Holy Spirit being born again, which
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  is what I will talk about in the next podcast about a personal
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  experience that I had today. So, and it's relative to chapter
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  22. OK, moving on to the questions
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  and answers. Who ate at the mountain shrines?
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  The Canaanites worshipped at sanctuaries built atop hills and
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  mountains. Animals would be sacrificed to
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  idols there and the worshippers would then eat the meat of the
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  offerings. Some unfaithful Israelites
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  joined in this worship. How was Israel like Dross?
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  Using fire, the undesirable metals that corrupt silver are
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  separated from the silver into a filthy liquid called dross,
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  which hardens when it cools. Figuratively, Jerusalem would
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  become God's furnace, and the people would be the dross that
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  would remain after the purifying of God's wrath.
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  A small worthless element would be left when Israel was
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  destroyed. What was this conspiracy of her
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  Princess? The Princess of Israel had
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  plotted to enrich themselves in their own kin at the expense of
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  people who could least afford it.
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  This corruption was just one reason why God was ready to
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  destroy Israel. When Princess turn against their
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  own people and loot their own heritage, the nation is beyond
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  redemption. Wow, just as I read that, I just
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  had the thought of Iran come to mind and what is happening
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  there. The leadership of Iran has
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  turned against their people and are slaughtering their own
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  people, the people who were resisting the leadership.
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  And this question and answer just says the nation is beyond
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  redemption. It seems to me that there's
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  going to come something serious to Iran or to Iran's leadership
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  considering the way God operates.
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  Now I know a lot of there are some people there are, I
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  understand there are underground churches in Iran and we should
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  all pray for those, pray for all the Iranians that their eyes be
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  opened and that they come to know Jesus.
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  Especially what I've heard and again, I mentioned this in the
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  prior podcast. I don't know what to believe
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  anymore because AI is so good and it's hard to distinguish
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  real from fake unless I guess you have equipment and can see
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  if a video has been done that, but I don't have that equipment.
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  So anyway, there are reports and the Internet has been cut off
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  but somehow information is getting out.
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  So I don't quite understand that part.
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  So that makes me speculate that there could be some manipulation
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  in the information that's coming from there.
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  But, and it does seem like an extreme number, but I don't know
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  what it is. There are people who are
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  protesting that the government in Iran was saying they were
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  going to execute these people. And I've heard numbers as high
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  as 80,000 people who have been killed because they were
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  protesters. And I've seen videos that show
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  those things and people in body bags.
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  And I honestly don't know if they are real or not, but if
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  they are real, then the people of Iran desperately need our
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  prayers. God says the prayers of the
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  righteous. The Bible says the prayers of
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  the righteous are powerful. So if we can pray that people's
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  eyes will be opened and they will come to know Jesus and
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  accept Jesus as their Lord, repent of their sins and the
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  Holy Spirit, you know that God sent His Holy Spirit into their
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  lives and even if they lose their lives, that they will gain
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  eternity. We pray for them right now.
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  That's what I'm praying for, so I'll continue in the questions
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  and answers. How did the priest fail to
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  distinguish between the holy and the common?
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  The priests who were supposed to instruct the people concerning
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  ritual holiness no longer took their duties seriously.
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  The Mosaic Law clearly spelled out the guidelines for Israel's
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  formal worship and religious practices.
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  The text does not specifically identify the reasons for their
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  neglect, but the context suggests it was more convenient
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  and that economically profitable for them to blur the
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  distinctions. That's why I guess we need to
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  abide by God's word and not, you know, I guess when you're doing
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  something because it is more convenient or economically
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  profitable. Economically profitable would
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  mean you have money as your idol.
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  You have an idolatry of money. So for all of us, we need to
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  reflect on our own lives and see how do we use the tools that God
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  gave us. Money is a tool that God gave
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  us. So what are we doing with it?
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  Are we being selfish with it? Are we benefiting others with
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  it? So then there's another question
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  and answer. Why did God need someone to
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  quote stand in the gap? This was a military image.
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  If there was a breach in the city wall, then the city was
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  vulnerable at that place. Here God was looking for someone
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  to stand in that breach and defend the city.
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  Most likely, the imagery had to do with someone standing in the
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  breach of Israel's injustice and unrighteousness.
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  Who would stand in the gap created by Israel's covenant
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  infidelity? The answer?
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  No one. That also brings something to
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  mind, and it's about how do we respond when we see things?
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  Do we speak up for other people or do we turn our heads?
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  That's something that that can affect us every day in life,
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  just in our day-to-day life. How do we respond to those
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  things with with God's laws in mind, with the way God wants us
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  to be? Are we standing up for others or
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  are we turning our heads and ignoring something where we
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  could have spoken up because God is looking for that as well.
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  It's how do we treat others? I mean, that's really being
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  loving to others. When we stand up for others and
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  we're not so concerned about protecting our own reputation,
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  our own life, and we will stand up for someone who is unjustly
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  being persecuted in some way. Just something to think about.
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  And this wraps up chapter 22. I did read Amir's book, the
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  Exploring Ezekiel book by Amir Sarfati, and I'm going to
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  include that in the next episode because this has this relates to
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  my personal experience last night, this morning.
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  So the next podcast will cover that.