Ezekiel receives a spectacular vision of the Lord on the throne, transported by a chariot-type conveyance composed of four faced, winged, composite (human and animal) living creatures (later identified as cherubim), and wheels. All of it displays a dazzling brilliance.
Read More encounter, spokesperson, commitmentWith respect to eating healthy foods, there is a slogan, “You are what you eat”. It stresses how what we intake into our bodies affects our physical wellbeing. The same can be applied to our spiritual wellbeing. Feeding moral or spiritual trash into our lives, does negatively influence how we live.
Read More God’s Word, food, wellbeingWithin the legal system there is the concept of “criminal negligence.” A person can be held responsible for harm that occurs to another, if the person was aware of the potential harm, but did not take the appropriate measures to prevent it from happening. For example, failure to put up warning signs or barriers where there is a road hazard would be a case of criminal negligence.
Read More responsibility, warning, watchmanRead Reflect Ezekiel does some rather strange actions (4:1-8; 5:1-2) in presenting the prophetic messages. But full clarity of meaning does not come until Ezekiel verbally explains (5:3-13) his bizarre actions. The miniature city with the toy soldiers is none other than Jerusalem, which will be besieged by the Babylonians. The hair symbolized the inhabitants […]
Read More rébellion, consequences, punishment“Poetic justice” occurs when the judgment for a wrong action corresponds directly to the action itself (for example, those who live by the sword will die by the sword). In this passage, the poetic justice is that the very things with which God’s people were using to commit their abominable actions against the Lord – the idols, the pagan altars, the high places with their altars and sacred tree groves …
Read More judgment, justice, remnantGod is very patient in putting up with our sins. Often he does not allow the consequences of our sins to come upon us immediately after we have done something wrong (2 Peter 3:9-10). Yet that delay does not mean that a reckoning will not come. Even though the Lord is patient, there comes a point when God has had enough of the wrongdoings of his people.
Read More punishment, sin, consequences, repentanceIn a vision, Ezekiel is transported from Babylonia to Jerusalem. He is shown the idolatrous practices occurring in the Temple (ch 8). The various acts that he sees are probably a collapsing of time. If Ezekiel had actually been in the Temple, not all of the idolatrous practices would have been occurring simultaneously.
Read More judgment, other gods, covenant relationshipAs the vision of chapters 8 and 9 continues, Ezekiel sees the mobile chariot-throne with the Lord’s glory that he had seen in chapter 1 (vv 15, 20, 22). What is significant is that the Lord’s glory is progressively moving out of the Temple.
Read More Temple, God’s glory, idolatryAs part of the vision (chs. 8-11), Ezekiel sees a group of twenty-five men. These men assume that they are the privileged ones who the Lord is preserving. They view themselves as “the choice meat in the cooking pot” (vv. 3, 11), in contrast to those who have already been taken into exile (v. 15).
Read More judgment, transformation, restorative workThis chapter has two parts that focus on two different subjects. Ezekiel is writing this from exile in Babylon.
In verses 1-20 Ezekiel dramatically depicts what will happen to those still living in Jerusalem: the king and the people will go into exile (vv 1-16), and those living in Jerusalem will live in fear and anxiety as they endure the Babylonian invasion (vv 17-20).
Read More exile, judgment