Within 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 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 […]

“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 …

God 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.

In 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.

These days God in the Old Testament is often contrasted with God in the New Testament. In the former, God is angry and capricious while in the New Testament he is loving and forgiving. Psalm 103 undermines this faulty stereotype.

The psalmist praises and thanks God for his kindness and love.

What makes a person – a woman, a man – good and noble is their character, not what car they drive or how much fame they have or where they shop. Being a person of good character doesn’t start outside; it starts inside by having faith and having God work in our lives (Acts 11:24).