Ezekiel 5:14

Ezekiel 5:14 says, Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by.  Ezekiel said God was going to make the people of Israel a waste and a reproach to the world.  They had failed to live by the covenant that they had made with God, so they were no longer to be looked up to by the world but would be looked down on instead.  If a person has accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, they are forever a part of His kingdom, but if a person professes to be a Christian without doing so, they will one day face His wrath.   

Verse fifteen adds, So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the Lord have spoken it.  God said that when He did this that it would an astonishment to other people around them.  The people of Israel had always been viewed as God’s people, and the rest of the world was now going to be amazed that God was allowing them to be punished.  If we are a follower of Christ, people of the world should be able to see that we are different from them in the way our life reflects God to the world.  If we allow sin into our life once again, we may find that God removes His protective hand in our life here, but we are still a part of Hiis kingdom.   

Verse sixteen continues, When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:  This is a further warning that God was going to allow them to suffer a great famine.  God basically said that they would run out of bread.  I know that God has the ability to destroy everything that He created, but I also believe that often He just removes His protective hand and then we suffer from a lack of spiritual nourishment if we sin against Him.   

Verse seventeen concludes, So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee: and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it.  This is another warning of what God was going to do them or allow to happen to them.  I do know that if we sin against God that we will have to bear the penalty unless we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, and even then, we will be held accountable for sins that we commit after we do.  We are forever saved, but we will still one day be held accountable for times we have rebelled against God as followers of Christ.  God said this was going to happen because He had spoken it.  We may not believe that what God’s word says is going happen actually will, but His word will always be true, whether we believe it or not.