Ezekiel 5:5 says, Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her. God told Ezekiel that his shaving his head and then using the hair in various ways represented Jerusalem. Jerusalem was to be stripped bare of all her glory and some of the people were going to be killed and the rest were going to be taken away captive. Jerusalem was also set in the midst of the nations and was supposed to represent the truth of God to them by living in accordance to His word, and when they did, they would be a shining light to the world. We as followers of Christ are set among the people of the world and should be that same shining light to them by presenting God’s word to those around us.
Verse six adds, And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them. God then told Ezekiel that the people of Jerusalem had become worse than those around them. They had changed his judgments, or commandments, into wickedness. It would have been bad enough if they weren’t reaching out to others with God’s word, but they had tried to change God’s commandments. As the church today, we need to make sure that we do not become a group of people who try to change God’s word. If we put our faith in anything less than God’s word and then attempt to make it the truth, we will be guilty of wickedness before God. We cannot add to or take away from God’s message of the way to receive salvations or how we should live our life after we do.
Verse seven continues, Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you; God said that the people of Israel had become more numerous than those around them. This was a part of God’s promise to them. Still, though God was fulfilling His promise to them, they had not walked in His statutes or obeyed His laws in other words. God will always fulfill His promises to us if we will be obedient to Him. Of course, if we have been obedient to Him by accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, we will be one of His children forever, even if we don’t always obey His commandments afterwards, but one day we may have to answer for our disobedience.
Verse eight states, Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations. God said that because of their disobedience that instead of being for them, He would be against them, even though they were His chosen people. The people around them would see what happened even to God’s chosen people when they rebelled against Him. If we as the church, God’s chosen people today, become His in name only, we should be ready for God’s judgment to come on us.
Verse nine adds, And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations. God said He was going to do something among them that He had not done before. He was going to punish those who were called His people but who rebelled against them by having them all leave His holy city. They had feared the armies of other countries and had even looked to them for protection, but they had not feared God and looked to Him for protection. God was going to punish them more than He had punished any other people, because they were identified as His people and they were worshiping idols instead of worshipping Him. Those who profess to be God’s people but have not accepted His gift of salvation may see Him do a work that they didn’t want to see, and that is God’s punishment.
Verse ten continues, Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds. Matthew Henry said that fathers eating sons and sons eating their fathers could have been from extreme hunger or something that their barbaric captors forced them to do. Either way, it would be a terrible time. I don’t think we will ever reach that point physically, but people may devour each other spiritually by leading them worship false gods and then face God’s judgment when Jesus Christ returns.
No comments:
Post a Comment