Day #241

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Ezekiel 5-8 - Audio
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Daily Reading Ezekiel 5-8

Ezekiel 5

-When God made his covenant with Israel, he not only promised blessing for obedience but also curses for disobedience. The accusation is found in verse 6-7. The accusation is a sharp one: “Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees. “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you.”

-Moses warned the people in Deuteronomy 28 what would happen if they put their faith in idols ^"They [your enemies] will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you. ^Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you. Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating.” Now Ezekiel foretells that cannibalism that immanent. Cannibalism, as it does today, had the same sort of repulsive effect. It would be unthinkable to the people hearing the prophesy. But the day will come because of how desperately hungry the people in Jerusalem will be under siege.

-I read an article this week that reminded me that “we” (or at least “I”) put my faith in technology. I make it an idol. It has to do with my astonishment that BP cannot stop the oil leak in our gulf. This from the New York Times: “Americans have long had an unswerving belief that technology will save us — it is the cavalry coming over the hill, just as we are about to lose the battle. And yet, as Americans watched scientists struggle to plug the undersea well over the past month, it became apparent that our great belief in technology was perhaps misplaced.

“Americans have a lot of faith that over the long run technology will solve everything, a sense that somehow we’re going to find a way to fix it...Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil later, federal officials last week released a new estimate of the spill — 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day — establishing it as the largest in American history. As Richard Feynman, the physicist, once observed, “For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.” Sometimes ingenuity may not help us.

Indeed, think of all the planes grounded for nearly a week in northern Europe last month, as a volcano poured ash in the atmosphere. There was no technological fix, and many passengers couldn’t believe it. Said Mr. Kohut, of Pew Research, “The reaction was: ‘Fix this. Fix this. This is outrageous.’ ””

In our passage, Israel had misplaced their faith...and will have to face the consequences.

Ezekiel 6

-The prophesy comes against 4 locations: mountains, hills, ravines, and valleys. These geographical features of land are places that pagans normally established their religious shrines. So it makes sense that they metaphorically become the object of this judgment.

-Idol worship at the high places was a perennial problem for Israel (cf. 1 Ki. 12:28–33; 2 Ki. 17:9–11). Although Ezekiel would later attack the ‘newer’ sins acquired by Israel from their neighbours, some of the oracles deal with these older problems. Wrongful practices, even if institutionalized by centuries of tradition in a society, still remain wrong. (New Bible Commentary).

What ways do we live our lives in our communities (that we don't even think about) might be sinful in the same way that Israel worshiped at their high places?

6.5 The shrines would become desecrated by the scattering of bones...the very bones of the people who desecrated themselves before the Lord by worshiping at them.

6.7 “The phrase “you will know that I am the Lord” (6:7) is repeated sixty-eight times in the book of Ezekiel. God’s judgment had an evangelistic purpose: God would prove to his own people and all the nations of the world that he is truly God. God seasoned judgment with grace by the promise to preserve a remnant (Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary).”

Ezekiel 7

-Ezekiel 7 brings urgency to Ezekiel's prophecy. You can't help but read the chapter and not feel impending doom. Notice how the repetition of words and phrases intensify the message. The word “coming” is repeated 7 times.

Ezekiel 8

The seventy elders had become involved in idolatry because they believed that God had abandoned the nation. Tammuz (8:14) was the ancient Babylonian god of vegetation and lover of Ishtar, whose death at the time of the summer heat was mourned annually and whose resurrection was celebrated in the spring. In the inner court of the temple, an area restricted to the priests, Ezekiel observed the worship of Shamash, the sun-god of the Babylonians (8:16). The expression “thumbing their noses” (8:17) referred to some obscure or obscene practice, perhaps connected with the worship of the sun. (Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary)