A NEW MONTH!

NOTE: Sunday and Monday studies are posted on Mondays.

Day 243 – Reading – EZEKIEL 16 – 17

Day 244 – Reading – EZEKIEL 18 – 20

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself. 

Day 243 – EZEKIEL 16.

And now, the LORD paints a story of his beloved people and city, comparing them to a helpless newborn baby cast away into a field to die.   He passed by and had pity on the babe. He commanded it to “LIVE!” and bathed and covered it. 

Later, He took the young woman she’d become and married her. He clothed her in fine linen and silk clothes and draped silver, gold, and jewels on her. He fed her with delicacies and sweetness. She was perfect under His care.

But she “trusted in her beauty” and played the whore to ANY passerby.  She gave THEM her fine clothes and jewels, and fed them with sweet and savory-smelling offerings. His children she slaughtered and burned with fire. She accepted no payment for her whoring, but PAID THEM.   

She was an adulterous wife who received strangers instead of her Husband.

And so, the LORD took all her “lovers” and gathered them against her, to strip her, stone her,  and be taken away by them.

He compares Jerusalem to Sodom and Samaria, only many times worse. The main guilt of Sodom?  They had pride, an excess of food, and prosperous ease, but they did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me.   I removed them when I saw it. (Homosexual perversion).  But Jerusalem acted MORE abominably than they.

THEY despised the oath in breaking the covenant, YET THE LORD will remember His covenant with them, and He will establish for them an everlasting covenant.  Then they will remember their ways… and be ashamed. 

And they will KNOW that He is the LORD when He atones for them for all they have done. (Thru Christ.)

(Oh, the goodness and mercy of the LORD!)

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Ezekiel 17.

The LORD also tells Ezekiel to “consider a riddle, and tell “a parable” to the house of Israel. (This takes place about 2 years before Jerusalem is destroyed.)

• “A great eagle (king of Babylon) with great wings and long pinon feathers, rich in plumage of many colors, came to Lebanon (northern border of Israel) and took the top of the cedar (Judah). He broke off the topmost of its young twigs (18-year-old King Jehoiachin) and carried it to a land of trade and set it in the city of merchants (Babylon). 
• He (Nebuchadnezzar) took of the seed of the land (King Zedekiah), and planted it in fertile soil.  He set it like a willow twig and helped it to prosper. It spread as a vine towards him (paying tribute).

 

• “There was another great eagle (the pharaoh of Egypt) with great wings and much plumage. The vine bent its roots toward him and shot forth branches toward him, that he might water it (help him rebel against Nebuchadnezzar).  Where the vine was, in good soil and with water, it might have borne fruit and become a noble vine. (If Zedekiah had remained faithful to ‘the Babylonian,’ Judah would have prospered as a tributary kingdom.) 
• But no, it pulled up its roots, cut off its fruits, and withered. And the EAST wind struck it and it faded away.  It’s easy to see what happened (from Jeremiah). Zedekiah rebelled against Babylon and turned to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar came from the East, plucked him up, blinded him, and led him in chains to Babylon, where he died.
• Read verses 11-18 and have the picture clearly explained.

 

• And then the LORD painted one more scenario.  He, HIMSELF, as an “eagle” plucking a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and setting it out.  He himself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain, the mountain height of Israel, that it may bear branches, bear fruit, and become a noble cedar.  EVERY KIND of bird will dwell in its shade and safety.  (This is clearly a picture of the Messianic Kingdom of Jesus, where ALL GROUPS of people will be welcome.)
• “I AM the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

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Day 244 – EZEKIEL 18.

In this chapter, God scolds Ezekiel and Israel for quoting and believing this proverb:

“The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”

No, says the LORD, a child will not die for the sins of his father. 

THE SOUL THAT SINS SHALL DIE.

Then the LORD gives five scenarios to explain what He means.

1. If a man does what is just and right.

If he doesn’t eat on the mountains, lift up his eyes to idols, does not defile his neighbor’s wife, approach a woman in her monthly period, does not oppress anyone, restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry, covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest, or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully — HE IS RIGHTEOUS; HE SHALL SURELY LIVE.

      2. If he fathers a son who is violent, a shedder of blood who does any of these things (although the father, himself, did none of those things),—- THE SON SHALL NOT LIVE, BUT SURELY DIE.  HIS BLOOD SHALL BE UPON HIMSELF.

      3. Now suppose this man fathers a son who sees all the sins that his father has done; he sees, and does NOT do likewise. — THIS SON SHALL NOT DIE FOR HIS FATHER’S INIQUITY. HE SHALL SURELY LIVE.

—– But you may ask, “Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?  Because when the son has done what is just and right and careful to observe all my statutes, he shall live.

“The soul who sins shall die.”

      4. But, if a wicked person repents from all his sins that he has committed and keeps my statutes and does what is just and right — HE SHALL SURELY LIVE. HE SHALL NOT DIE.   None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him. 

      5. But, when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness,  and does injustice and the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? — NO. HE SHALL DIE.  None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; only the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed.

 Then the LORD finishes with this plea:

• “Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin.
• Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel?  For I have NO PLEASURE in the death of anyone. 
• So turn and live.”

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Ezekiel 19.

This chapter is a Lament over the Princes (kings) of Israel who went into captivity or were killed.

Verse 1 describes  Judah as a lioness, with her cubs being the kings of Judah.

Verses 3-4 describe Jehoahaz, who was caught and taken captive to Egypt.

Verses 5-9 describe Jehoiachin, who was also caught, and with hooks taken to the king of Babylon, who put him into custody. 

Verses 10-14 describe Zedekiah, the vine spoken of in the parable of chapter 17.  The responsibility for the catastrophe of Jerusalem’s burning was blamed on him because of his treachery against Babylon and alliance with Egypt. 

Now the Lioness grieves. There remains no stem… no scepter for ruling in Judah…

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Oh, but wait, there IS a descendant from a son of David, King Jehoiachin, followed closely through the centuries by Matthew, chapter 1.  The Messiah, the Lion of Judah, WILL reign in Israel for one thousand years!!  And then for ETERNITY!  Hallelujah!!   

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Ezekiel 20.

In the seventh year of Ezekiel’s captivity, in the fifth month and on the tenth day…… certain of the elders of Israel came to him to inquire of the LORD.

(Probably these men wanted to know when HE was going to end this captivity and send them home.  But God comes down HARD on them, telling them it was THEIR abominations and their fathers that got them in this predicament. Then, Ezekiel was to remind them of God’s choosing them, His loving care of them throughout the ages, and THEIR sin and rebellion, over and over.

(Egypt … the wilderness trek and their rebellion … the entry into the Promised Land and idolatry … delivering them again and again from their enemies … and then finally, the promised judgment.)

But, after trial and terrible testing, God will bring a remnant home. They will serve him on His Holy Mountain. He will manifest His HOLINESS among them to the nations,  AND THEY SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD.

“And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, not according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel.”

After all that, did the Elders accept what God said through Ezekiel?

Nope.

“Ah, Lord God!” said Ezekiel. “They are saying of me that I am a maker of parables.”  (They didn’t believe him, or God.)

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(LORD, give me faith to believe all that you say. Keep me in Your word, from which comes FAITH.  Keep me from being stubborn, disbelieving. May my heart be soft toward Your Word.)

I love how the LORD used so many parables in these chapters, just as His Son would do 500 years later.