You have Despised My Holy Things and Profaned My Sabbaths

More than just a prophet, Ezekiel is the voice of judgment of God. God will judge His people with destruction and bloodshed, because of her idolatry. The result would be that her neighbours would mock her.

The practice of idolatry have led to great moral decay in the society in Jerusalem. The verses from 7 to 11, depicts the kind of sexual abomination they practised. In addition, there were other kinds of corruption from bribery to theft of the temple usury and the extortion of neighbours. The judgment would then have the purpose of cleansing the people, by breaking up the nation, and sending them to exile.

God also describes his wrath and fury as putting them in a furnace and melting them. In the furnace, silver would be melted, so too is the children of Israel. The spiritual leaders of Israel who are the priests and prophets, have broken God's laws; they are like a roaring lion devouring others. They have twisted God's rules and change between holy and unholy, between clean and unclean. God was looking for at least one man who was not corrupted, in order to halt the judgment, but He could not find any.


Ezekiel 22
Sins of Jerusalem

1 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Now, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Yes, show her all her abominations! 3 Then say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “The city sheds blood in her own midst, that her time may come; and she makes idols within herself to defile herself. 4 You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made. You have caused your days to draw near, and have come to the end of your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all countries. 5 Those near and those far from you will mock you as infamous and full of tumult.

6 “Look, the princes of Israel: each one has used his power to shed blood in you. 7 In you they have made light of father and mother; in your midst they have oppressed the stranger; in you they have mistreated the fatherless and the widow. 8 You have despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths. 9 In you are men who slander to cause bloodshed; in you are those who eat on the mountains; in your midst they commit lewdness. 10 In you men uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women who are set apart during their impurity. 11 One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; and another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter. 12 In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take usury and increase; you have made profit from your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten Me,” says the Lord God.

13 “Behold, therefore, I beat My fists at the dishonest profit which you have made, and at the bloodshed which has been in your midst. 14 Can your heart endure, or can your hands remain strong, in the days when I shall deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and will do it. 15 I will scatter you among the nations, disperse you throughout the countries, and remove your filthiness completely from you. 16 You shall defile yourself in the sight of the nations; then you shall know that I am the Lord.”’”

Israel in the Furnace

17 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace; they have become dross from silver. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. 21 Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst. 22 As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have poured out My fury on you.’”

Israel’s Wicked Leaders

23 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 24 “Son of man, say to her: ‘You are a land that is not cleansed[a] or rained on in the day of indignation.’ 25 The conspiracy of her prophets[b] in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. 26 Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain. 28 Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord had not spoken. 29 The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. 30 So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. 31 Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God.

Job's Despair

Here Job describes is situation to be so bad that even the outcasts of society taunted him. Job continues to indulge in his own self pity. We see that he still calls out to God, even though he feels it may be in vain. That is perhaps the only highlight of this passage, as the rest shows how Job puts himself down, such as "I am a brother of jackals ..... My harp is turned to mourning". Keep in mind that Job is a man of God. So what do we get out of this? Perhaps no one can be safe from falling into such a state of self-despair, but we do have the ability to overcome it with the Holy Spirit. Know that God will not let us face more than we can handle and perhaps we can look at the example of Paul as a contrast to Job, where we see Paul kept on looking towards Jesus even as he is in chains.

Job 30

 1 “But now they mock at me, men younger than I,      Whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.
 2 Indeed, what profit is the strength of their hands to me?      Their vigor has perished.
 3 They are gaunt from want and famine,      Fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate and waste,
 4 Who pluck mallow by the bushes,      And broom tree roots for their food.
 5 They were driven out from among men,      They shouted at them as at a thief.
 6 They had to live in the clefts of the valleys,      In caves of the earth and the rocks.
 7 Among the bushes they brayed,      Under the nettles they nestled.
 8 They were sons of fools,      Yes, sons of vile men;       They were scourged from the land.
 9 “And now I am their taunting song;      Yes, I am their byword.
 10 They abhor me, they keep far from me;      They do not hesitate to spit in my face.
 11 Because He has loosed my[a] bowstring and afflicted me,      They have cast off restraint before me.
 12 At my right hand the rabble arises;      They push away my feet,       And they raise against me their ways of destruction.
 13 They break up my path,      They promote my calamity;       They have no helper.
 14 They come as broad breakers;      Under the ruinous storm they roll along.
 15 Terrors are turned upon me;      They pursue my honor as the wind,       And my prosperity has passed like a cloud.
 16 “And now my soul is poured out because of my plight;      The days of affliction take hold of me.
 17 My bones are pierced in me at night,      And my gnawing pains take no rest.
 18 By great force my garment is disfigured;      It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
 19 He has cast me into the mire,      And I have become like dust and ashes.
 20 “I cry out to You, but You do not answer me;      I stand up, and You regard me.
 21 But You have become cruel to me;      With the strength of Your hand You oppose me.
 22 You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride on it;      You spoil my success.
 23 For I know that You will bring me to death,      And to the house appointed for all living.
 24 “Surely He would not stretch out His hand against a heap of ruins,      If they cry out when He destroys it.
 25 Have I not wept for him who was in trouble?      Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
 26 But when I looked for good, evil came to me;      And when I waited for light, then came darkness.
 27 My heart is in turmoil and cannot rest;      Days of affliction confront me.
 28 I go about mourning, but not in the sun;      I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.
 29 I am a brother of jackals,      And a companion of ostriches.
 30 My skin grows black and falls from me;      My bones burn with fever.
 31 My harp is turned to mourning,      And my flute to the voice of those who weep.