Dave Burnette's Commentary

Ezekiel Chapter 22

Written By: God through Inspiration
Penned By: Ezekiel
Date Penned: BC 571
Overview: One of Destruction (C 1-24)
Theme: The Reality of Punishment (C 12-32)
Message: God Lists Jerusalem's Sins (V 1-31)
  
Ezekiel: Chapter 22 Commentary
 
(22:1-5) Explains why Jerusalem’s judgment would come, how it would come, and who would be affected.
 
(22:6-13) The leaders were responsible for the moral climate of the nation because God chose them to be leaders. The same is true today. Unfortunately many of the same sins mentioned here are being committed by Christian leaders today following the same path of failure. Today's Leaders are under tremendous attacks and temptations by the enemy and it is vital that we uphold our leaders in prayer. We are also to encourage those in leadership to stay accountable for their God given responsibilities.
 
(22:17-22) Precious metals are refined with high temperatures to remove the impurities. When heated the dross or impurities rose to the top of the molten metal to be skimmed off and thrown away. The purpose of the invasion of Jerusalem was to refine the people of God but the refining process showed that the people had nothing good in them just as illustration of the dross.
 
(22:26) The priests were supposed to keep God’s worship here and teach the people the right way to live but God had become ordinary to them, they ignored the Sabbath, refused to teach people, and they no longer carried out their God-given duties. When working For the Lord we should allow the Lord to live in and through us so we will be able to successfully do His Will.
 
(22:28-30) The hedge wall spoken of here is not made of stone but rather made of faithful people united in their efforts to resist the enemy. This wall was in disrepair because there was no one who could leave the people back to God. The feeble attempts to repair the gaps through religious rituals or messages based on opinion rather than God‘s word were as worthless as white washed untempered mortar. This mortar only covers up problems but does not completely repair or restore our relationship with the Lord. When we give the appearance of loving God without loving his way or loving his people we are covering up since which could eventually damage our lives beyond repair.

 


Dave Burnette's Life Application


Your Sin will be Revealed

 

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we continue the Book of Ezekiel with Chapter 22. In our text today we see God listing Jerusalem's sins from the leaders on down with His purpose to bring the sins of the people to light for the purpose of refining the people of the Lord. In making application we see how our sins will be brought to the light and we will face judgment if we fail to repent. Now our Lord is full of grace and mercy but He is a Lord of Holiness and Righteousness. How about you? Do you believe that our Lord judges our sin? Let us learn from our text today to see that we serve a Holy God that loves us and we will face judgment hear on earth for our sins as the Lord will refine us and purify us by bringing our sins to the light. 

 

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Ezekiel 22

Ezekiel 22

 1Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

 2Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations.

 3Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.

 4Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.

 5Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, which art infamous and much vexed.

 6Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood.

 7In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.

 8Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.

 9In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness.

 10In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.

 11And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.

 12In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.

 13Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.

 14Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.

 15And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.

 16And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.

 17And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

 18Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.

 19Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

 20As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you.

 21Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst therof.

 22As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you.

 23And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

 24Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

 25There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.

 26Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

 27Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

 28And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken.

 29The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

 30And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

 31Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.