Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+024

 

Ezekiel 24 (ESV)

¹⁵ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁶ “Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. ¹⁷ Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your shoes on your feet; do not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.” ¹⁸ So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded.

¹⁹ And the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting thus?” ²⁰ Then I said to them, “The word of the Lord came to me: ²¹ ‘Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and the yearning of your soul, and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword. ²² And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men. ²³ Your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall rot away in your iniquities and groan to one another. ²⁴ Thus shall Ezekiel be to you a sign; according to all that he has done you shall do. When this comes, then you will know that I am the Lord God.’

 

REFLECTION:

God told Ezekiel that his wife was going to die, but he must not grieve for her. Just as Hosea accepted the order to marry an adulteress (see Hos 1:2-3), Ezekiel found it difficult to accept, but he obeyed God just like Hosea. Both of these extraordinary events have symbolic significance and describe the relationship between God and His people. Ezekiel was not allowed to express grief for his dead wife, to show the exiles that they should not grieve over the destruction of Jerusalem. Any personal sorrow will be quickly covered by the sorrow of the country – the tragic ending of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the people there will be destroyed for their own sins. The cost of obedience to God is high, and sometimes it even violates common sense. However, if you do not obey God, you will damage your relationship with God, and may even lose the eternal life. This will be more painful than losing your partner and not being able to cry. No matter what the circumstances, Ezekiel always obeyed God wholeheartedly, because he believed that God’s arrangements always have meaning, God’s thoughts are higher than ours, and God’s way than our way, even if we can’t understand it, we should humble and obey. Although our current faith is not as great as Ezekiel’s, we can start with what God tells us to do, which we do not want but it is not difficult to do. Through this we learn the lesson of obedience step by step, and experience God’s guidance and edification so that one day we will have the faith and life like Ezekiel.

 

PRAYER:

Dedicate yourself to God that you are willing to imitate Ezekiel’s humility and obedience in your service, and you are willing to take on the things that God has called you to do but you feel reluctant; ask God to give you the courage and wisdom to help you experience God’s faithfulness and guidance, as well as heavenly joy and peace in your ministry, which makes you more willing to obey God.

 

HYMN:

I Surrender All – youtu.be/iu7UwhTwF0c

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+023

 

Ezekiel 23 (ESV)

¹ The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. ³ They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms handled. ⁴ Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem…

³⁶ The Lord said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Declare to them their abominations. ³⁷ For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. With their idols they have committed adultery, and they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me. ³⁸ Moreover, this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and profaned my Sabbaths. ³⁹ For when they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. And behold, this is what they did in my house. ⁴⁰ They even sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came. For them you bathed yourself, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments. ⁴¹ You sat on a stately couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed my incense and my oil. ⁴² The sound of a carefree multitude was with her; and with men of the common sort, drunkards were brought from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on the hands of the women, and beautiful crowns on their heads.

 

REFLECTION:

In this chapter, Ezekiel uses a parable to declare the reason for God’s judgment. He compared the northern and the southern kingdom to two sisters who were prostitutes. The inhabitants of Jerusalem arrogantly think that they are in superior position and have long mocked their sister city, Samaria. But Ezekiel claimed that Jerusalem and Samaria were both the city of prostitutes, which was quite shocking to the self-righteous people of Jerusalem. Oholah (meaning “her tent”) refers to the northern kingdom of Israel. Following the example of the Assyrians, she coveted the power, wealth, and pleasure of the world; and was tempted by the world and left God. Oholibah (meaning “my tent is in her”) refers to Judah, her situation is even worse, because although she has Israel as a lesson for her, instead of learning the lessons of her sister, she continues to commit adultery with foreign nations and must be judged. At first, Judah formed an alliance with Babylon, and then changed her mind. When the last two kings of Judah, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, were in power, Judah turned to Egypt and Ammon for help. The price that Judah paid for her “adultery” (in alliance with idolatry nations) was the loss of the only God who could truly protect them. As godly believers, although we do not think that we have committed spiritual adultery, we often spend a lot of time seeking help and answers in life from the powers of the world and non-Christian experts instead of asking God for help. Is this unfaithful to God?

 

PRAYER:

Pray that God will keep you faithful and add your desire for God in your spirit every day, so that your heart will turn towards God alone, without being attracted by any temptation of the world. Pray that your faithfulness can withstand the trials, when you are in a lack or predicament, you still seek God’s help and not get temporary satisfaction and relief in a way that damages your spiritual life.

 

HYMN:

I Will Follow – youtu.be/kgqD_HQQir0

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+022
 

Ezekiel 22 (ESV)

⁶ “Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. ⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. ⁸ You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. ⁹ There are men in you who slander to shed blood, and people in you who eat on the mountains; they commit lewdness in your midst. ¹⁰ In you men uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity. ¹¹ One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter. ¹² In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.

¹³ “Behold, I strike my hand at the dishonest gain that you have made, and at the blood that has been in your midst. ¹⁴ Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. ¹⁵ I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness out of you. ¹⁶ And you shall be profaned by your own doing in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

 

REFLECTION:

Chapter 22 foretold why the judgment of Jerusalem will come, how it will come, and who will be judged for it. This passage specifically pointed out the various fornication and evil crimes committed by the leaders of Israel, and prophesied that they would be the first to be judged. The leaders of Israel were originally called by God to lead the people and were especially blessed by God. They were supposed to sanctify themselves and become models of faith and virtue, but they were the first to sin and were severely judged by God. Unfortunately, many of God’s people have not learned from the past. The sins mentioned in this passage have been committed by Christian leaders throughout the ages, including some Christian leaders today. Today, we are living in an era when Satan spares no effort to attack God’s people. All kinds of vicious and treacherous tactics are worse than ever. Church leaders are the first to be attacked. Therefore, we must always pray for the leaders to prevent them from being taken captive by the devil. Leaders must also maintain moral integrity, strive to live a holy life, trust God in everything, and become spiritual models for everyone.

 

PRAYER:

Pray for the leaders of the church, asking God to give them spiritual maturity and insight in addition to their visible leadership abilities in organization, management, and leadership, so that they will first become spiritual models for the brothers and sisters in the church; If you are a church leader, ask God to give you a pure heart and an upright spirit, so that you can live a holy life, and lead the church by your mature life, not your achievements and abilities in the world.

 

HYMN:

Lord, Build Your Church – youtu.be/4vn1e0xwX04

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+021

 

Ezekiel 21 (ESV)

¹⁸ The word of the Lord came to me again: ¹⁹ “As for you, son of man, mark two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come. Both of them shall come from the same land. And make a signpost; make it at the head of the way to a city. ²⁰ Mark a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the Ammonites and to Judah, into Jerusalem the fortified. ²¹ For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shakes the arrows; he consults the teraphim; he looks at the liver. ²² Into his right hand comes the divination for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth with murder, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build siege towers. ²³ But to them it will seem like a false divination. They have sworn solemn oaths, but he brings their guilt to remembrance, that they may be taken.

 

REFLECTION:

In 589 BC, both the kingdom of Judah and Ammon were plotting against Babylon (see Jeremiah 27:3). The people of Judah who had been taken captive to Babylon heard the news and once again ignited the hope of returning home. But Ezekiel prophesied that the king of Babylon would send troops to quell the resistance. He would start from the north and stop at the fork of two roads, one road leading to Rabbah, the capital of Ammon, and the other road leading to Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. The king of Babylon relied on false divination to decide which city to destroy first. In fact, King Nebuchadnezzar really captured Jerusalem first, as prophesied by Ezekiel. The Ammonites and the Israelites were old enemies and used to fight each other often. God repeatedly warned Israel not to ally with idolatry Gentiles. However, the nation of Judah disregarded the teachings of God for temporary common interests, and ally with Ammon against Babylon. As a result, God first judged Judah through Nebuchadnezzar, and then Ammon was also judged. The enemy of the enemy is not necessarily a friend. We should learn from the fate of the kingdom of Judah in those days, and we should not do things that violate our faith and the Word of God for the sake of temporary benefits or convenience. Remember that under any circumstances, even if we are in danger, we must not ally or compromise with the world, otherwise our lives will be harmed and we will be disciplined by God. The only thing we can trust is our faithful and gracious God!

 

PRAYER:

Pray for God to give you stronger faith, so that you can look to God alone in adversity and even danger, and not do anything that seems to open the way for you, but actually makes you fall into deeper and greater traps and snares; ask God to give you more spiritual wisdom, so that you can know what to do and what not to do in all circumstances, and experience God’s grace and edification more deeply.

 

HYMN:

Give Me Faith – youtu.be/SjFIhTNDyz0