Day 240, Ezekiel 16-19

The Lord’s Faithless Bride

The word of the Lord went to Ezekiel and told him to make known to Jerusalem all her abominations. It discussed how the Lord had saved her and made a covenant with her. But she played the whore and disobeyed all of God’s commandments and statutes and was very wicked.

“How sick is your heart,” declares the Lord God, “because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute…adulterous wife!”

The Lord’s wrath and judgment was sent upon her, and would make her stop playing the whore. The Lord’s wrath and jealousy would then depart from her, and He would be calm and no longer angry, because she had not remembered the days of her youth.

Behold, everyone who used proverbs would use this: ‘Like mother like daughter.’ Not only had they walked in their ways and done according to their abominations, within a very little time they were worse and more corrupt than them in they did.

The Lord’s Everlasting Covenant

The Lord said He would deal with them for what they had done, and despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Yet, the Lord would remember the covenant with them in the days of their youth, and would establish an everlasting covenant.

They would remember their ways and be ashamed. The Lord would make a covenant with them and they and they would know that He is the Lord. They needed to remember and be confounded, and never open their mouths again because of their shame, when the Lord atoned for all that they had done.

Parable of Two Eagles and a Vine

A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, rich in plumage and many colors, went to Lebanon and took the top of a cedar. He broke off the topmost of its young twigs and carried it to a land of trade and set it in a city of merchants.

Then he took of the seed of the land and planted it in fertile soil and beside abundant waters. He set it like a willow twig, and it sprouted and became a low spreading vine, and its branches turned toward him, and its roots remained where it stood. So it became a vine and produced branches and put out boughs.

There was another great eagle with great wings and much plumage, and behold, the vine bent its roots toward him and shot forth its branches toward him from the bed where it was planted, that he might water it.

It had been planted on good soil by abundant waters, that it might produce branches and bear fruit and become a noble vine. The Lord told Ezekiel to say,

“Will it thrive? Will he not pull up its roots and cut off its fruit, so that it withers, so that all its fresh sprouting leaves wither? It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it from its roots. Behold, it is planted; will it thrive?”

Ezekiel was to go to the rebellious house and ask them if they knew what this parable meant. He was to tell them how the king of Babylon had come to Jerusalem, and took everything with him and remind them of the other times they had broken their covenant.

The Lord spoke and said that He would take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and would set it out. He would break off from the top most of its young twigs a tender one, and He himself would plant it on a high and lofty mountain, on the mountain height of Israel.

It would bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. Under it would dwell every kind of bird, and in the shade of its branches every kind of bird would nest.

“And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.” -Ezekiel 17:24

The Soul Who Sins Shall Die

The word of the Lord went to Ezekiel and asked him what he meant by repeating the proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? The Lord declared that it would no more be used by him in Israel.

“Behold, all souls are mine;
the soul of the father as well
as the soul of the son is mine;
the soul who sins shall die.”
-Ezekiel 18:4

The Lord continued: “If a man is righteous and does what is just and right–if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbors wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual iniquity, does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and 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, declares the Lord God.” -Ezekiel 18:5-9

Even if he followed the rules, but fathered a son who did all of those things, they would be considered to be his own abominations and he would surely die. His blood would be upon himself.

Suppose a man fathers a son though who saw all the sins that his father had done, and saw and did not do likewise; he would not be punished for the sins of his father.

You may ask, ‘Why shouldn’t the son suffer for the iniquity of the father’? If the son had done what was right and just, and was careful to observe all of the Lord’s statutes, he would surely live.

The soul who sins shall die.
-Ezekiel 18:20

“The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” -Ezekiel 18:20

If a wicked person turned away from all the sins that were committed and kept all the statutes and did what was right and just, they would surely live. None of the transgressions that they had committed would be remembered against them; for the righteousness that they did they would live.

The Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked but would rather he turn from his ways and live. None of the righteous deeds that he had done would be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin committed, for those he would die.

When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he would die for it. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he had committed and does what is just and right, he would save his life because he had turned away from his transgressions.

The Lord will judge each of us, according to our ways. “Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all your 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, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.” -Ezekiel 18:30-32

Today ended with a lament for the princes of Israel.