When I saw the title, I thought of an oil refinery. But in Ezekiel’s day, a refinery was an awesome, purifying furnace - the hottest, fiercest thing anybody knew.
Judgement by the sword
Ezekiel 21:8-17
The king of Babylon’s approach
Ezekiel 21:18-27
The Ammonites’ destruction
Ezekiel 21:28-32
The sins of Jerusalem
Ezekiel 22:1-16
God’s furnace
Ezekiel 22:17-22
The sins of Israel’s leaders
Ezekiel 22:23-31
The lustful sisters
Ezekiel 23:1-21
Ezekiel imagines the king of Babylon coming to a fork in the road. Will he go to the left and attack the Ammonites, or will he go to the right and besiege Jerusalem? Having set up the tension, Ezekiel that smashes it by announcing that he’ll attack Jerusalem. Don’t let yourselves hope, you fools! God is determined that judgement is coming on Jerusalem, and Nebuchadnezzar is the one bringing it.
Ezekiel returns to his theme of Israel and Judah as prostitutes. He musters all his language of disgust to shame people. For us, for whom sexual sin is not rated very highly on the list of taboos, perhaps this sounds a bit quaint. But the Israelites had tended to pride themselves on having very high sexual morality. So for them, the shock factor would have been much higher. Imagine saying these things to the Victorians! I’m sure his intent is to shame people into understanding why God needs to judge them. “We deserved it!” is the verdict that the people of Israel came to, after the exile. It’s the work of prophets like Ezekiel that brought them to this understanding.
Judgement by the sword
Ezekiel 21:8-17
The king of Babylon’s approach
Ezekiel 21:18-27
The Ammonites’ destruction
Ezekiel 21:28-32
The sins of Jerusalem
Ezekiel 22:1-16
God’s furnace
Ezekiel 22:17-22
The sins of Israel’s leaders
Ezekiel 22:23-31
The lustful sisters
Ezekiel 23:1-21
Ezekiel imagines the king of Babylon coming to a fork in the road. Will he go to the left and attack the Ammonites, or will he go to the right and besiege Jerusalem? Having set up the tension, Ezekiel that smashes it by announcing that he’ll attack Jerusalem. Don’t let yourselves hope, you fools! God is determined that judgement is coming on Jerusalem, and Nebuchadnezzar is the one bringing it.
Ezekiel returns to his theme of Israel and Judah as prostitutes. He musters all his language of disgust to shame people. For us, for whom sexual sin is not rated very highly on the list of taboos, perhaps this sounds a bit quaint. But the Israelites had tended to pride themselves on having very high sexual morality. So for them, the shock factor would have been much higher. Imagine saying these things to the Victorians! I’m sure his intent is to shame people into understanding why God needs to judge them. “We deserved it!” is the verdict that the people of Israel came to, after the exile. It’s the work of prophets like Ezekiel that brought them to this understanding.
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