Ezekiel

 

Ezekiel Chapter 15

 

  • Ezekiel 15:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 
  • 2 Son of man, What is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? 
  • 3 Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? 
  • 4 Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it meet for any work? 
  • 5 Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work: how much less shall it be meet yet for any work, when the fire hath devoured it, and it is burned? 
  • 6 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
  • 7 And I will set my face against them; they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them. 
  • 8 And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD. 

After a brief scripture in the previous chapter that spoke of a remnant being restored, we now return to the immediate prophecy that shows God's disfavor with Israel at that time in history. 

A vine tree is useless to hang anything on and is not fit for any work except to use as fuel. This is similar to the state of Jerusalem in the time of Ezekiel and they had become fit for only burning. 

Verse 8 says that the land shall be desolate because they have committed trespass. 

The sins of Israel in the days of Ezekiel:

  1. Rebellion against God
  2. Sinning against God
  3. Turning God's judgments into wickedness
  4. Refusing to walk in God's judgments and statutes. 
  5. Defiling His Sanctuary
  6. Continually worshipping images
  7. Worshiping Tammuz continually
  8. Continual violence and bloodshed
  9. Copying after the manner of the heathen countries that surrounded them. 
  10. Doing abominable things that accompany idol worship.
  11. Listening to false prophets, soothsayers, and those that prophesy out of their own hearts. 
  12. Setting up idols in their hearts. 

The cure for Israel was just to repent and turn back to God. 

The cure to be saved from sin today and to be granted eternal life is simply to repent and believe totally in the Lord Jesus Christ who died and rose again to take away our sins. 

Just as Israel refused to repent in Ezekiel's day, we see people in many countries doing the same things today. 

  1. To rebel against God is to know what He requires, to know what His word says but do the opposite because we don't like what He says. 
  2. To sin against God is to break the law of God. Sin is transgression of the law. 
  3. To turn God's judgments into wickedness is when God makes a law, we water it down or change it to make it seem like the ones who preach truth are wicked and the ones who preach lies and promise good things are speaking truth. They call evil good and good evil. 
  4. To refuse to walk in God's judgment and statutes is to do our own thing and go our own way without any regard for God's word. 
  5. To defile the sanctuary is to bring images into and bow down to them. Images could be statues, drawings, carvings and in our day pictures for the purpose of bowing down and using them as objects of worship or representations of God or a false god. Defiling the sanctuary is also using the building set up for the worship of God for other purposes like bingo games, fund raisers and parties.  
  6. Worshipping images or making any representation of God is a violation of the 2nd commandment. We are to worship God by faith, not sight. 
  7. The worship of Tammuz, Baal, emperors, kings or anyone other than God is a violation of the 2nd commandment. 
  8. Violence and bloodshed. This doesn't mean fighting to defend one's own country or putting to death those the kill innocent people after being fairly tried by a court of law. Idolatry leads to other sins like killing of innocent children, virgins and such they sacrificed to false gods. They also killed for other reasons and the victims were innocent of any capital crimes that would incur the death penalty. Killing could be because the king wanted the property of the victim as in the case of King Ahab. People would kill so that they could take over the government instead of the one in charge. In our day abortion could be listed here as violence against innocent children. 
  9. Looking to the other nations that surrounded them by longing to be like them instead of what God ordained them to be is mimicking the heathen.
  10. Once we get idolatry in place, evil spirits are present to lead a nation into all kinds of filth and violence. 
  11. When people want to do wrong they will only listen to the prophets or preachers who will make them feel good about themselves and not correct the wrong. 
  12. An idol can be anything that robs us of our fear of God and our sense of right and wrong. 

For example, I know a young lady who idolized her live in boy friend so much that to please him and to get him to marry her, she stopped going to church, aborted her baby since he didn't want any children and did all things to please him contrary to how she was raised. This young lady ended up losing him anyway. This man was an idol to her. An idol is something we love so much that we would even sin against God for the idol. 

Yet in spite of all this, the solution then was the same now. Repent and turn back to God. God even gives us help now that Israel didn't have. We can have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to strengthen and keep us from going back into sin. 

When Jesus came, He was able to live among men without sin and become the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all who would believe in Him. In order for this sacrifice to count on our behalf, we must repent or turn from sin and allow God's spirit that comes through our faith in Jesus Christ, to cleanse us of sin and make all things new within us. 

All sin can be repented of because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We can be changed. A person who hates can learn to love, a person who kills can learn to save lives, an abortion doctor can return to his job of saving lives, we can be a slave to sin or a servant of God.  We have a choice. We can continue until the day we die and be lost for eternity or repent and become born again by God's spirit and inherit eternal life. 

Ezekiel 16

Ezekiel Index

 

 
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