Journal Through the Bible: Week 81 Friday

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Ezekiel 14:1-15:8

The elders came to inquire of the LORD but God had Ezekiel give them a grave warning! Stumbling blocks would not be allowed to continue.

Does God issue any commands?

• When the elders of Israel came to Ezekiel to ask for information from the LORD God told Ezekiel to tell the men that He would answer them according to the multitude of their own idols. In other words, I think God was saying He would reveal the thoughts and intents of the men's hearts. Ezekiel was to tell these men to repent.

Does God  make any promises?

• God promised that the secret idol-worshiper that came to ask information of the LORD would be cut off from the people and God would turn His face away from him. That man's name would become a by-word. They would bear their iniquity.
• God promised to turn away from false prophets who claimed to seek information of Him. He would likewise punish them.
• God promised famine, wild beasts, war, and disease when His people rebelled against Him. God would not spare the land even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were there.
• Yet God promised a remnant would survive His 4 judgments. This would be a comfort to the people.
• Using a parable of the vine tree, God taught that the land would be desolate.

Does this passage teach anything about Jesus?

• The religious leaders of Ezekiel's time came to him and God revealed their true natures for all to see. The religious leaders of Jesus' time came to Him and He revealed their true natures for all to see.
• God said that the idolatrous leaders of Ezekiel's time had set a stumblingblock before their faces and presumably before the people who they led. The alternative is to be crushed under the Rock, the chief cornerstone, who is Jesus. (See Isaiah 8:14-15 and Matthew 21:42-44.)

Does this passage teach anything about yet-future events?

• God's plan is for Israel to no longer go astray from Him. They will be His people and He will be their God. This will not fully happen unto sin has been abolished from the earth.