Saturday

9-Nov-19

Ezekiel 19-22; Ps 126-127

Ezekiel 19: How did Ezekiel use the image of a vine to sketch a “before and after” picture of Judah in these verses?

Ezekiel 20: What did the elders want from Ezekiel.  What did the lord give the Israelites as a sign that He sanctifies them?  What was Ezekiel’s sigh to God?

Ezekiel 21: What do you find difficult (and different) about this chapter (possibly in light of chapter 20)?

Ezekiel 22: What was the chief thing Israel had “forgotten” in verse twelve of this chapter?

Answers:

Ezekiel 19:  Israel was high and lofty vine, yet it was plucked off and cast down to the ground and is lifeless.

Ezekiel 20: The elders came to Ezekiel to seek a word from God.  But God saw the hypocrisy in their hearts.   It’s almost as if God is saying, “Listen, I’ve been through this time and time again.  I save, you sin; I save, you sin.  Now you have to face judgment.

God told them that “Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” (verse 12) In an aside, Ezekiel says to God: They think I’m just a story-teller.

Ezekiel 21: Sometimes the righteous suffer not as judgment for their own sin but simply as a trial that is part of life in a fallen world. One must allow here for God’s freedom to judge as he will. This is not the first or last time in Scripture that the righteous experience the heavy hand of God (e.g., Job; cf. James 5:11). (From ESV study Bible)

Ezekiel 22:  The Israelites had forgotten God.