Today’s passage: Ezekiel 14

Helpful thoughts:

• In the hearts and minds of the elders of Israel, the impending doom from Babylon was the most important thing.  In truth, their repentance and relationship with God was the most important thing.
  • They desired a prophecy of what was to come, what they heard was a call to repentance.
• When we worship idols, they are a “stumbling block” and objects “before our face,” which means we are blinded and going to stumble.
• God declares that even with judgment after judgment, and even with men from the past and present (Noah, Daniel, and Job) speaking and living amongst the Jewish people, there will not be repentance.  Except for those who are “brought out,” the remnant.

Questions to consider:

1. Given God’s initial rebuke in this chapter, what is the most important aspect (Or most important relationship) of our lives?  Would these elders have been happy with wealth, health, and peace in the land without God?  Could we be happy today with wealth, health and peace without Jesus?
2. How does blindness come from idolatry?  How does it cause people to stumble?  How do these following passages help us to learn and comprehend what it means to “become like what we worship?” (Psalm 115:4-8, 2 Corinthians 3:18)
3. If we think about the lives of Noah, Daniel and Job, did their righteous choices result in massive amounts of conversions and repentance in the first place?  Who alone has the power to give people a new heart, salvation?  What is our responsibility and privilege? (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 13

Helpful thoughts:

• People were posing as prophets in Israel.  They were saying, “Hear the word of the LORD!” and then sharing whatever it was in their own hearts and minds they wanted to say.
  • Many would have certainly desired these prophets to give them favorable news.
  • This is similar to what we read in 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
• These false prophets are referred to as “jackals,” a scavenger.
  • The false prophets speak in order to gain and take from others (Manipulation, flattery, etc.), true prophets speak to obey the Lord and communicate the truth for the true benefit of the hearers (Love).
• The women (False prophetesses) are mentioned as having incorporated some form of magical bands and are rebuked as well for “hunting” for souls!
  • The magic had to have been either phony tricks or some demonic activity.  Either way, the goal was the same, taking advantage of others for their own personal gain…but remember it wasn’t their gain!  It led to their destruction.

Questions to consider:

1. How can we know whether people are sharing with us the truth?  How can we know the counsel we share and/or receive is in line with God’s will without resorting to how we feel or think about things in our own hearts? (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
2. If a teacher’s/preacher’s primary goal ever becomes gaining a larger following, how might their teaching and preaching change?  How can a verse like Ephesians 4:15 prevent us from going to the other end of the spectrum to being unnecessarily rude or hateful?
3. How can these intense rebukes and obvious abuses of the ministry of prophecy be applied to our relationships and interactions with others today?  How should we speak to people?  Whose glory and whose best interest should we be seeking?  How can love and worship remove our fear to speak the truth?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 12

Helpful thoughts:

• Ezekiel prophecies the what would happen to Zedekiah in 2 Kings 25.
  • Ezekiel would not refer to Zedekiah as a king, most likely because Nebuchadnezzar had made him king and changed his name (2 Kings 24:10-17).
  • It might be helpful to remember that the fall of Jerusalem and the exiling of the Jewish people happened in stages.
• Since the prophecies Ezekiel had shared didn’t come to pass fast enough for the people’s expectations, the Jews began to dismiss them (Verse 22).
• Part of the excuse to dismiss Ezekiel’s prophecies was to consider them as judgments that were “far off.”  Evidently, if there were no immediate or personal negative consequences, the people were happy to carry on in disobedience!

Questions to consider:

1. What does the expectation of a timeline for God’s judgment reveal about the people’s view of God, or of Ezekiel’s trustworthiness?  If God has to act in a timely fashion according to our point of view, then who do we think is in charge?
2. How can remembering who God is and who we are encourage and help us to be patient when we are praying for something?  When we desire Christ’s return?
3. Should the people have only wanted to repent if the judgment of God was going to affect them personally?  What does love for others compel us to do?  What does love for God compel us to do?  Why is it always right to do what is right? (See the last four words of verses 16 and 20)  What does knowing that Christ took our judgment on Himself at the cross further compel us to do?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 11:14-25

Helpful thoughts:

• In today’s passage, God answers Ezekiel’s question from verse 13.  He will preserve a remnant.
• Two important truths are contained in this passage:
  • No one suffers the wrath of God against sin who has not chosen to sin against Him (Verse 21).
  • Those who follow God do so because He has given them a new heart.  Conversion is a gift of grace (Verses 19-20).
• Upon the completion of this sequence of visions (Starting in chapter 8), Ezekiel is now ready to tell the exiles all that God gave Him to tell.

Questions to consider:,

1. What is the true sanctuary of God? Or…where?  Is it the Temple? Or…who is it? (Verse 16)  With this being true, how does one pursue “sanctuary” in God (Verse 20)?
2. What do we learn from these promises about conversion?  Do people achieve it through trial and error or through increased effort in religion?  What has to happen for a sinner to want to follow God?
3. How does the wording at the end of verse 20 compare with that of Revelation 21:3?  What might this teach us concerning what we also learn from Romans 11:25-27?  When will the remnant of Israel be saved?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 11:1-13

Helpful thoughts:

• Ezekiel’s prophecy now moves to the political leaders of the people.  The elders had not trusted that God would not protect them from “the sword” of other nations and sinned against Him, now God is going to bring “the sword” of other nations against them.  Their fears would be realized.
• The illustration of the cauldron/cooking pot and meat seems to be related to the city of Jerusalem being under siege.  As the siege is being built up, the “temperature” is rising…cooking the “meat” inside.
  • But God tells the political leaders they will not be defeated the way they expect, so that they will know that He is the Lord!
• Pelatiah’s judgment came instantly (Verses 1 and 13).
  • Peletiah’s name means, “The LORD delivers” and he was the son of Benaiah which means, “The LORD builds.”

Questions to consider:

1. To whom does God attribute the responsibility of the number of the slain in Jerusalem (Verse 6)?  Why might the people and leaders have wanted to blame God or their enemies?  How does God’s justice, sovereignty and providence validate His claim?
2. If God is doing all of these things so that the people would know that He is the LORD, what would have been the right response?  What does God’s identity and His attributes have to do with our repentance?
3. What changes happen in the life of a person who surrenders to the Lordship of God and Christ?  How does this match what we learn happens to a person who is saved from passage like 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Ephesians 2:8-10?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 10

Helpful thoughts:

• After the judgment of God is depicted in chapter 9, we see the glory of the Lord departing the temple in chapter 10.
• God gives Ezekiel this similar vision to what he saw in chapter one, therefore Ezekiel is now well aware of what is taking place.
• This vision of the glory departing contrasts from the account of the glory of God coming to the temple in 2 Chronicles 5.

Questions to consider:

1. If the elders who had come to Ezekiel were hoping to hear good news or instructions from God to fix their problems, how saddened or angered might they have been?  What news is Ezekiel going to be giving them?  What have the last few chapters declared concerning Jerusalem and Israel?
2. Besides what the cherubim look like, what are we learning about these angels?  What seems to be their purpose?
3. By God’s grace, what will happen one day in the future (Sneak ahead and peek at Ezekiel 43:1-5)?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 9

Helpful thoughts:

• Today’s chapter is a continuation of the vision from chapter 8.  Angels are presumably sent out by God to bring judgment.
• Judgment is commanded on all who had rejected God (And yet sought His favor).  Ezekiel asks about the remnant being saved, but they are.  Those who “sigh and groan over all the abominations” are those who believe and fear the Lord (Verse 4).
• The sin that brought so much offense to God was that the people (Who had been living in sinful idolatry) blamed the Lord for forsaking the land and not seeing their troubles!
  • The people wanted to reject God and call on false idols to meet their needs, but when their needs were left unmet, it was perceived to be God’s fault.

Questions to consider:

1. Even when the people received all they needed, and even if they had prayed to false gods to give any good thing to them, where had their provisions come from?  Who alone deserved all praise and thanksgiving? (James 1:17)
2. Who had come to Ezekiel for help in the previous chapter (8:1)?  Who were to be the first to suffer under God’s wrath (The last sentence of 9:6)?  Why would God command the judgment to begin with the leadership?
3. If Ezekiel knew an angel had been sent to mark and preserve the faithful, what does his impassioned plea to God tell us about his knowledge of the people of Jerusalem?  How can we know however that there will be a remnant (Both then and forever)?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 8

Helpful thoughts:

• Prior to Babylon’s defeat of Jerusalem, the elders of Judah come to the prophet Ezekiel for wisdom.  Instead, God shows Ezekiel the grave sins of the Jewish people.
• Tammuz was a false god from Mesopotamian culture.  All of these visions have to do with idolatry in various forms.
  • There seems to be an increasing of shock and severity with each vision as names of families and locations within the temple are mentioned.
• God’s jealousy is right and without sin (Exodus 20:4-5).

Questions to consider:

1. What is ironic about the fact that these elders of Judah would seek out Ezekiel for guidance if they had previously been busy with all this idolatry?  What would have made them decide to seek out the Lord?
2. If they were worshipping many false gods simultaneously, would their trip to Ezekiel have been evidence of repentance or were they simply imploring God to fix their present situation?  How would we have been able to know the difference?
3. How does the world use false gods?  Why are they worshipped?  What do people want or expect from them?  How and why is worshiping the one true God different than all other forms of worship?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 7

Helpful thoughts:

• In the ESV Study Bible, this chapter is considered to be a “sermon” based on Amos chapter 8.
• Verse 26 depicts a people who want to continue in sin, and when hardship and consequences come, they want God to swoop in and take the hardship away.
• God would do no such thing any longer.  Jerusalem was going to fall.  Judgment was coming.

Questions to consider:

1. What is sinful man prone to do with the mercy of God?  Do people immediately appreciate it and turn from their sin, or do they begin to count on it and continue in their sin?  How would we know if this despair was truly repentant versus being in anguish over consequences?
2. What does the last sentence in verse 27 remind us about this judgment from God?  How far would the judgment go (Why so severe)? And, why was the judgment necessary?  Why is judgment and knowledge of the Lord better than carrying on in sin without consequences?
3. Where does Christ stand for us as sinners in need of rescue?  How might a Christian be prone to take the mercy and grace of God for granted?  How was our sin justly punished?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 6

Helpful thoughts:

• The Israelites had worshipped false idols and committed terrible sin on their mountains (“High places”). (e.g. 1 Kings 14:23)
• This prophecy of judgment is against those who have been committing this idolatry.
• God promises a remnant who will survive this judgment.  Through their observation of the judgment of God against Israel, those who remain will know that God is the true Lord.

Questions to consider:

1. Besides the judgment, righteous anger and jealousy of God against this idolatry, what more do we learn about His heart in this prophecy?  What does verse 9 tell us about His heart’s response to His people’s sin against Him?
2. It can be tempting to see God as harsh and violent in reading these judgments, but how might it help to remember that this idolatry being done by the Jews would include things like human sacrifice, cutting/bleeding, adultery and other sexual sins, etc.?  Was God being unjust?
3. God had been patient and longsuffering with His people since the beginning of the nation’s existence, what might His patience have to do with the warning at the end of verse 10?  If God shows patience and mercy to a people for a time, does that mean He can never bring judgment?  When people start to question God’s justice, what are they really doing?  Who is truly the Lord?