Today’s passage: Ezekiel 25
Helpful thoughts:
- With the beginning of chapter 25, we begin a unit in the book of Ezekiel (25-32) which focuses on prophesies concerning surrounding nations. The nations are listed in geographical order clockwise from the northeast to the west.
- Ammon (Northeast): The Ammonites rejoiced in the profaning and fall of God’s people. They would later fall to Babylon and nomads from the east would dwell in their land.
- Moab (East): The Moabites did not regard Judah (Therefore, they also did not regard Judah’s God). They would suffer the same consequence as the Ammonites.
- Edom (South): The Edomites (Descendants of Esau) were great rivals with Israel and Judah. They would fall to the people they hated most, by God’s decree.
- Philistia (West): With a rivalry that appears to have equaled that of the Edomites, the Philistines are promised vengeance and wrath.
Questions to consider:
- What is the main motive for these judgments? Whose reputation was/is to be protected?
- Who would these nations know and respect at the end of these judgments? (See the end of verses 7, 11, 14, and 17)
- These nations believed in many gods. Their own national gods were to protect them from the gods of other nations. Did God simply want these people to know he was stronger than their gods? What does the phrase, “I am the LORD.” seem to indicate? Even if you don’t believe in God, are you still under His authority and responsible to Him? How can this truth impact our understanding of the need of evangelism?