Noah, Daniel & Job; Ezekiel 14-16

May the mumbling commence!

There was a country so defiled that even Noah, Daniel and Job could not save it from the plagues that the Lord would send.  They could only save themselves.  These statements describe the country of Judah in the days of Ezekiel.  The Lord would send famine, wild beasts, the sword, and disease (Ezekiel 14:12-20).  From the looks of the impending disaster, it looked as though no one could survive.  What were the sins of Judah?  Read from Ezekiel 16:

"'But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his.  You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. Such things should not happen, nor should they ever occur.  You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them.  And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them.  Also the food I provided for you – the fine flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat – you offered as fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign Lord. 

And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough?  You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.  In all your detestable practices and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood. (Verses 15-22)

"'How weak-willed you are, declares the Sovereign Lord, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute!  When you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment. 

You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband!  Every prostitute receives a fee, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.  So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you. (Verses 30-34)

“‘Your older sister was Samaria, who lived to the north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you with her daughters, was Sodom.  You not only walked in their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they.  As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done. 

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.  They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. (Verses 46-50)

Judah, who was saved by the Lord as a vulnerable baby girl, used the gifts that the Lord had given her to make idols that copied the nations around her.  She even went to the pawn shop so that she could pay for the designs to make her idols. 

Nothing of the Lord was sacred to her.  She became arrogant and overfed; she had no concern for the poor and needy.  She was haughty and detestable to the core.  It is no wonder that neither Noah nor Daniel nor Job could save her.  Even for them, there is a glimmer of hope.  Read from Ezekiel 14:21-23 –

"For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments – sword and famine and wild beasts and plague – to kill its men and their animals!  Yet there will be some survivors – sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem – every disaster I have brought upon it.  You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign Lord."

A remnant of sons and daughters would escape the wrath.  And, through this time of wrath and destruction, these survivors would learn to fear the Lord, return to Him, and leave behind the idols of their forefathers. 

If there is hope for Judah in that day, surely there is hope for our country! 

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out