diff --git a/content/bible_journal/ezekiel_9:1-11.md b/content/bible_journal/ezekiel_9:1-11.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fdd1e11 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/bible_journal/ezekiel_9:1-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ ++++ +title = "Ezekiel 9:1–11" +date = "2023-03-21" ++++ + +### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel9.1-11) + +Having shown Ezekiel the idolatrous acts the people of Jerusalem are committing +in His temple, the Lord summons angelic warriors to begin executing the people +of the city. Six of them arrive, plus a scribe in charge of the heavenly +record. Normally God's glory rested above the Ark of the Covenant in the Most +Holy Place, seated on His earthly throne as it were, but now He has moved to +the threshold of the temple because He is about to remove His Presence from +Jerusalem. + +Before He goes, the Lord gives the angels instructions. The scribe is to go +ahead into the city and put a mark on the foreheads of those who do not approve +of the abominations that have taken place. The six warriors are to go after and +slaughter everyone else, beginning with the twenty-five priests who are before +them. + +Greatly disturbed by all he has seen, Ezekiel falls on his face in despair. He +fully expects no one will survive this disaster, and the remnant of Israel will +not survive. In effect, this is an appeal to God's promises that He made with +the Israelites, to be their God and to preserve David's kingly line. Ezekiel is +worried that the exiles will never again be able to possess the Promised Land. +Our God does indeed keep His promises, but He doesn't reassure Ezekiel of that. +Instead, He emphasizes just how wicked the people of Israel and Judah have been +to each other, corrupting the land with bloodshed and injustice until it is +saturated with it. There are no more chances for them, no more mercy; only +wrath. + +And in the time it took for that conversation to be finished, the angelic +scribe returns to announce that he has completed his task. I'm sure an angel +can move much faster than we can, and he wouldn't be hindered by such small +things as walls and doors, but angels are not omnipresent, so he would have to +go to each person in the city who loved the Lord individually to apply the +mark. That makes it seem like there really were not many people he had to mark. +But it also shows the kindness and mercy of the Lord not allowing the righteous +to be punished along with the wicked. Time and again we see Him do this: 2 +Peter lists several examples such as Noah and Lot. Which is not to say bad +things never happen to good people (ask Job and Jesus), but disasters that come +upon many people specifically to judge the wicked are also not visited upon the +righteous among them. + +* * * + +You keep all of Your promises and You shelter the righteous under Your wings in +the day of trouble.