Ezekiel 11:1-12

content/bible_journal/ezekiel_11:1-12.md

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+title = "Ezekiel 11:1–12"
+date = "2023-03-26"
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+
+### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel11.1-12)
+
+Now Ezekiel is taken to the east gate of the temple, where another twenty-five
+men have gathered outside it. Don't confuse these twenty-five with the
+twenty-five priests worshipping the sun inside the temple court (who were
+supposed to be killed by the six destroying angels in chapter 9). Also don't
+confuse Jaazaniah the son of Azzur here with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan from
+chapter 8. These men are described as "princes of the people" (_v. 1_) so they
+are the political leaders who rose up in Jerusalem after the first deportation.
+(This was the exile that Ezekiel himself and Daniel were part of.)
+
+The Spirit of the Lord describes these men to Ezekiel as wicked counselors and
+arrogant in their position. They described Jerusalem as a cauldron and
+themselves as the meat in it. That is, the city has walls of irons and they are
+the best parts of what is in it. Since Nebuchadnezzar had deported most of the
+royal family, the military leaders, and the craftsmen, maybe these men
+considered those groups to be the offal and bones of a butchered animal while
+they were the parts that were valuable.
+
+As an aside, the Lord declares He knows their thoughts, which is not a fact
+that should be missed. When theologians talk about God's omniscience, they
+really do mean He knows _everything_. Repent of even your wicked thoughts that
+you never tell anyone.
+
+The Lord indicts these wicked counselors by pointing out the people who have
+been slain in the streets of the city because of their leadership. He says that
+those are the real meat of the cauldron, and because of them He will bring
+these puffed-up leaders out of the cauldron to be judged at the border of
+Israel with the sword that they have feared. They had not followed in the
+statuse of the Lord but instead did wickedness according to the ways of the
+nations around them.
+
+* * *
+
+No one can escape Your justice except through the gracious work of Jesus paying
+the penalty for our unrighteousness.