diff --git a/content/bible_journal/ezekiel_25:1-7.md b/content/bible_journal/ezekiel_25:1-7.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..90bdc76 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/bible_journal/ezekiel_25:1-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ ++++ +title = "Ezekiel 25:1–7" +date = "2023-05-08" ++++ + +### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel25.1-7) + +The book of Ezekiel can be divided into three main sections. The first as we +have seen are judgements against Israel and Judah. We now come to the second in +which the nations surrounding Israel are judged. The final section concerns the +hope for blessing of God's people and the restoration of His temple. + +The first of the nations to be judged is Ammon. Ezekiel had already prophesied +against them in chapter 21, in which the king of Babylon cast divinations to +decide to which city to send his armies first. While Babylon had its own +reasons for destroying Ammon, the Lord spells out His reasons for sending this +judgement upon them. + +Ammon had often been in conflict with Israel, so even though they had allied +against Babylon in these last few years, there was much rejoicing among the +Ammonites when they heard that Jerusalem had fallen. Yahweh's temple was +destroyed and the land of Israel was emptied of inhabitants, so Ammon clapped +their hands and stamped their feet in gleeful malice. Because of this attitude, +the Lord sends Babylon to do the same thing to Ammon and its cities. The people +of Ammon shall be removed, its capital city will be a camel pasture, and the +fruit of the land will go to the besieging Babylonians. + +_Shadenfreude_ is not an emotion that God's people should allow themselves. To +see judgement fall on an individual or a group should give us satisfaction that +justice is served and evil is punished, but it should also sober us because it +is only by God's mercy that such a fate has not fallen on us as well. + +* * * + +You search the hearts of men and know all their intentions.