Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 22-23.
As I read through today’s passage I was struck by how Ezekiel lumped together four categories of sin: unjust gain, shedding innocent blood, sacrificing children to idols, and desecrating the Sabbaths. In chapter 22, he starts out by writing of God’s condemnation of Jerusalem for shedding blood in the midst of the city. He speaks of how those in authority use their power to shed blood and to make a profit off of the poor. The context makes it clear that Ezekiel is not referring to those who make a living by providing goods or services to the poor, because the next sentence condemns those who extort unjust gain from their neighbors. In chapter 23 Ezekiel writes about those who sacrificed their children and then desecrated God’s sanctuary by entering it on the same day. He is clearly referring to those who killed their children and then proffered worship to God with no remorse. And he writes about them desecrating God’s Sabbaths and despising holy things. The implication being that all of the other sins descended from those two.
At the end of chapter 22 Ezekiel brings up a theme which comes up throughout his book; God is looking for someone to build up the walls and stand in the gap. I feel challenged by this. God is calling me to stand in the gap for my country, for the people among whom I live. I feel that I have failed to keep His Sabbath holy (to the degree that this passage refers to the Sabbaths other than the weekly one, I do not currently see how those apply to me). And I do not spend enough time in prayer. Recently, I saw a post on social media calling on Christians to commit to dropping what they are doing at 8 PM Central Time every day and spend a minute in prayer. I feel called by this. The time of day is not important. What is important is that you pick a time of day, every day, when you will stop whatever else you are doing and pray. We can do that can’t we? Commit to take 1 minute out of whatever else we are doing to pray for the people around us?
I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.