Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 22-23.

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Once again God gives Ezekiel a prophecy against Jerusalem.  He begins by accusing Jerusalem of shedding blood in it streets.  At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of that, then I thought about our cities today and how many deaths occur in them every day.  The first accusation against Jerusalem is the blood shed in her.  Only after that does Ezekiel go on to also accuse her of being defiled by her idols.  After that introduction to his latest prophecy, Ezekiel goes on to more specifics.  As I was reading it, the prophecy seemed to give a list of sins which built upon one another.  First the princes of Jerusalem treated their parents with contempt.  Then they allowed the foreigners among them to be extorted and the orphan and the widow to be wronged.  Having done these things they despised that which was holy and profaned Holy days.  They treated religious rituals with contempt.  That was followed by telling lies which would lead to the deaths of others.  Building upon their sin they committed various sexual sins.  Finally, they  took advantage of others to gain profit.  Specifically, Ezekiel says that they make gain by extortion.  This was not just making profit from a business deal.  This was making profit by taking advantage of those less fortunate.

It’s kind of interesting.  These sins which led to the downfall of Jerusalem both built upon each other and interacted with each other.  We see some of these sins as worse than others, but that’s not what God says about them.  God says that these sins go hand in hand.  When you commit one you become more likely to commit another.  Once you have justified one sin to yourself you find it easier to justify the next one.  You may say to yourself, “Well, yes, I commit this one sin, but I’m not guilty of that much worse sin.”  But you likely will be.  Address the sins in your life before they multiply and consume you.  Do not think that you can have one vice, one sin, in which you indulge.  It will grow and in time your vices will consume your entire life.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.