Tag Archives: Ezekiel 24-26

Daily Bible Study

September 4, 2023 Bible Study — When God Brings His Judgement the Rich and Powerful Will Discover They Are Just Meat in a Pot

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 24-26.

God gives Ezekiel a prophecy where He compares Jerusalem to a cooking pot.  In the prophecy God calls for filling the pot with the best cuts of meat and boiling them all together.  The point of this prophecy being that God’s judgement, unlike man’s, will not favor the rich and powerful, or politically connected, over the poor and powerless.  When God brings judgement He will treat rich and poor equally, the only distinction He will make is between the righteous and the unrighteous.  And I want to note that while this passage does not make this point, the righteous are those who repent and throw themselves on God’s mercy.

 

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

Daily Bible Study

September 4, 2022 Bible Study — There Is Little Distinction Between Prime Rib And Chuck Roast When Both Are In The Stew

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 24-26.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

Every time I read Ezekiel’s prophecy about Jerusalem as a cooking pot I feel like I am missing part of the image he is drawing here.  Today, it reads to me like he is making one of two comparisons.  My first thought was that he was comparing Jerusalem to a cooking pot and all of the “meat” was thrown in together and indistinguishable after the cooking.  By that I understand it to mean that there will be no distinguishing the elites from the common man when destruction comes to Jerusalem.  Then when I re-read the passage today, it occurred to me that Ezekiel says that only the choicest meats had been placed in the cooking pot.  To me, that suggests that the prophecy says that the “elites” had gathered in Jerusalem and would suffer there together.  In both cases, I see it as a warning against those who think that they are a special class who will be able to avoid the suffering others will suffer as a result of their decisions.  As I read this I am reminded of things I see in the world today from the elites, from those who believe that their wealth or political connections will shield them from the devastation which will result from the policies they support and the actions which they take.  Again, I would like to note that Ezekiel did not speak his prophecies to the people of Jerusalem.  Rather, Ezekiel prophesied to the Israelites already in exile in Babylon.  I believe that just as I see two possible interpretations for his there are two possible lessons.  First, we should not despair thinking that those whose actions and policies will bring about devastation will escape from the consequences they are bringing upon others.  Second, we should not think that we can take actions which will bring suffering on others and escape that suffering ourselves.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

September 4, 2021 Bible Study

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 24-26.

I really struggled with what to write about today’s passage.  Finally it came to me that the prophecy using the cooking pot as a metaphor was directed specifically at Jerusalem.  In many of the other prophecies against Jerusalem, Jerusalem is symbolic for all of Judah, or sometimes even all of Israel.  But this one is specific to Jerusalem.  The people of Jerusalem considered themselves the elite of Judah, and at times of all of Israel.  And among the people of Jerusalem there were those who were considered better than the rest. So, I see this as a prophecy against those who see themselves as the elite of a nation.  God will hold those who see themselves as above the rest of the nation responsible for all of the sins of that nation.   The “choicest” cuts of meat were put into the pot, some “better” cuts than others.   But God will “cook” that pot over the fire until there is no distinction among them,  He will heat the pot with fire in order to turn them from their sins, but, if they do not, He will raise the temperature until they are burned to the metal of the pot and the pot is ruined.  God is turning up the heat right now, will we turn from our sins?

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

Daily Bible Study

September 4, 2019 Bible Study — Wealth Will Not Spare You From God’s Judgement

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 24-26.

Elsewhere, some of the false prophets were quoted as saying that people would be safe in Jerusalem because it was like an iron cooking pot.  Here Ezekiel illustrates why that was a faulty metaphor for safety.  He makes the point with this illustration that the wealthy and the powerful, those who think of themselves as the “choice cuts”, will be no different from the poor and needy.  When you cook meat in a pot like this, it all becomes pretty much interchangeable.  Further, as I read the passage, he cooks the meat until it becomes burned to the sides and bottom of the pot, charred and inedible.  As a result the pot cannot be cleaned and becomes unusable.  Ezekiel takes the metaphor which false prophets had used to reassure people and makes it a metaphor for the results of the people’s unwillingness to turn from their sins.  This is a perfect metaphor because earlier Ezekiel had used the metaphor of using fire to purify silver.  God brings trouble into our lives to purify us.  We can either let it melt us down to remove the impurities, or we can resist and be discarded as useless.

I am going to skip over the very sad portion where Ezekiel was forbidden by God to mourn for the death of his wife.  I find a very real lesson for practical politics in Ezekiel’s prophecies against the nations which surrounded Judah.  Those nations fell into two classes: those which encouraged the kings of Judah to ally against Babylon, and those which sought to gain by encouraging Babylon to destroy the Jewish people.  There may have been significant overlap between these two groups., as some may have sent envoys to convince the kings of Judah to rebel against Babylon while sending envoys to Babylon to swear fealty to Babylon.  In either case, the destruction which came upon Judah brought devastation on those nations as well.  War does not stay within borders.

Daily Bible Study

September 4, 2018 Bible Study

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 24-26.

    Today’s passage begins with two visualizations for Ezekiel’s audience. The first one is a renewal of a metaphor for Jerusalem which those claiming Jerusalem would be fine used previously, comparing Jerusalem to a cooking pot. It is not clear to me from the passage if Ezekiel actually performed this metaphor or merely spoke it. He compared Jerusalem to a cooking pot where all of the cuts of meat of a sheep had been placed together in the pot and brought to a boil with heavy spices. After a short period of time, there is no distinction between any of the cuts of meat. I am not certain that I am reading this correctly, but it seems like Ezekiel was to use too many spices in preparing this dish. All of the meat was ruined. Further, he left the pot on the fire until the water had all boiled off and the things remaining in the pot burned to the pot. The point of this metaphor was that all of the people in Jerusalem had become indistinguishable. Specifically, I believe that his message was directed at the elites who thought that when Jerusalem fell that they would receive special/better treatment from the Babylonians. When you look throughout history you see this theme repeated time and again. The elites of a city or nation believe that they will not face the consequences of their failure to protect everyone else but when things fall apart the ensuing tragedy falls on everyone equally.

    The other metaphor in today’s passage was a personal tragedy for Ezekiel. He was told that his wife, the love of his life, would die and he was forbidden to publicly mourn for her. The meaning of this is abundantly clear. The people of Jerusalem would experience even greater tragedy but be unable to spend any time mourning for their losses. Their loved ones would die, their valued possession would be taken or destroyed, and they would be unable to spend any time mourning their loss. Those who survived the destruction would need to go on about their lives without spending any time on what they had lost if they hoped to survive.

    The passage ends with a series of warnings against the nations surrounding Jerusalem who saw its fall as being good tor themselves. Ezekiel told them that they were mistaken. By seeking to benefit from the fall of Jerusalem they would hasten their own demise. Ezekiel’s warning is a lesson for everyone. The nations mentioned did not take the fall of Jerusalem as a warning to avoid the mistakes made by the people of Jerusalem. Instead they merely saw it as an opportunity for themselves. When our competitors fall, rather than rejoice at the opportunity we should be chastened and seek to see whether we do any of the things which led to their downfall.

Daily Bible Study

September 4, 2017 Bible Study

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 24-26.

    When I read how God told Ezekiel that his wife was about to die and he was not allowed to mourn her death. It is hard for me to imagine being told that my wife was about to die, that I was not allowed to mourn for her, AND I was to use this as a message to people. But that is what happened to Ezekiel. God told Ezekiel to do this to communicate to the people of Jerusalem that when Jerusalem fell they would not time, energy, or ability to mourn for their loved ones who had died.

    The passage concludes with a warning to Judah’s neighbors against the epicaricacy (the English word I was told did not exist when I first heard the word “schadenfreude”) they were experiencing over the fall of Jerusalem. The destruction which came to Jerusalem was going to come upon them as well. As we see in the world today, chaos and war are not limited to a single nation. When people begin to make war it is rarely limited in scope. The chaos and violence tend to spread to surrounding countries, sometimes spreading to countries that are far distant to the ones first engulfed.

Daily Bible Study

September 4, 2016 Bible Study — Separating Ourselves From A Sinful Society

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

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 24-26.

    Ezekiel starts today’s passage with yet another metaphor. He gives the metaphor of a cooking pot. He makes the point that when you throw various cuts of meat into a pot with water and cook it over an open flame before long all of the meat is the same. It doesn’t matter if you pull out a steak or a roast, the texture and flavor will not change. This shows us the danger of being part of a sinful society. It is all too easy to allow the sins of those around us make us insensitive to our own sins. If we allow this to happen to ourselves, we will suffer when God’s judgment is poured out on our society. I was going to say “more importantly” about my next point, but I am not sure it is more important. If we do not find a way to separate ourselves from our sinful society, the entire country will become so corrupted that God will need to destroy the whole thing.

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    The second part of today’s passage is a series of messages to those who rejoiced in Jerusalem’s downfall. Those nations which celebrated Jerusalem’s downfall should not have. They suffered the same fate themselves. We should not celebrate the suffering of others, even when that suffering appears well-deserved. The fact of the matter is that we all deserve to suffer. Rather than celebrate the sufferings of those who we believe deserve it, we should strive to live so that we do not deserve the same fate. In addition, we should strive to be an example and an influence on those others so that they change their lives and become less deserving of suffering.

Daily Bible Study

November 12, 2015 Bible Study — Faith Is Getting Into The Wheelbarrow

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 27:14

    People do not respond well to loud and boisterous greetings when they are first waking up.

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Psalm 110

    It was just a few days ago that I read the writer of Hebrews explain how this passage applies to Jesus.

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Hebrews 11:1-16

    This passage is one of the great expositions on the importance and value of faith. The writer here points out that faith was what motivated the people he refers to, Able, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah. Without faith, their actions would have been meaningless. However, it is also worth noting that their faith led them to act. All of these people did things because of their faith. It is not enough to have “faith”. That faith must inspire us to take action.
    This passage reminds me of a story my father told that illustrated faith (I think he told it to go along with this passage). Here is the story as I remember it:

A tightrope walker had strung a wire across the Niagara Falls and a crowd gathered to watch him walk across. They were impressed by his skill. He then blindfolded himself and walked across, impressing the crowd even more. Then he pushed a wheelbarrow across. Finally, he called out to the crowd, “Now I am going to push someone across in that wheelbarrow. Do you believe that I can do it?” The crowd cried out that yes, they believed he could do it. The walker then pointed to someone in the front of the crowd who had said they believed and told him, “Climb in.”

My father finished the story by saying, “Faith is getting into the wheelbarrow.”

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Ezekiel 24-26

    God gives Ezekiel a message for Jerusalem and its people. He compares the city to a cooking pot filled with various cuts of meat. It has cooked over the fire until there is nothing to distinguish the good cuts from the bad. It is all equally bad. In much the same way, the people of Jerusalem had become equally bad. He continues the metaphor by suggesting trying to purify the pot by allowing it to sit on the fire until all of the water had boiled off. The time comes when the pot can no longer be cleaned and it must be thrown away. The same thing is happening today.
    Today’s passage ends with a series of messages to Judah’s neighbors. God warns them that His judgment will fall upon them as well for their sins. Ezekiel lets them know that they are making a mistake to rejoice at the misfortunes of the people of Judah, for they will suffer a similar fate. We should never rejoice at the suffering of others because if we do so we may soon experience similar suffering.