Ezekiel chapter 22

vs 21

God's wrath is apparently hot, and his people are apparently melty. Still, at least this is a picture of refining - although refining dross seems to get you mostly nothing, so it means lots of people will be burned away.

vs 22

Again, this will be done so that they know that God is Lord. He is going to line up so many things, going to punish them so resoundingly, that they will have no option but to accept that the Lord is doing it to them.

vs 23

Lots of words in this chapter.

vs 24

So now Ezekiel has to talk to the land? In front of people? And he tells it that it hasn't been cleansed or rained on, which I am guessing is bad.

vs 25

This sounds like the leaders were taking other people's stuff, and killing them to get them out of the way if necessary. We know this happened - Naboth's vineyard is a good example. Obviously, killing a woman's husband, and then stealing her land, to make her both poor and helpless, is not something God is fond of.

vs 26

The priests are, well, pretty much not teaching God's truths. They are teaching things totally wrong, and not following his ways. This isn't what priests are for.

vs 27

Officials seem to be taking a leaf out of the book of the princes, and doing the same things as them. It makes Israel sound like a really awful, despotic nation at this point.

vs 28

So you see, the prophets are complicit, because they say what the rich pay them to say, or what the powerful want to hear. Thus we see the princes, the priests, the officials and the prophets are all corrupt and useless to God. Since God measures his nation greatly by what its leaders do, it's not looking so healthy.

vs 29

God also measures his nation by how the lowest people are treated - the foreigner, the needy, the poor. And they're not doing well. They're being oppressed, mistreated, and denied justice. Even I'm angry at that thought - imagine how God feels that it's his prized people doing this.

vs 30

Ezekiel might feel bad about this, but then he's not in Jerusalem. And as God has said that this is the time for judgment and nothing will stop him, perhaps he didn't find anyone becuase he didn't put anyone there.

vs 31

Without intercession, they will suffer. And God has forbade intercession. So they will suffer. They won't just suffer because God doesn't like what they've done. They will suffer because they require punishment for all their wrongs. That's how God rolls.