Today's Passage: Ezekiel 24-26

 I think that it is safe to say that we all like food. In chapter 24 God uses something we know very well... food, to teach a spiritual lesson. Here we have this old rusty cooking pot used to cook a fine meal. The fire is increased in an attempt to get all the impurities off the pot. It is as if God was teaching Jerusalem that his patience has run out and  he was turning up the heat. With the invasion from Babylon starting (see verse 2), Jerusalem was in a tight spot. The one place you never want to be, is in a tight spot and out of the will of God.

From there the scripture takes a turn from dinner to a funeral. Because of the hardships of the time, this was also something that the people were very familiar with. Imagine your spouse, your other half, your soul mate dies and God tells you that you are not allowed to mourn for him or her. That had to be on of the hardest things for Ezekiel to do. Sometimes God may ask us to do something very difficult. Ezekiel's wife was described in verse 16 as "the delight of his eyes". The death of his wife was to teach the Israeli people a harsh lesson. The temple was going to be overtaken by outsiders. Why was this such a big deal? Because verse 21 says that the temple was the delight of their eyes. Their spiritual walk had become so mutated that they took more delight in the temple than in the God the temple was built for. A Christians we need to be careful not to love the church more than the God it was built for.

In chapter 25 Ezekiel is commanded to prophecy against a list of nations that have disappointed the Lord. The Ammonites were rebuked for having so much hatred for Israel that they celebrated when they were invaded (verse 3). The people of  Moab refused to see Judah as a unique nation (verse 8). So Gos promises to destroy both of these nations. Edom had participated in the toppling if Israel. So God says that Israel would one day strike back. And God also mentions Philistia and its vengeance on Israel. Like the other three nations, it was also destroyed. Today Israel has a list of enemies that want the nation destroyed. This chapter shows what happens when the people of God are attacked.

Tyre was another city that God judges for its hatred for Israel. What is special about Tyre? God takes an entire chapter to show his anger and discontent for Tyre. What God planned to do to their city was going to be so fierce that verse 16 says that neighboring cities would mourn.