125
The sins and iniquities of Jerusalem are numbered by the Lord. According to the list given they had broken every tenet of the Law. There was little, if any unrighteousness that they were not involved in. Eze. 22:4-13 Because of their sinful manner of life they had become the laughing stock of the world. The heathen mocked and scoffed them because of the high and holy standard of the Law and their complete inability, or was it refusal, to live according to the will of their God.
The Lord is patient and longsuffering but there is a day when He will make manifest His retribution. Israel had come to that day and it would not be a happy one for them. How strong will they be? How much can they endure? Their ungodly actions would determine the extent of their punishment. They would be uprooted and removed out of their land. Stripped of their inheritance and scattered abroad. Eze. 22:14-16.
In the eyes of the Lord their filthiness had reached such a degree that He had lost all respect for them. They had become as dross, worthless and needed to be separated from that which was of value, by the fire sent from the Lord. They were to know the heat of His wrath against their sinful actions. They were to be reprocessed in the fiery furnace of the wrath of the Almighty until all the dross, even of the less significant metals was consumed. The fiery furnace of affliction is used by the Lord to punish and correct. That does not mean that everyone who goes through testingís and trials has sinned or failed the Lord. The furnace is used to separate and purify the metal making it fit for the Masters use. Eze. 22: 17-22.
Once again the Word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. Now, the prophecy is more specifically directed at the leadership of the people. The very ones who should have been declaring the holiness of the Lord were deeply involved in corruption. They had conspired together and were likened unto lions seeking and devouring the prey. Their responsibility for the salvation of the souls of men was corrupted to such a degree that they were accused of devouring the souls of men. Causing them to continue in sin until the fraudulent conditions which Ezekiel mentioned were the order of the day.
Eze. 22:25 These prophets white washed and condoned the sin of the people by prophesying to them from their own hearts and thoughts and not words which were from the Lord. Whatsoever is not of truth is a lie and they were declaring their, thus sayís the Lordís, but the Lord had not spoken to them nor given them license to speak. Eze. 22:28 The prophet bears a great responsibility to declare truth.