EZEKIEL

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As the Lord experienced various emotions because of their resistance to His wooing, so, He must feel the same emotions when dealing with us. He was broken hearted because of their wayward acts. Eze. 6:9 The created made their creator to be sorrowful of heart by their wayward life. It is not easy to even think of the Lord having such a reaction to our doings, but there it is. Furthermore, the Lord said through Ezekiel that they ìfrettedî Him. Eze. 16:43 The Hebrew word fretted is a very strong and meaningful word declaring that the individual is caused to shake and quiver with any violent emotion, especially anger. Isaiah spoke of Israel being as people who wearied the Lord. That is they disgusted or wore Him out. He became exceedingly tired of their attitude and complaining. Isa. 7:13 Their rebellious nature became a source of vexation to the Holy Spirit. Isa. 63:10 Amos proclaimed that they had become a great burden to the Lord. Like that which is run over by the wheels of a fully loaded cart and pressed down into the earth. Amos 2:13.

There was to be a threefold sentence of death upon them. The pestilence, the sword and the famine. Eze. 6:11 His gestures of the smiting of the hand and the stamping of the feet express the seriousness of that which was about to come upon them. Both are used in the scriptures as signs of indignation and impending punishment from the Lord. It is hard to imagine how far apart (the greatness of the gulf) the people of Israel had become in their spiritual life before the Lord. The total exasperation of the Lord is expressed by the statement, ìI will accomplish my fury upon them.î Eze 6:12 A fearful and frightening announcement. Their places and subjects of worship would be the very place where their dead bodies would be found. Eze. 6:13 False worship has the sentence of death upon it. In spite of dire circumstances there are always those who have not followed the way of their neighbors and maintained true worship. These, no doubt, are the ones that escaped death and were taken into captivity.

As with many of the circumstances recorded in the old testament, that which was spoken of by Ezekiel will repeat itself and reach it climax, in the end of the age. As horrendous as the situation was with Israel and its unhappy results, it was but the beginning of the stream. We are about to reach the flood tide of the prophecy. We find the threefold judgment in the sixth chapter of the book of Revelation. Wars, famines and pandemics. An ear, tuned and responding to the voice of the Lord will find deliverance in the Lord Jesus. He is a sure refuge. Ps. 57:1.

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