Standing in the Gap

Prophetic Warning to Israel (US and UK; Jews)

Who Ezekiel wrote to:

The Israelites had gone into captivity over a century before and then dispersed Northwest into Europe – they did not return to Israel! So, Ezekiel’s warning is primarily for the future – for Israel in the future.

Ezekiel 22:1 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Ezekiel 22:2 “Now, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Yes, show her all her abominations!

They are judged by the words in this book, the Bible. They/we were given a standard and God is now holding the accountable for what they knew or should have known in regards to doing what’s right.

Ezekiel 22:3 Then say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “The city sheds blood in her own midst, that her time may come; and she makes idols within herself to defile herself.

Abominations are things like idolatry – putting anything before God and breaking the law of God.

Bloody city … murders; abortions

Ezekiel 22:4 You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made. You have caused your days to draw near, and have come to the end of your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all countries.

In other word you have signed your own death warrant, because the wages of sin is death.

The outside world is looking in and what do they see — you have become the laughing stock of the world. We consider ourselves the great and mighty, a nation of laws but the UK is/has last respect of Europe; Israel is going down the tubes; The US is on fire; laws are not being obeyed and are enforced biasly; criminals are victims and victims are criminals; etc.

Ezekiel 22:5 Those near and those far from you will mock you as infamous [shameful] and full of tumult.
Ezekiel 22:6 “Look, the princes of Israel: each one has used his power to shed blood in you.

Three days after Clinton testified on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Operation Infinite Reach launched missiles against al-Qaeda bases in Khost, Afghanistan. How many US military lives were lost because of this?

If the Clinton body count has any credibility to it, killing someone would be a quick way to solve some of their problems.

Ezekiel 22:7 In you they have made light of father and mother; in your midst they have oppressed the stranger; in you they have mistreated the fatherless and the widow.

  • The respect and honor for parents is gone; children only do they not obey, but rule over the parents getting there own way without discipline and guidance.

  • How are immigrants being taken advantage of and abused; kidnapping for slavery and or sex

  • Take advantage of those most helpless and do not protect those that need it most

Ezekiel 22:8 You have despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths.

These are things that God has set apart. We have been disrespectful and desecrated the days God commanded us to keep – remember this is a future prophecy, He still expects us to keep them

Ezekiel 22:9 In you are men who slander to cause bloodshed; in you are those who eat on the mountains; in your midst they commit lewdness.

So not only are the leaders doing it, but the followers – the rest of the people. They lie [where? In court?] and innocent people die.

In the high places, a reference to partaking in pagan religious practices;

lewdness… uncleanness; not pure; unacceptable

Ezekiel 22:10 In you men uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women who are set apart during their impurity.
Ezekiel 22:11 One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; and another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter.

Commit a litany of sexually immoral sins

Ezekiel 22:12 In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take usury and increase; you have made profit from your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten Me,” says the Lord GOD.

Yet another way in which they murder

Advantage is being taken with interest rates (Credit cards; Student loans); making money becomes primary over how it is obtained.

And now the crux of the matter: You have forgotten Me,” says the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 22:13 “Behold, therefore, I beat My fists at the dishonest profit which you have made, and at the bloodshed which has been in your midst.
Ezekiel 22:14 Can your heart endure, or can your hands remain strong, in the days when I shall deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and will do it.
Ezekiel 22:15 I will scatter you among the nations, disperse you throughout the countries, and remove your filthiness completely from you.

remove your filthiness… through this impending affliction which will make them think twice about the way that they have been and what they have done.

Ezekiel 22:16 You shall defile yourself [be humiliated] in the sight of the nations; then you shall know that I am the LORD.” ‘ “

The realization will set in and they will know that God is behind this all

Ezekiel 22:17 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Ezekiel 22:18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace; they have become dross from silver.

They are the impurities and not the refined silver which God wanted

Ezekiel 22:19 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because you have all [leaders and followers; both will be held accountable] become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

Israel = Israel and Judah; captivity will be in Jerusalem and at that time it will not be under Jewish control like it is today.

Because of the way that everyone is acting and how they are disregarding what God wants us to do, our Father is upset with His children:

Ezekiel 22:20 As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you.
Ezekiel 22:21 Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst.
Ezekiel 22:22 As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have poured out My fury on you.’ ” [in the Day of the Lord] Ezekiel 22:23 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Ezekiel 22:24 “Son of man, say to her: ‘You are a land that is not cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation.’ [another name for the Day of the Lord] Ezekiel 22:25 The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst.

So now we are talking about the religious leaders. These are not the prophets of God, these are the false prophets. They have interpreted the law in an incorrect and ungodly manner and more than likely to their own gain;

Ezekiel 22:26 Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

They did not keep the law or teach it correctly. It should have been a fairly simple matter to say the Bible says this is holy and clean and this is not, but they did not do it.

Ezekiel 22:27 Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain.

The civil leadership here is only thinking of themselves, even to the destruction of the people.

Ezekiel 22:28 Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD had not spoken.

Untempered – not hardened (ie steel); actual word means slimy gummy plaster. This does not hold the wall together, it is not a wall prepared to resist what is coming.

This does not prepare the people for the storms and rains to come.

Ezekiel 22:29 The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger.

Very similar to verse 7; so what we see here is that people often play follow the leader. If the powers that be and the “rule makers” aren’t doing what’s right, we should not take the harder road as well

Ezekiel 22:30 So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.
Ezekiel 22:31 Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord GOD.

There is no one to Make a wall of defense and to protect the city

Therefore… now because of all of this, God has poured out His indignation, during the Day of the Lord.

I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads… this was a just payment for their sinful actions

This is what Moses did

Moses Did Do This for Israel

Psalms 106:23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them, Had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach, To turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them.

Exodus 32:7 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
Exodus 32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ”
Exodus 32:9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!
Exodus 32:10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”
Exodus 32:11 Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said: “LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
Exodus 32:12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people.
Exodus 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”
Exodus 32:14 So th LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.