Ezekiel 22:1-5

 Is it possible that the sins of Jerusalem are being reenacted in the sins of America?

Are money, independence and control our idols of choice? Is there hope for us? We need to ask forgiveness, repent and do it His way not ours. His commands? Love Him above all and our neighbors as ourself. Sounds easy? Not in the moral decline that we find our nation in now. If we truly love God and our neighbors…we would fulfill all the law. The blood on our nation is abortion and equally of importance is failing to care for the very children that we save in terms of food, housing, schooling and medical care. 

God chastens those He loves. If we say we are followers of Jesus Christ…that is us folks!

 He will remove anything that stands in the way of our becoming like His Son.

Yahweh commands Ezekiel to judge, which appears to involve delivering an accusation rather than a verdict. The Hebrew word used here, cherpah, refers to a condition of shame or disgrace. Israel will be shamed before the nations. Faithlife Bible.

These verses focus on the sins of Jerusalem, principally bloodshed (social sin) as a result of idolatry (spiritual sin). A problem in the vertical relationship with God inevitably leads to some degree of injustice and injury in horizontal, human affairs. The city was ripe for judgment. When such hypocrisy is exposed and punishment is executed before the world, God’s people become lasting objects of ridicule.

Ezekiel 22:1–5 (NKJV)

22 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “Now, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Yes, show her all her abominations! 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. 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. ⁵ Those near and those far from you will mock you as infamous and full of tumult.

1 Kings 9:7 (NKJV)

⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

2 Kings 21:16 (NKJV)

¹⁶ Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

Ezekiel 5:14 (NKJV)

¹⁴ Moreover I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.