Ezekiel gives us vivid descriptions of his experiences with the Lord. Because of that I will try to highlight these very detailed passages as best I can. I will leave it to you to fill in the details in your own reading, and in your own way. So here goes...
We left Ezekiel as the Lord told him to eat a scroll and go speak to the people. So Ezekiel ate the scroll and reported that it was "sweet as honey." The Lord told Ezekiel that even though the people spoke the same language, they still wouldn't listen to him. God told Ezekiel He would make him as stubborn about speaking to the people as they were about not listening. As the Lord started to leave, Ezekiel heard the loud thundering noise of the creatures wings and wheels then the Spirit carried him away. He felt annoyed and angry and when he returned to the other people he sat for 7 days, shocked at what had happened to him. The Lord spoke to Ezekiel and told him to warn the people and stand watch over them. As long as he did as the Lord asked, he would be innocent. The Lord took control of Ezekiel and told him that he would be bound up in his house and unable to talk, the time would come when God would tell him what to say, some would listen others wouldn't.
The Lord told Ezekiel to make a replica of Jerusalem out of a brick and prepare an attack plan on the city. Then he was to lie on his left side as a sign of Israel's punishment for 390 days! A day for each year of suffering. Then he was to lie on his right side for 40 days. A sign for Judah's punishment. The Lord told him what to eat and drink, but he objected to using dried human excrement to cook his bread. So the Lord told him to use dried cow dung instead. Everyone would die a slow death because of their sins.
The Lord told Ezekiel to shave off his beard and hair and divide it into three piles. One he was to burn, the second he was to chop into little pieces and spread it around where he burned the first, and the third he was to throw into the wind and God would stike it with His own sword. He was to take a few hairs and tuck them into the hem of his clothes, but take a few strands and burn them. God gave Ezekiel a message for the people of Jerusalem, they would feel his anger!
God told Ezekiel to tell the mountains and hills that the idols on them would be destroyed. The people who worshiped them would be killed also. The survivors would finally realize that they needed to take the Lord seriously.
The Lord told Ezekiel to tell the people the end was near. They would know that the Lord punished them. There would be no more buying and selling, everything would be worthless. They were to be punished for their sins and God wouldn't change His mind.
Their gold that caused them to sin would not be able to save them. When the temple would be destroyed God would turn away and not watch. The people would be treated the way thay had treated others.
Ezekiel had a vision of what the people were doing inside the temple. They believed even God couldn't see what they did, but God saw. God told Ezekiel that the people had insulted Him in the worst possible way, so he would punish them without mercy and refuse to help them when they cried out to Him.
Tomorrow read Ezekiel 9-12
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