God tells Ezekiel (about 4 years prior to the fall of Jerusalem) to condemn (from a distance; in Babylonia) the places where people worship idols in Jerusalem. God says that people will die (it has been known to happen in wartime). God says that this is going to happen because people have willfully ignored the warnings given by the prophets.
Ezekiel is given a litany of Jerusalem's sins for which they will be punished. Even the priesthood, which is supposed to lead the people in worship of God, are ignoring God. They don't fulfill their part of the covenant. The majority of the "prophets" give false hope and false visions because they make things up that people want to hear rather than speaking the truth.
The repetitive nature of the prophecies here can be better understood if one remembers that these occurred at different times over years. We may read two adjacent chapters, but we have to realize that there may have been weeks or even months between them. Different audiences probably were listening, so even though the message would have been similar, it needed to be repeated to the different groups of people. We also saw this with Jeremiah, who served under five kings (Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah). He repeated warnings to each of them, many years apart, but we see them all together in one book. Each warning given to Ezekiel reinforces the prior message. It is likely that some false prophet or other speaker attempted to contradict Ezekiel during this time, perhaps saying that God's mind had been changed from Ezekiel's earlier prophecy. Each time, Ezekiel, under God's direction, would say that God's mind hadn't been changed, and the prior prophecy still remained.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-10-15 01:22 am (UTC)God says that this is going to happen because people have willfully ignored the warnings given by the prophets.
Ezekiel is given a litany of Jerusalem's sins for which they will be punished. Even the priesthood, which is supposed to lead the people in worship of God, are ignoring God. They don't fulfill their part of the covenant. The majority of the "prophets" give false hope and false visions because they make things up that people want to hear rather than speaking the truth.
The repetitive nature of the prophecies here can be better understood if one remembers that these occurred at different times over years. We may read two adjacent chapters, but we have to realize that there may have been weeks or even months between them. Different audiences probably were listening, so even though the message would have been similar, it needed to be repeated to the different groups of people. We also saw this with Jeremiah, who served under five kings (Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah). He repeated warnings to each of them, many years apart, but we see them all together in one book.
Each warning given to Ezekiel reinforces the prior message. It is likely that some false prophet or other speaker attempted to contradict Ezekiel during this time, perhaps saying that God's mind had been changed from Ezekiel's earlier prophecy. Each time, Ezekiel, under God's direction, would say that God's mind hadn't been changed, and the prior prophecy still remained.