Ezekiel 22 Ezekiel Reveals the Just Cause of God's Fury by Exposing the Guilt of the Nation
Ezekiel 22:1-31 Expository Outline
I. The Lord commands the prophet to expose the reasons for judgment within the nation.
A. Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2
1. Now, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city?
2. Yes, show her all her abominations! 3
B. For I will explain how Jerusalem prepares herself for judgment
1. Then say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD:
2. The city sheds blood in her own midst, that her time may come;
3. She makes idols within herself to defile herself. 4
C. Since you have sinfully prepared yourself for My wrath.
1. You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed,
2. You have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made.
3. You have caused your days to draw near,
4. You have come to the end of your years;
D. Therefore I have exposed your shame before the mocking world.
1. I have made you a reproach to the nations,
2. I have made you a mockery to all countries. 5
3. Those near and those far from you will mock you as infamous and full of tumult. 6
II. Then the Lord exposes the specific sins of Israel's leaders
A. Look at the sins of the princes of Israel:
1. Each one has used his power to shed blood in you. 7
2. Each one has committed and tolerated injustice
a. In you they have made light of father and mother;
b. In your midst they have oppressed the stranger;
c. In you they have mistreated the fatherless and the widow. 8
3. Each one blasphemes My holy worship
a. You have despised My holy things
b. You have profaned My Sabbaths. 9
4. Each one tolerates covenant breaking of all kinds
a. In you are men who slander to cause bloodshed;
b. In you are those who eat on the mountains;
c. In your midst they commit lewdness. 10
1.) In you men uncover their fathers' nakedness;
2.) In you they violate women who are set apart during their impurity. 11
3.) One commits abomination with his neighbor's wife;
4.) Another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law;
5.) Another in you violates his sister, his father's daughter. 12
d. In you they take bribes to shed blood;
e. You take usury and increase;
f. You have made profit from your neighbors by extortion,
5. You have forgotten Me," says the God God. 13
III. Behold, therefore You will know My Lordship by My holy anger
A. I will pound your sinful pride.
1. I beat My fists at the dishonest profit which you have made,
2. I beat My fists at the bloodshed which has been in your midst. 14
3. Do you think you are a match for my fury?
a. Can your heart endure my wrath,
b. Can your hands remain strong, when I shall deal with you?
4. I, the LORD, have spoken, and will do it. 15
B. I will break up the nation to put an end to your defiling ways
1. I will scatter you among the nations,
2. I will disperse you throughout the countries,
3. I will remove your filthiness completely from you. 16
4. When you shall be defiled within yourself in the sight of the nations;
C. Then you shall know that I am the LORD. 17
IV. Then the Lord reveals the intensity of His wrath in the siege-figure of a furnace
A. The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 18
B. Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me;
1. they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace;
2. they have become dross from silver. 19
C. Therefore I will melt you in the furnace of suffering, says the Lord GOD:
1. Because you have all become dross,
2. Therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20
a. As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it;
b. So I will gather you in My anger and in My fury,
c. I will leave you there and melt you. 21
3. Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath,
a. You shall be melted in its midst. 22
b. As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace,
c. So shall you be melted in its midst;
D. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have poured out My fury on you.' " 23
V. The word of the LORD commanded me to expose the sin of leaders and people,24
A. Son of man, explain the national defilement.
1. You are a land that is not cleansed
2. You are a land that is not rained on in the day of indignation. 25
B. The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey;
1. They have devoured people;
2. They have taken treasure and precious things;
3. They have made many widows in her midst. 26
C. Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things;
1. They have covered up sin with rationalizations
a. They have not distinguished between the holy and unholy,
b. They have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean;
c. They have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths,
2. So that I am profaned among them 27
D. Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey,
1. Her princes are like wolves to shed blood,
2. Her princes are like wolves to destroy people,
3. Her princes are like wolves to get dishonest gain. 28
E. Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar,
1. They see false visions for them,
2. They divine lies for them,
a. They say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD,'
b. When the LORD had not spoken. 29
F. The people of the land have used oppressions,
1. They have committed robbery,
2. They have mistreated the poor and needy;
3. They wrongfully oppress the stranger. 30
VI. Since no one intervened to propitiate My wrath.
A. So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall,
B. I sought for a man to stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land,
C. That I should not destroy it;
D. But I found no one. 31
VII. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them;
A. I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath;
B. I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads, says the Lord GOD.