the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 4 of 5
Ezekiel 20:45-49; ; Ezekiel 21:18-32
"Doth he not speak parables?" they said of Ezekiel, with a certain scorn (v. 49). His language appeared difficult to the people simply because they did not want to understand. In this way unbelievers deliberately pick out difficulties in the Word and make use of them as a pretext to avoid submitting to it.
In this terrible chapter, the sword, the first of the four disastrous judgments (Ezekiel 14:21), is drawn from its sheath for punishment. To wield it, the LORD will use the king of Babylon, whom we see at the parting of the ways, busy consulting his gods (v. 21).
Will he begin by attacking Jerusalem or Rabbath of the Ammonites? In the eyes of the men of Judah this divination is false and valueless (v. 23). So it certainly was! But the LORD, high above these matters, has determined the ruin of Jerusalem (v. 27) and the end of the royal line. The crown shall be taken from the head of the "profane wicked prince of Israel" (the "profane" is he who treads under foot the blessings God has bestowed: cf. Ezekiel 22:26 and in Hebrews 12:16 the example of Esau).
Henceforth there will no longer be a descendant of David on the throne, until the coming of Christ, "whose right it is".
