Study Desk

God took careful aim and shot his arrows

He causes a lot of suffering, but he also has pity because of his great love.

I am Ezekiel—a priest and the son of Buzi. Five years after King Jehoiachin of Judah had been led away as a prisoner to Babylonia, I was living near the Chebar River among those who had been taken there with him. Then on the fifth day of the fourth month of the thirtieth year, the heavens suddenly opened. The Lord placed his hand upon me and showed me some visions.

After he said this, his Spirit took control of me and lifted me to my feet. Then the Lord said:

His Spirit took control of me and lifted me to my feet. Then the Lord said: Go back and lock yourself in your house!

Even your king and his officials will lose hope and cry in despair. Your hands will tremble with fear. I will punish you for your sins and treat you the same way you have treated others. Then you will know that I am the Lord .

and the brightness of the Lord 's glory moved from above the creatures and stopped at the entrance of the temple. The entire temple was filled with his glory, and the courtyard was dazzling bright.

The leader of Jerusalem will lift his own bag to his shoulders at sunset and leave through a hole that the others have dug in the wall of his house. He will cover his face, so he can't see the land he is leaving.

His own officials and troops will scatter in every direction, and the Lord will track them down and put them to death.

Ezekiel, ask the rebellious people of Israel if they know what this story means. Tell them that the king of Babylonia came to Jerusalem, then he captured the king of Judah and his officials, and took them back to Babylon as prisoners.

Even the king of Egypt and his powerful army will be useless to Judah when the Babylonians attack and build dirt ramps to invade the cities of Judah and kill its people.

The king of Judah broke his own promises and ignored the treaty with Babylonia. And so he will be punished!

I will spread out a net to trap him. Then I will drag him to Babylon and see that he is punished for his unfaithfulness to me.

His best troops will be killed in battle, and the survivors will be scattered in every direction. I, the Lord , have spoken.

his father never did. He eats meat at local shrines, has sex with someone else's wife,

and charges high interest when lending money. An evil man like that will certainly not live. He is the one who has done these horrible sins, so it's his own fault that he will be put to death.

But suppose this evil man has a son who sees his father do these things and refuses to act like him.

and refuses to do anything evil or to charge interest. And he obeys all my laws and teachings. Such a man will live. His own father sinned, but this good man will not be put to death for the sins of his father.

It is his father who will die for cheating and robbing and doing evil.

You may wonder why a son isn't punished for the sins of his father. It is because the son does what is right and obeys my laws.