– 11:15 “Son of man, your brethren, your relatives, your countrymen, and all the house of Israel in its entirety, are those about whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Get far away from the Lord; this land has been given to us as a possession.’”

I will admit, this passage had me confused as to whom the Lord was referring to—the exiles or the ones remaining in Jerusalem. Search engines failed me; the links summarized the totality of verses 14-20, but not the verse alone. I had asked two different people what they saw, including my pastor. The answer lay in a most common way to analyze Scripture: read the previous verses.

Duh.

I had forgot about that, even though I have practiced it for years.

My pastor read 11:13 “Now it happened, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell on my face and cried with a loud voice, and said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Will You make a complete end of the remnant of Israel?’” Is it wrong to be mildly amused at someone keeling over dead during a prophet’s prophesying?

After he had checked out the Hebrew and some commentary, he concluded (for now) that it was the remnant in Jerusalem who had made (and will make later) that comment about the exiles. The Father repeated that quote to set up the rest of His declaration for the hope of all Israel’s return in the future and encourage Ezekiel.

So, in modern-day Southern slang, the remnant in Jerusalem said, “Y’all done long left the Lord. This here promised land is ours now.”

This behavior of the remnant was the concern the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh had with the rest of Israel in Joshua 22:10-34. There, those 2.5 tribes feared Israel would exclude their descendants from serving the Lord because of the Jordan River border.

My pastor pointed out that before the return of the Babylonian exiles (Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi), the remnant in Jerusalem had developed their own culture and were none too happy about these strangers coming into their land to restart a dead system.

A more extreme version of this behavior is what Jesus taught His disciples in John 16:2, “They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.”

– 12:2 “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house.” See Isaiah 6:9, Isaiah 6:10, Isaiah 29:10, Isaiah 30:10, Jeremiah 5:21, Matthew 13:13, Matthew 13:14, Matthew 13:15, Mark 4:12, Mark 8:18, Luke 8:10, John 9:39, John 12:40, Deuteronomy 29:4, Psalm 69:23, Acts 28:26, Romans 11:8, 2 Thessalonians 2:11.

– 12:13 “I will also spread My net over him, and he shall be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he shall not see it, though he shall die there.”

In Jeremiah, the king, his sons, and his men had tried to escape the siege. Nebuchadnezzar (God’s net and snare) caught them, killing the sons and men. He had put out Zedekiah’s eyes and taken the wounded man back to Babylon, where the disposed king died years later.

– 12:16 “But I will spare a few of their men from the sword, from famine, and from pestilence, that they may declare all their abominations among the Gentiles wherever they go. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.” Praise the Lord, we have Scripture to do that for us now.

– 12:18 “Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and anxiety.”
Philippians 2:12 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling…”

2 Corinthians 7:15 “And his affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him.”
Psalm 2:11 “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.”

Psalm 119:120 “My flesh trembles for fear of You, and I am afraid of Your judgments.”
Isaiah 66:2 “For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,” says the Lord. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor [needy, humble] and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.”

– 13:9 “My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God.” Yup, all those scrolls got burned.

– 13:19 “…killing people who should not die, and keeping people alive who should not live…” I will have to pray over for understanding. “…by your lying to My people who listen to lies?” Nice indictment against the willfully ignorant once again.

– 13:20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against your magic charms by which you hunt souls there like birds. I will tear them from your arms, and let the souls go, the souls you hunt like birds.” Eh? Another one to pray over.

– 14:3 “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?” Well, the attitude of disgust is clearly evident, LOL! Set up idols in their hearts = an image, place or idea people have made a commitment to outside of either Yah’s Order, Will, Purpose, or Desire.

– 14:9 “And if the [false] prophet is induced [deceived] to speak anything, I the Lord have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel.”
1 Kings 22:23 and 2 Chronicles 18:22 “So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has pronounced disaster against you.”

Jeremiah 4:10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Surely You have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You shall have peace,’ whereas the sword reaches to the throat.”

– 14:22 Yet behold, there shall be left in it a remnant who will be brought out, both sons and daughters; surely they will come out to you, and you will see their ways and their doings. Then you will be comforted concerning the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, all that I have brought upon it.
– 36:20 “When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name—when they said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they have gone out of His land.’” Also see Deuteronomy 29:24-28, 1 Kings 9:8-9, 2 Chronicles 7:21-22.

– Ezekiel 15 has to be the smallest scroll in the Bible.

– 16:17 Most believers will never know what the Lord is implying here; that’s a good thing.

– 16:44 “Indeed everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb against you: ‘Like mother, like daughter!’” This is where that saying comes from.

– 16:52 “…they are more righteous than you.”
Matthew 12:41 “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.”
Matthew 12:42 “The queen of the south [Sheba] shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.”

Yes, He does keep track of who is either worse or better for His purposes. We are not called to do that unless we are searching for sin within ourselves and need a measure to go by.

– “As I live…” is used by Yah and those who worship Him 26-32 times, depending on which Bible translation one uses. Ezekiel contains the phrase the most (16).

– 17:23 “On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it; and it will bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a majestic cedar. Under it will dwell birds of every sort; in the shadow of its branches they will dwell.”
– 31:6 “All the birds of the heavens made their nests in [Assyria’s] boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young; and in its shadow all great nations made their home.”
– 31:13 “On [Assyria’s] ruin will remain all the birds of the heavens, and all the beasts of the field will come to its branches.”

Luke 13:19 “It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”
Psalm 80:8 “You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it.” Also see Matthew 13:32, Matthew 15:13, Mark 4:32, Numbers 24:6, 2 Samuel 7:10, Psalm 1:3, Psalm 52:8, Psalm 72:7, Psalm 80:15, Psalm 92:12, Psalm 96:12, Psalm 104:16, Isaiah 5:2, Isaiah 27:6, Isaiah 29:17, Isaiah 32:15, Isaiah 35:1, Isaiah 35:2, Isaiah 55:13, Isaiah 60:21, Daniel 4:10-12, John 15:2, 1 Corinthians 3:9.

– 17:24 “And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the Lord, have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree, dried up the green tree and made the dry tree flourish; I, the Lord, have spoken and have done it.”

Matthew 21:19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.
Matthew 3:10 and Luke 3:9 “And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Matthew 7:19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Isaiah 10:33-34 “Behold, the Lord, The Lord of hosts, will lop off the bough with terror. Those of high stature will be hewn down, and the haughty will be humbled. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.”
Jeremiah 21:14 “But I will punish you according to the results of your deeds,” declares the Lord, “And I will kindle a fire in its forest so that it may devour all its surroundings.”
Also see Jeremiah 11:16, Jeremiah 22:7, Isaiah 10:18, Isaiah 10:19, Isaiah 32:19, Isaiah 33:9, 2 Kings 19:23, Daniel 4:14-15.

– 18:20 “The soul who sins shall die.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…”
Genesis 2:17 “…but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
James 1:15 “Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

– 18:24 “But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, committing the same abominations as the wicked, will he live? None of the righteous acts he did will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness and sin he has committed, he will die.”

Proverbs 11:19 “As righteousness leads to life, so he who pursues evil pursues it to his own death.”
Proverbs 21:16 “A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.”
Jeremiah 21:8 “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.”
Deuteronomy 30:15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil…”

– 20:9 (20:14, 20:22, 36:21, 36:22) “But I acted for My name’s sake, that it should not be profaned before the Gentiles among whom they were, in whose sight I had made Myself known to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.”
– 43:7 And He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile My holy name, they nor their kings, by their harlotry or with the carcasses of their kings on their high places.”

Also see Exodus 9:16, Exodus 32:11-14, Joshua 4:24, Joshua 9:9, 1 Samuel 12:22, Psalm 25:11, Psalm 31:3, Psalm 77:14, Psalm 79:9, Psalm 106:8, Psalm 109:21, Psalm 111:6, Psalm 115:1, Psalm 143:11, 2 Chronicles 14:11, Isaiah 48:9, Isaiah 48:11, Jeremiah 44:26, Malachi 2:2.

The word name in both the Greek and the Hebrew means authority, power, cause, nature, character, reputation. The Creator is a father and calls Himself various names/titles according to what He does. He exists because He exists; He is what He has done, is doing, and will do.

Profaning any of His Names is a rejection of His Order, Will, Purpose, and Desire, which gives Him the right to destroy, since it is against His holiness—His nature. Seeing as He covered us by His Blood (Christ’s atonement), we are given grace—the time period in which He learn His ways, but our actions still dictate how He will teach and treat us.

– 20:25 “Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live…”

This passage has been taken out of context by those who believe that Torah (His Will) was what He was talking about. Read the verses before and after for the full context:

– 20:26 “…and I pronounced them unclean because of their ritual gifts, in that they caused all their firstborn to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate and that they might know that I am the Lord.”

He turned His people over to their desire for false worship, giving Him the right to kick them out of the land for a time.

– 20:39a “As for you, O house of Israel,” thus says the Lord God: “Go, serve every one of you his idols—and hereafter—if you will not obey Me…”
– 23:38 “Moreover they have done this to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and profaned My Sabbaths.”
– 23:39 “For after they had slain their children for their idols, on the same day they came into My sanctuary to profane it; and indeed thus they have done in the midst of My house.”

Isaiah 1:13 “Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.”

Jeremiah 44:25 This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “As for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands your words: ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have made to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Go ahead, then, do what you have promised! Keep your vows!”

Acts 7:42 Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? [Amos 5:25]”

1 Timothy 4:1-2 “Now the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…”
Also see Deuteronomy 28:20, Jeremiah 7:10, Jeremiah 7:30, Jeremiah 19:4, Jeremiah 32:34, Jeremiah 44:4, Isaiah 28:15, Isaiah 66:3.

– 20:39b “…but profane My holy name no more with your gifts and your idols.”

2 Corinthians 9:7 “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.”

John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
John 15:14 “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”

Matthew 12:50 and Mark 3:35 “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

Also see John 2:5, John 13:17, John 14:21, John 14:23, John 15:10, 1 John 2:3, 1 John 5:3, 2 John 1:6.

– What I am noticing in Ezekiel is that Our Father is actually pouring His heart out to His people but very few get it. I can feel the pain as I read. Oh Creator and King, forgive us if we unknowingly profaned Your holy Name and caused us to distance ourselves from You. Please, correct us and draw us closer to You, so we can fulfill Your Purpose of our existence and celebrate Your continuous works. Amen.

– 20:41a “When I bring you from the peoples and gather you from the lands to which you have been scattered, I will accept you as a pleasing aroma.”
Genesis 8:21 And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.”

Numbers 15:3 “…and you make an offering by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or in your appointed feasts, to make a sweet aroma to the Lord, from the herd or the flock…”

2 Corinthians 2:15-16 “For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?”

Philippians 4:18 “Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.” Also see Exodus 29:18, Exodus 29:25, Leviticus 1:9, Leviticus 1:17, Leviticus 4:31, Acts 10:4, Ephesians 5:2.

Our desire to not just obey, but also to do what He cares about penetrates His being as a lovely scent does our noses. This is why prayer and worship is symbolized by the rising smoke from the Altar of Incense: Revelation 5:8 “Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”

Revelation 8:3-4 “Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.”
Psalm 141:2 “Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”
Luke 1:10 “And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense.”
Hebrews 5:7 “…who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear…”

– 20:41b “And I will show My holiness through you in the sight of the nations.”
– 36:23 “And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord,” says the Lord God, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.”

Psalm 126:2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”
Genesis 21:6 And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.”
Joshua 2:9-13 “…and [Rehab] said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

“And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

“Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, and give me a true token, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.”

– 20:49 “Doesn’t he speak in parables?” Matthew 13:10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Also see Matthew 13:3, Matthew 13:11, Matthew 13:13, Matthew 13:34, Mark 4:34, John 10:6, John 16:25.

– 21:3-5 and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am against you, and I will draw My sword out of its sheath and cut off both righteous and wicked from you. Because I will cut off both righteous and wicked from you, therefore My sword shall go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north, that all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it shall not return anymore.”’

Ecclesiastes 9:2 “All things come alike to all: One event happens to the righteous and the wicked; To the good, the clean, and the unclean; To him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath as he who fears an oath.”

Job 9:22 It is all the same, and so I say, “He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.”

Luke 13:1-3 There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

Two things are true: anyone can experience suffering and, without Christ’s resurrection, we have no hope for the future [1 Corinthians 15:17].

– 21:10 “Sharpened to make a dreadful slaughter, polished to flash like lightning! Should we then make mirth? It despises the scepter [rod] of My son, as it does all wood.”

Isaiah 53:10 “Yet it pleased the Lord to crush Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.”
Isaiah 53:4-5 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Also see Romans 4:25, Romans 8:32, 1 Corinthians 15:3, Hebrews 5:8, Hebrews 9:28, 1 Peter 2:24, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19, Matthew 26:26, 1 Corinthians 11:23-25.

– 21:26 “Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted.”

1 Samuel 2:7 “The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up.”
Psalm 75:7 “But God is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another.”
James 4:10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.”

Matthew 20:25-28 and Mark 10:42-45 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Also see Deuteronomy 8:18 Job 1:21 Job 5:11 Job 40:12 Psalm 75:10 Proverbs 29:23 Isaiah 2:12 Matthew 23:12 Mark 9:35 Luke 1:52 Luke 14:11 Luke 16:15 Luke 18:14 Luke 22:26 1 Peter 5:6.