Ezekiel 22

V 1–5: JERUSALEM JUDGED Bloodshed and idolatry ensure God’s judgement of Jerusalem. Israel will become a reproach to all kingdoms and a mockery to all countries. V 6–13: WIDESPREAD WICKEDNESS This passage specifies many wicked sins, from despising God’s holy things and the Sabbath, through to immorality, idolatry, oppression, extortion and bloodshed. V 14–16: DEFILING DISPERSION God’s people, who have defiled themselves while in their land, will be defiled further still, as they are scattered among the nations and dispersed because of God’s judgement upon them. Then they will know that God is the Lord. V 17–22: FIERY FURNACE Jerusalem will become as a great smelting pot. God will blow the refining fire of ‘His wrath’ upon them and in His fury they will know that He is the Lord. V 23–31: MISSING MAN Despite the faithful prophecy of God’s men such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel, there is no man who can stand in the gap to save Israel. God’s holy things and Sabbaths have been profaned, robbery has been rife, blood has been wrongly shed, people have been oppressed, false prophecies have been made, and ungodliness has prevailed. God says that He ‘sought for a man’ to stand in the gap so that God need not destroy Jerusalem. He found nobody. Judgement must fall.