Daily Devotions
Ezekiel
"This is Jerusalem"
Text: Ezekiel 5:5
JERUSALEM AT THE CONSECRATION OF THE TEMPLE
King Solomon had spared no expenses in the building of the Temple. The funds had already been dedicated by King David who shared a deep love for the temple.
At the dedication of the Temple, the LORD gave this word to Solomon.
“Now My eyes will be open
and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.
For now I have chosen and sanctified this house,
that My name may be there forever;
and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.”
2 Chronicles 7:15-16
1. God had accepted the Temple made.
2. He had chosen and sanctified the Temple.
3. He would place His name there.
4. His eyes and His heart would be there.
A WORD OF WARNING GIVEN SIMULTANEOUSLY
The LORD also gave a stern word of warning to Solomon even as He blessed the Temple.
“But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments
which I have set before you,
and go and serve other gods, and worship them,
then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them;
and this house which I have sanctified for My name
I will cast out of My sight,
and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.”
2 Chronicles 7:19-20
1. If Solomon were to turn away and forsake God’s word.
2. If he were to become an idolater.
3. The nation would follow its king.
4. God would uproot Israel from the land.
5. The house of God, the Temple would be cast out of His sight.
6. Sadly, in the evening years of Solomon, he turned to worship idols.
7. Both Israel and Judah became idolatrous.
A STATEMENT CONCERNING JERUSALEM IN THE DAYS OF EZEKIEL
“Thus says the Lord GOD:
‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations
and the countries all around her.'”
Ezekiel 5:5
1. “This is Jerusalem”
a) It was no longer holy and sanctified.
b) It had become defiled.
c) Jerusalem housed many idols.
2. The plight of Jerusalem.
a) She was now besieged heavily.
b) Many nations and countries had surrounded her.
c) She would soon fall to the Babylonians.