Pay Back Part 1 Series

Ezekiel 7: 1 – 18

‘Pay back’ Part 1

1 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “And you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. 3 Now the end has come upon you, and I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will repay you for all your abominations. 4 My eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity; But I will repay your ways, and your abominations will be in your midst; Then you shall know that I am the LORD!’ 5 “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘A disaster, a singular disaster; Behold, it has come! 6 An end has come, the end has come; It has dawned for you; Behold, it has come! 7 Doom has come to you, you who dwell in the land; The time has come, a day of trouble is near, and not of rejoicing in the mountains. 8 Now upon you I will soon pour out My fury, and spend My anger upon you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will repay you for all your abominations. 9 ‘ My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will repay you according to your ways, and your abominations will be in your midst. Then you shall know that I am the LORD who strikes. 10 ‘ Behold, the day! Behold, it has come! Doom has gone out; The rod has blossomed, pride has budded. 11 Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness; None of them shall remain, none of their multitude, none of them; nor shall there be wailing for them. 12 The time has come, the day draws near. ‘Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn, for wrath is on their whole multitude. 13 For the seller shall not return to what has been sold, though he may still be alive; For the vision concerns the whole multitude, and it shall not turn back; No one will strengthen himself who lives in iniquity. 14 ‘ They have blown the trumpet and made everyone ready, but no one goes to battle; For My wrath is on all their multitude. 15 The sword is outside, and the pestilence and famine within. Whoever is in the field will die by the sword; and whoever is in the city, famine and pestilence will devour him. 16 ‘ Those who survive will escape and be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, each for his iniquity. 17 Every hand will be feeble, and every knee will be as weak as water. 18 They will also be girded with sackcloth; Horror will cover them; Shame will be on every face, baldness on all their heads.

Ezekiel again received a message from the Holy Yahweh. We do not know how long of a sequesnce that was between this and his last message from God. But we do need to be reminded of a certain fact. That is, Ezekiel was not allowed to speak until God opened his mouth to issue a word from the Almighty God.

Time is up. The Holy Living Awesome God stresses the end has come. Sadley, the nation of Judah, the city of Jerusalem, and all the land of Israel is finished. You will note, that the Lord stressed this point three times, which is the number of certain completion and each time the message grew in intensity - An end; the end; now the end is on you.

They were now going to deal with God’s anger – not a good place to be at. I want and need God’s Mercy in dealing with my sinfulness. Their behaviors that have not escaped God’s eyes would now be judged. I need my wicked behaviors covered by the blood of His Holy Son.

Payback! Whatever wicked things they said and did would now be received back on them. They would know that all of this was because of their forsaking the Holy One of Israel as their God.

The prophet Amos had declared the same thing on the Northern Kingdom in prior years.

Amos 8: 2 2 And He said, “Amos, what do you see?” So I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me: “ The end has come upon My people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore.”

Can’t these people wake up? The answer is no. They should have realized that God destroyed Samaria and the northern kingdom for their sinfulness. Didn’t they know anything about history? The same treatment will befall them. Sadly, we like these people do not learn from the past.