"Her Priests Have Done Violence to My Law" (9/3)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Ezekiel 22-23.

When God condemned Israel for their sins, there was plenty of blame to go around. The following passage mentions the priests and why they shared responsibility for the unfaithfulness of the people.

“Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them” (Ezekiel 22:26).

The Lord told Ezekiel that the priests had “done violence” to the Law. Similarly, there are preachers and teachers today who do violence to the law of God. Notice how this happens:

Making no distinction between the holy and the profane – The word profane means common or unholy. Violence is done to God’s law when no distinction is made between that which is spiritual and pertains to God and that which is carnal and pertains to this life.
Not teaching the difference between the unclean and the clean – That which is unclean is that which defiles a man. Violence is done to God’s law when sin is ignored, rather than being exposed and warned against.
Hiding their eyes from divinely-prescribed practices – Under the Old Law, the people were to observe the Sabbath day weekly. We are not under that same law (cf. Colossians 2:14), but we still have a pattern that we are to follow (2 Timothy 1:13; Hebrews 8:5). Violence is done to God’s law when the instructions that God has given us related to our worship are disregarded.

All of these result in God being “profaned among” the people. If we wish to please God, we must honor His instructions. We must differentiate between things which are spiritual and things which are not. We must recognize the clear distinction between sin and righteousness. We must be careful to observe those things which God has instructed us in His word.

Tomorrow’s reading: Ezekiel 24-27

[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]

Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.