Reading for December 25th

Read Ezekiel 5.5-17. God sums up the theology of punishment that Ezekiel's symbolic actions illustrate. Charging that Israel acts like the nations (see 1 Sam 8.4-5) by defiling the Temple, God states that the people will suffer war and exile, and will perish by pestilence, faminie, and sword. God's threat to make Israel a desolation and an object of mocking among the nations and to unleash famine, wild animals, etc, against the people recalls threats made in Jer 24.9-10 (see also Deut 28.37; 1 Kings 9.7). Comments or Questions..