Saul Weinreb - Let the Prophets Speak

Don't come to seek the word of God if your heart is still dreaming of corruption and sin.  If you do come, God will answer you according to what is in your heart.  Mend your ways, then seek God.  For those false prophets who pretend to speak My word, there will be no excuse, you are causing My people to stray.

God turns His wrath against the false prophets, magicians and sorcerers among the men and women of Israel.  You will be lost, and your mempory will be lost.  Any chance the people may have had to repent and mend their ways was ruined by your false assertions of hope and peace.  Those of you who had no courage to tell the people of the consequences of their actions, will suffer the most from those same consequences.

God asks Ezekiel to perform another symbolic act, to enact the exile of the people of Jerusalem, and the ill-fated attempt of its' King to sneak off during the night. the people still don't listen, thinking that with time, the prophets and their prophecies will fade and die.  God says no, the time is now, there is no more waiting. The proophecies are beung fulfilled at this very moment.

In this stirring chapter, God teaches Ezekiel that He will leave Jerusalem, and reside with His people in exile.  There He will be a "small Temple" a "mikdash me'at" and He will reside among them until it is time to bring them back home.  Then the people will gather in Israel with a humble heart, one dedicated to unity and living in God's ways.

In this terribly graphic and ominous chapter, Ezekiel describes his vision as God's presence is lifted by His chariot out of the Temple.  This represents God's "journey" from the Temple to Babylon.  The people have defiled His Temple, it is no longer God's house.  The fires taken from God's chariot will now consume and destroy the desecrated House of God.

Ezekiels virtual journey to the Temple in Jerusalem continues, as he now witnesses the departure of God from the cherubs.  As God leaves, he instructs the destroyers to begin the defilement of the temple and show no mercy to the sinful people of Jerusalem.  Those who do show remorse however, are marked and spared.

God takes Ezekiel on a flight to Jerusalem to see the extent of the corruption that has overtaken the people.  The temple itself is being defiled in the worst possible way.  Ezekiel invokes the images of Deuteronomy in his attempt to get the people to hear his message.

Ezekiel continues to try and convince the people that the time of destruction of Jerusalem is upon them.  The time is now, not in 100 years or in some distant future, but now.  Individuals can save themselves if they learn the proper lessons, but the Temple and the people residing in Israel are doomed.  Only in Babylon will the salvation sprout one day, but all that sprouts in the land of Israel now will be calamity.

Ezekiel reminds the people that all of this has been predicted in the Torah many years ago.  This should come as no surprise. "It was not for nothing that I told you all of this!", God reminds the people (See verse 10 in this chapter).

God continues to ask Ezekiel to do another symbolic act, this time to teach the most awful lesson of all.  A terrible destruction is going to befall the people of Jerusalem, and very very few will survive.