We Also Are Challenged

The nation of Southern Judah was following the disastrous path that had been traveled by Northern Israel. God's prophets preached God's will for the people and warned where their defiance of Him would take them.

In Ezekiel 22 we read of the condition of their spiritual leadership; the ones to whom one might think the nation could have turned for guidance in such times of stress and strain. But even the spiritual leaders had no respect for things sacred. They led the people away from discerning between good and evil, contending that good was evil and evil was good. It did not matter how they lived. No longer did the spiritual guides proclaim God's message and God was not reverenced among them. They spoke religious lies, saying, "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah," when Jehovah had not spoken to them. Is this not the case in America even today?

As you read from Ezekiel you are impressed of the sad state of affairs physically, spiritually, morally just before it fell to Babylon. The priests, princes, prophets and people all contributed to the dire conditions. Why did they ignore God's mercy that could have brought them deliverance? Why do people today still cast God aside even as the nation plummets?