"uses his power to shed blood"
"have treated father and mother with contempt"
"have oppressed the foreigner"
"mistreated the fatherless and the widow"
"have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths"
"eat at the mountain shrines and commit lewd acts"
"dishonor their father’s bed"
"violate women during their period"
"commits a detestable offense with his neighbor’s wife"
"shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law"
"accept bribes to shed blood"
"take interest and make a profit from the poor"
"extort unjust gain from your neighbors"
"you have forgotten me"
The above quotes are all from Ezekiel 22. These verses are describing how the people of Jerusalem have been behaving. It's sad. It's disheartening. It's tragic. It's hopeless. It's detestable. Unfortunately, this is us in 2017 too.
Thankfully, we have our reading in the NT to follow the words from Ezekiel:
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,"
1 Peter 1:3-4
Despite our fallen world, and within that our own personal failures, we have this hope that is found not in this world, but in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the meantime, yes we live here, but we can also live in joy and peace knowing that one day we will be in Heaven with our Heavenly Father. An inheritance that we do not have to check on to see if the value has risen or crashed, but rather one that will never fade. What a glorious and powerful hope that belongs to us!
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