Good Friday July fourteenth as we continue our studies from the prophecy of Ezekiel.
Woe to the bloody city-
The day when King Zedekiah reigned the date here written in Hebrew texts is January 15, 588 B.C. the day Babylon began the siege of the city. God had said that this day would come and the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed. Jerusalem is compared here as a cooking pot, a boiling Cauldron. So Ezekiel speaks this parable against the house of the rebellion and says Put on a pot, as Ezekiel has been doing with this prophecy he is speaking and acting this scene out before the people. In verse eleven which we will cover today we find that this is a bronze or copper pot. This is another time here that Ezekiel uses a cauldron; he said this in Chapter eleven in verses 3-12. Ezekiel speaks of choice pieces of meat, believed to be those who remained in the city believing that they would be spared, because they believed that they were good. Many today believe that they will go to heaven based on their belief that they are good. Many false religions base their futures on doing more good than bad. These here are thrown into the pot their personal goodness they believed would spare them did not. If you have ever boiled say chicken you will see a film a foam like scum rise to the top this the illustration here, Ezekiel says that the scum which remained would be burned away by burning the pot clean of its filth, in other words all would be cleansed and destroyed. Now let us read together from Ezekiel 24:6-12 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is in it, and whose scum is not gone from it! Bring it out piece by piece, on which no lot has fallen. 7 For her blood is in her midst; she set it on top of a rock; she did not pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust. 8 That it may rise up in fury and take vengeance, I have set her blood on top of a rock, so that it may not be covered.” 9 ‘Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Woe to the bloody city! I too will make the pyre great.10 Heap on the wood, kindle the fire; cook the meat well, mix in the spices, and let the cuts be burned up. 11 “Then set the pot empty on the coals so that it may become hot and its bronze may burn, that its filthiness may be melted in it, that its scum may be consumed. 12 She has grown weary with lies, and her great scum has not gone from her. Let her scum be in the fire!” The bloody city is Jerusalem, being here surrounded by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. Why a bloody city, first because much innocent blood had been shed here, Ezekiel 21:13 “Because it is a testing and what if the sword despises even the scepter? The scepter shall be no more,” Scum had risen in the pot, now a better word would be rust, as rust symbolizes corrosion, especially as it is described as reddish in color. The scum are all the nation’s abominations, all her lewdness, all her filthiness that needed to be dealt with as sins against her. We read they are to bring one piece at a time to place into the pot, no one because of say position in authority or statehood would be missed. ‘I too will make the pyre great.’ The fire under the pot is called pyre, translated as burning for the dead, meaning the fire will be so massive that first its contents would be burned up then the actual pot. All scum would be consumed. Are we learning God’s view on scum? Remnant
