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Daily Devotions

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 
Day 
Day 222

"At the parting of the road"

Text: Ezekiel 21:21

A GLIMPSE OF BABYLONIAN MYSTICISM

We have a glimpse of Babylonian mysticism in this text. How did the Babylonians plan their war campaigns? This text gives us an important insight.

“For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road,
at the fork of the two roads, to use divination:
he shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver.
In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem:
to set up battering rams, to call for a slaughter,
to lift the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates,
to heap up a siege mound, and to build a wall.
And it will be to them like a false divination
in the eyes of those who have sworn oaths with them;
but he will bring their iniquity to remembrance,
that they may be taken.”
Ezekiel 21:21-23

1. The personal involvement of the king.

a) War decisions were not left to the generals.

b) The king is personally involved.

c) The king makes the final decision.

2. The process of making a battle plan.

a) He comes to a fork in the road.

i) One road leads to Rabbah, Ammon.

ii) The other road leads to Judah.

b) The king uses “divination”.

i) He shakes two arrows. One of them will fall out and he will follow through.

ii) He prays to his idols (images).

iii) He looks at the liver of a fowl (goose).

3. All the indications.

a) The choice was made.

b) The indications point to Jerusalem.

c) It was a harder place to attack than Rabbah.

d) But since all the signs seem to point to Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar follows through.

4. The war plan against Jerusalem.

a) Battering rams would be employed.

b) The call was for the slaughtering of Jerusalem.

c) They would build up a siege wall against Jerusalem.

5. In the eyes of Judah

a) The Babylonians were wrong.

b) Their divinations were false.

c) Their war plans would fail.

d) God would deliver Jerusalem.

6. Jerusalem was wrong.

a) Zedekiah had rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar.

b) Judah was in grave danger.

c) Nebuchadnezzar would take revenge against Zedekiah.

d) Jerusalem and Judah would be devastated by this invasion.