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"Infamous and full of tumult"

Text: Ezekiel 22:5

THE GUILT OF JERUSALEM

David had chosen Jerusalem as his capital. The city was called Zion, a stronghold, and it became famous as “the city of David” (2 Samuel 5). But the Jerusalem of Ezekiel’s time had earned a bad reputation!

“You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed,
and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made.
You have caused your days to draw near,
and have come to the end of your years;
therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations,
and a mockery to all countries.
Those near and those far from you
will mock you as infamous and full of tumult.”
Ezekiel 22:4-5

1. God pronounced a guilty verdict against Jerusalem.

a) It was found guilty of shedding blood.

i) The capital had earned the name of being a “bloody city”.

ii) Murder was rampant.

iii) Crime prevailed.

iv) The law was disregarded.

b) It was found guilty of rank idolatry.

i) Jerusalem did not merely house the Temple that Solomon built.

ii) There were many temples built to honour foreign idols.

iii) This was inexcusable for Israel became defiled because of idolatry.

2. Jerusalem only had itself to blame.

a) The guilty verdict signalled the end of the kingdom.

b) Its stubborn refusal to repent caused the days of its demise to draw nearer.

3. The name that Gentiles would despise.

a) Jerusalem became a reproach among the Gentile nations.

b) It was mocked by all nations.

c) The countries near and far decried Jerusalem.

i) For its infamy as a bloody city.

ii) For being a tumultuous city.

iii) No one felt safe in Jerusalem in the reign of king Zedekiah.