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Daily Devotions

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 
Day 
Day 260

"Woe to the bloody city"

Text: Ezekiel 24:6

MEANING OF THE PARABLE

The Lord Himself gave the explanation of this parable. It was a pronouncement of woe to Jerusalem that had shed much blood.

“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.
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.
That it may raise up fury and take vengeance,
I have set her blood on top of a rock,
That it may not be covered.'”
Ezekiel 24:6-8

1. The pot represented Jerusalem.

a) Jerusalem was called “a bloody city”.

b) It was guilty of shedding innocent blood.

c) The pot had scum in it to signify how filthy the city had become.

d) Cooking pots should be clean but not this one.

2. The people who would consume the food in the pot.

a) The Babylonians would be the ones who would consume Jerusalem.

b) All Israel would be meat thrown into the pot:

i) The royal family.

ii) The religious leaders.

iii) The common people.

iv) They were similar for evil pervaded everyone.

v) There were no so-called “choice pieces”.

3. Blood not covered up.

a) It was an old Levitical law that declared that when blood for an animal was shed, it must be covered with dust.

b) Blood that is not covered is offensive to God.

c) Blood was shed and not covered up:

i) By Israel.

ii) By the Babylonians.

d) The covering of blood represents:

i) Regard for life.

ii) Where there is no respect for human life.
It is an offense to the Lord.

iii) Israel had shed much innocent blood and was thus guilty.

e) This blatant disregard for life would invite the fury and vengeance of God.

f) God would cause the blood of many to be shed when the Babylonians attacked.

g) The blood that would be shed would not be covered.

h) The disregard for life in the past would be recompensed similarly.

i) This was the meaning of the filthy cooking pot parable.