Ezekiel 22: 6 “Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. 7 Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. 8 You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. 9 There are men in you who slander to shed blood, and people in you who eat on the mountains; they commit lewdness in your midst. 10 In you men uncover their fathers' nakedness; in you they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity. 11 One commits abomination with his neighbor's wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father's daughter. 12 In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.
Here Ezekiel calls to task especially the leaders of the land. They are guilty of misleading the people in all the ways we have been talking about, and more. They not only were failing to defend the sojourner, fatherless, and widow; they were also disrespecting marriage, violating the sabbath, permitting sexual perversion, and adultery, and had become corrupt leaders who took bribes. In short, they had totally left God out of the picture. What a description of our society and leaders today! They are doubly responsible, but the rest could not point the finger and blame only them. All are responsible to stand up and speak up, and to do right themselves.
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