Princes and Prophets - Ezekiel 22

Ezekiel 22:27 "Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain."

v26 "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things;...

v6 "Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone were in thee to their power to shed blood."

The structure of leadership has dissolved into a quest for personal gain. The fault for the attitude of the people is laid on the leadership while making no excuse for the sin of the people.

The sins are many and are listed one by one. The Lord has said that he would not correct Israel while in Egypt or the wilderness because he had claimed them as his own and did not want to shame them in the presence of the enemy. That's what I got from previous chapters.

Now Israel took advantage and turned from God and worshipped idols. It was not just innocent mischief. Children were burned to please false gods, the laws of God were broken one by one. The strangers were mistreated. Even the house of God and the precious things were used for personal gain.

v8 "Thou hast despised mine holy things... v9 In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood...v12 In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood..." And many more. These comments were directed at the princes of Israel.

Further it tells how the priests participated with them. It also tells of the prophets who told the leaders that they were doing just fine and every thing would be just fine.

v28 "And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying Thus saith the Lord God, when the LORD hath not spoken."

The Apostle Paul told us to 'study to be quiet'. It would have behooved the prophets to say nothing rather than lie about God telling them something.

It became so bad that the Lord gave us this verse to summarize the situation in Israel.

v30 "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it but I found none."

There was no Moses to plead for the people or a David to stand at the threshing floor and say that he was the man who should be punished instead of the people.