Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

God's words to Ezekiel today come down pretty strong. He doesn't sugarcoat these two chapters.

Chapter 21 opens with a prophecy about God drawing a sword against the

land of Israel. And it's especially unsettling because in verse four, he says he will cut off both

righteous and wicked. The righteous too? Why is that? We won't find out until the end of today's

reading, so put a pin in this, we'll come back to it. Next, God tells Ezekiel to mourn and grieve over what's

happening and to spread the word about it to everyone who asks. Knowing Ezekiel, I'm pretty sure

this involves some public mourning. After this, it sounds like he's supposed to demonstrate some of

God's actions using an actual sword in front of the people. And after the sword, he demonstrates a highway with a fork in the

road. The road is coming out of Babylon, and one path leads to Ammon's capital where the Ammonites

live, and the other leads to Jerusalem. God says King Neby is using divination that is seeking

the direction of evil spirits to determine which path he should take first, i.e.

who's getting destroyed first?

Survey says Jerusalem.

And in verse 27, God says this ruin, ruin, ruin will happen when Zedekiah becomes king,

although it doesn't mention him by name.

God has promised to judge him, and he won't withhold it.

We read about his downfall in Jeremiah 52, and it was a ruin, ruin, ruin indeed.

Then God tells the Ammonites they aren't off the hook.

They've been getting false promises and prophecies too, just like Judah, but they're next on the chopping block.

In chapter 22, God circles back around to Jerusalem again.

He calls them the bloody city because they've killed so many people. God's penalty for murder is death, and he says he's held off their judgment long enough.

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