The Dire Necessity of Judgment in a Tribulation Period

Interpreting Church History from the Beginning to the End by the Uncompromised Standards of Salvation, Backsliding, & Restoration according to Holy Scripture

“…I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.”
– Jer. 9:24

The inquirers were a wearisome burden to God insomuch that they knew not that He, the LORD, loves judgment (Mal. 2:17, Prov. 15:9, Amos 5:24); and, of course, right-standing saints understood the reason why (Ezek. 18:8-9, 17, 30, Prov. 29:27, Jer. 22:15-16). So… what is God’s affectionate desire? Judgment. Through whom? Ezekiel. To what end? “Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers” (Ezek. 20:4), God said. This was a kind gesture from God because preventative judgment aimed to prevent the finality of judgment, the Death Penalty (Ezek. 18:21-23, 30-32). My reader, the Good Figs and the Evil Figs were on a crash-course with death if something didn’t change! Therefore, Ezekiel’s charge was a hard task. For, as long as the spiritual tempest of God’s wrath did engulf the people (insomuch that the day was turned to darkness and the people were rendered vision-less; see Micah 3:6-7), it would take nothing less than the power of God to cause the people to know their abominations. Micah testified to the enormity of such a task, saying, “…truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:8); and, surely, it would take nothing less for Ezekiel to successfully bear witness! Wondrously, though, the LORD empowered Ezekiel to do the judgement.

The utterance that followed was Ezekiel 20:5-44. The powers of prophetic utterance were employed to unveil the true nature of things past and present. Firstly, the people were made to know “the abominations of their fathers” (Ezek. 20:4) so that, secondarily, and as a result, the present-day Jews would know their own abominations. They were like their fathers, you see? This is the all-to-often course of things (“Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.” – Matt. 23:32). Comprehensively, I mean, as was covered in Ezekiel 18:1-32, this is the all-too-often course of things in Biblical Church History; namely, that the sons walk in the sins of their fathers (see “Vindicating the Scriptural Emphasis of Guilt”). Therefore, if the Jews of the Tribulation Period were going to see their own sinfulness as an abomination in the sight of God, they must see “the abominations of their fathers” (Ezek. 20:4).