Shalom🙏
Blessed to be a Blessing to the Blessed People 👨‍👨‍👧‍👦

Like Mother, Like Daughter 👩‍👧 (Ezekiel 16: 44)

The city of Jerusalem was not founded by Jews but by Amorites and Hittites (16:3 ; Gen 15: 18-21). Yahweh reminds the people that their moral, social and spiritual attitudes are inherited from Amorite – their father and Hittite – their mother (v 3, 45b).

Jerusalem has imitated all the worst elements of her mother and sisters (Samaria and Sodom) , and has gone beyond them (v 46,47)

📌 Usually, we define the goodness or mother’s positive influence when we quote – “Like Mother, Like Daughter”. But here the influence is negative . Jerusalem’s parents (Amorite and Hittite) were not a great role model (v 45). Even then Yahweh had chosen the city , and married her .
✅ Jerusalem does not show any remorse or remember how Yahweh (her husband) had saved her , dressed her and beautified her (v 22). But she was ungrateful which adds to the seriousness of her sins.

WHAT ABOUT US❓
✅ Are we faithful to God and to one another❓
✅ Are we the role model for our children❓

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER is a comment on how a mother influences her daughter or a daughter imitates her mother. In today’s passage it is clear that Jerusalem imitated Hittites, her mother in:
Pride (Beauty)
Idolatory (Idols, shrines)
Detestable Practices (Child sacrifices, bribes, offerings to idols)
Prostitution (Allegiance to other gods and goddesses)

💞 Beloved Church, today we need godly parents so that the people around us would see our children and say:
LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

Glory to God 🙏
✍🏽 Mark Boje
Arunachal Pradesh, India 🇮🇳

Ezekiel 13

In this chapter God records some of the characteristics of false prophets, which includes both men and women, vs 17! God is against them because they prophesy from their imagination instead of doing so on receiving a word from the Lord, vs 7-9. They speak while using their human senses and not in accordance with spiritual vision as led by the Holy Spirit, vs 1-3.

Therefore, they are led by evil spirits (jackals) instead, and those hearing them are led to ruin, vs 4. Their main error is that their prophetic word does not repair the lives of those who are walking in sinful ways, such that they would stand strong in the battle on the day of the Lord, vs 5. Therefore, God cannot confirm their words, vs 6.

Their prophecies give people the impression that there will be peace and prosperity inspite of their sin, vs 10! However, those who listen to these false prophecies and accept the same will find themselves completely shaken in the midst of the trying circumstances of life that come their way, and God will destroy these false prophets when the calamity that they didn’t prophesy about actually takes place, vs 11-16!

Women prophetesses will also be judged, because they trap people with their false prophecies for the sake of ‘bread and barley’, vs 17,18, and on account of which they put to death people who should not die, and kept alive those who should not live by the lies that they tell God’s people who listen to them, vs 19. However, very soon God is going to rescue innocent people from their traps, vs 20, because of which they dishearten the righteous with their lies and encourage the wicked person not to turn from his evil conduct, and thus preserve his life, vs 21,22.

Thus, God will put an end to their false visions and their practice of divination, vs 23. It is good for us to examine whether the prophetic voices that we listen to are primarily leading us to a life of holiness and godly fear. It is also good to examine whether the prophecies that we share with others are in line with Scripture, and not given with an aim to tell people what they like to hear for the purpose of sordid gain and popularity!

Further, we need to accept the fact that a true prophet of God will have to suffer pain, rejection, misunderstanding and unpopularity if he /she desires to stay true to the call of God upon their lives. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name. Think of how we regard as blessed those who have endured..James 5:10,11!

Let us determine to endure similarly, in speaking God’s truth in love, no matter what reproach we may face, knowing that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy and that our labour in the Lord will never be in vain, 1 Corinthians 15:58, and that those bringing many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever, Daniel 12:3. Amen.

Rowena Thomas
Mumbai, India.