This chapter starts with an outlining of Israel's sins. The first 5 verses summarise the situation. There were two key aspects to Israel's sin: bloodshed and idolatry. We talk a lot today about what some does in their private life is their affair and has no bearing on public life. This is nonsense. Now there should be respect for privacy, but what I do with any part of my life affects all of my life. The bloodshed and idolatry went together.
Israel's actions had brought her days to a close. The judgement that was about to come upon her was entirely her fault.
The following verses then expand the list of wrongs. It is interesting to see the breadth of sins covered. There are ones related to sexual behaviour, ones related to exploitation of the poor, one related to treatment of foreigners, ones related to family life, ones relating to idol worship.
As human beings we are complete, one of area of our life affects other areas. There is a load of nonsense often spoken of saying sexual sins really do not matter when we consider the scale of human suffering in wars, famines etc. There are at least two things that can be said in response to this. One is that sexual sins matter in themselves. They cause harm to the direct participants, and to others. The second is that they often go together with a bunch of other sins. Sexual promiscuity, exploitation of women, drugs and other crime are closely related. Sexual sin breeds an atmosphere that leads to other crimes, other crimes lead to sexual abuse of women. The most extreme example of the latter is in war, which often involves massive numbers of rapes of women.
For all this God would judge them and disperse them amongst the nations. Only then would stubborn Israel recognise who the Lord is.
Israel's actions had brought her days to a close. The judgement that was about to come upon her was entirely her fault.
The following verses then expand the list of wrongs. It is interesting to see the breadth of sins covered. There are ones related to sexual behaviour, ones related to exploitation of the poor, one related to treatment of foreigners, ones related to family life, ones relating to idol worship.
As human beings we are complete, one of area of our life affects other areas. There is a load of nonsense often spoken of saying sexual sins really do not matter when we consider the scale of human suffering in wars, famines etc. There are at least two things that can be said in response to this. One is that sexual sins matter in themselves. They cause harm to the direct participants, and to others. The second is that they often go together with a bunch of other sins. Sexual promiscuity, exploitation of women, drugs and other crime are closely related. Sexual sin breeds an atmosphere that leads to other crimes, other crimes lead to sexual abuse of women. The most extreme example of the latter is in war, which often involves massive numbers of rapes of women.
For all this God would judge them and disperse them amongst the nations. Only then would stubborn Israel recognise who the Lord is.
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