The Autopsy of a Corrupt City Text: Ezekiel 22:1-16
Introduction: The Covenant Lawsuit
When a society begins to rot, it rots from the head down. And when God brings judgment upon such a society, He does not do so arbitrarily. He is not a temperamental deity having a bad day. He is a judge, and His judgments are righteous altogether. The prophet Ezekiel is here acting as a prosecuting attorney, bringing God's formal indictment against the covenant city of Jerusalem. This is not a vague complaint; it is a detailed charge sheet, a covenant lawsuit with a list of specific, verifiable offenses.
We live in an age that despises such lists. Our generation wants a God of abstract love and boundless affirmation, a God who would never be so rude as to point out specific sins. But the God of the Bible is the God of the real world, and in the real world, actions have consequences. When a people who have been given the very law of God decide to use it as a doormat, the resulting social decay is not an unfortunate accident. It is the necessary and predictable fruit of rebellion. What we see in this chapter is an autopsy of a dead culture. God is showing his prophet, and us, precisely what the disease of sin does to a nation's body politic. It is not pretty, but it is necessary. If we do not understand the disease, we will never seek the cure.
Jerusalem was called the holy city, but God here renames it the "city of blood." This is a profound theological statement. A city's character is not determined by its own marketing slogans or its historical pedigree, but by its public record of righteousness or wickedness. God is about to read the public record of Jerusalem out loud, and it is a catalogue of abominations. As we work through this text, we must see that these sins are not disconnected. They are a tangled, interconnected mess. Idolatry leads to bloodshed. Contempt for parents leads to the oppression of the weak. Sexual anarchy and economic corruption are brothers. And all of it, every last bit, flows from one central sin: they had forgotten God.
The Text
Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, "Now as for you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the city of blood? Then you shall cause her to know all her abominations. And you shall say, 'Thus says Lord Yahweh, "A city shedding blood in her midst, so that her time will come; and she makes idols against herself for defilement! You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and defiled by your idols which you have made. Thus you have brought your day near and have come to your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mocking to all the lands. Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you of unclean name, full of turmoil.
Behold, the princes of Israel, each according to his power, have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood. They have treated father and mother with contempt within you. The sojourner they have oppressed in your midst; the fatherless and the widow they have mistreated in you. You have despised My holy things and profaned My sabbaths. Slanderous men have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood, and in you they have eaten at the mountain shrines. In your midst they have done acts of lewdness. In you they have uncovered their fathers' nakedness; in you they have humbled her who was unclean in her menstrual impurity. One has also done what is an abomination with his neighbor's wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law. And another in you has violated his sister, his father's daughter. In you they have taken bribes for the purpose of shedding blood; you have taken interest and profits, and you have injured your neighbors for gain by oppression, and you have forgotten Me," declares Lord Yahweh.
Now behold, I have struck My hand at your greedy gain which you have acquired and at the bloodshed which is among you. Can your heart stand, or can your hands be strong in the days that I will act against you? I, Yahweh, have spoken and will act. I will scatter you among the nations, and I will disperse you through the lands, and I will put an end to your uncleanness from you. You will profane yourself in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am Yahweh."
(Ezekiel 22:1-16 LSB)
The Central Charge: Idols and Blood (vv. 1-6)
God begins the indictment by giving Jerusalem its new name and identifying the two foundational sins that define it.
"will you judge, will you judge the city of blood? Then you shall cause her to know all her abominations... A city shedding blood in her midst... and she makes idols against herself for defilement!" (Ezekiel 22:2-3)
The charge is to judge. The prophet is not to be a neutral observer. He is to declare God's verdict. And the central characteristic of this city is that it is a "city of blood." This doesn't just mean there were a few isolated murders. It means the entire civic machinery was oriented toward violence. The courts were corrupt, the leadership was predatory, and life was cheap. This bloodshed was not random; it was systemic.
And right alongside the bloodshed is the root cause: idolatry. "She makes idols against herself for defilement." Notice the connection. Idolatry and bloodshed are not two separate problems; they are one problem. When a people reject the true God, the Creator in whose image we are made, they necessarily devalue human life. If man is not the image of God, then he is just a cosmic accident, a collection of molecules, a piece of meat. And if that is all he is, then you can do what you want with him. You can shed his blood for power, for profit, or for convenience. All abortion, all tyranny, all bloodshed, begins with idolatry. You become like what you worship. If you worship deaf and dumb idols, you become spiritually deaf and dumb. If you worship violent and bloody gods, your city becomes a city of blood.
The leadership, the "princes of Israel," were leading the charge. "Each according to his power, have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood" (v. 6). Power was not seen as a stewardship from God to be used for justice, but as a tool for personal enrichment and the elimination of rivals. When the leaders of a nation are corrupt, the whole nation is given over to corruption. This is the principle of federal headship. As the leaders go, so goes the nation.
The Collapse of Social Order (vv. 7-9)
From the foundational sins of idolatry and bloodshed, Ezekiel now details the resulting social chaos. The fabric of society is unraveling at every seam, starting with the family.
"They have treated father and mother with contempt within you. The sojourner they have oppressed in your midst; the fatherless and the widow they have mistreated in you." (Ezekiel 22:7)
The first domino to fall after the worship of God is the honor of parents. The fifth commandment is the hinge of the two tables of the law. It is the bridge between our duty to God and our duty to man. When that bridge collapses, everything else falls into the ravine. A society that holds its own parents in contempt will have no basis for respecting any other authority or for caring for any other dependent. If you will not honor the man and woman who gave you life, why would you care for the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow? Contempt for parents is the seedbed of all social cruelty. The welfare state is what you get when you despise your father and mother; you outsource your duty to a faceless, godless bureaucracy that oppresses everyone equally.
This contempt for God's order extends to His worship and His law. "You have despised My holy things and profaned My sabbaths" (v. 8). The Sabbath was a sign of the covenant, a weekly reminder that God was their Creator and their Redeemer. To profane it was to spit in the face of God. It was to declare their independence from Him. And once you declare independence from God, you are free to do whatever you want. Slander, idolatrous feasts, and lewdness follow as a matter of course (v. 9). When worship is corrupted, the society that worships is corrupted along with it.
Sexual Anarchy and Economic Oppression (vv. 10-12)
The social rot inevitably metastasizes into the most intimate areas of life: sex and money. When God is forgotten, all boundaries are erased.
"In you they have uncovered their fathers' nakedness... One has also done what is an abomination with his neighbor's wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law." (Ezekiel 22:10-11)
Ezekiel presents a stomach-turning list of sexual perversions. Incest, adultery, and every form of lewdness. This is not about private behavior. Sexual sin is never a private matter. It defiles the land. It attacks the created order at its root. The family is the basic building block of society, and sexual sin is a stick of dynamite thrown into the foundations. Our society thinks it can redefine marriage, erase the distinction between male and female, and celebrate every form of perversion without consequence. This passage is God's answer to that delusion. This is what happens when you despise His holy things. You get a cesspool.
And the corruption of the bedroom is mirrored by the corruption of the marketplace. "In you they have taken bribes for the purpose of shedding blood; you have taken interest and profits, and you have injured your neighbors for gain by oppression" (v. 12). Justice is for sale. The poor are exploited. Neighbors are seen not as fellow image-bearers to be loved, but as resources to be plundered. This is the essence of covetousness, which the apostle Paul tells us is idolatry. It all ties together.
And then God puts His finger on the central nerve of the entire problem. After this long and sordid list, He gives the ultimate reason: "and you have forgotten Me," declares Lord Yahweh. This is the fountainhead from which all these polluted streams flow. They did not just break a few rules. They forgot the Ruler.
The Inescapable Judgment (vv. 13-16)
God's response to this litany of sin is not negotiation. It is judgment. It is holy, righteous, and unavoidable.
"Now behold, I have struck My hand at your greedy gain... Can your heart stand, or can your hands be strong in the days that I will act against you? I, Yahweh, have spoken and will act." (Ezekiel 22:13-14)
God striking His hand is an expression of divine fury and settled resolve. The time for warnings is over. The rhetorical questions are devastating. Can you endure what I am about to do to you? Can your strength hold up against Mine? The answer is obvious. All their political alliances, all their hoarded wealth, all their military might will be like tissue paper in a furnace. When God decides to act, no human power can resist Him. "I, Yahweh, have spoken and will act." This is the finality of the divine decree. There will be no appeal.
The nature of the judgment is a righteous scattering. "I will scatter you among the nations... and I will put an end to your uncleanness from you" (v. 15). The judgment is a purging. God is going to burn the filth out of them through the fire of exile. This is the great irony. They defiled themselves in the sight of the nations, so God will have them profaned by those very nations. They will become a mockery and a reproach, and through this humiliation, they will be forced to confront the reality of the God they had forgotten. The purpose of judgment is ultimately revelatory: "and you will know that I am Yahweh" (v. 16). God's judgments are designed to teach the world who He is.
The Gospel for a City of Blood
This chapter is a grim and bloody affair. And if we read it honestly, we have to recognize our own city, our own nation, and our own hearts in this description. We too live in a city of blood, where millions of children are shed in the womb. We live in a culture that treats parents with contempt, that is filled with sexual chaos and economic injustice. We too have despised His holy things and forgotten God.
The indictment against Jerusalem is the indictment against us all. We are all guilty. Our hearts cannot stand, and our hands are not strong. We stand under the same righteous condemnation. The covenant curses detailed in Deuteronomy are our birthright as sons of Adam.
But this is why the gospel is such glorious news. God did not just send a prophet to judge the city of blood. He sent His Son into the city of blood. Jesus Christ entered our corrupt and violent world, and the city of blood turned on Him. The princes of this world, driven by their own power, shed the innocent blood of the Son of God outside the city gates.
And in that act of ultimate injustice, God brought about the ultimate justice. On the cross, Jesus became the curse for us. He took the full force of the divine fury that we see in this chapter. He was scattered into the darkness of the grave so that we could be gathered into the kingdom of God. He was made unclean with our sin so that He could put a final end to our uncleanness.
The apostle Paul says to the Corinthians, a church full of people who were guilty of the very sins on Ezekiel's list, "And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:11). That is the gospel. The only hope for a city of blood is the blood of the Lamb. The only cure for a corrupt heart is the new heart that God promises to give. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God takes rebels from the city of blood and makes them citizens of the New Jerusalem, a city where righteousness dwells, a city whose light is the Lord God Himself.