Ezekiel 22:4
Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.
Ezekiel 22:4 is an awful message of warning and reproof addressed to sinners among Ezekiel's own people. It stands in that part of Ezekiel which is occupied with correction, denunciation, and reproof. It was given before the destruction of Jerusalem. Ezekiel was of the priestly family and prophesied among the captives of Israel between the years 595 and 574. He began and closed his work just a little later than Jeremiah.
Before he began his prophetic work God revealed His glory to him in wonderful visions to impress His great majesty upon him. Having once seen God, he would not fear the face of man when sent to meet sinners among his own people with such a message. The charge is that Jerusalem became guilty in the blood that she shed and defiled herself in the idols that she made. Idolatry and bloodshed, together with Sabbath desecration and Sabbath-breaking, are among the condemned sins.
That guilt and defilement caused her days to draw near and brought her even unto her years. Therefore she was made a reproach unto the heathen and a mocking to all countries. The result was dispersion and captivity as the harvest of her own actions. The truth shown here is that sin must be forgiven or it will be consumed. The Sabbath failure condemned in Jerusalem was a moral and religious offense, not a ceremonial failure.
The verse belongs to a prophecy about the breach in God's law caused by breaking the Sabbath. The breach identified in Ezekiel 22:25-30 was made by teachers and priests who violate God's law and hide their eyes from His Sabbaths. The gap to be repaired is the neglected Sabbath commandment. Israel's priests were carried away by pagan apostasy into violating God's law and profaning His Sabbath day. Sun-worship brought Sunday as its worship day in place of the Sabbath of Jehovah.
By this paganism became a complete rival system with its own priests, temples, forms of worship, and worship day. It operated to compel false worship and to persecute true worshipers as the first division of Babylon. The chapter describes the professed people of God in the last days, with Israel meaning the people of God and remnant meaning the last part. It speaks of the same time and people who walk in violation of God's precepts and law even in thought and motive.
They have uncircumcised, unrighteous, unbelieving ears that cannot hearken, to whom the word of the Lord is a reproach with no delight in it. From the least to the greatest they are given to covetousness, and from prophet to priest they deal falsely, healing the breach slightly by saying Peace, peace when there is no peace. They refuse to walk in the old paths of His commandments and law where rest is found, and refuse to hearken to His watchmen and trumpet. Therefore God brings evil upon them, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened to His words nor to His law but rejected it. They are lulled by peace and safety when sudden destruction comes and they shall not escape.