Ezekiel 22:7
In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow. In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
Ezekiel 22:7 is a prophetic warning and reproof uttered before the destruction of Jerusalem, belonging to the part of Ezekiel occupied with correction, denunciation and reproof. It was directed to the sinners among his own people to expose their wickedness and earnestly call them to turn. It shows that sin must be forgiven or it will be consumed.
Ezekiel belonged to the priestly family and prophesied among the captives of Israel between the years 595 and 574, beginning and closing his work just a little later than Jeremiah. God first revealed His glory to Ezekiel in wonderful visions to impress His great majesty upon him before sending him to his prophetic work. Having once seen God, he would not fear the face of man when meeting the sinners among his own people.
The verse means that in Jerusalem they set light by father and mother, dealt by oppression with the stranger in their midst, and vexed the fatherless and the widow. In plain terms they dishonored parents, oppressed the foreigner, and mistreated the orphan and the widow. Those social wrongs stood with rebellion against God alongside despising holy things, violating His law, and profaning, neglecting and disregarding His Sabbaths. Its condemnation concerns ethical disloyalty and not merely ceremonial failure.
The account of transgressions to which the verse belongs identifies idolatry and Sabbath desecration as causes of their troubles, exile and dispersion. The verse belongs to a prophecy about teachers who fail to prepare God's people for the day of the Lord by repairing a breach in God's law. The breach to be repaired is breaking the Sabbath commandment, giving the prophecy an application to a last-days Sabbath restoration.
The verse shows the first division of spiritual Babylon, paganism, carrying the priests of Israel into pagan apostasy until they violated God's law and profaned His Sabbath. The oppression and contempt it describes are the fruit of sun-worship, which brought Sunday as its worship day in place of the Sabbath of Jehovah. Paganism thus operated as a complete rival system with its own priests, temples, forms of worship and worship day that compels false worship and persecutes true worshipers.
The chapter is God's description of the last days, meaning the professed people of God who walk in violation of His precepts and law while lulled by the cry of peace and safety and refusing to hearken to His word. It is the same time and people described in Isaiah 30:8-11, Ezekiel 13 and Jeremiah 6:9-19. It is cited as an example of false prophets offering assurances of peace in a time of danger.