Ezekiel 5:5
Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her. Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.
God himself set Jerusalem in the midst of the nations and countries round about her. It stood in a conspicuous position at the crossroads of the ancient East and West, where its religious life could influence those around it. That central place and its religion were given so that its religious life would make his name known, give light to the nations, and make a lasting good impression on the heathen nations.
God's people failed in that purpose, so the kingdom of God was taken from them. The witness of good news for all people was then entrusted to the gospel church of Jews and Gentiles to carry to every nation, which is to be a light to the world by faithfully representing God's law and the gospel. Jerusalem's changing of God's judgments described in the next verse pictures the nineteenth-century Protestant church perpetuating the papal change of the fourth commandment, making its witness to the nations misleading.