Judgment Inescapable - Ezekiel 14:12-23 Topics: Actions, Anger, Children, Danger, Death, Judgment, Punishment, Righteousness, Salvation, Sickness, Sin, Suffering, Unfaithfulness, War Open It * 1. Whom do you consider to be exemplary, godly people? 2. What are the different responses that people can make to extreme hardship and suffering? Explore It 3. What was the cause of God’s judgment in the first example given to Ezekiel? (14:12-13) 4. What form did God’s judgment take in the first hypothetical example? (14:13) * 5. What three great servants of God are used for Ezekiel’s examples of faithfulness? (14:14) * 6. In a circumstance that required God’s judgment, how many could be saved by exemplary men of faith? (14:14) 7. What was the second example of judgment that God gave to Ezekiel? (14:15) 8. What family members could Noah, Daniel, or Job save from God’s judgment by their own righteousness? (14:16) 9. What was a third example of a means of punishment God might use against unfaithfulness? (14:17) 10. What expression in this word from God illustrates the certainty of it? (14:18) 11. What was the fourth calamity that God might use to execute justice? (14:19) 12. If Noah, Daniel, and Job were present in God’s hypothetical country, who would be saved by his or her righteousness? (14:20) * 13. How did God portray the prospects for Jerusalem in comparison to the examples He had given? (14:21) 14. When the exiled Jews encountered the survivors of Jerusalem, what would they know about the justice of God’s punishment of Jerusalem? (14:22-23) Get It 15. What would move God to judge a nation and destroy it? 16. Why do you think God had Ezekiel repeat the same refrain with a variety of calamities that might be visited on a nation? 17. What sorts of calamities might God use as His instrument of judgment? * 18. Why does God give us the stories of great men and women of faith? * 19. Why is it unwise to trust in another person, even a righteous person, for your own salvation? Apply It * 20. How can you discern whether the righteous people you know are serving as proper examples of faith, or whether you are counting on their goodness to spill over onto you regardless of your effort? 21. What biblical hero or heroine can serve as your model for faith and life this coming week? .