Filled with bribery to cause bloodshed, profiting by extortion, and have forgotten God. 

Ezekiel 22:12

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take usury and increase; you have made profit from your neighbors by extortion and have forgotten Me,” says the Lord God.” Ezekiel 22:12

The culture of the Israelites was filled with people who saw others as objects to be used to get what they could from them. People were seen as ATM machines that just required a few pushes of the button, or some stronger persuasion, to get whatever they could from them. There were those who would take money to take the life of another, the value of life meant nothing to them. There were those who overcharged for services and products to squeeze people for every penny they could, caring nothing for the welfare of those they defrauded. There were those who became rich by extorting others, demanding money in exchange for being spared of injury or death.

The spiritually corrupt Israelites did not think of God at all who commanded them to love Him with all their heart, soul, and mind and to love their neighbors as themselves, as our Lord Jesus says, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40

Today, the entity that gives people what to think, feel, do, and say does not see people as the creation of God with a spirit and soul. People are seen as an object that needs to be conformed to the entity that enables the image of the beast to speak and live through them. There is not a thought for the spirit and soul of the person as people are hardened against Jesus Christ. Bribes, usury, and extortion are used to groom the masses of the global culture to the mark of the beast. Bribes, usuary, and extortion are used to turn people away from God the Creator, to make it painful to live for Jesus Christ who puts sin in remission, and to oppress the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Bribes are such things as showing the promise of possessions, money, sexual favors, healings, etc. to seduce a person to live by the entity that has power over physiology to give people their thoughts, feelings, words, and behaviors. Usury includes such tactics that deprive the person of something, whether of a material type, defrauding the human spirit, or taking away social inclusion etc. Usury is the consequence of not living for the entity that wants to form thoughts and feelings. Extortion includes hard looks, threats, force, etc. to intimidate people to live for the entity that gives them what to say and do.

Jesus Christ speaks these words to us that His father God spoke to Ezekiel, “And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house. You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious.” Ezekiel 2:6-7

Jesus Christ says to us, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” John 15:18-19 The Apostle Paul said, “ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18

---

“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1