In this passage God is speaking to the community of Israel. He talks to them about the Princes of Israel have been allowed to live among them and what they have done.

In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the foreigner and mistreated the fatherless and the widow. You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths. In you are slanderers who are bent on shedding blood; in you are those who eat at the mountain shrines and commit lewd acts. In you are those who dishonor their father’s bed; in you are those who violate women during their period, when they are ceremonially unclean. In you one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor’s wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter. In you are people who accept bribes to shed blood; you take interest and make a profit from the poor. You extort unjust gain from your neighbors………. Ezekiel 22:7-12a

This is a pretty long list of things that has been allowed to happen amongst them. However, it is the second part of verse 12 which jumps out to me. I’ve bolded the start of it

And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign LORD. Ezekiel 22:12b

When I read it I feel the pain of the father in that last sentence. My reading of it makes me think that whilst God is disappointed with all of their poor behaviour but its the last part that has totally broken His heart. Their behaviour is bad but losing their devotion is worse.

The ironic part is that if they had remembered Him, the rest of the stuff listed probably wouldn’t have happened. When we forget the Lord we have no reference point for anything else in our world. When we forget the Lord and divorce ourselves from His purpose for our lives we will give in and live out the life our broken emotions choose to.