SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2014
10:44 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Accepting the burden of the Lord PT-4
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel 2:8-3:3
Message of the
verses: We will be looking at the
final sub-point from this second main point as we follow the outline of Warren
Wiersbe from his commentary on the book of Ezekiel.
Receive the Word within (Ezekiel 2:8-3:3): “8 "Now you, son of man, listen to what
I am speaking to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open
your mouth and eat what I am giving you." 9 Then I looked, and behold, a
hand was extended to me; and lo, a scroll was in it. 10 When He spread it out
before me, it was written on the front and back, and written on it were
lamentations, mourning and woe.
1 Then He said to me, "Son of man, eat
what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel." 2
So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. 3 He said to me, "Son of
man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving
you." Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.”
We will first look at different Scriptures that speak of
eating the Word of God. Job writes “"I
have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of
His mouth more than my necessary food (Job 23:12).” Job is saying that the Word of God is more
important than food to him, or at least more necessary than food. “"He humbled you and let you be hungry,
and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that
He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man
lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD Deut. 8:3).” Moses is speaking of the manna that God fed
the children of Israel in the wilderness while they were wondering around for
forty years because of their unbelief.
Jesus spoke a portion of this verse while Satan was tempting Him in the
wilderness asking Him to make food out of a rock. Jesus is stating the same thing that Job
stated that the Word of God is more necessary than food. Now I am not saying that we can live only on
the Word of God, for we are physical beings and need food to survive, but there
are times when it is more necessary to feast on the Word of God than to
eat. Think of John chapter four when
Jesus was speaking to the woman at the well and His disciples came back from
town with food for Him to eat and Jesus said to them: “"I have food to eat that you do not
know about’ (John 4:32).” Next we read
the following from the book of Jeremiah: “Your words were found and I ate them,
And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been
called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts (Jeremiah 15:16).” Lastly we will look at the book of Revelations
and see what happened to the apostle John:
“8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with
me, and saying, "Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel
who stands on the sea and on the land." 9 So I went to the angel, telling
him to give me the little book. And he *said to me, "Take it and eat it;
it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as
honey." 10 I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and
in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made
bitter. 11 And they *said to me, "You must prophesy again concerning many
peoples and nations and tongues and kings’ (Rev. 10:8-11).” John found out what Ezekiel will find out as
we go through the book of Ezekiel we will see that the Word of God is sweet
when you read it, but when you tell it to others and they do not listen to what
you have told them they will have judgment come upon them and at that time it
will be sour to his stomach as it was to John, for what John was going to see
was the harshest judgment to come upon mankind for he will actually see the Day
of the Lord in the vision that he had when he wrote the book of Revelations. Dr. Wiersbe writes “God’s prophets must speak
from within their hearts or their messages will not be authentic.”
When Ezekiel saw the scroll that he was about to eat he
found out that it was full of lament and mourning and also woe. Dr. Wiersbe concludes that it is possible
that this scroll contained the messages that were given to Ezekiel that are found
in chapters four and also chapter thirty-two.
We will see God’s judgment on Jerusalem and also the gentile nations in
those chapters. In our first SD on
Ezekiel we quoted the outline from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on Ezekiel and the
second point was the fall of Jerusalem which covered chapters 4-24, and then
the third point covered the judgment of the nations which covers chapters
25-32.
I mentioned that John’s scroll caused bitterness in his
stomach, and in Ezekiel 3:14 we see that the same thing happened to
Ezekiel. So the Spirit lifted me up and
took me away; and I went embittered in the rage of my spirit, and the hand of
the LORD was strong on me.”
God first shows Ezekiel all His glory before He
commissions him to fulfill what He has for him to do, and because of this
Ezekiel can rely on that vision when things got difficult. When we look at our Lord in the NT we see that
three of His disciples had the privilege of seeing Him transformed on the
mountain and saw His glory there, and then they all saw Him in His glorified
body even as He was lifted up into heaven.
My point here is that they too had the courage of doing what He called
them to do because they knew that He had the power to aid them in their work
and also they knew that no matter what happened to them that they would one day
be with the Lord in glory. Ezekiel knew
the same thing. When we look at the 7th
chapter of Acts we see that Stephen saw the glory of the Lord right before he
was stoned for the cause of Christ and all fear left him and he even did as the
Lord did in asking God not to hold this sin against them. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The only motivation that
never fails is doing all for the glory of God.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have had one of
the worst weeks spiritually this week than I can remember in a long time and I
need also to see the glory of the Lord as Ezekiel did to get me through this
week. As I read these verses and see
what they mean at least I know what I need, and pray that God will strengthen
me as he did Ezekiel and also did for Daniel and John the Apostle.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will give me renewed
strength to get through this difficult week.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:8-11.
8 But now you also, put
them all aside: anger, wrath, malice,
slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its
evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true
knowledge according to the image of the One who created Him—11 a renewal in
which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and
uncircumcised, barbarian and Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all,
and in all.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Good, acceptable, perfect”
(Romans 12:2).
Today’s Bible question: “Who
did Jesus say were ‘blind leaders of the blind?’?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/31/2014 11:32 AM
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