SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/24/2014
9:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Beholding the Glory of God PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
1:1-4
Message of the
verses: “1 Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on
the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the
exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. 2 (On the fifth of the month in the fifth year
of King Jehoiachin’s exile, 3 the word of the LORD came
expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the
Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there the hand of the LORD came upon him.) 4 As I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming
from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright
light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of
the fire.”
I think it best to try and put ourselves in the place of
the children of Israel, those who had be exiled into the country of Babylon,
for they thought that this could never happen to them. Why would they think that? Because of the promises that God had given to
their forefathers concerning their kingdom, but if they would have just read
what Moses read in the book of Deuteronomy they would have realized that the
nation had greatly sinned against their God and He had done what He did justify.
We see in the first two verses the call
of Ezekiel as a prophet to the exiles of Judah who were in Babylon. As mentioned in yesterday’s SD Ezekiel was a
priest who God called to be a prophet as seen here.
Dr. Wiersbe writes in his introduction to this section
the following: “It was a dark day for
Israel, and the first thing Ezekiel needed to understand was that, no matter
how discouraging the circumstances, God were still on the throne accomplishing
His divine purposes in the world. There
are many unexplained mysteries in the vision Ezekiel had, but one message comes
through with clarity and power: Jehovah
is the sovereign Lord of Israel and of all the nations of the earth.”
As we look at verse one I want to quote a note from the
MacArthur Study Bible “Most likely this was Ezekiel’s age, since the date
relative to the king’s reign is given in 1:2.
Thirty was the age when a priest (cf. v. 3 with Nu. 4) began his
priestly duties. River Chebar: A major canal off the Euphrates River, South
of Babylon. Visions of God: This scene has similarities to the visions of
God’s throne in Rev. 4, 5, where the emphasis is also on a glimpse of that
throne just before judgment is released in Rev. 6-19.” As far as the Chebar River or cannel it was a
place where the exiles would come for prayer, similar as we see in Acts
16:13. This river is also mentioned in
Ezekiel 3:23; 10:15, 20, 22; and 43:3.
We may assume that Ezekiel was having prayer with the rest of the exiles
and this is when the Lord called him to his ministry. This is not the first time that God has
called to someone who was worshiping Him as Isaiah was in the temple when he
was called and Paul and Barnabas were engaged in worship when God called them
to go on their first missionary trip.
John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day when Jesus came to him to write
the book of Revelations. As Dr. Wiersbe
writes in his introductory commentary it is rather difficult to understand this
vision that Ezekiel sees, but one thing for sure it does demonstrate the glory
of the Lord. It was many years ago that
I had the opportunity to study the book of Ezekiel and the commentary that was
used was a book named “All Things Weird and Wonderful,” which seems to me as an
appropriate name for the book of Ezekiel.
We see the phrase “the Word of the Lord came” in verse
three, and this is used fifty times in Ezekiel’s prophecy, and Dr. Wiersbe
writes that it “speaks of authority of his message; and ‘the hand of the Lord’
is found also in Ezekiel 3:14, 22; 8:1; 33:22; 37:1; and 40:1. The Word of the Lord brings enlightenment and
the hand of the Lord enablement (see Eph. 1:15-23). In Scripture, a storm is often an image of
divine judgment. Since the immense
whirlwind cloud Ezekiel beheld was coming from te north, it indicated the
invasion of Judah by the Babylonian army and the destruction of the land, the
city of Jerusalem, and the temple.” As
we have just concluded the study of Jeremiah we saw in that book that God’s was
gracious in warning and pleading with the people of Judah to repent, but they
would not and so judgment was coming on them.
The following is what Jeremiah saw at the beginning of his
ministry: “13 The word of the LORD came
to me a second time saying, "What do you see?" And I said, "I
see a boiling pot, facing away from the north." 14 Then the LORD said to
me, "Out of the north
the evil will break forth on all the inhabitants of the land. 15 “For,
behold, I am calling all the families of the kingdoms of the north,"
declares the LORD; "and they will come and they will set each one his
throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls
round about and against all the cities of Judah. 16 “I will pronounce My
judgments on them concerning all their wickedness, whereby they have forsaken
Me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and worshiped the works of their
own hands. (Jeremiah 1:13-16).”
Later on in verse four Ezekiel describes molten metal,
and this is a description of the holiness of God for Hebrews 12:29 says “for
our God is a consuming fire.” Dr.
Wiersbe points out that the words like and likeness are used twenty-five times
in Ezekiel’s writings showing that what he saw was symbolic of realities God
wanted to reveal to him. Our Lord used parables
to help describe from a earthly thing a heavenly meaning.
Working for close to 35 years in a very large foundry I
have seen millions of tons of molten cast iron and as this molten iron comes
out of the “copula,” which is what it was melted in the slag or impurities are separated
so that what goes into the casting is pure iron. I can understand why this molten iron that
Ezekiel describes represents the holiness of God.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: My life is to
represent holiness just as molten iron represents holiness, and therefore when
I sin against the Lord I must do as John writes in his first letter: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1
John 1:9).”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Proverbs 3:5-6.
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 have laid aside the old self with
its evil practices, 10 and 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 Chris is all and
in all.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “to visit the fatherless and
widows” (James 1:27).”
Today’s Bible
question: “What did the prodigal son say
to his father when he came back home?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/24/2014 10:29 AM
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