SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/23/2014
8:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to the book of Ezekiel
In today’s SD we will briefly look at the introduction of
the book of Ezekiel as we begin to study this book. I have some fond memories of this book that
dates back to when I first became a believer and part of the tapes that I was
listening to when I became a believer focused in on Ezekiel chapters 36-39, a
part of the book that talks about the restoring of the nation of Israel to
their land after being away from it for a long time. This restoration took place on the 14th
of May in 1948 when the United Nations recognized Israel as a nation. This happened in one day as the prophet
Isaiah foretold in the last chapter of his book. Ezekiel spoke of this in chapters 36-37 and
then in chapters 38-39 Ezekiel speaks of a great war that will be headed up by
Russia and having many other nations involved.
This has not yet happened and scholars are uncertain as to when this
will happen as far as whether or not it will happen before the tribulation
period or in the tribulation period. It
is interesting that the Prime Minister of Israel when making a speech at the 60th
anniversary of the horrible things that happened at Auschwitz.
In his speech at the noted prison camp Benjamin Netanyahu said that the things
that happened at this prison camp were a fulfillment of Ezekiel chapters 36-37.
Ezekiel
was a priest whom God called to be a prophet just as He did both Jeremiah and
Zechariah and he began being a prophet at age thirty. His ministry was in Babylon where he was
taken as a prisoner from Israel. God
sent him there to prophesy to the people of Israel who were there as a result
of the Babylonians defeating the nation of Israel that is the Southern
Kingdom. There were three dispersions of
the Jews to Babylon, 605, 597, and 586 BC. God told Jeremiah that the Jews would return
to their land 70 years after they went there into captivity and so God placed
both Ezekiel and Daniel there to make sure that the people would receive
messages from Him. It is likely that Daniel
and Ezekiel knew each other before going to Babylon, but according to Dr.
Wiersbe not likely that they associated with each other while there.
When
we look at what God’s plan for the nation of Israel we can see that it did not
work out the way God wanted it to work out, but in His sovereign plan He had
for the world it did work out. This may
sound like double talk, but it really is not.
The reason that Israel went into captivity was because of sin, and when
one looks at the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy it is told by Moses
that Israel would not keep their covenant with the Lord and then God would send
them into captivity and bring them back and then later on send them back into
captivity again which happened in 70 AD.
When the Southern Kingdom went into captivity in 586 BC that was the end
of the rule of Israel and the beginning of the rule of the Gentile nations, and
we saw when studying the book of Daniel that he foretold the Gentile nations
that would rule beginning with Babylon, and then the Medo Persian Empire, then
the Greeks, and finally the Roman Empire which will have two phases. God wanted to show His people that He had not
forgotten about them when he sent them to Babylon and so He gave messages to
them through His prophets.
Now
in our study of Jeremiah we learned that it was easier to be a priest than a
prophet, and this will be the case again when we look at Ezekiel. When we look at what happened to the true
prophets of Israel we see that most of them were killed because they told the
people about their sins and they did not want to listen to them so they killed
many of them. Jesus spoke of this and so
did Steven in Acts chapter seven.
At
this time I want to site Warren Wiersbe’s outline of the book of Ezekiel, which
we will be following in our study of Ezekiel.
We will look at both the outline and also the contents of his commentary
on Ezekiel which he entitles “Be Reverent.”
Key Theme:
Showing reverence for the name and glory of God.
Key verse: “You
will know that I am the Lord” (6:7 NIV)
(This statement is found seventy times in the book)
I.
The prophet’s Call (1-3)
1. Seeing God’s glory—1
2. Hearing God’s Word—2
3. Becoming God’s watchman—3
II.
The Fall of Jerusalem (4-24)
1. The judgment preached—4-7
2. God’s glory departs—8-11
3. Godless leaders exposed—12-17
4. God’s justice defended—18-21
5. The end of the city—22-24
III.
The Nations Judged (25-32)
1. Ammon—25:1-7
2. Moab—25:8-11
3. Edom—25:12-14
4. Philistia—25:15-17
5. Tyre—26:1-28:19
6. Sidon—28:20-24
7. Egypt—29-32
IV.
The Glorious Future of Israel
(22-48)
1. The city of Jerusalem restored—33-34
2. The land of Israel renewed—35-37
3. The nation of Israel resurrected and reunited—37-39
4. The temple and the priesthood reestablished—40-48
The Contents of “Be Reverent”
1. From Priest to Prophet (Ezekiel 1-3)
2. The Death of a Great City (Ezekiel 4-7)
3. The Glory Departed (Ezekiel 8-11)
4. The Truth About the False (Ezekiel 12-14)
5. Pictures of Failure (Ezekiel 15-17)
6. God Is Just! (Ezekiel 18-21)
7. See the Sinful City (Ezekiel 22-24)
8. God Judges the Nations (Ezekiel 25-28)
9. Egypt Will Fall! (Ezekiel 29-32)
Interlude
10. Warning and Promises from the Watchman (Ezekiel 33-35)
11. From Restoration to Reunion (Ezekiel 38-39)
12. God Protects the Nation (Ezekiel 38-39)
13. Glory in the Temple (Ezekiel 40-48)
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
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: “Make him a servant (or slave)” (Genesis
44:17).
Today’s Bible question: “What is pure religion?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/23/2014 9:32 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment