SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/15/2014
9:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus: 4th
Action Sermon “The Destiny of the People” PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
5:1-17
Message of the
verses: “1 “As for you, son of man,
take a sharp sword; take and use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard.
Then take scales for weighing and divide the hair. 2 “One third you shall burn
in the fire at the center of the city, when the days of the siege are
completed. Then you shall take one third and strike it with the sword all
around the city, and one third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will
unsheathe a sword behind them. 3 “Take also a few in number from them and bind
them in the edges of your robes. 4 “Take again some of them and throw them into
the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will spread to all the house
of Israel.
“5 "Thus says the Lord GOD, ’This is
Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her.
6 ’But she has rebelled against My
ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes more than the
lands which surround her; for they have rejected My ordinances and have not
walked in My statutes.’ 7 “Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, ’Because you have
more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My
statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the
nations which surround you,’ 8 therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, ’Behold, I,
even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of
the nations. 9 ’And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what
I have not done, and the like of which I will never do again. 10 ’Therefore,
fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I
will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind. 11
’So as I live,’ declares the Lord GOD, ’surely, because you have defiled My
sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations,
therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not
spare. 12 ’One third of you will die by
plague or be consumed by famine among you, one third will fall by the sword
around you, and one third I will scatter to every wind, and I will unsheathe a
sword behind them. 13 ’Thus My anger
will be spent and I will satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be appeased; then
they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in My zeal when I have spent My
wrath upon them. 14 ’Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a reproach
among the nations which surround you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15 ’So
it will be a reproach, a reviling, a warning and an object of horror to the
nations who surround you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath
and raging rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken. 16 ’When I send against them the
deadly arrows of famine which were for the destruction of those whom I will
send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break
the staff of bread. 17 ’Moreover, I will send on you famine and wild beasts,
and they will bereave you of children; plague and bloodshed also will pass
through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the LORD, have
spoken.’"”
As I look at these verses which consist of all of chapter
five I think of some of the attributes of God that are seen in these words. I think of God Sovereignty as He is the One
who is working these things out for His glory even though to the reader and especially
to those who took part of this it was surely not pleasant. I think of God’s wrath as it is spoken of in
this chapter. I also think of God’s
jealously that can be seen as Ezekiel is very upset over how the people had been
worshiping other gods, and this was something that God hated. What God hated Ezekiel hated, and this is how
believers are to believe. I suppose to a
more trained eye that there are more of God’s attributes in this chapter, but
these three stick out in my mind.
In verse one we see that Ezekiel takes a sword and we can
believe that he sharpened it as sharp as a razor in order to cut off his hair
and also his beard, something that is spoken of in different areas of the
Scripture. “In that day the Lord will
shave with a razor, hired from regions beyond the Euphrates (that is, with the
king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove
the beard (Isa. 7:20).” Shaving could be
a part of a purification ritual: “’All
the days of his vow of separation no razor shall pass over his head. He shall
be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the
LORD; he shall let the locks of hair on his head grow long (Num. 6:5).” “"Thus you shall do to them, for their
cleansing: sprinkle purifying water on them, and let them use a razor over
their whole body and wash their clothes, and they will be clean (Num. 8:7).” As I look at these verse my mind goes to the
book of Acts when I read the following: “23
“Therefore do this that we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; 24 take them and purify yourself along with
them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will
know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you,
but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law (Acts 21:23-24).” Also look at Ac 18:18 Paul, having remained
many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and
with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea he had his hair cut, for he was
keeping a vow.” Cutting of the hair has
different meanings that are found in the Scriptures.
We are looking in this chapter what Steward Briscoe says “What
a way to Shave.” Yes this was truly a
different way to cut one’s hair and beard, and what Ezekiel did with the hair
after he cut it off is also different, but it is showing the exiles what was
going to happen to the people who were living in Jerusalem. He first of all weighed the hair very
carefully, and then he put it in three piles.
The first part he burned by the siege brick which showed of those who
would die of famine or pestilence in Jerusalem.
The second part of hair he cut up into small bits with his sword and this
symbolizes those the Babylonian soldiers would kill. Next he would throw the last part into the
wind, but before he did this he put a small portion into his clothes. The throwing to the wind of this part of his
hair represented those who would be scattered away from Jerusalem, but the
small part he put into his clothes would represent the remnant, something we
see a lot of in Scripture. “36 ’As for
those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into their hearts in
the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and
even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword, and they
will fall. 37 ’They will therefore
stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is
pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies. 38
’But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume
you. 39 ’So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their
iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of
their forefathers they will rot away with them Lev. 26:36-39).” Dr. Wiersbe writes “But Ezekiel 5:4 indicates
that anyone who was spared must not take his or her safety for granted, for
more fire could come out from God’s judgment of Jerusalem. This prophecy was fulfilled in the days after
the siege of the city when innocent Jewish people were killed by scheming
criminals (Jer. 40-44).”
I think it best that we look at the rest of this chapter
in our next SD as there is quite a bit more to look at.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful to
the Lord that He is in charge of human history and that from the study of His
attributes I am learning to trust the Lord more and more.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Proverbs 3:5-6.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:10-11.
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,
Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Peter and John” (Luke 22:8).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘He is not here; for
He is risen, as He said. Come see the
place where the Lord lay’?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/15/2014 10:12 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment