SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/4/2014
10:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Declaring the Word of the Lord PT-4
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
3:22-27
Message of the
verses: We will look at the last
sub-point under this last main point from the first chapter of Warren Wiersbe
commentary in which we are following his outline.
The sign (Ezekiel 3:22-27): “22 The hand of the LORD was on me there, and
He said to me, "Get up, go out to the plain, and there I will speak to
you." 23 So I got up and went out to the plain; and behold, the glory of the LORD was
standing there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chebar, and I
fell on my face. 24 The
Spirit then entered me and made me stand on my feet, and He spoke with
me and said to me, "Go, shut yourself up in your house. 25 “As for you,
son of man, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you
cannot go out among them. 26 “Moreover, I will make your tongue stick to the
roof of your mouth so that you will be mute and cannot be a man who rebukes
them, for they are a rebellious house. 27 “But when I speak to you, I will open
your mouth and you will say to them, ’Thus says the Lord GOD.’ He who hears,
let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious
house.”
As we begin to look at these verses I want to say
something that is in Wiersbe’s commentary to help me make more sense of this
section and that is that there was likely a break between verses 21 and 22, for
Ezekiel was told to speak to the people and we can be sure that he obeyed the
voice of the Lord, but they did not listen to them so as we begin in verse 22
today we will see something similar that we saw when studying the book of
Jeremiah, and that is Ezekiel doing action sermons and this will be the first
of them. Dr. Wiersbe in an endnote gives
the references for these action sermons:
“The symbolic ‘action sermons’ are found in 3:22-26; 4:1-3, 4-8, 9-11,
12-14; 5:1-3; 12:1-16, 17-20; 21:6-7, 18-24, 15-25; 37:15-28.” We have all of those to look forward to.
11/4/2014 10:34 AM
11/4/2014 4:55 PM
We see the following in Ezekiel 12:6b “for I have set you
as a sign to the house of Israel."”
Ezekiel was a living testament to those who saw him as he lived before
them. In some small way I understand
what Ezekiel and some of the other prophets went through as far as telling
people about the Lord and how they can be saved. I spent a fair amount of time praying and
preparing a Bible study on the end times for people in our neighborhood and
sent out twenty letters and also sent out more emails and yet no one showed up
to hear what would have not only been a study on the end times but also a
gospel presentation so that they would have had an opportunity to be saved and
then when the Rapture came that they would have their ticket to be with the
Lord.
Ezekiel was told to shut himself in his house (3:24) and
John MacArthur writes “He was to fulfill much of his ministry at home (8:1;
12:1-7), thereby limiting it to those who came to hear him there.”
John MacArthur writes the following about the ropes from
verse 25: “These were not literal, but
spiritual. On one hand, they could be
the inner ropes of depressing influence which the rebellious Jews exerted on
his spirit. Their perversity, like
ropes, would repress his freedom in preaching.
More likely, they imply the restraint that God placed on him by
supernatural power, so that he could only go and speak where and when God chose
(cf. vv. 26, 27).”
We will conclude with what MacArthur writes concerning
verses 26-27: He was not to speak
primarily, but to act out Gods message.
The prohibition was only partial, for on any occasion (v. 27) when God
did open his mouth, as He often did in chapters 5-7, he was to speak (3:22; 11:25;
12:10, 19, 23, 28). The end of such
intermittent dumbness was regard to his own people closely synchronized with
Ezekiel’s receiving a refuge’s report of Jerusalem’s fall (24:25-27; 33:21,
22). He also spoke with regard to
judgments on other nations (chapters 25-32).”
With this it seems to me that we have ended Ezekiel’s commission and the
plan that the Lord has for him to do.
This is a rather long book of 48 chapters and we will take our time in
going through it along with also looking at the last chapter of 2
Thessalonians, which we may begin tomorrow and try and get through a part of it
in the month of November and then try and have it finished in the month of
December. I believe that the book that
we will also be looking at as we begin the New Year along with Ezekiel is Paul’s
letter to the Colossians as my heart was moved in working on the memory verses
from Colossians chapter three.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: When you
know the truth and the truth as set you free and you want to tell others about
the truth, but they chose to believe the lie then your heart breaks just as
Ezekiel and the other OT prophets had happen to them.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to guide me in a way that I
should go to reach people for the Lord.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:1-11.
1 Therefore if you have
been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set
your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and you life is hidden
with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who
is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Therefore consider the members of your
earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed,
which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath
of God will come upon the sons of disobedience; 7 and in them you also once
walked, when you were living in them. 8
But no you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, slander, malice, 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: “Rebekah” (Genesis 27:6-17).
Today’s Bible
question: “How many major prophets were
there?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/4/2014 6:43 PM
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