SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/14/2014
10:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Famine
in the City (3rd Action Sermon)
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
4:9-17
Message of the
verses: “9 "But as for you,
take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt, put them in one vessel
and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number
of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days. 10 “Your
food which you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it
from time to time. 11 “The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a hin by
measure; you shall drink it from time to time. 12 “You shall eat it as a barley
cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung." 13 Then the LORD
said, "Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread unclean among the
nations where I will banish them." 14 But I said, "Ah, Lord GOD!
Behold, I have never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never
eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any unclean meat ever
entered my mouth." 15 Then He said to me, "See, I will give you cow’s
dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread." 16
Moreover, He said to me, "Son of man, behold, I am going to break the
staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with
anxiety, and drink water by measure and in horror, 17 because bread and water
will be scarce; and they will be appalled with one another and waste away in
their iniquity.”
Before we get started in looking at these verses I want
to say that a number of years ago someone started making “Ezekiel 4:9 Bread” as
they go the recipe from Ezekiel chapter four and verse nine. From what I have been told it is a very
healthy bread to eat.
We now move in Ezekiel’s sermons to showing the horror of
the siege of Jerusalem, a horror in which those living there will not have
enough food to eat or water to drink. As
I have been referencing in earlier SD’s from the book of Deuteronomy, we can
see that what Ezekiel is demonstrating to the exiles and the people of Jerusalem
were going through has already been prophesied in the book of Deuteronomy and
chapter 28. Moses wrote this many years
before, just before the children of Israel came into the Promised Land that if
they did not obey what this covenant had in it that they would receive the
curses of this covenant and they were seeing this as Jerusalem was about to
fall.
When times got really bad people would cook their food
over human dung, but when the Lord told Ezekiel to do this he told the Lord
that he had never defiled himself and so the Lord told him to use cows dung,
and this was done in accordance with the Law.
The Jews would sometimes mix it with straw to make a fire to cook their
food. Ezekiel would eat about eight ounces
of bread and drink about two-thirds of a quart of water to show the exiles what
the people in Jerusalem were going through. This was a visual picture, an action sermon
for them. We know from the reading and
studying of the book of Daniel that many of the Jewish exiles would not follow
the Law and defile themselves by eating food that was not allowed in the Law,
but both Ezekiel and Daniel chose not to defile themselves.
Dr. Wiersbe finishes this section with the following: “God have His chosen people a land of milk
and honey and promised to bless their crops, their flocks and herds, and their
families, if they obeyed His covenant.
But they took their blessings for granted and turned away from the Lord
and worshiped idols, so God cursed their blessings (Mal. 2:2). The land of milk and honey and the rich city
of Jerusalem became places of scarcity and hunger, to the extent of parents
eating their own children to stay alive during the siege (Ezek. 5:10; Deut.
29:22-28).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: In my memory
verses that I have surely had trouble memorizing there is a verse that
says: “Therefore consider the members of
your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and
greed, which amounts to
idolatry. When we worship the
gifs that the Giver has given us they become idols to us and it goes downhill
from there. I do not want to do that,
but be thankful for the gifts that God has given to me and praise Him for them,
and not take advantage of the Lord for giving me those gifts.
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: “The Jews incited the people
to stone Paul.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What two men did Jesus send
to prepare the Passover?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/14/2014 11:08 AM
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