SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/24/2014
10:09 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Temple
is Defiled PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
8:1-2
Message of the
verses: We begin looking at a series
of chapters from the book of Ezekiel, chapters 8-11 and in his commentary on
Ezekiel Warren Wiersbe entitles this chapter “The Glory Has Departed.” Steward Briscoe’s commentary also begins a
new chapter on these verses and he entitles it “The Hole in the Wall.” We have been following the outline from Dr.
Wiersbe’s commentary but have also addressed some of the things that Steward
Briscoe had said.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following at the end of his beginning
commentary for this section of Ezekiel: “Recorded
in these chapters is a remarkable vision that God gave Ezekiel, which he shared
with the elders of the people of Israel (Ezek. 11:25). It wasn’t an easy message to preach because
it dealt with three great tragedies in the life of the Jewish nation: the temple was defiled (8:1-18), the people
were doomed (9:1-10:22), and the leaders were deceived (11:1-25). The truths he shared in this message were
opposite to what the false prophets were declaring both in Jerusalem and in
Babylon. In their blind overconfidence,
the false prophets and the officials who followed them all claimed that God
would never permit His holy temple to fall into the hands of pagan Gentiles,
but they proved to be wrong.”
Chapter eight happens around 14 months after Ezekiel’s
last messages that we just finished studying.
We note from Ezekiel chapter eight that the hand of the Lord lifted him
up by his hair, and so Ezekiel had to have time to grow his hair back that he
had cut off to give earlier messages to the people. We also notice that the Jewish people had
formed some kind of little government while they were in exile so there was
some order there for them. These new
elders would come and visit Ezekiel and were doing so at the beginning of this
chapter, but Ezekiel would be gone in an instant after they arrived. Commentators are not sure if this was a vision
in which Ezekiel had disappeared or if he remained there in body, but was
seeing a vision in his mind. Either way
it was the Lord who was showing Ezekiel what he was seeing.
The Glory of God was Revealed (Ezekiel 8:1-2): “1 It came about in the sixth year, on the
fifth day of the sixth month, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of
Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell on me there. 2 Then
I looked, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of a man; from His loins and
downward there was the appearance of fire and from His loins and upward the
appearance of brightness, like the appearance of glowing metal.”
We have mentioned the glory of the Lord in different
Spiritual Diaries before, but it is good to go over it in this SD. We know that while in the garden, before sin
entered the world that Adam and Eve had seen the glory of the Lord, but once
sin entered the world they hid from the Lord.
Moses saw the glory of the Lord and even begged the Lord to show him His
glory while on the Mountain. When the
Tabernacle was built in the wilderness the glory of the Lord filled it and
remained there until it left as seen in 1 Samuel 4:19-22. When Solomon built the temple and preached
that wonderful sermon to the people of Israel the glory of the Lord filled the
temple “10 It happened that when the
priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD,
11 so that the priests could not stand
to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of
the LORD (1 Kings 8:10-11).” Ezekiel
would see the glory of the Lord leave the temple, and I believe that the next
time that the glory of the Lord would enter the rebuilt temple would be when
the Lord Jesus Christ entered the temple.
The people of God need to see the glory of the Lord as Moses longed to
see while leading the people of God in the wilderness. Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord as seen in
the first chapters of his book, and now he will see the glory of the Lord again
in chapter eight, for we believe that this was the preincarnate appearance of
Jesus Christ, something He did from time to time in the OT. Ezekiel needed this encouragement as he was
doing the ministry that God had given him to do. Daniel saw similar things from the Lord and
fainted and was sick for many days after seeing the glory of the Lord. The apostle John, as he recorded seeing the
Lord in the book of Revelations also fell down and had to be lifted up after
seeing the resurrected Lord. As human
beings we are not fully capable in seeing the Lord in all of His glory, and
even seeing a part of it people become faint.
God’s people had sinned and therefore God punished them
by having the Babylonians attack them and take a part of them to Babylon. This was a difficult time for them, but the
Lord was not done with them and He would use people like Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra,
and Nehemiah to show them that He was not done with them.
Warren Wiersbe writes the following as he concludes this
first sub-section: “God’s servants may
think that their greatest need is to see new visions and hear new voices, but
the Lord doesn’t always work that way.
Instead, He often meets the need by giving us a fresh experience of the original
call. The Lord reminded His servant that
He was still on the throne and that His providential care for him and his
people had never ceased. What more did
Ezekiel need to know?”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I need to be
satisfied with the ministry that the Lord has given to me, that of writing my
Spiritual Diaries and put them onto my blogs.
I have been given a fresh look at this and continue to pray that God
will use these to bring glory to His Son.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to pray and believe that the Lord
will use the ministry that He has given to me.
Memory verses for the week:
2 Peter 1:1-2.
1 Simon Peter, a
bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of
the same kind as our, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus
Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied
to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Because it was that he killed
and Egyptian” (Exodus 2:11-15).
Today’s Bible
question: “What were the disciples also
called?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/24/2014 10:53 AM
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