Thursday, November 27, 2014

The verdict is in Judgement is certain: (Ezekiel 8:17-18)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/27/2014 9:44 AM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  The Temple is Defiled PT-3

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ezekiel 8:17-18

            Message of the verses:  We come to the last two verses in the eight chapter of Ezekiel, a chapter in which we read about how the leaders in Judah have been defiling the temple with the worship of their idols.

            The Divine Judgment is Announced (Ezekiel 8:17-18):  “17 He said to me, "Do you see this, son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and provoked Me repeatedly? For behold, they are putting the twig to their nose. 18 “Therefore, I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them."

            At the beginning of his commentary on these last two verses in chapter eight Warren Wiersbe reviews what Ezekiel had been shown by the Lord:  “Ezekiel has seen only a part of the evidence that the people in Jerusalem had abandoned themselves to idolatry.  He had seen an idol in the temple, defiling its very precincts and yet begin worshiped by people who also claimed to worship the Lord, as though Jehovah were one God among many, not the Lord of lords.  Then he saw the leaders secretly worshiping false gods in the temple.  After that, everything was out in the open: the women weeping for Tammuz, and the priests/elders bowing down to the sun.  In God’s sight, these things were abominable and disable and they provoked Him to anger.  Except for the faithful remnant, the Jewish people no longer feared God or cared about pleasing Him.”

            I have read people’s different ideas about what it means in verse 17 when we read “they are putting the twig to their nose.”  Whatever this means it was not something that was lifting up the Lord.  John MacArthur writes “The meaning is uncertain, but it seems to have been some act of contempt toward God.  The Gr. OT translation rendered it, ‘they are as mockers.’”

            The problem that these people had is the very problem that is happening in our nation, and for that matter around the whole world, and that problem is that people have lost their fear of the Lord.  I have mentioned time and time again that evolution is the problem that causes people not to fear the Lord for when one believes in evolution they do not have to believe in God, for if God did not create the world then people do not have an obligation to worship and fear Him.  Evolution is a religion in and of itself, and it is a false religion, a religion in which God is not in, and here lies the problem. 

            Now Ezekiel has seen all of the evidence that God has shown to him and not the verdict has come in and it is not good for those who live in Judah at this time for the verdict is guilty and judgment is a sure thing to happen right away.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Heb 10:31 “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  This makes me so glad that Jesus paid it all, and all to Him I owe.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Since today is Thanksgiving Day in the USA I have to say that the thing that I am most thankful for is the salvation that God has called me to through my Lord Jesus Christ.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Peter 2:1-2.

1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, 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:  “Jesus” (Luke 5:4).

Today’s Bible question:  “In which garden did God place man?”

Answer in our next SD.

11/27/2014 10:19 AM

             

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