SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/18/2014 10:10 AM
My Worship Time Focus: False Piety
PT-1
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
14:1-5
Message
of the verses: As I looked over and
listened to the 14th chapter of Ezekiel I find it rather difficult
to understand what the prophet is writing, but with the help of God’s Holy
Spirit and the commentaries that I read I hope to better understand what
Ezekiel is writing about in this chapter.
Dr. Wiersbe has two main points in this chapter and we will look at the
first half of the first main point in today’s SD.
Let us look at what Dr. Wiersbe wrote
at the beginning of his commentary for this third main point of his forth
chapter of his commentary: “Except when
God told him to leave, Ezekiel was confined to his house (3:24) and was not
allowed to speak unless he was declaring a message from the Lord. The elders of the exiled people came to visit
him to see what he was doing and to hear what he had to say about their
situation (8:1; 20:1). The prophet gave
them two messages from the Lord.”
He exposed their hidden sin (Ezekiel
14:1-5): “1 Then some elders of Israel
came to me and sat down before me. 2 And the word of the LORD came to me,
saying, 3 “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and
have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should
I be consulted by them at all? 4
"Therefore speak to them and tell them, ’Thus says the Lord GOD,
"Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, puts
right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to
the prophet, I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in
view of the multitude of his idols, 5 in
order to lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are estranged from
Me through all their idols."’”
1 Then some of the leaders of Israel
visited me, and while they were sitting with me, 2 this message came to me from the LORD: 3 “Son of man, these leaders have set up idols
in their hearts. They have embraced things that will make them fall into sin.
Why should I listen to their requests? 4 Tell them, ’This is what the Sovereign
LORD says: The people of Israel have set up idols in their hearts and fallen
into sin, and then they go to a prophet asking for a message. So I, the LORD,
will give them the kind of answer their great idolatry deserves. 5 I will do this to capture the minds and
hearts of all my people who have turned from me to worship their detestable
idols’ (NLT).”
A number of years ago when I had first
began to go to the church that I now attend the church was celebrating its 175th
anniversary and one of the Pastor’s who came to help celebrate this even was
speaking, on exactly what I do not remember, but what I do remember was that he
made a statement that went something like this: “When I am speaking and I know
that it is from the Word of God I stand exactly in the middle of the pulpit,
but when I am speaking and I think that what I am saying is true but it is my
idea I stand on one side of the pulpit.”
Well today I have to admit that I would be standing on one side of the
pulpit when I write in my Spiritual Diary today. I believe that the “elders” who came to see
Ezekiel were what we call apostates and we can classify Judas as an apostate
for he walked with our Lord for three plus years and said all the right things
and did all the right things, but did not believe that Jesus was the only way
to get to heaven. John 14:6 says “Jesus
*said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to
the Father but through Me.” Judas was
looking for a political Messiah, and not a Messiah who would take his sins
away. It is my opinion that these elders
who came to see Ezekiel were apostates, they had the right “religious” words to
say, but their heart was far from the Lord.
Now with that said I do believe that true believers can have idols in
their hearts that will cause them not to serve the Lord in the way that they
should because they care more about the idols than serving the Lord. Dr. Wiersbe gives some examples in his
commentary. “It’s not likely that
believers today would have a love in their hearts for actual images, but
anything that replaces God in our affections and our obedience is certainly an
idol. It might be wealth, as in the case
of Achan (Josh. 7), Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5), and the man who we call ‘the
rich young ruler’ (Matt. 19:16-26).
Jonah’s idol was a selfish patriotism that made him turn his back on the
Gentiles who needed to hear his message.
Pilate’s idol was holding the approval of the people and his status in
the Romans Empire (Mark 15:15; John 19:12-16).
What we have in our hearts affects what we see and how we live. If Christ is Lord in our hearts (1 Peter
3:15), then there will be no place for idols.” Now all of the people he mentioned here were
believers as we know, but they all had idols in their hearts.
Israel was like the church in Ephesus
as described by our Lord in Revelations 2:4 where the glorified Christ says “’But
I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” He goes on to say: “’Therefore remember from where you have
fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to
you and will remove your lampstand out of its place-unless you repent.” They did not and there is little today to see
in that part of the world that tells us that there was a church there 1900
years ago. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Loving
and accepting the false prevents us from knowing and loving the true ‘and with
all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not
receive the love of the truth so as to be saved’ (2 Thess. 2:10) and results in
our becoming estranged from the Lord (Ezek. 13:5). As we said Israel left her first love and
turned to idols and so the Lord had to destroy Jerusalem and the temple in
order to stop the idol worship of His people.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: “Little
children, guard yourselves from idols (1 John 5:21).”
My Steps of Faith for
Today: The
same as my spiritual meaning for my life today.
Memory
verses for the week: 2 Peter 1:4-5.
4 For by
these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by
them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world by lust.
5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith
supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
Answer to
yesterday’s Bible question: “Paul” (Acts
27:25).
Today’s
Bible question: “Where was the marriage
held at which Jesus turned water into wine?”
Answer in
our next SD.
12/18/2014
11:06 AM
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