SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/19/2014
11:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
False Piety PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
14:6-11
Message of the
verses: We look at the second and
last sub-section under this main section entitled “False Piety” in today’s SD.
He Called them to Repent (Ezekiel 14:6-11): “6 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ’Thus says the Lord
GOD, "Repent
and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your
abominations. 7 “For anyone of the house of Israel or of the immigrants who
stay in Israel who separates himself from Me, sets up his idols in his heart,
puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes
to the prophet to inquire of Me for himself, I the LORD will be brought to
answer him in My own person. 8 “I will set My face against that man and make
him a sign and a proverb, and
I will cut him off from among My people. So you will know that I am the
LORD. 9 “But if the prophet is prevailed upon to speak a word, it is I, the
LORD, who have prevailed upon that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand
against him and destroy him from among My people Israel. 10 "They will bear the punishment of their
iniquity; as the iniquity of the inquirer is, so the iniquity of the prophet
will be, 11 in order that
the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me and no longer defile themselves
with all their transgressions. Thus they will be My people, and I shall
be their God,"’ declares the Lord GOD."”
The first thing we should do here is to describe what the
word repentance means. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “Repentance is a change of mind; it means turning from sin and turning
to the Lord.” Verse six, as we see says something
similar: “Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your
faces away from all your abominations.” It
does seem rather amazing to me that Ezekiel and the Lord are speaking to the
exiles who have been taken out of Jerusalem and sent to Babylon because of
their idol worship, and yet they continued in the worshiping of idols in Babylon. Now I realize that Babylon was a nation who
worshiped many gods, and so because these people were use to the worship of
idols they just continued to do so when they got to Babylon. It is difficult to break a sinful habit. God is the only One who is worthy of our
worship, and so God through Ezekiel is telling the exiles to stop their idol
worship and so the people of Israel needed to get back to the worship of God
only.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following about verse nine: “A casual reading of verse 9 would give the
impression that it was the Lord’s fault that people were worshiping idols, but
that isn’t the case. Everybody in Israel
knew the Ten Commandments and understood that it was a sin to make and worship
idols (Ex. 20:1-6). Even if someone very
close to them enticed them to practice idolatry, they were not to yield (Deu.
13). God permitted these enticements to
test the people to make sure they were loyal to Him. Of course, God knows that’s in the human
heart, but we don’t know our own hearts, and these tests help us to stay humble
before the Lord and walk in the fear of the Lord. An illustration of this truth is seen in 1
Kings 22. God permitted a lying spirit
to work in the minds of the false prophets to convince Ahab to go into
battle. Micaiah, the true prophet, told
the assembly what would happen, but they rejected the truth and put their trust
in lies. God spared the life of the king
of Judah but took the life of wicked king Ahab.”
In 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 we read what can happen when a
person continues to reject the good news of the Gospel. “10 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. 11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so
that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged
who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.” You can read the Spiritual Diaries on these
verses dated 1016/2014 and also 10/18/2014 to see more on what these verses
mean.
Dr. Wiersbe continues as he writes about what is going in
today’s world: “The attitude of the lost
world today is that there are no absolutes, and therefore there can be no ‘truth.’ Satan is the liar and the deceiver and he has
blinded the minds of people so that they believe lies and reject the truth of
God. We must do all we can to share the
truth of the Word with a blind and deaf world, trusting the Holy Spirit to open
their eyes and ears and save them by His grace.” That truth that he writes here is one of the
reasons that I put my Spiritual Diaries onto a blog so that the Holy Spirit can
use them to open the eyes and hearts of those who do not believe. One of God’s attributes is truth and this
means that there is truth in this world to believe in and that truth is the
gospel of Jesus Christ. “Jesus *said to
him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the
Father but through Me.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It is my desire
to pass all of the tests that the Lord gives to me to show that my heart is
pure before Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: “Little children, guard yourselves from
idols.”
Memory verse for the
week: 2 Peter 1:5.
5 Now for this reason also,
applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your
moral excellence, knowledge,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Cana) (John 2:1).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which of David’s sons tried
to take the kingdom from his father?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/19/2014 12:38 PM
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