SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/17/2014 9:11 AM
My Worship Time Focus: False
Prophecy PT-2
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
13:17-23
Message
of the verses: Today we will attempt
to finish the 13th chapter of Ezekiel as we look again at some of
the false prophecy that was going on not only with the exiles in Babylon, but
also with the people living in Jerusalem.
The Lying Sorceresses (Ezekiel
13:17-23): “17 "Now you, son of
man, set your face against
the daughters of your people who are prophesying from their own inspiration.
Prophesy against them 18 and say, ’Thus
says the Lord GOD, "Woe to the women who sew magic bands on all wrists and
make veils for the heads of persons of every stature to hunt down lives! Will
you hunt down the lives of My people, but preserve the lives of others for
yourselves? 19 "For handfuls of
barley and fragments of bread, you have profaned Me to My people to put to
death some who should not die and to keep others alive who should not live, by
your lying to My people who listen to lies."’" 20 Therefore, thus
says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am against your magic bands by which you
hunt lives there as birds and I will tear them from your arms; and I will let
them go, even those lives whom you hunt as birds. 21 “I will also tear off your
veils and deliver My people from your hands, and they will no longer be in your
hands to be hunted; and you will know that I am the LORD. 22 "Because you disheartened the righteous
with falsehood when I did not cause him grief, but have encouraged the wicked
not to turn from his wicked way and preserve his life, 23 therefore, you women will no longer see false
visions or practice divination, and I will deliver My people out of your hand. Thus you will know that I am the
LORD."”
Let me begin with a quote from Dr.
Wiersbe that will set the stage of what we are going to look at in this
Spiritual Diary. “The gift of prophecy
wasn’t given exclusively to men, for several prophetesses are named in
Scripture: Miriam (Ex. 15:20), Deborah
(Jud. 4:4-5), the wife of Isaiah (Isa. 8:3), Hulda (2 Kings 22:14), and the
daughters of Philip the evangelist (Acts 21:8-9). Noadiah (Neh. 6:14) was apparently a
self-styled prophetess and not a true servant of God.” It is obvious why he begins his commentary on
this note as we are looking at women who are causing a lot of trouble for the
children of Israel as we will see.
As we read over this short section in
Ezekiel chapter thirteen we see that these women were using sorcery to trap the
people of Israel who were living in Babylon s exiles. It is possible that they were getting their
craft from the people of Babylon. According
to Deuteronomy 18:9-14 this was truly against the Law of the Lord: “ 9 ¶"When
you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to
imitate the detestable things of those nations. 10 "There shall not be found among you
anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who
practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a
spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 “For whoever does these
things is detestable to the LORD; and because of these detestable things the
LORD your God will drive them out before you. 13 “You shall be blameless before
the LORD your God. 14 “For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to
those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the LORD your
God has not allowed you to do so.” When
we were looking at the end of 1 Samuel we saw that King Saul went to a sorcerer
to have her bring up Samuel in order to find out what would happen to him as he
was to fight against the Philistines the next day. This was against what we have just read from
Deuteronomy. One only has to look in the
local newspaper or on the internet to find out what their horoscope is for the
day, so this practice has not gone away in our day.
Why do people do these kind of
things? I suppose there are many
different reasons, and perhaps fear is one of the reasons for that is why Saul
went to a sorcerer and perhaps that is a reason why people still do it
today. A few days ago we looked at 2
Thessalonians 3:16b where Paul prays that the Thessalonian believers would have
the peace of God and we learned that peace was one of the attributes of God. Peace could probably be said is the opposite
of fear and believers are the only ones to be able to experience God’s
peace. The reason I bring this up is
because as long as we experience peace, God’s peace, in our lives we need not
look at what these women in our text today in order to calm our fears.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Stay away
from things that will never bring peace into my heart, and stay close to the
Lord who only can give me perfect peace.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that
the Lord will keep things calm in our household as we watch a couple of our
grandchildren today.
Memory verses
for the week: 2 Peter 1:5.
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: “This is the
King of the Jews” (Luke 23:38).
Today’s
Bible question: “Who said ‘Be of good
cheer; for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me’?”
Answer in
our next SD.
12/17/2014
9:46 AM
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