Poor Littel Rich Girl PT-1 (Ezek. 16:1-34)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/23/2014 11:57 AM

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  Poor Little Rich Girl PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ezekiel 16:1-34

            Message of the verses:  You know that whenever I look at long chapters in the Word of God I get a little nerves as to how long it will take to get through that long chapter, and this 16^th chapter of the book of Ezekiel has 63 verses in it which ranks it with some of the longer chapters found in the Word of God. 

            In Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on this portion of Ezekiel he calls the girl that is described in chapter sixteen as “the unfaithful wife” and in Stewart Briscoe’s commentary he calls this woman “Poor Little Rich Girl.”  I am sure as we go through this chapter we will see reasons as to why each author entitled it the way that they did.  Now due to some time restraints today I wish to do something that I do sometimes and that is quote from an author for this entire Spiritual Diary.  This will be Steward Briscoe’s commentary that I will use for today and probably for tomorrow and then on Christmas Day I will probably write some things on what Christmas means to me so we will get back to our longer look at chapter sixteen probably on Friday of this week.

            “Poor Little Rich Girl.”  It seems as if the momentum of Ezekiel’s ministry was building up.  The words he spoke were becoming more and more challenging and at times downright offensive to his listeners.  None more so than Ezekiel’s parable of the poor little rich girl.

            “A baby girl was abandoned in a field on the day of her birth.  None of the usual things had been done for the baby.  Her umbilical cord was uncut; her body had not been washed or cleansed with salt; no ‘swaddling clothes’ had been given to her.  She was a piteous sight, but because of her mixed parentage and her unpleasant appearance, no one showed compassion to her.

            “Along came a stranger who, seeing the abandoned child, took care of the situation and commanded that the child dying in her own blood should live.  Provision was made for her so that she grew to a beautiful, charming, and poised young lady.  Thanks, of course, to the benevolent stranger.

            “Years later, he returned to the neighborhood, saw the beautiful girl whom he had rescued and cared for, fell in love with her, and proposed marriage.  She accepted and they were married, presumably to live happily ever after.

            “But they didn’t because the girl, for reasons known only to herself, accepted the clothes and the jewels, the status and the prosperity of her loving husband, but never, accepted him.  She took all she could get but never gave herself.  She became increasingly arrogant and selfish, and eventually, shamelessly and openly had affairs with other men.  She introduced her children to her lifestyle, used her husband’s home and goods to further her own unfaithfulness, and even went into business establishing centers of immorality around the neighborhood.

            “Hers was a story of abject shame, dishonor, and unspeakable ingratitude.  Accustomed as they were to storytellers and story telling, the inhabitants of Tel-abib loved this kind of tale.  But the application of the story raised not a few eyebrows and maybe even a few fists!  

            “Ezekiel’s point was that Israel was the ugly, unwanted child of mixed parentage, lying in the field among the nations, disregarded and despised.  The Lord had come and rescued her for no other reason that it is His nature to pity the pitiable and rescue the lost.  He had cared for and loved the despised people, marrying them to Himself and setting His eternal purposes upon them.  He had blessed them among the nations, shown His might power on their behalf, enriched them, and given them the tools to show forth His glory among the nation.  But they had used their status to promote their own sin.  They had abused their blessings and used them to their own willful ends, and generally had brought unspeakable shame to their heavenly Husband.  (See Ezekiel 16:1-34).
            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  While walking on my treadmill this morning I was listening to a sermon by John MacArthur, well the end of one and the beginning of another, and the second on was from the 2^nd chapter of Revelations on the Church at Ephesus.  Anyone who reads through Revelations will find that there is a church there that it is said of them that they left their first love, and that was the church of Ephesus. This pretty much describes the nation of Israel in the days of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and this parable fits into what was going on in Ephesus.  I do not want to get so busy doing things for the Lord that I forget the Lord, forget the love that He has for me, and thus forget to love Him, and this is what happened to Israel and also to the church at Ephesus.  Loving the Lord means that we keep His commandments that we delight in keeping His commandments, taking time to be thankful that He has called us to keep them in order to bring glory to His name.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Not to lose my love for my Savior.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Peter 1:5-6

5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Throughout the whole world” (Romans 1:8).

Today’s Bible question:  “In the story of the good Samaritan, what two people passed by on the other side?”

Answer in our next SD.

12/23/2014 12:39 PM

    

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