SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/30/2015
11:18 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
God Completes the Task
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
21:28-32
Message of the
verses: “28 "And you, son of
man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says about the
Ammonites and their insults: "‘A sword, a sword, drawn for the slaughter,
polished to consume and to flash like lightning! 29 Despite false visions
concerning you and lying divinations about you, it will be laid on the necks of
the wicked who are to be slain, whose day has come, whose time of punishment has reached its climax. 30 Return the
sword to its scabbard. In the place where you were created, in the land of your
ancestry, I will judge you. 31 I will pour out my wrath upon you and breathe
out my fiery anger against you; I will hand you over to brutal men, men skilled
in destruction. 32 You will be fuel for the fire, your blood will be shed in
your land, you will be
remembered no more; for
I the LORD have spoken.’"”
In our last SD we studied about the Lord causing the
Babylonians to move against Judah and especially Jerusalem instead of going to
where the Ammonites lived. They too were
involved in an alliance against Babylon and this would cause the Babylonians to
desire to defeat them along with Judah.
However God wanted Jerusalem first and when the Babylonians were
defeating Jerusalem first the Ammonites were making fun of Judah’s defeat. God would not allow Nebuchadnezzar to put his
sword away as seen in verse thirty. We
see this message closing as another fire similar to the one seen in 20:47-48,
but this fire would be a hotter fire.
I have mentioned what I am about to write in other SD’s
but it fits well in this one. Since I
have been looking at the book of Revelation and especially as I listen to it I
know that the last judgments to come are the bowl judgments and they are full
of the wrath of God to be poured out on the people of the earth because of
their sin. We see something similar in
the 15th chapter of Genesis when God tells Moses that in four hundred
years He would use Israel to defeat the nations that were then in the Promised
Land. There time would be in
four-hundred years. My take on this is
that God’s bowl of wrath had not been filled up but would be in four hundred
years. As we look at this passage and
the many passages concerning Israel and Judah we would find that God’s bowl of
wrath was filled up and He was using the Babylonians to bring about His wrath
on Judah and also the Ammonites. I
wonder how full God’s bowl of wrath is on our country.
We are not at the end of the sixth chapter as we follow
along in our study of Ezekiel, the sixth chapter in Warren Wiersbe’s commentary
in which I am following along with Stewart Briscoe’s commentary on
Ezekiel. I am sorry that this study has
kind of been slowed down because of our study in Revelation, but that is the
way I feel that the Lord wants me to do.
Warren Wiersbe writes the following as he ends this sixth
chapter of his commentary. “We come away
from the stud of chapters 18-21 with a fresh realization of the tragedy of
rebellion against the Lord. Israel had a
long history of rebellion, but the other nations weren’t any better, except
that Israel was sinning against the light of God’s Word and His providential
care over His people. If any people had
the obligation to obey and serve the Lord, it was Israel, for the Lord had
blessed them abundantly. Instead of
becoming a holy nation to the glory of God, she became like all the other
nations and failed to be God’s light to the Gentiles.
“And yet woven throughout this series of messages is the
theme of Israel’s hope. The prophet
reminded them that God had promised to regather them from the Gentile nations
and give them their King and their kingdom.
Historically speaking, weak King Zedekiah was the last ruler in the
Davidic dynasty, but not prophetically speaking; for Jesus Christ, the Son of
David (Matt. 1:1) will one day come and reign from David’s throne. Ezekiel will discuss that theme in detail
before he completes his book.
“Under ‘Query 18’ in the notes of the State of Virginia,
Thomas Jefferson wrote, ‘Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God
is just.’ Ezekiel has defended the
justice of God and magnified the mercy and grace of God. What more could he do?”
1/30/2015 11:44 PM
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