SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/23/2015
10:00 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God
Identifies the Target
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
20:45-49
Message of the
verses: We begin a new main section
in our study of Ezekiel which Dr. Wiersbe entitles “Divine Responsibility.” This will be the last main point in his sixth
chapter and it covers Ezekiel 20:45-21:32.
He writes the following in his introductory commentary which will help
us better understand where we will be heading. “In the Hebrew Scriptures,
chapter 21 begins with 20:45, and this is the best arrangement, for 20:45-49
introduce the coming judgment on Judah and Jerusalem. Ezekiel has explained the individual
responsibility of the people and their leaders and the national responsibility
of Israel. Now he focuses on the fact
that God has responsibility to punish His people when they rebel against
Him. He must be true to His character
and true to His covenant.” I think that
it is shames that most people do not understand this about God, for most people
only want to see the fact that He is a God of love, which He is but there are
many other attributes that make up His character including wrath and justice.
God Indentifies the Target (Ezekiel 20:45-49): “45 Now the word of the LORD came to me,
saying, 46 "Son of man, set your face toward
Teman, and speak out against the south and prophesy against the forest land of
the Negev, 47 and say to the forest of
the Negev, ’Hear the word of the LORD: thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am about to kindle a
fire in you, and it will consume every green tree in you, as well as
every dry tree; the blazing flame will not be quenched and the whole surface
from south to north will be burned by it. 48 “All flesh will see that I, the LORD, have kindled it; it shall
not be quenched."’" 49 Then I said, "Ah Lord GOD! They are saying of me, ’Is he not just
speaking parables?’"”
First of all I want to give more examples of the term “set
your face toward” as seen in other parts of Ezekiel.
“Eze 4:3 "Then get yourself an iron plate and set
it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so
that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.
Eze 4:7 “Then you shall set
your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy
against it.
Eze 6:2 “Son of man, set
your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them
Eze 20:46 “Son of man, set
your face toward Teman, and speak out against the south and prophesy against
the forest land of the Negev,
Eze 21:2 “Son of man, set
your face toward Jerusalem, and speak against the sanctuaries and prophesy
against the land of Israel;
Eze 25:2 “Son of man, set
your face toward the sons of Ammon and prophesy against them,
Eze 28:21 “Son of man, set
your face toward Sidon, prophesy against her
Eze 38:2 "Son of man, set your face toward Gog of
the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against
him
As you can see there is quite a list found in the book of
Ezekiel, and what we can see about this statement is that it was a way that the
targets of God are identifies, targets that He will bring judgment on. The case we are looking at today is on Judah
and Jerusalem, for in this case the Lord had been warning them that judgment
was coming and indeed in 586 the furry of His wrath as He used the Babylonians
to accomplish would come upon Jerusalem along with all of Judah. I have always been fascinated on the word “Negev”
and one day I truly hope that I will be able to visit it, but in this section
it means the south of Judah, and the word is still used today in modern day
Israel.
God speaks through Ezekiel to talk about a fire and that
is what the Babylonians used against Jerusalem and Judah to destroy it as we
have seen in other OT books that we studied like 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. “8 Now on the seventh day of the fifth month,
which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to
Jerusalem. 9 He burned the
house of the LORD, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even
every great house he burned with fire (2 Kings 25:8-9).” “19 Then they burned the house of God and
broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its fortified buildings with fire and destroyed all its
valuable articles (2 Chron. 36:19).”
Dr. Wiersbe reports that this message was given to the
exiles by Ezekiel in 591 BC and it would be five years later when all this
would happen in Judah and Jerusalem.
Dr. Wiersbe finishes his commentary by writing “During
Israel’s wilderness wanderings, God didn’t severely punish His people for their
rebellion because He wanted to honor His name before the Gentiles (20:14, 22,
44); but now He would honor His name by burning their city and temple and
sending them into exile.”
It seems to me that the exiles did not understand what
Ezekiel was saying to them because they thought that he was speaking in
parables, which I suppose you could say he was but they did not understand it
at all.
1/23/2015 10:36 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment