Israel In The Wilderness (Ezek. 20:13-26)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/17/2015 5:36 PM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  Israel in the Wilderness

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Ezekiel 20:13-26

            Message of the verses:  “13 “But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes and they rejected My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; and My Sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath on them in the wilderness, to annihilate them. 14  "But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, before whose sight I had brought them out. 15 “Also I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands, 16 because they rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they did not walk in them; they even profaned My Sabbaths, for their heart continually went after their idols. 17 “Yet My eye spared them rather than destroying them, and I did not cause their annihilation in the wilderness. 18 “I said to their children in the wilderness, ’Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers or keep their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols. 19 ’I am the LORD your God; walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and observe them. 20 ’Sanctify My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’ 21 “But the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes, nor were they careful to observe My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness. 22  "But I withdrew My hand and acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. 23  "Also I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them among the lands, 24  because they had not observed My ordinances, but had rejected My statutes and had profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were on the idols of their fathers. 25  "I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live; 26  and I pronounced them unclean because of their gifts, in that they caused all their firstborn to pass through the fire so that I might make them desolate, in order that they might know that I am the LORD."’”

            I want to begin with a quote from Stewart Briscoe that has to do with this section of Scripture, but he puts into the lives of people today.  Remember what happened in the OT is n example for us who live in the NT times.  “The more I minister among people, the more I am struck by the disintegration of life that follows disobedience to God and by the amazing content to be found in the life of those who follow Him.  The observation of moral, ethical, physical, and social principles as laid down in Scripture does ensure a wholeness of life, and the neglect of them  leads to all manner of individual and social disintegration.”  It seems that people through history believe the lie that Satan told to Eve that God is holding something back, He does not want you to live life on your own.  That in a nutshell is what happened to the children of Israel as they were in the wilderness. 

            When people read about the children of Israel wanting to send spies into the Promised Land before they were to enter it they think that this was what the Lord wanted them to do, but when Moses writes the book of Deuteronomy he states that it was the people who wanted to send out the spies and this was a big mistake on their point as they had just seen God do ten mighty miracles to destroy the country of Egypt and yet when He had promised all the way back to Abraham that his descendants would one day live in the Promised Land.  So Israel decided to send in the spies and they would send in twelve, the number of tribes that were in Israel.  Only two came back with a favorable report, and the reason for this was that they believed the Word of the Lord even though what they saw showed the others that Israel could not defeat the nations that were now living in the Promised Land.  God had enough and decided because of His name to not destroy them, but to cause everyone over twenty years old to die in the wilderness and then a new generation of Israel would be born and He would send them into the Promised Land. 

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “You would have thought that the Jews had learned their lesson by now, but even during the wilderness wandering, they rebelled against God and He had to punish them.  Once again, it was for the glory of His name that He didn’t destroy them and start a new nation with Moses as the father (vv. 11-21).  At the end of the forty years, Moses prepared the new generation to enter the land by reviewing the law and the convents, as recorded in Deuteronomy.”   So as Ezekiel tells the exiles this story perhaps they could figure out that God was not the One who had the problems, causing Judah to be taken out of the Land, but the leaders of Israel along with the priests and false prophets were at fault.

Michael Card wrote a song entitled “In the Wilderness” that goes along with some of the things that people learn when they are in the wilderness and so I thought that I would paste the lyrics of this song on this SD.

In the wilderness
In the wilderness
He calls His sons and daughters
To the wilderness

But He gives grace sufficient
To survive any test
And that's the painful purpose
Of the wilderness

In the wilderness we wander
In the wilderness we weep
In the wasteland of our wanting
Where the darkness seems so deep

We search for the beginning
For an exodus to hold
We find that those who follow Him
Must often walk alone

In the wilderness
In the wilderness
He calls His sons and daughters
To the wilderness

But He gives grace sufficient
To survive any test
And that's the painful purpose
Of the wilderness

In the wilderness we're wondering
For a way to understand
In the wilderness there's not a way
For the ways become a man

And the man's become the exodus
The way to holy ground
Wandering in the wilderness
Is the best way to be found

In the wilderness
In the wilderness
He calls His sons and daughters
In the wilderness

But He gives grace sufficient
To survive any test
And that's the painful purpose
Of the wilderness

Groaning and growing
Amidst the desert days
The windy winter wilderness
Can blow the self away

In the wilderness
In the wilderness
He calls His sons and daughters
To the wilderness

But He gives grace sufficient
To survive any test
And that's the painful purpose
Of the wilderness

And that's the painful promise
Of the wilderness

1/17/2015 6:28 PM