Friday, February 6, 2015

Judah a Disappointing People (Ezek. 22:29-31)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/6/2015 9:57 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  A Disappointing People

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ezekiel 22:29-31

            Message of the verses:  “29 “The people of the land have practiced oppression and committed robbery, and they have wronged the poor and needy and have oppressed the sojourner without justice. 30 “I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. 31 “Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads," declares the Lord GOD.”

            As we look at verse twenty-nine we can see that Ezekiel is talking to the exiles of what they have done and what they were doing was totally against the Law that God had given to them.  I suppose that I have mentioned this before, but it is worth repeating.  When Jesus was on the earth a man asked Him what the greatest commandment was in the Law and He told that man to love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then He went on to tell him that the second was to love your neighbor as yourself.  Now this is where you get the story about the good Samaritan to let this man know who his neighbor was.  I have often thought of these two commandment being pictured as a cross the vertical part is loving God, while the horizontal part is loving your neighbor.  One more thing to remember about this and that is all of the Ten Commandment flow out of these two commandments and then the rest of the Law flows out of the Ten Commandment.

            Dr. Wiersbe begins his short commentary on verses 30-31 by writing “God searched among His people for one person in authority who would stand in the gap so that the enemy wouldn’t penetrate the wall and invade the city, but He found none.  Of course, the Prophet Jeremiah was in Jerusalem, but he was a man with no authority who was rejected by the politicians, priests, and false prophets.  Jeremiah himself had scoured the city, looking for a godly man (Jer. 5:1-6).  The Lord promised to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if He found ten righteous men in the city (Gen. 18:23-33), and He would have spared Jerusalem for one righteous man.”  They had a very sad set of affairs in the city of Jerusalem at this time.

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes with this very insightful paragraph which can be directed to the sad state of affairs that are going on in our country during the first part of this 21st century.

            “The Lord is still seeking men and women who will take their stand for the moral law of God, stand in the gap at the wall, and confront the enemy with God’s help.  As you read history, you meet godly men and women who had the courage to resist the popular evils of their day and dare to expose the breaks in the wall and seek to mend them.  The Lord is looking for intercessors (Isa. 59:1-4, 16) who will cry out to God for mercy ad for a return to holiness. Surely the Lord must be disappointed that His people have time for everything except intercessory prayer.” 

            One of the things that I pray for most every day is that the Lord will send revival to the church in our country, and that He will raise up a man who will lead His church in this country back to the Lord.    2/6/2015 10:41 PM

 

           

No comments:

Post a Comment