Saturday, March 14, 2015

Divine Mercy (Ezekiel 29:13-16)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/14/2015 4:09 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  Divine Mercy

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ezekiel 29:13-16

            Message of the verses:  “13 ’For thus says the Lord GOD, "At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered. 14 “I will turn the fortunes of Egypt and make them return to the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin, and there they will be a lowly kingdom. 15 “It will be the lowest of the kingdoms, and it will never again lift itself up above the nations. And I will make them so small that they will not rule over the nations. 16 “And it will never again be the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing to mind the iniquity of their having turned to Egypt. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD."’"”     

            We now look at the last sub-section under the main section entitled “The Monster Slain,” which speaks of the judgment that God would bring upon the nation of Egypt.

            We see two things that will happen to Egypt after the judgment comes from God by the Babylonians.  First they will return back to their land after forty years, and I must say that this has not been the case of the other countries that Ezekiel has written about.  Second when they did return they would only be a base nation, not a real player among the nations.  We also see in this section the Jews would finally realize that they cannot trust the nation of Egypt, something they had fallen prey to since their founder Abraham went down to Egypt without being sent there by God and in case you don’t remember what happened there when Abraham went there was that he picked up a hand-maid for his wife named Hagar and ended up fathering a child by her due to their lack of faith.  The child Ishmael would be the father to the twelve tribes of the Arab nations and they would be a great deal for Israel even up to this day. 

            We see the words “they will know that I am the Lord God” three times in this section, in verse six, nine, and now in sixteen.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “The statement is one of the key affirmations in the Book of Ezekiel and is used some sixty times.  The Lord reveals His attributes through His judgments just as much as He does thorough His blessings, and sometimes His judgments get our attention much more quickly.”   I think I would rather see His attributes through His blessings.

3/14/2015 4:24 PM

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