Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The Storm Announced PT-4 (Ezek. 30:13-19)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/18/2015 10:12 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  The Storm Announced PT-4

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ezekiel 30:13-19

            Message of the verse:  In this SD we will look at the last sub-section from the above main section.

            Nothing Shall Escape God’s Wrath (Ezekiel 30:13-19):  “13 ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "I will also destroy the idols And make the images cease from Memphis. And there will no longer be a prince in the land of Egypt; And I will put fear in the land of Egypt. 14 “I will make Pathros desolate, Set a fire in Zoan And execute judgments on Thebes. 15 “I will pour out My wrath on Sin, The stronghold of Egypt; I will also cut off the hordes of Thebes. 16 “I will set a fire in Egypt; Sin will writhe in anguish, Thebes will be breached And Memphis will have distresses daily. 17 “The young men of On and of Pi-beseth Will fall by the sword, And the women will go into captivity. 18 “In Tehaphnehes the day will be dark When I break there the yoke bars of Egypt. Then the pride of her power will cease in her; A cloud will cover her, And her daughters will go into captivity. 19 “Thus I will execute judgments on Egypt, And they will know that I am the LORD."’" 

            We have seen this last phrase many times in these prophecies of judgment upon the land of Egypt.  I see the theme of God attribute of being jealous in this paragraph, and the reason I say that is became the things that Egypt was doing was sinful behavior in that they did not do things that would glorify the Lord.  They worshiped idols, and God said that He would destroy them.  Idol worship is something that Israel had just been punished for and those who were hearing this message, the exiles living in Babylon, were there because they worshiped idols and this caused the Lord to be jealous.  We have mentioned in earlier SD’s that the kind of jealously that God had is different than human jealously in that God is perfect and therefore deserves worship from everyone on planet earth, but does not get that and that is one of the reasons He brings judgment and wrath upon the earth.  Wrath, God’s wrath, is another thing people have trouble with as they desire to put God in a box and only believe that He is love.  God is love, but God is also just and God is a God of wrath because He, like I said is perfect, and perfect in His wrath.  One other thing and this is notice all of the “I will’s” that I have highlighted which tells of all the things that God is going to do to Egypt.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “Ezekiel has told us what would happen and how it would happen, and now he reveals the vast scope of God’s wrath.”  He goes on to write “The verbs used make it clear that the Lord will permit total devastation:  destroy, make desolate, set fire, pour fury, cut off, the day darkened.”  Next he writes “The Jews were led out of Egypt by a bright cloud (Ex. 13:21), but the Egyptians who once enslaved them will be under a dark cloud.  As a result of God’s judgment, the power and pride of Egypt will be destroyed, and the nation would never rise to its former heights again.”

            When God called Abram way back in Genesis 12:1-3 He said:  “1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2  And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3  And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."”  We can also notice all of the “I will’s) that are in this section, but they are different, not I will’s of wrath, but I will’s of blessing.  The point I am making here is that people need to learn, and in particular our nation at this time in its history, that God will protect Israel as He promises in this section of Genesis.  If you curse Israel because of who Israel is, and there have been much of that type of persecution in the past, then God will curse you,  However if you bless Israel, like our country has done in the past, then God will bless you.  Many people forget this because they don’t believe the Bible.  However just look at history and you will see this blessing and cursing from the pages of history.

3/18/2015 10:37 PM

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