SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/16/2015
11:16 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Storm is Coming
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
30:1-5
Message of the
verses: “1 The word of the LORD came
again to me saying, 2 "Son of man,
prophesy and say, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Wail, ’Alas for the day!’ 3 "For the day is near, Even
the day of the LORD is near; It will be a day of clouds, A time of doom for the
nations. 4 “A sword will
come upon Egypt, And
anguish will be in Ethiopia; When the slain fall in Egypt, They take
away her wealth, And her foundations are torn down. 5 "Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all Arabia, Libya
and the people of the land that is in league will fall with them by the
sword."”
We have moved into the third main point from Dr. Wiersbe
outline which takes up chapters 29-32 of the book of Ezekiel. He has entitled this chapter “Egypt Will Fall,”
and this third main point is entitled “The Storm Announced” which will cover
only the first 19 verses in the 30th chapter of Ezekiel. He writes at the beginning “This third oracle
isn’t dated but was probably delivered about the same time as the previous
one. It pictures the judgment of Egypt
in terms of a great storm that shakes the very foundations of the land.” Now the previous oracle was dated April 26,
571 BC and was the latest dating found in the book of Ezekiel, but was about
the nation of Egypt so it was put into this part which speaks of Egypt’s
judgment. This is the only oracle in
this section (29-32) that is not dated and all begin with “The Word of the Lord
came to me saying,” and many have at the end of them something like “they will
know that I am the Lord,” something people in this generation truly need to
know before it is too late form them.
In verse three we see the familiar words that are
repeated in both the Old Testament and also in the New Testament and that is “The
Day of the Lord.” When we studied the
book of 2 Thessalonians we went over that term.
Paul had to remind the people of Thessalonica that the Day of the Lord
had not yet arrived and the reason that he gives them is that the Antichrist
had not yet arrived, which has to happen before the Day of the Lord comes. The time period of the Day of the Lord is
what we will be studying in the book of Revelation, the last three and a half
years of judgment that God brings upon the whole earth which happens right
before the Lord Jesus Christ returns from heaven. The Old Testament prophets, like Ezekiel talk
about this and many times when they talk about it they speak of judgment that
will come upon Israel near the time of their writing and this is a picture of
what the Lord will be doing during the tribulation period. What Ezekiel is talking about concerning
Egypt is a picture of what will happen in the end times, during the tribulation
period, and as I said this pictures Egypt’s judgment here and not Israel’s
judgment.
Ezekiel has been talking to the exiles a lot about the
judgment that will fall upon Egypt, and many of them think that he does not
know what he is talking about, but he surely does. One of the problems that people made fun of
Ezekiel is the same reason people make fun of what the Bible has to say about
things today. In order to understand the
Bible one has to be a born-again believer who has a desire to study the Word of
God. If a non believer tries to
understand the Word of God they will not realize what it is saying, it would be
like a person reading someone else’s mail with something in it that makes no
sense to them. If people did understand
what the Bible said and believed it then they would not be so quick to support
same sex marriages or abortions, and would vote people into office that had the
same values, but they think that the Bible is out of date and does not have any
meaning for their lives or the lives of others in today’s world. As stated earlier one day “they will know
that I am the Lord,” which is the same thing Ezekiel is repeating to those whom
he is talking to.
3/16/2015 11:48 PM
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