SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/23/2015
11:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Tree
Felled PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
31:10-14
Message of the
verses: In today’s SD on the book of
Ezekiel we will look at the second sub-point under this main point “The Tree
Felled.”
Assyria’s Fall (Ezekiel 31:10-14): “10 ’Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Because it
is high in stature and has set its top among the clouds, and its heart is
haughty in its loftiness, 11 therefore
I will give it into the hand of a despot of the nations; he will thoroughly
deal with it. According to its wickedness I have driven it away. 12 “Alien
tyrants of the nations have cut it down and left it; on the mountains and in
all the valleys its branches have fallen and its boughs have been broken in all
the ravines of the land. And all the peoples of the earth have gone down from
its shade and left it. 13 "On its ruin all the birds of the heavens will
dwell, and all the beasts of the field will be on its fallen branches 14 so that all the trees by the waters may not
be exalted in their stature, nor set their top among the clouds, nor their
well-watered mighty ones stand erect in their height. For they have all been
given over to death, to the earth beneath, among the sons of men, with those
who go down to the pit."”
One of the things that God hates is pride, and this can
be seen throughout the Word of God. It
was pride that caused Satan’s fall, and it was pride that caused both the
Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel to fall. Pr 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, And
a haughty spirit before stumbling.” Let
us go on and talk more about pride. When
a person is proud they are going against the fact that God is God, and one of
His attributes is that God is jealous, and as I have said many times this is
not a human kind of jealously. God has
the right to be jealous of anyone who worships something other than Him, for He
is worthy of all worship. When it comes
to leaders the following statement is true “A good leader realizes that he is
second in command.” This has to do with
all leaders including leaders of countries.
Read through the entire forth chapter of Daniel to see the story of
Nebuchadnezzar’s pride and how God dealt with it and when He had dealt with it
what happened to Nebuchadnezzar.
In the book of Ezekiel we have seen the pride of Judah
and Samaria (chapter 16), Ammon, Moab, and Edom (chapter 25), Tyre (23:3; and
chapters 26-28). Remember that part of
the judgment of Tyre had to do with Satan.
Assyria and also Egypt are mentioned in the book of Ezekiel about their
pride. Dr. Wiersbe writes about the
judgment we are looking at today: “The
logic of this judgment, what hope was there for a lesser kingdom like
Egypt? God would call ‘the mighty one of
the nations’ (v. 10) to humble Assyria, and this, of course, King
Nebuchadnezzar (30:11).”
He concludes this section with the following “God had to
teach Assyria a lesson (v. 14), that those who exalt themselves will eventually
be abased, a lesson nations and individuals need to learn today (Pr. 29:23;
Isa. 2:12; Mal. 4:1; Matt. 23:11-12; 1 Peter 5:5-7).”
I see things going on in our country with the leadership
we have that unless they repent and recognize that God is the One who rules in
His universe will have happen to them the same thing that happened to Assyria
and the many other nations who did not realize their need to repent. 3/23/2015 11:42 AM
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