SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/8/2015
4:25 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Rescuing the
Flock
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
34:11-22
Message of the
verses: “11 For thus says the Lord
GOD, "Behold, I
Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. 12 "As a shepherd cares for his herd in the
day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all
the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. 13 “I
will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and
bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel,
by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. 14 “I will feed
them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain
heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in
rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 “I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,"
declares the Lord GOD. 16 “I will seek the lost, bring back the
scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment. 17 "As for you, My flock, thus says the
Lord GOD, ’Behold, I will judge between one sheep and another, between the rams
and the male goats. 18 ’Is it too slight a thing for you that you should feed
in the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your
pastures? Or that you should drink of the clear waters, that you must foul the
rest with your feet? 19 ’As for My flock, they must eat what you tread down
with your feet and drink what you foul with your feet!’" 20 Therefore, thus says the
Lord GOD to them, "Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and
the lean sheep. 21 "Because you push with side and with shoulder, and
thrust at all the weak with your horns until you have scattered them abroad,
22 therefore, I will deliver My flock, and they will
no longer be a prey; and I
will judge between one sheep and another.”
This is one of the times in the OT prophets where we see basically
in the same chapter and even in the same paragraph where the prophet speaks of
things that will soon take place and thing that will take place in the distant
future. We see a number of times in this
section that the Lord says that He will judge between on sheep and another and
this reminds me of what our Lord said in His Olivet Discourse where we will
look at Matthew chapter 25: “Mt 25:32 “All
the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one
another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put
the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.” This prophecy will happen at the very end of
the Tribulation Period just after the Lord Jesus returns physically to planet
earth as seen in Revelation chapter 19. I believe that the prophecy we are
looking at in Ezekiel may take place when the Lord returns from heaven and also
during the Millennial Kingdom. We see
also in this passage from Ezekiel that the children of Israel have a strong
leader to lead them and this certainly did not happen when they returned to
their land 70 years after they returned from Babylon.
This message was given to the exiles who had just been
through much trouble and they probably had many questions as to whether or not
they would ever go back to their land and so this message gave them hope. There were many among these exiles who never
thought that God would allow them to have to leave their land, and one of the
reasons was because of the false prophets that they listened to both while in
Jerusalem and then when they were taken captive and sent to Babylon. God has a plan for the nation of Israel as we
will see especially through these last chapters of the book of Ezekiel, and I
can say that the Prime Minister of the current state of Israel actually said a
few years back when he was making an address for the 60th anniversary
of the Jews being let out of Auschwitz that the prophecies of Ezekiel 36-37
were actually fulfilled there and I believe the reason he made that statement
was because of the slaughter of Jewish people that happened in these types of
camps led the United Nations to create the new state of Israel. When we get to those chapters we will see
better why he made that satatement.
4/8/2015 5:00 PM
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