SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/2/2019
10:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Spiritual
Alienation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
2:12-13
Message of the verses: “12 remember that
you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without
God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have
been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
We
are talking about five ways we were spiritually alienated from God, and today
we look at the second one and that is that we were “excluded from the
commonwealth of Israel.”
When
you think about Israel you remember that Israel was a special nation that the
Lord began in order to accomplish a number of things. They were God’s chosen people in order to
bless the whole world with as He gave them His Law, and was actually their King
as the nation was a theocracy. God gave
that nation His special blessing, protection, and love. He gave them His covenants, including the Abrahamic,
Davidic covenants. Not only did He give
them His Law, but also a priesthood, His promises, His sacrifices, and also His
guidance as seen in Deut. 32:9-14; 33:27-29; Isaiah 63:7-9 and also Amos 3:2). Let us look at Psalm 147:20 “He has not dealt
thus with any nation; And as for His ordinances, they have not known them.
Praise the LORD!” John MacArthur writes “Ezekiel’s
description of God’s special care of Israel is powerful.” We will now look at that from Ezekiel
16:4-14:
4 "As for your birth, on the day you were
born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing;
you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. 5 “No eye looked with
pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you.
Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the
day you were born.
6 "When I passed by
you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in
your blood, ’Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ’Live!’
7 “I made you numerous like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall
and reached the age for fine ornaments; your breasts were formed and
your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare. 8 “Then I passed by you and saw
you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you
and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant
with you so that you became Mine," declares the Lord GOD. 9 “Then I bathed
you with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. 10 “I
also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on
your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. 11 “I
adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around
your neck. 12 “I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a
beautiful crown on your head. 13 “Thus you were adorned with gold and silver,
and your dress was of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine
flour, honey and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to
royalty. 14 “Then your fame went forth among the nations on account of your
beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on
you," declares the Lord GOD.”
I
have a book which is a commentary on the book of Ezekiel entitled “All Things
Weird and Wonderful,” and it is written by Stuart Briscoe. I like the title of the book and after
reading this portion from Ezekiel 16 perhaps you can understand why Briscoe
entitled it as he did.
I
would suppose that there are two reasons why the Gentile nations did not accept
the true God, and one of them is of course their own fault, but the other is the
fault of Israel who thought because that they were so special that their God
was theirs alone and therefore did not want to share it with anyone else. However if the Gentiles would have accepted
the true God then they too could have been a part of that blessed nation and
thus would have been a part of all the blessings that God gave to them. The Gentiles did not receive any special
blessing or protection, and the reason for this was because they were outside
the dominion of God. This was the second
spiritual alienation that Paul discusses in these verses.
The
third alienation was that the Gentiles were without a covenant with God as they
were “strangers to the covenants of promise.”
Let us look at the supreme covenant of promise that was given to
Abraham: “I will make you a great
nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a
blessing; 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 shall be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).” There are additions from these verses to
better help us understand this covenant Genesis 17:7 “7 "I will establish My covenant between Me
and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an
everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.” Genesis 26:3-5 “3 “Sojourn in this land and I
will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give
all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father
Abraham. 4 "I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and
will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the
nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5 because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My
charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.’” Genesis 28:13-15 “13 And behold, the LORD
stood above it and said, "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham
and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to
your descendants. 14 "Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth,
and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the
south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth
be blessed. 15 “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will
bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I
have promised you.’” MacArthur adds “Inherent
within that one great covenant were the Mosaic, Palestinian, and Davidic
covenants—and even the New Covenant (Jer. 31:33). The covenant with Abraham surrounded and
determined all of God’s dealing with Israel.”
I
realize that as we look within the covenants that God gave and also renewed His
promises were to bless, prosper, multiply, save, and redeem Israel. However this is a great example where one has
to go by truth and not by their emotions, for as we look at the history of
Israel we probably don’t see all of these things happening, but in the future
they will because God is immutable, and this means that He can never change His
mind. There are other things in these
covenants that God promised, and they are to give His people a land, a kingdom,
and a King, and to those who believed in Him God promised eternal life and also
heaven.
This
too is one of the things that Gentiles were alienated from that Paul reminds us
of. There are two more which God willing
we will look at least one of them in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I continue to learn from the things that I
was alienated from and to have some time to think about how wonderful the Lord
is, for even though I was alienated from these things God through His great
love, faith, and mercy saved me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I want to continue to look at Romans 12:3 and
also remember truth and not emotion as they change but truth does not.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Thirty” (Genesis 41:46).
Today’s Bible question: “List five things in which Paul hoped the
Corinthians would abound.”
Answer in our next SD.
1/2/2019 11:05 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment