NOVEMBER 9
So, you ask, what is the purpose of all we've read in Isaiah
and Jeremiah, and are now wading through in Ezekiel? In as much as the Lord
revealed Himself to Israel and is using them as a visual lesson to mankind, why
do you think we have all of this text? The weight of this lesson, I think, is
that without a new spiritual rebirth in Jesus Christ, mankind is completely
without hope. No amount of God's revealing Himself to humans will overcome the
sin within us that rebels against Him. If kindness and help and signs and
wonders could have saved people and brought them to God, these people would
have been a testimony to the world. But they rejected God and they and their
culture became hopelessly perverse. I'm sure they were nice religious people,
but they were anti-God and anti-truth. So now we see judgment coming upon them.
Our world stands under this same judgment every day. The
harvest is now and the gospel of Christ is the only hope for mankind. Unless
there is forgiveness and a spiritual rebirth in Christ, there is no acceptance
before God and there is no change. Our job in the harvest following our Lord is
not to transform society, but to reach one person at a time with the message of
our Savior. The fields are white for harvest. We need to go and make disciples,
who make disciples, who make disciples, while there is still time for us to
work.
Ezekiel
20
In God
preparing the people to return to the land, there is a lot of immediate and
extensive surgery going on here. The climactic act that will humble these
people will be the fall of Jerusalem, still a few years off.
V. 1 This is
now two years since Ezekiel began to prophesy. Again the elders are sitting
before him. Ezekiel has been incredibly active and has become a phenomenon in
the community of the exiles.
Vs. 2-31 Having
gone through Psalm 105 and 106, this is going to sound very familiar to you.
God recounts their history to them. Go slowly though this section and look for
how often God mentions holding back His judgment.
In this section
look for repetitions of words. Some of these words are wilderness, Sabbath, for the sake of my name. There is a lot in
this section. For example, moreover is
repeated four times. The first one is good, and the next three are bad. The
last one signifies God giving them up to their sin. Notice that God is dealing
with them regarding their idolatry. Notice that v. 31 refers back to the elders
coming to inquire of Ezekiel.
Is there
idolatry in our culture? More so than we realize. Are believers neutralized by
idolatry? And as for what fell among the
thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by
the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. (Luke
8:14) To me, this sounds like us - hearing the Word, enjoying church, living a
clean life, sleeping in the light and bearing no fruit that comes to maturity.
It looks like fruit, and that makes us feel good, but it is stilted by our true
desires for our own safety, needs, comfort and urgings to have more.
Vs. 2-4 The
reason God wouldn't be inquired of by them was that these men, and all the
exiles, hadn't fully given up their allegiance to idols. We'll see that this
was also true of the people who came out of Egypt.
Vs. 5-8 This is
kind of mind numbing to think of, that the people in the Exodus brought idols
with them. We remember from the story that they were very quick to make a
golden calf once Moses was out of sight.
V. 9 This will
be repeated. God didn't want His name reproached, because it has always been
His desire to save mankind. Israel was then, and still is, the nation through
which He planned to reach the nations. An interesting verse to put together
with this is Isaiah 55:13, Instead of the thorn shall
come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it
shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. God
makes His name known through His people, and that includes us.
Vs. 10-17 This is the generation of people who rebelled at
Kadesh-barnea.
V. 12 The
Sabbath was to have been a blessing to them, but only through faith. The
Sabbath will be mentioned several times. In order to enjoy the Sabbath you had
to trust God and not be consumed by needs and desires. You had to have faith
and He had to be your only desire. Then, obedience was easy and didn't seem
like duty.
V. 15 This
sounds like what we've read in Hebrews about the people not entering into God's
rest in the land. Only faith in Him could give them rest as it was promised.
Vs. 18-24 This
is probably not the generation that went into the land with Joshua, but their
children who we read about in Judges. The judgment in the wilderness cleansed
the generation that entered the land. The generation after Joshua and Caleb
flowed straight into sin. God gave them over to their enemies because they
didn't obey.
Vs. 25-26 This
is similar to Romans 1:24, 26 & 28. God gave them over to their desires. He
allowed sin to have its way with them and become statutes to them. The flip
side of this is that if we will fight against sin, God will help us to defeat
it.
Vs. 27-29 When
we read Judges it was amazing to see how quickly and completely the majority of
the people became idolatrous and ignorant of God’s Word. This generation of
Israel in Ezekiel's day was like their idol-following “fathers.” You realize
what they were really following was the sin and desires of their own hearts.
Vs. 30-31 It
appears that these people had blood on their hands. We'll see this in chapters
22-24. Righteous people had died in Jerusalem when they had stood in the way of
"progress." And the people had been for, or were OK with, the
idolatry they had left in Jerusalem; that is, Baal worship that resulted in
children, who were then sacrificed to Molech. These people had innocent blood
on them. With hearts still like this, God found nothing sincere in their
request to hear His Word.
V. 32 This is a
very strong verse. God was and is determined to save Israel. For the sake of
His promise to Abraham, God will save and bless Israel whether they like it or
not. For I tell you that Christ became a
servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the
promises given to the patriarchs. (Rom. 15:8)
Vs. 33-38
Notice the wildernesses here. As God chastened and cleansed Israel in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, He will
now do the same to them in the wilderness
of the peoples.
V. 39 Another
very strong verse. Thankfully there were many who heeded this challenge. Have
you been underlining the mentions of God’s name? It is interesting to wonder
why the people wanted to be called by God’s name at all if they would not obey
or follow Him. Why not just move to Moab and be free?
Vs. 40-44 This
is the promise of physical and spiritual millennial blessing, but notice v. 43.
There is acknowledgement of sin and repentance by Israel. Everyone who enters
into God’s blessing will enter it humbly, knowing they were saved by grace.
History is
important to God as a way for people to trust Him and understand His plan and
His love. Just as our faith is to be built upon what God has done in the past
in the Bible, it is also to be built on our personal/family history with the
Lord. God didn't just expect these people to know this history; He expected
them to know and trust Him because of this history. For us as disciples in the
harvest, faith is never easy; but being in the Word daily helps us see again
Whom it is we follow and how wise and loving He is. Those things that He has
done and is doing for us are more than events in our lives. He expects us to
remember them and be strengthened in our faith by them as we wait on Him.
Vs. 45-49 I
think this should have belonged to the next chapter. Actually, v. 45 is the
first verse of the next chapter in the Hebrew Bible. God directed Ezekiel to
begin pronouncing judgment on the land of Israel. The image is that of a fire
sweeping over the entire land.
V. 49 Ezekiel
informed God that the people were ridiculing him, saying this man was a maker of parables. They didn't get what
God was saying through the prophet, so they were disregarding what Ezekiel
said. In chapter 21 God will become very clear.
Again, for us
in the harvest, these things are written to remind us that there is a fire
coming. God will judge and our Master will return. Our work is now. People need
to hear the message, and at the same time, we need to live in the daily
expectation that our Lord could come. Blessed is that servant whom
his master will find so doing when he comes. (Luke 12:43)
Hebrews
9:11-28
Vs. 11-14 How
could they go back to the law, or how could anyone dismiss Jesus since He
entered the presence of God with Himself and His life and His blood as a
sacrifice for our sins? The dead works
are those acts of the law that cannot make us right before God. Our acceptance
is wholly in Jesus, not in anything we can do.
V. 14 Purify our conscience. Paul makes a big
deal about conscience. In the sense of being acceptable to God, a person could
have a bad conscience with regard to wondering if they had done enough. But in
Christ, “it is finished.” There was never anything for us to do, but accept the
gift. We can have a guilty conscience because of unconfessed sin, but never
because of wondering if we're good enough or have done enough. This is the same
thought as in Romans 8:31-34.
V. 15 Jesus
sealed this covenant with His own blood. Again, this covenant doesn't have two
parties, just one, Jesus Himself. This means that we enter in by faith in His work, not by doing works of our
own.
Vs. 16-17 The
covenant by Jesus is likened to a will. Jesus set the terms of it, and at His
death the benefits come to those to whom He willed them. The beneficiaries of
the will don't have to work; they only have to accept.
Vs. 18-23 The
old covenant, even though inferior, temporary and looking ahead, still had to
be ratified in blood. Verse 22 is pretty important. Blood showed that our sin
brought us under the judgment of death.
Vs. 24-28 So
the Lord died once for all. One question on v. 28 has to do with those who are
waiting for Him eagerly. Jesus bore the sin of many, but could it be that the
circle of those who wait expectantly for Him is smaller. If you look at Hebrews
3:14 and think of the rewards offered for those who endure and hold fast, you
get the idea that waiting expectantly for the Lord is one of those things that
gives endurance and opens the door to a closer relationship with Him here on
earth.
Psalm
107
This is a good
psalm to look for recurring words. Finding the word some will help put structure into what the author is saying. It is
hard to know when this was written or if any particular OT history is being
referred to. For example, vs. 23-32 talk about a sea voyage. We don’t know of
anyone but Jonah who was at sea, and I’m not sure this section reflects what
happened in that story. It is enough to say that these are all experiences that
stretched people the psalmist knew. It could be that these stories were from
those who had been taken into exile and they were describing their return to
Israel.
Vs. 1-3 This
sets the tone for this psalm. Thanking and giving public praise to God will be
repeated. God’s steadfast love will
be mentioned often in connection with people being redeemed and saved from
trouble.
Vs. 4-9 Notice
how this section begins with the word some.
This describes the danger they faced. Notice v. 8 and then in v. 9, the for shows what God should be praised
for. This is the basic pattern of all these sections.
Vs. 10-16 These
people were in prison.
Vs. 17-22 These
people got themselves in trouble by their own foolishness. Notice that here, in
their case, God sent His Word to heal their foolishness. This only works if
people are broken and crying out in humility.
Vs. 23-32 These
people were on the seas.
Vs. 33-38 This
is how God cared for everyone, not only in their danger, but in helping them
establish themselves.
Vs. 39-42 God
exalts the humble, but puts down the proud.
V. 43 says it
all.
Proverbs 27:11
Apparently one
of the ways to reproach a father was through the conduct of his son. That made
me immediately think of our conduct and our Father's name. In 1 Timothy Paul
mentions different groups of people living without reproach or defaming the
name of God. Let all who
are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor,
so that the name of God and the teaching may not be
reviled. (1 Tim. 6:1)
To me, it is
interesting how this fits with the reading in Ezekiel. We should all be wise
sons and daughters, hallowing (honoring) our Father's name.
If you’re reading along
and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/every-day-in-the-word/. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.”
I'm writing these
comments to and for those who are following a One Year Bible and interested in
growing deeper as a disciple, following Jesus in the harvest. My hope is to see
the growth of a discipleship culture in the church. Groups of 3-4 disciples,
meeting weekly, encouraging each other to follow Christ and work to reach out
and make disciples who make disciples. The Bible itself is the most universal
manual we have and key to our growth and service in Christ. Nothing keeps us
more focused on why we are here or what we are to be doing. My comments are
only meant to provide some explanation of the events or to show the flow of
God's plan of redemption. My comments are in no way exhaustive, but are
designed to keep us focused on Christ and our role in His harvest. My hope is
that the people in these groups will grow in Christ and be willing, after a
year, to find 3 others to meet with and encourage in their growth as disciples,
disciples making disciples in the harvest.
If you would like a
complete description of this model of being and making disciples you can find
it in my book: Simply Disciples*Making Disciples.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WJIDQA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
If you would like a more
descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the
Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is the
commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never
hurts.
I am not endorsing any
particular One Year Bible; in fact, I read something you don't, die revidierte
Lutherbibel 1984.
Anyone reading along with
us is welcome to do so and is encouraged to take their own notes and make their
own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular
tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to
criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has
written to us, as I understand it. Send comments or feedback to dgkachikis@gmail.com.
If you would like
documents containing an entire month of the Reading Notes, go to https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes. You can download these to use on your computer or to
print.
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