Ezekiel 21-22: Will He Be Found?

“I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.” Ezel. 22:30-31 NIV

Is God looking for that man again today?  The one who would build up the wall.  The one who would go before God and plead for his mercy on behalf of a rebellious and ignorant people.  One who would speak our against all the injustice around him.  One whose heart would break for the orphans, widows and aliens who have been trampled by God's people in their quest to get what they want.   One who would speak out against what God's people have whitewashed in order to maintain a godly appearing front. One who would call sin a sin.  If God was looking for that man today, would he be found?

I need someone to stand in the gap for me, because I am guilty; guilty of all the sins that have been cataloged and many others.  I am guilty.  Where is the one who will stand between me and God?  I looked, and there he was.  The only one who could rightly say he was without sin.  The only one who could protect me from the wrath of God.  God himself, in the form of his son, comes to stand beside me and tells me it is all right.  My sins will not be counted against me.  They've been erased, covered by his own blood.  There is no other man who can represent me, no other one who can be found blameless.  There is only one.  Will he be found?

2010 Post - Ezekiel 21-22:  Who Will Stand in the Gap

Ezekiel 18-20: Not a Covenant Breaking God

There you will remember your conduct and all the actions by which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evil you have done. You will know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name’s sake and not according to your evil ways and your corrupt practices, O house of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD.’”  - Ezek. 20: 43-44 NIV

Poor Israel.  They were hampered by an everlasting covenant that had been struck between God and their forefathers.  God was never going to forget them and he was never going to let them forget him.  They were and still are his.  No matter their conduct, no matter how far they strayed, they were still his.  All their sins, and they were many and grievous, all their sins would do was make life miserable for them.  Their sins could not break the covenant.  Their sins would take them away from their promised land into captivity, but they would not cause God to let go of them completely.  What God promised was set in stone.  He would not break his side of the covenant.

The same is true today for those of us who have entered into covenant through the blood of God's son.  That covenant cannot be broken either.  All our sins will do is lead us into captivity and away from the promise.  If we try to ignore what we have committed to, we will suffer the consequences.  Our life will become miserable, but we will not be abandoned or forgotten.  In fact, it would be better if we had been forgotten.  God will chase us down, the good Shepherd going after the lost sheep.  God will deal with us and our sins, but he will not forget his people, those he has chosen and those that have chosen him.  He is not a covenant breaking God.

2010 Post - Ezekiel 18-20:  Repent and Live

Ezekiel 15-17: Therein Lies the Answer

It should have been difficult for Israel to have their sins catalogued by God, to be told that their sins were worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah.  It should have caught their attention, but they were so wrapped up in self-preservation that they missed the message.  And even if they really heard the message, did they want to give up all that had been built around them, the cushy life, living in the grand city of Jerusalem as opposed to being nomads wandering through the desert dependent on God for their food every day.  Go back to that?  It was inconceivable.

I wonder, if God told us that there was no escape, that our sins were too great, that we had provoked him for the last time, would we change?  If he told us that there was going to be utter destruction of the lifestyle around us that we have become accustomed to and the only escape was to leave everything behind, could we do so? 

The answer to those questions is also the answer to whether or not we have run after and been caught up in a life of prostitution as the Israelites were. 

2010 Post - Ezekiel 15-17:  A Time to Tear Down

Ezekiel 12-15: His Word Is

The word of the LORD came to me:  “Son of man, the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies about the distant future.’
  “Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: None of my words will be delayed any longer; whatever I say will be fulfilled, declares the Sovereign LORD.’” - Ezek. 12:26-28 NIV

I am not a prophet, but I know some things are true.  I know when God speaks it can never be doubted.  When there is nothing else in this world that is lasting or can be counted on, God's word is still standing.  I believe the time has come when we should be hearing these words of God, as if they were spoken today,  "None of my words will be delayed any longer; whatever I say will be fulfilled, declares the Sovereign LORD."

What God says is true.  His word is eternal.  It is the beginning and the end.  It has never been late, it has never been premature.  There is no way around it.  We can ignore it, we can translate it, we can avoid it, we can accept all, or part, or none if it, but that changes nothing.  His Word will come to pass, here in the immediate future and in the eternity to come.  In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  What God has spoken will be. His word is.

2010 Post - Ezekiel 12-15:  Only The Righteous Would Be Saved

Ezekiel 10-11: An Undivided Heart

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. - Ezek. 11:19-20 NIV

What Ezekiel heard the Lord say, remains God's desire for us to this day.  That we would cry out, "Take this heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh."   That was the cry of the Psalmist,  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. (Ps. 51:10) and has been the cry that God is listening for down through the centuries.  Cleanse us, Lord God.  We cannot cleanse ourselves.  Heal us, Lord God, we cannot heal ourselves.  And if we cannot cleanse or heal ourselves, we cannot cleanse or heal our land.  These matters of the heart are not something we can will.  They are something we can long for, cry out for, but we cannot will a clean heart or a right spirit on our own.  Only the overpowering, merciful, forgiving love of God can change our heart.  That needs to be the cry for today.  Before we cry for God to heal our land, we need to cry for God to heal our heart.  To take away the part of our heart that clings to the things of this world and give us a heart that is true.  Only then can we ask God to cleanse and heal our land.

2010 Post - Ezekiel 10-11:  The Glory Leaves the Temple

Ezekiel 8-9: We Need to Grieve and Lament

Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. Then the LORD called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side  and said to him, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”  - Ez 9:3-4 NIV
 
It's one thing for us to say with a clear conscience 'Well, things may be bad, but I haven't done any of those things that God deems detestable" and another for our hearts to break over the sins of the nation.  For my part, I have to confess I'm not there yet. Oh, I do grieve for all I see around me, I grieve for the future of this nation, for the future of our children, but I'm afraid it's still a pretty selfish kind of grief.  I know that we're surrounded by sins against God, but I'm more worried about the effect it may have on my safety and livelihood than I am on how the heart of God must be grieving over the conduct of his people, his creation and all the nations.  And, he sees more of what's taking place than we do.  Just as in Ezekiel's time, there is more going on behind closed doors than we can even imagine.  If even a fraction of what Ezekiel saw, the worship of other gods and even the sun, is going on now, we should be falling flat on our faces, prostrating ourselves before God and begging him for mercy, but we're blind..  We need God to lift us up and open our eyes to  the sins in our own lives before we're pure enough to grieve and lament over the detestable things going on around us.
 

2010 Post - Ezekiel 8-9:  Judgment Begins In The House of God

Ezekiel 4-7: Will We Change?

“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Disaster! An unheard-of disaster is coming. The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. It has come! Doom has come upon you—you who dwell in the land. The time has come, the day is near; there is panic, not joy, upon the mountains. I am about to pour out my wrath on you and spend my anger against you; I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. I will not look on you with pity or spare you; I will repay you in accordance with your conduct and the detestable practices among you. Then you will know that it is I the LORD who strikes the blow. - Ez. 7:5-9 NIV
I read these words and I am frightened.  Frightened for our country, frightened for myself.  Frightened because of what I see around me and frightened because I'm not sure I can even recognize the gulf that separates what God desires or requires of me from what I truly am.  There is none righteous, no not one.  And, although I know my sins have been covered by the blood, that does not excuse my conduct or give me license to do as I please.  If we're really truthful, all of us, have become idolatrous and this nation has lead the whole world into idolatry.  We've made and made and made; consumed and consumed and consumed.  We have squandered our prosperity and it has brought us nothing but grief.  Sometimes, I pray for it to all be wiped away so I will have nothing to depend on, nothing to lean on the but Lord. 

I once had a friend who sold almost everything he had but a few clothes and books.  He kept his clothes in boxes and slept on the floor.  He was trying to follow the Lord and wanted nothing to be in the way.  I wonder, did he succeed, or did the materialism of the world overwhelm him in the end as well.  I guess the question now is, 'Will God look on us with pity or will he repay us for our conduct and detestable practices?'  Is it too late for us to change our ways?  Are we buried so deep in everything we think is necessary for life, that we can't crawl our way out to God's realm?  Even if it's not too late, can we, will we change?

2010 Post - Ezekiel 4-7:  The End Has Come