Friday, June 17, 2016

I'LL BRING YOU BACK



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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’”

“They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. 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. But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia in the vision given by the Spirit of God.

Then the vision I had seen went up from me, and I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown me.

Ezekiel 11:17-25

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Imagine that you have made some serious mistakes in life that have taken you away from the life that you once had. In the midst of your difficulties, you hoped a day might come when you could get a chance to get a fresh beginning, a second chance to start over, learn from your mistakes, and make a better life for yourself.

I see this a lot in the hearts of the incarcerated people I have the privilege to work with. Many of them are counting down the days when they will be released and allowed to return home to begin a new life, a life that would show others that they were changed and had learned from their past errors in judgment.

I believe those incarcerated people and anyone else who feel trapped in the midst of the consequences of their poor life choices can gain a lot of inspiration and hope from today’s scripture passage from the Book of Ezekiel, Chapter 11, and its associated message. Look again at these verses here:

“Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’”

“They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. 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. But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia in the vision given by the Spirit of God.

Then the vision I had seen went up from me, and I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown me.  Ezekiel 11:17-25

The Israelites were in the midst of a very long exile, one that would last for seventy years. It was the penalty God imposed on them for their willful, willing disobedience as they dishonored and disrespected Him in their worship practices.

Through our study in the Old Testament to date, we know the people of God chose to bow down and give their devotion to false gods and idols, despite the commands God had given them to not do it and the warnings He sent once they were doing it. The Israelites had been given every chance to turn from their wicked ways and turn back to God but they chose not to listen. God called them out for what they were: stiff necked and stubbornly immersed in their sins. Essentially, God’s people decided to abandon Him and so the punishment God placed upon them fit the crime as they were hauled off into a lengthy captivity where they would get a sense of what being abandoned felt like. It wasn’t something enjoyable for the Israelites, that’s for sure.

But look at the good news God provided in today’s scriptures, words of hope through His prophet to a people who were desperately in need of it:

“I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’”

The judgment was not going to endure forever. Rather, God said He would bring His people home and give them back their homeland, the land He had promised to their ancestors generations before.

What would happen when the Israelites returned?

He told His people exactly what would happen as He spoke again through His messenger, Ezekiel:

“They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. 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.”

Note that a big part of starting fresh after God’s judgment involved the Israelites changing their ways completely. This included:

1. Removing all remnants of their former idolatry practices, taking down all the “vile images and detestable idols”.

2. Receiving undivided hearts to ensure their loyalty would not again be split between God and any other entity.

3. Replacing their hearts of stone, hearts hardened by the calcification of their sins, with hearts of flesh which could love Him as He deserved to be loved.

4. Returning to obedience and conforming to God’s word, will, and way.

5. Once again becoming the beloved people of the God who had always been there for them, even when they failed to give Him their devotion.

Yes, it would be the freshest of starts for the Israelites, one that could only be granted by the God who was a Master of restoration and redemption.

Friends, the good news for us today is that if we have strayed away from our Heavenly Father and found ourselves victimized by sin, we still have hope for the Father has a message for us all:

“I’ll bring you back.”

The Lord is always ready to receive us like the lost son Jesus used in one of His parable preaching moments (Luke 15:11-32).  All we need to do is turn from our sins, return to Him and allow Him to replace us our hearts of stone with undivided hearts of flesh, recommit ourselves to His word and way in obedience, and finally once again be His people by showing Him that He is our God, the One we are fully devoted to.

Through His word today, the Lord reminds us that although He is a God of judgment, He is also a God of compassion, mercy, grace, and love.

Why would we not want to come back to a God like that?

Amen

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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