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