Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to
OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on
Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests
to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian
Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in
front of me. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, these men have
set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces.
Should I let them inquire of Me at all? Therefore speak to them and tell them,
‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When any of the Israelites set up idols
in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go
to a prophet, I the Lord will answer them Myself in keeping with their great
idolatry. I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who
have all deserted Me for their idols.’”
“Therefore say to the people of Israel, ‘This is what the
Sovereign Lord says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your
detestable practices!’”
“‘When any of the Israelites or any foreigner residing in Israel
separate themselves from Me and set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling
block before their faces and then go to a prophet to inquire of Me, I the Lord
will answer them Myself. I will set My face against them and make them an
example and a byword. I will remove them from My people. Then you will know
that I am the Lord.”
“‘And if the prophet is enticed to utter a prophecy, I the Lord
have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and
destroy him from among my people Israel. They will bear their guilt—the prophet
will be as guilty as the one who consults him. Then the people of Israel will
no longer stray from Me, nor will they defile themselves anymore with all their
sins. They will be My people, and I will be their God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”
Ezekiel 14:1-11
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have you ever dealt with spiritual stumbling blocks?
These would be anything that keeps you from attaining the Lord’s
righteousness, things you might fall over into sin.
When we look at the world we live in, most anybody or
anything could qualify as a stumbling block if we allow it to. There are
definitely no shortage of things that can take us off the narrow path leading
to God’s word, will, and way for us and put us off course, astray and in the
crosshairs of the Lord’s judgment.
As we look at today’s scripture passage from the opening
verses of Ezekiel 14, we find some elders of Jerusalem, those who should have
been God’s experienced, spiritual role models and mentors, allowing a stumbling
block to lead them into a place of wickedness and opposition with the Lord.
Look again at these verses here:
Some of the elders of
Israel came to me and sat down in front of me. Then the word of the Lord came
to me: “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked
stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of Me at all? Therefore
speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When any of
the Israelites set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block
before their faces and then go to a prophet, I the Lord will answer them Myself
in keeping with their great idolatry. I will do this to recapture the hearts of
the people of Israel, who have all deserted Me for their idols.’”
“Therefore say to the
people of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Repent! Turn from your
idols and renounce all your detestable practices!’”
“‘When any of the
Israelites or any foreigner residing in Israel separate themselves from Me and
set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their
faces and then go to a prophet to inquire of Me, I the Lord will answer them Myself.
I will set My face against them and make them an example and a byword. I will
remove them from My people. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
“‘And if the prophet
is enticed to utter a prophecy, I the Lord have enticed that prophet, and I
will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among my people
Israel. They will bear their guilt—the prophet will be as guilty as the one who
consults him. Then the people of Israel will no longer stray from Me, nor will
they defile themselves anymore with all their sins. They will be My people, and
I will be their God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’” Ezekiel 14:1-11
As the chapter opens, Ezekiel is visited by some of the
elders. It takes no time before the Lord is speaking to His messenger with
specific information and instruction.
First, God tells His prophet about a problem with the elders
sitting in His midst. They had set up idols in their hearts, giving their
devotion to other gods, an action that was nothing but a wicked stumbling block
which led them into spiritual sin.
Second, in His obvious frustration with these elders, the
Lord ponders out loud to Ezekiel as to whether He should communicate with the
elders or not. Perhaps they hadn’t earned anything from Him due to their evil,
adulterous worship practices.
Well, this pondering didn’t last too long because the Lord
quickly decided how He would handle the matter and sent the following guidance
through His prophet:
“This is what the
Sovereign Lord says: When any of the Israelites set up idols in their hearts
and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go to a prophet, I
the Lord will answer them Myself in keeping with their great idolatry. I will
do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted
Me for their idols.”
God was cutting out the middle man. He really didn’t need a
prophet to speak to the wicked elders. That would be letting them off easy. No,
God wanted the elders to hear directly from Him. They had disrespected and
dishonored Him directly. They would have to answer to Him directly.
But that wasn’t all the elders or anyone else who repeated
their behavior could expect. God promised the following as well:
“When any of the
Israelites or any foreigner residing in Israel separate themselves from Me and
set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their
faces and then go to a prophet to inquire of Me, I the Lord will answer them Myself.
I will set My face against them and make them an example and a byword. I will
remove them from My people.”
If God was going to stop the idolatrous actions of His
people, there would have to be a stiff deterrent put in place. So the Lord
vowed that anyone who was unfaithful to Him, violating His direct command to
have no other gods before Him, would find themselves with God against them as
He made them an example and byword. They would not have an opportunity to
adversely influence anyone else because God would remove them from His people.
Note that God did give His people a chance to reverse field
and turn from their wicked ways. We know this because of these words He told
Ezekiel to share with the people of Israel:
“Therefore say to the
people of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Repent! Turn from your
idols and renounce all your detestable practices!’”
That’s all the people needed to do to avoid God’s
punishment. He gave them the opportunity to turn away from their “detestable
practices” and repent. It was an open invitation for reconciliation but the
people had to choose in their hearts to make that move. They had to realize the
wrongs of their ways and decide to turn back to God with remorse for what they
had done against Him.
We’re almost done but there is one more thing we need to
cover. For God made sure His prophet understood who was to do the talking to
the idolaters and it wasn’t the prophet. God was to be the spokesperson and if
the prophet failed to concede to God then that prophet would cease to exist for
the Lord promised to stretch His hand out and destroy him.
Before we close, we need to go back to our original question
and add one more:
Have you ever dealt with spiritual stumbling blocks?
Are you currently dealing with them today?
As we consider this, let’s keep in mind three things that
are certain:
1. God despises sin and will take action against it.
2. God needs no middle man to do His judgment work for Him.
3. God wants anyone who has fallen over the stumbling block
of sin to repent of their wrongs and turn back to Him.
In the end translation, we have two choices.
We can continue to live in sin, opposed to God and asking
for His punishment.
or
We can turn away from our sins and back toward God, showing
our sorrow for the wickedness we have engaged in and seeking His forgiveness
and reconciliation.
Please don’t allow a stumbling block keep you from
experiencing God’s mercy and grace.
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment