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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.
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face
against the mountains of Israel; prophesy against them and say: ‘You mountains
of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord
says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to
bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. Your altars
will be demolished and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will slay
your people in front of your idols. I will lay the dead bodies of the
Israelites in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your
altars. Wherever you live, the towns will be laid waste and the high places
demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols
smashed and ruined, your incense altars broken down, and what you have made
wiped out. Your people will fall slain among you, and you will know that I am
the Lord.”
“‘But I will spare some, for some of you will escape the
sword when you are scattered among the lands and nations. Then in the nations
where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember Me—how I
have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from Me,
and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe
themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices. And
they will know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten in vain to bring this
calamity on them.”
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Strike your hands
together and stamp your feet and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked and
detestable practices of the people of Israel, for they will fall by the sword,
famine and plague. One who is far away will die of the plague, and one who is
near will fall by the sword, and anyone who survives and is spared will die of
famine. So will I pour out my wrath on them. And they will know that I am the Lord,
when their people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every
high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every
leafy oak—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols. And I
will stretch out my hand against them and make the land a desolate waste from
the desert to Diblah—wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”
Ezekiel 6
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
There was no secret about what God’s
primary charge was against His people, no need to wonder why He sent such harsh
punishment against them. We know this because He didn’t hesitate to let us
know.
You see, God was God, THE God, the Maker
and Master of all things. Period.
He had no rival. Not one for there was no
other God but Him.
With this, God made sure His people knew
it too so they would not allow the world to sway them from the truth. Here’s
what He told them through Moses at Mount Sinai:
“You shall have no other gods before Me. You
shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or
on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow
down to them or worship them.” Exodus 20:3-5a
In other words, God made it crystal clear
that He and He alone was to be the center of His people’s worship. There was no
doubt about that.
But unfortunately, God’s people chose to
test Him and give their devotion to gods worshiped by other nations, gods who
were represented by idols that the people bowed down to. Obviously, that
behavior, labeled by God as wicked and detestable, was not going to work with
God as we see in today’s scripture from the 6th chapter of Ezekiel:
The word of the Lord
came to me: “Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel; prophesy
against them and say: ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord.
This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines
and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your
high places. Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars will be
smashed; and I will slay your people in front of your idols. I will lay the
dead bodies of the Israelites in front of their idols, and I will scatter your
bones around your altars. Wherever you live, the towns will be laid waste and
the high places demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and
devastated, your idols smashed and ruined, your incense altars broken down, and
what you have made wiped out. Your people will fall slain among you, and you
will know that I am the Lord.”
“‘But I will spare
some, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the
lands and nations. Then in the nations where they have been carried captive,
those who escape will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous
hearts, which have turned away from Me, and by their eyes, which have lusted
after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and
for all their detestable practices. And they will know that I am the Lord; I
did not threaten in vain to bring this calamity on them.”
“‘This is what the
Sovereign Lord says: Strike your hands together and stamp your feet and cry out
“Alas!” because of all the wicked and detestable practices of the people of
Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine and plague. One who is far away
will die of the plague, and one who is near will fall by the sword, and anyone
who survives and is spared will die of famine. So will I pour out my wrath on
them. And they will know that I am the Lord, when their people lie slain among
their idols around their altars, on every high hill and on all the
mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak—places where they
offered fragrant incense to all their idols. And I will stretch out my hand
against them and make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Diblah—wherever
they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’” Ezekiel 6
As the chapter opens, we see God giving a
message to His prophet Ezekiel to share with the Israelites and it wasn’t good
news for the Lord was bringing a sword against His people, a sword that was
going to bring destruction to their false worship.
The high places were going to be smashed
and devastated. The altars were going to be demolished and devastated. The
people were going to be slain in front of the very idols they worshiped and
they would find no help from those idols because they were as lifeless as the
people’s faith.
But that wasn’t all that was coming. For
God’s wrath would also include bringing plague and famine on His people. If His
sword didn’t take care of business, disease or starvation would.
So what did God hope the outcome would be after sending His
consequences?
He hoped His people would see the wrongs of their ways,
repent, and then turn away from their sinfulness but He also wanted them to
know without a shadow of a doubt that He was the Lord, the God they were
supposed to be worshiping, the God who was a God of judgment against anyone who
opposed Him and gave their adoration to false gods and idols.
But note as well that God wanted His people to remember that
He was a God of mercy as well. His very words confirmed this as He promised to “spare
some” of His people, allowing them to “escape the sword”.
Why?
So they would testify to how their sins drove God to the
point of disciplining them, telling others about how they had grieved Him with
their “adulterous hearts” and “turned away” from Him to lust after idols.
In the end, the surviving Israelites would “loathe
themselves for the evil” they had done and “for all their detestable practices”.
Yes, it wasn’t going to be pretty but it shouldn’t have
been. God had done so much for His people and had given them His all,
delivering them over and over and over again. The least the Israelites should
have done is worship and adore Him, giving Him constant praise and thanksgiving
but they didn’t. Instead, they rejected and disrespected God, paying a horrific
price as a result.
The bottom line my friends is that God is not going to stand
for any worship practices that go against Him. He demands and expects that He
and He alone be the object of our worship. If we choose anything else, then we
worship falsely and can anticipate receiving His judgment, just as the
Israelites did.
Maybe it would be a lot easier if we just
ask God to destroy any sinful inclination within us, any wickedness that would
seek to steal away our full adoration for Him. I believe if we do this that He
will posture us to where He is our total heart’s desire every second of every
minute of every hour of every day.
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
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