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.
“So I stretched out My hand against you and reduced your territory;
I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines,
who were shocked by your lewd conduct. You engaged in prostitution with the
Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were
not satisfied. Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, a land
of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied.”
“‘Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word
of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you poured out your
lust and exposed your naked body in your promiscuity with your lovers, and
because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children’s
blood, therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found
pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them
against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will
see you stark naked. I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit
adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you the blood vengeance of My
wrath and jealous anger. Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers,
and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will
strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you stark naked.
They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces
with their swords. They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on
you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you
will no longer pay your lovers. Then My wrath against you will subside and My
jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.”
“Because you did not remember the days of your youth but
enraged me with all these things, I will surely bring down on your head what
you have done, declares the Sovereign Lord. Did you not add lewdness to all
your other detestable practices?”
Ezekiel 16:27-29,
35-43
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In yesterday’s devotion from Ezekiel 16, we looked at how
the Israelites had committed spiritual adultery before God and faced the
uncomfortable truth that we all have been less than loyal to God in our own
lives.
Today, we see God pronouncing His consequences on His people
and explore how these consequences came to life in the Israelites’ future. For
there will always be a price to pay for being unfaithful in our relationship
with a God who is always faithful to us. Look again at His pronouncement of judgment
here:
“So I stretched out
My hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of
your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked by your lewd
conduct. You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were
insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied. Then you
increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, a land of merchants, but even
with this you were not satisfied.”
“‘Therefore,
you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
Because you poured out your lust and exposed your naked body in your
promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and
because you gave them your children’s blood, therefore I am going to gather all
your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you
hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in
front of them, and they will see you stark naked. I will sentence you to the
punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you
the blood vengeance of My wrath and jealous anger. Then I will deliver you into
the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your
lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry
and leave you stark naked. They will bring a mob against you, who will stone
you and hack you to pieces with their swords. They will burn down your houses
and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to
your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers. Then My wrath
against you will subside and My jealous anger will turn away from you; I will
be calm and no longer angry.”
“Because you did not
remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I will
surely bring down on your head what you have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Did you not add lewdness to all your other detestable practices?” Ezekiel
16:27-29, 35-43
The people of God in Judah and Jerusalem had stretched out
their hands and bowed before false gods and idols in direct disobedience to
God’s command not to do so. And so as we read, God “stretched out” His hand
against the Israelites and reduced their territory until there was nothing left
for them to possess.
First, God handed His people over to the Philistines, their
long time enemies who were known for their evil practices but note that even
they thought the actions of the Israelites were lewd. Ouch!
The Philistines were followed by the Assyrians and we know
that by the time they were done, the entire northern kingdom of Israel was left
desolate and unoccupied by the Israelites who were hauled away into captivity,
never to return.
Finally, the Babylonians, under the leadership of King
Nebuchadnezzar, burst upon the scene and when he and his forces were through,
Judah and Jerusalem were leveled and left in ruin. Those Israelites who did not
perish in the assault were taken into custody and led away to an exile in
Babylon for seventy years.
Did I mention there is a price to pay for spiritual
adultery?
Note that those the Lord called to bring judgment on His
people were no less sinners than the Israelites were. In fact, they shared much
of the same beliefs when it came to idolatry and the worship of false gods. We
know they are on the same level because God refers to the Israelites and the
other pagan nations as lovers. They shared a commonality that was grounded in
blatant evil when it came to the way they worshiped as well as the disrespect
and dishonor that their worship brought to God. It was almost as if the Israelites
were daring God to do something about their behavior and as we see from His
words, He was going to do just that:
Therefore, you
prostitute, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
Because you poured out your lust and exposed your naked body in your
promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and
because you gave them your children’s blood, therefore I am going to gather all
your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you
hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in
front of them, and they will see you stark naked. I will sentence you to the
punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you
the blood vengeance of My wrath and jealous anger. Then I will deliver you into
the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your
lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry
and leave you stark naked. They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you
and hack you to pieces with their swords. They will burn down your houses and
inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to your
prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers. Then My wrath against you
will subside and My jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and
no longer angry.”
“Because you did not
remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I will
surely bring down on your head what you have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Did you not add lewdness to all your other detestable practices?”
As we have already covered, God was going to bring one
attacker after another on His people and by the time the assaults were over,
the Israelites would have been stripped bare of everything. There homes would
be destroyed. Their freedom would be taken away. Ditto for their dignity.
If the Israelites wanted to abandon God for other gods, then
they would have to learn that those gods were as dead as the faith of the
people who worshiped them, of which the Israelites were counted. Exiled from
their homeland, the people of God would learn the hard way that He and He alone
was their provider and protector, the only source of blessing in their lives.
As the old saying goes, “Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s
gone.”
Well, we established yesterday that we are repeating the
mistakes of the past and committing spiritual adultery in many ways today. All
of us have been guilty of it at one time or another. Because of this, we need
scripture passages like the one today for they offer deterrents to us,
deterrents that serve to lead us from God’s judgment and into His favor.
For as it was in Ezekiel’s day, it’s still true today. Our God,
the Lord God Almighty, is not going to stand for being slighted or disregarded.
If we choose wickedness in life and blatantly disobey His word and will, then
we can expect Him to act in ways that get our attention and drive us toward
repentance and a restored, reconciled relationship with Him.
Let’s not force God’s hand. Let’s show Him that we have read
His word, realized that there is a price to pay for spiritual adultery, and
decided that we never want to pay that price in our own lives.
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