Tuesday, July 19, 2016

IT'S JUST A FABLE, RIGHT?




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In Christ, Mark
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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 toward the south; preach against the south and prophesy against the forest of the southland. Say to the southern forest: ‘Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to set fire to you, and it will consume all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and every face from south to north will be scorched by it. Everyone will see that I the Lord have kindled it; it will not be quenched.’”

Then I said, “Sovereign Lord, they are saying of me, ‘Isn’t he just telling parables?’”

Ezekiel 20:45-49

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

Work in mainstream ministry long enough and you’re going to intersect people who choose to make a mockery of what you believe in. Lord knows, it’s happened enough to me.

At the heart of most of the attacks you receive is the assertion that Christians are living in some fantasy world, serving and worshiping a God who is unseen while placing our life’s hope in a Savior in Jesus who is equally invisible. And, oh yeah, the Bible we read from that serves as the foundation for our knowledge and belief is nothing more than a fairy tale, a concoction of fictional stories about fictional people from which people draw fictional information and promises about life which include notions about eternal damnation and salvation.

We’ll come back to this in a moment but first we need to see that this notion of God’s word being nothing more than fable isn’t just some 21st century phenomena conjured up by people who believe they are more intellectual than the One who gave them intellect to start with. For as we read the following scripture verses, we find that the Old Testament Israelites weren’t quite ready to buy into the words the Lord sent through His prophet Ezekiel:

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face toward the south; preach against the south and prophesy against the forest of the southland. Say to the southern forest: ‘Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to set fire to you, and it will consume all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and every face from south to north will be scorched by it. Everyone will see that I the Lord have kindled it; it will not be quenched.’”

Then I said, “Sovereign Lord, they are saying of me, ‘Isn’t he just telling parables?’”  Ezekiel 20:45-49

Note the words spoken from God’s messenger were ones of judgment against His people. They had sinned against God over and over again, abandoning Him to worship idols in direct violation of His command not to and God was tired of simply sending warnings. Obviously, those threats were falling on deaf ears.

And so God, as He often did, used an analogy to portray what He was about to do, particularly when it came to the consequences He was bringing on His people. This was not some new approach. God had done it many times before and so the Israelites were well aware that He would use illustrations from time to time to describe what He was about to do.

In this case, the Israelites of Judah and Jerusalem were likened to a forest in the southland, one that God was going to send fire upon. That fire, kindled by God Himself, was none other than the attacking forces of Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army which would come upon the land and leave it in ruin, much like an unquenchable fire will destroy a forest and leave it desolate and scorched. It would be a consuming fire of judgment, leaving no doubt that God would not stand for anyone who chooses to worship anyone or anything over Him.

And guess what? His words were far from mere parables as the people thought. They were truth and they really did come to be.

For we know the Babylonians did indeed attack Judah and its beloved, holy city of Jerusalem. We know that the nation and city were looted, devastated, and utterly destroyed with even God’s temple leveled. And we know that the Israelites who were able to survive the onslaught were taken away into a seventy-year exile to Babylon, seventy years to experience what being abandoned felt like first-hand after they had abandoned God in their lives.  

Hardly a just a parable.

So that brings us to today and a few questions.

How much longer will people continue to think the words of God are simply fictional statements that they don’t need to heed?

How long will people simply ignore that none of the prophecies and promises of God have failed to not come true?

How much more convincing will people need to understand that rejecting Jesus is choosing destruction and rejecting life, now and forever?

The Old Testament Israelites of Ezekiel’s time didn’t really believe God would judge them and they found out the hard way that they should have thought differently, that the words of the prophet did not make up a fable but rather a true depiction of what was to come.

We had better wake up to the truth today and wake up fast. For the Lord is not kidding when He says that anyone who does not accept His salvation offer through His Son (aka those people whose names will not be found in the book of life) will find themselves cast into the lake of fire, engulfed and disintegrated (Revelation 20). He equally is not kidding when He assures us that those who believed in Jesus as Savior will go on to live with Him and His Son forever, free from all the afflictions of this world.

This isn’t an assertion from some fantasy being who is non-existent but rather from a God who is very much alive, the God who brought everyone and everything into existence.

Whether you believe Him or not, is up to you.

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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