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.
“Son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say,
‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign
Lord says: The enemy said of you, “Aha! The ancient heights have become our
possession.”’ Therefore prophesy and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord
says: Because they ravaged and crushed you from every side so that you became
the possession of the rest of the nations and the object of people’s malicious
talk and slander, therefore, 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, to the desolate ruins and the deserted towns
that have been plundered and ridiculed by the rest of the nations around you—this
is what the Sovereign Lord says: In My burning zeal I have spoken against the
rest of the nations, and against all Edom, for with glee and with malice in
their hearts they made My land their own possession so that they might plunder
its pastureland.’ Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to
the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: ‘This is what the Sovereign
Lord says: I speak in My jealous wrath because you have suffered the scorn of
the nations. Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I swear with
uplifted hand that the nations around you will also suffer scorn.”
“‘But you, mountains of Israel, will produce branches and
fruit for My people Israel, for they will soon come home. I am concerned for
you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown, and I will
cause many people to live on you—yes, all of Israel. The towns will be
inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. I will increase the number of people and
animals living on you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will
settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before.
Then you will know that I am the Lord. I will cause people, my people Israel,
to live on you. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance; you
will never again deprive them of their children.’”
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because some say to
you, “You devour people and deprive your nation of its children,” therefore you
will no longer devour people or make your nation childless, declares the
Sovereign Lord. No longer will I make you hear the taunts of the nations, and
no longer will you suffer the scorn of the peoples or cause your nation to fall,
declares the Sovereign Lord.’”
Again the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, when the
people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their
conduct and their actions. Their conduct was like a woman’s monthly uncleanness
in my sight. So I poured out My wrath on them because they had shed blood in
the land and because they had defiled it with their idols. I dispersed them
among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them
according to their conduct and their actions. And wherever they went among the
nations they profaned My holy name, for it was said of them, ‘These are the
Lord’s people, and yet they had to leave his land.’ I had concern for My holy
name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had
gone.”
Ezekiel 36:1-21
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
It was an incredible loss.
The nation of Israel, the once divine and revered country
seen as under the special covering and protection of God, was in ruins,
mercifully attacked first by the Assyrians and then the Babylonians. Left to be
the scorn of all other nations, Canaan experienced a devastation no one could
have ever imagined; ditto for the subsequent displacement of all of God’s
people into captivity, a majority of which who were taken away into Babylon for
seventy years. Many who were carried off would never see the day when they would
return.
And they would return for as we see in today’s scripture
passage from the opening verses in Ezekiel 36, a time was coming when God would
restore His people to the land He had promised to their ancestors so many years
before. There would soon be a time to come home.
Look again at these verses:
“‘But you, mountains
of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for My people Israel, for they will
soon come home. I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you
will be plowed and sown, and I will cause many people to live on you—yes, all
of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. I will increase the
number of people and animals living on you, and they will be fruitful and
become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you
prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the Lord. I will cause
people, my people Israel, to live on you. They will possess you, and you will
be their inheritance; you will never again deprive them of their children.’”
“‘This is what the
Sovereign Lord says: Because some say to you, “You devour people and deprive
your nation of its children,” therefore you will no longer devour people or
make your nation childless, declares the Sovereign Lord. No longer will I make
you hear the taunts of the nations, and no longer will you suffer the scorn of
the peoples or cause your nation to fall, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”
Again the word of the
Lord came to me: “Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their
own land, they defiled it by their conduct and their actions. Their conduct was
like a woman’s monthly uncleanness in my sight. So I poured out My wrath on
them because they had shed blood in the land and because they had defiled it
with their idols. I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered
through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their
actions. And wherever they went among the nations they profaned My holy name,
for it was said of them, ‘These are the Lord’s people, and yet they had to
leave his land.’ I had concern for My holy name, which the people of Israel
profaned among the nations where they had gone.” Ezekiel 36:8-21
Let’s move from the last paragraph up. I want to do it this
way because we need to be reminded as to why the Israelites went through the
judgment that they did. It wasn’t because God is unjust in any way. He reminded
us and His people as much through His word. No, the Israelites got what they
deserved after they defiled the holy land God had provided through their
willing and willful sinfulness, chief of which was their worship and devotion
extended to pagan gods and idols. God had commanded His people to have no other
gods before Him (Exodus 20:2-3) and yet the people did it anyhow, profaning His
name in plain sight of all other nations.
And so God took action. He had to because He had to show His
people and the nations that surrounded Israel that He was the Lord God
Almighty, the Maker and Master of all peoples, and He would not stand to be
disrespected and disregarded by anyone, especially the people he had protected
and rescued many times over, the people He had blessed so very much.
So God showed Himself as a God of judgment but at this
juncture of our devotion, we need to turn to another critical truth about the
God of all creation. For although He is a God of judgment, God is equally a God
of deliverance and restoration. He was in Old Testament times and He still is
today.
Yes, the Israelites were relegated to seventy years of exile
where they would have to live outside of the land they had called home. But
note what would happen after those seventy years. God would deliver His people
from their captivity and make the way clear for them to return home to rebuild
their homes, their lives, and their relationship with Him. The people of Israel
would once again be God’s people and He once again would be their God. He would
settle on them and settle in with them “as in the past” and make them “prosper
more than before”. He would look on them “with favor” and allow the towns to
once again be inhabited, the ruins rebuilt. He would allow the people to once
again multiply and be fruitful. Ditto for the animals they had within their
land.
Life would be good when the time came for the Israelites to
come home.
Fast forward to where we are in the 21st century and
consider how we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God. No one is
innocent to the point where they have a chance of pardon when they stand before
the God of judgment, the same God who destroyed an entire nation and left it in
smoldering rubble, the same God who imposed a harsh penalty on His people as
they were sentenced to seventy years in a foreign land.
Indeed, we are captives to sin, staring down God’s harshest
punishment without hope without someone who might be able to intercede and
provide a chance for us to be renewed and restored in God’s sight.
Enter Jesus, God’s only Son, the Lamb of God who was sent by
His Father to take away the sins of the world.
And that He did.
You see, we deserved to be annihilated for our wicked ways
and the many times we have transgressed willfully in the sight of a very
watchful God. But the scriptures tell us that God so loved the world that He didn’t
wish for any of His people to perish and so He sent His only Son Jesus as a
living sacrifice, a substitutionary atonement to save God’s people from having
to suffer (John 3:16). Indeed, Jesus shed the blood we should have shed. He
endured the pain and anguish and the torment of the cross so we wouldn’t have
to. He died so we could live.
All we need to do is place our faith, hope, belief, and
trust in Him as our Savior.
When we do, when we acknowledge our inability to save
ourselves and accept the truth that the only way to God the Father is through
Jesus the Son, then and only then can we gain the assurance that a time will
come in the future when we will be brought home, home to a New Jerusalem and
new heaven and earth, to our true home where we will trade in affliction,
hardship, brokenness, pain, hurt, sadness, and sin, for an eternal life defined
by love and light and peace.
Have you decided to follow Jesus today, assuring you will
have a home when this life is over?
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
