DISPOSSESSED

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month on the fifth day, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has fallen!” Now the evening before the man arrived, the hand of the Lord was on me, and He opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer silent.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, the people living in those ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as our possession.’ Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Since you eat meat with the blood still in it and look to your idols and shed blood, should you then possess the land? You rely on your sword, you do detestable things, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?’”

“Say this to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, those who are left in the ruins will fall by the sword, those out in the country I will give to the wild animals to be devoured, and those in strongholds and caves will die of a plague. I will make the land a desolate waste, and her proud strength will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel will become desolate so that no one will cross them. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolate waste because of all the detestable things they have done.’”

Ezekiel 33:21-29

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

“The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”

Maybe you have heard this before but where did it come from and what significance does it hold.

Well, first we need to get the words right and we can do that by looking at the King James Version of the Bible and the following words of Job:

“And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21

In context, Job had just been on the receiving end of a series of reports of tragedies that had befallen him, tragedies that essentially meant he had lost mostly everything to include his sons and daughters who died after the house they were feasting in collapsed on them.

In the midst of such horrific bad news, the scriptures tell us that Job did not sin by charging the Lord with wrongdoing (Job 1:22). Rather, he acknowledged the Lord as the One who provides for His people but also the One who can take things from them as well.

This is a truth we seldom accept as Job did. I say this because we love the part of the Lord giving to us, especially when He rains down His blessings but we don’t equally love the second part of God’s nature, that He might take things away from us as readily as He gives.

In other words, we don’t ever want to experience being dispossessed from something God has granted.

It’s this matter of being dispossessed that’s at the heart of our scripture passage today as we continue our study of Ezekiel 33. Look again at these words here:

In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month on the fifth day, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has fallen!” Now the evening before the man arrived, the hand of the Lord was on me, and He opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer silent.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, the people living in those ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as our possession.’ Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Since you eat meat with the blood still in it and look to your idols and shed blood, should you then possess the land? You rely on your sword, you do detestable things, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?’”

“Say this to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, those who are left in the ruins will fall by the sword, those out in the country I will give to the wild animals to be devoured, and those in strongholds and caves will die of a plague. I will make the land a desolate waste, and her proud strength will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel will become desolate so that no one will cross them. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolate waste because of all the detestable things they have done.’”  Ezekiel 33:21-29

You’ll remember that Ezekiel was taken away into exile in Babylon before Jerusalem was completely destroyed, joining Judah’s King Jehoiachin during what is commonly referred to as the “first captivity”. This is important to know because as our scripture opens today, we find Ezekiel receiving a message from a man who had “escaped from Jerusalem”, reporting that the city had fallen. This led to God calling on His messenger to address the people, no longer silent but ready to bring the word of the Lord to the Israelites.

What was that word?

It was rather simple really. The Israelites believed nothing could happen that would take away the land God had given to them, the land that had been promised to their father Abraham. They even thought that their willing and willful sinning would not lead to God taking away what He had given. It was truly a delusional state of mind for as we see in the scriptures, part of the Lord’s consequences in response to the sins of His people was removing them from the land He had provided.

Why did the people of God experience such a judgment?

The Lord spelled out their sins for them (and for us).

First of all, the Israelites ate meat with the blood still in it, a direct violation of God’s command to “not eat any fat or any blood” (Leviticus 3:17).

Next, they worshiped idols which violated God’s command to have no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:2-3).

This was followed with shedding of blood, of course violating God’s fundamental command to not murder (Exodus 20:13).

Finally, we sense that God grew weary of breaking down every evil deed of the Israelites because He finally just states that His people did other detestable things which included disregarding His call to not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14).

Given all this, God asked His people, “Should you then possess the land?” In other words, God was essentially asking His people whether or not they really deserved to be blessed when they had done nothing but sin against Him.

Of course, the answer was “no” and when it came right down to it, it didn’t matter what the Israelites thought was fair or just. God would do what is perfectly right and just one way or another, even if His people were not in agreement with Him. The Israelites needed a serious message sent their way that there were serious negative consequences attached to their transgressions and they found out first-hand that the Lord who gave to them could just as easily dispossess them and take away His blessing.

As I received these words of God for today’s message, He led me to think about this in a much broader sense, one that I will share with you. For think about all the gifts God has given to you, both realized and yet to be realized, and then ask yourself if He wouldn’t dispossess you and take those gifts back if you weren’t using them to His glory.

Know and trust He can and will. On a personal note, I know the following:

If I didn’t use my gift of writing to the Lord’s glory and honor, I wouldn’t be writing this today nor would I have been able to do it the 2,200 plus times I have sat down at my computer to write a message. The Lord would have taken that gift from me.  

If I didn’t use my gift of singing to the Lord’s glory and honor, I wouldn’t be able to sing as I did this last Sunday or many Sundays before that for He would have taken my gift of song from me.

If I didn’t use my gift of teaching others to the Lord’s glory and honor, then I wouldn’t be able to teach anyone anything. The Lord would have removed that gift from me.

I could go on and on and on but you get the point. As Job realized, all things come from the Lord, the same Lord who could take those things away in accordance with His will and way.

Are you using what He has give you to His glory and honor or are you in a place where you might find yourself dispossessed?

Both are questions you need to carefully consider, today and every day.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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