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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 Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal;
prophesy against him and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am
against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshek and Tubal. I will turn you around, put
hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your
horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them
brandishing their swords. Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with
shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the
far north with all its troops—the many nations with you.”
“‘Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered
about you, and take command of them. After many days you will be called to
arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose
people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had
long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of
them live in safety. You and all your troops and the many nations with you will
go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.’”
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On that day thoughts
will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. You will say, “I
will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and
unsuspecting people—all of them living without walls and without gates and
bars. I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and
the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at
the center of the land.” Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all
her villages will say to you, “Have you come to plunder? Have you gathered your
hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods
and to seize much plunder?”’
“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: ‘This is
what the Sovereign Lord says: In that day, when my people Israel are living in
safety, will you not take notice of it? You will come from your place in the
far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great
horde, a mighty army. You will advance against My people Israel like a cloud
that covers the land. In days to come, Gog, I will bring you against My land,
so that the nations may know me when I am proved holy through you before their
eyes.”
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You are the one I
spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel. At that time
they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them. This is what
will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, My hot anger will
be aroused, declares the Sovereign Lord. In My zeal and fiery wrath I declare
that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The
fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, every creature
that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will
tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will
crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. I will summon a sword against
Gog on all My mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be
against his brother. I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed;
I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on
his troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will show My greatness
and My holiness, and I will make Myself known in the sight of many nations.
Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”
“Son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: ‘This is what the
Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshek and Tubal. I
will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far north
and send you against the mountains of Israel. Then I will strike your bow from
your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand. On the mountains
of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. I
will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals. You
will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. I
will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coastlands, and
they will know that I am the Lord.”
“‘I will make known My holy name among My people Israel. I
will no longer let My holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I
the Lord am the Holy One in Israel. It is coming! It will surely take place,
declares the Sovereign Lord. This is the day I have spoken of.’”
“‘Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and
use the weapons for fuel and burn them up—the small and large shields, the bows
and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for
fuel. They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the
forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those
who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”
“‘On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in
the valley of those who travel east of the Sea. It will block the way of
travelers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be
called the Valley of Hamon Gog. For seven months the Israelites will be burying
them in order to cleanse the land. All the people of the land will bury them,
and the day I display My glory will be a memorable day for them, declares the
Sovereign Lord. People will be continually employed in cleansing the land. They
will spread out across the land and, along with others, they will bury any
bodies that are lying on the ground.’”
“‘After the seven months they will carry out a more detailed
search. As they go through the land, anyone who sees a human bone will leave a
marker beside it until the gravediggers bury it in the Valley of Hamon Gog, near
a town called Hamonah. And so they will cleanse the land.’”
“Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Call out
to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: ‘Assemble and come together
from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on
the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood. You will eat
the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if
they were rams and lambs, goats and bulls—all of them fattened animals from
Bashan. At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are
glutted and drink blood till you are drunk. At my table you will eat your fill
of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind,’ declares the
Sovereign Lord.’”
“I will display My glory among the nations, and all the
nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay on them. From that
day forward the people of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God. And
the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin,
because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them
over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. I dealt with them
according to their uncleanness and their offenses, and I hid my face from them.”
“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will now
restore the fortunes of Jacob and will have compassion on all the people of
Israel, and I will be zealous for My holy name. They will forget their shame
and all the unfaithfulness they showed toward me when they lived in safety in
their land with no one to make them afraid. When I have brought them back from
the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will
be proved holy through them in the sight of many nations. Then they will know
that I am the Lord their God, for though I sent them into exile among the
nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. I will
no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out My Spirit on the people
of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
Ezekiel 38 and 39
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Before we get into today’s devotion, let’s recap what got
the Israelites in trouble with God, what God did about it, and what God
promised His people after His consequences had ended. The basis of this summary
can be found in the last paragraph of today’s scripture passage, drawn from the
closing verses of Ezekiel, Chapter 39:
“Therefore this is
what the Sovereign Lord says: I will now restore the fortunes of Jacob and will
have compassion on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for My holy
name. They will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed
toward me when they lived in safety in their land with no one to make them
afraid. When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them
from the countries of their enemies, I will be proved holy through them in the
sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, for
though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their
own land, not leaving any behind. I will no longer hide my face from them, for
I will pour out My Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
Ezekiel 39:25-29
First, note that the Israelites had lived in shame and
unfaithfulness before God sent His judgment upon them. Their sins were grounded
mostly in the worshiping of false gods and idols, a direct violation of God’s
command to have no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:2-3), but certainly their
transgressions were many. In our study of Ezekiel, we saw God call His people
out for a lot of sins which you can read about in the devotional series, “What
Gets You In Trouble With God”.
So after the Israelites failed to heed God’s warnings and
stop sinning against Him, He chose to take action against them. He sent them
into a seventy year exile among the nations but not before placing them under
attack from the Assyrians and Babylonians, an attack that saw their homeland
devastated and plundered before it was left in ruins.
What happened after the seventy years were up?
God had compassion for His people, gathering them from the
countries of their enemies and restoring them to their own land. He no longer
kept His face from them but instead poured out His Spirit upon them, a Spirit
they would embrace as they started to rebuild their lives, their homes, and
their relationship with Him.
In the remaining verses in our passage from Ezekiel 38 and
39, we see God moving from the present to the future as He continues to speak
through His prophet. We know this because He sets the scene as being in “future
years”.
Now we don’t know how many years into the future that the
events of this prophecy will take place because there is no mention of a
specific time but we do know it has yet to happen. What the prophecy does
assure is that Israel will once again face attack, this time from multiple
enemies, some of which carry names and locations that do not yet exist. These
enemies will come to “invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people
were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been
desolate”, a referral to a post-exilic Israel. These enemies will look to plunder
and loot the nation in which the Israelites were “living in safety” within “unwalled
villages” in a way that was “peaceful and unsuspecting”. The country would be
thriving as it is described as being “rich in livestock and goods”.
Compare this picture to the Israel before the attacks of the
Assyrians, Babylonians, and other adversaries of God’s chosen nation. Yes, the
Israelites were also living in relative prosperity but their cities and towns
were often heavily fortified for protection with high walls and heavy
reinforced bars and gates at passages. There was a real sense of self defense nearly
everywhere you went in the country.
Given this, ask yourself these questions about the future
Israel in Ezekiel’s vision:
Why would the nation of Israel have changed its security
posture so much? And why would the people live in a way that would allow an
enemy to think they were easy prey?
The answer is rather
simple.
For the people of Israel decided to place their full trust
in God as their Great Defender.
You see, as long as the Israelites placed their hope in God,
they knew that there was no need to erect any kind of defense system because
they had all they needed in Him. No man could contrive any better protection.
So what would be the outcome of the Israelites placing their
trust fully in God?
Note God would thwart the evil plans of Israel’s enemies and
intervene as the wicked nations attempted to assault Israel. The efforts to
assault and plunder God’s people would bear no fruit and they would perish in
the midst of their attack, annihilated and executed by the power of the Lord.
In closing, there is one main question for us to ponder:
Why would any nation today place their trust in anyone or
anything else outside of God, the Great Defender?
Israel has certainly been threatened by more than a few
nations who made it known publicly that they would love to see the country
wiped off the face of the world. Perhaps these threatening nations should read
the Bible a little and see that such an effort will be fruitless. God the Great
Defender is certainly on their side.
Other nations have faced their own variety of threats and it
doesn’t matter the size or prominence of the nation. There are still a lot of
evil forces in the world who would like nothing more that to do harm to others.
This is why every country needs protection and there is no greater protection
available than God Himself, God the Great Defender. The scriptures are clear on
this.
Friends, every nation should commit themselves to live like
the Israel depicted in Ezekiel’s vision, living in complete peace without worry
of protection because their faith and confidence in God is that strong and
steadfast. After all, didn’t the word of God ask us this?
If God is for us, who
can be against us? Romans 8:31
Indeed, who?
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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