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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 Sidon; prophesy against her and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord
says:’”
“‘I am against you, Sidon, and among you I will display My
glory. You will know that I am the Lord, when I inflict punishment on you and
within you am proved to be holy. I will send a plague upon you and make blood
flow in your streets. The slain will fall within you, with the sword against
you on every side. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
“‘No longer will the people of Israel have malicious
neighbors who are painful briers and sharp thorns. Then they will know that I
am the Sovereign Lord.’”
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When I gather the
people of Israel from the nations where they have been scattered, I will be
proved holy through them in the sight of the nations. Then they will live in
their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. They will live there in
safety and will build houses and plant vineyards; they will live in safety when
I inflict punishment on all their neighbors who maligned them. Then they will
know that I am the Lord their God.’”
Ezekiel 28:20-26
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Yesterday, we saw the scriptures investing a lot of time in
the judgment that befell Tyre, a nation to the north of Israel on the coast of
the Mediterranean Sea known for its trade and the subsequent wealth it brought.
It wasn’t this reputation as a key center of commerce that got Tyre in trouble
with God but as we saw in yesterday’s devotion, it was three specific sins the
country committed while in the midst of that commerce. You’ll recall they had
rejoiced over Jerusalem’s downfall, seeing it as their gain. They had also
engaged in dishonest trade practices and their ruler believed he was a god himself,
the prestige his nation had gained going to his head. As a result of these
transgressions, God sent the Babylonians to deliver His punishment.
That brings us to today’s passage and the closing verses of
Ezekiel 28 as we find the Lord turning His attention to the nation of Sidon.
Look again at His words here:
The word of the Lord
came to me: “Son of man, set your face against Sidon; prophesy against her and
say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:’”
“‘I am against you,
Sidon, and among you I will display My glory. You will know that I am the Lord,
when I inflict punishment on you and within you am proved to be holy. I
will send a plague upon you and make blood flow in your streets. The slain will
fall within you, with the sword against you on every side. Then you will know
that I am the Lord.’”
“‘No longer will the
people of Israel have malicious neighbors who are painful briers and sharp
thorns. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.’”
“‘This is what the
Sovereign Lord says: When I gather the people of Israel from the nations where
they have been scattered, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of
the nations. Then they will live in their own land, which I gave to my servant
Jacob. They will live there in safety and will build houses and plant
vineyards; they will live in safety when I inflict punishment on all their
neighbors who maligned them. Then they will know that I am the Lord their
God.’” Ezekiel 28:20-26
Here’s a note of interest for you. There is only one place
in the Old Testament where Tyre and Sidon are not listed together and that is
here. Look at the location of the two countries and you will see that they are
neighbors north of Israel thus why they are often grouped together. But the
judgments spelled out in Ezekiel, judgments associated with God’s punishment of
Israel and Judah, are not collective penalties but rather each nation suffers
consequences based on their own actions.
So what was Sidon guilty of?
God’s word in Ezekiel tells us they were among the “malicious
neighbors” of Israel, referred to as “painful briers and sharp thorns” because
of the painful nuisance they were.
It didn’t have to end up that way. In fact, the Israelites
were commanded by God to drive out all the peoples who were within the land He
was giving them. If they failed, this Old Testament scripture from the Book of
Numbers serve as a prophecy that became fulfilled through Sidon and other
nations:
If you do not drive
out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in
your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land
where you will live. Numbers 33:55
The Israelites allowed the Sidonians to remain in the land
and as a result, they had been one of those countries who became a thorn in the
side of God’s people.
And so God took action, sending judgment in the following
ways:
1. He would send a fatal plague on the Sidonians.
“I will send a plague
upon you.”
2. There would be bloodshed in the midst of judgment.
“I will make blood
flow in your streets.”
3. The Lord would bring a sword against the Sidonians.
“The slain will fall
within you, with the sword against you on every side.”
Doesn’t paint a rosy picture for Sidon, wouldn’t you agree?
But note that there was a lot more to gain for the Lord than
just eliminating one of His people’s nemeses. For through sending His judgment
on Sidon and other malicious neighbors like her, the Lord promised that His
glory would be displayed and the peoples would see Him as holy. Order and peace
would not have been established otherwise and there would be no doubt that
every nation would know God was the Lord God Almighty, the Master and Maker of
all.
As for the people of Israel, our passage ends with good news
for the exiled Israelites who were serving a seventy year penalty imposed by
God for their sinful idolatry among other sins. For God assures Sidon through
the message He gave through Ezekiel that Israel would one day return to the
homeland where they would get to rebuild their home, replant their vineyards,
and do all of this in safety because the Lord would have removed the danger of “their
neighbors who maligned them.” Through His associated judgments, God was
systematically doing away with the Israelites’ enemies.
All this would present us with a few questions:
Have we become a thorn in the side of someone in life? In
other words, has someone else experienced difficulty in living life, possibly
losing the joy the Lord wants them to have, because of our actions?
If so, then perhaps we had better step back and reassess
what we are doing, recommitting ourselves to treating others as the Lord would
want us to. For if we adopt His attitude in our hearts and seek His guidance
and direction, then we can avoid being labeled a malicious neighbor in regard
to someone else and escape the associated punishment that can come with that
label, the kind of punishment the Sidonians suffered in Old Testament times.
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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