Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 20-21.

The thought which struck me here was how Ezekiel listed out the failures of previous generations to faithfully follow the instructions God had given them, but he did not condemn the current generation for the failure of their ancestors to live righteous, faithful lives.  No, he condemned the current generation for their own failure to live righteous, faithful lives.  When Ezekiel looked at the failures of the past generations, he pointed out that their failure was a failure to follow the guidelines of what they knew to be good.  The failure of the current generation was not that their ancestors had failed to do what was good.  The failure of the current generation is their rejection of what their ancestors knew to be good, and that they also know to be good.  The failure of the previous generations was not that what they claimed as the standard of good behavior was not good.  The failure was that they did not live according to that standard.  In the same way today, the failure of our ancestors was not that the standard they proclaimed was bad.  The failure of our ancestors was that they did not live up to that standard.  Ezekiel did not say that the failure of the previous generations to live up to their standard meant that we should abandon that standard.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 20-21.

When some elders of Israel came to Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord, God told Ezekiel that He would not allow them to inquire of Him.  God then reminds them of the sin and rebelliousness of their ancestors, culminating by asking them, rhetorically, if they will defile themselves in the way that their ancestors did.  In particular God points out that they defile themselves by sacrificing their children.  Now to me, the context seems to suggest that those to whom Ezekiel was speaking did not consider themselves to be worshiping idols.  In the same way, most of those in our society today who are sacrificing children for their ideals do not consider themselves to be worshiping idols, especially those who consider themselves Christians.  So, let us examine our lives for the ways in which we defile ourselves by making offerings to other gods.  Perhaps we do not sacrifice our children, or even encourage others to sacrifice theirs, but what other acts do we commit which indicate our true loyalty lies with something other than God?

God told the Israelite elders who consulted Ezekiel that He would deal with them for His name’s sake and not according to their evil ways and corrupt practices.  I believe that He will do the same for those today who truly seek to be His people and in that day, we will loathe ourselves for the evil we have committed.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 20-21.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary for the next 22 days.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

When some elders of the Israelite exiles came to Ezekiel to inquire of God, God gave Ezekiel a prophecy condemning them for their idolatry and that of their ancestors.  Ezekiel spoke against the repeated idolatry generation after generation of the Israelites (but I think we should read this as generation after generation of those God has called to worship Him).  Repeatedly, Ezekiel connects desecrating the Sabbath with that idolatry.  As we read this we can easily reach the mistaken conclusion that the idolatry and the desecration of the Sabbath were two separate charges, but I am convinced that Ezekiel was saying that failing to honor the Sabbath was a form of idolatry.  Or, perhaps that it led to idolatry.  After condemning previous generations, Ezekiel condemns the generation to whom he was speaking.  He tells them that they have continued the idolatry of their ancestors by sacrificing their children.  Ezekiel made a direct link between failing to keep the Sabbath and idolatry, and part of that idolatry was sacrificing their children.  I see this as making a direct link between the failure of Christians in the United States failing to properly honor the Sabbath and abortion.  Let us strive to keep all of God’s commands, even the command to keep a day of rest, and pray that He pour out His Spirit upon this world so as to end anyone’s desire to sacrifice their children through abortion.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 20-21.

When some leaders of the people of Israel (I presume these were leaders of those already in Exile) came to Ezekiel to request guidance from God through him, God rejected their specific request for guidance (although He gave them guidance in another area through Ezekiel).  To clarify the way this reads to me, the leaders came to Ezekiel requesting he inquire of God what they should do about a particular matter, which is not mentioned.  God refused to give them guidance on that particular matter, instead telling them to give up their idols and to stop desecrating the Sabbath.

As I read this passage I was struck by the degree to which God condemned them through Ezekiel for desecrating the Sabbath.  Actually, Ezekiel used the plural there.  While we could assume the plural was for all of the weekly Sabbaths which they had failed to keep, I am pretty sure it refers to the weekly Sabbath, the every seven year Sabbath Year, a the Jubilee Year, which happened every 49 years.  However, it makes me wonder if perhaps all of the ills in our society may be traced to our loss, as Christians in Western Society, of a proper respect for God’s weekly day of rest.  I know that I am guilty of not dedicating one day to worshiping and praising God.  I feel called out by this passage to return to dedicating one day a week to Him…with hopefully the result of actually dedicating every day to Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 20-21.

Two days ago I wrote about how great spiritual revivals in the United States preceded great changes in this country, about how God’s Spirit swept through it to bring about positive social change.  That passage caused me to focus on how God’s Spirit had built this country up into a nation of power and wealth.  Today’s passage reminds me that time and again throughout its history the people of the United States have worshiped power and wealth instead of God.  Ezekiel recounted to the leaders of the Exiles who came to him for a message from God how the Israelites time and again turned to idol worship, and how even these leaders coming to him for a message from God had done so.  Yet, for all of that, God told Ezekiel that someday the people of Israel would give up their idolatry and worship God.  I believe that the same thing is true of the people of the United States.  The day will come when we will truly be ashamed of the idolatry we have committed as a nation and will bring honor to God’s name.  Everything that has gone right in this nation happened after we as a people turned our hearts to God and listened to His word.  If we turn our hearts to Him once more He will bring a great blessing out of these turbulent times.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 20-21.

As I read today’s passage I struggled with what to make of Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning the repeated sinning by the people of Israel.  He wrote about how generation after generation God became angry with the people of Israel and considered bringing judgement against them, but withheld that judgement for the sake of His name.  Then I came to the part where Ezekiel declared that the people of Israel no longer even tried to hide their sins and I started to see the message for us today.

I was initially struck by the way in which our society today no longer attempts to hide its idolatry and other sins.  In fact people proudly proclaim their worship of idols and of the sins which they commit.  As I thought about how this works in our society I was reminded of how those who celebrate such things condemn this country (and on a larger scale, Western Civilization) for its past sins.  I often find myself attempting to defend this nation, and Western Civilization against these charges.  I should not because this country and all of Western Civilization is guilty of great sins.  However, the sins of the past do not justify the sins of today.  Instead of defending the sins of the past, we need to point out that those condemning today’s society because of those sins are the heirs of those who committed them.  They embrace the values of those who committed the sins while rejecting the values of the prophets, and there were such prophets, who called out the sins as they were being committed.