Ezekiel
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Ezekiel Chapter 20
I sometimes wonder why people act the way they do. If they do not want to hear the word of God and do not want to obey the word, why would they go to a prophet and ask his counsel? The best conclusion I can come to is that they are hoping to hear the prophet give approval to what they already believe or desire to do in their hearts. Another reason may be that they are questioning the prophet in order to find an occasion against him or catch him at his words in order to accuse him, thereby justifying their own selves by finding fault with one who is supposed to represent God. This was why the Pharisees were always following Jesus around. Not because they desired to hear what He had to say to benefit their souls, but that they might find a mistake he may make in he speech to prove He was false.
Whatever reason they were there for, God would have none of it.
God knew that they would not reprove those that were committing abominations. If a pastor, prophet or teacher is not willing to speak out against sin that is against God or against the written word, then he needs to find another profession to get into. Those that want to be in the ministry and represent God, need to represent God in both good and bad things. We must be willing to give comfort, exhortation and encouragement but also warning, correction and reproof.
There is no way, whether in the time of Israel before the coming of Christ or today as a Christian that we can compromise with evil. We may not have actual images to bow down to but there are other things in our lives that keep us from obeying the word of God or the voice of God. There are some religions and even a few Christian religions that use images in worship and there is no excuse for that because God's word forbids it. You can preach we are not under the law but under grace all you want to but idolatry is forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments. We open ourselves up to demonic deception if we use images in our worship.
Its hard for us to understand how the children of Israel could have seen all the miracles like the parting of the Red Sea and being fed manna in the wilderness but still fall into unbelief and sin. People today are no different. We have many things that hinder us from obeying God. We have many things that creep into our hearts and try to get us back into the sin Jesus saved us from .
God brought them out of Egypt and away from the idols of Egypt. He gave them His laws and instructions on how to live. As a Christian, Jesus saves us from sin and gave us the Holy Spirit to teach give us understanding of the word and lead us into a life of holiness. Egypt is behind us and heaven is before us but still some fall away and return to the old ways as did Israel.
The feasts and Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel, not God and the church. They were signs were remembrances of all things God did among them. The Sabbaths were times of refreshing in the Lord and remembering all His goodness to them. To the Gentile church, Jesus is our Sabbath. We can set aside certain days to worship God but actually we worship Him in spirit and in truth and that should be taking place every day. I like to take Sunday and make it a day to which I spend the whole day just concentrating on God, going to worship with other believers and not doing much of anything that does not pertain to worship but if I chose any other day of the week to do that, if I could find other believers who wanted to meet on another day, it wouldn't make any difference. Although Christians choose Sunday because they believe that is the day in which Christ rose from the dead, they could choose any other day and it wouldn't be wrong because after Jesus came the sacrificial and ordinances of the law were fulfilled. I believe though that the laws concerning how to live and what is sin or not is still in effect. Most of the laws that the Gentile church must keep are repeated in the New Testament. We now worship Him in spirit and in truth.
If God was harsh with the Jewish people who forsook Him to worship other gods and they disobeyed His laws and ordinances, would not it even be worse for a Christian who was given salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, given the gift of the Holy Spirit and the promise of eternal life, only to return to the filth and evil of sin, thereby crucifying Jesus all over again. Do we think that we are under grace and we will not be in any danger to be lost? If Israel was cut off for transgressions, would it not be the same for a Christian?
As God pleads for Israel, He pleads for the church also. He doesn't make it easy for us to backslide. In our case the Holy Spirit is present to convict of sin and bring us back to God.
The original ones that came out of Egypt except for Joshua and Caleb, died before going into the promise land. Because of unbelief, rebellion and idolatry they did not inherit the promised land. This is a picture of how the salvation through Jesus Christ brings us to the eternal promise land. If we go back into unbelief and sin, we will lose that promise just like the first Israelites lost it and died in the wilderness.
God brought the children of the ones who rebelled into the promised land with the leadership of Joshua. He didn't hold them accountable for what their parents did but gave them instructions not to do the same.
After the death of Joshua, Israel went through periods of rebellion, then repentance, rebellion and then repentance until their sin got so bad, God had to allow evil nations to take them into captivity and they lost their land.
Because of His promise to Abraham and His promise to bring forth a savior to save them from sin, God did not utterly destroy them but left a remnant to be in the land in order to latter day bible prophecy and the final plan of God to be fulfilled. They were God's elect and they are still God's elect as far as His purpose for the nation of Israel goes. Now, through faith in Christ, believers are grafted into the elect of God but we never once replaced Israel as God's elect.
In the times of heathen worship, idolatry required blood sacrifice of innocent children and sometimes virgins. Israel had gotten so far away from God that they too became involved in sacrificing their children and making them pass through the fire. God never ordained human sacrifice to save from sin except the time He sent His own Son to be that sacrifice. No human sacrifice could ever be acceptable. That is why God stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac. That was just a test to see if Abraham would give his own son if the Lord required it. But the Lord did not require it because He was going to send His own Son which was the same as sending Himself.
To knowingly sin against God is the same as blasphemy because in a sense we are saying that we don't regard what He said and we ignore His commandments so it is the same as speaking evil of God without saying a word. We are saying He is not worth giving any obedience to.
God was saying they were wasting their time coming to Ezekiel and inquiring of him because they were full of idolatry and evil and did not really care to hear the truth.
This may be speaking of the future tribulation when God again pleads with Israel after they went to the wilderness to escape the armies of the antichrist.
This is the restoration and final spiritual gathering of Israel. This happened after the 70 year captivity of Babylon but that only lasted until after the first coming of Christ until 70 AD when their rejection of Christ caused them to be scattered all over the earth again. The restoration after the Babylonian captivity was only a partial fulfillment because they sinned against God again after that. The final fulfillment will be after the church age ends or the time of the Gentiles and God's attention goes back to Israel during the tribulation and their final salvation and deliverance at the 2nd coming of the Messiah. They are still waiting for the first coming. They were not re-gathered in Israel until 1948 but they were only gathered in part. Spiritually they are still away from God until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled.
Those that rebel in Israel and do not receive the Lord Jesus Christ will be removed from them.
If they want to serve idols they need to leave and not try to bring them and mix that worship with the worship of God in the holy temple. They couldn't worship God and worship idols at the same time. They must choose one or the other.
When God gathers Israel and they come to "Know the Lord," in spirit and in truth, the heathen will know of it. The little despised hated Israel will rule the whole world under the leadership of Jesus Christ.
As a nation this part of prophecy has not been fulfilled but will be fulfilled in the latter day tribulation that I believe is coming very close.
This fire may be what is described in the book of Revelation during the tribulation that is to take place just prior to the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ to set up His kingdom on earth. All who come to Christ at this time, both Jews and Gentiles will escape the wrath of God that is poured out upon the earth during the tribulation. The Israel being addressed here are those that have rejected Jesus Christ until the church is taken out of the way. After God removes the church (comprised of believing Jews and Gentiles), the tribulation begins and the reign or terror worse than Hitler will come upon Israel to bring them back to God and usher in the final rule of Jesus Christ upon the earth. There are different variations of when Christ comes for His church and I do respect other views. Some believe the church will go through the tribulation and some believe the church will go through half of it and just escape the wrath of God. Although I believe the church is never promised to escape persecution and tribulation that comes from man, I believe also that they are promised (The church of Philadelphia) that the faithful will escape the hour of tribulation that will try those that dwell upon the earth. I also believe the church age must end and the church must be removed before the antichrist is revealed. So my views are pre-tribulation views. I feel this way not to try to escape trouble but because I believe the trouble cannot start until the believing church is gone similar to the Lord delivering Lot out of Sodom before He send the fire and brimstone. If it turns out I'm wrong, we must be ready spiritually anyway in order to resist the evil that comes during the tribulation. At any rate, however we who believe will never experience the wrath of God. |
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