Year 3 Day 115

Year 3 Day 115


Pray (ACts)


Read - Ezekiel 12:21-28


Message - Alan Burke 


You’ve had your chances now you are going to face the consequences! In effect that is what the people of God are being told here. What I want you to notice first of all is the arrogance that the people of God had towards the word of God, they had a proverb among them that ‘The days go by and every vision comes to nothing’ (22). The meaning is obvious, the people of God, this rebellious people, well they had heard it all before, God’s judgement, they had heard His warnings through His prophets and they didn’t believe that God would do anything, they didn’t take the message of God seriously. They appealed to God’s own word in Deuteronomy (18:20-22) that “when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken”. God had warned His people and when He relented as they repented they though sure nothing ever comes of it, why worry. They had presumed that the Lord’s grace, His compassion, His forbearance, His love would continue on forever, sure they’d heard it before, and God is God He’d never do anything like it. 


This rebellious people rejected the word of the Lord through Ezekiel and Jeremiah, so the Lord then gave the people a proverb that was no idol threat, “The days are near when every vision will be fulfilled”. God’s people had not believed in the trustworthiness of His word, it was only by His grace that He had not dealt with them sooner, but he would act. Part of the issue was that they thought they were alright, but they were lied to by false prophets, their hearts were deceptive. Jesus warned that “many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Mt 24:10). False prophets are here today, deceiving, they are those who are wolves dressed in sheep's clothing, the deceit of Satan that began in the Garden of Eden continue on to this day as our hearts because of the fall are rebellious and deceptive and it causes people to dismiss the eternal and how judgement will come to all. But in Ezekiel’s day as well as today the word of God is sure, it is to be trusted and God’ will carry out what he has promised. God’s words will translate to actions (v.25). The tragedy in Ezekiel’s day and today is that we often only learn this truth by the experience of judgement and discipline.


Again in v26 for the fifth time in this passage the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. Not only did they dismiss the word of the Lord as worthless, they said it was for some future day and they would be fine, it was irrelevant to them. God's response just as it was in v23 is direct, "none of my words will be delayed any longer, whatever I say will be fulfilled”. The time had come even though the people had dismissed it. The same attitude prevails people today, that nothing will come of God’s word, His warning, and if it does it’s in the future, and sure it’s been 2000 years since Christ said he would return but the warning to this rebellious people in Ezekiel’s day and today is that His word is true. Judgment will come at his appointed time, for those in Ezekiel’s day it would be delayed no longer. We should take comfort thought, that God wants to bring men and women to know him, we do not know who He has in the Lamb’s book of life so we make every effort to encourage others to repent and believe, to turn to God through Jesus Christ.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q107 What doth the conclusion of the Lord’ s prayer teach us?
The conclusion of the Lord’ s prayer, (which is, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever, Amen. (Matt. 6:13) teacheth us, to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, (Dan. 9:4,7–9,16–19) and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him. (1 Chron. 29:10–13) And, in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen. (1 Cor. 14:16, Rev. 22:20–21)
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