Ezekiel 17
COMMENTARY:
: 18 Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and has done all these things he shall not escape. (959 “despised” [bazah] means contemptible, regard with contempt, to look down on with contempt, think lightly of or to trample with the feet.)
DEVOTION: Once the king swore to a covenant with the king of Babylon he was under obligation to keep his promise as far as the LORD was concerned. He might have even used the name of Jehovah in his promise to the king of Babylon.
However, he went to Egypt for help to rebel against the king of Babylon and this meant that he was breaking his promise to the king and also breaking his witness concerning the LORD.
Today we give our word to people that we will do something. If we don’t do it we have to confess it to them and to the LORD. We are to be honest people in the eyes of the LORD and in the eyes of the people who are around us. This is not always easy.
Flattery can be a real problem when someone asks “How do I look? When what they look like is not good. We have a choice to make – tell the truth or tell them what they want to hear. There was a television commercial where Abraham Lincoln was asked by his wife how she looked. There was silence.
Our responsibility is to represent Jesus Christ in all that we say and do. Those who are in leadership are held to a different standard than those who are in the pews because we set the mark. The LORD had Ezekiel setting a mark for the children of Israel to follow but they were not willing to listen to him.
Should Ezekiel quit and not fulfilled his responsibility to the LORD or continued to encourage the children of Judah to live the way that LORD wanted them to live? The answer is obvious. Every believer whether a prophet or priest or king was supposed to honor the LORD with their lives.
Today whether we are pastor, deacon or usher we need to make sure that we do what we say we will do to the best of our ability with the help of the LORD. If we do something that is contemptable we should expect the chastening of the LORD.
Will HE forgive us? YES!! If we confess the sin to the LORD and not act like the children of Israel did at this time. We have to turn around and do what we know the LORD expects of us. Confess and pay the consequences and move on to better service. There is only one human being that was sinless and that was Jesus Christ while HE was on this earth. We sin and need to confess regularly.
CHALLENGE: Keep your word to others. Confess when you don’t.
: 19 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; As I live, surely MINE oath that he hath despised, and MY covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head. (959 “despised” [bazah] means contemptible, disdained, regard with contempt, to look down on with contempt.)
DEVOTION: The king was rebellious against the LORD. He didn’t honor the covenant that the LORD had made with Israel. He didn’t look to the LORD for guidance. He went his own way and thought that the LORD would do nothing against him.
He had broken the covenant of the LORD and disregarded his solemn oath he had promised when he went into the office of king.
The LORD wants us to honor HIM if we claim to be a follow of HIM. The king had made a promise and then broke it. Today we have individuals who go forward in a service and say they are asking Jesus into their hearts but then leave and not honor the LORD with their life.
These individuals think that they are safe from eternity in hell when in reality they have never made a genuine commitment to the LORD. HE will not honor anything fake either in the Old Testament times or now in New Testament times. HE wants those who make a commitment to HIM to be genuine.
It is not easy to follow the LORD but we can only do it with the help of the Holy Spirit in our life. It takes a daily walk with HIM. HE wants us to grow in our knowledge of HIM HE wants us to confess our sins daily. HE wants us to serve HIM with all of our talents.
We have to ask ourselves if our commitment to HIM is genuine. We sin daily and with that fact we need to confess our sins daily and seek HIS guidance through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
CHALLENGE: Only we can answer how we are doing in our relationship with HIM. Our walk makes the difference in the blessings we receive each day.
: 20 And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me. (8199 “plead” [shaphat] means to judge, govern, vindicate, punish, or to decide controversy.)
DEVOTION: It is the picture of a courtroom. There is a judge, defense attorney and prosecutor. The case is before the court. What is the case? The LORD is the prosecutor. HE is going to help them decide that they are a wrong relationship to HIM.
They had broken a covenant they had made with Babylon. They had despised the oath they had given. The king was not a man of his word. He went to Egypt for help to rebel against the king of Babylon. He wanted horse and men from Egypt to come and help him fight with Babylon. They were a rebellious people.
The LORD was going to spread HIS net against Judah and Jerusalem. HE was going to have them go into captivity in Babylon. There HE was going to decide HIS controversy with them. Their trespasses or sins were going to be shown in evidence.
They were not going to listen unless they were in captivity. When people are in jail or prison, they will take things more seriously. The children of Israel are in captivity, which is, like being in jail or prison. They had trespassed against the LORD’S commands.
The LORD is the judge, as well as, the prosecutor. Their defense attorney is the LORD, as HE looks forward to a time when Christ will come to die on the cross for the sins of the world, which the animal sacrifices represent.
HE still loves them. HE still wants them to repent. HE still wants to see a change of behavior. They are still HIS children. They are going to return to the Promised Land after they serve their term of seventy years. That is how long they have not given the land rest as the LORD commanded. That is how long they had not honored the Sabbath rest.
The LORD had spoken and it was going to happen. That is as true today as it was in this time period. HE always gives hope to a remnant of the people. Those who are followers of Christ are the remnant in all nations that will be called up to meet HIM in the air in the near future. Are we ready?
CHALLENGE: The LORD is the one who has to trap us once in a while to get our attention. Our thoughts and ways are not HIS ways and thought most of the time. Honor HIM and HE will honor you.
: 24 AND all the trees of the field shall KNOW THAT I THE LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I THE LORD HAVE SPOKEN AND HAVE DONE IT. (1361 “exalted” [gabahh] means higher, upward, lofty, tall, or to make high.)
DEVOTION: Israel keeps trying to make itself higher than God in their thinking. They keep thinking that they can give their word and break it anytime they desire to.
They made a covenant with the LORD first and broke it. They make a covenant with the king of Babylon and broke it. Finally, they made a covenant with the Egyptians and they broke it.
They were into whatever made them happy at the time. They were not a nation that kept their promises. God was a God who kept HIS promises. HE wanted a people who were a nation of individuals who didn’t lie to get their own way.
The LORD doesn’t honor liars. They thought they could work their independence for the LORD by not keeping their word. They thought they could gain their independence from Babylon by not keeping their word. They were wrong.
God is sovereign. HE wants those who follow HIM to keep their word to HIM or HE will judge them. There is no escape from judgment even though Israel tried many times to get around their responsibility to the LORD.
Sometimes we make promises to the LORD that we don’t want to keep, in order that; we can get ourselves out of a problem situation. That is always wrong. God want us to be people of our word. HE is a God of HIS word. HE states often that when HE speaks – IT HAPPENS.
CHALLENGE: When we speak, do we keep our word to the LORD and to those around us? We should work on being an individual who does what he says he will do
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