Ezekiel 11
COMMENTARY:
: 4 Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man. (5012 “prophesy” [naba’] means under influence of divine spirit, to speak by divine power, be in prophetic ecstasy, or behave as a nabi.)
DEVOTION: The Holy Spirit was active throughout history. HE was there at the creation of the world in Genesis 1: 2. HE would move people throughout the Old Testament. HE would fill people throughout the Old Testament. HE would also leave people in the Old Testament. This final characteristic is not present in the New Testament.
One of the requirements for a prophet was that he had to be one hundred percent accurate or he was a false prophet. Israel had many false prophets that said they were speaking for God but they were liars. The true prophets of the LORD were faithful to their commission.
The LORD is instructing Ezekiel to speak by divine power concerning the future of Jerusalem and concerning the leaders of Jerusalem and concerning the remnant that the LORD would seal and return to Jerusalem after seventy years.
In this chapter the Holy Spirit lifts Ezekiel up and takes him from Babylon to Jerusalem to observe the glory of the LORD leaving Jerusalem. After he observes this fact he is returned to Babylon by the Holy Spirit.
Throughout the Word of God there are three persons to the Godhead that form one God. Each has their individual responsibility and each has the same characteristics as the others. It is hard for us to comprehend the fact that the Bible teaches that there is only ONE TRUE GOD but HE is manifested in three persons.
It is not Modalism. This false belief is that God is manifested in the Old Testament as the Father. HE is manifested in the New Testament Gospels as Jesus Christ. HE is manifested in Act and the Epistles as the Holy Spirit. This is a false teaching that is still around today. Watch out for those who believe and teach this. There is one that appears every Sunday morning on television.
CHALLENGE: Remember that the Holy Spirit is active in our lives once we become a follower of Jesus Christ. One of HIS responsibilities is to help us pray for what is good for the perspective of the Godhead. Our thoughts are not HIS thoughts.)
: 12 And ye shall know that I am the LORD: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you. (4941 “manners” [mishpat] means judgments, ordinances, justice, custom, plan, or procedure.)
DEVOTION: These last three chapters have been a vision of Ezekiel concerning the removal of the glory of the LORD from the temple and the city of Jerusalem.
The presence of the LORD was leaving Jerusalem because of the sins of the people. They were not following the LORD’S law. They were not doing what the LORD had given them in HIS instructions to Moses.
Instead they were planning things according to their neighbor’s way of doing things. They were following procedures like their neighbors. They were making ordinances like their neighbors. They looked and acted just like their heathen neighbors.
God couldn’t tell them apart. They were acting like the world instead of like followers of the LORD. They were worshiping false gods. They were listening to false prophets. They were not concerned about what God had to say to them.
Therefore HE had to judge them with captivity and death. They would not listen to HIS warnings. They had to know that HE was still Sovereign in the world. They had to know that HE was still Holy. They had to know who HE was. This chapter restates that the people were going to know that “I am the LORD.”
The problem is that today we seem to look and act like our heathen neighbors. We seem to be following a religion rather than the Bible. We seem to think that people who live in sin are still going to heaven. We seem to think that there is no hell but only heaven waiting for all those who live in this world. That is not true.
The truth is that God is going to judge our world and the majority of people are going to spend eternity in Hell because they chose to not follow the teachings of the Word of God. There is only ONE BIBLE. There is ONLY ONE WAY to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ alone.
All other ways lead to eternity in the lake of fire. What is the LORD going to do with us? Let’s not live like our neighbors do. Let’s not follow procedures like our neighbors do. Let’s go to the LORD and HIS word for direction. Let’s plan the way HE would like us to plan. Let’s follow procedures that HE can bless.
CHALLENGE: To him that knows what is right and chooses to do wrong it is sin. Bible believing individuals look to the LORD for guidance and follow it on a daily basis.
: 19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh (68 “stony” [’eben] means metaphor for perverse, hard heart, bold and intrepid mind, stiff heart, or hard and dense heart.)
DEVOTION: This is an awesome promise that the LORD is making to the children of Israel regarding their future. Here we find that they have a stiff heart in relationship to the LORD. They are not listening to HIS prophets. They are not obeying HIS commandments. They are just in an attitude of not caring about what God wants in their life but HE is promising in the future that HE will be with the nation and restore them to a time when they will care about what HE wants them to do.
A generation that doesn’t care about what the LORD expects of them is open to judgment by the LORD. HE will chasten those who are genuine believers and HE will judge those who are religious but not according to HIS standards. The time is coming when each person will have to face the LORD and give an answer for what they did with Jesus Christ and the Word of God.
For Israel the time was now!! For us it is still in our future whether we die or we are here for the time of judgment on this earth. There is no avoiding the LORD!!
Today the LORD is willing to change a hard heart into one that will honor HIM on a daily basis. It is a choice we have to make. If you have made a choice to be a follower of Jesus Christ you have to examine your heart daily to see if you are honoring HIM with your thoughts and actions. All of us have to understand that our choices have consequences. This chapter states it plainly.
CHALLENGE: What type of heart is beating your heart? Only you have the answer to that question.
: 24 Afterwards, the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me. (4758 “vision” [mar’eh] means appearance, seeing, phenomenon, a religious or mystical experience of a supernatural appearance (that imparts a message), often in dreams, or spectacle.)
DEVOTION: Here we have Ezekiel receiving a spectacle of the LORD to reveal to him a message the LORD had for him and the children of Israel. He was a prophet that was in close relationship with the LORD and wanted to know what was happening to the nation of Israel at this time.
God does not always give a message to those who seek HIM but many times in the Old Testament we find that HE speaks to those who are in close relationship with HIM in their dreams.
The messages are not for the prophet alone but for him to tell the people of God what the LORD is doing and what they are supposed to be doing in their relationship with HIM. If the people turn from their sins and repent the LORD would give them blessings instead of judgement.
However, most times the prophets bring a message from the LORD and they will not listen and wonder why things are not getting better. It is sad but the LORD didn’t stop talking to HIS people in the Old Testament but even speaks today through the message of the Word of God to HIS people but just like in Israel the people were not listening and we are not listening even today.
We have the example of how the LORD worked in the Old Testament and HE has not changed even today. HE is speaking through the message of the Bible through individual who are given over to the Holy Spirit in their preaching to inform God’s people what HE expects of them.
There are many men and women in pulpits today that are not preaching the Word of God but human wisdom which is not good to those who think they are worshiping the LORD but are not.
Just because people are going to a place that is called a church doesn’t mean the LORD is in that place. The Bible has to be foremost in the heart of the one giving the message and in the ons hearing the message.
Just like the children of Israel heard the message of Ezekiel and didn’t listen, so today we have people who are going to churches that are genuinely preaching the Word of God but they are not listening but leaving the building and doing as they please rather than what pleases the LORD.
CHALLENGE: First we need to attend a place that genuinely preaches the Word of God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and then we have to apply the Word of God to our life.
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