11/21/2020 – Day 188 – Ezekiel 19 – 24 “Once again, if God put in an ad in for a prophet, would you answer it?”
Well brothers, wasn’t it just 3 days ago in our 2 Kings reading how we marveled at how heaven took care of it’s prophets? Today, in Ezekiel 24, once again in Chapter 24 we get the flip side to that story. I told this story recently, I just can’t remember if it was a face-to-face personal testimony or a post on another passage that connects to : “Share in the sufferings of Christ”. Here is just a sample of Gospel passages that speak to this Truth:
1 Peter – Chapter 4 / Romans 8: 18-30 / Philippians 2: 7-16 / 2 Corinthians 1: 5-7 / 1 Peter 1:6 / 2 Timothy Chapter 1 verses 8-12 / 2 Timothy 3: 12-15 / Philippians 1:29…. It seems that the prosperity gospel preachers have alot of pages to tear out of their bibles.
So, I recall once again many years ago how our First Prebyterian men’s bible study was concluding a long study in the prophets when a brother asked the question I repeated here in the title: “If God put in ad ad in for a prophet, would you answer it?” We all just looked at each other. As I noted earlier, I think it was evidence of our growth as Christians. How so? Well, personally , before we had started I would have answered without hesitation: “You bet!” Now , after reading the through the prophets, we were much more aware of the sacrifice inherent in that call.
So , how hard was it it for Ezekiel to do exactly what God commanded?: “Son of man, behold, I take away from the desire of your eyes with one stroke; yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears run down.” Yes, the people noticed how strange this was for Ezekiel so they asked : “How is this?” As explained at the end of the chapter, it was all a sign to them of what they would go through with the loss of their beloved temple.
The Jewish people would go through another cycle of disobediance 500 or so years later in 70 A.D. with the destruction of Herod’s temple, the 2nd temple, and an estimated loss of life that Josephus, the renowned Jewish historian of the time put at 1,000,000 people dead. Matthew Henry points out in his commentary that there is evidence that the Jewish people would never resort to horrific idolatry again, after the destruction of the 1st temple. So maybe God’s justice indeed have a lasting affect, at least with regard to this mortal sin as a people.
With respect to both “sisters”, both Judea and Samarians, look what the Lord tells Ezekiel: “The Lord said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholidah? Then declare to them their abominations. For they have committed adultery , and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and profaned My Sabbaths.” (Ezekiel 23: 36 -38) The footnote to my Evidence Bible aptly points out: “It is hard to conceive of the wickidness of any parents taking their own offspring and sacrificing them to an idol.” We sacrifice roughly one million of our own children a year in modern day America. Is it not inappropriate to call either civilization, now or 2500 years ago, as “civilized”?