Tell the Exiles

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Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Then this message came to me from the Lord:  “Son of man, the people still left in Jerusalem are talking about you and your relatives and all the people of Israel who are in exile.  They are saying, ‘Those people are far away from the Lord, so now he has given their land to us!’  “Therefore, tell the exiles, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:  Although I have scattered you in the countries of the world, I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile.  I, the Sovereign Lord, will gather you back from the nations where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel once again.’  “When the people return to their homeland, they will remove every trace of their vile images and detestable idols.  And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them.  I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart, so they will obey my decrees and regulations.  Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God.  But as for those who long for vile images and detestable idols, I will repay them fully for their sins.  I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”  Then the cherubim lifted their wings and rose into the air with their wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them.  Then the glory of the Lord went up from the city and stopped above the mountain to the east.  Afterward the Spirit of God carried me back again to Babylonia, to the people in exile there.  And so ended the vision of my visit to Jerusalem.  And I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown me.  Ezekiel 11:14-25

Dateline 594 B.C. – At this point in Israel’s history they are experiencing a second major defeat by hostile neighbors, followed by the humiliation of being dispossessed of their land, and exiled to foreign soil.  This time it is the Babylonian king who has destroyed Jerusalem, looting the temple and carrying-off all the leaders and the strong young people.  What’s left is a land of rubble and disheartened seniors.  They’re only a year or two into what will be a seventy-year prison sentence.  This punishment is for the crime of turning their national backs on God.  Israel hadn’t learned anything from the self-inflicted pain of the consequences of forsaking their God by the Northern kingdom a century earlier; a pattern was painfully emerging of God’s salvation of His people, followed by that peoples’ fading worship of Almighty God and disobedient, petulantly-selfish idolatry, precipitating a weakening of their national identity and another downfall, captivity by a pagan nation, and God having to save them all over again.

Enter Ezekiel.  The vision God gave to the prophet was a message to the captive exiles in Babylon:  I Am will save you; I will bring you back to your land and restore everything.  But this time you’ll have a new spirit.  This lesson will teach you much about who’s in charge in history, the present, and the future.  If you learn the lesson well, what has been lost in the past will be just a shadow compared to everything I’ll give to you…there will be nothing lost, only the passing of your sin under my forgiving covenant.

Almighty God commissions Ezekiel, His prophet, to tell the exiles there is hope!

At the risk of “spiritualizing” Ezekiel’s prophecy to Israel in such a way as to suggest it is a type of what we experience in contemporary life, let me say there is just too strong a resemblance to ignore what is happening in the church (particularly in America), and in American culture.  By the empty churches on Sunday morning, and the startling nature of rejection of godliness and even the façade of holiness, we see a parallel of Israel’s folly unfolding once again.  When a nation, claiming to be blessed from sea to shining sea, praises God in the sanctuary on Sunday and acts like children of Hell the other seven days of the week, it denigrates the forgiveness which birthed its’ freedom.  It also presumes upon the forbearing patience of a holy God.  That is a position that begs a woodshed meeting with the Father.

For You Today

There are exceptions to the disobedience to God’s way we are seeing today; God always has His remnant.  Be part of that remnant people; and tell the exiles you meet to keep honoring God; there IS hope!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com  
             Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

Legacy of Lies

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Friday, November 3, 2017

But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you.  They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them.  In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.  Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality.  And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.  In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money.  But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.  2 Peter 2:1-3^(NLT)

I’ve got to confess this text has always worried me.  As one who is a pastor, under-shepherd to God’s flock, and stands behind the sacred desk each week teaching and preaching God’s Word, the weight of truth-telling is sometimes excruciating.  To be sure, I’m not worried about God’s Word being true; that’s been settled in my soul for many years.  I worry about me; I’m always concerned about my ability to not mix-in anything that will turn the truth into fable, and in so-doing, slander the Gospel. 

I have a good friend to whom I confided this irksome fear; he told me that he would be worried about me if I wasn’t concerned about that.  He said:  The Gospel is too important to take lightly.  Always check your motive for what you preach.

On the other side of this thought lurk two other types of teachers, both false.  There are those who teach from ignorance, not understanding the truth, perhaps because of naivety or lack of giftedness.  But the worst kind of false teacher is intentional; truth is known, but replaced with whatever lie will bring the highest payoff.

What’s odd about our culture is that false teachers hyping the biggest lies are the ones we seem to elevate the most.  The fame and fortune which false teachers have as their target rolls-in like ants sticking to an anteater’s tongue.  It’s just wrong, but it’s also understandable, considering the way success is idolized and worshipped in American life.  We want our leaders slick, smiling and smoothly telling us the lies we want to hear.

Peter said the legacy of such liars is destruction.  We may not see it, but it is happening!  James Russell Lowell wrote:

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—       

Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,           

Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.[2]          

Behind the dim unknown cloud of lies permeating culture, relationships, and even the church, there is JHWH, Jehovah-God, the One who is everlasting, all-knowing, and everywhere moving the events of history and human beings towards His will and purpose.  In the end God’s watch over his own will produce justice.  The legacy of lies is death…and that in God’s own timing.

For You Today

Moving into the light of God’s life means turning your back on a legacy filled with lies, and beginning a life-long love affair with truth.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] James Russell Lowell, The Present Crisis

For Such a Time As This - Part 2

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Thursday, October 27, 2016

If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?  Esther 4:14^(NLT)

America's Parallel with Israel; Moral and Spiritual Decline

America’s political existence, power and prestige among the nations of the earth are a by-product of spiritual strength consistent with the founding of the land of the free and home of the brave.  The French poet Alexis de Tocqueville came to America in the early 19^th century to find the key to the new nation’s greatness; he wrote: 

Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.  America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!"

HAS AMERICA CEASED TO BE GOOD?        

In Edward Gibbon's The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire he lists five paths that so-called indestructible society followed which, unquestionably, led to its' crumbling:

1. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home.

In days gone by, the children of America could typically expect a Mother and Father to be married, be faithful, and be there.  The crisis of the home and family in America is enough to make one agree with Thomas Jefferson who said:  Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.       

2. Increasing taxes and spending of public money for bread and circuses

America is now less characterized by the "working-man ethic” than the caricature of the human orchard pig.  Farmers turn their pigs loose in peach orchards to eat the windfalls.  All day long the pigs sit in the shade with one ear to the ground, waiting for a peach to fall off the tree.  When it does, they waddle over, eat it, and plop down in that very spot until the wind knocks another one out of the tree. 

3. The mad craze for pleasure, with sports becoming more exciting and more brutal.

If this is not a sports-crazed society we will never see one.  Violent movies, violence oriented child pornography, computer war games...America?  Rome?

4. The building of gigantic armaments, when the real enemy is the decadence of the people.

The downsizing of our military is a misnomer when you ask the question:  How many fingers does it take to push a nuclear-missile launch button?

5. The decay of religion, with faith fading into mere form.

Many of our candidates have a November spirituality that reveals a January carnality.  Newsweek magazine reported in 1989 on a sting operation to uncover graft in New York.  Rudy Giulliani, then New York's U.S. Attorney made the following report: 

On 106 occasions, bribes were offered or discussed.  On 105 of those occasions, the public official involved accepted the bribe.  And on the other occasion, he turned it down because he didn't think the amount was large enough.

Many of our contemporary church members have joined themselves to the culture rather than the Christ.  The carnality of church members in America has weakened the influence of the body of Christ in society.  Consistently the courts are making anti-Christian rulings. 

The culture in America thumbs its collective noses at the bride of Christ.  Like Haman they construct their gallows for the few who have the character of Mordecai to stand against ungodliness in our generation. 

For You Today

Tomorrow we will look at the Christian response to a crumbling culture.  Perhaps it is God’s plan that the church was made for such a time as this.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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[i] Title Images: Edwin Long [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons