In Ezekiel yesterday and today – He’s being told first not to prophesy for this group of Elders from Israel.  They haven’t been honoring God as they should and not listening to the prophesy He has been providing.  Then he tells Ezekiel to set his face against the South and there would be a fire for the forests of the South.  Today, God tells Ezekiel to set his face towards Jerusalem.  The judgment of God is coming to the city of Jerusalem next.  God vows to keep a remnant – but after the exile, Jerusalem, Israel and Judah are never quite the same as they were in the days of David and Solomon, but God once again gives the prediction of Jesus coming in verse 26 “thus says the Lord God: Remove the turban and take off the crown.  Things shall not remains as they are.  Exalt that which is low, and bring low that which is exalted.  A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it.  This also shall not be, until he comes, the one to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to him.”  God’s promise in the Old Testament, given to us once again.

In Ezekiel yesterday and today – He’s being told first not to prophesy for this group of Elders from Israel.  They haven’t been honoring God as they should and not listening to the prophesy He has been providing.  Then he tells Ezekiel to set his face against the South and there would be a fire for the forests of the South.  Today, God tells Ezekiel to set his face towards Jerusalem.  The judgment of God is coming to the city of Jerusalem next.  God vows to keep a remnant – but after the exile, Jerusalem, Israel and Judah are never quite the same as they were in the days of David and Solomon, but God once again gives the prediction of Jesus coming in verse 26 “thus says the Lord God: Remove the turban and take off the crown.  Things shall not remains as they are.  Exalt that which is low, and bring low that which is exalted.  A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it.  This also shall not be, until he comes, the one to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to him.”  God’s promise in the Old Testament, given to us once again.

Paul is speaking to the Jewish people and has their full attention.  Speaking to them in Hebrew, he tells them his story, first as a Roman, next as a Jew, they don’t let him get the whole story out and they’ve heard enough.  Jesus knew just what he was doing (as always) in choosing Paul to advance the Word.  Because he is Roman by birth, this gives him some advantage among the Romans.  Because he is Jewish, he has an advantage among the Jews.  Now that he is a witness for Christ, it seems the Gentiles can accept him because of his background with the law of the Lord, but his native people are having trouble because he has “turned” from their tradition.  Since his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul has been a relentless witness for Jesus and he recounted that story for us today.

Sometimes the Psalms jump out at me when I’m reading them.  This is one of them.  David is always sure to give praise to God in his Psalms and I’m thinking we often fall short of giving our praise to God.  Verse 1 “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!”  The Psalm then goes on to say how useless idols are – we worship a living God,  one who will verse 12 ”…bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron; he will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great.”  Our job too is to bless the Lord. Verse 18 “But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!”  So how do we bless the Lord?  Give Him praise!  Honor Him for what He has done.  Recognize His works in our daily lives and give Him praise.

The message in Ezekiel describes how God feels about His people Israel.  He found them abandoned, cared for them, brought them up, and gave them much abundance, and they took it for granted, became ignorant of God and worshiped idols.  A person could understand God’s wrath.  He punishes them by allowing the kingdoms around them to overtake them, but, because God made a promise to Israel, he preserves a remnant to carry on.  There’s another promise in today’s reading, verse 60 says “yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant.”  In these days of the prophets, in the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, God was already promising the coming of Jesus.  We’re now living in the time of this everlasting covenant, but we’re not behaving any better than the people of Jerusalem in many cases.  We’re still sinners and we have idols to distract us from a true relationship with God.  We have our work to do – we need to stay in the Word and learn to be closer to God.  We don’t have prophets warning us of impending disaster, but we do know that our time on earth is temporary – we need to be near to God at all times in order to have confidence in a life everlasting with Jesus Christ.

Paul’s message at the end of Romans 14 reminds not to pass judgment on each other.  This is something we can easily fall into.  Judging is easy – something we start doing automatically when we aren’t thinking about it.  We have to be deliberate not judging and continue reminding ourselves how wrong it is.  Paul talks about judgment in this case regarding the choice of food people eat, but it goes deeper if you get the meaning from it.  In verse 21, “It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.  The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God.  Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.  But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith.  For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”  Like our reading of Job – we shouldn’t be comparing ourselves to others in order to judge our position.  Job may have been righteous compared to his friends, but God put him in his place.  Our judgment of others will likewise put us in judgment at the end.  We need to be vigilant and we need to be faithful.

I’m struck today by the last verses of Romans 12 starting at verse 9. Paul is telling us how to truly behave in this life. “Let love be genuine” “Love one another with brotherly affection.” “Rejoice in hope.” Then it goes on from 14 “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep….” and then much later into verse 19 “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Following much of this last advice will require some great self control. Human nature wants to take over here and the last thing you would naturally do is pray blessings for your enemies. To allow God to take the vengeance for wrongdoing will require as much patience and perseverance as we can muster, because God’s timing is not our timing. Look in the bible, David wanted God to server justice on his attackers. Jeremiah wanted God to fulfill His promise and take out His wrath on the evil ones in Jerusalem. There are many others – the one thing we’ve found is that God’s timing is not the same as our timing. The other thing we learned is that God’s promise will be fulfilled. Every time. The bible tells us this is how we should behave and tells us that vengeance is His. If that’s what the bible says, that’s the way I’ll try and behave. For those who feel the same as I do – I pray we succeed.

In Romans 9 today, Paul tackles notion that all those descended from Abraham will be saved, I think this was a popular notion at the time.  First, look back into what we are reading in Ezekiel, God’s wrath is upon all Israel and Judah because of their wickedness.  Many of these wicked people were descended from Abraham, but salvation isn’t automatic.  The same is true of Paul’s day.  The Jews at the time thought they had something over the Gentiles because they are God’s chosen people.  Paul’s description of salvation excludes the Jews who are living by the law alone and includes the Gentiles who accept Jesus as their Lord and live by the Grace of God.  Paul’s writing in Roman’s 10:10 is a beautiful description for all of us today.  ”For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.  For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.  For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”  God is here for us all – but we have to accept Him into our lives and live in faith for Him.

There’s a message coming through all the scriptures today loud and clear.  In Ezekiel, God is saying he’s seen enough.  There’s wickedness, idol worship and ignorance of God.  In Psalms, David is seeing the wicked thrive and is being pursued by them.  He prays to God that His justice comes through.  In Proverbs, Solomon writes verse after verse comparing righteous behavior with wickedness and tries to show that the righteous will win out in the end.  In Romans, Paul speaks of those who set their minds on the flesh and live according to the flesh, like the Israelites in Ezekiel, like those who pursue David, and like those Solomon sees when he looks out his window, are all living in death.  The good news that comes from this all is in the end of Romans when Paul explains how living the Spirit is true life and how God sent Jesus to live for our sin wipes away all of the sinfulness we bear.  When we live for God, we have eternal life in spite of our sins.  Not that we go on sinning, but that we repent of our sin and live for Him.  It’s impossible for us to do alone, but with God all things are possible.  When we truly repent, our sin is forgiven.  With God, when we say forgiven, that sin is gone and we’re white as snow – pure and loved.  We can remain that way in His eyes if we keep ourselves pure.  This too is impossible on our own.  We need to grab on to Jesus and stay true to Him – Jesus loves us and will help those who honor Him.  Praise God!

Ezekial is paying the price for the punishment of Israel and Judah. 390 days on his left side and 40 days on his right side.  All with a prescribed diet throughout.  It’s hard to imagine spending over a year like this.  Ezekial is without a doubt a man of faith.  What do we do when we are faced with a decision or problem and we know the right thing to do or what we figure God would have us do?  Would we face anything even slightly resembling what the men of great faith in the Bible have endured?