epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Friday, April 18, 2008

Ezekiel 11

When God sent destruction upon Jerusalem, He did not act against a faceless city. God has an exhaustive knowledge of all His creatures. He knew all of the people in the city. In particular, He brings attention to two specific leaders who had somehow risen to prominence after the former ruling class had been carried off to Babylon. These two men are mentioned by name, and their words are recorded. Their counsel to the city is called wicked. These leaders were not leading God’s people in heartfelt repentance for their sin. They were not seeking to hear the Word of God and to obey. God revealed the idle words of these men to His prophet.

Not only was the Lord aware of the words of these men, He was also aware of their thoughts. That is why He says here, “So you think, O house of Israel.” People who quickly rise to power often make their plans in pride. They will come, they will go, and it will all be by their plan. Even if they die, they imagine that it will be by their prediction. There is no sense of the will of a sovereign God in their words or in their meditations. They do not consider how their own actions have led to trouble for so many people. There is no sense of remorse, or any willingness to admit their responsibility for the sanctions that have come upon the land. They are filled with pride like new wine, and they are ready to burst out of their skins. They will not humble themselves before God.

The truth is that God’s people had not walked in His statutes. They had not obeyed His rules. This had led to horrible difficulties for all concerned. If they would not follow the Lord’s ways in former days, what was their way of life? People have to live by some standard. Even when people are doing what seems right in their own eyes, where did their desires spring from? In this case, the source of their philosophy of life is revealed. They observed the rules of the nations all around them, and they chose to follow their ways, rather than obey the Law of God.

At this very moment, while Ezekiel was prophesying, word came to the prophet that one of the two men mentioned earlier had just died. Rather than gloat over the demise of one who had been censured, Ezekiel uses this announcement to plead before God for the remaining people who are yet alive. Will they all die? Will anyone be left alive?

God has a word of encouragement now for His people who are in exile. It may appear that the lucky ones have remained in the land, but that is not the case. The remaining people in the land had misinterpreted providence. They had assumed that the fact of their being left behind in the land was a sign of God’s favor of them over their exiled brothers. The truth is that God uses this false theory to announce that He has great intentions of calling back home those who have been exiled. There is no time schedule hear, just a word to give hope to those who would receive it.

One day there will be a new generation that will return to the land. That generation will have a new way about them. They will clean out the land of all the idolatry of former years. They will have a new heart from God. They will obey the Lord. They will be His people. He will be their God. While there would be a small fulfillment of this in the restoration of the people in the years ahead, the more significant fulfillment would come in the New Covenant era. It is then that the Spirit would be poured out, and the people of God would be those who had been born again from above. Even more than this, the day would eventually come when the people of God would all have the fullness of a heavenly Spirit. This is still our hope to this day, and we know that this is what will be granted to us when the Lord Jesus returns.

For now, those who have no gift of faith and repentance have a bleak future. God will bring their deeds upon their own heads. The glory chariot lifts away from the temple and the city of Jerusalem, and the Spirit of God carries Ezekiel back to the place of exile. There he brings a word of hope to the exiles in this place who might have been easily discouraged. God yet reigns. God has a plan. The place to be now is not in Jerusalem. God will restore the fortunes of His exiled people.

No matter how good life was in Babylon, or later in Jerusalem, or even now in the church, the promise of God is bigger than our best days here below. Because of the Son of God, our hope goes far beyond the borders of Israel, and far beyond our own ability to repent and believe. Christ has supplied all the necessary merit for a bigger blessing than you have ever seen or experienced.

In that day of blessing to come, it is still the fact that God knows us by name. His care for us is not faceless. As He was particular in judgment, so He is particular in blessing. He has a plan for each of us that fits the best person we are to be within an environment of the best love that can ever be known. Such news is good for our souls. Even now we rejoice in the life to come, though for a little while we may still suffer.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

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