Pastor’s Bible Reading Schedule: Ezekiel 24-26
Devotional Thought:
The Jewish leaders were operating under a false pretense that the Lord would never allow His chosen people to be killed or His Holy city to be destroyed. However, it was because they were His chosen people that He punished them for their disobedience and rebellion. Though He allowed them to be killed, captured, and Jerusalem to be destroyed, He would raise up a remnant that would come back and rebuild as a testimony to God’s mercy and grace. Any theology that makes sin easy and divine punishment unlikely is not biblical theology. God’s judgment begins with His own people. God uses a parable to explain His prophetic picture. The Israelites that fled were elevating themselves as the superior Jews because they were not present when the battle was raged in Jerusalem and they were not taken captive. However, God is the final judge on the matter and reveals that those that fled were selfishly motivated to act according to their own personal interests, while those who stayed were dedicated to God’s program and the defense of God’s purposes. Even though they were taken away captive, God would one day use this group of dedicated people to once again rebuild their temple and bring glory to God in Jerusalem. Warren Wiersbe writes, “Our world today lives on delusions and myths because, like the Jews in Ezekiel’s day, the world won’t accept the authority of the Word of God. People still believe that might makes right, that money is the measure of worth and success, that the aim of life is to have fun and do what you want to do. You can believe whatever you please about God, yourself, and others, and everything will turn out fine because there are no consequences. But one day God will expose the stupidity of these delusions and the world will discover too late that there are consequences to what we believe and how we behave.” Personal ambition that is selfishly motivated has led people to hurt the church, hurt people, and hurt the testimony of God, but one day will reveal that their selfish personal ambition will ultimately destroy them. There is a just recompense of reward! Let this passage be a warning to us to measure every decision we make according to the Word of God. May we behave ourselves according to what God has revealed in the Bible, and may we believe the whole counsel of God.
Personal Requests:
• Lord, please help me to trust your word. Please help me to mortify my selfish desires and motivate surrender to the principles of your word.
• Lord, please help me to not be deceived by the lies of our society, the devil, or my flesh. Help me to discern truth and be able to act upon it.
• Lord, thank you for your grace and mercy and the longsuffering that you show to me each day. Help me to never take it for granted or to ever presume upon it.