KJB Daily Devotion – Following Jesus Through Every Chapter
Date: Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Chapters: Ezekiel 5-8
Message: The Beginning of Sorrows
Hello My Friend,
This past weekend as I was enjoying time with family as we celebrated two precious children with birthdays a week apart the devastating news of a man going on a shooting rampage in a crowded building of people who were just playing video games came across my phone. While the world wants to cry for stricter gun laws they are oblivious to the fact that we are facing times of tribulation, and the evil we are seeing now is not even close to how bad it is going to be before Jesus returns. I do not know about you, but I am so glad that I will be in the clouds when that happens because as bad as things are now, they are only going to get worse. “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” – Matthew 24:6-8.
As I was reading the chapters for today, God reminded me that there are two kinds of evil in this world, natural evils, which God has created as part of the curse passed down to man since the fall of man, and these are things like death, pain, and disease, and we cannot avoid these evil unless we are in heaven. And there are wicked evils, these are, in fact committed by man, influenced by the devil himself, which he created as part of his wrath toward God, he figures if he cannot go after God he can go after His most precious creation, man, and influence them to commit wicked evil. We tend to think that since we are in the midst of all this mess that we too are being punished for the sins of the world, but the truth is that they are suffering in their own sins, and if we are saved and faithful to God we will be safe from the judgments that will take place prior to all this evil. When God sent judgment upon Judah I am sure there were some that were Godly, but they too were carried away captive, actually saved from seeing how desolate and vile Jerusalem had become. God sends Ezekiel with rather odd instructions to show them what was going on in Israel while they were there.
“And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber’s razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair. Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity. A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them. Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by. So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.” – Ezekiel 5:1,11-15.
“So it shall be a reproach and a taunt,” Reproach; Censure mingled with contempt. Taunt; To reproach with severe or insulting words. Did you ever notice how mean and cruel the world is toward Christians today, any other religion and they actually defend them, but the Christian gets taunted and persecuted, sometimes for no other reason than being a Christian, and especially if they get caught doing something that is sinful. God will not treat the Christians any different than the Jews, if He judged them in their sin He will certainly judge the Christian as well. There are way too many Jews and Christians living secret sinful lives and God will not tolerate this behavior, especially from those who are saved. Sin in secret, exposed to the world. Jerusalem, the city of God, and yet it was more corrupt than the world. The same is true today for all temples and churches too, it is scary to see the way churches are allowing the world to come, and judgment is coming to all of them. God tells of what is to come of all of Israel, first He speaks of destroying all the idols.
“Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD. Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.” – Ezekiel 6:2-8.
“And the slain shall fall in the midst of you,” All of this sounds horrible, and even the faithful want to question how God could allow all this, but we must understand that this judgment is not upon His faithful, it is upon the unfaithful. Saved, born again Christians condoning and even contributing to unrepentant sin will not save them from earthly judgments caused by their own sinful behavior. God is angry, but not at the people that have no idea who He is right now, the very people who know Him, and continue to walk in sin and yet worship Him. God continues to tell of the judgment of Israel because of its pure evil.
“Thus saith the Lord GOD; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come. An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come. The morning is come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains. Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations. And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the LORD that smiteth. Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.” – Ezekiel 7:5-10.
“And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity:” Again, God is not talking to His faithful here, but those whom are living these sinful lives. It is not just one person causing this, it is many, and each generation it gets worse as sin is allowed. I watched as this mother flaunted her seven year old son who dresses in girls clothes, and she was proud of him. Many people, including Christians condone this, even saying that she might as well allow him to do this since it is in his nature. Okay, for one, this boy was influenced, they do not come up with this stuff on their own, they have seen it and had the chance to dwell on it. Okay, so there is not one child, boy or girl, that has not put on a pair of mom’s or dad’s shoes, walking in them, but I am around babies all the time, and boy or girl, they, by nature, gravitate to the things that are common to their gender. Of course, girls are going to play with cars sometimes, and boys are going to play house sometimes, but God did not make them gay or the wrong gender, that is something they come up because they have seen it. It is just like the Bible says, we are born from birth to know about God and how we are by nature, it is man who changes that thinking as they allow themselves to influenced by the world. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” – Romans 1:20-21.
You know, as merciful and forgiving as God is He is just as disgusted over the unsaved putting Him in the middle of their mess. They make up religions to justify their sin, change His Word to accommodate their sin, and somehow convince the unknown to follow them, and yet claim to be Christians. And they wonder why God is so angry? Through Ezekiel, God takes His own Son on a vision tour through Jerusalem to see exactly how corrupt it was and why what they saw was only the beginning of the sorrows they faced.
“He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations. And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about. Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth. He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.” – Ezekiel 8:6-7,9-10,12-16.
“for they say, The LORD seeth us not;” Christians who walk in sin somehow think that their sin will not be found out by God as though He does not see it because they are saved. Let me tell you, God knows all and sees all. Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, saved or unsaved, tribulation comes to all, but so does glory to His faithful as they endure all this. “Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.” – Romans 2:9-11.
Jesus Christ Magnified: “And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.” – Ezekiel 6:3.
Today’s Prayer: Jesus, In a world that is facing one tribulation after another through the sins they all, we who are saved and living in obedience to Your commands need Your hedge protection more than ever. You waned us that this was only the beginning of sorrows, and while we cannot do anything about the world and how their evil works are bringing all this judgment, we can be safe as we await Your return or the day you take us home. Lord, put Your hedge around us, keep us safe from all the destruction that is taking place, give us Your courage to be a witness to Your saving grace, and the strength to stand up to Your truths, and not be afraid to speak boldly about them. We are Your Church, we are Your voice, let us be the example we need to be to bring others into it before Your return. In Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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