I was reading Ezekiel chapters 8 and 9 a couple of mornings ago. Chapter 8 describes visions given to Ezekiel concerning the sins of the people of God in the temple and in the land. The Lord speaks his mind to Ezekiel, several times, concerning these sins which the Lord calls "abominations":
"Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here." (v. 9)
"For they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth." (v. 12)
"Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do." (v. 13)
"Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Turn thee yet again and thou shall see greater abominations than these." (v. 15)
I would like to paraphrase verse 12 to fit modern times:
"For they say, God doesn't see us; where was God when the towers fell? If there is a God who would allow that, then I want no part of that God."
And mankind today will repudiate God in the same manner as was being done then in Ezekiel's vision: they will worship the creature rather than the Creator. The women weeping for Tammuz in verse 14, are ritualistically mourning the coming of winter (a worship of nature) as Tammuz was a mythical god who dies in winter and is re-born in spring (a Satanically-inspired counterfeit to the death and resurrection of Jesus). How many folks today refuse to worship God as He prescribes (amongst the fellowship of other believers as being a part of the body of Christ) and choose their "church" to be "nature" instead. It is a common note amongst those who reject the Lord's "Way" in order to go their own way..
The first idol or abomination mentioned in Ezekiel 8is the "seat of the image of jealousy"and refers to an idol, an image, set up in the entrance to the temple...defiling the temple of God by its presence. This is followed by more idols within the very sanctuary of the Lord.
The last abomination listed was the vision of twenty-five men who stood at the door of the temple of the Lord but "with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east." (Ezekiel 8:16) The worship of the sun or sun-god was, of course, an abomination to God.
I can't help but flash forward to the day in the middle of the third century A.D. when Constantine, a sun-god worshipper who also claimed to be a follower of Jesus even as he continued to worship the sun-god, legally changed the Sabbath day to being observed on Sun-day instead. [Which is why it behooves each of us to understand why we do the things we do, confirming that the things we do are done because Scripture alone tells us to do them.)
Continuing on in chapter 9, Ezekiel sees six men each carrying a weapon of destruction in his hand, and a seventh man "clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side." It was to this seventh man with the writer's inhorn that the Lord then spoke to, saying:
"Go through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof." (Ezekiel 9:4)
And to the other six men carrying weapons of destruction, the Lord said:
"Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary." (Ezekiel 9:5-6)
There are several things to note in these passages from chapters 8 and 9 of Ezekiel.
The first is that there are abominations happening because the people don't believe the Lord sees, and apparently, they believe that this is because He doesn't care...He has gone away and left them there alone. This is typical humanistic thinking: man is quick to judge God as having abandoned them, in order to deflect the truth that they themselves have abandoned God.
The second thing is that these un-repentant actions are about to bring about the deaths of every living inhabitant of the land in which these grievous actions take place...all will suffer...including small children...for the behavior of others. We have discussed in previous postings how the sins of us parents WILL take its toll on our children. If our love for our children was greater than our love for our flesh, our children would be preserved. But when we grant our flesh its way through sin, we show how little we truly love our children, for they will eat of the consequences of our sin. And such is the sin of a nation, which will be paid for by all who live within its gates.
(Yet, we will see here in this passage that there are, in fact, a few who escape.)
The third thing to note is that the only ones who will be spared from this mass destruction are those "that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof." When believers just give up and go along with the majority, or when believers become de-sensitized to those things which God calls abominable, then look out! Only those whose hearts remains lined up with the Lord's and who find sin to be just as grievous today as it was yesterday, will survive the coming day of God's wrath. Are we too busy with our own pursuits to notice how God's name is blasphemed by abominable acts that take place all around us in this "Christian" nation? Are we too de-sensitized to even speak out against, and hopefully avoid, those things seen on television and in movies, the things that our children are watching when we aren't around, the visual concepts that the media and world-at-large have engineered in order to exchange "evil for good, and good for evil"?
[Note also that marks on foreheads are not strictly reserved for the mark of the beast as this particular mark on the foreheads of those sighing and crying comes from the Lord and marks them for protection from God's wrath...the mark of the beast is simply another counterfeit of Satan which will be used during the tribulation to identify followers of the anti-christ, offering what appears to be protection from the persecution of the anti-christ. but is in reality a mark that will lead to everlasting death instead.]
The final, and saddest thing of all perhaps, is that the slaughter begins in the the Lord's sanctuary.
Those who consider themselves to "righteous" will not be feeling the safety of the Lord's protection when His wrath begins to pour out on them first of all. This is not to say that everyone who thinks they are saved are not saved. Not at all. But it should give us pause to consider how these that were in the house of God came to be included in the group to be destroyed...and we know they could not be destroyed for any reason other than sin in their midst...AND the fact that they are not "sighing and crying" over that sin. They have compromised their thinking for convenience's sake. They have compromised what was not theirs to compromise: the truth of God.
Do we grieve over sin as the Lord still does? Or do we turn a blind eye to it, taking the attitude of "to each his own" and letting it go at that?
Do we spend time praying and crying out to God for mercy on those who do such abominable acts unto the Lord, while at the same time pleading with Him to come quickly so that this evil will cease?
Are we crying and sighing over sin that is both rampant and yet common-place among the unbelievers today...especially for the unbelieving "believers" who reside in our churches because we have made it a safe place for them to practice the illusion of being righteous among others of like-minded righteousness?
Just the vision of the wrath of God caused Ezekiel to fall on his face and weep and cry out to God for mercy upon them all.
Now is not the time to stop sighing and crying: for our own sins as well as that of others.
"Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here." (v. 9)
"For they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth." (v. 12)
"Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do." (v. 13)
"Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Turn thee yet again and thou shall see greater abominations than these." (v. 15)
I would like to paraphrase verse 12 to fit modern times:
"For they say, God doesn't see us; where was God when the towers fell? If there is a God who would allow that, then I want no part of that God."
And mankind today will repudiate God in the same manner as was being done then in Ezekiel's vision: they will worship the creature rather than the Creator. The women weeping for Tammuz in verse 14, are ritualistically mourning the coming of winter (a worship of nature) as Tammuz was a mythical god who dies in winter and is re-born in spring (a Satanically-inspired counterfeit to the death and resurrection of Jesus). How many folks today refuse to worship God as He prescribes (amongst the fellowship of other believers as being a part of the body of Christ) and choose their "church" to be "nature" instead. It is a common note amongst those who reject the Lord's "Way" in order to go their own way..
The first idol or abomination mentioned in Ezekiel 8is the "seat of the image of jealousy"and refers to an idol, an image, set up in the entrance to the temple...defiling the temple of God by its presence. This is followed by more idols within the very sanctuary of the Lord.
The last abomination listed was the vision of twenty-five men who stood at the door of the temple of the Lord but "with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east." (Ezekiel 8:16) The worship of the sun or sun-god was, of course, an abomination to God.
I can't help but flash forward to the day in the middle of the third century A.D. when Constantine, a sun-god worshipper who also claimed to be a follower of Jesus even as he continued to worship the sun-god, legally changed the Sabbath day to being observed on Sun-day instead. [Which is why it behooves each of us to understand why we do the things we do, confirming that the things we do are done because Scripture alone tells us to do them.)
Continuing on in chapter 9, Ezekiel sees six men each carrying a weapon of destruction in his hand, and a seventh man "clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side." It was to this seventh man with the writer's inhorn that the Lord then spoke to, saying:
"Go through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof." (Ezekiel 9:4)
And to the other six men carrying weapons of destruction, the Lord said:
"Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary." (Ezekiel 9:5-6)
There are several things to note in these passages from chapters 8 and 9 of Ezekiel.
The first is that there are abominations happening because the people don't believe the Lord sees, and apparently, they believe that this is because He doesn't care...He has gone away and left them there alone. This is typical humanistic thinking: man is quick to judge God as having abandoned them, in order to deflect the truth that they themselves have abandoned God.
The second thing is that these un-repentant actions are about to bring about the deaths of every living inhabitant of the land in which these grievous actions take place...all will suffer...including small children...for the behavior of others. We have discussed in previous postings how the sins of us parents WILL take its toll on our children. If our love for our children was greater than our love for our flesh, our children would be preserved. But when we grant our flesh its way through sin, we show how little we truly love our children, for they will eat of the consequences of our sin. And such is the sin of a nation, which will be paid for by all who live within its gates.
(Yet, we will see here in this passage that there are, in fact, a few who escape.)
The third thing to note is that the only ones who will be spared from this mass destruction are those "that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof." When believers just give up and go along with the majority, or when believers become de-sensitized to those things which God calls abominable, then look out! Only those whose hearts remains lined up with the Lord's and who find sin to be just as grievous today as it was yesterday, will survive the coming day of God's wrath. Are we too busy with our own pursuits to notice how God's name is blasphemed by abominable acts that take place all around us in this "Christian" nation? Are we too de-sensitized to even speak out against, and hopefully avoid, those things seen on television and in movies, the things that our children are watching when we aren't around, the visual concepts that the media and world-at-large have engineered in order to exchange "evil for good, and good for evil"?
[Note also that marks on foreheads are not strictly reserved for the mark of the beast as this particular mark on the foreheads of those sighing and crying comes from the Lord and marks them for protection from God's wrath...the mark of the beast is simply another counterfeit of Satan which will be used during the tribulation to identify followers of the anti-christ, offering what appears to be protection from the persecution of the anti-christ. but is in reality a mark that will lead to everlasting death instead.]
The final, and saddest thing of all perhaps, is that the slaughter begins in the the Lord's sanctuary.
Those who consider themselves to "righteous" will not be feeling the safety of the Lord's protection when His wrath begins to pour out on them first of all. This is not to say that everyone who thinks they are saved are not saved. Not at all. But it should give us pause to consider how these that were in the house of God came to be included in the group to be destroyed...and we know they could not be destroyed for any reason other than sin in their midst...AND the fact that they are not "sighing and crying" over that sin. They have compromised their thinking for convenience's sake. They have compromised what was not theirs to compromise: the truth of God.
Do we grieve over sin as the Lord still does? Or do we turn a blind eye to it, taking the attitude of "to each his own" and letting it go at that?
Do we spend time praying and crying out to God for mercy on those who do such abominable acts unto the Lord, while at the same time pleading with Him to come quickly so that this evil will cease?
Are we crying and sighing over sin that is both rampant and yet common-place among the unbelievers today...especially for the unbelieving "believers" who reside in our churches because we have made it a safe place for them to practice the illusion of being righteous among others of like-minded righteousness?
Just the vision of the wrath of God caused Ezekiel to fall on his face and weep and cry out to God for mercy upon them all.
Now is not the time to stop sighing and crying: for our own sins as well as that of others.
5 comments:
I was listening to a radio show this morning (William (Bill) Bennett), and he had a guest by the name of David Aikman. He is an author who has written many books on Christianity. His latest is called, “One Nation Without God - The Battle for Christianity in an Age of Unbelief.” In the discussion, he spoke of how Christians should be praying (much along the lines of your last three postings). How we should be praying for a “Great Awakening,” much like the evangelical revival in Britain that began with the work of John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield in the 1730s. In one article I found about the book, it states how the author ends the book with a quote from a Chinese economist, Zhao Xiao, who reminds Americans “that their peculiar national strength lies in their spiritual heritage. Zhao leaves us with an irony: Just as legions from Beijing to Brasilia are discovering how vital faith in Christ both saves the individual and offers moral ballast to culture, many Westerners have jettisoned and ridiculed that same faith. Perhaps global South believers will help Americans appreciate the value of their own spiritual legacy.” I also read an article that quoted Franklin Graham saying that the majority of Christians do not vote in America, and that the responsibility for an Obama re-election win is on Christians’ shoulders. He further stated, “God is in control, and if Christians are upset, they need to be upset at themselves… We need to do a better job of getting our people – the Church –to vote.” Just thought I would share this with you and other readers; I am eager to read Mr. Aikman’s book. GW
Isn't it ironic, indeed, that years earlier we were an example of Christ-likeness to other countries....and now many of the very countries we sent missionaries to have their sights set on us as needing "missionizing." I recently read in Charisma magazine about how fast Christian churches have grown in the past 10-12 years in South America...Brasil was specifically mentioned as having a very large population of evangelical Christians(something unheard of in years past). Then again spiritual strength often comes from trials and testings and even persecution...we might have had it too easy in the nearly 400 years since the Puritans arrived on America's shores....who, I recently read, didn't come to escape persecution in England...they actually came because God called them to be missionaries to this foreign land...and more than half of them died even while remaining steadfast in their belief that this was where God wanted them to be. How far we have come from that!
I would be interested in reading your source for the Puritans coming to America not to escape persecution, but to be missionaries to the land we now call America. Very interesting!
There are actually four reasons given for their voyage to America. These reasons can be found on pages 22, 23, and 24 of "History of Plymouth Plantation" by William Bradford. (I found this e-book free on Google Books.) The entire book is an extremely interesting read telling of all of the ways they were persecuted in England, the difficulties they had of securing passage to America, their fears of wild savage and wild beasts in the land they were traveling to versus the persecutions of their own country (all things considered it was more dangerous for them to leave than to stay), and the amount of prayer and courage it took to go where they felt they could be obedient to God in all ways, including propragating the gospel.
Here are their reasons (very briefly summarized)from those pages cited above:
1) They wanted freedom to practice their religious beliefs.
2) While they endured persecutions "cheerfully and with resolute courage", they were an aging population. The decision was made to flee before they could no longer fight.
3) They greatly feared for their children's souls, as they were surrounded by "dissoluteness." They desired to remove their children from such spiritual dangers (thus they were also known as "Separatists.")
4) The final reason I will quote directly from the book:
"Lastly, (and which was not last) a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing there of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yes, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so great a work."
Stepping-stones they were....indeed!
Thank you for sharing this with me. I will check out the ebook. To be "cheerful" and have "resolute courage" are honorable qualities for anyone to have.
Post a Comment