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Tag: ezekiel

  • Israel’s First King – 2

    Israel’s First King – 2

    1 Samuel 8:

    When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel… 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

    7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

    Heed the words of the Lord God: “… for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.”

    Is it possible that we are a rebellious people who refuse to be governed, ruled even by the Lord God?

    Many centuries later after the fall of the Kingdom of Israel, the Lord instructs through the Prophet Ezekiel:

    Ezekiel 2:  “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. For they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’

    “As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse—for they are a rebellious house—yet they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

    Saul will be anointed by the Prophet Samuel as Israel’s first king; however the Lord God makes clear that Israel has rejected the LORD as their King, even before this first appointment of a man over a rebellious people.

    1 Samuel 9:

    There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. 2 And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.

    (How the people love to elect a handsome and wealthy man to lead them.)

    15 Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel: 16 “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me.”

    17 When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, “Here is the man of whom I spoke to you! He it is who shall restrain my people.”

    Samuel proceeds to anoint Saul as a ‘nagiyd’ [a leader, ruler, captain or prince] of the people. Note the attitude of the LORD. GOD remains King of Israel; yet the anointed King of Israel is called a prince.

    If the people will not be accountable to God Almighty, why would they bow down to an earthly king?

    Saul, King of Israel, is now responsible to God’s chosen people, Israel. Saul is first and foremost accountable to the Lord God, who speaks through His Prophet Samuel.

    Israel of the Judges1 Samuel 12

    11 And the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety. 12 And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the Lord your God was your king.

    13 And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, the Lord has set a king over you. 14 If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well.

    15 But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.

    You are probably familiar with the appearance of King Saul as a crazy man needing to be soothed by the harp of David. Most everyone knows Saul’s jealousy, after David kills Goliath and the people praise David. You probably realize that Saul later pursues David hoping to kill him. You likely know that Saul’s own son Jonathan, biological heir to the throne, befriends and protects David (God’s anointed heir).

    A New Testament context and contemporary caution:

    Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works… 3:2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God… 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown… 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth…

    Revelation 3:19 KJV As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

    20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

    21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

    22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

    Saul will NOT listen to the LORD and the Hebrew people who had desired a King are a rebellious people like you and me.

    Let the church hear what the Lord shows us of our own rebellion in Saul, the first King of Israel.

    First Samuel Thirteen may be one of the best illustrations of poor leadership and a powerless people who failed to listen to God.

    The Hebrew people had been led to victories in the promised land by GOD. Joshua and the Judges had followed the Lord’s leading in defeating Canaan and the other nations who dwelt in the promised land.

    Saul abandoned the Lord and sought to defeat their enemies without hearing GOD.

    Don’t we tend to do the same in times of desperation that demand a decision? Neither do you or I wait to hear from the Lord in certain situations when our enemies seem to be upon us.

    Yet is the Lord not for us, rather than against us? And is the Lord not merciful and just? Have we not known the Almighty King of Kings?

    In our prayerless times when we have not heard from the Lord, we are no better than Saul.

    To be continued…

  • Put away your revelries

    Put away your revelries

    and cleanse your whitewashed walls;

    for the church is a soiled bride

    and christians no witness of waiting,

    no longer virgin and spotless,

    uncovered in view of the world

    naked before the eyes of the LORD.

    Ezekiel 16

    7 I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.

    8 “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine.

    15 “But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his. 16 You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be.

    23 “And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord God), 24 you built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. 25 At the head of every street you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring.

    32 Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! 33 Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. 34 So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.

    35 “Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the Lord: 36 Thus says the Lord God, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, 37 therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. 38 And I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. 39 And I will give you into their hands, and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places. They shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels and leave you naked and bare.

    52 Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

    59 “For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, 60 yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant…

    62 I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, 63 that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.”

    in-sicknessNumbers 30:13 Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.

     Matthew 19

    6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

    “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

     Jeremiah 3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

    WHY do you celebrate? Why do you claim your fellowship is with Christ?

    Is the LORD not angered by your licentiousness? Is the LORD not jealous for the love of the Bride of His promise?

    Woe to you, churches! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.

    Why do you celebrate year’s end? Why do you call communion worship? Are these not an abomination of hidden sin?

    Is your adultery not against the cleansing Blood of the Bridegroom of righteousness? Where is your account of Christ’s righteousness? Where is your evidence of Christ’s love?

    Run. Run to hide from the wrath of the Bridegroom; for He will return to find you faithless!

     Ephesians 5:  31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

    Beloved church, Bride of Christ Jesus, are we not whitewashed tombs? Are we not divorcing one another? Are we not unrepentant of our sin which we witness boldly before our worldly neighbors?

    How then will we win others to Jesus Christ, if we can not even hold our own sisters and brothers in the Lord to His Holy standard?

    Do we not impugn the Blood of Jesus sacrificed for the sins we commit over and again in witness against the Bridegroom of the Church?

    For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

    Why then, do we, Christ’s Church, act no differently than the world of unbelievers?

    Joel 1

    2 Hear this, you elders;
    give ear, all inhabitants of the land!

    5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
    and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
    because of the sweet wine,
    for it is cut off from your mouth.

    8 Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
    for the bridegroom of her youth.

    13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
    wail, O ministers of the altar.
    Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
    O ministers of my God!
    Because grain offering and drink offering
    are withheld from the house of your God.
    14 Consecrate a fast;
    call a solemn assembly.
    Gather the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
    to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.
    15 Alas for the day!
    For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

    Joel 2: 12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
    with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
    13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
    Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
    slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    and he relents over disaster.

    Was your Baptism in Christ permanent change?

    or just one more bath for the sin of your filthiness?

    Is your word and your vow truth before God

    or a lie for the world?

    Put away your revelries, dear believer, IF in truth you worship the Lord your God and look to the coming of the Bridegroom of the Church, Christ Jesus, as your Lord.

    For the time is near when the Lord will say, ‘Well done,’ or for the adulterous Bride, “I never knew you.”

     

  • A Temporary Throne – 7

    A Temporary Throne – 7

    [I thank you, Lord, for hearing and answering our prayers.]

    CHAPTER 7

    STAND ON YOUR FEET AND I WILL SPEAK WITH YOU.

    The Lord’s words to Ezekiel had been:

    Ezekiel 2: NKJV And He said to me,
    “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.”
    2 Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me.

    And that is exactly what happened to me! The Spirit set me on my feet before the THRONE of God.

    To be clear, “son of man” means born of man, ‘adam,’ literally used for all born in the image of God. God clearly addresses Prophets, who must speak the Perfect words of God perfectly, as: “son of man.” Son of Man is also Jesus’ most frequent designation for Himself. HE IS literally speaking as PERFECT SON OF MAN (born of Mary, descendant of ‘adam), speaking the PERFECT WORD OF GOD, as GOD’S PERFECT PROPHET.

    Yet in the depth of my heart I had heard the LORD address me by name through His grace. Like the Apostle John, I no longer had fear, because I knew the Voice I heard. Yet still in awe of the Person of God, I had not considered the heavenly Power of the Spirit to pick me up and set me on my feet.

    As I was brought from below the THRONE and set on my feet, my heart filled with joy and NOT FEAR. I worshiped Jesus in my heart for the Word of God commanding:

    “I WILL SPEAK WITH YOU.”

    To be continued…

    A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned,

    © Copyright 2013, All Rights Reserved by the author.