Today's Reading:O.T. - Ezekiel 4 - 6
N.T. - 2 Peter 2
Focus Verses: Ez. 6:6-9
6 Wherever you live, the towns will be laid waste and the high places demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols smashed and ruined, your incense altars broken down, and what you have made wiped out. 7 Your people will fall slain among you, and you will know that I am the LORD. 8 " 'But I will spare some, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the lands and nations. 9 Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices.
Insight:
Once the people of Israel experienced the devastating consequences of their sin and rejection of God, they would, says Ezekiel, remember God and turn away from their worthless idols and detestable practices. They would recognize their sin, their spiritual adultery, the futility of idolatry, and the worthlessness of pagan worship. Ezekiel foretold the scattering and captivity of God's people. He also prophesied God's plan to save a redeem the remnant of people who would remain faithful or turn back to him.
Response and Action:
I must turn from anything that would lead me away from God. I will not commit spiritual adultery. I will worship God with all my heart. I do not want to grieve God by being unfaithful to him.
O God, help me to turn away from what is wrong and to do what is right. Help me to love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. By the power and grace of your Holy Spirit, lead, teach, transform, shape, and strengthen me, that I might delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name. Amen.
Proverbs: 23:1-3
"The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. "
Resources:
Never Beyond Hope: How God Touches & Uses Imperfect People
by J. I. Packer and Carolyn Nystrom
