Do You Weep?
One Year Bible: November 3
Ezekiel 7:1-9:11
Do You Weep?
My husband, daughter, and I have Covid right now. (I always write ahead so it is September right now as I am writing on this passage.)
It is hotter than hurrah where we live reaching a high of 114 degrees today with high humidity.
As I am writing, my heart is sad for some of my fellow sisters in Christ and a family who has lost a son and nephew at the young age of eighteen. It was so unexpected and tragic…
I dare not begin to watch the news on a “heavy” day like this…
Disease. Famine. Politics. Immorality. Tragedy. People who esteem sin and promote it…
It’s a HEAT WAVE!
My heart breaks and my tears run down my cheeks… (My nose is running too!) Life isn’t supposed to be this way. Is it? We were made for more… so much more!
But our nation is heading in the wrong direction. Drugs flowing in over the border are ignored and aborted babies in trash cans outside of clinics are part of our reproductive rights. The internet provides endless opportunities for immorality at the push of a tab. Who needs to go to an IDOL to worship when we have it at our fingertips?
People that were considered “God’s people” have changed. Really changed! They call each other names on Facebook and their opinions are more important than the Bible.
Perhaps you are thinking, “Yep, she has covid, and better go back to bed.” Good point! I’m not too cheery today, but then again neither was Ezekiel in today’s passage.
Barna Research (American Worldview Inventory 2022) shows the latest trends concerning pastors, churches, and people. Here are a few of their statistics. They found that “Over a third of evangelical pastors believe 'good people’ can earn their way to Heaven.”
Another 39% of evangelical pastors that were surveyed do not believe in absolute truth. In fact, three out of ten do not believe that their salvation is based on having confessed Jesus as their savior.
In today’s passage of devastation and judgment, God calls the “son of man”, Ezekiel, and He brought him to the door of the Temple Courtyard. Did you get that?
God’s own Temple is being defiled, and here is what God says, “Do you see the detestable sins the people of Israel are committing to DRIVE ME FROM MY TEMPLE? (8:6)
Over and over God shows Elijah Heaven's viewpoint of DESECRATION through the Hidden Doorway… glimpses of ungodliness!
There is NO deliverance for God’s people when they have removed HIM from HIS own Temple.
So, God calls for SIX MEN carrying deadly weapons in their hands and a man dressed in linen who carried a writer’s case at this side. Here is what He instructs them to do…
“Walk through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the forehead of ALL WHO WEEP AND SIGH BECAUSE OF THE DETESTABLE SINS BEING COMMITTED IN THEIR CITY.””
Only those who had the MARK OF MOURNING on their heads were spared certain death!!
As for Ezekiel, he was all alone while this great travesty of justice was being applied. He said, “I fell face down on the ground and cried out, ‘O Sovereign LORD! Will your fury against Jerusalem wipe out everyone left in Israel’?” (9:8)
God replies to Ezekiel’s heartbroken question, “The sins of the people of Israel and Judah are very, very great. The entire land is full of murder; the city is filled with injustice. They are saying, “The LORD DOESN’T SEE IT!” The LORD has abandoned the land!”
Just the survey that I mentioned tells us that once again people of our day are also saying, “The LORD DOESN’T SEE IT!”
This is Old Testament judgment. Right? But, we live in New Testament times!
Indeed, we do! The SON OF MAN will return for HIS chosen (those
who REJOICE over SALVATION and WEEP over SIN).
We dare not forget “The Hidden Doorway” which looked down on GOD’S OWN TEMPLE which was being defiled by his own priests, prophets, and people!
They changed the message just as our day and age have chosen to do. But, God sees, God knows, and God judges!
What about you, my sisters in Christ?
DO YOU WEEP?… JESUS DID!
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chick under her wings, but you were unwilling! Look, your house is left to you desolate. And I tell you that you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” (Mt. 23:34, Jesus’ Lament)
