This week, Michael writes
that God disciplines those He loves. The
Word of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness. Correction is to “restore to an upright
position”. God makes a way where there is no way. In Ezekiel 33, the nation of
Israel had turned its back on God. God is faithful to warn His people to
repent, to turn from their wicked ways and to return to the Lord and walk in
the path of righteousness.
According to Ezekiel 33:1-6, Again the word of the Lord came to
me, saying, “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and
say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the
land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when
he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the
people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take
warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He
heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be
upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. But if the
watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people
are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among
them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at
the watchman’s hand.’
Ezekiel told the people to
appoint watchmen to warn the people of the enemy’s approach. Israel understood
what it meant to live in a “walled city”. The watchman’s call was to sound the
alarm. The gospel warning is that sin leads to death and now is the time to
repent and accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. In years gone by, many
American preachers encouraged their congregations to keep a record of everyone
with whom they shared the gospel of salvation. What is the gospel application
in today’s church? Evangelist Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth Graham once said, “If
God doesn’t judge the United States, then he will have to apologize to Sodom
and Gomorrah.” God’s warning is to restore America to an upright position as “One
nation under God”. Whom the Lord loves He chastises.
In a culture that honors
God, the land will prosper. There was an American counter-cultural revolution
against godly traditional values in the 60’s. The culture began to emphasize
the “rights of the individual” and self actualization with the emphasis on
self. As a result families, communities, and churches began to compromise and
fly apart. “Human Rights” are often “godly wrongs” according to the standard of
the Word of God. The God-rejecting world teaches that good is evil and evil is
good. True, godly men and woman who used to be honored as models of
righteousness in their families and pillars of their communities were instead
marginalized and labeled as “hypocrites.” They were admonished to subjugate
themselves to the opposite sex in general and their spouses in particular. Christians
were relegated to a place of dishonor and irreverence in the culture.
God said to Ezekiel, “When I bring a sword upon the land, if the
people set a man upon the wall to sound the alarm, when he blows the horn, if
the people don’t heed the warning, then their blood will be upon their own
heads.” Some say that a culture has never survived “multiculturalism.”
Factions, strife, contentions and insurrection are characteristics of the
wisdom of this world. This type of wisdom is earthly, sensual, and devilish.
Michael gives us the remedy to the problem in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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