Reading:  Ezekiel 20-21
Posted:  September 9, 2014


In chapter 20 two thoughts are repeated again and again.  Generally when you see something repeated in the Bible it's pretty important.  When you see something repeated in a passage, it's meant to be "underlined" in your mind.   Emphasize in your thoughts what you see repeated.

In this passage the phrase "the man who obeys them will live by them" and the phrase "desecrated my Sabbaths"  and  "will be a sign between us"  are all repeated.   The first one has to do with following God's laws.   These chapters recount in abbreviated form the desire to worship idols.    I can sort of understand how they became this way....   the nation began with Abraham, who came out of a land where God wasn't worshiped, and he had children who also adopted false worship.   I think it was Jacob's wife Rachel that slipped away from Laban with the family idols hidden in her dress.  (Genesis 31).   Over the period of the great famine, while Joseph was second in command in Egypt, the whole family moved to Egypt, where they lived for the next 430 years.   During that period of time about 11 generations would be born. (estimating 40 years for each generation).   Egypt is filled with idols and idol worship.  Egypt is so filled with idols that the person who doesn't worship them would stick out like a sore thumb.   Jacob's family allowed a little idol worship when they arrived, but they were full blown false god worshipers when they left.   That's why they didn't go directly into the promised land.   They didn't know God, or recognize him when He spoke.  Even though he visibly appeared among them, they still didn't understand.   Years of worshiping idols must have dulled their senses.

40 years in the desert broke the generational chain of false worship.   The people entered the promised land with children who had never worshiped anyone but the True God.    And because of that, their land was filled with power and military success.     But because of their heritage, and the years of false worship...maybe because of their desire to "be like everyone else" they slipped right back into their sin.    What a tragedy.   And how often we see the same scenario played out in our homes today.   People break bad habits only to return to them.   Most likely because we haven't dedicated our hearts to doing what is right.   We still want to sin.

Obeying what God commands is more than just doing it.  It's deciding that it is the best course of action, and that all other courses are wrong.  It's desiring to do right, as well as actually doing it.

Then, we have the phrases about the Sabbath.  The sabbath command wasn't made as a litmus test to determine who serves the Lord or not.  It's a sign.   Nobody around us quits working one day every week.   (Actually, you're lucky to see someone working 5 days, anymore)  but the point is this:   Christians are supposed to stand out.  Israel is supposed to be different.   God gave us commands to follow that will make us stand out from the rest.   Listen:  we stand out BY DESIGN.   God did it on purpose.   I'm sure He has His reasons.  One of them apparently is so that when people ask us, we can witness.   This whole business of not working on Sunday, or keeping the Sabbath holy seems to be pretty important to the Lord.   I recommend seriously considering taking time off on the Sabbath...first to worship, and then to rest.   Stop working.  Seriously.

Did you notice in 21:3-4 that both the righteous and the wicked are going to be "cut off"?   This captivity was a brutal and violent time.   And during this time, both the righteous and the wicked were destroyed.   Not all of them, but most of them.   It seems there were few righteous people left, but when Nebuchadnezzar comes, all of them are taken hostage.  The righteous ones do not escape.   Keep that in mind for when we read the Revelation.      Think of Daniel, who saw many visions of the end of time.    Keep in mind that Daniel was a righteous man who had been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar.

PR