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Exploring and Enjoying God's Word Ezekiel 3

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Exploring and Enjoying God's Word Ezekiel 3 Exploring and Enjoying God’s Word Ezekiel 3 VERSES 1-3: When Jesus has Ezekiel eat the scroll, he says that it was “as sweet as honey in my mouth.” The Good News of God’s plan is sweet when we realize what He has done to redeem us. It is also sweet to understand God’s faithfulness. VERSES 4-11: Jesus tells Ezekiel that he is going to preach to the nation of Israel, but they will not respond. He calls them stubborn and obstinate. While it had to make Ezekiel apprehensive that the message he was going to share would be rejected, God reassured Him. He told him that he would give him the perseverance to stay faithful to God and to His message. As we serve the Lord, He gives us the ability to stay faithful if we will depend on Him. VERSES 12-21: The Holy Spirit lifts Ezekiel up and makes him sit among the exiled people of Israel for seven days. After that, God tells him that he is to preach the Lord’s message to Israel. If he is faithful to preach God’s message to repent, the people of Israel will be accountable for how they respond. However, if Ezekiel does not obey and preach the message God gives him, then God will hold him to account, and their blood will be on his hands. This is a good reminder that we are entrusted with the Gospel in the same way Ezekiel was entrusted with his message. We are to take the Good News of Jesus to everyone, at every opportunity we can. When we don’t, Jesus holds us responsible! The Lord will evaluate us for our faithfulness at the Judgment Seat of Christ. VERSES 22-27: The Lord tells Ezekiel to go out into the plain, where he again sees Jesus. When Jesus speaks to Ezekiel, He says for him to shut himself up in his house. Jesus says that Ezekiel will be bound up so he cannot go out among the Israelites. Jesus also says that Ezekiel’s mouth would be supernaturally shut until it was time for God’s message to be delivered through him. By not being able to speak, Ezekiel would appreciate and follow through with giving God’s message when it was time to proclaim it. Also, the people of Israel would know that the message was coming from God, and not just Ezekiel’s imagination. When we teach, we always need to make sure that we are sharing God’s message, not our own. He expects us to be faithful to Him! Exploring and Enjoying God’s Word Ezekiel 3-4 | Wednesday, May 31, 2017 PM Exploring and Enjoying God’s Word Ezekiel 4 VERSES 1-8: Throughout God’s Word, the Lord teaches us visually. He loves to use illustrations to help us understand His message for us. In this case, God is using Ezekiel to show Israel how He is doing to judge them for their sin. God tells Ezekiel to depict the siege of Jerusalem with a brick and an iron plate. On the brick, he is to depict the city and show the siege taking place. The iron plate shows that God had made up His mind about His judgment on the city and would not change it. It also points to the fierceness of the coming siege. Ezekiel lays on one side to represent the sin of the northern kingdom (Israel), and on the other side to represent the sin of the southern kingdom (Judah). Ezekiel is to lay on his side for 430 days, and to prophecy against Israel as he is laying there. This was a crazy way to get the people’s attention, but God is that crazy about us – He loves us and He doesn’t want us to experience the consequences of disobedience. When we get out of God’s will, He will send us warnings, and there is an end to His patience. We need to stay close to Him so that He can deal with the sinful impulses in our mind and heart before they become outward actions. It is much better to learn about God through obedience than through having to experience His judgment! VERSES 9-17: God tells Ezekiel to mix together ingredients for bread and to eat it after it has been cooked over human dung. This is to be a sign that Israel would be taken into the captivity of pagan nations who did not know the Lord. It also showed how terrible the siege of Jerusalem would be. When Ezekiel begs God to relent from him having to bake his food over human dung, God changes His command to say that Ezekiel would have to bake his food over cow dung instead. Many times, we try to minimize our sin. We try to act like it isn’t that big of a deal. God is showing us here that our sin is a very serious thing to Him! We need to come to God in humility, confessing our sin and asking Him to cleanse us daily. When we come to another person to share Jesus with them, we must remember the depths of our sin before we came to know Him. This gives us the ability to identify with them and to come to them in a loving way. Exploring and Enjoying God’s Word Ezekiel 3-4 | Wednesday, May 31, 2017 PM .
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