For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
Liars hate the people to whom they lie. They either lie to them because they hate them or come to hate them because they have lied to them.
I will give thanks to God for all of the wonderful things He has done. I will proclaim His greatness to all of the earth. His justice will be seen throughout the land. He promised the people of Israel that He would give them the land of Canaan before they were a people. He has kept that promise throughout history and once again the land of Canaan belongs to the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob.
Jesus was called by God to be our High Priest. It is not a position which one can take for oneself, one must be called to such a position. A High Priest is one who can function as an intermediary between God and man. Jesus learned obedience while He was here on earth, being obedient to the point of suffering and death. He is able to deal with us, wayward and ignorant as we are, because He experienced the same temptations which we did. Jesus is a High Priest of the order of Melchizedek. The writer goes into more detail about what that means later.
Then the writer tells us that it is time, and past time, that we started teaching others about the basics of the Gospel. Unfortunately, all too many of us need to be taught again and again the basic difference between right and wrong. We have become addicted to spiritual teachings which are milk for spiritual babies, unwilling to start eating solid foods as adults do. IT is worth noting that the writer points out that it is through training that we learn to recognize the difference between right and wrong. We do not just come to that understanding by chance, or through the process of living. It is only through training that we truly learn the difference between right and wrong. We must work hard at training ourselves to know the difference between good and evil.
Every time I read this, I wonder if this prophecy applies today. Has the end arrived? Is the future we have to look forward to disaster after disaster? Is God about to call the people of earth to account for all of their detestable sins? I look at the world around me and think that it must be close. I read today about a Bishop in Stockholm saying that a church should remove all signs of the cross and put down signs showing Muslims the direction to Mecca so that they could worship there. This reminds me of what Ezekiel writes here of the leaders of Jerusalem worshiping idols in the Temple. This is not the only, nor the first, of the signs of those who proclaim themselves Christians turning from God and worshiping idols. It is not that I think there is something sacred about the symbol of a cross in a church building. It is the idea of removing symbols about our worship of God so that others can worship an idol.
For all of the sorrow and fear conveyed in this passage there is a glimmer of hope, there is reason to hold to our faith. When Ezekiel witnessed those whom God summoned to bring suffering, he also witnessed another. God instructed that other to walk through the city and mark the forehead of everyone who grieved and wept over the detestable things being done. When God let loose His agents of judgment He instructed them to kill everyone, except for those who had just been marked. God’s judgment is coming and I weep for those who will suffer as a result, but, on the other hand, they have been given ample opportunity to turn from their sins, to reject the sins of our nation.