“ A Strange Lesson”
BIBLE
READING: Ezekiel 24-27
To be a prophet of God in
the Old Testament meant that there were many sacrifices that you were expected
to endure. No sacrifice was as great as
the one that Ezekiel had to make. For
God to illustrate His point, Ezekiel had to watch as his wife suddenly
died. If it wasn’t enough to have her
die, Ezekiel was not allowed to show any grief.
When the Jews came to console him, they were shocked that he did not
show any grief or signs of the usual bereavement. The reason for God doing this is simple. Ezekiel’s wife was the joy of his life
(24.16), now the Lord has taken her away.
The Temple was the joy of the Jewish people, but now the Lord has taken
the Temple away. God was commanding the
Jewish exiles to mourn over the loss of the Temple, the same way that Ezekiel
had mourned over the loss of his wife; without loud lamentation or change of
eating habits. The lesson for us today
is this, the loss of Ezekiel’s wife, was the loss of an innocent woman. However, the loss of the Temple was because
of their wicked and stubborn unrepentant hearts. There are things that happen to us today that
are direct results of our sin; the consequences we must pay for the
transgressions we have committed.
Instead of us mourning with loud lamenting over the price we must pay
for our sins, we need to realize that it is only the by product of our own
selfish actions. If there is to be any
sign of lamentation or grief, it should be one of repentance and not over
loss. Let’s make sure when we do sin, we
address the pain that it causes the Lord and not mourn over its self-inflicted
repercussions.
Prayer
Requests:___________________________________________________________________________________
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