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Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I wonder if you ever heard a caution like this from your parents as you headed out the door, especially during your teen years: ‘Now remember, you carry our family name with you, don’t do anything stupid!’ Or maybe you were cautioned with these words: “Remember you’re a Christian and everyone is watching.” Oh my, and I wonder how cautions such as those affected your words, attitudes and choices?
Come with me again back to Babylon, about 2600 years ago, for Ezekiel the prophet is receiving from God another important message to be sent out across the empire to Jewish exiles about the year 580bc. This very powerful message is found in Ezekiel 36:16-36. Because it is so significant, it will probably take us two or three days for us to navigate through it, for it has powerful implications for you and me today, no matter where you live or what your age.
The city of Jerusalem had been destroyed and the Temple of God demolished about 5 or 6 years before. What few inhabitants had remained fled with Jeremiah a year or so later and ended up in Egypt. (Jeremiah 43:5-7) Ezekiel’s message is intended for the Jewish captives throughout the Babylonian empire, including those now in Egypt and other far distant places.
Ezekiel wrote as the Spirit of God spoke to him: “Again the word of the LORD came to me: ‘Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct and their actions…so I poured out My wrath on them because they had shed blood in the land and defiled it with their idols. I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions.” (Ezekiel 36:16-19)
The message is clear, isn’t it my friends? It was no accident nor was it that either Assyria or Babylon or Egypt had a larger military or more powerful weapons. Let there be no mistake. The conquering of the northern kingdom Israel in 722bc by the Assyrians, and the four invasions of Jerusalem from 609bc by the Egyptians to 586bc by the Babylonians were ALL directed by the Sovereignty of the God of Israel. He had empowered Israel’s enemies, emboldened them for attack and removed His hand of protection over Israel.
God had then led thousands of Jews into captivity now living throughout the Babylonian empire. It was important to God that His rebellious, unresponsive, unrepentant people Israel assume responsibility for their situation. It was God’s justice judgment on their rebellious living. Nothing more or less.
That is important my friends, because our natural human, sinful nature is usually very reluctant to stand in accountability for our sinful ways. We would much rather blame others or make excuses, right? With God, the first major step toward restoration and healing is understanding the WHY of our pain!
So, God continued His message to Ezekiel: “Wherever they went among the nations they profaned My holy Name, for it was said of them, ‘These are the LORD’s people, and yet they had to leave His land.’ I had concern for My Holy Name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.” (Ezekiel 36:20,21)
Oh my! Can this be said of us, you and me, my friends? Have we profaned the Holy Name of Jesus as we have walked the paths of our lives? Think back to your school days; your teen years; your twenties and all the way to the present. The jobs you’ve worked, the neighborhoods where you’ve lived, the schools you’ve attended, your years of military service…all the long journey to this day. Has the name of Jesus Christ been honored or profaned by your life? Of course I’m asking the same of myself.
God says here the nations, where the Jewish captives were taken and lived in exile, understood it was more than a military defeat for Israel. It was God’s discipline. God removed them from the land He had given them by Covenant. Now watch this my friends: It was important the Jewish exiles understood the land of Israel was still their land, given to them by God, but God Himself was PREVENTING them from living in their land because they had defiled it by their wickedness.
It was God’s desire that God would hear a great cry of repentance rising up from Jewish captives in Egypt and Babylon and all the way up to the Nineveh region…but instead, their hardness of heart; their fascination with the idols of the nations who captured them; their wickedness continued… even in those foreign places living as captives in exile. That’s why God declared: “Wherever they went among the nations they profaned My holy name…”
We need to pause right here my friends. As we contemplate the glorious HOLINESS of God and the Majesty of His great NAMES, we need to look closely at our attitudes, our words, our choices, our lifestyles to ask if we are bringing HONOR to His Majesty or are we defiling His Holiness? Before we take one more step in Ezekiel’s message we must pause and be honest with ourselves and ask God to show us what He thinks about how you and I are living our lives, wherever we are living in 2025.
And here’s a worship song of reflection to help us, and tomorrow we’ll continue in Ezekiel 36.
Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 36:16-21.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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