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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I’m so excited for what I believe God wants to say to us this week my friends, as we look into Ezekiel 36 together.
I realize much of the world is captivated these weeks, by what is happening in the two political conventions in the USA, and I fully understand how the presidency of the US impacts almost every country in the world. For this and many more reasons, this upcoming election is vital both for America and the world. In view of that, I believe God has some important things to say to us from a prophet who lived and wrote God’s message to our world, 2500 years ago!
The core statement of God which we are considering this week is this: “Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show Myself Holy through you before their eyes.” (Ezekiel 36:23)
Yesterday we concluded with this question: why and how is God fulfilling Ezekiel 36 in our day? And I gave you Ezekiel 36:36-38 in which God said to His Jewish people: “Then the nations around you that remain, will know that I the LORD have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted that which was desolate. I, the LORD have spoken, and I will do it…Then they will know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 36:36-38)
Who are those “nations around you” of whom God spoke? Today we know these nations which border Israel as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian territory, and Saudi Arabia. If we consider Israel’s next closest neighbors we add Turkey, Iraq and Iran. At one time or another each of them has sought to destroy Israel or has stated their strong opposition to the existence of the nation of Israel, as a globally recognized Sovereign nation. All of those surrounding peoples are predominantly Muslim, and several are sanctuary nations for radical, terrorist Islam. All of them reject any notion that Israel, as a people are special to God!
The story of the existence of modern day Israel is nothing short of miraculous, especially when considering the antisemitism which has been prevalent in our world for 3000 years, and the number of attempts which have been overtly undertaken to eliminate the Jewish people from the face of the earth. Even the UN resolution to provide the Jewish people their ancient homeland, and the declaration on May 14, 1948 of this homeland to be the modern State of Israel, and the Jewish defense of that land in both the ’67 and ’73 wars, are all miraculous evidence of God’s modern day hand upon His people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jacob’s sons. Do you see my friends, that Israel’s survival over the centuries, and her existence today, is fulfillment of God’s Ezekiel 36 promise? Over and over God is proving His determination that the world will “…know that I am the LORD.”
Today, let’s take another close look at God’s remarkable statement “Then the nations will know that I am the LORD…” found in Ezekiel 36:23. Who are these ‘nations’ God speaks of here? My friends, may I introduce you to a very important word: “ethne”, from which we get the English word “Ethnicity”. “Ethne” is the word translated here in Ezekiel 36:23 as “nations”. It is a word God often used in both the Old & New Testament when speaking of the peoples of the world who are distinguished from one another NOT by the name of the country in which they live, nor the passport they carry, nor the color of their skin, but rather by their distinctly identifiable language and culture, even their DNA.
Jesus used this same word when He said “As you are going, make disciples of all nations (‘ethne’) baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all that I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:19,20) Often this is referred to as ‘the great commission’. In our day thanks to freedom of travel and huge human migrations fleeing poverty, famine and war, North America and Europe in particular have become home to a great many ‘ethne’, ethnicities of peoples. Did you know there are nearly 130 languages spoken in both New York City and Toronto?
One of the best modern day examples of this “ethne” is the nation of Indonesia. 17,500 islands, of which 922 are permanently inhabited, stretching 3200 miles from the great island of Sumatra in the west, to Papua, Irian Jaya in the east. Indonesia is north of Australia and south of the Philippines. Thus far, there have been identified 700 different languages spoken, thus while Indonesia is one country, there are hundreds of distinct ‘ethne’ people groups. So 2500 years ago God said to our world, through the prophet Ezekiel, that even these hundreds of different ‘ethen’ peoples in Indonesia, in the year 2020, would “know that I am the LORD.”! Can you wrap your mind around the magnitude of the scope of this my friends?
Do you remember the great Tsunami of 2004? Here is a description I googled: “On December 26, 2004, at 7:59 AM local time, an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Over the next seven hours, a tsunami—a series of immense ocean waves—triggered by the quake reached out across the Indian Ocean, devastating coastal areas as far away as East Africa. Some locations reported that the waves had reached a height of 30 feet (9 metres) or more when they hit the shoreline. At least 250,000 people perished in this Tsunami.”
I had the privilege of visiting the area of devastation a few months after that Tsunami, on the island of Sumatra, to see if our church could help. In my travels there and each place I’ve ever been, I’m struck with this reality: everywhere human beings exist there is some form of worship taking place. It is innate to us as humans. Deep within us is a desire to worship something, especially in times of desperation. Most people worship something man-made. Some worship things God has made like the sun or moon, or an animal. Some people worship themselves or another living person. So who is this God that we are quoting in Ezekiel 36 who refers to Himself as “the Sovereign LORD”?
Whenever you see that name in Scripture, think of Exodus 3 and the encounter between Moses and God at the burning bush on Mount Sinai. Today, I invite you to read that entire chapter of Exodus 3 and as you read, try to identify as many different attributes or character traits of the one, true, living God, as you can find in that chapter. It’s important because in Isaiah 40-48 over and over and over God says “I am God the LORD and there is no other god.”
As we consider Ezekiel 36:23 this week, it’s important to consider that in Jeremiah 10 God calls all humanity to recognize the foolishness of making our own gods and worshiping what our hands have made. In closing today I urge us to read Jeremiah 10:1-16 and link it with Exodus 3:1-15 and wrestle with these questions:
1. Why do Billions of people worship man made idols which they have to maintain or transport, because they are lifeless statues? What causes humanity to act so irrationally, when the Creator God invites our worship?
2. What are the attributes of God which HE declares are unique to HIM? I’ll help you get started: Eternal / Creator / Holy . . .what else can you add? Why would a person worship something which has none of these traits, and in fact is not even alive?
3. What is your personal relationship with Almighty, Holy God known as “The LORD”?
May I invite us, with our Bibles open to Jeremiah 10, to spend some time in worship right now, thanking God for giving you a brain to understand and reason, and a faith to believe. And thank God for the miracles which have enabled the nation of Israel to exist today. And thank God for the evidence, all around us, that HE is God and He invites us to KNOW Him! And finally, pray for the nation where you live, and the need for the Gospel to be known among every ‘ethne’ (people group) in our world.
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: Jeremiah 10:1-16; Exodus 3:1-15. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“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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