Thought for Friday, 11 August

Romans 10:14

"How can they hear without someone preaching to them?" 

I have never met a soul who has set out to satisfy the Lord and has not been satisfied himself. -- Watchman Nee, 

Although I have used the reading from Romans, this message is all through Ezekiel chapter 3.

Ezekiel was thirty when God came to him in chapter one. He told Ezekiel he was to prophecy to the Israelites. In Chapter 1, Ezekiel saw a vision that he knew looked like a shining rainbow and he fell on his face. 

In chapter 2 the Spirit lifted Ezekiel to his feet before the Lord God spoke. 

He said: ‘Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day.

God gave Ezekiel a scroll and told him to eat it. Chapter 3 verses 1-2

This is when God starts to tell Ezekiel to go to the rebellious people who were God’s chosen children. This is where I recognised that this message goes all the way through the bible. 

God told Ezekiel that he had to mark a lump of clay as Jerusalem under siege then lie on his left side in front of the clay, for 190 days to bear the sin of Israel. After ninety days Ezekiel was to lie on his right side for forty days to bear the sin of Judah. He also got instructions about what and when to eat and drink.

God intended to destroy the people who were rebelling against Him and instructed Ezekiel to carry the message to them about what was going to happen to the people.

Some of them would escape the destruction and over the rest of the book of Ezekiel we see that he has been chosen to spread this news among the people. He was to tell them about God’s anger at them worshipping gods made of metal, wood and stone. Ezekiel had to let them know that God said the people had to turn back to worship of their Sovereign Lord, 

If Ezekiel did not tell them this and they died in their sin, then God would blame Ezekiel for their death. But if they were told and still went their own way, they would die in their sin, but Ezekiel would be blameless, 

As it says in Romans 10: 4. People everywhere need to be told about God and His Son Jesus. Who is going to tell them if not us? We will be held responsible for anyone we could have told and did not make it known that their eternal souls are at risk. Our job in this is to plant the seed, ready for God and the Spirit to do the work of growing as they do with every seed we plant.

Let us be God’s gardeners and plant as many seeds as we can.

Prayer

Loving and forgiving God, help us with our task of planting. We are fortunate that we decided to follow Your Son and worship You and we know we are forgiven through the blood of Jesus. We also know that if we do not reach out to those who have rebelled against You and go their own way, they will be lost forever. If they are not told by true believers, how will they know they can have eternal life by turning to Jesus and finding You? Lord God, please give us the courage to speak out about our faith and about the forgiveness You offer. Amen