The Attributes of God:

Becoming Tolerant of Sin Ezekiel 21-25 “They have treated father and mother lightly within you.    The alien they have oppressed in your midst; the fatherless and the widow they have wronged in you.”                    Reading through Ezekiel 21-25 is like walking through a thunderstorm without an umbrella.    The storm hits, and there is nothing one can do but continue to trudge along until one arrives at a shelter.    Such is the sense the reader gets as we read through the book of Ezekiel.    Chapter after chapter proclaims the judgment of God, leaving the reader with a desire for something positive, something good, some cry of grace and mercy.    So it is easy to skip ahead, to bypass the pronouncements of judgment in search of the promise of grace and restoration that brings hope towards the end of the book.    Yet we bypass these war...

The God of Holiness and Grace Ezekiel 16-20 “Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord God, “rather than that he should turn away from his ways and live?”                   Reading through the prophetic literature is always difficult, for its message seems to pound the drum of judgment over and over again. Page after page, God continues to condemn Israel and the nations for their immorality, idolatry, and refusal to obey God’s law.   However, God is not capricious and vindictive in His judgment.  He is a just and holy God who cannot leave sin unchecked or unpunished, for to do so would be to give tacit approval to sin. Injustice is not just punishing someone who does not deserve it; it is also to leave unpunished one who commits an act of sin.  Because He is a just and holy God, He will not leave sin unchecked or unpunished. This is the...

Listening to the Right Message Ezekiel 11-15 “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing.”                   In the last 60 years, the world shifted rapidly from the industrial age to the information age.  Previously, with the rapid growth of mechanical technology, the economy centered on industrial growth as the 20 th  century began. However, in the middle of the 20 th  century, there was a rapid shift to the growth of digital information and the information economy.  The latest advancement (AI) has both potential for incredible good but also incredible evil.  But technological advancement has further fueled the growth of misinformation and the risk of confirmation bias, in which our search for information is governed by our own biases. Thus, the greatest threat to our pursuit of wh...

When the Storm Clouds are Building. Ezekiel 6-10 “Israel, the end has come. You will feel my anger, because I am judging you for what you have done.” 7:3 God had had enough. While God was patient and gracious towards his people, He had reached the end of His patience, and so, through the prophet Ezekiel, he pronounced a terrifying judgment. The judgment that was coming was devastation and terrifying, and it would leave the nation of Israel decimated and destroyed. One third of the people would die from sickness and famine, one third would die because of warfare, and the remainder would be cast into exile. The book of Ezekiel begins with one of the darkest and terrifying condemnations and judgments found in scripture. However, their destruction was not due to the misfortunes of war or the onslaught of a pandemic. The issue was neither political nor the result of national conflicts. The cause of their downfall was their rampant spiritual abandonment of God. Instead of being faithful ...

Seeing God in the Difficulties of Life Ezekiel 1-5 “As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance.  Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.  And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.” (1:28).                   Ezekiel was given a ministry that would cause the most stouthearted to faint.  Serving and walking with God is easy when it is convenient, stress-free, and rewarding.  But how about when it becomes difficult, costly, and discouraging?  When God appointed Ezekiel to be His prophet to the people, He warned Ezekiel that the people would completely reject his message. Instead of responding with repentance and revival, they would respond with indifference and hostility.  In such an environment, it is easy to understand why G...

Singing a Song of Praise Jeremiah 51- Lamentations 5 “Then the heaven and the earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers will come to her from the north, declares the Lord.”                   We sing the songs of praise for the grace of God, but are silent in affirming his judgment.  We celebrate and affirm the existence of heaven, but want to deny the reality of hell.  A quick perusal of the top 100 most popular worship songs, there is not one song that celebrates the justice and judgment of God.  Yet when we read through the chapters of Jeremiah 51 through Lamentations 5, we find the words hard and difficult to read for they are a series of pronouncements of judgment upon Israel and the nations around them.  The message is dark and foreboding as God proclaims that he will pour out his wrath upon the nations for their i...