Threads Of Hope Part III (Gods Compassion / Faithfulness)

Ezekiel

God’s Compassion and Faithfulness? Part 3

Deut. 6:4, 5

Three weeks ago, we started to take a look at the book of Ezekiel and even though it mostly relates to Israel and Jerusalem, we asked the question, how would this book be relevant for us today?  What can we learn since “all scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness?”  The book was written over a 20-year period while the Israelites were in Babylonian captivity and God will ask Ezekiel to do some strange things to illustrate how the Israelites had departed from Him and of the discipline to come and the destruction of Jerusalem.  “Sin is a serious matter and bears consequences.”  We learned that God is loving, patient, and just, but God will discipline his people in order to bring them back into a loving relationship with Him.

Ezekiel was a Levite and destined to be a priest in the temple of the Lord.  He had been training for his work but at the age of 25, he was taken into captivity into Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar.  A Levite would train for his work until the age of 30, then at that age, they would start their priestly duties.  It was five years into the captivity and at the age of thirty that God would begin to give Ezekiel visions and prophetic words for Israel.  

God sends Ezekiel to communicate his message of discipline to Jerusalem and builds a model of the city of Jerusalem and sets up siegeworks against it.  He is commanded to lie on his left side for 390 days representing the 390 years of their sin and then told to lie on his right side for 40 days representing a day for each year for Judah’s sin.  He is commanded to cut his hair and beard representing what is going to happen to the inhabitants of Jerusalem but at the same time, he is given nuggets of future restoration.  As we have already seen, God really wanted from the Israelites and even from you and I, a heart that is devoted to him out of love.  Who or what has your heart?

This morning, I would like us to continue in this book of Ezekiel.  What I hope to draw out of this book this morning is God’s faithfulness to his people and the love, compassion, and patience that He has for mankind.  In chapters 12 – 15, there are a few more images that God uses Ezekiel to share with the children of Israel (12 – pack and get ready to leave; 13 – false prophets are promising peace when there is none; 15 – compares Israel to a dead vine). 

It is in chapter 16, the most intense section of Ezekiel but it captures the passion that God has for his people; here he compares his people as his wife which later becomes an adulteress and then a prostitute.  In Ephesians 5, Paul compares the love that God has for his church and a love that a husband should have for his wife. -     describes his people as a young girl abandoned in a field and left for dead.

• God finds her, nurtured and protected her

• Gave her everything she needed and wanted

• When the time came, he took her as his wife (made a covenant with her)

• Continued to give her everything that a good husband would give his wife.

• Israel became proud and trusted in her beauty (15)

• The very things God had given as an expression of his love became a source of pride

• Israel forgot the God who gave the gifts

• She became a prostitute by prostituting her gifts by giving what God had given to her to other gods.  Used her gifts for evil – used her gifts for that which went against the heart of God (body, mind, and resources)

• God was never unfaithful but even promises restoration (vs. 60)

The story of Israel is a story of how God choose the nation of Israel and delivered her from bondage and slavery to bring her to a land described as flowing with milk and honey.  But over time, Egypt, the enemy of Israel who had held her in slavery and bondage, is invited by Israel to become an Allie.  This started with Solomon when as a king, goes to Egypt and acquires many horses and wives and even wealth and becomes an Allie with Egypt (the very nation that held them in slavery and bondage).  As a king, Solomon was commanded not to do this even though in political aspects it seemed to be a good move.  When Nebuchadnezzar invades Israel and allows Zedekiah to stay in as king, Zedekiah, during the time of Ezekiel, makes an alliance with Egypt when God had made it clear that their captivity was his disciplining through Nebuchadnezzar.  Instead of repenting and looking to God, he makes an alliance with Egypt for protection and deliverance.  Instead of looking to God, they were looking to Egypt.

How does this apply to us?  After all, it is clear that all scripture is God-breathed and is given for rebuke, correction, and training in righteousness.  It is through Jesus Christ, that God has delivered you and I from the bondage and slavery of sin.  Though one may have turned away from a life of sin, our enemy will always try to call us back into a life of slavery and sin.  Our enemy will constantly remind us of the fleeting pleasures of sin.

There is nothing in this world that can offer us that is as good as what God provides for us.  This is why God is constantly calling us back to himself when it is the natural tendency of our flesh to drift away from him.  God is faithful!  Even though we may fail, God never fails us!

2 Kings 13:23 “But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence.”

Nehemiah 9:28 “But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion, you delivered them time after time.”

Psalms 103:13 “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;”

Psalms 116:5 “The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.”

Psalms 145:9 “The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.”

Lamentation 3:22 “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.”

James 5:11 “As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”