20220805

not safe in the stew
Ezekiel 11:5-12 (JDV)
Ezekiel 11:5 Then the Breath of Yahveh came on me, and he told me, “You are to say, ‘This is what Yahveh says: That is what you are thinking, house of Israel; and I know the thoughts that come into your mind.
Ezekiel 11:6 You have multiplied your murdered ones in this city, filling its streets with them.
Ezekiel 11:7 ” ‘Therefore, this is what the Lord Yahveh says: The murdered ones you have put within it are the meat, and the city is the pot, but I will take you out of it.
Ezekiel 11:8 You fear the sword, so I will bring the sword against you. This is the declaration of the Lord Yahveh.
Ezekiel 11:9 I will take you out of the city and hand you over to foreigners; I will execute judgments against you.
Ezekiel 11:10 You will fall by the sword, and I will judge you at the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am Yahveh.
Ezekiel 11:11 The city will not be a pot for you, and you will not be the meat within it. I will judge you at the border of Israel,
Ezekiel 11:12 so you will know that I am Yahveh, whose prescriptions you have not followed and whose rules you have not practiced. Instead, you have acted according to the rules of the nations around you.'”
not safe in the stew
Someone had started a meme implying that Jerusalem was always going to be a safe place. The city was the pot, and its people were the meat — safe in the stew. But God told Ezekiel to go against that meme. There would be no safety for a people who had rejected God.
It is an unfortunate thing that as a representative of God I must now stand with Ezekiel and break today’s memes. All around us the wicked are making plans and devising schemes to protect themselves. But there is no protection for a planet that has rejected its God. We are not safe in the stew.
LORD, prepare us to be ministers of your gospel in the coming crisis.