the have nots

Posted on August 7, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

20220807

Photo by Bruno Thethe on Pexels.com

the have nots

Ezekiel 11:14-21 (JDV)

Ezekiel 11:14 The word of Yahveh happened to me again:
Ezekiel 11:15 “Son of Adam, your own relatives, those who have the right to redeem your property, along with the entire house of Israel – all of them – are those to whom the residents of Jerusalem have said, ‘You are far from Yahveh; this land has been given to us as a possession.’
Ezekiel 11:16 “Therefore say, ‘This is what the Lord Yahveh says: Though I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’
Ezekiel 11:17 “Therefore say, ‘This is what the Lord Yahveh says: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’
Ezekiel 11:18 “When they arrive there, they will remove all its repulsive acts and repulsive practices from it.
Ezekiel 11:19 I will give them integrity of heart and put a new breath within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh,
Ezekiel 11:20 so that they will follow my prescriptions, keep my rules, and practice them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
Ezekiel 11:21 But as for those whose hearts pursue their desire for repulsive acts and repulsive practices, I will bring their conduct down on their own heads.” This is the declaration of the Lord Yahveh.

the have nots

Those already sent into exile were the have nots. The ones fortunate enough to avoid that fate were the haves. But God was about to change things. The fortunate ones will be punished for their idolatry. Some of the refugees will return and once again be God’s people in God’s land.

Maybe we are haves today, or maybe have nots. The sure thing is that God is watching. He does not blame us for our unfortunate status. But he will hold us accountable for what we do with our blessings.

LORD, make us consistently committed to being faithful to you.

Posted in integrity, judgment | Tagged | Leave a comment

this has to be it

Posted on August 6, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

20220806

Photo by samer daboul on Pexels.com

Ezekiel 11:13 (JDV)

Ezekiel 11:13 Now while I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell face-down and cried out loudly, “Oh, Lord Yahveh! You are bringing the remnant of Israel to an end!”

this has to be it

Ezekiel was convinced after witnessing Benaiah’s death in a vision that the end had come. That is so typical of us. When bad things start to happen around us, we jump to the eschatology sections of our Bible study notebooks.

We know now that although God was purging Jerusalem of evil he was not bringing his remnant to an end. We have the advantage of hindsight.

LORD, give us the wisdom to stay with you until the end — without assuming that we are already there.

Posted in patience, second coming | Leave a comment

not safe in the stew

Posted on August 5, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

20220805

Photo by Timur Saglambilek on Pexels.com

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.

Posted in judgment, prophecy, protection, truth | Tagged | Leave a comment

guilty advice

Posted on August 4, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

20220804

Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com

guilty advice

Ezekiel 11:1-4 (JDV)

Ezekiel 11:1 The Breath then lifted me up and brought me to the eastern gate of Yahveh’s house, which faces east, and I noticed at the gate’s entrance twenty-five men. Among them, I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur, and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people.
Ezekiel 11:2 Yahveh said to me, “Son of Adam, these are the men who plot evil and give guilty advice in this city.
Ezekiel 11:3 They are saying, ‘Isn’t the time near to build houses? The city is the pot, and we are the meat.’
Ezekiel 11:4 Therefore, prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of Adam!”

guilty advice

What was guilty about the advice these leaders were giving? Didn’t Jeremiah advise the people in exile to settle down and build?

Well, let’s look a little closer at this advice. It was not given to refugees in exile, but to citizens of a city that God had just promised to destroy. The city is the pot, and the people are the meat. But that does not mean protection for the meat. It means they are going to be cooked.

When leaders are telling us to ignore God and his word — that everything is going to be alright — we need to ignore their advice. The advice comes from guilty hearts. The leaders want us to follow them off the cliff. When God is calling for our repentance, the worst thing we can do is encourage acceptance of the status quo.

LORD, give us the courage to reject the guilty advice we are being given.

Posted in leadership, truth, worldview | Tagged | Leave a comment

his throne chariot

Posted on August 3, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

20220803

Photo by Lloyd Freeman on Pexels.com

his throne chariot

Ezekiel 10:20-22 (JDV)

Ezekiel 10:20 These were the living beings I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the Chebar Canal, and I recognized that they were cherubs.
Ezekiel 10:21 Each had four faces and each had four wings, with what looked something like human hands under their wings.
Ezekiel 10:22 Their faces looked like the same faces I had seen by the Chebar Canal. Each man went straight ahead.

his throne chariot

I have been arguing that these four living beings represent all creatures and that God is working out His sovereign will in the midst of a creation that thinks of itself as independent of outside influence.

Some have argued that these cherubs form a kind of throne chariot and that God is riding it — much like what is described in Psalm 18:10.

The two ideas are not contradictory. Behind the choices and histories of the creatures of our universe is a divine rider who is going somewhere. We are his throne chariot.

LORD, give us the wisdom to aim for a destination in line with your plan.

Posted in freedom, sovereignty of God | Leave a comment

not his

Posted on August 2, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

20220802

Photo by Paula Schmidt on Pexels.com

not his

Ezekiel 10:18-19 (JDV)

Ezekiel 10:18 Then the impressive appearance of Yahveh moved away from the threshold of the house and stopped above the cherubs.
Ezekiel 10:19 The cherubs lifted their wings and rose up from the land right before my eyes; the wheels were beside them as they went. The impressive appearance of the God of Israel was above them, and it stopped at the entrance to the eastern gate of Yahveh’s house.

not his

Matthew Poole commented on this text: “The Jews dreamed that God could not depart from his temple; indeed, whilst it was his, and used as his, he did not, nor would he depart, but he will abandon it when profaned, and thereby made not his.”

Our own lives belong to the LORD, but he will depart from them if we insist on using them for self or in service to Satan. It’s our choice.

LORD, give us the wisdom to use our temples for your holy presence.

Posted in commitment, Holy Spirit | Leave a comment

the capacity of self will

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

20220801

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

the capacity of self will

Ezekiel 10:15-17 (JDV)

Ezekiel 10:15 The cherubs rose up; these were the living beings I had seen by the Chebar Canal.
Ezekiel 10:16 When the cherubs moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when they lifted their wings to rise from the land, even then the wheels did not veer away from them.
Ezekiel 10:17 When the cherubs stopped, the wheels stood still, and when they rose up, the wheels rose up with them, because the breath of the living beings was in them.

the capacity of self will

As a symbol, these cherubs represent all the living beings, and the wheels represent their capacity for voluntary action. They all have received this gift from their creator, to whom they are responsible.

Remember your creator, because you are one of those beings. You have the capacity of self will, but that is not the same as free will. You are not independent of your creator. You are responsible to him.

LORD, give us the wisdom to direct our wills to accomplish yours.

Posted in responsibility, sovereignty of God | Leave a comment

four wheels

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

20220731

Photo by Lloyd Freeman on Pexels.com

four wheels

Ezekiel 10:9-14 (JDV)

Ezekiel 10:9 I looked, and noticed four wheels beside the cherubs, one wheel beside each cherub. The appearance of the wheels was like the gleam of beryl.
Ezekiel 10:10 In appearance, all four looked alike, like a wheel within a wheel.
Ezekiel 10:11 When they moved, they would go in any of the four directions, without pivoting as they moved. But wherever the head faced, they would go in that direction, without pivoting as they went.
Ezekiel 10:12 Their entire bodies, including their backs, hands, wings, and the wheels that the four of them had, were full of eyes all around.
Ezekiel 10:13 As I listened the wheels were called “the wheelwork.”
Ezekiel 10:14 Each one had four faces: one was the face of a cherub, the second the face of a human, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

four wheels

The wheels in the wheelwork are a symbol of the ability to go where one wants — as is clear from the phrase “they would go in any of the four directions” in verse 11. The eyes symbolize knowledge and insight. The beryl like gleam symbolizes beauty and glory. The different faces represent the most capable of each order of being: angelic, human, mammal, and bird. Together, the wheelwork showed that all creation depends on a higher power, and is answerable to God.

LORD, help us to live every moment with an awareness of our ultimate dependance on you.

Posted in responsibility | Tagged | Leave a comment

hell comes from a holiness

Posted on July 30, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

20220730

Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

hell comes from a holiness

Ezekiel 10:6-8 (JDV)

Ezekiel 10:6 After Yahveh commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from inside the wheelwork, from among the cherubs,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel.
Ezekiel 10:7 Then the cherub reached out his hand to the fire that was among them. He took some and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out.
Ezekiel 10:8 The cherubs appeared to have the form of human hands under their wings.

hell comes from a holiness

The fact that this fire Ezekiel saw came from among the cherubs signified that the judgment was from God, not the result of human conflict. Jerusalem’s destruction would be a divine act.

Gehenna Hell is the ultimate divine act of destruction. The lost will go there and suffer the punishment of permanent destruction because God cannot endure their rebellion forever. That is not what many have been taught about hell. But that is what Jesus taught. Hell comes from a holiness that cannot endure perpetual sin.

LORD, purify us by your grace today so that we never have to suffer the destruction we deserve.

Posted in destruction in hell | Tagged | Leave a comment

unchangeable omnipotence

Posted on July 29, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

20220729

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com

unchangeable omnipotence

Ezekiel 10:3-5 (JDV)

Ezekiel 10:3 Now the cherubs were standing to the right hand of the house when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court.
Ezekiel 10:4 Then the impressive appearance of Yahveh rose from above the cherub to the threshold of the house. The house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of Yahveh’s impressive appearance.
Ezekiel 10:5 The sound of the cherubs’ wings could be heard as far as the outer court; it was like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

unchangeable omnipotence

Why this spectacular sight and sound display if God was in the process of planning to judge his own people? I am thinking that he is showing that the people’s rebellion and idolatry have not limited his power to act.

Sometimes we talk about our faith as if it gives God power. That is never the case. Even if the whole world would reject God, it would not limit his power one bit. He is sovereign.

LORD, thank you for your unchangeable omnipotence.

Posted in sovereignty of God | Tagged | Leave a comment