Judgment Against Idolatry

 

 

 

Ezekiel 6:1-14

 

November 4, 2023

 

Judgment Against Idolatry

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, and say, You, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.  Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols.  And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars.  Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.  And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

 

Do you wonder what that would look like in the United States of America if God tore down our altars and cast down the people before the altars they worship?  Where would the bodies be cast? What are some of the altars where we worship?  How about one of the biggest, the altar of self, it has many altars, money, wealth, homes, and stuff.  What about the altar power, your status in the community, or your job?  What about sports, you know, where you spend your time, golf, fishing, hunting?  What about the altar of pride?  And Sex, yes, it has many worshipers.  Yes, we have many idols we worship, and yes, God, your Creator, is not pleased when you put them before Him.

 

“Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries, then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations.  And they shall know that I am the Lord. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”

Thus says the Lord God: “Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say, Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.  He who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who is left and is preserved shall die of famine. Thus, I will spend my fury upon them.  And you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols.  And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate and waste, in all their dwelling places, from the wilderness to Riblah. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

 

I like you have worship at these altars of these little gods, and I have found they cannot give peace, hope, and joy; they cannot give life, but they demand much.  And this I have experienced, that in Christ Jesus I’ve found the peace, joy, and hope, I've found the love and fulfillment I search for in the little gods of this world.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice

Rebelling Against God's Rule

 

 

Ezekiel 5:5-17

 

November 3, 2023

 

“Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.  And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you,  therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.  And because of all your abominations, I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again.  Therefore,                                        fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive, I will scatter to all the winds.  Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will withdraw.  My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity.  A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.

“Thus, shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy—when I spend my fury upon them.  Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by.  You shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations all around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and with furious rebukes—I am the Lord; I have spoken— when I send against you the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply of bread.  I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.”

 

Ezekiel is referring to the Babylonian siege, and as a prophet of God, he was shown this before it took place.  His action with his hair was God’s way of letting the people know about the judgment they had brought on themselves.  Yes, they would have famine, pestilence, and the sword, coming from the siege of Jerusalem.  The prophet Jeremiah had this to say on the subject, in Chapter 15:2, “And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “‘Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence, and those who are for the sword, to the sword; those who are for famine, to famine, and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’  It has been said, “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.”  That is where disobedience got them, and one must remember that God does not​ change.

 

If I were a prophet, I would warn the West that disobedience brings God’s anger and obedience brings blessing.  The West and the USA have gone after the little gods of this world, and we are living in foolishness, with no fear of God, as a nation.  The god that most people in the USA worship is money.

 

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice

Two Plans for your Life (Choose Wisely)

  

 

Dear reader, this I do know: God has a plan for your life, and so does the Evil One.  You will find in John 10:10, Jesus laying out the plan of both.  “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  The problem is that many people have their own plans, and it is part of the plan that the devil has designed to lead them away from the truth.   Jesus has made it clear in John 14:6 that He is the truth, not some truth, but the Truth. Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

 

Jesus has made clear that He is the Word who is being referred to in John 1-1-3.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”  Reader, in these three verses, one has to come up with the understanding that Jesus, the Creator, has the only plan that brings peace and joy into our lives.  A man I met twice, Major Ian Thomas, often said the following: “I can’t, you never said I could, You can, and You promised You would.”

 

Reader, I hope you understood that God does not need your money, but He desires His children to honor Him by doing what He has requested of them.  As a dad, you expect your boys to do as you ask of them.  In Malachi 3:8-10, “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.  You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.  Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” 

 

You are not the first person to buy into the lie that you could not afford to give away 10% of your income.  I’m not the one who gave you the challenge to put God to the test. He made clear in verse 10 the offer.  

 

Dear Reader, I am praying for you and asking the Lord to give me the ability to share a clear word that will bring a new beginning in your life, and if married, to your marriage.

 

You are greatly loved,  and my prayer is that Christmas is about the Greatest Gift ever given by God, His only Son.

 

From our Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice

Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed

 

Ezekiel 5:1-4

 

November 2, 2023

 

Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed

“And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber's razor and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair.  A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them.  And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe.  And of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there, a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.

 

Often, doing what God tells you will not be pleasant nor accepted in your culture.  A shaved head and beard were a shameful act in his time.  It reminded me of a story told about Rees Howells as a young man who was told by God not to wear a hat, which was not acceptable in his day.  It disgraced his parents, but it was clear to him what God had said.  He visited with a friend in the Parliament and longed to wear a hat, but honored what God had told him to do.  This act and others of training led Rees to be known in England as the Intercessor.  It has been said that Churchill often asked him what the Nazis were planning.  My Bride of 58 years and I were discussing Rees’s faith, and it became clear that his kind of faith is faith that requires a John the Baptist faith.  Jesus has to increase, and you must decrease.  

 

The following quote from Rees Howells: “I want to know that the Holy Spirit is stronger than the devil in the Nazi system.  This is the battle of the ages, and victory here means victory for millions of people.” Rees Howells

 

If we, you, and I want to have faith that can faith that move mountains, it will require the following: A quote from Jesus, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  Taken from Matthew 6:33, but look at verse 34, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”  It brings to mind this quote;

“Sorrow and regret look back.
Worry and fear look around,
But faith and hope look up!”

 

From our Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Doing what God Tells you to do

 

 

Ezekiel 4:4-17

November 1, 2023

 

“Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment.  For I assign to you a number of days, 390 days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel.  And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year.  And you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against the city.  And behold, I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed the days of your siege.

 

In the year 2023, Ezekiel would be locked away in a mental hospital, and that is what some commentators are saying about this prophet of God.  They do not understand obedience to the voice of God, but Ezekiel did.  He did as God told him, and yet it is clear that when God told him he would cook his food on human dung, he had this reply to the Lord.  “Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth.”  Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.” 

Hebrews 3:15, As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”  I have little doubt that in 2023, Ezekiel would be viewed as a madman. Does that change anything? When God speaks, you always have two choices: to obey or to reject. One brings eternal blessing, and the other separation.  Will you be willing to be called a mad person by the world, by obeying our God?

The rest of chapter 4:4-17,

 “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet, and emmer, and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days, you shall eat it.  And your food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from day to day you shall eat it.  And water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from day to day you shall drink.  And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.”  And the Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.”  Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now, I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth.”  Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.”  Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay.  I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment.

“During this period of the sign-act, the prophet, weighed down with his heavy burden, symbolizes the entire nation’s long history of accumulated sin, which will culminate in the siege of Jerusalem, God’s chosen city, and the destruction of its temple. Ezekiel is not atoning for the people through his suffering; he merely represents the people’s being loaded down with their sin.”  

[Jesus] bears the fiery wrath of God against the sin of all his people—past, present, and future.” I am not sure of the Author of this quote.

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

 

The Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized

 

Ezekiel 4:1-3

October30, 2023

 

The Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized

 “And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem.  And put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.  And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the House of Israel.

President Ronald Regan emphasized, “America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.”  In his farewell address, he said, “In my mind, it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity.” We also have another quote from our history, "For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses... ."—John Winthrop, aboard the Arbella, 1630.

 

As I write this paper, what happened to America, the USA, we are not a nation living in harmony, for we have dealt falsely with our God.  Just look at the ignorance of our history and the history of Israel, coming out of our Colleges.  

 

I am not a prophet, not even close to having any understanding of the future, but we are a lot like the people of Ezekiel's time, and in this regard, we believe they were proof.  We like them have not prepared for God’s judgment, and like them, we do not believe it will come.  

God required Ezekiel to engrave on a brick the city of Jerusalem and to take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the House of Israel.  The iron griddle was like an impenetrable wall between Israel, Judah, and God.  Their cries for help would not be heard, and the Lord forbade Ezekiel to intercede for them.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

A Watchman for Israel

 

Ezekiel 3:16-27

 

October 25, 2023

 

A Watchman for Israel

And at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.  If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.  But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.  Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand.  But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.”

And the hand of the Lord was upon me there. And he said to me, “Arise, go out into the valley, and there I will speak with you.”  So, I arose and went out into the valley, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the Chebar canal, and I fell on my face.  But the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself within your house.  And you, O son of man, behold, cords will be placed upon you, and you shall be bound with them so that you cannot go out among the people.  And I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth so that you shall be mute and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house.  But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who will hear, let him hear; and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

It is written; Watch and wait; “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

In the book of Lamentations 3:25, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.”  And in Psalm 62:5, “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.” 

Has the church been called to be a watchman?   In many ways, standing against false teaching encourages the weak in the faith and looking to Jesus for those who have been deceived by the devil.  I asked the question “Got Questions” and this was the answer: “But remember, as a Christian, our personal duty is to be that which God has called us to be:  the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the Children of God, the Shepherd’s sheep, the Teacher’s disciples, the Master’s bondservants, the stones of God’s house, the workers in God’s field, the subjects of the King, the citizens of Heaven, and more.  We are to be looking UP — looking unto Jesus.”

2 Cor 4:6  “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

 

Sorrow and regret look back.
Worry and fear look around,
But faith and hope look up!

 

 

From ​our Back Porch, 

 

Bob Rice