Tuesday, April 30, 2013

A Word Study in Abomination




Ezekiel 7:1-9 NASB
Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, "And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel, 'An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land. Now the end is upon you, and I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and bring all your abominations upon you. For My eye will have no pity on you, nor will I spare you, but I will bring your ways upon you, and your abominations will be among you; then you will know that I am the Lord!'   "Thus says the Lord God , 'A disaster, unique disaster, behold it is coming! An end is coming; the end has come! It has awakened against you; behold, it has come! Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come, the day is near-tumult rather than joyful shouting on the mountains. Now I will shortly pour out My wrath on you and spend My anger against you; judge you according to your ways and bring on you all your abominations. My eye will show no pity nor will I spare. I will repay you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst; then you will know that I, the Lord, do the smiting.
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Today I read Ezekiel through chapter 8. I started seeing some trends. Have you ever heard of a' wordle' or a 'word cloud'?  There is a software program that analyses the frequency of words used in text, a speech, or some other literature and then creates an image made of the words and depicts emphasis by bolder larger fonts. So frequently used words are bigger and more prominent while less frequently repeated words are smaller. Someday I'd like to create this kind of a picture for the book of Ezekiel. But instead I've looked at various words I noticed today and searched their use in the New American Standard Bible (NASB).
Most of the words in the list below appear many times more in Ezekiel than they do in any other part of the Bible.
I'm sure you'll begin to get the picture God intended for his people.
He's not happy with what their doing. He doesn't like it one bit. God finds their behaviour very unpleasant.
God is planning some harsh punishment because of the actions of his people.
If I was you, I'd figure out what had gotten God so upset and then I try to see what can be done about it.

Here the list and what I found.
Abomination (42)
Iniquity (42)
Idol (42)
Profane (30)
Ways (48)
Commit (42)
Judge (21)
Wrath (33)
Detestable (10)
Not a pretty or admirable description.
May be it can be summed up this way,
If your everyday life isn't about loving God, then God is disgusted with your ways and is planning to judge you in wrath.
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Monday, April 29, 2013

The role of a prophet of God.

“Stand up, son of man,” said the voice. “I want to speak with you.” The Spirit came into me as he spoke, and he set me on my feet. I listened carefully to his words. “Son of man,” he said, “I am sending you to the nation of Israel, a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have been rebelling against me to this very day. They are a stubborn and hard-hearted people. But I am sending you to say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says!’ And whether they listen or refuse to listen—for remember, they are rebels—at least they will know they have had a prophet among them. “Son of man, do not fear them or their words. Don’t be afraid even though their threats surround you like nettles and briers and stinging scorpions. Do not be dismayed by their dark scowls, even though they are rebels. You must give them my messages whether they listen or not. But they won’t listen, for they are completely rebellious! Son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not join them in their rebellion. Open your mouth, and eat what I give you.” Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me. It held a scroll, which he unrolled. And I saw that both sides were covered with funeral songs, words of sorrow, and pronouncements of doom.
------------------
The work of a prophet is fraught with hardships.
The messenger of God nearly always confronts unwelcoming audiences.
Israel is not alone in its rebellion although it is particularly hard hearted and it should know better since God had revealed the right way to them.
Every one you meet today will be or has been a rebell against God.
Some people have only had their consciences to guide them. These people were born with a moral compass. This compass can be ignored or even altered but both internally through their conscience or externally through the created order everyone understands there is a God!
But no one welcomes God or his rule over them.
Bethany walking a hard path on Kinder Scout, Edale England.

So the prophet is up against the hard hearts of humanity on one side and the eternal God and his royal rule on the other.
Even today a Christian's role in the world is not too unlike that of Ezekiel.
God plans to reveal more of his character and plan to the world but the world wants to ignore the message and harm the messenger.
So the prophet of God faces these two formidable forces The Word of God compels him to go out and speak but the hard hearts of man rebel against that word and threaten and mock the messenger. Yet there is still another threat!
The prophet's own heart is vulnerable. We too are rebels at heart and we are prone to join the rebels. Although we know the truth of God's clear and righteous message we tend towards joining the rebels.
The prophet of God is telling people who do not want to hear a message that they find offensive, all the while concerned he'll become a traitor to God himself.
But you dear christian like Ezekiel the prophet have some powerful and compelling aids in the prophetic office.
First, you have been called by God himself. You have not dreamed this up, it is not about you and it is not your plan. You have been given the task by the ruler of the universe.
Second, you've been filled by the Spirit of the living God. God is in you, and he protects and empowers you. God has not sent you alone. God is with you.
Thirdly, God has told you what you are up against. God has made it clear that you are to be opposed and that the people you will speak to are rebellious and they will try the get you to come to their way of thinking. You are warned.
Fourthly, God says, "Don't be afraid!"
Remember when you tell people God's news, whether it is welcomed as a life giving warning or more likely rejected God is with you, instructing you, indwelling you, and sending you.
You and Ezekiel both are seeing a bit of the glory of the everlasting God.
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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Get God right?

Originally wrttien 12/23/11

https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/theology101

Psalm 144:3-4

3 O LORD, what are human beings that you should notice them, mere mortals that you should think about them?4 For they are like a breath of air; their days are like a passing shadow.
Psalm 144 http://www.youversion.com/bible/nlt/ps/144/3-4
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The impact of this passage depends to some extent on your theology. Simply,
Do you correctly understand  who and what God is?
God is eternal! That is, God has always been and will always be. God is above and outside of time and space. He can enter time and space as we know but unlike us God exists equally beyond past, present, and future.
God is life. All that is life comes from God and is sustained by God. There is no life without God. God is described with some accuracy by three uncommon words, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience.
We say God is omnipotent and by that we mean God has all power. No person, being, or circumstance is beyond the power of God. God or particular members of the God head (Father, Son, or Holy Spirit) do at times choose to work within certain relationships and rules that voluntarily appear to limit his power.
God is everywhere. That is not to say that everything is a God. That is to say that you can be nowhere in heaven or earth that God is absent. You can not escape the presence of God. God's presence is experienced by his grace in greater or lesser ways. But be assured God is there. Rejoice when you are blessed with a greater sense of his presence or if and when he chooses to display his presence in a more physical way. The fact that we know God is everywhere is described as God's omnipresence.
Lastly, God knows everything! Not only is God everywhere but he is aware of everything all at once. Not only all that can be observed by us but in every sense. God knows the thoughts and intents of every heart. All movements and motives of all things are within his knowledge. God not only knows the fact but he also understands everything. God is all wise. His knowledge exists perfectly within his perfect wisdom.
We say sometimes that God is other. What we mean by this is that God is beyond us. Unlike us. God is perfect. He is so different from us as to invoke the Psalmist to say, "O LORD, what are human beings that you should notice them.." Do you regard God as awesome? For he is! Do you think sometimes that you know better than God how to rule this world, run the show, fix the situation, treat the just or unjust? You do not know better than God!
God has done no wrong and you have. He saw you. He knows your heart. He was there. So it is even more compelling to read the last verse of this
Psalm, "15 Yes, joyful are those who live like this!
Joyful indeed are those whose God is the LORD." So this verse says you will have a joy in life if you live like you understand that God is in charge! The verse says, God is the Lord! By all definitions God is indeed the Lord. But do you live as if God is the Lord? Do you see him as the source of all life? Your judge and provider. Do you  humble yourself and respond like verses 3 and 4 with a humility of recognition that God is greater and God is good? Isn't this all the more amazing when you then read that God becomes a babe and comes to live and die among us? How much greater is the overwhelming "otherness" of God when you grasp he entered into this world as a man. Lived as a helpless child. Suffered humiliation. And he did all this to rescue a rebellious people. Who are you that GOD would have done that for you?



Psalm 144
A psalm of David.
1 Praise the LORD, who is my rock.
He trains my hands for war
and gives my fingers skill for battle.2 He is my loving ally and my fortress,
my tower of safety, my rescuer.
He is my shield, and I take refuge in him.
He makes the nations submit to me.3 O LORD, what are human beings that you should notice them,
mere mortals that you should think about them?4 For they are like a breath of air;
their days are like a passing shadow.5 Open the heavens, LORD, and come down.
Touch the mountains so they billow smoke.6 Hurl your lightning bolts and scatter your enemies!
Shoot your arrows and confuse them!7 Reach down from heaven and rescue me;
rescue me from deep waters,
from the power of my enemies.8 Their mouths are full of lies;
they swear to tell the truth, but they lie instead.9 I will sing a new song to you, O God!
I will sing your praises with a ten-stringed harp.10 For you grant victory to kings!
You rescued your servant David from the fatal sword.11 Save me!
Rescue me from the power of my enemies.
Their mouths are full of lies;
they swear to tell the truth, but they lie instead.12 May our sons flourish in their youth
like well-nurtured plants.
May our daughters be like graceful pillars,
carved to beautify a palace.13 May our barns be filled
with crops of every kind.
May the flocks in our fields multiply by the thousands,
even tens of thousands,14 and may our oxen be loaded down with produce.
May there be no enemy breaking through our walls,
no going into captivity,
no cries of alarm in our town squares.15 Yes, joyful are those who live like this!
Joyful indeed are those whose God is the LORD.
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Saturday, April 27, 2013

The compatibility of bringing grief and showing compassion.

Lamentations 3:31-33 NLT
For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.

___________


I've finished reading Jeremiah and Lamentations this week. I've also been preparing a Bible study on Joshua chapter 11. I'm very concerned for you and for me. I think we have deliberately misrepresented God.

We think we know what's best. We are quite sure we know right from wrong. So we think we know how God should act. We stand in judgement over God. We gather others who hold the same opinion as us and feel smug. We feel self - righteous. We're confident we know how God behaves.

God is a nice God.

Or we dream up an evolved God, a new God, a changed God of the New Testament.

BUT God is the same yesterday, today, and forever!
God does not change.
What God does is right.
We are not better than God nor do we know better than him.
We can not take from God what he has claimed. We can not attribute to another what God has attributed to himself.

When I read these passages I have to reevaluate my opinion of God. I must fear God. I must trust him. I must follow him because he demands it. I must not think I am better than God. I must not think I know better than God.

I must not make God in my puny image.

I must also not use God as my sword! God is not my tool for my twisted sense of vengeance or my bigger gun brought to the shoot out! I do not choose what is just. God is not up for the highest bidder.

I've seen both these approaches to God's more uncomfortable accounts of judgment. From the first chapters of Genesis to the last chapters of Revelation, God has held out death and all its horrors as a judgement for disobedience. And God does demand love. We showers us with blessings and he scares us with terrors! But all this is to the end that we would know him, fear him, and love him! Far too often we have glossed over the overwhelming inescapable wretched judgements brought about by God against his people for their hard hearted spiteful rebellion. But then we also have ignored his self sacrificing, compassion, grace and love! In fact we have ignored God altogether unless it is to use him as a genie in a lamp, a scapegoat for evil and trouble or a weapon against our enemies. We can not make God for our own purposes! We did not invent right and wrong. We are not trustworthy sources of ethics, morals or reality. We are flawed and selfish. We should stop making idols that bear the name of Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. We must cease reading the Bible to accomplish our own ends. 

We are not God. We actually misunderstand who God is or what he is like. A proper view of God should be our goal. And to that end we must challenge our preconceptions. We must not avoid the unavoidable. We must force our minds to wrestle with the truth. Our world is full of apparent paradoxes. We don't know everything. In fact we actually really know very little. Whether we are people of faith or people of reason, whether we are say we follow science or the Bible or feel we have reconciled them both. We will have to trust other sources, we will have to accept we can't explain all the apparent paradoxes.

But we still need to grapple with them.

We need to be humbled.

We need to resist making God in our own image.




  • God the bear

    Labels: arrows gravel joshua 11

  • Dead in the streets

    • Lamentations 2:20 (NLT)

      20“O Lord, think about this!Should you treat your own people this way?Should mothers eat their own children,those they once bounced on their knees?Should priests and prophets be killedwithin the Lord’s Temple?

    • Lamentations 2:21 (NLT)

      21“See them lying in the streets—young and old,boys and girls,killed by the swords of the enemy.You have killed them in your anger,slaughtering them without mercy.
    Labels: cannibals joshua 11 lying in the streets

  • Utter horror

    • Isaiah 66:24 (NLT)

      24And as they go out, they will seethe dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me.For the worms that devour them will never die,and the fire that burns them will never go out.All who pass bywill view them with utter horror.”
    Labels: joshua 11

  • Eaten by worms

    • Acts 12:23 (NLT)

      23Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died.
    Labels: joshua 11 judgement

  • Destroyed by your only helper

    • Hosea 13:9 (NLT)

      9“You are about to be destroyed, O Israel—yes, by me, your only helper.
    Labels: 11 by god destroyed

  • Mangled like a wild animal

    • Hosea 13:2 (NLT)

      2Now they continue to sin by making silver idols,images shaped skillfully with human hands.“Sacrifice to these,” they cry,“and kiss the calf idols!”

    • Hosea 13:3 (NLT)

      3Therefore, they will disappear like the morning mist,like dew in the morning sun,like chaff blown by the wind,like smoke from a chimney.

    • Hosea 13:4 (NLT)

      4“I have been the Lord your Godever since I brought you out of Egypt.You must acknowledge no God but me,for there is no other savior.

    • Hosea 13:5 (NLT)

      5I took care of you in the wilderness,in that dry and thirsty land.

    • Hosea 13:6 (NLT)

      6But when you had eaten and were satisfied,you became proud and forgot me.

    • Hosea 13:7 (NLT)

      7So now I will attack you like a lion,like a leopard that lurks along the road.

    • Hosea 13:8 (NLT)

      8Like a bear whose cubs have been taken away,I will tear out your heart.I will devour you like a hungry lionessand mangle you like a wild animal.
    Labels: joshua 11 judgement mangled tear out your heart

  • Babies dashed, pregnant women ripped

    • Hosea 13:16 (NLT)

      16The people of Samariamust bear the consequences of their guiltbecause they rebelled against their God.They will be killed by an invading army,their little ones dashed to death against the ground,their pregnant women ripped open by swords.”
    Labels: because joshua 11 judgement killed rebellion terrible

  • Bowel trouble painful death judgment

    • 2 Chronicles 21:13 (NLT)

      13Instead, you have been as evil as the kings of Israel. You have led the people of Jerusalem and Judah to worship idols, just as King Ahab did in Israel. And you have even killed your own brothers, men who were better than you.

    • 2 Chronicles 21:14 (NLT)

      14So now the Lord is about to strike you, your people, your children, your wives, and all that is yours with a heavy blow.

    • 2 Chronicles 21:15 (NLT)

      15You yourself will suffer with a severe intestinal disease that will get worse each day until your bowels come out.”

    • 2 Chronicles 21:16 (NLT)

      16Then the Lord stirred up the Philistines and the Arabs, who lived near the Ethiopians, to attack Jehoram.

    • 2 Chronicles 21:17 (NLT)

      17They marched against Judah, broke down its defenses, and carried away everything of value in the royal palace, including the king’s sons and his wives. Only his youngest son, Ahaziah, was spared.

    • 2 Chronicles 21:18 (NLT)

      18After all this, the Lord struck Jehoram with the severe intestinal disease.

    • 2 Chronicles 21:19 (NLT)

      19The disease grew worse and worse, and at the end of two years it caused his bowels to come out, and he died in agony. His people did not build a great funeral fire to honor him as they had done for his ancestors.
    Labels: bowel death idolatry joshua 11 judgement painful trouble

  • Manure on your face

    • Malachi 2:3 (NLT)

      3I will punish your descendants and splatter your faces with the manure from your festival sacrifices, and I will throw you on the manure pile.
    Labels: joshua 11

  • Ripe for judgment, scattered dead bodies

    • Amos 8:2 (NLT)

      2“What do you see, Amos?” he asked.I replied, “A basket full of ripe fruit.”Then the Lord said, “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again.

    • Amos 8:3 (NLT)

      3In that day the singing in the Temple will turn to wailing. Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere. They will be carried out of the city in silence. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”
    Labels: joshua 11

  • Harsh day of the Lord

    • Amos 5:18 (NLT)

      18What sorrow awaits you who say,“If only the day of the Lord were here!”You have no idea what you are wishing for.That day will bring darkness, not light.

    • Amos 5:19 (NLT)

      19In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion—only to meet a bear.Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house—and he’s bitten by a snake.

    • Amos 5:20 (NLT)

      20Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless,without a ray of joy or hope.

    • Amos 5:21 (NLT)

      21“I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
    Labels: joshua 11

  • I will slaughter

    • Amos 1:8 (NLT)

      8I will slaughter the people of Ashdodand destroy the king of Ashkelon.Then I will turn to attack Ekron,and the few Philistines still left will be killed,”says the Sovereign Lord.
    Labels: joshua 11

  • Day of the Lord, horrible

    • Zechariah 14:6 (NLT)

      6On that day the sources of light will no longer shine,

    • Zechariah 14:12 (NLT)

      12And the Lord will send a plague on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. Their people will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
    Labels: joshua 11

  • Disaster comes from God

    • Job 12:9 (NLT)

      9For they all knowthat my disaster has come from the hand of the Lord.

    • Job 12:10 (NLT)

      10For the life of every living thing is in his hand,and the breath of every human being.
    Labels: joshua 11

  • God as a fighter

    • Jeremiah 48:10 (NLT)

      10Cursed are those who refuse to do the Lord’s work,who hold back their swords from shedding blood!
    Labels: joshua 11

  • God as a fighter

    • Zechariah 14:1 (NLT)

      1Watch, for the day of the Lord is coming when your possessions will be plundered right in front of you!

    • Zechariah 14:2 (NLT)

      2I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city.

    • Zechariah 14:3 (NLT)

      3Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past.
    Labels: joshua 11

  • King caught

    • Lamentations 4:20 (NLT)

      20Our king—the Lord’s anointed, the very life of our nation—was caught in their snares.We had thought that his shadowwould protect us against any nation on earth!
    Labels: jesus messiah

  • Tenderhearted cannibals

    • Lamentations 4:10 (NLT)

      10Tenderhearted womenhave cooked their own children.They have eaten themto survive the siege.
    Labels: cannibals jerusalem siege survival women

  • No one abandoned forever

    Labels: abandoned compassion crushed grief unfailing love

  • Mercies never cease

    Labels: bitter cup gravel hope judgement

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