Overview
Ezekiel: Ezekiel saw a sapphire like a throne above the cherubim. The Lord told the man who was dressed in white (the one who had marked people to be spared) to take coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city. When he went to get them, a cloud filled the court with the brightness of the glory of the Lord. One of the cherub handed him fire from what was between the cherubim.
Ezekiel describes the wheels, called whirling wheels, the cherubim, and the way they moved. It was the same as he saw beside the Chebar canal. The glory of the Lord left the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. They moved to the entrance of the east gate of the temple.
The Spirit took Ezekiel to the east gate and he saw 25 men, including Jaazaniah and Pelatih who were princes of Israel. The Lord told him they invent sin and give bad counsel to the city. They say it is a good time to build houses because they are safe inside the city like meat in a pot. The Lord told Ezekiel what to prophecy against them.
He is to tell them that they have killed people in the city and the dead are the meat, not them. The Lord will bring them out of their safe place and they will be given to the enemy. The city will not be their safe place and they will be judged at the border of Israel because they haven’t obeyed God’s statutes. Then they will know that God is the Lord. While Ezekiel was telling them this, Pelatiah died. Ezekiel fell down and asked God if he was killing all the remnant of Israel.
The Lord told Ezekiel that the people left in Jerusalem, even his relatives, want to take the exiles’ land because they are a long way away. Ezekiel is to tell them that God will protect the exiles and bring them back. When they come back all the idols and abominations will be wiped out. He will give them a new spirit and heart of flesh instead of their heart of stone. They will obey and keep God’s Law, be his people, and he will be their God. He will repay those who worship other gods according to their deeds.
The cherubim rose up and the glory of the Lord left the city and stood on the mountain east of the city. The Spirit took Ezekiel back to the Babylon to the exiles. He told them everything he had seen.
Psalm: I goofed yesterday. I wrote, “When Israel was small and wandered in the desert, he didn’t let anyone oppress them.” That was a reference to the Patriarchs, not Israel. Today we see God’s protection of Joseph when he was taken in slavery to Egypt. He was sent ahead of his brothers to prepare a place for them when the famine would occur. Then the Lord brought Joseph’s family to Egypt and multiplied them until he made them strong. He made the Egyptians mistreat Israel. Then he used Moses and Aaron to deliver them from Egypt by sending plagues and finally killing all the firstborn in Egypt
Proverbs: Don’t start thinking that you know what you will be able to do even tomorrow; that is proudful boasting. Don’t tell others how great you are. If you are, then others will say so.
Hebrews: Instead of teaching about Christian basics (repentance, faith, purification rites, ordination, resurrection, and eternal judgment), the author of Hebrews decides to move on to more mature subjects.
If someone has experienced the blessings of the Christian life and then rejects it all, it is impossible for them to repent. They can’t repent because they have full knowledge of what Christ’s crucifixion means and they scorn it. They are like land that enjoys the rain to produce a crop but instead produces thorns and is burned.
The author is sure that this doesn’t apply to his audience because he is sure of their salvation. God won’t overlook the good that they have done out of love in serving the saints. He wants them all to have the same assurance as they continue and do as others have done through faith and patience.
God made promises to Abraham to multiply him and swore by himself because there is no one greater than God. Since God is greater than all and he cannot lie (neither of these two can change), Abraham received the promise by waiting. We also receive the promises of hope that is secure because it is in Jesus who has gone ahead of us and for us. He is our high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
What Stood Out
Ezekiel: “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezek 11:19-20).
Psalm: “He had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave” (Ps 105:17).
Proverbs: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” (Prov 27:1).
Hebrews: “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt” (Heb 6:4-6).
Insight
Ezekiel: There are some people that believe the church has replaced Israel as God’s people. Ezekiel 11:19 fits within their theology because they can point to most Jews today and say that by rejecting Jesus as their Messiah, they still have a heart of stone. It is also obvious that when they returned from the Babylonian captivity this didn’t happen. A reading of Nehemiah will explain how they still had significant problems.
However, these facts do not negate God’s promise to Israel to give them a new heart just as he has given every Christian a new heart (2 Cor 3:3, 5:17). Jeremiah spoke of this new heart and the new covenant (Jer 31:31-34). What is important is not whether the church replaces Israel (which I do not believe it does) but that when we get a new heart we also get a renewed spirit so that we are able to obey God. This becomes our desire. When we want to obey the Lord, we become his people. If anyone claims to be a Christian and doesn’t want to do God’s will, then there is a big problem with that profession. If a person claims to be a Christian and lives a lifestyle that is disobedient to God’s will but claims to want to obey God, which do you believe? His mouth or his actions. The sign that God has changed a person’s heart from stone to flesh is his actions. God’s warning to those who don’t obey is still the same, punishment (Ezek 11:21).
Psalm: God’s sovereignty is evident in the way he used Joseph to prepare a place for his family years before the famine hit the land. This is a wondrous thought to consider. Jesus goes to prepare a place for us. When Israel went to Egypt, they received the best of the land because of what God had done for Joseph. It wasn’t based on their own merit. When we go to heaven and enter God’s kingdom there, it will be so much better than this earth that we will be overwhelmed. And it isn’t based on our merit but on our relationship with Jesus who is the Son of the King.
Proverbs: There is nothing wrong with making future plans. They are great for getting thing done and to properly provide for you and your family. They are the way the world runs. However, we should be careful to ask the Lord and plan for what he wants. When we don’t ask before making plans, we have absolutely no assurance it will take place the way we plan. James provides the way we should think about these things, “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil” (James 4:15-16).
Hebrews: Isn’t it nice that the author of Hebrews gives us a list of some Christian fundamentals and doesn’t say anything about them? I’ve heard preachers spend weeks on this passage about the fundamentals. People still argue about some of them, like baptisms and they include baptism of the holy spirit even though the passage says “washings.” But that isn’t the hardest part of today’s reading.
Hebrews 6:4-6 has changed peoples’ minds about eternal security and sent others into the belief that they can never be saved because they once belonged to a Christian church and walked away. Both of these are a tragedy. When people belong to a church and act like Christians without really knowing the Lord, they often have an intellectual knowledge of Jesus but not a relationship with him. They are really nice people and because they don’t “drink, smoke, chew, or go with girls who do,” they are blessed, just like the land that receives rain. Some of these people later reject their “faith.” They think they can’t be saved because of this verse and don’t try. But they could be saved because they were not saved in the first place.
What about people who really do know the Lord? Remember verse 6 starts with an if. This means it is hypothetical. Then the author goes on to explain why it isn’t possible for them to fall away. He assures the ones that are paying attention, that their good works are a demonstration of their faith. The next thing he does is to establish that God has made a promise and he is greater than all and he does not lie. Who is God? It is Jesus, our high priest. We must view this entire passage though the lens of Jesus, not our own viewpoint which can be wrong. Turning to Jesus, he made some comforting promises. In John 5:24, he promised with a double amen that everyone who hears and believes in him has eternal life and will not be judged. He has passed from death to life. Then again in John 10:27-30, he promises his sheep will never perish and no one can take them out of his hand or the Father’s hand – and that would include oneself – because God is greater than everyone. When we have that true faith in Jesus, he is an anchor for our souls and it is immovable. You can trust Jesus and his promises.
Application
I’m trusting in God’s promises. He says he has given me a new heart to willingly obey him and that’s what I’m doing, even if I sin at times. That doesn’t mean I’m rejecting him and in fact, it means I will never reject Jesus and his sacrifice for my sins.
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