Ezekiel’s Wisdom—1 - Saturday March 20, 2010
Deliver those who are being taken away to death, and those who are staggering to slaughter, oh hold them back. Proverbs 24:11
Ezekiel has been my least favorite book in the Bible—too weird, too depressing. It’s not that I don’t like prophets. Isaiah is probably my favorite book—full of right-on diagnosis of problems, but also glorious promises. However, my last trip through Ezekiel was different. Eugene Peterson’s introduction in The Message really caught my attention. Listen to a part of it: “Catastrophe strikes and a person’s world falls apart. People respond variously, but two of the more common responses are denial and despair. Denial refuses to acknowledge the catastrophe. It shuts its eyes tight or looks the other way; it manages to act as if everything is going to be just fine; it takes refuge in distractions and lies and fantasies. Despair is paralyzed by the catastrophe and accepts it as the end of the world. It is unwilling to do anything, concluding that life for all intents and purposes is over. Despair listlessly closes its eyes to a world in which all the color has drained out….”
Catastrophe has not been something I’ve experienced a lot. But when you ask God to use you in others’ lives, no matter what the cost, watch out. Do you want to live safely on the sidelines, enjoying hours of time spent on entertaining yourself? Are you who are parents overly protecting your own kids from the world’s temptations? Or are you willing to put your life on the line, affecting other lives for all eternity—even outside your family, outside your friendship circle? If you decide to enter God’s army, not just His family, you may find yourself in despair or denial at some points in time. Let’s look at how to avoid these.
Submitted by:
Dotty Vanderhorst
Cornerstone Community Church
Overland Park, Kansas
One-Year Reading Plan:
Numbers 30:1-31:54
Luke 4:1-30
Psalms 63:1-11
Proverbs 11:20-21
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SCRIPTURE REFERENCB-ES: Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible B) The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy, Bible, New International Version, copyright B) 1973, 1978, 1984 by InternaB-tional Bible Society; (NKJV) are from New King James Version B) 1982 by Thomas Nelson; (NLT) are from the New Living Translation, B) 1996, Tyndale House Publishers; (ESV) are from English Standard VersionB., B) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; (TM) are from The Message B) 1993 by NavPress Publishers.