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When the Storm Clouds are Building

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When the Storm Clouds are Building. Ezekiel 6-10 “Israel, the end has come. You will feel my anger, because I am judging you for what you have done.” 7:3 God had had enough. While God was patient and gracious towards his people, He had reached the end of His patience, and so, through the prophet Ezekiel, he pronounced a terrifying judgment. The judgment that was coming was devastation and terrifying, and it would leave the nation of Israel decimated and destroyed. One third of the people would die from sickness and famine, one third would die because of warfare, and the remainder would be cast into exile. The book of Ezekiel begins with one of the darkest and terrifying condemnations and judgments found in scripture. However, their destruction was not due to the misfortunes of war or the onslaught of a pandemic. The issue was neither political nor the result of national conflicts. The cause of their downfall was their rampant spiritual abandonment of God. Instead of being faithful ...
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Seeing God in the Challenges of Life

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Seeing God in the Difficulties of Life Ezekiel 1-5 “As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance.  Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.  And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.” (1:28).                   Ezekiel was given a ministry that would cause the most stouthearted to faint.  Serving and walking with God is easy when it is convenient, stress-free, and rewarding.  But how about when it becomes difficult, costly, and discouraging?  When God appointed Ezekiel to be His prophet to the people, He warned Ezekiel that the people would completely reject his message. Instead of responding with repentance and revival, they would respond with indifference and hostility.  In such an environment, it is easy to understand why G...
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Singing a Song of Praise

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Singing a Song of Praise Jeremiah 51- Lamentations 5 “Then the heaven and the earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers will come to her from the north, declares the Lord.”                   We sing the songs of praise for the grace of God, but are silent in affirming his judgment.  We celebrate and affirm the existence of heaven, but want to deny the reality of hell.  A quick perusal of the top 100 most popular worship songs, there is not one song that celebrates the justice and judgment of God.  Yet when we read through the chapters of Jeremiah 51 through Lamentations 5, we find the words hard and difficult to read for they are a series of pronouncements of judgment upon Israel and the nations around them.  The message is dark and foreboding as God proclaims that he will pour out his wrath upon the nations for their i...
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The Certainty of an Uncertain World

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The One who Controls the Geo-Political World Jeremiah 46-51 46:25, “The Lord of hosts, The God of Isael, says, “Behold I am going to punish….”                   Daily, we are reminded that the geo-political world is in disarray.  We look about our world, and it seems the more advanced our society becomes and the more integrated the international scene, the more nations struggle to gain dominance.  In the decades since World War II, the world has become integrated in a global economy.  What happens in Europe not only affects the political world, but it also has a profound effect upon our own lives.  We see the rapid rise in oil prices and its effect on every facet of life as fuel costs continue to increase.  Everything we face in life, from the price of fuel to the price of our food, is affected by geopolitical developments.  However, ...
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The Folly of False Obedience

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The Folly of False Obedience Jeremiah 41-45 “Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God…You are telling a lie! The Lord Our God has not sent you.”  41:6 and 43:2                   It's easy to trust and affirm our obedience to God when His plans align with ours, but it is far more difficult when He disrupts our plans and leads us in a direction we do not desire to go. The people of Judah were experiencing a time of great uncertainty. Babylon was applying pressure on them from the north as they sought to gain control of Judah. Judah became the buffer state between the two powerhouses of the Ancient Near East, so whoever controlled Judah controlled the trade routes between Europe and Africa and would hold the upper hand in the power struggle. Due to their strategic location, Babylon desired to gain control. With the threat of Babylon rising in the ...
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Listening to what we do not want to hear.

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Listening to What We Do not Want to Hear Jeremiah 36-40. “Yet the King and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments.” (36:24)                   When writing to Timothy, Paul warns, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).  The hardest thing to do is to listen to a warning that challenges us to change.  We want affirmation so that we do not need to change.  We want to be told that God loves us and that we are exempt from judgment.  But the one thing we do not want is to be told is that we must change or face the consequences of our sin. We want heaven, but reject hell, even...
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The Greatest Hope in a Time of Darkness

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The Greatest Hope in a Time of Darkness Jeremiah 31-25 “Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”                   The heart of Jeremiah appears dark and foreboding as he pronounces judgment upon Israel. Yet within the book that seems to focus on judgment, we find one of the greatest statements of hope in Scripture. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, gives a message that becomes the foundation for the entire New Testament. In chapter 31, we find the connecting link between the Old and New Testaments, a link we still regularly celebrate today. It is so central that it forms the basis for the title, “New Testament”.                   When Jeremiah arrived on the scene, Israel was in shambles. They had completely forsaken the La...
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