The Attributes of God:

Listening to the Right Preacher Ezekiel 31-35 “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?”                   In our age of mobility and mass media, we are inundated with options, people, and churches that claim to speak for God but preach very different messages.  In today’s world, we can easily find a church, a preacher, a writer, a podcaster… and the list goes on… each affirming that they are proclaiming God’s message but preaching contradictory messages.  How, then, do we navigate this landscape and know we are listening to the right people with the right messages?                   This question is not just a question we deal with today; it was the same question the people of Israel were confronted with in the time of E...

The Recognition of God’s Supremacy Ezekiel 26-30 “Then they will know that I am the Lord.”                   In the daily grind of life, it is easy to forget God.  Life seems to march forward in time with little change and little awareness of God.  Because time seems to march on relentlessly and unchanged, we start to think that we control our own destiny and that, with our wealth, we can insulate ourselves from any trouble.  Instead of trusting in God and looking to him for our life and security, we start to look to ourselves and our own abilities to determine our future.  But of all the things that give us an illusion of security and safety, and there is none greater than the illusion of wealth.  We not only believe that wealth is the basis and key to happiness, but we also trust it to provide our security against the unknowns of tomorrow. ...

Becoming Tolerant of Sin Ezekiel 21-25 “They have treated father and mother lightly within you.    The alien they have oppressed in your midst; the fatherless and the widow they have wronged in you.”                    Reading through Ezekiel 21-25 is like walking through a thunderstorm without an umbrella.    The storm hits, and there is nothing one can do but continue to trudge along until one arrives at a shelter.    Such is the sense the reader gets as we read through the book of Ezekiel.    Chapter after chapter proclaims the judgment of God, leaving the reader with a desire for something positive, something good, some cry of grace and mercy.    So it is easy to skip ahead, to bypass the pronouncements of judgment in search of the promise of grace and restoration that brings hope towards the end of the book.    Yet we bypass these war...

The God of Holiness and Grace Ezekiel 16-20 “Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord God, “rather than that he should turn away from his ways and live?”                   Reading through the prophetic literature is always difficult, for its message seems to pound the drum of judgment over and over again. Page after page, God continues to condemn Israel and the nations for their immorality, idolatry, and refusal to obey God’s law.   However, God is not capricious and vindictive in His judgment.  He is a just and holy God who cannot leave sin unchecked or unpunished, for to do so would be to give tacit approval to sin. Injustice is not just punishing someone who does not deserve it; it is also to leave unpunished one who commits an act of sin.  Because He is a just and holy God, He will not leave sin unchecked or unpunished. This is the...

Listening to the Right Message Ezekiel 11-15 “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing.”                   In the last 60 years, the world shifted rapidly from the industrial age to the information age.  Previously, with the rapid growth of mechanical technology, the economy centered on industrial growth as the 20 th  century began. However, in the middle of the 20 th  century, there was a rapid shift to the growth of digital information and the information economy.  The latest advancement (AI) has both potential for incredible good but also incredible evil.  But technological advancement has further fueled the growth of misinformation and the risk of confirmation bias, in which our search for information is governed by our own biases. Thus, the greatest threat to our pursuit of wh...

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 ...