DCLM Daily Manna Saturday 18 February 2023
TOPIC: Don’t Be without God
And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber’s razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.
2 Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.
3 Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.
4 Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.
5 Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.
6 And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.
7 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;
8 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.
9 And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.
10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.
KEY VERSE:
“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.”
(Ezekiel 5:8)
DCLM Daily Manna Saturday 18 February 2023 MESSAGE
Today’s text reveals the outright rebellious attitude of the children of Israel against God. God had set Jerusalem in the midst of the nations to live righteously but they changed His judgment and statutes into wickedness more than the nations round about them. They rejected His judgment and statutes and refused to walk in them. Therefore, judgment was pronounced upon them.
The world today is filled with acts of rebellion and misdemeanour. Very few take time to ponder over the fact that we are creatures of God and ought to be grateful to Him for His manifold blessings and opportunities. Many take these for granted and give little regard to His unmerited favours. Yet, the visible and invisible things of God clearly suggest that man is not a product of an accident of history, but a carefully pre-planned creature who ought to live to declare God’s glory.
According to Charles R. Swindoll, “When man refuses to yield himself to God, he creates certain conditions, not only for himself, but for others as well, which God has ordained for harm… The absence of God is destructive to human life. That absence is God’s wrath and God cannot withhold it. He sets man’s sin and His wrath in the same frame”.
The wrath of God was so much against Jerusalem that Ezekiel’s hair from his head and beard was to be put in the fire to show how fire would be used to destroy all the house of Israel. Persistence in sin and idolatry makes condemnation and judgment inevitable.
It is imperative that as a child of God, you are expected to live as light in the midst of this perverse world and to watch over your salvation and remain unspotted. God cannot compromise His standard. He demands that His people remain peculiar.
It is disheartening to see many people forget the commandments of God and in their prosperity feel that they have no need of Him. The day of the Lord’s wrath against the rebellious and disobedient world is fast approaching. To escape His Judgment, you must repent of your rebellion and backsliding, and return to Christ.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: The absence of God in a man leads to an abysmal void.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Luke 5-6
