Tues.’s Devo - God’s Rest

Read: Ezekiel 3:16-6:14; Hebrews 4:1-16; Psalm 104:24-35; Proverbs 26:27 God gave Ezekiel the instructions of a watchman on the wall. A watchman on the wall is a prophet for the nations. God would tell him what was coming and if he didn’t tell it immediately, then the responsibility of what happened would be on his head. But if he gave the warning then he was free and the people were responsible for what they did with the warning. God took Ezekiel to a valley and came in his glory like he had at the River Kebar. Ezekiel fell on his face and the Spirit set him up on his feet. He told him to go home and shut himself in. He was to tie himself with ropes so he couldn’t leave his house. He was only to speak when God gave him something to say. Ezekiel’s next assignment was to take a clay brick and draw a map of Jerusalem on it. He was to build a wall around it and show it under siege. He was to take an iron griddle and place it between him and the city and turn toward the city and demonstrate how hard the siege would be. He was to lie on his left side for 390 days to show that Israel had sinned that many years. Then he was turn on the right side for 40 days for the years they had sinned against the Lord. As he laid looking at the map he was to prophecy her destruction. God would tie him in ropes so he would not be able to move. God told him to make a special kind of bread to sustain him through his 390 days and to ration it out and eat it at a designated time every day. This would show them how they would have their food rationed. Ezekiel was to cook the bread over his own dung but when Ezekiel protested, God let him use cow dung. Next, he was to take a sharp sword and use it as a razor to shave his head and bear. He was to weigh his hair and divided it into 3 parts. A third was to be placed in the middle of the map where when he had acted out the siege, he was to burn. The next third was to be scattered across the map and then chopped up with a sword and burned. The last third was to be scattered to the wind. This would be an illustration of what was going to happen to Jerusalem. Israel was God’s children and because they had chosen to worship idols, God would punish them worse than any other nation. They would end up eating their own children and the children would eat their own parents. They would end up a mockery to the other nations. There were seven mountains around Jerusalem and God told Ezekiel to prophecy against them. They had all become places of idol worship and pagan rituals and God was going to destroy them all. Only a few of the people would escape the war, famine and disease. God promises us a place of rest. This place of rest is a physical place in heaven but it is also a spiritual place right here on earth that we can enter into. God had chosen a rest for the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt, but they failed to enter into it. They all died in the wilderness because of their unbelief. We must do our best to enter into that rest. The word of God is alive and powerful. It divides between the sourish things and the spiritual. Everything is exposed before God. He sees everything. He understands all our weaknesses because he faced everything we are going through and he did it without sinning. We can ask him to empower us to do the same. Lord help us to face our trials with your grace and wisdom. We earnestly desire to enter into your rest.