Sat.’s Devo - By Faith

Read: Ezekiel 24:1-26:21; Hebrews 11:1-16; Psalm 110:1-7; Proverbs 27:14 God told Ezekiel to write down the date of that day because on that very day, Babylon was beginning his attack against Jerusalem and they would soon find this out. Jerusalem had boasted of being in an iron caldron because of how safe they were, but God was saying that the caldron was going to be set on fire and they would be the meat in the pot. They had so much corruption in their city that it couldn’t be cleaned out, it would have to be burned out. Jerusalem was a city of murderers. Later, God said that he would take away Jerusalem’s greatest treasure and to illustrate this, God took Ezekiel’s wife in her sleep that night. He was not to mourn her outwardly. This was the same way God would take away the Temple, the source of their pride and delight. Their children who had stayed in Jerusalem would be killed and they would not be allowed to mourn them in Babylon. Survivors from Jerusalem’s fall would come to Babylon and tell them what happened. Then they would realize Ezekiel’s words are true. God had a word for many of the nations who hated Israel. Ammon delighted in hearing Jerusalem’s fall so the would be overran with nomads from the eastern desert. They would take over their land and they would no longer be a recognized nation. The people of Moab would experience the same fate. God would wipe out the people and animals of Edom using the people of Israel. God would take revenge on the Philstines and wipe them out also. Tyre, the gateway to international trade routes would be destroyed by many enemy nations and be reduced to a rock by the sea. It would come to an end by the king of Babylon. All the nations of the seaports would tremble in horror to see the destruction of Tyre. In Hebrews we are given God’s definition of faith: the reality of what we hope for; the evidence of the things we cannot see. We were not there when God created the world but faith gives us the ability to believe it happened just like the Bible says. God gives us specific people to showed us examples of faith. Abel offered the perfect sacrifice as a type of Jesus who offered the perfect sacrifice of himself. It cost Abel his life just as Jesus’ sacrifice cost him his life. Enoch went to heaven without passing through death to get there. He is a picture of those who will one day be taken in the Rapture and not experience death. Noah endured the flood in the ark as a picture of those who will endure the Great Tribulation in a safe ark while the flood of God’s anger is raging all around them. Abraham, the Father of nations was told to go to a land he had never been and it would be his inheritance. God has given us a picture of this new earth he is going to establish in which we will have citizenship in. Sarah believed that God would give her a child when it seemed her time of bearing was way over. She is a picture of long-suffering hope in God’s promises that seem late and impossible. She had been promised a nation with so many people it would be like the stars in the sky. We have been promised a revival of souls that will far surpass any revival the nations have ever seen. All of these people mentioned died before they saw their promise completed but God was faithful in completing it after their death. God’s promises for us are activated when we die to our old man and allow God’s spirit to raise us up to new life. In this new life we experience his promises activated. Lord, thank you for all the promises you have given us. We activate our faith to believe you will complete the good works you have started in us.