Ezekiel 40:4 And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee; for to the intent that I might show them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all thou seest to the house of Israel.
Oh Friends, it’s obvious that our God likes to enshroud Himself in mystery and drama. We see it in many of His works throughout the Good Book. Today’s Bit is such an occasion. In the 25th year of Israel’s Babylonian exile, Ezekiel had this vision of himself being transported by God to a high mountain in Israel where something resembling the frame of a city was set out. ‘And, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass (bronze), with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed (rod); and he stood in the gate.’ (Eze.40:3) Ah Friends, isn’t our God great? His movements at times can be so contrary and unpredictable, but one thing’s certain, those movements NEVER belie His words. He always does whatever he says, just not always in a manner that we expect or understand. Now here is Zeke’s spirit, on this mountain in Israel, though his body is many miles away in Babylon. He’s looking at the framework of a city with a bronze man standing at its entrance. Now what’s the purpose of all this mystery and drama? The Lord obviously had something important to impart to Zeke and thought that a vision would have the greatest impact on him. ‘And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee; for to the intent that I might show them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that that thou seest to the house of Israel.’ Then the man showed him around the city, measuring the various rooms and pointing out the important places. Ezekiel’s vision deals with the temple, but we’re not going to focus on that. In passing though, let’s note that the scholars cannot agree on whether the temple was ever built, or if so, which one it is, or if it’s only a figurative temple, or one that’s to be built later on during the millennial reign of Christ. But that’s the scholar’s problem. Today I want to concentrate on the words the bronze man said to Zeke, in relation to God’s overall kingdom and His purpose for us. And just like our God, I’ll be somewhat contrary and start at the end. The last words of the Bit are; ‘declare all thou seest to the House of Israel.’ That was God’s main purpose for showing Zeke the vision. He wanted him to spread the word about the wonderful temple that their God had in their future and consequently a brighter life in general. And Friends, our God has a special plan and purpose for the lives of each and all believers. However, many of us don’t know what God has planned for us. Why? As the bronze man said to Zeke, ‘behold with thine eyes.’ Oh my people, that means we have to first make a conscious effort, to search out, to try and figure out what the Lord’s trying to do in the world in general and our lives in particular. He has a separate journey and job for each believer, and I believe He takes each one of us up to that high mountain, whether it be in a dream, during moments of meditation, or in a simple Eureka moment, and divulges, shows us the general framework that He has planned for our lives. Unfortunately though, many of us don’t pay close enough attention to what the Lord, through His Holy Spirit does in our lives. We either don’t think that aspect of our faith is important, or we don’t know how to gauge what God is saying to us. But Friends, it’s essential that we pay attention to what’s happening in our lives, especially to some of the small stuff that seems trivial to us. I’ll share some personal testimony on the point. Now, some ten or fifteen years ago, I went to church, but never watched religious programmes on the television. My mother would mention some names to me and I’d joke around with her about them. Subsequent to that, she had eye surgery and couldn’t read her normal prayers, so one day, out of the goodness of my heart, at least that’s what I thought at the time (smile) I offered to read them for her. Hn! Little did I know what I was getting into, for it’s been an ongoing situation ever since. But do you think I paid any real attention to that as God doing something in my life? Not really. Then, somehow or the other I began watching religious programmes on the tube. I really don’t remember how that came about, but would you believe they were the same ones I’d laugh about with my mother. And she didn’t want anything better, gladly figuring as a Christian mother that I was being brought further under the protective umbrella of Christ. Even then, I still never considered those occurrences of any particular importance, in the sense that I was being prepared for something deeper and closer to God. That’s why, when out of the blue, He suddenly broached this idea of me writing on scriptural matters I had to laugh. And though I resisted the idea, possibly through a combination of a lack of sufficient scriptural knowledge, the heavy workload involved and a lack of confidence to do a good enough job, I finally did as He desired. There were growing pains, still have some (smile) but the fact is that three years later the Scrip-Bit is going out every day to an ever increasing number of people through the Lord’s grace. What I’m saying Friends, is that in hindsight I can now see God using those things I just mentioned as building blocks in my spiritual growth and maturity, until He thought I was ready to take on the bigger job of writing the Bit. Oh my people, all sorts of things happen in our lives that guide us in certain directions, but what I’m asking us to do today is to pay closer attention to the things that seem to have no particular significance, but might just be God actually working in, or on a specific direction for our lives. And it’s to our benefit if we can fathom these things early, so we’ll make fewer mistakes and be better off. But time and space have run out, so we’ll continue this interesting topic tomorrow, God willing of course. But then again why won’t He be? All we’re doing is trying to LOVE our God, SPREAD His Word and LIVE our Faith. Much LOVE…our God doesn’t deal in insignificance…no matter how small…all His doings are significant…
Oh Friends, it’s obvious that our God likes to enshroud Himself in mystery and drama. We see it in many of His works throughout the Good Book. Today’s Bit is such an occasion. In the 25th year of Israel’s Babylonian exile, Ezekiel had this vision of himself being transported by God to a high mountain in Israel where something resembling the frame of a city was set out. ‘And, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass (bronze), with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed (rod); and he stood in the gate.’ (Eze.40:3) Ah Friends, isn’t our God great? His movements at times can be so contrary and unpredictable, but one thing’s certain, those movements NEVER belie His words. He always does whatever he says, just not always in a manner that we expect or understand. Now here is Zeke’s spirit, on this mountain in Israel, though his body is many miles away in Babylon. He’s looking at the framework of a city with a bronze man standing at its entrance. Now what’s the purpose of all this mystery and drama? The Lord obviously had something important to impart to Zeke and thought that a vision would have the greatest impact on him. ‘And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee; for to the intent that I might show them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that that thou seest to the house of Israel.’ Then the man showed him around the city, measuring the various rooms and pointing out the important places. Ezekiel’s vision deals with the temple, but we’re not going to focus on that. In passing though, let’s note that the scholars cannot agree on whether the temple was ever built, or if so, which one it is, or if it’s only a figurative temple, or one that’s to be built later on during the millennial reign of Christ. But that’s the scholar’s problem. Today I want to concentrate on the words the bronze man said to Zeke, in relation to God’s overall kingdom and His purpose for us. And just like our God, I’ll be somewhat contrary and start at the end. The last words of the Bit are; ‘declare all thou seest to the House of Israel.’ That was God’s main purpose for showing Zeke the vision. He wanted him to spread the word about the wonderful temple that their God had in their future and consequently a brighter life in general. And Friends, our God has a special plan and purpose for the lives of each and all believers. However, many of us don’t know what God has planned for us. Why? As the bronze man said to Zeke, ‘behold with thine eyes.’ Oh my people, that means we have to first make a conscious effort, to search out, to try and figure out what the Lord’s trying to do in the world in general and our lives in particular. He has a separate journey and job for each believer, and I believe He takes each one of us up to that high mountain, whether it be in a dream, during moments of meditation, or in a simple Eureka moment, and divulges, shows us the general framework that He has planned for our lives. Unfortunately though, many of us don’t pay close enough attention to what the Lord, through His Holy Spirit does in our lives. We either don’t think that aspect of our faith is important, or we don’t know how to gauge what God is saying to us. But Friends, it’s essential that we pay attention to what’s happening in our lives, especially to some of the small stuff that seems trivial to us. I’ll share some personal testimony on the point. Now, some ten or fifteen years ago, I went to church, but never watched religious programmes on the television. My mother would mention some names to me and I’d joke around with her about them. Subsequent to that, she had eye surgery and couldn’t read her normal prayers, so one day, out of the goodness of my heart, at least that’s what I thought at the time (smile) I offered to read them for her. Hn! Little did I know what I was getting into, for it’s been an ongoing situation ever since. But do you think I paid any real attention to that as God doing something in my life? Not really. Then, somehow or the other I began watching religious programmes on the tube. I really don’t remember how that came about, but would you believe they were the same ones I’d laugh about with my mother. And she didn’t want anything better, gladly figuring as a Christian mother that I was being brought further under the protective umbrella of Christ. Even then, I still never considered those occurrences of any particular importance, in the sense that I was being prepared for something deeper and closer to God. That’s why, when out of the blue, He suddenly broached this idea of me writing on scriptural matters I had to laugh. And though I resisted the idea, possibly through a combination of a lack of sufficient scriptural knowledge, the heavy workload involved and a lack of confidence to do a good enough job, I finally did as He desired. There were growing pains, still have some (smile) but the fact is that three years later the Scrip-Bit is going out every day to an ever increasing number of people through the Lord’s grace. What I’m saying Friends, is that in hindsight I can now see God using those things I just mentioned as building blocks in my spiritual growth and maturity, until He thought I was ready to take on the bigger job of writing the Bit. Oh my people, all sorts of things happen in our lives that guide us in certain directions, but what I’m asking us to do today is to pay closer attention to the things that seem to have no particular significance, but might just be God actually working in, or on a specific direction for our lives. And it’s to our benefit if we can fathom these things early, so we’ll make fewer mistakes and be better off. But time and space have run out, so we’ll continue this interesting topic tomorrow, God willing of course. But then again why won’t He be? All we’re doing is trying to LOVE our God, SPREAD His Word and LIVE our Faith. Much LOVE…our God doesn’t deal in insignificance…no matter how small…all His doings are significant…
SCRIP-BITS 