WordListeners 1/24/2010 -Ezekiel 12 and 13

On Sunday night we had two for word listeners.  The conversation was lively and we covered only 2 chapters - Ezekiel 12 and 13.

The notes are as follows:

Ezekiel 12

A rebellious people eyes that don't see and ears that don't hear. Blindness and deafness we often feel is a tragedy but is God using it as an example that there is more to life than perfect health in this world? We know the blind miss out on some beautiful sights, and that the deaf miss out on some beautiful sounds, but here is an example of people that were missing out on God. There is more to life than this physical world.

Ezekiel is to be a sign act again, he is to act out going into exile. An example for people to see rather than just words of warning. A visual. He is to act out the people's fate (if they don't turn- a chance was given in Jeremiah to Zedekiah), and in particular the fate of Zedekiah, who will go into exile blind - not seeing the country he is taken too, nor the country he is leaving from again. Since he couldn't "see" the truth of God, why did he need eyes?

Into exile, tunneling through walls and escaping -or trying to in the middle of the night. Some will survive to be a witness about how God punished their disobedience. They will realize that it was from God and will tell people.

Eat shaking, during the siege the fear will be there. The land will stripped bare for all the sin during punishment.

Prophecy is often assumed to be at a "later time". The people had assumed all these warnings are for later. It is easy to see for us who live very limited times in comparison to God who is timeless to come to that conclusion. God's word is often delayed, but it won't be for the generation being warned in Jerusalem. God always keeps His promises. His timing may be delayed, and the fulfillment often comes in stages, but it does happen.

Ezekiel 13

Prophecy is a message from God. People make up things out of their own head and call it a message from God. It happened then and it still happens today. Why? They think they have insight that others don't have, which seemingly makes them better than other people. Which is a sign of pride and not a message from God. If you are going to be God's messenger or prophet, then you need to be able to hear from Him. Time, place and method of hearing. To rely on what "comes to mind" can be an overactive imagination, or a thought of the enemy in addition to really being of God. We have the real thing - His word. We can share how we as an individual "see God in this passage". In thinking about His word, we need to think about how Jesus is manifested - in some way. We also need to dwell on the word of God, reading it and thinking about it often.

Getting back to prophets who make things up, they are doomed. Their messages won't align with God's word, their intentions are selfish, they aren't truly seeking God's will, or following it. They have fallen into the trap of pleasing men. In the second paragraph it implies these prophets talk but don't act. Are they so convinced their message is from God that they are willing to go it alone? Repairing the city, preparing for the future needs.

Lying or false prophets will not be part of God's people. They withhold from God's people the truth, or soften it in some way. Not unlike people in job situations that set out to deceive their workers, because the truth (in their opinion) is too unpleasant to fully disclose. In that time the prophets in Jerusalem denied that judgment was coming. In our time there is denial that God will act and allow the judgment predicted in the end times of the Bible. Its God's world, when He is ready it will happen, and it won't be pleasant for those who have denied Him. Those that have accepted Him, He will protect (in some way)- He has done it in the past, in similar situations on a smaller scale, but the same things have come to pass. When His wrath is let loose (interesting that the message edition uses Hurricane and I had talked about Katrina earlier) it will be bigger than man can make, and the messages of the false prophets who spoke comfort will be just that empty messages not truly from God.

So how do you know if your prophet is receiving messages from God or making them up out of his/her own mind? The short answer is you don't. You have to develop your relationship with the Lord, you have to "listen" for God in His word, or in other ways He may choose to manifest His message. Be very careful of listening to men and their thoughts. They may very well be from God, and they may very well not be.

In the end of the chapter he has a message against women prophets. Like the others they made up things in their own minds, just to get ahead materially in this life. God will deliver His people from their influence, and He wants to deliver us all. He delivers us by sending Christ and allowing us to get our own message from Him, usually through His written Word. We all want God to speak a new and different word to each of us, but then wouldn't He be singling us out and potentially feeding our pride? So He may very well not.