“Thankful Beyond All Measure!”

Scripture: Colossians 1:9-20

Thanksgiving is an American tradition that is as old as our heritage. It has always been taken seriously and it was never given a secondary position in early American lives, but over the years, it has lost its significance of thankfulness, and is now just another holiday to justify our overindulgences.

When the Plymouth settlers feasted, they had just come through a devastating first year in their new home. The winter’s cold had been brutal, illness had ravaged the colony, hunger was an everyday thing, and even though their dream of religious freedom had come true, they had paid a heavy penalty for it. But with the new spring came healing and hope and promise of a far better life, and when the harvest came in, how could they NOT give thanks to the One who had brought them such a blessing.

In 1789, during his first year in office, George Washington proclaimed a Day of Thanksgiving with the following notice:
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor;
and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Consider that first “whereas” again – it is our duty to acknowledge the “providence”, the wisdom, of Almighty God; it is our duty to obey His will; it is our duty to be grateful for all that he gives and does; it is our duty to humbly seek his protection and favor!
And did you notice that it wasn’t just the President who ordered this – it was also the joint will of both houses of Congress!

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed an annual Day of Thanksgiving, to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. In his address, he offered a considerable list of items that we should be thankful for, including community and industrial growth and peace with other nations; that all of our blessings have nothing to do with our own strength and wisdom, but solely due to the gracious nature of Almighty God; a call to every citizen, regardless of whether they are within the boundaries of the nation, or at sea, or in a foreign land, to offer God praise for his “singular deliverances and blessings”; to pray for forgiveness from “our national perverseness and disobedience”; commend to God those who have suffered the most during the Civil conflict – “widows, orphans, mourners, and sufferers”; and to pray for healing and restoration of our nation.

Powerful calls and powerful prayers!
Could these great leaders of our nation have been familiar with our text for this evening?

Read Colossians 1:9-14

Do you see some similarities between this passage and the thoughts of Washington and Lincoln? Thankfulness for good things that come from God; growth and strength that God has given; great endurance and patience; an inheritance in the kingdom of light; and we are told that we should be giving joyful thanks to the Father. But at the end of this passage, the writer adds a reference to Jesus, which the early proclamations didn’t, and as we read further, he expands his praise and joy in the Son of God.

Read Colossians 1:15-20

What a joy filled hymn of praise to our Gracious and Glorious Lord! But when we consider the circumstances under which all of these praises are being offered, we must be humbled.
The early church was beginning to experience persecution, and it is felt that this letter was written around the time of Paul’s execution. And yet, the church is told to be thankful for all that they have, and not to focus too much on the trials that were coming their way.
The Pilgrims had come through a very difficult year. Friends and loved ones had perished; everyone had suffered from inadequate nourishment; the winter had been bitterly cold, but they still found sufficient reason to have a 3 day celebration to rejoice in the Lord’s goodness and bounty.

In 1789, the nation had just recently been formed. The revolution had been devastating for both sides, and the colonists had lost, not only family and friends, but also property, possessions, and wealth. The new nation still had a lot to work out before they could even begin to be united, and yet, there were all the reasons in the world to rejoice for all that God had given them.

In 1863, our Civil War was still raging with no real end in sight. Brother against brother, father against son, families torn apart, homes and communities destroyed, and Lincoln still had the presence of mind, and the faith, to suggest that we should give thanks and seek the Lord’s forgiveness for our “perverseness”.

Today, we aren’t just experiencing political differences, but civil divisiveness and the fear of terrorism! We are in a struggle that is no less harmful to us than it was for the people of the 3 eras we have considered this evening. And still, we are to give thanks – not for the strife, but for God’s goodness and glory in the midst of it all. Tomorrow isn’t just a day to watch parades and football games, and to stuff our bellies nearly to the bursting point! It is a day to give thanks to Almighty God for his many blessings and the goodness that he has won, and has paid for, and gives so freely.

Our Colossians passage isn’t just for tonight – it’s for tomorrow and for all of our tomorrows. Give God his due, and praise him to the heights, regardless of what your mortal life is experiencing. There’s so much more, you know!

“Grateful for the Manna”

Scripture: John 6:25-35

Last week, we heard the Lord tell Israel to go and serve their false gods is they really wanted to, but that one day, they all would come back to him. “You will know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for my name’s sake and not according to your evil ways and your corrupt practices” (Ezekiel 20:44) This would be the evidence of the new covenant that he was creating for them, and he tells them that they will see it, and know it, and will not miss it.
But it would be several hundred years before this new way would come to be, before the new covenant would be put in place. There would be several hundred years of struggle, of sinful ways, of continued reliance on the old covenant, of defeat and occupation, of an exodus that wasn’t in a physical wilderness, but one that was surely in a spiritual one. In our text today, Jesus is reminding the people of that first wilderness experience, and uses it as an analogy for their present state.

Read John 6:25-29

This is a time that immediately follows John’s telling of the feeding of the five thousand, but interestingly enough, he offers nothing of the sermon that Matthew spends 3 chapters on. It appears that for John, the truth of the sermon lays in the miracle of the 5 loaves and 2 fish. Think about it – Matthew’s version of that day, laid out in detail in chapters 5-7, are all about how to live in this life. And while that is vitally important for us to understand, John focuses on how the Lord feeds us, and not just in a physical way.

The story isn’t just about Jesus’ caring for our existence, but rather how he cares for us. Jesus recognizes the fact that the people are hungry. There is no place nearby where they could buy food, and even if there was, Philip tells him that there is no way that they could afford to buy all that food. And at about that time, Andrew brings a young boy to the Lord with a meager fare of 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish.
The people can’t feed themselves, the disciples can’t even begin to meet their needs, but the meal will come to be through the working of both the generous faith of a boy and the power of God. Jesus could so easily sustain us and nourish us without ever using physical food, and yet, he doesn’t. And he doesn’t use just any food – he blesses the poorest food. 5 barley loaves – a poor person’s meal, and 2 little fish – probably the size of sardines.

It wasn’t the generosity of a wealthy man who says “I’ll sponsor the meal for every one here.”
It wasn’t a score of women who humbly offer to go to the kitchen and prepare the meal for everyone else.
It was a young boy who had nothing to offer except a paltry amount of food that would barely be significant for his own needs.

Did Jesus tell the boy to go away because he had no concept of what feeding thousands and thousands of men, women and children entailed? Did Jesus announce to the crowd that they were going to take up an offering, and if it was enough, the disciples would go over to the town of Tiberius and buy lunch for them? NO! Jesus received the scant offering, and it was enough. It was more than enough, for there were 12 heaping baskets of food left over!

And in this follow up to the miracle, Jesus reminds the crowd that they follow him for no other reason than because he can fill their stomachs, and not because he can satisfy their souls. “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life." Jesus is the Bread of Life; Jesus is the Living Water, and all we need to do to receive it is to follow the example of a young boy who has little to give, and yet he gives it all – to believe without hesitation that Jesus can work wonders through a faith that knows without question that while we can’t, he can.

Read John 6:30-35

Remember the story regarding the manna? (Exodus 16) The people were complaining that out there in the desert, they didn’t have enough to eat, but if they had stayed in Egypt, there would have been plenty to eat! So God tells them “I will rain down bread from heaven.” You would think that this would be enough, but when the food comes, gratitude only lasts a short time, and the nation begins crabbing all over again – “How come we don’t get any meat? We had lots of meat back in Egypt!” Now personally, I think their memories were a bit clouded, because they were slaves back there, and the food would never have been quite as good as they seemed to remember it!
But the Lord remembers their grumbling, and tells them that he will send them plenty of meat in the form of quail – so much, in fact, that they are going to get sick of it. (Numbers 11) But they never quite got the point that it wasn’t about the filling of their stomachs, or even about wandering aimlessly for 40 years! It was about discovering the glory of all that could be theirs if they would but show an all abiding faith to the God who lead them and cared for them and loved them. (Deuteronomy 8:3) “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

What is there about God’s benevolent and generous nature that we can’t seem to appreciate? He gives us manna where there is no food at all, and it doesn’t make us happy. He feeds us with a never ending supply of barley loaves and sardines, and we complain that it isn’t angel food cake and salmon. He gives us his word for the living of our lives, and we decide that we can rewrite it and make it better. He dies at Calvary and only asks that we believe in him to receive his salvation, and we decide that salvation should be for everyone regardless of what they believe.
Why can’t we see his goodness and grace as being enough? Probably because we don’t fully understand what it can do for our lives. We don’t trust him enough; we don’t depend on him enough; we don’t surrender enough of ourselves to let his grace even begin to work in our lives!

The Apostle Paul had prayed over and over that the Lord would relieve him of some unnamed trial in his life – he called it “a thorn” - but God’s only reply was “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9)
Jesus never told us that it would make sense – only that it was true.

“You must be born again” didn’t answer a single question that Nicodemus had that night – it only created more. (John 3:1-8)
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate his father and mother … cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26) I have to what??
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44) You’ve got to be kidding!
“Power is made perfect in weakness” – shouldn’t that be the other way around?

We need to be grateful for manna, not because it is so delicious, but because it keeps us from starving to death.
We need to be thankful for simple meals like barley bread and sardines, simply because it cares for our need and we don’t have to pay for it or prepare it.
We need to rejoice in his word – not because it is easy and exactly what we want it to say – but because it is what our Lord wants us to know
We need to trust in his redemption and salvation – not because it saves everyone, but because it welcomes everyone.


There’s a great old hymn that sums it all up!
1. When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way.
While we do his good will, he abides with us still,
And with all who will -- trust and obey.

3. But we never can prove the delights of his love until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor he shows, for the joy he bestows,
are for them who will -- trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus,
but to trust and obey.

The Almighty will provide blessings that sometimes are big and sometimes are small, but they will always be the right size for the moment. If we are to feed 10,000 people, the manna will come is huge amounts. If we are to provide a word of grace to one person who is struggling, the word will be just right. If we need the power to slay a giant, it will be there. If we need the wisdom to calm a troubled soul, it will be there, too.
That’s the promise of the new covenant – that no matter how great or how small our wilderness may be, no matter how wonderful or how tasteless our manna may be, God’s giving grace will be sufficient in all ways - and through it all, we need to give thanks to the Lord for every one of his perfect blessings.

“Repentance and Restoration”

Scripture: Ezekiel 20:39-44

The prophet had been given God’s word for the people of Israel and Judah, and, for the most part, they weren’t to be words of grace and love, and they wouldn’t be words given once and then forgotten. They would be words that were hard to hear, difficult to accept, and almost impossible for the nation to live within. They would be warning after warning, dire prophesy after dire prophesy, words of condemnation after even more words of condemnation! The covenant that God had made for Israel was broken – the Lord had kept his part of the promise, but Israel had failed over and over to keep even a little of their part. So last week, we heard that the Almighty would make a new covenant – one that had three important provisions.
First, it would still offer eternal life, but it would no longer be based in the law. “Right” living had never been conceivable OR achievable by God’s people, so this new covenant would bypass all reference to the people having to earn “righteousness” all on their own.
Second, there would still be a penalty for failure, which would most assuredly come, but the cost would be paid up front, before the covenant would ever be put in place, and it would be God who would pay the penalty. Human sacrifice, human payment, human redemption had never been sufficient, so it would be replaced with Godly sacrifice, Godly payment, Godly redemption, which would always be more than enough.
Third, and this is a provision that Israel would never understand and never acknowledge - the covenant would now be open to all people from all nations, and that the only action required on their part would be to either accept it or ignore it.
And just so there would be no misunderstanding, no possible claim that some human and imperfect prophet got it wrong, God would leave his heavenly glory to come in human form to introduce the covenant to the world and to teach the people just what it meant.
Could it possibly get any easier?

Read Ezekiel 20:39-40

“You may choose to continue in serving false gods if you want to, but know this – as far as your relationship with me goes, it will do nothing except show disrespect and contempt to me, and now you know that I will not accept it.” They will have to choose, just as everyone else will, and this time, they must choose wisely!

Their separation from God and Promise will, one day, come to an end, and they will be reunited, not only with their Lord, but with the land that had been promised to them. And when they choose the Lord as their one and only hope, they will be able to meet the Divine One on truly Holy Ground, and they will become the new temple, of the new covenant, in a new life.

But all things would have to be made new. No more prideful righteousness, no more exclusivity in faith, no more exclusion of others, no more self-centeredness, no more trust in self. And if they will do this, a great healing will occur – one that will astound and bless them, one that will bring peace and power to them, one that will give a glorious hope to them, not only for today, but for every tomorrow. In 2 Chronicles 7:14-16, Almighty God promises that if the people humble themselves, and seek him, and turn away from evil, they will be forgiven and all will be right again. The Lord offered these words on the occasion of the dedication of the first temple, but as we read these words, they ring true, not for the old ways, but for a totally new way that God is laying out for the people.

Read Ezekiel 20:41-44

Yahweh lets them know that in this new relationship, in this new covenant, he will be pleased and honored by them once again. And they will know that he is the Lord, because they will see that the promises have been kept and that they have been restored to his glory, and when they truly know him again, they will remember their sin and will hate it and will repent of their old ways.
And they will know that he is their Lord, every time that he acts solely in his way, and not in response to theirs.

We are in the day of the new covenant, the day of new life, the day of the Lord’s way. In John 14:13-14, we read “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” No longer does God demand that we attain righteousness, that we become sinless and worthy, that we somehow achieve acceptability in God’s sight before we come to him, but that anyone may come to him, at any time, in any condition, as long as it is in his way and in his name.

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” The Lord Jesus’ eyes are open to our plight, his ears are open to our prayers, and these new temples of the new covenant are consecrated to his honor.

In full confidence as the people of God in Christ Jesus, come and lay your plight and your burdens and your prayers before him. He is watching, and he is listening to you.

At this point, a HEALING SERVICE was held.

“Betrayal of the Covenant”

Scripture: Ezekiel 16 (Selected)

The word that God had been giving Ezekiel had not been good. Condemnation, abandonment, frustration, finality – this was Israel and Judah’s future, and the more that every prophet shared with the people, the more they rejected their message. They would tie them, but the Lord would untie them; the people would try to muffle their words, and the Lord would give them a new voice and a new word. And it would continue to get even worse before it got better. Captivity for Israel would continue, and Judah’s fate was that they would soon join their brothers and sisters in a foreign land.

And yet, Yahweh was with them through it all. He prodded them, he chastised them, he left them to their own means, and even as they fell further and further into the morass of their own making, he continued to love them.
Why? Why would the Lord want to stay with such a miserable bunch? They had condemned themselves through their unholy actions and false worship; they had given up all hope in the God of their past and future; they had turned their backs on the only one who could save them; and still, God kept after them to come back. Why?

Read Ezekiel 16:1-8

In our text, God speaks of Israel’s birthright in him. The nation had been given no hope for a future, but Yahweh had seen great beauty in this life, and rescued her from certain death. This passage is an analogy of courtship that develops between a man and the love he has suddenly discovered in a young woman. In verse 8b we read “I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.” A covenant – a binding pledge – had been declared by God, and he would never break it. He had chosen Israel as his own, and as far as he was concerned, it would be forever.
In John’s Gospel, 15:16, Jesus tells his disciples “You did not choose me, I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” But just who was the intended audience for these words - was it the 12 who followed him, or was he simply reaffirming the covenant that had been made to Israel thousands of years before?
Israel had been chosen as God’s own. There is nothing in Ezekiel 16 that could possibly be construed as God being chosen by Israel! The choice was God’s, and Israel had nothing to say about the arrangement. The relationship had been sanctified by God’s oath, and the people should have stood in awe at this incredible honor, but apparently, they didn’t. They were not only derelict in their call to live faithfully within Yahweh’s covenant, but they had failed to live up to the Lord’s call to bear good fruit, lasting fruit, righteous fruit!
So why did the Lord continue to try to get them to come back to him? Why not just cut them off?

Have you ever read the book of Hosea? Chapters 1&2 are about God’s call to the prophet to “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD” (V. 2) Israel had prostituted herself with other nations and other gods, and the Lord would tell them over and over again that he was not about to let them go, regardless of what they did. In Hosea 3, the prophet is told to keep loving his adulterous wife, and to buy her back from her many lovers, and to take her back as his wife.
God would, one day, buy Israel back from the lovers she had taken to her side, and his love for the people would never die.

Christian theologian and speaker Jim Wallis writes about the plight of Christian faith today:
"We have forgotten we are God's people, and we have fallen into the worship of American gods. Now God's word to us is to return. Church historians may someday describe our period as the American captivity of the church. It is no less real than the Babylonian Captivity in the history of Israel. Trapped in our false worship, we no longer experience the freedom that is our birthright in Jesus Christ."
--Jim Wallis, The Call to Conversion (HarperSanFrancisco, 1992), 31.

Is our nation any better off than adulterous Israel? Captive to the bright lights and easy lifestyle of false faith? Blindly following the god of worldly mindlessness? Teetering on the brink of destruction? Worthy only of God’s condemnation and judgment? I think we are just about there, but the good news is that Jesus Christ will never give up on us! Even though the unfaithful continue to quietly slip away into the night, the light of Christ will continue to be a beacon, calling all of us back.

Read Ezekiel 16:59-63

Rev. Dr. James Wallace Hamilton wrote:
"Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present."
--J. Wallace Hamilton

The chosen people had no faith in either the past or the future – how could they possibly have the power of faith now? Both Israel and Judah had broken the covenant that God had made on their behalf, and there was nothing that they could do to reestablish it. But even though it had been damaged beyond repair, the Lord tells the prophet to spread the word that a new covenant is being prepared – one that is everlasting, one that will shame the nations, one that will humiliate, one that will be made in a divine atonement for the sins of the world.

What? God’s beloved had completely turned away from him, had done everything that they could to ridicule the relationship that God had with them, had prostituted themselves with foreign gods, and yet the Lord was going to begin again with them? He was going to give them another chance? Didn’t he know that if they betrayed him once that they would most certainly betray him again?

Of course he did! But note what scripture says about this new covenant – it will be eternal and it will be based in atonement. So what would that mean for the nation?

First, it means that it will be unbreakable. The new covenant will be able to withstand any betrayal, any sin, any faithlessness, any foolishness, any failure on the part of the people, and it will never even bend, let alone break. Oh, some will deny the covenant, some will walk away from the covenant, but it will remain firm for both those who remain in it as well as those who choose to return to it.
And why will this covenant be stronger than the first? Because in the first one, it was the people had to pay the price for the failure, and human payment, human sacrifice, is never sufficient to heal a Godly break. The new one, therefore, would be established in Godly atonement – a Divine sacrifice that would establish it, a penalty that would be paid right at the beginning, with no requirement for any additional cost on the part of anyone.

But this wouldn’t make much sense to Israel and Judah. They had always been immersed in the need for sacrifice – continuous sacrifice, daily sacrifice, insufficient sacrifice – and now the payment, the compensation, the restoration will be made up front! But by who?
The prophets had spoken about this new covenant, the perfect atonement, for hundreds of years. The prophet Isaiah spoke of it in Isaiah 9:1-8, the prophet Micah spoke of it in Micah 2:12-13 and 4:1-5 and 5:1-5; the prophet Malachi spoke of it in Malachi 3:1-5 and 4:1-3, and there were others. But it would still be hundreds of years before the covenant would be put in place, and hundreds of years without another word from God on the subject.

By now, I hope that you’ve been able to put a name on this covenant – that of the most precious name in all of heaven and earth. Jesus would be that covenant and would become the one and only atonement that could anchor it for all time – unbreakable, unbending, eternal and perfect. The failure of the people of earth to give honor and glory to God – not only that of Israel and Judah – would be put right once and for all.
And the Lord tells Ezekiel to let the people know that when this new covenant is made, they will ultimately remember all that God has done for them, and they will be ashamed of their opposition to his ways, and they will be humiliated and humbled for all time.

But the people would still have to make the decision for themselves. The covenant will be in place, solid and unshakable, but humanity – each and every member of it – will have to do as Joshua said – ‘choose for themselves … whom they shall serve’. (Joshua 24:15)

Some would have us believe that our nation is Godless today. Well, I don’t agree with that statement. Ezekiel tells us that the Lord’s covenant – his promise to us – is everlasting and prepaid, and that it can never be taken from us. And if his promise is firm and sure, then Almighty God must be ready and must be willing to accept any commitment that we might make in his name. It isn’t that our nation, or our world, for that matter, is Godless – it’s just that many people today have yet to accept the love of Christ that stands ever ready to be the means of their salvation.

Have you accepted the covenant that has been made in the Blood of Christ? If not, will you do that today? The old covenant couldn’t stand, but when you claim the new one that is made in the name of Jesus, it will never fail.

Choose Christ for yourself this very day, and walk with him all the way to glory!

“Judgment, But Still a Remnant”

Scripture: Ezekiel 14:12-23

From what we have seen in the past few weeks, it’s obvious that God’s judgment is on Israel in a powerful and all-consuming way. He is angry with the faithlessness of the nation in general, but it isn’t a general condemnation that is coming down. Its specific for each and every person - men, women, leaders, prophets – they have all denied the majesty of their God and have, instead, chosen to glorify the false gods of other nations. They look to fertility gods and look away from the true gift of fruitfulness. They show honor to the gods that come and go, seemingly at their own whim, while the faithful and omnipresent God is seen as inadequate and irrelevant. They put their trust in the gods of stone and wood and earth, and rebuke the only God who truly is trustworthy.
Judgment has come upon the “nation of the chosen” – not because their Yahweh God has desired it, but because the chosen people have caused it. The relationship is broken and a penalty must be paid if it is ever to be healed. The day would come when God Incarnate would become that penalty for all of humanity, but that day was still a long way off.
Judgment could not be avoided, and now Ezekiel was to learn just how severe it would be.

Read Ezekiel 14:12-14

You may remember that many passages in this book begin with the words “The word of the Lord came to me.” The prophet wants the people to know without question that the message is not his – that it comes directly from the Lord God of Israel, and that the word that is about to be given to them is God’s and his alone. And the people should be justly nervous, as the Lord never wastes words – it will be a message that will make a significant difference in their lives, and by now, they knew that it would not be a message of blessing. And even though God doesn’t specifically call out the names of Israel and Judah, they knew that the words were for them.
And they knew the three names that were offered as examples of righteousness. The faith of Noah had been the reason that 8 people were saved from the Great Flood; the captive Daniel, whose great faith the people may or may not have already heard about, would be an example that they had not lived up to; and Job who, even in the days before Abraham, had suffered unspeakably at the hand of Evil, had endured in faith right to the end of his ordeal. Even these men, each of whom had a faith that allowed them to endure the absence of God in the poverty of a sinful world, could do nothing to convince God to spare these people from the consequences of their judgment. And of the three men who Yahweh mentions, only Daniel is a Jew – both Noah and Job precede the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Could this mean that the Lord actually looks beyond the “chosen” people to show where righteousness really abounds, and where his grace is at work?

Israel had grown up knowing that God’s mercy knew no bounds. In the 2nd Great Commandment (Exodus 20:4), they had been told that Divine Mercy would extend for a thousand generations from those who loved the Lord. The faith of Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho, saved not only her own life, but the lives of her entire family (Joshua 2; 6:24-25). The faith of Esther would save all of the captive people from the hatred of Haman (See the entire book of Esther). A few faithful people had always been the saving grace for the nation. But no longer – now, each and every person must look to the depth of their own faith for salvation, and they weren’t prepared for this.

But how bad could it get? After all, hasn’t God chosen them over others, and doesn’t he love them more than all the rest?

Read Ezekiel 14:15-20

How bad? Not just one judgment, but now there were 4!
No food, bringing about a famine that would be death for humans as well as their animals.
And wild beasts would come to prey upon the weak and young and helpless, and would continue to scavenge the countryside to the point that no one could even journey through it, let alone live there.
And conflict – either that from outside the nation or from some internal strife – would devastate the populace.
And if all of this wasn’t bad enough, a plague would come that would wreak havoc on anyone who had survived the first three.

And the faith of the righteous few would be insufficient to save any others – even the lives of their own children would be lost.

That’s how bad it could get when God steps back and allows humanity to take care of themselves and to make their own way in this world. And one way or another, God will, one day, make himself known to all people, - and whether they get to know his grace and mercy or not, they will know.

Read Ezekiel 14:21-23

How much worse could it possibly get! And yet, as bad as it will be, some will be saved. Note that the Lord doesn’t say that the righteous won’t have to suffer along with everyone else! They will be subjected to the same judgment, but they won’t succumb to it.

Was this talk only about Israel? Or was it about the calamities that had come upon the earth in years gone by? Or is it about the Godly Wrath that many expect will come on the nations of today? Or could it be about the judgment that will, one day, come upon the entire earth? Or is it a commentary on the power of God, intended to bring all nations into his fold?
Maybe the answer is a simple “Yes” – all of the above! Israel had forgotten just who their God is, and the Lord is in the process of reminding them of the fullness of his Being – that he is the All Mighty, the All Powerful, the All Consuming, the All Knowing, the All Giving, the All in All, and there is no other like him. No one is forced to worship the one true God, no one is required to give him the honor that is due him, human existence will never be abruptly jerked into compliance with God’s nature! But there will always be consequences! And Israel was beginning to understand this is a rather dramatic way.
Their judgment would last 70 years, and would only come to an end when their Lord would work his Will through the life of the Persian King Cyrus (2 Chronicles 36:22-23). 70 years of captivity. 70 years of occupation. 70 years of oppression. 70 years of exile from their homeland. 70 years of relearning about Yahweh and his glory. A harsh lesson, to be sure - even worse than 40 years of wandering in the wilderness! But it had to be. Israel had to understand that a fulfilling relationship with the mighty Yahweh had to be personal, and that you couldn’t depend on the faithful life of a friend to see you through.
No longer could the righteousness of one suffice for the thousand generations to come. But it would be equally true that the sins of one would not be carried through to the succeeding three to four generations (Exodus 20:4-6). Every person’s faith would be judged by its own depth, and not by that of others.
But this would never mean that the righteous would never have to suffer, that faith would preclude judgment, that trust in God would spare them from pain. It only meant that the two outcomes of judgment – life or death – would now hinge on the life in faith, or its absence. Nothing else would matter.

And the prophet would be consoled in his task by those who would be plucked from the flames of refinement. The next chapter of this book will be left to you as homework, as it is about the fire that will consume the wicked of Israel.

Is faith enough to save us from that all-consuming fire? Jesus says that it is (John 3:16-20). But it is up to each person as to whether they will be the refined into perfect gold, or become the dross that is separated out and rejected. That’s what our 5 day revival event next week is all about. It is the opportunity for the righteous to bring our friends and family into the Light of Christ. John 3:16-17 – “For God so loved the world that he send his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world though him.” And John 3:21 – “whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

Israel thought that it was all about what they did – right living, right sacrifice, right lineage. But God sent his prophet to let them know differently. So just maybe salvation can come through the efforts of others! Not that we can save, but we can bring others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We can be part of the salvation process!
Remember Philip’s words to Nathaniel? “Come and See.” (John 1:44-46) Remember the Samaritan woman’s words to her neighbors? It was basically the same witness – come and decide for yourself! (John 4:39)
We do not save, but we all know the One who does. Invite your friends to come and see and decide for themselves. “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” (Joshua 24:15) They just might choose to become a part of the remnant!