Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
August 29, 2023: SOAP #5017: Ezekiel 4-7; Revelation 3 13  

SCRIPTURE:  Ezekiel (NIV) 6:13 And they will know that I am the LORD, when their people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols. 14 And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Diblah— wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”
Ezekiel (NIV) 7:27 The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

OBSERVATION:  In Ezekiel 6 and 7 we see God dealing with his people as a parent would deal with an extremely rebellious child.  God had loved Israel.  He had great plans for Israel.  They were to be God’s showpiece of what it meant to be God’s children.  He blessed them beyond measure…but they continued to go after other gods.  So, as a parent who loves their children, God turns His blessings to hardships and troubles. 

I can hear the cry of a hurting God, “Then they will know that I am the Lord!” 

APPLICATION:  For those of us who know God, and love God, our hearts can hurt for God.  He is not unaffected by the sin in the world today.  He is not unaffected by the murder of little children even before they are born.  He is not unaffected by the laws that men have made degrading the beauty of sex and marriage.

We should not be surprised when a frustrated God brings judgment and declares, “THEN THEY WILL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD!!!” 

PRAYER:  Lord, may I, personally, be quick to respond to your correction.  May I not consider your correction as a great imposition, but as an expression of your love designed to protect me from the results of evil.  Amen. 

Pastor Leon
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