Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Be On God's Side


The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.  Say to them 'Hear the word of the Sovereign LORD. This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because you said "Aha!" over my sanctuary when it was desecrated and over the land of Israel when it was laid waste and over the people of Judah when they went into exile, therefore I am going to give you to the people of the East as a possession.'" - Ezekiel 25:1-4

In the first half of the book of Ezekiel, God rebukes His people for their attitudes toward Him. The Lord uses words like stubborn, hard-hearted and rebellious to describe His people. The Lord speaks through Ezekiel and tells the people to understand that their choices come with consequences. If they make good and righteous choices that honor God, they will be blessed. If they make poor and wicked choices that honor themselves, they will be punished. As the story continues, the reader knows what choice the Israelites made because God starts talking about the judgment that is to come upon them.

In Chapters 25-27, God redirects His message and begins proclaiming judgment on the nations that punished the Israelites. God warned His people to turn from their sins and to turn back to Him. They did not heed the warnings and God allowed the other nations to invade Israel (just as He said would happen). But then God judged the nations that came against His people because they did not show respect towards the Lord or towards His people during their captivity. That is amazing.

If you are God's child, He desires that you walk with Him and love Him with your whole heart. If you do not, you will not lose your salvation but you will have to live with the consequences of making bad choices. Those consequences are usually inflicted upon us by other people. But those people will not get off easy in their unjust deeds and prideful attitudes towards you. They, too, will have to suffer the consequences for how they deal with you, God's child. God is always on your side. He wants you to walk with Him and He will go out of His way to warn you. God is amazing. I always want to be on His side for He always gets the last word.

~Daily Disciples Devotional~

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