Noah, Daniel and Job

Ezekiel 14:1-23
The people of Israel where coming to the Lord in hypocrisy. They supposedly came before the Lord God; but they did so with idols in their heart and stumbling blocks of sin before their face. How could one truly seek the Lord God with a heart full of idols? God said that if any man in the house of Israel came before him with idols in his heart and sin before His face, God would answer him according the multitude of his idols in judgment because Israel were alienated from God because of their idols (thank God for our Mediator Jesus Christ, I shudder to imagine the number of idols in any man’s heart). God tells them to repent from their sins and idols and flee from their abominations; otherwise God would set His face against that man and cut them off.

Ezekiel continues the message of the Lord saying that if the land, the people continue their grievous sin God would send judgment upon the land. The hypocrites had within their heart the idea that because of who they were, and who dwelt among them, that God would spare the nation. Because there were holy prophets, because there were godly men, because they had been blessed in the past that God would somehow pass His judgment over their sins. They were wrong.

Not only would the righteous not prevent the judgment of God, but the combined righteousness of Noah, Daniel and Job would not spare them. Had Noah and Job came back from the dead and joined Daniel (Daniel was alive at the time, and still quite young, so it is a great testimony to him that this young man was mentioned among giants), they could not have averted judgment of the land.

Pray for our nation. We celebrate our independence, and we thank God for our freedom, but we are sorely mistaken that God will spare us despite our sins. Yes, God has blessed, but that is not promise that He will continue to do so. We are living in a fog, a daze, a dream like state where nothing is real, nothing is important, as if God will allow our nation to continue on its godless heathen, paganistic path forever. Learn the lesson here...if God would not spare Israel and the land of promise, because of their sin, how much worse for a Gentile nation?

The righteousness of others cannot save your soul. Your church cannot, your baptism cannot, your family cannot stand in between you and a holy God. Only Jesus Christ can reconcile you to God. Take the enemy of God, a sinner who relishes in breaking God’s laws and make that same enemy a friend and a son.

I hope that Americans have a good Independence Day, but most importantly, I hope that you have been delivered by Jesus Christ, that you have liberty in Him, by grace, through faith in His blood that was shed on Calvary.

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Douglas Newell IV