“And they will know that I am the LORD, when their people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.”
~ Ezekiel 13:6
Hi James and Ellen,
How do you think that God goes about getting the attention of a guy or gal who He wants to listen to Him? Have you ever sensed God trying to get your attention? When you are not listening to what your dad and/or ma are wanting you to do, what does your dad and/or ma do to you to get your attention to do what they want you to do? Your grandpaa is sure that there have been times when you have not listened to your dad and/or ma. There were times when your dad and your Aunt Lynn did not listen to what your grandmaa and/or grandpaa wanted them to do. Ask you dad what your grandmaa and/or grandpaa did to him to get his attention. Do you think that it is wrong for a dad or ma to spank one of their kids if the kid is not listening to him or her or if the kid is not doing what he or she has been asked to do? Do you think that it is wrong for God to use calamities – such as famines, plagues and swords, on guys and gals to get their attention? As a prophet spokesman for God over 2600 years ago, Ezekiel was tasked by God to tell His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem that they were getting really close to being annihilated by God because of their abject active disobedience towards Him. Instead of doing what God had told them over 850 years earlier to do – which was to only make sacrificial offerings to Him, God’s specially chosen guys and gals were now making sacrificial offerings at high places that were made by Canaanite people group’s guys and gals, worshipping inanimate idol gods and pouring out incense on two feet tall incense altars. Because His specially chosen guys and gals were not doing what He expected them to do, God told Ezekiel that he wanted him to trudge around the land area of Judah and through the city of Jerusalem clapping his hands, stomping his feet and saying over and over again ‘alas, alas, alas, alas, . . .’
Does your dad and/or ma warn you that they will punish you if . . . before your dad/or ma finally punish you for not listening to and doing what he or she or they want you to do? Or do you always listen to your dad and/or ma because you are absolutely certain that you will be punished by your dad and/or ma if you do not do what he or she or they have asked you to do? God warned His specially chosen guys and gals over and over again that He was going to punish them if . . . Ezekiel 6 is one of God’s very last warnings to His specially chosen guys and gals who lived in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem. By that time that God had Ezekiel trundle around the land area of Judah and through the city of Jerusalem, God’s specially chosen guys and gals had gotten to the point where they had come to believe that God would not do to them what He was saying through Ezekiel that He would do to them. Verse 13 is God telling the guys and gals who are living on planet Earth today that He is going do to them what he was going do to His specially chosen guys and gals if. . . “And they will know that I am the LORD, when their people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.”
Do you think that guys and gals should be killed because they are being disobedient to God? Your grandpaa is of the mindset that a fear of being punished by God is a motivator to be always obedient to God and to live a life that always gratifies God. Besides causing the sky to fall down on him or having the earth open up to swallow him, your grandpaa does not know how God will punish him if . . . your grandpaa just does not want to find out how God will punish him if . . . your grandpaa is sure that God will take potential blessings away from him if . . . at the same time, what may seem like a God sent punishment may be a honing experience where your grandpaa may be better tooled to serve God. There is absolutely no way to know the mind of God but . . . God has made it very clear over and over again that He will not tolerate disobedience to His expectations. God proved that He will not tolerate disobedience to His expectations when He had Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army take His specially chosen guys and gals away as exiles to Babylonia. God has allowed your grandmaa and grandpaa to be in scary situations. One of these times was when displaced Aymara guys blocked with large tree limbs and tree trunks the gravel road that passed through their area so that no vehicles could get through in any direction. Your grandpaa wrote in the last missive that he sent you about this time. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were on their way in their white C-10 Chevy pickup to the rural resident Bible training center that they had initiated and were administrating in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez in Bolivia. After spending a number of hours at the roadblock hoping that . . . your grandpaa fixed over an open fire a pot of stew from the supplies that he and your grandmaa were taking from Santa Cruz to Concepción. About the time that the pot of stew was ready to eat, displaced Aymara guys began setting up another roadblock behind where your grandpaa had stopped – hoping to catch between the two roadblocks your grandpaa’s vehicle and several other vehicles that had stopped behind your grandpaa. Your grandpaa almost threw the pot of hot stew into the back of his pickup so that he and your grandmaa could quickly turn around to get out of the area before . . . two guys – who were well-known leaders in the area, a day or so later had enough of what displaced Aymara guys were doing. The two guys used a tree trunk mover to try and plow through the roadblocks. Even though the two guys shot and killed some Aymara guys who tried to stop them, the two guys ended up being clubbed to death. Bad things will happen when God’s help is not asked for. God is not okay with guys, gals and kids trying to do whatever it is their own way.
Ezekiel 6 (537)