“Yet there will be survivors—sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem—every disaster I have brought upon it.”
~ Ezekiel 14:22
Hi James and Ellen,
When you disobey your ma and/or dad, are you punished? Are you sent to your room? Is your mouth washed out with soap because you said a bad word or because you talked back to your ma and/or dad? Is a privilege – such as watching TV or playing computer games, taken away? Do you know what God does when He is not obeyed? What are some things that you do which makes your ma and/or dad unhappy with you? What do you think would make God unhappy with you? God wants you to do things which will please and bless Him. If you make something in your mind or in your heart more important than obeying God’s will, God will punish you. God will do what it takes to get your attention again – to help you know what you are doing or thinking is wrong. If a guy or gal decides something – such as doing everything that he or she can to make a lot of money, is more important than having God reflect His glory through him or her, he or she has an idol in his or her heart. Do you know what an idol is? An idol is a false god. Do you have an idol god in your heart? When guys and gals put worshipping something worldly instead of worshipping God, these guys and gals have an idol in their lives. During the Old Testament time, guys and gals worshipped false gods or idols. When a guy or gal worships a false god or idol, your grandpaa thinks that the guy or gal is doing other things which are unpleasing to God. Your grandpaa will have plenty of opportunities to tell you some of the really awful things guys and gals have done when they have worshipped things made out of wood, stone and metal instead of worshipping the one true God. Because God at all time knows and sees what is in your heart and in your mind, God knows at all time the idols that you are carrying around with you in your lives. You may have as an idol watching TV. You may have as an idol spending all your time playing games on the computer. You may have as an idol your appearance. You may have as an idol getting to be an important person. Everything in life which has you making more important than thinking about God is an idol. God does not want you to have idols in your lives. What do you think God will do if you keep an idol in your life?
God using Ezekiel – in Ezekiel 14, warns His specially chosen guys and gals what He will do to the guys and gals who have hearts that have idols in them. God will do something drastic – which means something awful, to get back the attention of His specially chosen guys and gals. God knows that guys and gals who do not know Him as their Lord and Savior will worship what they want to worship. These guys and gals do not know to worship God. The guys and gals who God wanted to worship Him were His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group. Ezekiel lived as a prophet not long before Jerusalem was ravaged by the Babylonian army. Do you remember who was living in Jerusalem? The guys, gals and kids who were living in Jerusalem were God’s specially chosen people. Because God’s specially chosen guys and gals were no longer worshipping Him – but worshipping idols and false gods, God warned His specially chosen guys and gals that he was going to punish them. God told Ezekiel what He was going to do as a punishment to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Jerusalem. Ezekiel wrote down in what is now verse 22 what God told him what the ultimate future was going to be for His specially chosen guys, gals and kids: “Yet there will be survivors—sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem—every disaster I have brought upon it.” What do you think were some of the things which God would make happen in places – such as Jerusalem, where His specially chosen guys and gals would not worship Him? God would make happen in places – such as Jerusalem, a catastrophic disaster. A calamitous event would be God stopping rain from falling. Rain not falling would cause a major famine resulting in guys, gals and kids starving to death as there would not be enough food for everyone to eat. Another difficult adversity would be God sending wild beasts into the land. These wild beasts would kill guys and gals who were living in the land as one of God’s punishments against His specially chosen people. Another cataclysmic misfortune would be God sending a large army from other countries. The army’s goal would be to kill the guys, gals and kids living in the land. Another major tragedy would be from plagues that God would send. These plagues would kill the guys, gals and kids living in the land. When God gets upset with guys, gals and kids, God just does not send these guys, gals and kids to their rooms or takes away privileges or . . . God is very serious about what He wants guys, gals and kids in order to please and bless Him to think in their minds or in their hearts.
Ask your dad if there are still famines on planet Earth. Ask your dad if there are still guys killing guys in wars on planet Earth. Ask your dad if there are still guys, gals and kids dying on planet Earth because of diseases. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are living in a country where for every four guys and gals, one of these guys or gals will say that he or she believes in Jesus Christ. Do you know – per the United States government, which Latin America country is the most dangerous Latin American country in which to live? It is the country where your grandmaa and grandpaa now live – Guatemala. Because more guys and gals worship Mayan gods in Guatemala than in any other Latin American country, this may be why so many bad things happen in Guatemala. God is getting the attention of Guatemalan guys, gals and kids to lead them to believe in Him. God will not live in lives which have idols in them.
Ezekiel 14 (80)