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One of the great qualities of our God is His patience and longsuffering. He's not quick to spank us the moment we do wrong. He loves to give us some time to think about what we're doing and repent. When we don't acknowledge our sinfulness and feel compelled to seek His forgiveness over a period of time, God's holy character is initiated to stop us from our sinful ways and His patience says, "no more!" When that happens, God will pull out whatever devices He needs to correct us from bad behavior. It could be the loss of a job, sickness within the family, challenges with your kids, and list goes on and on. God uses these devices to get our attention that causes us to examine our lifestyle and ways. and then repent and seek His forgiveness when we realize we have unconfessed sin in our lives.
Most of Ezekiel's prophecies in today's reading are focused primarily on one nation - the nation of Egypt.
As we read in chapter 31, God shares how he at one time made Egypt into a magnificent nation - one that the entire world would truly be amazed with for centuries. But because of its pride, God is now sharing His thoughts through the prophecies of Ezekiel and how Egypt will come to bitter destruction because of their sinful lifestyle.
Chapter 32 truly expresses God's anger with Egypt. God is patient, but their is a limit to it.
As we read Chapter 33, God announces two bombshell statements:
1) That Ezekiel would become a "watchmen" for the nation of Israel. In other words, God was telling Ezekiel that his responsibility was to act as a watchman over the souls of the people. In other words, as a watchman, his responsibilities were to warn everyone of the ensuing attack of the Babylonians and the need to turn from sin and to God. But, if he didn't warm them from their wicked ways and they died in their sins, the responsibility of their deaths would be on his hands. Imagine that?!
Well, in a way, God has called you and I to be "watchmen." We're to watch over the souls of the lost. We're to warn them of the dangers of sin and of hell. And perhaps, like Ezekiel, God will hold us responsibility of warning people of their wicked ways that should they die in their sins, God will hold us responsibility for their death. Is this true? I don't know. God specifically stated this to Ezekiel. But if we can draw an analogy and follow along in the spirit of what God is trying to say in general, it's up to those of us who are Godly ( like Ezekiel) to engage with the lost and warn them of their need of Christ.
What are your thoughts? Who will you warn today?
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