207 Sunday, July 26, 2009

207 Ezekiel 38 – 39; Acts 20.1 – 20.16

In Ezekiel 38-39 we have some of the most difficult passages of Scripture to interpret. Is the prophet talking about the end times when Israel will be at the center of Christ’s return? Are the verses referring to a vision that brings hope and comfort to Israel that no one will be able to harm them in the future? Did this prophecy already occur? Biblical Scholars have disagreed over the interpretation of these verses and we will not settle the issues here. What I want to do is pick up on one the themes that is common in this book and that is the glory of God. God wants His name to be praised and lifted up. Why? Yahweh is the true and living God and all the other ways are false and lead to destruction. Listen to these verses,
Ezekiel 39:21-25 (MSG)
21 "I'll put my glory on display among the nations and they'll all see the judgment I execute, see me at work handing out judgment.
22 From that day on, Israel will realize that I am their God.
23 And the nations will get the message that it was because of their sins that Israel went into exile. They were disloyal to me and I turned away from them. I turned them over to their enemies and they were all killed.
24 I treated them as their polluted and sin-sated lives deserved. I turned away from them, refused to look at them.
25 "But now I will return Jacob back from exile, I'll be compassionate with all the people of Israel, and I'll be zealous for my holy name.
People will see that God turned His back on His people because of their sin, not because God is unfaithful. They will also see that the Lord has taken them back and is having compassion on them. Please take note that the Lord will be zealous for His holy name. Who God is and what God does is very important to understand in order to know God. God has to protect His name for our sakes as well as for His sake.
In the book of Acts we pick up the travelogue of Paul. He was very busy on this mission trip. What I want to focus on are his travel companions.
Acts 20:4 (MSG)
4 His companions for the journey were Sopater, son of Pyrrhus, from Berea; Aristarchus and Secundus, both Thessalonians; Gaius from Derbe; Timothy; and the two from western Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.
These people had front row seats in what the Lord was doing in and through the apostle Paul. Notice that one them was Timothy which Paul had been helping develop over a period of time. We have a short time on this earth and we need travel companions. We need to also know that some of these are to be people that we help train in order to pay it forward. Paul left the church in better shape than when he had come onto the scene. Are you spending anytime with people in order to be with them and to help develop them for Christ’s service?