Inside Out Living

Before the invention of modern fire suppression systems it was required for a hotel of significant size to employ a watchman during the night hours to alert guests in the case of fire. One such hotel in Omaha, Nebraska had a fire on January 23, 1911 and the watchmen failed to notify the guests of the fire. Therefore, a guest who was forced to use a rope fire escape sued the hotel because of injuries resulting from his escape. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court where the court upheld the decision to hold the hotel responsible for its negligence in alerting the guests to the fire.

Ezekiel was given a similar charge by God, a responsibility to warn people of God’s judgment. It is important to note that Ezekiel wasn’t responsible for the peoples response to his warning, he was merely responsible, as the watchmen, for sounding the warning itself.

The same is true for our sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not responsible for the consequences one faces for rejecting the gospel, but we are responsible for delivering the message.

“The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice” – Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)

Have you ever found yourself asking for advice and yet you have already concluded in your mind what you think should be done? This is precisely the situation that the leaders of Israel were in. When Jeremiah gave the answer from the Lord, they concluded that Jeremiah must be lying since it didn’t match what they thought the Lord would say.

Seeking wisdom and counsel does absolutely no good if you don’t listen to it. Routinely we are instructed in Proverbs to seek and listen to counsel.

While none of us can know exactly what the future will hold, it seems that a principle in life is that you will suffer consequences if you ignore wise counsel. It was true for Solomon’s son Rehoboam who lost control of 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel because he ignored wise counsel. It was true for the remnant of Israel who ignored Jeremiah and suffered their fate in Egypt.

When hurricane Katrina leveled the gulf coast and nearly destroyed the entire city of New Orleans, I heard someone comment on how they felt the city was being judged because of the excessive sin it promotes. Now I do not pretend to know why God allowed that hurricane and the massive damage that resulted, but I do know that it is not our position to sit back and gloat or to pass judgment even if God is using the disaster to judge or discipline.

This was precisely what Edom did to Israel when God’s judgment was carried out by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Because Edom refused to act with compassion towards Israel, God communicated His judgment on them through Obadiah.

So, even if someone is enduring consequences brought on by their own actions, our response is still to extend compassion and mercy.

At the start of this week, we read about the coming of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34. In God’s expression of hope to Israel through the prophet Ezekiel, we read more details of the coming covenant (Ezekiel 11:14-21). As part of the new covenant, God will do a heart transplant in His people, removing the old heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh that obeys God. This is a picture of what happens in the lives of Christians today. When we come to faith in Christ, God regenerates that life and puts in them a new heart and his Holy Spirit, who now enables them to follow God.

Another element of the new covenant mentioned in this passage is the emphasis on personal relationship with God. “Then they will truly be My people, and I will be their God” (11:20b). While Israel belonged to God as His covenant people, whom He had redeemed, under the new covenant the personal connection we have with the Lord is stronger because of the Holy Spirit, who indwells each believer.

Those of you who know me, know that I love baseball. The game is a wonderful gift from God, in my opinion. Someone once said that the great thing about baseball (professional baseball that is) is that every team goes into the season knowing they will win sixty games and lose sixty games and the rest of them are up for grabs. This gives each team hope in Spring Training.

Ezekiel received a similar statement of hope in 3:27. The Lord told Ezekiel that, when he delivers a message from the Lord, “some will listen, but some will ignore you.” What a comfort and hope to know that some will listen.

We too can share in that hope and comfort Ezekiel had when we share the gospel message. Scripture teaches us that God indeed has elected some to believe in Him. So, while everyone with whom we share the gospel may not repent and believe, we can have the confidence that some will. And since we do not know who God has elected we are to obediently move forward with the command to preach the word, knowing that some will believe.

Leaving home for an unfamiliar world can indeed be a frightening experience. It will be an experience that will be repeated thousands of times in the coming weeks by young men and women heading off to college. For the Christian, it is helpful and comforting to know that God is there with you in that new and different place.
This is also a truth that God’s people who were living in exile in Babylon needed to know. Because the Jewish system of worship was centered around the temple in Jerusalem as the dwelling place of the Lord, it was especially difficult for these exiles to understand that God is omnipresent and is not limited to a single physical location. The vision Ezekiel received served to accomplish just that. The wheels moving in every direction speaks to God’s ability to be present in every situation everywhere.

All of us have that place where God feels especially present and that place where we always feel like we are home. However, we can know and have confidence that, no matter where we are, God will be present with us and our relationship with Him is not dependent upon a location or building.

Ever since the kingdom of Israel became divided under Rehoboam (1 Kings 12), the kings of both Israel and Judah led God’s people through a downward spiral of idolatry and disobedience. This had resulted in Israel no longer being a major player on the world political scene as it had been under David and Solomon. We see in Jeremiah 37 that the only relief Israel had from the Babylonians was when Egypt threatened to attack. While this gave Judah some hope, Jeremiah was quick to point out that trusting in Egypt was a false hope.

False hope can be quite devastating. As we see in the Old Testament, anytime God’s people trusted anyone or anything other than the Lord, it resulted in a false hope. I think this is a key lesson for us to glean from the Old Testament. Anytime we trust someone other than the Lord, including ourselves, for our salvation or for the strength to battle temptation, it will result in tragedy.

The readings for this week will deal with Israel in exile. While there are still some who remain in Jerusalem, the main shift of the Scriptures has been on those who are living in exile in Babylon. Particularly we see this in Ezekiel, whose ministry was directly to God’s people living in exile. Because they were dark days for God’s people, both those left in Jerusalem and those in exile, there is a recurring theme of hope that we will be looking at this week.

Today's Devotional:

The days in which Jeremiah ministered were certainly dark days. Judah as a nation was falling apart and God’s covenant people, the Israelites, had essentially abandoned God at this point. However, as you read today, because of God’s faithfulness there is still hope.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 delivers the promise of a new covenant. It is the covenant that Jesus spoke of during the last supper (Matt. 26:28). It is the covenant that was sealed with the shed blood of Christ. And it is this passage from Jeremiah that was quoted by the author of Hebrews as he contrasted the new and the old covenants (Heb. 8:8-12)

It is a better covenant (Heb. 8:6) because it involves an internal change. Instead of being focused on external obedience and works, Jeremiah says that God will write His word on their hearts. We, as members of this new and better covenant, have the word of God emblazoned on our hearts through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

It was this promise of a future covenant that gave hope to the faithful few in Jeremiah’s day and it continues to give us hope as well.

“You have died with Christ, and He has set you free from the evil powers of this world.” – Colossians 2:20

Today we have read the magnificent account of how God responded to the faith of Hezekiah and Isaiah and delivered Jerusalem from the armies of the Assyrians. While nothing is too difficult for God (Jer. 32:17), the defeat of the Assyrian army was no small thing. The Assyrians were the dominant nation in the region at that time. The army they had amassed was over 185,000 troops, and they had already taken the northern territory of Israel into captivity. To say the least, the Assyrians were powerful and had every reason to be in control of Jerusalem except for the intervention of the Lord.

In a similar way, sin has power and control in the lives of people. It is only when someone experiences salvation from the Lord through faith in Christ Jesus that they are set free from this power. And not only that, but every time we choose obedience instead of sin we are saved from the power of sin.