Speak up? Or Shut up?

READ Ezekiel 17–20

Sometimes human sinfulness distresses me deeply. I understand the OT prophets who rebuked God’s people for their failure to obey Him, but I also understand my own propensity to fail the Lord’s will. His enablement is available through Christ yet when I thoughtlessly ‘do my own thing,’ my actions no doubt distress others too.

God told His prophets to speak His will and thoughts about sin. While I realize my sins are forgiven in Christ, but know I and other Christians still commit them, what a dishonor to the power of God. If another believer is disobeying God, do I speak up? Or shut up? Or pray? Or all of the above? Galatians 6 helps, but is something like standing in the middle of a teeter-totter and not knowing what way it will tip:

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. (Galatians 6:1–4)

Ezekiel knew the challenges. He had to tell the people they were unjust in their ways, yet they said it was God who is unjust. God answered:

Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? (Ezekiel 18:25–29)

Spiritual blindness and the power of ‘I want what I want’ brought them into condemnation. Therefore God answered, “I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways . . . . Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone . . . . so turn, and live.” (18:30–32)

He used the prophet’s words, stories and allegories, even reviewing their history, “But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me. None of them cast away the detestable things . . . nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt . . . . I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them . . . . I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.”

His review of how He rescued them did not stop their sin. He reviewed all He had done: leading them in the wilderness, giving them His covenant with promises, signs and wonders, yet “the house of Israel rebelled against me . . . . did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules” and profaned His Sabbaths. He did not allow them into the land He promised “for their heart went after their idols.” Yet He did not make a full end of them.

Still, their children rebelled too, with the same attitude and actions. He said he would “scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries” and disciplined them “that they might know that I am the Lord.” (20:8–26)

Even as the Lord God tells the prophet to convey His judgments and tell how He will purge out the rebels, He also adds His promise that they “will know that I am the Lord.”

I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations . . . . And you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed . . . . when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds . . . . (20:33–44)

I sense that unless God tells me to speak (with words that fit Galatians 6), I must keep praying that He will manifest His holiness as He sees fit and deal with His children according to His name’s sake. May all of us honor Him — all who know He is the Lord.

 

Aging Well

One of my friends celebrated her 90^th birthday this year. She would not use the word ‘celebrate’ because she says this is the first time that she has felt old. She says, “I don’t know how to do ninety.” She struggles to explain her emotions.

I’ve thought about that statement and tried to understand what she is feeling. She could mean that at her age, it is difficult to make plans for she does not know how much time she has left or what the future holds. This is true for everyone, but when those birthdays pile up it comes into sharper focus. This thought helps me with today’s devotional reading:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (James 4:13–17)

From my hubby and life, I’ve learned the importance of thinking ahead and making plans. As the old saying goes, It is better to aim for the stars and hit the woodpile, then to aim for the woodpile and hit your foot. Or aim for nothing and you will surely hit it! However, God says I’m to consider the unpredictability of life as the above passage says, and the will of God. I can make my plans but God often uses life to interrupt or change them.

This is something of what my friend is feeling as she ages. She hesitates to make plans because she is not certain she can carry them out. For me, that would feel like being tossed in the air and not sure if I will come down, an ‘in limbo’ sensation and not at all pleasant because of its uncertainty.

This week she also explained that she is here yet she feels like she is slowly disappearing. For that, another passage came instantly to mind. As I read it to her, she flipped the pages in her Bible and read it again, all the time saying, “Hallelujah, Hallelujah!”

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

She said that all her life God has been preparing her for glory. This must be her focus, not just now as her time approaches, but it has been true for a long time. Nothing has changed at becoming ninety, only that she is closer to the reality of experiencing that promised ‘eternal weight of glory’ that is unseen yet nevertheless real and eternal.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lord Jesus, I thank You for this friend whose words and life constantly point to You and Your promises. She struggles with the visible and transient stuff of life, including her aging outer self that is fading away, but she lights up when conversation is about those unseen realities, about You. She is a blessing to all who know her even though she seldom realizes it because her focus is not usually on herself but on You. She sets for me an example of what it means to grow old and remain faithful in my love for You.

Today’s thankful list . . .

- this and other friends who show me how to live for Christ.

- dying is not the end of life but a transition to endless life.

- the Holy Spirit who helps me keep my focus on what I cannot see.

- enough tomatoes from our single plant to make a big bowl of tomato soup.

- the smell of gingersnaps as they come out of the oven.

- the ability to sleep whenever I need a nap.