Ezekiel 7 -- What We Give To The Lord, We Keep Forever

Four times here, God says through to Israel through Ezekiel, “I will make you pay for the way you have lived.”  Previously, God had shown mercy, but now He had to punish them for their sins, for they had defiled the land with their idolatry and broken the covenant.  “The captives would be in Babylon for 70 years, so they would spend their sabbatic years and the next Year of Jubilee in captivity – if they were alive … The whole economic pattern would be reversed.  Had the Jews obeyed God’s law, the slaves would have been freed and the ownership of the land would have been protected (by the Jubilee), but now the surviving Jews would be enslaved and their land taken from them.” 

Wiersbe summed it all up with this:  “What we selfishly keep for ourselves, we eventually lose; but what we give to the Lord, we keep forever.”

“The people had broken the covenant and were outside the place of blessing,” he said.  “Not only would there be religious chaos, but the political system would fall apart … No political power can overrule the sovereign will of God.”

There was a need for the people to give up and let go and let God be God.  Until they agreed to do that, they were fighting against His sovereignty.

Father, so much seems in upheaval right now.  I need Your peace in the midst of it.  Guide me and help me to know that You are sovereign and in total control when it all seems like chaos.  Show me how to not try to selfishly keep everything for myself, but to let go, give it all to You, and watch You bless me as a result of my trusting You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford