11/05/2018 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 14:12-16:42, Hebrews 7:18-28, Psalms 106:1-12, Proverbs 27:4-6

Today is the 6th day of November, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a pleasure, as it is every single day to be here with you as we take the next step forward. So, let’s dive in and take that next step forward. We’re reading from the Names of God Bible this week. And off we go back into the book of Ezekiel chapter 14 verse 12 and we’ll read all the way to chapter 16 verse 41 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Ezekiel we came to one of the most riveting passages of Scripture that, at least to me, in the whole Bible. It’s one of the reasons Jill and I named our son Ezekiel. There’s a couple passages in this book that…yeah…that are just…some of the most powerful imagery in the Bible. And, so, what comes up today is the opportunity for us to consider the emotional life of God. And I’m even saying that, the emotional life of God. Right? That should be disruptive cause we don’t usually think of God in those terms. Like, does God have an emotional life? Does He even have emotions? Right? I mean when we cry out to God, we may pour out our heart with emotion and we may feel like He’s receiving that emotion and maybe offering comfort but most of the emotion in the relationship is our emotion, right? I mean, after all, God is God. He doesn’t feel things, right? He just forgives us and we just all move on because He’s too perfect to experience any kind of distress. But let’s pause on that thought for a second. I mean, even if we just look at it logically. We wouldn’t be reading the Bible if God were aloof, right? The Bible wouldn’t exist if He didn’t care. And we’ve come far enough into the Scriptures to know that God is not…he’s anything but dispassionate, right? He’s very passionate and passion is an emotional thing. So, we’ve been hearing warning prophecies for a while now. We’ve heard of the terrible struggle that’s out in front of the people who won’t return to the one that they entered into covenant with, which is God, of course. And, so, we read the 16th chapter of Ezekiel and the entire chapter reveals God’s emotional heart in such a distinct story that it’s hard not to pay attention because it gives us context from God’s perspective for what the prophets were foretelling. So, the story was of a newborn baby girl and she represents God’s people. And she was unloved from the moment she was born and without even being held by a parent or even wiped off. She was left out in a field to die. And God came by and saw this little baby girl wo hadn’t even had her umbilical cord cut. And she’s just laying there in the field helplessly kicking in her own blood. That image alone for me…for me…that image alone is powerful. I can’t read this passage of Scripture without, you know, without my heart going out. So, God comes by and sees her and according to the Scriptures, God came by and looked at her laying there and said live. And as that story continues then the infant baby girl grew to become a lovely young woman under God’s care. And then God entered into the covenant of marriage with her and he lavished the finest of all things upon her and her beauty was unparalleled. In God’s own words, you were very beautiful and eventually you became a queen, but her beauty began to get noticed and she liked…she liked the attention, she liked getting noticed. And before long, she not only committed adultery, she was prostituting herself. And to make matters worse, she was taking all of the lavish gifts that she’d been given and using those gifts to worship the gods of her lovers. And again, in God’s own word, such things shouldn’t happen, they shouldn’t occur. I mean this has become such a story of ungratefulness, right? But we’re not done. So, reading from Ezekiel 16 in God’s own words, you took your sons and daughters who belonged to me and you sacrificed them as food to idols. Wasn’t your prostitution enough? You slaughtered my children and presented them as burnt offerings to idols. With all the disgusting things that you did and all your acts of prostitution, you didn’t remember the time when you were young. You didn’t remember when you were naked and bare kicking around in your own blood. How horrible. How horrible it will be for you declares Adonay Yahweh. So, if you’ve ever wondered whether or not God feels anything at all, that should be put to rest. And from the perspective of God we can see why he would send the prophets, and why he would send them to say the things that they said, right? Rather than trying to bring doom, God was trying to call His people back and get them to remember and try to get them smacked awake, so they could see what they were doing. But they didn’t listen. And as we know, sorrow did come upon them. If we look at ourselves as the little baby girl in the story, we might find that our story is uncomfortably familiar, and it should be incredibly humbling because now…now we know how…now we know how God feels. And if that changes things then maybe it’s time for an honest conversation. There’s no doubt that God is listening and there is no doubt that he is inviting us to come back.

Song:

Ezekiel by Gungor - https://youtu.be/59xPDnsL4qw

Lyrics - http://www.lyricshall.com/lyrics/Gungor/Ezekiel

I found you naked 
I found you lying there in blood 
Your mother left you 
Your father threw you out unloved 

I clothed your body 
I washed the blood and earth from your hair 
I gave you jewelry 
I gave you everything I had 

I gave my heart 
My heart, my love 
I gave my heart 
My heart, my love 

You became mine 
You were a stunning bride 
The world they saw you and how you loved their eyes my bride 

You broke my heart 
My heart, my love 
You broke my heart 
My heart, my love 

You sold your body exposed yourself to all my love 
You slept with strangers; you gave them everything we had 

Come back my love 
My love come back 
Come back my love 
My love come back