Ezekiel 8:16-18
This is crazy to even imagine. It makes sense to worship the sun or something else someplace else, nope, they do it right by the temple of the Lord. It would still be an abomination if they did it someplace else, but it is even worse doing it by the temple of the Lord.
They had their backs turned against the temple of the Lord. The Lord’s presence, holiness was right behind them. They worship the sun. You see, many “Christians” so to speak, do the same exact thing today. Go to church. Read their bible’s once in a while. Prayer? Who does that anymore. If I don’t forget before I get into my comfy bed and go to sleep, I’ll say a quick prayer so God protects me, and saves me, and he would forgive me if I did anything wrong so if I possibly die, I would end up in heaven. I put on a mask. I live as if God is fine with me and is cheering me on. I live a miserable life. I live a hypocritical life. But, who says God sees? Ezekiel 8:12 Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’” The reason I live the way I do is because the Lord does not see. If he did he would do something. Nothing happens. Day by day goes by…
Who do I worship today? Where does the majority of my energy, time, and thought go towards? What are my priorities and goals in life? Where am I heading? We need to get this figured out. All the way. There is no “what ifs” and “buts”. If I call myself Christian and go to church and do all of these religious things, I need to think everything through. I need to know what my intentions are. Ask God to reveal to you the things that he hates. The things that stand between you and God. Things that God will not compromise with. If we truly love God and want to honor him and glorify him, we will listen and obey. We will respond correctly to the response of God’s.
Let us not make the same mistake Israel made.
Isaiah 65:12
I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in
How do we turn our backs to the Lord? Just like that. By doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord. Doing what God prohibits. Doing what God does not delight in. How will I know if what I am doing pleases or displeases God? When I spend time with Him. He speaks today, do we listen? Do we take it to heart and take it as the word of God? Do we take it seriously knowing what kind of authority God has? God isn’t someone we want to mess with, I want to say that.
Hebrews 10:29-31
How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Some of us by the way we live, turn our backs to God. We are not interested in what God has to say to us nor has planned for us. It’s like we don’t care. I call us to repent and to hurry for the day of the Lord is coming soon. Today is not the time to indulge in sin, prosperity of today, and live for ourselves. It is time to wake up. Today is the day of salvation and I want to call us once again to urgency! We know little what goes on in the spiritual world, but I want to say that it is real and it is getting more tense. Devil knows that he has little time left so what does he do?
Revelation 12:12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!
Let us not make peace with sin! We know the story of Samson. Great strong man who let sin enter into his life. It all started from the beginning when he allowed himself what was not allowed by God. The Spirit of God left him and we can read this in
Judges 16:20-21 this is after Delilah cut his hair and set Samson up.
And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him. 21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison
How scary would it be to go to the battlefield thinking God still got your back and this and that when truly, God isn’t with you. This happens when we turn our back to God. People turn their back towards God when they get bored of God. When they don’t get what they want often. The god in their imagination isn’t the real God, so they leave and live their own life. They might still do religious rituals and everything, but their heart can be far from the Lord. Just like the pharisees. We can read this in
Matthew 15:7-9
You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
8 “‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men
If we haven't noticed yet, God takes this real seriously. God does not care about our income, how famous or not we are, what car I have etc. God cares about my relationship with Him and how I interact with God. God is a jealous God. If you don’t believe me read your bible! I’ll read just one passage where it says that.
Deuteronomy 5:8-10
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to thousands[b] of those who love me and keep my commandments.
If today, I am living a hypocritical life that does not please, glorify, or honor God, then I need to turn towards Christ. Not turn by back on him, but turn my back to this world. What good is there if I have my back turned to God? The only thing that I can think of from the word of God is that the wrath of God is coming on those who reject God. On those who don’t worship God in the Spirit and the truth. We can read something similar to this in Psalms 73. Asaph had the same struggle and the same thoughts. Why do the wicked prosper? Why does it seem like their life is all good and they don’t have any sufferings? Have I really kept my heart clean and my walk before the Lord pure in vain? All of this changed when Asaph went into the sanctuary of God. I highly recommend you reading this psalm if you haven't yet. I will pick up from verse 16-20.
For Asaph (verse 28) it was good to be near God because he has made the Lord God his refuge, so he might tell of all of his works.
Let us look over our lives. In what aspects of my life have I not given up to the Lord yet? What idols dwell in me? What are the things that I hold on to that don’t glorify God? Do I have my back turned towards God?
Let us know and believe Psalms 16:11 which writes You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
With God, there is a purpose to life. When you give your life into the hands of God, He will never leave you nor forsake you. He is a faithful creator.
