Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Year 6, Day 165: Ezekiel 39

Theological Commentary: Click Here


Discipleship Focus: King

  • King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

Ezekiel 39 is another very straightforward chapter – once we get past the fact that we still don’t know exactly what Gog and Magog represent.  In any case, the nations will come to war against God.  They will be defeated.  God will defeat them.  God will strip their weapons out of their hands.  God summons the carrion birds to gather around the battlefield.  God is king of the universe.

That is fundamentally what these chapters are all about.  God is the king.  He is the ultimate power.  We can come against Him.  We can rebel if we want to do so.  We can strike out on our own.  We can even organize other people to come against Him.  We have that kind of freedom in our lives.  But none of that causes Him to stop being God.  He is still God even in our rebellion.  He is still God even if we don’t acknowledge it.

I’ve said it many times over the last week in my blogging on Ezekiel.  Yet it continues to be striking and important.  One of the preeminent themes in the latter half of Ezekiel is that all of these things will happen so that people will recognize, know, and understand that God is king.  It isn’t primarily about saving the Hebrew people.  It isn’t about showing how righteous the Hebrew people are.  It isn’t about them finally receiving what they deserve.

For that matter, the same thing is true about us.  God is about making His name great.  He is the only one worthy.  When God reaches down into my life and grants me His grace, it’s just grace!  I don’t deserve it.  I haven’t earned it from Him.  He gives it to me because He is great and He is king and there is no other reason.

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