SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/2/2019 10:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2
“Spiritual Alienation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
2:12-13
Message of the verses: “12 remember that
you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without
God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have
been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
We
are talking about five ways we were spiritually alienated from God when we were
unbelievers, and today we look at the second one and that is that we were
“excluded from the commonwealth of Israel.”
When
you think about Israel you remember that Israel was a special nation that the
Lord began in order to accomplish a number of things. They were God’s chosen people in order to
bless the whole world with as He gave them His Law, and He was actually their
King as the nation was a theocracy. God
gave that nation His special blessing, protection, and love. He gave them His covenants, including the
Abrahamic, Davidic covenants. Not only
did He give them His Law, but also a priesthood, His promises, His sacrifices,
and also His guidance as seen in Deut. 32:9-14; 33:27-29; Isaiah 63:7-9 and
also Amos 3:2). Let us look at Psalm
147:20 “He has not dealt thus with any nation; And as for His ordinances, they
have not known them. Praise the LORD!”
John MacArthur writes “Ezekiel’s description of God’s special care of
Israel is powerful.” We will now look at
that from Ezekiel 16:4-14:
4
"As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was
not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with
salt or even wrapped in cloths. 5 “No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these
things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the
open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born. 6 "When I passed by you and saw you
squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ’Live!’
Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ’Live!’ 7 “I made you
numerous like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall and reached
the age for fine ornaments; your breasts were formed and your hair had
grown. Yet you were naked and bare. 8 “Then I passed by you and saw you, and
behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and
covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with
you so that you became Mine," declares the Lord GOD. 9 “Then I bathed you
with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. 10 “I
also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on
your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. 11 “I
adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around
your neck. 12 “I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a
beautiful crown on your head. 13 “Thus you were adorned with gold and silver,
and your dress was of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine
flour, honey and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to
royalty. 14 “Then your fame went forth among the nations on account of your
beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on
you," declares the Lord GOD.”
I
have a book which is a commentary on the book of Ezekiel entitled “All Things
Weird and Wonderful,” and it is written by Stuart Briscoe. I like the title of the book and after
reading this portion from Ezekiel 16 perhaps you can understand why Briscoe
entitled it as he did.
I
would suppose that there are two reasons why the Gentile nations did not accept
the true God, and one of them, is of course their own fault, but the other is
the fault of Israel who thought because that they were so special that their
God was theirs alone and therefore did not want to share Him with anyone
else. However if the Gentiles would have
accepted the true God then they too could have been a part of that blessed
nation and thus would have been a part of all the blessings that God gave to
them. The Gentiles did not receive any
special blessing or protection, and the reason for this was because they were
outside the dominion of God. This was
the second spiritual alienation that Paul discusses in these verses.
The
third alienation was that the Gentiles were without a covenant with God as they
were “strangers to the covenants of promise.”
Let us look at the supreme covenant of promise that was given to
Abraham: “I will make you a great nation,
and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing;
and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will
curse. And in you all the families of
the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).”
There are additions from these verses to better help us understand this
covenant seen in Genesis 17:7 “7 "I
will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you
throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and
to your descendants after you.” Genesis
26:3-5 “3 “Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to
you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish
the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. 4 "I will multiply your
descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these
lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5
because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and
My laws.’” Genesis 28:13-15 “13 And
behold, the LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD, the God of your
father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it
to you and to your descendants. 14 "Your descendants will also be like the
dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to
the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the
families of the earth be blessed. 15 “Behold, I am with you and will keep you
wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you
until I have done what I have promised you.’”
MacArthur adds “Inherent within that one great covenant were the Mosaic,
Palestinian, and Davidic covenants—and even the New Covenant (Jer. 31:33). The covenant with Abraham surrounded and
determined all of God’s dealing with Israel.”
I
realize that as we look within the covenants that God gave and also renewed His
promises were to bless, prosper, multiply, save, and redeem Israel. However this is a great example where one has
to go by truth and not by their emotions, for as we look at the history of
Israel we probably don’t see all of these things happening, but in the future
they will because God is immutable, and this means that He can never change His
mind. There are other things in these
covenants that God promised, and they are to give His people a land, a kingdom,
and a King, and to those who believed in Him God promised eternal life and also
heaven.
This
too is one of the things that Gentiles were alienated from that Paul reminds us
of. There are two more which God willing
we will look at least one of them in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I continue to learn from the things that I
was alienated from and to have some time to think about how wonderful the Lord
is, for even though I was alienated from these things God through His great
love, faith, and mercy saved me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I want to continue to look at Romans 12:3 and
also remember truth and not emotion as they change but truth does not.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Thirty” (Genesis 41:46).
Today’s Bible question: “List five things in which Paul hoped the
Corinthians would abound.”
Answer in our next SD.
1/2/2019 11:05 AM
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