DAY 326

DOING THE RIGHT THINGS

Ezekiel 18 & 19 and James 4

In Ezekiel 18, you may be saying, “Not again!” Ezekiel is telling us an old message, a message of how serious God is about “right living”…but there is also another message, a message of how quick God is to respond to those who turn to him. In verse 18:21 God says, “but if a person turns back…then He will forgive.” Amazing! Are you and I that quick to forgive? I am not—but God is! Why? For a very simple reason that we find in verse 32: God desire no one to die. So he says, “turn and live.”

Ezekiel 19 is very much like Ezekiel 17, it is a lament, but we don’t exactly know who and when—the lioness is a reference to Judah—Judah is referred to as a lion (Genesis 49:4) and scholars have some pretty good estimates—but the point of a lament is that God, through Ezekiel, is lamenting over His people—He is not enjoying all that is happening, but as we read yesterday, in 16:41, “He will make Judah stop sinning.”

James 4 is somewhat similar, and maybe more to the point. The people of Judah have fallen in love with the world, they are often more interested in other nations gods and ceremonies, they are interested in maximizing their own interests, even at the expense of the poor. The same happens in every day and age—in Ezekiel’s, in Jame’s, and in ours—so therefore let us do the right things.

Don’t forget the message of grace—for it is by the grace of the Cross that we are made right with God—the point of course is that we live as people of God—to be people of godly character--you and I do not have to earn God’s love—rather we are to live into it!