Ezekiel 29

Ezekiel 29 begins with God’s directive to confront Pharoah, king of Egypt.  Now that is some pretty bold orders.  Here is the most powerful man in the world being told by a prophet that God is against him.  That wasn’t exactly how it looked at the time.  Pharoah was on top of the world.  But the issue at hand was how Pharoah was viewing all that God had created.  Two things jump out at me as God talks about the destruction that is to come.  Pharoah has a problem recongnizing who is in control.  God says: “I made it. It’s all mine”.  We best remember that too.  God made everything in this world and He alone owns it.  At best we are given the opportunity to use it as stewards of what belongs to God.  Secondly, God says destruction is coming so “they’ll realize that I am GOD”.  We need to understand that God is who He is and we need to treat Him as such.  Not because He has an inferiority complex, but because He is God.  Scripture teaches us we need to “fear the Lord”.  That is not about being afraid – but rather holding Him in His rightful place of high esteem and honor in our lives.  We need to not only realize He is God, but confess and live like that in front of others.  What we have is not ours, from the car in the driveway to the roof over our head to the paycheck we got last.  It ALL belongs to God.  The message Ezekiel was given to proclaim was to “stir up fresh hope” among the people.  We are hearing a lot about hope in this political campaign.  Unfortunately the source is very wrong – people can’t give hope.  Only God can deliver on that promise.  But along with the message, and the directive to Ezekiel to confront Pharoah, God says he will give “bold and confident words to speak”.  Did you get that?  God has a plan for Ezekiel to do what seems to be suicidal in many ways – to confront the most powerful man in the world and tell him destruction is coming – but when God directs us He always empowers us as well.  God promises to give Ezekiel the words he needs.  He will do the same for us if we open our mouth.