Ezek 12:1-14:11 | PS 105:37-45 | Prov 27:3 | Heb 7:1-17
The major prophet Jesus quoted from the most was Isaiah. The minor prophet Jesus quoted from most was Zechariah. I don't believe any rational person would believe that those portions quoted were the most important or the only important portions of those books. But week after week the prophets are largely ignored by the overwhelming majority of Christendom. Pastors avoid teaching through them from the pulpit. People avoid reading them in their private reading. Why? When we choose to despise, or take lightly certain areas of Scripture whether you want to realize this or not, we elevate our vision of what is important over God's vision. The Bible is stated to be around 27-30% prophecy. The Bible is not a self-help book. The Bible cannot be dumbed down to be a guideline on Christian living. The Bible is not meant to be a sappy little verse that makes us feel good, or a trinket here or there of a quote that we like. It is a book with a narrative, a story which must be told if we are to understand the Divine Dilemma where justice and mercy meets in the Person of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Why would we want some level of superficiality when God has given us meat to sink our teeth into.
We read in Ezekiel 12:1-2, "Again a message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, you live among rebels who have eyes but refuse to see. They have ears but refuse to hear. For they are a rebellious people." They were rebellious and so are most of the people filling our churches today. We read further in 12:21-23, "Again a message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, you’ve heard that proverb they quote in Israel: ‘Time passes, and prophecies come to nothing.’ Tell the people, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will put an end to this proverb, and you will soon stop quoting it.’ Now give them this new proverb to replace the old one: ‘The time has come for every prophecy to be fulfilled!’" We are worse, as the people then heard them and chose to disregard its intent or timing, while most now, even those in the pulpit simply choose to ignore them altogether, pretending they are not part of the Bible. He then directed the message away from the people and onto the false prophets, as we read in Ezekiel 13:1-3, "Then this message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, prophesy against the false prophets of Israel who are inventing their own prophecies. Say to them, ‘Listen to the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: What sorrow awaits the false prophets who are following their own imaginations and have seen nothing at all!’" He goes on further in 13:10-12, "This will happen because these evil prophets deceive my people by saying, ‘All is peaceful’ when there is no peace at all! It’s as if the people have built a flimsy wall, and these prophets are trying to reinforce it by covering it with whitewash! Tell these whitewashers that their wall will soon fall down. A heavy rainstorm will undermine it; great hailstones and mighty winds will knock it down. And when the wall falls, the people will cry out, ‘What happened to your whitewash?’"
Please evaluate what you are actually looking for in a church, from your pastor, etc. Please evaluate what you are actually looking for in your daily walk with God as you go through the Scriptures. We should align ourselves with the totality of Scripture not becoming specialists at small sections. God did not elevate one section over another and neither should we. As we conclude the One Year Bible Challenge this year, please consider jumping back in again next year, or if you have not done so before, join us for the first time. Your eyes will open up to areas of Scripture which you might never have read before.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: