Friday – Prophets
Reading – Ezekiel 22-24
Highlight Verse:
”Then give these rebels an illustration with this message from the Sovereign Lord: “Put a pot on the fire, and pour in some water. Fill it with choice pieces of meat— the rump and the shoulder and all the most tender cuts.“
Ezekiel 24:3-4 NLT
We had pot roast for dinner last night. It was delicious.
That’s not at all what this is talking about.
In fact, if you stop reading here, you won’t get any of the context aside from the word “rebels.”
This chapter is a continuation of Ezekiel expressing through strong words and dark illustrations just how dissatisfied God is with His people.
But, if you stop with Ezekiel, you miss out on the overall context of the Bible.
The message of the Bible is one of redemption.
Without failure, there is no redemption.
The deeper the failure, the greater the redemption.
I’m not telling you to fail in a big way so you can have a fantastic redemption. To be sure, Israel’s redemption entailed some very difficult circumstances because of how far they had fallen.
In spite of that, God still set them up to be the vessel of redemption for the whole world through Jesus.
So as we work through some of the more difficult parts of the Bible, let’s remember the overall context and be encouraged that, as one of the most often used out of context verses says, “All things work together for good…” (Romans 8:28)
What part of the Bible do you have the hardest time understanding?
How do you think that passage works in the context of the whole Bible?