Tag: rom5

The Compassion of God!

Ezekiel, the prophet, describes God’s goodness in today’s reading. He highlights the condition that He found Jerusalem in, His compassion for her, and her eventual treatment of God. And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born. (Ezekiel 16:4–5, ESV)

So what did God do? “And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ (Ezekiel 16:6, NKJV) God pitied Jerusalem. God took her in, made her His own, wrapped her in His garments, decked her with jewels, made a covenant with her, and loved her. God did what no one else would do (Ezekiel 16:9–14).

What a picture of God to have compassion on what no one else wants, to love what no one else will. It reminds me of what the New Testament says of us. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners…God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:6, 8, NLT) What an incredible act of God’s greatness, goodness, and kindness to sinners! May we think upon this often, allowing our hearts to be stirred up more to love and obey God!

Thank you for joining me as I read and journal chronologically through the Bible! This devotional reflection comes from Ezekiel 16-17.

Holy Hygiene!

Ok, those who love washing their hands, clothes, bedding, and houses, who love the fresh smell of clean, these are your two chapters! Today’s reading is all about Holy Hygiene! So, what is God doing in these chapters? God is showing Israel how easy it is to become unclean through everyday living. With the Tabernacle and a Holy God among them, if they approached God unclean, they would die. God is ultimately showing them how they can draw near to Himself. God wants to be close to His people!

In thinking about this, an incident in the New Testament came to mind.

So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.” Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (Mark 7:5–6, NLT)

By Jesus’s time, Israel had lost sight of God. They were focused on ceremonies and traditions. The picture behind the ceremony was lost. It became about dos and don’ts, outward actions and appearance, and judging others by what they did or didn’t do. Observing ceremonies and traditions was the endgame, not a relationship with God. They were religious; they were good at it, but their hearts were far from God. Notice what Jesus said straight to the face of the most “right” looking people of His day.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. (Matthew 23:27, ESV)

Believer, focusing on looking right and performing the right actions is easy. It is easy to judge others by how right we look and by what we do. It is easy to think we are the closest to God and that God must be pleased with us more than others. Jesus calls that hypocrisy! Jesus says, “Your heart is far from me.”

This morning, remember that God wants a heart-to-heart relationship with you. This relationship has nothing to do with dos and don’ts; it has everything to do with what Jesus did.

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. (Romans 5:8–11, NLT)

Today’s reading: Leviticus 14-15 | Tomorrow’s reading: Leviticus 16-18