PerryDox – BeJustAChristian

Have you ever had the following experience – you remember someone, but they don’t remember you?  Do you remember what emotions you felt and experienced?  The feelings could run the gamut from “Oh well” to “Oh…” to “I’m surprised” to “How dare you!”

Looking from the outside, and seeing this happen, a different emotion might be experienced – we feel sorry for and maybe embarrassed for the one overlooked and forgotten.

There is a phrase in the Bible that occurs 25 times, 23 of those times in the book of Ezekiel (Isaiah 49:23; Joel 3:17).  Over and over again, God says, “And…Then…So…Thus…you will know that I am the Lord.”  Over and over again God is forced to remind His people, His creation, His “wife,” His “son,”  Who He is.  I kept reading the passages in Ezekiel with sorrow.  Read them, don’t skip over them, and read what God is forced to do….

• Ezekiel 6:7 “The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.
• Ezekiel 6:13 “Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree and under every leafy oak–the places where they offered soothing aroma to all their idols.
• Ezekiel 7:4 ‘For My eye will have no pity on you, nor will I spare you, but I will bring your ways upon you, and your abominations will be among you; then you will know that I am the LORD!’
• Ezekiel 11:12 “Thus you will know that I am the LORD; for you have not walked in My statutes nor have you executed My ordinances, but have acted according to the ordinances of the nations around you.”‘”
• Ezekiel 12:20 “The inhabited cities will be laid waste and the land will be a desolation. So you will know that I am the LORD.”‘”
• Ezekiel 13:14 “So I will tear down the wall which you plastered over with whitewash and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation is laid bare; and when it falls, you will be consumed in its midst. And you will know that I am the LORD.
• Ezekiel 13:21 “I will also tear off your veils and deliver My people from your hands, and they will no longer be in your hands to be hunted; and you will know that I am the LORD.
• Ezekiel 13:23 therefore, you women will no longer see false visions or practice divination, and I will deliver My people out of your hand. Thus you will know that I am the LORD.”
• Ezekiel 14:8 “I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from among My people. So you will know that I am the LORD.
• Ezekiel 15:7 and I set My face against them. Though they have come out of the fire, yet the fire will consume them. Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I set My face against them.
• Ezekiel 20:38 and I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the LORD.
• Ezekiel 20:42 “And you will know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the land which I swore to give to your forefathers.
• Ezekiel 20:44 “Then you will know that I am the LORD when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord GOD.'”
• Ezekiel 22:16 “You will profane yourself in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am the LORD.“‘”
• Ezekiel 23:49 ‘Your lewdness will be requited upon you, and you will bear the penalty of worshiping your idols; thus you will know that I am the Lord GOD.‘”
• Ezekiel 24:24 ‘Thus Ezekiel will be a sign to you; according to all that he has done you will do; when it comes, then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.'”
• Ezekiel 25:5 “I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and the sons of Ammon a resting place for flocks. Thus you will know that I am the LORD.”
• Ezekiel 25:7 therefore, behold, I have stretched out My hand against you and I will give you for spoil to the nations. And I will cut you off from the peoples and make you perish from the lands; I will destroy you. Thus you will know that I am the LORD.”
• Ezekiel 35:4 “I will lay waste your cities And you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
• Ezekiel 35:9 “I will make you an everlasting desolation and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
• Ezekiel 36:11 ‘I will multiply on you man and beast; and they will increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited as you were formerly and will treat you better than at the first. Thus you will know that I am the LORD.
• Ezekiel 37:6 ‘I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.'”
• Ezek.37:13 “Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people.

 Two opposites would cause God’s people to know – to remember – Him: Consequences and Blessings.  We are not much different today.  Too often we can’t remember our God until He allows us to suffer from our own sins.  Think, isn’t that how we parents sometimes have to remind our children that we are the parents!  Then, after the suffering is sufficient, He can then bless us with new life (36:11,37:6,13).  The same is true with parenting.  After the punishment is over, there is a hug of reassurance.

In Ezekiel, God’s own did not remember Him.  And remarkably, we see the same forgetfulness happening in the New Testament to Jesus.  Jesus’ own did not recognize Him from the scriptures that described Him:

• John 1:10 – He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
• John 8:28 – So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.
• John 14:20 – “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

Let’s start to conclude with an obvious question – Do we know the Lord?

Here’s another – What does God need to do to get our attention?

And here’s a third – Have we endured enough from our own sinfulness to allow God to bless us?

On Judgment Day, Jesus will say, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.  [22] “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ [23] “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

I will feel sorrow for those whom Jesus will not know in the next life, because in this life they did not know Jesus.  But now that I think about it…I will feel sorry for the Lord too!  And that is an experience I don’t want to have…or to cause Jesus to have!

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This entry was posted by PHall on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 12:36 am and is filed under Ezekiel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.