OUR FATHER WHO IS FAITHFUL
From Psalm 100
Enter His gates with thanks
Enter His courts with praise
Shout for joy to the Lord,
Worship His holy name
Know that the Lord is God
He is our maker
Give Him thanks with gladness
For His love endures forever
His faithfulness continues through all generations.
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OUR FATHER WHO IS THE ONE WHO TRULY CARES FOR US
A parable given to the prophet Ezekiel by the Lord told of two sisters named Oholah, who was older, and Oholibah.
Ohola represented Samaria which was the central region of Israel which had fallen away from the Lord and into dealings with the Assyrians.
Oholibah represented Jerusalem which later, also fell way from the Lord by entwining herself with the Assyrians first and then with the Babylonians.
Oholah, having angered the Lord by her prostitutions, was given over into the hands of those she lusted after and Ezekiel chapter 23 verses 9 - 10 says this;
“Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians, for whom she lusted. They stripped her naked, took away her sons and daughters and killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women, and punishment was inflicted on her.
This passage details what happened to Oholah which represents how the Assyrians tore Samaria apart, took her peoples away into slavery and left behind a destroyed kingdom.
That which we lust after is often what we are delivered over to as a consequence for our infidelities.
We may look longingly at carefree or loud subcultures and erroneously conclude that we would be satiated and thrive in them but they end up enslaving and destroying us.
Our destinies are in the Lord and straying from Him can lead us into the derailment of our lives.
Amen.
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OUR FATHER TO WHOM WE MUST FULLY COMMIT OUR LIVES
Isaiah chapter 66 verse 3 says this;
But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a person, and whoever offers a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns memorial incense is like one who worships an idol. They have chosen their own ways, and they delight in their abominations;
This verse captures the deleterious effect of the people of God choosing to go their own way. They have the knowledge of the things required by the Lord but they only do things on their own terms and they are delighted by things which displease God.
When they do undertake to carry out ceremonial sacrifices out of religious tradition, their actions translate into the spiritual realm in a sinister way and register as insults instead of sacrifices.
For example, if people who live unconstrained by the Lord sacrifice a bull to Him, it resonates the same as murdering a person would.
Or, if they make an offering of grain, it is as though they were presenting pig's blood to Him.
Such is the effect of trying to uphold religious traditions while being beholden to our own agenda and to carnality.
Let us be sincere before the Lord that our offerings to the Lord are always acceptable.
Amen.
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OUR FATHER WHOSE PLAN OF SALVATION COULD NOT BE THWARTED
Ezekiel chapter 19 verses 4 - 5 says this;
The nations also heard of him; He was trapped in their pit, And they brought him with chains to the land of Egypt.
‘When she saw that she waited, that her hope was lost, She took another of her cubs and made him a young lion.
This passage reveals a rare window into the super-structure of nations where spiritual powers wrestle for advantage in order to maintain the dominion of darkness over the entire human race. This is often done by targeting the people who are potential threats to their rulership over mankind and rendering them helpless.
The person in question here is Joseph the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham whom the council in heaven began to prepare for a destiny related to the formation of a nation that would ultimately play a part in the plan for salvsalvation for mankind.
However, adversarial nations detected a potential in him to play a part in the plan of the salvation of mankind and so to counter it, they orchestrated the sale of Joseph by his brothers to slave traders by spiritually manipulating his brothers through their envy of Joseph.
This resulted in the enslavement and imprisonment of Joseph in Egypt where he remained for many years.
The princes of Israel, seeing that the person they had hoped in was lost to the prisons of Egypt, began to form another plan for the future but in the meantime, the person they thought their enemies had neutralized in Egypt, ended up rising and being a fulcrum in the unfolding story of salvation.
Unwittingly, the spiritual nations, when acting to block the plan of salvation, laid down conditions that made God's salvation more sure.
In the case of Joseph, the powers of this world believed that he was a likely route by which salvation would come and they had him imprisoned in Egypt but they did not understand that salvation would come through all the sons of Jacob and that Joseph, through their own machinations, was actually being sent ahead to Egypt to preserve the family through a coming drought because he would ultimately be elevated to prime minister in charge of preserving families through droughts.
This then made it possible for the whole family to move to Egypt and grow into a large nation. Over time, the children of Israel were enslaved by the Egyptians and so finally, they had to be saved from bondage in Egypt to return to their homeland in a great metaphoric narrative of the coming salvation of men
Thus the spiritual nations' schemes to thwart the plan of God's salvation for mankind were themselves woven into the great plan of the salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.
How great is our God.
Amen.
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OUR FATHER WHOSE GLORY FILLED THE TEMPLE
The book of Ezekiel chapter 10 verses 4 - 5 says this;
Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and paused over the threshold of the temple; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory. And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even in the outer court, like the voice of Almighty God when He speaks.
The prophet Ezekiel saw a vision and beheld an astonishing scene at the temple in Jerusalem.
Ezekiel witnessed the bright glory of God leaving the cherub that was in the most holy place of the temple. As the glory of God departed, it temporarily stopped at the entrance way between the most holy place and the main temple area called the great hall.
The refulgent glory of the Lord and the cloud of the Lord's presence filled the temple building and the light even brilliantly illuminated the inner court.
The cherubim's wings made a sound that could be heard even to the outer court of the temple and it sounded like the voice of the Almighty.
Such was the majesty and glory of the Lord at the temple that the prophet Ezekiel saw in a vision.
Amen.
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OUR FATHER FROM WHOM WE CAN REQUEST MERCY IN THE MIDST OF JUDGEMENT
Psalm 79 verses 1 - 3 says this;
O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple, they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
They have left the dead bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the sky the flesh of your own people for the animals of the wild.
They have poured out blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury the dead.
The psalmist starts with a solemn status report to God informing Him of the atrocities the invaders from surrounding nations had done to their country.
The Lord's inheritance had been invaded; The holy temple had been desecrated; Jerusalem, their capital city, had been destroyed; the Lord's own servants had been slain and left for the vultures and wild animals to eat; and so many people had been killed that blood ran like water in the streets of Jerusalem and there was no one left to bury them.
Such were the terrible conditions the people faced and the Psalmist implored the Lord not to be angry with His people forever. He asked the Lord not to hold His people's sins against them and he requested mercy upon them for sake of the name of the Lord.
In Psalm 79 verse 11, he asked the Lord to hear the groans of the prisoners so that He might know the extent of the suffering His people were experiencing.
May the groans of the prisoners come before you; with your strong arm preserve those condemned to die.
The people having sinned against God, incurred the Lord's anger and the judgement of being invaded by hostile nations was released upon them. In the midst of their suffering, they asked the Lord to relent and turn and save them.
At the end of this Psalm in verse 13, the author made a promise to the Lord that if the Lord forgave His people and brought retribution to their enemies, His people would praise Him forever.
Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will proclaim your praise.
Amen.
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