OUR FATHER WHO KNOWS THE HIDDEN THINGS

Daniel chapter 2 verse 4 says this;

Then the astrologers answered the king,“May the king live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

This verse captures the response that the astrologers in King Nebuchadnezzar's court gave when he asked them to interprete a dream that had troubled him.

Nebuchadnezzar told the astrologers to interprete his dream and they naturally asked him to first tell them the dream and then they would give him its interpretation..

But the king was not satisfied with their request  because he had correctly surmised that if someone claimed to have access to the meaning of dreams, they should also have access to the dreams themselves.

If someone presented an answer sheet to an upcoming test, it would be reasonable to presume that the person claiming to have the answer sheet would also have access to the test itself.

The astrologers could not meet the king's demands and he was so angry that he pronounced a death sentence over them.

 The prophet Daniel, upon learning what the king was asking, undertook to save the lives of the astrologers as well as  his own. He and three companions prayed to the Lord in the night and the king's dream and its meaning was given to Daniel in a vision.

Daniel praised the Lord with these words.

He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO JUDGED HIS OWN HOUSE

The book of Ezekiel chapter 12 verse 9 says this;

 “The prince among them will put his things on his shoulder at dusk and leave, and a hole will be dug in the wall for him to go through. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land. 

The prophet Ezekiel was directed  by the Lord to enact the exile of the people of Israel from the land.

He was given a specific enactment where he to was to pack some of his things and go to the city wall, dig a hole through the wall with his hands and then leave the city at dusk carrying his pack on his shoulder while covering his face so he couldn't see the land.

The Lord told Ezekiel that if the people watching him do the enactment asked him what he was doing, he was to tell them that he was a sign to them. 

He was to prophecy to them that even the prince among them would pack his things on his shoulder and depart the city as the evening light faded.

He would have a hole through the wall dug for him and he would leave through it with his face covered so that he could not see the land and so that he would not be recognized as he tried to escape.

Ultimately, the Lord would not let him  elude capture and he would be taken into Babylonian exile  from where he would never return.

Such was the judgment upon the rebellion of t

55phe people as Ezekiel prophecied to them.

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OUR FATHER IS SOVEREIGN

The book of Ezekiel chapter 11 verse 13 captures these words of the prophet Ezekiel;

Now as I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out in a loud voice, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! Will you completely destroy the remnant of Israel?”

This verse captures a shocking moment in Israel's history when Pelatiah son of Benaiah, a leader in Israel who had carried out atrocities on the people, suddenly died while the prophet Ezekiel was prophesying. 

This event prompted Ezekiel to fall to the ground on his face and loudly ask the Lord if He was going to erase the entire nation of Israel.

Ezekiel wisely fell down humbly before the Lord and prefaced His lament to the Lord with "Sovereign Lord" to assert that the Lord had the authority and the absolute prerogative to do what He chose.

Great is the Lord.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO FREELY GIVES WISDOM TO THOSE WHO ASK AND THEN FOLLOW HIS WISDOM

The book of James chapter 1 verse 7 says this;

That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

This verse reveals the result of not believing the wisdom provided by the Lord when we ask Him to give us wisdom and we fall into doubt and do not act in accordance with the wisdom given.

As we go through life, we often need to ask the Lord to give us wisdom to deal with specific circumstances such as obstacles, hardships or danger.  James chapter 1 verse 5 tells us;

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 

When we request wisdom from the Lord, we can rely on Him to readily give it to us with no questions asked but as verse 6 says;

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 

The Apostle James, by the Holy Spirit, councils us that when the wisdom of God is given, we must firmly believe in the guidance the wisdom provides and walk according to it.

If we doubt and vassilate when carrying out the steps provided by wisdom, we become analogous to a wave of the sea being blown and tossed about by the wind.

The path of wisdom provided by the Lord is always rock solid but when we doubt it, we become unstable and easily bowled over. 

When the Apostle Peter was invited by the Lord to step out of the boat while they were sailing on the Sea of Galilee, the wisdom of the Lord was that it was safe to step out of the boat and onto the water.

The Apostle Peter, once outside the boat, saw the waves and doubt that contradicted the wisdom of the Lord entered his mind and he began to sink.

The doubt that engulfed him dissolved the power that the wisdom had supplied and he started to sink.

In the same way, the enemy whispers in our ear that the wisdom of God is  unsafe or unreliable in the face of danger and if we start to doubt the received wisdom and start stumbling away from the sure path given by wisdom, we become unreliable recipients of the Lord's wisdom and thus James cautions us that we should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE GLORY DEPARTED THE TEMPLE AS WITNESSED BY THE PROPHET EZEKIEL

The book of Ezekiel chapter 10 verses 9 - 10 says this;

And when I looked, there were four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub and another wheel by each other cherub; the wheels appeared to have the color of a beryl stone.  As for their appearance, all four looked alike—as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. 

This passage describes a craft that the prophet Ezekiel saw in a vision.

It had four identicle complex wheels  and they were glowing with the color of beryl stones which are sparkling crystals that are often blue in color. This glow was like the phenomenon of the glow of radioactivity in water called Cherenkov radiation.

At each of these glowing wheels, there was a winged cherub that had managerial functions over each wheel and over the craft. Even though the cherubim had wings, the craft generated lift that carried the cherubim with it but the cherubim were the initiators of the velocity and direction that the wheels travelled as verse 15 - 16 says;

And the cherubim were lifted up. This was the living creature I saw by the River Chebar. When the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also did not turn from beside them. 

At the point that Ezekiel was seeing this vision, the glory of the God of Israel was leaving the inner court of the temple and the craft then moved with the glory of God out to the outer court of the temple before departing.

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OUR FATHER WHOM WE MUST FOLLOW AND HIM ALONE

Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 14 says this;

Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”

This verse is the explanation of why the people of Irael were facing catastrophic events that resulted in the wholesale death of their people.

Grave judgements were being unleashed upon them and the reason that the Lord gave for the calamities that were sweeping through their land was that they had followed their stubborn hearts and chased after the false gods as their ancestors had taught them.

Their idol worship had invited death to have its  way their in their midst and they were left devastated.

The people of Israel and all the surrounding nations had practiced the same practices of deception and duplicity and judgement came.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER IS THE POTTER AND WE ARE THE CLAY

Isaiah chapter 64 verse 8 says this;

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Through the prophet Isaiah,  the people asked the Lord to relent from His anger towards them and not to remember their sins forever.

In Isaiah chapter 64 verse 5, they recounted their own treachery towards the righteous ones of God andrex they asked, 'How then can we be saved.'

After confessing their sins and acknowledging that all their righteous acts were like filthy rags before the Lord, the people beseeched Him to remember that He was their Father and that in His hands, they were as clay in the hands of the potter and thus were the work of His hands.

In all the calamities they are facing where the sacred cities had become desolate and the holy and glorious temple had been burned down, they asked the Lord to look upon them and remember that they were His people.

Amen.

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