QT 7/24/2023 Ezek 20:25-26, Listening first is better than learning the hard way later

Ezekiel 20:25–26 (ESV) —

25 Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, 26 and I defiled them through their very gifts in their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it that they might know that I am the Lord.

 

NOTE: None of God's rules were not good or required them to sacrifice their first born, but God gives them up to these demonic rules so that they would experience the devastation of these demonic commands. He did not try to stop them. Just as it says in Romans 1, God gave them up …

 

Romans 1:22–29 (ESV) —

22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,

 

Sometimes the best discipline is to experience the consequences of your actions, rather than to be protected from making a mistake. It is hard to let our children make those mistakes, but it sometimes is necessary. Oh that we might learn the lessons without experiencing things "that were not good" and things that "could not have life." The brick wall method of learning is to "devastate."

 

PONDER:

1. Am I learning and listening now?

 

PRAYER: Father, I have experienced the brick wall repeatedly. Have mercy on me. Help me to live holy and righteous before you. Keep me from evil.