Freedom For Today

Ezekiel 34:11-12 – “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search and find my sheep. I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day.”

Read the full chapter here.

If you don’t know much about the history of Israel, you should read Joshua, Judges, and 1 and 2 Samuel. These accounts tell us about the shift the people of Israel went through — from God being their only leader and King to appointing men as earthly kings. The people wanted a leader they could see, hear, and touch. I get it. God is abstract, mysterious, and hard to pin down in the dark.

In today’s chapter we see that these “shepherds” (or kings) have only been interested in themselves. They’ve let the people of Israel suffer while they benefit from their powerful position. They’ve negotiated with pagan nations and have not stayed faithful to God. In the highlighted verses above, we see that God is prophesying about a new Shepherd who will come to care for the people.

Here’s your freedom for today:

God wants to take care of you.

If you don’t feel like you are worth much, perhaps it’s comforting to know that the Bible frequently compares you to a sheep. Sheep are not particularly smart, and they need constant supervision. God wants to lead you, guide you, and care for you. You don’t have to be smart, strong, or worthy. You’re just his little lamb that he’s watching over. What makes that hard for you to think about today? What stops you from receiving God’s care?

Ezekiel 33:12-15 – “Son of man, give your people this message: The righteous behavior of righteous people will not save them if they turn to sin, nor will the wicked behavior of wicked people destroy them if they repent and turn from their sins. When I tell righteous people that they will live, but then they sin, expecting their past righteousness to save them, then none of their righteous acts will be remembered. I will destroy them for their sins. And suppose I tell some wicked people that they will surely die, but then they turn from their sins and do what is just and right. For instance, they might give back a debtor’s security, return what they have stolen, and obey my life-giving laws, no longer doing what is evil. If they do this, then they will surely live and not die. None of their past sins will be brought up again, for they have done what is just and right, and they will surely live.”

Read the full chapter here.

A little repentance goes a long way. But this passage is a really good reminder that we never have the power to save ourselves. No matter how many good deeds we’ve done, they never outweigh our sins. It just doesn’t work that way. And if we are wicked, God gives us chances to come back to him. All of this is God’s grace, not our own power to save ourselves.

It’s really freeing, when you think about it, that you can’t save yourself. It really shortens the to-do list. Life can become all about seeking after the heart of God. Religion says, “Do this, do that, and you’ll be good with God.” That’s a lot of pressure! The good news of Jesus says, “Your deeds are a reflection of your heart, they don’t save you. I will save you, come on over!”

Here’s your freedom for today:

Stop trying so hard.

God loves you. He wants you. He is calling you to come to him. He has offered to save you. Staying close to him does mean that you will move away from sin, because sin isn’t where God is. This chapter is all about Ezekiel sounding the alarm for God’s people — “Come back to God!” Today I’m sounding the alarm for you. If you’ve drifted farther away from the heart of God, come back. Having a previous “Christian streak” won’t do you any good now. Come to him. Turn from sin. Move out of a mindset that says you can weigh your good and bad. Stop trying to “do” and start trying to be all that you were meant to be.

Ezekiel 32:4-5 – “I will leave you stranded on the land to die. All the birds of the heavens will land on you, and the wild animals of the whole earth will gorge themselves on you. I will scatter your flesh on the hills and fill the valleys with your bones.”

Read the full chapter here.

Today’s chapter is pretty graphic, and it is reasonable why someone who randomly opens to this part of the Bible would view God as an angry, destructive being. He’s still warning Pharaoh that the earthly things he’s relied upon to make himself seem powerful will not last. God will prove his power and might.

I highlighted verses 4 and 5 because there is some interesting foreshadowing that might be important later. One of the most famous chapters in Ezekiel, chapter 37, is all about a valley of dry bones that rises up as a great army. I can’t wait to get there in a few days. But put a pin in today’s chapter — God mentions filling valleys with the bones of Egyptians. We might want to pull that back up as an image.

Here’s your freedom for today:

God is more than meets the eye.

Reading one chapter or one section of the Bible doesn’t give you the whole picture — you really have to read the whole thing. Today God is filling up valleys with dry bones, and later he will call them back to life. Although chapter 37 refers to the people of Israel, we know that God’s end goal is to rise up a people out of all nations. God is only interested in destroying evil. He doesn’t want to destroy you or me or any person. He has created us for good and for relationship with him. Even if all he has left to work with is a valley of dry bones, he can still spring forth life and a redemption story out of that. Be careful not to judge God based on only part of the story. He’s complex, mysterious, and bigger than our minds can fathom.

Ezekiel 31:8-9 – “No other cedar in the garden of God could rival it. No cypress had branches to equal it; no plane tree had boughs to compare. No tree in the garden of God came close to it in beauty. Because I made this tree so beautiful, and gave it such magnificent foliage, it was the envy of all the other trees of Eden, the garden of God.”

Read the full chapter here.

Years are passing by and God is still using Ezekiel to talk about Egypt. What struck me in today’s chapter was the references to trees in the Garden of Eden. If you go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible and read Genesis 1-3, you’ll see the biblical account of the creation of the world and a description of the Garden of Eden. This place was God’s intention for humanity until we chose to walk a different path.

The most beautiful tree in the Garden in Genesis was right in the middle, and God warned Adam and Eve not to eat its fruit. Satan, in the form of a serpent, convinced them to try it anyway. Evil wormed its way into the world. Similarly, Ezekiel is describing a tree that has appeared to be the most beautiful, but through it destruction will come.

Here’s your freedom for today:

Things are not always as they seem.

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Not all that glimmers is gold.” Beautiful things can lead us astray, and sometimes going after the biggest and best (by the world’s standards) leads us down the wrong road. Ask yourself today, “What am I chasing?” Watch out for running after the things of this world as they always fade. Fill your life with faith, hope, and love — three things that will remain eternally.

Ezekiel 30: 10-11 – “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: By the power of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, I will destroy the hordes of Egypt. He and his armies—the most ruthless of all— will be sent to demolish the land. They will make war against Egypt until slaughtered Egyptians cover the ground.”

Read the full chapter here.

Do you feel in charge of your life? Do your decisions feel like your own? Or do you feel like a mere pawn? In some ways, no matter which way you think, you are right and wrong. Kings tend to think of themselves as powerful, but we see in today’s highlighted verses that God is using them to accomplish his purposes. And he often does that with us as well. My life is not about me. In the end, it’s about what God wants to do with it.

On the other hand, if you simply feel like a pawn, you have not grasped how to view yourself in the image of God. He is creative, strategic, and active. We are made in his likeness because we possess these traits as well and are meant to use them. There is a fuzzy line between God’s action and our own.

Here’s your freedom for today:

You are most free when working in tandem with God.

If you oppose God, he may just end up using you for his own purposes and then destroy you as well. God is not a respecter of persons, meaning that he doesn’t take your social status into account. If you work in tandem with God, you are both useful and powerful. You are given supernatural authority to accomplish eternal purposes, and also God is using your life to accomplish his eternal purposes. When those are one and the same, your life is exactly how it was meant to be.