{"id":10266,"date":"2020-07-17T20:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T03:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=10266"},"modified":"2020-07-12T17:28:27","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T00:28:27","slug":"ezekiel-14_12-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ezekiel-14_12-23\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can\u2019t Save Yourself. The One We Need Is Jesus."},"content":{"rendered":"

Ezekiel 14:12-23\u00a0\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Ezekiel 14:12-23.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Ezekiel 14:12-23 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The word of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0came to me:
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals,
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0even if these three men–Noah, Daniel and Job–were in it,\u00a0they could save only themselves by their righteousness<\/strong>, declares the Sovereign\u00a0LORD.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Or if I send wild beasts through that country and they leave it childless and it becomes desolate so that no one can pass through it because of the beasts,
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign\u00a0LORD,\u00a0even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters<\/strong>.\u00a0They alone would be saved<\/strong>, but the land would be desolate.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Or if I bring a sword against that country and say, ‘Let the sword pass throughout the land,’ and I kill its men and their animals,
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign\u00a0LORD,\u00a0even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved<\/strong>.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out my wrath upon it through bloodshed, killing its men and their animals,
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign\u00a0LORD, even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save neither son nor daughter.\u00a0They would save only themselves by their righteousness<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 12-21:\u00a0 Here the Lord continues to speak to Ezekiel while Ezekiel is sitting down with the Jewish elders (see Ezekiel 14:1).\u00a0 The Lord describes four ways that He could discipline a country that is unfaithful to Him: by famine (v13-14), by wild beasts (v15-16), by sword (v17-18), and by plague (v19-20).\u00a0 The Lord says that in each case not even the righteousness (or moral purity) of some of Israel\u2019s historically most godly men \u2013 Noah, Daniel and Job \u2013 could save a nation from their sins.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. With the exception of only one person, there is no one whose righteousness is so great that they could save an entire nation, or even another individual (see v14, 16, 18, 19) from their sins with their righteousness.\u00a0 As Psalm 49:7-8 says, \u201cNo man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him– the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Who is the one person whose righteousness is enough to save others, even an entire nation?\u00a0 Jesus Christ.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Jesus\u2019 righteousness was enough to save not just an entire nation, but the entire world.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Are you placing your faith in your own righteousness, or in the righteousness of Jesus to save you from your sins?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. For those who try to put Noah, Daniel, Job and other individuals in the Bible on the same level as Jesus, these verses show that they\u2019ve got another thing coming.\u00a0 For Jesus is in a league all His own.\u00a0 His righteousness far exceeds even the most spiritual sinner who has lived on this earth, for Jesus is without sin.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. By referencing Noah, Daniel and Job and saying that by their righteousness they would save only themselves, does Ezekiel mean that it is possible to earn your way to heaven yourself?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Remember that each of Noah, Daniel and Job personally asked the Lord to do what they cannot do themselves.\u00a0 They chose to trust in the Lord, instead of themselves.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Ezekiel 14:21-23 (NIV)<\/strong>
        \n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“For this is what the Sovereign\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments–sword and famine and wild beasts and plague–to kill its men and their animals!
        \n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Yet there will be some survivors–sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem–every disaster I have brought upon it.
        \n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign\u00a0LORD.”
        \n<\/em>
        \nOn verses 21-23:\u00a0 Whereas in verses 12 to 20 the Lord was only speaking in hypotheticals, in verses 21-23 the Lord foretells that He will indeed judge the people living in Jerusalem using all four methods described earlier (famine, wild beasts sword and plague), possibly all at the same time.\u00a0 The Lord says that the elders who are sitting in front of Ezekiel will be \u201cconsoled\u201d when they see the conduct and actions of those who are currently in Jerusalem and who will eventually be joining the elders as exiles in Babylon. Why is that?\u00a0 According to many scholars, it is because those people who would later be exiled to Babylon were of such a wicked and godless variety that it will be obvious to the Jewish exiles already in Babylon that God was just in causing them to be exiled.\u00a0 \u201c[F]or you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign\u00a0LORD\u201d (v23).<\/p>\n

        Jesus, whereas I could not with my own righteousness save myself or anybody else, thank You that Your blood is sufficient to cover us every day on this trip. God is with you!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

        Today\u2019s passage is Ezekiel 14:12-23.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

        On verses 12-21:\u00a0 Here the Lord continues to speak to Ezekiel while Ezekiel is sitting down with the Jewish elders (see Ezekiel 14:1).\u00a0 The Lord describes four ways that He could discipline a country that is unfaithful to Him: by famine (v13-14), by wild beasts (v15-16), by sword (v17-18), and by plague (v19-20).\u00a0 The Lord says that in each case not even the righteousness (or moral purity) of some of Israel\u2019s historically most godly men \u2013 Noah, Daniel and Job \u2013 could save a nation from their sins.<\/p>\n

        What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

        With the exception of only one person, there is no one whose righteousness is so great that they could save an entire nation, or even another individual (see v14, 16, 18, 19) from their sins with their righteousness.\u00a0 As Psalm 49:7-8 says, \u201cNo man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him– the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Who is the one person whose righteousness is enough to save others, even an entire nation?\u00a0 Jesus Christ.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus\u2019 righteousness was enough to save not just an entire nation, but the entire world.\u00a0\u00a0Are you placing your faith in your own righteousness, or in the righteousness of Jesus to save you from your sins?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10266"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10269,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10266\/revisions\/10269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}