Blow the Trumpet in Zion, Pt. 1

Today is the day of salvation. 

I'm not quite sure where to begin this study today and I surely welcome your comments as I humbly try to connect some dots.  The weaving of the gospel message through the entire Old and New Testaments astounds me.  I know there are some that count the Bible as uninspired, mere books written by mere, uninspired men, certainly not divine; but I daresay those are they who have never given more than a glance to selected passages, or use the Bible as a fortune cookie, breaking open to a verse for their day.  Of course, I stand guilty of all that as well!  But 2 Tim. 2:15 urges us to study 1) to show ourselves approved unto God (our appetites are bent toward God) 2) a workmen who needs not be ashamed, and 3) rightly dividing the word of truth. As I approached several chapters of Ezekiel for my reading, I thought of Daniel beseeching God to give him understanding of Jeremiah.  I want to be like Daniel, continually feasting on divine food. 

One message stood out as a warning, "pride, or trusting in your own strength, is destructive." Chapter upon chapter spoke of the judgments against nations...Tyrus, Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, rebellious Israel, Egypt, who trusted in their own strength.  In Ezekiel 33 God speaks to Israel through the prophet, "When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:  If, when he sees the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; then whosoever hears the sound of the trumpet and takes not warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.  He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning...But he that takes warning shall deliver his soul."  

I couldn't help but think that every time the word of God is proclaimed, it is a warning, after all, Ephesians 6:17 tells us "take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which IS the word of God!" (My mom always says, S+word, or Spirit+word).  Matthew 10:34 quotes Jesus saying, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword!"   This verse is somewhat contrary to the loving Jesus so often heard preached from our pulpits, and may seem contradictory to His birth where the angels proclaimed "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2:14).  But is it?  Not if you consider his word is the two-edge nature of the "S"word.  1 Cor. 1:18  "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God."  Hebrews 4:12 says, "the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart...." this, a reminder that we must be diligent to enter into His rest (vs. 11) and come boldly to the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need, vs. 7 quoting David, "today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."  

It is upon hearing the "S"word that so often our foolish response is, "don't understand you!" "don't have time now!" "can't hear you!" "I like my life just the way it is!" "I'm good enough!"  Like the nations mentioned above, who boasted of their own wealth and strength, the church of Laodicea said the same regarding the faith, "I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing." Jesus called it being lukewarm and His response was, "know you not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.  I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in fire; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see....  If any man hears my voice...."  He brings the "S"word. He divides the thoughts and intents of the heart. Pride brings destruction. 

Ezekiel was a watchman.  He saw the sword come upon the land.  He blew the horn.  How?  He SPOKE the word of God.  Interestingly enough, the word horn itself is synonymous with "strength" - perhaps this is where "blowing your own horn" came to be linked with pride.  And even more interesting is the messenger God used:  Ezekiel, whose name means,  "May God strengthen him."   

John the Baptist, coming in the spirit of Elijah, [Mal. 4:5, Luke 1:13-17], could also be likened to Ezekiel the watchman - John 1:23 "I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness.  Make straight the way of the Lord."  He saw the "S"word come (Jesus) upon the land and as the herald, blew the warning, "Repent!" 

Israel, blessed with the law, still needed continual sacrifice to cleanse them, though the requirement of the law was to keep it in their own strength! As Ezekiel continues, "The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his wickedness: neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sins."  The same argument gets heard today: "I sin one little time and it negates all the good I've done?  Yet someone who sins all the time, by repenting, can be saved?"

Israel responds with, "The way of the Lord is not fair!"  Their reaction is much like the older brother of the Prodigal son, "All these years I've slaved for you!"; or Cain's surprise that the sacrifice of his own strength was not acceptable; or the Jews to the Gentiles' righteousness through faith (Romans 3). It leads us to proclaim, "If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?"