Through the Word in 2020 #153 - Nov. 12 / A Glimpse of the Unseen

Scripture is not one dimensional. By that I mean that sometimes, what is happening in one place or to one person, is connected to other places and other people as well. We get some sense of how that works in today’s reading of Ezekiel 26-28:24 and the oracle of God against the Prince of Tyre.

We see it too in John 6:1-21 where some people thought they could just take Jesus and make Him the literal King of Israel, when there was so much more going on behind the scenes.

Those passages we’ll consider briefly today on Through the Word in 2020. And I hope you’re reading along with us, and enjoying 2 John 12-3 John 4, and Psalm 133.

I’m Reid Ferguson.

No doubt you have done some tough plowing in getting through some of Ezekiel so far. It is not an easy read. And not a little gloomy. After all, when God judges, it isn’t pretty. And Ezekiel helps us understand we ought not to take His judgments lightly. It also reminds us that He is at work among the nations. He is not just working in individuals. He is working on a global scale and with geo-political forces.

In all of these pronouncements against Tyre, Sidon, Ammon, Moab, etc., we see that they are to be devastated along with Judah. And here is the multi-dimensional reality: One event is happening to Judah, but it is also happening to these others nations, and yet very different reasons are behind it and very different things are being accomplished.

Judah is being punished for her apostacy. The others for their complicity in Israel's fall, and their rejoicing and hoping to profit by her devastation. Do not assume the same thing is going on in each even tho they are related and intertwined.

Of special note is the portion aimed at the Prince of Tyre. A head of state of a foreign nation. And while some of the language simply indicates that this man - whoever he was at the time, was pretty puffed up by his nation’s economic success and his own acumen - the language takes a strange turn. Suddenly we read of his being “the anointed cherub” and having been in Eden. And what is being opened up for us, though in a very slight manner, is that behind this human head of state, there was some sort of demonic influence. While we cannot unpack that fully here - the point is that you and I need to know this is often the case with political leaders, here and abroad.

When Ephesians 2:2 tells us that all of us before coming to Christ were subject to the direct influence of Satan, that isn’t poetic hyperbole. There are unseen evil powers about in the world influencing and inciting mankind to evil acts. To live unrestrained in the depths of our fallenness. And when we see the rise of the likes of an Adolf Hitler, a Pol Pot or a Stalin, we need to take note that more than just human evil is afoot.

In our own nation, it was not without demonic influence that the legalization of the slaughter of the babies in abortion came to be. And why it is so rabidly pursued by many in power. Unseen evil forces are at work.

But don’t forget that in the Ezekiel portion, God’s judgment on that reality will be carried out in time as well. We will not be subject to such horrors permanently. God WILL judge in due time. And thus we are incited as never before to truly plead: “Come quickly Lord Jesus.” Let your kingdom come, so that your will may be done in this earth, even the same way it is in Heaven.

This is to pray the heart, mind and will of God. And He will do it.

Praise His glorious name!

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.