Psalm 124 emphasizes that “the LORD is on our side” (repeated twice; verses 1-2). God wants us to know and trust in His presence - that He is actually with us and beside us. If not, then we could also not endure the “attacks and anger” of others (i.e., especially those of our enemies; verses 2-3). Such onslaughts are compared graphically to “floods, torrents, and raging waters” (verses 4-5), by which “we would have been swept away” (verse 5), and against which no defense without supernatural help is possible. Sometimes, we are in danger, and we don’t even know it. People today have no idea how much or how often God actually protects us. God’s daily, helpful intervention in our lives frequently enables us “to escape like a bird from the fowler’s snare” (verse 7). For this reason, we are called to “praise the LORD” (verse 6), for we find “our help is in the name of the LORD” (verse 8).
In Ezekiel 24-25, we see God’s judgment on Israel declared through the parabolic metaphor of a “cooking pot” (24:3-14). This “Word of the LORD came to Ezekiel on the same day” when Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem” (verse 2). “All the choice pieces” of meat (verse 4) refers to everyone in Jerusalem at the time of the siege. Following this punishment, we see in verses 15-27 that God announces, “with one blow, I am about to take away the delight of Ezekiel’s eyes” (verse 16). But Ezekiel was not allowed to “lament, weep, shed tears, or mourn in the customary way” (verses 16-17). “That evening, Ezekiel’s wife died” (verse 18). What a blow that must have been to Ezekiel! I considered my late wife to be the very delight of my life, and when she died, I recalled this passage. I identified with Ezekiel’s loss, and I struggled with my own personal grief, but I also struggled to understand how Ezekiel could ever keep his grief all bottled up within himself, as God instructed. By this sad example, God was dissolving His relationship with His people – the delight of His eyes – and Ezekiel portrays prophetically Christ’s own grief in the future over Jerusalem (cf., Luke 19:41-45). Chapter 25 contains God’s judgment against Israel’s surrounding national enemies - Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia - because they rejoiced over Israel’s sufferings through God’s judgment. We must never take joy in the hardships and sufferings of others.
Continuing in Hebrews 11:17-40, we see more heroes of our faith – each of the Patriarchs; Joseph, Moses, and through to the prostitute Rahab, as well as a list of many others – named and unnamed, all present here because of their faith and their actions. Interestingly, Rahab was a woman of faith – yes, even a prostitute and a liar (cf., Joshua 2:4-7) – but like many other sinners – Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, etc., – they all trusted in God. They chose to live by faith rather than to lower themselves to the cheap standards and popular expectations of the world. Of these men and women, God says, “the world was not worthy of them” (verse 38). May I say to you, nothing in this world – not the whole world itself – is equal to the delight and the eternal value of trusting, knowing, and serving our sovereign God.
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