To Live
Those Who Hear What the Sovereign Lord Says!
Those Who Will See the Lord Revealed!
I gave them my decrees and made known to them by my laws by which the person who obeys them will live. Ezekiel 20: 11
In reading Ezekiel, I found I am deeply grateful for the editing skills God taught me from work.
I edit medical research and everything else.
I had known the power of reading out loud my Bible for sometime.
My Dad used to read out loud to us weekly from the Bible, since before I was born.
Because the Bible isn’t just a novel, it’s people speaking like a play.
So we need to know what they are saying with tone and inflection they used.
That only comes alive and brings greater understanding when we speak it.
(see Jesus is the Key Training for better how to read the Bible)
But in reading Ezekiel I have found such great power in the editing skills, I was given, reading out loud to dissect what is really being said.
Without a lot of punctuation, Ezekiel can be tricky to read.
So reading it out loud, just changes what we hear and understand.
That throughout this wonderful book, God is showing us His goodness.
This verse parallels why David talks about God’s statutes bringing joy to the heart.
Because God is telling us that His laws are meant to bring us life.
(If only I would have comprehended this as a kid!)
That not only do we prosper in this life by doing them, but in doing them we will actually find eternal life and live forever.
That in His lamenting to the prophet Ezekiel that people have not accepted His offering of His ways, we see so much of God’s heart.
That His statutes were meant to bless us.
That He is telling us in this chapter they are a gift to us.
They are an offering, a blessing.
They reveal God’s heart to us.
They reveal that He wants to take care of us.
They reveal God’s plans for humanity to us.
They reveal the best way to live.
They reveal that He knows that we don’t know the best way to live so He offers it freely to us.
They reveal His Father’s care of how we live daily.
They reveal that He wants Good for us, every day.
They reveal His loving heart for His kids, wanting us to see Him, to know Him, to accept this offering of love from Him and live being blessed, under His wise care.
And it’s why in Matthew 11: 28 He tells us His yoke is easy, His burden for us, is light.
Because first the plans, the good ways, He prepared for us, are meant to bless us in this life.
But also because He sent Jesus to live this perfect way for us first, to model it, then to give up His life on the cross, paying for humanities inability to live this way naturally, then taking His life up back again, to give us His Spirit, that we could be empowered by His Spirit to do the same thing, live in the best ways, the best plan, that gives us life, life today and life forever with Him.
May we know that we know that we know all that Jesus has called us to do, is to lead us to be blessed, healthy whole today and blessed in greater ways that has yet to be fathomed for all eternity with Him, in His house, His Kingdom, that brings us the lives were always hoped we would have.
love kathlynn