Preaching to the Exiles

May 23, 2021 Background Scripture: Ezekiel 18 Lesson Passage: Ezekiel 18:1 – 9, 30 – 32 The responsibility of preaching is too great a burden to think about without becoming overwhelmed by the weight of it. If the hearers include the unsaved, then the outcome has eternal consequences—Heaven or Hell. If the hearers include the saved, then it is important that the people of God receive the message God sent to them. Complicating both scenarios is the realization of the inadequacy and imperfections of the preacher. Once the preacher gets pass that, then delivering “good news” to the people of God who know that they are “blessed and highly favored” can be exciting! There is nothing like increasing the joy of happy people. However, the responsibility hits a little different when one must speak to the people of God who are living in an unfavorable situation that God is using as punishment. Such was the case for Ezekiel in our lesson for today. Ezekiel had the responsibility to preach to the people of God while they were in exile. They were forewarned that the day of reckoning would happen; and now the time had come to pass. But God does not leave His people comfortless. Even during punishment, God continues to console, or scold, His people—whichever is appropriate. God demands personal accountability, and His justice is meted out accordingly. Even in exile, God expected righteous living from His people. Even in exile, God promised to punish the wicked among His people. God rebuked the misguided proverb that was being used among the exiles. Some said, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” One must tread lightly when using a proverb such as this. Sin has many consequences and some of those consequences affect generations. However, the effect of those consequences does not take away the personal responsibility of those who may be living with those consequences. All individuals are morally accountable to God for their own behavior. This accountability is the same whether the person is living in a palace or is locked up in prison. No people should understand this better than Israel. One of their patriarchs, Joseph, was delivered from a foreign prison and promoted to second-in-command of that foreign nation because of his character. Can you imagine being promoted from inmate to National Vice President in one day? God is omnipresent. He is to be honored in the prison in the same way that He is honored in the public square. In every situation, God administers His justice on an individual basis. God does at times choose to punish a nation. But during those times, He continues to hold individual citizens accountable for their moral behavior. It’s not complicated. When a person can blame their situation on others, then it is easier to excuse their own actions. God always watches over His people no matter what situation they are in. God knows where we are, and He knows what we are doing. This is the message Ezekiel preached to the exiles. God is immutable. Therefore, the same message is just as relevant for today’s church as it was for the exiles then. It would have been easy to tell the exiles that their situation was the result of what their forefathers had done. This would have taken the pressure off the preacher and the hearers. Their request to God could have been, "Give us what our parents had, and we will live differently before You.” The truth is a person’s character is not determined by what he possesses. His character is determined by Who possesses him. This is the message Ezekiel had to deliver to the exiles. Robert C. Hudson April 17, 2021

Preaching Doom

May 16, 2021 Background Scripture: Jeremiah 37 – 38 Lesson Passage: Jeremiah 38:14 – 23 True prophets of God will only speak to God’s people what God gives for them to speak. False prophets will gladly speak what the people want to hear—perhaps in the hope that God will endorse their statements! The test of a true prophet is quite simple: if what they say comes to pass, then the Lord has spoken it. Prophesying should never be about winning a popularity contest. Prophecy should always be speaking what God gives one to speak. To that end, all prophecy does not sound good to the hearers. Some things are hard to listen to; especially when it is a rebuke or a warning of impending punishment. Prophets don’t get to freestyle or wing it. Prophecy is serious. The prophetic word is often sent to provoke people to action or repentance. There are consequences to how people respond to the prophetic word. Jeremiah had the unenviable responsibility of speaking to the people of God and their leaders during the downfall of the kingdom of Judah. God used Jeremiah to send messages to the king and the people of Judah. They were all told what they would have to do to avoid death at the hand of the Chaldeans. God was going to punish His people for years of disobedience. They could not avoid the punishment. However, they could survive the punishment if they followed God’s directions. The Chaldeans had besieged Jerusalem. Everyone, including the king, who went out and surrendered would be taken alive. If all the inhabitants of Jerusalem complied, then the city would be left intact, and the people taken hostage. If some did not surrender, they would be killed, and the city would be burned afterwards. The instructions were simple and to the point. They would lose their freedom, but they would retain their lives. Not recognizing simplicity was not their downfall as it is not ours. They believed they could find help elsewhere if God would not help them. They refused to accept that their punishment was inevitable although the word of God assured them that it was. God was not naïve concerning their plan. God sent word to them that their help would return to Egypt and the Chaldeans would still carry out their plans against Jerusalem. They had priests to appeal to God on their behalf, but only the prophet of God could give them God’s response to them. In this case, the prophet’s word was a word of doom. God’s people were going to be punished! I don’t believe anyone wants the assignment of telling people what you know they don’t want to hear. People like to hear good news. Furthermore, people tend to look favorably upon those who bring good news to them. Receiving good news has been described as refreshing and uplifting. That’s the role people prefer to play in the lives of others. Prophets don’t get to develop their own job description. Prophets are the mouthpiece of God. The words of the prophet are God’s words. Prophets know that what God has said will come to pass. Therefore, the prophets plead with the people of God to obey the word of the Lord. This was Jeremiah’s challenge in the passage of scripture found in the Background Scripture. It didn’t matter whether it was spoken publicly or privately, all Jeremiah could speak was what the Lord had given him. So, Jeremiah preached doom to the people of God. Robert C. Hudson April 17, 2021

Offering Hope for the Future

May 9, 2021 Background Scripture: Isaiah 29 Lesson Passage: Isaiah 29:13 – 24 One must tread lightly when considering words of prophecy. The prophetic word remains under a shroud of obscurity until all of it has been fulfilled. It is common for prophecy to carry multiple meanings that are suitable for different points in time. Doubtless, the original recipient(s) of prophecy understood it for the times in which they lived. Likewise, many succeeding generations understood it for what had been fulfilled in the past, what was at the present time being fulfilled, and what would be fulfilled at some unknown time in the future. This cycle repeats until the final fulfillment of the prophetic word. This is one of the ways that the living word of God speaks in a timeless fashion. The prophetic word has the power to warn, rebuke, correct, and offer encouragement to the people of God throughout generations. Today’s Background Scripture comes from Isaiah, the most prolific of the writing prophets. Isaiah’s writing described the suffering of the Messiah in such details that its fulfillment has been better understood as a result. It is the fulfillment of portions of the prophecy that gives assurance for the remainder. Like most prophecy, the element of time is often excluded. Therefore, what remains are the details of the events that happen over the course of time. In the Lesson Passage, God ridicules the efforts of His people to establish military alliances in secret while continuing to praise and worship Him with lip service. They praised and worshipped an all-powerful God while looking to align with other nations for their physical security. God reminded them of the relationship between the potter and the clay. The Potter is the One who is sovereign, and the clay is the one who is subservient. Any effort on the part of the clay to ignore, or disregard, the superiority of the Potter is an attempt to bring the Potter down to its level. Despite their feeble efforts, God promised to bring the desired deliverance that was needed by His people. Such deliverance will again cause them to hear the word of the Lord and rejoice. They shall see and perceive the works of God and rejoice in those works. God will give them hearts of understanding when they see the works He performs in their children. Today, those of us who put our trust in God for eternal salvation should rejoice that He is immutable. Because God never changes, we have the assurance that what we have seen in His word applies to us today. So, what is in today’s lesson? First, God knows how to give His people what we need even when we go out of our way to find it elsewhere. Alliances with others can only yield human results. Sometimes that is woefully short of what we need. Human results are not solutions for spiritual problems. Yet, we still make human alliances. Thankfully, God gives us what we need. Secondly, even when our praise and worship is only superficial because it is done out of tradition or habit, God knows how to draw sincere praise and true worship from within us. When it is time, God will cause our blessings to overflow and spontaneous praise to issue forth. God does not bless us because we deserve it. God blesses us because of who He is. Finally, no matter how dark the past or how dismal the present, God always gives us hope for the future. Robert C. Hudson April 17, 2021