Scripture Passage that Caught my attention today: Ezekiel 14:9-11 If a prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the LORD, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. 10 And they shall bear their punishment—the punishment of the inquirer and the punishment of the prophet shall be the same— 11 so that the house of Israel may no longer go astray from me, nor defile themselves any more with all their transgressions. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God, says the Lord GOD.
Observation: It seems a little unfair for some ‘prophets’ to be deceived by none other than the Lord. Yet the driving force of all the works of God is that we would be God’s people and God would be our God.
Application: I was listening to a little talk on persuasion the other day and the speaker was pointing out that, because the power of persuasion is, well, persuasive, it should only be used to persuade people to participate in things that are really for their own good. He was saying that only an unscrupulous person would use such powers and techniques in an unethical way.
While that sounded all well and good on the surface, I couldn’t help but realize that the speaker did not seem to be aware of the power of human sin. He didn’t seem to have a grasp of the fact that we all have a sinful nature that is persuasive in its own right, able to delude us into thinking that what we are doing or attempting to do is good when, in fact, it might be just the opposite. It’s a dangerous thing when we begin to think that we know what is best for everyone else. Perhaps we can become so deluded in our thinking that, as is described by Ezekiel in verse 9, the Lord actually adds to our delusion by deceiving us even a little more!
At the end of the day it is most certainly better to simply know God and to see oneself in relation to God rather than any other way.
Prayer: Lord, help us not to be deceived in our own thinking but, rather, to get more acquainted with your way of thinking. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Readings today included: Ezekiel 12-14 and Revelation 5)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment