Ezekiel 11:7-13 - Will you completely destroy the remnant?

11:7-13

Depending on how 11:3 should actually be translated, God has reversed its meaning. The city will become a pot but the dead bodies produced by the leaders will be the meat, and the leaders will be thrown out of the city. “You fear the sword and the sword is what I will bring against you.” The key message is that there is no escaping God’s judgement, No matter how much power or guile someone might think they have, there is no escaping God’s judgement. Men are not in control of events. Again we have that this is not an arbitrary judgement, but the judgement is coming because they have not kept God’s laws “but have conformed to the standards of the nations around you.” This was a commonly repeated mistake of Israel and Judah. Sadly the church often makes exactly the same mistake. We want to follow the world. We are called to follow Christ not the world! The church is nuts when it chooses to follow the world as it does on issues like LGBTQ, CRT (critical race theory) or whatever the latest nonsense the world ahs come up with.

As Ezekiel was preaching Pelatiah fell dead. These words of judgement were not words without power. Ezekiel’s response is to fall face down and cry out to the Lord. Will even the remnant of Israel be destroyed? Has Israel completely had it?

2 Thessalonians 3:1-3 - Pray that the message of the Lord may spread

3:1,2

Paul now asks the Thessalonians to pray for him and his co-workers. He wants the “message of the Lord may spread rapidly, and be honoured”. He doesn’t just want the message to be heard, but to be believed, in the same way that it was with the Thessalonians. Paul is also acutely aware that there are those who do not have faith, and they are “wicked and evil people”. Paul is not afraid of calling a situation as it is. He asks them to pray that Paul and his co-workers will be delivered from the wicked and evil people. In Acts we see that Paul was describing the situation accurately.

3:3

Some people are evil and wicked, but the Lord is faithful. So Paul moves from concern for his own ministry, to concern for the Thessalonians. Paul knows that God is able to deliver him in dangerous situations. Likewise, he knows that God will strengthen and protect the Thessalonians, for they too faced serious opposition.

Ezekiel 11:1-6 - Prophesy against them

11:1-4

The Spirit moves Ezekiel again. The individuals named hear are not known. ESV has “princes of the people”, “leaders of the people” is a better translation as “princes” here has no royal connotations. God tells Ezekiel that these “are the men who have been plotting evil and giving wicked advice”. In Jeremiah we read that most people were opposing him, and the general advice was that Jerusalem would be safe. The translation of v3 is difficult.  ESV has “the time not near to build houses” or “the time is near to build houses”, i.e. it could mean anything! The NIV “Haven’t our houses been recently rebuilt?” could mean that things implied everything was going to be OK.  “We are the meat in it” does not mean what we might take it to mean, ie we are going to be killed. It is more likely that it is contrasting meat with vegetables. Ie they are seeing themselves as the cream of the crop. Whatever the details, the place is a mess, and Ezekiel is to prophesy against it.

11:5,6

The leaders expressed to be working for the benefit of the citizens of Jerusalem, but they had plenty of blood on their own hands.And their actions would lead to there being many more dead in the city.

2 Thessalonians 2:15-17 - Stand firm and hold fast to the teachings

2:15

So it is God who strengthens us and sanctifies us, but that does not mean we are passive. If we read the New Testament letters there is no concept of a passive believer to be found! We are to hold fast and stand firm to the teachings of the gospel. And Paul is drawing attention to his own teachings. He passed these on to the Thessalonians while he was with them, and through his letter (1 Thessalonians). We should note that a significant amount of the teaching in the New Testament letters concerned false teachings. This wasn’t all they taught about, but the believers were equipped to recognise and stand against false teachings.

2:16,17

Paul ends this section with a prayer, calling on Christ and God the Father to encourage the Thessalonians in their hearts, and to strengthen them in every good deed and word. God has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and hope. And He encourages us in our hearts and strengthens us in what we do. We receive help direct from God Himself!

Ezekiel 10:9-22 - Then the glory of the Lord departed

10:9-14

We now get more description of this weird contraption with wheels within wheels, along with the cherubim. We are now told that the cherubim have four faces, one like that of a cherub, one like a man, one like a lion and one like an eagle. The earlier vision described one of the faces like an ox, this has been replaced by a cherub. By the way, the common use of the word cherub is hopelessly inaccurate. 

10:15-17

Even more description of the weird contraption, with cherubs moving and wheels moving with them. Oh to understand what this is all about!

10:18-22

Now we come to the key part, the glory of the Lord departs from the temple. Perhaps part of the purpose of all this vision stuff is that the departure of the glory of the Lord is such a momentous event. Having the glory there in the first place was a major event, and so is its departure. We must never treat the gospel lightly, but appreciate what a wonderful and magnificent thing it is. Ezekiel is captivated by the vision that he sees.

2 Thessalonians 2:13,14 - We ought always to thank God for you

2:13

So the end will come, and it is associated with lawlessness and living a lie. However, that does not mean we should be pessimistic! For Paul then goes on to say that he and his companions should always thank God for the Thessalonians. Why? Because they were loved by the Lord, and chosen by God as firstfruits. God loves us and has chosen us for a good purpose. We have been chosen, not to live a lie or to love evil, but to be saved by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, and belief in the truth. So we see here two things. One is a hard headed realism about what evil is like and how it works; the other is that God has chosen us for victory, for His glory to be displayed in our lives. We need to hold both perspectives. If we only have the former then we will be unduly pessimistic at best, but if we deny the former we are living in a fantasy world.

2:14

This is what we have been called to, and we were called to it through the gospel. There is no other route to a victorious life. What have we been called to? To share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just think about that! We have been called to share in the glory of the Son of God.

Ezekiel 10:1-8 - Fill your hands with burning coals

10:1,2

The glory of the Lord is now going to depart from the temple. Ezekiel again sees a vision of the glory of God, and refers back to the original vision. This original vision of Ezekiel seems to be of great significance to him. It is a pity we don’t understand it better (at least I don’t). The man clothed in linen (the one who marked the foreheads of those who still trusted the Lord) is there and is commanded to “go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim. He is to take burning coals and scatter them over the city. In Isaiah’s vision (Is 6) a burning coal takes away his guilt. These burning coals are burning coals if judgement. We could maybe see a parallel to Jesus in the man in linen. Jesus is either the one who takes away our guilt, or He is the one who will come to judge us. Which of these two it is depends upon whether or not we put our faith in Him.

10:3-8

We now have a visual description of the glory of the Lord preparing to leave the temple. The Israelites had chosen to abandon the Lord, they had chosen to trust in idols, they had chosen to defile the temple. But none of this detracts from the glory of the Lord. The loss is theirs, for the glory of the Lord could have dwelt among them, they could have had fellowship with God. Instead they chose to have fellowship with demons. So it is with the whole of mankind. Man has rejected God and takes the consequences.

2 Thessalonians 2:11,12 - God sends them a powerful delusion

2:11

Now, you might think it is somewhat unfair for God to send them a “powerful delusion”, but we need to look at the order here. “They perish because they refused to love the truth”. So  the powerful delusion was sent in response to this refusal to love the truth. If won’t love the truth then we open ourselves up to delusion.

There is an interesting point we should note here. People often ask about something, “Did God do it?”, “Did the devil do it?”, “Did man do it?”, and sometimes the answer is yes! We see that all this is in accordance with the works of Satan (2:9), it God who sends a powerful delusion (2:11), it happens because man preferred a lie to the truth (2:10) and delight in wickedness (2:12).

2:12

“So that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness”. The powerful delusion shows up the state of man’s heart. Note that Jesus said a similar thing in Matt 24:24. Note also that “they have delighted in wickedness”. There is no arbitrary judgement here, people are getting what they chose. They are receiving the natural consequences of their actions and their choices.

Ezekiel 9:7-11 - I have done as you commaned

9:7,8

“Defile the temple”. Why should God defile the temple? The people, especially the priests, had defiled the temple with their idolatry. The temple would now be defiled with the bodies of the dead. So the executioners begin their grim task of slaughter. This is a pictorial representation of the Babylonian siege and conquest of Jerusalem. Ezekiel is not a passive observer of all this. He falls down crying at the horror of the slaughter, and calls upon the Lord, asking if God is going to destroy the entire remnant. Hell is a terrible thing, but the true horror is not so much that hell exists, but that we deserve to go there. Our sin has a destructive effect on creation.

9:9-11

The Lord replied to Ezekiel that the reason for the terrible judgement was that the sin of Israel and Judah was “exceedingly great”. Note also that the land was “full of bloodshed and the city full of injustice”. Idol worship does not travel alone, but leads to all sorts of things. We might think why get so upset about idol worship? But things did not stop at idol worship. They thought that the Lord had abandoned the land and did not see what they got up to. This is much the same as the modern way of expressing this by saying God does not exist. People think that there is no judge. So the Lord refuse to look on them with pity, and will “bring down on their own heads what they have done”. The judgement and wrath is entirely justified. At this point the writing man returns, he has marked the heads of all the righteous.

2 Thessalonians 2:9,10 - They will perish because they refused to love the truth

2:9

There is a close alignment between Satan and man. When Jesus rebukes Peter saying “Get behind me Satan” (Matt 16:23) He says Satan has in mind the things of man, rather than the things of God. Satan is described as the prince of this world (John 12:31). The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the works of Satan. There will also be signs and wonders to serve the lie. Revelation speaks of the beast, the false prophet and demonic spirits performing signs on the earth (Rev 13:13,14; 16:14; 19:20). The key thing with signs and wonders is “what do they serve”? Do they serve to glorify Christ, or do they serve the lie?

2:10

Satan is active, but we cannot offload our responsibility. We cannot blame Satan. Wickedness deceives those who are perishing. “They perished because they refused to love the truth and so be saved”. So Satan has responsibility, we too have responsibility, and the most important thing is that we accept our own responsibility. There is a great emphasis these days on victimhood. Now there are many times when people are victims, but living out of victimhood is a futile road to take, one that leads nowhere good. BLM and CRT (critical race theory) encourages black people to blame “whiteness” for everything. BLM and CRT are leading people down a destructive road. Only the gospel leads down a road to life.

Ezekiel 9:3-6 - Put a mark on the forehead

9:3,4

The glory of God had been dwelling in the temple, but was now on the move. The cherubim was the part of the temple where the glory of God was thought to reside. The Lord then commanded the man with the writing kit to put a mark on all those “who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it”. When God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah Abraham prayed for the city (though he was probably primarily concerned about Lot). There were so few in the city that Abraham gave up after getting down to ten righteous people. Even so, God spared Lot, although Lot was far from perfect! God is merciful, and when it gets to the point where judgement is executed we can be sure that it is fully deserved, and even in that He will protect the righteous. We should also bear this marking in mind when we consider the receiving of the mark in Revelation. That mark is related to Satan. I think we get too obsessed with what form such a marj may take (eg a chip implanted in us). What counts is our behaviour. If we go along with the ways of the world (the ways of Satan) then we are “receiving the mark”, if we remain faithful to the Lord, then we receive the mark of the righteous talked about here.

9:5,6

“Kill, without showing pity or compassion”. Oh we cannot have that, is the modern day response to this, especially as it goes on to talk about slaughtering the young and the old, everyone, infact. We forget that the Lord had shown pity and compassion to Israel over hundreds of years. He had brought them out of slavery into the Promised Land. He had sent prophet after prophet when they rebelled. He had had compassion on them at the merest hint of repentance. But their rebellion had got worse and worse. Also, it was not quite everyone. Those who had received the mark were not to be touched.  This judgement was to begin at the temple. Judgement begins with the house of God.

2 Thessalonians 2:7,8 - And then the lawless one will be revealed

2:7

“The secret power of lawlessness is already at work”. When the antichrist is revealed it will actually not be much of a surprise, for the power of lawlessness is already at work, and has been for a long time. We see it all around us, and it is very much in evidence in our society today. However, there is a restraining power as well. This will continue until the restraining power is taken away. There is little guidance on who this restraining power. Is it a person? Is it an angel? Whatever the case, it is ultimately God who is restraining evil. At some point He will withdraw His hand and let man have what he wants, and that is the most terrible thing that God can do to us.

2:8

I am still going to look at this through the lens of lawlessness referring to the logical conclusion of man’s rebellion against God. When the restraint is removed we will get what we have agitated for, and it will not be pretty. We will see what a society “free” from God really looks like. However, we should not fear, for this verse, having declared the ultimate ascendency of lawlessness, then focuses on Jesus Christ. He will destroy lawlessness by the splendour of His coming and the breath of His mouth. We should be appalled at the rise of evil in the world, but we should not be fearful, for Jesus Christ is Lord.

Ezekiel 9:1,2 - I saw six men

9:1,2

Ezekiel having seen why serious measures are needed is now told about the judgment that will take place. The section in NIV is headed “Judgement on the idolaters”. You cannot read the Bible without getting the message that idolatry is a most serious sin. In John’s first letter he ends it with the command “keep your lives free from idols” (1 John 5:21). When we make an idol out of something we break our relationship with God, for we are putting trust and faith in something else. Moreover, if continued, this idolatry will lead to evil behaviour, affecting both ourselves and others.  The loud voice here is probably the voice of God and He summons “those who are appointed to execute judgement on the city”. These six men came from the north. Now the judgement was, in human terms, carried out by Babylon, but they were acting as God’s instruments. The Babylonian invasion was not something that just happened, it was an action carried out by the Lord. There was also a man with a writing kit at his side.

2 Thessalonians 2:4-6 - He will exalt himself over everything that is called God

2:4

“He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God .... proclaiming himself to be the God”. This could be an individual, the anti-Christ, but I have been looking at this in the context of referring to man in general. For so many of the things spoken of about the “man of lawlessness” can be taken as referring to man in general. The man of lawlessness is our destination without Christ. We see this all around us in the west, man is increasingly setting himself up as God. He rejects everything to do with God. It is not just a matter of rejecting religion, but there is a rejection of our being created beings. There is a rejection of the sexual order, and the male/female order. Man thinks he can chose or alter his gender. 

2:5,6

Paul has instructed the Thessalonians in these things, telling them plainly the direction the world was going in. “And now you know what is holding him back”. God has been restraining evil in the world, restraining the evil instincts in man. The church has been a major force in that, with most western countries having an underlying Christian ethos of sorts, But now that is being removed.

Ezekiel 8:14-18 - Have you seen this?

8:14-18

So the men have been castigated, but the women were no better! Tammuz was a Summerian god of vegetation, a fertility god. Sometimes women are presented as being superior to men. And sometimes they are! In the gospels, especially around the crucifixion, the women come out of it far better than the men. But we are all sinners, and women sin as much as men. Again we have the refrain that there is still worse to see.

Then we again get the sinfulness of men, with twenty five of them worshipping the sun. Worshipping the created instead of the creator.

Now idol worship does not come alone, it is not just a matter of men or women having some weird or ally habits. It is accompanied by obvious evil. In Jerusalem they had filled “the land with violence”. 

“Look at them putting the branch to their node!” The translation of this phrase is difficult, and it could mean they had become a stench to God, and this would fit with the following verse. Whatever the case, God is making clear to Ezekiel that He is perfectly justified in dealing with the people in the way that He was about to do. There would be judgement.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 - Don't let anyone deceive you

2:1,2

In the Olivet discourse Jesus told His disciples to “not be alarmed” (Mark 13:7). Here Paul tells his readers not to “become easily unsettled or alarmed”. In Jesus’ case it was not to be alarmed by events, here it is not to be alarmed by reports of some teaching or other supposedly given by Paul. The “last things” are notorious for people talking utter rubbish. Events will be wildly misinterpreted, there will be all sorts of ridiculous teaching. But look back to verse 1 here, Jesus Christ will return and we will be gathered to Him. By the way, this is not referring to any re-tribulation rapture.

2:3

“Do not let anyone deceive you”. We need a solid Biblical understanding. Before Christ returns the “man of lawlessness” will be revealed. “The man doomed to destruction”. This could refer to the antichrist as an individual though John speaks of many antichrists, so we do need to be careful about harping on too much about one man. Or it could be mankind’s evil reaching its height, and the true horror of our sinfulness becoming plain to all.

Ezekiel 8:7-13 - See the wicked and detestable things they are doing

8:7-13

Ezekiel is brought to a place where there was a hole in the wall. He is told to dig into the wall so he could see what was going on. The perpetrators thought they were acting in secret, but God knows all hearts and minds, all is open before Him. So Ezekiel would see something of what was being done in secret, seeing beyond the outward facade.

Inside Ezekiel could see pictures of many unclean creatures, and “the idols of Israel”. There were “seventy elders of Israel” there before the idols. Jaazaniah was probably a prominent citizen in Jerusalem. Each of them had a censer, so each was partaking in the worship of idols. These were the people who should have been leading the city in its worship of God, and guiding the people in following God. And no doubt they were putting on a show to the people that this was what they were doing, when in fact they were worshipping idols. When an individual or an organisation is exposed as being involved in some sort of corruption, or sexual abuse, then it often comes as a shock. They are seen to be doing something that is the complete opposite of the public facade. That is what is happening here. These elders thought that what they were doing was unseen, and that God had forsaken them. Yet even this was not the worst that Ezekiel would see.

2 Thessalonians 1:10-12 - Lord Jesus may be glorified in you

1:10

Jesus will return to be glorified in His Holy People. We need to realise how central we are to God’s plans. Now we need to be careful about this, because the human tendency is to imagine that we are important apart from God. Apart from God we are nothing. The wrong reaction to this is to then downplay our importance. We might say things like “it’s not about me, it’s about Christ”. Up To a point this is ok, but a more accurate statement might be “it’s about me in Christ”. Christ will be glorified in His people, and His holy people. A holy people are a people who have been justified by Christ and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.And on that day we will marvel at Christ, we will be filled with wonder at what Christ has done, at last seeing the full extent of that work. Paul then assures his readers that they are included in all this, because they believe the gospel.

1:11,12

Paul then turns to what his response is to all this. He prays for the Thessalonians, and prays that God would make them worthy. The gospel involved a change in our lives, a continual and ongoing change. It is the power of God that brings to fruition our good desires for goodness and fruitfulness. So we do change, but the change is all down to God. It all happens according to the grace of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul prays for this so that Christ’s name may be glorified in us.

Ezekiel 8:4-6 - Do you see what they are doing?

8:4-6

Then Ezekiel sees the glory of God. Later the glory will depart from the temple. So Ezekiel is seeing things as they are meant to be. I.e. the temple filled with the glory of God, and the people worshipping God. Instead the people have rejected God and are worshipping idols. This was bad enough, but God tells Ezekiel that he will see even worse things. We do not often talk about the jealousy of God, but it is an important part of His character. In the ten commandments, God tells us that we must not make any images and bow down to them. Why? “For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (Ex 20:4-6). This is the second commandment, the first is “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20:3). The temple was the place where the first two commandments were being explicitly broken. God declares that this is an utterly detestable thing, an abomination. So why the jealousy? God is the only One we should worship, He is the only One worthy of worship. Idols were wood, stone and metal, incapable of doing anything. It is utter foolishness to worship them and to put our trust in them.

2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 - They will be shut out from the presence of God

1:7

Paul is looking forward to the return of Christ. That is the day when we will get relief from our troubles. Now, not all suffer equally in this life, and we may well get some relief in this life, but the true everlasting relief comes when Christ returns. Whatever we go through in this life we need to remind ourselves that it is only temporary. When Christ returns it will be with blazing fire and with His powerful angels. The force of this earth will b as nothing compared with Christ.

1:8,9

Those who reject the gospel are disobeying God and will be punished. This isn’t an aspect of the gospel that we tend to talk much about, or even to like. However, it is part of the gospel. The call to believe in Jesus is not an option to be considered, it is a command to be obeyed. “They will be punished with everlasting destruction”. One could get involved in a silly debate about annihilationism, or “conditional immortality”, but such debates are pointless and achieve nothing. There are the most severe consequences for those who reject Christ. They will be separated from God and from His glory. The converse of this is that those who do obey the gospel will be with God and His glory for ever.

Ezekiel 8:2,3 - The Spirit lifted me up

8:2,3

The Lord’s communication to Ezekiel begins with a vision of a “figure like that of a man” (or “fiery figure”), but this was no ordinary man. The man lifted Ezekiel up by the hair of his head and transported him to Jerusalem. This was a supernatural transportation. Either Ezekiel was actually taken there supernaturally and then allowed to see various things, or he was given a vision of Jerusalem. The latter seems the more likely to me. The reason for the vision of the fiery figure is to emphasise to Ezekiel that He is greater than the terrible things Ezekiel is about to see. We prefer to close our eyes to terrible things because we cannot cope with them. We need first to see Christ, then we can cope with the reality of life. People sometimes say that religion is a form of escapism. This is not true of true religion, rather it enables us to cope with reality, and to be faithful servants of Christ while facing up to reality. The “idol that provokes to jealousy” is an idol set up in the midst of the temple, the very place where God is supposed to be woshipped.

2 Thessalonians 1:5,6 - God is just

1:5

This might seem to say that the Thessalonians had somehow earned entrance of the kingdom of God, but what it is actually saying is that God’s plan has proved right. God’s plan is not just about forgiving us. Forgiveness is absolutely essential, but it is not the complete plan. We were saved in order to become like Christ (Rom 8:29), to be the people God always intended us to be. The “perseverance and faith” of the Thessalonians proved that God’s plan was working.

1:6

“God is just; He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you.” Now some might think this is rather unChristian! But that is not the case.We have far too superficial view of Christianity at times. The Bible is clear from beginning to end that God will bring judgement upon those who persecute His people. It was true in the Old Testament, it is true in Revelation. It is because we know that God is just that we do not seek vengeance ourselves, we know we can trust God completely.

Ezekiel 8:1 - The hand of the Sovereign Lord was on me

8:1

We are now back to prose. Chapters 8 to 11 speak about the punishment of Israel, including the departure of the glory of God from the temple. This first chapter involves God showing Ezekiel why this was happening, He showed him the wickedness that was endemic within Israel, Jerusalem and the priesthood. We should remember that ultimately Ezekiel is a book about salvation, but in order to understand and appreciate that salvation we need to know the wickedness of man. This is relevant not just to Ezekiel, but much more generally. We need to appreciate the reality and the awfulness of sin in order to appreciate God’s salvation. If we start from the premise that everyone is very nice really, which is what we so often do, then we will get nowhere. At the same time, we should appreciate people. Unsurprisingly, Jesus shows us the way. Jesus was under no illusions as to the nature of man, and was not slow to tell people. However, Jesus also enjoyed being with people and appreciated people. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life!

We get one of Ezekiel’s precise dates here, and this vision was received thirteen months after the initial vision of the glory of God.  By this time people will have got the idea that Ezekiel was a prophet. The elders of Judah (presumably those in exile) were sitting with Ezekiel, probably wondering what he was going to do or say next! Then “the hand of the Sovereign Lord” came upon him. The message he was going to give was not one he would have made up or even imagined, it was one given by God.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4 - We ought always to thank God for you

1:1,2

This is a fairly typical introduction to a letter from Paul. It starts out by saying who it is from, Paul, Silas and Timothy. Then who it is written to, namely the church at Thessalonica. God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are placed on an equal footing. This also occurs in the next verse, where grace and peace (another common greeting from Paul) come from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1:3,4

Again following a Pauline pattern, the letter starts with thanksgiving. It is good to note what Paul gives thanks for, indeed says they ought to give thanks for. First their faith is growing, and their love for one another is growing. And they thank God for this, for God is the one who makes our faith and love grow. When we look at each other, and pray for each other, we should above all else be looking for growth in faith and love. And this was not happening in an easy time, but in a time of persecution and trials. If we look at the Bible, most of the people in the Bible lived in difficult times, and grew in Christ in the midst of difficult times. So in these days we should seek and expect the Holy Spirit to enable us to mature in Christ in the midst of these circumstances.

Ezekiel 7:15-27 - Prepare chains!

7:15-22

Outside the city the sword would kill people, inside the city famine and plague would do the job. Those who fled to the mountains would be as weak as water. Silver and gold will be worthless, the things once considered so valuable and providing protection against all sorts of problems would be no help at all. They had used jewellery to make idols, and these idols would become the detestable things they always were. The enemy would be allowed to invade the land and the city and defile it. The people’s hope in Jerusalem may have led to them saying “God will not let the enemy in, for they would defile the temple”. God was perfectly prepared to do that. For the real temple is the people.

7:23-27

“The most wicked of nations”. Even evil nations have a role in God’s plan. Judah tried various diplomatic methods to make peace, but all this would be in vain. We can read about what actually happened in Kings and Chronicles. All the leaders, that we automatically look to, would be helpless and hopeless. Prophets will have nothing to say, priests will have no instruction to give. Elders will not be able to lead. And the king will mourn. All will be lost.

2 Thessalonians - Introduction

Introduction

This is going to repeat the introduction to 1 Thessalonians with a few words added.

1 and 2 Thessalonians are thought to be two of the earliest letters written by Paul. Paul first went to Thessalonica after the miraculous escape from prison in Philippi. We read about this in Acts 17:1-9. Thessalonica itself was a busy seaport city. Paul started, as usual, by preaching the gospel in the synagogue, preaching Jesus as Messiah. He attracted some Jews, and a large number of God-fearing Gentiles, and this included a significant number of “prominent women”. With the God-fearers we can see that God was using the Jewish religion to start to draw people into the kingdom. The church was probably predominant;y Gentile, with only a few Jews. At the same time there was the backlash from other Jews who whipped up a riot. As a result Paul and Silas were sent away by the believers to Berea. So the converts had experienced the nature of opposition to the gospel from the word go. This is in stark contrast to the approach we often take today. It is the Spirit of God who converts a man or woman, they are born again through the Spirit. We all too easily rely on methods or music or gimmicks to “convert” someone, and, of course, this is not successful. 

1 Thessalonians was written from Corinth, a view attested to by early church fathers (AD 140). The Pauline authorship was never doubted by the early church, and even scholarship has generally accepted it as Pauline. The date of writing was about AD 51. Paul had had not time to properly set up a church in Thessalonica, so was greatly concerned for them (1 Thess 3:1). The aim of the letter was to help establish the Christians there. There seemed to be great concern about the second coming, and this matter figures again in 2 Thessalonians.

There have been some who have questioned the Pauline authorship of 1 Thessalonians, but their arguments are frankly silly and not worth bothering with. 2 Thessalonians has a very high level of attestation from the early church fathers. The letter seeks to encourage the Christians in difficult circumstances, and to give them proper teaching on the return of Christ, and also to exhort them to proper Christian living now. 

Ezekiel 7:5-14 - I will not look on you with pity

7:5-9

The warning is repeated. “Disaster! Unheard of disaster!” There can be no misinterpreting the message, it is loud and clear. Yet we are always trying to soften the message of the Bible, we even seek to apologise for God! This is foolishness. The just and perfect anger of God makes the grace of God shine all the more brightly. Just as Judah needed to be convinced of the reality of God’s judgement against her, we need to be convinced of the righteous anger of the Lord. It occurs often enough in the Bible, and not just in the Old Testament!

“I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for your detestable practices” (Ezek 7:8). People sometimes talk about the “problem of hell”. The truth is that there is no “problem of hell”. When the final judgment comes everything God does will be seen to be just, and no one will question His decisions. The only “problem of hell” is our failure to take hell seriously enough.

7:10-14

Some may have thought they had enough wealth, or were skilled enough as traders that they could weather the coming storm. So even if trouble was coming, things might be difficult, but they would get through it. “The vision concerning the whole crowd” (v13). The judgement covers everyone, no one would escape. They may have thought that by making appropriate military preparations they could see off the invasion, but God tells them that even this would fail. When God’s judgement comes there is no escape possible.

Matthew 28:19,20 - Make disciples of all nations

28:19

The previous verse, the fact that Jesus has all authority, is the foundation for our going into the world to make disciples of all nations. Should we seek to convert Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists? Of course we should. Not because of an idea, but because Jesus is the One with all power and authority, so all people are called to be disciples of Him. They are to be baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our mission is a trinitarian mission.

28:20

“And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded them”. Obedience is central to the gospel, yet we so often forget this. We do not want to be “judgmental”. The Bible knows nothing of any “belief” that does not involve obedience. And Jesus will be with us to the very end of the age. We do not embark on this mission alone, Jesus is right there with us. And notice how the focus of 28:18-20 is all on Jesus. All too easily we will take these words and then subtly make them a man centred mission. This is a Christ centred, Christ driven mission.

Ezekiel 7:1-4 - This is the End!

7:1-4

One of the features of Ezekiel is that most of the prophecies are in prose, rather than poetic form, unlike most of the other prophets where poetic is the norm. You can see the difference in your Bible by the form that the text is presented in. In this chapter the poetic form is used. This is much more repetitive, saying similar things again and again, and using quite graphic language. It is useful for us to appreciate the need for this. Jerusalem was God’s city, and the temple was God’s temple. The common view, and one that was held by the rulers and the priesthood, was that God would not allow His city or temple to be desecrated. We see this in Jeremiah, eg Jer 7:4. God needs to completely disavow of them of this delusion. He is far more concerned about their moral behaviour and whether or not they trust in Him (the two are intrinsically connected).

This is not simply a penalty for breaking a rule. We see that there is deep emotion involved in all this. But this is not uncontrolled emotion, it is not uncontrolled rage. As well as being deeply emotional, it is also perfectly rational and righteous. This is the wrath of God!

“I will not look on you with pity”. They will now receive the full penalty of their disobedience. 

Matthew 28:16-18 - All authority on heaven and on earth

28:16,17

The disciples went to Galilee, as the women had instructed them. There they met Jesus and worshipped Him, but some doubted. Other gospels give a much fuller account of the encounters, especially Luke and John. “but some doubted”. People sometimes say if only they had a direct encounter with God they would believe. Well maybe they would, and maybe they wouldn’t. Our capacity to refuse to see the truth is enormous.

28:18

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”. This is one of the most important facts about Jesus. When we consider who Jesus is we absolutely must be aware of this. And its impact goes far deeper than expecting Jesus to heal or do other things for us or others. It must be fundamental to our whole worldview. Believing in Jesus is not just about seeking to be like Jesus, it is about knowing who He is.

Ezekiel 6:8-14 - But I will spare some of you

6:8-10

Ezekiel uses a particular word for “idols”. The word he uses is found 39 or 38 times in Ezekiel, and about 49 times in total in the Bible. It literally means “dung god”, and is highly derogatory. In fact, I guess some more anglo-saxon translation may be equally appropriate. There is utter detestation of idols.

Some of the Israelites would be spared, a small remnant. Some of those who went into exile would eventually remember the Lord. They would realise how they had “grieved” the Lord. There are objective facts about the Lord, and things we must and must not do, but this goes together with a relational aspect. By sinning against God, looking to worthless idols and putting their trust in them, they had grieved the Lord. This was like a husband or wife committing adultery, it is an utter rejection of the relationship, and is equally destructive. They will also see that the threats that God had made through the prophets were very real. 

6:13,14

There are basically two ways that we can know that God is the Lord. We can trust Him and follow Him, or we can suffer His wrath. The Israelites should have known Him through following Him. Indeed, they had experienced enough miracles and interventions in their history. But they had rejected the Lord, so only when many of them died, and their buildings were shattered would they know that the Lord is God. And the places where the idols were worshipped would be where most of the slaughter would take place.

Matthew 28:10-15 - The guards took the money

28:10

Jesus repeated the command not to be afraid. This was good news! And the command to go and tell “my brothers” to go to Galilee where they would see Him. There are two things to note here. The first is that the women would be absolutely certain of the truth of their message. If they had not seen Jesus and had just told the disciples that they had seen the empty tomb and the angel, then the disciples may have come up with all the arguments that sceptics come up with, eg someone stole the body, wrong tomb, etc. But now they had seen and touched Jesus. He truly was alive. The second thing is the use of the term “my brothers” by Jesus. See the closeness of relationship.

28:11-15

Looking at Matthew there is a very high “apologetic” element to his account, and this section is directly apologetic. I.e. it seeks to defend the reality of the resurrection against those who say it didn’t happen. We have already noted a number of points as we have looked at earlier verses, this section is overtly apologetic. The guards went to the chief priests to explain what had happened, , no doubt doing this rather shame faced, wondering how on earth they were going to explain things. From the fact that the chief priests gave them “a large sum of money” it would seem likely that the guards initially told them the truth of what they had experienced, or something pretty close to it. The chief priests could never cope with the truth, so they bribed the guards and told them to say the disciples had stolen the body. If we look back over the account we will note that several points make it clear that this did not happen. Ordinarily the guards would have been in enormous trouble, possibly even facing death. The Chief priests promise to clear things for them.

Matthew 28:8,9 - Suddenly Jesus met them

28:8

“So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy.” Contrary to some who deny the resurrection, the first century people in Israel were not gullible folk believing anything. We have already seen that when Jesus had spoken about the resurrection the disciples basically had no idea what He was talking about. The women maybe had more of an idea, and were overjoyed that it seemed to be true, but they were also filled with fear for this was an absolutely momentous event.

28:9

Jesus Himself then meets the women. So the women were the first to actually meet the risen Christ. Note that they did not just see Him, they met Him, they interacted with Him. Perhaps it is better to say Jesus interacted with the women. This was true of the other recorded appearances. They were all more than just appearances, certainly not a sight of a shadowy figure a long distance off, but a very real meeting. The women clasped His feet. This was an act of humility, but also one that would show that Jesus was real. This was no ghostly apparition. They also worshipped Jesus.

Ezekiel 14:6-11 - Turn from your idols

14:6-8

When God condemns us for our sin there is always a way out, but only one way out, and that is repent! When God condemns us for our sin it is His hope that we will repent. Sin leads to death (Rom 6:23), but God’s ways are the way of life. So here God calls on the elders to turn from their idols and renounce all their detestable practices. God then more or less repeats the words of 14:4, though this time it is expanded to include any foreigner living in Israel. We must not set up idols in our hearts (1 John 5:21), idolatry is treated most seriously by the Lord, for it is the root destructive sin.

14:9-11

14:9 may seem strange to us, but the false prophet is still responsible for what he or she says. What it means here is that God is letting both the false prophet and people who listen to the false prophet get what they desire. He is handing them over to false prophecy, handing them over to living by lies. Our societies in the West seem very keen these days to live by lies. The really terrifying thing is that if that is what we want, then God will let us have it! Along with all the terrible consequences. And both the false prophet and those who listen (and accept) the false words are guilty. But then this section finishes with “Then they will be my people ...”. This comes about only after the people have seen the consequences of their idolatry, the consequences of abandoning God’s ways. Sadly this may be what is happening in our own land. Maybe God is letting us experience the consequences of our abandonment of Godly teaching on marriage. The response to the Covid pandemic is utterly illogical and destructive. We have, as a society, totally lost our bearings, and largely because we have abandoned our Christian heritage. The good news is that at some point we will turn back.

Ezekiel 6:1-7 - Set your face against the mountains of Israel

6:1-7

“The word of the Lord came to me” implies the beginning of a new section. “Set your face against the mountains of Israel”. Why the mountains? The mountains were where many of the “high places” were, which was where idol worship took place. The Canaanites had their shrines for idol worship on the mountains. There would be an altar for sacrifice, an image of some idol or other, such as Asherah, and sexual immorality would often play a part in the proceedings. When Israel took over the land they often adopted these high places. They were then ostensibly places where the Lord was worshipped. After the temple was built they were told not to worship any longer at these places. However, when Israel split into two nations, Israel, the northern kingdom, established her own places of worship. Later Judah, while having the Jerusalem temple, still worshipped at the high places, and this “worship” degenerated more and more into idol worship. Prophet after prophet spoke out against them, but to very limited effect. In 1 and 2 Kings we often read about good kings but with the rider “but they did not remove the high places”. Hezekiah did remove many high places, but Manessah, his successor, promptly reinstated them. Anyway, this is why the Lord tells Ezekiel to speak against the mountains.

The kings of Judah had failed to remove the high places, so God will do it Himself. When we are told to do something we should do it, the alternative is that God will come and do it Himself, and that is usually not a good thing for us! Why so much talk about bloodshed? Well, one of the ways of getting rid of a high places was to put the bones of the dead on it, then the place was considered to be desecrated. So God would desecrate the high places with the dead bodies of the Israelites. There would also be muc physical destruction. 

“And you will know that I am the Lord”. This is the purpose of God’s actions. Elsewhere it refers to the nations that were not God’s people as well. God’s purpose is that the whole world will know that He is the Lord. We can either know Him as saviour, or as judge.

Matthew 28:6,7 - He has risen from the dead

28:6

It is sometimes said the faith is believing things without any evidence, or even against the evidence. This is simply not true, and definitely not a Biblical view. So far we have evidence that Jesus is dead, and His tomb was sealed and guarded. Now the angel shows the women the empty tomb. The empty tomb is extremely important. If Jesus had not risen the Jewish authorities had a very simple answer to the rise of the church, point to the dead body. But they could not do this because there was no body to point to.

28:7

The women were then told to go and tell the disciples, and to do this quickly. Note the importance given to women. This is an aside, but I consider the Biblical evidence for women not preaching to be rather weak. The message they were given was to announce that Jesus was risen from the dead. Remember that Jesus had told the disciples on several occasions that this would happen. Again, evidence would be provided! Jesus would go ahead of them to Galilee and there they would see the risen Jesus.

Ezekiel 5:9-17 - I will be avenged

5:9-12

This infliction or punishment upon Jerusalem was not arbitrary, it would not be done in a fit of rage. It was a righteous judgement upon the sin of Jerusalem. Mentioned specifically are all the “detestable idols”, so a one time judgement would come upon them. Then the terrible consequences of this are given. Parents will eat their children and children will eat their parents. This would happen in the siege, and in sieges conditions became truly desperate and people did desperate things. Now we might react against this, thinking “all this for idol worship?” But idol worship does not come alone, it also involved, amongst other things, people offering child sacrifices. Today we are in no better place to object. We abort millions of babies per year, and even celebrate having the right to abort, and having right to  carry out partial birth abortions, as happened in some parts of America. 

In addition to this, people would be scattered among the nations. Then God makes clear that the judgement is a deliberate act on His part. God has become the enemy of Jerusalem, because of Jerusalem’s sin against the Lord. So people would die from the plague, from famine, and from the sword.

5:13-17

God’s anger would not last forever. After this the remnant would know that the Lord Himself had spoken. Remember that in Jeremiah, who was working in Jerusalem around the same time, was warning them of all these things, but the people and the rulers were all rejecting his words, they were denying the word of God. Moreover, Jerusalem which should have been a beacon to the nations, would become “ruin and a reproach”. The nations would see what disobedience to God results in. Again we have God making it clear that He is doing this, “when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke”. Any picture of God that neglects, or even rejects, His wrath and judgement is wholly inadequate, and will result in serious error.

Matthew 28:1-5 - Mary went to look at the tomb

28:1-4

On the Sunday morning Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb. Remember that in the previous chapter Matthew made clear that they knew exactly where the tomb was, this is no matter of them going to the wrong tomb! There was a “violent earthquake”, I guess this was a very localised event as it was due to an angel of the Lord appearing.The angel rolled back the stone from the tomb. The angel appeared as a brilliant white. Verse 4 also makes clear that the guards were still there, so there was no chance of the body having been stolen.  As well as the spiritual lessons, Matthew seems to be making it clear that the empty tomb and the resurrection were real events. The guards became like dead men.

28:5

The angel told the women not to be afraid. This often happens with angelic appearances. It has often been pointed out that the fact the women were the first witnesses was highly significant. For in those days the evidence of women was less important than that of men. So if someone was making this up they would not have put women as the first witnesses. So this all lends to the authenticity of the accounts.