Ezekiel 38-39 - Outline

Thu Jan 31 10:19:39 PST 2013

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

January 31, 2013

 *AUG 26 - EZEKIEL 38-39 - GOD & MAGOG DESTROYED - ISRAEL EXALTED*

 *1. 38:2-3a (38:1-7, ESV) PROPHECY: GOG TO BE REPULSED. “Son of man, set
your face toward God, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and
Tubal, and prophesy against him 3 and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold,
I am against you.”* And whom You are against Father, shall *surely* fall.
Yet a little while, and the wicked shall be seen no more. *Hallowed be your
:name.*

 *2. 38:10 (38:8-13) GOD’S INVASION PURPOSE. “Thus says the Lord GOD; On
that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil
scheme.” *Father, You are the only God Who can tell a man’s thoughts before
He has even thought them! What a *great God* You are! Humble us before Your
might and power! *Your :kingdom come.*

 *3. 38:16 (38:14-17) GOD’S PURPOSE IN THE INVASION. “You will come up
against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter
days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when
through you, O God, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.” *Yes
Father, You make even the wrath of man praise You! You use man’s evil
purposes to fulfill Your will. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on
earth.*

 *4. 39:2 (38:18-39:7) DESTRUCTION OF GOG AT ARMAGEDDON. “And I will turn
you about and drive you forward, and bring you up from the uttermost parts
of the north, and lead you against the mountains of Israel.” *Father, we
tremble at Your might and omnipotence! You are also omniscient! *Our :daily
:bread Give us this day.*

 *5. 39:12 (39:8-20) GOG: SPOIL AND CARNAGE. “For seven months the house of
Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land.” *What
devastation! What fulfillment of Your Word, Father! O how we need You! O
make us like the deer panting after the the water brook, that we thirst
after *You*! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our
:debtors.*

 *6. 39:21 (39:21-24) THE PURPOSE OF GOD. “And I will set my glory among
the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have
executed, and my hand that I have laid on them.” *We see Your power Father,
when Your judgments are upon earth. Then Your Glory shines forth. *And
bring us not into temptation.*

 *7. 39:28 (39:25-29) ISRAEL: TO BE REGATHERED AND CONVERTED. “Then they
shall know that I am the LORD their God, because I sent them into exile
among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave
none of them remaining among the nations anymore.” *Greater than Your
deliverance of Israel through the Red Sea Father, is Your returning them to
their land after Babylon, and after 70 A.D. *But deliver us from the evil
one.*

 *NOTE**: 39:29 (39:25-29) GOD’S FINAL SMILE UPON ISRAEL. **“And I will not
hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of
Israel, declares the Lord GOD.” *This is Your Sovereign choice, Father. The
Potter is working on His clay! We cannot say You, No!

 *Our Psalm for the Day: 56:10 (56) IN GOD WE TRUST. “In God whose word I
praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise.” *Yes Father, we will bless You
for Your Word! For Your *promises* are backed by all the honor of Your Name
(Psalm 138:3, L.B.)! How *great* is Your Name. No wonder we say, *Hallowed
be your :name!*

 We have here the songs of God’s servant, who rejoices once more to return
from banishment and to leave those dangerous places where he was compelled
to hold his peace even from good. There is such deep, spiritual knowledge
in this Psalm that we might say of it, “Blessed are you, David Bar-Jesse,
for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you.”

 1:1. *For man would swallow me up. *He is but Your creature, a mere man,
yet like a monster he is eager for blood; he pants, he gapes for me; he
would not merely wound me, or feed on my substance, but he would fain
swallow me altogether, and so make an end of me. The open mouths of sinners
when they rage against us should open our mouths in prayer.

 1:3. *What time I am afraid, I will trust in You. *David was no braggart;
he does not claim never to be afraid; he was no brutish Stoic free from
fear because of the lack of tenderness. David’s intelligence deprived him
of the stupid needlessness of ignorance; he saw the immanence of his peril
and was afraid. We are men, and therefore liable to overthrow; we are
feeble, and therefore unable to prevent it; we are sinful men, and
therefore deserving it, and for all these reasons we are afraid. But the
condition of the Psalmist’s mind was complex - he feared, but that fear did
not fill the whole area of his mind, for he adds, *I will trust in You.* It
is possible, then, for fear and faith to occupy the mind at the same
moment. We are strange beings, and our experience in the divine life is
stranger still. We are often in a twilight, where light and darkness are
both present, and it is hard to tell which predominates. It is a blessed
fear which drives us to trust. Unregenerate fear drives from God; gracious
fear drives to Him. If I fear man, I have only to trust God, and I have the
best antidote.

 1:4. *In God I will praise His word.* Faith brings forth praises. He who
can trust will soon sing.

 1:5. *Every day they wrest my words. *This is a common mode of warfare
among the ungodly. They put our language on the rack; they extort meanings
from it which it cannot be made fairly to contain. Thus our Savior’s
prophecy concerning the temple of His body, and countless accusations
against His servants, were founded on willful perversions. They who do this
every day become great adepts in the art. A wolf can always find in a
lamb’s discourse a reason for eating him. Prayers are blasphemies if you
choose to read them the wrong way upwards. *All their thoughts are against
me for evil. *No mixture of good will tone down their malice. Whether they
viewed him as a king, a Psalmist, a man, a father, a warrior, a sufferer,
it was all the same - they saw through colored glass and could not think a
generous thought towards him. Even those actions of his which were an
undoubted blessing to the commonwealth they endeavored to undervalue. O,
foul spring, from which never a drop of pure water can come!

 6:13. *That I may walk before God in the light of the living.* Here is the
loftiest reach of a good man’s ambition, to dwell with God, to walk in
righteousness before Him, to rejoice in His presence, and in the light and
glory which it yields. *(From “The Treasury of David” by C.H. Spurgeon,
abridged by D.O. Fuller)*

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