And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. (Ezekiel 6:1 to 3)
As I’ve been saying, the Lord is going to raise up a company of believers whom He’s going to send into the churches to speak words of warning about His impending judgments, and to extend the opportunity for any who would heed His Spirit to keep themselves from what will be coming. Many won’t be ready for this and will reject the warning because of the belief that God isn’t going to judge His people. This will be no different than what happened twenty-six hundred years ago. Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel all issued warnings from the Lord, as well as every other prophet that the Lord sent; but the people couldn’t believe that He would do such things to them because of who they were. That’s happening because the leaders have tickled their ears and puffed up their flesh by telling them that the Lord loves them no matter what they think and say and do, and that He wants to bless them abundantly. One of the portions of Scripture that is brought forth regularly is:
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9)
Unfortunately, they tend to overlook what the Lord originally said:
Now therefore, IF ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, THEN ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. (Exodus 19:5 and 6)
Something that needs to brought out from the pulpit on a constant basis is the fact that, though we’re partakers of God’s grace, we’re still, nonetheless, in a covenant with Him. We declared that we surrendered our self will to the Father when we accepted Jesus as our Savior; and He holds us to our word. But, as long as the pastors and teachers stress that we can continually fall back on grace almost at the drop of a hat, and that Jesus lived a sinless life so that we wouldn’t have to try to, then we fall short of our responsibilities under that covenant.
Consequently, the warnings will be directed first and foremost to the leaders. Because far too many will have chosen to allow their positions to go to their heads, and they’ll sacrifice the eternal glory of servanthood for the temporal pleasure of self-proclaimed authority, then they’ll suddenly be faced with the reality of the cost. Others will have chosen to speak only those things that are pleasant to the ear and easy on the flesh in an effort to not offend anyone. And there will be a number of other situations which has and will compromise the body of Christ. The result for those who will choose to continue seeking after their own agendas will be the loss of everything that they’ll be trying to keep.
Unfortunately, these will also have far-reaching consequences for those who will be under their headship. You see, because of the failure of these leaders to bring forth the unadulterated truth exactly as the Lord requires, as well as their failure to demand that the people measure up to the standards that He has laid down for those who would seek to be His followers, then, in many instances, the people will not be aware of what is required of them; and what they could have had will elude them. Additionally, many will fall by the wayside; either fading into that no man’s land called backsliding, or completely abandoning Christianity altogether.
Now, you may think that all of the weight falls upon the shoulders of the shepherds, but that isn’t the case. The Lord requires every person to seek Him, to walk faithfully, and to have a knowledge of His Word that will guide them throughout their lives. None of us can claim ignorance that will absolve us of the responsibility of obedience. Consequently, though God has established the shepherds as the heads of the particular flocks, He also demands that the sheep bear their part of the covenant.
As I said, though many will refuse to turn from their chosen paths, there will still be those who will heed the Lord’s Spirit and will turn back to Him. Yes, they’ll suffer the loss of everything that they’ll have gained over the years, but they’ll keep themselves from the judgment to come. Through all that they’ll experience and all that they’ll lose, they’ll come to really understand that God is God, and that He never changed; and what He’s required of His people now is what He’s always required of them. Remember: man constantly changes and alienates himself from the Lord more and more; yet he doesn’t realize that his self-imposed alienation simply opens the door for the enemy to have free reign in his subjectivity to judgment and ultimate destruction.
There’s something that I want to mention here; and it’s the portion where the Lord speaks about making the land “more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath” (verse 14). All of the commentaries in which I looked say the same thing; namely, there’s no mention of the place. A couple of them, however, make note that, since the Hebrew letters for “R” and “D” are so similar that they were oftentimes interchanged, then this could very well have been referring to the town of Riblah in the land of Syria. This was where Nebuchadnezzar established his encampment when he was besieging Jerusalem, and where judgment was passed on king Zedekiah. I’m not going to go much further into this; but I brought it out for a reason. Since it would be about four years before the king of Babylon would set himself against the city, then this would be something that Zedekiah and far too many of the people failed to take seriously. After all, they couldn’t believe that God would allow anything to happen to His people.
So, can you see why I’m bringing this out here? The Lord is going to send us to bring His words of warning to the churches, and to extend the opportunity to turn from the path of judgment to the path of mercy and life; but our words will fall on many deaf ears. Just as with the Jews in the days of Ezekiel, far too many will scoff at the concept that God will allow judgment to come upon His people. And though there WILL be some who will heed His Spirit, still, the majority won’t. Thus, as with the natural Jews, the spiritual Jews will seal their own fate by their choice: either rejection to judgment, or submission to mercy.
