- Thus says the Lord God: Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease your evictions of my people, declares the Lord God. Ezekiel 45:9 – Here God is speaking quite directly to these princes of Israel. Saying He has had enough of their unjust ways and violence. Then He goes further and reminds them of how they should be living and what their responsibilities are. See God is telling us as well that He has had enough of our sinfulness, but with us God also goes further in scripture to remind us how to live and what our responsibilities are. Yes, God wants us to put away our sin, but He also wants us to pick up a life of following Him. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1109
- You shall have just balances, a just ephah, and a just bath. Ezekiel 45:10 – The Lord is directing this message to the leaders and future leaders of Israel. In the past when offerings we given the princes would have “unjust balances.” They would say something measured a certain about required by God to give, but instead be lying to the people and actually taking extra to keep back for themselves. The leaders were stealing from the people and God was done with this abuse of power. In the following verses God gives outlines to exactly what an ephah and a bath measures and told them how much they were allowed to take. God set the standards for them to use. How though does this help us today? For we aren’t giving offerings like we the people of Israel were of our flocks or harvest. We don’t have a temple we attend feasts at, so what can we take away? Yes, this passage was clearly written for the people in Ezekiel’s day to address a problem in their story, we though have also been given a standard to live out our faith life by. Jesus. God has given us the example of Jesus’ life to compare our life to on how to live for God and love others. How we speak to others can be measured against how Jesus spoke. How we treat those who have sinned against us can be measured against how Jesus did the same. Jesus is our standard to live by. Think back then to what you know of Jesus’ life from your studies and messages you’ve heard in church, how does your story today compare to His? Of course our lives aren’t going to be perfect imitations of Jesus’ life, but we sure can daily strive to live in such a way that Jesus would have. He has set an example, a standard, for us to live by. Let’s seek to follow His example. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2386
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