Be Different!

DAY 232
5-21-10
EZEKIEL 5-9


Good Morning!

The words of Ezekiel’s prophecy continue. In chapter 5, the Sovereign Lord makes a comparison between his people and the nations that surround them. What does God see? He sees no difference at all. In fact, the pagan nations are not as bad as Jerusalem.

Ezek 5:5-7 "This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees." Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: "You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you."

What an amazing thought. God’s people don’t even conform to the standard of the pagan nations! They were worse!

From the beginning, God has demanded that his people be different. He commanded that they be separate from the nations around them. Nothing has changed. Now, God says that his people are the church (“those called out of the world”); and we are not to “conform to this world, but be transformed.” (Rom. 12:1-2)

Later, in Ezekiel 20:32, it says about God’s people, "We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world.” Very sad. Look what it did for them. They lost everything. Now that is something to keep in mind.

Here’s to being different!

Barry