The Danger of a Hard Heart Ezekiel 11:19-20

 

 

“Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.”

 

The Heart of Flesh vs. The Heart of Stone

Several passages in both the Old and New Testament speak of God taking the “heart of stone” and replacing it with a “heart of flesh” and is sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and reverent and obedient to the Lord.  The idea is that the heart becomes “stony” due to the effect of sinful habits over time that leads to rebellion against God, and that can take us to very bad situations. 

The Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible gives an interesting contrast to Egyptian theology.  They believed the heart decided one’s fate in the afterlife, and a heart heavy with sin was disastrous.  When someone was mummified, a stone in the shape of a beetle (symbol of eternal life) was placed on top of the heart.  In Ezekiel, God is the one who can replace a heart of stone with a heart of flesh and He promises to do so with the nation of Israel, preserving them through the trials of the centuries and returning them to Israel.

 

A Hard Heart is Not Just About Irreverence

But note this passage in Zechariah about people whose heart is hard.  The defining characteristic is not hatred, but indifference.  Indifference is dangerous.  Indifference is the opposite of love, so they say, but here it is not just indifference that is a lack of reverence toward God, but an indifference to His commands to show mercy to the suffering.  A person can have the trappings of reverence but indifference to suffering shows a hard heart wrapped in religious clothing.  We should always pray to have a heart soft and sensitive to the Holy Spirit, but that includes one that is sensitive to the trials of those suffering.  We cannot have one without the other.

 

Zechariah 7:8-13  Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts:  ‘Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother.  Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor.  Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.’  But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear.  Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets.  Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.  Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts.

The Mark on the Forehead Ezekiel 9:4

 

Ezekiel 9:1-11 (NKJV)
1  Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, "Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a deadly weapon in his hand."
2  And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his battle-ax in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer's inkhorn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.
3  Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer's inkhorn at his side;
4  and the LORD said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it."

Revelation 7:2-3  The servants of God are sealed with a seal upon their foreheads.

Revelation 9:4  Those without that seal of God are punished.

Revelation 14:1  The 144,000 have the Name of the Father upon their foreheads

Revelation 14:9-10  All who have the mark of the Beast on his forehead or hand, shall drink of the wrath of God

Thursday, August 18, 2022

At present I’m reading Ezekiel, one of the most mystical of all the Biblical prophets.  We resided with the exiles in Babylon and addressed them and also what remained of Israel before the nation was finally overwhelmed.  Judah (all that remained of Israel at that time) was a culture that embraced the worship of numerous gods as well as the God of Israel, even at the Temple itself (read Ezekiel 8).  In this vision, God speaks wrath to the people of Israel and gives Ezekiel a vision that represents that wrath.  Angels come to destroy the city, but one is sent in before the rest to mark the foreheads of those who mourn their sins and those of the city.  They are spared.

 

This episode struck me because of the similarity of the marked forehead (or on the hand) in Revelation.  Both the servants of God and the followers of the Antichrist,  who I understand the “Beast” to be, are marked.  Here’s a brief list of the references in Revelation.

Revelation 7:2-3  The servants of God are sealed with a seal upon their foreheads.

Revelation 9:4  Those without that seal of God are punished.

Revelation 14:1  The 144,000 have the Name of the Father upon their foreheads

Revelation 14:9-10  All who have the mark of the Beast on his forehead or hand, shall drink of the wrath of God

 

There’s been so much speculation about the “mark of the beast” in Revelation, but the comparison with the passage in Ezekiel makes me wonder if this is something that is more spiritual or symbolic, seen by God but not necessarily visible to our own eyes.  I will admit I get nervous around technology that can be used to invade privacy (devices implanted in one’s hand, for example) if control of the system is gained by the wrong people, but I’ve also had it pointed out to me that if someone wanted to control my finances and track my every move they simply needed to gain control of my cell phone, which I carry with me everywhere.  Perhaps instead of worrying about how these prophecies in Revelation come to pass I should consider the context provided by Ezekiel and wonder what God sees when looking at me?

Jeremiah 24:7 The People Most Blessed May Not Be Those With The Happiest Circumstances

 Jeremiah 24:7  "Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart."

Sorry for the long delay in blogs.  It has been a busy Spring and I have not always done succeeded in keeping up with everything.  I've been reading Jeremiah for awhile and I've noted that the book highlights how we are very good and rationalization.  People maintained that God was pleased with their righteousness throughout the years that Jeremiah prophesied until the bitter end took place and all but the poorest of the poor marched out of Israel into exile.  This took place twice, with the first eviction at 597 BC.  In an ironic twist, the verse noted above refers to those forced out of Israel during the first exile.  One would think that they were the worst of those facing judgment, but it was the other way around.  The ones who were to go later were the ones facing greater judgment.  What does this say about those who follow Christ with a sincere heart who suffer trouble and those who are hypocrites and prosper?  

Perhaps one response is to look at my own heart and mind when I consider whether God has looked upon me with favor.  Does my spirituality reflect verse seven?  If so, that may be a better indication of my standing before my Creator than the circumstances of my life.  Such circumstances always change, and life on earth is only for a season anyway.  I hope you enjoy the day and make the most of it.

Spiritual Disciplines and Moral Behavior: Some Comments on Isaiah 58

 

Isaiah 58:1-14 (NKJV)
¹  "Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins.
²  Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God.
³  'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?' "In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers.
⁴  Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high.

Note:  Behavior can make spiritual discipline useless, and we can fool ourselves into thinking that we are right with God without considering how we treat those vulnerable to us.  They love the Word, and love to pray, but still seek pleasure, exploit laborers, strive and debate each other and "strike with a fist of wickedness."

 

BK-Cf. Deuteronomy 24:14-15

"You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in you land within your gates.  Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you."

           

Cf. also James 5:1-6

"Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are  coming upon you!  Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.  You gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire.  You have heaped up treasure in the last days.  Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth (Lit. "the Lord of hosts")  You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.  You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you."

Note:  Se we see this continued to be a problem in the days of the New Testament as well.

⁵  Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the LORD?
⁶  "Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?

JFB-to "dissolve every unjust bond", such as slavery, or fraudulent contracts.  Cf. Human trafficking and predatory loans.

 

⁷  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?

K&D-“There is a bitter irony in these words, just as when the ancients said, “not eating is a natural fast, but abstaining from sin is a spiritual fast.” During the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans a general emancipation of the slaves of Israelitish descent (who were to be set free, according to the law, every three years) was resolved upon and carried out; but as soon as the Chaldeans were gone, the masters fetched their liberated slaves back into servitude again (Jeremiah_34:8-22). And as Isaiah_58:6 shows, they carried the same selfish and despotic disposition with them into captivity.”

⁸  Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
⁹  Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.' "If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
¹⁰  If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
¹¹  The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
¹²  Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

Note:  People like this are like this not because they have charmed lives, but because they are living their best.  They are life-giving to others and are builders of people as well as places.

 

References:

BK-Bible Knowledge Commentary

K&D-Carl F. Keil and  Franz Delitzsch