warning – Moment to Moment (Bible blog)

A final warning

I have said more than once over the past five years I’ve been writing this blog that God is patient, but that his patience will not last forever.

And here in this passage, I think we see that patience just about to run out.

Here we see an angel flying out, proclaiming the gospel to every nation, tribe, language, and people one last time. And he shouted,

Fear God, and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water. (Revelation 14:7)

I wonder if this is a real angel or if it’s merely symbolic of the gospel going out to the whole world. (Matthew 24:14)

Or perhaps it’s both. Either way, the gospel goes out one last time. And with it comes warning.

“Now is the time to turn to God. His patience has run out and the time for judgment has come. Fear him. Give him glory. And worship him. Before it’s too late.”

The warnings are intensified by the next two angels.

Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries. (8)

This is a preview to what we will see later. Babylon had once been a great empire, but it was totally pagan, a people who had turned their backs on God and were committing adultery with the world.

John no doubt saw Babylon as a symbol of Rome. And for us today, Babylon and Rome are symbols of a godless society, a society in which antichrist will arise.

But this angel cries out, not only that Babylon will fall, but that it has already fallen. It is dead while it yet lives. It’s only a matter of time before all will see it.

Then the third angel cries out a final warning.

If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath.

He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. (9-11)

In short, there is no middle ground. You have to choose sides. Either you worship God or you worship the beast. And if you choose to worship the beast, all of God’s wrath will be poured upon you.

A lot of people hate the idea of hell. They can’t believe that a loving God would punish someone forever in conscious torment. But it can’t be any clearer here. There will never be rest, day or night for them. Rather, they will face torment for all eternity.

Why does this have to be so?

Number one, we were created eternal beings. The question is not whether we will live forever. The question is where.

Number two, if people will not receive God as king, they must be separated from him, if for no other reason that they don’t want to near him. But the thing is, life without God is hell.

If you don’t believe me, look at the world around you. We have tried to live in a world where God is not king. What’s the result? Murder. Rape. Terrorism. All manner of atrocities.

The experiment has failed.

And this is a world where God is still here, working in the lives of people. What will a world completely devoid of God be like?

But it doesn’t have to be that way. On the cross, Jesus drank the wine of God’s wrath for us. He experienced the full strength of God’s anger so that you don’t have to.

But if you reject him, then you’ll have to drink it yourself.

What will you choose?

Whether they listen or not

Hey, a chronological book! What a unique concept! And quite refreshing considering all the time jumping going on in Jeremiah.

Ezekiel comes on to the scene at about this time of history. It was the fifth year after Jehoiachin, the second-to-last king of Judah, had gone into exile to Babylon. Along with Jehoiachin, Ezekiel and many other Jews joined him in exile.

Ezekiel was the son of a priest, but at an age (30) when he would normally have started his service as a priest, God calls him here as a prophet.

Ezekiel first saw what appears to be cherubim. They had four faces, that of a man, lion, ox, and an eagle.

Many of the church fathers take that as the different “faces” of Christ as found in the gospels. Jesus the “Lion of Judah” in Matthew, Jesus the servant in Mark (the ox), Jesus the Son of Man in Luke, and Jesus the Son of God in John (the eagle).

They also show the omniscience of God (with their four faces on four sides, nothing was out of their view), and the omnipresence of God (the wheel within the wheels able to go anywhere at any time).

But then God himself appears, and speaks to Ezekiel.

And it is his call of Ezekiel that interests me the most here.

First he told Ezekiel,

Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day.

The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’

And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them.

And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions.

Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house.

You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. (Ezekiel 2:3–7)

Two key things here:

First, God said that he was sending Ezekiel to the people of Israel.

Second, he said, “Whether they listen or not, you are to give them my message.”

He tells us the same thing. He is sending us to the people around us, and commands us to give them his words.

Some may listen. Some may not. But whether they listen or not, we are to give them his words.

Then he told Ezekiel,

Open your mouth and eat what I give you. (Ezekiel 2:8)

He then gave Ezekiel a scroll with his words written on it. They were not happy words. Rather they were words of “lament, mourning, and woe.”

In other words, they were words of the judgment to come because of the people’s sins. Ezekiel took in the words of God, and he said it tasted like honey in his mouth.

We too are to take in the words of God. We are to savor them.

But we are not just to keep them to ourselves, we are to share them. Not just the good things God has said, but his words of warning as well. What happens if we don’t?

God told Ezekiel,

Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.

When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.

But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.

Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin.

The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.

But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself. (Ezekiel 3:17–21)

What is God saying here? We have a responsibility as God’s watchmen to warn people to turn from their sin.

If we do, and they repent, we will have saved them. If they don’t, they will die, but God will not hold us responsible for their blood.

If, however, we say nothing, they will die and God will hold us responsible.

We cannot control how people respond to God’s message. That’s not in our hands.

But whether they listen or not, God calls us to tell them. To tell our family, our friends, our neighbors, and our coworkers.

Some will listen and be saved. Some will close their ears and die because of it.

But the question you need to ask yourself is this: “Am I doing what God has commanded me to do? Am I telling them his words of warning and salvation?”

Are you?