YOUR BEGINNING CAN NOT BE YOUR ENDING
SCRIPTURE:
“The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices 3 and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. 5 No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised. 6 “‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!” 7 I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew and developed and entered puberty. Your breasts had formed, and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.” (Ezekiel 16: 1—7)
OBSERVATION:
The word of the Lord is powerful and active. Jerusalem was confronted with her detestable practices. God instructed the prophet, Ezekiel, to confront them for their detestable practices. Ezekiel has to remind Jerusalem to start with how God found her. Jerusalem had a rough start, even from birth. Her ancestry and birth were in the land of Canaanites.
Her father was an Amorite, and her mother was a Hittite. From birth, no one cared for her. God found her in the open field with her uncut umbilical cord still attached. She was neither washed nor rubbed with salt nor wrapped with a cloth.
No one looked at her with pity or had the compassion to do any of the things a child needed when born. Instead, Jerusalem was thrown out into the open field. And the day she was born, she was despised.
Many times, we do not know where we came from. We are like Jerusalem, forgotten, forsaken, and muddle deep in our sins. The Bible says we were conceived in sin. So, no one is clean. Like Jerusalem, everyone was conceived in sin, and as people grew older, knowing right and wrong, many continued to a life of doing detestable things before God.
Like Jerusalem, our only hope to live off stopping doing detestable things is God. Sin threw us out to the open field of life. We are left without anyone showing us pity and compassion. God found Jerusalem kicking about in his blood and tried to live. And God said, “LIVE!” This is powerful. God found Jerusalem dying, and he spoke to her, LIVE. I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew and developed and entered puberty. Your breasts had formed, and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.” God will make us grow and develop us and care for us.
I need to know where God found me waddled in my sin and effort to live. The truth is, I have done some detestable things in my life that drove me away from God. I need to remember where God found me when I was dying because of my sins.
God calls us to remember where He found us when we were helpless and devoid of pity and compassion. We must remember where he found us, so we do not continue to live life as a sin.
APPLICATION:
I must guard my heart against detestable things that drive me away from God. Sin and temptations are something familiar to everyone. I will be vigilant and aware of the subtleness of sin in my life so I may not fall into its temptation.
PRAYER:
Jesus, I am grateful for your word reminding me to guard my heart against the subtleness of sin’s temptation in life. Thank you for your love, compassion, and desire to restore me to life. Please help me to live your life and to be obedient to your leading. Forgive me for not remembering where you found me in my sin. Guide and lead me in ways that are pleasing to you. Amen!
