12:30 p.m. Sunday August 14, 2022. 82F/28C.
Quiet. For a whole day, only once was a weather modifying plane heard. The skies are blue with a few thin clouds. The raspy bark of a deer comes out of the dense brush near the creek. One bark. The deer bark like that when they sense danger for the herd. The more barks, the more danger. He sees little danger today. The trees are lush and carry the aroma of bitter green. The brush has a gentle floral fragrance It’s a good quiet day.
The book of Ezekiel, chapter forty seven
Abba Father, thank you for wonderful refreshing rest. It’s always so good to enjoy your peace. Please reveal to us the meanings in your word, the Bible. In the name of Yeshua Jesus, I pray. Amen.
God described the borders of future Israel to Ezekiel. It was nearly the same as the old borders from the times of the judges.
And the south side southward, from Tamar even to the waters of strife in Kadesh, the river to the great sea. And this is the south side southward.
The desert side of the country: south on the right side of the border, east – set the border at Tamar. The word tamar meant palm tree or date palm. Modern scholars believe Tamar to be about thirty miles south of the Dead Sea.
WAIT! That’s an oddity. That location is very far from where God set the last eastern landmark! The last landmark was at the Red Sea. Of course Tamar was within the boundaries that God was setting. But why did he even mention it and not other cities?
The next landmark was the waters of strife, likely on the Sinai peninsula. The next landmark was Kadesh, which was the location of the waters of strife. Kadesh means holy. Finally, the border would follow the river, which was likely the Brook of Egypt, which does traverse the desert, moving toward the sea.
The words used as landmarks are interesting again. Palm tree, singular (tamar), waters of strife, holy, river. The words speak of three leaders that God sent to the people: David, Moses, and Yeshua Jesus.
David’s weakness was sexual sin. David’s beautiful daughter Tamar was raped, her reputation, her future, forever destroyed, by her own half brother. David was a great king, and a great warrior. But how could David take a stand on his son’s sin when the whole kingdom knew that he himself had sexual sin? Shouldn’t he, rather, show compassion toward his son? It was a sign that David never fully allowed God’s forgiveness to soak into his heart. He would take care of it himself (but he didn’t). God spoke, “Tamar” and that one word echoed in the hollowness of unchecked sin, straight to a very tragic victim.
And Moses. Moses followed all that God said, except for one time. One time Moses was trying to be everything to everybody, and his striving to prove that he really was the good guy got the best of him. Moses had a face to face relationship with God. He could hash out problems any time he wanted! God instructed Moses to speak to a rock. Well, instead of speaking, Moses had a meltdown, berated the people, and hit the rock with his staff. It was such a small act of defiance. Life is frustrating for people who wish to do it all by themselves. Due to his lack of self-control, God forbade Moses from entering the promised land. You and I might say that Moses deserved a chance to let off some steam. But no. He never entered the promised land.
The southern border landmarks, the names in the dry place, were a warning about unchecked sin in leaders.
Except for one. The last two landmarks were Kadesh and the river. The waters of Kadesh would flow in a river to the great sea. Yeshua Jesus knew his purpose in life. He imitated and followed his Father in all things. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do” (John 5). He lived holy and joyfully. Out of the bellies of all people who follow Yeshua, will flow rivers of living water. The living water becomes a river that flows out to the great sea. The great sea is the human population of earth.
Before the end of all things is here, that sea will know who Yeshua Jesus is, because his river flows into it.
There is no unchecked sin in any leader who follows God in all things.
Life in the hollow, Sunday
I still weep over the fact that I had an abortion as a young woman. And because of that guilt and sorrow, I have spent many years going silent when the subject of abortion comes up.
Today I will speak. All abortion clinics need to be closed down. Those are not medical procedures. Those are the end of innocent lives.
It’s funny. I mean odd, funny. All the spiritual activity around me will go quiet for a day, and I say to myself, “hm. Maybe it was all my imagination.”
So, I spoke into the air the following, “Abba Father, please shut down all abortion clinics, worldwide.”
Three heavenly beings, warrior types, popped into the space behind my eyelids and chimed in, “We can do that!”
There they are again. The spiritual beings are back. “You can… just do that?” I asked.
Again they nodded among themselves, behind my eyelids, “We can definitely do that.”
I asked God’s permission and then sent warrior angels to close down abortion clinics worldwide. It’s not a prayer I could have spoken five years ago.
Now, I’ve no intention of becoming a David or a Moses. However, I still want unchecked sin to get out of my life. Unchecked sin makes us ineffective when others desperately need us to act!
The thing that leads to unchecked old sin seems to be the desire to forgive ourselves first. Then we feel so guilty. So maybe we need to forgive ourselves second. Let God do the forgiving and then follow his lead.
Enter My Peace 