Title: Hear the Word of God!
Contents
Bible: Ezekiel 37:1~14
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In the early days of the Vietnam War, there was a man named Howard Rutlich, a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot who served in the Vietnam War. He remained a prisoner of war until the end of the war, then returned to the United States during the prisoner exchange, and wrote the book "In the presence of mine enemies". In this book, he says, there was unbearable suffering in the concentration camps. It's "Why am I alive?" He said it was because he couldn't find an answer to his troubles. He also said that he regretted not attending church with his wife when he asked to go to church while in America.
In fact, our suffering is more painful when we wander spiritually than from the flesh. It is because of the Word of God that Job, as we know it well, was able to overcome that hardship.
There are 5 million Jews in the United States, 6 million in Israel, and 2 million and 13 million in different countries of the world. 0.2% of the world's 6.5 billion people. But Harvard University has over 30% Jews, and Yale University has over 25%. A man named Bernanke, now chairman of the US Federal Reserve, is also Jewish. Every time the Federal Reserve raises and lowers overall interest rates, the global financial sector is in turmoil. Currently, the world economy is controlled by Jews. A quarter of Nobel Laureates are Jewish. No Jew is left out of the Nobel Prize winners every year. Do not forget that it is said that they have the Word of God.
Today is Bible Sunday. And it is the third Sunday of Advent. The second Sunday in December is always Bible Sunday. As we look through the book of Ezekiel to see what kind of work the Bible says today, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will become all of us who love the Bible.
Ezekiel 37:1 records that the power of God took Ezekiel into the valley, and the valley was full of dry bones. God drove Ezekiel to the place of the dead bones. The Bible says that the dead bones refer to the captives of Israel who were taken captive to Babylon and worked as slaves.
If we look at the Bible pathologically, cancer cells began to spread in Israeli society at the time Elijah and Elisha were active. That is, idolatry began to spread. Elijah and Elisha warn of this very cancer cell. ‘This will kill us.’ Then there is the prophet Isaiah, and then there is Amos. A prophet named Hosea and a prophet named Micah, these prophets were active around 750 B.C., 100 years after Elisha and Elijah. These prophets say that Israel is now seriously ill. In terms of cancer, it is said that it is stage 3 or 4. But the Israelites have no intention of undergoing surgery. Next comes Jeremiah and Habakkuk. Then comes the prophet we read today named Ezekiel. These prophets say that Israel is dead. The Bible speaks progressively. Spiritually dead Israel cannot hear the word of God. The important thing here is that, first, if you die spiritually, you will not hear the word. The second is that the dry bones are different. When you die, no bones are attached. There is just no order. It's a chaotic world.
Today, God tells Ezekiel to cry out to these dry bones. God does not give up dry bones. God did not leave the dead alone, but sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth. How much passion, love, and concern God has for us, I repented a lot as I spoke these words.
Ezekiel, who had been forcedly led by God, realized God's passion and heart and cried out to the dry bones. “Hear the word of the LORD, you dry bones.” Then a miracle happened. The world of chaos has been changed to God's order. This was changed by God's amazing grace, just like the dead Lazarus resurrected when Jesus said, "Lazarus, come out" to the tomb where Lazarus was lying.
The Word raises the dead. The Word saves us. We pray in the name of the Lord that we, who were armed with the Word every day, gain hope through the Word, and lived a disorderly life with the Word, now live an orderly life.
And the most important thing is that the word came into life with the word. It is the Holy Spirit that arises. The Holy Spirit always comes to us with the Word. Please remember that when we pray while longing for the Word and meditating on the Word, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, comes into us.
The theme of the book of Ezekiel is that the glory of God who left Israel is revealed to Israel again with the word. I believe that glory greater than the glory of the past will fill your home. Israel has one pain. The pain was divided into northern Israel and southern Judah when King Solomon died in 922 B.C. However, if we read Ezekiel 37 a little further, which we read today, we will see that the two sticks of Israel, the two sticks of Israel in the north and Judah in the south, become one together with the Word. I was very excited to see these words. Because when East and West Germany were reunified, the starting point of unification occurred through the East and West German churches. We, Korea, have the pain of division between North and South Korea. We believe that when the people in the south who believe in the healing of this nation first are filled with the Word and the Holy Spirit, peaceful unification of the South and the North will be achieved on this earth. When the Word comes to us with the Holy Spirit, there is no separation between us.
In the name of the Lord, I pray in the name of the Lord that the Holy Spirit will come to us along with the Word, and the dry bones we used to play will be united and become a great army of God through this vitality.
2009-12-26 16:09:27