Title: Three kinds of thorns / Ezekiel 28:24
Three kinds of thorns / Ezekiel 28:24
Bible: Ezekiel 28:24 (Week of Passion)
Title: "Three kinds of thorns"
The author of the Book of Hosea, who is first thought of stinging people when they see thorns, and also roughly known as a fence that blocks people in and out, writes, "Therefore, I will block the way with thorns and build a wall, so that he cannot find it" (Hosea 2) : 6 ) .
This means that God will build thorns to stop the prostitute Israel, who will continue to walk in the path of shameful idolatry. Also, 'thorns' and 'walls' are symbols of severe pain or tribulation that is difficult to bear (Job 19:8; Lamentations 3). :7) As a means of severing the lewd relationship between Israel and foreign nations, it may refer to the suffering of slavery or disasters such as war or famine, but I want to receive grace by thinking from a different perspective based on the text.
1. There is a thorn due to a crime (犯罪)
Genesis 3:18-19 "The earth will produce you thorns and thistles, and your food shall be the vegetables of the field.
In the sweat of your face you will eat food, and eventually you will return to dust, for in it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”
This is Adam's penalty for his sin, and God deals more broadly with the earlier implied fact that the earth will produce you thorns and thistles, such as toil and labour, to partake of the earth's produce.
And God is suggesting that for that reason the earth will not bear as perfect fruit as it used to be, because God declares that the earth will degenerate from its original fertile state and will grow weeds such as thorns and thistles.
Therefore, we can see that no matter how useless and useless plants grow on the ground, they are not the natural product of the earth, but the decay of sin. Just because the land does not live up to our will or the hard work of the peasants, just as the land is ill to our purposes and frustrates us.
should not rebuke the land.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the thorns formed after the crime were used as a means to harass humans, and to impede the growth of crops that humans feed on. If you read the Bible, you can see that "some fell on thorns. The thorns grew and choked it, and some fell on good soil, and it bore fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty times, some thirty times” (Matthew 13:7-8).
The seed that fell among the thorns did not bear fruit, but the seed that fell on good soil produced 30, 60, and 100 times more fruit.
2. There is a thorn for redemption
Matthew 27:29-31 "And they woven a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and a reed was held in his right hand, and they knelt before him and mocked him, saying, "Peace, O King of the Jews!" And they spit on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. After the harassment was over, he took off his scarlet robe, put his clothes back on, and led him out to be crucified."
This is because Jesus Christ took on our sins and died before He wore the crown of thorns and suffered pain for what we deserved to be pierced for our filthy sins.
The coins used at that time show Tiberius Caesar wearing a crown, on which shiny nails were hung, and the soldiers thought about it and put a crown of thorns growing around Jesus' head. .
Some scholars regard this thorn tree as a palm or accentus tree, or even an Arabic naba or nabka, or even a cactus or acacia tree. In any case, it is certain that thorns and thorns were common in Palestine, where thorns and thorns grew easily.
On the other hand, although the original purpose of their crowning of thorns was to ridicule Jesus, in the end they crowned him with the crown of suffering.
In any case, it is a clear fact that drops of dark red blood flowed continuously from Jesus' head, which was torn by the thorn.
So the author of the book of Isaiah says, "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace, and his wounds we are healed. Like we have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of all of us” (Isaiah 53:5-6).
The thorn that Jesus Christ was pierced was a thorn that pierced the innocent because it was the thorn that was pierced for our sins today.
3. There is a thorn for grace
2 Corinthians 12:7-9 "Because the revelations were exceedingly great, so that I would not sleep too much, a thorn was given in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to strike me down so that I would not sleep too much. Then he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." So I will, instead, with great joy, boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may abide in me. I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in want, in persecutions, in hardships, for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
The reason the Apostle Paul received the thorn was to prevent him from falling asleep. Unlike ordinary people, Paul experienced a great revelation.
So, judging that this special grace given only to him could make him proud, God never wanted Paul to stumble like that, so the thorn made him indirectly know that he was in God's meticulous care. .
You know how to drive, but if you don't stand where you are supposed to because the brake system is broken, even if there is an accident, there will be a series of major accidents.
If the Apostle Paul experienced many graces and was not humble, he would not be able to retain the grace he received and would pour it out. He gave Paul a thorn in order to make that grace stay forever, and the grace he received put the brakes on him from arrogance.
So, the thorn that pierces Paul is the intervention of the Lord's love to allow God's great grace to work more fully on Paul.
"conclusion"
Although the thorn is originally intended to afflict humans, it is a thorn for those who sin, but the thorn pierced by our Lord is pierced for our sins so that we will not be pierced in the future. It was a thorn that the Lord intervened to protect.
Today, we should think carefully about what kind of thorn we are being pierced, and we should have a heart that, rather than a thorn due to sin, if we are not like the Lord, we will become thorns to maintain humble grace like the apostle Paul, and hope that the grace of the Lord will abound in us so that we do not fall asleep.