Lessons From Ezekiel – Lesson 25
We are going to take a quick look at a principal that many get messed up. Especially the health and wealth crowd. But I have seen others get this wrong also. And if you properly understand this principal it does help explain some things that you see in the world around you.
Before we look at it we need to look at another principal that has bearing on this one. We need to look at one of the character attributes of God.
Psalm 116:5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.
The word Righteous gets a bad rap and is often misused by the lost. They will say things like that righteous holier than thou…
They turn it into a mean hate filled slur, put down and accusation. That is a misuse of the English language. That is not what the word means at all.
The word righteous means just; equitable; merited. It means doing right according to God’s divine moral laws.
It is a good word. When applied to man in the Bible it means that the man is doing right according to God’s divine morality and law.
When applied to God it is describing his Character. Who He is and what He does. God is sinless, He always does the right thing.
A man always has a choice he can do right or he can choose to do wrong. With God there is no choice. Doing right is who He is. It is not that God chooses to do right on something, God is actually righteous. It is part of His nature. One of His attributes.
This is a major point that God wants us to know about Him. It is in the Bible over and over and over again.
Psalm 119:62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.
All of the judgments of God are right and just and correct.
Psalm 11:7 For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness;
God is righteous and He loves righteousness. Our Lord loves doing right and He loves it when people do right.
Psalm 129:4 The LORD is righteous:
Psalm 145:17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
He is right in all his ways. And get this in all his works.
1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
Jesus is the righteous. He is the pinnacle of it, the embodiment of being right and doing right.
John 17:25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
And of course so is the Father. All 3 members of the Godhead have the same attributes of character. These 3 are one.
Rev 16:5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
For the Lord is good. And He always does right. He cannot judge wrong or make a mistake.
Now that we have reminded ourselves of that, let’s look at something in Ezekiel.
We have been in the time period where the siege is going on at Jerusalem. God has Ezekiel then turn his attention to the wicked nations that have done wrong to Israel. And one of those was Tyrus.
And when God had Ezekiel give the prophecy he said that He would bring nations (Plural) against Tyrus. Tyrus was part on land and part on an Island. The Island does not fall until Alexander the Great. That falls because of a different nation.
The Siege on Jerusalem lasts 3 years. So not long after Ezekiel makes the prophecy against Tyrus, God sends the first nation against them and that is Babylon.
Yep so while Babylon is laying siege upon Jerusalem they also send an army to Tyrus.
Eze 29:17 And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 29:18 Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it:
One of the reasons that men would be in the army in those days was, well, because they had no choice. The king says you are in the army, guess what, you go. But one of the benefits to being on a campaign was the spoils.
War is always brutal. It was especially brutal in those days. And when a city fell there really was not much restraint. Anything was fair game. The conquerors could and would take anything they could get their hands on.
Tyrus obviously saw the army marching on them and they got the majority of valuables out in time. Babylon devastated the part of Tyrus that was on land but did not get paid for their troubles.
Who really, ultimately sent the Army of Nebuchadrezzar to Tyrus? God did.
This is before Nebuchadrezzar is saved. This is before the men in the fiery furnace. This is before he is humbled by having to eat like an ox and live in the field for 7 years.
Dan 4:30 The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?
A statement of pride. He is saying I have built this great Babylon and by the might of my power and I did it for my honor and my majesty.
Woops!
Dan 4:31 While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.
Dan 4:32 And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
Dan 4:33 The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.
Dan 4:34 And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:
Dan 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
This is a total 180. A complete change in direction. He is no longer saying I did this. He is no longer speaking of his own great power and majesty.
He has learned his lesson. He is now giving all credit and praise to God where it belongs. He is admitting that God is the one on the throne.
And he gets his kingdom back.
Dan 4:36 At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.
But he has a total different outlook.
Dan 4:37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
So Nebuchadnezzar eventually has a come to Jesus moment and the light bulb goes off and I believe that he became a real believer.
But when he sends the army to Tyrus he still has the attitude of. Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?
At the time we are looking at he is what we call a lost man.
And what about his army. Are they saved. Do they worship or follow God. No. This is an important distinction. Here we have a lost king who God has sent his lost army to bring some of the judgment to bear that Tyrus has earned.
And what does God say when it is over. : yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it:
Basically God says they did an errand for me. They did some work for me. And they did not get paid. So look at what God’s remedy is.
Eze 29:19 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.
Eze 29:20 I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord GOD.
God makes sure that they get paid. God gives them the wealth of Egypt for wages.
Some cannot wrap their minds around this correctly. God always does right. And it is wrong to have someone do work for you and then not pay them for it.
God sent a heathen army to do a job and they did that job. It would have been wrong, it would have been unrighteous to not pay them.
Getting paid for a job is right and God considers that goes for everyone. It is a principal of doing right that is not restricted to only saved people.
Some people will preach it this way God is a debtor to no man. And that is absolutely true but then they will imply and teach it in a way to mean God is a debtor to no Christian.
The truth is that God is a debtor to no man. Lost or saved.
If you are lost you still go to hell. We are not talking about that.
And I am not saying that God sends blessings over and over to the lost, like He does to His children. I am not saying that.
I am not saying that the lost that do some errand for God get any kind of pass on any of the consequences of the bad things they do. Nope they will reap for everything they sow.
What I am saying is that if God sends a lost man to do an errand or job for Him that he will get paid for it. Because getting paid for the work you do is right. And our God always does right.
Here in Ezekiel God made sure that a lost army got paid for the job they did for him in executing some judgment.
God giving them the wealth of Egypt is not in any way any kind of endorsement of them personally or of their wrong beliefs. It is simply a paycheck for services rendered.
This principal still applies. If a lost man today does some work or errand for God, God makes sure that the man gets something back for it.
And I am not talking about some lost greedy man trying to manipulate this. Say a man goes and does something on his own and then demands for God to pay him. The answer would be nope.
I did not ask you to do that. God is not going to be manipulated. But if God worked so that the lost man did His will, then absolutely he will get paid.
Let me give you a real life example that I have seen.
Last week I told you that I believe that God gave me my job. It was a little over 22 years ago now. I had been working for a company for 10 ½ years. I had gotten a few raises so I was making more than starting pay for any job I could get.
But we were not doing great. Dirt poor would be fairly accurate. A few years before we found out that the house that my parents manipulated us into had a serious problem.
It had flooded underneath. So bad and the water was so deep, a couple of feet worth. You could craw under the house and see the water line. I went down there and the foundation was broken on two corners of the house. I mean bad. And the house had black mold in the walls. Even the cat was sick.
So I sold the house and bought a different one but was limited to what we could afford. And it was larger but in bad shape. It had no working kitchen. We cooked on a camp stove and did dishes in large plastic tubs.
Me and Tina got saved in the living room of that house. We got faithful to church, took on a Sunday school class teaching 2 and 3rd grade. We were growing and learning and praising God.
The house was still not great but we had a working kitchen and had finally gotten a bath tub. But the house had a long way to go. Still did not have floors everywhere, just bare cement. A few places there was no ceiling.
One day at work the bosses call me into their office and said, you have done a good job for us and we regret to inform you that you are out of a job in two weeks. It was a shock. They were struggling financially and found a buyer.
I prayed Lord what do you want me to do. The house is functional but needs a lot. Any new job I can get will pay less at first. We are making it but not by much.
I prayed and prayed some more. The new owner of where I worked showed up and talked to me a few min. Asked if I would come work for him in Arizona. I did not know what to do. Our house was considered not sellable. There was a small river running under the house. We had a sump pump and it would pump every 20 minutes a lot of water.
It was so bad that the garage fell about 6 to 8 inches. Yep the cement total severed. It was a brick house and the back wall of the garage fell off. It was bad.
So I prayed again. And I pulled a Gideon. I fleeced God. I said God if it is your will for me to go to Arizona, then you have to sell this house. If you sell this unsellable house, I will take that as an answer that I am to go. If you don’t sell this unsellable house, I will take that as I need to stay.
We got a real estate agent and they told us that the house was not sellable. That there is no way that anyone would loan anybody money to buy it. The only way would be if it is a cash sale.
In just a few weeks several things happened. One we had not one but two cash offers and we had to pick which one we took. I accepted the job.
Had to convert 11 stores to the new computer system and pack up my house. And in just a few weeks I find myself at the closing for my house with a 24 foot u-haul parked outside with everything I own. I find myself then driving that u-haul to Arizona with a large check for a down payment on a house with my head spinning.
How did all of this happen. God moved. God moved a lost man to give me a job in my hour of need. God moved to sell an unsellable house.
Once I worked here a while I found out that I was not the only saved person that the lost owner had given a job to. There were several and some of them had stories like mine about really needing that job.
So what happened to the lost man that gave us those jobs. Did he get paid. Yep. Big time. He did really well, his business thrived and he got to retire early and see the world. I really believe that God moved and had him give me my job, and God made sure since he gave me good income that the lost man also had good income.
This principal of deserving to get paid for work done explains some things that you see.
Sometimes you will see a lost person and wonder how come do they have what they have. Not all the time and not in every case. But sometimes it is because, and yes even unknown to them, they did some errand or job that God wanted done, and so they got paid for it.
Our God is completely righteous. He always does right. And that includes this truth. God is a debtor to no man. Lost or saved. If God asks for work to be done, the person will get paid.
If a lost person does bad, he will reap bad from it. But even at the same time, if he does an errand for God, even unknown to him, he will get paid for it.
So he can have judgment falling and bad consequences happing for bad he has sown and at the very same time he can be getting paid for doing some errand or job for God.
That is a truth that I admit can be hard sometimes to wrap your head around. But it is true and it does help explain some things that you see when you look out at what is going on around you in this world.