Daily Manna 22 August
KEY VERSE: “And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.” – (Ezekiel 4:12)
TEXT: Ezekiel 4:9-17
9 “Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. 10 And your food which you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time you shall eat it. 11 You shall also drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; from time to time you shall drink. 12 And you shall eat it as barley cakes; and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight.”
13 Then the Lord said, “So shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them.”
14 So I said, “Ah, Lord God! Indeed I have never defiled myself from my youth till now; I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has abominable[a] flesh ever come into my mouth.”
15 Then He said to me, “See, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it.”
16 Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, surely I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and shall drink water by measure and with dread, 17 that they may lack bread and water, and be dismayed with one another, and waste away because of their iniquity.
Read yesterday’s Daily Manna here
A preacher has described sin as a deliberate violation of God’s commandments or disobedience that attracts His displeasure and judgment. Sin turns a saint to a sinner; God’s favour turns to divine displeasure, blessing turns to curse, glory turns to shame, congregation of the living turns to the congregation of the dead, while plenty and satisfaction turn to scarcity and starvation.
The text under consideration talks about how Prophet Ezekiel was divinely instructed to eat disgusting diet for a period of 390 days. He was instructed to cook the food with dung. This is despicable and loathsome. By this method, the prophet was to figuratively portray the picture of uncleanness and shameful food that the people of Israel would be forced to eat both during the siege that would soon take place and later in the foreign countries where they would be carried captive. It is also to show God’s disgust for sins.
The prophet pleaded to God heartily that he had never defiled himself by eating abominable things forbidden by the law. God then considered his request by allowing him to cook the food with cow’s dung. God knew the prophet was making the request from the integrity of his heart.
We learn from this prophetic illustration that sin can make a believer to lose God’s favour and grace. It makes him to lose privileges, position, pleasure, prosperity, preservation and health. Sin brings shame, disgrace and humiliation. It causes penury and want. It brings punishment and pain. It brings oppression, captivity, affliction, anguish and sorrow. Sinners and backsliders should therefore understand the hard times ahead of them and do something now to escape divine judgment.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Avoid sin’s reproach by all means.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Psalm 11-18
Thank you for studying today’s Daily Manna – Sin Births Disgrace – by Pastor Enoch A.
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Daily Manna 22 August 2021
