Week 35: Dependence
Weekly Reading:
Ezekiel 1 -22
Opening Prayer
Father God,
I know that You are my rock, my deliverer. Yet, I often fail to come to You first. Often, I still rely on myself like the Israelites did when they became too proud to ask for help. Father, I need Your help always. Help me realize this before I get into dark places.
Amen
Study
Who do you depend on?
When I think of this question, immediately names come to mind. And depending on what I’m going through or what my needs may be those people may be different.
Current events, my husband
Many questions, my brother
Biblical context, my sister
Generational thinking, my daughter
What’s new with young people, my other daughter
Politics, My son
Time in the past, my father
Noted in each instance I am consulting members of my tribe. Note also who I am not consulting: God. I have thought of myself as a survivor, picking myself up by my bootstrap kind of girl. Admittedly, consulting God is new for me and to be honest, not habitual. I rely on myself and others – even Google and YouTube. And this is disobedience to God
The Israelites (considering both Judah and Israel when I use the term Israelites) also depend on the help and safety of others (Ezekiel 16:26 and 29), reaching out to Egypt and Babylon.
God is angry with Israel and compares Israel to a newborn baby, deserted, left to die, alone (Ezekiel chapter 16). God saw the Israelites, nurtured them, and allowed them to thrive. Israel became beautiful and ready for God’s covenant comparing Israel to a wife courted and then joined in marriage to God.
God continued to bring gifts to Israel, making her prosperous and richly dressed. Israel became so beautiful that the fame of her beauty spread across the land.
But Israel began to think she was the sole reason for her beauty. It was her own devices that made her so well known. All the gifts given to her by God were used to make her happy and she began to worship the gifts rather than the giver. No longer did the bride look to her husband for love, but she looked to the gifts from her husband.
Then the bride (Israel) began to sin further by encouraging her children to sin, forgetting who they were and who brought them out of filth and ruin.
And, when Israel needed help, she no longer looked to her husband, her benefactor, she instead looked outside her marriage bed to the neighbors and brought them in, looking for salvation.
This angered God, as we know. The Israelites were taken into slavery because of their disobedience.
As God outlines in Ezekiel chapter 13, the Israelites failed to depend on God as they did in the desert. They were under the misguided belief that all they had was due to their own hand rather than the blessings of God.
King David knew that God was the one who led them to prosperity.
Psalm 62:1-2, 5-8
I wait quietly before God,
for my victory comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress where I will never be shaken.Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress where I will not be shaken.
My victory and honor come from God alone.
He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.O my people, trust in him at all times.
Pour out your heart to him,
for God is our refuge.
Psalm 121:1-2
I look up to the mountains—
does my help come from there?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth!
David was grateful to God, dependent on God for his great love and provision. After King David died and Israel and Judah went through many kings, the Israelites strayed from this dependence on God. The new kings thought they were the answer to Israel’s needs.
I realize and know that the blessings of my life are all due to God’s provision. I am utterly dependent on him as a newborn baby, just as the Israelites in the desert.
Closing Prayer
Father God,
I know now that I cannot do anything without You. You are my support and my strength. When I fall on my face, it is You that I seek. Yet, I know that I should seek you always, not just when things go wrong. Lord, I want to do better. I want to seek you first always.
Amen
Homework
In what area are you not seeking God’s help?
What can you turn over to God today?
