​Ezekiel 8 – 9.
 
The images concerning Judah’s judgment, which occurred 14 months after Ezekiel’s initial visions about Israel’s adjudication, surfaced suddenly while he was in the presence of the elders of Judah, in exile (Ezek 8:1). For the sake of interpretive brevity on the complexity of Ezekiel’s associated visions, we will focus on just two chapters here. It is pertinent to realise that although most did not perceive the glory within God’s Temple, Ezekiel saw its glory, its idolatry and its condemnation. ‘The idol of jealousy’ that provoked God was erected at the entrance to the north gate (viz., the gate where the king would normally enter from his palace which linked it), and although the narrative did not describe the idol, it implied a form of syncretism that was prevalent in Israel at the time (c.f., 2Kings 21; 2Kings 23; 2Chron 33; Ex 20:2-6; Ex 34:14). Their worship of the idol jeopardised their covenantal relationship with God, where all the trappings of Yahwistic celebrations were in place but their hearts were divided and their reverence insincere. Further, as Ezekiel moved into a room off the court where the elders of Israel were offering incense, he saw evidence of symbolic sacred carvings of beasts and other detestable entities around its walls (Ezek 8:7-13). Next, he was taken into the inner temple precinct and witnessed women ritual mourners displaying their devotion before the Egyptian underworld god, Tammuz (Ezek 8:14-15). In the inner court between the porch and the altar, the priests had their backs turned away from the Presence of God (viz., the altar), worshipping the Egyptian sun god (Ezek 8:16; c.f., 2Kings 23:11). Idolatry presupposes a veneration of the creation instead of the Creator, thereby indicative of an issue to do with our hearts. We may not succumb to the same gods as the Israelites in Ezekiel’s days, but there are sufficient modern equivalents that would tempt us to relativize our God. Nominal commitment, nevertheless, remains the bane of our post-modern environment!
 
The spiritual dimension in any society prognosticate its trajectory either towards rectitude in its governance or potential chaos and moral turpitude. Not unlike the Old Testament days, a godless society where one pays only lip-service to Yahweh is perennially in a state of moral turbulence and mayhem, and inevitably attracts His judgment in due course (Ezek 8:17-18). Our worship of God will never rise above the secret idols in our hearts as we allow these objects to structure our lives. The fact that the king and the ecclesiastical authority of the covenant nation were deeply involved in idolatrous celebrations is illustrative of how sin, accepted and practised by the upper echelons of public life is eventually habituated by ordinary people, and in time to come, accepted as the norm in society. God predictably will judge those who denigrate Him and His relationship with them, as they had become a stench to His nose.
 
In response to idolatrous worship, God acts implacably. Firstly, He initiates judgment on the religious leadership of the nation, beginning at the Temple, through His messengers or angelic beings, and eventually throughout the city (Ezek 9:1-2, 5-10). Despite Ezekiel’s pleas for mercy, the unrelenting sins of the nation over countless years had eroded Yahweh’s patience and lovingkindness. Although it was only a vision, it is significant to note that the eventual destruction of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar was less than six years away. Secondly, a seventh being – “the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case,” was to put a mark on the foreheads of those who mourned over the sins of the nation (Ezek 9:2b-6; c.f., Rev 13: 16-17), and these will escape the slaughter because they were genuinely engaged with God’s judgment over those image-bearers who refused His Lordship and are in rebellion against Him. Similarly, when we remain silent in the face of sin and evil, we become complicit in its practice, thereby losing our moral high ground and inadvertently compromising our values. Worship is never confined to a couple of hours each Sunday, but to worship God is to offer forever our whole being to Him as living sacrifices, acknowledging Him as Lord over our lives (Rom 12:1-2).
 

​The Acts of the Apostles 13 – 28.
 
The Book of the Acts of the Apostles principally focuses on the gospel message’s outcome as enunciated by the Apostles, from Jerusalem to continental Europe (c.f., Acts 1:7-8). However, the work of His promised Holy Spirit proliferate throughout Luke’s narrative. As the 3rd Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is also the Giver of life and the One who renews by enabling us to respond to the Son as we follow Him (1Peter 3:18; John 6:63). And since all Scripture is inspired by God (2Tim 3:16-17; 2Peter 1:20-21), it would not be unusual for the Holy Spirit to occasionally resort to Scripture as His reference (Acts 1:16; Acts 28:25; c.f., Luke 46-49) since He is also intimately involved in all that God is doing in our world.  
 
The commissioning of Barnabas and Saul, through the prophets and teachers at Antioch’s multicultural congregation, was initiated by the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:1-4), thereby triggering the pair’s first missionary journey to Asia Minor. It is characteristically clear that God Himself was the driving force behind the fulfilment of His redemptive missionary endeavours (i.e., Luke 24:46-49); notwithstanding the involvement of human agencies in organising these evangelistic activities. At every singular turn of the salvation story of mankind, God took the initiative, and He will continue to do so due to His love for man until He returns again (John 3:16). His arrangements are invariably accompanied by His dedicated power displayed through His Holy Spirit (c.f., Acts 13:5-12; Acts 14:8-18; Acts16:16-18), where, for instance, the reality of His promptings are clearly brought home to us in the incident with Ananias and Sapphira. As believers, we possess the innate capacity as spiritual beings to identify with the nuances of how God would communicate through His Holy Spirit. We are warned that His Spirit is not to be trifled with as He disciplines, by bringing to light hidden sins (Acts 4:32-5:11). 
 
The Holy Spirit initially guided the apostles to reach out to the Jews with the gospel, but when they rejected it, the time was ripe to deliver it to the Gentiles (Acts 13:44-47). The Gentiles responded with overwhelming joy, and being filled with the Holy Spirit, they glorified the word of God (Acts 13:48-52). Despite their persecution, the joy of the Spirit transcended any circumstances, implying an inward strengthening in their relationship with their beloved Lord, thereby enabling them to gain an eternal perspective beyond their personal circumstances to embrace a faith charged with eternal values (c.f., Neh 8:10; John 17:13; John 15:1-11). Hence, it is not unusual for God to redirect those who are serving Him wholeheartedly, as Paul and Timothy discovered: instead of travelling east towards Mysia and Bithynia and possibly into Eastern Asia, they were sent to Troas, on the coast, and following a vision, towards Macedonia in Europe (Acts 16:1-10). The interesting detail is that Paul was proactive in seeking ‘open doors’ for his missionary journeys, where his own plans were subject to the will of God when he was redirected. 
 
One of the hallmarks of the Holy Spirit’s work is His typical gracious unifying trait that He instils in His people, in terms of consistently operating within the will of God: by giving the leaders of the mother church in Jerusalem a united mind to wisely incorporate new Gentile believers into the mainly Jewish Christian community, and to have Priscilla and Aquila further instruct Apollos in The Way (Acts 15:1-29; Acts 18:24-19:10). Paul’s arrival at Ephesus proved a turning point for the believers, as they were eventually established in their new found faith in Christ, bringing them into the fold of the church. Trusting the Spirit of God often requires us to follow Him without completely comprehending His purpose or end-result, as Paul did in his farewell to the Ephesus church (Acts 20:17-31). Perhaps on hindsight, Paul did not fully grasp the fatality of his journey back to Jerusalem despite the veiled warnings (c.f., Acts 20:23). He was only glad to obey the Holy Spirit. Being led by Him does not exclude the possibility of encountering difficulties or uncertainty, or even death, but whatever we may face in our obedience, we are assured of God’s commitment to closely walk through the circumstances with us (Ps 23:4-6; c.f., Neh 8:10). 

​Colossians 1: 15 – 20
 
Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians is an eye-opener, as he tackled the question that unconsciously confronts every believer: Is putting our faith in Christ sufficient? The Colossians apparently did not think so, when they began to imbibe the pronouncements of a probable group of Gnostics in their midst. The basis for this Jewish cultic system was a belief in a secret knowledge, privileged to those who performed certain ritualized man-made practices, that included circumcision, the observation of specific dietary laws and ascetic customs, honouring certain holy days, and contacting and worshipping the angels (Col 2: 8, 11, 16, 18, 20-23). Paul’s intent in this letter was to re-focus the Colossians’ faith on Christ and move them away from embracing gnosis. 
 
The Apostle went for the jugular right from the commencement of his Letter in re-emphasizing their faith foundations. Like the Colossians, our proclivity for shortcuts to spiritual empowerment or embracing certain doctrinal slants of Scripture, will likely draw us away from faithfully staying at our Lord’s side and following Him. There is a critical need to be reminded again of the centrality of Christ, in His incomparable superiority and sufficiency, not only on earth but in heaven too. He is the visible expression of the invisible God, the pre-existing One, and through Him, and for Him all things were created. He is the first principle and the upholding principle of the whole scheme of creation and is the head of the church. In Him dwelt the full nature of God, and through Him God reconciled all things to Himself (Col 1: 15-20). 
 
Paul described the Gnostic schema as encompassing philosophical and elemental principles, embedded within the self-made religious traditions of men (Col 2: 8, 16, 18, 23). He countered that the Colossians did not need any intermediaries between men and God, as Christ Himself, being the incarnated God, is our only mediator, and our position in Him by faith ensured our accessibility to God (Col 2: 10). Furthermore, Christ had fulfilled perfectly the requirements of the Law and no additional practices (viz., circumcision, dietary rules, keeping holy days) were needed to supplement it (Col 2:11-17). The superiority of Christ is therefore matchless, as He had triumphed over all principalities and powers, thereby invalidating the need to access and worship angelic beings (Col 2:15-20). 
 
Next, Paul tackled the issue of Christ’s sufficiency, by concluding that the Gnostic’s demand of ascetic practices was useless in changing the innate fallibility of human sensuality and passions. The latter conditions can be only solved through our identification with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as we are found in Him (Col 2: 20-23; Col 3: 1-17), where in Christ, all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form (Col 2:9). The fact is, we have been made complete in Him, and there is no further requirement for gnostic knowledge and practices, as the true knowledge of God’s mystery is Christ Himself (Col 2: 2-3), where we will discover all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge we need to live contentedly (c.f., Col 1: 9-12). 
 
God knew full well where our fallen intellectual and emotional propensity would lead us in attempting to supplement what He had completed in reconciling man to Himself. Gnosticism is but one of these more blatant discursive distractions which drew the Colossians away from their faith in God alone. In the modern context, especially within the Body of Christ, we must desist from adding further conditions to the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. His grace is sufficient for us, for power is perfected in weakness (2 Cor 12: 9).

God is genuinely ‘down-to-earth.’ This realism and practicality are inevitable as His approaches to our worldly-bound predicament become matter of fact. Imagine, an Almighty Being becoming ‘confined’ by the demands of sentient humans who are generally and routinely driven by their self-serving individuality and finite foresight! Yet, there are not many indications of frustrations on His part (i.e., in Scripture) as we trouble Him incessantly with our many trivial entreaties. Nevertheless, He listens attentively and patiently (Ps 34: 4; Ps 6: 9; 1Peter 3: 12) and appears to pro-actively meet our needs with gracious generosity. In this light, our apparently mundane requests become our faith’s developmental stages toward a future consequential trust that is reflective, conjunctive and devoted. Faith in our Creator, if it’s to be of any significance through eternity, would require us to allow His Holy Spirit to nurture us as our relationship with Him matures.
 
She was one of my wife’s elementary school classmates and they had not been in contact for many years. Out of the blue, she called early one morning to say that she would like to visit. When Catherine arrived, she appeared to be in a mildly depressed state. She had put her large apartment on the market for over a year now, since her mother passed on. There were few viewers, and it remained unsold. She requested that we pray for her emotional state and to find a buyer for her home. 
 
We bowed in prayer, and in the few seconds of silence, a Voice said, “Her apartment will be sold next week.” I was surprised at the Lord’s rapid response even before we addressed it in vocal prayer together. God’s response reminded me of Isaiah 65: 24. In reply, I merely said, “Lord, reassure Catherine that You will answer her needs in good time. Amen.” When we looked up, Catherine said, “Maybe next week we may have a buyer!” I smiled and nodded affirmatively. 
 
She telephoned us the following week to inform us that she had sold her apartment.
 
Separately, we heard that the family of an elderly infirm pastor, just retired from a local church after decades of service, was urgently looking to move to a property nearer his son’s family. I sought the Lord for His thoughts and immediately He replied, “Don’t worry, I have already designated an apartment for them in the same block, close by Eugene’s family.” In a couple of days, the daughter-in-law confirmed it.
 
Verse 24 of chapter 65 is found in the closing chapters of the Book of Isaiah. This verse is set within a prophetic vision of a new creation, promising that in the renewed relationship between God and His people (i.e., the Jewish remnant), He will respond to their needs with unprecedented immediacy and grace. This verse encapsulates the hope of a future where God’s presence is so near that He answers before His people even call. It is pertinent to remember that this initiative lies squarely with Yahweh. Isaiah 65 addresses both the consequences of Israel’s persistent sin and the hope of a transformed future for God’s servants. Earlier in the chapter, God rebukes Israel for their idolatry and rebellion, but then shifts to promises for those who remain faithful. The chapter describes a future where God’s people will enjoy peace, prosperity, and a renewed relationship with Him. This section in Isaiah 65: 17 - 25, paints a picture of a new creation - a time of rejoicing, longevity, safety, and harmony in nature. Verse 24 is part of this vision, highlighting the closeness between God and His people in this renewed world. The blessings promised to God’s servants are set in contrast to the fate of the wicked. The righteous will experience God’s favour, while the disobedient face shame and loss.

Isaiah 65: 24 expresses God’s extraordinary attentiveness and readiness to answer His people. It signifies a relationship where God’s response is so immediate that He answers even before prayers are fully formed. This promise is not only about answered prayer, but about God’s initiative - He anticipates the needs and desires of His people, acting out of deep love and favour. The verse looks forward to a future era - often interpreted as the Messianic age or the time of the new heavens and earth - when communication with God will be unhindered and marked by unprecedented intimacy.

​The immediacy of God’s response in Isaiah 65:24 is echoed in other Scriptural passages, such as God’s swift answer to Daniel’s prayer (Daniel 9:20–21) and promises in Psalms about God’s attentiveness to the cries of His people (e.g., Ps 34: 15; Ps 143: 1). In the New Testament, where salvation through Christ was prepared “while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8), indicating that God’s care and intervention often precede our awareness or requests. The Isaiah verse encourages believers to trust in God’s providence, knowing He is both willing and able to meet their needs - even before they ask. This understanding transforms prayer from a ritual of persuasion into a relationship of trust and worship, grounded in the assurance of God’s attentive care.