​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).