"Sign"

March 15, 2011

“Sign”

Blessings Folk,

What does a sign do?

Give direction.
Give information.
Provide example.
Communicate.

Locally we are studying the book of Hosea.
God ask Hosea to do some hard, challenging, strange things.

Hosea 1
2 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the LORD."

Hosea was told to take a wife of harlotry.
A hard thing.

Why did God do this?
Because the people (the land Hosea 4:1) forsook the Lord.

The relationship of Hosea and Gomer was a picture of God and Israel.

Their lives were a sign to the nation of Israel.
They were a living picture of that which the Lord was communicating.

Was it hard?
Without doubt.

But not that unusual.

Think on this.

God called Isaiah to live naked before the people for three years…

Isaiah 20
2 at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go and loosen the sackcloth from your hips and take your shoes off your feet " And he did so, going naked and barefoot.
 3 And the LORD said, "Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a sign and token against Egypt and Cush,
 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

A strange sign and token against Egypt and Cush

Another?

God told Jeremiah to do some strange stuff with undergarments...

Jeremiah 13
1 Thus the LORD said to me, "Go and buy yourself a linen waistband and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water."
 2 So I bought the waistband in accordance with the word of the LORD and put it around my waist.
 3 Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying,
 4 "Take the waistband that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the rock."
 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates,as the LORD had commanded me.
 6 After many days the LORD said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the waistband which I commanded you to hide there."
 7 Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it; and lo, the waistband was ruined, it was totally worthless.
 8 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
 9 "Thus says the LORD, 'Just so will I destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
 10 'This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this waistband which is totally worthless.
 11 'For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,' declares the LORD, 'that they might be for Me a people, for renown, for praise and for glory; but they did not listen.'

The linen waistband was a sign of the ruined, worthless state of Judah and Israel due to pride.

One more…

What if God told you to…

  • get a brick
  • draw/design the city of Jerusalem on it
  • raise up a siege against it, ramps, pitch camps, battering rams...a complete “toy” version...sounds great for an 8 year old…
  • then, God tells you to get an iron plate and set an iron wall between yourself and the “city”, then set your face toward it and siege it.

Strange, huh?

God said it was a sign to Israel.

But, there is more…

  • what if you had to lay on one side of your body for 390 days...tied down by God
  • what if you had to lay on the other side for 40 days
  • what if you had to cook your bread in front of the people with human dung

?

Do take time to read the account…

Ezekiel 4
 1 "Now you son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem.
 2 "Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, raise up a ramp, pitch camps and place battering rams against it all around.
 3 "Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it This is a sign to the house of Israel.
 4 "As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it.
 5 "For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, three hundred and ninety days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
 6 "When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year.
 7 "Then you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it.
 8 "Now behold, I will put ropes on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
Defiled Bread
 9 "But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt, put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days.
 10 "Your food which you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time.
 11 "The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time.
 12 "You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung."
 13 Then the LORD said, "Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will banish them."
 14 But I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I have never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any unclean meat ever entered my mouth."
 15 Then He said to me, "See, I will give you cow's dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread."
 16 Moreover, He said to me, "Son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and in horror,
 17 because bread and water will be scarce; and they will be appalled with one another and waste away in their iniquity.

How might the Lord be using each of us as “a sign”?
What is the Lord calling you to do?
Do you realize that what He is doing in and through you could be a sign for others?
An example?

Be obedient.
Be faithful.

See to it no one misleads you.
See to it that you are not frightened/terrified.

Blessings!