Rowers

Daily Reading: Ezekiel 27

Your rowers have brought you out into the high seas. (Ezekiel 27.26)

Devotional Thought: "Where do they think they're going?" I mused as cars passed me on Riverland Drive on James Island.  I was going the other way because the road was blocked ahead by emergency vehicles.  I had gotten close enough to the accident to see that it would be quite some time before a wrecker would get the car upright and the road cleared.  So, I deftly executed a three-point (or was it five-point?) turn on the narrow road and made my way back - away from the accident, passing drivers who would find out soon enough...

The city of Tyre, subject of a lament in Ezekiel 27, had been successful and prosperous.  Many had come to and through their city for trade.  They had commercial alliances with wealthy cities.  Their market was known far and wide for all sorts of goods, including slaves.  Due to their iniquity, it all sank into the sea.  Everything was lost.

Their rowers brought them out into the high seas.

What "rowers" are guiding culture today?  Where do we think we're going?  What "high seas" will be our doom?  Like Tyre, we have experienced prosperity, but at what cost?  Who has been enslaved by this insatiable appetite for goods and services?  Who are the victims of this destruction of values and history and freedoms?  What will be the price paid by future generations?

Our rowers are bringing us out into the high seas.

By the way, I knew what was ahead before I turned onto Riverland Drive.  I had seen the fire truck turn before me.  I had time to respond, time to go another way.  But I continued to go the way I always went.  If we're going toward the high seas, may God give us grace to stop our rowers!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for the prophet Ezekiel.  Though he wrote twenty-five hundred years ago, his message is relevant to us today.  Help us to heed his words - your words! - and stop rowing toward disaster.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 43.1-5

1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!

2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

3 Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!

4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.