Dream Word – SEE
Ezekiel 8:17,18 And He said to me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them." NKJV
This time of year, this time of leaf changing, this time of chemical release from dying vegetation always leaves me allergically congested. Subsequently, my nose runs a little, just a little, and my sinus’s slowly drain down the back of my throat, trickling tickly-ness into the area and producing a rasping and repetitive cough and a constant clearing of the throat. It is annoying and all the throat-clearing makes it sound like I am about to say something very, very important! However, all I say is “Excuse me,” to those around me and living on the edge of such expectorant expectancy, which as we all know, can be so very tiring.
Even so, our text for tonight is about to say something very important, but the exact meaning of that little phrase, ‘put the branch to their nose,’ is widely misunderstood amongst the Biblical commentators. In any event, friends, whatever the phrase actually means is really an irrelevance, for the focus of the text is not so much on the supposed heinous practice itself, but rather the response from God toward it. So, whatever this nasal insult was, it became such a grievous and gross offense, even such a putrid and offensive stench to God's bitter and outraged heart, that it perniciously provoked Him to both an astonishing and outraged anger! Yes, this secret sinning, this ‘putting the branch to the nose,’ this indulgence in idolatrous and outrageous obscenity, caused such a ‘Divine Nasal Drip’ that God coughed Himself into such a fuming fury such that He phlegmed out Isreal from His Holy and congested lungs! We should worry, for if anything describes the Western World today, it is that our thoughts, words, and deeds are nothing but wild, idolatrous and outrageous obscenities.
Make no mistake about it, the outcome of such a Divine coughing-fury did result in the dire, and dreadful decimation, dissolution and desolation of Israel. Indeed, if God had not chosen to save Himself a remnant of those who both sighed and cried at the loathsome state that their nation had gotten itself into, then the apple of God’s eye would surely have lain forever rotting upon the sodden soil. This Nasal offense was the very last straw.
Tonight I have to tell you that I have seen the secret sins of God's leaders, and His so-called prophets of today. Indeed, I have seen the secret sins of God’s people today. I have seen the present indifference of God in their lives, in our lives, in the life of the church at large; it is so bad that it could lead me to conclude that God is not watching, indeed, and that His very indifference to their 'putting the branch to the nose.' is so telling, that in fact, it might indicate there is no God in heaven at all! Even so, if I have seen the secret sin, then make no mistake that GOD HAS SEEN IT TOO, and His current silence toward it is nothing but the darkest of portents concerning His coming coughing-action.
Look! God sees! Look at our Western lands! See the famine, see the disease of man and beast, see the fear, see the war, see the tear. Hear the vines now long since dead, crackle in the fire. Hear the other nations and the foreign cultures, now among us, all sucking the marrow from the dry bones left on our ground. See the violation of God's law, look at the rape of His love, be astonished, yes, be ASTON
