Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it, for it was the stumbling block of their iniquity.
– Ezekiel 7:19
Whoa, did you hear that? This pronouncement from God talking about the stumbling block of his people’s iniquity that has led to judgment and wrath. What was the stumbling block? Their silver and their gold. They sought for satisfaction and security and God is saying their silver and their gold, their money, their riches, the possessions of this world are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of God and cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs. Are we hearing this? And this is straight 1st Timothy 6 kind of language. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
It is through craving for, desiring money that many have wandered away from the faith, have pierced themselves with many pangs. Those who desire riches fall into temptation, into a snare, into senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. We need to believe this, that the desire for riches, for gold, for silver, for money, for possessions in this world, that desire is extremely dangerous. That that love plunges us into all kinds of evils. And the language here in Ezekiel chapter 7, it is the stumbling block of iniquity. Ah, God help us to believe this, especially in a culture where I live and where many, if not most people who listen to this prayer podcast.
We live in one of the wealthiest places to ever exist on planet earth. Not that we always see ourselves as wealthy, but we know that wealth in many ways is relative and relative to the rest of the world and relative to people throughout the history of the world. We are incredibly wealthy with abundant, clean water and food and medical care and education, access to transportation and so many other things that we can so easily take for granted and we can find ourselves wanting more and more and more and more. God, please keep us from this stumbling block of iniquity. We pray that you would keep us from trusting in money, in riches and wealth and desiring money and riches and wealth for security, for satisfaction. Help us to believe that all the things of this world cannot satisfy our hunger or fill our stomachs.
God, please help us not to trust in our money, our riches, our wealth. Help us not to desire more and more and more. May we be generous in giving what your word tells us to do in 1st Timothy 6 in light of these dangers, to be generous. Not to set our hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but to put our hope on you and to do good and to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share and to store up treasures in heaven. God, we pray, help us to use our money, the wealth you have given to us, the money you’ve given to us, help us to use it for that which lasts forever, for the spread of your glory in the world, for the spread of the gospel to people all around the world. We pray for all these unreached people groups each day on this podcast. God, we pray, use our money to cause the gospel to spread to the nations.
Please forgive us, O God. When we think about and realize that such a small minute percentage of what we have goes toward the spread of the gospel among the nations, specifically nations, people groups where the gospel’s not yet gone. We pray that you would change that and we pray that you would rectify this great imbalance, this spending of our resources on ourselves and on even ourselves and our churches and on places where the gospel’s already gone in the world. We pray for your blessings on ministry and all those ways, but God, we pray help us to give for the spread of your glory among people who are perishing with no access to the gospel. Help us to give toward that end, to use the silver and gold that you’ve given to us so that the peoples of the world, all the peoples of the world might know that you are the Lord.
Please help us to glorify you with what you’ve given to us. To live generously, to give sacrificially and cheerfully. What an opportunity that we have with the gospel to have so many resources we can give for the spread of the gospel to people who’ve never ever heard it. God, may it be so. In light of your word here in Ezekiel and your word from cover-to-cover in scripture, God use our lives and our resources, our silver, our gold, our money to lead people among the nations to know that you are the Lord. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
I trust you know that this podcast is totally focused on praying and leading us to pray. But as I was praying there, I couldn’t help but just think about and want to encourage as the overflow of this prayer, more radical, generous giving in your life, in your family, in your church and that’s where I would encourage you to start. Are you giving to your local church? Are you giving to the spread of God’s glory through your local church? If not, start to give generously and sacrificially and cheerfully there and to look for ways your church can be a part of spreading the glory of God among the nations through what you give to as a church and as one avenue for that, urgentneeds.org I just point you to as a place where you can be involved in what God is doing on the front lines of unreached people through the resources he’s given to you. So regardless of where or how, may God help us to put into practice what we’ve just prayed.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
