2023_09_22 Insight Post- Robin Delaney
This week’s reading- Hosea 1-2, Zephaniah 1, Ezekiel 11
Although I gleaned much of the serious nature of God’s judgment and intimately redemptive character from the passages in Hosea and Zephaniah, I’m going to focus today on Ezekiel chapter 11. This incredible book of the Old Testament has always intrigued me with its otherworldly descriptions of complex aerial machinery, bizarre creatures, and outrageous behavior. Just the intro in chapter 1 could easily be an episode of Ancient Aliens! But behind all the imagery and visions there is a just (and jealous) God who will not allow persistent disobedience to go unchecked.
But more importantly, for me, I find the recurring theme of His relentless pursuit of us despite our straying off the path he has set before us. (Ezekiel 11:16-17) He is still with us… a place of “sanctuary” no matter where we go. His forgiveness and redemptive nature are boundless. He is a just God, but he is a loving God. “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again’ (Ezekiel 11:17 NIV).
As the book describes the account of God’s message to Ezekiel to impart to the exiled Israelites and specifically in chapter 11, it’s leaders, we find God’s people who are so far gone that even His Glory has left them (Ezekiel 10:18). The leaders who have led the nation completely astray for so long, find themselves in a desperate position before a God whose wrath is beyond anything they or I can imagine. God is patient, but He also will not allow idolatry, detestable pagan practices of worshipping false gods, and persistent breaking of His laws to go unpunished.
I have had seasons of my life when I have been knowingly disobedient and as a result, experienced a fraction of God’s corrective punishment, and am thankful I did not experience anything like the judgment of Israel’s leaders. He always gives us warning too… it’s not like we are blindsided by God’s justice. This is true for anyone including trusted leaders.
The message I gather is He wants me to really understand personally at depth that He is both fully just (Psalm 51:4 NIV) and fully loving (Psalms 136:16 NIV).
“…I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them. ‘Then they will know that I am the Lord’ (Ezekiel 7:27 NIV).
“And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Diblah—wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord’ (Ezekiel 6:14 NIV).
“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezekiel 11:19,20 NIV).
Ezekiel reinforces over and over to the Israelites and to you and me… God is in charge, and I am not.
Robin Delaney
Director of Celebrate Recovery and Men’s Ministry