Ezekiel 7-9 -- We Don't Want To Go There

God has had enough of the wanton disregard that His people have been showing for Him.  God’s righteous anger is easily seen in what He says:  “I will make you pay for the way you have lived [doesn’t that remind you of “the wages of sin is death”?], and for your actions that I hate … I will judge you for the way you have lived and will make you pay for everything you have done that I hate.  I will show no pity and I will not hold back punishment.  I will pay you back for the way you have lived … Look, they are insulting me every way they can.  So I will act in anger.  I will have no pity, nor will I show mercy … The land is filled with people who murder, and the city is full of people who are not fair [sounds like these are equal sins] … I will bring their evil back on their heads.”

So many people look upon passages like these, compare them to the peaceful words of Jesus, and decide that the God of the Old Testament was a mean, vengeful God – very different from the God of the New Testament.  Once I said that myself.  I was wrong.  Just like them, I conveniently failed to mention what the people were doing, instead blaming God for being vengeful!

But there is no shadow of turning with God.  The shadow was on us.  The people had decided that their individual freedoms were more important than His presence in their lives.  Absorbed with self, they wanted to be able to do anything they desired without consequences. 

Had God allowed that to go unpunished, what would that say about His character and His holiness?  His word and His promises would carry no weight.  He would become just like the idols that the people were worshiping, easily swayed by bribes from their subjects (or so the people thought).  That doesn’t describe God at all.  Instead, it only highlights man’s sin and his need to bring everyone around him down to his own level of misery.  God won’t do that.  He can’t.  He has to be the One constant and the One ideal in a world severely infected with sin.  We need a God like that, not one that caters to our whims.

Father, please make me miserable when the way that I live doesn’t agree with Your Word.  Cause me to ache when my sin disappoints You.  Use those hurts to lead me to repentance.  Don’t let me ever believe that I can do anything I want.  You show here what happens to those kinds of people, and I never want that to happen to me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford