Today's reading: Ezekiel 16; 2 Corinthians 11
As graphic as it is, I don't know that there is any more damning condemnation of Israel than Ezekiel 16...
The first many times I read Ezekiel 16, I think I was more shocked by how graphic and explicit it was than I was struck by the content. And to be clear, that is no accident. God did not speak so incredibly graphically because it was the only way to communicate His point, He did it because Israel had heard His point already and was ignoring it, and He wanted them to be shocked enough to stop and listen. God had sent prophet after prophet to His people, warning them of the route they were heading down, and calling them to turn back to the Lord, and they refused to listen. But when Ezekiel began declaring such a lewd condemnation from the Lord, there is no way it didn't stop them in their tracks.
Reading it this morning though, it really just made me incredibly sad.
I'm not shocked or surprised to read this chapter anymore. In fact, knowing it was coming up, I made sure to have something else to read my daughter this morning when she came downstairs and asked me to read the day's reading to her. I think though, now that I don't get distracted by it being shocking anymore, it makes it clearer how incredibly accurate of a picture it really is. To say that a people started worshipping a different god just feels more abstract and a little less wrong. But when you put it in the terms Ezekiel does, of a wife who has been rescued, raised up, and given everything she could ever possibly want by a good and faithful husband, taking those very gifts and using them to pay others to use her as a prostitute... it's horrible. It makes you angry and so sad on the husband's behalf.
It makes me think of God's words through Isaiah in Isaiah 5 when He said, "What more could I have done for my vineyard, that I have not done in it?" What more could this husband have done for his wife? What more could he have given her? How much higher could he have elevated her? How much more fully could he have satisfied her? He gave her everything, and her response was to seek out new and novel ways to be unfaithful...
I have talked so many times on this blog already about how wrong the perception is that people tend to have of God in the Old Testament being ready or excited to judge, and I feel like this chapter captures the reality of the situation so incredibly well. God was not quick to judge; He was quick to pour out blessing upon blessing on a people who had done nothing to deserve it; and He sought, time and time again, to turn His wayward people back to Himself so that He wouldn't have to judge them and could continue to bless them. But what more could He have possibly done for His beloved?
Lord, guard my heart and lead me to grow daily in faithfulness to you. I don't ever want to go the way of Israel here, taking your goodness and blessings for granted and turning to go my own way. Keep my eyes open to your goodness to me, keep my heart grateful, and let my life, every day, reflect more of your love and goodness than it did the day before.
No comments:
Post a Comment