Today's reading: Ezekiel 8; 2 Corinthians 2-3
Once again we see, from Ezekiel this time, just how seriously God takes it when His people commit idolatry, worshipping gods other than Him.
To start out this morning though, in case you missed it, Ezekiel 8 opens with Ezekiel getting picked up out of his house by his hair... While Ezekiel is sitting in his house, with the elders of Judah in front of him, a figure appears, reaches out a hand, grabs him by a lock of his hair, and carries him up into the sky. I don't have anything to say about that other than that I wanted to make sure you noticed it because I don't feel like I have noticed that before, and it made me do a double take this morning and then laugh imagining that scene playing out.
But once Ezekiel is in the air, he is taken in a vision to the temple in Jerusalem to be shown what is happening that is worthy of destruction and exile. He shows him act after act of idolatry, being carried out by every strata of Israelite society, from the elders, to average men, to women. The temple is full of idols, and it is the whole of Israel that is chasing after those idols and worshiping those other gods.
The reason I point this out so often in these posts is twofold: Firstly because God repeats it over and over again, so clearly it is important that we know, understand, and internalize how strongly He is offended by His people worshiping other gods, and secondly because I really want people to better understand the God of the Old Testament.
I say here that I want people to understand the God of the Old Testament, not because He is a different God from the New Testament, but precisely because He isn't. Too many people, Christians included, seem to think there is a dichotomy between the Testaments, where God was all wrath and vengeance in the Old Testament, and is all grace, peace, and love in the New Testament. Often, to argue against that, people will point to Jesus talking about the coming wrath and judgement in order to show that's consistent, but I think that kind of misses the point a bit. Yes, God does judge in the Old Testament, and yes, Jesus talks about the coming judgement in the New Testament as well, but the judgement is never the point. The judgement, or threat of judgement, is always meant to be a wake up call to lead people away from judgement. God does not want to judge, and is not excited to judge, but He is just, so He does judge, but He is also patient, calling people to repentance, and giving people time to turn to Him through Christ so that they don't have to be judged.
This is the same thing we see in the Old Testament. God is not sitting back, waiting for His people to mess up some random detail of a sacrificial law, or accidentally step out of line so that He can rain fire and brimstone down upon them from Heaven. In fact, God is not even sitting back, waiting to judge His people for a major infraction. When His people completely abandon Him, turning to other gods entirely, He still does not rain judgement down on them, but instead sends prophet after prophet to call them back, and brings punishment in initially small doses to try to wake the people out of their spiritual stupor, specifically so He won't have to judge them. They don't listen though, rejecting the prophets, and ignoring or scoffing at His punishments, until it ultimately leads to serious judgement and exile.
But it's so important that we realize, God is never quick to judge. He is patient beyond patient, seeking, over and over again, to call people to Himself, so that they can escape judgement. This is true from Genesis all the way through Revelation, and is an incredible picture of the love, grace, and mercy of our God.
No comments:
Post a Comment