Ezekiel 5:7-9 - Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, 8 therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. 9 And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again.
It is impossible to know God without reading the whole of his word. And, if you do read the whole of his word, with thoughtfulness, you will be troubled.
These words, in Ezekiel 5, are very disturbing to comprehend. This God certainly does not align with the post-modern god with hippie flowers around his neck, promoting world peace.
This God just destroyed Israel!Woe to anyone who first jumps first into this chapter. I suppose, if they do, they will likely go running to Oprah Winfrey's "that God is mean" club.
There are also those who come upon these verses with no more trepidation than buying a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum.
But we all must walk to the end of this dock, and contemplate a God who destroys his chosen nation.
I pen not these words to shake my fist. I cry not, "God how dare you". The motives of God are clear to our view.
Ezekiel 36:22-23 - “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
For the sake of God's holy name.
If we recoil at this destruction, which I do in part, then we do not fully understand holiness. Herein lies the troubling part that we must come to terms with. This is the same God of the New Testament. God does not change. Yet, here we see God, with jealousy, defending his name in the most destructive of ways.
Homework assignment: go sit on the end of this dock and consider of what God's holiness is made.
