Reading notes - week 59

Continuing the somber truth of God’s judgment on sin. He is zealous for truth and holiness and He will not leave sin unpunished. In this week’s readings, we see His Holy wrath righteously released over long periods of time. I wonder if generation after generation ever saw the overall picture. Is it only those of us with an historical advantage who can see His plan unfold? Then I wonder, for us in America today, what aspect of His plan is being executed right now on our country? When I read about His anger over the slaughter of children, the mistreatment of the poor and needy, the oppression of the widows and orphans, I know that He cannot leave America unpunished. But for today’s post, I am digging into chapter 28 to shed some light on the info He shares there. Read on….

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Reading notes - week 58

Ezekiel is heavy. It is deep and mysterious and heavy. When people doubt the inerrancy of Scripture, I think of passages like these we read this week. By that I mean, if the Bible were not true, then humans would have surely omitted chapters such as these - this stuff makes God hard to understand! Surely His PR department would rather not publicize the things described in these passages, right?

But the Bible IS true. It IS inerrant. All of it. God intentionally reveals Himself all the way through - He knows some of Who He is makes us uncomfortable and He wants to shake us up from our manmade imaginings of Him. He is NOT able to be understood. He does NOT fit into the molds we want to put Him in. And He IS the same in the New Testament as He is in the Old Testament.

Ezekiel forces us to examine our view of God. It absolutely wrecks our depiction of Him as “nice”. While He is merciful and gentle and kind, He is simultaneously just and wrathful and incomprehensible.

There is so much contained in the chapters we read this week. I cannot possibly do justice to the riches contained there so I will draw on one phrase that is repeated 72 times throughout the book - “that you may know that I am the Lord”. Over and over again, as His justice is being dispensed, as His wrath over disobedience is being poured out, He proclaims “that you may know Me”.

Sisters, we must long to KNOW Him, to experience HIM as Yahweh, to fear His name and to give our lives for His glory! He is more mighty and more holy and more intolerant of sin than we can ever imagine. Oh, how I plead for His grace to help us - to help me - stop being concerned with lesser things! He is the Creator, the King, the RULER of the universe. Yes, He is kind. Yes, He is merciful. Yes, He loves us. But we must also embrace His holiness. He cannot overlook sin - the sin of the world….nor the sin of His people.

I pray that the somber truths revealed in Ezekiel will startle us and cause us to repent. To stand in the gap. To worship Him for WHO HE IS.