SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 25
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
I will stretch out my hand against you and give you as plunder to the nations. I will wipe you out from among the nations and exterminate you from the countries. I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the LORD. [Ezekiel 25:7]
This chapter shows that while God is punishing His people by allowing them to suffer the consequences of their rebellion, He will also hold the neighboring nations accountable for their actions – just as He does His own people.
The Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites and Philistines were not forced to betray or attack Israel, they were just following the same selfish, cruel behaviour as the Israelites were.
The words “I will wipe out” and “I will destroy” sound as if God is the instigator of this destruction, but in fact He is giving them over to the natural consequences of their destructive choices.
In this sinful world, betrayal and violence and cruelty are normal; God restrains their impact for a season, but eventually ‘lets go’ so that people will know He is God.
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. [Matthew 24:7-8]
Jesus shows that the conflict between the nations and the disasters that impact the world are not random events, but part of God’s greater purpose.
Like the pain of childbirth [which was a result of the fall into sin, not a part of God’s original plan, Genesis 3:16], God allows the pain for a greater purpose.
He is birthing a new world in the midst of this sinful broken world.
God is not causing evil to happen to these nations, He is restraining it as long as necessary, but eventually He lets go, for His greater purpose of justice and mercy.
You will know that I am the LORD. [Ezekiel 25:7]
This repeated refrain shows us what it is God is doing through the violence and disasters that plague the world – He is reminding us that we are not God, that He is!
This is actually a good news message, if we pay attention.
If we do not acknowledge God as God, then life in this world goes from bad to worse.
He restrains evil, which makes us think that we can manage on our own; but when He lets go, we discover what life without God is really like.
Everything God does, everything God allows, is part of His purpose of showing us our need for Him, and the consequence of rejecting Him and His will.
Through Ezekiel, through world events and disasters (wars, famines, earthquakes, tsunamis, economic crises), through Jesus, etc., God is getting the good news message out there that He is God, that He is King, and that He will establish (birth) His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. [Mathew 24:14]
One day everyone will know, whether they like it or not, that He is God!
PRAYER:
Lord, all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to You. You are administering justice and mercy in the world to get the message out. Will we pay attention?