epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Friday, May 02, 2008

Ezekiel 16

God is the One who made Israel to be His special nation. Her heritage was just like that of the other Aramean nations all around her. God chose Abraham and Sarah in the midst of all the rest of their family members and friends, and He made special promises to them. Israel is spoken of in Ezekiel 16 as a baby girl and then as a young woman. The day of her birth only displayed the coarseness of her background. She was not cared for or loved by anyone, but was left to die by exposure, cast out upon the open field. But God came by and saw her in her blood, and spoke the word that made all the difference for her. “Live!” That word was more than a command. It was also a divine promise.

What God truly begins, He will surely bring to completion. He not only saved this baby girl, He provided for her everything that she needed, and even prepared her for the day when she would be His royal bride. He took away all of her shame, and gave her everything that she needed for true beauty, health, and enjoyment. All of this came from the Lord God. She was famous among the nations because of her beauty. She had all the wonderful privileges of a queen, though she had come from a background of no importance or advantage.

One would expect this queen to be filled with gratitude and dedicated to the service of her king. Instead she behaves like the most shameless and immoral prostitute. She takes all the things that she has been given and uses them to go after other men. Her idolatry is a rejection of her royal husband. It is rejection of her position as His blessed bride. It is the worst ingratitude. It is spiritual adultery. Israel has been given beauty, renown, garments, jewels, oil, incense, and bread. She used all these things in her prostitution. Worse than that, she has been given the great gift of bearing the king’s children, but she has sacrificed them to her lust for idols, even delivering them up as an offering by fire to the gods of the nations. She has forgotten God’s mercy and has brought about a horrible breach in her relationship to the greatest King.

She could have been content with the best of all husbands. Instead Israel has taken her lewdness into the public square. She has sought out Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, and Babylonians. She had everything that she could need or want from the hand of her God, but she would not be satisfied with this great provision. She imagined that she was missing something, and thought that she could find what she needed from these other nations and their gods.

There was one way in which Israel was not like a common prostitute. To the prostitute comes some form of payment, but these nations and their gods have done nothing good for Israel. In fact she scorned payment from them. Rather than receive payment from her lovers, she gave them gifts. Her adulterous impulse was so strong that she did not need to be enticed by money or gifts. She wanted to do the wrong thing, regardless of the cost. She was insistent upon it. Her depravity was so great that it was irrational and, in a way, pitiful.

What will be the Lord’s response to this great provocation? Israel wanted foreign lovers. She will get what she wanted. She loved the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians, and so she will get them. They will not love her. They will be agents of her destruction. This has happened already to some extent by the time of Ezekiel’s prophesy. Egypt has been of no use to the people of God, and they will be a false hope for some even after the destruction of Jerusalem. Assyria was the destroyer of the northern tribes, and had inflicted great damage upon Judah. The Babylonians would bring about a further exile of the people of Judah and would destroy the city and the temple. God’s bride wanted foreign men, and she got foreign men.

Like mother, like daughter. Israel had returned to the ways of the people from which she came. God had rescued her after she had been abandoned, but she eventually returned to the pagan practices of the nations from which she had come. Jerusalem was not particularly distinguishable from Samaria, and both of them were not all that different from Sodom. If anything, God’s people had become worse than the world. She was corrupt in worship and in behavior. She had ignored the cry of the poor in her day of prosperity, and had abandoned the Law of God.

The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should have enjoyed the warmth and security of a close relationship with God. They rejected Him. The God of Israel would one day call many descendants of other nations into close fellowship with Him, and yet many from Israel would be excluded from the relationship that once was hers alone. How would any woman feel when she saw others peacefully enjoying the privileges that she had so foolishly scorned? She would be jealous, and that jealousy would eventually serve its purpose as many from Israel would return to her God and King.

God sent His Son to claim a bride. Many from Israel would reject Him, but as Gentiles embraced Him and were brought into covenant with Israel’s God, some Jews would reconsider their rejection of their King. This has continued to happen over the course of centuries. What if the descendants of the Philistines, Syrians, and Babylonians find their meaning and joy in Israel’s God? What if they are shown to be the beloved of the Lord through faith in Jesus Christ? What will many more Jews think when their enemies turn to God through Christ?

This kind of plan would allow the Lord to both save Gentiles, and to restore many Jews who are made jealous again for their God. It would be like the Lord to do this, for as Ezekiel says, the Lord will remember His covenant. God promised Israel great things from her youth, and He is not a God to forget His promises. The Lord has made a new covenant in Christ that has resulted in the salvation of many Jews and Gentiles. Through this New Covenant, God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are being fulfilled. He has atoned for the sins of many people through His death on the cross. When His Israel was faithless, the Lord remained faithful. He has paid the price of faithfulness in the death of His Son. He made promises to Israel when He found her dying in her blood. The Lord keeps His word. He will not deny Himself.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home