By: Dr. Dale Weckbacher
Text: Ezekiel
20:33-44
Ezekiel
20:44
“Then
you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have dealt with
you for My name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways nor according to
your corrupt doings, O house of Israel,” says the Lord God.”
(NKJV)
The narrative of the
Bible is a love story of a relationship with God, a relationship broken by sin,
and a relationship restored at the cross. The hero of the story is the one
spoken of in Genesis
3:15,
the seed of the woman who bruised the serpent's head when he resurrected from
the dead. Symbolic of this love story of restoration is the nation of Israel
who broke their covenant with God but were not destroyed but restored for God’s
plan was that the seed of the woman, Messiah come from their lineage (Jeremiah
29:11). God’s restoration is one of mercy and grace and
available to anyone accepting it.
With a mighty hand,
outstretched arm, and fury poured out, God will rule over Israel (Ezekiel
20:33). God will also bring Israel out from the peoples and
nations to which they have been scattered with a mighty hand, outstretched arm
and fury poured out (Ezekiel
20:34). However, God will bring Israel out into the
wilderness to plead his case with them face-to-face like he did with their
forefathers in the wilderness of Egypt (Ezekiel
20:35-36).
God is making Israel pass
under the rod of His correction to bring them back into the bond of His
covenant with them (Ezekiel
20:37). God will purge the rebels from among them and those
that transgressed against the Lord, bringing them out from their countries of
exile but not into the Promised Land (Ezekiel
20:38). God tells the people to go ahead and worship their
idols if they choose not to obey Him but to no longer profane Him with their
gifts and idols (Ezekiel
20:39). On the holy mountain of Israel is where all the
house of Israel shall serve the Lord God and where He will accept their
offerings and firstfruits (Ezekiel
20:40).
When Israel does this,
God will accept them as a sweet aroma so God is hallowed through them before
the Gentiles (Ezekiel
20:41). Israel shall know the Lord is Lord when they are
brought out of the countries into which they were scattered and back into the
Promised Land (Ezekiel
20:42). Once back in their land, they will remember their
ways of defilement, loathing themselves because of the evil they committed (Ezekiel
20:43). They shall see how the Lord dealt with them by
mercy and grace and not according to their evil ways (Ezekiel
20:44).
In the previous text of
this chapter, God gave Israel a history lesson to illustrate their history of
rebellion against God (Ezekiel
20:1-32). The situation seems hopeless but there is hope for
God intends to restore Israel with Mercy and grace (Ezekiel
20:33-44). The key to this restoration is humble repentance (2
Chronicles 7:14). However, this is not a blanket
acquittal from sin for those rebels that do not repent will escape exile but
not enter the land of Israel (Ezekiel
20:38). The Lord did not intend for the exile of Israel to
lead to their destruction but as a rod of correction to bring them back into
alignment with his covenant (Ezekiel
20:37; Jeremiah 29:11).
Like Israel, the
lukewarm, compromising, and consumerist church has rebelled against God. God
does intend to restore His church but only after the purging of its rebels. God
does not desire that any should perish (2
Peter 3:9) or that his people be subjected to His wrath (1
Thessalonians 5:9). In his discourse with Nicodemus, Jesus
stated he did not come to the world to condemn it but to save it with anyone
choosing not to believe condemning him or herself to separation from God (John
3:17-18). There is indeed no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus but one must be in Christ Jesus to escape condemnation and God’s
wrath (Romans
8:1).
None of us are physically
born in Christ Jesus for we all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans
3:23).
This means we are all born into a heritage of sin carrying a death penalty but
God has granted a gift that changes our heritage (Romans
6:23).
This change of heritage is possible because God loved us so much He sent His
son to die for sinful humanity even though He knew no sin (2
Corinthians 5:21; John 3:16; Romans 5:8). To accept this changed
heritage one must declare with his or her mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe
in their heart that God raised Him from the dead to be saved from the death
penalty of sin (Romans
10:9).
This is not just head knowledge of belief in Jesus but a belief in the heart.
This belief that justifies one from their sin must come from the heart with the
mouth confessing what is in the heart (Romans
10:10). Our heart is in what we treasure (Matthew
6:21),
if that is Jesus we have a belief that saves. If you genuinely believe with
your heart in Jesus and his death for your sins on the cross, I invite you to
pray with me and make the declaration of what is in your heart with your mouth
and be saved by praying with me,
Dear Lord Jesus, I know I have sinned (Romans
3:23)
and know that the penalty for my sin is death (Romans
6:23). I ask you to forgive me of my sin and cleanse
me as you promise in your Word (1
John 1:9). I believe
you died, spent three days in the grave, and resurrected from the dead and now
declare you Lord of my life.
May God challenge, convict, and save everyone reading this post
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