Sunday, August 22, 2010

"You Will Remain In Your Filth"


Scripture Passage



Scripture Focus

I tried to cleanse you,
     but you refused.
So now you will remain in your filth
     until my fury against you has been satisfied.
                                (Ezekiel 24:13 NLT)

Observation

I’m back to a kind of “it doesn’t get any sadder than this” response to today’s Scriptures. Israel/Judah had every chance. God had done everything necessary for their redemption—and done it all out of who He was…out of His own graciousness…and not at all because Abraham’s descendents in any way deserved it. Yet they rejected Him utterly…flaunting their rebellious ways and disdaining His great and bountiful expressions of love toward them. They’ve pushed past the point of no return, and (I think I wrote this not long ago) have left God with no real choice. He cannot remain true to who He is…to the character that makes Him a God worthy to be served…and continue to delay judgment for Israel’s sins. Through Ezekiel, God says this:

I tried to cleanse you,
     but you refused.
So now you will remain in your filth
     until my fury against you has been satisfied.
                                (Ezekiel 24:13 NLT)

Parents (or at least “parenting experts”) often talk about “love and logic”—responding to disobedient children in love but with logical consequences. Hey, for all the questions as to why—if God is truly good—people still suffer, this suffering, at least, seems pretty loving and logical to me. The logic part, I think, is clearer—God is simply carrying out the terms of the covenant that He and Israel had agreed to. The love part is less easily seen, but how loving would it be if God let the sinful, hurtful behavior described in today’s reading go unchecked? That would actually be unloving—towards Israel as the perpetrator of evil deeds, and towards all those who suffer as a result.

I’ll say it again: I never want to be there. I never want to be the object of God's fury. “Lord, soften my heart and strengthen my will so that you never have to ‘leave me in my filth until your fury has been satisfied.’”

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