Ezekiel 9

Ezekiel 9:9-10 ESV

Then he said to me, "The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, 'The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see.' As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will bring their deeds upon their heads."

In this chapter Ezekiel sees what the people of Jerusalem cannot see. He sees God's judgment which is coming. Three things are true about this judgment. First of all, it is absolutely certain that it is coming, and it is coming from God. Judah and Israel have sinned enough. God has drawn a line in the sand and said, "No more." God has sent warning after warning, but they have failed to listen. God, in his justice, will pour out his wrath against his people. Just because they had a temple in their city did not exempt them from God's judgment. Just because we are America will not exempt us either when God says, "Enough is enough."

Secondly though, God first marks out those who have been grieving over the sin of their people. They will come under his protection. That raises the question of our own attitude toward the sin around us. It is not our responsibility to carry out God's justice. Some have taken that upon themselves by killing abortion providers, bombing clinics or bullying an beating gays. That is wrong. Judgment is for God to carry out in his time, not for us. But certainly we should be grieved by the sin that we see around us, and we should be praying.

That brings us to the third issue found in this chapter. God's judgment began at the temple. He struck the 70 elders of Judah first. As believers we have been tasked with speaking the truth and wisdom of God much like those 70 elders should have done. When they failed to worship and serve God, they were struck first by God's sword of judgment The New Testament refers to the Old Testament by saying "judgement begins at the House of God. The truth is, believers are the house of God. It is easy in our self righteousness to believe that we are safe. The real issue is not whether we feel self righteous and superior, but whether we have truly been faithful to God, his Word and his mission.

Father, forgive me for how often I feel self righteous, when in fact I am perhaps worse than those unbelievers around me, because I should know better. Today may my life reflect your righteousness, not my hypocritical self righteousness that I too often take pleasure in.

By His grace,
Rick Weinert

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