If you’ve been following the blog articles through Chapter 20, we’ve examined a series of episodes highlighting Israel’s repeated failure to remain faithful to God. Now, as we near the chapter’s end, the theme shifts, and by God’s grace, the nation returns to a faithful relationship with Him.
For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, says the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land; there I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred things.
As a pleasing odor I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations.
You shall know that I am the Lord when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your ancestors (Ezekiel 20.40-42).
Something has changed within God’s people. Now, the offerings they once presented to pagan deities are given to God, and they become a pleasing aroma to Him.
God demonstrates His holiness by transforming their hearts and lives, shaping them into the people they were always meant to be.
One of my favorite expressions is that God defeats His enemies by making them His friends. After the exile, His work in the lives of His people transforms their hearts and lives, turning them from enemies into friends and worshipers who reflect His character through their own lives.
I was speaking with a man recently who shared his criminal past with me. He told me he had been shot by the police three times and remarked matter-of-factly, “I had it coming.”
He recognized his past sins, and the clarity of his new life in Christ gave him a fresh perspective on his responsibility for what had happened in his life.
His experience is a current picture of the repentance Ezekiel described in 590 BC.
There you shall remember your ways and all the deeds by which you have polluted yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed.
And you shall know that I am the Lord when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways or corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, says the Lord God (Ezekiel 20.43-44).
God had no obligation to make the man I earlier mentioned His friend. Yet, through love and grace, God reached out to him, revealed His love, and transformed him.
Love came first, even before the man recognized his wrongdoing. That’s how God works.
He loves us and puts us in a place of knowing Him, where we can then recognize and take responsibility for our wrong actions.
Join me in reflecting on your past. Think about all the times God has shown His love for you, even when you were unfaithful to Him.
Let’s praise God for His grace, which reaches out and draws us into a loving friendship with Him.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 