Chapter 16 is long, so I'll not paste the whole thing here. But read it, and imagine it. God finds a beautiful girl, completely abandoned, and gives her everything.
And she throws it away. Rather than cherishing this gift, rather than giving her all back to Him, she turns and gives everything away to neighbor after neighbor after neighbor.
Chapter 15 tells Israel they are wood only good for burning. Chapter 16 is quite graphic in just HOW Israel turned away from God, and HOW FAR they had turned away from them. The Lord God tells Ezekiel that in comparing Jerusalem to Sodom, Sodom is less sinful!
Rayburn states "No one can read this account of Israel’s spiritual history or the others like it given by the prophets without asking: “what went wrong?” And Ezekiel has an answer for that question. The great thing that separates the faithful from the unfaithful is made a repeated theme of this allegory. It is the remembrance of God’s grace, the sense in the heart that God has been merciful to me a helpless sinner, and the abiding sense of debt and gratitude to God that comes from that remembering.
It was Israel’s failure to remember God’s grace to her that is offered as an explanation of her betrayal of the covenant and her descent into the crudest forms of idolatry in verses 22 and 43 and, in v. 61, it is precisely this active memory that will characterize her life and humble her before the Lord when God restores her after the judgment'
For God does forgive Israel. Ezekiel 16:59-63
"
59 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also deal with thee as thou hast done, who hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
61 Then shalt thou remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder sisters and thy younger; and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah;
63 that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I have forgiven thee all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah."
That you will remember and be confounded.... when I have forgiven you all you have done.
Are we confounded by God's grace? Are we daily amazed at His mercy and love in forgiving our sins? It seems to me, we should be. The debt has been paid, the guilt is gone, but we need to remember every hour and honor God in everything, for all He has done for us.
It was Israel’s failure to remember God’s grace to her that is offered as an explanation of her betrayal of the covenant and her descent into the crudest forms of idolatry in verses 22 and 43 and, in v. 61, it is precisely this active memory that will characterize her life and humble her before the Lord when God restores her after the judgment'
For God does forgive Israel. Ezekiel 16:59-63
"
59 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also deal with thee as thou hast done, who hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
61 Then shalt thou remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder sisters and thy younger; and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah;
63 that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I have forgiven thee all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah."
That you will remember and be confounded.... when I have forgiven you all you have done.
Are we confounded by God's grace? Are we daily amazed at His mercy and love in forgiving our sins? It seems to me, we should be. The debt has been paid, the guilt is gone, but we need to remember every hour and honor God in everything, for all He has done for us.
1 comment:
How quickly we forget! No wonder God gave the Israelites feasts and other traditions to help them remember. We are so quick to forget. We need to be purposeful in our remembering in order for it to happen.
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