Today's Scripture
Ezekiel 21:6-16
Today’s reading Ezekiel 21-22
6 The princes of Israel in you, everyone according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. 7 Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you. 8 You have despised my holy things, and profaned my sabbaths. 9 In you are those who slander to shed blood, those in you who eat upon the mountains, who commit lewdness in your midst. 10 In you they uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women in their menstrual periods. 11 One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you defiles his sister, his father’s daughter. 12 In you, they take bribes to shed blood; you take both advance interest and accrued interest, and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; and you have forgotten me, says the Lord God.
13 See, I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain you have made, and at the blood that has been shed within you. 14 Can your courage endure, or can your hands remain strong in the days when I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. 15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your filthiness out of you. 16 And I shall be profaned through you in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am the Lord.
RJ's Devotion
What does the passage say?
V. 6-12 God exposes the evil doings of the people.
V. 13-16 God proclaims the punishment for the people, to reclaim order. ‘God is the Lord, not the people.’
What does this passage mean to me/us?
We are reading through the Book of Ezekiel, according to the One Year Bible reading challenge.
The notion of God being the Lord of our life is quite foreign for people, even Christians in the 21st century.
We live in a world, where we proclaim our own independence. No one, even God, should govern our lives, but myself,’ is the message that we listen to. People, in different degrees, follow that notion.
Even for the Israelites, who are called to live this world, as people recognized the lordship of God, did not fully understand the weight of this commitment. Or maybe the weight of the commitment, choked them, which they attempted to run away from. Whether it was human nature, that doesn’t justify what they have done.
What God exposes, through Ezekiel, is what happens when we normalize the notion of us being the Lord of our lives. When we are the Lord, we think we are able to do anything. That can normalize our behaviors, even though we are doing some bad stuff. Why? Because we wanted or needed it.
God warns God’s people against this lifestyle.
What we need to see, through the harsh language and words of punishment, is the heart of God asking us to turn away from our wicked ways, and recognize that God is the Lord of our lives.
Prayer
Lord, I present my life to you. Recieve my life for your glory. In Christ Name, AMEN.
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