Ezekiel 6-7
Dear RTB’ers,
Today’s first chapter is all about Judah’s idolatry and the Lord’s judgment against those practices: Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols. And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars… (vv. 6:4-5, 13a) And with all this I saw a new twist in the Lord’s raving against idolatry: …I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me… (v. 6:9b, NASB) The ESV has “I have been broken”; the word “hurt” in the NASB got my attention – that their idolatry (our idolatry!) actually causes pain to our Lord. An eye-opener for me…!
The second chapter speaks more of the Lord’s judgment: …I will punish you for your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the LORD. The sword is without; pestilence and famine are within. He who is in the field dies by the sword, and him who is in the city famine and pestilence devour. (v. 7:4b, 15) When there is no food, when water is scarce, items of tangible wealth mean nothing: They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. And I will give it into the hands of foreigners for prey, and to the wicked of the earth for spoil… (v. 7:19, 21a) Much of the silver and gold that is thrown into the streets is in the form of the idols that they have created and worshiped. When God brings forth His judgment, it becomes clear to the people that their idols are of no use to them.
We might not be ready to throw our silver and gold into the street, but there may be some idol worship in our lives that we need to discard. What might be keeping us from seeking God above all else?
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. (Luke 10:27a) All.
Blessings.
See also: August 3 (2023) / Ezekiel 6-7; 29:1-16; 30:20-31:18.