The Loving Call to Repentance
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+23%3A28-24%3A8&version=NIV
Today’s passage continues the warning to the people of God, making further use of the adultery/idolatry metaphor that was the focus yesterday. The warning of judgment is, once again, hard to read. Certain destruction awaits – if they continue on the same path.
And that’s where my thoughts were led today. Why did God send Ezekiel? Why is He having him speak these words, and write these words? It’s not a smirking, gloating “you’re going to get yours” kind of delight in someone else’s misfortune. Although these sections of extended description of judgment may give that impression, there is something far greater behind this whole operation.
Back when Ezekiel was called, the Lord made it clear that the purpose for setting Ezekiel as a watchman was to bring about repentance. The Lord does not wish for this judgment to fall on His people. It is a call to repentance, and if they harden their hearts, the account is a call to repentance for others – including ourselves.
It is God’s love for us that stands behind His call to turn away from all of our idolatries. He wants His people in fellowship with Him, to follow Him, to be with Him in the new creation. But He will not force. His followers are not automatons. And so He warns, He invites, He rebukes, He corrects. And in some cases, lets the judgment fall so that others might be warned.
So my prayer today is that His call to repentance might be heeded, and above all, by myself. The Christian life is a life of continual repentance, that is, a constant turning away from the idolatries around us and in us, in order that we might walk in God’s grace as His people.
What is the Word leading you to pray about today?
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