There can be nothing more painful than a husband coming home after a long days work and find his wife in his own bed with another man. Or the same. A woman coming home to find her husband in bed with another woman. It is betrayal to the very core of one’s being.
That’s what God was showing Ezekiel. He took him in a vision to the temple. Not just anywhere but to the innermost places. What was happening there was repulsive. The priest and leaders of the Bible were worshipping other gods, burning incense and bowing toward the sun – in God’s holy place! That is finding a spouse with another lover in one’s own be. It is appalling and every bit a defilement.
Is it any wonder God was going to bring judgment? With such defilement? And he says there was more. If this wasn’t enough there was the shedding of innocent blood.
Last night I was thinking to myself why did God spend so much of the Bible writing about this terrible judgment and captivity they would face? It’s heavy blogging through yet another book on this.
But I think the reason is multi-faceted. God wanted to make very, very clear why he was going to do this and allow such terrible atrocities to come to Israel. He uses Jeremiah to warn them again and again and again and again. No matter what was said and even with things unfolding, the people would not repent. They loved their sin and believed the false prophets that everything was going to be Ok.
And when we get to Ezekiel the decision has been and the verdict passed. God had enough. Judgment was going to come. But God wanted to make it clear through Ezekiel why judgment was so very necessary.
The judgment was going to be so far beyond awful. He was going to turn them over to treacherous Babylon and horrible things were going to happen to them. Times would be worse than could be imagined.
But through the prophets, there would be a record. When they would inevitable get angry and shake their fist at God and demand why, they would have the answer. They could accuse God until they were blue in the face but they had to endure the reality of their own sins. It was all there in black and white. Not only that but it was all there in the journals of how God gave them every stinking chance to repent and they did not. Would not.
So yes. It was bad. But they couldn’t blame God.
When God judges, he makes it clear to the people what is going to happen and why. With that I think of the New Testament. We see clearly from Ephesians that we are under God’s wrath. Terrible times are coming. But we can escape them through Christ. But for those who do not escape, they will have to pay the penalty of their sins and that will be an eternal punishment.
God has sent out the rescue ropes. But for those who don’t take it, there will be terrible, terrible times that will be without end. That’s disturbing.
