The prophecies of chapters 4-7 concern the people back in Jerusalem, but they were given for the sake of the people in exile. God wanted them to know what was happening and why it was happening. He wanted them to know that he was about to do these things, so he had Ezekiel predict the final blow. There is a strange comfort in this message of doom. After the final destruction of Jerusalem in 586BC the Jews would have felt abandoned and forsaken by God. But these predictions ensured that they realised that God was sovereign through all these things. He hadn’t turned away from them. On the contrary, God himself was disciplining them. It is interesting to note how God frames the events of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in Ezekiel’s oracles. He portrays the Babylonians merely as his rod of discipline. You may wonder what could be comforting about this. It was comforting because if God disciplines us, it is only because he loves us (Proverbs 3:12). These circumstances then were not evidence of God having forsaken them, but of God’s commitment to them. They were getting special treatment because they were the objects of God’s special attention. And the treatment was designed to bring them back to himself. It would have been far worse if they, having forsaken God, would have withstood the Babylonians and prospered. As I said yesterday, the worst thing that could ever happen to us is that we end up happy without God. May God do all that he must to keep you alert and by his side.
Pray that God would draw you close to him and pray for others you know who may be far from God at this time.
Read Ezekiel 7
