Punishment from a Righteous God
Ezekiel is told of yet another vision. In this chapter, we have a very dark and
bleak vision. There is no grace to be
found here. This is a chapter of
judgment.
In this chapter, the Hebrew people will learn about a side of God
that has not been unveiled for almost a thousand years. In this chapter, the people will see the side
of God that is righteous. Ezekiel 7
demonstrates that the people will see a God who punishes sin because of His
righteousness.
Because of God’s love, He allows people to sin and repent. Because of His mercy, He allows people to
repent and repent and repent. But when a
people are no longer interested in repenting, then it is time for judgment. It is one thing to do something wrong. It is another thing to do something wrong
repeatedly and struggle against it each and every time. It is another thing entirely to do something
wrong and no longer see it as wrong.
The last people to see this side of God on a grand scale were the
Hebrew people coming out of Egypt. They
hardened their hearts against God and no longer saw themselves as doing
evil. So God had them wander the desert
until they all died. Then, for almost a millennium
God has endured a people who went through various levels of righteousness and
unrighteousness. But now the people no
longer repent. The people worship other
gods and don’t see any error in it. So
the hand of judgment is upon them.
No Mercy
I find the middle portion of this chapter striking in its
confessional severity. God tells Ezekiel
that He will strike without pity. God’s
eye will not spare. When the nation
falls away, the whole nation will be judged.
What I find even more striking is the reason that the Lord gives
for such severity. The Lord says that
this will happen so that the world will know that it is the Lord who
struck. The Lord will bring such
severity so that people will have no recourse but to understand that such a
grand calamity could only be from the hand of God.
I find that I have a love-hate relationship with this idea. I love the idea of God being seen through big
things. I love the idea of God being
visible through miracles. I love the
idea that there are some things out there that are just so big that only God
could be behind them. However, I only
love this idea when I am free to apply it to the things that paint God in a
positive light.
I naturally resist this idea when calamities strike the world or
strike a nation. I resist the idea that
God could bring judgment upon a people so that others will know that He has
been at work. To be honest, I just don’t
like thinking about the God who could condemn Sodom, drown the Pharaoh’s army
in the Red Sea, or bring the nation of Judah to its knees before the
Babylonians. Don’t get me wrong. I accept it.
I believe it to be true. But
almost every fiber within me resists peering into that face of God.
We don’t like to look at the God who judges. We don’t like to look at the righteousness of
a God who gives us what we truly deserve.
We’d much rather see God in the grace, love and mercy side. Staring into the righteous side of God is a
daring thing indeed. It is not for the faint
of heart. But it is indeed a true part
of God’s character. He is
righteous. He is holy. It is a terrible thing to look in awe to this
God who judges in righteousness and brings nations to their knees simply so
that they will know that the Lord has acted.
Economic Collapse
In the second half of the chapter we have a lot of talk about
buyers, sellers, and various other economic terms. At first I found this part of the chapter
really confusing. Why is it that the
seller would rejoice at the calamity brought on through the Babylonian
captivity?
The reason the seller rejoices is because the Hebrew people are
losing everything. In captivity,
economics stops. In captivity, nobody
owns anything except the captors. The
captors – the Babylonians – come in and take what once did not belong to
them. Then they drag it all over their
empire and sell it for a lucrative profit.
They sell portions of their newly acquired land. The sellers rejoice because through the
captivity they will sell what they did not earn or make. They will sell what they took from the Hebrew
people.
Such is the utter and absolute fall of the Hebrew people. Foreigners will be given the plunder and the
spoils of war. People who do not belong
to Jerusalem will take possession of it and make it profane. This image would haunt the Hebrew people at
the early stages of their captivity.
The End is Near
To close this chapter, we hear God tell Ezekiel to forge a
chain. With chains the Hebrew people
would be led away from Jerusalem in judgment.
It would be a hard and painful day.
However, the worst part of it is that the Lord says that He will
bring the worst of the nations to oppress them.
God uses the vile of the vile to accomplish His judgment. The pride of the Hebrew people would be
brought low at the feet of the vilest nation in the world at the time. But the worst part for me is how this chapter
ends. Why is the vilest nation used to
bring down the Hebrew people? Again,
this grandest of calamities will happen so that the people will know it is at
the hand of the Lord. Again we see that
the righteous face of God can be seen clearly through calamity and through
judgment.
Weep and mourn! It is never
easy watching judgment come. It is never
easy seeing people fall. It is never
easy seeing people reap the fruit of their labor. But sometimes it is necessary. So we weep and we mourn for those who push
against God so hard that there is no longer room for repentance.
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