Year 6, Day 145: Ezekiel 19

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Ezekiel 19 s a great lens through which we can see identity.  We talk about a proud lioness who gives birth to some potentially great lions.  The lioness is the Hebrew people.  We know that King David and the house of Judah is called the lion of Judah.  It makes sense to see these lions as the last few kings of Judah.

What happens to these lions?  Even though they come from good stock, they are dragged into captivity.  Egypt takes one.  Babylon takes a second.  They have such potential, but they don’t live up to it.  Instead, they flaunt themselves and find themselves captured.  They don’t get an opportunity to live out their God-given identity.

Isn’t this also true about each of us as human beings?  We are made in God’s image.  He formed us.  He breathed our spirit within us.  But do we not often chase after our own dreams?  Do we not often flaunt ourselves rather than get our identity from the Lord?  We can easily find ourselves in bondage to our sinfulness when God has offered us an identity that is far superior.

As Ezekiel says at the end of the chapter he wrote, this is a reason to lament.

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