Monday, May 20, 2019

Year 9, Day 140: Ezekiel 14


Theological Commentary: Click Here



In Ezekiel 14, God comes against the idolatry off the people.  If the people are going to turn from God, then God will allow them to get what they desire.  God will allow them to follow their passions and their desires.  Essentially, God is telling the people who follow idols that they will be allowed to lay in the bed they make.



Then God turns to an interesting style of argument.  God brings up Noah, Daniel, and Job.  Here are three faithful people indeed.  Noah survived the flood when everyone else was turning to idolatry.  Daniel survived the furnace brought about when those who were turning from God to appease the Babylonians accused Daniel of disobeying the king.  Job survived complete and utter destruction when everyone around him tried to convince him to curse God and die.  God lifts up these people because they were faithful amidst a great multitude of unfaithful people.



God gives a pretty blunt message.  Even if these faithful people are in the midst of God’s wrath, these people would only save themselves.  This should make sense.  After all, aren’t these people remembered for surviving destruction in the midst of unfaithful people?  If Noah, Daniel, and Job were sole survivors in their own day, why would they be anything other than sole survivors in the day of the exile?



God’s point is brilliant, in my opinion.  People are responsible for their own actions.  People are responsible for their own idolatry.  There will be a day of accounting, and our proximity to faithful people will have no impact upon us.  God has shown again and again that He is certainly capable of saving the faithful while allowing the rebellious to achieve what their idolatrous hearts deserve.



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