The Word for today:
Ezekiel 6, 7
Ezekiel 6, 7
mark this: Ezekiel 6:9
Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols.
Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols.
Some people, when reading the Bible, are startled by verses like this one:
"Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (Romans 9:13; see Malachi 1:2-3)
They want to know how it could be that God hated Esau.
"Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (Romans 9:13; see Malachi 1:2-3)
They want to know how it could be that God hated Esau.
I am startled by that verse as well, but for a different reason: I want to know how it could be that God loved Jacob!
Because I am Jacob. I can say with authority, as Jacob did, that
"Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life." (Genesis 47:9)
I have been blessed with a very real sense of my own sin. Maybe it's because I came to faith in Jesus relatively late in life--after a lot of muddy water had passed under the bridge--but I've never had to struggle with the idea of my own righteousness or the sufficiency of my own good works. I know that the only thing standing between me and hell is when Jesus Christ took my place on a cross meant for me, and for Jacob, and for Barabbas.
"Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life." (Genesis 47:9)
I have been blessed with a very real sense of my own sin. Maybe it's because I came to faith in Jesus relatively late in life--after a lot of muddy water had passed under the bridge--but I've never had to struggle with the idea of my own righteousness or the sufficiency of my own good works. I know that the only thing standing between me and hell is when Jesus Christ took my place on a cross meant for me, and for Jacob, and for Barabbas.
I will never quite understand just what he sees in me. Ruth couldn't understand what he saw in her, either:
"Why have I found such favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me?" (Ruth 2:10)
"Why have I found such favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me?" (Ruth 2:10)
So when I read how God is crushed by our infidelity, I don't get it. But I am bound to believe it:
"I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me." (Ezekiel 6:9)
"I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me." (Ezekiel 6:9)
When we are unfaithful to God, or apathetic towards him, it's more than a biblical law we are breaking. We are breaking a heart.
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