Read: Ezekiel 14
Verses chosen for reflection:
6 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 7 For any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult me through him, I the Lord will answer him myself.
Reflect
The book of Ezekiel contains prophetic messages and visions from the prophet Ezekiel. The timeline of events written in the book spans from 593BC to 573BC. During that period, the Babylonian King had started to send the first group of exiles into his country and installed what he had hoped to be a puppet king (Zedekiah) in Jerusalem. Tragically, due to what Babylon saw as a betrayal from Zedekiah, Judah was completely destroyed. The second temple was also destroyed.
During this period of time, the prophet Ezekiel was very concerned for the holiness of the people. Time and again, Ezekiel preached many messages of warning for the people to turn back to God. However, the people proved to be very stiff necked and refused to listen. One of the messages which the prophet Ezekiel carried was about the people (and even the leaders) who took "idols into their hearts".
This phrase seems to appear only in the book of Ezekiel. What does God mean when He said that the elders had "taken idols into their hearts?" It means that the leaders of the nation were so taken in with the idols they had made and worshipped; that they had given their very heart and soul to them. They had allowed these man made idols to take the very place of God; and God was angry with their sense of spiritual adultery. God had given to Ezekiel, the discernment to view the true sense of their hearts. While their outward attitude seemed pious towards God; their hearts had long been captured by idolatry.
Relate
All of us are capable of maintaining an outward appearance of spirituality while ceding our heart to idolatry. It is like wanting people to think that we are Christians, and yet keeping secret of doing things that are not of God. Yet, at the end of the day, we also know that God knows all things. He can look through our hearts and know at an instance, where our loyalty lies.
In that sense, while we know that God is all knowing, He is also merciful. He could have exposed each of us on many occasions, but He didn't. Only if God feel it necessary to do so, then it will happen. Biblically, usually that happens after many warnings. So just as God sent many warnings to the hypocritical elders who had taken idols into their hearts; God can also give us many warnings. We ought then to take good heed and repent.
Somebody once asked, if Jesus had paid for our sins on the Cross, then why do we need to heed the warnings of God and repent? Good question. My response would be that the aim of Jesus' death on the Cross was not for us to live as if there is no God. Rather, Jesus' death on the Cross saved us and gave us the grace and resources needed to live godly lives.
So as Christians, all the more, we ought to cherish the grace and mercy of God in our lives and seek repentance when we are given the opportunity to do so. We do not take the grace of God for granted. We do not test God. Ancient Israel had done so, and incurred the wrath of God in many ways. We can face the same consequences, if we think that we can just maintain an outward appearance; and try to cheat our way through. But God cannot be deceived. His messengers cannot be deceived. Let us not deceive ourselves either and regret for eternity.
Rest
Lord God, You see all things. Help us to live in Your ways. Give us Your strength and grace to do what is good in your sight. Even if we should stumble and fall, help us not to be hypocritical and maintain an outward appearance. Instead, help us to be true, courageous and confess our sins for repentance. This we pray in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Jason
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