Scripture reading: Ezekiel 8:9-18
“Daddy, can I wear this special shirt to school today?”
“No because you had to pay $2 for the privilege of wearing it.”
Several minutes pass, and then comes the announcement. “I have to wear the special shirt because I can’t find my regular shirt.”
It may sound humorous, and at some point it may have happened in many other households. This is the same reasoning used in our Scripture lesson.
“The Lord no longer looks down upon us and forsook us, so we erected these idols over here in the temple of the Lord.”
The people of Israel are attempting to say that there is a cause and effect situation at work. Because the Lord forsook them, the effect is that they had to erect idols, just like my son who thought he had to wear the special shirt because he couldn’t find his regular shirt.
However, the cause fabricated for the occasion is nothing more than an excuse to justify their behavior. In both instances, my son and Israel had previously been told not to do what they proposed to do. In both instances, my son and Israel found an excuse for their error.
If only my son could do away with his regular shirt, then he could justify wearing his special shirt. If only Israel could do away with God, then they could justify erecting idols. God doesn’t accept excuses, and faith doesn’t run on excuses. This type of reasoning reveals what they truly wanted to do – engage in the very act they were told was to be excluded. It reveals what is in their heart – disobedience and propensity to sin.
It is the behavior which underlies the first sin. If God lied, then Eve was justified in engaging in disobedience because it wouldn’t really be disobedience at all. The same type of behavior continues today. If God doesn’t exist, then we are free to do as we please. However, that freedom results in bondage rather than liberty.
The problem my son, Israel, Eve and secular society today all run into is dispensing with God. It is not possible. My son wore his regular shirt. He never really looked for it because he in fact didn’t want to wear it. Israel forsook God because He wasn’t doing what they wanted or they wanted to do something different than what He told them. Once God was distant, they felt they were in a position to blame the distance on God. However, God was pronouncing judgment upon them at the very moment they were engaging in the deviant behavior. Eve was banished from the garden and experienced the very death God promised.
If we can learn anything from Biblical accounts it is that God’s word is sure. If He says all will not be well if we forsake Him, then we can count on our lives encountering hardship resulting from our errant behavior. What we so often overlook, however, is that difficult circumstances cross the pathways of all of us regardless of the strength of our belief in God. Secular society says that because we encounter difficulty God doesn’t exist. If God did exist, all would be healthy, wealthy and happy.
But, why did God allow troublesome times into the lives of some of the strongest people of faith? Joseph, for example, was sold into slavery and thrown in prison. Paul was imprisoned too. Many of those gone on before have been persecuted and martyred. The answer, if we would look long enough at the Scripture, is that in each case God’s glory was manifested through them, and His purposes were accomplished.
We live for something greater than ourselves. Life does not consist in our own notoriety, what we accumulate or what we accomplish. It consists in pleasing God even when times are tough. It consists in laying up treasures in heaven where they will never rot or erode, rather than pleasing our own selfish desires. It consists in living by a Godly standard of love, faith and trust, so that His power, glory and gospel message can be transmitted through us to a broken world, rather than engage in corruption, intolerance and other behaviors that only serve to break the world further.
If Israel had been faithful to God and observed the commandments He gave them previously, they may have been able to accomplish so much more for God. It is no wonder, then, that God was so angry with them in Ezekiel. Your employer would be angry with you if you failed to do what he or she expected of you, right?
When God has spoken, our only response must be to follow His command come what may and trust that He is at work in some more grand way than we are capable of envisioning at this moment.
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