Vengeance and Restoration: The business of God!
Ezekiel 28:26 ”They will live there in safety and will build houses and plant vineyards; they will live in safety when I inflict punishment on all their neighbors who maligned them. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.”
This is a very challenging scripture for me this morning, but a scripture I need to wrestle with. Here the author makes a claim that is so important for us to remember today. The author claims that God is the chief actor in the play of His people and that God is the agent of restoration and vengeance. I find it interesting that when the scriptures talk about the exile and the restoration of Israel it is never in the context of another nation coming to Israel’s aid or to God raising up Israel to fight for herself but it is always in the context of the destroying and restoring business that is left up to God. What would it mean for us to remember today that the destroying and restoring is up to God? Vengeance is God’s business not ours. I find it interesting that, according to this scripture, the way we know God is God comes through this restoring work. Perhaps when we seek to be the source of restoration; when we take matters into our own hands; when we focus on vengeance we are unable to know that God is God. Maybe one of the reasons God seems so absent in our culture today is that we are trying to be God and not allowing God to be the chief actor in our lives and culture. This will only lead to one thing; exile! God has a funny way of reminding us that He’s in control. If we won’t recognize it ourselves then God will just send us into exile for a few hundred years to think about it and then once the next generation is ready to stop acting like the gods of the world He’ll bring them back to the land He promised. The Israelites took the commands of God and then manipulated them for their own pleasure; they worshipped other gods; they made their own kings; they fought among themselves; they acted like God was their ace in the hole and in the end God reminded them who was in control by kicking them out of the land. What should make us think that God would do anything different with us when we take the gospel of Jesus Christ and manipulate it for our own pleasure; worship the gods of money (consumerism, capitalism, and individualism); make our own kings; fight amongst ourselves; and act like Jesus Christ is our ace in the hole of protection that allows us to do and be however we would like. In the end, God will remind us like God reminded Israel; Exile!!!
God, I can’t say I am particularly excited about today’s word. In fact, I kind of wished I would have read from a different devotional today. I really don’t want to post this on my blog; in many ways I feel like one of your prophets speaking to Israel when exile was upon them. It is so easy and tempting, Lord, to speak words that are pleasing to the ear and avoid the truth that needs to be spoken. God, I am so guilty of giving into this culture and I have a hard time finding ways to engage the culture without being influenced by it. Forgive me for my rebellion and my embrace of a society that claims to be built upon you but rarely reflects the values of grace, forgiveness, hope, peace, and love. I pray you would restore us today Lord, even if it means exile must come first. Step in and stop our manipulation of your gospel. Give us the grace to be your voice during this time but to never take the place of your action. Help us to remember that you are the chief actor in this play; that you are the one to bring vengeance and you are the one to bring restoration. Give us the grace to be like the audience in Revelation to wait in anticipation for you to intervene and restore our broken lives. I thank you for the promise of Jesus Christ; may it be by the same grace that brought Him from the grave that we are able turn from the evil within us and make you the King of our lives. Amen!
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