Day 312

Ezekiel 18:1–19:14; Hebrews 9:1-10; Psalm 106:32-48; Proverbs 27:10

AS WE MOVE through books of prophecy like Ezekiel, we find ourselves reading page after page of impending destruction —and after a while, this can subtly shift how we perceive the heart of God. We might begin to unfairly consider Him furious and vengeful toward people, which is where the idea of an angry God comes from. However, the prophets were foretelling an outcome that hadn’t yet happened, and although the Jewish people experienced very difficult times, those catastrophes could have been avoided. God spoke about this in Ezekiel today: “Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign LORD. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live” (Ezekiel 18:23).

The prophets weren’t sent by God —and their writings weren’t preserved —simply to reveal that God woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to smite His people. Rather, God carefully explained why things were going in an ill-fated direction —and the reason usually boiled down to covenant breaking.

A covenant is not a foreign concept to people who live in the modern era. We still enter into covenants. We may call them agreements or contracts, but when we sign them, we “warrant and covenant” about what we are agreeing to —and it’s binding.

True covenants go deeper than the paper they are written on, though. For example, if we were to break the covenant of marriage by committing adultery, the onslaught of pain and destruction that followed would not be God’s fault —no matter how we might try to frame Him for it. We will reap what we sow. The prophets spoke to people who had sown wickedness for generations and were about to reap the results.

As we’ve seen on our journey through the Bible, the people of God continually broke the covenant. The prophets served as an advance warning. They were actually a long-suffering kindness on God’s part. He wasn’t required to warn anyone. He chose to.

Fundamentally, the message of God through the prophets is this: “We had an agreement. We entered into a covenant. You’re breaking the covenant. Therefore, the curses of the covenant are coming upon you. The separation between us is going to lead you into all kinds of trouble if you continue. But even if that happens, I will not forget you. On the other side of this, I will still be waiting for you to return to me. There will come a day when all will be restored again.”

And we can hear God’s own words, from His own heart:

I will judge each of you, O people of Israel, according to your actions, says the Sovereign LORD. Repent, and turn from your sins. Don’t let them destroy you! Put all your rebellion behind you, and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O people of Israel? I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign LORD. Turn back and live!

God didn’t want to destroy people; He wanted to eradicate wickedness. And anything that would seduce God’s people into wickedness was also going to entice them to break covenant. This passage clearly gives us language for God’s heart in the prophetic books, as well as His posture toward humanity.

As we’ve said before, the choices we make will eventually add up to our destiny. We will either remain in a covenantal relationship with God or we won’t. God’s heart toward us is that we will live. He has certainly been faithful to us, and if we want the benefits of the covenant —which fundamentally encompasses everything we believe as Christians —then we have to be faithful. These are the terms, and we must respond. We can certainly navigate our lives into full-blown destruction, but we can’t blame God for it. We can, however, repent and come running home. The choice is ours.

MEDITATION:

Again and again he rescued them, but they chose to rebel against him, and they were finally destroyed by their sin. Even so, he pitied them in their distress and listened to their cries. He remembered his covenant with them and relented because of his unfailing love.