The Benefit of God's Punishment and Restoration

Ezekiel 11:11-12,17-20:  "I (God) will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel.  Then you will know that I am the LORD.  This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat in it; I will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel.  And you will know that I am the LORD.  For you have not followed my decrees or kept my laws but have conformed to the standards of the nations around you . . . . This is what the Sovereign LORD says:  'I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.  They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols.  I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.  Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  They will be my people, and I will be their God.'"

Ezekiel was a prophet and priest who had been taken with many other Israelites into bondage at the hands of the Babylonians.   King Josiah (a godly king that had removed pagan idols from Israel, had repaired the temple, and had God's Law read aloud), was tragically killed at the hands of the Egyptians at the Battle of Megiddo in 609 BC.  His wicked son, Jehoiakim, was installed as a puppet king by the Egyptians; however, the Babylonians would soundly defeat the Assyrians and Egyptian alliance at the Battle of Carchemesh in 605 BC and would begin to wield their power and influence in the land of Canaan.  A number of prominent nobles and their families were exiled to Babylon during this time (Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego).  King Jehoiakim in 597 BC attempted to rebel against the Babylonians, but this act brought even further retrobutive measures against the Israelites.  King Jehoiakim would be killed, and the Babylonians would exile 10,000 more Jews from Palestine to Babylon, including Jehoiachin (Jehoiakim's son) and the prophet Ezekiel.

Despite being in exile, Ezekiel had a call from God to pronounce judgment upon the Jewish people for their continuous rebellion against the LORD.  Though a number of radical displays, Ezekiel warned the Jewish people in Babylon that any hope of restoration of the Promised Land would not come until the people repented and acknowledged the One True Lord of Hosts.  Sixty-five times, God decreed through His prophet that His judgment was to drive into the people's hearts of stone that they would not prevail in their rebellion;  instead, they would know who was the Supreme Sovereign over all of creation.

In chapter 11, Ezekiel was taken by the Holy Spirit from captivity in Babylon to the eastern gate of Jerusalem to see what was happening in the land.  He found key leaders of the people plotting evil and proclaming that the time of difficulty would soon be over.  These leaders, who had been quite ruthless in their treatment of the people there, had begun prophesying a false hope that things would return to normal and they would begin to rebuild their houses.  There was no acknowledgment of sin, just a declared conviction that things would magically return to normal . . . in effect, there would be no consequence for their wickedness.

God through His prophet Ezekiel, proclaimed that the very thing that these leaders feared would come upon them.  God would bring the sword of the Babylonians to destroy them.  The military might of Babylon would drive these people from the protective walls of Jerusalem, and they would perish by the sword.  It would be then that these leaders and the people would know who the real God was and that they were being judged for conforming to the pagan ways of the nations around them.

Still, God was not finished with His people.  Even though many had been taken captive and carted hundreds of miles from home . . . even there He was a sanctuary for them.  And in keeping with His covenant that He had made to Abraham, God would gather a remnant from those far reaches and would return them to the Promised Land.  And as these exiles returned to the land given to them by God, they then would acknowledge God as sovereign, would remove the detestable idols in their midst, and would be singularly focused in their devotion to the Lord.  No longer would they have a hardened, stubborn heart of rebellion; rather, their hearts would be softened and receptive to God and His law.  They would understand that rather than asserting their own wills (and in effect attempting to declare themselves their own lords), they would capitulate their selfish wills to God and surrender to His rightful reign over them.

This is a great word for us, for we recognize in these Israelites of Ezekiel's day our own proclivity toward rebellion and an assertion of our own quest for lordship.  All of us have attempted to ururp God's rightful reign in our lives by sinning against Him.  And as God brought judgment in the lives of the Israelites of Ezekiel's day to punishment them for their treason, so too God will not let us go unpunished for our rebellion against Him.  Sin always brings the righteous wrath of the King of Kings, and we know that this wrath has been displayed not only in the curse of physical death for us, but also eternal separation from Him. 

Were this the end of the story, it would paint a rather bleak future for us all.  But this is where the love of God has been displayed through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Because Jesus loves us and desired to show to us the "fullest extent of His love" (John 13:1), He came to the earth to die on a cross and pay the sin penalty that we could not pay ourselves.  And by His glorious resurrection, He displayed His victory over sin and death and affords to us the opportunity of forgiveness and restoration with the Father.  So too, God initiates a redemptive work in our lives by transforming our calloused hearts into softened, receptive hearts so that we will be responsive to His offering of grace.  And for those who would receive such a precious salvation as this, God promises to be our God.  He will grant to us the hope of eternal life with Him in His marvelous Promised Land. 

Let us not be like the rebellious Israelites that determined to live their own lives the way that they desired and to worship whatever gods they chose.  Instead, let us respond to God's lovingkindness ultimately displayed through His Son.  And as we see our hearts becoming hearts of flesh, let us surrender our lives and our wills to His reign over us.  Let us live our lives as an expression of awe and gratitude that we have not been left to the consequences of our sins.  Let us praise the Lord, who is rich in love and mercy and who desires to be our God for all eternity.