Then You Shall Know

Daily Reading: Ezekiel 6

Then they will know that I am the Lord. (Ezekiel 6.14)

Devotional Thought: What a gloomy, dismal picture!  Bleak!  Disheartening!  Humbling!  A people God had set aside as his own, made light of their intended distinctiveness.  A community God had guided, protected, and empowered collectively turned their backs on him.  They didn’t rid the land of the entrenched religious practices, but instead, in time, adopted and embraced them.  And Ezekiel says they’re going to pay.  God is going to clean house and they’re going to reap an unwanted harvest from the seeds of disobedience and rebellion they’ve sown—decimated lives, widespread death, ruined homes, and devastation in every direction.  It’s a picture of utter annihilation and complete destruction.

But in v. 7 and again in v. 14, the prophet says, “Then you shall know that I am the Lord.”  In other words, after this has all happened there will be an incredible awakening for those that are left.  Those who come through this season of misfortune and loss will see things as they’ve never seen them before.

God never punishes or chastises us because he gets delight from watching us suffer.  He doesn’t reprimand or rebuke us because he derives a perverse sense of satisfaction from our pain.  No!  God is always about the restoration of relationship.  He does what he does in the hope that we will recognize him for who he is and respond in a remorseful and contrite manner.

Reality is what we discover when we look up after running into the wall of our illusions.  The people of Ezekiel’s day erroneously believed they could spurn God without consequence.  Let us make sure we remain receptive and responsive to God, so we don’t have to learn of his corrective discipline and restorative purposes the hard way.

John Whitsett

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, there are times I experience hardship and pain as a result of my errant and wayward choices.  Help me to always remember your purpose is not to punish or harm me, but to mend and restore our relationship.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 25.14-22

14 The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.

15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.

17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses.

18 Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.

19 Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me.

20 Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.

21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.

22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.