Image: "Looking Very Cold", 2016, Mt. Baker, Snoqualmie National Forest, Wa. Photographer: Dave Johanson
Ezekiel 6:8–10 “Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. 9 Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. 10 And they shall know that I am the LORD; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”
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If we take "repeated phrases" as a key to understanding a literary work then the formula "then they shall know" clearly constitutes the key to Ezekiel's book. It is repeated, starting in chapter 5, over 30 times according to my count. My software program tells me it is only used 4 additional times outside of Ezekiel. Clearly God is making a point here through Ezekiel and He wanted His people then and His people now, to understand what Ezekiel teaches through this lens.
Essentially it is this: "I am doing these things so that you will know... indeed you shall know... that I am the LORD, and specifically that I am YOUR LORD!"
God brings a terrible Judgment and miraculously saves a Remnant: It seems so strange. In these chapters, God puts Ezekiel through the wringer. He has to lie on his side, out in a public place, for a year. He is forced to eat food heated on cow excrement (a horrifying thought to a pious Jew). He lies there as a living sermon, a parable of what God is going to do. He is told that he will "bear" Israel's and Judah's sin. His actions and metaphor are intended to communicate to the on-looking, scoffing people that they are in a desperate state. They, like Ezekiel, will be publicly humiliated, stripped of all dignity and respect, starved to the point of eating their own children, afflicted by the sword, famine, and exile. These things are going to happen to them.
We... and perhaps, they... ask "why?" Why does it have to be this way?
The easy answer is "because they sinned." Yes and amen. God even has Ezekiel proclaim that they, His people, had sinned even more greatly than the Pagan nations around them. This was true, not so much in sheer immoral acts, as in the addition of "high treason." God's people sinned in flagrant dismissal of their history and the astonishing covenantal blessings they had enjoyed with God. It was they whom: He delivered out of Egypt... taught at Mr. Sinai... built into a kingdom... had given a great king... had given world-class wealth... and had been kept by His long-suffering grace for centuries, even after they split into two nations. It was not just their moral actions that made them worse than their pagan neighbors. It was their rebellious hearts.
The corollary to God's framework, "then they shall know", is that "now they do not know." And that becomes the key.
God's longsuffering of sin is unto the end of giving time for repentance. (Romans 2:4) There comes a point when it is blatantly obvious, even to mankind themselves, that repentance is not and will not be, forthcoming. It is not that the people are "ignorant." It is that they refuse to "know" God because "knowing" God is only manifested in obedient faith. "Knowing" God in some abstract sense, as a set of propositions to which one gives nodding assent and then goes on about living like everyone else, is not to "know God" at all. Further, and more pressingly, it is not a "knowledge" that God accepts.
God works with individuals and communities according to the manner in which they express "knowledge" of Him as their Covenant God and Lord. It is one thing to stray, stumble, or even fall in the progress of life as long as there is a working conscience and longing to be restored to the God Who has been offended. In such a case God works with that person or community so that they "know" Him as the God of mercy Who tenderly searches out His lost sheep.
But when an individual arrogantly ignores the God Who has been introduced to him, or worse, obstinately turns his back on God and angrily shakes his fist at God's commands, then God deals with that person differently.
Such a person has to begin at the beginning. Such a person has to be brought to humility... they must see themselves dressed in rags and bearing their guilt before an awesome, all-powerful, and just God. There must be an awakening to horror... the horror of the seriousness of their crimes and the terrifying reality of what it means to be the object of His wrath. These souls must be brought to "know" God as the One Who under no circumstances simply ignores sin or thinks it of no account.
The book of Ezekiel is framed as a continuous reinforcement of these principles and that alone certainly commends it to our attention today.
It is hard not to live in these times without sensing the impending force of God's judgment. That such judgment is coming is, in my opinion, not subject to doubt. The degree of that judgment still hangs in the balance. This is the understanding that should be driving God's Church today to fulfill its prophetic role. "Believe... and you will be saved... you and your household" (Acts 16:31). "Believing" and "knowing" are two sides of the same coin.
It is time for the world to be called to "know" God... or God will bring them to the point of "knowing" Him His way.
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