EXCEEDINGLY GREAT SIN

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

 Then He said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go!” So they went out and began killing throughout the city. While they were killing and I was left alone, I fell facedown, crying out, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! Are you going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel in this outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?”

He answered me, “The sin of the people of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great; the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of injustice. They say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land; the Lord does not see.’ So I will not look on them with pity or spare them, but I will bring down on their own heads what they have done.”

Then the man in linen with the writing kit at his side brought back word, saying, “I have done as you commanded.”

Ezekiel 9:7-11

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

God had made His mind up. His people were going to pay a steep price for disrespecting and dishonoring Him through their idolatry, an idolatry He documented well in the parts of the Book of Ezekiel we have covered to date. He even took His newly minted prophet, Ezekiel, on a tour of Jerusalem to show him how the Israelites had even brought their worship of false gods and idols into the very temple of God, defiling and desecrating what was formally the most holy place in Israel, the place where God’s glory resided.

In yesterday’s devotion, we saw God lay out the plan for punishment. Six angels of wrath, all armed with weapons, would go through the city and slay everyone who had not been marked by a seventh angel who was identified as the one wearing linen. Those who he marked, the people who had shown remorse and disgust at the detestable practices of their peers, would be passed over by the angels of wrath who would slay everyone else. As this systematic execution of Israelites who practiced false worship began, we find Ezekiel struggling with what was taking place before his very eyes. Look at the words from today’s passage drawn from the closing verses of Ezekiel, Chapter 9:

 Then He said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go!” So they went out and began killing throughout the city. While they were killing and I was left alone, I fell facedown, crying out, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! Are you going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel in this outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?”

He answered me, “The sin of the people of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great; the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of injustice. They say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land; the Lord does not see.’ So I will not look on them with pity or spare them, but I will bring down on their own heads what they have done.”

Then the man in linen with the writing kit at his side brought back word, saying, “I have done as you commanded.”  Ezekiel 9:7-11

As God’s death sentences were being carried out on the Israelite idolaters, we find God giving an additional order to fill the temple and its courts with the dead. The temple had already been defiled by the idol worshiping the Israelites thought had been concealed from God but now there would be no doubt that the temple was desecrated.

It was more than Ezekiel could bear for we read him testifying about his feelings as he was left alone. Falling facedown, he cried out:

“Alas, Sovereign Lord! Are you going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel in this outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?”

The question was interesting only in that God had assured that all would not perish given His command to mark those who did not endorse the false worship practices that had been happening. Because of this order, it was obvious that the entire remnant of Israel would not be destroyed as God poured out His wrath. There would be people still faithful to worshiping God faithfully who would be spared. Still, Ezekiel asked the Lord a question and as we see, the Lord didn’t waste any time providing an answer saying:

“The sin of the people of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great; the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of injustice. They say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land; the Lord does not see.’ So I will not look on them with pity or spare them, but I will bring down on their own heads what they have done.”

Through His words, God made it clear that He was not just having people killed on a whim. This was not just a knee-jerk reaction by God over a mild transgression by His people. Rather, it was a culmination of many years of wicked behavior, of exceedingly great sin and the rejection of countless warnings by God to stop sinning and turn their devotion back to Him. The Israelites in both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah had disrespected and dishonored God for so long, ignoring opportunities to cease disregarding Him, that He was at the place where He would have no mercy on them. He would not spare nor pity them. He would only give them what they deserved, the consequences they asked for, the penalty they earned.

Friends, these closing verses should strike fear into our very hearts as we consider the world we live in today and the exceedingly great sin we see within it.

Are we close to pushing God’s patience over the edge like the Old Testament Israelites of Israel and Judah?

Are we on the brink of the severest form of judgment God could bring, the death penalty?

We simply can’t just go on living in life like business as usual. There will be a point where God is going to see His only option is to get our attention in a big way. I’m sure the people of Jerusalem got the message as the onslaught of killing began and bodies began to fill the temple. The message was driven completely home when the Babylonians attacked and looted Judah and Jerusalem before hauling off the surviving Israelites into exile for seventy years.

It’s time to change course. It’s time to turn from our exceedingly great sin toward God’s righteousness.

If we don’t then it will be God’s time to act and we’re not going to like the outcome. Just ask the Old Testament Israelites in Ezekiel’s time.

Amen

In Christ,

Mark
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