DISPERSED

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In Christ, Mark

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

“‘I will surely strike my hands together at the unjust gain you have made and at the blood you have shed in your midst. Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you through the countries; and I will put an end to your uncleanness. When you have been defiled in the eyes of the nations, you will know that I am the Lord.’”

Ezekiel 22:13-16

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

So far in Ezekiel 22, we have taken a lot of time looking at the charges God brought against the Israelites who had forgotten Him and sinned in a number of ways. Today, God starts to let His people know the consequences they will face for disobeying His word, will, and way. Look at today’s scripture passage:

“‘I will surely strike my hands together at the unjust gain you have made and at the blood you have shed in your midst.  Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you through the countries; and I will put an end to your uncleanness. When you have been defiled in the eyes of the nations, you will know that I am the Lord.’” Ezekiel 22:13-16

God had given His people a land for them to live, a land where He would provide for them and keep them safe. All they had to do is remain as faithful to Him as He was to them but as we have seen through our study of the Old Testament scriptures, the Israelites failed badly in this regard. They even had enough nerve to worship other gods and idols, turning their backs on God completely, an act He was not going to stand for.

And so as we turn to our passage for today, we find the Lord bringing penalty on His people, striking His hands together and dispersing them amongst the nations. To carry out His judgment, we know God sent the Babylonian army under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar who attacked Judah and Jerusalem, plundering the land before destroying it and leaving it in ruins. Everything the Israelites had was taken from them.

They lost their homes. They lost their possessions. They lost their lifestyles. They lost their protection and comfort and peace.

But most of all they had lost their freedom and respect among their peer nations.

The kingdoms of Israel and Judah had always been viewed as special in the eyes of their neighbor countries who may not have liked the Israelites but they knew the God they worshiped was powerful and on their side, so much so that there was always reservation when it came to taking any action against the ones who were referred to as the “people of God.”  

But things had changed.

First the Assyrians assaulted the northern kingdom of Israel, destroying the land and for the most part removing the Israelites from it. Then as mentioned, the Babylonians came on the scene and took care of the southern kingdom of Judah and the Israelites’ beloved city of Jerusalem. It was obvious that God no longer was offering defense to His people, an indication that they had clearly fallen out of His favor. Whether looking at Israel or Judah, God allowed His people to be dispersed among people who were sinful and unclean, those who defiled themselves by their blatant rejection of God.

In other words, if they wanted to live sinful and unclean within the nation God had blessed them with, He would remove His blessing and they could go and live with other people who behaved the same way. Through their actions, the Israelites had shown they were no better than the nations surrounding them and so they could just go to live among them.

In America, we have had the following motto printed on our currency since as early as 1864:

“In God We Trust”

The question is, are we living in a way that shows we truly place our trust in God, in a way that we shows we look to Him first for all things?

If so, then we would be conducting ourselves in a way that is righteous in His sight, a way that would be pleasing to Him.

However, if we aren’t living this way, and I am afraid we are trending far more in this direction than the former, then we are at risk of suffering the same fate as the Israelites, finding God bringing His judgment in a way that might see us displaced from our homeland and dispersed to another nation.

And just in case you think that could never happen, you may want to reconsider that thought. For I am sure that the Israelites never thought it would happen to them either.

Amen

In Christ,

Mark
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