Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, surely it is my oath that he despised, and my covenant that he broke. I will return it upon his head.
Ezekiel 17:19
This is the basis for the sentencing of Judah to exile in Babylon. The Lord confirms that the people know that they have forsaken the covenant with Yahweh. He makes it clear through a parable told in the form of a fable about two eagles, a cedar tree, and a vine. The vine grows away from the eagle that planted it and toward another lesser eagle. And in the explanation of that story it is clear that even though God established Israel, the nation had chosen to turn away from Him. That was why judgment was on the docket immediately for them.
The nation of Israel had been a people with wandering hearts. The people so easily turned to the idolatry of the nations around them. They failed at the keeping of the covenant because they failed at loving and worshiping the God Who gave it. The covenant would not foster a worship that their hearts first did not cultivate. And that was their big issue. It was where they had always historically struggled.
Our hearts will grow towards the things we love. And roots will entangle themselves around what we truly worship. That is what being created to worship means. And when we don't grow towards God or root ourselves in relationship to Him, the inevitable heartache will be a life of frustration and searching. God would intervene with a discipline that ripped Israel up by the roots in order to replant them towards His heart. That ultimately is what the Babylonian Captivity would accomplish. They were appraised, then uprooted, then thinned down to the tap root, then once again replanted to grow again.
No comments:
Post a Comment