Tuesday, August 21, 2012

urgency




For I am the LORD; I will speak the word that I will speak, and it will be performed. It will no longer be delayed, but in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and perform it, declares the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 12:25

The prophet Ezekiel was given the task of sharing the visions God gave him concerning the imminent destruction of Jerusalem. The problem was that the people had heard this so much that they dismissed it as a distant warning not to be heeded. But this message was meant to dispel their casual disregard.

Everything that Ezekiel delivered as a message from God was short and had a sense of urgency. This was because the judgment was coming in a matter of days, not years. These people would live to see this judgment. Many of them would die in the siege of Jerusalem. The survivors would be led away as ruined, penniless war captives.

The warning of the coming exile and horrible devastating destruction and death that would proceed it had one purpose: to show Israel that God was true. It was all meant to draw them to the reality of the covenant and the power of God to act on it. It showed them the God that they had rejected. And in that moment He would have their attention, and their hearts, again.

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