June 5, 2022

Passage Read: Ezekiel 4-7
Meditation Verse: 6:9

Thought

The Israelites have no understanding of how they have hurt and offended the Lord by their disloyalty, by their whoring after other gods that are just idols. They have broken His heart but don't understand. He is God, how can He have feelings like a mere man? How can He care whether His people are faithful to Him alone or worship other gods too? Why should it even matter? They offer incense to Him too, what wrong with worshiping other gods too? It's not like they're really married or anything like that! He's a God and they are people. And other nations worship a multitude of gods, why should God be so restrictive and jealous and selfish! The other gods don't care if the people worship them and God; those other gods are generous and loving and big-hearted! God is so petty and self-absorbed! But God is the only true God, so in this way they provoke Him to grief and wrath with things that are nothing! They are clueless and stupid, and in their arrogance and self-will, they commit abominations that those who worship those idols engage in, having given themselves over completely to the lusts of their flesh.

Application

Discipline is for the purpose of opening my eyes to the pain my misbehavior has caused God. It is for the purpose of opening my eyes to the fact that God does have feelings, and when I blow Him off and treat Him as if He knows nothing and I know better, He is infuriated and rightly so! Who am I to think I can make the rules for my own life? It was never my own in the first place! He created me. He created everything within which I live. He owns everything and everything owes Him gratitude, obedience, honor, glory and praise! That includes me. When I don't give Him all glory and respect and obedience, He is right—and gracious!—to discipline me, instead of utterly destroying me, so that I might come to my senses and see Him as He is, repent of how I've hurt Him and give Him the obedience and honor He deserves.