(Ezekiel 25:15-17 ESV)
The Lord has already called to account the Moabites, the Ammonites and the folks from Edom and Seir. Now it is the turn to the Philistines.
The Philistines have long been the enemy of the Israelites and God says because they "acted revengefully and took vengeance with malice of soul to destroy in never-ending enmity," that he will correct their behaviour. He will cut them off, he will destroy them, he will execute his vengeance upon them with wrathful rebukes. WHY? So they will know that HE IS THE LORD.
That's what it always seems to come down to eh?
The need for the Lord to protect his people from the wrath of others... and to show them that HE is the Lord God. None other.
Their need for vengeance, their pettiness, their whatevers it might be against his people is NOTHING compared to the fact that HE is Lord God. ONLY HE.
Makes me think eh?
About me and my stuff...how if someone does wrong against me sometimes all I want to do is get back at them (I see the same in my lad which helps me see what it looks like in me).
BUT that is not our job.
It isn't.
Vengeance is all the hands of our Lord and God. HIS hands, not mine.
He knows the heart of the person who hurt me and knows the full story. It's in his hands to monitor and wreak vengeance if it is justified.
My job is just to get on with being who God has called me to be... one seeking after his perfection. One who draws other people into the joy of knowing who the Lord God is. How does getting revenge fit into that? It doesn't really.
This passage just helps cement that notion into my head. It's God's job not mine, and when the time is right, he will mete out the vengeance that is required. But he won't do it to make ME look good. He will do it so that folks know that HE is God. This is what it all comes down to ... the earth and it's peoples needing to know that God is .... GOD. Lord of all.
Find the rest of my devotional series on Ezekiel.
One thing I have found over and over reading Ezekiel with you is that God doesn't mess around. He acts and he acts without all the sugar-coating that we tend to add to it. We speak about God acting in vengeance when it is deserved but do we ever really stop to think about what that means or what it looks like? God should be feared and Ezekiel illustrates that very clearly.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your personalization of these thoughts, as well. We, as humans, often try to take over God's job of vengeance. Such a no-no but we do. And as you pointed out, we should be working hard on being who God has called us to be.
- Lori
It's hard to not let our "humanness" interfere with God's greater plan. But I shouldn't say humanness... Jesus was fully human... but he used the humanness for our own good. It's our sin, our selfishness, our me-ness that gets in the way... and we aught not let it.
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