Ezekiel
6 reminds me of an interesting show I watched recently about
high-tech tests to determine the relationship between fitness levels
and overall health. The finding was that activity level can
partially overcome diet and short burst exercise might have a major
fitness benefit. The fascinating thing to me was almost all of the
scientists and medical experts on fitness were overweight.
Apparently head knowledge does not always translate into desirable
action. In today’s chapter we see that God’s people had been
given a fitness program, the proper food labeling, and all the right
equipment, but they ignored it until they had “the big one”. In
shock and horror, they clutched their chest and wondered “why me?”
God spoke to Ezekiel, “Son of
man, set your face against the mountains of Israel; prophesy against
them“. Israel wanted a quick
shot or pill to make the pain go away, but Ezekiel pronounced a
different prognosis, “I am
about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high
places. Your altars will be
demolished and your incense altars will be smashed… I will lay the
dead bodies of the Israelites in front of their idols“.
The utensils of true worship were covered up by their extra-large
clothes and their bodies were found with the empty junk food bags at
their side. Passions and hobbies can become bandits, robbing us from
doing the things we know we ought to do. In Israel, idol worship had
replaced fellowship with the One True God. What is distracting you?
Saving
this patient required radical treatment, “Your
altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols smashed and
ruined… what you have made wiped out“.
One phrase is repeated multiple times, “and
you will know that I am the Lord“.
We complain, God, couldn’t You just give me indigestion as a
warning? But we know we have been self-medicating to conceal the
discomfort. He continues, “But
I will spare some… scattered among the lands and nations… those
who escape will remember Me“.
Do not think that God is some emotionless clinician, “I
have been grieved by their adulterous hearts… their eyes… have
lusted after their idols. They
will loathe themselves for the evil they have done“.
After the damage “they will
know that I am the Lord“.
Ezekiel
is told to “Strike your hands
together and stamp your feet and cry out “Alas!” because of all
the wicked and detestable practices of the people of Israel“.
He is not dancing; he is waving his hands in warning. Are we too
distracted to notice the frantic gestures to turn around? God
explains, “They will fall by
the sword… and anyone who survives and is spared will die of
famine… And they will know that I am the Lord, when their people
lie slain among their idols around their altars“.
Do you think the people of Israel said, “That can’t happen
here”? Do you think everyone that has had a heart attack said, “I
thought I was pretty healthy”. The chapter closes with a promise,
“And I will stretch out My hand
against them… wherever they live.
Then they will know that I am the
Lord“. Today, our idols
isolate and separate us from each other and from God, and sometimes
keep us from acting in love. James 1:22 says, “Do
not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it
says“. How will anyone know
the Lord unless we live out what we believe? Friend, will you
demonstrate to someone today that you know the God of love in action?