...but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
- From Ezekiel 34
I didn't want to make this verse my focus. I think that maybe I make too
much comment of the judgment stuff, the harsh references to justice,
judgment, and consequences for sin. It's like I must enjoy thinking about
all the bad things that are going to happen to bad people.
I don't.
But I realize that a lot of people today really do love that stuff.
You know, the people that trash public property, the ones that
beat up people that disagree with them, the ones that hate rich people
and want to make them suffer for having things.
The ones that believe they speak for 98% of the population.
Those people.
And so it might get their attention if I can show them a statement
by The LORD that they might enjoy.
Ezekiel 34 is a beautiful passage. It is full of tender promises from
God, that He will gather up His sheep. He will search tirelessly for them.
He will find the lost, the hungry, the homeless. And He will
give them a place to live, in Israel, next to fresh water. And He
Himself will feed them.
The passage goes on and on, and it warms your heart.
But, like an exclamation point, He drives the promise home with
something for the people that had been mistreating God's children for
ages: He will destroy them. And they will be fed, too.
But He is going to feed them justice.
"Justice." What a perfect word to form connections across
political boundaries in our times.
Everybody wants justice. We just define it differently. And it is quite
possible that, in God's eyes, both definitions of justice are sound.
We find them incompatible. God pronounces both extremes to be valid.
And God is going to fill the plates of the comfortable with justice,
and make them eat it.
The promises of God are good. They are wonderful. And they are worth
following the commandments and waiting for. But just in case we get
bored, lose hope, or find ourselves still feeling envy towards just about
everybody else, God reminds us, "Oh don't worry - they'll get theirs."
Maybe not for me, but for a lot of people, that's Good News.
much comment of the judgment stuff, the harsh references to justice,
judgment, and consequences for sin. It's like I must enjoy thinking about
all the bad things that are going to happen to bad people.
I don't.
But I realize that a lot of people today really do love that stuff.
You know, the people that trash public property, the ones that
beat up people that disagree with them, the ones that hate rich people
and want to make them suffer for having things.
The ones that believe they speak for 98% of the population.
Those people.
And so it might get their attention if I can show them a statement
by The LORD that they might enjoy.
Ezekiel 34 is a beautiful passage. It is full of tender promises from
God, that He will gather up His sheep. He will search tirelessly for them.
He will find the lost, the hungry, the homeless. And He will
give them a place to live, in Israel, next to fresh water. And He
Himself will feed them.
The passage goes on and on, and it warms your heart.
But, like an exclamation point, He drives the promise home with
something for the people that had been mistreating God's children for
ages: He will destroy them. And they will be fed, too.
But He is going to feed them justice.
"Justice." What a perfect word to form connections across
political boundaries in our times.
Everybody wants justice. We just define it differently. And it is quite
possible that, in God's eyes, both definitions of justice are sound.
We find them incompatible. God pronounces both extremes to be valid.
And God is going to fill the plates of the comfortable with justice,
and make them eat it.
The promises of God are good. They are wonderful. And they are worth
following the commandments and waiting for. But just in case we get
bored, lose hope, or find ourselves still feeling envy towards just about
everybody else, God reminds us, "Oh don't worry - they'll get theirs."
Maybe not for me, but for a lot of people, that's Good News.
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