July 24, 2023 - Ezekiel 19-24

Have you noticed how frequently Ezekiel uses the statement “that they might know that I am the Lord?” The Lord is God, and he will not be mocked. He will not be thwarted. To Israel he says, “As for you, O house of Israel . . . Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols” (20:39). Let the people either worship the false gods or worship the one true God. Nothing changes the fact that the Lord is God, and he will show himself so.

I read the headlines day by day and it seems as if the whole creation is standing up in opposition to God. The false religions. The attacks on the family. Immorality. Audacious-in-his-face rejection of the Lord. Yet, none of this changes the fact that the Lord is God. Can’t help but think of Paul’s writing: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). The declaration of the Lord through Ezekiel: “All flesh shall know that I am the Lord” (21:5). The nations WILL know that he is Lord! One day! Julia Ward Howe captured this truth so well in her Civil War era hymn:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

His truth is marching on. -- Julia Ward Howe (1862)