Musings on Ezekiel

I was reading the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel recently. Ezekiel preached a two-sided message. On one hand, he spoke quite a bit about God's judgement towards His people for their lack of faithfulness. Chapters 4 through 24 are full of oracles about God's coming judgement. On the other hand, he also spoke in terms of God's restoration of His people in strong terms in chapters 33 through 48.

Ezekiel 25:15-17 says, "Thus says the Lord God: 'Because the Philistines dealt vengefully and took vengeance with a spiteful heart, to destroy because of the old hatred,' therefore thus says the Lord God: 'I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant of the seacoast. I will execute great vengeance on them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon them!'"

I had a few musings on this passage.....

1) God is Lord over everyone, even if we don't recognize it. People of other lands, including Philistia, did not have a special relationship with God the way Israel did. Similarly many people today don't recognize that they are children of God. God is ove all of us nonetheless.

2) God treats all people equally. The judgements for Israel's unfaithfulness weren't unique to them. Rather, god's purpose was that all people everywhere would know that He is God. This is just the same today. II Peter 3:9 says that God is "not willing that any should perish but that ll should come to repentance."

3) We shouldn't be hateful or seek revenge. If the Philistines had not acted with so much hatred, maybe God would not have punished them. Carrying around "old hatred" only hurts us in the long run.

God Bless you.

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