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Satan hates God, and consequently, Satan hates the people of God—the church. Satan does all he can to stir up disunity among God’s people, going to great lengths to create division and strife (1 Pet. 5:8). On the other hand, God loves when unity exists among His children. Ezekiel 37:17 paints a visual picture of God’s desire to restore unity between Judah and Israel. Illustrating this desire, God told Ezekiel to join together the ends of two sticks in order to create one unified stick.
The point is we worship a God who values unity, so we should as well. So how does valuing unity manifest itself in our daily lives? Valuing unity means we pray for unity. It means we judge ourselves before we judge others. It means we count the cost of disunity and seek reconciliation when we can. It also means pursuing humility, which acts as an antidote to selfishness. How can you seek reconciliation and ensure unity with others in the body of Christ, the church? A favorite cartoon growing up was Looney Tunes’ Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. I loved watching Road Runner foil Wile E. Coyote’s diabolical plans again and again, but eventually I found myself rooting for the coyote. After so many misadventures and catastrophes, how could you not? Plus, what’s more annoying than an arrogant, uncatchable nemesis? The fix was in against Wile E. Coyote because no matter how hard he tried, it was never within his power to win.
In reading the prophecy of the valley of dry bones, we are reminded that it was never within Israel’s power to save themselves. No matter how hard they might try, their devotion to the Old Testament law could never save them from their sin. Their spiritual restoration lay solely in the power of God. One way we see God’s active role in saving Israel is by reading verses 1-14 and underlining every time God uses the pronoun “I” in describing His role in bringing Israel back to life. Today we are still entirely dependent on the Spirit of God to stir our affections and to breathe life into our dry bones. Why is it encouraging to know that we worship a God who offers mercy to people who are undeserving and may not even ask for it? God wants us to have a “heart of flesh” that is pliable and responsive to Him. Much like a lump of clay in a potter’s hand, a tender heart is more easily shaped by God’s character and desires. The problem, if you have not noticed, is that our hearts are inherently rigid. To remove this rigidity, we read in the New Testament that God sent His Holy Spirit to indwell each believer in order to soften and sensitize hearts to His leading.
Ezekiel prophesied of the day when the Spirit would indwell the heart of every believer: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will … give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (vv. 26-27). When we submit to the Lord, He imparts great wisdom to our soft hearts. We are then more ready to deal with sin in our lives and return to a place of obedience and blessing. What are warning signs that your heart’s spiritual health is not what it ought to be? Have you ever had a really painful falling out with a friend? It may be that things ended so poorly that you were certain the relationship was beyond any hope of reconciliation. Imagine that in time you came to realize that the fallout was caused entirely by your own sin. Recognizing your fault in the situation, how shocked would you be if the other person came to you seeking to repair the relationship? Chances are you would be astonished by the person’s demonstration of forgiveness.
God’s capacity to forgive is astonishing as we read of His plan in Ezekiel 36 to restore Israel from Babylon and all the nations to the promised land. God’s relationship with His people lay in ruin because of their rebellion, yet He extended His hand of mercy even though they were undeserving. Part of the plan to restore Israel involved the fruitfulness of the land. Verses 8-15 lay out four promises the Lord makes to Israel. First, the land will again be fruitful (vv. 8-9). Second, the people will return and multiply in the land (vv. 10-11). Third, their return to the land will be permanent (vv. 12-14). Fourth, God’s people will never again be insulted by foreign nations (v. 15).5 In short, God poured out His merciful love on a people who did not deserve it. How does the gospel influence your outlook and actions regarding fractured relationships? In the midst of darkest despair, a break in the black clouds hovering over Lamentations opens up and the brightest of lights shines down. Following sixty-five verses of gloom and doom over Jerusalem’s fall, the author turns the script toward God’s mercy: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23).
God appoints every aspect of every day. He appoints the day’s troubles. He appoints the day’s mercies. Sometimes we wonder if we will be able to withstand the troubles of our day. But we can rest assured knowing every morning God’s mercy will be there waiting for us. We might be tempted to store up God’s mercy for a rainy day, but like Israel with the manna in the wilderness, there is no storing up. Instead, we are called to the daily exercise of declaring our dependency upon God and His mercy. What practical steps can you take to remind yourself that God’s mercies are new every morning? The sad truth is that life, for almost all of history, has been unfair. This is simply a reality of living in a world corrupted by sin. It’s also a reality experienced firsthand by a remnant of godly people living in Judah at the time of Jerusalem’s fall. We are told by prophets like Habakkuk that a contingency of faithful followers still resided in Judah at the time. Unfortunately, the righteous would suffer along with the unrighteous. Despite the unfairness of the situation, the godly remnant was encouraged to live by faith with joy in the midst of suffering.
The Bible is clear that believers will face suffering (see John 16:33; Acts 14:22; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Pet. 4:12-14). The question then becomes for us, “How will we respond to suffering?” Our sinful nature desires to respond with anger, bitterness, and cynicism. But in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are given strength to respond with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). When life deals you an unfair hand, how can you continue walking by faith with joy in the midst of suffering? The sad truth is that life, for almost all of history, has been unfair. This is simply a reality of living in a world corrupted by sin. It’s also a reality experienced firsthand by a remnant of godly people living in Judah at the time of Jerusalem’s fall. We are told by prophets like Habakkuk that a contingency of faithful followers still resided in Judah at the time. Unfortunately, the righteous would suffer along with the unrighteous. Despite the unfairness of the situation, the godly remnant was encouraged to live by faith with joy in the midst of suffering.
The Bible is clear that believers will face suffering (see John 16:33; Acts 14:22; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Pet. 4:12-14). The question then becomes for us, “How will we respond to suffering?” Our sinful nature desires to respond with anger, bitterness, and cynicism. But in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are given strength to respond with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). When life deals you an unfair hand, how can you continue walking by faith with joy in the midst of suffering? The Book of 2 Chronicles closes out with God flexing His divine muscle against Judah. God’s wrath was stirred up, and with righteous indignation, He judicially directed His fury against the people of God. Knowing our own propensity toward sin, it’s hard to imagine being filled with anger without losing some measure of self-control. Yet God’s wrath is never less than perfect. Revealed to us in 2 Chronicles 36:15 is the posture of God’s heart toward sinners—it’s a posture marked by compassion and patience.
Despite habitual rebellion by Judah, God still longed for her to repent and gave her many opportunities to do so. Examining God’s response, we learn something about how we are to engage unsaved people in our lives. It is easy for us to lose compassion and patience with individuals who have rejected the gospel time and time again. Maybe you have someone in your life whom you’ve labeled “hopeless” after years of such rejection. If you’ve fallen into this snare, take a minute and remember God’s compassionate response to His wayward people. In what ways have your attitudes toward people differed from God’s compassionate and patient attitude toward Judah? Humanity is getting faster, at least some of us. The world record for the 100-meter dash was 10.6 seconds in 1912, 10.2 seconds in 1936, and 9.90 seconds in 1991. The current world recorder holder is Usain Bolt. He crossed the finish line in a blazing 9.58 seconds in 2009.3 Despite this progression in speed, humanity will never be able to outrun the consequences of sin.
One man who attempted to do such was King Zedekiah. He was a proud man who refused to humble himself before the Lord. When the consequences of Zedekiah’s sin finally arrived at Jerusalem’s gates in the form of Babylonian soldiers, he fled with his family. The Babylonians, however, intercepted them in the plains of Jericho. Nebuchadnezzar deported Zedekiah to Babylon, but first, he left the deposed king with one last tormenting memory by executing his sons before his eyes, which were then gouged out (2 Kings 25:4-7). This fulfilled Ezekiel’s prophecy that the king would not see the city of Babylon (Ezek. 12:1-13). Zedekiah’s prideful solution for absolution from God’s judgment was to run from it. The Bible’s solution for absolution, however, is found in running to the foot of the cross. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). What sinful behavior do you need to repent of and run to Christ for forgiveness? Living by faith in Christ does not insulate us from the pains of this world. In fact, in some ways life is harder for believers because we engage in spiritual warfare as our light encounters the darkness of this present world.
Habakkuk knew firsthand the pains of this world as his people faced imminent destruction by God for their sin. Habakkuk may have wanted to curse God in his weaker moments, but instead, he displayed God’s sanctifying work through personal heartache and disappointment. Despite doubts and questions, Habakkuk acknowledged God’s righteousness and faithfulness. He told God that no matter how dire the circumstances, he would still find joy in the Lord. What we glean from Habakkuk is that remembering God’s faithfulness in the past can help us walk by faith in the present and into the future. How should God’s past faithfulness and unchanging goodness help you face your present doubts? |
