This is a rather unusual message of salvation.It is not intended to comfort God's miserable people. “they have shamefully trampled underfoot the grace of God” and so “have forfeited all rights to compassion.” (Block, 352)
Ezekiel would not gravitate towards the common evangelistic opening, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”
Ezekiel would be more likely to say, God is repulsed by you, but for the sake of his holy name, he'll save you.
Often we approach God as though we are doing him a favor by believing in him. Worse yet, we talk to other people as though they should “check God out” – as though they should “give him a try” – assuming that God would be only too pleased if they should deign to “accept him” as Lord of their life.
Iain Duguid rightly points out that the only reason that we have survived on this planet (p421) “is not because we somehow merited God's favor or because God's love is more powerful than his wrath and he could not bear to see such delightful creatures as us utterly exterminated. The only reason for the continued existence of human beings on this planet is God's commitment to his eternal plan sovereignly to save for himself a people.”
At the center of the book of Ezekiel is Yahweh himself. He has been shamed by his peoples' sin and rebellion. But he will act in the end. “Nowhere else in the Bible is it made so clear that it is not out of love, duty, or forgiveness that YHWH restores Israel, but solely for the sake of his own reputation.” (Andrew Mein)
Featuring a sermon puts it on the front page of the site and is the most effective way to bring this sermon to the attention of thousands including all mobile platforms + newsletter.
Text-Featuring a sermon is a less expensive way to bring this sermon to the attention of thousands on the right bar with optional newsletter inclusion. As low as $30/day.
