Day 310
Ezekiel 14:12-16:42; Hebrews 7:18-28; Psalm 106:1-12; Proverbs 27:4-6
Saved by His Grace
Ezekiel’s reading today reminded me of myself when I first expressed a desire for Christ. This was a time of great expectancy when I would be given affirmation and insight to what this all means. As would be expected, I was instructed to begin reading the Gospel of Matthew and not a passage like this one from Ezekiel. Perhaps in his wisdom, my priest Fr. Jack did not want to taint an enthusiastic and impressionable mind with detailed examples of God’s wrath, especially when it came to the disobedience of Israel, to a new believer now standing on the doorstep of the Church.
Several decades later, now “steeped” in my faith, I still wonder what makes reading Ezekiel 14 so uncomfortable. Here we explore God’s inescapable judgments and punishments to match that of an adulterous wife and prostitute. But immediately following these admonitions, verse 42 reveals, “Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.”
This was Ezekiel’s way of communicating to us what Jesus says in Mark 4:39 – “Quiet! Be still! Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” See also Psalm 46:10 – “Be still, and know that I am God.”
What is God showing us as we dive deeper, not into the chaos but into the stillness of this passage? Read Ezekiel 14 again with the comfort and knowledge of how it ends through God’s grace and how in the stillness, His calm speaks to you today. No matter your past, you are saved by His grace. Amen!
The Rev. Din Bissoondial
St. Peter’s the Fisherman
New Smyrna, FL