The Integrity of God

In Ezekiel 36:36, God says in reference to his prophetic promises to his people, "I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it."

As I thought about this passage, it struck me how intertwined are God's identity, his word, and his actions.  Sometimes I say things and then don't  follow through, or do things that are less than consistent with who I am (at least who I am in Christ).  But with God there is no such disjunction.  There is perfect integrity between who he is, what he says and what he does.  God will never act out of character with himself.  He will never speak rashly nor make a promise and then not follow through.

So it is that we can be confident in his proclamation that as we behold his glory, we are constantly being transformed into his likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18), and we can be sure that this work he has begun will one day be brought unto completion (Phillippians 1:6).  What glorious words of promise!  Oh how I long for that day!

A Privileged Position

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I am studying through the Book of Ezekiel, and one of the first things that struck me was the frequency with which we find the phrase "know that I am the LORD." Clearly, a key message that God is communicating through the prophet is his identity.

Whenever we see the word "LORD" printed in all caps (as it is in 67 of the 72 times "know that I am the LORD" appears in Ezekiel), that alerts us to the fact that the Hebrew word that is being translated is actually the divine name, YAHWEH. Jews had such respect for the name of God, and so feared misusing it (in violation of the third commandment), that instead of speaking it, they actually said, "adonai," the Hebrew word for "LORD."

So it is, that when we see God so emphasizing throughout Ezekiel his desire that people would "know that I am the LORD," it is more than a job description he is a talking about; it is his very identity. In light of this, it is interesting to note a slightly more specific phrase that appears four times in the Book of Ezekiel: "Know that I am the LORD their God." In each instance where we find this phrase, it is in the context of Ezekiel's prophetic words specifically to the house of Israel.

Make no mistake about it: YAHWEH is no tribal deity; he is God over all creation. Regardless of whether people bow their knee before him, he is God. But what we see here is that he is God of his people in a special way peculiar to their relationship. He is not just the LORD. He is not just the LORD God. He is the LORD, their God, and as such, they are in a position of amazing privilege.

Now we must be careful to realize that this doesn't mean that the people of God were (or are) necessarily better than the other peoples, nor have they have in any way earned this privileged relationship. Throughout the Book of Ezekiel, the prophet chastises the people of God for their sin just as he does the other nations (actually, even more so). Their special standing as God's particular people is a product of nothing but his grace and his steadfast love toward them.

The New Testament picks this idea up in Jesus' teaching that we should pray to God as "Our Father." This is not a prayer for all people, but rather the prayer of a disciple, one who has been conferred the benefits of adoption. May we, as Christians, never fail to exult in the fact that we are in a special relationship with God. And may we always do so humbly, knowing that it is nothing but the work of Christ that has established this relationship for us.

Reflections on Ezekiel

I’ve been reading through the book of Ezekiel in my personal devotions lately. I thought it might be helpful (at least to me) if I were to blog some reflections from these times. I have a couple thoughts from the first few chapters that I may develop later, but today I wanted to share some reflections from Ezekiel 5-7.

In sending Ezekiel to speak to Jerusalem in chapter five, God speaks in no uncertain terms of the destruction that will come. Because of their gross and ongoing rebellion against him, God proclaims through the prophet in Ezekiel 5:8-9, “Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again,”

Now the annals Greek and Roman mythology are replete with examples of gods who become upset at the actions of mortals, and then lash out in anger against them. But we need to understand that what is occurring here is quite different. Far from being the vindictive ragings of a spiteful deity, what we see here are the declarations of the impending righteous judgments of a holy God, judgments that come with a very specific purpose.

What exactly is this purpose? From 5:13 to the end of chapter 7, there is a constant refrain, repeated no fewer than ten times: “I am the LORD.” In seven of these instances, the phrase follows a slightly more expanded formula, pointing us even more directly to the reason that stands behind the LORD’s actions: “They/you shall know that I am the LORD.”  Phrases indicating that someone will “know that I am the LORD” are found in the pages of Scripture 88 times. An astounding 72 of these occur in Ezekiel. Clearly, one of the primary purposes God is trying to accomplish in this book is that people would “know that I am the Lord.”

If we are to truly understand the depth of meaning in this phrase though, the first occasions on which it is used go a long way to helping us. In Exodus 6:7 God says to the nation of Israel, as they are bound in Egyptian slavery, “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”  One chapter later, God shows that his desire for such knowledge is not limited to the people of Israel when he proclaims in Exodus 7:5, “The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

What binds these two uses together is the fact that it is through God's mighty works that both his people and the nations might know who he his: He is the LORD. So his acts of judgment are not a matter of vindictiveness, but of vindication. They are the means by which they (and we) might see who he truly is. This is especially true of his act of judgment at the cross, for there we see most clearly the nexus of his perfect holiness and his steadfast love.

Far too often, I fear, we fall dreadfully short of bringing these two concepts together. Our relativistic culture tends to emphasize the fact that “God is love” (which of course is 100% true) but neglects the fact that God is also holy and demands our holiness (which is equally true). We want to set our own standards, ignoring God's revealed will, and going on thinking that he's content to have people merely give intellectual ascent to the possibility of his existence.

I suppose that there are also some within the church who react to this by swinging too far in the opposite direction, always emphasizing God's holy requirements, but doing so at the expense of his perfect love. Let me be clear that this is equally wrong. God wants us to do neither of these, but rather is jealous that he receive not only partial glory, but the glory due his name.

Even in this, there is a nuance which we need to understand. When we demand that credit be given to us (even when we've earned it) it is usually a betrayal of the fact that we want to be reassured of our own value and adequacy. For God though, when he demands glory, it is not because he has an inferiority complex. Rather it is because he rightly realizes his superiority, and knows that what is best for us is to realize it too.