Remember my talk about idols yesterday? Well, the package came.
And I am reminding myself of the bride in Ezekiel 16. Read it when you have time. It is a sordid tale of love given (lavished
even!) and abused. The bride, a waif
from the street, is given everything by her groom to make her beautiful and
happy and thriving. After the marriage
she takes her beautiful things and wins the gazes of passersby with them, then
prostitutes herself with them, then turns her precious wedding jewels into
idols to worship, and finally sacrifices her sons and daughters to them.
The gifts we are given we turn to idols to worship. The blessings God gives we grab and go. Our hearts are, in John Calvin’s words, little
“idol-making factories”. And we never
quit. Because we are never satisfied.
Oh how we need the mercy and kindness of God. How we need His steady faithfulness to put up
with all our turnings-away.
Paul says rightly, in Romans 7, Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of
death? Thanks be to God through Jesus
Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with
my flesh I serve the law of sin. (And
those exclamation points are rightly placed!)
Only in God is our soul at rest. Only in Christ are we freed from our many
wretched idols. Only by His grace are we
not destroyed.
How does it go with the bride in Ezekiel 16? Well, at the end of the chapter, God says
this: I will establish my covenant with
you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be
confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone
for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.
Did you catch that?
She is to be ashamed, but did you catch what God is doing? Atoning.
He is paying the price for her incredible faithlessness. He is washing her white as snow again. He is taking her shame upon Himself.
In fact, at the
cross, Jesus the Holy One of Israel, took that shame upon Himself, and handed
us His righteousness.
Doesn’t that
knowledge make you never want to sin again?
So turn from your packages and idols. Go in God’s grace, and be glad.
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