The Beautiful Mercies of our God - Brian Taylor
As I was working on my devotional reading recently, I came across a poignant, disturbing yet beautiful passage from Ezekiel 16. This is a passage chalked full of vivid images, portraying the terrible sin of Jerusalem. Using strong metaphorical language, Ezekiel paints the picture of the city’s sin, which involved both idolatrous worship as well as exchanging trust in God for trust in man. Ezekiel utilizes in particular the images of prostitution and adultery to expose the horrific betrayal committed by the covenant people of God. By their abandoning of God for idols and trusting in man rather than God, Jerusalem had become as a prostitute, whoring after her lustful desires for worthless gods (v. 36). Rather than a faithful wife, remembering the good things her husband had done for her in her youth, Jerusalem had become an adulterous wife, who would thus suffer the penalty of an adulterer (v. 38).
In vv. 44-62, the prophet alters his metaphor, now employing an image of familial likeness. Ezekiel declares that Jerusalem shares the same familial traits as her two “sisters,” the cities of Samaria and Sodom. While the former metaphors focused on spiritual infidelity, this metaphor appears to confront the corrupted city with her injustice. In v. 49, by specifying the sin for which Sodom was punished, Ezekiel speaks againstJerusalem’s callous indifference toward the poor and needyresulting from sinful pride and luxurious, carefree living. The man of God is thus confronting Jerusalem with her injustice as well as her spiritual apostasy (the two do go hand in glove). Yet, shockingly, it was not that Jerusalem’s vile conduct was as bad as her wretched sisters, but that it actually surpassed their iniquitous conduct: You have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed (v. 51).
What a wretched, even pathetic portrayal we have presented to our literary eye by the great prophet. Yet how beautifully does the prophet express the Lord’s mercy. As the earlier verses metaphorically depict the Lord’s care for his people, we see a God who takes a people, enslaved and oppressed in the land of Egypt (my interpretation of vv. 1-14) and transforms them into a great and glorious nation. A nation made splendid among the nations. Yet, they had exchanged their glory for a lie, playing the part of a whore and adulterous wife.
The Lord likewise had granted his chosen people good and just laws, by which to oversee the land and experience shalom. Yet, they had transgressed his law, denying justice to the needy. Indeed, they had responded to the beauty of God with their own personal ugliness. What a wretched people they were!
Despite their rebellion, though, we see even greater beauty emanate from our God. Where their sin had abounded, God’s grace had abounded all the more. Indeed, the Lord would humble his people and bring repentance to their hearts. He would strip from them all boasting in their own righteousness. Yes, he would judge his people, but it would not just be judgment by which he would bring a sense of shame and disgrace upon his wayward people’s heart. It would likewise be by the revelation of their wretched estate (by which they hadactually made their “wicked sisters” appear more righteous, v. 52-3) and by the revelation of his great mercy. A mercy not just shown to Jerusalem, but to Samaria and Sodom as well, as he would restore the fortunes of all three. By such a beautiful display of his mercy to those peoples so far away, the Lord would humble and bring repentance to the heart of those people who were near: I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in their midst, that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them (Ezekiel 16:53–54).Indeed, Jerusalem would no longer boast in her own self-righteousness, but only in the mercies of the Lord by which her sins had been atoned (v. 62).
How beautiful are the mercies of our God! In contemplating such kindness in light of our present passage, how should this shape our hearts? For one, it should humble us. We are all like sister Jerusalem. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Even as I taste of the glorious working of the Spirit in my life, I must likewise remember the corruption that still does beset me each and every day. This should humble my heart, especially in how I view others. May we not be like the proudful Pharisee, who had the audacity to boast in his own righteousness before God. He even had the temerity to give thanks to God that he was not like that loathsome tax collector present with him in the temple. This leads to our second lesson.
Such a display of mercy for the Samaritan and Sodomite should provoke us to greater self-examination, so as not to follow the path of self-righteous Jerusalem. How could a people, whom Ezekiel could compare to a prostitute and adulterous wife view themselves as their neighbors’ moral betters? It must have been due to lack of self-examination. They were so ready to take the speck of sawdust out of their neighbor’s eye because they did not “see” the plank in their own. Such will be our state if we do not, daily, search our hearts and confess our sins. But such confession must always be performed in light of God’s great mercy, which leads to our final lesson.
What ought most to enlighten our minds and encourage our hearts is the great mercy displayed by our God. The Lord would indeed restore his adulterous people. He would bring a true sense of repentance to their hearts and do so by a great demonstration of his mercy. He would provide atonement for their sins, but also for wayward Samaria and Sodom as well. As a result, the people would be broken and contrite of spirit. They would thus be like that tax collector, the other guy who was visiting the temple with the Pharisee. He was so humbled that he dare not even look to heaven, but instead prayed, God, be merciful to me, a sinner (Luke 18:13).
He indeed went away justified before God, but not due to his repentance. Rather, his faith and repentance were the instruments by which he received God’s merciful gift of justification. The ground for this justification would soon be accomplished by the very person who spoke this parable, by Jesus Christ and his atoning work. It would be and is through the death and resurrection of Christ, that all who believe upon this very Christ and repent of their sins find the mercy of God. Here we find the ultimate display of the beautiful mercies of God, in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. As Paul does declare to use today: But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith (Romans 3:21–25).
So, let us humble ourselves, confess our sins and trust in the mercies of God as beautifully manifested in the atoning work of Jesus Christ.