God Won't Give Up (Ezekiel 16:59-62)
59 “Now this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will give you what you deserve, for you have taken your solemn vows lightly by breaking your covenant. Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were young, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember with shame all the evil you have done...and you will know that I am the Lord."
In Ezekiel 17 God is pretty graphic in his rebuke to Israel for their sins. He basically compares his people's sins to reverse prostitution (vs. 33) saying that they offer themselves to as many people as possible and even pay them for it! What exactly were they doing to get such a vile reputation? God outlines their many sins in detail: worshiping things other than Him, killing their children and offering them as human sacrifices, pride, gluttony, laziness, neglecting the poor, etc. He even goes so far as to say they were actually worse than Sodom (vs. 48)! Their sin was blatant a rebellion they knew was wrong but they didn't care.
He vows to fully to repay them for their sins, which is pretty characteristic of the "angry" God of the Old Testament who occasionally loses His temper. And although He could have called it quits, He never leaves it at that. He always ends it with a ray of hope and an open door of redemption.
All throughout the Bible, no matter how bad it gets, God is always thinking ahead and offering grace. But why? Because long ago He made a covenant with Israel, in which He promised He would not change His mind about them regardless of their actions. The reason He doesn't give up hope because He can't; it's an integral part of who He is. That's why Paul can come along and say "But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. (Romans 5:20 NLT). God's grace trumps sin every time.
God is by no means light on sin, but He is always equally heavy on grace. The judgment side of God is as real as the love part, except that we live in an age where God's fiercest fury and wrath has already been poured out violently upon His Son. If there was a ray of hope back in Ezekiel's day, the present possibility of hope is now far brighter than the sun offering us pardon for every gross, unthinkable sin we have ever committed.
The main reason God won't give up on us is because He can't. Because nothing in all creation (not even our sin) can separate us from God's love (Romans 8:37-38), we have hope in our mess that God can restore us. Like the ancient Israelites, unless we turn from our sin and turn to Christ, our sin will ultimately destroy us. But unlike the Israelites of Ezekiel's day, we don't have to experience God wrath because Christ already has. We can turn to Him this very moment without fear of judgment and find His grace no matter where we are. Today the door to forgiveness is wide open.
So long as you still have breath, God hasn't given up on you yet.
In Ezekiel 17 God is pretty graphic in his rebuke to Israel for their sins. He basically compares his people's sins to reverse prostitution (vs. 33) saying that they offer themselves to as many people as possible and even pay them for it! What exactly were they doing to get such a vile reputation? God outlines their many sins in detail: worshiping things other than Him, killing their children and offering them as human sacrifices, pride, gluttony, laziness, neglecting the poor, etc. He even goes so far as to say they were actually worse than Sodom (vs. 48)! Their sin was blatant a rebellion they knew was wrong but they didn't care.
He vows to fully to repay them for their sins, which is pretty characteristic of the "angry" God of the Old Testament who occasionally loses His temper. And although He could have called it quits, He never leaves it at that. He always ends it with a ray of hope and an open door of redemption.
All throughout the Bible, no matter how bad it gets, God is always thinking ahead and offering grace. But why? Because long ago He made a covenant with Israel, in which He promised He would not change His mind about them regardless of their actions. The reason He doesn't give up hope because He can't; it's an integral part of who He is. That's why Paul can come along and say "But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. (Romans 5:20 NLT). God's grace trumps sin every time.
God is by no means light on sin, but He is always equally heavy on grace. The judgment side of God is as real as the love part, except that we live in an age where God's fiercest fury and wrath has already been poured out violently upon His Son. If there was a ray of hope back in Ezekiel's day, the present possibility of hope is now far brighter than the sun offering us pardon for every gross, unthinkable sin we have ever committed.
The main reason God won't give up on us is because He can't. Because nothing in all creation (not even our sin) can separate us from God's love (Romans 8:37-38), we have hope in our mess that God can restore us. Like the ancient Israelites, unless we turn from our sin and turn to Christ, our sin will ultimately destroy us. But unlike the Israelites of Ezekiel's day, we don't have to experience God wrath because Christ already has. We can turn to Him this very moment without fear of judgment and find His grace no matter where we are. Today the door to forgiveness is wide open.
So long as you still have breath, God hasn't given up on you yet.
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