As I meditated on today’s reading, the thought that stood out was how God had to reset everything for His people. Their sinful idolatry, for which they have been exiled, corrupted everything! Nothing about their society functioned according to the model God gave them upon coming out of Egypt. Everything was locked up in utter dysfunction.
Starting with their worship, Israel hired foreigners to take charge of the sanctuary (Ezekiel 44:8), a charge given to the Levites alone. In this vision, Ezekiel sees God reset and change many things about the priesthood and worship. God resets, rearranges, and reappoints even the land around the Temple. He puts borders and limits on the city and what the prince is allowed to have, as the religious and political elite have eaten up the land and homes of many of the people (Ezekiel 45:6–8). God even reset the most basic of Israel’s commerce by resetting the measure of the ephah and shekel. Yes, God’s people even managed to corrupt the basics of the basics of their economy. God also reset the tax structure. (Ezekiel 45:9–17) Sin had caused every aspect of Israel’s society to become so corrupt and dysfunctional that God had to do a holy reset!
This reminds me of what sin has done to many civilizations in history and is doing to our society today. From killing our children to willful confusion on what is a boy and what is a girl, to the dysfunction of our economy with its inflation and disparity between the ruling class and the peasants, to the religious landscape in which there is very little true knowledge of God remaining, our sin has devastated us.
So what can the righteous do? A lot, actually! Those who know the Lord their God must not remain silent (Daniel 11:32). Christians possess a light that pierces the darkness (Matthew 5:16). Our holy difference must be magnified in our culture (2 Corinthians 6:17–7:1). On top of this, the very gates of hell cannot prevent the church (Matthew 16:18).
So, is there hope? Yes! It begins with a holy reset in our lives as believers—that we can pray for—and, by God’s grace, find very effective in our lives and the culture of our day. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16, NLT)
Thank you for joining me as I read and journal chronologically through the Bible! This devotional reflection comes from Ezekiel 44-45.