In Ezekiel 6, God’s one intention in judging the house of Israel was to reinforce to them that He alone was the Lord, the true God. In contrast to Him, the gods that the nations venerated and which the house of Israel foolishly adopted were false. God called their abomination. In verse 11 God instructed Ezekiel to clap his hands and stamp his feet and exclaimed Alas! Why the instruction? It was to show His disgust and contempt and scorning their foolishness. Unwittingly, they had set themselves up for destruction. God announced that the judgment on them would come in three ways – famine, sword, and pestilence.
Those
who were taken into exile would die by pestilence. They would die of sicknesses
and diseases. Those who were within the vicinity of the battle would die by the
sword. In other words, they would die resisting their attackers, in this
case, the Babylonians. Those who remained in the city would die of famine. For
there would be a lack of food supplies. That
would be the intensity of God’s judgment. Only in the destruction would His fury
of God be spent.
From
the devastation, it would be known with certainty that the Lord had been and would
always be the only true God. Prostating before the altars of those idols,
whether on hills, mountains, or green or oak trees would lie slain bodies. Instead
of a sweet and pleasing aroma, there would be the foul stench of the decomposed dead
bodies. Besides God would also make their land desolate, from the wilderness to
as far as Riblah. The last line of this chapter again re-enforced the intention
of God in His judgment: Then they (Israel) will know that I am the Lord.
It
is important to God that we honor alone. In replacing Him in our lives, we will
be lifting His protecting hedges from our lives. We will be subjected to needless
problems. God allows that to happen not because He enjoys it but to let us know
that He alone is God and deserves our allegiance. We must honor God not only
with our lips but with our hearts and our deeds!
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