Ezekiel 11:5-12 – Trust and obey!

There is no denying that the all-seeing and all-knowing God sees and knows everything.  In Ezekiel 11:4, even as the prophet was commanded to prophesy against the twenty-five men giving false hope to the people, verse 5 says the Spirit of God fell upon him and said to him. God set out in Ezekiel 11:5-12 to correct the false counsel of those leaders. He knew what was on their minds. Their counsel was ungodly and was giving false confidence to the people. Since they were promoting wickedness among the people and contradicting what God was saying (through the Prophet Jeremiah), more of them would die.

God told those leaders that their false counsel instead of protecting the lives of the people, would cause more to be slain. Many would die in the city resisting the assault of the Babylonians. Indeed, Jerusalem was the cauldron, and the slain would be the meat. And since those leaders feared the sword of Babylon, they would be exactly the instrument that G0d would use to deal with the wayward leaders. They would be driven out of the city into the hands of the Babylonians to be judged. Turning what those leaders had said earlier, God mockingly told them that Jerusalem would not be the cauldron that protects, nor would it be a safe place for the people. They would find themselves taken out of the land and crossing the border of Israel to be dealt with. He was telling them that they would be taken to Babylon to be dealt with. Jerusalem God assured them would not be a sanctuary for them, neither would Israel be their home.  

In verse 12, God asserted that all this would happen. And when they happened, His people would know His Lordship and sovereignty for certain. They would know that they had taken Him for granted, and had not walked in His statutes, nor obeyed His rules, but had acted according to the rules of the nations that were around them. There was no necessity for them to come to this conclusion through tragedy. From the start, they had provided sufficient opportunities for them to know His sovereignty but have chosen to ignore them.   

What lessons are there for us? We need to know that nothing escapes God’s sight. He knows our propensity and the right treatment we need. If we do not respond to His kind and loving overtures, He will have to use other means to help us correct and align with Him. We can avoid needless painful experiences when we choose to respond to Him willingly.  More importantly, we must learn to obey God unquestioningly. Our faith in Him is best demonstrated by our obedience to His word.