Day 250: Ezekiel 7, 8 and 9

I will not look on them with pity or spare them, but I will bring down on their own heads what they have done. (Ezekiel 9:10)

A few days ago we read these words of Jeremiah: I will discipline you but only with justice (Jeremiah 46:28). In other words, I’m not letting you off the hook, but you can rest assured the punishment will fit the crime.

Here Ezekiel affirms the same message. The consequences of Judah’s behavior are finally coming back to haunt them. God doesn’t need to devise some totally arbitrary punishment incongruent with their sin. God will allow their own sinfulness – the weight of their own depravity – to come crashing down on their heads. They will reap what they have sown.

While bad things do happen to good people, and sometimes we’re blindsided with the harsh realities of life on an unpredictable planet, most of us would probably admit most of the bad things that happen to us have a seed in our own behaviors. If I don’t change the oil in my car, the engine fails. If I don’t watch my diet, I gain weight. If I don’t do my homework, I earn a bad grade. It would be silly to blame God for such consequences… yet we do.

Ezekiel makes it clear that the people of Judah have no one to blame but themselves.

When’s the last time you got mad at God for the consequences of your own behavior?