TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL PASSAGE

DEVOTIONAL

by Sandra Chua

“Love is a many splendored thing” was a  song by Andy Williams that was very popular in the 1960s. Who doesn’t like the idea of “love”? God is love. That is true, and the idea sells so well that we often forget the other side, which is God is just. Deuteronomy 32:4 states, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity just and upright is He.”

“Don’t make me angry; you won’t like me when I’m angry.” The famous line by the incredible hulk could have well been said by God. And He has indeed warned not only Israel but us again and again. Listen. Return to me. Turn away from evil. But Israel did not listen. And God had to shake some sense into their noggins. 

Our passage for today is God’s judgment on a long-time rebellious people. It is shockingly descriptive:  parents eating their children, and children eating their parents. People dying from plague or perishing from famine, falling by the sword, Israel is scattered to the winds as they are pursued with drawn swords. Dead bodies of the people of Israel are scattered around their altars. Cities are in ruin. The scenes look horribly hopeless. Most frightening is what the Lord declared in Ezekiel 5: 8, “I will not look on you with pity or spare you. “How could things have turned out like this? Ezekiel 6:9 gives us the reason as God declared, “How I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols.” But in God’s troubled heart, He also shows us His hope. In the same verse, He says, “Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember me.” Ezekiel 6:10 states, “And they will know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten in vain to bring this calamity on them.”

Our God is loving, but He is just. In His love, He brings discipline. In His discipline, He remembers love.

REFLECTION

How am I facing times of difficulty, especially when I know it is part of God’s discipline? How is hardship clouding my vision of future hope? What promises of God can I hold on to so that I can look forward to the future with hope? Have I asked for God’s forgiveness?

PRAYER

Dear heavenly Father, You are loving, but You are also just. You discipline us for our good that we may share in Your holiness. Thank You for disciplining us in love. We praise You that no matter how many promises You have made, You are faithful to fulfill them all. The Bible records Your faithfulness, and we can look forward with hope and approach with confidence the throne of grace because we are sure to receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Praise be to God. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.