Knowing God

That we know God is the very purpose of everything God does and says.

At least, that's what God seems to be saying in the middle chapters of Ezekiel - chapters which, because of their prophecies of horrific judgement, are often ignored. And it's a message that continues into the later, more positive - and therefore more popular - later chapters.

As Exekiel is told to proclaim judgement on Israel and the surrounding nations, there is the repeated refrain 'so that they/you may know that I am the LORD'. In all, those words occur 72 times in the book, being addressed to Israel and to the nations.

But what's the link between God's promise of judgement and knowing him? Well, Israel and the nations are judged because they have worshipped other gods (e.g. 6:4f), become proud (e.g. 28:17) and done wrong to others (e.g. 9:9). Thus they have broken the commands of God, to love him (Dt 6:5), to have no other gods (Ex 20:2f), and to love their neighbour (Lev 19:18). And this is the demonstration that they do not know him, for to truly know God as the LORD God is to have no other gods, to love him and to love others as a reflection of his love. So at the root of all evil is not knowing God. And that's why, when God acts and speaks he does it so that 'you may know that I am the LORD.'

And in the New Covenant these two things go hand-in-hand. Ezekiel prophecies this in chapter 37; when the Spirit comes upon the previously lifeless, Spirit-less, disobedient, condemned dry bones of people, they live. They live because now they know the LORD (37:14) and therefore, vv22-28, they become the united, undefiled, sanctified, cleansed, at-peace people of the LORD's possession. They become humanity as it is meant to be and is indeed becoming in the church (as we learned in 1 Peter, as Hebrews prefigures (NB ch 8), and as Jesus describes in the sermon on the mount. 

So yes, the passages of judgement in Ezekiel are utterly horrifying, and they show God's complete and unreserved opposition to all that is untrue, unloving and evil. And because people are not only the perpetrators of that evil but are also preventing the reform of the world, it means that they have to be dealt with for evil to be cleansed and a truly good world created. Thus it is oversimplistic to say, 'God hates the sin but loves the sinner' because it's the sinner who perpetrates the sin and is culpable. Nevertheless, prophecies of judgement and judgement itself are always towards the end that men and women will know the LORD and therefore do good.

Applying this today, we can see that law-making will never clean up Britain or the world. Gun crime won't be halted by new laws. Higher taxes and laws about bosses' pay won't stop the greed of the City. The only thing that will renew society is when people come to know God and are transformed by his Spirit within them. Only the Spirit of God can give life, unity and peace. Only he can write the laws of God in our hearts (Jer 31 & Heb 8).

So our response to shootings, and unrelenting greed, and maltreatment of the elderly and the idolatry of shopping is to pray that God would bring revival.
And we will give our time to good works like we've never given before (yes, that means missing our favourite tv programmes).
And we will give our money to church & mission with truly sacrificial generosity (yes, that means we go without things now so that others might know the Lord).
And we will not be afraid to talk about the transforming power of Jesus.