Ezekiel 12:12-16: in context

Ezekiel enacts and foretells the coming exile: the prince will carry his baggage out in the dark, cover his face, and be caught in God's net, brought to Babylon, which he will not see, though he will die there. Those around him will be scattered to every wind. But amid this severe judgment, God adds a word of purpose: I will leave a few of them from the sword, the famine, and the plague, that they may declare all their abominations among the nations where they go; then they will know that I am the LORD.

Even in the severity of this judgment, God preserves a remnant, and he does so with a purpose. I will leave a few, he says, that they may declare, and that they may know that I am the LORD. The judgment is not merely destructive; God spares some, and the sparing serves his purpose, to bring people to the knowledge of himself. The scattered remnant becomes, in God's design, a witness, and the whole judgment aims finally at this: that they may know that I am the LORD. This reveals something about God's judgments: that they are not merely destructive but purposeful, serving his larger design of bringing people to know him. Even in judgment, God preserves and works toward a redemptive end. The remnant is not a mere accident of survival but a deliberate preservation for a purpose. There is comfort and meaning in this. God's severe dealings, in the world and sometimes in our own lives, can seem purely destructive, without meaning or mercy. But this passage suggests that even in judgment, God is at work with a purpose, preserving a remnant, aiming at the knowledge of himself, weaving even his hard dealings into his larger redemptive design. God does not judge merely to destroy but to bring people, in the end, to know him. And the preservation of a remnant runs all through Scripture as a sign of God's mercy within judgment: unless the LORD had left us a remnant, Isaiah says, we would have been like Sodom; there is a remnant, Paul says, according to the election of grace. Even when God's dealings are severe, he preserves, he spares, he works toward a purpose, and that purpose is finally that people may know him. When we face what seems like pure judgment or destruction, whether in the world or in our own lives, we may look, as this passage invites us, for the remnant and the purpose, trusting that God's hard dealings are not merely destructive but serve his design of bringing people to know him. God leaves a remnant that they may declare and may know that he is the LORD; and even his judgments are woven, in the end, into his purpose of making himself known.

When I face what seems like pure judgment or destruction, in the world or in my own life, do I see only meaningless devastation, or can I look, as this passage invites, for the remnant and the purpose God preserves, trusting that his hard dealings are not merely destructive but serve his design of bringing people, in the end, to know that he is the LORD?