Scripture Daily

Context No. 2588 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 21:1-5: in context

1The LORD’s word came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and preach toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel. 3Tell the land of Israel, ‘The LORD says: “Behold, I am against you, and will draw my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked. 4Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore my sword will go out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north. 5All flesh will know that I, the LORD, have drawn my sword out of its sheath. It will not return any more.”’

God tells Ezekiel to set his face against Jerusalem and announce a hard word: I am against you, and I will draw my sword from its sheath. The sword, he says, will go out against all flesh, and it will not return to its sheath again. It is one of the most sobering images in the prophets, God himself drawing a blade against a city that had presumed on his patience for generations.

The weight of it is the certainty. For a long time Jerusalem had treated God's forbearance as if it meant nothing would ever come, mistaking delay for indifference. Now the word is that the sword is drawn and will not go back. God's patience, real and long, is not the same as the absence of judgment; there comes a point when the blade is unsheathed. This is not a comfortable passage, and it is not meant to be. It stands as a warning against the quiet assumption that because consequences have not come, they never will, that God's slowness to act is permission to keep on.

Am I mistaking God's patience for indifference, presuming that because judgment has not come, it never will?

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