Ezekiel 6:1-7: a reflection

1The LORD’s word came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them, 3and say, ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! The Lord GOD says to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: “Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places. 4Your altars will become desolate, and your incense altars will be broken. I will cast down your slain men before your idols. 5I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols. I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6In all your dwelling places, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. 7The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

This is a hard word of judgment, directed pointedly at the high places, the sites where Israel had set up altars and idols to other gods, often alongside their worship of the LORD. God declares he will bring down these high places, break the altars, shatter the idols, until they are desolate. And the refrain that runs through it: and you will know that I am the LORD.

Notice what God is so determined to tear down: the idols his people had set up as rivals to him. Israel had not exactly abandoned God; they had added other gods alongside him, keeping their high places while claiming to be his. And God will not have it. He is not content to share his people's devotion with idols; he acts, even severely, to remove the rivals, because he wants their whole hearts and wants them to know that he alone is the LORD.

That divine jealousy, uncomfortable as this passage is, is finally an expression of love. God tears down our high places not because he begrudges us joy, but because the idols we set up alongside him are quietly stealing the devotion that belongs to him and that we were made to give him. When God moves to remove something you had set up as a rival to him, it can feel like loss, but its aim is your undivided heart and your truer knowledge of him. Let him have the high places. He wants all of you, so that you would know that he alone is the LORD.

Lord, you will not share my devotion with idols; you want my whole heart. Where I have set up high places, rivals to you that I keep alongside my worship, give me grace to let you tear them down. Though it feels like loss, aim it at my undivided heart, so that I would know that you alone are the LORD.