Ezekiel 11:7-12: a reflection

7“‘Therefore the Lord GOD says: “Your slain whom you have laid in the middle of it, they are the meat, and this is the cauldron; but you will be brought out of the middle of it. 8You have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword on you,” says the Lord GOD. 9“I will bring you out of the middle of it, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you. 10You will fall by the sword. I will judge you in the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 11This will not be your cauldron, neither will you be the meat in the middle of it. I will judge you in the border of Israel. 12You will know that I am the LORD, for you have not walked in my statutes. You have not executed my ordinances, but have done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you.”’”

In pronouncing judgment on the leaders of Jerusalem, God names the root of their failure with a pointed charge: You have not walked in my statutes, nor kept my ordinances, but have acted according to the ordinances of the nations that are around you. Instead of living by God's ways, distinct from the surrounding peoples, they had adopted the ways of the nations around them, conforming to the culture rather than to God. They looked like the nations, not like the people of God.

Notice the specific failure: conforming to the surrounding culture rather than to God. God had called his people to be distinct, to walk in his statutes, to live differently from the nations around them. But they had instead absorbed the ways of those nations, letting the surrounding culture, rather than God's word, shape how they lived. The pull to be like everyone around them had won out over the call to be God's distinct people.

That is a pull we know well. It is easy, and constant, to let the culture around us shape our values, our behavior, our priorities, to simply absorb the ways of the world around us rather than living by God's word. The pressure to conform, to be like everyone else, to follow the ordinances of the nations around us, is strong. But God calls his people to a different pattern, shaped by his word, not by the surrounding culture. Examine where you have simply absorbed the ways of the world around you rather than being shaped by God. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but let God's word, not the culture, shape how you live. Be God's distinct people, walking in his ways.

Lord, the leaders of Jerusalem failed because they walked not in your statutes but in the ways of the nations around them, conforming to the surrounding culture rather than to you. Guard me from that same drift. It is easy, and constant, to let the culture around me shape my values, my behavior, my priorities, to simply absorb the ways of the world rather than living by your word. Show me where I have been conformed to the world around me rather than shaped by you. Help me not to be conformed to the pattern of this world, but to let your word, not the culture, shape how I live. Make me your distinct person, walking in your ways, even when it means not looking like everyone around me.