A Desire of God

“Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live" (Ezekiel 18:31-32).

I hope you have noticed that it is the Spirit of God’s full intention that we know that God desires all men to be saved. Period. He doesn’t care if you are a Calvinist. You believe in election, good. But do not force a set of theology upon our God. I do recall that I like to do this; I have found on several occasions to be believing in my understanding and not simply in what He says. Yet the Spirit tells us that the LORD has no delight in the death of wicked men. Perhaps we will speak of the decrees of God as electing some to eternal life and yet not all being saved, but that is not for this time or this text.

This was true then. God wished for Israel to repent—all of them. A full, corporate repentance. That did not happen. Was God thwarted? That is a bit of a foolish question, isn’t it? Of course He was not. He could have forced them to repent, but He didn’t. So they remained hardened in their sin.

I once spoke to a fellow man about the state of the world. He told me that if there was a God, then why is there all this sin in the world? Why all the suffering, the crime, the brutality, and the pain? And the Spirit (I believe it was He, for I am not quick-witted) brought this answer to my mind. I asked him (as we had no misperception that he was indeed a sinner), “If I could change your will to wanting to do what is right, would you want me to do it?” He replied that I couldn’t do that. Agreed, but irrelevant; so I asked again after explaining that. To which he repeated himself till I asked a third time, and he incredulously answered “No”. He would not like me to change his heart to love what is good, even if I could. Then I pushed his question back to him. “Why would you want God to do to others and yourself what you wouldn’t want me to do to you?” He was stumped and saw a bit of his hypocrisy. And I was again amazed by the wisdom of God.

Why do not all repent? Because they don’t want to. Why do some come? Because God draws them. Why doesn’t He draw others, even though He desires them to come? I don’t know. That is God’s business.
I think our good friend Mr. Spurgeon says it more clearly and eloquently when he says (it is a bit long, but I think it is best at full length):

“The system of truth is not one straight line, but two. No man will ever get a right view of the gospel until he knows how to look at the two lines at once.

I am taught in one book to believe that what I sow I shall reap: I am taught in another place, that "it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."

I see in one place, God presiding over all in providence; and yet I see, and I cannot help seeing, that man acts as he pleases, and that God has left his actions to his own will, in a great measure.

Now, if I were to declare that man was so free to act, that there was no presidence of God over his actions, I should be driven very near to Atheism; and if, on the other hand, I declare that God so overrules all things, as that man is not free enough to be responsible, I am driven at once into Antinomianism or fatalism.

That God predestines, and that man is responsible, are two things that few can see. They are believed to be inconsistent and contradictory; but they are not. It is just the fault of our weak judgment. Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other.

If, then, I find taught in one place that everything is fore-ordained, that is true; and if I find in another place that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true; and it is my folly that leads me to imagine that two truths can ever contradict each other.

These two truths, I do not believe, can ever be welded into one upon any human anvil, but one they shall be in eternity: they are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the mind that shall pursue them farthest, will never discover that they converge; but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.”

“Sovereign Grace and Man’s Responsibility”, preached August 1, 1858.

So it is clear from the Bible that God wants me to repent. And thus, as we desire to be more like Jesus, we ought to have a growing desire for men and women to repent and believe in the Gospel. Are you growing in this way? I pray you are, for it is our greatest act of love toward others—the action that presses them away from eternal torment to eternal freedom and favor with God. Keep striving. The King will return soon. Grace and strength to you.

“And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever" (Daniel 12:3).

The Outrage

“Therefore, fathers shall eat their sons” (Ezekiel 5:10).

Didn’t really want to talk about this verse, did you? Hoped we could just skip this part of the Bible? Me too, usually, and always I don’t understand this part. I mean, I don’t really understand any of God’s attributes simply due to their immensity, but this one is one that I simply am lost in the dark. It is all over the Bible, so I deal with it, but it is not easy for me to understand.

This may be the hardest verse I have decided to understand and display to you my meager knowledge in a “devotion.” And in this case, I guarantee it will be meager. This is the foreign side of God, that part of His personality even we Christians are not comfortable talking about. This is not going to be a hell-fire and brimstone sermon (defined that way due to their emphasis on that aspect and lack of dealing with the mercy and patience of God).

God’s jealousy is on full display in this passage. Israel has become a stench to God, where she should have been the beauty of His heart. She has matched and then surpassed the wickedness of the nations that exist around her. And now the patience of God toward her is spent. The righteousness of God must soon be satisfied and put on display.

“And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers.”

Israel had sinned disgustingly. As the proper judgment to this abomination, God ordains a famine and starvation in Jerusalem. Yes, I said “proper,” for surely it is. God does not overcharge a sin account. He is perfectly pure. He can make no accounting mistake, nor can He make a moral mistake. And in His anger (see vs. 13), He brings in this terror.

Doesn’t feel right, does it? Messes with your view of God, you say? Same here. But that goes to show us just how wrong we are in our views and instincts, and how much we need the Bible to tell us what is true. Surely we would have fashioned God after our own image if He did not set His image in black and white.

This is His correct response to abominable sins. It is not an overreaction. This judgment displays the outrageousness of sin, though this is not the final judgment. All men will individually be held to an account (Heb. 9:27). Those who fell into this poor group will receive anything due them still waiting when they meet the Judge after this life.

When I heard John Piper explain this verse he went back to the Garden of Eden, and so I will follow him there. When Adam chose to eat a piece of fruit in exchange for perfect fellowship with his Creator, what he did was abominable and preposterous. It was creation’s outrage. Here the peak of God’s creation—man—chose to abandon that center Focus of existence for a wicked snack. To aid our comprehension, that would be worse than trading your relationship with your mother for a candy bar. Disgustingly outrageous. And that is in our eyes. Think of the purity of God’s vision.

I don’t know how to not go on and on about this subject, but I believe that conviction is dependent on the Spirit of God and your willingness to be submit. It is so non-American. We would like to say that the Israelites simply were “primitive” or had low self-esteem. But God calls it like He sees it.

How about us? We can throw the Israelites aside easily enough. What about our abominations? Do we have any? Won’t really take you long, will it?

What do you think God thinks about our worship of sex, that passionate pursuit and tool of much of our media industry? The glorious female body turned into a piece of perverted meat. Or should we ask Him His opinion of our Self-cult? How would He like our infatuation with feeling good about ourselves? We seem to want the world to revolve around us—do we really think that is ok? And what about the silent child sacrifice that we perform on the altar of “convenience”? Murder of innocent children was not tolerated by God in Israel, and it will not become tolerated for our whimsical preferences. And you know as well as I that this is the beginning of a long list. Maybe we in America would benefit from an angelic focus-group. Take any situation and guess their opinion using Scripture—it is revealing.

What awaits the U.S.? I have no idea. What awaits individual Americans? I only know the tip of the iceberg of God’s wrath—and that is horrendous. I suppose all I ask of you right now is this. When you read Ezekiel, weep, please. These sins cost real flesh and blood Jews so much, and our following in them will cost us more than we know, whether we pay because we are not saved or whether we pay in that dear currency of loved-ones’ souls.

This is not a game, nor has it ever been. We play for keeps. Hate sin. Flee from it and the wrath of God’s righteous judgment to His equally and infinitely abundant mercy. Do not forget that His threatenings are just as sure as His promises. Live with haste. Peace and strength be to you in your strivings, from the God of all power and comfort.

A Good Confession

The chains that have bound me are flung to the wind,
By the mercy of God the poor slave is set free;
And the strong grace of heaven breathes fresh o’er the mind,
Like the bright winds of summer that gladden the sea.

There was nought in God’s world half so dark or so vile
As the sin and the bondage that fettered my soul;
There was nought half so base as the malice and guile
Of my own sordid passions, or Satan’s control.

For years I have borne about hell in my breast;
When I thought of my God it was nothing but gloom;
Day brought me no pleasure, night gave me no rest,
There was still the grim shadow of horrible doom.

It seemed as if nothing less likely could be
Than that light should break in on a dungeon so deep;
To create a new world were less hard than to free
The slave from his bondage, the soul from its sleep.

But the word had gone forth, and said, Let there be light,
And it flashed through my soul like a sharp passing smart;
One look to my Saviour, and all the dark night,
Like a dream scarce remembered, was gone from my heart.

I cried out for mercy, and fell on my knees,
And confessed, while my heart with keen sorrow was wrung;
‘Twas the labor of minutes, and years of disease
Fell as fast from my soul as the words from my tongue.
And now, blest be God and the sweet Lord who died!
No deer on the mountain, no bird in the sky
No bright wave that leaps on the dark bounding tide,
Is a creature so free or so happy as I.

All hail, then, all hail, to the dear Precious Blood,
That hath worked these sweet wonders of mercy in me;
May each day countless numbers throng down to its flood,
And God have His glory, and sinners go free.

--Frederick William Faber, 1814-1863