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.