SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 6
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices. [Ezekiel 6:9]
When we read passages like today, we have to remember the context.
This is not some unexpected outburst of a cruel, angry God; this comes after years and years of warnings and appeals and patience and forgiveness.
But their idol-worship (which was morally corrupt and cruel) was polluting the land, and hurting many people, and finally God lets them experience the result of their choices.
God does not impose an arbitrary sentence on the people – this is the natural consequence of choosing to participate in an ungodly world.
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword; those who live by immorality will die through immorality; those who live without God will die without God.
This is not mean, it is just reality!

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! [Luke 15:14-17]
This parable of Jesus – the Prodigal Son – tells the same story in a different way.
A father patiently allows his son to go his own way, not because he wants him to suffer but because the son insists.
The father allows the son to discover what life without the father is like – and the son eventually discovers its not nice.
And all the while, the father waits for the son to come to his senses.

Ezekiel speaks about those who live as slaves in a distant land realizing their mistake, and remember God, and turn back to Him.
Jesus speaks of the son coming to his senses and remembering his father’s house.
God will not force Himself on us, but He will make it very clear to us what life without Him will be like – and hopefully we come to our senses and return to Him.
People today imagine what the world would be like without God and religion; they suppose that it would be better, but they will discover that a world without divine authority and morality will degenerate into a hopeless mess (as it already is).
God is allowing the world to discover what a world without God is like.
When the atheist philosopher declared that ‘God is dead’, little did he realize that he was publishing humanities’ death announcement; is it any surprise that he committed suicide?
May we come to our senses before it’s too late – personally and as a society.
God will one day let us experience the natural consequence of our God-lessness.

PRAYER:
Lord, personally I need to see that my own life cannot prosper with joy and peace apart from You. Help me to come to my senses too!