One Nation under God

One Nation under God

Read Ezekiel 4:1–11:25

3. “Proclaim this message from the Sovereign Lord against the mountains of Israel. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills and to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring war upon you, and I will smash your pagan shrines.
4. All your altars will be demolished, and your places of worship will be destroyed. I will kill your people in front of your idols.
5. I will lay your corpses in front of your idols and scatter your bones around your altars.
6. Wherever you live there will be desolation, and I will destroy your pagan shrines. Your altars will be demolished, your idols will be smashed, your places of worship will be torn down, and all the religious objects you have made will be destroyed. . . .
14. Then they will know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 6:3-6, 14

When discussing with people about what makes America great, you may eventually come to the topic of religious freedom. In America, whatever people want to believe, they can believe. Whatever god they want, they can have. It is a nation of options.

The Jews had many gods, but they weren’t supposed to. The Lord was their God, and they were not to worship anything or anyone else. That’s why many of Ezekiel’s prophecies in this reading foretell terrible punishments to come.

From the sidelines, also watch the prophet because he is a good example to us all. He goes to great lengths to get God’s message across. (Whatever God asks, he does!) And see what happens when a man is exposed to God’s glory.

The people to whom Ezekiel had prophesied had abandoned God in many ways. They had worshiped man-made idols. They had disobeyed God’s laws. They had ignored the words of several prophets. Even in exile they still had stubborn hearts. Many of the tragic events that Ezekiel foretold and spoke about had one aim: to impress upon God’s people (and, incidentally, the rest of the world) that the Lord is the only true and living God.

It is easy to forget that the Lord alone is God, the supreme authority and the only source of eternal life. Sometimes God uses the difficulties of life to remind people of his authority. When trials happen, we should not ask, “Oh, how could God let this happen?” Rather, we should ask, “Have we forgotten the Lord? Have we replaced God with something else? Have we brought this on ourselves?” Have no other god but the Lord.