Is the Time for God to Act Near?

In my devotions the other morning I was reading in the Book of Ezekiel.  I came across a passage that frightened me with its strong declaration from God.  It is found in the 24th chapter of that book.  When one reads this particular chapter, the focus is God's strong judgment that is coming against Jerusalem.  The judgment comes in the form of a parable that God instructs Ezekiel to proclaim to the people of Jerusalem: a parable about a cooking pot that is filled with choice pieces of meat and then placed on a cook stove and brought to a boil.  Then the pot is emptied and the empty pot is placed  back on the fire until it becomes a hot, glowing entity.  This parable is a picture of God's judgment coming upon the people of Jerusalem. 


For what does Jerusalem need judging?  As one reads the preceding chapters in Ezekiel, the primary cause of judgment is the people's spiritual adultery (read chapter 23).  In their abandonment of God, the people had resorted to every type of sexual deviation imaginable and worshiped at the altar of a god or goddess of adultery and violence.  Life had little value, for Ezekiel declares that the people even offered their own children to these gods and goddesses.  Sadly, in the very temple itself, spiritual prostitution was taking place with little regard. 


God had attempted to warn the people about their adulterous activities through prophet after prophet, but the people had failed to hear and to heed those warnings.  So, God says, through the prophet Ezekiel, "Now your impurity is lewdness.  Because I tried to cleanse you but you would not be cleansed from your impurity, you will not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided."  (Ezekiel 24:13).  In other words, God is saying that because the people failed to allow God to cleanse them voluntarily, they would become clean through an act of God. 


Next come those words that grabbed my heart.  "I the LORD have spoken.  The time has come for me to act.  I will not hold back: I will not have pity, nor will I relent.  You will be judged according to your conduct and your actions, declares the Sovereign LORD." (Ezekiel 24:14). 


I have to admit that as I read those words, my blood ran cold.  You understand that God had finally "had it" with Jerusalem.  There would be no more warnings.  There would only be judgment.  There would only be God's wrath.  God would not hold back. Jerusalem would experience the full measure of God's wrath.  Furthermore, God said that He would not change His mind.  And this wrath would be justified because of the people's conduct and actions.  I paused as I read those words as if the prophet himself was standing beside my chair looking over my should shaking his head and pointing his finger first at the text and then at the world around.  "The time has come for me to act."  I have often been heard to say, "If Jesus does not come soon, there might not be anything to come back for."  Have you ever felt that way?  Is God about ready to act against our nation?  We keep shaking our fist in His face with our increased immorality which has  become lewdness before God.  Will the impending Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage be that final act that will bring forth God's judgment?  I don't know.  And what form will this judgment take?  Again, I don't know.  But I do know that when God's judgment fell upon Jerusalem, a city and nation was totally destroyed to only rise from the ashes seventy years later, never resembling the nation that it had been. 


May I share with you one other passage from the pen of this same prophet.  It is found in Ezekiel 22:30-31 where Ezekiel proclaims the words from God: "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.  So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD."  How sad!  God looked for one individual who would be willing to stand up and be counted, who would dare to go against the flow of the culture, who could dare to be like a Daniel.  And God found no one!  I don't know about you, but I want to be one of those who dare to stand in the gap.  I pray for God's boldness to dare to live a separated life for Jesus Christ.  I want others to see and to know that I am serving a powerful God.  I am going to dare to trust the Bible to be exactly what God said it is...His inspired Word.  I am going to dare to believe that the only salvation for this evil world is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I am going to dare to believe that a person truly discovers who he or she is when they have an encounter with the living God through His Son. 


Friends, will you join me in standing in the gap?  God's judgment is soon to come and it will be devastating.  Let's continue sounding the warning so people will hear one last time that the only answer is found in Jesus.