Ezekiel 18

 

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"

{Luke 13:34} (NIV1984)  

God is a God of love. A God who loves with an everlasting love, whose steadfast love endures forever. As we read these words of our Lord, describing the emotional desire of God to protect His people, to draw them into His shelter under His protection, we wonder why wouldn’t He just do it? Surely a sovereign, all powerful God, can do whatever He wants? How can He want something that doesn’t happen? He has done it! He has made the way! He has provided the means by which His people can run to Him and receive shelter! 

The issue is sin in our hearts and lives. So God provided a way for us to be clean of our sin and draw near to Him. That way is repentance. He gave us His Word through His prophets. He sent His Son to teach us and warn us. Are we willing to repent and draw near to God? Or are we the same as the people of Jerusalem? Are we unwilling to do it God’s Way? Do we ‘kill’ the prophets and refuse to listen to their words? Do we ‘kill’ God’s only Son and refuse to listen to His words? O friend, may we choose this day to listen, to obey, to repent! O friend, may we be drawn under the outstretched arms of the Most Holy God this very day. 

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 

Psalm 91:1

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