In my time of Bible reading and
prayer today (April 17, 2012), I read Ezekiel 24-25 as well as Hebrews 11 in my
daily study Bible. In Ezekiel 24:16, God tells Ezekiel, "Son of man,
behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes with one stroke; yet you
shall neither mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears run down.” Later Ezekiel writes, “So I spoke to the
people in the morning, and at evening my wife died; and the next morning I did
as I was commanded.” When I read this I
was quite revolted at first. I had a bad
thought about God if I am honest. I
don’t enjoy reading Ezekiel anyway—it’s pretty gloom and doom. As Ezekiel 24 mingled together with Hebrews
11, which reports the great exploits of faith of God’s people, I had a moment
of clarity that could be expressed in the following thoughts:
(1) Job 1:21, “And
he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return
there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the
LORD."
(2) God is the Giver and Creator of life; if He wants to
take it away He most certainly may do so.
(3) Perhaps God in His sovereignty protected Ezekiel’s wife
from a worse fate than dropping dead. A
siege and famine were imminent.
(4) If God wants to use a holy man’s wife as a powerful
emblem or parable—He is the Lord!
(5) The Reformers talked about “the analogy of faith”—the
bottom line assumption of Scripture is that God is good (Romans 8:28). When attempting to understand anything about
God—always come back to that. God’s
hierarchy of values is above mine.
(6) God doesn’t need me to approve His plans; quite the
opposite is true.
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